This is for the Southern Hemisphere

Ama watched her father inhaling deeply the "fresh sea air" with more than a bit of annoyance.

Back home it was snowing. Snowing! Snowmen, snow angels, and well thrown snowballs right at Hobart's head.

But Ama's parents had decided that a trip down south would be a better idea. It would be something different, and a learning experience she could share at school.

A family vacation-- like for real. Trapped with her parents away from friends with nothing to do but play in the sand without snow. She could've played in sand at home. You know, once she scraped the snow out of the way and stuff.

Really, Ama knew what this was about. Her father had lost his job. He'd been one of two policemen (Hobart's father being the other), and he'd lost his job. Luckily Ama's mom ran the only clothing shop in town, so they were doing great, but her father was at a loss for what to do.

He'd gone more than once to see the mayor, but it couldn't have gone well.


He still didn't have his job back.

Ugh. This was going to be a long week!




"Ama, what're you doing?"

"I'm going to hunt for bugs."

"Don't tell me you brought your entire bug collection."

"What? It's not like it's large. And they're all in the case anyway."

Ama's mom rolled her eyes. "Oh Ama. What if the glass breaks? You'll have dried bug parts everywhere."

Not that the case would break. Ama was not a kid. She was almost a high schooler. She knew how to take care of stuff. But that might actually be kinda awesome to see dried bug parts and stuff-- like when she found old flies on the window sills that had been dried to dust by the sun.

Her mother got her working on finding cool shells in the sand to turn into jewelry while she stood around being embarrassing with her father.



Really embarrassing.


Oh my god, so embarrassing!


Her parents acted like two kids who'd never grown up. Seriously. How old were they?



When her parents were being less embarrassing, they were taking in the local sights and eating local food.

Ama was dying; it was so hot! It was like summer.

"So, Mom, Dad, does this mean that for Summer we'll go to the mountains?"

Both her parents laughed. They thought she was kidding!


When they weren't taking in the sights, Ama was being accosted by locals who were intent on showing her how to do this weird little move.

"Uh, yeah, like this?" Ama halfheartedly imitated her.

"No dude, put your heart into it!" The woman's smile widened. "You have to mean it!"

"Uh, okay. Maybe next time."

"I'll keep an eye out for you!"



The plus side was that Ama totally had her own hotel room all to herself. This small taste of freedom was a lot like being a high schooler, she thought. It was kinda a cool and kinda scary. She could feel responsibility hanging around the corner.

Hobart was already in high school. He'd told her all about it. It didn't sound too bad, but Hobart said it was a lot of work and some of the kids were a little scary. Course, he was really the only freshman, so everyone was older than him. And his fathers had seen fit to give him more responsibility on the farm.

It kinda sounded sucky now that she thought about it. Responsibility and work and reading big books. Ama would be perfectly happy painting forever and having ice cream for dinner.

She giggled at the sound of the official sounding knock on the door. The bellhop from downstairs presented her with a large bowl of ice cream sunday and asked if she'd like anything else. She smiled and handed him the money her mother gave her for his tip.


Luckily, Ama's mother laughed when she saw what was for dinner. It was sort of the plus side of having young parents who acted like big kids. They were gnerally game so long as, you know, no one was hurt and she didn't do anything dangerous.

Maybe her parents weren't so weird or embarrassing. Her mom did make some awesome sand castles that had all the kids on the beach envious.


And maybe it was a little gross that the possibility for a little sister or brother was always present. But well, it could be worse. Ama's own cousin Melanie had been taken recently by her own mother. Ama had heard her father telling her mother that one night when she wasn't supposed to be listening. (Okay, maybe she wasn't ever supposed to listen.)

But her parents really seemed to love each other, and they did love her very much.

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Uhm, whoa! I am quite rusty. Or maybe it's just that I am SO not good at writing stuff on the fly. I really need to take my time with it, but what the hell. *throws caution to the wind has it spray back in her face*

I think I am finally ready to END winter! I only have a few more events, so I need to focus and finish so I'll be ready for The Samantha Bradshaw Project!

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What he doesn't know

Still here and still have this story rattling around in my head. I know where I want it to go, but don't know if I have the energy or time to continue this and Ruin. But I still love TS2.

So I played a bit this week as a break from "serious" writing, and as always can't resist sharing some of their stories. Especially some of the college kids. (And Ama, but that's for later.)


Let's see if I can remember approximate ages:

Ily ~ 19
Rich ~ 18

Ethan and Ashley ~ 21


Their very first dinner party together in their own little house. Rich hadn't exactly been for it. He'd tried to talk her out of it, but she'd been determined. And when she had that glint in her eye it was impossible to talk her out of anything.

She'd even tried practice cooking for their very first dinner party.

There's a reason she doesn't usually cook. But if she was that determined, then how could he say no?

Over all it went well. Ily's brother, Ethan, came and brought his girlfriend. Ashley was cute, but a little boring. Rich really had nothing to talk to her about.


Honestly, he tried. Giving Ily and her brother some quiet time to catch up, he followed Ashley to the living room and started chatting with her, but all she wanted was to work on her assignment for class.

Cute, but not the sort of girl he liked. Of that he was sure. Too bookish and shy. It was only a small get together, and she apparently couldn't handle being social for those two hours.

To top off the weird night, Alberta called.


"Ily? She's talking with her brother in the other room. Did you want to leave a message? You need to ask her opinion on something? Maybe I can help. Okay, okay, calm down. I'll tell her you called."

That was another one that mystified him. Gabe and Alberta made no sense to him. He'd told Gabe so more than once. She was young and shy and timid. Who wants to deal with all that? Gabe of course then shot back with his own thoughts on Ily. Definitely drew a stalemate and an agreement to not talk about it.


Ily was having the most fun of the two of them, especially considering the brotherly advice she received from Ethan.

"I'll tell you what you need..."

Ily wondered if Ashley, future librarian, had actually gone along with this plan for excitement. Ily herself hadn't allowed for much more than their messing around in the fitting room.

The furthest they got to doing anything really really naughty in a public place was the couch. And that was after much cajoling on Rich's part. She wasn't going to tell Ethan that though. Not if she wanted him to sit there later.


After having spent a semester with Rich, she still didn't feel it. Whatever it was. She just knew she wasn't feeling it. Rich was cute and had a bright future, and he seemed so into her, stealing glances like they were still sitting near each other in school and hadn't been sleeping together all semester.

It could be the day to day life stuff and how boring it really was. Eat, sleep, do homework, and have sex. Like it was on a list of things to do. She wasn't passive, by all means, though she generally let him make the first move. She went along with it usually hoping she'd get better. That she would love him back.

When he was out at class, she would take time to call one person a day. Her mother and father. Kate. And Water Mellon, her old boss.

It was stupid. Just a crush really. Still, he seemed happy to hear from her and hear about college. Their conversation lasted longer than her phone conversations usually did. In most cases, people just wanted to know she was alive. Water actually wanted to hear how she was doing.

And it made her stomach flip.


There was a very small list of valid candidates as far as Ily was concerned. They had to have a bright future, they had to love her, and they had to be good at taking orders. Rich was all of that. He seemed to generally strive to make her happy.

Did it really matter? Love wasn't something Ily was prone to believe in anyway. It was all about compatibility. And they were compatible. Better than most. Where there was passion, there was a chance for failure. With love came hate.


"Ily, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Just admiring the view. How do you cook so well and stay so skinny?"

"Don't overeat? You're weird, Ily."

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I have too much fun with these two. I played through a semester, and Ily only has a crush on him. One bolt of chemistry.

I think these two will cause me trouble when they discover other people.

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