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NikkeiSimmer
Rising Adventurer
2 years ago

Homeless/Rags to Riches (Narrative): "Homeless in Sunset Valley" (River/Haruo Romance)

Author's Note: Had to lower my poor "Tiny"'s graphics settings to something that the poor computer can handle.

Homeless in Sunset Valley

Prologue:

Life never was sweetness and light in the Chikamori household. After all, I had the mother from hell and I knew my life was never going to be stable (emotionally or otherwise) unless I got the hell out from under her roof. But I never knew that it was going to end up boiling down to a choice between the roof over my head or the woman I love.
https://i.imgur.com/vBkegoL.jpg
Who knew that all it would take to send my mother off the deep-end was to propose to my girlfriend?
https://i.imgur.com/Fs19zWy.jpg
My girlfriend(now fiance)'s mother was ecstatic for us.
https://i.imgur.com/iV26Ivm.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/Xojriaa.jpg
Although it took her by surprise...
https://i.imgur.com/3tJknV4.jpg
But my mother's reaction was another whole kettle of smelly rotten fish...and it would prove to be our financial undoing and the loss of a roof over our head.

~end prologue~

Author's Note: Seasons is on. ~evil smirk~ I'm not pushing my luck with Pets (that stays off).
  • NikkeiSimmer's avatar
    NikkeiSimmer
    Rising Adventurer
    Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part One)

    "The Worm Turns"

    “What do you mean, you’re gonna live with that McIrish tramp?” Mayumi screamed at her son. Haruo winced. It had always been like this since he was very young. Anytime that he did anything that rubbed his mother’s sensibilities the wrong way, she exploded on him. “Her mother is a paparazzi that writes trash for that two bit rag…”
    https://i.imgur.com/tIZHgsF.jpg
    ...but his mother calling his girlfriend a tramp was a bit too much and slagging his girlfriend’s mother was a no-go zone for Haruo. Fiona McIrish had been more of a mother to him (when he was over at River’s house), than Mayumi had ever been. Mayumi had always been a pompous, prideful piece of work – with no self-redeeming qualities as a mother or as a human being. She was dedicated to making her son’s life a living hell and reveled in it. As a teacher, she was nothing but tyrannical. From what he could see, living with no roof over his head would be preferable to staying in a house with that despotic parent. He began working plans in his head of how to escape.
    https://i.imgur.com/8KbxXXN.jpg
    Haruo kept his silence; he’d long-learned that even uttering a single peep while Mayumi was ranting would elicit another three hours of denunciations and he was tired of it. When Mayumi was finally winded enough, turning around with a final huff and a “You’d better really think about it. If you marry that thing you will no longer be welcome in this house...” he whirled and left the room, taking care to not slam the door when he headed into his room or that would be another three hours of ranting about how ungrateful he was for not tolerating Mayumi’s airs and suppositions.
    https://i.imgur.com/i3HnvK8.jpg
    He was in Grade 12, his senior year. River was in her junior year, a Pisces born in 1971 – which meant that Haruo was older than her by 9 months as he was a Gemini (born in June 1970).
    https://i.imgur.com/e5jwuje.jpg
    River was his life. She’d been a friend from the time they’d first laid eyes on each other in kindergarten – in fact, they’d grown up together; played together outside of school, after-school or during the holidays (during school hours, one didn’t really associate with kids from other grades other than your own) from Grade 1 to Grade 6. As they grew older, they grew even closer and started dating, much to Mayumi’s aversion to the fact that her son and that tramp were seen together as an item.
    https://i.imgur.com/8DPdsvb.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/IOdtgH8.jpg
    River had been exceedingly surprised to find out that her boyfriend of three years got down on one knee and proposed to her. It had never crossed her mind that he was that enamoured of her that he would link his life to hers and walk life’s path with her.
    https://i.imgur.com/Xojriaa.jpg
    “You’ve picked a good man…” Fiona had told her daughter. “I hope he never gives reason to break your heart…” she left the like your father out. They both knew all too well how River’s biological donor had left Fiona in the lurch when she was pregnant with River.
    https://i.imgur.com/snBTsNY.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/ueayBYj.jpg
    “He loves me…” River had responded to her mother. It was a simple assertion, but in it held a tidal wave of hope...and fear and her mother, attuned to that psychological wavelength knew in her heart that she hoped that River would never, ever feel the heartache that Caeden had perpetrated on her.

    Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part Two)

    "The Worm Turns"

    Haruo left his parents’ house that night burning bridges vowing never to return; it would prove to be hard on his father who he loved very much, but the simple fact was that it was a choice. His father could choose to support his wife who was hell-bent on beating her son down, or he could leave her. But Haruo was not going to stay and have his willpower extinguished to the point where desperation breeds desperate measures. This was how he was going to deal with the cards that life dealt him. If it meant the streets then so be it.
    https://i.imgur.com/XEocU3C.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/KmgT9N9.jpg
    There was other bad news. River’s mother’s house was full up with Molly and Sandi living there so there was no way that Fiona had room for another. And River...if anything was going to stand by her fiancé – if he was going to have to live outdoors in the elements (thank goodness that it was springtime with warming weather) so was she – she was not going to stand there comfortable in her own bed while he suffered alone. Fiona couldn’t dissuade her nor did she as she knew just how deep the affairs of the heart ran and she also knew that with summer impending; winter having ended, the last of the snow melting...so they had enough time to gather together enough money to hopefully buy a bigger property and build something substantial before the onset of next winter...
    https://i.imgur.com/vHm7B8b.jpg
    ...so with Fiona’s blessing, a tent that Fiona managed to scrounge up and a couple hundred dollars, there they ended up with at least something to cover themselves with. So they spent Sunday night to Monday living in a tent. And Monday was a holiday so Haruo was going to have to do what he could to scrounge together enough for them to eat. Haruo was adamant that the §280 that Fiona managed to scrape together from her own meager funds was going to be their rainy day fund and that anything that they ate was going to have to be either scrounged from the apple trees in Central Park or he would have to dumpster dive…
    https://i.imgur.com/VIwZ2Ow.jpg
    ...and eventually sell the proceeds on consignment at the consignment store. Every so often he would run across a gemstone. The gem-cutter at the consignment store would only cut gemstones, and he had no way of smelting precious metals that he found in the dumpster. So unfortunately, he was going to have to save up for that §50,000 cutter that would also smelt. It would be an investment and jumpstart his business so far as being a purveyor of precious metals and gemstone cuts.
    https://i.imgur.com/SpJBrQO.jpg
    “Sweetheart, you know, if it wasn’t for the ever-present back-of-the-mind thought that we’re homeless. It would be like a camp-out...y’know.” Haruo said, trying his best to appear nonchalant insofar as their dire situation.
    https://i.imgur.com/uV0I3qJ.jpg
    “I know…” River commented as she looked around at their little place where they’d holed up...right near Erin Kennedy’s house. Hopefully she wouldn’t call the cops on them for establishing a little hole-up. Erin was military, prim and proper and thus didn’t really condone anything that flouted the law. But hopefully she would take pity on a pair of homeless teenagers and just ignore them.
    https://i.imgur.com/fMFdxQD.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/oPy9Tx7.jpg
    Later that afternoon around five, thankfully after showering, he held his fiancée, “Yeah, I sold a stove I found, a couch and a spiny turtle. Dang thing nearly bit my finger. If he managed to, I’d be in the hospital. If it wasn’t for Provincial Medical, I’d be hooped with a severed finger to boot.”
    https://i.imgur.com/5l3N0uf.jpg
    “Well...try not to pick up spiny turtles...or any turtle for that matter.” River smirked at him.

    “I love you, you know that…” Haruo told her. “You keep me looking at the bright side of things.”
    https://i.imgur.com/A5xsoaf.jpg
    “Always. Sweetie…” River responded. “We’ll get through this...believe me, we will…”

    (to be continued)

    Author's notes: Since I'm writing a story as well as playing the game, this is going to be in short little tid-bits. So Chapter One is going to be quite long...and thus you're gonna get this in little bits.

    Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part Three)

    "The Worm Turns"

    Monday had brought them a veritable landslide of money. It was good fortune that his dumpster diving had turned up a number of valuable items. In one of the last things that Yasunobu was able to do for his son, after being henpecked by his wife to not do anything for that ungrateful brat he had turned up and helped him pile all that dumpster diving loot into the back of his pickup truck and hauled them over to consignment so that Haruo could sell them. With that money, Yasunobu convinced Haruo to put down money for a lot on the toney Summerhill Court. He could start with there as a nest once he and River were of age. “I can’t do anything more for you, son. This life is your road to walk now.”
    https://i.imgur.com/3qemPnr.jpg
    “I love you, Dad.” Haruo couldn’t say much more for the lump in his throat – it was more than he had expected his father to do and he knew that the only thing that Mayumi would let Yasunobu do was watch his son, whether the end would be for good or for ill. He wouldn’t be allowed to raise a finger to help his son in any case. Mayumi controlled the Chikamori family or at least Yasunobu with an iron fist. Helping his son had to be done on the sly. Haruo was eighteen, the age where they could make decisions on their own with no liability falling to their parents. Eighteen was the age where they could be kicked out of the house with no ramifications. River was seventeen, but out on her own at her own recognizance – she was standing by her fiancé and her Mama, Fiona, could only hope that she would remain alright.
    https://i.imgur.com/pc8oQAO.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/yDgDDV7.jpg
    What followed from utilizing the Conjuring Cauldron was a comedy of errors. Firstly, Haruo tried to conjure up something which resulted in scratching his head in confusion because nothing appeared. Of course he tried to do this while exhausted so he ended up passing out in the dirt. Then River tried and ended up conjuring up a tomato. It was finally after multiple tries that they managed to get their first gemstone; a quartz. Haruo was lucky enough on the sixth attempt, and two pass-outs to conjure up a Zebra Metalmark butterfly which he promptly took up to the Science Lab which paid him out §280 above the actual value of the butterfly which was a rare specimen.
    https://i.imgur.com/SwDW9v0.jpg
    Haruo took it up to the Elixir Shoppe (must have the medieval spelling there) or otherwise known as Aleister’s Elixirs and Sundries, and ran the Quartz through the gem cutter to produce two gemdust. One of which he was going to take to Granny Zsa Zsa the witch to turn into a nice skull and the other to place into the cauldron as a conjuring guide.

