Fiona pays the bills.

1. Makers and Finders
A Cursed Baby Boom Challenge
Chapter 7
The next morning, Matt woke up fully refreshed. I dragged out a minute later, but with my
energy just barely risen. In all the excitement, I had forgotten that in my werewolf form, I lose
energy more slowly, but also gain energy more slowly. Sure, I could stay as a werewolf all the
time, to save on life-extenders, but it will really mess up my sleep patterns. Maybe, if I stay as a
werewolf during the day, then human at night, to sleep, then back to werewolf form in the day...
We'll see how that goes. I may just have to do youth potions for me, as well as Matt.

2. Matt went off to work, and I stayed long enough to pay the bills. Bills?! They charged us
$8 in bills? For what? The igloo? Who are we even paying for these? Is there some sort of
protection racket going on? Pay us a percentage, or we'll knock down your artistically arranged
ice cubes? I mean, come on! It's snow! Do you charge for grass, too?
Oh, wait. That unusable time portal thing. Grrr. I should have sold it at once.
After that, I went back to the consignment stores. Today, however, there were no gem
stones. Nothing that would give me some immediate benefit. But I did buy the fancy camera.

3. Then, at the elixir store, I was hoping to get another skill booster potion, but no such luck. I
did the flipping thing, until I had literally no cash left. But something tells me it just won't be as
successful as yesterday. No matter. It was time for me to study Invention. With no money for
scrap, I'd just read at the library for the rest of the day. I had my apples from Matt to keep me
going.
I only had the one skill-booster potion, and I wondered if I should give it to Matt, but I
decided that having the ability to buy and place furniture was a little bit more urgent, so I drank it
myself, and plopped down with my book.

4. Matt told me about his day. He had been working on maintaining the alarm, when it
suddenly went off! He wasn't sure if it was real, or if he had triggered it, himself. His handiness
skill is pretty low, after all. When he tried to respond to the emergency, the alarm shut off. And
what was worse? All the maintenance he had done on both the alarm and the fire engine were all
gone. He had to start all over again.
I do believe that the curse is working against him, here. But hopefully, once he's managed to
get these things 100% fixed, he'll be able to actually go out and save lives.

5. At five o'clock, I got the call from the consignment store. I had sold over $5,500 in stuff,
not counting the consignment fees. With plenty of money to buy scrap, I left the library, and
headed over to the fire house, to work on some real inventions.
And so we spent the rest of the evening, just working on our assigned skills. Matt was
already at Handiness level 4, and I was at Inventing level 3. Not bad, all things considered.

6. By eleven o'clock, I was really tired, so this time, I reverted to my human form, so I could
sleep properly, like Matt did.
Matt, meanwhile, was conjuring up some more rations for us.

7. Finally, we both went to bed, in time for curfew. It had been a busy day for both of us.
Well, readers, do you think I should continue to work on my invention at the firestation,
buying scrap with our cash, or should I keep flipping the elixir store and hope to find another
skill-booster there, then hit the library? Let me know in the comments. I'll read them in the
morning, off the lot.