The Arrival of Bree

Mornings were especially interesting since everyone who had jobs outside of the house worked in the afternoon. Noel worked from 1-6 at the Science Center, Molly worked at the diner and Phil actually joined her in employment there. And Haruo and Heather worked from home.

"Morning honey..." Noel was greeted by his significant other and an immediate lip-lock ensued.

Phil muttered under his breath, "Will you two get a room?"

"Ah...this is the place," Bree Butterfield said to herself, "I hope Molly is able to help me out. Bree had been in a bad spot and had nowhere to turn. A bad turn of the financial wheel had forced her to dress in rags and her meagre fortune was gone. She had pretty much used all but $16K, she had been worth far more when she had started out. In fact she had been a millionaire by the age of 21. But reckless spending had caused her to have to rely on goodwill stores for her wardrobe. She could only hope on the goodwill of her old friend from university, Molly Madani to help her out.

"Bree!?" Molly asked in horror, "What happened to you?" The Bree Butterfield that Molly remembered dressed to the nines, putting practically every other girl to shame with the calibre and cost of the clothing that she wore.

"You remember Jocko?" Bree growled, "He advised me to put all my money into stock in this one company?"

"Yeah? I told you that it was too good to be true..." Molly remembered when Bree had come to her looking for advice.

"Well...I did..." Molly recoiled in horror at Bree's admission.

"...you...didn't..."

"I did...and it's all gone...all except §16,500." Bree looked downcast.

You look like you've been on a bender and living out of goodwill..." Molly looked at her sympathetically.

Bree replied shamefaced. "I did... and I've had the massive hangover to boot. I'll never look upon poor people again the way I did. They have life rough."

Poor Bree, it was a wakeup call that she never would have realized until she lost her money.

"So...what are you going to do now?" Molly asked her.

"Start over...I have no choice, build up my wealth from the ground up...instead of having it bequeathed to me and hope that I can make it count this time around.

"Well...let's see if we can help you out..." Molly said.

"Thanks, I won't forget it..." Bree replied..., "Oh...and one more thing?"

"What is it?"

"You mind if I crashed here. I don't have enough to rent a place on my own...but I can contribute what I have left to the family coffers."

"Well, you have to ask them, but I'll put in a good word for you." Molly could only promise that. "Now let's get you looking human again and not like you spent all your money on an alcoholic binge."

And Molly was as good as her word. She did put in a good word for Bree and she was accepted into the family.

And Bree was as good as her word too. The first chance she got, she headed to the book store and got herself books on Mixology so that she could further her skill in that until she could figure out what her path was in life.

...and after Molly got home from work, Molly cooked for the family.

And everyone had a good night's sleep, including Bree who for the first time in a while slept worry-free about whether or not she would have a roof over her head or not. And it was about that time that the tiberium small-spire and gemstone dust tranfigured themselves into large-spires, bringing in a net total of §110,000 when sold and that allowed them to build another storey onto the house that they were living in.

When she wasn't reading her Mixology book, Bree was taking care of household chores, like laundry, washing dishes and transferring the washed clothes into the dryer.

Noel cycled home from his job at the Science Center and life went on, including a new friend and family member who enjoyed the fact that she now had a stable and secure roof over her head.