Round Six - Nakamura 2

This is the last of my scheduled posts - there'll be more in October!


Shiina had decided that she needed to find a man for Emma. Unfortunately her first pick, her friend Gabe, seemed a little too interested in blondes who weren't Emma.


Shiina's plan was all for naught. At the end of the night she caught Gabe and his mystery blonde kissing on the dancefloor.


"Is Gabe coming back with us?" asked Emma, still in a police uniform. She'd kept it to provide herself with a bit of cover - yes, she no longer worked for them, quite the opposite in fact, but she'd prefer to keep that a secret.

"Nope. He's a jerk anyway," said Shiina as they walked towards the taxi to continue the party back at the apartment. Emma sighed.


Shiina's own love-life was much more successful. She and Trent met up whenever possible. He had made it clear he wasn't in to commitment and Shiina respected this, feeling a little stifled by it herself, but she couldn't help but hold out hope she'd be the girl to change his mind.


Emma's job gave her odd hours and Shiina didn't much like hanging around the house painting and sewing on her own, so she and Trent would hit the clubs. Life was good.


"Do you ever think we could be... you know... something more?" said Shiina one night as they lay on her bed. A photo of them together caught her eye. "I mean, this is all really fun, but - "

"You're talking crazy again, hon. Let's just get down to business, yeah?"


Emma was too busy for romance anyway. She had discovered that her new career suited her down to the ground, it kept her excited and focused, and she was determined to reach the top.


That didn't mean she didn't socialise at all, though, just not romantically. She'd made friends with Ash Chalmers, who lived in the apartment below theirs. He was nice but he wasn't her type, plus his mind did always seem elsewhere. She'd seen him on a few dates with some girl or other and assumed he was pining after her, although her assumption couldn't have been further from the truth.


Things looked ready to change when a new neighbour moved in, though. Danny Knox had a certain something that caught her attention. Pity he was so young...

Round Six - Davies 2

Jill may have been with James but she still wouldn't (or couldn't) keep her mouth shut about Will. She ranted about Will's behaviour to anyone and everyone, apart from James.


James was entirely oblivious; Jill made sure of it. There was certainly no lack of chemistry betwen them, anyway!


Unfortunately James was still a bit of a cad and a playboy and soon struck up an acquaintance with Elle. Elle didn't respond to his advances; she was with Will, at least in her mind, and she was a traditional sort of girl, but it didn't stop Jill from getting angry with her.


She relished the opportunity to tell the little blonde exactly what she thought of her, in rather unkind terms.


"You know, I've got this craving for fried eggs and I don't know why," said Jill at random over a late breakfast of cereal. "And I feel really tired. I might head back to bed, if that's okay with you, sweetie?"

James felt like he was going to be sick. He'd been here before, twice - he knew the signs. "Jill, babe... do you think you might be... yanno, knocked up?"

Jill frowned. "It's a possibility."


A trip to the doctor's and a phone call later, and their suspicions were confirmed. Jill told work she was going on maternity leave, put Princess up for adoption and worked on turning the office into a nursery.


Jill wasn't an easy pregnant woman to deal with. She was snappy, grumpy, and frequently burned food - the fire department got very familiar with their apartment block.


Jill had been dropping less-than-subtle hints about not wanting to have a baby out of wedlock, so James put aside his misgivings about marriage and they tied the knot, quickly and without undue fuss.


Jill's ultrasound had revealed she was expecting twins. Deep down they were both terrified, but they were still in love. That had to be enough, right?


Note: MORE NATURAL TWINS?! Seriously! And they couldn't be happening to less appropriate parents seeing as James is king of slackers and Jill is completely insane.

Round Six - Knox 2

A new girl had moved in next-door and Will wasted no time in introducing himself. Elle was sweet, pretty, and a challenge - something Will couldn't resist. She wasn't "easy" like the other girls; it was going to take a lot of romancing to bed this one.


Will did his very best, of course, playing it charming and not rushing her. Within a few days she was definitely sweet on him and he knew it couldn't be long before she thought she was in love and let him bed her.


Unfortunately Will hadn't reckoned on Jill continuing to interfere.


"HOW DARE YOU!"

Will was stunned, to say the least. "Jill, you're talking crazy. You're with James, remember?!"

Jill responded by smacking him round the face.


"What the... that really hurt!"

"Good!" snapped Jill, then stormed off. Elle was still standing there, shocked into silence. Will wasted no time in apologising to her.

"I'm so sorry, babe. I really don't know what that was about. She's totally crazy." Elle looked like she was going to cry. "Hey, it'll be okay. Don't worry your pretty little head about it."


Will was rising slowly but steadily through the dance world and celebrated by buying himself a karaoke machine; his life couldn't be ALL girls and partying, especially not when Jill was being that insane. Plus, the ladies did love his karaoke skills...


Note: Jill is ACTUALLY INSANE. The jealousy thing? She wasn't even in love with Will at that point. They only had the crush flag thanks to her previous unrecorded freakouts and Realistic Jealousy means she shouldn't get slap-happy unless she's engaged to the cheater. But she still did it! She'd been poking and annoying Elle before that and she got into a fight with the landlord. Her other escapades included stealing all of Will's booze even though there's a bar in the shared-area basement near the hot-tub, SLEEPING IN HIS BED, and generally being weird. See -
She was stinky because she point-blank REFUSED to go back to her own apartment. Only she had this problem - James was fine. Girl is bugged like woah, which just makes her more fun ;)

Round Six - Nakamura

Junko wasn't exactly academic but, like her mother, she loved chess. She could even beat the highly driven and academic Yuki!


