Skylar update

This is Skylar, my youngest daughter.  She's hit her terrible teens, and boy are they getting worse by the minute. 

 

Skylar started dating this guy, Mark.   Apparently they'd been friends for some time and had been doing a lot of hanging out.  Mark is the school athlete.  He's the captain of the basketball team, the football team, the soccer team, the wrestling team - pretty much everything sports wise, he does.  

Skylar, of course, is crazy about him.  But there's one problem.  One HUGE problem - a huge problem that, of course, guess who, discovered.

Mark is also seeing Opal, one of the Landgraab girls.  

Kaydence caught them together...

...and tried to tell Skylar about it just before one of her performances, but Skylar was not hearing it.  

She lashed out at Kaydence, calling her every name in the book.  Basically accused Kaydence of making up the story because she was jealous.

"I'm not making this up, Skylar.  I'm worried about you.  This is not going to end well."

Kaydence, being Kaydence, couldn't help herself when she was snooping around them when they were together at the house.  

Andy and I returned from a trip and we knew Skylar had Mark over.  We told her that she shouldn't have guests over when we're not home.

When I forbade her to see Mark, she lifted her head and had this attitude, like, I don't have to listen to you, Mom, I'm going to do what I want.

Boy do I recognize that.  It's something like what happened with her older sister, but while Sierra just didn't give a crap about anything or anybody and had no regard for authority, Skylar is like, I'm going to do what I want, when I want, with whom I want.

Skylar had a concert recently at the local coffeehouse.  She dressed up in her sock hop costume and went there and performed a few songs. 

Though the proprietors said she had a lot of talent, she's developing a reputation for being difficult to work with.

She had a particularly nasty tantrum on stage the other night...

...a tantrum that was caught on camera by a paparazzo.  If she's emulating her idol, pop star Madison Avenue, she is succeeding.

 Now, that's what's going on with Skylar at the moment.  Andy and I have a few options to deal with her - one of which is boot camp.  We do know that something has to be done, soon. 

Who saw THIS coming?

Certainly not me.

Late last year, my middle daughter, Sierra, was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a milder form of autism, and oppositional defiant disorder.   It was the answer to years of searching, and years of her strange behavior.

Since then, Sierra has obtained her degree in physical education and sports science from Sims University - with honors -

and is now in her rookie season on the Llamas soccer team.

Sierra has always been a loner.  She's always had difficulties with making and keeping friends.  Even in college she pretty much kept to herself.

But since the arrival of my niece, Kaydence, they've practically been inseparable.
Kaydence is the daughter of my younger brother, Sebastian, and his ex-girlfriend, pop star Madison Avenue.

None of us can really figure out why Sierra and Kaydence have clicked.    My brother and I have attempted to put our heads together to try to speculate as to why this has happened.
My brother says that when Kaydence was little, she didn't really talk to the other kids - instead, she talked to their parents.

My brother also says that Kaydence read everything she could put her hands on.  She preferred books to dolls and stuffed animals. 
I only met Kaydence once when she was little, on the day of one of her custody hearings when she was seven years old.  Even then, she seemed much older than her years.  When she was asked which parent she wanted to live with, she told the custody judge, "Do I have to live with either of them?"  That was her answer, at seven years old. 

What's become clear, in talking with Bassy, is some of the same stuff has come up for both girls. Teacher after teacher has told Bassy that "Kaydence doesn't socialize with the other kids," and "She seems to be a loner." When he talks to Kaydence about it, she's not at all displeased. 

Kaydence doesn't have the record Sierra does, and she didn't start seeing a psychic at twelve, but boy, this thing about creating the fictitious utopia with the dews and the character/alter ego to match has to be the equivalent.  And she does have a mischievous side that she did inherit from Bassy himself. 

 When Sierra and Kaydence disappeared this last time after feast day, I finally had to break the news to Bassy. 

"She did - what?  Made up a - what?  Utopia?  How long have you known about this, Vanna?"
"For awhile now." 

"She's writing books about this?"
"Yes."

I decided not to tell Bassy everything I knew, that the rest of it would have to come from Kaydence herself, should she choose to tell him. 

And given the current status of their relationship.... I don't see that happening anytime soon. 

All That Jazz

My newest nephew, who was given the name of Jazz Lyric Nathaniel Plumb, has reached his 'terrible twos' and they're worse than anyone could have possibly imagined.

This is his usual posture.  He's incredibly demanding and cries all the time.

Even the plumbot Kaydence brought from Oasis Landing covers her ears.

The whole family was over for a feast party gathering, and he stole the show, quite literally.  Most of us realize the depth of the problem.

Potty training was a nightmare.  When I was over there, Jazz missed the entire potty.

There are times, though, when Jazz looks like a 'normal' baby.  But unfortunately those times are few and very far between. 

Somehow he got an IF doll and started singing to it.  Maybe he'll live up to his name and be musical like his daddy.

She went there!

I am now one hundred percent convinced that my brother's ex and Kaydence's biological mother, Madison Brooke Westley, better known by her stage name Madison Avenue, is absolutely, thoroughly, positively, evil.

