Bad, Scary Day

Hi, this is Bree. Something scary happened today. I was at school, in my second class of the day - English, and I'd already read the book, so I was kind of daydreaming - when the school secretary knocked on the door and said the principal needed to talk to me. Everyone started laughing about Bree being in trouble, but then the secretary said it was a family emergency; the other kids got quiet, and I was suddenly really terrified. My legs felt like lead as I walked to the principal's office.

The principal told me that Summer had collapsed at school. The ambulance took her to the hospital. When the paramedics got there, she was still unconscious. They didn't know what was wrong - they still don't - and they were worried because she didn't wake up right away. Marigold was with Summer when she collapsed, and was upset, to put it mildly. She was beside herself.

I'm posting this from the hospital. Summer is awake now, but she's still pretty groggy. She has to stay overnight while they run some tests, because the doctors still don't know what's wrong. Earlier in the afternoon, she started getting short of breath and her heartbeat was irregular. She's better now, but they need to figure out what this is before they let her go home.

The doctor asked us about family medical history, but because Summer is adopted, we didn't know very many of the answers. We don't know what diseases run in her genetic family. The doctor said that if possible, we needed to find out.

Summer was born in a province where adopted people can get their adoption records and original birth certificates when they turn eighteen. (Believe it or not, in some places those records are sealed forever, and adopted people can never know their genetic history, so Summer is lucky about that.) Because of the situation, we applied for a medical exception to get that paperwork right away. Even though she's only twelve, this information might save her life. The exception was granted, and we're waiting for the information to get couriered here. Hopefully it'll help.

It also may shed light on the Marigold situation. At the moment, though, we're mostly worried about Summer.

Love,
Bree

Moving

Hello, everyone. This is Josefina. I haven't written a blog entry in awhile - you guys may have forgotten about me. ;-)

We wanted to let you know that next month, we're going to be moving. We're going to be leaving Newfoundland and heading to the southern United States. In some ways this was a really tough decision for our family, but we think it's going to be for the best.

We still plan to blog in our new home! However, there may be a delay in getting any posts done when we're busy with moving our household and getting everything set up on the other end.

In the meantime, we'll still be around. We just wanted to give you some advance warning, so we aren't springing this on our friends. :-)

Love,
Josefina

Two letters, and life changes

Hi, this is Summer. (I guess you could tell that from the picture anyway, huh?) Well, I got huge news today. I'm still really shocked, and I'm not sure how to process it.

Last year, on my birthday, I decided that I wanted to find out about my biological family. Maia wrote to the Toronto Children's Aid Society, which is the group that placed me for foster care and adoption, to see if we could get any information about them. I did get some, which is better than knowing nothing at all, but I was a little bit bummed that I have to wait till I turn eighteen to get my full identifying details.

I had pretty much just accepted that I won't be able to make much progress on my search until I'm an adult. So I was really surprised when another letter came from the Children's Aid Society in the mail today. I didn't think I'd be hearing from them again for a few years. I wondered if there had been some mistake, or if they'd found something else non-identifying that they could give me right away.

In my haste to open the envelope, I ripped it too hard and all the contents ended up on the floor. The first sheet I picked up was written by hand, and the writing looked like someone about my age rather than an adult. That seemed even weirder. Why would I be getting a letter from another kid through the agency that had placed me for adoption?

Once my initial moment of confusion had passed, I realized there was a printed covering letter in the envelope too, so I decided to read that first because it seemed like it was probably supposed to explain the handwritten letter. I flipped it over... and got the shock of my life.

The covering letter started with an apology. It turns out that I hadn't been placed for adoption by the Children's Aid Society itself - which I had just assumed - but by another group doing contract work for them at the time. That group had made a pretty serious mistake. I had to read the next line a few times before I could comprehend it.

I was not an only child in my biological family.

I have a twin.

This was totally shocking to me. I had no idea.

I figured that I might have biological brothers or sisters out there, because my first parents weren't all that old and they likely had more children after they lost custody of me, whether they stayed together or ended up with other partners. I was prepared to find out someday that I had siblings or half-siblings.

I wasn't prepared to find out that I already had a sister that I shared the womb with. In movies, it seems like twins have this magical connection to each other, but I never felt that. I never felt anyone who was that close was out there and missing from my life. I was totally blindsided by the news.

Twins aren't supposed to be separated for adoption. Even at the time, that was very much against policy. We should have been placed together. The letter went on to say that they're still investigating how it happened, whether it was a clerical error or whether my twin was already living somewhere else when I was removed from the home... and I'm sure that with time, I'll start to care about that. For right now, I can't even begin to deal with how it happened. I'm just trying to process that this is going on at all.

The other letter, the one that was handwritten, is from my twin sister. You don't have to be eighteen to know your biological siblings like you do to find out about your biological parents. I  haven't read my twin's letter yet. I want to, and I will soon.

I'm just trying to deal with the fact this is even happening. It's totally unbelievable! I wonder if she's very much like me...

Love,
Summer

Victoria Day, or Something Completely Different

Hello, everyone. This is Cécile, and this blog entry will be rather a change of pace from the serious entries we've been writing lately. This weekend was the Victoria Day holiday here in Canada, which also coincided with the Newfoundland Steampunk Society's one year anniversary since founding. To celebrate, the Steampunk Society had a picnic in Victoria Park. 

Blakeney has been working on a steampunk costume for us girls, and she wanted one of us to come with her to model it. I was most excited about going, so the other girls graciously allowed me to be the one to attend the picnic and wear the outfit! I had a wonderful time. 

We thought our blog friends might be interested in seeing some pictures of our outing and what I wore. The costume is very much a work in progress - the goggles on my head are particularly makeshift - but you should be able to get a decent idea of how the finished product will look.

Blakeney's friend Brent took the pictures with his fancy new camera, but he gave us permission to post and share them.

Enjoy!

Love,
Cécé

P.S. I also made a new friend! I posed for some pictures with her, and when she sends them to Blakeney, I will post those too.

Versatility, An Important Quality

Hi everyone! We've been tagged for the Versatile Blogger award by some of our blog friends - Wendy and Emily! (And possibly someone else Blakeney is drawing a blank on.) Thanks very much for thinking of us, ladies! In response, our job is to tell seven random facts about ourselves. Some of you will already know some of this, but hopefully you'll all learn something new about us.

1.) Kiwi is learning to speak Mandarin. She was adopted from China, and wants to learn what would probably have been her original language. She says it's tough but fun, and she's glad she's doing this while she's still young.

2.) Kaya is lactose intolerant. She can't drink milk, but she can eat ice cream if she takes a pill.

