Completely Honest




Jamie Centowski, Meadow Thayer and Angel Go are 19.
Tosha Go is 23; James and Marla Centowski are 61.

September 2025

Meadow pushed her hair back behind her shoulders and checked her reflection in the mirror.


This shirt worked well, covering her already-growing middle.  She and Jamie hadn't told anyone about the baby yet.  They both dreaded sharing the news with his parents, although they knew that they couldn't put it off much longer - her clothes were already starting to get tight.  Underneath the shirt, her jeans were unbuttoned, and she hoped that no one wondered why she wasn't wearing her usual tight t-shirts any more.

At least she wasn't sick quite so much now.  While the morning sickness wasn't completely gone, it was at least more bearable.  And just as well, with school starting back today.  She had no idea of how she'd cope with study and impending motherhood.  She had no idea of how she'd cope with motherhood at all.  All she knew - they both knew - was that they were keeping the baby, and they'd do the very best they could for it.  They'd discussed different options but, really, there had never been any question of doing otherwise.

Jamie came up behind her.  "You look fine," he said.  "No one would ever know."
"But they will know - eventually.  I can't hide this forever.  We need to tell them."


"I've been waiting for the right time," said Jamie
"I know, but I don't think there really is a right time," said Meadow.  "I think we should just tell them tonight and get it over with."
Jamie sighed.  "Let's not think about that right now," he said, pulling her into a hug.  "Lets's just get going.  We don't want to be late on the first day."

----

"Angel, hurry up!  You don't want to be late on the first day."


Actually, Angel did want to be late.  If she were to be completely honest, she wanted to not go at all.  And she'd tried to be completely honest, but Tosha didn't seem to want to listen.

All summer, she'd been dreading today.  All things considered, it hadn't been too bad a summer, if you ignore the fact that she'd been more-or-less under guard the whole time.  Vivian had been promoted to Healthcare Caseworker and started working at the city hospital.  With the extra money from her promotion bonus, they'd been able to paint the apartment.


Tosha had got a pet parrot and started trying to teach it to talk... with very mixed results.


Under any other circumstances, Angel might have enjoyed the time, was it not for the knowledge that, eventually, she'd have to go back to RCT.

Probably, Tosha was right.  Probably, she was being silly.  But knowing that didn't change the way she felt.  She'd tried telling her sister that, but Tosha had just told her to stop thinking about it - You wait, a few days into the semester, and you won't even remember you felt this way.  It'll be like nothing ever happened.

"Angel, come on!"  Tosha yelled.  Angel felt her stomach turn.



Angel really hoped Tosha was right about her forgetting, but somehow, she just couldn't see it happening.

----

The day had passed far too quickly.  Jamie had expected to enjoy his first day of classes in his new major.  And, to be fair, the classes had been great.  But to say he'd enjoyed them.... well, how could he, when all he could think about was when to tell his parents about Meadow's pregnancy?

Tonight.  At dinner time.  They'd decided that, or at least, they thought they had... until dinner time actually came.  

They weren't so sure now.  So, instead, they tried to participate in the usual small talk, tried not to exchange too many nervous looks...

When the phone rang, Jamie was the first to jump up and all-but-run to answer it.  A few moments later, he held the phone away from his ear and called out to Meadow, "Hey, have you seen Angel at all today?"


"No," she said.  "I sent her a text message to meet us for lunch, but she never replied."
Jamie spoke briefly in to the phone then hung up.  "What's up?" Meadow asked.
"That was Angel's sister," Jamie said, sitting down again.  "She hasn't come home yet.  Apparently no one's seen her around at college today, either.  As far as they can tell, she never went to any of her classes."

"Wow," said Meadow.  "I hope she's ok.  I know she wasn't very happy about going back today.  I'm going to call her."  She started to get up, but Jamie stopped her.
"Tosha said her phone's going straight to voice mail - it must be switched off or something."


"That's not like her... " Meadow said.
"Maybe the battery just went flat or something," Marla suggested hopefully.  "Whatever's going on, if she's not answering her phone I don't think there's much else you can do about it."

They ate in awkward silence, until Marla spoke to Jamie and Meadow.  "How was your first day back, anyway."
"It was ok," Meadow said.


Jamie nodded.  "I expected it to be hard, starting a whole new major, but I think I'm going to really enjoy it."  He looked away from his father as he spoke, pretending he hadn't noticed the disapproving frown in his direction.  But, hell, if he was still this annoyed over just changing majors...

Meadow started to say something, but the doorbell rang, cutting her off.
"I'll get that," said Jamie, relieved for another interruption, getting up again before anyone else had the chance.

