A Small Favour (Research Project)

Hello there readers!

 

It’s been, well, years since we last saw the Tempest family and unfortunately, they have now been lost to computer upgrades. But I’m not here to talk about the Tempests I’m here to ask a favour, I am in my final year of university, and am undertaking a dissertation project in which I am exploring shock tactics and propaganda in relation to their impact on animal welfare. In layman’s terms, I am trying to see if upsetting images make people more aware of animal welfare.

Part of this project features a survey and I would be unbelievably grateful if you would consider taking part! https://goo.gl/forms/xL2RmYDtkY9pbDWV2

So grateful I may consider putting a new story up very soon 😉

Gen 7:9 Undisclosed

“Man I can’t believe we wont be coming back here again!”

“I know it’s so sad!” Sophia nodded as we packed the last of our things into suitcases and closed our bedroom door for one last time. The girls were all saying their goodbyes downstairs, with mascara running down their faces and screeches of promising to visit, Daphne turned to us,

“You girls better have a spare room because you sure as hell aren’t keeping me away from Sunlit Tides! I’ll be over next Christmas!” Daphne smiled at us both and pulled us into a hug.

*****

“So you’ll bring all my clothes to my house while I’m at work?”

“Yes Soph! Now go, you can’t be late for your first day on the job!” Soph grinned and dashed out to her car. Since we’d come back we’d both been offered very good jobs, well Sophia had. I’d been offered a job in an undisclosed project out in Lucky Palms, I knew it paid well and that’s about the only thing I knew. I’d be given a house with all expenses paid for me, and they would explain everything when I got to Lucky Palms. I accepted after mum and dad had contacted the people offering me a job to make sure it wasn’t a scam or anything.

The minute Sophia and I came home from Uni she bought a house of her own, a small two bedroomed place near the ocean, we’d been helping her move her stuff bit by bit over the course of a few weeks and we’d arranged to get it all set up for her before she came home from work so our first plan of action was to set up a baby swing for Ariel, Hannah and Darius’ daughter since neither of them could find a sitter and they were both determined to help.

After an hour or so of manoeuvring sofas and chairs, Vince, Darius and dad had completed the living room while mum, Hannah and I had finished the kitchen and dining room. The whole time Ariel had watched us, in almost eerie silence, Hannah whispered that it sometimes unnerved her when Ariel was as quiet as that, as she spoke Hannah scooped Ariel up and sat on the sofa with her to feed her,

By the time Sophia came home at 7pm we had completely finished the whole house and were all collapsed on the sofa in her living room, trying to keep our eyes open,

“Guys!! You didn’t have to do this!”

“Nonsense, no daughter of mine is sleeping on the floor!”

“But I would have managed!”

“Soph shut up and get over it.” Sophia laughed and plonked herself on my lap,

“So who’s cooking dinner?” A collective groan rose up in the room as she began dialling a number for pizza, before scooping up Ariel and giving her a huge cuddle,

“How’s my favourite fanged niece doing?” Ariel made a soft cooing sound and we all smiled, Ariel and Sophia were almost enviably close, sometimes I think Ariel may actually prefer Sophia to Hannah.

“Thank you all for coming, and also for insisting on paying for my pizza!”

“No problem, Mina wont let us help out with her move so its the least we can do helping you!”

“Dad, I’m moving to Lucky Palms. Not a 10 minute drive away!”

“Stef stop winding her up, come on, we need to help Mina pack in the morning anyway so lets head home! Night Sophia, see you bright and early tomorrow!”

Bloated with an obscene amount of pizza we all waddled in unison to dad’s car, as we drove off I felt as if half of me was missing, this was gonna be the first time in my life I haven’t lived with Soph. And when I move out to Lucky Palms I’ll probably only see her via the internet and on holidays.

Our room felt so weird without her prancing about and generally acting like an ass, but at least I’ll be able to get to sleep at a reasonable hour for once! Or so I thought, I rolled over and glanced at the clock, 2:00am, as I rolled back over my phone light up and I saw a text from Sophia. We stayed up for a while texting until I heard birds tweeting and began to actually feel sleepy,

After what felt like maybe 10 minutes of sleep mum and dad woke me up to finish packing up anything I wanted to take with me to Lucky Palms, which incidentally wasn’t a lot.

