A regular february morning in the Motorsen-Notesen household.. Ivar had gotten up early to go and sit outside on their balcony in the cold rain to practice chess in order to keep his body and mind sharp, while indoors at the brekafast table Monica was giving another speech about science to Lise Veronica - a speech which went in one ear and out the other...
One things for certain, Lise Veronica didn't feel like any of her parents.. nor did she share their interests.. and though her mom was acting much more like a normal person these days, she still had her oddities.. such as when she got lost in thought considering the amazing designs and functionality of everyday household items, and the geniuses that once upon a time invented them... or something along those lines..
Lise Veronica never really understood what went through her moms head in those moments, it really did seem like she was from another planet, and she had figured it was probably best to leave her alone until she snapped out of it...
She wanted to go hang out with Margrethe at the arcade, but it was still a few more hours left before it opened, so she went towards the bookshelf to find something to read just to kill some time.. She had read through most of the fiction books in there already, but there was one book she had never really touched, a book with perhaps the most boring cover she had ever seen - black and white and easy to overlook... but for some reason or other, browsing with her finger across the book spines this was were her finger landed. Totally Preggers: An Expecting Mother's Tale was the name of the book, and she decided to give it a go and atleast read through the first page to see what this was about..
Pregnancy wasn't something she had given much thought, atleast not by her own impulse - it was still a thing that was far away and then some. She wasn't even sure if she wanted children, and if so she would need to be atleast 25 or older to even think about it. It just seemed like the right age for some reason. She had noticed the date on the book said it was printed in 2009, so this must have been the same book her mom probably read when she went pregnant with her...
The book was written in part like a diary and in part like some kind of educational book, and it answered all kinds of questions she had never thought about.... what foods were safe to eat, what foods to avoid, whether or not one could work out and for how long, thoughs and feelings, physical and mental health while pregnant, and she even noticed with part curiosity and part disgust that there was even a chapter in there about woohoo during pregnancy...
This book with the boring cover ended up being unexpectedly so intriguing she
hadn't heard that her father had come downstairs to have breakfast and that
her mom had exclaimed "Noo.." when her cute little pet kitten - tiny Pelsdott
- had relieved herself on their carpet...
She started to think that when her mom came over and said she wanted to have a
word with her, that it was because of this book she was reading.. and that it
wasn't a good idea to read it downstairs.. This was the kind of book she
probably should have snuck away to read alone in the privacy of her own
room.... but it was to late, now she was busted...
Well... though Monica may have noticed what her daughter was reading, she
didn't say a word about it.. Lise Veronica feared the worst for a while,
though, as Monica sat down to watch her eye to eye as if to say something of
great impact and importance.. but was relieved to hear that all she wanted was
for her to clean up the mess her pet kitten just made.. "You brought it into
the house.. you clean up after it.."
Well.. that was close.. maybe she really didn't notice what book she was reading, or maybe she was just fine with it.. either way, whether she had seen it or not, now was the time she thought, to show her mom that she could be a responsible.. pet owner.. that knew how to discipline kittens to let them know that next time she will use the litter box, not the carpet...
..but not without giving her some positive reaffirmation afterwards. She didn't really want to yell at her, she was just much to cute, and tiny..
She wasn't an expert on how to raise little kittens, she thought, but she did have an idea that a kitten should probably atleast receive as much love as it should discipline, preferrably much more...
..but anyway, afterwards it was back to that book again. Once she had started
reading through it, she kind of had to finish it.. and it wouldn't be a
problem now that her father was upstairs taking a long shower and her mother
had gone to be complete a nerd again by the science table... and her brother
who had just finally gotten out of bed was probably to young to notice..
She didn't get far enough into the book to start reading the chapter about
woohoo (it was towards the end of the book) before she noticed how much time
had passed and she could finally call Margrethe to agree to meet over at the
arcade on the Hermansen lot, just behind the book store..
It wasn't far to go there, it was just up the hill... no need to use the
sidewalk, sidewalks are for old people!
Unfortunately shortly after arriving she received a phone call from Margrethe that she couldn't hang out, because she had more important business to do.. she should have figured that Margrethe being two years older than her wouldn't want to hang out with such a junior kid... so instead she called her girlfriend Kristina to come over, and she would be there in a heartbeat..
Meanwhile her father Ivar had gone over to ring the doorbell of their
neighbours house. Since Thomas' birthday he had wanted to make better friends
with his neighbour and parent of Thomas' cousin Anton. He was greeted with a
friendly smile and a welcome before being invited in, however for a split
second it was clear that Sofie wasn't to appreciative of getting a visit this
otherwise peaceful saturday...
She had really hoped to spend this day without being pestered with anyone
outside of their family, but Ivar was her neighbour.. and they both had kids
in the same age groups and she was married to his wifes brother... so keeping
a good and friendly tone would probably be beneficial...
Back at their house Monicas nerding by the chemistry table had finally paid
off as she was happy to have discovered how to make the sleeping elixir. It
might be useful if she should struggle to fall asleep some time, though she
thought those days were luckily long gone now that both of her kids were no
longer babies or toddlers sometimes needing attention almost 24/7.. not that
she would want to sleep when her babies were crying, but.. still...
