Chapter Sixty Four

On their return from Shang Simla, Nia called her mother and arranged to meet her at a local park, although she hadn't expected Menolly to bring Bobbie along too.

Unfortunately Menolly didn't react well to Nia's decision not to accept her offer of a place at an exclusive art school

"Why don't you want to go?  Can't you see that it would be a wonderful opportunity for you?  And I went to a lot of trouble to arrange it, it's not easy to get into that school you know"

Something about the way her mother responded to her decision set off Nia's anger at her abandonment.

"Because I know why you went to all that effort!  You don't care about my welfare or my future, you just wanted to look like you did so that Bobbie's father couldn't use your neglect of me in his claim for custody!"

"How did you know about that?"  Menolly sounded completely shocked, but she was even more shocked when Bobbie turned around to add her tuppence worth

"Because I told her, and I told her I want to go and live with Dad instead of you!"

While Nia had been confronting her mother, Mira had been getting back to work.  She had been asked to investigate a break in at the local science research centre, a task which necessitated a lot of digging around in people's rubbish and interviewing of potential witnesses.

Once she had gathered all the information she could she headed home to write up her report before the next day.

Back at the house, Kyra had been busy inventing lots of bizarre items, including a very strange looking gnome.

She'd also invented some rather more practical items, and Joshua was happy to try out the harvester she'd come up with, although he did find the side effects a little too much at his age...

While her mother was off investigating crime and her sisters were experimenting with scrap metal and chemistry, Dorilys had been playing alone with her doll. 

When it started to move around in her arms however she put it down on the floor in surprise.  Seconds later, her surprise turned to shock as her doll suddenly leapt into the air, grew as big as her and started talking to her!

"Don't be scared" this strange creature her doll had turned into said "My name is Nik Splicablee and I've come to protect you".

"Protect me? But what do I need protecting from?  And what's happened to my doll?"

"Your family has enemies, I can't tell you any more, but I've come here to protect you from them.  As for your doll. it was always me.  The transition from my home to here affected me rather more than I expected and I found myself trapped in the form of a toy, it's taken me this long to recover enough to gain some control over this form although not enough to regain my true form.  There's something else very important I need to tell you though - no-one except you will be able to see me like this and you mustn't tell anyone about me.  If you do then your enemies will find out and my protection will be compromised as they'll be able to prepare."

Over the next few days, family life settled back into normality although Dorilys was very careful not to mention "Nik" to anyone and to make sure she only talked or played with him when no-one else was around.

Nia's class was invited to go on a field trip to the science centre and during the trip she became friendly with Ramin McKinley.

After the trip, instead of going home, the two of them decided to visit a nearby park and spend the evening chatting about their likes and dislikes (after doing their homework together)

Eventually however it grew late and they were forced to make their separate ways home or risk breaching curfew (and Nia wasn't prepared to risk the embarrassment if the cop who caught them was Mira!)

She did however invite him over to the triplet's birthday party a few days later.

Kyra went first, becoming a bit of a daredevil as she entered her teenage years. 

Followed by Kariny, who grew up into a very good teen.

And finally Karal who turned out to be quite the charismatic charmer.

The triplets were delighted that their birthday fell the day before prom and they felt very grown up as they went.  Nia had wanted to ask Ramin to go to prom with her, but had failed to work up the courage to do so.  

She did however win the title of Prom Queen, and much to his surprise Karal was crowned Prom King!  Kyra also had her share of excitement when Zhanzu Yodsuan (who had moved to Dragon Springs with his family shortly after the Yat Sens had come back from visiting Shang Simla) asked her to dance. 

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Pet Spam

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Town News

• Glimmer & Pacey Sabo-Harris had a baby girl called Raina
• Arthit, Lien, Mei Lin & Zhanzu Yodsuan moved to Dragon Springs and Arthit & Lien got jobs in the medical field
• Boy and Isadora Marlin-Crist has a baby boy called Ralph
• Blue Mitchell aged to an adult
• Salvador Harris aged to a child
• Anastasia and Raindrop McKinley-Sabo got married.
• Menolly started dating Tempest Sabo again
• Rian Harris-Crist aged to a teen
• Tyson Marlin was given custody of Bobbie Clemetis (but not by story progression)
• Torey McKinley-Crist aged to a child
• Raina Sabo-Harris aged to a toddler
• Adabella Sperie and Gary Fields-Vamp got married, changed their name to Sperie-Field, had a baby girl called Kaitlyn and are expecting another child
• Dasia & Derrick Harris-Crist had a baby boy called Andreas
• Raindrop & Anastasia McKinley-Sabo had a baby boy called Sindre
• Bryan Harris-Crist aged to a child
• Cristy & Antoine Sabo-Harris aged to children
• Nathaniel Harris-McKinley has adopted a puppy called Taylor
• Mei Lin & Zhanzu Yodsuan aged to teens and Zhanzu got a part-time job at the bookstore