Karla races after Cedric, trying to keep up with her older cousin. Gale, Clyde and Grayson follow in suit, keeping right on the older children's heels. They climb the malls playground equipment, yelling at each other and chasing one another with looks of determination and pleasure on their faces.
Bradley, Shadow and Byron hang off in a corner of the malls children area, looking completely disinterested in what the younger children are doing, seeing as they're "too old to be partaking in such childish nonsense" (as put in fourteen year old Shads words). They do however, play with young Leila with great pleasure, adoring her long dark hair and olive skin.
Karla takes joy in pushing Cedric down the slide and then having Gale push her down in suit. Us parents sit nearby, speaking and watching our children with care. We are all sure to keep watch over Cedric, Karla and Gale, seeing as they're the ring leaders of their group now.
We're at a family reunion of sorts right now. My family, Percy's, Iris' and Juliettes family all gathered together for a couple weeks to be together. We try to see each other as often as possible, but when three of the four families have public obligations to fulfill, it makes meetings together rather difficult.
Our (Me and Wills) family had not grown at all. It was just Will, Karla and I. I don't think we have any intentions of having any more children. I mean, it's been ten years. Will ended up being right about Karla - she was very much like me. Will had gotten pleanty of roles over the years, and when Karla turned eight, I went back to work, something I'd been direly looking forward to. I own my own buisness, and have a lot of workers under me. Karla had gotten her first job, on the show Fetch with Ruff Ruffmen just this year and had finished the season only a week ago. She'd not only enjoyed it thoroughly (making her claim on the show as the renowned tomboy), but she'd made friends too.
Percy and Thalia were done when they had Clyde. Somehow, all three boys needed up looking pretty much exactly like Percy, except Clyde had gotten his mothers red hair. And Byron was just starting to be introduced to the life as a celebrity. He was becoming one of those cool young teens who has great sense of style and taste. Plus, he'd just been accepted onto a new Disney Chanel show called A Small Fish in a Big Ocean. It was pretty insane. But, Cedric and Cylde hadn't done much yet, besides being the sons of Percy Shark.
Iris and Thomas had become pretty famous as well. Iris was now directing movies, as well as acting, and Thomas and Iris had acted in several movies together on more than one occasion. Their lives, as always, were going well. Bradley and Shadow had become something of beauty children in the acting world. They did modeling, and got pleanty of good roles. The mixture of Thomas' youthful looks and Iris' shy and sometimes seductive glances, had rubbed off on both the twins, who were already very much alike.
Then there was Juliette, who had the picture perfect dentist family. When she married Wright, her last name changed to Country, so she was no longer Juliette Walters, but Juliette Country. Her and her Wright run a practice together - He's a dentist, she's a hygeneist. I don't think Juliette really ever wanted the life of fame, and she trys to avoid it at all costs, but still, when you're related to a bunch of famous people, you get noticed at least sometimes. She had three children. Two little boys, Gale (the oldest) and Grayson (the second oldest). And then one little girl, Leila, who was pretty much Juliette's dream child. She looked exactly like her, down to her insane level of petieteness. Since Leila was the youngest, she was extremely spoiled.
Our families had all turned out well. We are all successful. We are all happy. My family often travels back and forth from Britain, where Will used to live, because he misses the UK and he wants Karla to be aware of her British roots. As it is, Karla has a mostly American accent, but she sounds British a lot of the time and as soon as we visit her Grandma and Grandpa in London, she sounds more British than American. It's pretty interesting, really.
Sometimes it hits me that Will and I have been marrived for eleven years, and that we wanted to be married for thirteen. Seriously, sometimes I just say out loud, "Holy Crap, we're still married" because for a while, I thought Will and I would never end up together. I guess that just goes to show that sometimes things have to fall apart to fall together the way they're supposed to be.
I half listen to Percy as he speaks, "I really think we should just buy a bunch of water balloons and have a game of family killings with water."
Juliette shadows her eyes, "Yeah, that sounds really wholesome. Way to teach your kids to be upstanding citizens. 'Hey, kids. We love each other as a family. Now take this gun and shoot your brother.'"
Thalia raises an eyebrow, "That's pretty much how our family works anyway. Except with sticks - and the boys don't have to be told to attack each other."
