Ch. 1.3 Greta grows up

Pepper had been feeling a bit unwell. Hugh suspected it was because she spent so much time outside hunting mice but whatever the cause, she had to be taken to a vet.

The timing couldn't have been much worse; the whole family was preparing for the upcoming Harvestfest. There was so many things to do, hanging up the decorations, cook up delicious meal, plan your wardrobe and also to just stay at home enjoying the holiday together, not spending it at the vet.

Luckily the visit to the vet was a short one, yet effective, and Hugh was home in time to prepare the grand meal for the family. He was having so much fun with the recipes! He just hoped that everyone would like to eat the meal as much as he liked cooking it.

"Mum! There is a gnome in my room!" Nickolas yelled but no one heard him.
"Gnome wearing a box!?!", he was laughing with tears in his eyes, "this is brilliant, just brilliant!"
"You want something, don't you? You look kind of silly but you still want something. Now, let's see. Old mushrooms maybe? What do you lot eat? You like toys? So you can bring them for other kids? Oh, you aren't one of the Santa's gnomes, are you not?" The gnome just stared at him but somehow in middle of all the blabbering they had made some kind of a connection and the pie Nickolas offered was accepted.

Annika tried the same, she also offered a pie for a different gnome and was zapped immediately. Maybe you had to use some time for chatting first?

She tried begging for forgiveness.

They tried singing for it.

But nothing made any difference, the gnome followed them with angry flame over his head.

"Heading outside?" Hugh asked Nickolas, trying to avoid the pool the gnome had apparently caused.
"Yup. Don't let mum near the gnomes, they don't like her. You don't know what they will do if angry enough", Nickolas warned his dad and laughed at Pepper, "that silly cat doesn't mind water, does she?" And whistling he walked out to spend some time on monkey bars.

Soon there were more gnomes, one nice who had "talked" with Nickolas, one angry and one indifferent who nobody dared to touch - not yet anyway. The angry one continued causing trouble. Nougat had unnaturally long ears for one.

And Annika had bad scarring due to the lightning episode. But the food was very delicious and the atmosphere was very cozy.

"Greta, mind sitting at the table with the rest of us?", Annika asked her.
"I would but there is some old cake on the table", she replied.
"Still, we have something to talk about", Annika continued.
"I can hear you here too", she replied and went to eat in the living room.
"She really minds of this old piece of cake?", Nickolas rolled his eyes and took some whipped cream on his finger.
"Nickolas, don't", Hugh warned him, "heaven knows how old that is!"
"Ok fine", he sighed and wiped his finger on his trousers.
"See, I'm better here!", Greta pointed out.

Such a relaxing holiday dinner!

"Ok you sittle little dwarf, let's see... mum just didn't know how to handle you. You don't have that much brain that you would really care, don't you? You just didn't like her, I know, she can be annoying sometimes but me.. I'm whole different thing, no need to look that stern at me, I'm more like you than you think...", Nickolas barely finished his sentence when he too got zapped.

"Pepper, it is my birthday today, did you know that?", Greta talked to Pepper who had jumped to the table to get some attention but apparently that wasn't the real reason as she soon was eating their grandmeal.
Greta sighed, "not that anyone notices really, with Harvestfest and everything but it would still be great to cake at least. Oh, you continue to eat that, we have more than enough to eat anyway."

Hugh and Annika hadn't forgotten. They had tried to invite guests but nobody showed up, you couldn't really blame them as all of the families probably were celebrating the harvest fest. Still, Hugh had made a cake, he wouldn't let his first born to have her teen birthday without blowing out the candles!

Greta grew up with completed aspiration and turned out to be gorgeous looking lady! Her taste with clothing was clearly expensive, the whole party style told everyone that here was a young woman who knew exactly what she wanted.

The party always ends though and after all that Harvestfest-birthday-day it as back to school and work. Everyone was tired and nobody felt like getting up the next morning. So the day wasn't the best for anyone but it certainly didn't improve after school/work. When Tofu and Whisper grew up to adults the family decided that four fully grown cats was just too much and placed the older cats, Nougat and Pepper up for adoption. They didn't really want to, but it was simply too much and they couldn't give away Tofu and Whisper who they had had since their birth.

But life has a tendency of returning to its own track. Besides, they still had two cute cats! There certainly wasn't anything better for relieving tension (well, maybe woohoo but if you talk about something you can do at any time) than giving a hug to your soft, furry little cat.

Greta started taking some more responsibilities even though all that she would like to do, was studying for the university. For her the high school was just something you get through to achieve your real goal - university and degree. But she had found out that you could study household works too, she was eager to learn new recipes and get better at cooking. It was for two reasons; to be able to take care for herself once in the university and she simply liked learning new things just for the sake of it.

She also headed out of the house every now and then, more pushed by her parents than really wanting to. Ok, library was great place but apart from that. Then she realized that she could practice chess at the park too. Nickolas was happy about this, he usually followed her and invited his own friends too - who sometimes seemed to be more interesting about what Greta was doing than playing with Nickolas.

"What are you playing at? Is that chess? How do you play it? Is that your queen?", Pierce was babbling, not realizing he was disturbing something.
"Go and play with Nickolas, will you?" Greta told him, "nothing to see here."
"Can't you have a moment of piece here?" Terry too wondered, he would have liked to spend some time alone with Greta, now it seemed that Greta wasn't that interested about him and he was wondering if he could change that. After all, they had known long time. But for Greta that was exactly the point, Terry was too familiar, too safe, too much a friend of her little brother.

"I heard you practice debating here, I was going to do the same!", Greta was delighted to find someone who was interested about academic studies as well.
The guy blushed a bit, being walked in like that. After all, it is quite embarrassing to be found talking yourself to a mirror! Greta tried to start a debate with him but the guy apologized and left. Greta shrugged, she would have liked to have a debate but with someone that shy... No, she would rather read it from a book.

Greta was determined to go the university with good skills so she improved her logic, studied cooking, read about and rehearsed debating, played some music (you never know what comes handy!) but she still had some time to live usual teen life. With social media at least.

#stillathome #notforlongthough #youjustwait

"Dad, you seriously think that's funny?" Greta asked incredulously. She didn't much approve his dad's stand up comics. Or stand up overall.
"You don't get it. Did you hear the part about Bella Goth and ghosts?"
"I get it alright, it is just... lame", she loved her father very much but it didn't mean that she would approve his jokes, "how about you try something a bit more intelligent? More sophisticated maybe?"
"My joke about Bella Goth, ghosts and a toilet is always a hit when I'm performing."
"Exactly dad, exactly", Greta sighed sarcastically, "listen, I wanted to talk to you about something."
Annika turned around to listen and Hugh didn't continue about his joke about Bella Goth, ghost and a toilet.

"What is it?", he asked.
"I was just wondering if I could invite a friend of mine here..."
"You have always had our promise to bring up your friends here", Annika replied.
"It is just, that he... um... he... I just wanted to know if it is ok", Greta didn't know what to say and blushed hard.
Annika half grinned, so that what this was about.
"You can bring him here, of course you can. I think your mother and I want to very much meet him", Hugh  told her.

After all, the house was so small that the young couple, if you could call them a couple, were safer here in this small house where Greta and Nickolas still shared a bedroom than somewhere around the town.

So the family met August. A nice, well behaving guy who was "just a friend".