Magic Moments
And another update! Some of the family are getting married, some of the family are leaving college, and still others are starting their freshman years. This isn't a full update, but it was getting long, so I ended things short.
Christopher and Brianna's date was scheduled a few days after Christopher called her. When they arrived at the meeting spot, they both noticed the other had changed. Chris had been working out -- partially out of boredom, partly because he felt embarrased that he gotten out of shape. He wasn't actually out of shape -- just not the athlete that he had become in high school. Brianna had dyed her hair black, a change Christopher liked. Christopher wasn't sure what to expect, but the date went astonishingly well, and Christopher knew that things were going to be better between two of them. On the second date, he proposed. She accepted.
(From -14|-9 to 100|100 Love in one day. Chemistry is a good, good thing. )
Christopher figured Brianna wouldn't want a lavish wedding like before, and he wouldn't mind a simple to-do in front of a judge. He actually wanted that, to make it as far removed as possible from the last wedding party. But Brianna refused -- if she was going to be married, she was going to have a wedding with all of the bells and whistles. On the wedding day, Christopher noticed his cousin's new look.
(Take it easy, you two! This isn't YOUR wedding!) Thomas had begun to sport eyeglasses. He had worn contacts since middle school, but Isabella mentioned to him that she'd like to see how he'd look in glasses. As it turned out, she liked the look. So did everyone else -- it gave Thomas sort of a distinguished appearance.
(When he wasn't smooching his wife, anyway.)
The ceremony went well (except for someone saying "Walk, don't run" when Brianna was walking down the aisle.), and the rings were on. Brianna Monty was now Brianna Winslow. For the reception, the now-retired Rising Phoenixes decided on an impromptu reunion, with Wendy taking Christopher's place on the piano.
It's the last dance, we've come to the last dance
They're dimming the lights down, they're hoping we'll go...
It's obvious -- they're aware of us, the pair of us, alone on the floor...
Still I want to hold you like this forever and more...
(No idea for what song THEY'RE dancing to.)
After a brief honeymoon (which they enjoyed immensely), the happy couple bought a small home in a nicer part of the city. It was small, to be sure, but they'd move to something more spacious once they had accumulated more savings. They had a likable nest egg right now, but living in the city is more expensive than in the suburbs. Marco and Amalia were thrilled for the two of them. They were, however, unsure of what to think of the girl Caleb was planning to spend his life with -- Heather Huffington.
She wasn't the sort of girl they'd expected to find Caleb attracted to. She had been in high school and now in college a high-ranking member of the "in" crowd. Caleb had strived to be weird for the sake of being weird in both high school and now in college. But as different as they were, they had the same hopes for their lives -- lots of romance and a cooking show. They had a natural chemistry, and were engaged. Marco and Amalia didn't know what kind of girl Heather was, only the gossip that they had heard about her. Elisa and Erin assured them that Heather's actual character didn't fit the gossip -- Heather had tried to get both of them to join her sororiety, only to eventually leave it herself. Elisa and Erin were both friends with Heather, they just didn't want to be "sisters". Maria, too, had gotten to know Heather a little bit at Wendy's graduation party.
The two of them had both graduated with degrees in philosophy, but hadn't gotten jobs yet. That could wait. Caleb was going to try to be an artist for a while before he leaned on his father for a job in one of the restaurants, and Heather was all for putting off the real world for a while. And so one generation of Winslow/Nichols children had finished their college careers, to be followed by the next. Jessica and Dawn would be moving into the Nichols house. Of course, Jessica had already been there for one sememester -- she had started SSU in the summer, and had spent the summer living in the house with Wendy (who was finishing up her last semester) and Sarah, who was just enjoying a couple of weeks off before she went to work. Sarah had plans to move in with her mother, who was by now getting up there in years and was undoubtedly looking forward to seeing her daughter again. Jessica, planning to one day assume command of her father's firm,was majoring in economics.
Jessica, the new master of the Nichols college house.