3.) "Green" and "Rose" aren't really any of our last names. We use it as an internet pseudonym to protect our online privacy. We don't all have the same last name. Between us we have fourteen surnames. (Kaya and Josefina have two each.)

4.) Bree is a better driver than Kirsten, but Kirsten will deny that to her dying day.

5.) Evelyn is getting ready for her first horse show, which will be in June. She's showing in the walk/trot and walk/trot/canter events.

6.) In the summer we're going to be taking a trip to Italy, Hungary, and Croatia.

7.) We sing around the house all the time, and speak to each other in song lyrics on a daily (more like hourly...) basis. 

So yeah, now you know us a little better, and it's our turn to nominate people to go next. A lot of our friends have already been tagged, so we'll do our best to pick new people.

RULES:
1. In a post on your blog, nominate 4 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award.
2. In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award.
3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.
4. In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
5. In the same post, include this set of rules.
6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each
their blogs.

We tag:

Dante
The Triplets
Ushi
Piper

Thanks for reading! :-)

Love,
The Greens and the Roses

To Get Away from It All...

Hey folks, this is Bree. This is a special day for me... anyone remember why? That's okay, you don't have to remember. I'll just tell you. It was exactly one year ago that I joined the family! :-)

Some of you may also recall the circumstances. For various reasons (including no one actually knowing where I was for awhile...) my arrival was delayed way beyond when the family was expecting me, and so when I finally arrived, everyone was about to leave for a trip to Florida that they'd had planned for awhile. Fortunately I got there in time to go along. After all that, it wasn't a big deal to head off somewhere else, and it was a good way to get to know my new sisters.

Well, guess what? It's that time again! The Bree-iversary means it's also time to go back to Florida. We're leaving Saturday morning, and we'll be back on the 27th. We're really excited about beachy fun! :-)

One of the best parts is that this year, the Roses will be coming with us! Last year at this time, we didn't know them yet. Now we're one big family and we all get to go together.

We'll do our best to update the blog while we're gone, although we'll probably be pretty busy so we may not get much time to be online. Blakeney is bringing her laptop and promises to give us a turn from time to time, so we'll try to keep you in the loop.

Yay for vacation time! :-D

Love,

Bree

A Bad End to a Good Evening

Hi, this is Summer with an update on Greens and Roses news. This was a fun evening for our family... well, until the end.

For the past few months, Maia has been dating another teacher who works at the same school where she teaches. Her name is Gia, and she's originally from Italy. We've talked to her when she's met up with Maia at the house, and she seems really nice. Normally the two of them go out a couple of times a week, but things are getting more serious, so Maia invited her over to spend some time with us tonight.

We had a really good time. Gia is really funny, and she's a good cook - she showed Maia how to cook pasta alla carbonara, and the two of them made it for the family. It was really good! I had never had it before, but I really liked it. Gia said she'd come over and show us how to make other Italian dishes in the future, which I'm looking forward to.

After supper, we played games for awhile: Scrabble, Monopoly, and Apples to Apples. Our vampires girls came home for that part; they weren't around during supper because we didn't want to have to make up a story for Gia about why they weren't eating the food. The four of them went pigeon hunting while the rest of us had supper, and we just told her (which wasn't a lie) that they were eating somewhere else tonight.

At some point, if Gia and Maia get married or Gia moves in, we're going to have to tell her about the vampires. For now, we thought it was better to just... not have the subject come up. Cécile, Marie-Grace, Clare, and Tabitha got to join us for the games, which was a good compromise, and we all had fun.

Eventually, it had to end. Gia said she had to go prepare some lesson plans for her classes tomorrow, so she thanked us for having her over, and we thanked her for the carbonara. Then we said our goodnights, and we figured we wouldn't see her again until tomorrow.

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang... and rang, and rang, and rang, like someone was leaning against it. Inna and I went to the door, and when we opened it, we found Gia on the porch again. She was pale as a sheet, and her sleeve was ripped to the shoulder. Blood was dripping from a huge bite on her upper arm. She was obviously going into shock, and looked like she could barely stand upright.

Inna immediately went and got her car keys; it was clear we were going to have to drive her to Emergency. Maia and I helped her to the car, and the rest of the girls went next door to stay with the Greens while we were gone. We didn't waste any time driving there - fortunately the hospital is only a few blocks away - but while we were on the way, Maia asked quietly, "What happened?"

I was afraid she was going to say it was a vampire. Or maybe 'some crazy bloodsucking biter person,' since she presumably doesn't know vampires are real. I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do if we were in a small car with a freshly-turned vampire who didn't know she was a vampire. Could that even happen? Could you be a vampire and not know you were one?

We all breathed a sigh of relief, though, when Gia didn't say it was a vampire. She said, "I was attacked by a big dog."

I couldn't help thinking that was the cover story we had used when Kiwi had vampire wounds. Was Gia just not telling us what had happened? There were some dark-coloured animal hairs on her blouse, though, and Inna told me later it didn't look the kind of injury that would be caused by a vampire. I guess it really was a dog.

We weren't at the hospital for very long. There wasn't much of a wait. The doctor cleaned the injury, put in a couple of stitches, and then bandaged it all up. Gia didn't have to stay overnight, so we drove her to her apartment building, made sure she had everything she needed, and then left her to get some rest.

It's unfortunate that our fun evening ended at Emergency. Hopefully next time we have someone over for the evening, it won't finish with a scary random dog bite!

Love,
Summer

What We Did for the Holidays

Hi, this is Josefina. We're doing this kind of belatedly - and because of that, we decided to combine it into one post rather than everyone writing separately - but since we didn't get much chance to blog over the holidays, we're going to fill you in now about what we all did.

I (Josefina) went to New Mexico to stay with my aunt and uncle, and my two younger cousins. We celebrated Las Posadas, which is a nine-day celebration that finishes on Christmas Eve, or what we call la Nochebuena, or translated, "the Good night." During each Posada, we would go to a neighbour's house in a procession singing a traditional song. There's a Nativity scene there, sometimes a piñata, and food of course. This celebration reenacts the journey of Mary and Joseph in Christian tradition. It was a lot of fun, and doing it again this year made me think of my mother and grandmother who died; I miss them a lot, but these were happy memories.


Kaya went to Idaho to visit her grandparents and her younger sister Rosa. They were happy to see each other, and had a really good time. They celebrated Christmas and New Years - carols around the piano were the highlight of their Christmas Day - and Kaya was also able to participate in a traditional dance event, which she really enjoys, and attended a tribal winter ceremony. I think she was happy to be there, but she seemed a little sad when she got back. I think she misses her other family when she's here - but I think she misses us when she's there, too. It wasn't long before she was cheerful again, though. Nothing keeps Kaya down for long.


