ISBI

Well, Susan, what can I say. As soon as I read about the ISBI for the first time, I knew that this was something I wanted to try. And since I recently finished my legacy, there is no better moment to try this than now!
The blog is already created and can be found here:

http://isbi-amhranai.blogspot.de/

Currently there are no posts, but I basically have my founder up and running. There are just a few little adjustments that need to be made and then we can start! If you already subscribe to my new blog now, you will see the first post as soon as it is published, which is the easiest way to keep track. I will also tell you here when it's high time to follow the new blog :)

By the way, the rules for an ISBI can be found here.

Generation 5: Last Part.

Hello everybody, and welcome back to the nutshell that is my life. A long time has passed and I feel like helping you to catch up with what has happened. First of all, I told you that Ivy's and Eric's relationship didn't last. Well, I think that was because of me. Since day one I had felt weird when being around Eric, something in my stomach seemed to be celebrating everytime I saw him. Apparently he felt the same, because one sunny afternoon we kissed. My brother was in the same room when it happened - he didn't seem too happy, but not really surprised, either. We went steady for quite some time. 

Then my father died, completely unexpectedly. Of course he had been old, but this was no reason to die all of a sudden! One day he got up from his side of the bed and then left us forever. I could feel my heart breaking right in that moment! It was so hard to let him go, but we didn't have a choice. 

Soon after I had gotten over my father's death, my mother died, too. She had been heartbroken and lonely ever since he had left and nobody was able to cheer her up. I guess, it was the best that could happen to her - nevertheless it was incredibly sad. Within a few months I lost both of my parents. 

To make my life a complete mess, I broke up with Eric. It didn't seem to work out any more - if anything, I considered him to be a friend to hang out with, nothing more. The chemistry between us had disappeared. He seemed a little sad, but not necessarily devastated. Maybe this was the start of something new for me. 

Only one day later I met this guy, who was also called Eric. What a coincidence!! I immediately fell in love with his pretty eyes and his beautiful smile. We decided to go steady quite soon, since we both didn't get any younger! Life seemed to be good again. 

It certainly was for my older brother Henner, who completed his lifetime wish of being a movie hit composer the summer after I met the second Eric. I was so happy for him! This was a huge thing and he celebrated by mvoing out of our shared house which the two of us had been living in together. 

Now I was alone in there, and I still was when I aged into an adult. Still, I somehow hadn't quite found what I was looking for. 

Then I met Anna. I immediately felt that she was the one for me. Although I had never been in love with a woman before, everything felt so right. Eric understood that I broke up with him. This thing we had been in probably was just a fling. What I had with Anna was permanently. 

She was beautiful, she was smart, she was funny and she was a virtuoso, just like me. Everytime I heard her play the piano brought the tears to my eyes. My favourite song was one she had written herself, called "Kommando Untergang", which was German and meant something like "Command downfall". It was sad and beautiful at the same time. 

We soon decided to start a family. First we had Kathryn, a beautiful girl with my hair and eyes. 

Next were twins - Lily and... 

Lorelai, who was the first one to have Anna's hair. 

We thought that we were done with three children, but Mother Nature had other plans! Right after Lily and Lorelai aged into toddlers, I found out that I was pregnant again and expectins twins once more! Mike and... 

Martha were born on a sunny afternoon in the middle of spring. Now our family life was perfect. 

And here I am, an elder who has officially not achieved what she had been reaching for - mastering the guitar, piano, bass and drums. The first two I mastered, but then I decided that I didn't have to be perfect in those four skills. What mattered was my family. And I had the best one you could possibly ask for. There was nothing in life that couldn't be faced if you were surrounded by your loved ones. So this is what I am going to be doing for the rest of my life - educating my children and enjoying being around them. Maybe I will see you again at some point, but I am not too sure of that. This call is the last thing you will hear from me for quite some time - we will disappear from the surface of the world and live like we want to. Thank you for staying with my entire family for the past year - goodbye!


