Day Eleven < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Thirteen

The morning started out with a cry. Brett’s cry, to be specific.

“Oh god. GO AWAY, Brett!” Phoenix yelled (which woke everyone else in the house up, of course).

Jaz climbed out of bed miserably, and went to get ready for school.

Marnie was washing dishes, leaving the kids to eat cold, gummy pancakes from the day before. I’m not sure whether this is what annoyed Jaz, or whether she was mad at the mice, or Brett.. or.. well, she was just mad.

School still was required, though, so she finished her food, went to the bathroom and ran off to school.

After school, Phoenix was suspiciously friendly. Jaz had him help with her homework a little bit, and in no time, she was done. Only to get a surprise. She had a visitor.

When she got upstairs, Elsa Bjergson was there, waiting on her.

“Umm…. hi??” Jaz tried.

“I wanted to stop by for two reasons. One, Colin told me how much you helped him when he needed a friend. I really appreciate it and I wanted to let you know in person.” Elsa began.

“Really, it wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have done for anyone who needs someone to listen.” Jaz tried to play it off, feeling very awkward. She’d never been thanked for anything before.

Inside, I caught a shot of Bennie playing with his little brother all of his own accord. Then, Marnie forced him to finish him homework. Again. Bennie grumbled, but sat down at the table anyway to get to work.

“Oh, and the second reason?” Elsa started, smiling slyly. “A new position has opened up in the League of Adventurers. I would like to know if you would like to join. Phoenix has approved – which is important, because he was here first – and we all decided you would be the best choice.”

“WHAT?” Jazmyn exclaimed. “Are you SERIOUS?”

“Of course!” Elsa smiled back.

“Well, yea! I mean.. yes. I would like to join.” Jaz stammered her reply.

Elsa wrapped Jaz in a big hug and gave her a squeeze. “Great! Our next meeting is tomorrow at the park, if you would like to come?”

A bit later, Elsa and Jaz spent some time working on Jaz’s science project.

Bennie finished his homework, took an important call.. and came out to help.

In no time, it was done. With a cheer, they packed it up and all headed to bed. Tomorrow was a new day.. and Jaz was finally finding friends!

Day Eleven < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Thirteen

Day Ten < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Twelve

The Twins were on the warpath. They were the first of the family to wake for the day, and were hungry – so some poor soul was about to get a rude awakening.

Turns out it was Dad. Who was NOT happy with it. But for once, he went with it and got the twins fed, the kids up and off to school, and then went to wash one of the twins. (Braydon) The bath was far from successful, but since he did it of his own accord, we’ll have to forgive him.

By the time Marnie woke up, even the trash had been taken out. So she had time to play with Brett. At least for a short while.

Once Marnie got back to taking care of the house, Brett decided he hadn’t had enough fun, and with Braydon’s help, they pretty much trashed the living room.

Marnie, on the other hand, was obliviously restocking the fridge for the stampede of kids after school. She was not happy when she found the twins.

After school, Benji got a call from the principal of the high school. “Son, you’re nearly failing. If you don’t do something, you won’t graduate. I’m going to have to call your parents and let them know.”

Incensed, Benji stomped upstairs and decided to watch the new TV premiere instead of dealing with what the man had said.

By this time, the skies had really opened up, so playing outside was completely out of the picture. (And I managed to pause at the EXACT right time.)

Then, the phone rang. To Jazmyn’s shock, it was for her. Colin was saying he’d had a rotten day and wanted to come over to hang out for a while.

She agreed, and even more surprising – his greeting was a hug. Dismally, he recounted his day. His mom and dad had announced they were getting divorced. Poor Colin didn’t know what to feel, but right now he was just mad.

Jaz and he made some small talk after that big announcement, and Jaz racked her brain trying to come up with something to say to console her new friend. Finally, she gave up. Maybe just chatting would help Colin.

When it didn’t seem to be helping much, Jaz tried her best to calm Colin down. It worked… mostly. Then he was just sad, and seemed to be fighting tears. Jazmyn, quite frankly, didn’t know how to handle it, so she tried joking around with him.

… Which went about as well as you can imagine. Embarrassed, Jaz sheepishly apologized. Colin accepted the apology, then his phone rang. His parents demanded he get home because it was getting late. Jazmyn said goodbye, then went to take a cold shower. (Since she was the last one to the shower for the evening..)

While she was showering, the phone rang again. Marnie answered, and as she chatted, her face showed more and more anger. Apparently the storm wasn’t just outside.

Marnie interrupted Myles actually talking to his older brother for a change, and poor Benji got a huge piece of Marnie’s mind. So much for watching the premiere. She drug him to the table and demanded that he do his homework. She didn’t care whether he did it well, just that he actually did it, because she swore she wanted nothing more to do with him after this year, so he “Had better graduate!” (OR ELSE). Luckily, Bennie had actually gone to his work gig for the evening, so he missed this entire tirade, and Marnie’s mind was on other things by the time Bennie came home, so she completely forgot to tell him.

Bennie, on the other hand, came home sporting a nasty temper, and a promotion. He kicked the kids off the TV, yelled until they were all in bed.. and pulled the bed down so he could get some sleep. He, of course, had to bait a few mouse traps before he could do that, but at least the kids were all taken care of.