The Knox twins were still frequent visitors and Junko was becoming aware that her feelings for Ruth were a little more than platonic. She hoped her friend felt the same way - she seemed flirty but Ruth was flirty generally these days, having left awkward childhood behind and become an outgoing young lady.


Noah seemed to have a soft-spot for one or other of Junko and Yuki too, pointedly turning down the advances of any other friends they had visiting, but when Yuki tried to delicately steer him towards telling them what was going on he seemed oblivious in the way common to teenage boys. She hoped he hadn't fallen for her; it was flattering but she was already beginning to realise that the way she felt about Ruth wasn't an aberration from her norm.


If his affection was centered on Junko, she was entirely oblivious. She was already Miss Popular, making friends all over the place. Her new best friend was Meadow and Junko wasted no time in grilling her on all the nuances of teenage romance.


The twins made sure to stay close to each other even though their social lives were blossoming and went on frequent outings, often with Hiro in tow.

"Where were you last night? I didn't hear you come in," said Yuki on one such outing. Junko rolled her eyes and grinned.

"None of your beeswax, sis. Watch this!"


Of course, however good the twins got at bowling they could never hope to beat Hiro. His skills with all things athletic were impressive.


Junko's attention span was approximately three minutes long so the moment the family bought a pool-table she abandoned the chess-set. She took to it naturally; she had a passion for any and all games.


Yuki may have been career-driven and rather academic but that didn't stop her having as much of a vain side as her twin. She loved to check herself out in the mirror and make sure she looked her best - keeping herself well-presented could only be a bonus in achieving greatness!


Nobuo and Sachiko were getting older but it didn't curb their amorousness one little bit. Hiro was unconcerned.


Junko was less impressed. Her parents were old! Old people shouldn't be doing ANYTHING! As far as she was concerned, she and her siblings were created via asexual cell division.


Hiro finally graduated high school but was in no rush to leave the family home. There was no need; his sisters had already expressed plans of moving out someday, and he wasn't in a rush. He was still into Destiny Knox and once she'd graduated too she would probably join all of them.


Note: Yuki really does check herself out whenever she passes a mirror! I love the twins, they're so pretty and they know it.

Round Six - Mackenzie

Ewan and Meadow were still inseperable. They went on dates almost every day, and on the days they didn't Meadow was around the Mackenzie household like part of the family.


Ewan had temporarily put aside his dreams of becoming a famous chef and was instead considering the life of a restaurant critic, which gave them the perfect excuse to travel around the neighbourhood trying out as many eateries as possible. Their current favourite was the 50s style diner.


"Do you think we'll get married? When we're grown up, I mean," blurted out Meadow over fried chicken.

Ewan was a teenage boy like any other so he had a sudden stir of dread at those words. But he paused to consider it. He couldn't see himself with anyone other than Meadow, ever.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think we will. We'll have a really swanky house and gorgeous little babies. Of course, with a mam as pretty as you they couldn't be anything else." Meadow smiled broadly.


Lisa was moving on up through the architecture world quickly. Taylor was still working but he was considerably less driven, preferring to stay home and look after Cameron whenever he could. Cameron was growing quickly, although not as quickly as his hair.


Cameron was a playful but shy child. He couldn't understand his big brother's obsession with hogging the phone-line, always talking to Meadow or his other friends like Hiro, Jacinta and Destiny (he was still keeping a long, long way away from Amanda for the sake of not getting kicked somewhere important). Cam preferred writing stories and messing around with toy cars to talking to people other than his family.


Meadow counted as family, though. They got on well unless he started talking about mechanics, which was a subject she didn't grasp at all.


Ewan and Meadow decided it was time to take the next step in their relationship. It was slightly awkward but they didn't regret it.


Lisa hadn't been feeling her usual self. It didn't escape Meadow's attention that she'd been moping around the house in her pyjamas and having frequent naps rather than obsessively studying or working at the pottery wheel.

"Is there anything wrong?" She was expecting something about work or maybe even an argument with Taylor, but not what Lisa actually said.

"I remember feeling like this before. I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant... if I am then at least I'm not morning-sick this time around, thank God. It's poor timing though."

Meadow was shocked. Lisa wasn't old but she wasn't that young either, and she seemed so responsible. She couldn't help thinking about how things were going with Ewan. They'd have to be very careful until they got married and were ready for babies.


Lisa was indeed pregnant, and the first ultrasound showed it was twins. Taylor was ecstatic but Lisa was less pleased. She was so close to her next promotion and more maternity leave would only get in the way. At least it would give her more time for the pottery wheel.


Note: ARGH! Curse ACR! Not only is Lisa pregnant again when I need the house for Ewan and Meadow to carry on the Mackenzie family name, but it's with natural twins! I'm considering breaking the rules already by renaming this the Straight house and sending Ewan and Meadow off to found their own one. Gah! Meadow really was the first person she told. Ewan and Meadow foreverrrr.

Regarding Ewan and Meadow's booty call, I usually cancel the interaction for teens but they're most of the way through teen-hood and seem pretty devoted to one-another, plus they do keep discussing babies and marriage, so I reckoned it was okay to let them. I haven't got teen pregnancies turned on so they might as well have their fun now while there aren't consequences ;)