Jeff was surprised when Cristobal and his twin sister joined the growing brood of young children. Cris immediately wanted to join in playing half-court soccer, but was told that'd make the teams unbalanced, so he hurried off inside with his twin sister Marisol fast on his heels to find Hannah so they both could join in without upsetting the team balance. Marisol following after because wherever Hannah was, Joey was sure to be.
Wait a minute, hadn't Alicia been pregnant with Cris a few minutes ago?
Jeff checked his phone pocket, to make sure he hadn't left it laying around where a kid could play with it. No, his phone was still in his pocket... then how did Cristobal get older so quickly, and gain two siblings? Jeff's memories were filling him in on how Cris now had a younger brother named Ilyas as well as a twin sister named Marisol.
"Harry, can you keep an eye on the kids? I have to go start dinner," said Jeff.
"Yeah, yeah. Foul!" called Harry, too invested in the game now to really care where Jeff went, and Jeff knew he'd left the remaining kids in good hands.
Just as Jeff went inside Hannah and Cris came rushing back out to join the soccer game, nearly plowing Jeff over to do so. After a quick "sorry" was yelled by Hannah, the two continued on their way, while Jeff entered the house.
"Come in to see the disaster at work?" called out Jillian the moment he'd re-entered the house.
"To start dinner actually..." said Jeff, noticing that Joey and Marisol were sitting away from the other kids inside, looking at what appeared to be Max's IPad.
"I'll take dinner and working on that project as payment, thank you very much," said Jillian with a little flirtation as she came over to Jeff.
"Really, was letting the girls paint your nails that horrible?" asked Jeff
"No, but I like that for once you owe me something, and I expect to be repaid, with interest," said Jillian with a noted hint of flirtation that made Jeff question if he should take things farther--elsewhere where there wouldn't be the prying eyes of elementary schoolers around.
"Noted for later," said Jeff, feeling rather confident in his flirtation back. Zek's advice on flirting paying off, he recalled. Wait a minute, Zek had given him advice on flirting?
"Joey, are you playing with Max's IPad?" asked Jeff, trying to distract himself from the memories overlaying themselves.
"I said he could, since he didn't want to play soccer," said Becky.
"Right..." said Jeff.
Joey, who looked up nervously once being spoken to, came over to Jeff with the IPad in hand.
"Jeff, Hannah and I found this game which changes things."
Well, that explains Cristobal and Marisol.
"A game that changes things? What like?" asked Jillian, clearly not taking Joey seriously.
"I'll take a look at it, Joey," said Jeff, taking the IPad from the younger boy.
"Like how old people can be," said Joey, and Jeff was quite
"How old people can be? That sounds a bit like the Sims, doesn't it?" asked Jillian.
"Yep, it looks like a Sims knockoff... and not a very good one at that--probably has some malware in it," said Jeff, pretending to be examining the game, but really exiting out of it and hitting "uninstall" on the app. The last thing he needed was for Max to accidentally cause changes like Joey and Hannah apparently had. Things were chaotic enough with just his phone having the ability to change people.
"What's malware?" asked Joey.
Jeff smiled, blessed at the opportunity to put any and all curiosity of the game that might pop up later to rest.
"It's like a virus that makes your computer sick and slow. Good thing you showed this to me, Joey, or else Max's IPad might have gotten sick."
Jeff saw Joey nod his head dutifully and look a little more proud of himself for being helpful, before returning over to where Marisol was sitting to watch a movie that Becky was getting ready to put on.
"So did it really have malware?" asked Jillian once Joey had left and Jeff had gone into the kitchen.
"It looked like it. Either that or trackers. There were a bunch of pop up flashing ads at the bottom of the screen and everything," lied Jeff.
"Shame, cause seeing people at different ages sounds like kinda fun... what was the name of the game?" asked Jillian innocently.
Without thinking Jeff said, "The Chronivac".
Little did he know he'd come to regret saying that name to Jillian.