    Haruo went dumpster-diving at the criminal hideout and gathered some garlic. Hopefully that would become useful later on.
    https://i.imgur.com/q4V7UgW.jpg
    Then they knew that school was still on the menu even if they were homeless...so they would have to keep clean and tidy so that the teachers didn’t suspect that they had no home. So not only would the gym be their washroom but also their laundry. And unfortunately, for Haruo and River, it would mean sneaking in and trying to get their ablutions done without being spotted by security.

    Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part Four)

    "The Worm Turns"

    In the morning, Haruo got up at 5:30 and started selling the items that he’d managed to conjure up by heading up to Aleister’s first thing before school. That would have them in by the deadline which was 5PM when payout was for all the sales that happened that day. Haruo also made sure that he’d consigned the gemstones; the Septarian Nodule and the Smokey Quartz that he’d managed to ask Granny Zsa Zsa to turn into a skull. That would bring in a decent chunk of simoleons.
    https://i.imgur.com/FmkwXGA.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/UeJncFB.jpg
    ...and they finished off the day by heading back to their tent; River painting until bedtime, Haruo doing as much conjuring as was physically possible without the threat of a concussion by passing out.
    https://i.imgur.com/xlJheJ8.jpg
    ...and then again it was time for bed.

    (to be continued)

    Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part Five)

    "The Worm Turns"

    https://i.imgur.com/VRgkOFn.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/9NclWxF.jpg
    Nope, she didn’t even bother with the Yield sign. This is a School Zone, Mayumi, 30km/hr...you know there could be children playing nearby. Mayumi: “hell no, just floor the accelerator. Less kids to have to worry about in the fall.” Can somebody please take Mayumi’s driver’s license away?

    Homeless in Sunset Valley (Part Six)
    "The Worm Turns"

    Phil looked over at Haruo as he walked towards the door of the school, “Hey, Haruo, wasn’t there a field trip?”
    https://i.imgur.com/EIz6U0S.jpg
    “Nope...field-trip got canceled, so River and I have other stuff we need to do. But we’re getting our homework done first.”

    “Skipping the rest of school?”
    https://i.imgur.com/U247z1e.jpg
    “They can’t say anything if River and I have our homework done before tomorrow.” Haruo’s rejoinder was smug.
    https://i.imgur.com/b99JSpa.jpg
    “Lucky you…” Phil muttered as he walked into the school, “I got six hours worth of homework tonight and a science project due...so I need to visit the Science Center this afternoon.”

    There were seeds that needed collecting in order to start a garden; trees to harvest to start an orchard and various other odds and ends that needed accomplishing for Haruo and River so they knew just how busy they needed to be in order to get everything done, but for right now, getting their homework done was first priority. And it was a headache and a half to be able to get it done.
    https://i.imgur.com/snpYzgk.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/D6RFQ1p.jpg
    Meanwhile River thought that a change of scenery might help with doing her homework. So she went all the way down to the beach and sat down at the table to do her homework. It was now after three and she was still at it. Well, at least her classmates were probably starting their homework. Haruo meanwhile was long-since done his homework (Asian parental conditioning: “GET YOUR HOMEWORK DONE!!!! You want use FACEBOOK… well FACE BOOK and STUDY!!!”) since 10:30PM and running around enjoying his day. If River didn’t love him, she’d hate him.
    https://i.imgur.com/uVEjXNT.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/3UmC038.jpg
    After eating they opted to go to bed early since they wanted to get a head start on getting things done because there was school tomorrow.

    Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part Seven)
    "The Worm Turns"

    Teen homelessness in Canada was a major problem with over 40,000 youth across Canada being in situations where they didn’t have a roof over their head. Likely more were threatened with the prospect of couch-surfing and being at risk of homelessness where they weren’t homeless yet, but could potentially be without a roof in the very near future. Haruo and River were in the former category where the only thing that was over their head was the fabric of their tent.

    Sunrise in the summertime was an early 5:04 in the morning as the first rays of the early rising sun peered over the tops of the mountains and made it’s early morning appearance. Haruo was not a happy camper that morning and the earliness of the sun’s arrival made him even more cranky than he was already. “Confound it…” he muttered to himself as he woke up. “I hate mornings…” especially since he didn’t like having to get up out of a nice cosy sleep where he was enjoying dreams of fishing and having a nice comfy place to call home. Being rudely awakened at five was not his idea of a fun morning.

