"Did she actually say she had feelings for him?" Ralph sighed, closing his book.
"Some feelings." Veronica told him as they lay in bed.
"I swear these girls are going to be the death of me." Ralph sighed again. "I'm just not sure what we can do about it though. As far as I am concerned, Toby will always be too old for her."
Veronica grinned and patted his hand.
"I thought maybe we could let them kind of date." Veronica said softly.
"Kind of date?" Ralph asked in disbelief as he looked over at her. "What exactly is a kind of date?"
"You know, go to a museum or something together, just them. Everything they do is always with us. Maybe go out to eat." Veronica said. "They could even go with Paige and Walter, like a double date. Just not with you and I. I think it would help Happy a lot. I think she might be confusing herself and saying the wrong thing. I think she wants the silly, romantic type things, like sharing a soda."
"Well while that might help ease Happy's feelings, do you really think Toby is going to be happy with that? Or is he still going to be dating women? Not to mention busybodies getting upset when they see them together." Ralph asked. "How do you keep their hormones in check?"
"Without asking him, I don't know. And I doubt Happy would be accepting of him going out with other women. Plus they'd have her detail with them." Veronic told him. "Do you really think they'd do something we wouldn't like?"
"Are you kidding me? Do you not remember when our oldest was fifteen? And what almost happened because of what they did?" Ralph sighed. "Toby might have some restraint, but I'm not comfortable trying to rely on that. And I'm not comfortable putting him in a position where someone could make accusations against him again." Ralph sighed.
"Well, we're going to have to sit down with him and talk about it. See where he is on the idea. Otherwise I think she'll start to rebel in ways we do not want." Veronica warned him.
Next Day:
Paige was sitting in her creative writing class writing on her computer when the professor walked back and stood next to her.
"Paige, your counselor sent a message wanting to know if you made up your mind on the scholarship for your next degree. The committee is very impressed with your first two years." The professor told her.
Paige looked up at her with a smile.
"Well while I've talked with my fiancé, I haven't come to a decision." Paige sighed. "He's always told me he wants me to do what I want. I'm just worried about spreading myself too thin. He's hoping to get our business going next fall. While he is currently and seriously involved on a contract with another project, if I renew the scholarship then we'll have to put our business on hold for two more years."
"Well, give it some more thought and then go see your counselor before the end of the day. If you aren't going to use it, we can give it to someone else." Her professor smiled. "If you want to discuss it, see me after class, I got a free spot."
"Thank you Prof. Babcock." Paige smiled.
As the professor turned she glanced at the screen and paused.
"What is this?" The professor asked.
"Oh." Paige blushed. "It's a musical I've been working on for the end of course assignment." Paige smiled.
"Really?" The professor asked. "May I?" She pointed at the mouse.
Paige nodded and pushed the mouse over to her.
Professor Babcock scrolled to the top before she began scanning down the document quickly.
"Intriguing Paige. Where did you get the idea?" She asked after about fifteen minutes.
"It sort of came to me a couple of years ago, well almost four now. But I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned what this semester's course work would entail before the end of semester last year." Paige told her.
"I like what I am seeing so far. Will you be entering it into the script writers contest this summer?" Professor Babcock asked.
"I don't know. I'm getting married this June. So I'd have to enter it before then if I do." Paige said, kind of reserved. "Not to get ahead of myself, but if I had some control over who the director was, I wouldn't mind. I've got a rather specialized idea for it. You know how in Shakespeare's time, the men were the actors, or players as they called them and they performed all the roles. So I thought, what if we did it as an all female cast, with women playing the roles of both male and female." Paige smiled.
"I like it." The professor smiled. "I'm looking forward to you finishing it."
"Thank you." Paige smiled. Paige watched as the professor went back to her desk. She pulled her phone out and quickly sent a message to Walter. "I've made up my mind. I'm going to go ahead and go for my bachelor's degree and accept the scholarship. I think I can do both."
Paige sat staring at her phone…she was a bit nervous. This was the first time she'd really set a firm decision of her own since they got engaged. She was wondering how Walter would react. Two minutes later the phone finally dinged back.
