Welcome to the first “real” chapter of Phoenix’s gen! 🙂 Before we get started, I just want to give a couple of shout outs!

The first is to the amazing WagonFruit, who did an absolutely incredible job on all of Harper and Dev’s renovations ( 😉 ) She gave the Rosebrook house a complete makeover for Gen 7 and it’s stunning, as you guys will see during this gen! ❤

I’d also love to give a huge thank you to my dear friend OJenn, who created Erik and Rubi’s gorgeous home for me! It’s absolutely perfect, and we will be seeing a lot of their beautiful house this gen as well ❤

Thank you both so much, ladies! I appreciate you both!

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I’m pretty sure this is the quietest this freaking house has been in… forever.

Would you believe it almost feels weird trying to study without all that drilling and banging and shouting?

Yeah… I wouldn’t believe it either. It’s fucking awesome! Finally, some peace!

About time, right?

One of the first things I can remember is from back when I was like four years old. Mama had just gotten a ton of money from her first book, and came up with the bright idea that our already-humongous house needed a basement for some reason…

Anyway, I was being nosy or curious or whatever, and ended up stumbling down into the construction site. I looked up, and I saw this huge freaking dude with a drill walking toward me.

And I freaking lost it. I had nightmares for weeks.

But I had no clue that the real nightmare would last for the next thirteen years!

And now it’s finally over. And not just for a few weeks or a few months this time… For good.

And I’ve gotta admit… As much as I hated having to deal with all that construction for like, my whole freaking life, it almost feels worth it when I see how happy Mama is about it.

I always used to wonder why Gammy and Opi were so cool with letting her like, demolish the place. But I think maybe I kinda get it now.

So I guess this is pretty much a win-win all around. Mama and Dev are happy, and I finally get some peace and quiet around here.

Lila told me she thinks she’s actually gonna miss it though. Seriously? Little twerp has no idea what she’s talking about.

And Tam basically said the same thing at school today. Something like, “Aw, but your house always used to be so fun!” Yeah, not exactly sure that’s how I’d describe it… But I guess Tam’s definition of ‘fun’ has always been a little weird? Okay, or a lot weird. I mean, it’s Tam.

Bryce just kinda shrugged when I told him… But I guess he never really had to deal with any of that shit. He practically lives at football practice during the week, so we usually hang out on the weekends, at Papa and Rubi’s. Which is… kinda like a totally different world than Mama and Dev’s house. So he doesn’t really get it.

He’s still saying we should “celebrate” at game this weekend though… Ha! Yeah right! Guess he doesn’t get that either. For somebody who spends so much time over there, apparently he still doesn’t have any freaking clue. At Mama and Dev’s house, sure, we could crack open a few beers and have a little fun. But at Papa and Rubi’s? No way!

I love them and stuff, but they’re just so freaking lame about that kinda thing. I’ve never seen either one of them even touch like, a drop of alcohol. They don’t have any in their house… at all! And whenever we go out to eat and I order a beer, they look at me like I just kicked a puppy or something. It makes no freaking sense. They’re really cool about pretty much everything else… but not that.

So yeah, the odds of them letting Bryce bring some beers to game night is like, zero. Especially since we let Jasper play with us now. I’d totally love it if we could though. Like, it’s my duty as big brother to try and corrupt him, isn’t it? But I’m not stupid enough to try and do it when his parents are home!

Ugh, I just hope Bryce doesn’t try and pull anything anyway… I FINALLY convinced Hallie to come to game with us tomorrow, so it’s gotta be perfect. I really wanna make sure she has a good time. D&D’s not exactly her thing… Or at least that’s what she keeps telling me. But she hasn’t even tried it yet! And I really think she’ll like it.

I mean, she definitely seems like she likes ME, right? So obviously she’s got good taste.

Seriously though. Hallie is like… the most perfect girl I think I’ve ever met. She’s smart and funny and SO hot… And, as Bryce and Tam love reminding me, way out of my league. But for whatever reason, she decided to give me a chance (Tam says I must’ve rolled a 20 on my Charisma check… Ha!).

So, yeah. I just can’t mess this up. Not like I did with Skylar, or Elyse. Or basically any other girl I’ve ever spoken to in my life.

It’s already been over a month since me and Hallie’s first date. That’s like… a record for me. I’ve never had any girl stick around this long. And she hasn’t let us put it on Facebook or anything yet, but I accidentally called her my girlfriend the other day and she didn’t like, correct me or anything. So that’s gotta be a good sign, right?

It could totally work out this time. I know it can!

And if you think about it, there’s like three and a half billion girls in the world. So, statistically speaking, like, at least a couple of them have gotta be willing to put up with me. Maybe even willing enough to make it so I’m not stuck in the loser virgin club with Tam for the rest of my life?

Anyway, I should probably start taking advantage of all this peace and quiet. I’ve still gotta study for my chem test, and I promised Hallie I’d help her figure out her character sheet before Saturday too.

She’s still seems really confused about how it all works, but I just keep trying to remind her that it’s all about the dice.

Like, you try your best to make good decisions and stuff. You get to control what you do… But you don’t really have any say in how it all turns out. All you can do is hope you get lucky. You try and roll high.

And you hope you have a DM who’s willing to show a little mercy.