    To top it all off, River didn’t wake up in a great mood either. She was a bit snippy that morning. School was at 7AM and she didn’t want to go. She huffed about having to wake up in the cold morning and neither of them wanted to leave their sleeping bags within the tent. But school was a requirement and if the truancy officer caught them they would have been in big trouble, so off they went, regardless of their desires.
    https://i.imgur.com/FbPDWgU.jpg
    12:45PM found them deep in study, in class. Haruo and River were still in grumpy moods, having their usual teen burst of angst, both coincidentally on the same day. And Haruo with a nasty case of hay-fever couldn’t help sneezing his head off, which annoyed the teachers to no end while trying to keep a quiet classroom for tests. Today since he was in a snippy mood, he wasn’t about to stifle his sneezes, which caused titters throughout the classroom. “Mr. Chikamori, could you please try not to disturb the class with your sneezing?”

    “But teach, I got hay fever...and if I stifle my sneezes, I could end up blowing my ear-drums out…”

    “Really?”

    “Yeah, teach, from the pressure difference.”

    “Well, try to stifle it any ways...you’re disturbing the rest of the class…”

    Haruo muttered malevolently to himself. At least I didn’t give into the urge to give VJ Alvi the beating of his life. It was unusual for Haruo to think those kinds of thoughts but his irritable mood as well as the combined discomfort from his hay-fever made his temper even more volatile than it usually was. So he was having a difficult time stifling his temper so he was darned if he was going to stifle his sneezes which were causing him no end of irritation.

    If that wasn’t bad enough, next class was math. For crying out loud, will the hits never stop coming?

    River on the other hand, contrary to her good nature, was incomparably irritable and telling fellow classmates to “Just shut up! I’ve got a headache!!! I don’t wanna hear you talk.”. Her answers to teachers were also curt and bordering on the limits of civility. Not to mention the fact that she wanted to do irreparable damage to the school by turning on all the taps in the female washrooms and letting them overflow. That might probably get her arrested along with resultant criminal charges for mischief and deliberate property damage.

    “Ms. McIrish, what’s the square root of pi?”

    “How would I know?” River asked in a Valley Girl tone, “Aren’t you the one that’s supposed to be teaching us?” That cracked the entire class up.

    “River, that’s unspeakably rude. You’re supposed to be learning something in class…”

    “Whatever…”

    “Would you like to go to the principal’s office?”

    “Yes, anything would be more interesting than here. I’d probably be more entertained watching paint dry.”
    https://i.imgur.com/m6E1ezP.jpg
    Understandably, 2:00 couldn’t come fast enough for the teachers. Having their two nicest students behaving so boorishly towards them was not their idea of a fun time being an educator. But of course, they understood that kids have off-days and can be the complete flip-side of their personalities. After all, they were teenagers. But that wasn’t really any excuse for being so rude.
    https://i.imgur.com/42mbXP3.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/9KoUw8H.jpg
    The end of Friday couldn’t come sooner for Haruo and River and they quickly escaped. River headed to the park to do her homework in the downpour and Haruo, not caring in the least, decided that he wouldn’t bother doing his homework, because since he was aging up to young adult; he wouldn’t be returning to school on Monday. So much for his GPA; besides he was going to try his hand at being a farmer. He decided to go fishing; everything’s better when you go fishing.
    https://i.imgur.com/nzeXHmc.jpg
    Saturday dawned just as pouring rain as the previous day had half-way through. Haruo did some conjuring in the morning and headed up to Aleister’s to drop off a few rainbow gems cuts. Then they went out to lunch. Since Haruo’s birthday party was supposed to start off at 5PM, they needed to get freshened up so they did over at the gym. The gym was undoubtedly the most convenient spot to go to in order to stay clean and have a place to do their “business” since it was right next door.
    “River, sweetie, I have something I need to show you.” Haruo said as he held the door of the gym open, after they had their showers, so that they could head back to their little squat of a lot. “Let’s take a cab. We’re headed up to 15 Summerhill Court. Meet me there…”

    River was blindsided, 15 Summerhill Court was a rich neighbourhood and they weren’t anywhere near that amount of money in net worth. According to Haruo’s last calculations; they were still wondering if they had enough to get their next meal. “Wait...what?” Meet you there… you mean I’m supposed to take a cab by myself? River thought flabbergasted at the audacity. Well it wasn’t a deal-breaker on marrying him and curiosity won out.
    https://i.imgur.com/bomjh3l.jpg
    He’d already hopped a cab and it was moving away rapidly. River rolled her eyes in irritation as she flagged down another cab. The driver nodded as she read him out the address of her destination.
    https://i.imgur.com/Hd0T1sh.jpg
    As they were coming up the hill she could see a house tall and ornate in the background where an empty lot used to stand. Her jaw dropped open as the driver came to a stop. “There has to be some mistake. This is 15 Summerhill Court.”
    https://i.imgur.com/xTTaPov.jpg
    “No mistake, young ma’am… we are at 15 Summerhill Court.” I am absolutely… there were no words to describe how she felt; there was shock and amazement. And she could see Haruo unlocking the ornate gate to the property. How… words failed her at the moment. “Thank you…” Her mind still reeling, she regained enough faculty of her senses to acknowledge the driver as she stepped out the vehicle and crossed the street to the other side. She held her breath as she took in the view. The Altos and the Landgraabs were their neighbours now. In an irritating repetition; her question of how... kept running through her head.
    https://i.imgur.com/01bAmRV.jpg
    “How are we able to afford this?” were the first words out of her mouth when she was able to speak again. They were on the bridge leading over to the front door of what she could see was a large mansion, it looked even bigger than the Altos, even bigger than the Landgraab mansion and a three car garage. “Aren’t the owners going to come back and boot us off the lot? What will we do then? We don’t have any place to go and this is illegal…” Haruo was looking at her with a look of amusement as she rambled on, half-panicked. “We can’t afford this…” she said finally.
    https://i.imgur.com/hqYBGo5.jpg
    “Shhhhh…”

