When the cat's away, the mice will play - Babies 44 and 45

"Hi, missus Rose!" a not so familiar voice called to me from the livingroom as I came strolling in.
"Destiny, please! That make me sounds so old."
"Mom, hate to break it to you, but your not getting any younger, you know," Hailey admitted with no remorse.

"Hahaha. Your a riot, Hails. You girls, finish up with your video games. Dinner's ready in a few minutes."

Meet Caitlyn, Amber's best friend and also a close friend of Hailey's.

Caitlyn - Amber, your mom, is so HOT!
Amber - Her secret - having lots of babies.
Caitlyn - Amazing... I don't think daddy will approve of me doing that though.

(^Yes, that's Kaylynn Langerak remade^)

The cheese was being mixed nicely together with some other ingredients I had thought to add. The machine whirred as it cut the food into smaller pieces. technology of today.

Isabella, curious as she is, came around to the kitchen to do some "inspecting".

Isabella - Mom, what are you doing?
Destiny - Making some spaghetti for dinner, sweetie. I hope you like pasta!
Isabella - Italian food, Italian names. Fantastico! I'll have some, per favore.
Destiny - Bells, when did you learn Italian words? School?
Isabella - (sighs) Hardly. School couldn't manage it. Nope, there's a reason I love google so much, ma. It has dictionaries! 

After Amber's friend left, we all sat down for some dinner. Well, mostly I did. Isabella was asking me about the origins of languages. Shane was doing his homework. And Amber and Hailey were having some kind of argument over boyfriends..

Hailey - LEAVE HIM! He's MINE! Get your own sleezy boyfriend for all I care!
Amber - For the record, Malcolm is sleezy. And second of all, I DIDN'T flirt with him. He came onto me. Oh, and by the way, he didn't even tell anyone that you two are DATING!
Hailey - You are sooooo jealous! When I tell Mal-
Destiny - Girls, ENOUGH. Hailey, your on dish duty. Amber, laundry is all yours. Load it into the dryer please.
Shane - What is it with females and cat fights?
Isabella - Oh shut up you knuckle head!
Shane - Nu uh, you shut up, you ninkanpoop.


Fighting. This was occurring more and more here at home.

The two teens were sent to do chores in separate rooms, as I wasn't sure about one thing: if I put them in the same room, would they still be alive when I came back in?
When these girls were angered, best thing to do was keep out of their way.

To make me even happier, Hailey taught Xavier to potty!

Xavier aged to be quite a handsome devil (minus the devil part). He's the first son of mine to have taken a liking to formal clothing (and everything else formal; he calls me 'mother'! Not ma, mom, mommy, or anything like that. Seriously.). He only has one hairstyle that suits him, he says.
To tell the truth, Xav is an evil mastermind. Why put Evil AND Genius together in a room? It's just looking for trouble.

The very next day, which was also the start of the weekend, we got a very strange phone call, which Shane answered.

"Who is this? Why should I say hello? Your the one who's so arrogant to be calling. What! Your calling me impolite? I think you need to check the..that book with all the words. Shut up? You tellin' me...? Wait a damn minute. MA!! Some weirdo on the phone for you!"

With a bemused expression, I took the phone from Shane, who walked away grumbling the word 'impolite'.

"Rose residence, Destiny speaking."

"Miss Rose, fantastic news! You have just won an ALL PAID VACATION TO AN EXOTIC LOCATION FOR ONE!" the mystery caller practically yelled.

"A vacation? I'm sorry, I can't. I have kids, and I'm not leaving them alone."

Five minutes later, no matter how I objected, Hailey pushed me out of the house to the taxi.

"Have fun," she called, grinning from ear to ear.

"Mother is away. Now I can plan dastardly deeds.. No one will be safe with me here... I am the genius! Mwahahaha!"
What followed was a few minutes maniacal laughter.

Hailey lost all amusement from her face in those few seconds watching her brother.

I knew I potty trained him wrong, she thought helplessly.

But out loud, Hailey sighed.

"Xav, I don't know why we keep you around. I really don't."

The two teens took over the household for that day. The plan was simple; while the cat's away, the mice will play. With me (their mother) out of the way, Amber and Hailey could now do what everyone does: hold an extremely bad-ass teen party.

They conversed in the dining room area of the house, with Hailey glaring over the kids.

"Right, mom is away, thanks to Amber's audacious plan. Ambs, send Bridget a thank you message for arranging that free vacation. You kids can't really enjoy all the fun that a party has to offer, but maybe you can. Bells and Shane will age up to join the fun. The more the merrier. Xavier, you have the important job of taking care of the babies. Oh, and remember, NO stealing candy tonight."

They were like professional caterers and party planners - Amber had taken over the job of setting up food for their friends, and Hailey had made a pit stop at the store to pick up some balloons and some ingredients for 'beverages'.

Shane is still the same kid he was, albeit with new hairstyle and clothing. He's a popular guy at school, mostly because they say he has more coolness than brains, whatever that means. Video games are a must for this man. And food. Lots and lots of junk food.

