Gen 4 - Chapter 1: The Passing of the Torch

Dahlia's POV

I realized something on the plane ride to China. I hadn't thought about it since.. well, ever since Estiu had explained to me about me being the heiress to this power. One of my children was the next heir(ess). I reclined in my first class seat, and closed my eyes, thinking over which one of my children it could be. In the past, neither my grandmother nor my own mother had been able to predict which of us was the heir, so what made me think I could predict it?

I had to wonder something else, too.. in the past, just after the heiress was announced, the previous one passed on. That wasn't how it was going to be this time, unless I met an untimely demise. Would that mean that once the heir was told they were the heir and everything was explained to them, I would stay getting everything I wanted as much as I have since I was a teenager, or would it fade back to before I was announced heiress?

As I started to fade into sleep, I decided I would worry about that when the time came - the thing was, it felt like the time was soon. Very soon.

When the plane landed, we all shuffled off, found our bags, did all the usual things at the airport before getting a couple of cabs and heading to our base camp. I noticed that Rosella kept glancing at me on the ride there, and I couldn't help but wonder why. She'd been acting strange since she got home from work the day we left for China.. we hadn't really talked much, except for me to tell her we were going on a vacation.

Upon getting to the base camp, things didn't change much, except she stopped looking at me altogether. In fact, she kept her back to me. I was getting incredibly confused by the entire thing, but when she announced that she was going to go inside and play chess before we went anywhere - some of the others wanted to get freshened up before leaving - I followed her. I was going to get to the bottom of this.

I watched her practicing chess by herself for but a moment, before going over and plopping myself down across from her, and re-setting the pieces. She looked up at me in surprise, before starting to get up. "You stay right there, missy. I need to talk to you," I said in my best stern-mother voice, and she sighed, rolling her eyes towards the ceiling.

"Okay, okay.." she sighed lightly, before making her move on the chess board. "What do you need to talk to me about?"

"Why have you been so.. cold towards me since before we left home?" I asked, thinking about my move for several moments, before making it. I tried to not think about it too much, since she hadn't got my genius, and I didn't want to beat her in three moves or anything.

She stared at me for a moment, then looked at the board, avoiding eye contact again. "I.. talked to Tamera Calent.." she started, and tapped the top of the bishop on her right, before moving a pawn on the opposite side of the board. I gasped lightly, and attempted to study as much of her face as I could see. Was she the heiress?

".. and?"

"And, well.." she shrugged, then looked up at me, frowning almost guiltily, and I wondered if it was about something else. What would make her feel guilty? ".. I'm taking your place, Mommy."

.. say what now? Taking my place? I frowned in confusion, pausing in the middle of my move. "You're.. taking my place? How?"

"With this whole.. weird, stupid power thing! I mean, like.. I'm the heiress or whatever, and you're going back to being just like Uncle Drazen or Aunt Eulalie or someone with barely any wish granting power at all!"

I stared at her, before smiling and finishing my move. Well, if that was all.. "Rosie, I already have everything I want in life. I completed my life goal way before I had you and Wren, and I'm content with my life the way it is now. I have six wonderful children, and a husband more wonderful than I ever could have imagined. My life has been perfect, and I don't need the wishing granting power anymore. What more could I want? A career? More children? I can do that for myself. I have plenty of my life left to figure out what I want to do for the rest of it, and I don't need to hold Estiu's hand anymore. You, however.. your life is just beginning, and it's always nice when you're a teenager and just barely a young adult to have a helping hand to guide your way through the rough years. I'm happy for you, I'm not disappointed that I won't have this anymore." And it was the truth. I was pretty sure that I hadn't had the power pretty much since Rosella and Wren became teenagers, so I was already somewhat used to it - it wasn't as if it was any different from how my life had been since I got married, anyway.

She started at me for several moments, before making her own move on the chess board, and beaming brightly at me. "Really?"

"Really. I mean, I'm a mother, we happily make sacrifices for our children all the time, and would make them over and over again if doing so would make our children happy."

Just as I said that, Wren came rushing up, and I looked up at her. "We're all (well, except Dove) planning to go to the market - you guys want to come?"

I nodded my head, and beamed, before looking over at Rosie. "Well finish this game another time, sound good?" I stood up, and offered a hand to my heiress to help her up.

And on this note, I hand the rest of this chapter, and the next chapters to come, over to my firstborn (Amy is my third child, no matter how much older than the others she is). 