*****

Holy plumbob! This house is huge! I have two living rooms! Why on earth would I need two? I found a letter on my kitchen table explaining all terms of tenancy basically no parties in which the house could get destroyed, any pets or children must be supervised at all times etc etc. I went upstairs to go check that all my furniture I’d picked out was here, yup all present and correct.

This house is technically two houses that are joined together by a bridge/corridor thing so I decided to go inspect the other and found another fully furnished bedroom with a half wall nursery built in.

Of course. They know I’m part of a legacy family.. But I’m hardly planning on having kids while I’m here! Oh well. I suppose it’ll be useful if Hannah and Darius ever come to stay. As I played with the mobile hanging above the cot my doorbell rang so I dashed downstairs and found a guy at my door,

“Hello?”

“Mina Tempest! It’s Jonathon Davis! We spoke on the phone?”

“Oh yes, please come in!”

“I just came to make sure you’re all settled in, which it appears you are. Is everything to your liking?”

“Um yes? I was just wondering as to why there’s a nursery though?”

“Well you are part of a legacy family so we assumed that you would have children, which reminds me, my adoptive brother is a nanny, so if you ever do need a nanny, here’s his card.”

“Oh, er, thanks?”

“No problem, anyway I’ll leave you to get properly settled down and I’ll see you in the labs tomorrow where we’ll explain what’s going on!”

Gen 7:8 Last Chance

“Hello? Anyone else back yet?” Sophia called out once we were inside, we heard a door open and a girl came running down the stairs,

“Hey guys!!”

“Daphne?”

“The one and only, like the toned down hair?”

“Love it! It’s very different!” Daphne smiled at us and then gestured to the stairs,

“Well go get unpacked and get changed, the rest of the girls should be arriving soon and we’re going out to a bonfire party on the beach!” Eventually all the others arrived and at like 9pm we made our way down to the beach, it looked so odd now that it was completely empty! Usually its ram packed but it is the middle of the night!

Since being home with my parents I realised how much I actually enjoyed the parties Daphne threw, she knew how to keep all her guests entertained. Since this was the last term Sophia and I would have we knew we had to make the most of it, and for Sophia that involved streaking while completely out of her tree, for me that involved trying not to get so drunk I wouldn’t wake up with no recollection of what had happened. As I looked over at Sophia I saw her getting a finger wagging from a police officer who told her that streaking is an offence, and all my dear sister was doing was yawning in his face!

When I saw her being dragged off to the car I quickly ran after them and spoke with the officer, claiming Sophia had a mental handicap, thankfully he believed me but insisted that Sophia was taken back to the sorority with someone to look after her, I was about to volunteer when Patricia pulled me back and insisted she went with them. She wouldn’t listen to me protesting, just told Jemma to go get me another drink.

“Hey Mina! How’s the family? I mean.. besides Sophia.” Alyssa had come running over to me,

“They’re good, although mum and dad decided to completely disturb Sophia and I with their PDA’s. Yours?”

“Well, mum and dad decided to drop the bomb that they’re getting divorced. Over Christmas dinner, in front of my grandma, so that was eventful. Mum wants me to move to France with her.”

“Ah man, Lyss I’m so sorry to hear that!” Alyssa shrugged,

“Like I didn’t know anyway. You begin to get suspicious when your dad starts sleeping in your brother’s room.”

Most of us staggered home when the sun began to rise, all of us aching for our beds, as we all stumbled through the door Daphne grinned at everyone,

“And that, ma petites enfants, is how you return to uni!” Her comment was met with various groans and moans of needing sleep and final exams.

“Hey nerd, get up, Daph’s making breakfast!” Sophia threw a cushion at me and I reluctantly slid out of bed, half crawling down the stairs,

“So I was thinking, we can go on a study night to the library tonight? Never to early to start preparing, besides dad will flip shit if we fail the finals!” I nodded, sleepily chewing on the pancakes Daphne had made for everyone. After a while the sugar rush kicked in and I found a quiet room to study in.

*****

“C’mon loser! Exam day!” Sophia sat up, her hair sticking up in all directions, and she stumbled into the bathroom, coming out an hour later,

“How long do we have?”

“50 minutes, but we’ll need to leave in about half an hour.” She nodded and returned to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

“Good luck Mimi!”

“You too Soph!”

