The family moves into a new house with more space. Nicola is happy with the move while Sean is eager to leave for college to escape family drama, especially from his twin Kimmy. Terry has a scare when getting lost outside alone at night but finds comfort sleeping with his parents. Sean convinces his parents to let him leave for university earlier than planned.

1. Birch The Ryman Legacy Chapter 4A – Back to Normal Nicola If you can call it that… A house! By Mzyra

2. While the family had… ‘fun’ away at Three Lakes, they got an actual, factual house! With two whole bathrooms! With walls! And enough bedrooms that nobody has to share with Kimmy! Oh, the joy…

3. “Oh my gosh, I think all my dreams may have just come true…” Yes, it was pretty much everything Carla had been hoping for and dreaming of since she was in university so many years ago. Now there was light! And wallpaper! It also helped that all the children had gone straight to school, so their parents got some peace in their new piece of heaven…

4. Though Birch started back at his job as a Celebrity Chef pretty quickly too. He’d swiftly built up a loyal fan-base of fellow grilled cheese sims – nobody else could understand his appeal; he could only really do one meal that spectacularly, what was the big deal?* *Shun the non-believers!

5. M: “What are you doing in my room? Did I give you permission to be in here?” K: “Your room’s the only one big enough to study in and has a desk, that’s why. But I’d like to see you try to make me leave!” Some feuds hadn’t ended when they’d come home, though…

6. But some people were trying to end theirs. “It’s so quiet… So peaceful… So not-constantly-being-threatened-with-violence… Mum was right, this is heaven!” Sean finally had a room of his own… With the possibility of not being constantly faced with his twin, he just wanted some peace. Sittingaway from her in classes, going to his after-school job and sticking to his room when at home – if he was lucky he might not have to see her hardly at all! Life without Kimmy: everything he’d been dreaming of.

7. M: “You’re right, Mum, this is amazing!” C: “I know, right? No more studying out on garden chairs in the snow…” M: “… Did you just say ‘I know, right?’? Seriously Mum, act your age and don’t start going senile on me, I can’t handle four children on my own!” C: “I can be young and fashionable if I want… And don’t you want 5 children of your own anyway?” M: Yes, but none of my children are going to be freaking psychopaths!“Yeah, but I’ll have Nery to help me out… He’s going to be such a great Dad…” *sigh* C: *Sigh* “Teenagers…”

8. Luckily the ‘freaking psychopath’ was pretty single minded and generally focused on cheese. Wrapped in bread and grilled where possible, but sometimes put in chocolates and sold for cash… It was surprisingly successful.

9. Nicola seemed to be affected very little by their holiday exploits, or at least it didn’t affect her grades. N: “I got an A+!” Her cute, happy, bubbly non-angst was a wonderful breath of fresh air for the whole household. Unless, like Kimmy, you prefer it when people are miserable and depressed.

10. Meanwhile Sean was also over-achieving by reaching the top of his teen career. It was another step towards, and a scholarship for, college, but he still hadn’t decided when to go – ‘Rina wanted him to stay until their parents birthdays, but by that time he’d almost be an adult and he might have been driven insane. He wasn’t enough of a family person to be living in a seven person household. But the more money he got now, the richer he’d be later…

11. “A desk. I’m working on an actual desk. We’ve finally made it!” Bless his little fortune-orientated heart.

