WC: Interlude 2 < | Challenge Home Page | > WC: Day Thirteen

Monday morning dawned just like every morning, and Jaz was up early, and ready to start their day. Being that nobody else was up, they headed down to the kitchen and opened the fridge. … Then stood there for a moment and just looked at the bounty inside. It was still a bit of a shock to see a fully stocked refrigerator and have a CHOICE of tasty leftovers instead of having to scrounge cereal with water like back home. With a frown, Jaz shook their head to shake away the memories, and grabbed some leftover BLT’s that looked rather tasty.

It turned out they were just as tasty as they looked, and they didn’t last long. By the time Jaz was headed upstairs to get dressed for the day, the parade of the rest of the household heading down to get breakfast as well had started. But having a parade of Sims in a house was “old hat” to Jaz, and they squeezed past everyone to head upstairs with no issue.

Everyone got off to school okay, and Wendy grabbed something out of the fridge for little Jimmy, then called out to Matt that the ‘Fridge was broken again.

Jimmy took his warmed chickie nuggets to the living room, and dove right in, happily munching away.

Back in the kitchen, Wendy cleaned up the dishes, and Matt took the day to work from home so he could fix some things around the house.

(A/N: I then was stuck ALL day trying to figure out how to “rally voters” at a local community center. I even went so far as to build one across the street, and it STILL didn’t work…. so.. I guess *shrug* We’ll wait until he gets a new work day. … Which explains the lack of pictures from today… my apologies.)

Jaz had just a so-so day at school, and came home with the need to just take a shower and do their homework and be on their own. Clearly, the repairs on the house were still on-going, because the sound of a broken toilet accompanied their shower, which just reminded them of their Mom trying so hard to keep the house together back home.

Sadly, Jaz toweled dry, and found a quiet corner to do their homework.

Outside, Carlo had spotted his first love interest… and was trying to Woo Sonia with a rose (picked from his mother’s garden, of course). By her expression, she’s on the skeptical side, but Carlo wasn’t deterred at all.

The sun was starting to set by the time most of the repairs were done to the house, and Matt wearily headed outside to pay the bills… trying not to smirk or pay any attention to the awkward teenage flirting a few feet away.

In the backyard, Jaz had just finished their homework.. and realized that the dark still bothered them a little bit… when Wendy came out with a box in her hands. Curiously, Jaz wondered what she was doing and watched her as they put their homework in their backpack and stood up to go inside.

To Jaz’s surprise, Wendy came right for them.

“Jaz, I have something for you.” she said.

“Oh? What is it?” Jaz replied, confused. It wasn’t their birthday or anything.. and random gifts just had never been a “thing” in their life.

“I stopped by the school today to pick up your loaner violin. I also got the name and number to call to get you started on lessons. Your first lesson will be this Friday after school, if that’s okay? I tried to pick a day that you didn’t have something else planned.”

“Oh!” Jaz said, surprised.. and then stood there at a complete loss for words. “Um.. yeah. Friday is fine.” Jaz paused again, just looking at the box. “Thank you so much, Wendy. For everything.”

Wendy watched Jaz walk away, wondering what was bothering the usually cheerful youngster. Maybe they hadn’t heard back about the pen pal thing? Or was it more serious? Did they miss their previous life? Their siblings or parents? It was always hard to tell with kids that were new to foster care, and Wendy wondered if they ought to follow them and ask what was wrong. Sighing, Wendy finally decided to just keep an eye on Jaz, and see if the sadness persisted before intruding in Jaz’s want to be alone, which was pretty obvious.

Jaz carried the box up to their room, which was – thankfully, empty – and opened the box reverently. Noone in their family had ever been able to get their own instrument, except for that old guitar Bennie had come home with that one weird day. Trying to stave off the flood of memories, Jaz held the violin up to their chin, and pretended to play it for a moment. Jaz then put the violin away carefully, and set it near their bed. Sitting down on the edge of their bed, Jaz wiped away a stray tear, wondering how Marnie was doing – if she was okay. If the baby was still okay…

Finally, hearing Layla in her room bouncing around with their cheerleader practice, and someone else calling out to Matt that the shower had started leaking pulled Jaz out of their reverie.

Pulling their phone out of their pocket, they sent a text to Kayla, asking after Marnie. Maybe Kayla would know how to contact her, or at least know if she was okay. Then, Jaz stood back up, wiped away the rest of the tears, checked their reflection in a mirror to make sure it didn’t look like they’d been crying, and pulled out their PJs.

Before long, Penny came into the room with a knock and both finished getting ready for bed and crawled under the covers in the light of the nightlights. Jaz stared at the ceiling for a while, but soon the exhaustion of the day swept them off into a dreamless sleep, soothing the hurts from the memories of home, and dulling the pain left over.

WC: Interlude 2 < | Challenge Home Page | > WC: Day Thirteen