---

Bonus: Out-take: THIS is what I often see after school. This family is NUTS.. and taking care of them with just the one bathroom is almost akin to torture. Sigh. What I’ll do for a story, I tell you. Jaz.. you better appreciate this! :smiley:

Day Ten < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Twelve

Day Nine < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Eleven

Morning comes, as it always does… and Phoenix is up first. He goes to find something in the fridge, only to find some empty leftovers plates and .. nothing else. Luckily, he finds cereal in the cupboard.. and decides maybe water will work? (Also: the fridge is broken. Again. Poor Marnie.)

Soon, everyone else starts filtering out of the bedroom, with everyone finding the food situation pretty much the same. Phoenix finishes his “breakfast”, and tries to help out Marnie by mopping (however, with a broken fridge.. I’m afraid it’s really just good intentions.)

After everyone has left the building, the twins wake up, hungry, and end up eating some microwaved frozen veggies for breakfast while Marnie tries to get the kitchen back under control. Bennie puts the bed back up and heads downstairs to open the store again, to Marnie’s bemusement. His attempt at having a work ethic has not been missed by her, and she wonders why. (Although he has yet to go back to his entertainment job.. or even call in.)

After school, the kids come home to find the fridge fully stocked with leftovers again – a thing they mostly take for granted (to Marnie’s dismay). Everyone heads off to do their own thing, and Jaz is just taking her cold BLT out to the chess table when she notices Colin, the boy from Phoenix’s club hanging around the store and very obviously watching her.

He wanders over to say “Hey”… and even seems to smile, to Jaz’s complete surprise.

“Um. Hi.” Jaz looks around, and there are no other kids around. “What’cha doin’?”

“Mom sent me to check out the sale, my little sister has a birthday coming up. I heard about your fight with Billie. I just wanted to say I’m sorry. Not everyone hates you, you know.” Colin replied.

Flabbergasted, Jaz just looked at him with her jaw dropped, speechless.

“Hey, I had fun playing chess with you at the park. You wanna try another game? I see you guys have an outdoor table over there…?” he tried again, awkwardly, starting to feel like he’d made a mistake by trying to be friendly to the school outcast.

“Uhh.. Sure, Colin. But won’t your friends pick on you for playing with me?” Jaz asked, looking around like she was afraid they’d get caught, and un-ceremonially stuffing the rest of her BLT in her mouth.

“I don’t really care what they think.” Colin replied. “It’s just a club. Plus, Elsa runs the show in the club, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard her spreading nasty rumours. About you or anyone else. She’s nice, actually. You might like her.”

Mostly speechless again… Jaz awkwardly mumbled an “Oh. Okay.” and nodded towards the chess board. “Let me rinse off my plate and I’ll be right out, alright?”

Colin’s face broke into a smile, and headed out to set up the board for play. Jaz, completely at a loss for words, put away her after school snack dish and went out to play chess with Colin, still unsure whether this was just a cruel joke or not. They played happily for a while, until the sun started going down, and they both noticed the “Open” sign on the store go out.

“I better go help close” Jaz mumbled.. and Colin nodded, then said goodbye and headed home, waving jauntily as he walked away.

Back inside the store, With a morose face, Benji was cleaning up the store at the end of day, after having spent the rest of his afternoon helping with the twins and cleaning the apartment.

Bennie had already headed back upstairs, having no interest in cleaning the store… and completely ignoring Benji’s obvious efforts to “get out of the dog house” as it were.

But apparently, Marnie HAD noticed, and caught Benji at the apartment door. “I just want to say, I appreciate your help. You friend, Cade called and invited you to the Bluffs. I’m over-riding your father on this and letting you off your grounding early. Go – have a good time – but no drinking, okay?”

Benji wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and immediately headed to Windenburg. He didn’t even bother taking a shower first. It didn’t occur to him to wonder why it was Cade who had invited him out.

“So, friend. I heard you’re lusting after MY girl, huh?” Cade started with, and Benji looked at him in shock.

“Where’d you hear that?” he answered, a bit confused, trying to remember exactly who all he’d told.

“EVERYONE knows, Benji. I thought we were FRIENDS. Friends don’t try to break up their friends’ relationships!” Cade said, clearly already worked up.

Benji growled, having pretty much had enough of this.

“Have I ever tried you break you two up? NO. I think she’s pretty, but that much is obvious. You’re the one attacking me, here, buddy. I tried to get to know her a little bit better, true, but I wasn’t trying to get in your way. I ain’t like THAT.” Benji said.

“Oh, really?? What was that business at the club the other day? I saw you off with Shaylee all alone in the bowling alley!” Cade yelled back.

“Seriously. Did you not hear what I JUST said?? I was trying to get to know her better. NOT break you two up! She’s a club member, too!” Benji retorted.

That, was apparently all Cade needed to hear. He roared and rushed Benji, fists already at the ready. For a brief moment, Benji thought about the fact that it was just the two of them, all by themselves out in the wilderness, basically…. then he shrugged mentally and went all-in.

He wasn’t a stranger to fighting, obviously, and Cade clearly was. It didn’t take long for Benji to get the upper hand, and from there it was all downhill for poor Cade.

Cade held his hands up, and literally cried “Uncle! Alright, you. I give! Sorry. You win. But she’s still MINE!”

