"Oh my god, mom! You don't even know how much I missed your lemonade! Bobbi and I have tried to make it out in our apartment in California but we just never get it to taste like yours!" Willow said as she, her fiancee Bobbi and Tammy stood in the Strasserman's kitchen. The lanky woman took a deep drink of the near-golden liquid in her hand as Bobbi simply took a sip, tucking a stray strand of brilliant red hair behind her right ear as Tammy simply took a seat at the kitchen table, gesturing to the empty chairs positioned around it.
"Take a seat girls. Bobbi, I'd love to get to know more about you! Willow hasn't said ANYTHING to me about you!" Tammy said, smiling. Outwardly the transformed teenager looked pleasant and non-threatening, but her eyes betrayed her inner frustration. The bulk of her new soul wanted to be outraged, that her daughter, her perfect Willow, had gone behind her back and had rushed into a relationship.
An awkward silence followed as the two girls followed Tammy's instructions, Willow giving her mom as wary look as she and her beloved Bobbi took a seat, trying not to stare as Bobbi's bust jiggled from the movement. She was so beautiful! Willow was really lucky to have met her, she just hoped that her parents wouldn't scare off the love of her life by being over-protective. She could already see that Bobbi's nerves were starting to fray, and she reached out an arm under the table and gave Bobbi's leg a soft squeeze for confidence, which the redhead returned with a small smile.
"Well, um, I, uh, don't really know where to start..." Bobbi said sheepishly.
"Where are you from, sweetheart? Are you from California?" Tammy offered, coaxing the attractive girl in front of her out of her shell while Willow looked on with trepidation.
'Oh god mom please don't ruin this!' Willow thought to herself.
"I'm actually from here I just...mom and I moved when I was really little. We didn't have much money so we just went wherever she could find a job"
'Mom?' Tammy wondered, 'Maybe she's Rob's daughter and not him?'. But outwardly she nodded in response, "What about your father? Does he still live around here? Or any other family? Would I know them?" Tammy watched as a shadow briefly passed across Bobbi's face.
"Um...He's not around anymore. He died in a car crash when I was still a baby, so I never got to know him. My mom's name is Julie though, Julie Bolstrum?"
Tammy felt the blood run out of her face. "Oh honey, I'm sorry! I didn't mean" Tammy she said, mortified at her own insensitive question. The Strasserman matriarch reached out to pat the younger girl's hand while she racked her memories, new and old for a 'Julie Bolstrum' and pulling up nothing. Was she someone who actually existed or had Gloria's wish simply conjured more new people into existence? "What was your fath-" Tammy began to ask but Bobbi interrupted her.
"That's okay. Like I said I don't really remember him. But anyway yeah mom didn't have any other family here so she and I moved all over the place, we moved to Fort Petersburg in Florida when I was thirteen and a little after that is when mom met my stepdad Alan. Then when I was sixteen we moved with him to California. After that I finished school out there and did some modelling for a while..." Bobbi said, quickly moving past the rough memory.
"That's actually how we met!" Willow chimed in, "You know during art school they'd bring in those models for life drawing? Well one day I show up for class and Bobbi was the model! Best 'F' ever!" Willow gushed, blushing while she grabbed one of Bobbi's hands.
"Yeah I remember seeing her and thinking 'oh god that nerd is checking me out!'" The redhead said as she visibly relaxed, "But yeah I'd never done anything like that before, and it was freezing in that classroom and I had to be naked so the whole thing was super awkward. I said I'd never do it again but rent is stupid expensive in California so I ended up back on the university campus again flashing my boobs at a bunch of art dorks"
"Didn't expect one of them to ask you out did you?" Willow said as the two girls descended into a self-referential loop of memories.
"Like I wasn't gonna talk to the skinny chick giving me hot cocoa after I froze my tits off! And then later turns out you had messed with the room's thermostat!"
"Curses, my master plan revealed!" Willow snickered back.
