“Have you ever noticed your fingers get puffy and wrinkled when you take a bath or spend a long time in the pool?” Mr. Phoenix asked the class.
Yup. And I don’t care why. Harper thought to herself, sighing.
“Or have you ever wondered how a plant gets water from its roots?” Her teacher continued.
Nope. I haven’t. When she was sure he was not looking in her direction, Harper reached up and gently flipped the tiny switch on the back of her hearing aid.
She shifted slightly in her seat, turning her right side toward her teacher as best as she could. Her hearing was significantly worse in that ear — so much so that a hearing aid was of no help to her.
Though she could still hear bits and pieces of Mr. Phoenix’s speech about Mitosis or Osmosis or Boring-osis or whatever the heck it was, it was so much easier to tune him out when his voice was softer and a bit fuzzy — especially now that her bad ear was facing his direction.
Instead of listening to his lecture, Harper began allowing herself to daydream. She thought back to last weekend, when her cousin Dahlia had come to visit.
Dahlia was probably Harper’s favorite cousin, even though she was one of the oldest. Her mom, Auntie Charlie, was probably Harper’s favorite aunt too, so maybe that had something to do with it.
But then shouldn’t Harrison be one of her favorite cousins too? Auntie Charlie was his mom too, but he wasn’t nearly as cool as Dahlia was. He was only two years older than Harper, but he didn’t like many of the same things she did, and they often butted heads. Especially when it came to Void Critters.
Harper was happy that only Dahlia had come to visit. She had taken her to go see the new Wonder Woman movie, and Harper loved it. She’d spent a long time talking about it with her parents when she got home… Especially her Papa. He always had a soft spot for superheroes (though Batman would always be his favorite).
Thinking about the movie made Harper start to wonder though… What would it be like to try writing her own super hero story? One where the hero wasn’t perfect. What if the hero was like her? What if she wore a hearing aid or used an inhaler, but was still powerful and awesome?
Or what if the villain was like her?
Everyone always expected people like her to be weak and harmless. Innocent and good. But what if they weren’t, for a change?
“Harper? Earth to Harper!”
The young girl almost jumped at the feeling of a slight tap on her shoulder and the muffled sound of a familiar voice in her ear. Harper noticed that the rest of the class seemed to be out of their seats and moving around the room.
She reached up to turn on her hearing aid before finally facing her friend. “Sorry… Trying to ignore the snore-fest.” Harper laughed softly.
“I figured.” Nyla shook her head in amusement as she spoke, taking a seat beside her friend. “I was trying to ask if you wanna work together?”
“Sure! Um… Work on what?”
“The celery experiment. We’re supposed to work with a partner.”
Harper rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Another experiment?”
“Yup.” Nyla sighed. “You’re lucky I was at least kinda listening to the directions. Not everybody has an ‘off’ switch like you do when we wanna stop paying attention!”
“Oh yeah, lucky me.” Harper’s voice dripped with sarcasm, but she did not lose her smile.
“Well I hope you were at least paying attention to the announcements this morning… Did you hear football tryouts are tomorrow?” Her friend asked.
Harper nodded. “Yeah. Are you gonna go?” She she whispered, noticing that Mr. Phoenix had begun addressing the class yet again.
This time, she had to keep her hearing aid on so she could continue talking to Nyla, but she did her best to ignore him anyway. We have way more important things to talk about!
“Of course!” Her friend whispered back, leaning close and speaking into her good ear. “What about you?”
“Well, I want to. As long as my parents let me.”
“Why wouldn’t they?” Nyla asked.
“You know how annoying they can be sometimes…”
“Ladies!”
Both girls jumped at the sound of Mr. Phoenix’s voice. Harper could feel the eyes of the rest of her classmates, staring at her.
“Yes, Mr. Phoenix?” She asked softly.
“Are you having a nice conversation?” Her teacher scolded.
Harper pouted her lip slightly, and tried her best to look as innocent and unassuming as she could. She knew how to play this game. “I’m sorry, Mr. Phoenix. I was having trouble hearing. Nyla was just helping me.”
The man’s face softened immediately. “I understand, Miss Rosebrook.” He replied gently. “But if you have a question, please feel free to ask me, okay? Or wait until a better time to have Miss Flores assist you.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mr. Phoenix gave her a small nod. “Very well, class. You may begin.”
The classroom gradually began to fill with soft chatter as the students got to work.
Nyla stared at Harper for a few moments, wide-eyed. “How are you always able to get away with that?” She asked.
