Rumors: Baby 99

Thanks to a collaborated idea from Destiny Rose, I will be narrating this post from different perspectives of Ambers children. Just as she did, the purpose of this will be to really narrow in and focus on the personalities of individual children, and celebrate the people who have made this challenge possible. There may even be a surprise narrator... Let the fun begin!

~~♥~~

::Katrina's POV::

Regardless of today being "hump day fun day", and supposedly the turning point of the week, I hold no interest in being overly happy. School was a drag, and in gym, the teachers made us play outside and I almost burnt to death! Do they not understand the needs of a young vampire like myself? Do they even care? Whatever, they're annoying no matter what they do. The house is strangely quiet when I walk in the door. I shout my mommy's name a few times before realizing she must be outside. With Thomas close behind, I head outside to find my mom.

When I walk into the backyard, I am in shock to see my mom dressed in a cheerleading uniform, and having photos taken of her and her man James. I've never really like James, but I know Thomas does a lot. I think he just wants a cool guy to be with, but I am happy enough with mommy by my side. She and I have fun. 

"Mommy!" I giggle. "What are you guys doing?!"

"Oh, sweets!" my mom laughs, barely looking over. "James and I are doing a photo shoot, but I don't know why she has me in this outfit..." she shakes her head when a mystery female shouts, "Hey mom! Watch it or I walk!" My mom stifles a laugh and explains that this is my older sister Sarah, who is a photographer.

"Oh, hi Sarah," I say nervously. "Erm, good to meet you." Sarah shoots a smile my way, but that's about it. I guess she's too busy putting my mom in silly outfits. 

I awkwardly wave to Sarah and get out of her line of view. For some reason I can't help but thinking, she would do anything to get the perfect shot of my mom and James, even if that includes pushing me over or something. Thomas and I lamely sit on the top steps of the porch and sigh.

"Mom sure looks pretty, huh?" I smile. 

"Mom's always pretty," giggles Thomas, "She and James are pretty cool together. James is so chill."

"I don't know," I reply, "I don't like James so much. Didn't the triplets tell you all about how they've been fighting?"

"They've been fighting?" he looks startled. "I didn't know that...well, they sure don't look like they're in a fight right now."

I look over and am surprised to see that they have performed a hair and outfit change, as well as a shift in their pose. 

"Those colors are really pretty," I say mindlessly. "I think the color is called eggplant or something."

"Eggplant?" guffaws Thomas. "Eggplants are an ugly purple color! I think that color is Robins Egg or something."

"Well they both have the word egg in them, so I guess it's all the same."

"I guess so," replies Thomas. We're clearly both stressed from school, and this aimless talking is about the only thing keeping us from ripping our hair out. But it's nice to have someone to talk to all the same. Suddenly, I get an idea. 

"Mommy!" I shout. "Can Thomas and I age up please?"  

"Hmm," she looks thoughtful as she shifts into yet another pose. "Sure," she concludes, "but make sure to age up your younger brothers and sisters too!"

Considering that Thomas and I are the ones aging up the youngsters, we age ourselves up first. First off, let me just say...I LOVE BEING A TEENAGER! I love my renewed look, the fact that I can wear makeup, and the view from up here isn't too bad either. I have a fresh wardrobe and a brand spanking new personality to match!
Thomas is still Thomas, silly, fun, and a good brother. He still admires James, but I personally think he should try to make some friends our age. James is cool and all I guess, but there are some seriously hot guys at school that I would love to have has Thomas's best buds. 

Effina and Maysilee are pretty cool too. May is a bit uptight and high-strung, but Effie seems pretty cool. For some reason they both love to wear dresses, like, 24/7. Cute.

And lastly, we aged up the youngest kids. Horace, Tinka, and Corey are all incredibly cute. They're adorableness just rubs off on absolutely everyone, and their smiles win me over instantly. They take forever to age up because they won't stop squirming everywhere, but it's definitely worth it. I hope mom appreciates us helping her out with the kids, or we will have a serious issue to take up.

Thomas and I decide to catch up on some TV, like our favorite shows Family Guy and Modern Family. But when we walk into the family room, our lovely mother and her fiance are resuming the couch cushions. Thom and I awkwardly step back and giggle.


"What do you think they are doing? Making out?!" I guffaw.


"I don't know!" he whispers back. "Maybe they're having a mature conversation about-"


"They're totally flirting or something!" I laugh, cutting him off. 

"I don't know! All I know is that I want to play Assassins Cread with James so bad!"


"That game is like, rated R or something!"