"It's about time love. I think it is a fine idea and I know you can do anything you set your mind to. Whatever it is you want to do, wherever you want to go, whatever you want in your life, I'll do everything within me to make it possible." Walter reminded her of his pledge. "I love you."
Paige smiled as she read his words several times.
"Thanks for coming over Toby." Veronica said as she opened the door wider and motioned for him to come in.
"I don't have a lot of time, so we'll need to be quick." Toby smiled, stepping into the house.
"Well hopefully it won't take long. What's your thoughts over what is going on with Happy?" Veronica jumped right to the topic with both feet shocking Toby.
"I'm not sure how to answer that." Toby obfuscated.
Veronica eyed him for a moment.
"I know what Happy told you last night Toby. But we can't let you guys date like grownups. And there is no way Happy would let you date other girls, so the question is…if we agree to it, could you be happy only, kind of dating Happy?" Veronica asked.
"What exactly is, kind of dating?" Toby frowned.
"I'm talking about we allow the two of you to go out, just the two of you, or maybe on a date with Walter and Paige. To a museum, lunch or dinner, I don't know, Happy likes bowling too. Maybe some of those trade shows she's always talking about?" Veronica asked.
"Why do I feel like I'm setting myself up for something here?" Toby asked.
Veronica smiled.
"You're not. I told Ralph I was going to talk to you about it. As I said, we can't allow you to date like you both were the same age. And we don't want anyone to make accusations against you. But I feel Happy's just confusing what she wants, she wants a closer relationship, like she had with Jeremy. The little things, sitting close, no parents in the way, kind of things. I don't believe she really meant she wanted a sexual relationship." Veronica told him.
"Veronica, if it was what Happy wanted, I'd wait until she was thirty. I'm just worried, what if it isn't enough for her at some point. I do not want to offend you and Ralph either. And I certainly don't want to go to jail or deal with another Jeremy situation." Toby sighed.
"It is a tricky situation for sure Toby. I just wanted to talk with you and let you know what we were thinking and willing to extend. To find out what you are thinking and feeling over it all." Veronica gave him an encouraging smile.
"I upset her pretty good last night as it is. I don't know how receptive she would be about anything in regards to me. But I'll try talking to her again this evening." Toby promised.
"Alright, well you better get going then. I don't want you to be late to your appointment." Veronica nodded as she opened the door.
"So what did they say?" Happy asked quietly as she rode in the SUV back home and Toby rode with her.
"They've cleared my record and promised this wouldn't come up again." Toby told her.
"Well that's good." Happy said.
"Can we talk about last night?" Toby asked.
"What's to talk about? You don't want anything to do with me." Happy shrugged.
"I wasn't rejecting you, Happy. And you know that I enjoy the time we spend together. But to say I don't want anything to do with you, that just isn't true and you know it." Toby told her.
"If it wasn't true you wouldn't put everyone else's opinion ahead of mine." Happy interrupted him.
"I'm not putting anyone's opinion ahead of yours. I'm trying to figure out how we can be more of what you want without causing problems. This isn't the 1920s where age wouldn't matter. Even in the 50s there was a lot of flack for Jerry Lee Lewis who married that thirteen year old girl." Toby told her.
"You selectively removed part of that controversy by failing to mention he married his second cousin." Happy told him.
"Trust me, it was more about the age." Toby tried to tell her.
"Trust you nothing. If she hadn't been his second cousin people wouldn't have thought half as hard about it." Happy told him. "But we're not talking about marriage right now."
"No, just you thinking about a sexual relationship with me." Toby told her.
Happy looked at him for a moment and then laughed.
Toby frowned as he watched her laugh.
"Seriously?" Happy asked him. "You are this great psychologist and not all that long ago a teen boy. Of course I've thought of it. I've thought about sex a number of times. Thought about having a baby, but I'm not doing that either. I am a living person. I have the same hormonal changes going on as any other teen. Just because I think of it doesn't mean I'm wanting to do it at that moment." Happy punched Toby's arm.
"I just kicked that idiot down the road. I was vulnerable and feeling sorry for myself. You could have been like my Mom and just talked about it with me. Isn't that your whole shtick? Talking things out?" Happy asked.
"So you were messing with me?" Toby asked.
Happy shook her head.