    “Don’t shush me…” she snapped irritated. “You bring me here to this place...you expect me to believe that we have enough to buy this place…”
    https://i.imgur.com/pbmh2RW.jpg
    Haruo just finally stuck the bank-book in front of her face… “Honey...read this…” he said. River looked at the digits on the page of the bank-book as her jaw dropped open. There were 6 numbers before the first decimal point. She barely heard him say “I just got a call from the bank saying that our current balance is now §729,595.00. The rainbow gems that I cut this morning? All of them sold.” he paused looking out at the flowing stream into the fountain… “My greatest fear with all the sh** my mother put me through was to lose the roof over my head; to have nowhere to turn, nowhere to call home. With you beside me, that fear grew to include you; us losing the roof over our head.” He turned to look at her, “Do you understand? Now with what we have...we no longer have to fear…my mother can no longer touch us.” This was why he’d worked. School didn’t teach entrepreneurship; it came from oneself.

    "Now...come on inside and let me show you exactly what we own now..."
    https://i.imgur.com/i95bU4Q.jpg
    River's jaw dropped open when he opened the door and ushered her inside.
  • NikkeiSimmer's avatar
    NikkeiSimmer
    Rising Adventurer
    Homeless in Sunset Valley (A Rags to Riches Story) (Chapter Two; Part One)
    "Fresh Start"

    “I can’t believe this…” River’s jaw dropped open as she surveyed the entrance way...There was a wide staircase leading to the upstairs and hallways heading towards other rooms in the house. She had seen from the outside that the house was three stories; with a brick facade and trim. When she came inside she saw that the walls were rock surrounded by grout. “That’s the dining room, right?” she said pointing to the right with walnut flooring and wall panels. Her fiancé nodded. They walked through the rest of the rooms in silence. River gazing around her. There was no furniture. It had just recently been completed and they really had no furniture to speak of, coming from the street.
    https://i.imgur.com/wf5wILZ.jpg
    “The walls are still mostly undone since I figured we can decide on a finish together as we go along.” he said softly as he looked at her.

    “Tell me we’re sleeping in a finished bedroom tonight.” River asked

    “You’ll be sleeping in a finished bedroom tonight.” Haruo informed her.

    “What do you mean?” River was confused.

    Haruo looked at his watch, “We need to go if we don’t want to miss the party down at the park. It’d be rude for the guest of honour to be late to his own birthday party” he said as he ushered her down the stairs, out the door, locking it behind them and heading across the bridge to the taxi. He kept a silence a clam would be proud of. When they got to the park the music was loud and they figured that they should start dancing though no-one was on the dance floor yet. Guests were streaming in – friends and relatives who decided to take advantage of the spring-time activities in the park.
    https://i.imgur.com/BT2yEj2.jpg
    “Well, at least we got the buffet table – we have a choice of food” Haruo remarked.

    “That was a good idea.” River looked over at the guests lined up by the buffet table, “They must be hungry.”

    “Yeah...then we got this dance floor, they can work it all off too.”

    River shook her head, a wide grin on her face.

    The guests lined up at the buffet table had their selection of vegetarian, turkey and for the terminally glucose-needy, there was also the enjoyment of having platefuls of cookies handy.
    https://i.imgur.com/i9mvKgh.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/YpSdiP0.jpg
    She let out an impatient sigh as she took in her surroundings. As lively as the park was, she wanted her guy to herself. But she also didn’t want to seem ungrateful to the guests who came to celebrate her fiancé’s aging up day. After all, it’d been planned in advance and lots of people had shown up to the festive occasion. But it couldn’t be helped what the heart desired and she quelled her impatience for the festivities to be over.
    https://i.imgur.com/z7m9Mye.jpg
    But it had been noticed by her fiancé and well, she had to be honest with him about it.
    https://i.imgur.com/PNysQcO.jpg
    “It sucks that I have two more days before aging up.” She said to him. “It means we can’t be together in the same room and…”

    Haruo raised an eyebrow.

    “…and it’s so unfair! It’s not like you’re twenty six and I’m fifteen!” She huffed waving her hand with the engagement ring on her finger. “We’re engaged for crying out loud. We’re both turning eighteen. You, just two days ahead of me.”
    https://i.imgur.com/ktGHHVa.jpg
    Haruo only had one word. “Optics.” was all he said. He’d ended up broad-shouldered and muscular and he looked every inch a man. Whereas River still looked like a teenager. He was right about the possibility of people’s tongues wagging, the legality of a teen and a young adult living together in the same house alone together and it annoyed the living daylights out of her. He told her that he was stretching the limit by letting her sleep in the same house, he wasn’t going to have them wag their tongues about the possibility of them sleeping together in the same bedroom. “It just doesn’t look good from the outside looking in.”