Rosella's POV

Hey there! Hi, ni hao! See what I did there? I'm in China and greeting you in Chinese! I thought it was fitting. 

My name is Rosella Parodi, and guess what? You're stuck with my gorgeous mug for the next however many chapters of my life that I write. I'm not much of a writer - well, I don't think I am, I haven't ever really tried - so don't expect much from me. Nothing as beautiful as.. like... 'as I ran down the hill towards the road, the lukewarm breeze blew through my caramel tresses'. Yeah, nothing like that. Except for that. Durh.

I have a lot of ambitions for my life, such as being worth over $100,000, and being a level five celebrity. Don't I look like I deserve to be a five star celebrity? I was made to walk on the red carpet. I don't know if I'm going to become an actress or what, but I have a feeling I'll do my best wherever I work! Yeah, by looking at me you'd think I was a gorgeous, spoiled rich little princess who let my wish power do all the work for me. Far from it! Heck no, my ambitiousness wouldn't let me take advantage of that.

I'm also pretty darn excitable, I can hardly contain myself when I get excited! I have a habit of squealing and getting all worked up over just talking to my best friend - my best friend is my sister, in case you're wondering. Wren Parodi, my twin sister. If I have a twin, why not be best friends with her? She's like an extension of myself, I couldn't SURVIVE without her. She's excitable too, so it's funny when we decide to talk to each other. We're like, 'YAY OMG I'M GOING TO GO TALK TO MY TWIN SISTER WHO IS OVER THERE DOING THE SAME SPAZZ AS ME YAY!' And she's over-emotional, so sometimes she cries about it too.

I'm also a good person, like my Mommy. I adore donating to charity, and do it almost every time I get home from work - since I go straight to work from school. I work as a receptionist at the spa, though I may be fired soon because it takes FOR-EV-ER to get to my workplace from school. That's fine though, I can always work as.. as... a grocery store clerk after that, the grocery store is closer to school than the spa is.

Boys aren't my life, or my passion, but they're a close second. I love flirting with 'em and watching them stumble over their words, trying to impress me. Once one finally does manage to impress me, I'll let things get a little further, but for now, the flirting will do. Monte Dragonfruit, the guy that Wren likes, is super duper hot and pretty impressive - I mean, he's a berry - but Wren likes him and I'd rather slit my own throat than steal him. Honestly.

So there I am in a nutshell, and I guess I should continue telling you about our trip to China now, huh? 

When we got to the market, I noticed that there were only old people. I mean, I wanted to meet a local, but what I meant by local was teenage, cute male local. I stared blankly around, before deciding that I would ask one of the old people if there were any cute teenagers around. Just as I was about to leave, Amy walked up behind me, and I could sense her looking at me. "What?" I asked, not even bothering to look. My "big" sister and I had a weird relationship, because I was supposed to be the oldest, but because she was born in.. in.. oh, whatever year she was born in, and came back in time to us, now she's older. I was supposed to be the oldest, and yet she gets to boss me around and was allowed to be in charge when Wren and I were little and Mom and Dad were gone!

"Oh, nothing. I'm just congratulating you on making heiress."

"Thanks. How did you know? Did Mom tell you?"

"No. Remember, I'm from the future? I knew some of your descendents. I heard stories, you know? I found out about you learning you were heiress before some family trip to China, blah blah."

"Oh. Right. Well, thanks again. I'm going to go ask someone if they know any teenage boys that live around here."

"Ew. I'm going to go read. Have fun." 

Oh yeah, I always forgot that Amy was a lesbian. I honestly couldn't understand it, at ALL. I mean yeah, we're prettier and all that, but what girl doesn't want to be held by a pair of strong, solid arms? Oooh, I get excited just thinking about it! I've never even had my first kiss, but I can just imagine what it will be like. Especially with a foreign man, sexy accent and all.. 

