Verolinna hit the ground running - almost literally. At the tender age of twenty minutes old, her first words were directed at both of her mothers - "Okay, which one of you is going to teach me how to walk on these... legs? Arms? Make it quick, I've got an idea!"*

And what an idea it was - Verolinna's personality and memories were a combination of both of her mothers, and as her intellect began to take shape during gestation she got to thinking. Initially as a means of sorting herself out. Bits and pieces overheard here and there - a headline Lauren browsed, a bulletin board Josephine noticed, various news reports that both had seen different parts of but which neither had paid any real attention to... it all started to come together. Two hours after she was born, Verolinna was helping Lauren roll Josephine out of the maternity ward to a home recovery, a free hand holding Lauren's phone to her ear.

The next day she was out in the world, lining up appointments, taking care of her own birth certificate and associated paperwork, trying on new clothes and slowly filling her moms in on what she'd been thinking about for the past month or so.

V - "Okay, so there's this grant thing I'm totally applying for today. L-Mom read about it a bit, J-Mom saw a couple of ads for it, both of you saw bits of news reports and read about it here and there. You both totally ignored it - it was a fluff news item to either of you, but it totally applies to me, and I'm going for it!"

L - "I think I'm following you..."

J - "I'd probably be able to follow if you'd slow down and tell us what it is. The only part of the news I pay attention to is the weather!"

V - "And fine dining report. You record the fine dining report, J-Mom!"

J - "That's not news, sweety. That's food."

L - "I agree that it's definitely not news..."

V - "I know you do, L-Mom. Opinion's not the point, the fact I picked this up from the news is. And J-Mom's love of food - and your love of beer - is why I'm going in a specific direction with this. It's also totally why I was born with a spare tire - or did you guys plan that when you picked my skin color? ;p"

J - "Well, the Belly Butter was edible... and so tasty..."

V - "Don't get frowny, J-Mom - I know you dig L-Mom's beer belly and I know she digs your muffin top. Stick that in a blender and I'm pretty fat-positive... leading to a perfect storm of..."

L - "Something with beer?"

J - "And/or food?"

V - "L-Mom! J-Mom! Chill!"

L - "Yes dear."

J - "Sure thing, sweety!"

V - "Okay. The news report and ad campaign is a mega-corp combination PR stunt and tax dodge. They're financing what they're calling a 'Young Entrepreneur's Grant" - handing out huge stacks of tax-deductible cash to any person under the age of 18 who comes up with a business plan that passes an orma Business Lobe simulation. The deadline is in three weeks."

L - "You're going to start a business? Don't you want to... I dunno... go to the playground? Make friends?"

V - "There'll be time for that after I get the plan written up - after I get dressed I gotta get typing - and I've got three days to get this thing done!"

J - "Three days? You just said you had three weeks!"

V - "I checked the news when we got back from the hospital - they're amending the grant at the end of the week. See, right now I'm technically a day old, but I'm genetically just a tick over eighteen! At the end of the week they're amending the grant to specify genetic age instead of chronological age. If I can get the proposal typed up and submitted before the amendment date, I'll be grandfathered in. When that happens, then we can go to the playground."

L - "Yay!"

V - "With a seven or eight course meal afterwards for J-mom. Well, me and J-mom."

J - "Good thinking, sweety!"

V - "You haven't even heard the plan yet. L-Mom, I know you love beer. J-Mom, I know you love bobbing for huge portions of hot spicy greasy food in buckets of gravy. Me, I don't know what I like yet but I was born looking like I grew up loving both and I definitely weigh the part. And if I gain a few hundred pounds trying to figure out if I like beer more than deep fried pizza or bacon-wrapped three pound hamburgers more than that, well... I plan to finance my exploration with the profits from - and probably at the tables of - a restaurant!"


* Her second sentence was "Wow. So that's what you look like on the outside!" to Josephine. Her third was "What time is it?" to Lauren, and a moment later her fourth, following a blush - "Oh yeah. Hi, moms!"

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