Harper shrugged, smirking as she allowed her innocent mask to fade. “Grown ups love feeling sorry for me. It’s so annoying most of the time.”
“Not all the time though, huh?” Nyla laughed. “You sneak!”
Before she had a chance to reply, Harper noticed that, at the table beside them, Katie was talking quietly and giggling with one of her friends. The two girls kept glancing very obviously in Harper’s direction every now and then as they continued their conversation.
“Ugh!” Harper clenched her hands into fists at her sides. She knew Katie was making fun of her again. She had to be! Harper just wished she could find a way to get back at her.
Last time Katie had teased her had been one of the worst times yet. Miss Li paired them up for a project together, and the whole time, Katie kept saying “What? I can’t hear you!” any time Harper tried talking to her… Mocking Harper and laughing at her for her hearing problems, just like she always did.
As revenge, Harper had caught a frog at recess and hidden it in Katie’s desk when no one was looking. It still made her laugh to remember the look of horror on her face when she’d found it.
But what wasn’t so funny was all the drama that came after. No one could prove Harper had done it, but Katie certainly seemed to think it was her. There’d been a scary trip to the principal’s office and a meeting with Harper’s parents, but nothing had come of it. No one seemed fully convinced that she was guilty. And, as usual, everyone loved feeling sorry for her.
Still, it had been really scary being so close to getting in trouble, and it wasn’t something Harper was too keen on repeating. But knowing that Katie was back to making fun of her again made Harper’s blood boil. If only revenge wouldn’t be so risky…
“Uh, I think we should probably start doing something.” Nyla’s voice called her back to the present. “I’m not sure if we can trick Mr. Phoenix again…”
Harper sighed softly in resignation. “Yeah, okay.”
Nyla ended up doing most of the work, of course. And though she continued chatting with her friend about how excited they were for tomorrow’s football tryouts, Harper’s mind was very far away…
Daydreaming about a tall, beautiful supervillain who wore a hearing aid, used an inhaler, and rained a storm of slimy frogs on bullies named Katie Fletcher.
Harper definitely seems to have a mischievous side, as well as a creative one. I’m intrigued to find out even more about her.
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Thanks, Azzy! Mischievous and creative are two perfect adjectives to describe Harper! And we will see more of both come out even more and in different ways as the story goes on 😉 ^_^
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I knew that Katie was being mean to Harper! But, Harper, dear, don’t use your powers for bad stuff! Thought, I’m glad she Isn’t feeling bad about herself.
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This is great advice — she should use her powers for good! 😛 But I guess to Harper, revenge on Katie IS good? Hehe
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I can’t word right now so I’m just going to say Harper is adorable and I see a lot of mischief in her future. Oh look I words. Yay.
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Hahahahaha it’s okay, we all have those days 😂 Thank you for sharing your words 😉 ❤️
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Oh my gosh! Harper knows how to use it! She is certainly a dreamer. That will likely be good for her in the future but it feels like an escape from reality. I hope not. But I am glad to see she has friends that get her even if she has friends that make fun of her.
I think at that age every kid is trying to find their place and ‘fit in’ and someone will always be cruel if they think you are weird or different from them regardless of any disabilities. I don’t think she realizes this though because it is easy to pick on that one ‘flaw’. It will make her a stronger person in the long run. Is it going to be a long and winding road? Haha! I can hear the song in my head now.
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Harper is totally a dreamer, it’s true! Haha and you’re right… it IS a bit of an escape from reality. But we all can use that every now and then, huh?
Kids can be so mean and brutal, you’re very right. And Harper is learning this the hard way. But she does have loyal friends by her side and hopefully it’ll help give her strength to rise about the bullies!
Thanks for your comment, Audrey! It was a great one 😀
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It seems like Katie is probably jealous of the special treatment Harper is getting. Harper gets to get away with things that the other kids can’t, and putting her down makes Katie feel better about it.
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That’s a really interesting analysis of why Katie may be behaving this way. I love it! Thank you for sharing
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Thanks! Sometimes it can be hard for adults to assign blame to those they feel sorry for, like Harper said, and that comes off as a serious bias to the rest of the class. Jealousy is hard to get away from, especially if blame gets deflected onto you.
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Nyla and Harper remind me of my best friend and I in high school. She had hearing aids and we often used her hearing problem as an excuse to chat during class.
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Haha that’s awesome!
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I vote for that Mysterious Hunky Bad Boy! Where can I get one of those?