Tammy just sat there, listening to what was actually quite the romantic little love story, a mixture of emotions running through her. It was clear the girls loved each other, but Tammy couldn't shake the feeling that something was still off about the busty redhead. She racked her brain, trying to recall a specific car crash but they had been so common before self driving, networked traffic had come along that it was a fool's errand. And she was hurt that her daughter had lived a full life without saying a word of this girl to her on their nightly phone calls.
But the conversation was interrupted when a furious, feminine screech came from the front of the house. It was clearly Gloria, and she clearly wasn't happy about something.
'But what else is new' The Tom part of Tammy snarked, and Tammy could feel her eyes roll in her head.
"Was that Ms. Gloria?" Willow asked, moving to stand up from the table, but Tammy beat her daughter to it, practically leaping out of her chair, trying not to swoon from the light headedness that swooped down upon her.
"No honey, I'll, oooh, I'll go check on your father and Gloria. They've been a little cagey at each other lately, your father's job has been pretty demanding this quarter. Why don't you give Bobbi a tour of the house?" Tammy gave the two girls a smile and took a few wobbly steps out of the kitchen towards the front door. Her immediate concern was another wish unleashing more chaos on this unexpected, but happy life Tammy had found herself in.
"Gloria is chaos enough" Tammy muttered darkly as she reached the front door.Behind it she could hear Gloria whining. Another trademark of the Vanapolous girl.
MY HUSBAND! Oh god this place is so fucked up Bill! I didn't want any of this! I didn't actually think the wish would come true and ruin my life! It was supposed to ruin YOUR lives!"
"Gee, thanks for the heartfelt confession" Bill deeper and slightly muffled voice barked back "Here, just give me the gemstone and I'll make a wish. God knows I'm angry about all of this as well"
Tammy couldn't help but feel a twinge of hurt at her husband's statement. Was he not happy with how their lives had panned out? But Gloria screeched once more, her voice reaching another octave.
"NO! YOU'LL JUST LEAVE ME HERE AND GO BACK HOME! I'M NOT GOING TO BE STUCK AS A OLD HAG, BILL!"
'Oh goddamnit Gloria!' Tammy sighed and pulled the door open a crack. There's was no way the girls in the kitchen (or the neighbors) hadn't heard that. "Be quiet!" Tammy hissed. She noticed that Gloria was still clutching the gemstone in one hand, at some point having collapsed into one of the porch chairs, but it wasn't glowing like it had right before they'd all ended up middle-aged. Maybe it only granted one wish? Or maybe it needed something else to work?
"Mom, is everything okay?" Tammy heard Willow ask from the kitchen. And the last thing they needed was for her daughter and Bobbi to find out about any of the events that led up to now.
"Gloria, just stay here and we'll figure it out later! Now hush!" Tammy hissed again before sliding the door closed once more, turning back to her daughter who was now standing in the entryway to the kitchen, a look of concern on her face. Tammy put on her best smile and hustled over to her daughter.
"Yes honey, it's fine! Just another work argument" Tammy bluffed, but she could see in Willow's eyes that the girl didn't believe it. The shrinking of the pupils, the loss of color in her face, rapid increase in breathing. Willow was about to have one of her panic attacks.
"That sounded like dad was firing Ms. Gloria! Oh mom, don't let him do that! Please not today! Or ever! Oh god it's all my fault isn't it! Dad's mad and this just made it worse I know I should have-" Willow's voice began to waver and Tammy did the only thing she knew to do. She grabbed the lanky girl and pulled her close, stroking the curly hair of her daughter.
"It's okay honey, no one is getting fired. Dad knows how much you like Gloria, he wouldn't do that to you. It's just an argument okay? It''s all gonna be good, nothing is your fault, okay? Just breathe with me honey, in and out, iiiiinnn and ooooout..."
Mother and daughter stood in the entryway to the kitchen as Willow's ragged breath began to slow and normalize, a emotional sniffle coming from her as the panic left her, even if the anxiety was still just beneath the surface. She knew she should have taken her medication before pulling this off! Now Bobbi probably thought she was a loser!
The two women parted and Willow turned back towards the kitchen table...