“We’ll see how long that lasts, Cade.” Benji said, barely out of breath, and without a scratch on him. Cade had not been so lucky, and was going to be sporting a couple of black eyes to school the next day. (Provided he didn’t chicken out of going, that is….) “FRIENDS don’t attack friends. You’re out. Shaylee deserves so much better than you. Find another club to hang with. That is, if you can, once the school finds out about this….”

Cade held his spinning head. “Wait.. I didn’t mean it like that. I was just defending Shay’s honor!”

“No, I don’t think that’s what that was. You’re not changing my mind, Cade. Good bye. And good riddance.” Benji sneered, and walked away, dusting off already dirty hands. He headed home, his head spinning. How had Cade found out, anyway? The only person other than himself that he’d told was Jay. But Jay wouldn’t rat him out…. would he?? … Someone had some explaining to do.

Benji barely noticed his little brother playing with a soccer ball he’d clearly swiped from the park last weekend… and headed straight for the shower. (A much-needed shower, no less.)

By the time he was done, the water was cold, and everyone except for Marnie was in bed. He didn’t bother saying anything to her, just went straight to bed, still reeling. He’d been best friends with Jay since preschool. He never would have guessed Jay would betray him… but clearly Jay had changed. There was no other explanation.

Marnie finally finished fixing everything that needed it at the moment, and stuffed yet another block of cheese into a trap for the mouse hole. Would those little pests ever go away?! Sighing in frustration, she stumbled off to bed, barely avoiding passing out on the floor before she got there.

Day Nine < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Eleven

Day Eight < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Ten

The peace of night didn’t last forever, though. Especially in this house. Marnie was rudely awakened by a twin, and Bennie was also rather rudely made aware of something he’d forgotten in the chaos of the day before.

As Marnie went to get the twins some food, the power suddenly cut out. “Oops” thought Bennie.. and quickly pulled out his phone to transfer some funds from the store after the sale last night so he could pay the bills. He looked up to find a still-blackened Marnie glaring at him with a twin on her hip.

“I just forgot to pay it!” Bennie said sheepishly, purposely forgetting to mention how very close he’d come to not being able to pay the bills at all.

Sighing, Marnie headed back towards the kitchen.

After getting the twins some food, Marnie discovered another problem in the bathroom. She had to fix the bathtub before she could even clean up from the night before.

(And, I assure you, she needed it..)

It was finally sunny again by the time the kids got home from school, and Jaz immediately set out to get herself focused so she could do her homework for her aspiration. She’d raised her overall grade to a B today, but she still had a ways to go to get an A. Maybe Marnie might notice her then?

Bennie spent the day running the store, since the sale ad was still running for a while… and he hoped to get enough money to cover groceries and get closer to being able to pay next week’s bills. So far, the store was packed, but it didn’t seem to be making a whole lot of cash.

By evening, Benji (who was still grounded) was so bored he was cleaning out the toddler potty on his own initiative. (While Marnie bathed a twin in lukewarm water.)

Jaz tried getting her homework done while being focused, as well, but the mess that was the kitchen and the mice running over her feet distracted her. She did manage to raise her Mental skill a good bit, though, so the afternoon wasn’t a complete waste.

Marnie’s day was still a ways from “over” in the fix-it department. First it was the sink in the bathroom – then it was the fridge.

… Then it was her own bed. Apparently Bennie was so tired he hadn’t bothered to even try to fix it before going to sleep. Marnie was a bit more cautious, however, and decided that no way was she getting into a bed that was sending out sparks from somewhere near her pillow. So she fixed it. Eventually. It wasn’t like the place had come with a manual on how to fix a sparking Murphy bed….

Day Eight < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Ten

Day Seven < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Nine

Jazmyn woke up early… and bored. So she did some experimenting. That Mental skill wasn’t going to raise itself.

Benji and Phoenix were up early – Benji found Phoenix working on his homework last minute in the twins’ room… so he elected to help him work on it to get it done faster (although Benji’s idea of “help” wasn’t really Phoenix’s… and I’m not sure how much faster it really was. At least it did get done in time, though.)

Marnie and Bennie actually had time to sit down together for breakfast before the twins got up again, although Bennie was FAR from talkative. And by the look on his face, Marnie decided not to push him.

After breakfast, Marnie set about trying to fix everything that had gone wrong with the house already. Before long, the toddlers were awake, however, and having spare time to fix things went out the window.

Bennie’s mood was atrocious. Yes, he’d been doing really well at work… but the bills had come in this morning.. and when he looked at the bank account, even someone who wasn’t good with numbers could tell he wasn’t going to be able to pay them any time soon. His only choice was to open the store, and spend what little cash he had on advertising a sale. Maybe that would get enough people in the store to make opening it worthwhile?

Oblivious to the looming financial crisis, Marnie was scrubbing toddlers, and floors, and counters, and toilets.. It seemed she never ran out of things to scrub.

Brett was teaching himself some skills.. since nobody else seemed to be interested in teaching them to him.

By the time school let out, the storm that had been brewing in the morning was starting to hit. So playing outside was out of the question. While walking through the store to head upstairs, Jaz noticed one of the customers. And unfortunately, Billie Jang had noticed her, too. It was the girl who’d been torturing her at school (with the help of her friends.. and now, the rest of the school, too.) Billie snidely jeered at her across the room, and Jaz had had a bad enough day that instead of ignoring her, she simply jeered back.

