The answer is ... moving!
Yeah, Kyle and I moved into our own place together. We talked about it, said it was going to be a trial basis. Bitsy and Traveller came with me, too. I couldn't leave them behind.
Mom says she thinks I'm moving too quickly. I think she just didn't want to see me move out.
I read her diary, especially the parts where she and Dad were dating. Apparently, he'd just moved to the Valley and the teacher assigned Mom to be his lab partner so he could catch up with the rest of the class. They were going at it the entire time. Dad says mom was so smart in school she used to correct the teachers.
Dad used to help Grandpa Plumb at the theater. Volunteer-only basis.
One night he ran into mom and took her home. Just like that.
Mom referred to Dad by all kinds of names - Cheesebutt, Cheesebreath, Cheesehead, and the like. Dad mostly just laughed it off.
He was persistent, patient. Mom accused Grandpa Plumb and Uncle Noah of trying to set them up. I wish I could have met Uncle Noah. He sounds like he was very protective and loved my mom dearly.
Then when mom went missing in Egypt, when nobody was able to contact her in anyway, Dad told her he loved her. Aww. The rest is history.
And then another big thing happened. My little sister, Sierramyst Plumb Cheesman, came home from Fort Starch.
That's shocked me as much as anything. Not only is she a good six inches taller (which makes her taller than me!) but she's bigger than me, too. I'm thin and wiry like mom and Grandma Plumb. Sierra, though, she's built more like dad. Dad was a professional soccer player. He's not a small guy. He's got broad shoulders and strong arms and legs. And Sierra is built the same way.
She's an athlete. And she's built like one.
The other thing that's different (in a good way) is that her black clothes and Technicolor hair (as far as I can tell) are both gone, replaced by her natural color, which is the same as mine.
My baby brother, Sawyer, has a new hobby - he likes to check under the bed for monsters. He thinks he's a monster-slayer or something. Like he's protecting us from the baddies.
As for Sierra, well, when we made a quick little duck back to the Valley to pick up a few things, I heard my parents and Sierra talking at my grandparents' formal dining table. Dad was seated at the head, with Mom and Sierra on either side of him. And Dad was serious, I'd never heard him talk this way.
You know Dad, he's a quiet, laid-back sort of guy. But on that day, he meant business. Even Mom had to sit up straighter.
"You're going to counseling, miss," Dad decided firmly. "Your mother and I are not going to be bailing you out of prison. You've had it much too good for you to be doing the things you're doing. We do not want to see your face on a wanted poster."
Sierra, though, was being smart-alecky as usual through her new horn-rimmed glasses. "If I go you're going to have to come with me."
"Oh, your mother and I are coming with you. If only to make sure you do this." Dad stopped for a moment and paused. "And another thing. You're going to college."
"College?"
"Yes, college. One of the conditions of your release from Fort Starch is that you go to college. They strongly recommended it because of your high test scores. You're smart but you never applied yourself - or at least, you applied yourself in the wrong way."
What my parents didn't know was, going to college is one of the items on Sierra's 'bucket list.'
My sister has this list of stuff she wants to do before she 'kicks the bucket' so to speak. Some of the stuff on it is stunning. I couldn't believe it when I read it myself. She wants to buy a horse? Not only buy one but jockey it in a race as well? Well, next time I go to the equine center I know who's coming with me.
She wants to build Plumbots? Apparently she's intrigued by the emerging field of plumbotics.
Make a Liquid Horror potion? Sheesh, she is SCARING me. I'm serious. I never knew her to have any interest in science, and apparently she does -- a lot of it.
Mom says that ever since Sierra started dating this girl Lily, a wannabe inventor, Sierra's locked herself in her room performing science experiments. And I already know that she made a bomb at Fort Starch. That in itself scares the heck out of me.
Write a science-fiction novel? Okay, this one isn't as far in left-field as it sounds. Mom's Aunt Margaret (after whom I'm named) was a sci-fi writer. But Sierra doing it? Especially since she never wrote as much as an essay in school -- and now she wants to do an entire book? For the record, I do believe Sierra has a book inside of her. Heck, for all I know, she might have ten. She doesn't talk much, never did. She's more of a doer than a talker, anyway. Maybe she could write it all out. Who knows?