Kirsten, Felicity, Molly, and Charissa visited their mom and dad for the holidays. Their parents are living in Maryland at the moment, but they move a lot. I don't think the visit went all that well. They were pretty tense when they got back, and didn't say a lot. I think their parents are pretty... um... chaotic, so holidays with them can be kind of unpredictable. They seemed just plain glad to be back.

Evelyn had a lot of fun in Quebec, though. She stayed with her aunt, and got to visit her parents and her two sisters, Aisha (who is older than her) and Jasmine (who is younger.) Ev says they had a "really huge" Christmas tree, went to midnight mass, and ate tourtière, which is a kind of pork pie. And of course, they opened presents, and she got a new toy horse she's thrilled with. Evelyn was pretty excited to go on the plane all alone for the first time; she wasn't scared at all. She's only eight - she's so brave! :-)


Inna, Maia, Summer, Clare, Fiona, Kiwi, and Tabitha celebrated Christmas here in Newfoundland. It was pretty low-key because they didn't want Tabitha to get overly excited, but Kiwi and Fiona went mummering with some of their friends. Mummering means dressing up in costume and going to visit the neighbours, and if they get invited in, they sing and dance and do little comedy routines. The hosts offer them food and drinks, and try to guess who they are. Kiwi and Fiona were proud of themselves because no one guessed who they were. A perfect performance for our two actresses! 


They also celebrated the Russian new year and Russian Christmas (on January 7th) with Inna, who cooked traditional food for them, and taught them some songs. She'd brought us all little gifts, too, even those of us who were away at the time... so we started calling her Snow Maiden, like the woman who helps Ded Moroz, which means Father Frost (the Russian version of Santa,) to deliver people's gifts. That made her laugh, but I think it made her feel good that we remembered what she'd told us about her holiday.


And of course, Bree went to Western New York with Blakeney, and met up with Cécile and Marie-Grace, as she wrote about before.


In other news, Maia went out on a date! It was with a lady she met through her work. She says she had a good time and they're going to go out again, but it was "not serious, just one date." Famous last words. I think she knows that she will be taking that back someday, because she added, "At least so far..."


So that was the holidays for all of us! :-)

We missed our blog friends, and it's good to catch back up again.


Love and belated good holiday wishes,
Josefina and the girls

Performance Notes

Hi, this is Fiona. We're really tired, so this is going to be short. We'll write a longer entry tomorrow.

Tonight was the last night of Nutcracker! It's been an awesome but busy couple of weeks. I'm sort of sad that it's over, but sort of happy, and I'm really proud of us. Kaya did a great job, and the teachers seem proud of me, too. It was fun to be Clara, and Kaya switched between all her roles like it was nothing. All in all, it went really well. The audiences seemed to enjoy it. People clapped. Our family came to see it a couple of times and brought us flowers.

On Friday, Bree's drama club had their final performance too. Bree had planned to be backstage, because she likes the tech stuff rather than acting on stage, and at the last minute she got pulled into being the replacement stage manager! She was really nervous, but it went great. The show was a variety of holiday songs, skits, and sketches, and it was really fun. Kaya didn't get to go because of Nutcracker, but my cast wasn't on stage that night, so I got to see it. All the kids did a great job, and Bree did really well organizing it all. She's been grinning ear to ear ever since, because she made it work.

Now we're off to get some sleep! ;-)

Just wanted to fill you in about how our stuff has been going - very well! Pretty soon people are leaving for their holiday trips. For now, we're basking in successful performances. :-)

Love,

Fiona

Christmas Tagged

Not the kind on packages! ;-) Our friends at Bolton Girls Travel Journal tagged us, and this is our response. We don't all have the same answers, and we couldn't decide on one person to answer for all of us, so we're going to do this in sort of interview style. (The line spacing got a little messed up, and we can't figure out why, sorry!) Not everyone answered every question, because that would get pretty long, but all of us chimed in on a few.


1) What is your favorite part of the holiday season?


Evelyn: Presents!

Fiona: Caroling!

Josefina: Midnight Christmas Eve mass.

Bree: Spending time with family and friends.

Kirsten: Um... probably also presents.

Felicity: Wow, that's mature, Kir.


2) Who do you celebrate Christmas with?


Bree: Well, it's going to be different for some of us this year than last year. I'm still deciding if I'm going to New York State with Blakeney or staying here.

Josefina: Evelyn, Kaya, Kirsten, Felicity, Molly, Charissa, and I are each going to visit with some of our biological relatives in different parts of the United States.

Summer: The rest of us - me, Kiwi, Tabitha, Fiona, and Clare - will be here with Inna and Maia. We'll all have fun holiday stories to exchange when we're together again!


3) What is your favorite gift you have ever received?


Molly: Paints!

Kirsten: You get those every year.

Molly: So? It's still my favourite.

Felicity: I got a really lovely piece of heirloom china once. That was pretty neat.

Evelyn: My most favourite toy horse was a Christmas gift.


4) What are your favorite Christmas Carols?

Kaya: Silent Night.

Molly: Deck the Halls.

Tabitha: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen... it's a little creepy and dark, but I like it.

Evelyn: Jingle Bells.

Josefina: A La Ru... it reminds me of my mother and grandmother.


5) What is your favorite Christmas food?

Summer: Cranberry sauce.

Kirsten: Turkey.

Charissa: Sweet potatoes.

Clare: Blood. Sorry, sorry - but I'm still a vampire on holidays!


6) Can you sleep on Christmas Eve?


Evelyn: Not very well, and I wake up early.

Charissa: Yeah, but I lie awake for awhile first.

Molly: I could probably sleep through a train running over me, so yes, I sleep like a log, just like every night.


7) When do you wake up on Christmas morning?


Evelyn: When the sun comes up.

Fiona: Eight o'clock.

Felicity: That sounds early... I'll say nine o'clock.

Molly: Late. Long after everyone is waiting and has attempted to wake me up several times.


8) What is your most memorable memory?


Clare: One time I thought my grandmother forgot about Christmas, because we didn't really do much to get ready. I bought her a present, but I didn't think I was getting anything since we didn't have much money that year. When I woke up on Christmas morning, the whole house was decorated, and there were presents under the tree. She wanted to surprise me by doing it like they did when she was a little girl.

Summer: Last year in Ontario we had a Christmas parade thing with the horses at the stable, and we dressed the horses in things like antlers and wreaths, and wore Santa hats.

Kirsten: I was born on Christmas Day.