He was back a few moments later.  With Angel.


"What are you doing here?"
"Where have you been all day?"
"You know your sister's worried about you?" James said.  "She's already called looking for you."
Angel started to cry.


"Hey, come and sit down," Meadow said, putting her arm around her friend and leading her to the sofa.


"You know, we are going to have to tell your sister you're here," James told Angel, when she'd calmed down a little.
Angel groaned. "She'll try to make me go back to school but... I can't.  I knew what would happen if I tried."


"So what did  happen?" Meadow asked.  "Did you go to class at all?"
"No," Angel said quietly.  "I tried but... I couldn't.  I got to the university, and I just kept remembering everything that happened last semester... wondering if everyone was still taking about it... and I... I kind of panicked and ran away."
James frowned.  "After what happened with your professor... did you talk to anyone?  A counseller, I mean, or anyone like that?"


"No," Angel said.  "Tosha said I didn't need to.  I just needed to forget what happened.  But I can't."
"Ok," said James.  "I think maybe you need to reconsider that.  Especially if you want to go back to RCT."

"But I don't want to." Angel said.  "I hate it there now.  Everyone knows what happened, and it was all I could think about, all summer... "


"But you re-enrolled..." Jamie started.
"Only because Tosha made me.  I never wanted to, but she said it was the best thing to do."
"And what do you want to do?" James asked.
Angel shrugged.  "I never really thought about it," she said.  "It doesn't matter anyway."
"Yes, it does matter," he said.


He caught Jamie's accusing look.  It's not the same, he wanted to tell him  I tried to talk you out of it, but I never tried to actually make you do anything you didn't want to do...

Instead, he turned back to Angel.  "I suggest you start thinking about what you want, right now.  And then, when we've worked it out, we'll call your sister."
----

"Where have you been?" Tosha demanded, as Angel nervously stood up.  "Why didn't you go to school?"


"I couldn't," Angel said.  "I don't want to go back there."
"Angel, don't start this again!  We already talked - "
"No, we didn't," Angel said.  She could feel herself shaking, but when she caught Meadow's eye she saw a little nod of support.  "You talked," she said.  "I don't think you even listened to me."


"Angel, you don't even - "
"I'm not going back to RCT," Angel said quickly.  "I want to transfer to SSU."
Tosha stared at her.  "Don't be so stupid," she said.  
Angel struggled against the tears stinging her eyes.  She knew this speaking up thing wouldn't work, no matter what Jamie's father said.  Tosha wasn't going to change her mind about what was best for her, that easily.
"Why do you think that makes her stupid?" James asked.

"Excuse me?"
"I said, why do - "


"I heard what you said," Tosha replied.  "I just don't think its any of your business.  I don't think any of you have any business influencing her to - "

"They're not influencing me!" Angel didn't care if she was crying any more.  "I've been trying to tell you this all summer.  How could I be influenced, when you wouldn't even let me talk to anyone?!  Why is it so hard for you to see that I can make my own decisions?"
"You mean like your decision to take your clothes off for the first person who flattered you enough to make you think - "


"Stop it!   You can't punish me for that forever!"
"You're not being punished."
"Yes, I am!  You practically kept me prisoner all summer, and now you're making me do something I hate.  I'm not going back there, ever!" She was yelling now.  "I can't... don't you get it, I can't!"

"Come on, we're going home.  You're making a fool of yourself..."
"I'm not going.  I'm sorry, but I'm an adult, you can't make me.  If you won't listen to me, fine, but you can't make me do anything, either."

"Fine, do what you want," said Tosha.  "Just don't come running to me when it all goes wrong again!"  And she stormed out of the room.

They all just stood there for a moment.  Then James turned and followed Tosha out the door.
"Um... Is that a good idea?" Jamie asked, gesturing after his father.
Angel shrugged.  "I doubt he can make it any worse."

----

"I've called a cab," Tosha said. "I'll be gone in a few minutes."
"Cancell it," James said. "You need to go back and talk to your sister."


"About what?  She said she's not going to change her mind."
"You're right," said James.  She's not going to change her mind, and nor should she.  Like she said, she's an adult and she's free to do wherever she chooses.  You need to accept that."
"How can you expect me to do that?  I mean, she's so naive... look at what she got herself into... look at what almost happened to her.  How can I just let her go off on her own to make more mistakes like that?"
"The thing about mistakes, is that we learn from them.  I think you should give her some credit for that - she's probabaly a lot less naive now than she was a year ago.  That's why it's wrong to keep trying to overprotect her."

