Chapter 20

Bette and Gazza spent the last few days of their holiday getting the house in order.

Bette had to make a couple of trips back to the wheelship to pick up smaller pieces of furniture for the flickers and several other odds and ends. She’d also found a storeroom containing bolts and bolts of cloth in many different shades, patterns and weaves that could be used as curtain material and also for making clothes and bed linens.

One of the spare rooms became her sewing room. She even found some machines in a storage room that Gazza had told her were for sewing. He demonstrated one for her and she, in turn, taught Hazel and Acorn. She also learnt she could get spare needles and thread from the replicator.

Gazza and Nat were speechless when the flickers all started wearing the most amazingly bright skorts. (Shorts that flared, so they looked like a pleated skirt). They had also added what looked like a wide bib on kids overalls. It was, in fact, a large pocket. They even had pockets in the skorts, which explained why they wanted the shorts that shape.

Bette had used a type of Velcro that existed on this world to seal the pockets. The flickers could keep items in them like their small folding knives, their Freds and twists of nylon string that Gazza had given them, which they could use as ropes. They even had a small hook for the string that had multiple uses to a flicker.

Nat and Gazza did go and buy a new Carrier. Gazza was intrigued that it had some interesting spells on it. He also found he could unravel the spells; learn, how they worked and what they were for. He did put them back on the vehicle, as well as some of his own.

The next thing Gazza did was spell the luggage spaces under the lift up seats, and the bigger one on the rear, so they could carry a hell of a lot more. With babies as part of the mix, the luggage was sure to double if not treble.

He added some extra crystals to the batteries and the solar panels built into the roof. He did notice the design of both was newer and that the batteries should last a long time and recharge quickly. He was also delighted that the Carrier handled very well and was a smooth ride with great suspension. This one also had doors and solid sides unlike the carriers used as buses.

The next excursion was to get cluckers for the flickers. Gazza wasn’t surprised that Basil didn’t want the extra-large version. Those damn cluckers were bigger than a crouched flicker. The kids could have ridden them except the birds were too stupid to run in any one direction.

The eggs from the smaller birds that Basil wanted were to the liking of the wives, as was their size. The birds reminded Gazza of Bantam chooks and if they were anything like the ones that he knew of, then they were good egg-layers and great mums. He was also surprised to learn that the flickers would eat the birds if they were cooked. They didn’t eat red meat but they did eat fish and fowl.

Nat thought it wise to continue buying the larger eggs for themselves since he and Gazza would have to be served twice as many of the Bantam eggs to get a feed from them. Bette agreed. They could always eat the other eggs when they were in surplus. The boys had no problem with this solution, as they were tasty eggs, just small.

Bette and Gazza took Nat to the University and got him re-enrolled. Dean Mitchel was delighted that they would be getting another mage to train. They picked some new subjects for him to do in that term. He would be joining Gazza and Bette in a subject called Political Science and then in History, Languages, Biology, Geology and Physics. Nat also elected to take the higher Maths class with Gazza and a Home Economics class with Bette.

Bette had also chosen a subject called Public speaking and presentations. The boys were more than happy not to do that subject with her. Gazza’s final choice was Mechanics. Since they had their eight subjects, the term ahead was set. Their days were also set up differently. They did four of their subjects and a general magic class on days one and three. On days two and four, they did their other four subjects with special magic classes for their disciplines.

Bette did her speaking class at a different time to the boys’ math’s class on days one and three. They also had different times for one of their special magic classes. They all attended the Lore based general class together but then Bette did an Energy magic class, Nat did a special class for Shield’s, while Gazza elected to do a special one for those interested in medicine.

This meant their days were shorter at the university but they got twice as much homework than they had in the term before. Considering they liked to do most of their magical practice in private this suited the family. They also had no issues with doing the work from the comfort of their home, which was just across the street anyway.

Since their new timetables had them, starting at different times and finishing at different times and most of their classes were in the morning, they enrolled Wombat and Possum into a type of Community College where they did afternoon and evening classes. The boys were not so happy about this to start with but they grudgingly went.

When you had a brain like Asha’s, even if a lot smaller, they couldn’t see the need to go to school. They were surprised when Asha informed them that their input would increase her knowledge of what was going on in the wider world and was invaluable. So they did take their new assignment seriously. The fact that Gazza said that they were going, also gave them a lot of incentive.

The adult’s, to use the term lightly, since the droids were technically a hell of a lot older, were amused by the boys’ enthusiasm by the end of the first week. The fact that the girls at the college paid them a lot of attention wasn’t missed either, as Gazza tended to drop them off at school and then picked them up more often than the other two did.