"Are you sure you aren't dyslexic and got the last two digits of your IQ reversed? Cause you sound more like a 107. I wanted to talk about us. What I felt I was missing because of how I am. What we, you and I, might be able to do to correct that." Happy sighed looking at him. "At least my Mom understood."
"And you say you were trying to figure out how we can do more of what I want, but it isn't up to you, alone, to figure it out. But you weren't talking to me. That's what really got me." Happy said as they pulled up into the driveway of their home. "You were too busy laughing and smiling like I was just some kind of amusing freak show."
Happy hit the door release and quickly left the SUV.
"Happy, that isn't what…" Toby sighed as she kept walking.
"Happy?" Paige said as she came up out of the basement with Walter. "What's wrong?"
Happy looked at her and Walter and then back at Toby as he was walking towards them.
"Boys are stupid." Happy told Paige so loudly her Mom heard her in the closed kitchen. Happy moved quickly to climb the steps up to the back porch door.
Walter frowned as he looked at Paige as she shrugged.
"Hey Toby." Paige said and moved with Walter up the steps.
"So how was school?" Ralph asked as they all sat down to dinner.
"Great." Paige said first. "I messaged Walter telling him I decided I wanted to get my bachelor's in business. He was so sweet, just encouraging me by saying he knew I could do anything I set my mind to. And offering to support me anyway I needed. So I signed the scholarship award for the next phase."
"That's my girl." Ralph grinned at her.
"My creative writing professor really likes what I have written so far for the end of semester assignment. She thinks it might be worth submitting it to the script writers contest this summer. I told her if I did, I'd have to submit it before the end of term as I was getting married in June." Paige told them.
"Really? A play?" Veronica smiled.
"A musical actually. I told her if I won and I could pick the director, I had thought about trying to do it as an all female cast." Paige explained.
"A musical? That sounds great. Are you writing your own music or going to adapt something else?" Veronica asked.
"I'm going to try to write the music too. I might need to pick your brain for it." Paige grinned.
"I'd be honored, sweetheart." Veronica smiled. "How about your day, Happy?"
"It was alright, same old thing. Show up at the start of the academic classes so the professor can mark me there. Then go over to one of the labs to work on whatever project I want. I did meet a new student today. He was there for his first advanced class. His family just transferred from upstate New York." Happy explained before taking a bite.
"Well that sounds exciting." Veronica told her. "Which class was it?"
"Robotics. But he wasn't. He started out a little cool. Then he saw the design I was working on. Asked a few basic questions about it. And then like a typical boy, he began telling me I hadn't thought it through. Why it was a bad design. He kept trying to tell me why my design wasn't going to work well." Happy said. "So I told him my first place wins in the last two robotics contests said he was full of crap." Happy grinned as Ralph began laughing.
"You are such a pistol." Ralph said as he wiped his lips with his napkin.
"I bet that cooled his ego a bit." Paige grinned.
"A little bit." Happy nodded as she sighed. "He told me I didn't need to be such a…witch…over it." Happy said as she looked at her parents. "I mean, he wouldn't listen to me, kept telling me I was wrong. So who's really the witch? It isn't like he did any math on the design, just stating his opinion because I was a girl."
"Not you." Paige laughed.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
- LOL Tell me about it brother! Good thing most of my hair is already grey and white. lol Looks like Veronica is a little more lenient than Ralph is...again. LOL Poor Ralph. Toby is in for a bumpy ride!
Pearliegirl - lol Well, I don't have much control over what Happy and Toby do...as for getting the Muse to age her up mysteriously, not sure that's going to work. Never heard of a reverse fountain of youth. lol
LouBe - Aww...Thank you! Hopefully I'll keep that up! I think Toby realizes just how volatile the ground he's on is. But I think his feelings for Happy are going to doom any other relationship for him. He better buckle up! lol I'm definitely skating on thin ice myself. Just trying to make it around the pond without hearing any major cracks! hehe I think Paige-75 would be horrified at this moment. lol Walter has definitely come a long way in the last 7 years, but he's still not confident in his interpretation of emotions. He still feels the sting of all those times he was rejected emotionally. Hopefully he'll find the confidence to see just how much he's grown.
To the Adventure! -Tim