… Which, unfortunately, delighted Billie, who had been trying to taunt a response out of Jaz for a week now. Jaz fighting back finally was Billie’s idea of a good day.

On the other side of the store, Benji noticed his best friend, Jay, was perusing the toys, so he headed over to say hello. It turned out Jay’s younger brother had a birthday coming up, so Jay was sort of casing the joint to look for something he could swipe for his brother. Benji didn’t think there was any reason to tell Bennie to expect some unexpected inventory discrepancies today, and gave Jay an enthusiastic welcome.

Upstairs, the twins were pestering their older brothers, who were having an after school snack. Cold breakfast. Yum. Phoenix poked fun at his brother, calling him a brown noser, and blaming him for the fact that he had HAD to do his homework this morning. Myles blinked at his brother, unconcerned, and went back to eating.

Downstairs, Billie had most definitely gotten the reaction she had wanted. Incensed, Jaz finally grabbed Billie’s ponytail and yanked. Hard.

The rest of the store noticed the fight, and headed over to spectate. (Jay took advantage of the moment and snagged an airplane for his brother, stuffing it into his leather jacket’s pocket.)

Bennie, however.. had NOT noticed yet, and was ringing up another customer. As soon as the sale was complete, however, he turned around and couldn’t help but notice the fight.

He wasn’t sure who it was, but there was no fighting in HIS store… so he went to break it up, his bad mood spiraling into a worse one.

… Then he found out it was HIS kid who was breaking the rules. And he could only see red. Not only had Jaz LOST the fight, she was now in big trouble.

Jazmyn waited until Bennie wandered off to help other people, then threatened Billie should she ever try to come to this store again. (Billie didn’t get time to answer.. as Jaz ran upstairs to start her homework… but based on the fact that she then confidently picked out a few toys and went to get her purchases rung up by Bennie… she had no intention of following Jaz’s directives.)

Marnie, by this time, was hard at work restocking the store… and had decided Jaz had been yelled at enough. She let Jaz head upstairs unhindered, and continued her restocking.

Benji was still talking to Jay.. or congratulating him on a good swipe, I’m not sure which.

What Jay wasn’t telling him… was that everyone knew about Benji’s secret. Jay had told Cade, and of course Cade had told his girlfriend, Shaylee, who .. was flattered, but not interested in Benji that way… had quickly told her friends.. and from there it went to the rest of the school. The last to know would be Benji. And Jay didn’t want to be the one to let him know. So he didn’t. He finished the conversation and headed back home with his new toy airplane as Bennie finished closing up the store, still not noticing the missing airplane.

Upstairs, Phoenix was listening to music way too loud.. and Brett was complaining. Even more loudly.

One look at Bennie’s face, however stopped all of that, and everyone shuffled off to get ready to go to bed. Bennie raged, mostly internally, and pulled out some more cheese to refill the mousetraps… and laid down to sleep.

Marnie finally finished restocking.. and headed back upstairs. But didn’t make it through the storm unmolested. Lightning luckily only struck once.. and .. too exhausted to take yet another shower, she went straight to bed.

Unbeknownst to the adults who were sound asleep, Phoenix woke up after a nightmare.. (pretty close to the same one Benji had the night before, if not the same one.) and, feeling disgusting, he snuck out of bed to go take a quick bath.

After Phoenix left the room, Jaz woke to a nightmare, as well. (Poor baby wasn’t having a good day.)

Phoenix finished his bath and crawled back into bed silently. Luckily.. that was the end of the night. Not the end of the storm, however, because that raged into the next day.

Day Seven < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Nine

Day Six < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Eight

Jaz woke up and started doing the dishes all by herself, never realizing there was a storm brewing – both inside the house – and out.

You see, Braydon had chosen to woke up Bennie instead of Marnie. For his trouble, all he got was nagging, yelling, and thrown back into bed without even a kiss goodnight. Bennie, relieved, went straight back to bed.

Before long, Marnie woke up and started her day. Brewed some coffee, made some Fruit Salad, threw a mousetrap into the hole by the kitchen, and tried to get a moment to eat some breakfast.

Without noticing Bennie (or thinking that, since it was past 10 AM, Bennie had already had plenty of sleep) … or perhaps it was the fact that it was thundering outside and there was very little else to do… She wandered into the living room and turned on the TV. Unwittingly waking a very very grumpy Bennie.

Being woken up so rudely… again!… was enough to send Bennie off the deep end (temper-wise). Poor Jaz got the sharp side of his voice for a long tirade, and ended up being ordered to clean the entire apartment as well as the store bathroom… in the next two hours…. OR ELSE.

Or ELSE what? She wondered, stomping off angrily, and starting with the table full of dishes. Then she took out the trash. Put away toys… yeah. you get the picture. Exactly not what she wanted to be doing on a Sunday morning.

In the kitchen, Marnie had her hands full with fixing a spouting sink. Bennie came in, looking for coffee… only to find it was spoiled already. Which didn’t improve his mood any.

Jaz avoided his ire by cleaning the floor while Marnie was still working on the sink. Hopefully the puddle would stop growing soon.

The smelly coffee made her wrinkle her nose, and she decided to sit at the other end of the table from it to drink her orange juice.

Marnie was far from done, however, because both the toilet and bathroom sink were broken, too…. so she headed into the most trafficked room in the house to fix them. Phoenix was on mop duty now, however, so Jaz was free to drink her juice in peace.

