Catchup time

When my baby brother Bassy's precocious daughter showed up here from Starlight Shores, I had no idea what to expect.

Now she's got all of Sunset Valley talking about her... and our whole family has been turned upside down.

Let's see... she's gotten AJ a distinguished service medal for his work with spraying the dew all over Sunset Valley and a promotion to fighter pilot...

She's confirmed Sierra's story about her abduction and time-travel... and oh by the way, the two are practically inseparable now, this from a girl who hates everybody (that being my daughter).  All the more shocking because on the surface they have practically nothing in common - so why are they buds now?

Their alliance has certainly perplexed AJ.  He can't figure it out, but he as much as told me he thinks something huge is up.  I'm inclined to believe him. 

She convinced Satis to lose her loser boyfriend by telling him she'd seen him in town handing flowers to another girl...

...and he'd flirted with her openly at Jazz's party.  She went back and told Satis that he'd hit on her.  I think that was the last straw, hitting on a teenager.

She may be sweet most of the time, but you do not want to see her other side.  It's scary.  Josh found out, the hard way.

All this after Sage and I have both gotten blue in the face trying to convince Satis to leave him.

Last I heard, Satis did leave him and had gone backpacking through China to clear her head and Ramses was with Imsety (of all people)! 

I even confronted the bastard myself and told him to stay the hell away from Satis and Ramses. 

Then, she hatched a plan to get her dad out of debt... not only to pay back his creditors but getting him enough money to buy his OWN movie studio and finance his own projects.

She's still working on that one.

 She has a super-heroine alter ego... but now I'm beginning to wonder if she really does have a superpower.

She's fixing everyone else's lives while her own was pretty much crap.

Oh and one more thing.

She blew the cover off of the college admissions test.  I think they said it was the highest score they'd seen at CSG since they started doing the testing.  It's higher than either of my kids, and when my older kids took their tests they were high school seniors.
In fact, her teachers want her to take early graduation and start her classes now. If she does she'd be the youngest student ever formally admitted to the university.
Sierra took college courses there, but she was never an actual student until she took graduation a year and a half early.

 The return to the Valley has been good for my brother, too - the stuff with my niece notwithstanding.   His new son, Jazz Lyric, was born here. 

As you know, he's a huge, huge, huge movie star still - even though he hasn't had a hit film in years.  People still recognize him and know who he is.

But my kids don't see him as the big movie star.  To them, he's just Uncle Bassy.   Although AJ wasn't happy when 'Uncle Bassy' beat him at Madden.   

I would have to imagine that perspective - along with a kick upside the head - is just what Bassy needs at this point in his life. 

My brother was trained to be a musician, not a movie star.  He became a movie star because he was rebelling against Mom and Dad.  In retrospect, I'm guilty of putting undue pressure on him by not going into show business.  They trained him to be a star, and a star he became - but in a different way than they'd planned.

Now he is back in town, and he looks me in the eye and tells me he is considering leaving the movie business altogether...to go into music.  I am not making this up.  Personally, like I told him, it's up to him what he does, as long as he's happy and satisfied.

I'm through making decisions for him.  That ship sailed a long time ago.

Just between me and you, I actually don't think that despite his accomplishments in front of the camera, he was ever truly fulfilled as an actor.   

I don't think his heart was ever really in it.

Remember what I said about the truth - it will catch up to you, one way or another.  In the case of my brother, after years of running, the truth hit him square in the jaw.

 He LOVES food.  Cooking it, and especially eating it.

 And he has passed that on to his daughter, Kady. Every other word out of her mouth is about food - cooking it, eating it, learning how to cook it.

That son of his, though, is an absolute terror.  I've heard of terrible twos and had five kids go thru terrible twos but not like this.  The only one who even came close was Skylar, who almost caused our butler to quit - and he would have if Sage hadn't relieved him for awhile.

Bassy says Kady never cried but this one is always crying.

Neither Bassy...

...nor Cherise have any idea how to deal with him.  Poor Cherise, it's not just postpartum depression... this kid is horrible.  I actually feel sorry for her.  She's going to need therapy before he even turns teen - if she doesn't wind up in the hospital before then.

Bassy tried to feed him and he threw the food right back in his face.

Despite never having a sibling, Kaydence seems to be the only one able to even remotely calm him down.  His face lights up when she shows up, as if she's his mama.

She spends as much time with him as she could.

She even tried to teach him how to read.

What happens when Kaydence goes to college?  She certainly can't take him with her.  I can only imagine the chaos.