"Hello?"
said a breathless Annalee, responding to her vibrating phone.
"Anna! So much has happened since we chatted last!"
came the familiar voice of her friend Zheena. "Baby Cassidy had her birthday, but when I took her to the cake, it ended up catching the cabinets on fire."
"On the bright side,"
she continued, "I met a really cute fireman."
"I have news too,"
Annalee tried to interject."And then,"
Zheena continued, oblivious to Annalee's attempt to speak, "after Cassidy finally did age up naturally,"
"I started having some familiar pains."
"That's right, Anna,"
she announced, "you're an auntie! Again!"
"You finally have a nephew. His name is Djavon, with a silent D at the beginning. Granted,"
she began a bit hesitantly, "he really doesn't resemble me or Alfie at all, but I don't think Alfie suspects anything. He even brought me flowers to celebrate the birth."
"The girls are just great,"
she continued, as if Annalee had asked, "Hildy has started scanning the sky with a telescope in hopes of bringing me an alien baby daddy, though she doesn't know that's why I'm having her do it, and my little Abbica is learning chemistry so she can help me get an imaginary friend baby daddy. Oh!"
"Speaking of Abbica,"
she continued, pure delight in her voice, "she finally aged up to teen."
"She's just such a beauty!"
she gushed. "She's currently imitating my hairstyle, but I think we'll try to find her a look of her own. And, she has to find an ancient relic for school, so I told her we'd go to China together as her special teen birthday present. And, of course, so I can find a baby daddy from the travel cluster."
"Speaking of traveling,"
Annalee finally managed to interject, "I'll be coming to see you soon."
"That's great!" Zheena almost squealed.
"But I won't be coming alone,"
she said with a hint of glee on her voice. "Right before you called me,"
"I finally proposed to Chauncey. He said yes!!"
"Of course he did,"
Zheena replied, "You're beautiful and awesome! And you're totally getting married here! I'll set it all up. You just have to wait until we get back from China. Oh, and I'll be pregnant at the time."
After the girls said their gushing goodbyes and hung up, Annalee and Chauncey continued enjoying their special moment.
And Zheena decided she had to give her husband a reason to not be caught off guard when she returned from China pregnant...