Author's notes: So this is it. I have officially ended my legacy in the middle of generation 5. After resolving the gaming issues I had written about I now decided to end what I started more than a year ago. Because there was no desire to play this family ever again, I just summed up what has been happening throughout the last months of my game. I finish with Julia being an elder, who has in fact only completed half of her lifetime wish, but since I failed at this legacy anyway, it doesn't really matter. I want to thank you for staying with me throughout the entire legacy, throughout five crazy generations and a lot of troubles! Although I am still pretty busy, I promise to be back with a new legacy or something similar. Probably I will keep this blog as a reminder for those of you who want to re-read something and then start a new one. Or I am being radical and delete everything here, to start with nothing reminding of what has happened. But I don't think I can do this. So it will probably be a new blog... Again, THANK YOU for staying with me. Your comments and support really mean(t) a lot to me and I am very sure that I wouldn't have kept playing this long if it hadn't been for you. So thank you. So much. 
(Final note: writing this actually brought a few tears to my eyes. Wouldn't have thought that.)

Serious Gaming Issues

Hey everybody,
sorry that is has been so quiet on my end. Classes started again and, comparing to the last semesters, my schedule is pretty tight. Nevertheless I managed to squeeze in some Sims time!
Unfortunately I have been facing some issues that don't seem to go away. Due to a number of glitches I have been experiencing, I moved my family (=Julia) to a new version of Appaloosa Plains, including new families and erasing the old ones for obvious reasons. Everything seemed just fine. BUT. It wasn't. Ever since I moved, the job performance won't go up. First I thought this was due to Julia still having her old job, but it happens to other (active!) Sims, too. If they miss a day, the performance goes way down (yeah, because that's fair), but it won't go up. No matter what I do. And now this has started happening to school children, as well.
DragonWife, I know this happened to you, too (at least similar to this) - I checked your blog, but couldn't find your solution to that. How did you make Zeke's job performance go up again?
In addition to that, is there anything I could do? Usually I would "just" de-install and re-install the Sims, but since my CD drive (right translation? The thing where you put your CDs in, e.g. in order to start the Sims) doesn't really work anymore, I couldn't re-install it. This would leave me without any Sims at all - not an option!!!
HELP! :(

Generation 5: Part 5. You make me feel like dancing

Apparently, four teenagers in the house were a little too much. Every now and then one of us freaked out and started randomly insulting somebody else. Well, to be honest with you, usually it was Ivy. Ever since Grace left, there was nobody she could really fight with, which seemed to be a big part of her personality. Things weren’t going that great with this Eric guy, some of our teachers didn’t accept the way she dressed and she still hadn’t found a hobby that could distract her from her troubles. Naturally she had to take this out on someone or something. And since she was always compared to her great, successful, responsible, respectful twin sister, Bella regularly was in for a fight. Those two really were as different as two people could possibly be. 

I was really worried about Ivy sometimes. I already told you that she had some issues in school and in her love life (which was nonexistent, as far as I knew), but her behavior got more and more irresponsible. Somebody had to tell her that and since I seemed to be the only one realizing where she was heading, I chose myself for this task. Unfortunately she didn’t seem to understand that I was trying to help her, instead she thought that I wanted to patronize her. If I was confronted with one of my younger siblings telling me what (not) to do, I would probably freak out, too. Still she shouldn’t have slapped me in the face. That wasn’t very nice and hurt like hell. And when she told me that I didn’t know anything about the real world and that my mind was as empty as a white sheet of paper, I ran off to my room. Where was the Ivy that protected us all and who cared about our family? 

Sometimes I thought about the time when I still was a child. Life was so much easier then, although Grace had still been there at that time. When something went wrong, I often went to my room, looked at my favourite chair and waited till its face made me laugh. Then the worst part was over. Somehow its magic disappeared with the years – when I looked at it now, I could only see a drooling mouth and ridiculously black eyes, staring straight ahead. Was this what growing up felt like? Then I didn’t want it to continue. Feeling serious all the time was something I didn’t approve of. 

Apparently, this was a feeling known to my siblings, too. One day when I went to clean the bathtub, I met Bella who just wanted to wash her hands. When she opened the water tap, a giant water fountain came shooting straight at her. So fun to look at! I guess Ivy was the one who had prepared this little trap, as she coincidentally walked in the bathroom the second we were there, too. I couldn’t help but giggle when I looked at her smiling face and as soon as we had left the bathroom, we burst out into laughing. Maybe the old Ivy was coming back now? 

