The twins

Jason listened as Jenny was speaking words of wisdom and encouragement to their new son. He had come upstairs to see what was taking them so long, when he heard Daniel last few sentences and the words that followed from Jenny. He didn't want to interrupt their moment, so instead he stood just beside the door opening and quietly listened with a grave expression that soon turned into a smile as he heard his wife spin Daniel's words around. Turning it in something positive in a way only she could do. In a way she had done for him plenty of times before. Once he was sure that the situation was under control and he had left Daniel in capable hands, he headed back downstairs to check on the rascals he had left with their grandparents, since it was clear that he wasn't needed here.

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As the weeks passed by, Daniel and Lidia got accustomed to life at the Westwood residence. Both of them were doing great in school and Daniel was proving to be indeed as smart as they thought he was. He was not only able to keep up with the schoolwork at his advanced programme classes at one of the elite schools nearby, making it certain that he would be able to transfer to Mountforth High next year, he could even keep up with Charlie whenever he was allowed to play with him. Though he wasn't able to win, though he couldn't keep up for very long, the fact that he was able to keep up at all with a genius like that, showed that he had quite the head on his shoulders.

Lidia was shining at school in a different way from her brother. In her case she had not only become great friends with Amira, in just a week's time she had made plenty of friends at her new school, which was the same one as Amira but a different class. She too was able to keep up with her classes and was bringing home good grades. She might not be on par with her brother and certainly not with the two who were born as Westwoods but then again very few people were. Two of the people she had become friends with, were people the Westwoods were very familiar with. These were Eva and Anna, the twins of Richard family and their blood-unrelated nieces.

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While Amira was at the same school as the other three girls, she wasn't in the same class. Though she wasn't exactly gifted like Charlie was, she too was of above average intelligence. This had allowed her to skip a class and be admitted to an advanced programme, which in a school like this was already quite an accomplishment since this was already an elite school. A school where they did a lot in order to stimulate the mental development of a child. With a teacher for every five to ten students and speaking a different language each day. Even their arts and crafts were of a different level. Not even that relaxing activity was exempted from becoming a teachable moment, hiding a lesson in every colouring assignment or papier-mâché project. In a school like that, both she and Charlie had been able to skip classes and Charlie had even made them admit defeat, causing his transfer back when he was Amira's age.

Unlike her brother she didn't need to change schools and the work the teachers could provide for her, was enough to keep her from feeling bored or make another skip in grades necessary in the nearby future. It was decided that if she kept up this track of development, she could make due with a skip after each graduation. So, her next skip would be after six years, when she would start middle school. There she would start in second year instead of the first, which sounded fine to both Amira as well as her parents. Jenny and Jason didn't want another child of them to have to change schools in order to have a chance at finding real friends and some actual stimulation. But fortunately they didn't have to deal with that with their little girl who seemed to be able to make friends just fine. Her lack of them was more a matter of her not wanting to make any more friends than the ones she already had, than an inability. Jenny and Jason didn't want to see this as a problem as long as she herself didn't consider it one. And Amira, she certainly didn't.

The two friends she had since birth, Anna and Eva, were plenty for her. With the addition of a sister, Amira had nothing more to ask for. Elizabeth's twins, who were in the same class as Lidia, had grown into beautiful little girls and were about to turn five. They were frequent guests at the Westwood residence and now that another daughter of Jenny and Jason had become friends with the two, they were around even more often than before. Something no one seemed to mind, including Charlie, who seemed to have caught the eye of one of them.

Whenever they came for a playdate or a visit with their parents, Eva would go to find Charlie. Somehow she was fascinated with him and had good reason to be. Aside from him always reading complicated books and playing some complicated games, he was the only who was able to distinguish her from sister Anna. Not even her parents were able to tell them apart all of the time but Charlie was the only one they couldn't seem to fool no matter how hard they tried. Today would be no different...