Taffity Family Legacy

Generation 5, Chapter 1
My brother Will has got to be the cutest toddler ever! Of course I don't have much experience with toddlers or anything but still - he's adorable. He's also got more energy than my sisters and I ever had at that age...and there were three of us! If it weren't for Data, none of us would be able to sleep past sunrise because Will ALWAYS wakes up with the sun.



I really think it was a mistake for Mom to teach him to walk though, how foolish is that?! Within days of learning to walk he was venturing up and down the stairs! Mom nearly had a heart attack the first them she saw him on his way down the stairs - Data was there before she could even shriek though and made sure he made it down safely.



That's when they started trying to block the stairs from him with gates but nothing could stop Will. Every obstacle was just a challenge he had to find a way around. Anyway, enough about him - this is supposed to be about my life right?



Nope, that's not me! That's my sister Annika. Annika had been spending almost every afternoon after school hanging out in town and wouldn't tell us what was up. I couldn't blame her for not telling Kira - those two rarely got along - but I thought she and I were closer than that! So I followed her one day...yeah I know, bad sister.

She was sitting outside the book store reading a book - at least I think she was reading, except for every few minutes she would look up at the big clock anxiously before turning her attention back to the book. She never turned the page.

Just after seven, HE came out. That's Byron - the boy Annika has had a crush on for, like, ever! Apparently she finally caught his eye...among other things.



After a few minutes it felt totally pervy to be watching them suck face and all so I made a hasty retreat home. Kira had known about my covert op and tried to look uninterested when I came home.

She watched me pick out a book from the shelf and watched me sit down to start to read and let me read the first couple pages before she exploded. "Well?!"

"Well what?" I asked, feigning ignorance. She rolled her eyes and glared at me. "She has a boyfriend..." I told Kira everything I knew and we were still giggling about it when Annika walked in with a dreamy look on her face. "Evening Ani..." I said. She waved at me but didn't say anything before floating off on her little love cloud. Kira and I burst into giggles again.

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"Please Mom!" I begged. My sisters and co-conspirators lent their voices to the plea as well. I'd approached them about this trip a couple weeks ago since I knew there was no way mom and dad would let me go to China all alone. I tried just Kira at first but we both realized Mom would turn us down like nothing if we proposed going without Ani so we brought her into the equation.

Mom looked at Dad and Dad looked back at Mom. Sometimes I think they are telepathic. Neither one of them said anything, just looked at each other, considering. Finally they looked back at us and smiled. "Fine, you can go..." and then they laid out all the rules.

My whole desire to go to China was to learn SimFu...you see we'd been watching this movie and it just looked cool. It's like the first time you watch Indiana Jones and suddenly want to be an archeologist...only you don't want to be a boring archeologist with your nose in a book all the time - you want to be Indiana freaking Jones with adventures and Nazis.

So that's how I ended up in China kicking a wooden pole...



I wasn't as good as the guys in the movie...I was the boring archeologist with my nose in a book - except even those guys were probably better than I was. Thankfully Kira wasn't much better than me, that gave me an odd sense of pleasure.



After getting whacked in the head by the train dummy I knew it was time to bow out for now. But I did put in an order for a training dummy and board breaking set to be sent back home...because I like self humiliation like that.

Ani had promised to bring Mom home some Koi and some Chinese seeds for her garden so she'd spent the day exploring the Scholar's garden while Kira and I got our butts kicked by a wooden pole with arms. We had to track her down before heading back to the hotel for the night.

I woke up before sunrise the next day and found a cryptic note on my bedside table. Glancing over at the others, I confirmed that Ani and Kira were still asleep. Just after the sun rose above the mountains, I found myself staring at a stem spewing rock face. "Whoa." I said looking at the Dragon's Maw and then back at the note. It just asked that I explore the place and come back to the hotel when I was done..that couldn't be so bad.



Of course the fact that it was only signed "Su" and I didn't know any one named "Su" should have rung about a dozen alarms in my head. And yet I stood in front of a wall that I was SURE was the key to getting beyond the gaping Dragon's mouth and tried to find the hitch.

When the wall started to rumble and slowly disappear into the ground, I fell back in surprise. Standing back up, I dusted off my dress and grumbled. "Maybe I should have picked a different outfit for adventuring..."









I opened every door and chest, I put my hand in every creepy crawly hole and I collected a lot of gold, gems and relics along the way. This was so much cooler than being a SimFu master...I was Indiana freaking Jones...without the Nazis. I'm not so much a fan of Nazis anyway.

I spent the whole day in the Dragon's Maw and it was well into the night by the time I emerged dirty and laden with goodies. Kira and Ani pestered me about where I'd been all day but I just told them I went exploring - true enough right? I got a couple more random notes from Mr...or Ms? Su but never actually met them face to face during my trip.