At least she tried to get her life back. Whenever she could, she invited Eric over to hang out at our place. And you could see that she had a thing for him. The way she smiled at him when he was talking, regardless of what he was actually saying, and the look on her face when he turned away for a second and she felt unobserved. 

She even wrote him a song about how he made her feel like a natural woman. When she played it to us later, I couldn’t help but think that I had already heard this somewhere. And by the way, wasn’t this a little lame? I was lost until I found you, blah. If I ever wrote or dedicated a song to a boy, it would be so much more fun. Something like “You make me feel like dancing”. Life was colorful and moving so fast. No time for talking like you were living in the 1950s. 

Apparently he thought the same way. When she tried to pull him into a close hug, he pushed her away and told her he wasn’t really interested in her that way. She was devastated and immediately rushed back home, where she found me sitting on the couch, watching TV. As soon as I saw her face, I turned off the TV and hugged her for a long time, before she was able to speak. And although I kind of admired him for his honesty, I kept telling her that he was a jerk. That was the right thing to do, wasn’t it? 

My mom didn’t think that way. She had always liked Eric and was sure that this was just a phase those two were going through. By telling Ivy to forget about Eric, I apparently was pulling her away from him, despite their wish to be together. If you ask me, that was nonsense. But nevertheless my mom kept blaming me. Life really wasn’t fair when you were a grown up or a teenager. But hey, after every rain there is sunshine. 


Author's Notes: We're still around...! :) I have played quite a lot ahead, so now I really have to catch up. In my game Julia has just aged into an adult, which means something like ten chapters to come,considering the enormous amount of pictures I have taken. For now a little chapter showing how life in our legacy house continues after Grace moved out. It instantly got a little more boring, but since Ivy decided to act according to her traits, it didn't stay that way.
Make sure to check out the two songs I linked above, if you missed them before. ;)
Hopefully I will get some chapters out the next weeks - the next two weeks, starting next Monday, there is no school here, so I don't have to work (which is really fun, by the way). I planned to write at least two of my term papers during those weeks, because after that university starts again. My new class schedule is way fuller than the old one and considering that I still will work in 5th/6th grade two afternoons a week AND want to try some new stuff as well, there won't be much time to post. But I'll try and keep you posted. Literally. :)
(Chapter title: Obviously a great song by Leo Sayer, even if it's pretty old. I tried to find the choir version I know, but the videos online are pretty crappy. Anyway, believe me when I say that this song is even more amazing in that choir version a friend's husband made, who is a known arranger here.)

Generation 5: Part 4. Thank you for the music

I’m back from the cake! It was just as delicious as it looked and I enjoyed every bite of it. Unfortunately I couldn’t save you any, because – as I predicted – Henner was too fast for me. Within seconds he had eaten three pieces! I’ve never seen anyone eating this fast. Well, actually I did – when Flip was still alive, he ate a lot and really fast. This is what Henner reminded me of, but when I told him, he just laughed and went back to the counter to get another piece. If he didn’t start exercising soon, he would be as round as a melon one day! Not that I wouldn’t love him anymore then, but he would look funny in family portraits. A couple of people, possibly one or two dogs and a melon. Huh.

Life as a teenager started out the exact way childhood ended. I had to do my homework we were assigned to do for the first day in high school. It was nothing big, just writing a report about ourselves, mentioning our hobbies, family and wishes for the future. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in the future, so I wrote not much about that. The rest was really easy, but still it took a lot of time. When I looked up from the three pages I had written, everybody else had already gone to bed. Sadly I scraped the last pieces of cake together and went to my room, where a huge surprise was waiting for me! I had totally forgotten that my siblings had promised me something, so the surprise was even bigger. They had taken out all of my childish furniture and had replaced it with more mature things. I have to say, the best part was that they left my favorite chair in its place – it was yellow and had a big smiley face on it. It was so comfortable and I would have hated it if it had been gone.

The next afternoon Ivy had a friend over. His name was Eric and he seemed like a pretty nice guy. Apparently Ivy thought so, too, because she didn’t stop talking to him for a second. This way she couldn’t find out much about him, but he learned a lot about her. How she always stood up for her siblings (true), how she always tried to be nice and courteous (honestly? Not so much true) and how friends were the most important thing to her (I guess that’s at least partly true). The poor guy barely managed to say a sentence or two in between, but maybe he didn’t want to, either. If he was a shy guy, maybe the right person for him actually was Ivy. We would see how that would go.

