Rock Valley

After seeing that Jennifer and her beau got a jump start on married life, there were some, originally townie, characters left in the greek house to be played trough college before I could introduce the next Mason generation. Some of them, like Jan kind of grew on me and I decided to play them after college as well. So, in the “others” categorie you can, from now on, read the stories about the side-kick’s lives.

After Jen left, life on campus continued like always. Time flew by and before Jan realised it, she to was ready to graduate. After taking a very good final exam, Jan felt different, more mature, ready to tackle the big world off campus. But there was one thing left to do before she could start the next phase of her life.

The night before the cab would come to take her to Rock Valley, Jan decided it was time for her to make things formal with her boyfriend Douglas. He was a year younger than she and still had to finish his studies but Jan wanted both of them to know the other would be waiting and faithfull. So that night, she fell down on one knee before Douglas and proposed to him.

Doug was suprised. He didn’t say yes immediatly as Jan had hoped he would but instead started talking.
“I don’t know Jan, I mean, like, I’m still in college you know. I don’t know if I should tie down. I want to finish school, maybe take another few classes, you know.”

Oh, Jan understood, she too would have answered the same thing if it was him proposing, but she explained the reason. They needn’t get married right away, she would wait. She just wanted him to know she loved him for ever and that they were still an item, even tough she had to go to work and live someplace else.
To those conditions, Doug could agree, and so Jan slipped a small ring on his finger.

That night, they celebrated their engagement, knowing it would be at least a few weeks before Doug could come and see her in the new house she had bought with the money she had made with her paintings. It was a night full of passion and emotions and both were surprised when it was morning all of the sudden and Jan’s cab was wainting for her. After a quick kiss goodbye and the promess to write or call as she arrived, Jan left for her future while still tied to her past.

Jan had found a pretty house in the hills of Rock Valley, pretty close near the coast. The house came with an installed bathroom and kitchen and a lot of free rooms for Jan to use as she liked. She decided on taking the biggest upstairs room as her bedroom, leave the other one for future children she hoped to have as soon as Douglas graduated and leave the spare downstairs room empty for now, as she had no idea what to do with it. Jan found a job in a chemical research lab and life went on, even without her fiancé, whom she called several times a week.
Life was good for Jan Baity.

But then, one day, Jan got the scare of a lifetime. It was custom for new employees at the company to take a full medical exam every few months, they were working with dangereous materials after all. Jan had taken her first about two months ago, when she had started her job there and today, she got the results back. Boy, was that unexpected news. Everything was fine, but the doctor wrote a small note asking Jan if she knew she was three months pregnant since she didn’t mention so in her intervieuw.
Jan had to sit down for a moment after receiving the letter and asked her supervisor for the rest of the day off, which he gave her after seeing how pale she had turned in a few seconds.

On the ride home, Jan started thinking. Yes, she had been feeling tired lately, and her breasts felt more tender, but she figured it was just something hormonal. But not that hormonal. When the carpool dropped her off at home, she looked at her tummy and saw it was bigger. How could she have missed the signals???

Not knowing how to take the news, Jan called work and asked for maternity leave.
That night, after her supervisor had told her co-workers the news, Gary, who had just gotten married to Déborah Legacy, and a good friend of Jan’s came over to see how she was doing and ask why she had never told him or the others. Jan was glad to see a friendly face and asked Gary to come in for a cup of coffee, this was going to be a long story.

She told Gary everything and he said he would be there for her.
So time went on and Jan grew larger and larger. She knew the baby was Douglas’ but just didn’t know how to tell him. Every time they talked on the phone he was so full of his wonderfull life, the courses he took, the new people, could she ask him to give it up to come and take care of her and their child? His studies would suffer is he had to travel to get home every day. So she decided not to tell, at least not yet, that she was expecting.
Her life was pretty lonely. Besides Gary coming over more and more (Déborah had announced she was pregnant and now just sat on the couch and ate chips all day) to escape home where his wife and mother in law had nothing else to talk about but the new Legacy heir, she didn’t see anybody during her last trimester.
To stay calm, Jan had started meditating and pretty soon, she was able to float in the air a little bit. This way, she forgot about her troubles and was able to get trough her life in one piece.