Catch a deathfish? (That's Dad talking, right there, he's a master angler. Mom says that on their first date, Dad took her to one of his favorite fishing spots, and she had to climb up the hill in spike-heeled boots, Lol) But then there's another part to this. Deathfish is one of the main ingredients for ambrosia, the top-secret, life-extending recipe only a select few Sims know how to make. The fact that Sierra wants to catch a deathfish is telling me she knows she's an ambrosial, a trait she and I have inherited from mom and Grandma Plumb. (As far as I know, AJ has not inherited this trait, and the jury is still out on the younger two.)
No wonder Dad has an army of little fishermen and fisherwomen, we all like to fish. AJ, he's almost as good as Dad with the rod and reel. Any takers on who catches the elusive deathfish first, AJ or Sierra?
Get into a bar fight? Yep, that's Sierra all right. That one doesn't shock me any.
Even more, Sierra's challenged all the rest of us to come up with our own 'bucket lists.' I'll let you know what I come up with.
Notice that she signs her full name, SierraMyst.
Of course, I told all of this to Kyle.
Like me, he's already got his degree in fine arts. And he's working on his second, in physical education. He joined the local fire department up in Hidden Springs, and one evening he'd come home, and I told him. Everything.
"Wow," he said, "you guys sound like you've really gone through something with your sister. How did you two get to be related?"
If I knew the answer to that question I'd be a gajillionaire.
Sierra and I are six days apart. We are full-blooded sisters, with the same mother and father. We have the same blonde hair, blue eyes, and tanned complexion. We look more alike than the actual twins, the Vanderburgs. Yet we have very little in common.
"Mom wants to take Sierra up to the university, and she wants me to go with her."
Kyle laughed. Sometimes he even sounds like Dad when he laughs. "From what you've told me about your sister, that should be an adventure."
Somehow I knew Kyle was telling the truth.
After Kyle went back to the station, Bitsy came up and curled next to me on the bed. I got her as a teen birthday gift from Uncle Bassy when his Golden Retriever, Honey, had puppies. And she's been true blue ever since.
She seems to know when I'm feeling down or nervous, and she's right there to lift my spirits, either with her cuddling or her barking or something she does or finds. And I was definitely nervous about our trip to University with Sierra.
When we got to the University, it was COLD and there was ice on the ground... but none of us brought our jackets. Sierra positively towered over me, and some of my old mates were in disbelief when I told them she was my younger sister.
Sierra asked me to play Frisbee with her. I don't even remember the last time we did that.
"Catch!" Sierra called, with the widest grin I'd seen from her in quite awhile. It looked and felt great. I didn't know who this person was, but she was starting to resemble my little sister -- my real little sister, not the impostor who had been standing in for her, with the Technicolor hair and the black clothes and the stinky attitude.
I tried to have my hands ready as the Frisbee came hurtling towards me. But the dang thing slipped thru my fingers.
"You're a little rusty," Sierra summed. "I'm going to have to work with you."
When we got to Orientation, Sierra's eyes fell upon a girl standing nearby. Apparently she thought she was cute. If she's going to eye every chick on campus we're going to be in for quite a ride. *Author's note: Sierra started farting hearts for her but I missed the hearts on the pic.
Something Sierra said while we were walking to the student union, though, struck a chord. "Thank you, Sage."
"For what?"
Sierra paused for a few moments before replying, "Not judging me."
"Sierra, why would I judge you? You're my little sister. I love you."
"When I came out, I expected a reaction like Princess Alex is getting at the palace in Hidden Springs. She's getting a lot of s***."
Wow. I didn't think Sierra was paying any attention to all that. Shows how much I know. It's also an indication of how bad that situation looks to the public.
"I'm glad you guys understand."
The three of us listened to a presentation by one of the upper-classmen. Mom bore her eyes into me and whispered, "I want you to watch her."
I looked at her and I was in total agreement. But I couldn't tell her why just yet. Mom is a tiny, tiny woman, but boy, can she be intimidating.
As I watched Sierra feverishly copy notes I wondered what she was thinking. College could be the best thing that's ever happened to her -- or the worst.
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