*****

“So how did that go?” I asked Sophia as she pulled me into a hug,

“It wasn’t that bad actually! You?” I shrugged, I’d found it easy, now all we had to do was wait till the end of the week thanks to the University’s grading system. The week was a tense one, Daphne threw no parties and we were all pent up by results day,

With shaking hands I opened my emails, and burst out laughing, I’d passed! With flying colours apparently! Grinning, I turned to Sophia who was sitting on the floor, she read her email intently, then her face cracked into a grin,

“Looks like this bitch isn’t getting disinherited anytime soon!” We phoned our parents who cried down the phone, because they were so proud I hope. They also told us Hannah had given birth to a girl who she had named Ariel, she was perfectly healthy, and Hannah was coping just fine, although she was looking forward to having two babysitters on dial when we came home the next week.

Happy Holidays From The Tempest Family!

I wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a fabulous new year! I was trying to come up with a fun kind of christmasy thing to do with Tempest but I couldn’t think of anything except from doing some family holiday cards, so I chose to do one featuring all the leaders, including Mina!

Again, wishing you all a merry christmas and thank you so much for reading Tempest and giving me honest feedback :’)

Mollie

Gen 7:5 Disguise

“Mina are you going to continue ignoring me?”

“I’m not ignoring you.”

“Mina, I was drunk! Big deal!”

“You promised mum.” I fixed the feather in my hair and tried to leave the room when Sophia grabbed my wrist,

“Dude seriously? Are you jealous of me or something?” I yanked my wrist away,

“Hurry up, the party’s starting soon.” I left the room and wobbled down the stairs on my new shoes.

“Where’s Sophia?”

“She’ll be down in a minute Daph, when is everyone arriving?” As soon as I asked the doorbell rang and the room began to fill up, I saw Sophia talking to the guy from last night and rolled my eyes, making a beeline for the keg, where Patricia was doing a kegstand, supported by Geri, I stayed for a while, even doing a kegstand myself before I became to uncomfortable to stay inside so I decided to go sit by the bonfire for a bit, and keep an eye out for Jimmy.

After a few minutes of watching drunken jocks throw herbs into the bonfire I stood up to leave but as I turned I found Alyssa and Jimmy wrapped around each other near the tree,

I stormed away from the fire and back to the keg where I began replacing any fluid in my body with alcohol, if Sophia could do it, then so could I! Almost in an instant my world became a bit brighter, I tried to walk and found my legs felt slightly jellylike, I staggered over to the sofa and tripped, finding myself on Geri’s lap,

“Mimi, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.. Better than fine.”

My head is pounding, what the hell happened last night? I struggled to sit up and found various people sleeping on the floor near me, I crept into the kitchen and began making coffee when some hands found my waist,

“You changed your costume Mina?”

“What? Jimmy get off!”

“That’s not what you said last night! And you were a fairy yesterday!”

“No I wasn’t Jimmy. This was my costume all night!”

“Then who the hell was I kissing by the bonfire? Oh god it wasn’t Sophia was it?!”

“No. It was Alyssa. Jimmy you should leave.”

“But-“

“Just go, I’ve gotta start cleaning up.”

I’d cleaned up the kitchen when Sophia staggered in, shoving past me, and throwing up in the sink.

“Mimi. I think I might be pregnant.”

“What? Sophia that’s not possible! You wouldn’t be throwing up already!”

“No. Before we came here.”

“Oh you idiot! Come on!” I grabbed her arm and pulled her into the car,

“Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to the doctors, we cant go round thinking you’re pregnant. We need to know now.”

“You know, you could have let me put some shoes on Mimi.”

“Sorry.. I’m just a little panicked, how can you be so calm?? You could be pregnant!” As she turned to answer me her doctor entered the room.

“Miss Tempest?” I pulled Sophia up, we’d be sitting waiting for the results for the past 20 minutes, Sophia’s hands clammy against mine, as we walked into the doctor’s office.

“Your test result was negative Miss Tempest. I’m afraid it doesn’t seem like you could ever conceive.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, based on your test result, it would seem you lack one of the hormones necessary to support a foetus to full term.”

“Oh. Well I guess mum’s screwed if you die Mimi.” The doctor handed Sophia some leaflets after she stated she never wants children anyway.