… More or less. Bennie was apparently still sick.. and finally had a valid reason to call in “sick” to work. He did this, and went back to his precious sports on TV.

Benji had not forgotten the night before, and… trying to, perhaps, get off of his week of grounding early – he took Brett into the now-fixed bathroom to attempt to potty train his little brother.

Then, he tried mopping the living room floor, but some stains were far too stubborn. Jaz had decided that since it was STILL storming violently outside, she would spend the rest of the day experimenting. Myles came home from his scout meeting proudly showing off three new badges and an award (that nobody but Marnie even bothered to comment on), and had Marnie help with his homework that was due tomorrow morning. Then, he got to work on his next badge: arts and crafts. Somehow, Marnie even let him use the “special” mac and cheese noodles, glue, glitter, and markers for his projects. The ones that nobody else was ever allowed to use. Then, Myles started a phase: being clingy to a caregiver. Nobody was surprised when it ended up being Marnie.

By this time, Bennie was exhausted. So he tried to put down the Murphy bed… only to end up partially stuck beneath it. Which.. again, didn’t help his mood. The roar was probably heard through the entire neighborhood. However, despite the pain in his back and neck, there was no way he could afford medical care.. and he simply put the bed down.. again… and tried to take a nap. Being that school was the next morning, and everyone was afraid to wake up Bennie again (not that the mice weren’t doing the best job at it), so they all shuffled off to bed fairly early.

Which gave Jaz time to sneak into the bathroom for a decent, uninterrupted, shower before bed.

The night was quiet (except for the thunder outside) until Benji sat bolt upright in bed from a nightmare. He had dreamed he was a successful young man who did his taxes, lived in a boring apartment in the city, and never partied. (I’m serious, that’s pretty much what the game said he dreamed about – never seen that before…) Terrified it might come true, Benji vowed right then and there not to do his homework for the rest of the school year. And also: not to go back to bed any more tonight. So he got up, almost stepping on a mouse.. and got some congealed eggs and bacon from the fridge. (Yum?) He was afraid to wake up Bennie and Marnie by using the microwave to warm it up, however.. so cold rubbery eggs and bacon were what he ate. Hopefully, he thought, he could find enough to do to keep him busy until time to go to school in the morning. Heck, he was even willing to field the parenting duties for the twins should they wake up, too. Anything but going back to sleep.

Day Six < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Eight

Day Five < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Seven

(I apologize, there isn’t much about Jaz in this post.. but she does get to go skating, which I never have my sims do…)

Benji’s day started innocently enough. He really wanted to spend time with someone.. anyone, and he wanted something fun. The only other person awake at this hour was hit little brother, Brett, and he was hungry. So Benji found him some breakfast (no, he didn’t attempt to cook it), and decided to sit down and talk to the toddler.

Brett, of course, was ecstatic to have someone paying full attention to him, and excitedly talked about all things toddler.

“Um… I have no idea what you’re saying, little man…” (Not that saying this dissuaded Brett- he was in a CHATTY mood.)

Inside, Myles was showing that his father’s temper was actually in him, too.. and instead of rage cleaning (there wasn’t anything left to clean for him), he was beating up the todders’ bear.

Finally, Benji escaped the toddler chat, and corralled Myles into playing a game. Marnie, of her own accord, grabbed some flash cards and started trying to teach Brett some actual words.

Speaking of being by themselves, Bennie was found inside the dumpster, looking for breakfast. (Apparently all the perfectly good leftovers in the fridge weren’t okay…)

He seems inordinately pleased that he found something that was still good. (Although I wonder what on earth an Island Vegetable Feast was doing in that particularly dumpster…)

Delighted with his find, he magnanimously answered Jaz’s quest for growing up advice (in this case, she was asking about what to do with bullies attacking a “friend”… Bennie’s answer was that, of course, she should cowardly wait until the friend’s beating was done, and step in after to console them.)

A few minutes later, Bennie decided he really WAS the man of the house, and headed off to repair the bathtub all by himself. (Spoiler: he failed, and I began wondering exactly what was wrong with Bennie.)

(It was then that I noticed the stripes.) Clearly, Bennie was ill. And there certainly wasn’t money to go spending on medicine in this household. So Bennie did what he could – took a nap. Although Phoenix wasn’t helping, because he decided NOW was practice time.

Outside, Jaz had been busy most of the morning playing chess. That aspiration wasn’t going to complete itself.

But then… she had an idea. (Only to get rudely interrupted by Jay calling Benji and asking if he wanted to crash a party at a local nightclub. Obviously, Bennie was down for this!!!)

(So, off we spin to the local nightclub, and feeling pretty good about himself, Benji showed off a fake ID and ordered some real drinks for him and his buddy. A good german beer, obviously…. because that seemed the COOLEST thing he could think of to order.)

While waiting for Jay’s drink, because no way was Benji taking the second one… Benji started noticing some suspicious looks from the other bar patrons. Grinning back at them, he sipped at his beer, and turned to chat with Jay.

Inwardly, he cringed at the taste of the beer, and decided trying to chug it might be a better idea. He also was feeling particularly confident because Jay had elected to finally spend some time with him, his best friend, instead of with his girlfriend (for a change!)

