Day Twenty < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Twenty-Two

Sunday dawned overcast and cold. Phoenix decided to work on his social aspiration for a change, and invited Max over. After a play session with the soccer ball, they joked around and watched the clouds for a while, then joked some more.

Upstairs, Bennie was yelling at Marnie for the house being in the state it was (although she never stops cleaning!!). I’m sure the whole neighborhood heard the argument, and poor Marnie barely stood up for herself. Bennie then stormed out of the house, while Marnie turned to rage cleaning, scrubbing at stains that were never going to go away.

Benji had, somehow, gotten a hold of a project box for building a bridge, and decided to spend the day working on it. He’d already completed his make-up homework, and hoped dearly that, in the last week and a half of school, he could pull his grade up to at least passing. (Clearly the twins aren’t helping with the cleaning situation…)

Downstairs, Max and Phoenix chatted on. Phoenix found out that the type of humor Max liked was the mean kind, because he was Evil…. and so they alternated playing pranks on each other, and both ended up laughing until they cried.

Colin had come over to visit with Jaz, and they were playing chess. Colin, unfortunately, wasn’t having the best of times at home with all the arguing, and having heard the argument between Bennie and Marnie hadn’t helped his mood. After a heart-to-heart where Colin spilled his soul about his parents still being on the warpath, and how it felt like they were purposely ripping the family apart, Jaz finally managed to get him to cheer up a bit.

While they were outside playing, Elsa stopped by, and her good cheer was infectious. Soon all three were laughing, and it didn’t matter who was winning the chess game anymore.

Upstairs, Benji had finished his bridge. Or, at least it was still standing. For the moment. He hid it under the science table to hopefully protect it until the morning.

Marnie was taking out her bad mood on the twins, and had cleaned up all the messes they had made during the morning. Myles came home from scouts and complained that the shower and toilet were broken… which didn’t help Marnie’s mood, but she still sighed and got right to work.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Phoenix was close to having his first ever best friend. Max and he played pirates for a while, and joked around some more. The fun abruptly stopped, however, when they saw Bennie heading home in the growing darkness with an oddly shaped box. He did NOT look like his mood had improved, and Phoenix decided heading straight to dinner and bed might be the best thing to do in the circumstances.

Marnie had found something else to fix, Myles was taking his bath, and the twins were yawning hugely by the time Bennie got upstairs. He completely ignored everyone, and headed for the living room.

Strangely enough, the living room was completely empty of people, so nobody was there to see him pull a battered guitar out of the oddly shaped box. They heard the racket it made when he started trying to play it, however, and the whole household collectively cringed. Nobody knew where Bennie had gotten this “treasure”, and only Bennie knew that spending the money on the guitar would mean he couldn’t pay the bills in the morning. He hoped, however, to make up the money by getting that skill point in guitar for a (hopeful) promotion, because he dreaded opening the store in the morning. Perhaps he could make up the difference with dumpster diving again. It had worked last week, after all….

Marnie made a late dinner for the twins, and – while waiting for the bathroom to be free – Jaz decided to work on some (unnecessary) extra credit. It wasn’t like she wasn’t holding down straight A’s still. It never occurred to her that increasing her grade might annoy her classmates.

Day Twenty < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Twenty-Two