I asked one of the store owners - do they hire any people that aren't going to die in like, five minutes around here?! - if there were any teenagers in town, and though there was quite a bit of miscommunication, we finally understood each other. The Pei household had a teenage boy, Shing. What kind of a name is Shing, anyway? It sounds like I'm taking a sword out of a scabbard or something like that, I dunno. So off I was, to the Pei house - I got the address, and turns out it was just behind our base camp. How lucky was I?! If I decided to have a vacation romance with Shing, all I'd have to do is walk a little ways.
 When I got there, I admired the landscaping. It was pretty neat - actually, all of China was 'pretty neat'. It was gorgeous actually. Aaaanyway, I walked up to the door, and rang the doorbell. And waited, and waited, and waited, and while I waited I shifted from foot to foot, glancing around at what I could see of the outside of the house. It was really boring waiting, and I almost gave up, when I heard the door open.
Looking at the boy in the door, my breath wasn't taken away, but I did notice that he was pretty adorable. Not impressive in anyway, in fact he was a little emo for my taste, but hey, maybe he was a winner in personality. "Yes?" he asked me after a moment, coming outside, and I realized I'd just been staring at him. How embarrassing!
I smiled somewhat in embarrassment, and rubbed at one of my arms. "Oh, I'm sorry! Ni hao, I'm Rosella Parodi and-"
"I know."
I blinked. Oh, right! Famous parents, grandparents, great grandparents, riiiight. Famous self. "Oh, of course you do. Well, I was wanting to meet a local, since we're here in China, but all of the people at the market are, like.. old. And that's no fun, I'm not good with old people. I never have to deal with them, I mean, we're vampires, so my parents aren't even gonna be old until I have great great grandchildren or something. So I thought I would ask if there were any teenagers around, and someone told me about you, and where you lived, so here I am!" I chirped, and smiled charmingly at him. He just stared at me, then I thought of something, and gasped, putting a hand over my mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry.. you probably don't understand English that well, do you? And here I am, like, rambling like it's the end of the world or something. I'm sorry. Can we go inside?"
After a moment, he smiled and nodded slightly, then turned and led me inside. I'm guessing he was leading me inside, since he motioned for me to follow him..

 
We didn't go very far inside, just into the entrance way, front room thing. There was no light in there, so it was really dark, but luckily, my eyes work well in darkness! Since.. I'm a vampire, and we're nocturnal and all that jazz. Once inside, we turned to each other, and he smiled at me. "I understand English well." I noticed that his accent was absolutely adorable, a little thick, but not so thick that it was hard to understand him.
"Oh! So you knew what I was saying before?"
"Yes."
"Neat-o!" I clapped for a moment, then felt the sudden urge to ask him his sign. I'm not a huge believer in astrology, but hey, they've gotta be there for some reason or other right? "So, what's your sign?"
He frowned in confusion at me. For several minutes. "Sign? I.. don't have..." he glanced around, and then I realized he's probably not the best with American slang or anything.
"Oh, not a road sign. I mean like astrology, stars and stuff. Not your Chinese sign, though I wouldn't mind knowing that one either. Your Western zodiac sign."
"Ooooh.. I see." And he answered me, and we weren't compatible, so that's kind of where the conversation turned boring. Actually, that's about where it turned into a not-conversation. More standing around and being awkward. Not because we weren't compatible, but because neither of us knew what to talk about, and I think he was a little star struck. I mean, he was talking to me, how could he not be?

"Well.. I should probably get back to base camp," I piped up after a lot of failed conversation starters, getting really bored. He was cute, but not like.. eye-candy cute, so that wasn't entertaining me. Actually, I was resorting to picturing how freaking cute he must have been as a toddler, with his adorably chubby cheeks the way they are now, so I figured it was time for me to go.
"Ah! Just stay little bit more, let me get photo?" he requested, grabbing his cell phone from his pocket and holding it up with the cutest pout I'd ever seen on someone older than five. How could I not give in?
"Sure! I love getting my picture taken," I practically purred, then he led me into their living room where the lighting was better. I posed in a pretty typical celebrity pose, and he snapped the picture.
"Thank you! I can't wait to show it to my friends! They will be jealous." He grinned, staring at his phone intently, as if the picture would disappear if he looked away for one moment. I smiled at how happy he was at it, and then waggled my fingers at him.
"Well, I gotta go now. See you later, Shing! Have fun making your friends jealous that you got to meet the famous Rosella Parodi." I chirped, and then turned trotting out of his house, and back towards the base camp. I had no idea what I was going to do now, but I'd think of something.

  
The first thing I wanted to do when I got back to base camp, was donate to a Chinese charity. How cool is that?! Talk about exciting, getting to help a charity away from home. I think I love China. After donating $100, I then went inside and straight to the chess table where Mom and I had our conversation over me being her heiress. I still feel bad about stealing her thunder, I mean, my Mommy has never been the most confident or go-getting, she may still need the power more than she thinks she does.. I mean, what if Daddy dies and she can't find herself a new husband even if she wants to? Okay, I'm not going to think about that anymore, the idea of Daddy dying breaks my heart.
Anyway, I stayed there playing chess even as the paparazzo behind me took bajillions of pictures and wrote notes about me, all the way until my family - except Dove, who'd stayed here - got home from their excursion to the market. Oh, and I really got distracted when this Chinese family came in, because.. well... there was this young adult guy that caught my attention. So I quickly dropped what I was doing, and followed him into the dining area.

