No Parents

September 2022

Redmond

Previous Ono update / Next Ono update

Sayuri Ono is 54, Daniel is 49, Seiki is 24, and Yuki is 15.

St. James Varsity Soccer Team.  Top Row, Left to Right: Yuki, Kaitlyn, Abby, Hailey.  Seated:  Riley, Madison, Olivia, and Isabella.  Coach:  Rachel Ying

Yuki was only a sophomore but she was starting striker for the St. James girls senior varsity, and she had never been more comfortable in her own skin.

Her best friend, Kaitlyn, was goalie.

Kaitlyn was tough, and a good soccer player, but that didn’t mean Yuki never got a goal on her.

Kaitlyn was similar to Yuki, very competitive, pretty serious.

There wasn’t anyone on the team that she couldn’t get along with.  Well, maybe Madison, but she was ok. Riley and Abby were sort of the leaders on the team, and they seemed cool.  Yuki played it cool but she thought it would be so awesome to hang out with them socially.  They could drive, and it seemed to Yuki like they did whatever they wanted.

She didn’t really know Hailey well yet.  She was sort of different than most of the girls, kind of a rebel without a cause who didn’t mind if Coach Ying yelled at her for laying down at practice.

After Yuki started at St. James, part way through ninth grade, her parents decided to move out to Redmond, a suburb of Grand Pass.  Her mom would rather have to commute to the hospital than live in the city, she said. 

Yuki didn’t get it; all of them had to commute now, but she had to admit the new house was better than the town home, because it had a pool.  The first day after they moved in, a kid named Terrence dropped by and asked if he could use the pool like he used to do with the prior owners.

It was funny though, he didn’t actually want to swim.

Yuki tried throwing a ball with him but he wasn’t very good at that either.

Yuki asked him if he wanted to hang out a while.  Her brother and his girlfriend were coming over for dinner.  She thought maybe having someone her age at dinner would be fun. Terrence followed her inside.

Back to thaving their own pool:  The only problem with the pool was that Yuki’s dad  went around shirtless almost all the time now.

Daniel worked from home a lot these days.  He was working on some new robotics programming stuff to start a business for himself and Seiki.  He still worked for the game design company, but this side project kept him occupied in his copious spare time.

Unfortunately, he did most of his programming shirtless.  He didn’t even notice the maid, Alice.  Yuki thought surely he should put on a shirt when Alice was there.

He didn’t notice the gardener, Alana.  Alana was only a few years older than Yuki.  Yuck.

He was outside now, talking to Mr. Rider, this programmer he knew from work.  No shirt.  On the street.  On the STREET.

Daniel had invited Robin over to meet Seiki, so they could all discuss the robotics plans.

Yuki was helping her dad grill when Seiki and Suzanne showed up.

Hoping to avoid witnessing more of their obnoxious PDAs, she sat outside with her dad on the patio.  At least he had gotten dressed.

But then Suzanne, inexplicably, decided to join them.

And kept trying to make conversation with Yuki.  Like she wanted to talk with another of Seiki’s long string of girlfriends.

When her mom came out to check on them, Yuki took her opportunity and moved inside.

Her dad was offering Terrence ribs.  For all he knew, Terrence was a vegan.  Jeez.

While her mom tried to get to know Mr. Rider a little bit in the kitchen.  She was pretending to like his jokes.

It was late, so in an unexpected cool move, her parents asked Terrence if he wanted to sleep over in the guest room.  The guest room was really Seiki’s room, but he never stayed there.  Yuki knew once she moved out she wouldn’t stay there either, so she couldn’t blame him for that.

After her parents went to bed, she and Terrence stayed up really late.

It was fun feeling like she was getting away with something.  She wondered what it would be like to sneak out with Terrence.

The next morning before she left for school, she came out onto the patio to see her dad saying goodbye to Terrence.  Still no shirt.

“Dad, could you please put on a shirt, Jeez!”  She didn’t even tell him her mom had agreed for her friends to come over this weekend.  She couldn’t even talk to him.  Jeez.

That Friday afternoon after practice, most of the team came home with Yuki for the party.

Madison seemed really interested in Kaitlyn, which didn’t make any sense.  Madison was a senior.  Why was she talking to Kaitlyn?

Yuki felt a little guilty when she realized Kaitlyn saw her staring her down.  But why was she trying to be friends with a senior anyway?

Yuki went outside and sat with Abby, Isabella, and Hailey.  They were talking about a party they were going to later that night.

Then Yuki’s mom came out and stood there like she was spying. Jeez.

Later that night Yuki called Riley.  Her mom was working and she didn’t think her dad would notice if she sneaked out to go to the party they were talking about.  Riley said sure, she would come pick Yuki up.

At midnight she got dressed and made up her bed, with her light still off.

She was ready for this.  She couldn’t believe she was going to a party, away from home, no parents.

She kept an eye on the street.

And sneaked out when Riley pulled up.  Her car backfired and Yuki hoped her dad wouldn’t hear it.

Yuki played it cool but she was so excited.

Until she got busted.  Such bad luck; the police came and broke the party up, and Yuki got a different kind of ride home.

This was not what Yuki’d pictured, but she figured it would be ok.  After all, her mom was at work.

Her dad was up, though.  And not happy.  Yuki figured he’d lighten up once she explained.  The whole team was there, she lied.  Anyway, she was fifteen now.

But he didn’t get it.  He was livid.  He couldn’t believe she’d gone out without permission.

Yuki figured it was time to pull on the heartstrings.  Her dad told her to go on to bed.  They’d talk in the morning, when mom was home.

When Yuki came downstairs, her dad was giving her mom a backrub.

Her mom didn’t even look at her at first.

Yuki explained that the whole team was going and she didn’t want to miss out.

Her mom seemed unimpressed.  You are grounded, she said.  Grounded to school, practice, and home.

Yuki was exhausted that afternoon so she took a nap.  How could her life go from so good to so bad, so quickly?

She couldn’t wait to get out of here.  Or even get a driver’s license.  Or just get through this punishment.  She already had plans to sneak out with Kaitlyn.  They’d go somewhere they wouldn’t get caught.

• I should have posted this before Janie’s October update, but I got mixed up!
• Yuki wanted to sneak out with Terrence, and in the game, she did. That’s the time she got caught.  Then she sneaked out with Riley and didn’t get caught, but she still had wants to sneak out with Madison and Kaitlyn.
• Terrence came home with Yuki on her first day at the new house and autonomously started to dive into the pool but then decided he was too scared, which was really amusing.  He did spend the night for some weird reason.
• Daniel’s spending his free time working on a robotics badge to help Seiki start a robotics business.
• I eventually had to change Daniel’s swimwear to the outfit with the shirt because he was really going around shirtless ALL the TIME.  Jeez 😉