Chapter 10: Venus Needs Men

After her in-laws died, Misty redecorated the house. She had put up with the bright sorbet colors for too long, and once she had control over the house, she changed it to suit her tastes. Her renovation was done just in time for the twins' birthday party.

It was a small family party; Shadow's two brothers and their wives, as well as Spider's two children, Jasen and Grace were invited. Pink and Kristy's son Barret is still too young to come to parties.

Shadow got to catch up with his brother's; Spider has achieved his goal of being a world famous surgeon. Pink still manages to avoid being in family photos, showing just his back for this occasion.

Allyson and Roslyn are just glad when it's over, so they can play video games with being harassed by aunts and uncles.

The local criminals have been emboldened by the death of Cameron, the police officer in the family, and a burglar attempts to make off with Shadow's car. Shadow is not a cop, but he does not hesitate to defend his property.

Justas Misty does not hesitate to come out to the front yard in her underwear to watch the fight. Stay classy, Misty.

Shadow has a growing collection of trapped spirits he's keeping in the house. Most he donates to scientific research, but he wants to keep one of each kind as trophies. He's promised Misty they are perfectly safe in their containers, but she's not so sure.

The day after the twins had their birthday, Misty became concerned about their futures. Their town was suffering a severe shortage of male children, and when Allyson and Roslyn grew up they would be facing stiff competition from the many girls born around the same time they were. So, their worried mother came up with a plan, to adopt a boy who would claim one of the other females for his own when he came of age, thus removing one from the competition. Not a perfect solution, as there would still be more females than males, but any advantage she could create for her daughters was a good thing. So Connor joined the McDermott family.

After they send the kids off to school on Monday morning, Shadow and Misty realize that for the first time in their adult lives, they are completely alone in their own house, no parents, no children.

Shadow can't decide if he's more surprised that a ghost would need to shower, or that she doesn't care that he's walking in on her showering.

Childhood passes quickly and the twins become teens. Misty has always allowed her children to express themselves, like letting Allyson paint her bedroom black and purple, but she is hard pressed to keep her opinion of her daughters' wardrobe choices to herself.

Despite the surface differences, Allyson has much in common with her mother.

And Roslyn is musically inclined like her father.

News spread quickly about the new family, the Newsoms, who moved into town. Donnel and Cheri have both been hired by the local school as teachers. Misty is the first to welcome the newcomers to the neighborhood.

Because she heard the Newsoms had a son, Misty brought Allyson along with her. Roslyn was too busy attending guitar class to join them. The Newsoms in fact have two sons, one a teen named Ewan, who Allyson finds herself immediately attracted to. The attraction appears to be quite mutual.

Allyson proposes a steady relationship right after their first kiss, before any of the other girls find out there's a new guy in town. The boy shortage is just that severe.

When a guy hits puberty, the first thing he wants is for his mother to burst in on him in the bathroom to congratulate him.

"The Gentilleschi girls are starting high school tomorrow, too," Misty informs Connor, "Maybe you should give them a call." No pressure or anything.

Challenge Notes:

So yeah, I moved in a family with a boy teen just to get Allyson a date, I'm not kidding, there is a huge boy shortage in this generation. (By this generation, I mean girls far outnumber boys in both the child and teen stages, and there are female YAs that can't find mates, too.) I didn't like having to do that in this challenge, but moving in potential mates is allowed in certain situations, this being one of them. When this generation hits YA, I may add a pack of YA guys for the rest of the town girls snag and breed with, to keep the town population alive. Roslyn will have to fight it out with the others.

For anyone who read my previous legacy, Donnel Newsom (the father in the new family) is a clone of Donnel Landgraab, the younger brother of Donovan Landgraab. His wife is a clone of the wife he had in SV, Cheri Sekemoto. I'm stoked to have some of the old SV genes in the hood. Especially Donnel, as he's nearly identical to Donovan, who Regan McDermott would have had her kids with had her generations rules not been for multi-cultural kids. Their children were made by mixing their genes in CAS. (I don't have a picture of their child age son, Bryce, one more boy to help with the shortage. )