Dawn and Brigit would be new arrivals. Dawn hated to leave her house -- especially seeing as there was a baby in it -- but she knew college would be even more fun than being an aunt. Dawn had dated a little bit in high school, her senior year at least. She had gone on a few dates with Carl Schehl, her buddy from childhood. There was absolutely no chemistry between them, but she had fallen in love with the lout when he kissed her goodnight. Ian and Maria feared she was headed for heartbreak, as Joan told them that Carl was trying to date her, too. They remembered Pete Cooper's advances toward Wendy even while he was dating Erin. However, Carl had no plans to go to college, so hopefully she'd find someone else at SSU.
Carl, Joan, and Dawn. Joan's got a thing for lime.
Brigit? She was a different story. Tobias had remarked she was Rachel with pink hair. She was impulsive, wild, and had no regard for anyone else but her. She had dated all of the boys in town that no parent would want his daughter to date. She skipped school more often than she went and wasn't even sure what her textbooks looked like. Her twin brother, Shawn, had covered for her enough so that she passed, but Chandler hadn't expected any college to take her -- even one of those small, desperate private universities that would accept anyone. But she had gotten a scholarship -- it seemed she had charisma. Chandler knew she'd run wild if she lived in a dorm or (heaven forbid) a sororiety house, so he swallowed his pride and asked Ian if she could room with Jessica and Dawn. Hopefully they'd rub off on her.
Ian was (to say the least) wary, but he wanted to be a good brother and uncle, so he agreed. However, if she wouldn't follow the rules, she'd have to leave. The house was there for all of the Nichols/Winslow children, not just Brigit. Hopefully, her issue was with her parents and she'd be tame living with her cousins.
However, she and Jessica clashed almost immediately -- over everything. She didn't get along with Dawn, either, but it was Jessica who was master of the house until she graduated, and it was under her rules that Brigit would have to live if she wanted to live there. Brigit didn't clean up after herself. She kept switching the radios over to her station. In the past, the girls had compromised -- Elisa listened to R & B in the kitchen, Erin had her college rock outside on the deck, Sarah had her hip-hop in her study. When Wendy assumed head of the house, she and Jessica had come to a similar compromise -- oldies in the kitchen, Jessica's stuff out on the deck and in the living room. But compromise was a four-letter word to Brigit, but one she didn't actually use. Brigit didn't help out around the house, either -- the girls had always shared responsibility for cooking and getting supplies. Not Brigit. Jessica and Dawn would come home from classes, anticipating cooking a satisfying supper, only to find that Brigit and her friends had wiped out two weeks worth of groceries in an afternoon. And did she work to compensate for all she was taking? No -- she didn't even go to class. She just lounged around all day. Jessica and Dawn both worked -- Jessica as a tutor, Dawn in a coffee house.
To make things worse, she was always taking off with Jessica's car and trying to organize dangerously wild parties. After a very hostile semester, Jessica informed her father and uncle that Brigit had to go. Chandler informed his daughter that she was to move out, and she was only too happy. Living there wasn't a choice -- she had to do it, if she wanted to get extra money to play with from back home. Chandler also decided to compensate his two nieces for all of the monetary loss they had endured at her hands. He'd always been a rather selfish and arrogant man, but working with Erin had softened his position toward his brother's kids.
While Jessica and Dawn were having a fairly miserable semester, Michael and Elisa were on top of the world. For them, the honeymoon still wasn't over. They loved pampering Elizabeth. For them, she was growing up all too quickly. Soon she was ready to begin learning those all-important toddler skills. Michael and Elisa more or less split up parenting tasks. Elisa took care of the nurturing, Michael the learning. Elisa was the one who potty-trained her, but Michael got the walking and talking in. While the two of them were devoting themselves to raising Elizabeth, they were still very much involved as a couple...and one day Elisa announced to the family that she was pregnant again. She hadn't meant to (nor did she think she could, so soon after her first pregnancy) but apparantly she could. Maria, remembering how difficult raising a baby and being pregnant at the same time, gave Elisa plenty of advice on how to avoid being wiped out.