Even if he was not right for her, he got along great with our entire family. When mum started a spontaneous jam session, he listened and afterwards admired her guitar skills. You could tell that he knew what he was talking about. It was so nice to have another sim around who loved music as much as our family did! Even if their conversations distracted me from doing my homework. After all, I wanted to be a good student with straight As!

My parents approved of my decision, obviously. Still they made sure I didn’t work too much and relaxed every once in a while. Pillow fights were a great way of forgetting all the trouble in school. And since I found out pillows CANNOT feel any pain, something I actually believed when I was a kid (how embarrassing! Everybody knows that their organism is too primitive for that, while blankets are very well aware of what is happening around them), they became a daily routine. Teenage hood was so much fun.

Not only because I could eat anything I wanted without gaining any weight. Apparently, this was something my sisters were jealous of, but it’s not like I did something to make this happen! I swear! No matter how much cake I ate, my clothes still fitted perfectly. Well, there is no better excuse to eat cake than saying that my body stays slim because of it! And there was no way to prove the opposite. Mhmm, cake…

Unfortunately, this was not a happy time for everybody. Henner and Grace still didn’t get along at all and had fights all the time. And I mean ALL the time. Sometimes it seemed like Henner’s hand felt a magnetic attraction towards Grace’s face or something. It was still sad to see, but something we eventually had to get used to.

Our parents never stopped getting mad at them for acting this way. More than one time they were grounded and had to stay inside the house for a few days. Henner used that spare time to work on his guitar skills, while Grace just stomped around, “accidentally” breaking this and that and shouting at everybody coming in her way. I couldn’t wait to get rid of her.

All of those fights and discussion inspired me a lot. I started writing my first own songs, mostly on the piano, although I wasn’t that good yet. It felt so good to write about everything that was happening and I could practically feel the tension disappearing. Sometimes, when the piano didn’t really help me, I switched to my guitar or tried some new rhythms on my drums. One of those instruments was always perfect for my mood and for what I wanted to say. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be like a One Sim Band sometime and be perfect in playing the drums, the guitar, the piano and the bass? Yes, this was what I wanted to do with my life.

Finally the big day was here! Grace had finished high school and was about to age up into a young adult. Finally she would be able to move out of the house, something she had promised to do a long time ago. I think the main reason for us celebrating was this one, not the fact that it was her special day. And I’m sorry for saying this. But try and live with her for more than a week, then you will know what I mean!

What can I say. Of course I wished her luck for her life outside our family, but it was not like I wanted her to call every day or anything.

Bye, Grace.

Author's notes: ..and once again, we're back! Sorry it took me so long, but the last weeks were full with stuff. I continued being in elementary school two days a week, in the meantime decided to drop out because the combination of the kids and the situation with my colleagues was a little too much for me, but then decided to stay there. In addition, I started working at my old high school three afternoons a week, supervising the fifth- and sixth-graders while doing their homework (and helping out when necessary). That job came pretty unexpectedly, as I only wanted to do an internship at the school But the new headmaster asked me to do this, and as I am getting paid reeeally well and am able to learn so much about pupils in that age, I accepted right away.It's a lot of fun and since I already know some of the fifth-graders from last year when they were in "my" elementary school, I felt home from day 1. By the way, it's really fun to walk through the staff room as if I belong there, especially when some of my old teachers are in it. (Not to mention one very nasty situation with my former music teacher, who used to be my idol for years. Most of the time it's fun to be in there.)

Starting my three-day weekend, my body decided to be funny and gave me a pretty bad cold, which means I've been in my bed for the past 48 hours. Since I need to get back to school tomorrow I just hope I will be better by then. At least I had some time for posting ! :)

Chapter title: An old, yet amazing song by ABBA.