So, feeling talkative and confident got to Benji’s head. (And the drink might not have helped either..) Before he thought twice about it, he was spilling the “beans” about his crush on Shaylee and complaining about his love life. Whatever was he going to do, when the girl he wanted was already “taken”??

While Jay was reeling from this confession – without Benji noticing the surprise – Benji suddenly noticed a real opportunity. There was a full, and seemingly unclaimed drink on the bar…. Benji waited all of two or three heartbeats before swiping it like it was his, and taking a drink.

He had no idea what it was, but it tasted a heck of a lot better than that beer he’d ordered, so he stood up and wandered around with his drink, hoping whoever had ordered it wouldn’t notice that he’d swiped a drink he hadn’t paid for.

One swiped drink turned into two.. and despite the strange looks – double fisting his drinks – Benji continued to prowl around the bar. Jay was completely forgotten, and so he never did have to reply to the blurted confession, and quietly left, trying to figure out what to do with his new intel.

One of the drinks Benji stole had REALLY gone to his head, and he wandered around a bit Dazed, but not so dazed that he couldn’t figure out how to always keep both hands full of new drinks.

Then, he noticed his club friend, Jack Ryan, (one of the brothers who like the dancer), had snuck into the bar confidently on the arm of some brunette who looked far too old for him. Benji said nothing about the brunette, in fact, I’m not sure he noticed her, but started mumbling some jokes he’d heard his dad tell at an open mic night to his friend. Jack gave him a strange look, and was going to ask what the heck Benji was talking about …

… When suddenly, a VERY irate (and no longer stripey) Bennie burst into the bar. Apparently someone had spread the news that Benji was at a bar drinking underage, and Bennie was NOT happy about it. Benji wasn’t going to be leaving the apartment for a while (except for school), and sneaking into this bar was certainly never going to happen again.

Back at home, we finally see what Jaz’s idea was. She had noticed a roller rink had been put up for the season, and she borrowed some old skates and was having some fun.

Well… she was TRYING to have fun. She was starting to wonder why this sport was so popular, though, when it ended up hurting so much….??

It was way past bedtime by the time she finally put up the skates and headed home, but nobody had even noticed she’d been gone. Marnie had finally gotten all the (other) kids in bed, and passed out in her own bed… and Bennie had escorted his misbehaving son home, and to his bed, and had gone to bed himself. Jaz rolled her eyes.. trying to not be upset that no-one had even noticed her being gone.. and slowly snuck past creaky boards to her empty bed.

…. Poor Marnie, however, hadn’t finished her night, it seems. Furious, she grabbed the crying twin and tried to shush him from waking Bennie before trying to put him back to bed. It was nearly sun-up before she had both of them back in bed.. and it was time for the next day to start.

Day Five < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Seven

Day Four < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Six

Friday afternoon marked the end of Jaz’s first week at school. Marnie rounded up all the younger kids because Myles wanted to go to the park… and Phoenix made sure to call in his League of Adventurers to meet them there.

(I started out the outing by modifying the park to add some stuff for everyone to do, including basketball, more kids area, more chess boards, some toddler play stuff, and a closet for the club activities.)

Marnie took the toddlers over to the new jungle gym, trying to give them something to do while she made some dinner for everyone.

Phoenix immediately gathered on the jungle gym, and Myles wandered over curiously, but didn’t join in.

Marnie had brought plenty of Hot Dogs to share with everyone, and with the toddlers occupied for the moment, she set about making them.

Phoenix and friends socialized and had a great time.

Myles socialized a bit, but he had other things on his mind.

Luckily, the twins were having a fabulous time.

… And so was everyone else. (Apparently my modifications to the park were well-received.)

Jaz’s priority for the afternoon was the three games of chess she needed for her aspiration. This is her second. (I have no idea who the lurker man is, but he kinda reminds me of my over-tanned neighbor IRL.)

Once the hot dogs were ready, Marnie called everyone to eat. Myles finished first, and set about teasing his younger sister. (Who was not impressed.)

Phoenix, however, took the moment to try and usurp the leadership of the club from Elsa.

She wasn’t going to hear any of it, unfortunately.

On the other side of the playground, Myles was still torturing his sister… who played off her annoyance with a yawn.

Myles shoved her, and tried to pick a fight, never realizing that Marnie had noticed the altercation and headed their direction.

She arrived just in time to see Jazmyn finally let loose on her annoying brown-nose brother.

Needless to say, Marnie was NOT happy about it, and immediately gave Jaz a time-out and forced her to do her homework. Marnie quickly cuddled Myles, making sure he was okay, and herded him away to work on scouts badges (which was what the outing had been for, after all.)

Phoenix had finally run out of energy, however, and picked himself up and headed back home.

Marnie and Myles finished off their evening with a friendly game of chess, while Jaz (finally out of time-out and with her homework finished) had found young Colin picking at a chess board, and decided to get her last chess game in.

The conversation started out okay, but soon he snidely brought up her school faux-pas. Annoyed, Jaz’s patience broke a bit, and she let him have it. Luckily, Marnie didn’t hear (or care about Colin or Jaz).. so Colin apologized and the game continued. (Although the game became far more cut-throat..)

Myles finished his night off with finding a few frogs for his Young Scientist badge, then Marnie packed up the twins (who were both napping on park benches by this time) and Myles, and they all headed home. She completely forgot about Jaz.. but Jaz wasn’t worried. She knew where home was.