For Elisa and Michael -- indeed, for most of the Winslows and Nichols, it seemed as if life couldn't get better.
Christopher and Brianna's date was scheduled a few days after Christopher called her. When they arrived at the meeting spot, they both noticed the other had changed. Chris had been working out -- partially out of boredom, partly because he felt embarrased that he gotten out of shape. He wasn't actually out of shape -- just not the athlete that he had become in high school. Brianna had dyed her hair black, a change Christopher liked. Christopher wasn't sure what to expect, but the date went astonishingly well, and Christopher knew that things were going to be better between two of them. On the second date, he proposed. She accepted.
(From -14|-9 to 100|100 Love in one day. Chemistry is a good, good thing. )
Christopher figured Brianna wouldn't want a lavish wedding like before, and he wouldn't mind a simple to-do in front of a judge. He actually wanted that, to make it as far removed as possible from the last wedding party. But Brianna refused -- if she was going to be married, she was going to have a wedding with all of the bells and whistles. On the wedding day, Christopher noticed his cousin's new look.
(Take it easy, you two! This isn't YOUR wedding!) Thomas had begun to sport eyeglasses. He had worn contacts since middle school, but Isabella mentioned to him that she'd like to see how he'd look in glasses. As it turned out, she liked the look. So did everyone else -- it gave Thomas sort of a distinguished appearance.
(When he wasn't smooching his wife, anyway.)
The ceremony went well (except for someone saying "Walk, don't run" when Brianna was walking down the aisle.), and the rings were on. Brianna Monty was now Brianna Winslow. For the reception, the now-retired Rising Phoenixes decided on an impromptu reunion, with Wendy taking Christopher's place on the piano.
It's the last dance, we've come to the last dance
They're dimming the lights down, they're hoping we'll go...
It's obvious -- they're aware of us, the pair of us, alone on the floor...
Still I want to hold you like this forever and more...
(No idea for what song THEY'RE dancing to.)
After a brief honeymoon (which they enjoyed immensely), the happy couple bought a small home in a nicer part of the city. It was small, to be sure, but they'd move to something more spacious once they had accumulated more savings. They had a likable nest egg right now, but living in the city is more expensive than in the suburbs. Marco and Amalia were thrilled for the two of them. They were, however, unsure of what to think of the girl Caleb was planning to spend his life with -- Heather Huffington.
She wasn't the sort of girl they'd expected to find Caleb attracted to. She had been in high school and now in college a high-ranking member of the "in" crowd. Caleb had strived to be weird for the sake of being weird in both high school and now in college. But as different as they were, they had the same hopes for their lives -- lots of romance and a cooking show. They had a natural chemistry, and were engaged. Marco and Amalia didn't know what kind of girl Heather was, only the gossip that they had heard about her. Elisa and Erin assured them that Heather's actual character didn't fit the gossip -- Heather had tried to get both of them to join her sororiety, only to eventually leave it herself. Elisa and Erin were both friends with Heather, they just didn't want to be "sisters". Maria, too, had gotten to know Heather a little bit at Wendy's graduation party.
The two of them had both graduated with degrees in philosophy, but hadn't gotten jobs yet. That could wait. Caleb was going to try to be an artist for a while before he leaned on his father for a job in one of the restaurants, and Heather was all for putting off the real world for a while. And so one generation of Winslow/Nichols children had finished their college careers, to be followed by the next. Jessica and Dawn would be moving into the Nichols house. Of course, Jessica had already been there for one sememester -- she had started SSU in the summer, and had spent the summer living in the house with Wendy (who was finishing up her last semester) and Sarah, who was just enjoying a couple of weeks off before she went to work. Sarah had plans to move in with her mother, who was by now getting up there in years and was undoubtedly looking forward to seeing her daughter again. Jessica, planning to one day assume command of her father's firm,was majoring in economics.
Jessica, the new master of the Nichols college house.
