Interlude – Where Are They Now?

The last time we saw Jonathan’s family was so long ago, and his youngest kids had just been born. It’s time to see what they’ve been up to all this time!

Savannah

We last saw her as an infant, in Chapter 2.25.

She grew up being tormented by her twin brother, who was always the troublemaker of the family. Her older sister and brother always protected her from Scott, and when Kiara left, she felt alone. Emmett was still there to protect her, but she was now the only female child in their house. Savannah was a quiet girl growing up, and she would rather read books than go out with friends. She couldn’t wait to turn 18 and leave, be free to do her own things. But it turned out that her parents left her the house, so she ended up staying, and her brother Emmett moved out, taking her twin brother, Scott, with him too. Soon after her 18th birthday, she got a job at a journalism company. She loved reading books, and so writing was a natural fit for her. She met a nice young man named Sylas as a reading convention in San Myshuno, and while he wasn’t a big reader, as she learned he’d only went because his girlfriend wanted to go, something clicked and they talked for a while. They became great friends, and a month later, Sylas’s and his girlfriend broke up, and he leaned on Savannah to get through it. Neither of them were even thinking about dating, but it happened naturally, and a year later, they got married. She’d been a little reluctant to get married so young, she was only 19, but she couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.

It was three months after their wedding that Savannah got promoted, and also…found out she was pregnant. While they weren’t exactly ready for a baby, they were excited for their new arrival. And at 30 weeks pregnant, Savannah insisted on going to her brother’s wedding. Not her practically-evil twin brother’s wedding – her nice older brother Emmett’s wedding. They’d laughed about how she had gotten married before him, being almost 15 years younger. During the ceremony, Savannah’s water broke, but she made it through without screaming at all, and immediately after her brother and his new wife Ximena said their vows, she and Sylas were rushing off to the hospital, and they came back with their newborn daughter, Isabella. Savannah quickly decided she wanted to devote her time to raising baby Isabella, and she quit her job, deciding instead to work from home, with more flexible hours.

When Isabella was seven, Savannah and Sylas started thinking about having another child. While they loved Isabella very much, they hadn’t planned to start their family then, and they felt they were in a better place to do so now. And today, Savannah is pregnant with their second child, and little Isabella is excited to be a big sister.

“How would you feel about being a big sister?”

---

Excerpt, 7 years ago…

Savannah stared down at the little stick she was holding. It had two deep pink lines on it, and she blinked, making sure she was seeing correctly.

“Damn it, I don’t have time for this,” she blurted out, sighing. Not long after, she heard the front door open, and her husband, Sylas walk in. He’d been getting groceries, since their pantry had been getting low and she’d had a really late night, so he went out early to get food.

“Sweetie, I’m home,” he announced, and Savannah quickly looked around the bathroom room, stuffing the stick – a pregnancy test – into her gray metallic purse.

Ok, ok, she thought to herself, it’s going to be fine.

Savannah took a deep breath and walked out, smiling. “Ok, see you later,” she said, walking past him.

“Hey, you okay? You seem a little frazzled.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. There’s just a big meeting today and I’m just nervous,” Savannah lied, continuing to walk outside.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” he replied, slightly confused.

Savannah dialed her sister the moment she was in her car, heading to work.

“Savannah?” Kiara’s voice came through her phone, and she sighed.

“Kiara, how’d you do it when you found out you were pregnant?” Savannah’s words came out rushed, but her older sister still understood what she was saying.

“I – I don’t know how. I cried a lot…” Savannah heard her sister gasp on the other end. “Savannah, are you pregnant?”

“Yes,” she replied quietly, “it’s my husband’s and all, but I don’t know if I’m ready, Kiara.”

“I don’t think anyone’s every ready to be a parent. You’re gonna be fine, okay? You were always the good child, doing everything right, I’m sure you’ll do this right too.”

“I like having control of my life, and this is too much,” Savannah confessed.

“Savannah, tell your husband. I bet he’ll be fine with it, possibly even excited. I know you guys will be good parents.”

“Ok, I’ve got to go,” Savannah said, “thanks.”

She clicked off, and stared down at her stomach, amazed that a whole new person was growing there.

“Hello, little baby,” she whispered, “I’m your mommy.”

---

Emmett

Kiara’s twin brother, who got significantly less time in the story than her, has been doing just fine. As you know from reading Savannah’s life recap, he’s gotten married!

Emmett Clemonte grew up in a semi-big, partly unfinished house, with his parents, twin sister, and aunt. He was often overshadowed by his more outgoing sister, Kiara. While Kiara had multiple friends, Emmett insisted he did need friends, and anything they could do together, he could do better on his own. Self-assured to a fault, he often turned potential friends away, and it was only in adulthood that he learned to not always argue his point. He really cared about his health and often went to the gym, and had started going to their new yoga classes as well. He had originally moved out with his little brother, and they’d rented a place together, but he later kicked his younger brother out, because he just couldn’t stand him anymore. He liked living without his brother, who was such an annoyance.

In his life plans, marriage was never a definite, and kids an absolute no. For some reason, he couldn’t stand kids. Perhaps it was partly his horrible experience with his little brother, but either way, kids were not on his list. It was possibly why he wasn’t in a long-lasting relationships until he met his wife, in fact. Many women wanted families, and after dating him for a while and learning he didn’t want kids, many relationships didn’t work out. And he was fine with that, Emmett didn’t mind never committing to one person, kids are a big reason people do it, after all, he thought, and it wouldn’t be so bad to meet and have experiences with many women over his lifetime.