Unfortunately, she came out the loser on the chess match, and she looked on with disbelief. “How did you beat me?!” she wailed, then stood up and stretched.

Yawning deeply, Jaz said goodbye to Colin (who was watching her slyly.. maybe he likes her more than he let on??) and headed home.

She was the last to arrive, but that just meant there was a free bathroom to take a quick, although cold, shower.. and head to bed.

The twins, however, were thoroughly wound up and wouldn’t stay in bed for anything. The active mice were not helping. Marnie struggled with them while Bennie snored happily (having actually attended work on his own for the second day in a row), and she ended up getting no sleep.. which didn’t bode well for the next day.

Day Four < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Six

Day Three < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Five

Just another day in the Malone household. It was storming horribly outside, so there was going to be no sending the kids out of the house for a break. The twins were up early, and Bennie was annoyed. He was just trying to drink his coffee, not get accosted by smelly toddlers.

Marnie tried her best to distract the little ones, but she was only one person.. and there were two of them. Naturally, the other one followed Bennie around, trying to get some attention.

Bennie tried grumbling at the toddler, but all he got was a quizzical look. Finally he tried yelling at him. That worked better, although getting a nasty look from a toddler isn’t any one’s idea of a good day. At least the twin – whichever one it was (Bennie could care less) – finally left him alone.

Marnie was just finished with giving a bath when Braydon came in, begging to be shown how to go potty. He certainly hadn’t been taught by anyone, and was curious how this whole thing worked. (And at this point, the only way he was going to learn was by his own choice or demand.)

Poor Marnie took care of that, then tried to get some of the never-ending cleaning done. Her mind was wandering, however, and she ended up spraying the table instead of the high chair. Could nothing go right??

After school, Jaz hummed to herself as she walked up the stairs. For the most part, her day hadn’t been too bad, and Benji’s suggestion had worked like a charm. She had been able to go to the bathroom all by herself and without the prying eyes and bullying words of the other students. She had kept to herself all day, though, and had avoided the playground at recess, so finding something fun to do and someone to play with was high on her list of priorities.

Bennie turned out to be the wrong choice for a chat partner.. and why Jaz tried him first, we’ll never know.. but as you can easily guess, it didn’t go well for her.

Braydon was playing nicely by himself now that he was all clean, had a fresh diaper, and a full tummy. It was amazing how nice a happy toddler can be. Myles worked on some art projects for his scouts badge, oblivious to what happened with the rest of his family.

Jazmyn was completely annoyed now after being yelled at by Bennie, and decided she’d go play with Braydon for a while. All the noise, however, woke a grouchy Benji up from a nap (in Jaz’s bed, no less) – and got her another “talking to”.

Luckily, however, Bennie had disappeared (nobody knew where – he hadn’t bothered to say), and the living room was free. Little Brett had decided to join in on playtime, to Jaz’s delight, and they had a lot of fun playing with the little toys.

Phoenix was murdering some piece of music or another, (I assure you, nobody knew what it was – probably not even him), and Brett thanked his big sister for actually taking some time for him the only way he knew how.

Since the TV was (uncharacteristically) actually not in use, Benji talked Jaz into playing some games. He may or may not have picked her because she was easy to beat, but he certainly wasn’t going to admit it.

Poor Brett had hoped for more attention, however, and toddled off with a pout to find someone else he could annoy.

Marnie, luckily, caught him before he ran out the front door into the storm, and got him into bed. Braydon was already asleep, so she tried her best to keep Brett quiet, but it wasn’t working. That was when she noticed the smell.

Sure enough, there was a diaper that needed changing before bedtime – so Marnie took care of it. She may or may not have been begging a higher power for an actual break in this screenshot, and if she was, who would blame her?!

Bennie ran in to the house soaking wet, and in a better mood. (He wasn’t going to explain where he’d been, because his C-lister gig wasn’t exactly something to be proud of, but at least he had 240 bucks to show for it. Grocery money!)

Unfortunately, the night wasn’t over. And having all the kids in bed really didn’t mean anything with the twins in the house. Before you knew it, Brett was up again, and bawling at the foot of the Murphy bed. Bennie grumbled and poked Marnie. “Your turn.” he mumbled.. and rolled back over. Marnie yawned widely, and glared at her husband’s sleeping form. “When has it EVER been NOT my turn!” she whispered, and wearily turned to catch the toddler before he headed off to wake up the rest of the household.

Day Three < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Five

Day Two < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Four

The morning went by smoothly, and the kids all headed off to school without incident. The twins were fed, and weren’t getting into trouble (yet).. so Bennie decided he might as well open up the store for a while.

He tried to be helpful, and there were plenty customers… but sales simply weren’t coming in. What on Earth was he doing wrong? This store was supposed to be an easy money maker!

Upstairs, Braydon was getting his bath (with no prompting with me, go Marnie!)

His ONE sale all morning was at least worth 150 bucks profit.. but that was it. Bennie was starting to get worried about making enough at this store to support his family. But there was no way he was going to tell Marnie that.

The kids were coming home from school as Bennie closed shop.. and Jaz managed to sneak past him (with the smell, I honestly don’t know how) on her way to the bathroom in the store. Today had apparently been a long day at school with her resolve to not go to the bathroom at school anymore.