Generation 5: Part 3. Great Feeling

Welcomewelcomewelcome! I’m so glad you guys turned up, because I have seen horrible things. Things that haunt my mind and will never let me go, unless I’m thinking about something else. My parents lately are all over each other. It’s great that they love each other, really, but they don’t need to show it in front of me! I don’t want to hear those noises when they’re making out and I most certainly don’t want to see them do it! You can’t imagine what my body looks like – I am covered in bruises, because I tend to walk around with my eyes closed. It’s safer.

The good thing about my parents being busy all the time is that they don’t notice if one of us is outside longer than we’re allowed to. Let me give you an example. A few days ago, Henner had a really bad day at school and was mad at everything and everyone. His teachers didn’t let him answer one of the questions he knew the answers to, but kept calling his name as soon as he was distracted. In gym class somebody hit him with a ball, right on the nose. Not on purpose, of course, but I guess it still hurt a lot. And he got a C on a test in his music class, which was pretty much the end of the world for him. So, when his last class was over, he went over to a random house and starting throwing eggs at it as soon as nobody was home anymore. He did this for hours, without anybody noticing. When he came home around midnight, mom and dad were still busy with talking about how much they loved each other, and so they didn’t see him sneak into the house. Which is why he didn’t get punished at all! Still I would love them to just stop that as long as we are around.

While my parents were so occupied, we were pretty much on our own now. We had to get up without them waking us, make ourselves breakfast and get to school in time. And I have to say, I did pretty well! Although I overslept once – alright, twice -, I still had straight As in all of my classes. All of my siblings were really proud of me and said that there would be a big surprise because of this for my birthday that was coming up soon! I was so excited that I couldn’t even sleep any more. A surprise for me? What could that possibly be? Whenever I had a free minute, I watched them, trying to find out what they were up to. Sometimes one of them sneaked outside the house, which I could see through the windows. But not once did I see something that gave me a hint. How annoying.

Instead of birthday surprises I was often confronted with Grace fighting with somebody. She and Ivy hadn’t gotten along well ever since Ivy had aged up, but by now there were discussions every single day. This was no longer about me, but about the entire family. Grace made fun of everybody and therefore everybody was mad at her. Can you blame us? She was behaving like the whole world revolved around her and this was not the way life worked.

The only one who tried to stay out of this was Henner. He had been punished by our parents often enough and so he took his guitar whenever he was angry instead of starting a fight. We could tell that he was getting better every day! He probably would be an amazing Hit Movie Composer sometime, which was what he really wanted to be. I had always thought of him more as a rock star, but as long as he was following his passion –music-, everything was just fine. And I already knew a few people who would definitely buy that soundtrack later!

Whenever he took his guitar to play a few tunes, everybody stopped what he or she was doing and went over to listen to him. He was incredibly talented and turned his thoughts into songs so well. One day he surprised us by playing about twenty songs in a row, claiming that they all consisted of the same four chords. Listening to this was really fun, and we realized that he actually was right! Apparently he wasn’t the only one who found out about that, because a little later I found something on Simtube that reminded me of what he showed us. Here, I’ll write the link down for you.

Although Henner spent a lot of time playing the guitar or the piano, he didn’t forget about school. Conscientiously he did every homework that was assigned to him, getting straight As. Apparently, that one C in his music class was just an exception.

My parents soon seemed to get over their smooching phase and starting take care of us more. Thank God. After all, I liked being surrounded by them most of the time. They were my parents and I really loved them. The thought of being without them soon made me sick and I just hoped that this wouldn’t happen for a very long time. My siblings seemed to feel the same – as soon as mom and dad became available again, one of us was always talking to them. Mostly it was me, but Henner and Bella also asked for their attention sometimes. Ivy was more independent, and I don’t even want to mention Grace. All in all, life was really good again.

And it was about to become much better when it finally was my birthday! I still didn’t know what my surprise was going to be, but right now I didn’t care. All I wanted was to grow up and be a teenager, just like all of them. Being in high school would be so much better than the last years of school, I was very sure of that. The kids in my old class had often called me crazy or weird, which really hurt. Everything was about to change.

Surprisingly, the entire family came home to celebrate with me. My dad had been busy with work – which he still attended, without even thinking about retiring -, and most of my siblings were in afternoon activities at school, but nevertheless they all quit what they were doing to come home. Even the local mechanic, who had come around to fix our shower, came into the living room and grabbed one of the noisemaker thingies. That was so nice of him!

