Gen Three- Chapter Eight

It wasn't confusing at first, waking up. I was warm and comfy in a bed, and I was coming to consciousness after quite a deep rest. Most mornings during vacations started in such a way, and I remembered with bliss that I was on vacation. Christmas was soon, and that meant a lot of fun things were coming up. Parties and get-togethers, visits from family out of town, littering the yard with snowmen, drinking obscene amounts of hot chocolate- I could see more of why grandpa considered the whole time period a holiday.

Confusion, however, did start to settle in for at least a few seconds. My body was so, so heavy in an unusual way. The firmness of the bed made me realize it wasn't mine, and the sounds and smells were way off from what they should be. Cracking open my eyes cleared things up more. I knew the hospital well. There I lay in one of the small rooms in the emergency section- specifically the one near the end of the hall given that I right across from the men's restroom.

I was glad I remembered easily enough why I was here. Something had been wrong with me, I had passed out, and Mr. Mountain had suddenly shown up. Remembering that didn't make me feel glad. Not only had everything most likely been exposed, but the trouble Timber and I were bound to get in was going to be ten times worse given how I'd also ended up like this.

Color My World Short Story #8 Part One

The overwhelming scent of chocolate chip cookies both delighted and repulsed my nose. On one hand, the treats were the most delicious and tempting baked goods to ever waft their smell in my direction. One the other hand, such a scent had been attacking my nostrils for too long that my senses begged me for a breath of fresh air.

     "Here, let me get the door for you." Allium offered as I finished rolling up the final balls of dough into the tray.

     "We finally made it, Charming. The last batch. I didn't think we would ever see the end of the tunnel." I joked as I slid those last cookies into the oven.

     "Yeeeah, I'll be careful next time accepting the request to make stuff for Holly and Mimi's club's bake-sale. Two hundred chocolate chip cookies didn't seem like it would be a lot."

     "How does two hundred of anything not seem like a lot?" I had to question with a smile.

     "I've always been bad at math," Allium joked along with his trademark smirking grin, "Seriously though, thank you for your help. Since you had a hand in these, the cookies are going to sell like crazy."

     "They'd better. Right now, I never want to see another chocolate chip cookie for at least a year." I laughed.

Gen Three- Chapter Seven

Grandpa's supposed third favorite 'holiday' had arrived. His most favorite holiday was Christmas, and the next one after that was summer vacation. Winter break followed on the list. That list amused me both for the fact that grandpa still counted breaks from school as great moments during the year even though he was sixty and that two of his top favorite holidays weren't holidays at all. I think he did it mostly to be funny. I wondered if his ranking of days off would change soon though what with him going ahead and retiring. Each day would be a vacation now.

In any case, school was indeed now off for the holidays. School or Christmas or anything like that was the last thing on my mind though. It was the 15th of December- one day before the ultimate day. The one where Timber's mother would be arriving in Berrybrook to meet us at the lake. It was all my mind could focus on, yet I could hardly believe it was the truth. The stress must have been why I lagged behind as Gilly, Timber, and I made our way to the lake to show Gilly the kittens. The long trek up the hills had long since grown easy to me in the weeks prior, but now it was an arduous journey once again. It didn't help that, in her excitement, Gilly kept dashing off. A whole week had passed since I revealed the existence of the animals to my sister. With my parents, growing suspicious of my constant wandering as well, I had had to act normally and not visit the cats until this day where the start of the vacation allowed my siblings and I much more leniency to trek around town.

Gen Three- Chapter Six

Grandpa and dad were shaking their heads and chuckling at us quite often these days. When the day had come for mom and Aunt Mimi to celebrate their birthday, everyone's jaws dropped when mom unwrapped the gift Gilly and I got her. Well, Uncle Frost didn't seem to be surprised, but that was obvious. Mom couldn't believe we'd gotten her the holographic toy. She hadn't expected anyone to go for the most expensive present on her list, and how we'd managed to afford it absolutely baffled her. How we got a hold of it was a constant question of hers over the past several weeks. However, now the enraptured attention Gilly, mom, and I all had with mom's toy kept us distracted during all our free hours.

     "I finally taught him how to do a flip," mom revealed to us one weekend afternoon, "Geode, flip."

The tear shaped purple blob giggled and jiggled as it completed a merry backflip.

     "Good. Now speak, Geode."

A series of unintelligible squeals and squeaks came from the creature. Mom pet the top of his intangible form. Geode reacted to it, and I continued to be astounded by the toy. The disk mom held in her hand that created the whole spectacle took in sounds and hand movements to make it appear as if we were actually interacting with something that wasn't there.

     "Mom, it's almost two." I had to remind her though despite me wanting to see more.

     "Oh, right. Say goodbye to Dia, Geode."

Gen Three- Chapter Five

The smell of the store was one of my favorite things about where dad worked. The library kind of had that smell too, but most of the books there were naturally more worn. Newer books, like the ones lining the shelves here, appealed more to my senses.

     "Find something you want?" Ember asked from behind me, having picked her own choice of reading material.

     "Yeah, this one looks good."

I pulled down my selection, and I enjoyed the fact that dad's business was basically a second library to us. Reading, of course, was an activity mom and dad encouraged greatly over stuff like video games, so we had free pick of what the Mosaic Pages Bookstore had to offer provided we stuck to what was appropriate for our age. Dad would just deduct the price from the store's income, and what we paid was also greatly reduced considering we were the owner's children. Dad would very rarely grumble that we should just go to the actual library instead, but that meant an extra trip or two driving us there for him, which silenced further complaining. Besides, it's not like he had to worry about going broke. Business was good.

     "Where's Gilly at?" I wondered when I turned around.

     "On the second floor. Where else?" Ember rolled her eyes while wearing a smile.

Top 5 Baby Boy and Girls Names for CMW

I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time. If you've ever noticed in CMW that certain names are repeated or are similar, that isn't a mistake. Since I began this story, I always envisioned there naturally being names that parents in the CMW universe picked more commonly over other names. I thought it would be fun to put together a list of what I believe those names would be. I'm sure you'll spot some familiar ones. So, here you are!