A sleeping elixir probably wouldn't be very useful for the research she was
doing at work, though where she was doing research on making trees more
effective in capturing carbon dioxide.. Though the trees actually have their
own
rest cycle, they do not sleep the same way as humans, so it she figured it wouldn't
work on them.. unless maybe someone found a way to merge humans and trees into
some kind of plant sim, but she had since long rejected that idea for the
insanity
she thought it was...
Now it was time to relax and get some fresh air, so she walked downstairs to
take Thomas out to the park for some playtime...
At the arcade Lise Veronica and Kristina had paid no interest to the arcade machines, but more to each other, and eventually Lise Veronica had convinced Kristina they should probably head to the park for the very same reasons her mom had just told Thomas, to get some fresh air.. atleast that's what she told Kristina, though the real reason was something else, something she wanted to find and bring back home.. and that's also why she wasn't to happy about her mom having the same thought, because she was sure that if she had told her, she would not get her wish approved...
So... while Monica did what she wanted to do – to have a water balloon fight
with Thomas – Lise Veronica and Kristina went roller skating, while Lise
Veronica waited (and hoped for) her mom to get tired of playing and going home
so that she could begin her search...
The couple wasn't perfectly in tandem here, and Kristina was a little envious of Lise Veronicas skills on the skating rink. She did find it a little more boring, but didn't want to give up.. one day she would match her girlfriend in skill, she hoped, and they would be able to do pirouettes together.. and it would be beautiful...
Let's not forget about Lise Veronicas father, Ivar. He has now retreated into Kleopatras room to relax on her bed reading one of her sports books...
Sofie didn't find this inappropriate at all, that he was resting on her
teenage daughters bed, and walked into the room to greet him with a smile, her
grumpiness from earlier now all gone.. Ivar was a little shameful and tried to
excuse himself that the bed was the closest furniture to relax on as there
were no chairs in the room, knowing very well that he shouldn't have entered
the room in the first place...
..but whatever he said made no difference, as clearly Sofie wasn't having any shame in this moment, as she shifted the conversation to talk about the flowers in her garden, and how maybe she should have picked him a bouqet of flowers, just because he was such a handsome man....
This wasn't what Ivar expected to hear, and he wasn't particularly impressed... both of them was married, and Sofie was even married to his wifes brother. Their children were cousins for crying out loud, he thought, and almost wanted to shout it at her, but still kept it to himself.. it wasn't like him to raise his voice, and after all he come over to visit to make friends not enemies... he still made it clear what he thought, by giving a sigh and looking away in disappointment.. yet Sofie had to try three more times, before he finally succeeded in shifting the conversation to reading books...
It took her a while to get the memo, that he wasn't interest in that type of relation... given his experience with his former bandmates, he knew very well what it meant to feel cheated and then some, even if it wasn't romantically.. and he just didn't want to be the contributor and cause of someone else feeling like that... If they both had been single, he might have gone for it, but.. no...
He was happy to have been able to get out of that slightly awkward situation
and end the visit on good terms and having made a new friend, before it was
off to work at the theatre..
Sofie still followed him all the way with his eyes until he was out the door... he wasn't really sure why all of a sudden nearly every woman in town wanted to flirt with him, from young to old, and he wasn't sure if he should be happy about it either, as he was a happily married family man.. and though some bitterness still remained in him from the treatment he had received from his former bandmates – being kicked out from the band in the most horrible way, left alone in this town with nothing but a suitcase and a guitar – he was now happy with.. or atleast accepting of it, knowing that if it hadn't happened in this way, he would never have met Monica, his wife, and he would not have been a father of the worlds most wonderful children...
..and as soon as he was out the door, Sofie did the right thing and instead handed the bouquet of flowers to her husband.. She should know better, and she did, about how a cheating spouse can ruin a relationship and a family... There were still times where she felt some resentment towards her own mom, even if was close to 38 years ago now.. She had worked so hard to set a good example for her own children, she couldn't let it slip now... she had to be strong to not let the chain reaction continue...
Back at the park just up the road, the kids were now doing home work again.. even Thomas wasn't getting away from it..
Lise Veronica was getting impatient, because she had something she
wanted to find and decided to take advantage of her mom still being there and
ask her for advice to get it done as fast as possible..
Having a genius nerd for a mom did sometimes pay off...
..and not having a part time job pays off too.. not in cash of course, but in having more free time to finish ones homework and so on.. Kristina was unfortunate to not get to finish hers before she had to leave to go for her shift at the spa..
Lise Veronica couldn't wait any longer, so after she after she was done with
her homework she decided to risk go searching for it anyway, even if her mom
was still in the park... and if she found what she wanted, she would probably
also find a way to sneak it into her pocket and bring it home without her mom
noticing... she had to..
Now the first thing she found was a simple seed. She didn't recognize what
kind it was, nor did she have any interest in it, but decided to pick it up
anyway. Her mom is into gardening, so the seed might still prove useful to
make her happy, or maybe some kind of bargaining point to let her keep what
she really wanted to find...
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