    Already Jamie Jolina was hovering about her man cooing that “my, oh, my, Haruo, you filled out nicely…”

    ...and frankly, that pissed River off immensely.

    River had muttered something cutting, rather audibly about avoiding cougars, whilst stepping out during the next two days and it was certain the infamous Jamie Jolina got the message about latching onto men who were already spoken for. If that wasn’t clear enough, the fact that River flashed her diamond ring and a bold caress of her man’s arm sent a clear message to Jamie to back the eff off; that Haruo was River’s and Jamie should stop trying to put her grubby mitts on every man in a relationship.

    It didn’t stop Jamie though from making an equally cutting remark about River trying to look older than her true age by utilizing make-up. “I guess they’re letting children play with warpaint now…”. She’d snidely commented risking a slashing verbal attack from River.

    At least I don’t look like a reject from clown school…River thought acidly as she calmed herself from that blatant violation of her boundaries. Jamie did have a tendency to overstate her looks with garish makeup, utilizing red lipstick, blue eye shadow and eyeliner as well as using a purple hue of blush which combined for a sort Tammy Faye Bakker’ish appearance.

    “Maybe you could get your husband to stop trying to sell condos in swampland!” River snapped as Jamie Jolina recoiled in surprise, “Oh, I’m sorry, wrong person…it’s just, I guess the makeup..,made me think of someone else. My bad.” She finished flippantly.

    All of this repartée had contributed to her down mood as she stood contemplating the fountain (and perhaps the multitude of ways she could drown Jamie Jolina in it). On top of that, Morgana Wolffe was a friend even though she was ten or so years older than her and Jamie Jolina was trying to tryst with Morgana’s husband so she was not even in River’s good books to begin with. The only reason why River tolerated her being invited was because Jamie Jolina had been Haruo’s baby-sitter when he was a toddler and she was still in high-school.
    https://i.imgur.com/Dc7F2O7.jpg
    By this time, the sun had gone down and River was starting to feel fatigue coming on. The dance floor was going still but Haruo and River weren’t on there. Haruo was also showing signs that he was about ready to pack it in.

    After taking their leave of the party goers who appeared to want to keep the party going until the late hours of the night, River and Haruo cleaned up the buffet table and got it out of the party area. It would be stored until the next time they threw a party which would be in two days time.

    Coming home to what was simply put, a mansion but any stretch of the imagination was a jaw-dropping experience. According to the bank their net worth was just a hair’s breadth away from §1M. With a property Haruo picked up near the Falls as well as buying up the park and their home, their real estate holdings (unimproved lots and freehold estate) totaled almost §280,000 of that total. The rest of the valuation came from their liquidable assets such as cash.

    Walking through the front door of their home; they finally had a place they could call home and truly it was nearly the equal of the Landgraab home; was still an exhilarating experience.
    https://i.imgur.com/lffjdvH.jpg
    But sleep was a lonely proposition as Haruo took the bedroom (unfinished) that was on the third floor and River took the massive finished bedroom which would be theirs once she aged up to young adult.

    The fact that they couldn’t really sleep didn’t help matters much. Haruo was up at 3:15 AM cutting tiberium into spires.
    https://i.imgur.com/02Y431B.jpg
    Then he went out to milk the cows in the rain. The chickens probably would not have eggs ready to collect until 5AM. By then he would be ready for breakfast leftovers. After coming back inside, he made the decision to head over to Aleister’s to drop off his latest results of his conjuring attempts: two tanzanites, a pair of diamonds, a rainbow gem and two luminescent gemstones all cut into spires which would bring in a significant haul of simoleons.
    https://i.imgur.com/1xQwwev.jpg
    River had two more days which meant that she would age up to young adult on Monday. It was debated whether or not she should go to school that day, but the simple fact that she needed to get her grades up meant that she should go to school and at least present her homework. Then they would throw a birthday party for her after-school. Then after that there was no more school unless, of course, she wanted to go to university.
    https://i.imgur.com/mS3oZYM.jpg
    After 5AM rolled around, Haruo decided he was going to the grocery store then to Aleister’s as well as search Cemtral Park for seeds. He got about §815.00 for the haul of veggies, eggs and fish he sold.

    He managed to find an orange tree seed and a few bean tree seeds of various types so his entire time at the park hadn’t been an entire waste of time. Then he caught a taxi to Aleister’s.
    https://i.imgur.com/LAjbIV3.jpg
    The clerk used to be a paparazzi but gave it up when the Sunset Valley PD started cracking down on their illegal activities such as breaking into houses or stalking in order to “get the scoop”. That was just plain creepy. Haruo managed to negotiate a good amount for his gemstones as he was a young adult now and wasn’t about to be taken to the cleaners again.