12. As for little Terry, he too liked the new house – it was nice and warm and bright – though he could scarcely remember the old house, having barely had his birthday before they went on holiday. He was also very attached to his family members. Birch and Carla put this down to his sweet nature, but (most of) the other kids were a bit worried that maybe he wouldn’t be that way as much if it weren’t for the holiday incident…

13. Nicola’s inability to hold a grudge was remarkable – Kimmy had at least partially alienated all the other children – but perhaps that was due to Kimmy never particularly picking on her, unless you count her lecturing Nicky as a baby, but she probably couldn’t remember that. N: “It’s really neat being able to tell the other kids at school about how we’ve been somewhere else in the world, isn’t it?” K: “Um, I guess so. I don’t really talk to the other kids. I guess I could brag about it… Those townie kids barely even get to see the outside, the losers.” N: “… It’s nice that we get Summer here, though…”

14. *Silence, except for munching* C: Shouldn’t children be noisier than this? Am I really missing something here…? T: *Stares at sandwich* N: *Glances, worried, between Kimmy and Terry* K: I wonder if anybody’s ever tried making cheesecake out of actual cheese…? It might wind up a waste of good food, but cheese is generally better than everything else ever, so maybe…

15. Birch and Carla weren’t bad parents really; they loved their kids and they would have done anything to help them out when they knew what was wrong, but they were rather easily… distracted, so they rarely ever figured out the problems. It was just as well they weren’t too far from elderhood, who knows how they would have managed if they accidentally had another…

16. Sean, not happy with his public school education, decided to take the initiative to invite over the local private school headmaster to improve the whole family’s education (without their permission, though nobody particularly seemed to mind that much – not much difference to the three younger siblings and Marina was so close to leaving that she wouldn’t be separated from Nery for too long).

17. S: “Yes, we’re all very friendly and well-adjusted here, Mr Jitsumaksol. All the best of friends – we even went on a fantastic family holiday which was a great bonding experience for everyone, it was just a shame that we couldn’t take all of our many school friends with us, our hotel was fantastic-” Marina raised an eyebrow at her brother continuously spewing lies, but didn’t correct them as the headmaster seemed to be buying it and impressed. Terry and Carla just sat and ate their turkey in silence, unable to get a word in edge-ways had they wanted to.

18. The particular contradiction to Sean’s lies had been cleverly left out of the entire event – which she might have chosen to ruin, just to see the miserable look on Sean’s face – by provoking her occasional almost-OCD with cleaning. That bathroom had never been so clean before and would probably never be so clean again. K: Must be able to see own reflection! KILL the lime-scale! Die lime-scale, die!

19. Back with the almost-normal members of the family… S: “Yes, that’s my elder sister Marina on the sofa, being very intellectual – practically a genius really – the other two acting strangely obviously aren’t ours, but we like to befriend everybody, even if they aren’t quite on level financially and intelligence-wise…” M: Wow, he really is desperate for this… And Sean got his wish after all – he could live the rest of his life being as elitist as he wished.

20. Terry, meanwhile, was lightening up with the discovery of new things to do around the house. Like bounce on Marina’s bed. That was a lot of fun.

21. But it didn’t last long before he was sent outside to sell lemonade before the school bus came. That was most definitely not a lot of fun. Or profitable – it still had yet to pay back what it had cost, despite how long they’d had it and the child labour that had gone into it.

22. K: I bet I look way better in this than Marina and Nicola do. And another way I can look down on people. I can’t wait to be able to call a public school kid a peasant…

23. Who pulled off the new uniform best was debatable – though a lot of the private school girls felt that Sean looked very good in his suit and a lot of mothers thought that Terry looked downright adorable, even if he never made his hair neat and he himself detested the uncomfortable and itchy new outfit.

24. The new school did help his grades though. T: “Mummy! I got an A+! Just like Nicky! And ‘Rina! And Sean… And K-…” M: “Yeah, but Terry we all got our A+s in public school, while everyone knows private school is much harder, so you’re probably even smarter than we are!” T: “Really…?” M: “Sure!” Marina wondered whether Sean had desensitised her to lying, but seeing Terry’s happy little face was definitely worth it.

