As it turns out, I made a bad assumption. I am honest, well, honest-ish. When I decide to do something, I do it. I don't play Zelda on Nintendo Land as an excuse to do something else. Fine, I suppose I am, I pick it to spend good time with Marge, but it's all the same.

Olivia however, is growing up in a toxic family, to the point where she hides her money in a teddy bear.

When she proposed for us to do a tutoring session, it was mostly the container for our interaction and not so much the content of it.

It's like she needed a cover for me to go see her and bring pizza, the cover being that I need tutoring. Yet, once the books and papers and even a few examples were made, the conversation became more personal.

"So what brought you here today?"

"I guess I needed a friend. Well, another friend."

"I am touched"

"I had a sleepover with another one, and well, there was a fight with her brother, and between her parents, it got messy"

She laughed.

"What's funny?"

"You had a sleepover with a girl who probably has a normal family, and it got messy, and you chose to come here?"

"I feel safe with you"

She put her hand on her chest. "Wow, that's, like, the best compliment anyone ever told me"

"Better than when I said you were a good tutor?"

"Did you?"

"I am sure I did. If not, I am telling you now."

"Ok, fair enough, and yeah. Being a good tutor means I am good at something. Making you feel safe means I am good, period. That I am a good person. "

"You are"

"If you knew my parents more, you wouldn't say that"

"Did your father hit you?"

"No, that would be caring too much about me to notice that I am here."

"I never saw him"

"He works too much and usually hangs out in a bar with his colleagues and wastes most of his paycheck in booze"

"I am sorry to hear that"

"My mother doesn't work, but she volunteers at the hospital, which gives us some medical perks, but you know, not that it's worth it"

"You got a raw deal," I say.

"Thanks, but the way I see it, I am lucky that intelligence isn't hereditary. We all are"

"Why?"

"Can you imagine if it was? Governments would be testing every teenager, and if you don't make the cut, you are sterilized. And men with a high IQ, they have to donate sperm, while we, intelligent girls, are forced to breed forever for the nation."

"You mean intelligent girls like you," I tell her.

She grabs my hands between hers. I jump a little as this is so sudden.

"Julie, listen to me. And listen to me hard. You have a learning disability of some sort. I am thinking dyspraxia, but I have an older cousin with that, and it's not like I am an expert. I know about only a few of them. All I know is that behind that disability, you are very intelligent. Get a grip on it, and you will go far. Further than me, since you have parental support."

"And a great tutor"

She scoffs. "In math. You could possibly tutor me in science or English."

I look at her.

She is in my science class too. We've done some work together, and she was very helpful, but there is math in science, and it's quite possible it's where she shined, while I was brilliant on the non-math parts.

"Maybe not. I am not as organized as you are."

"Could be a symptom of dyspraxia."

"For real? Tell me more."

"Well, I don't know everything. But my cousin, and keep in mind that I don't see him often, is clumsy, gets confused when there is too much information, and has trouble with planning stuff or using tools. He can't even ride a bike."

"I am not that bad with tools, and I am good with a bike"

"Maybe it changes from person to person."

I think about Ellie.

"Or perhaps it's like autism. It's different between boys and girls."

"Could be"

But it got me thinking.

We did more exercises, and she pointed out some of my badly formed numbers, which are a sign of dyspraxia.

When finally my dad came to pick me up, Olivia told me. "Try to play catch with him."

My father looked at her. "I have a feeling I need to give you a big handshake."

"Her mom isn't there, and yeah, you do," I say.

"Guys, no need to give me money. You already fed me."

My father looked at me. Took our three $20 bills and gave them to her.

"If you don't want it now, maybe your future self will some day be happy to have them."

She looks at him.

"Thank you"

In the car, he asked me what this was about.

"I'll tell everyone at home, but is Edith ok?"

"She is. It's not easy for her. It's a lot of adjustments, and, well, she is sometimes taking it hard. She needs to gain independence for her future but needs to feel taken care of for her current healing"

"Right. And I had a sleep over"

"No, that was good. Don't stop. She is happy you aren't becoming codependent on her. She would feel guilty if you put your life on hold but can't find a way to directly tell you"

"Richard, Ellie, Marge, and I were all nude in Marge's house this morning, after some fighting"

"I heard!"

"You did?"

"Mom called Ellie. So Marge's brother might also be autistic?"

"Maybe"

We got home, and I found Mom nude, playing a card game with my sister, who was dressed.

"Edith!"

"Julie, so I missed a fight at Marge's?"

I noticed that my father was undressing, so I began to undress while telling the story.

I think that my parents both heard the story from Ellie, but it's clear Edith hadn't.

She waited until I was nude and came to hug me. I hugged her back, and we all sat at the table.

"I think Julie has something to tell us," said my dad.

"Yeah. Olivia has a theory on why I am sometimes struggling. Her cousin has dyspraxia, and he has similar issues to me, but he can't ride a bike"

"It took you a while to learn the bike," says my dad.

"It did?"

"Oh yeah, we practiced every day for over an hour, and it took you about 2 summers to learn to ride."

"I don't remember that"

"Well, good."

My mother intervened.

"You did have a lot of trouble with writing. I don't know much, but perhaps we can get you tested."

"I'd like that"

Edith was just smiling.

We didn't have ChatGPT back then, so the conversation just about ended, and I proposed to Edith to play with the Wii U.

To my surprise, the game that was inside, was ZombiU. "Wait, did my father play?"

"No, I did. With him. I think it helped me. There is something special in that game"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, that all lives are precious. When your character dies, it's gone, for good."

"Yeah, I heard that. And you need to go get your equipment from your old character, who is now a zombie"

"I needed your dad for that. I often explored randomly, got lost, and couldn't find my stuff back."

