The Way We Were

The Way We Decide University

Marcy dropped a large sack on the coffee table. "These are all university letters."

"Damn..." Mal whistled.

"Oh no. There's more."

Jude paled. "Really?"

"Yes. That's what we get for applying to every university and college in the world that we could get applications for."

"So how many sacks are there?" Paris rubbed her stomach.

"We each have one. This is-" Marcy opened the sack and read the first letter. "Yuri's."

Yuria gulped.

W.W.W.

Marcy sighed as she threw aside her letter. "This is going to drive me crazy."

"Another acceptance?" Karou set her latest one in a (large) pile of others.

"Yes!" Marcy had never known that being accepted would be so hard.

Mal shook his head, overwhelmed and set aside another one of his. "What are we gonna do? Where are we going to go to school?"

Marcy rubbed her nose. "I think we just have to figure out where we want to live then go from there."

"Where do you want to live?" He suspected that she'd say New York (Juilliard had been her first choice after all).

"I don't know." She surprised him. "I mean I love the north but I hate ice. I slip all the time and I'm pregnant. What if I got hurt and hurt the babies?"

"Are you saying you want to live in the south?" Karou said "south" like it was a dirty word.

"Not "south" south." Marcy wasn't that crazy.

"South where?" Mal wanted to know.

Marcy sighed. "L.A."

"You want to live in L.A.?!" Her family members were shocked.

"I know. I feel crazy for even suggesting it but it's the best option for the type of degrees we want and the type of weather we want."

"What schools were you thinking?" Mal asked.

"I was thinking Rou could go to New York Film Academy. It has a location in L.A. that has musical theater courses and courses in film acting."

"I'm a stage actor." Karou looked unsure.

"I know. So am I but we've both been in film and on television. Besides you don't want to be poor and if you go into stage acting full time, you will be."

Karou made a face. "Who will be poor?! Not me!"

"You'll have to live off your inheritance for the rest of your life."

Seeing as Karou didn't know how much that would be that filled her with fear. "So film acting?"

Marcy gave her a look. "Yup. It also has design courses for Yuri."

Yuria perked up.

"And I was thinking maybe Artie would want to come with. I mean it is a film school."

"I'll tell him." Arnold nodded.

"What about the rest of us?" Mal pulled his wife's attention.

Marcy chewed on her bottom lip. "Pepperdine and Stanford."

"What?! We just got rid of them!"

Marcy couldn't help but laugh. "Mal!"

"It's been so peaceful and quiet."

"You miss messing with Mercy and Q and you know it."

He sulked.

"I'm getting my biochemistry degree but I still need to dance. It won't get any better than that and they have a physics major."

"Really?" Photography would always be his first love but physics was something he was great at and kept his interest.

"Yes. And Pepperdine has a photography program."

"Sold!"

She grinned. "What about you, P? J? Stanford has a great business program."

Jude thought about it. He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life but he knew his father would want him to follow in his footsteps. "Okay, brah."

Paris licked her lips slowly as she thought. "You know I love doing makeup but it doesn't feel like enough now that I'm pregnant."

"What do you mean?" Marcy was surprised by the revelation.

"I think I want to be like Aunt Petunia."

"You want to sculpt?"

"Yeah. I always loved going to her studio and throwing pots. Color Me Mine is like my paradise."

Marcy and Karou looked at each other before smiling at her. "Do it."

"What about me?" Arnold wanted to know. "I'm not an artist or a doctor."

"Yeah but you want to be like a new world leader, right?" Marcy lifted a shoulder. "Stanford is a top school. Plenty of senators and governors have graduated from there."

"So their political science department is great?"

"I would assume so."

He nodded slowly. "Okay."

"But we have a small problem."

"What?" Karou questioned.

"Finding places to live."

"That'll be easy."

"Places, Rou. You're both starting your own families. We can't live with each other anymore."

Both Karou and Paris began crying, their husbands attempting to soothe them.

Mal grimaced. "Are you sure?"

"Don't you want our house back? We already have six kids, five dogs, two cats, a lamb, a goat and a fish." They'd gotten more animals over the months, especially as Christmas and Valentine's Day gifts (Marcy loved animals). "Plus we have staff and we'll have more kids and we need room for guests. It's just a lot."

Hearing it out loud like that made her cousins stop crying. "You're right."

"Thank you." She used her baby voice and hugged them. "I still love you but we need space."

"What about when we come back to Lima for holidays?" Paris posed an inquiry.

"Why would you come back to Lima?"

Paris blinked.

"Jude's Canadian and Yuri's Vietnamese. Rou and Yuri can always stay with Arnold's parents."

"So we're never going to see Lima again?"

"You want to?"

Paris thought about it. "I want to see you."

"We can live next door to each other." Marcy hoped there were no homes available on either side of her new unpurchased home.

Paris perked up. "Yay!"

"When are we going to find these homes?" Karou tossed out.

"We have spring break coming up. We can fly out to L.A. and start looking." Marcy looked at Mal.

He nodded. "Okay. We have our plan. We're going to California."