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Dark WitcHazard: 1 point for the Bad Boy Theory! Also o don’t know but if I find out I’ll call you!😉
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She seems to have manipulation down. Using your disability to manipulate people is pretty shitty Harper. Hope you grow out of that fast.
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Agreed.
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Well in her defense, she’s 11 🙂 They are all little sneaks! Haha I used my students as inspiration for this one
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True. But 11 is old enough to be aware. But being upset cuz people treat you differently or think you can’t do things and yet only furthering their misinformed ideas by using it against them to get what you want will do you know favors when you actually want them to realize you can do things on your own and don’t need to be babied. We will see how she turns out though. I know you like to give them a flaw and this might be hers.
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No favors^ lol my phone thinks it is smart.
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I knew what you meant hehe
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It’s true that she definitely is only perpetuating what she hates about how she’s treated haha 11 year olds also aren’t super logical either… like you said hopefully she’ll grow out of it! We will see 😀
And yes, I like all my Rosebrooks to have a pretty big flaw, can’t lie. It makes it fun 😂
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Still recovering from the last few chapters (not yesterday’s). My mind is still blank. Erm…*scans chapter*…I see Zayne hasn’t converted Harper to a Batman fan yet and….. *scans chapter again* Katie probably deserved that piece of revenge.
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Yeah Katie is a piece of work! Haha And Zayne needs to work harder on converting her 😉
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Maybe they should watch a batman movie on Joce’s birthday this year. That traditional shall not die, even after Joce is gone.
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Dark has some exciting theories. Love it! Hahaha (and I’m glad you enjoyed the wedding! But I’m also glad to have you back ❤️)
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0_0 Is Harper going to become a criminal!!?? That would be pretty cool. Or maybe a secret agent. She is so sassy, and definitely seems kinda manipulative. What is her first trait? Also, frogs in Katie’s desk😄😄😄
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Hehehe I’m loving your predictions for Harper’s future! I rolled all three of her traits, but I’m going to keep them mostly secret for now, for fun Hehehehe I will tell you that her childhood trait (even though I try to work in all 3 traits throughout their lives when I can) is goofball. But instead of being goofy, I’m kinda interpreting it as that bit of mischief 😉
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I don’t know if Harper is just mischievous, but I’m getting some supervillain vibes from her for sure. I adore it.
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Hahaha maybe her fantasy will become a reality! 😛
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She can be the sim version of El Deafo
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Love it! 😀
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Ah, I completely flubbed my link there… But El Deafo is a great book. It’s on several schools’ summer reading lists this year.
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Yeah I am a middle school teacher and I’ve seen some of my kiddos reading it! I have a feeling Harper would love it!
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I see a lot of comments that want Harper to be a villain, but I’m kinda hoping she’ll be a writer and write some super awesome superhero stories 😛 This generation is going to be a rollercoaster ride, though, I can already tell!
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Isn’t it always a ride with the Rosebrooks? 😉 Hehehe
I love your idea of her being a writer! She’s definitely got a very creative mind! ^_^
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Well speaking of sports-did you guys know in American Football the group huddle got started because some university’s team had a deaf player on it and they didn’t want the other group to see their hand signals?
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Cool fact!
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Why is she so apathetic? And Harrison is Charlie’s son? Was he a little oops baby? lol
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Do you mean toward school? Haha Harper basically loathes school. She thinks it’s boring and she hates how much effort it takes for her to be able to hear and pay attention. She’s 11 so I’m her mind it’s “this is difficult and boring, therefore it’s stupid and not worth my time” LOL And unfortunately this is kind of similar toward how Zayne felt toward school (minus how hard it was to focus)
And yes, Charlie was a not-so-planned second kid of Charlie and Ben hehe
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Not just school. She seems disinterested in pretty much anything that doesn’t suit her. I know kids think their family is lame at times, but…I dunno. There seems to be a little more here than her just being an 11-year-old.
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We will get some more insight into her personality over the next couple of chapters, and also about her family dynamics are. That might help shed a little light too 🙂
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Good. I hope so.
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I meant Harrison lol whoops
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Bad boy for sure then the sensually gorgeous
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My goodness Harper is a real cutie-patootie!! I just love her spunk too :0-) Excited to see where this chapter of our favourite sims legacy goes! I just knew the Hozay ship would produce an adorable offspring, and they sure did come though!
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Thanks LostDestiny! I’m so glad you’re loving Harper’s gen so far! 🙂 It’s always so fun and exciting for me to star ta new generation. I’m happy it’s fun and exciting for you as well. Thank you for reading!