"He rules at those games. Animal Crossing?"

"Hell yeah"

"Did you have fun with him?" I ask.

She was silent while I put Animal Crossing in.

"No. I had growth. Which is better?" she says.

"Good. Charlie being autistic might change things around."

"I like Charlie"

"Wait, you do?"

"He is direct. I enjoy that. Like you, and Marge. I don't like liars," says Edith.

"Yes, but like, he told Mindy 'nice tits' the first time he saw us."

"Well, he is not wrong. Mindy does have nice breasts. I wish mine were like hers, but they sort of sag."

"I don't think it matters much"

"I don't know what guys want."

"Who does? I bet they don't," I say.

Edith laughed. "I suppose not"

I began doing my chores, which are talking to the animals, picking the weeds, and picking the grown fruits to either sell them to Nook or to replant, all while buying (and reselling) almost everything.

I did keep two of the new blue collection pieces simply because, well, I already had 3, which gives me a total of 5 out of ten, which is not bad.

But I didn't go fishing; instead, after collecting the shells and hitting the luck rock, I saved and let Edith have her turn.

Right, Edith now has 2 different towns. There is the mature one on her Wii, in her room, and there is a new one in our Wii U, which is lagging a little behind, but barely. Why? Because she gave herself the Royal Collection and a ton of money from her complete town. That way, it grew considerably.

Seeing her new town made me realize how many hours she put into this. Hours she puts in when I am at a naturist event, or when I am with Marge, or Olivia, or just doing homework.

But what I didn't realize then is that Edith's insomnia didn't always keep her in her room. She sometimes sneaked an hour or two at night in the living room on the Wii U.

We brushed our teeth together, but she went to change into her pajamas in her room, before knocking at mine.

"Our dad will read me a story. Want to have a sleepover afterward?", she says, nervous.

"I would love to. Just come into my bed, even if I fell asleep"

"Nice"

But I didn't. My mother came, and didn't read me a story. Instead, we talked. About naturism, about Marge, about Olivia, about Sandy, who was her best friend when my mom was my age. Naturism wasn't on the radar at all for my mom, but Sandy was troubled, not like Edith, not like Olivia, more like she became trouble herself.

Hung out with bad people, changed overnight. Got arrested for stealing a car, went to juvie, and was even more broken up when she came back.

"Did she get out of it?"

"Do you want to sleep tonight?"

"Mom, I am old enough. What, did she die?"

"Didn't make it to 18"

"Oh shit. If this was a horror bedtime story, it would be a great one. I am sorry you lost your friend."

"Oh, I lost her well before she died. When she fell into bad company, we had already parted."

"Did she have good parents"

My mother laughed.

"Sorry, I shouldn't laugh. Kiddo, none of us had good parents. None of our generation. Hands-on parenting wasn't a thing. Our parents, had a stay-at-home mom when they grew up. Almost none of us did, and none of them figured out that we still needed a parent to raise us, because I guess they didn't realize that their stay-at-home parent did. Our generation didn't have parents. We still grew up, and we made damn sure you guys would"

"Looks like Edith's parents and Olivia's didn't," I said.

"Well, it's not perfect. I am sure there were good parents in my time. I just didn't see any around. Not that we knew better. For us, that was normal. Our parents fed us, took us on vacation camping somewhere, and bought us clothes. For everything else you guys have, we had our friends"

"So when you lost Cindy, it must have hurt"

"Sandy, not Cindy, but not that much. See, every kid was alone, so I just made a new friend, Virginia."

"Sorry for the mixup in the name. I never heard the name Sandy before."

"I have to show you the movie Grease then"

"Do you mean aunty Virginia?"

"Yes! Though she isn't really our aunt. You remember her? It was, gosh, 3 years ago the last time you saw her?"

"She was kind and nice."

"She brought you cupcakes. Of course you would think that," my mom says, laughing.

"Why didn't you see her more recently?"

"She lives in Oregon, and well, she was visiting here for family but doesn't come often."

"Sorry to ear that"

"We still talk occasionally on the phone. I talked to her today! She has a son your age, and he was out for soccer with his dad."

"That's nice"

"Yeah. To each family their own, you know?"

"Does she know about our naturism?"

"She used to. She didn't take it well, so I told her when we stopped and neglected to tell her that we returned. It's not like she asked"

"What about your other friends? Do they know?"

She looks at me. "Kiddo, my other friends are naturists now"

"What do you mean?"

"Clara, Peter, Ellie, James, and your father are all, in various degrees, naturists."

I laugh. "Mom, apart from Dad, these are my friend's parents, not your friends."

"Oh, kiddo, when you have kids, you'll soon find that you are friends with your kid's parents, because either your friends have kids and you mix them, a little like Mindy and you, or you meet them from your kids, like James or Ellie"

"That's sad"

"Not really. Like, let's say that Virginia lived nearby and you really didn't get along with her son. I would slowly lose contact with her, since to see her, one of us needs a babysitter."

"Or the father to take care of the kids"

"Right, but what if I want my husband to get along with hers? If our kids don't get along, it means fewer parties. Like a few times we went with you to Mindy's, you went to see her, but we went to see her parents. We like them. And Ellie is now a friend too."

"Like, you would hang out with her without us?"

"Sure. She is very, I don't know, energetic. Always active, doing something"

This got me thinking. I don't have kids right now, not that I want any yet, but my friends who did have kids sort of drifted away from me, and not just because of naturism. Some of them were naturist.

Edith arrived while my mom, our mom, was still there. She joined the conversation, which was then about school, but soon enough, my mother left, and Edith and I fell asleep without talking much. I was so tired, I didn't wake up at all, so I don't know whether she woke up or not.

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