Iris chuckles, "Shad and Bradley get along well, actually. You'd think they wouldn't, but half the time they're cooking up some mischief together."
Shadow calls across the mall, "What lies are you saying about us?"
Thomas smirks and calls back, "We're telling them you're terrible children and that you never do your chores."
Shadow scowls, sounding a bit British as she speaks, "You're hilarious, Dad!"
He smiles, "I know!"
I insert, "I feel like sometimes Karla wants a playmate around the house. But she also likes her alone time and I have a feeling she would beat up her younger brother or sister a lot."
Will nods, "Oh, yeah. She definitely would."
"But Karla is so smart!" Percy says, "She's smarter than all my boys combined!"
I shrug, smirking, "Like father like sons."
He rolls his eyes, "And this is where she gets her sarcasm from."
"That was actually sass and humor." I correct him.
Will wraps an arm around me, kissing the side of my head (Cedric happens to look over at that exact moment and falls over gagging and yelling, "BLIND! KISSING! I'M GOING BLIND, I TELL YOU!"), " So sassy. So sexy."
Juliette whacks his arm, "Innocent ears around, mister!"
He smiles, "Sorry. I apologize to your children."
She waves it off, "I wasn't talking about them- I was talking about ME!"
Iris rolls her eyes, "Because everything is about you, Juli."
"Uh, yeah, doy." Juliette says.
"Wow, and that's the first time someone has said doy since the early 1990's." Percy jokes.
"I'll bring that word back, you'll see." Juliette nods.
I laugh, "Because everyone wants to be like Juliette Country."
"Exactly!" She grins.
Karla comes running up to Will and I, her blue eyes filled with excitement, "Mum, Dad, can I have five dollars!?"
Will furrows his eyebrows, "What for?"
"The older kids are going to go around the mall and play a game with only five dollars to see who can get the best buy! They have their own money! And they said Cedric and I could tag along if I got five dollars from you!" She explains quickly, without taking a breath.
Will and I share a glance. We both look at each other questioning at first, but then a smile spreads across Wills face. He looks a little proud. I shrug. What's the harm?
He pulls out his wallet, handing her five dollars, "Stay right by Shad, okay? I trust her the most."
A wide grin spread across Karla face, as she wraps her Dad in a hug, "Yes! Thank you Daddy!"
She runs off, chasing after the teenagers who keep a close eye on both Cedric and Karla.
Percy looks over at us, "That was weird. Our kids are going shopping together."
I mumble, "Karla hates shopping."
Will nods, "I think she's realizing that she will be accepted into the youth group instead of the children's group when she turns tweleve and that this will help her in future bonding time."
That's how it had worked with all our children. Nearly as soon as Bradley and Shadow had turned twelve, they got a little odd. Well, not odd, but they matured a good deal. And when Byron turned twelve shortly after them, Bradley and Shad hung out with him more and he matured too. Ever since then, Brad, Shad and Byron had been inseparable. Cedric was next in line to turn twelve and then it was Karla. It was then that the older children would see her as mature and let her join in on the older kid things. So, yes it was really weird.
I look at Will, "I guess everything is turning out right in the world."
He sighs, pulling me into his shoulder, "I guess it is."
: : : : :
Karla Jane Poulter grew up too fast for my liking. Soon she was in high school, then college, again, following my footsteps and attending Harvard. She got married, had kids and a successful career. She acted half the time, and the othwr half, she was a personal fitness trainer to other celebrities. I couldn't have been more proud.
Karla proved to be more difficult as a teenager. Stubborn and head strong. Her temper flared very easily, so we often tried to do our best to make sure she never exploded. She ended up being very physically strong, and she put that to use by joining kick boxing, which also got some of her anger and aggressive nature out.
She was insanely athletic (like me) only she took athleticness to the next level. She climbed mountains, and went skydiving, she went deep sea diving and was pretty much the ulminate dare devil. She ended up being pretty bad ass. She has an unusual amount of psycical energy, great recuperative power, and robust constiution, which especially helps with the certain lifestyle she lives.