25. Meanwhile others had less happy faces… K: “Seany! I haven’t spoken to you in aaages! I heard you telling Marina that some of the girls were chatting you up today – just thought I’d let you know that you were, are, and always will be, a loser, nobody will ever love you and you look like a total dork in that outfit!” S: “Grrrr… I can’t wait ‘til I can go to college…”

26. Terry may not have enjoyed sitting on a box outside selling lemonade very much, but he actually proved quite popular, especially in his uniform – he was cute but formal and his nice personality made him a hit with soft-hearted passersby, who he managed to talk to fairly easily, despite his generally shy nature.

27. S: If only Kimmy would actually pick a fight with me, I could easily kick her ass, but she never goes that far, and I can’t start a fight with a girl, even if she is Kimmy… Darn it!

28. No, Kimmy didn’t spend any of her time working out, but managed to keep her figure despite her constant cheese diet. She spent more time in the bathtub pretending to be a pirate than getting exercise (the private school did have compulsory exercise, but the gym teacher had quickly learnt that Kimmy was not one to mess with and instead put her on duty as a motivator to the other students, shouting at them to work harder and occasionally giving abuse – she was, obviously, a natural). “Yarrr, fire at that ship over there! I don’t care if it’s a passenger ship, I don’t care what country it’s from, I want a hole put in it! Then we can take the passengers and force them to work as our slaves, savvy?!”

29. It finally came around to birthdays again, more specifically Nicola’s. It was probably a good guess that she would wish for familial peace, but it would probably also be a good guess that she wouldn’t get it.

30. But she was happy: she had a big family, who all loved her – or in some cases at least didn’t completely hate her – and what else could she possibly need? Or wish for? Except possibly to create another one of her own…

31. Though she might also have wished for better luck with fashion… N: “Oh dear…” S: “Um, hello? Somebody please tell me that my little sister isn’t wearing red fishnets!”

32. A new outfit and a change later and Nicola was looking a lot better. The family-orientated and protective elder members of the family were a little concerned that with her good looks and sweet, seemingly naïve, personality: the teenage boys might be after and manipulating her pretty quickly, but there would only be so much they could do…

33. The two sisters quickly established that their views on family had a common key ingredient: N: “’Rina?” D’you ever think that we should get a puppy?” M: “Well, I always wanted a kitten personally…” N: “Oh, that would be good too – just a little pet of some kind…” M: “Definitely.” N: “Shall we petition the parents?” M: “I’ve considered it, but I’m not always around and I’m not sure our house is the best place for small animals while Kimmy’s still living in it. Maybe once she leaves, huh?”

34. Word quickly spread about the adorable little boy selling delicious lemonade and Terry got yet more custom from - frequently broody - townies. Although part of the increased trade from when Sean did it was that the stall was now outside a proper and quite nice-looking house, rather than a run-down shack. With no windows.

35. Feeling that he’d had more than enough success for one day, Terry disappeared off and played pirates in the bathtub. It was a real shame that Kimmy couldn’t focus on the similarities she had with people rather than the differences – both Terry and Kimmy were similarly shy, active and playful (as demonstrated by their tub-pirating), but their almost polar opposites in neat and niceness meant that Kimmy seemed possibly even more offended by Terry’s existence than she was by Sean’s… Terry couldn’t understand why Kimmy wouldn’t hug or smile at him when nearly everyone else he ever met would.

36. News alert! Apparently Carla isn’t the only one to get creepy stalkers, as evidenced by Birch’s creepy stalker above. However, it seems that Carla gets many, many sad, unattractive loners stalking her, where Birch doesn’t get many stalkers, but they are generally really quite pretty. That’s women for you…

37. Despite her growing up and now being in high school, Nicky and Terry retained the closeness they had built up in Three Lakes. Nicky had never been able to do very much with family drama, being one of the youngest and too nice to act out, but she was very good at hugging people to make them feel better after the drama had finished. And from what she could tell, Terry might still need a great many hugs, even if he was acting his age a lot more, recently.

38. And still the parents were oblivious, though they were also completely undamaged by any creepy stalkers, attractive or otherwise.

