WC: Day Sixteen < | Challenge Home Page | > WC: Day Eighteen

Saturday morning in the Judd household was crazy, but a silent sort of crazy. Everyone was tiptoeing around, trying to let Wendy sleep in. She rarely got to sleep in, and Matt was trying to let her take a relaxing morning while he took care of everything.

Jaz woke up, heard the "please be quiet" rule, and snuck downstairs to check their mail and look up whatever the heck a "butler" was. They hadn't had time to check it the day before, so today it was.

Colin had written back, so Jaz spent some time reading that, and then got to their research. Astounded, they found out that butlers were basically live-in help for rich people. How strange to have someone always there to help out, Jaz thought. Shrugging, Jaz signed off and went to go get ready for the day.

Passing by the laundry room, Jaz found poor Matt ankle deep in suds and cursing. They stifled a giggle, grabbed some leftovers for breakfast, then went to find Penny to see if she was ready to go to the park for the club meeting.

The bus was running a little late, so the rest of the club was already there by the time Penny and Jaz got to the park, but it was still early enough in the day that they pretty much had the park to themselves.

Jaz hopped off the bus, and ran over to Colin, greeting him with a big grin.

"I wrote you back this morning, Colin." Jaz said with a giggle.

"Oh, I'll have to check when I get home!" Colin replied, and pointed over to the empty swing-set. "Shall we go swing for a while?"

"Sure!" replied Jaz, and they both ran over to the swings.

They giggled together, and watched everyone else playing around the playground.

The park filled up quickly, being that it was a lovely fall morning, and before long, there were people waiting for the swing-set.

Colin awkwardly pointed to the monkey bars, and mentioned they could hang out there, perhaps?

Jaz agreed, and went to stake their claim on it while Colin ran to the bathroom really quick.

Nearby, Penny, Elsa, and Miki were exploring space in the space ship, and they had apparently run across a monster of some sort, because they were yelling battle instructions back and forth.

Jaz waited on the monkey bars, and Penny apparently gave up on the monster battle, because next thing Jaz knew, Penny was upside down underneath them.

Colin joined Jaz, and curiously asked about Jaz's violin lessons.

"Oh! I was worried for absolutely nothing!" Jaz gushed, and proceeded to tell Colin all about their wonderful teacher, and the magical room that their lessons were in.

"Oh, that's so good! I told you not to worry about it!" Colin said with a laugh, then looked around to see who might be able to hear, and asked about the penpal.

"Nothing yet," Jaz replied, "But that's okay. I'm more worried about Phoenix. I've tried calling him twice in the last couple days, and he has been too busy to answer his phone. I hope nothing bad happened to him!"

"Are you sure he's too busy? I mean, he did tell you, basically, to get lost the last time you talked to him, didn't he?" Colin replied a bit hesitantly.

Jaz sighed, and responded, "Yeah, he did. But maybe he didn't mean it. It just feels all sorts of wrong to be on each other's bad sides now that the family has been sent to the ends of Simsdon. You would think we would need to stick together now, right?"

Colin looked at Jaz worriedly. He really didn't think there was much hope for Jaz and Phoenix's relationship, but Jaz really did mean well. How to let Jaz down easily, though. He didn't want them to get hurt - and with Phoenix's attitude, Jaz was almost certain to get hurt in the end.

"Jaz... I ... I don't think Phoenix is too busy. Maybe he's just avoiding your calls?"

"He could be." Jaz agreed, then noticed another bus pull up to the park. a good portion of the Bullies club jumped off the bus, and Jaz noticed that Phoenix was among them.

"Maybe I should just ask him if things are okay..." Jaz said, trailing off as they climbed down from the monkey bars, leaving Colin watching them sadly, afraid for what Phoenix might say, but not wanting to get in the middle of it.

"Hey, Phoenix!" Jaz called, and managed to corner him near the space ship. "I tried calling you, but you didn't answer. Is everything okay?"

Unbeknownst to Jaz, this was Phoenix's first reaction:

"God. Take a hint, freak." Phoenix exclaimed with frustration.