    Maybe he would start adding other cuts and eventually depending on the purity of the cut start dictating his own pricing. And that might probably start increasing the asking price of the gemstones. He wasn’t going to stay an impoverished farmer. He wanted to make sure that he had enough money for his kids when he and River got around to having them.

    He decided to jog home from the elixir shop and that took a while.
    https://i.imgur.com/CmzpVBp.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/yV7y7q5.jpg
    River on the other hand had breakfast and then headed back up to do some more painting. She planned to specialize in custom art when she became a young adult so thus she did what she thought was necessary in order to bring that goal to fruition. Currently she was working on an avant-garde piece that was large. It would bring in a tidy 4-figure amount when she finally finished and sold it.
    https://i.imgur.com/5dyBCqc.jpg
    Considering the fact their property had two cow-pens and ten chicken coops, they had quite a few eggs and they were able to make cheese consistently. Of course getting 2 milk every twenty six minutes meant that Haruo would have to go out constantly. Perhaps they should look into robotics and start creating nanites so they could eventually get a plumbot to do those onerous tasks such as conjuring without exhaustion or going out every twenty-six minutes to milk the cows. And maybe a third to fish all afternoon before going off to charge themselves. At least that would help matters and free up humans to do what they did best.

    What, you ask? Make more of thenselves…what do you think?

    Sunday afternoon was more of the same. It was certainly interesting to speculate just how much the proceeds of the sale of the gemstones would be. Haruo hoped the sale of them would be well over §250,000. It would enable them to get two vehicles without hurting the principle amount too much. The goal here now went from mere survival to wealth accumulation. To go from nothing to the wealthiest person in Sunset Valley was a feat; from hereon in, the goal would be to maintain a comfortable standard of living for River and their family.
    https://i.imgur.com/jtortrM.jpg
    Term investments were a way of doing so. But it wasn’t something that was doable by locking their money away for excessively long periods of time to earn 6-7% return. And stocks tended to fluctuate greatly from day to day on the trading market so, how to invest when the markets were so volatile.

    It meant that Haruo had to invest in real estate and improve their valuation so that they could make more money on the flip-end than they did going in. Seeing what was available was going to be an interesting venture.
    https://i.imgur.com/kq8uvbv.jpg
    Haruo could go see a realtor. Most did their open houses on a weekend to nab prospective buyers; not just on the subject property but for other potential sales as well. A buyer’s agent was good to have so that one could have an advocate. The seller’s agent is not obligated to look after the buyer’s rights. The seller’s agent has only one job and that’s to look after the rights of the seller. Which is why now, where the Watcher used to work, they now have a contractual obligation for both buyers and sellers and each agent protects the rights of their contractees - double-ending a real estate deal is now scrutinized for double-dealing and is pretty much frowned upon. It’s the old “Which side are you working for?” kind of thing.

    Trying to diversify their investments so that they didn’t put all their eggs in one basket was also going to be a problem. It meant that they were going to have to find an investment broker and pay them a percentage of commission to find them a good mix of an investment portfolio that wouldn’t tank in hard economic times. All this did was evoke a state in which Haruo felt like his brain would explode.

    Frankly one needed to negotiate the realm of investment carefully. One wrong selection could tank your entire portfolio. A frightening thought for those who were risk-averse.
    https://i.imgur.com/AnHbweB.jpg
    “What are you thinking about?” River asked. It was disconcerting to see how Haruo had grown up in other ways; not just physically but mentally too.

    “Just thinking about how to grow our money so that we never get put in the position we were when I was a teenager.” That was the frightening thought. Investment was not something taught in schools. Bull and bear markets; and when was a good time to invest, sell or hold. A bull market being hot and a cooling bear market were the two extremes. School didn’t teach you what to do in either of those cases.

    River could understand the feeling behind the simplistic emotions that governed needing to figure out investment: safety, security, the need to keep food in one’s belly and keeping a stable roof over one’s head. These four emotions drove humans to work, to toil for one’s supper and shelter, and for those who were more predatorily or desperation driven, motivated to commit crimes to satisfy those needs. Haruo, on the other hand, was more motivated to do things through legal channels as opposed to illegal.

    “So…how are we going to do that?”
    https://i.imgur.com/wgW58lz.jpg
    “Real Estate Investment and Term GICs for long-range; short term high volatility stocks for the short term. 10% total net worth in stocks 20% in real estate. The other 70% is our operating budget. That means currently we hold §197,800 in real estate and we can hold §98,900 in stocks - we can get a return of about §22K annually.” Haruo looked at her.

    “We can?”

    “That’s compound interest for you?” Haruo grinned.
    https://i.imgur.com/TlIUMQ0.jpg
    “Somebody was listening in school…”. River commented wryly, “…because all this is going wayyy over my head.”