39. Sean was definitely ready to take right off to college, but he still had to prove something, both to Kimmy and to himself, even if it meant using the more-than-slightly-desperate Katy Fuchs in the process. His heart wasn’t really in it, but still he had to give it a try… S: “Hey Katy… You know, you’re like really pretty. And stuff.” Ka: *Giggle* “You really think?” S: “Yeah, sure… And I- I think we could totally have something really special…” He felt bad and was mentally kicking himself, but still…

40. Sean mentally sighed – he’d finally done it. But he couldn’t just walk off like Kimmy had done to Gordon (who had been depressed ever since, especially since this made her make fun of him even more), so he spent the rest of the night talking to her. He eventually managed to break it off by asking her to go to college with him the next day. Extremely luckily she was hesitant to go and leave all her friends, so she broke it off with him and he pretended to be upset but understanding. He tried to console himself by telling himself that everybody had won from that situation, but couldn’t entirely convince himself about it. It was hard to lie to people when you stared them in the face and knew they implicitly believed you.

41. Meanwhile, summer with its days of sunshine had disappeared and autumn had returned with the rain, bringing Terry back to his previous pastime of puddle-jumping. He was so excited when he realised that he ran straight out into the open grass behind the house.

42. Then he realised that he was out, alone. In the cold and the dark. So far away from all of his family, in the woods again, strange noises coming from different directions, nobody hearing his shouts, nobody coming to his rescue, all alone in the dark-

43. Needless to say he ran faster than he’d ever run before back into the house and asked if he could sleep with Birch and Carla that night. They said yes, but only after Carla had managed to dry him off with a hairdryer and both just concluded that all children were a little strange.

44. K: “Hey Sean, guess what! I figured out how to pick the lock on your door! Isn’t that great? Now I can come and visit you all the time! It’ll be just like the old days!” Enough was definitely enough for Sean.

45. S: “…so if I want to get a good, top-paying job, I have to go to university and, really, the sooner the better!” B: “Hang on, I never completed university and I have a good job!” Sean tried to be careful not to insult his parents – that was the way to get you grounded, not released – but he didn’t consider a chef to be a good job and the number of years they had gone without a decent house just testified to that. C: “And you still seem so young to be living on your own, Sean…” S: “I could have gone before now, but now I know that I’m ready for it.”

46. S: “Come on, you know that having one less dependent on your hands would make your life easier.” C: “But not at the cost of pushing one of our precious children out of the door!” S: “You’re not pushing me anywhere – I’ve already packed! It’s going to be a great experience with a lot of character-building life lessons that can teach me to be independent and a man before there’s the real threat of repercussions.” B: “Did you just quote your personal statement at us?” S: “Look, I’m ready for this – I’ve got some scholarships, I’ve got some skills and I’ve got the motivation, just let me take this chance!”

47. C: “Oh… I don’t know how I’ll get by with one of my babies gone…” Sean let the ‘babies’ comment slide. “Don’t worry, Mum, I’ll call and stuff all the time. And I’m sure you’ll more than have your hands full with Terry and the girls. Especially Kimmy. You should probably keep an eye on her, by the way?” B: “Why? What do you mean? She’s like me, grilled cheese and all…” S: *Sigh* “Don’t worry about it, Dad…”

48. M: “You’re deserting us then, Sean?” S: “Oh come on, ‘Rina, you know I wouldn’t if I-” M: “Don’t worry, I’m kidding! I’ll have Nicola to help me out now anyway, it’ll be fine…” B: “Goodbye son – if you see a guy called Simon Rossi, kick him in the leg for me!” M: “… What Dad?!” B: “Don’t worry Marina, it’s a long story.” *Whispers* “But kick him anyway, Sean!” S: “I’m going to a different uni to you, Dad, so I probably won’t, but I’ll… keep it in mind…”

49. And so Sean finally escaped his crazy family and twin sister, hopefully not into more craziness… ~~~ End of Chapter 4A ~~~