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Harper is just so annoyed with school. It is funny and understandable, but I feel she will have her troubles later on, whenever she picks up a hobby or an interest where she could need some background knowledge and has to work really hard (or let go). I’ve heard this “she just helped out” so often. Harper definitely has a mischievious streak, but it has to be hard on her too, feeling belittled and pitied just doesn’t feel good, and her abusing this pity to get away with stuff is just her way to deal with it. She will have to have an eye on that or she will some day go too far, and she can’t always relie on someone else to listen and explain to her. Nyla and other friends won’t always be willing to do the work for her because she didn’t feel like paying attention at all. The faces she makes during class are just too good.
So she dreams of a supervillain with a disability like hers. That worked out for Daredevil as a hero, so a villain would work out too. I guess there are some of her main wishes included in this daydream. Being free to bring revenge onto Katie is only one of those. Feeling powerful, not having to listen to any good advice, being feared instead of belittled or pitied also play a role. Is this a foreshadowing on a criminal future? Zayne had his imaginary kid-batman friend, before his parents died.
It also feels like blondie-kid who is laughing with Katie looks pretty familiar to me. Coincidence?
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Thanks for this comment! Very very insightful about Harper’s current behavior as a coping mechanism, but how there’s a risk of it going too far someday! And I like your prediction for what could be ahead for Harper’s future. We will see eventually! 😉
As for Katie’s friend… You’re Laor5 on the gallery, right? (I remember “Luna” being in your descriptions). Because that miiiiiight be a child version of your Anna-Sophie 😉 Hehe
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Indeed, I am. A variant of “Luna” has been my forum name for a long time, but getting it as a user name on origin without variating it beyond anything someone could recognize proved impossible. I remember little Anna so much, especially now her niece and nephew are running around in my game and look so much like her.
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I was wondering about some of those. Is Katie a child version of Maddie Warren from the casting call? (That’s my sim)
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^But with different hair, eye, and skin colors?
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Sorry, but she isn’t 😦 Katie is a child version of Katie Fletcher (I kept all the casting call sims’ names the same so they’re easy to spot when name-dropped! Haha) who was submitted by xbecky685x 🙂
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Ooh but I just checked my list — was Wang-Zhenyi Li yours as well? 🙂 She showed up in the last chapter! ^_^ She’s one of Harper’s teachers 🙂
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Yep. I was so happy when I saw her. She’s a detective in my game so I got a good laugh out of the easy transition from dealing with criminals to dealing with middle school kids! I thought she might be Maddie because Maddie has that exact same nose. It’s very distinct.
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I can’t really identify with Harper. I LOVED learning stuff. What I hated about school was the kids like Katy. But the learning, and especially science and experiments? I loved them. I annoyed my teachers to death though… I’d doodle while they talked, and listen at the same time. So they thought I was tuning them out like Harper is doing. In hindsight though, I think I kind of needed to do that, because I was never able to just focus on the teacher. But they didn’t “get” that and so they thought I was being rude and ignoring them.
It’s annoying me so badly that she doesn’t seem to care about class. Experiments are the best part besides movie days. And she’s such a brat, using her disability as an excuse to ignore her teachers.
And I say all of this as someone who is actually quite creative herself… As a creative person I can’t quite grasp Harper’s apparent lack of curiosity. Most people who are creative are also very curious and intelligent (though obviously how well they do in class depends on the individual).
Honestly Harper’s being a brat, and I really hope her parents notice that before it gets too late to do anything about it.
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All kids are different 🙂 I was definitely more like you when I was a kid, so I totally get it! Harper has a really, really hard time focusing in class, so for her, school is extremely difficult. And she’s at the age where in her mind, it’s “This is really hard, therefore it’s dumb and boring and I don’t care.” It’s very much a coping mechanism — avoiding learning because it’s hard for her. Not saying that’s the right way to deal with it, of course (it’s not), but that’s how she handles it, unfortunately!
I personally don’t see Harper as a brat, just a typical 11-year-old. But I 100% understand how she might come across that way to you 🙂
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
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I agree with you on the learning part. I’ve always loved to learn, and that was true at 11. My problem was the opposite of Harper’s (and still is), in that I could never tune anyone out. and therefore could not focus. I inevitably snapped, getting me-and me alone-in trouble, because the teacher chose to ignore the disruptive children who started it all. I don’t do this anymore (having noise-cancelling headphones helps), but the thing that always made it worse was the unfairness of the situation. I mentioned before that Katie might be mad at Harper for the special treatment she elicits, and I guess I felt that way from personal experience.