I love the new me. The dresses I got are simply beautiful and fit my black hair and my dark eyes perfectly! I decided to keep a ponytail, but lowered it a bit and went to the hairdresser to get bangs as well. Doesn't that suit me very well? To answer that question: yes, it does. It was perfect for me. Everything had worked out perfectly, exactly the way I wanted it to. Now I am ready for high school and for being a teenager. And my birthday cake. If you’ll excuse me – I have to be over there before Henner gets the last piece of cake. He is really fast when it comes to food!

Have a nice day:)

Author's Notes: Whee, all children are teens now! It took a while to get there, but now things are about to get more interesting. A lot happened in this chapter - Grace was mad about everybody, Henner decided that he wanted to be a Hit Movie Composer and Julia grew up and got Perfectionist as her next trait. (By the way, I looked it up: Ivy wants to be the Emperor of Evil and got Flirty as her next trait!) Finn and Cassie are way older than they are supposed to get, but they just won't die. Ever. The house is really crowded, but there is nothing I can do about this. Sigh.

Generation 5: Part 2. When I Grow Up

Oh, hello! You’re here already. Let me continue telling the story of my life by starting where I left off the last time. If you just give me a second to focus… ah, that’s right. I was talking about Bella’s birthday into teenage hood and how she hadn’t changed at all. I might be proven wrong at some point in this story, but you’ll just have to wait and see. Anyway, a day after Bella it was time for Ivy to age up as well, leaving me as the only child… that made me really sad. What if nobody had any time to play with me now? Sure, Flip occasionally came by, but playing with a ghostly dog that never got tired from running around just wasn’t the same as playing with my siblings. This is why I wasn’t too happy when Ivy’s birthday was here. However, she was thrilled to follow Bella. Not only because of the cake, which I personally liked the best. Birthday cakes are just sooo good!

To be honest with you, it was hard to guess what Ivy wished for before blowing out the candles. More independence? Or maybe she wanted better grades in high school than she had in elementary school. Either way I wished her the best of luck that it would be granted. She was rough on the outside, but actually she was one of the greatest sisters you could possibly want. She stood up for me when somebody bothered me at school – which happened regularly, they called me “the weird one” there – and we often played together in the afternoon. After I had stopped pillow fighting, because somebody told me that pillows COULD feel pain, we always found something new to do. Hide and seek, races or making up stories with our dolls, there was no limit to our imagination. Maybe now you understand why I was sad on her special day. Which of course I didn’t show, since I didn’t want to ruin it!

After all, I didn’t think she was going to play with me anytime soon. She was probably going to be busy with being chased by lots and lots of boys. I couldn’t deny that she looked absolutely beautiful, and I was really proud of my big sister. When I grew up, I wanted to be a little more like her – brave and courageous when it came to people I loved, at the same time loving and funny. And pretty! Now don’t judge me, please. I know that looks aren’t really important, but usually it doesn’t harm to be pretty. Plus, putting make-up was so much fun! When all of us were still kids, we would sometimes borrow something from Grace –without asking, obviously – and put on lipstick or eye shadow. Too bad we didn’t take any pictures of us, because we looked really great! But I have a feeling that once you get older, you don’t choose the brightest colors anymore…

The birthday party was really small and just between us. I had put on my princess dress, because I thought it was a special day and deserved a special outfit. Grace made fun of me and told me I already was a freak without more trying to. As soon as she had finished her sentence, Ivy stood up and left the table. When she reached the door to her room, she turned around and came back. In front of the table she stopped and looked at Grace, then calmly explained that she would make her life hell if she didn’t stop bothering all of us. Everybody quietly looked at his or her plate, because this was a difficult situation. I even sensed a fight coming up, something I didn’t want to be caused by my outfit, especially on Ivy’s birthday! This was my fault. If I hadn’t dressed like this, Grace wouldn’t have found something new to make fun of me. Or maybe she would have. This day really confused me. Oh, by the way: they didn’t get into a fight. Grace went to her room and slammed the door, before blasting up some music.