Felicity: That's not really a memory, since you don't remember it.

Kirsten: Whatever. It was a big deal for me, okay?


9) What are you Christmas traditions?

Kirsten: Going to church on Christmas Eve. Some of us go to the Anglican one.

Josefina: I go to Roman Catholic mass. Also I make fish soup for supper.

Kiwi: We open presents and then have pancakes for breakfast.

Kaya: Being in Nutcracker, and singing songs around the piano on Christmas.

Felicity: Baking Christmas cookies to take to friends.

Clare: Going caroling.


10) Do you have a real tree or an artificial tree?


Kaya: Real.

Bree: Artificial. Lots of people in my genetic family are allergic to evergreen.

Kiwi: Whatever our cat won't tear down, I guess?


So those are our answers. It's hard to know who to tag for this one, because we don't know who does celebrate Christmas and who doesn't... but if we tag you and no one in your household celebrates it, you can talk about your own favourite holiday instead. (Or just not answer.) Have fun!

Tagging:
Sabine
Aurora and Friends
Inky
Rebecca, Summer, and Friends
Sarah Annaliese

Anyone else who wants to answer - consider yourself tagged too! :-)

An awkward (but still fun) visit

Hi, blog friends. This is Kaya. As I mentioned in a reply to a comment on another post, our new friends came to visit us after tonight's Nutcracker rehearsal. It's easy to have people over after dance because our house is only about two blocks away from the dance school, so we just walked here after practice ended. It's getting dark here by late-afternoon this time of year, but it's still a pretty safe walk, especially at such a short distance.

Cécile and Marie-Grace seemed happy to visit, although they were a little shy. I think they don't get invited to people's houses very often. Unfortunately, as soon as I turned my key in the lock and let them in, Tabitha started freaking out. She's used to the family coming and going, but we weren't sure how she was going to handle a guest.

It was even worse than Halloween. Tabitha's room is in the basement of the Rose house, but we live in row houses so we only have interior walls between us. Cécile and Marie-Grace heard everything... including Tabitha ripping her bed apart and throwing pieces of it at the wall. They obviously weren't quite sure what to do.

I wasn't sure either, honestly. I'm used to Tabitha, but Tabs doesn't usually cross paths with "civilians." Was I supposed to joke about it? Explain? (Which would have to be a lie. I can't tell our guests, "Oh, that's just one of our vampires.") Should I apologize? Pretend it wasn't happening?

I went for a brief vague apology, followed by pretending it wasn't happening. Fiona followed my lead, but she kept glancing anxiously at the wall that separates the two houses, as if she was afraid Tabitha was going to burst through at any second. I was... not unconcerned about that possibility, too. Clare was out hunting, so at least we didn't have two of them to worry about. Since Clare is more used to being a vampire, she's in better control and has more options for that kind of stuff; we can't let Tabitha hunt alone in the city, but Clare can control herself well enough to stick to rats instead of humans.

Weirdness aside, we actually had a fun time. Cécile and Marie-Grace said they'd already eaten, and apparently they have a bunch of food allergies, so they didn't want anything to eat, but we all had some herbal tea. We talked about dance, and the places we've visited, and what their lives were like in New Orleans. They didn't say anything about their family, though, so I'm not really sure who they live with. When it was time for them to go, they walked home, so I'm not even positive where they live... although they did mention what street, and it's not far from here.

By the time we had finished our tea, some of my other sisters had joined us, and we played Scrabble and listened to music. (Cécile won the game.) Marie-Grace taught us some old-fashioned ballroom dance steps she had learned back in New Orleans. Not all of my sisters are very wonderful dancers - I thought Kirsten was going to sprain something - but we had a good laugh and it was a lot of fun.

Finally it got late for a school night, and Marie-Grace and Cécile had to say goodnight. (Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, so tomorrow is just a regular school Thursday for us.) It was a fun time, in spite of the weirdness with Tabitha.

Speaking of Tabitha, she totally destroyed her room - especially her bed, which is now in small pieces. At this point, she's being nonverbal again, although she stopped being aggressive once the girls left. Inna says Tabitha will snap out of it; actually Inna thinks Tabitha is over whatever happened, and is just being silent because she's too embarrassed to talk about it. I hope she doesn't feel too bad. I like it better when Tabitha is happy, and it's not her fault she's still struggling with being a vampire.

The weather probably didn't help. We're supposed to get a big snowstorm tomorrow. (I wonder if we'll get a little "holiday" from school after all?) Can vampires sense the weather like wild animals can? It's not a very flattering comparison, but I should ask Clare anyway. It would be interesting to know.

Oh! I also got another letter from my penpal in Nunvavut today. I found out she's a foster kid like I was; I wonder if they matched us up on purpose because of that. She told me more about her school and her activities, and it turns out she likes dance also. She also likes animals. I'm going to write her back about Nutcracker.

Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers who celebrate it, and Happy Thursday to the rest! :-)

Love,
Kaya

P.S. We've decided to use our little cartoons of ourselves in posts we write so it's easier for our readers to remember which one of us is talking. Hopefully it won't be confusing! Group posts won't have a picture, but individual posts will.

P.P.S. Happy Birthday, Inky! :-)

Nutcracker News

Hi, this is Kaya (with Fiona looking over my shoulder.) As I mentioned in the last post, today was a big day for us - the day our dance teachers assigned us roles for The Nutcracker. Now that we have our parts, rehearsals will kick into high gear, then we'll start performances in a little less than a month. Wow, what a whirlwind!

I got cast in several roles; this is normal for the pointe students at our school because there aren't as many of us. In Act One I'll be a Party Guest. Then I'll have plenty of time to change after my scene, but in Act Two I'll be in and out of Quick Change a lot! At the very start of Act Two, I'll be one of the three Sugar Plum Fairy Attendants, which is like a servant of the real Sugar Plum Fairy; not all productions have that role, but it's basically sort of setting the scene for the Kingdom of Sweets. Then I'm in the Candy Cane dance - that's what we do with the Russian music - and Waltz of the Flowers. I have the length of two other dances to change in between each of those, but still, I will be busy and I'm sure I'll always be in a hurry!

Then I have to change back into my Sugar Plum Fairy Attendant costume for curtain call for the evening performances. The daytime performances are shorter because they cut the Pas de Deux and the Cavalier's solo so it won't be as long for the kids who attend as a school fieldtrip, so for those I won't have time to change back. For evenings, they want me to try it, because that's considered my "main" role since it's a smaller group than my other dances. Madness!