"Yeah, and your point is? It's an AWESOME game sis!"


"Whatever you say," I laugh. 

::Thomas's POV::

As Katrina and I are laughing over James and mom, she suddenly turns on her foot and leaves, probably to go hang out with a guy or something. Word around school is that she is a super-flirt. Whatever. 


It only takes me a few moments to interrupt my mom and James, and take over the gaming system. James and I play a few checkpoints worthy of AC, and get pretty far in fact. The game is hilarious to play with someone as chill as him. 


"Baha!" chuckles James when he turns on his eagle vision, and shoots at the man. "You're as good as dead, fool!" My mom walks in a couple times, and I'm pretty sure she is ticked at me for taking away her time with James, but I don't care that much. I'll only be living here for a few more days, and mom has her whole life with him! Might as well get in a good amount of gaming in now.

Since I'm a vampire, sleep for me is simply a couple hours of pacing, a few hours of mindlessly dreaming, and then a couple hours of actually trying to catch a snooze, which never actually happens. Vampires don't sleep. Ever.


Around 5 AM, as I'm dreaming alone in my room, I suddenly get a shooting pain through my skull. A splintering headache is immediate, but after trying to brush it off for a little while, I know it won't be going away. Mom recently rearranged the cabinets, so I am clueless to as where the tylenol could be. I gently climb out of bed and try to creep into her room. I hope she isn't too startled, she freaks out when we wake her up.

But mom is not alone. She is with another man, and it's not even James! I just barely catch her whispering something seductive in his ear when she looks up. I am too stunned to even speak-to even breathe.


"Thomas!" she yelps. In her face I can see she is honestly shocked. I don't think this has happened before. 

"Erm...I...err..." I stumble across several non-words, chocking on my own tongue. "I-" I officially can not talk.


"Thomas, honey..." blushes my mom, completely separating herself from the black man she's with. "You don't under-" But instead of listening to what this horrid woman called my mom has to say, I whip open the door, and sprint back into my private upper-bunk bed. I hope this offers at least some concealment from her.

School runs by quickly today. I'm assuming that's because I am too preoccupied with what I caught my mom doing this morning. I mean, honestly! I know she does some sort of 'challenge', which causes her to have so many kids such as myself, but how is James possibly okay with this? He's such an awesome guy, what if my mom didn't even tell him about what she does with other men?! What if my mom is a HOOKER?

When I grow tired of asking myself these questions, I decide to call a Lights' kids meeting in the family room. I need to tell them what is going on and get some serious input on it.


"Okay, guys...I have something to tell you." I say. I hope my mom isn't within ear-shot. "This morning I went into moms room, at like 5 or so, and I found her...erm..." I hadn't really thought about how to make this appropriate for May and Effie. "...with another man in bed." Katrina obviously gets what I am saying right away, but the twins take a moment to discuss with each other, and figure out what I mean. They seem to come to a pretty correct conclusion.

"And," I continue, "I have no clue what to do about it. I mean obviously mom is engaged to James, and I know she has lots of kids for that challenge thing or whatever, but there's no way James knows about this!" Without even realizing my voice raises considerably high, and I bring it down in case mom is just in the other room. "So what the hell are we 
supposed to do? Tell James?!"

"Hmmm..." mutters Effie. "Well, I think that we should talk to mommy and see if he knows. Because maybe he does know, but he loves her so much that he is willing to ignore it! Maybe he loves her so much that he is letting her pursue her dreams and hopes, and do everything that makes her happy! James is so sweet!" Effie starts grinning like a maniac.

"Aw, that's so sweet Eff," gushes Kat. "But sorry to break it to you, but that's probably not the case. I know men, and I don't think any man could stand for something like that. I mean, in reality, mom is a slut or a hooker! There's so possible way he knows."

"Don't call mommy mean names!" shouts May, in a sudden burst no one had been expecting. She is a loner most days. "Mommy is the girl who put us on this earth, and she loves us! Don't just ignore all she's done for us to call her those terrible names!"


"Mays..." I start, "We're not calling her mean names if it's true." 


"But is is mean! Wouldn't she be mad if she found out what you're saying about her?!"


"Do NOT be a snitch," warns Katrina. "You'll be so much more uncool if you do that."


"Well I don't know," pouts Kat, "You guys are so mean!" She runs out of the room, and seems to be starting to cry. 

As May leaves the room, we all let out a sigh. I start frowning, but try to make the best of the situation.