She was by no means moderate. She was either very supportive or bitterly against something, so that no force or argument could sway her. She was just a natural fighter, ready to pick up at any moment and argue. "War on any provocation" is a good way to describe her.
She was sarcastic and quick witted, so everyone generally liked her because she was funny. She had been able to teach herself self-control early on, which was a big plus. She was straightforward and frank - being completely honest with everyone.
She was superb at taking care of herself, and I can count the times she's ever asked for help on one hand. She probably ended up being smarter than me, especially in mechanical matters.
And then there was Will and I. I retired a few years after the required age. I'd loved my work, and I enjoyed it, but it was just getting tiring. My eyesight wasn't as good and it was hard to see the floor plans for parks, and buildings. When I retired, I had to find a new hobby. I couldn't really do soccer anymore, so I went for long walks and I read. TV wasn't much of an interest to me either. I couldn't cook and I was by no means crafty. But one thing I did enjoy doing, was looking at old pictures and making photo scrap books. I had them categorized from the year Will was born (since he's older than I am) to now. They went through both of our school years and married years, parenting years and the college years of Karla. So one day she could look back at her parents pictures and know that we lived a good life - although it was hard and there were ups and downs, but love never failed us. And it never would.
As for Will, he kept on acting. Never quit, even as he got older. He loved what he did. And he quite enjoyed playing old crazy men. He was good at playing crazy young people, but he excelled at crazy old. And Will never changed much either. Over the years, we got into a habit, where every morning I would wake up, start the coffee, and then go get in the shower. Then he would wake up, smell the coffee and come take it off the stove, afriad the coffee would burn and set the house on fire. I would then get out of the shower and come in where he would say, "You're going to burn the house down one day, ace." He did that everyday till I died. And then every morning he'd get up, make the coffee and say, "I wouldn't mind if you'd come burn the house done now." But I never did burn the house down.
It was a long life. It was a happy life. And every time I look back at my life, I realize how fast it passed by. How very unfair that is. How very cruel that you can't realize how fast your life is really moving while you're living it. You don't realize til it's gone and you're old and gray, trying to figure out something you can still do when you have a bad hip. But you think back to the days when you were hurt, or you were happy, and you remember prom and your wedding. You remember giving birth, those late nights with a baby, those first steps, and sending your child to school. And as you look back, it doesn't seem quiet as long, because the memories are still fresh. But mostly, you remember the loving feeling. And most of all, I remember loving Karla and Will. How Will and I were never " just friends". How deep and thoughtful his eyes were and continued to be his whole life. There was a story in our eyes when we looked at each other. Even at eighty years old, it seemed like nothing changed at all.
It still feels like yesterday.
Author:
Oh, dang.
I suck at goodbyes.
I can't say goodbyes, they're too sad.
So, i'm just going to say goodnight.
But before I go, I'd like to offer a few things up -
First - the last daily questions!
If no one was paired up, who would you ship together?
Who do you ship the hardest out of all the real pairs?
Second- I based the character, Sidney, off my cousin, Dori. HI DORI!!!!! Anyway, Dori just got a Wattpad a couple weeks ago, so she's still new. She's planning on writing books soon, so if you guys could follow wierdldori, that would be AWESOME!!!!! (Love you Doors!) Dori also makes guest appearances on my Snapchat, so you'll get to know her more there.
Third- and I'm sure this is the one everyone is looking forward to the most is the name of my next book. Like I said, it's going to be a Dylan O'Brien fan fiction because I'm a nerd. So the name of my next book is..........Willa McElrie! (Which has been posted -GO READ IT O.O)
You'll never guess what it's about! *sarcasm*
So to those of you who asked if I was doing a Dilla fan fiction - yes. Yes, I am. :-)
Fourth - be sure to follow me!!!!! On Wattpad, Instagram and Snapchat!
Snapchat: sunnycoolkid
Wattpad is kind of obvious.
But PLEASE follow me, because I love you people and I like having followers, so, YAY!
And fifth and final - I will be doing a playlist chapter, which I will be adding on here, as a next chapter, and the before Wills, so don't leave me JUST yet , there are five more chapters of before Will to come (of course Will won't be in them, but Sidney will.)
So, here I am, saying goodnight! I hope to see you guys in some of my other stories!
-Sunny :-)