The biggest news, though, actually comes from Fiona. Yes, little miss "I probably won't get a part, I'm not as good as the other girls, they've all been dancing longer than me, my teacher doesn't like me, etc." Apparently she was wrong about all this, because she got one of the biggest roles! ;-)

Fiona is one of the two girls who was cast as Clara! Woot! Our school double-casts for the younger kids, so that more people get a chance to perform, they don't get so tired, and they don't have to miss as much school. The two casts get the same number of performance days, and it's different from alternates; the alternate for Clara will only take over if Fiona or the other girl get too hurt or sick to perform. My roles aren't double-cast, so I'll be in all the shows, but on Cast B days I get to dance with my sister. We're both really excited! Fiona is so proud of herself and happy - as she should be.

There's one little fly in the ointment, though, and that is that the Clara understudy is not happy. She was just assuming she was going to get the role, and she's really upset that she got cast as an alternate. (Even though at the performances where she doesn't have to be an emergency Clara she'll still go on as a Polichinelle, so it's not like she won't be on stage in some capacity.) I think she's probably getting a lot of pressure at home about it, too, because her two older sisters both danced the role of Clara at her age, and her mother seems like one of those stage-mommy types. I feel bad for her in a way; it's no fun to be disappointed, and we were all hoping for good parts. I don't feel bad for her all the way, though, because she's being really nasty to Fiona and the other Clara about it. Both of the Claras joined the school in the past year, and the alternate is whispering to the other girls that they don't deserve it because they're new.

I was trying to cut her some slack because she was so miserable about it, but then I heard her tell her friend that Fiona is "crazy," and at that point I went and told her to stop it and grow up. Fiona has bipolar disorder, but she's not crazy and that has nothing to do with whether or not she can dance - which obviously she can, since she got the role.

The understudy backed off, but I'm worried she's going to try to spoil this for Fiona. Well, not if Big Sis Kaya has anything to say about it, she won't. ;-)

So Fiona and I are celebrating tonight, mean people aside. I think cookies and a silly dance movie are called for! :-)

Love,
Kaya

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, blog friends! :-) This is Bree, filling you in on our holiday.

Today was a hard day to concentrate in school. Everyone was pretty excited about the holiday; too bad Halloween didn't fall on a weekend this year. Oh well. We got home and helped the younger girls get into their costumes. Kirsten made them all pinkie swear to bring back enough candy for all of us.

Fiona, Kiwi, Evelyn, Charissa, Molly, Summer, and Kaya went trick-or-treating. Fiona dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Kiwi dressed as a black cat, and Ev was a pumpkin. Molly made a canvas frame for herself and painted on it, so her costume was a pretty good representation of a Van Gogh painting; her outfit was a ton of work, and she kept it pretty secret till it was done. She got a lot of compliments. Kaya dressed as a turtle, with a paper-mâché shell and a green leotard, and Summer was a purple snail with a matching shell. They all looked great! My sisters are so creative. Maia took them out trick-or-treating in the neighbourhood, and they all had a really good time!


Most of the rest of us stayed and handed out candy, which was fun too. We watched TV while we waited, and talked, and enjoyed the costumes the kids wore. We didn't get a huge number of trick-or-treaters, but we had enough to feel like we were in the spirit of things. They started coming about 5:15 p.m., when it was well on the way to dark, and kept going till 8:30 or so. There were a lot of great outfits, and we gave out lots of candy. (But fortunately, we have some leftovers, too!)


Halloween has been tough on our resident vampires. Kind of ironic, in a way, that a holiday with spooky stuff is difficult for them - I mean, people dress up as vampires for their costumes after all! But having hordes of excited, loud, stranger humans coming to our door wasn't exactly easy on the self-control.  During regular times we don't tend to have many people here that they aren't familiar with, or large groups at once. Tabitha was a mess, and even Clare was struggling. They both stayed in the Roses' basement with Inna and tried to stay calm and peaceful. Clare managed calm and peaceful a lot better than Tabitha did, but no one got eaten - or even almost eaten - which we consider a win.


Our pets didn't have a great time either. Gandalf hid under Kiwi's bed, and April alternated between hiding behind the sofa and barking at the front window. They're glad that people have pretty much stopped knocking. Clare didn't appreciate it when Molly pointed out the similarity between pets and vampires.


For most of us, it was a fun holiday. For the others... well, it was at least okay. Halloween is one of my favourite holidays. I like the pretend spookiness and how excited everyone is. I wouldn't want every day to be Halloween, but it's a fun novelty once a year, and I always enjoy it.


Do you like Halloween? Did you go trick-or-treating? What did you dress as? If you stayed in and handed out candy, did you have many people come to your door?


Love,
Bree

Cars, Cat, and Dangerous Stranger

Three things happened in the last two days. And I, Kaya, am going to tell you about it.

The first thing that happened was, Kirsten and Bree took their test for their learner's permits yesterday afternoon. They both passed, but Bree got all the questions right, and Kirsten missed two, so of course Kirsten is jealous. Molly told Kirsten not to feel bad because Bree is a better driver anyway so it doesn't matter... which so did not help. Kirsten didn't talk to either Molly or Bree (even though Bree didn't brag at all) for about three hours. Now they've made up, though, and Inna's car has a "Novice Driver" sign in the rear window so the girls can legally use it to practice. Fun times!

The second thing is, Kiwi found a cat yesterday. He was a little grey stray who has been hanging around their school for a few days, and she decided to bring him home. After some major wheedling, and Summer and Kiwi promising up and down to take care of him, Maia said they could keep him if Inna agreed when she got home from work - which she did. So now the Roses have a pet, too! We're so happy for them!

They gave their new kitty some food, which he liked, and a bath, which he didn't... but needed because he was really muddy from living outside. They brushed him and petted him for awhile. Then he curled up on their sofa and fell asleep, having decided to his satisfaction that their house was home. They've decided to name him Gandalf the Grey, which we approve of because we all love Lord of the Rings.

The third thing is not so fun. This evening I was walking April (our dog; probably you all know that by now, but we clarify sometimes because her name is human-like enough that she could be another sister or a friend) with Kirsten, Bree, and Felicity. Kirsten and Bree had settled their earlier driving-related differences, and Felicity and I were prepared to calm them down if there was another flare-up of hostilities, but they were getting along again. I will say this for them, they yell at each other like crazed wolverines at the time, but it blows over fast afterward and they're fine again, which is kind of weird to me.

