60 - Skills, Talents & Passions

While Maia was on maternity leave from work and anticipating the birth of Dylan’s baby, she taught Destiny her toddler skills.

The training went quickly with only one toddler to teach and no other children demanding her attention.

Destiny also continued to bond with her IF Angel.

Meanwhile, Maia sent another crowded limo full of boisterous teens to invade prom.

Sierra was elected Prom Queen, and apparently Shane convinced the entire school to vote him Prom King. You must obey—the angry eyebrows command you!

And not long afterwards, Maia went into labor.

She gave birth to twins!

Welcome Kai!

And welcome Marina!

Since neither baby had fish scales on their legs, Maia couldn’t tell for certain if they were merfolk or not, but since she noticed a golden witch aura around only one of them, she was guessing the other infant was a mer-baby and would grow scales as a toddler. 

In the meantime, Maia’s teens were busy discovering their talents and preferences as they worked on learning the skills they would need in order to pursue their aspirations when they became adults.

Sierra was a natural cook, so she worked on her cooking skill in order to eventually become a five star chef.  While she was still working on the basics, her macaroni and cheese did come out perfect, and, like her, was a very lovely shade of orange.

Being a bookworm, Tickles hoped to publish her own stories, so she spent a great deal of time improving her talents as a writer.  And because she was also family-oriented and had a childish nature, writing children’s books to read to her own kids someday was her dream.

Rhys was a born athlete, and quite disciplined in his rigorous exercise. In addition to his regular workouts, he began training in the martial arts.

Like Sierra, Pickles was a natural cook. He was also a collector of all kinds of recipe books, though he loved grilling out the best.  His current specialty is hamburgers... with pickles on the side.

Quinn and Nickels were both virtuosos and enjoyed practicing playing a variety of musical instruments.

Their passion for music also extended to vocal styling, and they performed many duets on the karaoke machine together.

Being both handy and eccentric, Lucian had an aptitude for inventing  toys and useful gadgets, as well as creating decorative objects made from scrap metals. He and his IF Squiggles, an artistic teen who spent many hours honing his painting skill on the drafting table, often chatted together while each worked on their projects.

Since Shane had always loved horses, old cowboy movies and western music, it wasn’t too surprising when he asked Maia for riding lessons at the local stable.  Jiggles also had equestrian leanings, so Maia enrolled both boys in riding classes.

And not only did Shane and Jiggles ride horses in their spare time, they also enjoyed riding the mechanical bull.

Maia met the boys’ riding instructor one day when she came to see them during one of their lessons. His name was Riley Fitzpatrick, and he was not at all what Maia had expected!

Once he dismounted, he changed out of his IF doll form, and Maia inquired about how Shane and Jiggles were faring in their riding sessions.  After talking with Riley for only a short time, she discovered he was an extremely proficient horse trainer and very passionate about his work.

He managed to coax Maia onto the back of his horse, but Maia had zero equestrian instincts.

But luckily, Riley had other passions as well. Now this was more Maia’s style!

And since Maia had no aptitude for horseback riding anyway, she reckoned she'd save a horse and ride a cowboy!

YEEHAW!

After their roll in the hay, Maia wondered if she might be pregnant with an IF baby, which could be especially interesting once he or she received an IF doll from Grim in the mail.

But until then, there were other plans to be made, as the twins and their IF’s were due to age up and graduate.

Happy birthday Shane!

You got yerself a mighty fine Fu Manchu there, pardner!

Happy birthday Lucian!

Happy birthday Jiggles!

Happy birthday Squiggles!

The next day was their graduation ceremony.  They each graduated with highest honors and Squiggles was named class valedictorian.

All the skilling the new grads had done as teens served them well. Shane was planning to train and race horses as a jockey, as was Jiggles.  Lucian decided to pursue a career in inventing, and Squiggles wanted to be a painter.

And then it was time for the teens to move out and begin their new lives.  The parting was as bittersweet as ever, and Maia couldn’t shake the sense of foreboding she felt as she hugged them all goodbye. Still, while Lucky Palms was a very large town, it wasn’t as if her now grown children were moving far away like some of the others had. Maia knew she would be able to see them from time to time.

Shortly after, Maia had gone to look for the graduation announcements in the Lucky Palms Ledger, but she was sidetracked by the paper’s headline.

Upon finishing the article, Maia immediately jumped up and made a call to Child Services.

She scheduled an appointment to meet with a social worker for an interview in order to adopt Dylan’s little clone. While the baby wouldn’t count towards her challenge total, Maia was determined to raise him as one of her own as she did with her children’s IFs. At least this way he would have a connection with his blood relatives, rather than being raised in an orphanage, never knowing he had family and possibly feeling like an unloved outcast due to the unusual circumstances of his origins.

After a great many meetings and an immense amount of paperwork, the day finally arrived for the social worker, Joy, to bring the baby—now grown to a toddler—home.

Maia noticed the mermaid scales on his legs and knew immediately that the little boy was Dylan’s replica in miniature, although she wasn’t sure how an exact genetic copy could’ve gotten such bright turquoise eyes when Dylan’s were brown.  She supposed that in the mind of the scientific community that made him a flawed clone, but in Maia’s eyes he was her precious and perfect baby.

She named her newly adopted son Caspian.

After bringing Caspian into the nursery to play, Maia glanced down and rubbed her new baby bump, courtesy of her ginger IF stud, Riley.

After looking up from her belly and around the nursery, Maia didn’t need to be a fortuneteller to predict that she was going to be very busy with a great deal of toddler training in the months ahead!

Author's Note-Yeehaw! xD