As I approached, an old woman - I'm guessing she was his Mom - nudged him and motioned towards me, and he turned around, so I got a better look at him. His hair was in his face.. I couldn't even see his eyes at all. Now, I like guys with long hair - I like guys with long, short, medium, none, I'm not picky - but I always have to be able to at least kind of see their eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul, you know? You can tell a lot about a person by their eyes, and if they're a girl, the kind of make-up they wear really enhances that. Like me, just looking in my eyes you can tell I'm confident in myself and a vampire, and the make-up makes it obvious that I'm not desperate, or have some deep, hidden self-loathing. No, it's simple and elegant and shows that I know I don't even need it to make me beautiful. So, thusly, I don't know if I completely trust someone who hides their eyes with bangs.
I hesitated a bit, before deciding to not let my thing against not seeing his eyes hinder me, and I strode right up to him and started a conversation. His Mom watched us for a little bit - creeeeeepy - before leaving us alone. When she finally left, I broke out the charm and asked him his sign, then, despite us not being compatible, flirted a little. He wasn't interested. I wasn't interested. So we ended it before it began.

  
Oh, I'm supposed to tell you about what my family is doing too, huh? Well, I don't know what they did while out, so I'm not going to bother with that, but at home, Dove and Eider were outside chatting - they weren't really close, so they decided that they'd try to get closer or something. Mom and Wren decided to play chess, and Amy decided to watch 'em, while Dad got stinky. A.k.a., worked out and mastered his athletic skill. I don't know why he didn't master it sooner, since he needs it to become an astronaut, but I guess it's because he's always either been working or taking care of us kids. Anyway, back to me.

After we decided that we weren't romantically intended for each other, Huojin - that was his name, I like it better than Shing - requested a picture. I agreed, and posed, then immediately hurried off to bed. I was tired and excited for the next day!

The next morning, after eating breakfast and getting dressed and stuff, I went outside to find Mom and Wren playing catch. "Wren! Want to go to the Forbidden City with me?!"
She turned and looked towards me, and grinned. "Sure! Just a second!" While they finished up their game, I donated another $100 to a Chinese charity. After I did that, we were both off to go sight seeing! Man, I just knew going sight seeing with my sister was going to be epicly epic times forty-two plus three.

When we got there, we had to climb quite a few stairs to actually get inside, and once we were inside, I noticed how dark it was. What was it with China and being so dark inside building? Geesh. Well, I just stood around inside, looking around until Wren came inside, and then I turned to her. "It's kinda boring here. I mean, there's a hole in the floor with steps and that could be interesting and all, but I'm ready to do something else."
She just blinked at me for a moment, then tilted her slightly. "Like what?"
"Weeeeell, you were wanting to learn athletic skill, right? I was thinking about visiting the martial arts academy, I mean, I'm sure they don't just have dummies and board breakers. And if they don't have exercise equipment, they probably have a stereo or something."
"Hey, that's a good idea! Plus, if we feel like it we can learn martial arts too," she grinned, then hugged me. We hug a lot, you'll just have to get used to it! Then we were off again, towards the academy.

When we got to the academy, I had to stand and admire it for several moments. "This place is COOL." I commented to Wren, who was also standing and admiring it - for being complete opposites, she and I really are exactly alike sometimes!
"I agree. C'mon, let's go see if they have any exercise equipment!" she said, grabbing my arm and dragging me inside. I practically mean literally dragged me, I had to stumble along behind her and that is not fun in the sandals I was wearing! Thankfully, she didn't have to drag me far, because the exercise machines were just inside the door practically, and when she saw them, she immediately let go of me. "Yay! I can become more muscular!" she cheered, before getting into her exercise outfit and climbing onto the one that I woulda avoided, for my first time exercising, like ever. But, whatever she wants.
I wasn't really in the mood to hone my athletic skill or anything, so I wandered around to the second floor, where I found a little blond boy playing chess by himself. "Hi there. You visiting too? Mind if I join you?" I asked, before sitting down across from him, and smiling at him. He just kind of stared at me for a moment, then re-set up the chess pieces so we could both play.
"I'm not visiting, I live here. I'm adopted." he explained, and my mouth formed into an o shape. I didn't say much else, because that was awkward enough!

