3.1 Coming of Age

For MaKenzie, life couldn’t get any better. Yesterday she graduated from high school, today she was bidding her best friend Logan goodbye and loading a plane with her cousin, Heidi, to France, and when she returned, MaKenzie would start at her dream job at the Landgraab Industries Science Facility.

The plane touched down in Champs Les Sims in the early morning just days after graduation. It almost seemed unreal to MaKenzie. She and Heidi were thrilled and overwhelmed; not only by the new sense of freedom they had, but the gorgeous landscapes and cute men Champs Les Sims had.

After checking into the hotel, which was really the last thing on their mind, the girls headed off to the local market place, much to MaKenzie’s disgust. MaKenzie knew this was as much of Heidi vacation as it was her own, and decided to humor her a bit more than usual. Heidi, on the other hand, was ecstatic that she had even got MaKenzie so far from the hotel, decided it was best to not push her into shopping so she left her alone reading.

MaKenzie didn’t stay alone very long. Heidi returned, only to drop her bags off, to find MaKenzie, sitting on a bench, book in her lap and a guy at her side. Heidi stopped in the distance and watched, her mouth falling to the ground.

To say that her cousin wasn’t pretty would be a lie; especially now that she had cut her pigtails and changed from glasses to contacts. But MaKenzie wasn’t exactly a social butterfly. That’s what stopped Heidi in her tracks.

Heidi watched the gentleman flirt with MaKenzie and MaKenzie respond positively to his body language. They looked like two newlyweds. It was almost disgusting. Almost too disgusting to watch. Heidi turned around and walked into the next little shop, taking her bags with her.

(So I completely lost an entire set of images from this whole plot line, then I attempted to "replace" them, except I demoed the house and rebuilt... .)