Bold and Simful

Hi, I’m Francis Xavier Mendenhall III, but you can call me Trip, most people do. As you can see, we have a pool and I’m really into sports.

But I don’t get to play all the time. Like tonight, Ma decided I should go to Bay Prep which meant an interview dinner with this guy, I think he just wanted a free meal. That’s my ma in the blue, doesn’t she look nervous? I think she was all anxious was because Gram was wearing her pajamas and telling another fish story. Thank goodness I take after Pop or I’d have an ulcer by this age.

Speaking of Pop, here he is. I’m named after him. Nice guy, laid back, doesn’t care if I leave my toys laying around. He and Ma are having problems though, they think I don’t notice cause I’m a kid but I’m just short, not blind. Oh, I got into the school too. Uniforms, blech!

Meet one of the causes of my parent’s problems. Shelly works with Ma, Ma’s a high power attorney, and she brings her friend home from work with her a lot. I don’t know how you work in a bikini but whatever, adults are weird.

After seeing that, I decided I didn’t really want to go swimming and went to watch movies with Gram instead. This guy over here is Paul, he’s a freeloading gambler, or so Ma says. I think he’s pretty fun, you can’t tell right now ’cause he’s reading.

Gram is a lot of fun too, she lets me watch scary movies and never asks if my homework is done. She used to have a parrot that we were teaching to talk but I forgot and left the cage open one day and it flew out the door, but she didn’t even get angry at me. My Gram is cool.

That’s why we were all so upset when her time was up. She was old, kinda smelled funny too, but I wasn’t ready for her to go. It was a crazy scene, Death floated in and showed her it was time and she went quietly. The rest of us cried our heads off.

Except Ma, she didn’t shed a tear. I thought that was weird but as I said, adults are weird, maybe she bottles it inside. Paul was all broken up, fell on the floor crying and had to be visited by a doctor, I was upset too but keep it together, man.

The very next day, Paul and Ma got in a fight. A real fight! Ma was pissed because Gram left most of her money to Paul, so she froze the Will and told Paul to move out. I thought that was extreme, it was Gram’s money after all.

So Paul was indigent, I thought Ma said he was indignant, which I could understand considering the circumstances, but apparently they are two different words. I thought Paul was a goner, but since he didn’t have anywhere to go, Pop let him move back in. He takes care of me when my parents are at work so that the social worker doesn’t come.

One good thing, besides my inheritance, came out of Gram’s death. That reminds me, I have to call my friend.

Hello, I am Sabrina Winfield, heiress to the Winfiend construction fortune, but I’m not pretentious about it. That was my friend Trip on the phone, his Grandmother just died, it’s tough for the kid.

My grandma isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, that’s her there. No, not the old lady, that’s our nanny Rose. Grandma is the one holding the cat. She moved into an apartment where they only allowed 2 pets so she brought Big Fuzz and Shankie to live with us.

Big Fuzz sleeps in my room, he’s named after the cartoon cat voiced by one of Mom’s friends. That’s my brother Theo scratching his head, I try to help him as much as I can but he’s too into sports to pay much attention in class. I told him, he has to get A’s or he’ll be a loser but he’s a loser anyway.

Just look at him, shoveling food into his mouth, like someone is going to take it away from him. Boys are gross.

And sooo juvenile. I was only trying to teach him manners, he’s a Winfield too.

That’s my Mom and Dad, Monica and Randal. They are really in love and always go on vacation together.

Don’t get the idea that they are absentee parents, Dad does work a lot, you have to if you are going to keep a fortune growing but Mom always has time to play with us and she’s a lot of fun.

We do need friends our own age though. My bff is currently Alexa, she’s also my half-cousin, my mom is her mom’s half sister on their father’s side. She and her parents just moved back to the Bay from Rigel Heights so you’ll have to excuse her choice of associates, like Delilah Placer.

Hi everyone, my name is Alexa Veronica Bettencourt-Gunderson, the most important part of that name is the Bettencourt. That means that I am the heiress to the Bettencourt money, which I’ll never see if my grades keep up like this.

We just moved here from Rigel Heights, so I was still going to Heights Elementary which was not stimulating my intellect at all so Mom decided to enroll me in her alma mater, Bay Prep. The admission process was just a formality, but Mom laid it on thick anyway.

Dad, on the other hand, was no help at all and maybe even a detriment. Poor guy, he’s working as a muralist trying to beautify the City of Nephila, but it’s a hard task.

That’s my Grandmother, Maxine. Doesn’t she look like a grouch? That’s because she is, Mom always lets me cheat.

Gramps is a lot more fun, it’s like he’s my age. We go swimming a lot and he is a real life spy so he has really cool listening devices that I can use to spy on Trip and Theo, not that I like boys yet.

I was surprised how upset I was when Grandmother died. She just fell out on the floor, right in the living room, while Dad was painting Aunt Veronica for a perfume ad campaign. Death came and the sky lit up and all that was left of Grandmother was an urn. Mom put that on the coffee table, lovely.

Mom and Dad’s friends came by to offer their condolences. This is Elizabeth Mendenhall, she’s Trip’s aunt and she’s supposed to have a daughter too but I’ve never seen her and the only Mendenhall in my school is Trip.

Later that night, Mom and I found Gramps crumpled up on the pool deck. Mom broke down right away but I knew something was fishy and I was right, he was just teaching a stray cat how to play dead. Mom said that was distasteful, but I think what is distasteful is the state of our lawn. Really, someone needs to talk to the gardener.

I saved the best for last, this is my Aunt Veronica, I’m named after her. Isn’t she gorgeous? She’s a famous actress and the voice of Big Fuzz the cat, that’s cool. I want to be like her when I grow up, men are always coming by the house trying to talk to her but she blows them off. Grandmother wanted her to get married but I’m glad she didn’t, she’s a strong independent woman, just like me.

 

Posted on October 7th, 2008 under Orion Bay. Tags: alexa, maxine, sabrina, shelly, talia, theodore, trip. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.