Dawn and Brigit would be new arrivals. Dawn hated to leave her house -- especially seeing as there was a baby in it -- but she knew college would be even more fun than being an aunt. Dawn had dated a little bit in high school, her senior year at least. She had gone on a few dates with Carl Schehl, her buddy from childhood. There was absolutely no chemistry between them, but she had fallen in love with the lout when he kissed her goodnight. Ian and Maria feared she was headed for heartbreak, as Joan told them that Carl was trying to date her, too. They remembered Pete Cooper's advances toward Wendy even while he was dating Erin. However, Carl had no plans to go to college, so hopefully she'd find someone else at SSU.
Carl, Joan, and Dawn. Joan's got a thing for lime.
Brigit? She was a different story. Tobias had remarked she was Rachel with pink hair. She was impulsive, wild, and had no regard for anyone else but her. She had dated all of the boys in town that no parent would want his daughter to date. She skipped school more often than she went and wasn't even sure what her textbooks looked like. Her twin brother, Shawn, had covered for her enough so that she passed, but Chandler hadn't expected any college to take her -- even one of those small, desperate private universities that would accept anyone. But she had gotten a scholarship -- it seemed she had charisma. Chandler knew she'd run wild if she lived in a dorm or (heaven forbid) a sororiety house, so he swallowed his pride and asked Ian if she could room with Jessica and Dawn. Hopefully they'd rub off on her.
Ian was (to say the least) wary, but he wanted to be a good brother and uncle, so he agreed. However, if she wouldn't follow the rules, she'd have to leave. The house was there for all of the Nichols/Winslow children, not just Brigit. Hopefully, her issue was with her parents and she'd be tame living with her cousins.
However, she and Jessica clashed almost immediately -- over everything. She didn't get along with Dawn, either, but it was Jessica who was master of the house until she graduated, and it was under her rules that Brigit would have to live if she wanted to live there. Brigit didn't clean up after herself. She kept switching the radios over to her station. In the past, the girls had compromised -- Elisa listened to R & B in the kitchen, Erin had her college rock outside on the deck, Sarah had her hip-hop in her study. When Wendy assumed head of the house, she and Jessica had come to a similar compromise -- oldies in the kitchen, Jessica's stuff out on the deck and in the living room. But compromise was a four-letter word to Brigit, but one she didn't actually use. Brigit didn't help out around the house, either -- the girls had always shared responsibility for cooking and getting supplies. Not Brigit. Jessica and Dawn would come home from classes, anticipating cooking a satisfying supper, only to find that Brigit and her friends had wiped out two weeks worth of groceries in an afternoon. And did she work to compensate for all she was taking? No -- she didn't even go to class. She just lounged around all day. Jessica and Dawn both worked -- Jessica as a tutor, Dawn in a coffee house.
To make things worse, she was always taking off with Jessica's car and trying to organize dangerously wild parties. After a very hostile semester, Jessica informed her father and uncle that Brigit had to go. Chandler informed his daughter that she was to move out, and she was only too happy. Living there wasn't a choice -- she had to do it, if she wanted to get extra money to play with from back home. Chandler also decided to compensate his two nieces for all of the monetary loss they had endured at her hands. He'd always been a rather selfish and arrogant man, but working with Erin had softened his position toward his brother's kids.
While Jessica and Dawn were having a fairly miserable semester, Michael and Elisa were on top of the world. For them, the honeymoon still wasn't over. They loved pampering Elizabeth. For them, she was growing up all too quickly. Soon she was ready to begin learning those all-important toddler skills. Michael and Elisa more or less split up parenting tasks. Elisa took care of the nurturing, Michael the learning. Elisa was the one who potty-trained her, but Michael got the walking and talking in. While the two of them were devoting themselves to raising Elizabeth, they were still very much involved as a couple...and one day Elisa announced to the family that she was pregnant again. She hadn't meant to (nor did she think she could, so soon after her first pregnancy) but apparantly she could. Maria, remembering how difficult raising a baby and being pregnant at the same time, gave Elisa plenty of advice on how to avoid being wiped out.
For Elisa and Michael -- indeed, for most of the Winslows and Nichols, it seemed as if life couldn't get better.