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Yeah, it would. There’s closed captioning, but if she’s too far back (and given that she doesn’t seem to be interested in class, she’d probably sit toward the back unless they have an alphabetized seating arrangement) it might be hard for her to read it.
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I loooooooove closed captioning. I was always the one in class requesting subtitles, and when we go to the movies, I used to get the special headphones that sent the sound directly to me, although now my new aids are good enough that I haven’t needed those for a while. Also, my latest thing has been watching Magnificent Century on Netflix, and I don’t understand a jot of Turkish, so I just read the captioning, which leaves me free to yell at the TV when I don’t like the characters.
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She is a little sneaky lol 😂 i love her
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Thanks, I love her too… Even though she’s definitely a little sneak, as you said 😉 Hehe
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I can see so many roads for her to take in life. And not One of them leads to college. She hates school so why would she go to college? I’m not sure that i see her as a full time criminal either, like some seems to think. Possibly when she gets older she will show more character. Maybe in writing? Or as a jokester? The careers i see for her atm is entertainer and writer
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Great theories! Thank you for sharing! 😀
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Harper is so cute. I see a future as a writer possibly and maybe Haper cant appreciate her teacher but i sure can 😉😂
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Hi! I think this might be your first comment? (I had to approve it before it would show up haha) Thank you so much for reading my story! I appreciate it so much! 😀 I love your idea of Harper being a writer someday. You never know! 😉
Thanks again for reading and also for sharing your thoughts! ^_^
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I have comment before but i change platforms alot sometimes my laptop or ipad or phone. I have been reading since Mari story was current.
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Awesome! Thank you ❤️
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Definitely takes after her mother, I think, but she’s definitely cute! I love her mischievous streak and I like that the past couple of chapters have been set in a classroom. I’m wondering how the other students will play into her story. It’s also cool to see the casting call characters popping up!
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Thanks, Simmie! I’m glad you’re enjoying Harper! (And I’ve been having a lot of fun doing those classroom scenes! ^_^) Thanks so much for reading 😀
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Awe, I think it is so adorable that Harper has found a way to be comfortable with her hearing, even if it is for mischievous uses. I believe in Karma, so hopefully something comes around to the girls making fun of her. So far I deff think that Harper is my favorite of the Rosebrook child-stage children.
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I’m so glad you like her 🙂 I’ve been having a blast writing this gen so far!
I love that you believe in Karma. Hopefully it’ll be true for those bullies, but we will see!
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Lol oh such a clever girl ❤️❤️❤️❤️. But pay attention Harper for you don’t want to end up being a dunce
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Haha unfortunately Harper doesn’t have the best role models… Hope and Zayne both hated school and did not go to college. Maybe she will be different? We will see! 😉
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It is adorable for now … I like you wisely said let’s hope she uses her powers for good
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1) Mr. Phoenix is hot!!!
2) Katie is an adorable jackass
3) Booo to Harper for making her friend Nyla do most of the work
4) This whole chapter was really funny. That frog in the desk sounds like something I’d do…
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1) HA! Yeah he was a super cute casting call sim I got!!!
2) Perfect description of Katie LMAO She’s actually quite beautiful as a teen (and adorable as a kid)… but yeah, that beauty doesn’t extend to the inside, I guess?
3) Good old Harper… Haha I think if Nyla actually complained about it, she’d probably suck it up and help out. But since her friend lets her do it, Harper TOTALLY takes advantage, unfortunately 😛
4) Hehehehe You would? Oh man, I was always too afraid to do things like that when I was a kid. Total goodie-two-shoes over here!
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Had we been friends as children, I would’ve done it for you! Half the time I got in trouble as a kid, it was for defending others as much as it was fighting my own battles.
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Awww, I love Harper so much! After Stefan, she’s probably my favourite of the Rosebrooks so far 😛
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Awww I’m glad you love her so much already! Hopefully you’ll continue to… 😉
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I LOVE Harper! I love her hair, the way she speaks, everything.
Also, Flores sounds SUPER familiar. Did you have a character in the story with the last name Flores? Why does that ring such a bell?
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Aw yay, I’m glad you love her so far! And nope, no other Flores in my story yet! Nyla was a casting call submission ^_^
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do you still have harper’s hearing aid cc??
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I might! I will have to look and get back to you. 🙂
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She’s definitely mischievous. And a bit of a daydreamer, like my childhood self. I wonder if she’ll pour her creativity into writing someday.
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