"I know I told you I don't ever want to hear from you again! Just leave me alone and go your own little freaky way!" Phoenix yelled, getting the attention of nearly everyone on the playground. Kids froze, and looked around worriedly, noticing that there weren't any nearby parents should this argument escalate.

"Phoenix! I am NOT a freak. I'm your sibling. And I care how you are. I just want to be friends again." Jaz replied, pleadingly.

Phoenix rolled his eyes and forcefully replied, "You're not my SIBLING. You're my sister. And since you don't seem to want to be that anymore, I don't want anything to do with you. It's unnatural."

Billie Jang, of course, had noticed the whole exchange, and jumped in on the conversation as Phoenix began to stomp away.

"Ugh. Why do we keep having to tell you the same thing, JAZMYN?" Billie mocked, "Be the GIRL that you are, or leave us alone. We don't hang out with freaks of nature."

"That's not true!" Jaz replied, trying to hide the tears that were threatening.

"Of course it is!" yelled Billie, "It's only your stupid Adventurer's club that doesn't know the truth because you have them all brain-washed to your silly 'I don't have to be either a boy or a girl.' nonsense."

Colin had finally screwed up the courage to step in on Jaz's side of the argument, and he physically separated the two sides, and stated firmly, "No, Billie. You're the one who's wrong. Gender doesn't have to be one way or the other. You're being so closed-minded, and purposely cruel. It's not fair. Let Jaz and Phoenix be. They need to work this out on their own!"

Billie broke out laughing, and Phoenix's face got even more stormy. Phoenix, finally, decided there was nothing else to say and stomped away. Billie, on the other hand, had to drop one more insult before she followed him, "Oh, okay, so I should treat you like a GIRL, too, Colin?" Billie didn't even wait to look at Colin or Jaz to see their reactions, or hear what they had to say, and just ran off to be with her friends.

Stricken, Jaz wiped away a tear, and turned to Colin, with a shaky voice, "You didn't have to step in. That wasn't fair to you."

Colin, who had tougher skin than even he knew, turned and gave Jaz a hug, replying, "It's okay, Jaz. I don't care what stupid Billie says anyway."

"Oh, good." Jaz replied, and hugged Colin back tightly. Then, noticing the shadows that were coming over the playground, Jaz looked around for Penny, and waved her over. "I guess we need to go home. Our foster sister has a birthday tonight, and we can't stay out too late."

With another worried look at Jaz, Colin bade them goodbye, and walked them to the bus stop. Internally, Colin wondered what Jaz was really thinking about Phoenix. Surely they were hurt by it, even though they didn't want to show it. With a sad smile, he turned away, and shrugged off the nasty comments Billie had leveled at him. Taking over as the de-facto club leader, Colin hurried everyone off to their respective buses, and then headed home himself.

Back at the Judd's the cake was baked, decorated, and lit.. and everyone gathered in the dining room to congratulate Timika.

Jaz's mind was elsewhere, however, and they didn't join in on the conversation over the cake. Timika had tried on their new clothes, and sat across from Matt. The conversation revolved around her starting high school on Monday, and the three high schoolers comparing their class schedules.... which meant that Jaz didn't have to be involved in the conversation, luckily.

Before bedtime, but after the "party," Jaz pulled out their violin and practiced for a screeching half an hour. Clearly, more lessons were needed before the sounds became actual music. Jaz, however, didn't mind, and tried their very best to imitate what Maaike had told her to do for practice every day.

Later, in a (blessedly) quiet house, Jaz washed up for bed in the bathroom, then giggled to themselves as they passed by Carlo's room, hearing them again talking about the chatroom he was clearly looking for love in.

Penny was already in bed, so Jaz crawled in quietly and just stared at the ceiling, thinking and rethinking about the argument with Phoenix. When Wendy came in to tuck them in, Jaz quickly feigned sleep so Wendy couldn't ask if everything was okay... but things were far from okay. Wendy left to go check on the other kids, and Jaz rolled over, and sadly cried themselves to sleep.

WC: Day Sixteen < | Challenge Home Page | > WC: Day Eighteen