Isabella is just like Shane, having remained the same person. Curiosity is still the major theme of her young life, but some of it has moved on - to boys, that is. Bells resembles me the most, possibly identical, and with those good looks, she hopes to woo any guy she meets.

And I'm not joking when I say that.

Isabella has taken over making the drinks for the party. Amber made a silent objection to using alcohol, so they are 100% juice drinks, with some added sugar for kick.

The party has officially started people!

Then too much dancing took place that night.

"You never did tell us how you got your mom out of the house, Amber. I thought she was way over protective?" Ethan, one of the guests who was dancing with a random girl, asked Amber as she passed by.

"Yeah, that's her. But Hailey is a person who can pretty much convince you to strip naked when it's like zero degrees outside, so she got our mom out no problem. And Britney's dad was offering a special holiday pack at his job, so we placed our money together and made the call. Simple as that."

"Nice. I'll call you when I need my parents out of the way," he grinned, obviously appreciative to what the girls pulled off.

Now to Isabella. She met a boy with the name Carlos, whom Shane knew from some other class when they were kids.

"Hi," she said softly, in a very alluring voice. "I can see your bored, so here's a drink."

"I can't be bored when there's a beautiful girl standing in front of me," he laughed, accepting the drink instantly.

After one drink, he was putty in her hands, and things went a bit further..

...Maybe a bit too far for comfort.

The party was progressing nicely. Most of the teens were inside dancing the night away, but those who were daring enough, risked it to go outside in the cold.

Hailey threw on her bathing costume and took to the waterslide. Amber and Shane were crazy enough to go swim in the pool. They were debating on whether to skinny dip, but decided against it.

And other guests decided to just play it cool and jump on the trampoline like crazy kids.

Xavier took it on him to age up the little ones, which would please his mother, if she were there to see it.

Meagan is incredibly adorable in her yellow outfit and flowery hat. She has a soft silk complexion, like her daddy, plus those gorgeous deep green eyes.

Lindsey is just like her sister, with the same silky skin, but just with different eyes and head shape. Her father's dark hair suits her just as nicely.

All in all, the twins look just like their father, Chad, which has me on cloud nine.

Babysitting was Xav's assigned task, but being a mastermind, he just couldn't bear it.

"Why, in all worlds, have I been awarded this task?"

He already knew the answer, being such a genius. 

Because I'm the baby of the family now, metaphorically. The little guy who they think they can mess with. Who would be so dumbwitted to mess with a genius that will one day rule the world?

Soon enough, as the clock started creeping over midnight, people started passing out. Whether that was in the beds, bunk beds, or even on the floor.

Unfortunately, my vacation ended rather suddenly when the manager realized my holiday wasn't planned by me, and that I had been included in some scam. In the car I jumped, and started the long journey home.

Also, the exotic location wasn't even exotic. It was just some campsite. So I came back stressed, still wearing the same clothes and full of bug bites.

Another thing that was strange, was that I found a black car outside our house.

The babysitter's car. The girls must've called for her. Hopefully they made it to school in time, I realized.

What greeted me at the front door wasn't exactly the image of the babysitter, but that of quite a few teenagers that weren't sober.
"Hi.. Uh... Adult. We were just umm.. House sitting for Amber and Hailey... Umm... Bye!" a nervous boy uttered, not looking me in the eye. Many of them had the same excuse, except one.
"That was a GREAT party! Tell the girls if they ever have another one, I'll be there!"


As I was left alone in the hallway, it hit me too fast.
"The girls had thrown a party?"

First order of business for me was to check on the toddlers. If Hailey and Amber hadn't taken care of them, all hell will break loose here entirely.

But luckily, Meagan and Lindsey were fine, just a little startled that they had to sleep on the floor though.

Time ticked towards 2:45 PM, usually the time the girls get back from school as the bus is really slow.

Doors were slammed, footsteps that ran across the floor. Then a voice.

"Amber, we haven't cleaned up yet! I think mom is home, but I don't know where. I'll check the nurse-"

"Too late," I interjected. "I'm already here. And I know what happened."

No matter how you looked at it, the girls weren't very accepting of their fate.

Hailey - WHY! It was just an innocent party! There weren't even any dancers!

Amber - Hailey was the mastermind behind this one, mom! All she needed from me were my great contacts I have.

Finding Shane and Isabella proved to be easy and hard. Shane was right there at the front door, while Bells took to the hills, running away from home.

"Uhm, I know what your gonna say ma. So please, just let me pass and go do some chores?" Shane excused himself, trying a innocent look.

"Inside. Now. Grounded. Definitely. I'll talk to everyone later."

"But what about Bells? Are you just gonna let her run away?"

"She'll come back."

Grounding the older girls didn't really work, because of two reasons.

One, I can NEVER stay mad for long.

And two, the girls were aging up into young adults.