“Soph are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine Mimi. Like I said, lucky mum didn’t pick me to be heiress. Now can we go into town and get me some goddamned shoes? And then maybe a coffee?”

“Shall we go back to the dorm and tell mum and dad?”

“We’re going home soon. We can tell them then. And hey, I’m going to save a fortune on birth control in the long run!”

Gen 7:4 Settling

Our first weeks at Uni were uneventful, we settled in quickly and began to enjoy the independence of university.

On our fourth week Daphne had called us all into the living room and announced that it was her birthday soon and wanted a costume party, so we all began party planning, besides the freshers evenings this would be the first uni party on campus so it needed to be HUGE.

I had noticed that Sophia was not really spending a lot of time with me anymore, she was out at the bowling alley with her friends, often leaving me in our room to study alone. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss her but it’s not fair of me to keep her away from her friends.

It was friday night, so obviously Sophia would be out at the bowling alley and then the bar with the guys, I sighed, settling down at the desk to get some revision in when I heard a knock,

“Mina? It’s Jemma, can I come in?”

“Sure!” I shut my laptop lid and spun round so I faced the door, Jemma leaned on the door fame,

“Sophia’s out again?”

“Of course,”

“Do you mind if I hang out with you in here for a while, Patricia’s brought one of the fraternity boys over?”

I gestured to the sofa in my room,

“Feel free!” She flopped down on the sofa and examined the room,

“Nice place!”

“Our parents decorated, worried we’d miss our mother’s ‘home touch’.” She nodded once more, we must have stayed talking for a few hours about unimportant things until a crash downstairs alerted us to my twin’s return home, we heard Daphne going downstairs and making sure she was okay.

“She’s utterly hammered. Again. Mina you should go talk to her.”

“I’ll talk to her in the morning. I can’t stand her when she’s drunk.” Daphne shrugged,

“Well, she’s on the sofa downstairs, I tried to bring her up here but she told me to leave her alone. Although not so politely.”

“I’m so sorry Daphne!” She smiled,

“It’s no problem Mina, anyway, I’m gonna hit the sack.. after all it’s my birthday tomorrow!” She left and shortly after Jemma followed.

 

*****

Urgh. I suppose I better go check on the alcoholic now, I crept downstairs, knowing she’d still be passed out, but I wasn’t expecting to find her how I did, curled up on the murphy bed with some random guy,

Gen 7:3 University

“Oh wow.. They really did pull out all of the stops when they decorated this room huh?” Sophia and I set our bags down on our beds. A girl with bright purple hair burst through our door and grinned at us,

“Hey!! My name’s Daphne, you guys must be the Tempest twins?”

“Yup! I’m Sophia and this is Mina.”

“Okay well when you guys are all settled in come down to the living room to meet the other girls!”

Walking into the living room, my ears almost began ringing with the noise from all the girls chatter, and the hair! Every girl appeared to have a crazy colour for their hair, except one of the girls sitting in the middle of the sofa, as we walked in, every girl ran towards us, squealing names and greetings, after a while I began to remember some of the hair colours and the names of the proud owners of said hair,

We of course recognised Daphne straight away, she had ran over a sofa to greet us.

Alyssa was the name of the girl without any crazy hair colour, a few other girls noted that Alyssa could easily be mine and Sophia’s triplet, it was strange being with a complete stranger who looked so much like myself.

Geri’s way of introducing herself had been leaping on Daphne’s back and screaming “hi” to myself and Sophia, we were rather surprised at first but Jemma had explained to us that they were cousins and incredibly close from what they’d seen just today.

Jemma had been the only girl that hadn’t rushed over to say hello, she’d stayed sitting reading her book and thankfully waited until the crowd had dispersed, she was quiet like myself and I could see myself becoming quite good friends with her.

Patricia and Sophia seemed to find a common interest straight away after Sophia noticed that Patricia’s top had the name of her favourite football team emblazoned across the back.

After the introductions we all decided to head to the orientation in the student union building, I made a beeline for the science rooms, determined to try and find my teacher and get ahold of the textbooks early when I ran into a guy about my age,

“Oof!!”

“Sorry!” I took a few steps back without meeting the guys eyes,

“Mina?”

“Huh?” I looked up at the guys face.

 

P.S. In case there is any confusion, Mina is the twin in the red jacket and brown hat, and Sophia is wearing the blue top with her hair in bunches