Chapter 12: Strange Little Girl

Darius enjoys painting above everything else. His teachers are impressed with his talent, and showered him with praise for his impressionistic eye.

Autumn is a genius, but hr teachers aren't as pleased with her. Most of the time, she's beyond their lesson plan, and finds it difficult to pay attention in class when all they have to teach is what she already knows.
Genius certainly doesn't come from her mother, so Autumn researches her father's side of the family online, and discovers a history of insanity and eccentricity in the Goolsby line which does not bode well for her future.

Stacey O'Mackey throws dirt in her hair and calls her a bug eater. Autumn does not eat bugs, she collects them, but Stacey isn't interested in her clarifications, and just continues with his taunting, until Autumn runs home in tears.

"Why do they think I eat bugs?" Autumn asks Darius, "I would never eat my pets!"

"Stacey O'Mackey is a jerk," Darius says, "Don't listen to him."

"But it's not just him. All the other kids call me bug eater, and braniac, and all kinds of names. Why?"

"Because they're stupid and you're not," Darius says.

Gibson doesn't so much help Autumn with  her homework, it's more like he listens to her explain it to him.
"The kids at school don't like me," she confesses to him, "They say I'm weird."

Gibson sighs. When he was a kid, he had to put up with taunts about his two gay dads. Until he, Parker and the adopted children of Sherlock Speeking and Aloysius Wattson, who did have two gay dads, ganged up on the others and made them stop.

"Children fear things they don't understand," he tries to explain, "And they lash out when they're afraid."

"But I'm a child, and I'm not like that," Autumn points out.

"You are smarter and more mature than the other kids your age," Gibson replies.

"Darius doesn't tease me, and he's a normal kid."

"I'm glad. I wouldn't want him behaving like that. Stick with him and he'll help you get through your schoolday."

"I'll go down there and tell your teachers about what's going in their class," Jasmin responds angrily to her daughter's complaints about the school, "I'll make them punish those bullies."

"Don't, Mom, please," Autumn protests, "That will only make things worse."

The next evening, Autumn helps Darius with his homework while she searches the galaxy through her telescope.

"Did you put that frog in Stacey O'Mackey's desk today?' she asks her only friend.

Darius smiles proudly, "Yeah that was me."

Stacey got sent to the principal's office for that, and for the rest of the day he was subject to 'frog boy' taunts from the rest of the class.

No amount of abuse from her schoolmates can keep Autumn from enjoying what she loves.

At the insistence of her agent, Jasmin recorded a commercial for the Doo Peas corporation. They paid a hefty sum for her song, but once she had the money, she felt dirty for selling out.
Gibson suggested she invest the filthy money into his pet project, a community garden he'd been saving his own money to build.

"We'll recycle your money into something wholesome for the whole community," he told her. Happy with his idea, Jasmin handed over her earnings and Gibson was finally able to buy the land and set up his garden.

Meadow becomes a toddler.

Darius' birthday is on Saturday, and Gibson throws a party for him. Jasmin's brother's and their spouses come, as well as Carey and Roslyn, and Gibson's daughter Sherrie.

Roslyn tells Darius stories about performing with Warm Gun, leaving out the parts where they played for no audience.

The family gathers for the cake.

And Darius becomes a teen.

Gibson spends some time with Sherrie. She's never been to his house before, and he tells she's always welcome to drop by for a visit.

Rory McGreggor wasn't invited, but no one is going to tell the ghostly party crasher to leave.

Darius has expanded his artistic pursuits into the third dimension and has taken on sculpting.

It's Autumn's birthday, and Darius wants to get her something special. There's nothing in the world he could purchase that would please her; a proper gift for her needs to be caught alive.

The beetle bites Darius' finger. Hard. And then escapes.

So Darius tries again, and makes a successful catch.

Autumn doesn't want a party, so it's just her mother, Gibson and Darius at her celebration.

Autumn becomes a teenager.

Darius takes Autumn over to her growing insect collection, where he's placed his catch.

"Happy Birthday," he says as he shows it to her.

"That's a Silver Spotted Skipper!" she gasps, "I don't have one of those!"

"You do now," Darius laughs, "I'm glad you like it."

"I love it!" she gasps, and hugs him.

"But I didn't get you anything. For your birthday. Yesterday."

"That's okay," Darius says, "I don't want anything."

"Except this," he adds, and kisses her, gently.

Autumn blushes and looks away.

"Was that okay?" Darius asks, hoping he didn't scare her off.

"No," she says, "That was better than okay, I think."

"I think I could do better," Darius smiles, "We'll have to practice to get it right."

"You know you'll get made fun of," Autumn warns him, "You already catch enough flak just from living in the same house as me. If they find out you've been kissing the bug eater..."

"I'll just have to get enough frogs to put in everyone's desks," Darius answers wit a laugh. "Seriously, Autumn, I don't care what anyone says, I'll kiss who I want to kiss."

Gibson comes into the room with Meadow and notices the blossoming romance. His son managed to do what he couldn't.

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Challenge Notes:
The park requirement for Living Green is complete. I decided I didn't want to mess around with any of kiwi tea's parks. Even the rundown Factory Square Park is perfect the way it is without  'improvements'.
So I placed a 30x30 lot in one of the empty areas that's painted up a crop field and I dropped the community garden from Riverview in there.  That garden is 20x30 so I had room to expand it to add the required picnic tables and grill to make it a 'park', and to add some WA crops. I also added a swing set, so it's a level 2 park. I won't bring it to level three as that would require more grills and picnic tables, and I think it has enough.
The town did not have a community garden before this, so I think it does add more to the community than adding a new park or messing with the current ones.

Gibson has achieved his LTW, mastering mixology and owning a bar. I've largely given up on actual bartending. Jasmin got some high payouts on celebrity opportunities, like recording a commercial, and also some high paying painting opportunities. Since we can't buy anything, anyway, we are not starving for cash anymore.

Jasmin is two skill points away from achieving her LTW, she just needs one more each in painting and guitar. She's level 6 in the rock branch of the music career.

Darius' teen trait is savvy sculptor. (I had the sculpting thing already purchased in family inventory before we started the Living Green restriction, so I could whip it out when Darius became old enough to use it.)

Autumn's teen trait is family oriented. She is fated to have three kids, and she'll be the first in this legacy to actually marry. She already has the LTW wish to be a world renowned surgeon locked in. She rolled that as a child when her sister was born. Since that is her rolled career, I decided to go with it.