Then, he met his now wife, and everything fit together, even their shared plans to not have kids. She didn’t mind as much the idea of kids themselves, she just liked her freedom to go places and have fun, without the burden of thinking about the child all the time. They dated for two years before tying the knot, and Emmett couldn’t be happier. They now travel around, having gone off to Granite Falls multiple times, and even to Selvadora for their honeymoon.

---

Excerpt, 9 years ago…

Emmett had just gotten his second drink that night, a Zebra Fizz. He thought it was definitely good, and also that more adults should be out that night enjoying themselves. The majority of the people at the Shrieking Llama that night were teenagers breaking the rules and young adults, enjoying their newfound freedom. He’d been one of them when he was their age, but the people he’d went out with eventually stopped going. He was listening to the New Age-y blaring music as he watched a young woman dance to the song.

“Hey,” he said, waving.

The woman smiled, and walked over, sliding into the seat next to him. “What’s up?”

“Well I’m here, at a bar at 1 am. The morning, with tons of young people such as yourself, and I’m having fun. What does that tell you about me?”

“Such as myself?” She giggled, amused. “How old do you think I am?”

“Um, around their age,” Emmett responded, nodding over to when a group of young adults were really into their game of foosball.

“Ha, that’s funny! No, I’m more your age, I think. 30-ish?”

“Yep, that’s me, so I guess you’re not out of my league then,” he joked flirtatiously.

“You’re not married?” she asked, surprised.

“Nope. All the women I met wanted the whole thing, kids, a family. And I didn’t want that life, so here I am,” Emmett told the woman, “so are you married?”

“Naw. I didn’t want kids either.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I don’t see the appeal.”

“Same, I don’t know why anyone would want to raise kids, you’d never get to do anything for yourself anymore!”

“I know, right? I love traveling, so a domestic life was just not gonna cut it,” she smiled, “My name’s Ximena, by the way.”

“Mine’s Emmett,” he replied, “do you want to go out together sometime?”

“Yeah, I know some cool places we could go…”

---

Scott

By now you’ve probably heard a lot about him, through his siblings’ stories. And yes, he was a very problematic toddler, child, teen, YA….yeah, so basically his whole life. Nobody knows why he grew up such a devil child, but, it happened. He was naturally mischievous and had often pulled pranks, which people got tired of. Hated by his siblings and tolerated by his parents, once his parents died, it was just Scott and his older brother Emmett. Eventually, his brother couldn’t stand his antics and kicked him out. Scott didn’t mind, he hated his brother anyway, and moved into a tiny house at the center of Windenburg.

He thrived in one place – work – where they wanted him to be nasty to people. Of course, sometimes it backfired and he ended up insulting his boss, but they didn’t care much, it was part of the job. He was given the special assignments dealing with getting women to fall in love with him, since unlike many in his profession, he was actually pretty good-looking, and didn’t look shady. Work was really the only place he fit in, his evil nature distanced him from others. His own family hated him, after all. And like his brother, he wasn’t interested in a family, especially love. He’d learned early on that little kids reacted horribly to anything bad, and the idea of having to be nice to your spouse all the time seemed horrible to him. Add that on to the fact he was really uncomfortable with anything romance related, and couldn’t imagine flirting in public or whatever. Scott would rather spend his life making people mad, since he enjoyed that, and it was easy.

---

Excerpt, yesterday afternoon…

Ehh, getting kicked out of my childhood house from my trashy older brother isn’t so bad, Scott figured. He didn’t really want to be there anyway, but it was just way too nice for him having someone to piss off all the time. Oh well, he thought, I bet there will be plenty of people to hate where I’m moving now. Plus I get all the space to myself, no sharing, no having to agree on a tv channel which always leads to an argument. No kidding, I didn’t mind the argument, especially if I got to throw punches, but sometimes a man just wants to watch other people beat each other up, which is why I enjoy boxing, both watching it and doing it.

He was reminded why he loved working so much as he walked in the building, reading his assignment for the day.

‘There’ll be a woman walking down the street at exactly 4:15 pm, make sure she doesn’t make it to this building. DON’T KILL. I repeat, DO NOT TAKE OUT THE TARGET. Just make sure she is appalled and leaves.’

He spent the day up until 4 at the nearby festival, making everyone in a bad mood, so he was in a great mood to annoy someone else. Scott quickly saw the woman the instructions had described, and wasted no time going over to her.

“Hey ma’am, can I interest you in a new phone plan?”

“No sir, I have somewhere to be,” she replied, making a move to go around him, but he wasn’t having that.

“Ok fine, then haven’t you heard about the latest San Myshuno election, there was so much controversy I don’t know who to believe!” Scott smirked, he knew just how many people got riled up over politics.

“Ok, yes. I really need to be somewhere,” she said, annoyed.

“Yeah, well lady, I don’t care. Come on, I’m just trying to make conversation!”

“What happened to men being gentlemen?! Shut up and let me through, you llama.”

He smiled, since this is where it got fun. “Oh, I don’t think so, loser. You don’t have to get anywhere.”

“What are you talking about?” She shoved him out of the way, walking on.

“Did you think that would work?! He splashed his drink on her, and they were in a full out fight. Oh yes, he thought, this is what I live for.

---

A/N: Since we already knew a lot about Kiara’s life, I didn’t do one about her, but if you want one, I can always add it later! Also, I didn’t post yesterday because we were celebrating my mom’s birthday 🙂