Anyway, we noticed someone was behind us, keeping pace. It was early evening, but getting dark, because our days are starting to get short. We were pretty sure it was a male, in dark clothes and a hoodie. That may sound foreboding, but it's really not all that unusual. We live in the city, so it's not odd to see other people out walking when we take April out, and lots of people have the same urban-travel walking pace because we're used to going places on foot, so you naturally keep a steady distance between you. Nor was his clothing odd - dark colours are popular here, and practically everyone wears hoodies at least sometimes. At first, we weren't concerned about him - but then he got close enough that I could sense his emotions using my power.

He wasn't feeling hostile. He wasn't feeling violent. But he was feeling very determined and intent... and perceiving himself as intimidating. That was not necessarily a good thing. When April stopped to sniff something, I stopped too, hoping we could let him pass. Suddenly he was very focused on examining the house numbers, even though before he was just walking, not looking for an address. Clearly taking an excuse to stop when we stopped. I pulled on April's leash, and she followed - and then he was moving again, too. I started to get really alarmed, and communicated this to my sisters with my eyes. They'd already figured it out, though.

"I need to get something at the corner store," Bree said.

"Okay," I replied, knowing where she was going with this. The corner store is open late, and whenever we've gone there, there have always been at least a few customers. It's well-lighted. They'd probably give us a hard time about April, but on the plus side they don't let people wear their hoods up in the store (there's a sign on the door indicating that,) so he'd have to show his face on the security camera... making it less likely he'd do something to us afterward.

I thought Bree had the right idea. Apparently the guy following us figured out that we were onto him, too, because suddenly I sensed frustration and hurry from him. We picked up our pace. So did he. We exchanged another look. This one said that if something bad happened, Bree should run for help because she's so fast. She nodded a little, just enough for us to see.

In sight of the store, the guy picked up his pace, passed us, and blocked our way. I saw Bree tense, ready to bolt, and he said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Darn right," Kirsten replied. "So we're just going to be going..."

He continued like she hadn't said anything. "But I do have a message for you. You girls have been making some dangerous enemies lately. You've displeased people who really ought not to be displeased, if you value your lives."

Bree tried to dart past him, but he moved in front of her. She's faster, but he was bigger and stronger, so it was like she had hit a wall. She glowered at him, which he seemed to find funny.

"Let us go," Felicity told him steadily, her power active behind the words.

For a moment, it seemed like it was going to work, and he looked uncertain and started to move out of our way... but then he shook it off. "Wow, you girls are pulling out all your tricks tonight, aren't you?" he said with a laugh. "Don't worry. We're almost done here. One last part of the message. The woman next door to you, Inna. Don't believe her, don't trust her, and don't get too attached to her. She's made worse enemies than you have - and you don't want to be caught in the line of fire when her time comes. I'm warning you about this because you're just dumb kids, but one warning is all you get. If you're interested in your longevity, cut your ties with her before it's too late."

He turned away and left. April belatedly barked at him. I realized I was shaking. We walked home in silence.

In some ways, this is not big news. We know that we have a gang of vampires after us, as well as some mean vampire hunters back in the United States who dislike us, and those definitely count as dangerous enemies. We also know someone has been following/bothering the Roses, and that their efforts and the secrecy seemed focused on Inna. Somehow it all seemed more real, though, hearing it from a stranger in such stark terms.

I can't help feeling worried...

Love,
Kaya

Feels Like Autumn

Hi, this is Bree with another trip report.

The weather has definitely taken a turn for the chilly. No capri pants and short sleeves today! We're wearing hoodies and flannels, and taking notice of the fallen leaves. It really feels like autumn. And like Western New York.

We've been doing more visiting of relatives, and we attended an event about global issues at a local college. ("College" is different in the United States than in Canada; this was at what we would call a university.)

Next weekend, we're probably going to go down to Pennsylvania to the little summer place Blakeney's parents and grandparents share. It's really nice, right by a creek. Hopefully it'll be sunny and warm enough to go wading and kayaking, and we hope to get some pictures of our vacation fun, too.

A little over a week till we go home. Time flies when you're having fun... and we're having a lot of it! :-)

***

Now, this is Kaya, with a report from home. :-)

I got assigned a penpal! I don't know much about her except that she's my same age (twelve) and in Grade Seven like me, and that she lives in Nunavut. I also got her name and address and stuff, so I can write to her, although I don't know yet if she'll mind me sharing her name on the blog, so I'm gonna wait on that for now. I sent her my first letter talking about myself and asking her about her, so hopefully I'll hear back soon and be able to tell you more. I'm really excited to hear from her!

Also, Charissa decided to try out for the soccer team at her new school, and she made it! We're really happy for her. She's never played on a team before, but she likes soccer with her friends. I think she'll enjoy it, and that it'll help her settle into her new school and make extra friends. Yay for Charissa!

That's all the news for now!

Love,
The Greens and The Roses

Preparations

"But you'd miss New York before you could unpack..." -Rent

Hi, this is Summer. :-)

We're in the process of getting ready for our trip! We're finishing up last minute laundry and cleaning - and packing, and changing our minds, and re-packing. You know, the usual pre-travel stuff. ;-)

Great news, by the way... Bree is coming along after all! The school decided not to fuss about it, and she's braving her fear of flying to make the trip. I'm so excited. It would have been fun either way, but it'll be more interesting to have another kid along to share the adventure.

While we're gone, Inna, Maia, and Kiwi are going to sleep in the Greens' house. With Blakeney and Bree out of town there will be enough extra room that it won't be too much of a squeeze, and that way they can supervise everyone and make sure they're safe. Way more fun (and less awkward, given all the wonderful weirdness at home) than hiring another adult to babysit. They'll be moving their stuff over after we're done with supper.

Our flight leaves tomorrow at 5:50 a.m. - so pretty much tonight, since we aren't going to get much sleep if any. We have to be through the check-in line by 4:50 because of our airport's rules, so that means leaving the house pretty early. Hopefully we'll have a safe flight, and arrive uneventfully on the other end!

The girls staying here are still planning to blog, and Bree and I will try to post entries from our trip, too, but it'll be a chaotic couple of weeks on both ends, so don't worry if you don't hear from us for awhile. We're a little nervous about the travel portion... but very excited! Yay for taking trips! :-)

Love,

Summer

More about Letters

Hello. This is Kaya. :-)

Summer isn't the only one who got a letter this week... or the only one who sent one recently.

I got a letter from my biological sister, Rosa. She lives with relatives back in Idaho. It was a happy letter, not a lot of serious emotional stuff. She turned eight recently, and she was telling me about her birthday party and her school. Rosa even drew me a picture of her with her dog, which was really cute and made me smile.

It also made me miss her even more than usual, though. I sometimes wish I could be both places - or even better, that she could come here and live with me. I know that would be hard for her. It's a big change, and she's a lot younger than I am, so she wouldn't comprehend it as easily. Rosa is probably happier where she is. I know she misses me, though... and I miss her too. I think about her a lot. It's hard when you can't be with all of your family.

