Chapter 1.20 - Growing Up

  The day of Chantia’s birthday dawned white and very cold, indicating that winter had arrived. The inhabitants of the house slept as late as they could, but unfortunately life still went on, so they couldn’t remain in bed the entire day. Their morning that day was a bit busier than usual, since they were all running slightly late due to their slight lie-in.

  “Hey, who changed the music to country?” Chantia asked when she noticed the different music. They usually made turns listening to their favourite stations and nobody in the house particularly enjoyed country, so Chantia was a bit surprised by the change.

  “And whose bright idea was it to put a gnome right in front of the stereo?” Chantia continued.

  “Does it really matter?” Mia replied. “It’s just a gnome, but if you don’t hurry up we’re going to be late,” the girl admonished her sister.

  “I’m just saying it’s weird,” Chantia protested, but still listened to Mia by turning away from the stereo and rushing to get all her books.

  Mia shrugged. “Well, then maybe the gnome did it,” she stated and left the house, leaving her sister and the gnome behind.

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Chantia laughed and put the matter out of her mind. It didn’t really matter, after all.

  Once again, her birthday fell on weekday, so Chantia didn’t get a birthday party. She didn’t expect anything special, so she was pleasantly surprised when she got home that afternoon to a very familiar person.

  “Dad!” Chantia exclaimed and wrapped her arms around his neck, really happy to see him. “I didn’t know you were coming!”

 Gustave chuckled and returned his daughter’s hug. “I’ve missed enough of your birthdays,” he declared. “I wouldn’t be a very good dad if I didn’t try to attend at least one, right?”

  “I’m just really glad you’re here,” Chantia told him earnestly.

  The rest of the day and evening was spent rather peacefully, with Chantia building a snowman with her dad, where she caught him up with everything that was news in her life…

…and later building an igloo with both her parents, after which they retreated inside to warm mugs of hot chocolate. Mia was busy with her afternoon activity, which was the only reason why the young genius didn’t partake in the activities as well.

  They ate dinner together as a family until the clock struck and Chantia officially became a teen.

  The rest of the evening were spent quite peacefully, except that Gustave and Evelyn properly celebrated their reunion in the newly build igloo.

  The next day arrived and with it, Chantia’s first day of high school. She was glad she knew at least one person, but she was still nervous. It soon became clear that it was unnecessary, as just by being close friends with a popular senior, she managed to get her schoolmates’ respect.

  Of course, the way she had managed to bloom from tomboyish girl to beautiful teen definitely helped as well, especially once she started to apply her natural charisma.

  Unfortunately, although Chantia enjoyed the social aspect of high school a lot, the homework aspect got a lot harder as well.

  “I don’t understand,” Chantia murmured, her brows furrowed in confusion. “If you take this and divide it by that, it should give you the answer…except that this part is in the way then! Why does math have to be so hard?” she complained with a pout that many boys her age would’ve found rather interesting.

  Mia looked over at Chantia’s homework, inspecting her work. “Oh, that’s easy,” she declared, “but first you have to take this part and multiply it by that part and then you can divide it by…”

  Chantia stared at Mia. “How do you know this? You haven’t done it in class yet!” she asked incredulously.

  Mia rolled her eyes. “I’ve read advanced mathematics for fun, Chantia,” she deadpanned. “Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.”

“I have no doubt about that,” Chantia replied in a mutter. “But, wow, really? You read advanced maths for fun? I know you’re crazy, but that’s going a bit far.”

Mia rolled her eyes and didn’t bother to give a reply, focusing her own homework instead. But she did manage to get her revenge for the statement later.

 As usual, life continued. Evelyn won the Teacher of the Year award from the school, something she was really flattered about, even more so when the title was rewarded with a raise. After the event was done, Evelyn was able to walk away with the knowledge that she was a true master of charisma.

Chantia started taking violin lessons, and not surprisingly, it turned out she was a natural at it. The first couple of times she practised it was horrifying, but she improved rather quickly, much to the relief of her family (and neighbours).

 Additionally, Chantia got a job as a spa receptionist as well, trying to get some money for herself. While they weren’t poor, they couldn’t afford to spend money on just anything, so Chantia wanted to have some money of her own. To make sure Chantia didn’t have to overly rely on taxis to get to her new work, Evelyn relented and bought a second-hand car.

 Chantia stared at the car in fascination, almost positive the thing would fall apart where it stood. “Well, it’s certainly…well, a car,” she told her mother, who merely shrugged.

“It works, and nothing is wrong with it,” Evelyn replied. “It’s just a little,” she tilted her head slightly, studying the car as well, “dilapidated.”

“Mom, it looks like the first little bump on the road will make that thing fall apart,” Chantia pointed out.

“Nonsense, Chantia,” Evelyn disagreed and managed to open the car door after several unsuccessful attempts. “Now, are you ready for your first driving lesson?”

Chantia didn’t feel close to ready to get in that car, but she had to learn, so she joined her mother in the car.

 It turned out her mother was mostly correct, as the car managed to bring them home successfully after a day of driving around. It also allowed Chantia to get her driver’s license, something she was very proud of. Chantia still had her doubts about the car, but it managed to get her where she wanted to be, so she kept using it, despite her misgivings.

Mia continued her research, inventing different potions until she finally felt there was nothing more she could do with the chemicals she had at hand. So, instead of wasting more time with something she was sure she had already perfected, she took up a new hobby instead: fishing. In her research, she had found mention of several rare compounds that were only found in fish, so her hobby had the extra benefit of providing her with new samples to study.

Unlike Mia, Chantia didn’t spend her free time pursuing academic skills. Instead, she tried her hand at everything that interested her, such as ice skating…

 …or teaching Luna some new skills, like hunting.

 For Chantia school also got a little more interesting when a guy she had been eyeing started talking to her. After several conversations, Chantia finally got the courage to push for more, asking him to be her date to the school dance.

 “I’ve been planning on asking you myself,” Samuel confessed, accepting her invitation with pleasure.

At school, Chantia met Samuel’s best friend Ethan and Ethan’s girlfriend, Aisha.

 “So we’ve been planning to have a small gathering after the dance,” Aisha explained to Chantia. “Ethan’s parents are on vacation, so we have the place by ourselves. So, think you’ll come?”

“I don’t know,” Chantia admitted. “I’ll definitely try, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get past my mother. She’s a bit…overprotective.”

Aisha patted Chantia’s shoulder sympathetically. “I’m sure you’ll manage,” she ensured Chantia. “So, we’ll see you after the dance, right?” Aisha told Chantia. Chantia sighed and gave in to the pressure.

“Right,” Chantia agreed, hoping she’ll be able to get Evelyn’s permission. If not, she’ll have to lie to her mother once again.

_~…~_

The gnome thing? Nothing important. It just surprised me by changing the music, so I decided to throw it in just for kicks.

Anyway, so Chantia finally aged up in this chapter and I was seriously blown away by how beautiful she turned out. She's so pretty! I’m rather surprised by that, actually. Right after I made Evi get pregnant, I took her and Gustave into CAS to play with their genetics and see how their looks meshed together. The results weren’t pretty, at all. Both have rather strong features which really didn’t carry over well to their kids. But apparently I lucked out, because Chantia definitely has features from both parents (her eyes and upper part of her nose is almost identical to Gustave’s) but she turned out really pretty!

Also, Gustave and Evelyn are so sweet together. Gustave stayed for two days and in that entire time, they never left the other alone. Whenever they had a moment of inaction, they would automatically go back to the other and socialise (flirting mainly). It was so sweet. <3

And Evelyn finally gained the Eternally Faithful moodlet! It took 37 days, but it finally happened!