Subj: DS: The Next Generation 8
Date: 6/19/02 11:57:39 AM Central Daylight Time
From: Aesgaard

The yelling and screaming in the morning was almost as bad as it was the night before. Lizzie sat and scrunched up her face as it seemed as if her parents were taking away the last of her freedoms and liberties. Worst yet, J.R. stood and grinned at her teenage persecution as for once he was not being punished. Once let loose, Lizzie sprang up the stairs trying not to cry and headed for the last person in the house that seemed to love her.

While her grandmother had died in 1990, she still had her retired granduncle.

"Uncle Roger ?" Lizzie peeked in his room.

"Princess," Roger sat reading in the sunshine of his window. The elderly man beamed as his sister's granddaughter and namesake hugged and kissed him. She and David's daughter, Carrie, seemed to be the only young ones who visited as he enjoyed retirement and was glad to be able to see Collinwood filled with children that were not his own.

"You've got to help me, Uncle Roger." Lizzie kissed his bald head and squeezed him carefully in her arms. "Mom wants to get rid of me."

"Oh, she's not going to do it." Roger had heard the screaming through the floor. "She never sent J.R. to military school, did she ? She's just trying to scare you. Trust me, I know. I almost sent your Uncle David away a few times."

"I think she means it this time." Lizzie looked up with her two big blue eyes. "I messed up big."

"Remember when your brother, Jamison and William knocked over the tombstones at Eagle Hill and tried to break into the tomb." Roger's mind remained sharp. "That was worse, and they're still here."

"Well," Lizzie sighed. "Maybe if J.R. just went away I could be better."

Roger chuckled at her daring proposal and hugged her as best as he could. The notorious brother, however, had fled the house as far as Rose Cottage looking for his cousin William. Named for his father, the often distant son of Barnabus and Angelique once in a while took off to Bangor with out a word looking for girls. Some day, J.R. was going to go with them.

"Hi, Aunt Maggie," the Collins family comic invaded the house. He glanced over the parlor. "Is William or Jamison here ?"

"They're in the basement practicing their insturments." Maggie answered as Amanda slipped down stairs with her red hair flying behind her as if it were the tail of a comic. J.R. looked at her, grimaced his wierd little grin and stood against the banister.

"I heard you wanted two-headed babies."

"Up your's!"

"Redneck romance !!"

"J.R. !!!" Maggie screamed. "If you are looking for your cousins, they are downstairs !!!"

The two of them locked eyes as if they were brother and sister. He was two years older than her and two inches taller, but she still looked like she could kick his butt in a fight. He had seen her fight with Lizzie and Sara over clothes. Grinning over another unspoken taunt, the would-be felon opened the door under the spiral staircase and headed down the stairs.

"Don't worry about him, honey." Maggie kissed her daughter.

"One of these days," Amanda narrowed her eyes and clenched her fist. "Pow ! Right in the jaw !!"

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