Evelyn has two sisters she doesn't live with, too. One of hers is older than her, and one is younger. I know she misses them, and feels the same way.

At least we can write, phone, and e-mail, though. It's good that technology can help us stay in touch. If I lived this far from Rosa 100 years ago, I'd most likely just never have contact with her again. I'm glad we can at least still be in each other's lives. That's the bright side.

Now, about my sent letter. I joined a penpal program! I know, it sounds very retro. Everyone uses e-mail and online message boards, now, to talk to people all over the world. We have blog friends who comment regularly from several different countries. Still, there's something to be said for getting paper mail. It's really fun to open the mailbox and get a letter.

I'm still waiting to find out who my penpal will be. I asked to be matched with a girl approximately my age who lives in The North. I know we seem pretty "north" ourselves - and we sure feel that way! - but actually there's quite a lot of area to the north of us also, where people live. Very sturdy, determined people; sometimes we have to be pretty sturdy and determined to live even where we do.

My pen pal will probably live in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, or Nunatsiavut. I am hoping (and it is very likely) that she will be from a First Nations tribe or band. ("First Nations" is the term usually used in Canada to refer to native/aboriginal people.) I think it would be really neat to learn about her culture, and I can tell her about the history and some of the traditions of my tribe, too.

Love,
Kaya

A Letter and a Trip

Hey, this is Summer! I have two pieces of news to fill my bloggy friends in on. :-)

First of all, remember (or I will remind you...) how the day after my birthday, I asked Inna and Maia if we could find out about my biological family? Well, as I updated in the comments on that entry, Maia sent a letter to the Children's Aid Society that placed me for adoption, to see what they knew about my background. Yesterday we got a letter in response. I was pretty excited, but also kind of scared and nervous to find out what it said!

They sent what's called "non-identifying information," which basically tells me some things about my biological parents and why I was in foster care, without telling their names or giving information that would lead to figuring out who they are. I have to wait till I turn eighteen to get my full records... which I find kind of lame because my adult adoptive sister who has custody of me said it was okay. I can wait a few more years, though. It kind of takes the pressure off making decisions about meeting them if I can't yet anyway.

The coolest thing was it told me what my biological parents looked like. No pictures, but there was a description. As I already knew, my dad was black and my mom was white. I got my curly hair from both of them, and my amber eyes from my dad's side of the family. Actually it sounds like I look more like my dad in general. My hobbies are more like my mom, though. She liked writing and horses, too. One cool thing I found out was that my dad had been to college; I guess I just kind of assumed neither of them would have. They were pretty young, though, and they had some problems, including drinking and drugs, so they didn't take good care of me and I ended up in foster care. (They didn't abuse me, though, but I knew that.) My parents worked on a case plan for awhile, but they weren't able to get it together in time and they lost their parental rights. It didn't say if they were still alive or not, but they were as of when I was adopted, so hopefully their lives went better after that.

There was also information about my first adoptive family who sent me back, but I just kind of skimmed it. It was what I remembered. They were married, upper middle class, two other kids that they had by birth. I wasn't really interested in the details, but maybe I will be someday. Right now I kind of feel like if they didn't want me, why should I care about them? I have a new family now, that loves me. I set that part of the letter aside.

All in all, I feel pretty good about this. I found out some information, and it satisfied some of my curiosity. Someday when I'm older, I'd like to find out more, but I'm content for now. I'm glad I asked Maia and Inna to help me get the info.

Also, on a totally different subject, Blakeney is taking a trip to visit her parents and grandparents in upstate New York - and she's taking me with her! I'm so excited! I've never been to the United States before, and the other girls say there's a lot of cool stuff to do in the Rochester area. Blakeney's favourite restaurant in the whole world is in there - a really good Ethiopian place, and we don't have an Ethiopian restaurant here at all - so we'll probably eat there the day our flight gets in. Blakeney's parents live in a smaller town in the area, so we'll get to experience some rural life too. I'll try to post some blog entries from our trip!

Bree may get to go with us too. She really wants to, but she's trying to figure out if she can miss that much school. She's never been to New York State either, although she grew up in the United States, so for her it's not a new country.

Hopefully it'll work out. It would be fun to have Bree along! We would have loads of fun in Flower/Flour City, and visiting Blakeney's folks! Bree and Summer, painting the town red... not literally. I hope she gets to go too, but I'm on the trip for sure.

So that's our news for now. Hope life is good for our blog friends, too. :-)

Love,
Summer

Back to School!

Hey, this is Clare. For once, I'm not blogging about crazy vampire stuff! Or even my own weird past. I'm blogging about something normal: our first week of school. :-)

On Wednesday, our school started up again for the autumn term. (Typically schools here begin on the first Wednesday after Labour Day unless that would cause it to be extremely early or extremely late.) Our first school "week" was only three days long - I guess the point is so we can settle in and get used to things before we get back into full swing.

I think of all of us, Charissa was the most nervous, because she was starting a school she had never been to before. She used to attend a special school for hearing impaired students, but the government decided that wasn't needed anymore and closed it, so all the kids from her old school were sent to different places. Charissa now attends the same school as Fiona, Kiwi, and Evelyn. It's the local Anglican parish elementary school. So far, Charissa says she likes it. I think it helps a lot that she's in the same class as Fiona and Kiwi, so she automatically has them as friends, and their friends are spending time with her too. It's hard to tell how the schoolwork will be for her because of her learning disabilities, but the teacher is willing to help her. I think Charissa was more worried about whether she'd have friends, anyway.

Summer and Kiwi were also a little nervous because they started school last May, so they only had two months before summer break. They were afraid it would be hard to settle in again. They said it was easier than they expected, though. It was easier than moving at almost the end of the year, at least. Kiwi is getting over how scared she was when she was kidnapped - I think the school routine is helping.

The one person having a little bit of trouble is Bree. Last school year she got caught up on the studies she'd missed because of family problems, but the one class that's still an issue for her is French. French is required here because Canada is officially bilingual. When she lived in the United States - she only moved to Canada last school year - Bree took Spanish, and they didn't even start that till high school. And honestly, according to her the school she attended didn't exactly have the most academic excellence in languages, so I'm not sure how much Spanish she actually speaks anyway.

The teachers here, though, expect that at Bree's age, she'd have been learning French for ten years or so. Last year it wasn't a big deal because Bree was so behind in all her subjects, but this year she feels pretty bad about the French. She's studying really hard already, and Felicity and Josefina have been helping her. Bree likes school, so it'll be nice if she can get to a point where she doesn't have to stress anymore.

