Chapter Thirteen: No More Toddlers!

 Narrated by Caroline Masterson

One evening, I decided to head over to the Jasmine Suites Apartments to visit Anastasia and her family. Alexander was absent - I had, in fact, just left him at my place - and I met Helen in the hallway.

"Hello! You must be Helen," I smiled.

"Yeah, that's me!" she said. "Who are you?"

"My name's Caroline. Your older brother Alexander is friends with my daughter, Erytheia," I explained. "And this little girl is my daughter Artemis."

"I'm not little, Mummy," Artemis replied, not looking up from her tablet.

"Sorry," I grinned. "Why don't you say hi to Helen?"

Inside, I got chatting with Anastasia. Her husband Nicholas was busy on the computer, but still said a friendly hello.

"So, how do you like living in the Spice Market?" I asked.

"It's great," Anastasia smiled. "They've got a lovely little Indian food stall, I love a good curry."
"Mmm, sounds delicious!" I replied. "Our local food stall sells Filipino food, it's so good."

So, later that day, I decided to go and check out the Indian stall. Spotting the little play area, I called Erytheia and Xanthe over and they immediately got stuck in, Xanthe playing with the basketball hoop and Erytheia swinging on the monkey bars. I ordered a plate of curry and sat on a bench to eat it; although tasty, it was a little spicier than I'd anticipated. 

The next morning, I decided to check out the latest acting jobs. The one that stood out was called "Melodies in the City", which was billed as a musical. I decided to sign up; although my singing wasn't the best, it sounded like a laugh. 

I really hope this goes well, I thought. I don't want to get fired!

That weekend, Peter decided to take Erytheia and Xanthe to the Youth festival, as I had to attend my audition. He messaged me to say he'd made sure they'd both received a Blessing of Youth, and that they were both enjoying the Virtual Voidcritter hunt. 

Luckily, the audition went pretty well, and I felt confident as I came home afterwards. I immediately went into my bedroom to work on my charisma skill, which the casting agents had said was more important than my singing skills, which could be easily edited if I sounded bad. 

On Monday afternoon, once the kids were home from school, I took them all over to the playground in Oasis Springs. The weather was warm, which was a real contrast to the coldness of San Myshuno where we'd had our heating on for the past couple of days. The kids had fun investigating the playground, and I decided to grill some elote in case anyone wanted any. 

That day also happened to be Artemis and Apollo's birthday. Yep, after what felt like forever, there would no longer be any toddlers in the house, and all my children would be going to school. 

"OK, Apollo, blow out the candles!" I said, lifting him up. 

The kids barely noticed as I left the penthouse to head over to Plumbob Pictures; they understood that I had to work. I'd been nervous about Melodies in the City, but it turned out my singing voice was a lot better than I'd thought. OK, maybe there was some kind of digital wizardry going on, but I didn't care. I did decide to sign up for some proper lessons, though.