Bette didn’t like to drive unless she had to but Nat took to driving like a duck to water. Hence, he was often pressed into the school run when Gazza wasn’t available. He was surprised one evening when the girls were paying him as much attention as they were paying the boys.

Five of them had been talking with the boys when he drove up in the Auto. They all came over and two, in particular, started flirting with him. Nat’s social skills with girls weren’t the greatest. He’d always been shy and had kept a low profile at high school and at University. His past jobs didn’t exactly provide a lot of opportunities either.

The smirks that the boys gave him made him even more uncomfortable. The girls were also being quite suggestive and hinting that he should ask them out. Possum took pity on him and finally got him extracted from the girl’s clutches and back into the Auto. The boys both had some chuckles at his expense on the way home.

Nat had only ended up with Deedee because she asked him out when he was home for a term break. She had come into season the second week of the break and the inevitable happened. His mother hadn’t been happy because she’d had other plans for him. Nancy was horrified when his mother said he had to go back to the university and Deedee was a silly girl and only trying to trap him.

Fool that he was, he had been insistent that he had to support Deedee since he was responsible. His mother refused to help her. This didn’t surprise him because she had made him work at their mine to earn enough to go to university in the first place. So he had to use the money he had saved to find somewhere for them to live and to get a job.

At least his mother had let him go back to their mine to work. The first two months wasn’t so bad but then his hours at the mine increased. He seemed to have a knack at finding the seams of silver they were mining. He was constantly in demand to check that the new tunnels were following the seams. It was fatiguing work going from one tunnel to another and then back again.

Deedee became more distant the more hours he worked. When Kelly asked to move in, he let her as it cheered Deedee up considerably and she stopped badgering him so much for working all the time. She didn’t mind spending his coin though. However, after the first month of Kelly moving in, Deedee stopped having sex with him. It took him two weeks to even realise, because he was working so much overtime, even on the weekends, he was exhausted when he got home.

She flat out refused to have sex with him one night, stating she didn’t want to have sex while she was still pregnant because it was too uncomfortable. Their relationship; had gone downhill even faster after that. They became more like strangers living in the same house. It was always what Deedee, Kelly and the families wanted that happened. He was just expected to do as he was told.

On the day of Garry’s birth, he had been pissed when he came home to find that they hadn’t sent someone to get him from work. Deedee hadn’t slept with him the night before, so he hadn’t known that she had started labour earlier that day. Kelly had said she was just tired and lying down in her room when he got home late.

They didn’t bother to inform him the next morning that she’d had a rough night, and just let him go to work. Kelly had finally gotten very worried and had called Nancy. Nancy realised Deedee might be in a lot of trouble and had gone looking for a doctor. Hence, Gazza entered his life and changed it for ever.

Nat had to chuckle when he realised he would be twenty-three in a weeks’ time and he’d had a total of three lovers in his life. One he was happy to forget and two that he would never forget. The girls flirting with him didn’t bother him anymore. While they were cute, they’d not interested him in the least. He had found the loves of his life and he couldn’t be happier.

He didn’t mind the boy’s teasing him anymore, either.

Asha called Gazza to come and get his new servants.

Gazza was intrigued to find out what Asha had done and happily complied. “I did a bit of redesigning of two of my oldest droids. It should be easier for you to soften their features and make them more human looking,” she told Gazza when he turned up.

Gazza was impressed with the new design. Asha had studied up on human anatomy and had excelled herself. They had bodies any seventeen-year-old male would salivate over, not to mention a lot of men a hell of a lot older. At one-forty centimetres, just a bit shorter than Bette, they were of a height that more than half of the population on this island would find ideal in a female form.

Gazza found that he didn’t even need Nat and Bette to help him make the small alterations to pretty up their faces, soften their skin and tone their bodies so they moved fluidly like a human. He hoped they liked the faces that he had chosen for them. They now reminded him of a set of dark haired, Russian twins that he’d had the hots for, when had gone to High School. He had liked their big brown eyes, cupid lips and modest embellishments.

“They should be able to digest small amounts of food to be sociable. I’ve added a converter before the nutrient tank and it will break down the food. The nutrients they need will be stored in the tank and a second chamber will hold wastes until they need to excrete the excess.”

“The girls can also self-lubricate for the boys. I have noticed that Possum and Wombat top up on nutrients more often since you changed them. You may wish to make these alterations to Possum and Wombat.”

“Good idea. Wombat mentioned the other day that the other students thought it odd that they never seemed to eat or drink,” Gazza replied.

“Yet they have found other uses for their mouths, other than smiling and talking,” Asha commented dryly.

“They have? What have those boys been getting up too?” Gazza asked intrigued. He’d been rather preoccupied with school and hadn’t spent much time with them this last week in particular.