Sadly, poor Jaz made it through the front door of the store.. and no further. Which meant she was going to need to clean that up ASAP before anyone found out about it. Hurrying to the cleaning closet, she stealthily filled the bucket with water and suds, and tried to figure out how the mop and bucket worked. Unfortunately, all she was doing was making a bigger mess. To her horror, through the store windows, she noticed Bennie had spotted her.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!??” Bennie roared, trying not to slip on the mess on the floor. Then, the smell hit him. “Oh my God, child, why are you peeing on the floor like a wild animal?? If you’re going to do that, at least learn how to clean it up right instead of making a bigger puddle!! Go get your mother!”

Without a word, Jazmyn hurried upstairs to get Marnie, trying to stifle embarrassed tears. “Mama.. Bennie needs you.”

Marnie was not happy to be interrupted while in the middle of helping Myles with his homework (again). Stomping along after Jazmyn, she just barely missed falling flat on her face in the puddle after tripping over a half full bucket of suds. Bennie was nowhere to be seen…. but he appeared just in time to see Marnie’s near miss.

“Teach this cretin to clean up her own pee puddle! I thought you’d potty trained her! Perhaps she needs a refresher! Oh, and Child, when you’re done – Benji had disappeared on a school night again, as a punishment, you will be the one to drag him back home. Do not come home until he comes with you. And it had better be before dark!!”

Furious, Jazmyn glanced outside. The sun was already going down. There was no way she could get Benji home in time. Sighing, she tried to listen to what her mother was teaching her.

(Meanwhile, across the street….)

Benji pulled together a club meeting, and of course, everyone was in a hurry to attend. He definitely needed some fun after a horrible day at school… so he organized a game of HORSE on the court. Cade quickly bowed out, and went upstairs to see the rest of the club members. Which left Shaylee alone with Benji.

On a whim, Benji spent some time chatting with her, and even whispered to her that he had a crush on someone at school. He was still too shy to admit to her who the crush was, though, and way too prideful to admit he was shy.

He changed topics quickly, and invited her inside to a bowling game, since it was getting dark outside.

The competition was just heating up, and little Pierce DelGato was giving him the stink-eye for making fun of him.

After Pierce hit the deck during an especially beautiful shot by Shaylee, he was mortified, and quickly cleared the area, barely taking time to take off his rental shoes.

(Back across the street…)

It was pitch black outside by the time she was finally headed over to get Benji. Sighing deeply, she tried finding Benji by peeking in windows without going inside and subjecting herself to possibly seeing any classmates in this state. Obviously, she hadn’t been allowed to clean herself up much, yet… which may have been part of the punishment.

Luckily Shaylee and Benji were the only people in the bowling alley at the moment, and Jazmyn hurried to tell him he was needed at home. She, also luckily, missed the nasty comments Shaylee muttered towards her under her breath.

“Now? Oh for fuck’s sake!” Benji grouched, watching forlornly as Shaylee disappeared out the door. So much for spending time with his crush.

“I gotta change my shoes.” Benji said, pointing at a nearby bench. “By the way, you stink. What happened?”

Without meaning to, Jazmyn spilled everything. The fact that she’d gone into the wrong bathroom at school, the way everyone was making fun of her.. and the mess that had just happened after she had decided no more bathrooms at school.

Somehow, Benji must have been feeling especially kind, because he didn’t make fun of her. He didn’t give her a hug or anything (like she definitely needed), but at least he didn’t make things worse. “You can’t just not pee at school, Jazzy. It doesn’t work that way. Ask your teachers in the middle of class for a bathroom pass or something if you don’t want the other kids to see you go.”

“You can DO that??” Jaz asked in amazement.

Benji shook his head at her. “Duh, small fry. That’s what teachers are for. Hall passes.” He finished tying his thrift store boots, and put up his bowling shoes. “Let’s go home before it gets any darker.”

Nodding, and realizing that she had just spilled secrets that could be used against her… Jaz just sat behind him quietly. She was still thinking to herself when – to her shock, Benji passed out right in front of her. Unfortunately, it was also right in front of his friends. Which made him the butt of the joke.

“Did you miss your nap at preschool, Benji?” laughed Cade.

“Up past your bedtime, are you, Benji? No wonder your little sister had to come get you.” Jay’s girlfriend snidely added.

Embarrassed and now angry, Benji shook off the cobwebs, grabbed his sister’s arm, and drug her out the door and across the street.

“Say NOTHING about this to ANYONE!” he threatened. Jaz’s eyes were huge, and instead of saying anything, she merely nodded. “Now, we sneak in, and hope Bennie doesn’t notice.” he hissed at her… and slid past Marnie making some food (probably for the twins, based on the consistency of the meal) into the bedroom to crawl into his bed.

Feeling better for being able to finally tell someone, or maybe worse because she was afraid what would come of it…. Jaz took a quick (and cold) shower, and hurried to bed, as well. Bennie didn’t notice her sneak past as he put down the Murphy bed, and Marnie was busy putting the twins to bed.. so she managed to avoid any more confrontations for the day.

Marnie and Bennie’s night wasn’t over, though.. because one of the twins had a nightmare, and woke the entire apartment up. Bennie was furious, and went right back to sleep (as did the other kids), and Marnie sighed in frustration, getting up to give Brett a bath. So much for sleep!

Day Two < | Challenge Home Page | > Day Four