Kira and Ani made plans to go sight seeing on our last day and begged me to come along but I was exhausted and when I finally woke up after noon, they were gone. They left a note saying they were going to the Terracotta Army if I wanted to join them later.



By the time I made it to the Terracotta Army though, they were gone. I called up Kira and she said they were in the market place and would be for awhile if I wanted to join them. I tracked them down and found them both reading and talking excitedly about some of the things they'd seen together.



Life was pretty much the same as ever when we got home. Data was still on a quest to upgrade everything in the house to unbreakable so whenever he wasn't playing with Will, he was tinkering with something or other. Dad had actually taken up writing lately - I'm not sure why but he said something about having invented everything already. He'd enlisted Mom's help as his proof-reader and editor.



And Mom and Dad were still as in love as ever. It was sweet and a little gross at the same time. I mean they are my parents after all! Yick! Don't need to think about THAT thank you very much!



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It wasn't long after we'd gotten home from the trip when Kira came home a little late from school. Ani had just gotten a distressing phone call from Byron and was crying on my shoulder about it when she walked in.



"What's with her?" Kira asked, pointing to Ani.

"Byron just called and broke up with her...." I said softly, putting an arm around Ani to comfort her. "Didn't say why..."

"Oh that." Kira said nonchalantly and started to walk away.

"How did you know?" I called after her. Kira stopped in her track and turned back toward us. She had a tiny smile on her face for a second before she replaced it with a fake frown. It didn't take much to imagine just what had happened...Kira knew very few boundaries it seemed.



I wasn't sure Ani saw the smile. In fact, given the apparent calm of her face I was sure she hadn't. So the movement ad slap seemed to come out of nowhere..."You did this!" she shouted and then thwack!



I glared at Kira as I dragged Ani away before she had a chance to jump Kira. "Bad form Kira!" I hissed. I sat Ani down at the dining room table and then retrieved some cake for us. We ate in silence for several minutes.

"How could she?" Ani said, loudly breaking the silence.

"Well you know how Kira is...she's just...Kira..." I said, chewing on my lip.



"Why are you defending her?!" she exploded back at me.

"I'm not! I mean I don't mean to...I'm really sorry Ani...." I trailed off and stared at my cake for a few minutes. When I looked up again, she was gone.

My own love life wasn't faring much better really. Phil and I barely saw each other anymore. He'd started some garage band and was spending all his free time doing that. I tried to be a good girlfriend and support him but they were terrible....really really terrible.

I first met Isaiah through Byron actually - they were brothers. I'd gone over with Kira one night - supposed to be some sort of buffer I guess. She'd managed to convince Byron to break up with Ani but didn't actually want to date him but he didn't seem to get that. So Isaiah and I talked while Byron and Kira made out on the couch. I could see she was letting him down oh so easy...poor guy.

Anyway, after that, Isaiah and I started hanging out more and he was a lot of fun to be around.



We both had feelings for each other, that much was obvious, but after the whole Kira/Byron/Ani fiasco - we both knew we couldn't go any farther as long as either of us were involved with someone else.

"I'm going to break things off with Celeste" he said, holding my hands.

"I'll break things off with Phil." I said. It all sounded so simple that day on the beach.



It took me a week to manage to get a hold of Phil and get him away from his band mates...let's just say it didn't go so well. He lashed out at me before I even had all the words out of my mouth! I can't say that I was overly mature about the whole situation either. Let's just say Phil and I won't be friends again anytime soon.







The first time Isaiah and I could get together after the mutual break ups was Will's birthday party. I invited Isaiah over and just hoped I'd be able to get away from the family long enough to talk to him.

"Thanks for coming" I said with a smile.

"My pleasure" Isaiah said. Before we could say anything more, I heard my mom calling from inside about candle time. "I think that's our cue to go inside." he said.







Will grew up into a cute looking kid, I had a feeling he would break a few hearts of his own in time...a long time! He was going to be a cutie no doubt. After the cake and a respectable amount of "family time", Isaiah took my hand and led me out onto the porch.

"I want you to be my girlfriend....I want to kiss you but I don't want to do that unless you say you'll be my girlfriend..." Isaiah said.

My heart was hammering in my chest as I nodded. "And I want to be your girlfriend....I would very much like for you to kiss me too...."

"Good." he said...and then he kissed me like I'd never been kissed before.



End Chapter

Outtakes






Kira put down her plate and one of the merchants swooped in to eat her egg rolls!


Ani stole a few of the terracotta army men lol


Getting better!


I'm not sure this is a good idea


Fight!






I don't blame Kira for laughing at him this time


Kira and Isaiah don't get along.