    “First of all, we need to find an investment advisor…”

    “…one that isn’t crooked, you mean..,” River interjected. She had a point. Frankly, one had to vet the advisors used when one had money to make sure they knew what they were doing, weren’t taking kickbacks to push a scam stock or were otherwise double-dealing. The best thing was to deal with an accredited investment house with a certification.
    https://i.imgur.com/Ea9QWH5.jpg
    Haruo looked over at her, “At least we now have a place to start from.” And that they did. Noticing his own stomach growling and how famished he felt he nodded towards the fridge with a look of concern in River’s direction, “Have you eaten?”
    https://i.imgur.com/i882ldi.jpg
    “I had a breakfast calzone earlier but, I’m starting to get hungry again.” There was a slight touch of irritation that it felt as though he as a young adult was trying to parent her when they were only two days apart in age. It wasn’t like she couldn’t take care of herself. But she swept that irritation away. He was only concerned for my well-being. People are already looking at us weird; him being young adult and me being teen even if it’s only for two more days so naturally he’s concerned for my well-being. But people being people will still talk about us.
    “Maybe you should eat again.” The idea was put out there casually and River’s stomach grumbled in agreement.

    “I guess I’ll have another calzone.”

    “…and I’ll make apple pie.” He paused a moment grinning, “…if only to get some of these apples out of my inventory.”

    (Chapter Two; Part Four)

    The day passed uneventfully as Haruo managed to conjure a pink diamond which could potentially be sold Monday and when the consignment selling deadline passed they were §215K richer with the gemstones he’d turned in early Sunday morning than they started
    https://i.imgur.com/9dOTwkx.jpg
    Haruo decided to diversify that into real estate buying up the Alto’s estate at a whopping §325,000 which would set tongues wagging in Sunset Valley about the young and upcoming real estate tycoon. He went and did that on Monday morning as well as buying up the Sekemoto’s old home and Sunset Valley Park which he would be redeveloping into a lakefront so that it could be a kind of fishing resort.

    Monday morning’s breakfast was waffles and Haruo was dressed to impress in a suit and tie as well as nice dress shoes.
    https://i.imgur.com/r6btCpF.jpg
    “Wow, looking snazzy there, honey…” River was bemused when she came into the kitchen to collect her plate of waffles. “Planning on doing some important stuff?”
    https://i.imgur.com/m32kCGC.jpg
    “Yeah, adult stuff. Going to see the investment advisor, then talking to the real estate agent. He says he’s got a line on the Alto property and I want to snap it up before it even goes on the market.” was her fiancé’s reply. “The Sekemotos just moved and they’ve got a develop-able property that I want to put some work into.”
    https://i.imgur.com/vwq7czw.jpg
    River looked sharply at him, one eyebrow raised. Haruo could notice a tone of pique when she replied, “If I wasn’t engaged to you, I’d be convinced, I just got insulted.”

    “No, just extremely busy and trying to figure out how to best put our money and converting gemstones to use to better our financial situation, sweetheart. Did you get your homework done?”
    https://i.imgur.com/T2GeuK9.jpg
    That was a shot., however…“Shut up, you.” He knew darned well she’d finished the homework Friday night - he was sitting right at the kitchen table while she was working on it; the louse, and enjoying every minute of her frustration at completing the assignment while he tossed his into the shredder since he was aging up Saturday and frankly didn’t give two hoots whether he finished his homework or not. Haruo’s smirk would have been infuriating if she didn’t love him so much. River, after eating headed back upstairs to do some painting before she had to leave to head to school, her last day of school before aging up to young adulthood.

    Haruo, on the other hand, knew there were things to do before he had to set up for the party for his beloved wife-to-be so he got to the office to meet the investment advisor. Together they would make a plan to set up a real estate portfolio as well as a stock portfolio. And that would enrich him with rental income as well as investment dividends. So while his wife-to-be made a mad dash out the door to her final day of school, he got set doing the tasks that he had to do.
    https://i.imgur.com/m1K0f3U.jpg
    Then there was time taken at the city hall to do all the necessary paperwork that needed to get done in order to have property transferred into his name and set up as an investment property. Paying the property purchase tax and what-not. It took well until after 10:30 before he could take a breather and contemplate what he’d just done which was reduce their total cash reserves from §928K to §328K but increased their total real estate holdings to §600,000. Then with the gemstones he was bringing up and recutting them to size and refining them, he would make their cash resources plenty again.
    https://i.imgur.com/Fif8eXP.jpg
    When he got home he got on the phone and started inviting friends to a birthday party held for River. Renting stuff for a dance floor and setting up a karaoke and juice bar (let’s just call it what it was: alcohol) and he was quite certain there were probably a few who were going to get thoroughly plastered (staggering drunk) at this party. Namely a few party animals, Molly French being one of them. She was generally a blast at any party in town and she generally went to all of them.

    It was mainly because River talked fondly of Sandi that Molly was being invited to River’s birthday party. And also because Sandi was at an age where she still really couldn’t be left at home alone. If she was left home alone, the social workers could get involved and no-one wanted that, even if it was de riguer for the 80s to let kids stay at home by themselves with strict instructions, “Don’t touch the whatever appliance that can kill you du jour…or you’re gonna get what for when mommy or daddy gets home”.

    That wasn’t an empty threat back in those days. You wouldn’t be walking normal for at least six days when your dad got finished caning your behind.
    (to be continued)