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. ;)