"Okay, Kat and Effie; this is obviously a major set-back, but if May doesn't say anything to mom then we should be fine." Their faces still show they're worried, so I add, "We'll definitely be fine," for good measure. But I don't know if we'll be fine. If mom were to find out the things we said about her, we would be as good as dead. 


"We'll be fine, as long as we have a plan," I say. "We need to think of some way to tell James."

::Effina's POV::

I love being in the treehouse. Above the ladder with splinters of wood sticking out all over it, past the grimy rug and toy box in the main room, and into the secret chamber that leads up, is my secret hideout. Up in the very tip-top of our family treehouse is a great view of the ocean, a view that I think only I know of. I love looking out into the depths of the forever-lasting ocean, and imagining going all the way out there. Just me and a sailboat, and no one else.

But today I can't focus on my dreams of sailing nearly as much, because there is one haunting thought in the back of my mind. I am honestly scared of my older brother and sister, Katrina and Thomas, because they are older, stronger, and vampires. Thomas told me and Kat all about a plan he made to help James find out about my mommy and the other men she gets with. But I don't want to break James's little heart! I don't want to ruin my mommy's relationship as much as them. They probably think they're doing the right thing, but if I were to just straight-up ask mommy why she is with other men all the time, maybe she would actually tell me. I would hope she would, at least.

I spend the next hour or so configuring a plan of my own, to counter the one that Thomas and Kat have. If I could just talk to mommy alone and try to sort all this out, then I could tell Thom and Katrina, and we wouldn't do something wrong. But the only complication in talking to mom would be talking to her with no one knowing. Thomas is probably going to be watching over mom like a hawk, trying to catch her with more men. And if Thomas were to see me alone with her, and without him or Kat, I would be as good as dead. Which, considering their vampires, is highly likely.

Suddenly someone slides open the door to the outside. I has expected Thomas or Katrina to pop out, but thankfully it's only Maysilee who walks out. She quietly sits down on the deck with me, and gently looks over.

"Hey sis," she smiles slightly.

"Hey May," I reply, "This is a weird situation we're in, huh?" I kind of laugh it off, but I know she feels very strongly about not letting our brother and sister make mommy upset.

"We need to do something to stop them from ruining everything," frowns May. "Mommy is a perfect person, and she would never do anything to hurt James's feelings. They love each other too much!"

"I know..." I say back. "I have been working on a plan..."

I lay out my entire plan out on the table, and after a few tweaks and turns, I know our plan in bullet proof.

"So what do you say? Are you ready to start operation Stop-Thomas-and-Katrina-from-hurting-mommy's-relationship-with-James?"

"Are you kidding me? I've been waiting for this my whole life!" I giggle. The grin she shoots back reassures me that we can do this.

::Maysilee's POV::

Effina and I find that the best time to set forth Operation STAKFHMRWJ is right after school,while Thomas and Katrina are working diligently on their homework. That is the time when they are least known to the world. We decide that I should be the one to ask mommy, since I have a more natural gentleness with words. Effie is happy to stand guard in front of her bedroom door.

Mommy is reading a book on her bed when I walk in, but at least she is alone. It takes me a moment to quietly shut the door and walk up to her bed.

"Mommy?" I ask, pulling her out of her trance. She always falls into a different world when she reads.

"Wha-huh?" she snaps up, dropping the book on the floor. "Gosh darnit," she sighs, reaching down to pick up the book. "Hi honey. What's going on?"

"What do you mean? Why do you automatically assume something is going on with me?" I say nervously. 

Mom chuckles. "Sorry honey. Should I re-word my sentence? What is up? Is that better?"

I laugh, but only to shake off that feeling creeping up my side. I'm starting to feel really worried about asking about her love life, so I just spit it out.

"Mommy, why did Thomas find you with a different man yesterday morning?"

This gets her immediate attention, and this time she purposefully throws off her book. 

"What? He told you about...what he saw yesterday?"

"Yes mommy. He told us that you were with some black man. Is that true mommy?"

"Hmph..." mutters mommy, pushing her forehead into her palm. "I guess I should've known he wouldn't've kept it a secret," she mutters. "So what do you want to know then?"

"Well..." I start, "I want to know if James knows that you, erm, cheat on him?"

"Are you kidding me?" says my mom. "Of course he does honey! You do know why I hang around with other men sometimes, right?"

"Well, not really," I frown. This causes mom to pop out a small laugh.

"Honey, I am doing something called the 100 baby challenge..." she starts. She goes on to explain to me the perameters of this so-called challenge, where her goal is to have 100 babies with different men. At first I don't like the sound of it whatsoever, but then I grow to like it. All my mommy ever wanted was lots of children.