Here's the deal.  Kady is writing a series of science fiction novels based on Kadyland, the futuristic utopia she created.
She can't sleep nights because, she says, she is having detailed conversations in her head with the characters who inhabit it.  So she gets up, opens her laptop, and starts typing.

Yes, Kady, you are a writer.

After she complimented me on my best seller, The Lost Dragon Egg, she told me she was working on her own series of books based on Kadyland - something that even Bassy himself doesn't know about.

You are in for a huge shocker, Bassy.  A whopper. 

It's funny how that worked out.  Bassy's daughter, Kady, wants to write, and my daughter, Skylar, wants to go into show biz as a performer.  It's almost like the girls were born to the wrong parents.

In fact, she was doing some kind of writing at Skylar's party while all the other girls were in the swimming pool.

Now, back to Madison. 
Just recently, she went on Joyce Ward's new TV show and said she had to deal with a 'little professor' in the house.  She admitted to Joyce that it drove her crazy when Kady asked for books instead of dolls or teddy bears, when she refused to go to yet another one of her mom's showbiz parties and instead preferred to stay home and read.  

Normally, when the book is finished, it would only be a matter of time before it's published... but now there's a problem. 

Madison went to the publishing company.  Apparently she introduced herself as Kaydence's mother and told the publisher that there's no way her daughter can publish her book.

Why?  Because having a daughter who writes science fiction would be bad for her party girl image.

And because, apparently, when Kaydence was born, she had her daughter's name, Kaydence Michele, trademarked, anticipating her future fame. 

How dare you, bitch, get in the way of your own daughter's dreams?  What the hell is the matter with you?

I fully intend to write to the publisher and tell him that this is what Kaydence wants, that I have custody of her now, and that Madison clearly has no say in the matter.

Bitch, you never wanted her in the first place. 

My niece is going to get her book published.  I don't care what her so-called mother says.  

The Talk

My husband, Andy, is not a happy bunny these days.  Have you ever seen him look like this?
First, the camping trip he so looked forward to had to be postponed...

..and now he's got to deal with the person who made him look like this.  Our youngest daughter, Skylar. 

I didn't catch the entire argument, but apparently Skylar wanted to go to a fellow singer's party downtown.  This singer is an adult.  And Andy wouldn't let her go.

Skylar went off.  Completely ballistic.  Stamped her feet and basically called Andy every name in the book.

When I talked to Andy I could definitely see the disappointment on his face.

Is Skylar's behavior that of a typical teen?  Or is there something going on?  I haven't quite been able to figure that out yet.

I mean, when Sierra was doing what she was doing, we knew what she was doing wasn't at all typical, especially since the police was at our house every other night.

Sage didn't do any of this stuff.  Nor did Satis, for that matter.

We can't really tell with Skylar.  We don't know if she's acting this way because of Kaydence or what. 

Meanwhile, we sent Kaydence on a visit to her dad, who'd returned basically to have his son.   And not much has changed...she still lectures him like I lecture my own kids.
Mostly, though, it's reminders about meetings and financial matters, stuff that she's handled pretty much since she was a tot.

At the end of the day, though, it's all love, although her sharing his bed at her age is a bit creepy to me.

The next day I went over to Bassy's to pick her up.  He'd installed security gates outside his new rental home because paps were climbing windows just to get pictures.

"Hey Sis!" I heard Bassy call from the backyard.  For a moment there it sounded like the old Bassy.  The Bassy I knew before he went to Bridgeport.

He had a broad smile.  It was like he wanted to see me.
He was dressed in a costume, I assumed it was for another role.

I looked closer.  His smile seemed tired and forced, and his forehead had creased into worry lines.  I knew he was aging but still, there were signs of the real Bassy underneath this shell of a person. 

I know my baby brother is in there somewhere.

"What's up?" he asked me.
"I came to pick up Kaydence."
He sighed.  "She's not here, she went to the studio."
I'd forgotten she had an acting job, in addition to her extracurriculars and her school work.  Seriously, the girl doesn't know when to stop.

I told him about the Skylar incident with Andy, probably against my better judgment.
He laughed.  "That sounds familiar."  He cited his own recent blowup with Kaydence before he left the first time. 
"Andy seems really hurt by what she said.  I don't know how to cheer him up."
"She'll cool off.  She'll realize what she said and come groveling to him in apology."
It's funny how the roles got reversed... and now I'm asking HIM for advice.

While we continued to chat, one of the paparazzo still managed to find her way in to snap pictures.

Then Bassy got serious.  I knew that look.  He wanted to tell me something.
"This is my last film role," Bassy said.  "I've decided to leave the movie business for good."
"Does Kaydence know?"
"I haven't discussed it with her yet."
"So, what are you going to do now?"
"Well, I've paid off most of my debts and because of this latest project I've got some left over to live on, so I'll figure out what I'm going to do next.  Right now I promise to spend more time with Kady and Jazz."
I'm wondering if he's just tired and needs a rest - or he's really going to walk out on his life's work.  Either way, maybe some time off would do him a lot of good. 

All the time he's spent running, he can't run anymore.

That bitch Madison broke his heart, took his money, and sapped his spirit.  Now that he is back in the Valley, in familiar confines, hopefully he will start to recover at least some of what he lost.