"That's easy for you to say, its not your sister."
That was true, but it didn't mean that he didn't understand... because hadn't he been in much the same position himself?  Hadn't he failed to protect his own brother from his mistakes, at the time when it mattered the most?

But he found that it wasn't Kyle that he felt compelled to talk about right now.


"I have a daughter," he said.  "She made some bad decisions and I made it very clear that I didn't agree with them.  Now she lives in another country and we can barely talk to each other."  He paused thoughtfully.  "Don't get me wrong," he said.  "I stand by my choice to do that, right or wrong.  But now I have to live with the consequences of that choice, and I suggest you think about the possible consequences of yours, before this goes so far that neither of you can easily turn back."

----

The room fell completely silent when they came back in.  Tosha looked down at the ground, then at Angel.


  She smiled - a little forced, but a smile, all the same.  "There's a cab waiting," she said.


"Why don't we go home and get Vivian to phone her sister at SSU?  I think she said that they have an empty bedroom in the house she's boarding in."

----

"Well, that wasn't too hard to sort out," said James, when Meadow and Jamie had seen the sisters off.  "She should have just told her how she felt from the start."


"She tried to," said Jamie, as they went inside.  "Her sister just didn't want to listen."


"Well, probably she just wasn't forceful enough," said James.  "It always pays to be completely honest with something important like that."


Jamie and Meadow looked at each other, then back at James.  "I'm glad you feel that way, Dad," Jamie said, "because there's something we need to tell you and Mum... "

----

Finally finished this update!  There was originally a scene at the university, but my game crashed four times when I tried to take the pictures. Ok, so twice it was my fault - I forgot I had Lot View on the highest setting, a sure-fire way to make my game crash when I enter a lot in my overcrowded downtown.  But even so, I didn't have the motivation to try a fifth time, so I just cut the scene out and got them to talk about it later, instead.



Comments

  1. Ah! Cliffhanger!!! The post was great, I know wonder how James will swallow his own advice now.

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  2. Oh boy, I wonder how well James is going to take the news of an expected bundle. We'll see how if James can take his own advice.

    I hope that Tosha is really willing to sit down and listen, even engage is some therapy with Angel. They're both going to need it for a long time.

    Very powerful stuff here.

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  3. Thanks for reading and commenting!

    Apple Valley, James has kind of talked himself into a corner here, hasn't he? :) At least he's given them a good opening to bring the subject up...

    Choco, yeah, Tosha probably needs therapy as much as Angel does. I've given these two an unusual background (which you'll hear more about in a future update), and it's part of the reason she relates to Angel the way she does, but it really doesn't help either of them.

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  4. Man, I just read a cliffhanger at Riverdale and now another one here!

    I hope the night's events have put James in a good state of mind to hear Jamie and Meadow's announcement. It's not an ideal circumstance but they've made their decision and it's not like getting angry about it will help anything. So I have my fingers crossed that James and Marla will be supportive.

    I still can't believe Tosha told Angel she didn't need therapy! I'm curious to hear more about the background you've given these sisters, because they really do have an interesting dynamic.

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  5. There is so much going on here I almost don't know where to start.

    A round of applause for Angel for finally standing up for herself. Also to Tosha for listening for once.

    Hopefully James can take his own advice after Jamie and Meadow announce the good news.

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  6. I'm really glad that Tosha and Angel came to an understanding, Angel really needs her sister's support and love, especially now. And oh man, what a cliff hanger! I agree with Carla, I think the night's events will soften the blow to James and Marla......soften it, not get rid of it all together. Like maybe he won't disown him, but he's still going to be pissed lol. Meadow is so different in your game! She's much more solid and not as flighty as mine :)

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  7. Carla, you are right, getting angry won't help anything... although unfortunately people tend to forget that at times like this!

    oasisvalley, yeah, both sisters needed a bit of a push, but they got it right in the end. We'll find out a bit more about James' reaction when I get back to these guys.

    Mizzgin03, I like that... 'maybe he won't disown him...' :) Yeah, maybe Jamie and Meadow won't quite be homeless by the end of the night, but... ! Meadow seems a bit more solid than Jamie at least, in my game - he's always rolling the 'big' wants, while she just wants to study and be friends with everyone.

    Thanks for reading and commenting, everyone!

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  8. Lovely update!

    I'm happy Angel got the chance to speak up for herself and state what she wants finally. It's like been walked all over once again. Tosh needs to let go a bit even if it means more mistakes happening. That's how we turn into healthy adults.

    Good luck to Jaimie and Meadow on what I'm sure will be a crazy conversation.

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  9. heredoncove, you're right, Tosha does need to let go or she'll end up doing more damage than good.

    Thanks for reading!

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