Generation 8 - Chapter 20

"Happy Birthday Cherish!"

Fatima was not a quiet person. Even still, it's nice having someone excited about your birthday with you. Cherish would be a legal adult today. She would be graduating from high school at the end of the week. People would be pressuring her to go to college. People would be disappointed with her for not going. 

But today was about cake and presents and family!

Fatima made jokes about how Wind was going to throw a huge party like she had for herself. Inviting the whole town and making Cherish give a speech, making her promise to go off to uni...

Cherish knew Fatima was joking but it made her sweat a little just thinking about it. She never told GG NOT to throw her a party. Parties kinda were GG's thing....

While the girls tidied up the room they shared, some spectral visitors appeared. They wanted to wish Cherish a happy birthday too. She thought it was nice that they came, while secretly wishing they had other things to do.

After Fatima left to get some breakfast, June had something more to say.

"Child. We know you have been through a lot. We know you hurt. We know you don't make plans for the future or deviate from your normal routine unless you must."

Cherish was speechless. This was not what she was expecting, esp since great-great-grandmother June almost never appeared, much less spoke to her.

"You may not look towards your future, but we do. We can't tell you what will happen to you or share too much of what we do know. But you have a future. An important one. There is a catastrophe set to happen and your family is right in the middle of it. Events are already in motion and they depend on you having a future to work. I am not telling you this to scare you or mess with you. I am telling you this so you have something to hold on to. People are going to come and go from your life but you already know that. Even though I know you want to be alone and often feel lonely, you can't completely pull away from the world around you. What you'll do is very important to the world.

Don't ever give up."

And she vanished.

Cherish stood there, her mouth open. Trying to piece together what she had just heard and make sense of it. Catastrophe? Her future? her...plants? What was that all about?!

Cherish tried to go about her day as usual, to shake off the odd conversation she had had with a ghost. I mean really, who talks to ghosts anyway? How can she or her plants have anything to do with the future? Was this about global warming? Were the ghosts trying to get her to go to uni too?

By the time she got home from school, most of the conversation was forgotten. She worked on her homework and waited for Fatima to get home from her drama club meeting. Wind sent everyone a text telling them to be dressed up and ready to party. She also sent another text just to Cherish telling her not to worry, she only invited family. Cherish was very relieved and had to admit that GG did seem to know her after all.

"Hey little winged great niece! When does the party start? Am I early?" Brenton said coming into the kitchen.

 He wasn't much for keeping in touch with the family but if there was going to be food involved, you could be sure he'd show up. 

"Happy Birthday Cher! I got you a PH detector for your garden like you said you wanted, I hope it's the right one! I wanted to give it to you before the party in case you needed an escape plan!" Fatima said with a wink

"You're the BEST Fatima! If GG talks to me about uni again, I am going to need that escape plan!"

The party was indeed just family, plus some girl that Brenton had brought. No one talked about graduation or college for which Cherish was grateful. She was an adult now, no one could bully her into doing anything she didn't want to do. Well, that's what she told herself anyway. She imagined that's what everyone teen thought on their ya birthday. She had her garden and her small business. She had Fatima and Mikey Le Woof. The future was a far away thing that she didn't have to deal with any time soon, so why waste time with worry?

Happy Birthday Cherish!

Not even a party in her honor could keep her away from her plants. She was eager to try out her new toy and not just to escape her family. Tending to her plants was like being with family.

At the end of the week Cherish graduated. No more school!

♫ No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks ♫

 She could now spend the entire day in her garden if she wanted. Any feelings of anxiety or fear about what June had told her were gone and the conversation a fuzzy memory. June hadn't come haunting again, and Cherish was a grown up now.


***

Before

After

I made her very plain and boring on purpose. She is not a girly girl that worries about make up or hair. It's not flattering, she is pretty with the right look, but this is Cherish we're talking about.

Fatima does still spend a lot of her time with the horse.