Reviewed: - (Review Updated: )
I’m not the first person to review this story, but judging by the date, “fuzzywuzzy’s” review was submitted sometime between Oyster50’s posting of chapters 6 and 7.
Fuzzywuzzy’s review is right on, but there is a lot more to this story. Luckily for me, I discovered SoL long after Oyster50 finished “Nikki”, so I never had to chew my fingernails waiting for the next chapter. What a luxury! Nowadays I’m on tenterhooks eagerly anticipating the next installments of Oyster50’s current three tales (all of which are rooted in his COMMUNITY compilation).
Ok...back to fifteen year old “Nikki”, who survived a hurricane-ravaged building, convinced a somewhat bemused Dan they were soul mates, married him, became a domestic goddess, and re-entered school...all in a matter of a few weeks! I think Oyster50 likes to fast-track the courtships and marriages so he can spend more time on the aftermath.
Because of disruption caused by the hurricane, Nikki can’t get some of the classes she wanted, so she ends up taking advanced classes. (This is despite her prior lackluster grades and without benefit of placement testing.) Thanks to her more stable home situation and Dan’s tutoring, she aces all her classes and ultimately graduates high school at 15. (NOTE: this is not TOO far-fetched, because I personally know a young lady who is a college junior at 16, majoring in engineering!)
While all this is going on, Dan and Nikki are cruising along in a great relationship with just a few bumps. One such bump is the dreaded open house, where Dan gets to escort Nikki around her school, meeting teachers and parents of Nikki’s classmates, some of whom look askance at the 40-something man with his teenage wife. It’s worth noting at this point that none of Oyster50’s April/September couples ever really experience serious societal blowback from such unions. A story no longer available on SOL called “The Runaway”, by Geek of Ages features a similar age-disparate marriage and has the male main character pilloried by friends and co-workers alike. I feel that's a more realistic treatment of this type of marriage.
Finally, Nikki reconnects with her pal Tina (read “Christina”), and meets Cindy (see "Cindy") and Susan. The seeds of the COMMUNITY have now been planted, and the rest of the story deals with domesticity, family, bonding with the other couples, buying an airplane, and forming the new company (3sigma).
Anyone interested in taking on the COMMUNITY series must read “Nikki”. She is one of the original founders of that franchise, and is second only to “Cindy” on the scary-smart girl scale.
Reviewed:
oyster50 reminds me of Paganini, 'Variations on a theme,' and it has become as good a serial as one can get with a theme about an under-aged girl-child like Nikki and Dan who is a 41 year old Electrical Engineer who has built him a house, with all the bells and whistles one can expect from a fistful of Professional Engineers, and ends up with a lovely brown haired blue eyed 15 year old charmer whom he dug out of a jerry built apartment building which collapses when a hurricane huffs and puffs its way into the records books.
It is now the 30th of Jan., and I expect,nicely, I might add, oyster50 to have it finished by next hurricane season, pretty please!!