 After a while, I got bored of chess - I may find things more exciting than some people, but chess is not one of those things, bleh - and wandered outside to where the martial arts dummies and board breaks were, deciding to try my hand at smacking the dummy. Being a vampire, I learned it reeeeally quickly, and before I knew it I was a white belt! Around then, is when Wren came out and joined me, obviously getting tired of exercising - I mean, if she was fatigued from it, she so wouldn't be coming out and getting her freaking black belt. I only got up to blue before we left for home, but I knew I wasn't going to stop there! For one thing, I wanted to spar someone. And Wren wanted to spar someone. So, we knew it would be each other, but not until I was at the same level as her.

When we got home, we walked in to our parents making out and Amy watching them with a disgusted look on her face. We both giggled and quickly moved to the next room, where we could still hear Amy say, "Jeez, guys, get a room."
"Oh, Amy, that's a great idea! C'mon.."
"OH EW, I didn't mean do it and make it obvious what you're going to do!" 
The next thing we knew, Mom and Dad were walking past us and upstairs to their room. I wrinkled my nose, and stared for a moment, before turning and heading towards the door, deciding to donate to another charity. Mostly because I really didn't want to hear what was going on upstairs.

 
 The next morning, also the last morning of our vacation before we had to go home, back to school and work. I didn't want to think about that, so I decided not to. That morning, Wren decided to invite over the next ranked sparring opponent, Ling Kim, after breakfast. 
After breakfast, I decided to clean up the kitchen a little bit, since we were gonna be leaving and we didn't want to leave the place looking like a pigsty, 'cause maybe we wouldn't be allowed back. 
Amy took off almost as soon as she had breakfast, going to take a $100 dollar picture - evidently, while Wren and I were honing our martial arts, Amy was honing her photography. I never really took her for a photographer, but I've never bothered trying to get to know my "older" sister. 
Mom and Eider were wanting to get to know each other a little better, so they decided to play chess together. I have no idea what Dad and Dove were doing, but they were somewhere doing something.

Ling Kim was an adorable Chinese teenager, and I wondered how someone so adorable could be a fighting machine. OH WAIT! There's Wren and me. Wink wink. Hee. Anyway, I watched them spar for a while, just long enough to figure out that it wasn't an even match and Wren was so going to win. It was pretty impressive, though, and made me want to spar against someone (Wren) even more - but not until I'd improved my skill.

So I decided to meditate! I didn't really want to go anywhere that day, so I just plopped right down where I was and meditated. It was pretty amazing, actually, feeling that peaceful. I've never felt peaceful before, really.. usually I'm excited about something or other. I was born excited, so lack of excitement was a really new thing for me.. but I knew right then I was going to have to do it a lot more. Calmness, peacefulness, tranquility.. they have more going for them than I thought!
 Even if I was meditating in front of the stairs.

I meditated pretty much the rest of the day - I have nooooo idea what all was going on in the world around me during that time, but it was really nice to just meditate all day. Especially since when I was done, I had mastered martial arts! Now Wren and I could spar each other fairly! I mean, she would probably whoop my butt simply because she's bigger - muscly-er than me, and 'I'm a twig and she's a healthy weight', as she puts it - but I was still perfectly willing to try. Unfortunately, I had meditated long enough that almost as soon as I was done, I had to get dressed and packed up, 'cause it was time to go home.

(A/N: Well, it took forever to write that! I started writing this on Monday, and I finally got it finished today. It probably is obvious by the way I wrote it that it was over the span of a week, and today I have a pretty horrible headache so that was making it harder too, but I still got it out! The next few chapters all were played before I got Generations. Um.. oh!  Writing as Rosella is fun, but also hard, because I have to try and get hyperactive girly-girl teenager across without being too annoying. XD A lot more happened than what you got to see, like Dahlia and Marcelo being all over each other THE ENTIRE TIME, Amy learning photography and wandering everywhere to get amazing pictures, the kids mostly staying home, and Amy setting off a firework - I would normally have included all of this, but that was because Sean, Lyric, and Dahlia all were less self-centered than Rosie and all asked everyone what they were up to while she was away, whereas Rosie, for the most part, doesn't think about anything but what's going on around her currently.)