Almost a disaster, 2020

Givar, winter, 2020
Ray and Lydia Wilsonoff are 51, Alia Shae is 16, Ari and Ava are 12 (Emilene Valdes is 16)

narrated by Alia Shae

Christmas was almost a disaster. Things were going well. I was losing a lot of weight and getting more fit. 

My fitness regiman was working and I hoped that it would be enough to enter the police academy after graduation. 

I was excelling in my job, in fact I was now working as a security guard for an indoor children's playground. Ari and Ava had their rite of passage and mom and dad celebrated their 15 year anniversary.

Then the pipes burst...and flooded the basement...the same basement where we all were sleeping. The bad news is that we lost everything. 

We had to trash everything the water touched.

The good news is that we got to help plan our new space. 

Mom and dad got a big check from the insurance company and hired an architect to help come up with some plans. Ari and I talked a lot about what we wanted, but Emilene was pretty quiet. She said that as long as she had a bed then she was happy. 

Ari insisted that she helped come up with some ideas for the space, since she is our sister and would be sleeping there. 

Ari doesn't get it sometimes. She means well, but I don't think Emilene will ever feel like a part of the family. She's my sister and I will kill anyone who wants to say otherwise, but even I can imagine that it has to be uncomfortable...knowing that you're the result of an affair. 

In the end, we got a kick-ass space. I love it, of course, there's room for everything..except entertaining male friends-lol.

That doesn't stop Emilene, she's seeing an older guy. I don't know if he's in university or if he's some grown man. She doesn't say much about him. 

I want to tell her to be careful and to not be stupid-I mean look at what happened when her mom was messing around with a grown man when she was a teenager. But even I know that insulting her mother will not help the situation. So I just keep my mouth shut.

Besides, we don't have much longer before we graduate-in fact we graduate this spring. 

In addition to the wonderful Christmas presents, Emilene and I both got some wonderful news. Even though we were not accepted to Pierce University, we were both accepted to the University of Apple Valley. 

Even better news is that based on our grades and SPATs we had earned some scholarships. Well, some pretty big scholarships. We both earned the Provost Merit Scholarship which meant that we could attend UAV on a full ride. Everything was paid for-tuition, room and board! 

Then to sweeten the deal, we both earned the SimCity's Scholar's Grant which means additional money and a laptop! 

We earned more scholarships, but before we could read anymore dad started bragging about his genius daughters!

It was truly the best Christmas present ever.

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Both teens got a lot of scholarships. A ton!  It makes sense since their father Ray has full skill bars and his trait is genius. So maybe he passed some it down. Emilene got 3 scholarships and Alia Shae got 4 scholarships. It's nice since it means that they don't have to worry about funding. 

Somehow I've gotten my grades and ages off-balanced with my some of my teens. Emilene and Alia Shae will be 17 when they enter UAV. That happens sometimes, so I'm not going to worry too much about it.