Despite this stupid moment the party wasn’t ruined at all. When we had finished our cakes, we cleaned the plates and started to dance to our own music. Everyone had a great time, although surely nobody forgot what Ivy had done for me, for us. I later overheard a conversation between Henner and Ivy, where he told her that she definitely did the right thing. It’s not like we wanted to gang up on her or anything, but there had to be some way to show her how wrong her behavior really was. But it didn’t seem to matter what we did, because she just didn’t care at all. She just went over to Marissa’s house and had some fun over there, then came back and continued her animosities.

The next night Flip visited us again! He didn’t really do much, but just go to his old bed and sleep for some hours. That was too bad, because that way I could neither play with him nor bathe him. Instead I watched him at night, rolling around in his bed and making these sounds I had loved when I was younger.

What can I say, he didn’t stay for very long. Apparently, the house became too crowded for him – there were now four teenagers and me, plus my parents. Seven people who all needed their space. At some point the house just wasn’t big enough anymore, so Henner just stayed on the school ground after the last period and did his homework there. I know this because I saw him a few times, when I got out of class and ran to catch the bus home. I always tried to convince him to come with me, but he didn’t want to. I would have wanted to stay away from home, too, but my parents wouldn’t allow me. I was still a child and they were too worried about me. It didn’t even help that both Henner and Ivy tried to talk to them about this, they kept telling me to come straight home after school. One should think that they were cooler about this after four children, but they weren’t.

Ivy also tried to avoid home by doing homework at her friends’ houses. She had found new friends the first day at high school and often went to their places instead of bringing them home. I didn’t know one of them, but she told me they were really nice and that I should come along once I was a little older.

She also told me that she liked one of her friends a lot. Of course I had to promise not to tell anybody, but she said he was cute and that she might be in love with him. It was hard to imagine her being with a boy I never met, but the most important thing was that she was happy. Maybe they would be the first ones to get married – that would be great! But I guess they would have to be dating first, right?

Because of staying outside in the evening, Ivy got into a lot of trouble. It seemed like my parents were stricter when it came to her than when punishing anybody else. To be honest, Ivy sometimes was a little rebellious, but just on the outside and it wasn’t fair that she kept getting grounded. Maybe she missed curfew one or two times. But she was fine! I really wanted to stand up for her, but she told me not to. She guessed that our parents just blamed everything on her because of her tendency to be a little mean-spirited once in a while. And at some point she was just sick of it. You want to know what she revealed to me? I’ll tell you. But don’t tell anybody, this is still top secret! Once she finished high school, she wants to become a criminal and really show them. I didn’t understand if she wanted to be a Master Thief or something like the Emperor of Evil, but I will ask her again soon. As soon as we are alone, because I am the only one who knows! I only told my teddy bear Debbie, nobody else. And she promised to keep it to herself. I know that I wasn’t supposed to tell anybody, but come on – this was really big! I needed somebody’s advice on this and Debbie was there for me.

So Ivy was going to be a criminal. This was something I hadn’t expected. But it seemed like everybody developed new aspects about them – Bella was caught outside after curfew in a bar where she had hung out! I couldn’t believe it. She was always the kind, conscientious one and now she just stayed out on purpose! My father said that her breath smelled like alcohol when he talked to her. So she was late AND drunk! What was happening to my older sister? It seemed like she wanted to show us that she wasn’t the nice girl everybody considered her to be. But why? Was she trying to be cool and fit in with the “bad” people at school? Or was she really different from what we saw in her? This was a problem that wouldn’t solve itself anytime soon.

Something that CAN be solved is my mumbling stomach. I am really hungry… maybe Henner made some of his famous pancakes that taste so delicious! If he did, I will save you guys some.

Have a nice day! :)

Author's notes: I'm on a roll... although I practically had NO sleep last night. I was at an open stage thing in the evening, was back at home around midnight and got up at 5.45 to visit my colleague at elemantary school. For the next months I chose her day off to be my school day, partly because we had and have some issues. Still I wanted to say hello. After my visit (which was great) I went back home and immediately sat down to write this chapter. It took me some time, because the pictures were less inspiring than the last ones, but I think I found some good ones. And maybe you can literally see now why I love Ivy as a teen. I basically forgot what exactly her LTW was - either "Emperor of Evil" or "Become a Master Thief". I will check that out as soon as possible and let Julia tell you. ;)