Hailey (top picture) and Amber (bottom picture) retained all their qualities from teenhood. No surprise there. Hailey might have realized that she has to make better decisions in the future. So she applied to be a investigator.

Amber has developed a better sense of humor, and decided politics should be left to other minds. The Education career is now her dream.

When I checked the mailbox...it was overflowing with mail. Bills, lots and lots of bills. Some were from the party even. Complaints about the loud music, about me being idiotic to leave kids on their own.

I sighed. Neighbors. That's how they are sometimes.

With all the stress, I never had time to think about the challenge.

Leo Capshaw had agreed to be father in the challenge weeks earlier, but I had never gotten around to calling him again.

So here's the daddy of baby #44.

Lying on the bed that night, my eyes cast towards the wall with way to many pictures of family and friends. The one that caught my attention the most was the one with me and Chad. I wonder who had caught that moment on camera.

*Flashback*

Afternoon that Chad asked me about my feelings towards him.

"Destiny... You okay?" he asked, his voice shaking. Worried. "You look purple.."

"No, I'm fine. I think. But Chad. We.. This couldn't work out. Ever. I have my challenge to think about. I don't want someone else to suffer, to know that I'm cheating on them. It would way too selfish of me-

"No! Don't go there! Dee, I've been trampled to many times in my life by women who walked all over me. I'm so cautious to any chick I meet. But I met you, and your not like them. Now tell me that you think of me as every other challenge father, and I'll leave. Forever."

I stared right back into those deep green eyes, and I knew he wasn't.

"Your not like every other challenge father," I answered softly.

And so he didn't leave my side.

Major headache followed.

I hadn't seen Chad again since, as he was sitting in China at the moment, searching for the dragon cave to photograph it.

And I still couldn't think of him as a boyfriend. Maybe when he comes back, we could talk.

Isabella had come back soon after she spotted a police car in the vicinity of the hills, thinking that I had sent them to search for her.

Isabella - Mom... Hi.

Destiny - Hello.

Isabella - So uhm.. You mad?

Destiny - Not really. Just happy that your back.

Isabella - So.. We're cool, right? I'm sorry about the party, me and Shane didn't have a choice much, but still. I guess we should be grounded.

Destiny - Well, yes you are. So get to do doing your homework, and we'll see if I let you off the hook.

To get back in my good books, Shane helped with teaching the toddlers to walk. He and Lindsey have really started to form a bond.

Lindsey taking her first shaky steps.

I found Xavier sitting outside on his own, looking as thought lost in a different world. Lonely, that was a word that described the feeling emanating from him. Taking a deep breath, I moved closer, and asked, "Care if I join you?".

He nodded, so I took the seat across from him.

"Mother, what is wrong with me?" He looked at me with serious eyes, and for once those eyes didn't show any evil.

"You mean the evil trait," I answered softly. He nodded, so I continued.

"Xav, that's something you inherited from your father. Sometimes, it's just what runs in the family. It doesn't make you bad, and there's nothing wrong with you."

"But mother, it is. I keep having the most dastardly thoughts. At school, those simpletons keep laughing at me, and I plan to get back at them, in a very unconventional manner."

"You can fight it, Xavier. It's possible. Because were here to support you."

He looked up at me with big eyes, and there was hope in those eyes.

"Okay, time for bed, let's get inside!" I finally said, giving him a hug. He wasn't used to hugs at all. So it was quite awkward.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom..

Shane - So, you know I think mom has already forgiven us.

Isabella - And why do you think that, Shane? I always knew you didn't have much of a brain.

Shane - And you don't have much of a stop between your brain and your mouth. If mom heard you, she'd be offended.

Isabella - Point taken, but I still don't think you know what 'offended' means. So why do you think mom has already forgiven us?

Shane - Well, she's talking to Xavier, she's smiling, all that, so we can't be in that much trouble, right.

As Bells and Shane went to bed, Xavier and I sat in the livingroom in front of the TV. Something you wouldn't really expect from him. But as I wanted to watch the kids channels to keep the babies happy (I believe in that power!), he had no choice to join me.

Xavier -Mother, why could you not install a separate television into our room. You do earn a hefty amount of money from your paintings and sculptures. Like the last one, the chess table. I do not know why I am forced to watch this idiotic kids channel.

Destiny - When you were a toddler, you liked the sound of the TV, by the way. Especially the kids channel.

Xavier - Are you trying to teach me a lesson, mother? As in, that yeti is the monster inside me which I must defeat?

Destiny - No, I'm not. I'm just watching TV!

I made a pit stop at Demi-Dee's house, after hearing the news that she had twins. At the front door, I bumped into Kalia. She has changed A LOT since I last saw her, abandoning short hair all together and wearing it loosely around her face. Compliments her well.

Meet my new grandson, Shelby Rose. As Demi is married to a vampire, Shelby will also probably be one.

"Demi really should cure her husband of vampirism," I mused.

Speaking of babies, mine is on the way.

Say hello to

Logan Rose

and

Oliver Rose

~♥~

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