Kelly wipes the sweat from his forehead. He looks up as people moved about at the park. He was lucky to get a job at Universal Studios Hollywood. He had found himself in Los Angeles, California hoping he could find a job and start a new life. The small town he lived in with his family and what they did to him, was the reason he left.

Geoff estranged from his UK relatives is a widower living in Portland. He is in his late forties when he faces the bad midlife crisis of being forced into retirement. Unlike many it might be one of the best things to have ever happened to him recently. For sure the next bad thing that happens could also be considered candidate for the title of 'Usually a really bad thing that is actually for the best'.

Author retains all rights to this original work of fiction.

Thursday, March 29th 5:06 PM
Mom, Bill and Charles, and Kaley were all in my room from about 4:00 PM until just a few minutes ago. I kept saying I was going to be late and they all know it is a major pet-peeve of mine! I hate, hate, hate being late! Got them out of the room by leaving myself. Plenty of hugs and well wishes - which I love and appreciate from them - but I was late!

Note: This side story takes place during Book 3

“Ok, Tracy, the first item is your hair. It’s beautiful, but it’s just hanging there. Let me trim the dead ends then you can take a shower and wash your hair to make sure all the cuttings are gone. After you take off your clothes, set them outside the bathroom door so I can put them in the wash.”

“You told him you had anxiety?” Melissa raised an eyebrow, her hand poised on the meeting room door. On the other side would be the rest of the main cast, Josh Barnes as Jean Val Jean, Caitlyn Reedy playing Fantine, and a host of other people. The only people who would be missing were the bystanders for the musical numbers. There were about fifty of those, some students, some people from around Woodcrest who fancied themselves aspiring actors. “Are you EVER going to tell him the truth?”

“This mall is always so busy,” Mason complained as we pushed out way through the crowd. “You’d think there would be a Gamestop that ISN’T in a mall…somewhere at least.”

January 1st 1:00 am
Truckee California

For Larry Rawlings, New Years wasn’t that big of a deal. Neither was Christmas, Thanksgiving and any other Family type holiday. Thankfully this year he was home, and not in the middle of a delivery. So instead of spending it alone, he was with his neighbor, Liz.

Bryony Vincent was in the thick of it as usual. She was a true ‘BBBBBB’ which meant that there was never any shortage of men wanting to be with her. By ‘BBBBBB’ I mean, Beautiful, Buxom, Brainy, Bonkers, Blonde (a natural) and at times Brainless. As any truly genuine 6B person can testify, they could be all 6 at the same time.

The worst trait was the last, ‘Brainless’. Despite an I.Q. of 175 and several degrees including a PhD after her name, she would always fall for the oldest, most stupid chat-up lines in the business. All a man needed to do was flutter his eyelashes (why to the most drop dead gorgeous men always have lashes to die for?) in her direction and she was hooked.

I woke up to the sound of the television. I poked my head out still in my nightgown and seeing Jessica realised everyone must have already left for church. I decided to shower now considering the house was mostly empty. I either shower now or I would have to wait until my afternoon change so I didn’t waste a diaper.

Arriving home Emily quickly announced that we would be getting pizza for dinner as it was already well after six. Had we really spent that much time just shopping? As we brought everything in bags were piled everywhere in the living room.

I grabbed a bag ready to begin the dreaded task of taking off all these tags and putting things away. Not long after I picked up the first bag though the twins attacked the pile and in a single trip everything was on my bed.

A couple days went by and things started to feel familiar. We would wake up and have breakfast. I was on toast and passing out plates. Honestly I was starting to like it. It let me pretend I belonged. Everything was mostly fine although it was still too early to actually think this was going to work. Jessica would come back after the adults went to work and do school study stuff most of the day. Once she even let Faith braid her hair as Grace braided Cindy’s. They couldn't do their own yet but they could do other's reasonably well.

“Her name is Jessica.” Emily said as she cooked eggs for breakfast. “She goes to the local college and looks after you kids while we are at work. She takes a light class load in the summer but on thursdays we are testing Faith and Grace who insist are old enough to not need a sitter.”

I woke up the following day, stuffed back inside my dorm room with Mason asleep on the other side. As per usual his desk was cluttered with a landfill of energy drinks and food wrappers. I rolled my eyes and threw the blankets aside, hopping on to the floor and wandering to the bathroom to brush my teeth. On the way there I caught a glimpse of my bedside clock; it read 2:25 PM. Wow. I was being a really productive college student, wasn’t I? Thank God it was Saturday.

I awoke to Brianna charging through my bedroom door; she was never one for knocking. My first reaction was to roll my head to the left and glance at the bedside alarm clock which now read: 6:45 AM. Brianna was fully dressed in a silky blouse and black pants, and before I knew it, she was tossing clothes onto my bed.

“I found a shelter for Angela,” She explained rather offhandedly. “Get up, get dressed, we’re taking her right now.”

“I…can’t you just drive her over there?” I asked, pulling the blankets up to my chin. I didn’t want to move from the bed at all.

Webster’s dictionary defines Speed as the fallowing: the rate of change of position along a straight line with respect to time over a set distance. In other words, the quicker you can get from one place to another. The question is what do you, when your family has spent the last two generations in search of ways to accomplish this goal faster and faster. Would do you do when the family business is the search for more Speed. For Robert ‘Robby’ McGuire the answer is easy. You grab your sister and strap on a pair of Formula One racecars then go for broke.

“Oh, hey mom,” I spoke into the phone, not knowing why I even bothered acting surprised that she was calling. I mean, of course she was calling. What was I supposed to tell her?

“Sweetie I was worried about you,” My mother said in her concerned voice. “You haven’t called in weeks, we thought something happened to you!”

“Uh Mom,” I said as I began to walk toward the parking lot, considering making a beeline for the GAT house, but then rapidly changing my mind. “You know you can call me at any time right? Communication kind of goes both ways.”

Author retains all rights to this original work of fiction.

Thursday, March 29th 12:47 PM
"I don't have a problem, but... But you have...," I replied defiantly, awkwardly, and without as much anger as was boiling inside of me from this whole situation. The initial confrontation spiked my anxiety to the point it brought on a panic attack - which ramped up my fears about anything and everything. Can you breathe? Are people watching you? Will I have to fight her? Am I going to pass out? I need more air...

Chapter 4

About a week after the doctor assured us that I had gynecomastia, and nothing fatal, my mom came to my room and asked, “How’s the chest?”

“It’s better. They’re getting smaller.”

“Let me see.”

I knew there was no need to argue, so I opened my shirt and showed her my healthily growing boobs. She took one look and said, “OK, back to the doctor. This time, I’m not taking ‘gynecomastia’ for an answer!”

So back to the doctor we went. Same office … new doctor.