The other girls are just starting a normal year at the same schools they went to last year, and it's going well for them.

I had a big change this year, though. I'm homeschooled now, and I never was before. I actually like it more than I expected to, because I can work at my own pace, but I admit I miss the social parts, at least from when I used to live in Nova Scotia. I didn't have many friends at my school in Colorado, anyway. Going to the public high school isn't really an option, though. Sunlight and all. Vampire. Newfoundland isn't super sunny, and a lot of days are cloudy, but it's not consistent enough that I could really be enrolled in regular school.

Kaya does online classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and I like that best because we can study together. We're in different grades so we can't really work together on our assignments, but at least there's some company. Tuesday and Thursdays are going to be harder because Kaya does her co-op classes with other local students that day.

Thursday actually was good this week, though, because Inna let me come to work with her. (She works as an art historian at the provincial museum.) I did my lessons in one of the empty meeting rooms, but at lunchtime I sat with Inna and during my breaks I got to look at the art, photography, and natural history exhibits. Inna says I can come any time that it's non-sunny enough for me to go out in the daytime. That'll be really good. School for vampires doesn't have to be that bad after all!

I hope the rest of our blog friends are enjoying the new school year, too! :-)

Love,
Clare

How We Rescued Kiwi

"What you've got to do is finish what you have begun.

I don't know just how, but it's not over till you've won..." 

- The Secret Garden Musical, "Hold On"

Hey, this is Bree, yet again. My sisters figured I should be the one to finish the story, since I was the one who filled you in on the beginning and the middle. I'm glad to report, so you don't need to worry anymore - it had a happy ending! Kiwi is home safely.

After we got the last letter, all we could do was wait. I read a few blogs and commented on them, because I was trying to be as normal as possible, but it was never far from any of our minds where Kiwi was, and how much danger she was in.

As it got closer to nightfall, we started trying to prepare ourselves. At first, Blakeney said none of us kids could go, but then eventually she considered our chances and relented a little and said no one under age fifteen could. Inna sharpened some stakes, and the rest of us thought about how we could use our individual powers and skills to help Kiwi.

The plan went like this: Maia would change into cat form, and scout the area. Once she figured out they where they were holding Kiwi, the others would create a diversion and/or actually fight off the vampires if necessary, while I dashed in with my awesome speed (which is apparently my special gift,) grab Kiwi and run. Once I signaled that I had her, we'd all get out of there as fast as we could.

Of course, there was one obvious downside to that. The vampires would come back, eventually, and try again, even if we got away. I'm not big on killing people or anything, but I very cautiously asked about a more permanent solution.

Inna got a very steely look in her eyes, and said that once Kiwi was safe, she would go take care of it. I wasn't scared of her, because you know... it's Inna. She's basically my sister. At that moment, though? I was glad I wasn't on the other side.

As we got ready to go, we tried to work up our morale. Blakeney gave us all a pep talk. Then Kirsten started singing rousing songs from Les Miserables to try to get us in the mood... till I kind of put a damper on things by reminding her how that story turned out. Les Mis is not a plotline I hoped to emulate! Kirsten pouted a little, but she got the point and switched to The Scarlet Pimpernel, a much better example of heroism that actually paid off.

We got to the park as the sun was setting. Maia went behind a tree (the clothes thing) and turned into her cat form, then she came out and we all petted her for good luck. She took off into the night. Ten minutes passed. Then fifteen. Inna and Blakeney started to get ansty. The park isn't that big. Was something wrong? At the twenty minute mark, Maia came back. She turned back into human form, and told us the vampires were in the brick gazebo at the centre of the park.

This was not entirely surprising. If I was going to pick a place to defend in the park, it would be there. The shelter is solid, the sides are steep, and it's surrounded by a wide grassy space with no trees, so it would be difficult for us to sneak up. We were definitely going to need that diversion.

Luckily, three of my sisters have pretty flashy powers. Josefina lit a pile of leaves on fire. Molly started making sheets of ice, then Kirsten would concentrate and shatter them. I'm not sure what the vampires thought was going on, but from where I was standing, it sounded like a huge battle. I was sure they would go investigate.

I needed to wait till they were out of the way... but not too long, in case they came back. I counted to ten, then dashed in. The gazebo was mostly empty. There was one of those pet carriers, which I figured Kiwi must be in. Poor thing! Unfortunately, there was also a vampire still standing guard - and the difference between one vampire and none is fairly significant.

I took a deep breath and psyched myself up. Be brave, Bree. Be fast! Before I had time to think about how suicidally insane what I was about to do was, I took off at a run toward the gazebo and pounded up the steps, keeping my eyes on the the pet carrier. Luckily for me, the vampire was startled. I think he would have expected someone to run away from him, not toward him. He didn't react fast enough. I didn't stop running; I grabbed the carrier and vaulted over the low rear wall. I said a quick "Oof!" as I took the impact in my knees, but there was no time to stop, and thank goodness I didn't fall. 

I ran all the way to the park entrance, still holding onto cat-form Kiwi in the carrier. Luckily she's the size of a normal cat. I didn't have time to stop and let her out, and I'm not sure she could have kept up with me. When I was close to the boundary of the park, I started whistling "Into the Fire," the song from The Scarlet Pimpernel that we'd used to psyche ourselves up. That was the signal.

It wasn't long before I heard running feet. The others looked pretty tense and exhausted, but they were all still okay. Inna and Clare were the last; they were holding off the vampires. Unfortunately, one of the vampires was still following them, and gaining on them.

At that moment, we discovered Felicity's power. She later told us she didn't know why, but she yelled, "Just settle down!" at the vampire... and he stopped, confused. So that is how she stops our arguments all the time! She knows how to make us calm down!

There was no time to stop and talk. We ran to Inna's station wagon, let Kiwi out of the carrier, and piled in. Inna drove like a crazy person - but she always does that, even when we aren't running from anything. 

Once we were on our way, I turned to Felicity. "That's really cool!" I told her, still kind of panting from my run.

Felicity looked very proud of herself. "You guys helped me figure it out, with all your bickering," she joked.

"You're welcome!" I replied, and stuck out my tongue.

It didn't take us long to get home. Kiwi hadn't cried the whole time she was being held captive, but when she was safe she finally did. She was really really scared, both for herself and for Clare, and she was tired of being in a tiny cage. She's okay, though, and happy to be home.

So that was our "adventure." Everyone is safe. For now, at least...

School starts next week. It would be okay for life to be boring for awhile. :-)

Love, 

Bree