"And James is okay with this?" I ask uneasily. "He doesn't care that you are with other men sometimes?"


"Honey, I'm not with other men to just be with them. I am only with them for a short period of time so that I am able to conceive all 98 of you. Did you know that? That you have 97 siblings?"


"Wow..." I trail off. "That's crazy! I did not know that!"


"Yeah," mutters mom. "I guess I have been neglecting to tell you kids about what exactly I do. Call your siblings in the room and let's talk, before anything bad could happen!"


Boy, I think, is she right!

::Thomas's POV::

As I was about to call a meeting of the Lights' kids, my mom suddenly walked out of her room. She called us into the kitchen and started talking immediately. She rants about her challenge, the details of it, and how she wants us to know that she would never cheat on James, although her face does grow a bit flushed when she says this. 


"So wait," I say, once she's done explaining, "You've NEVER cheated on James? Because if you did, I hate to say it, but I would definitely tell him. He's an awesome dude."


"Yes, I am aware he is an awesome dude Thomas," my mom replies slowly, "but no, what I do is not considered cheating, because he knows that all I want is beautiful children! I am no slut or hooker," she bursts out. 


My face blushes a deep rose color, which is extremely apparent on my icy skin, I know it. "Oh, you know about that?" I look down.


"I know all about what you said," says mom, "but I am willing to forgive you. It was my fault for not informing you in the first place."

"Okay..." I say unsteadily, still not buying it. I still can't seem to wrap my mind around James going along with this. All of a sudden someone walks through the door, dressed in casual clothing and sporting a silly grin. It's none other than James.

"Oh, hey James!" we all greet in unison. He waves to us, comes over, and places a delicate hand on my mother's shoulder. "What's up kiddos? Am I interrupting a family discussion or something?" he laughs.


"James," says Katrina, obviously having no filter. "Did you know that my mother, also known as YOUR fiancee, sleeps with other men and has children with them?"


James gags as if not believing what Kat said. Well, that's Katrina for you. Absolutely no filter nowadays. 


"Uhm, excuse me?" chokes James. 


"Well, you heard me," replies Katrina politely. "Do you?" 


"Oh, uhm, well..." he scratches his head, as if racking his brain for a suitable answer. "Yes," he concludes after a few moments. "You kiddo's are a giveaway, but I completely respect your mother for what she does. If not for her doing this, she wouldn't have all of you, and I wouldn't know her! Did you know that I was a challenge father?" he laughs. We all gasp. We did not know.

"Oh em gee," gushes Effie. "That is SO romantic! Didn't I tell you guys? Didn't I tell you that they are madly in love and James loves mommy a whole bunch? Silly you." My mom and James laugh, and we all disperse into our own things. I work on some homework with Kat, and the twins play with the toddlers, but things fall back to normal. It's good to know what this challenge my mom is doing is all about, and I understand now. My mom and James share a love that no one, not even us vampires, can understand. They are a match made in heaven.

::James's POV::

Amber begs me to stay over tonight because "she is afraid of the dark". I know that she's clearly not worrisome about night time, she is one of the most fearless people I know. 

I decide to say yes, because after this pregnancy and one more, we are moving in together, and we can't afford to be on bad terms. But wow. Only a few months ago I met her, and I couldn't even imagine ever even dating her, and now here I am, about to be married to her. Of course her admitting that she cheated on me was a major setback, but I got over it fairly quickly. I know that she does not love him. 

We sleep together, side by side, all the way through the night. Around midnight or so she rouses me awake when she curls up against my back. She warms me instantly, but she starts talking in a hushed tone instead of falling back asleep. "James," she whispers harshly, pain behind her voice. "James, I think I am having a premature birth. Please don't leave, but I think I am-" she oofs and continues, "-going to go in the bathroom for labor. Okay? Please don't leave. I want someone to hold me afterwards."

"Okay," I reply in as calm of a tone as possible. She doesn't need me freaking out over labor, it would only worry her if we were to have kids of our own. "Stay safe, honey," I whisper. She nods and heads into the bathroom, locking the door after her. I sit up right away, keeping a sharp ear for her. 

A few hours later, Amber walks out, flushed but still beautiful. She is holding a brand new gurlgling baby girl. I would be lying if I said I didn't fall asleep, but I pull myself awake at the sound of her footsteps. "Hey babe," she says dreamily to me. "Meet baby ninety-nine, Petunia Lights."