Meanwhile...

"This is going to be good for you!"

"No, thanks!" Candide said vehemently to her now-transformed parents (both of them a far cry from their former selves who were devout believers in the C.O.G.I.C faith) before she returned to her homework. "How can you all do this to me, knowing that Ja'Marco and the others are planning to leave town with us?"

Damian (formerly known as Douglass) scoffed snidely while his husband Ellis (formerly known as Edilean) snickered. "They're going to have to deal with it," the caramel-skinned athletic older man remarked. "And besides, being a Triton isn't as bad as you think. Ellis and I just didn't think that what we thought we knew best wasn't cutting it and we needed to stop with the self-denial."

"Not only that, your dad and I decided that it would be best to leave things be," the dark-skinned Ellis said with his melodic accent soothing and hypnotic, "Ja'Marco is bound to accept the facts and make sure that accepts the gifts that are known as his birthright. He'll soon take a lion's share of the pie just like Damian and I are doing. Ro'Niah and his clan are doing it as are the Freemans. This is going to be the start of something marvelous, Candide, if you learn to accept things as they are."

Gentle reader, if you aren't aware by now, our spiritually-sensitive female teenager wasn't amused to learn that her God-fearing family were now transformed into handsome male athletes and instated teachers for Glenview Valley Academy for Boys. When she had arrived home from the library after checking in with her online tutors, she immediately freaked out on how her mom was now a male and her dad was a well-endowed male-model of a man. And of course, both men were persuading her to follow their example and become part of the revolution as well. Needless to say, Candide was not having it and wanted no part of what was going on.

"You guys," Candide whined as she sat her notebooks aside, "this is going to be a big blow to Ja'Marco if he finds out about this. And you know how Felicia and Jeremiah will react if they find out. I mean, you know what this will mean if-"

"We know, and we've already talked to Bishop Snead back in Tennessee to let him know that we were going to stay here in Glenview Valley," Damian interrupted. "There's no use trying to argue out of this, young lady. You know that you want a taste of what can be yours if you let the Triton Nexus bond with you and remake you into one of us. Your father and I want you in our lives and we can have a perfect union as a family...and as lovers."

Candide gulped, inhaling sharply as she felt intimidated by her fathers' domineering smirks with their sea-green glowing in power. Knowing that there was no way out of this, she turned to her phone and sent a simple message to the others.

My family will be joining the Tritons.
There is no going back.
Tell Jay that we'll see him soon.
-C.W.

Candide soon faced her parents just as Melvin and Dominic (in matching tracksuits) sauntered into the Weston temporary home. "If I do this, then this means that the Yuens will be allowed to leave," she stated firmly. "I don't think that they will want anything to do with this."

"Sad, but true," Dominic agreed. "Kristen and her mother are going to be heading out of the country by Ja'Marco's birthday, citing that there was nothing left for them here."

"Even so, they're missing out on an opportunity to be more than what they believed," Melvin added. "As for Ja'Marco, he'll soon see that this new journey is going to be the benchmark for his destiny. But for now, Miss Weston, the time has come for you to take the ultimate shot in the dark. Let yourself be found in a new world where nothing is impossible and the unreachable can be yours for the taking."

Candide nodded as she accepted a simple swim bag before following the adults out of the house where a car would take them to the natatorium. And from there, she would bid farewell to her identity as a deacon's daughter...and welcome an identity known as Carey Weston- the son of two baseball coaches.

**************

At the Yuen residence...

Kristen sighed heavily as she read the text message from Candide before facing her mother, both of them taking a break from packing their things. "This is a nightmare, Mom," she said in Korean. "How many others will we have to lose before things get more chaotic?"

"Unfortunately, things will be like that in the days to come," Mrs Yuen replied. "All the more reason for you and I to leave town as soon as next week. I can only pray that Jeremiah and Felicia find a way for Ja'Marco to renounce his birthright so he could return to his original state of mind before leaving this town. You and I, on the other hand, will need to leave for Texas once more."

"I only hate the fact that we didn't try and get Ja'Marco out of this town before he learned the truth. I would gladly make sure that he had a one-way ticket back to California and arranged for him to stay with Ro'Niah."

Mrs. Yuen shook her head. "That would've meant him dying before he discovered the truth," the woman commented. Then again, it wouldn't have been a bad idea for Ja'Marco to die early on. Might've saved him from being exposed to the wickedness."

There was a pause of conversation as both women resumed the packing and storing things into the moving van outside. After minutes of cleaning up, the mother/daughter duo were now in the empty living room with their duffel bags in hand. "You know that we can never come back to Glenview Valley after this week, Kristen," her mother intoned before they locked up the house and handed the keys to the waiting real estate agent. "With your father and brother now part of this madness, we cannot allow ourselves to be swayed by what'll happen."

"I know," Kristen said as they headed to their waiting sedan. Once their luggages were placed in the trunk of the car, Kristen returned to her cell phone, her stomach sinking at the sight of three swimsuit-clad males with the youngest being a dead ringer for Candide with his hair now in a cropped hairstyle and showing off a set of abs that looked as if they were either Photoshopped or a feature from AI. The triangular swimsuits that they wore left little imagination as the men's bulges were clearly showing that they were indeed well-endowed.

Kristen shook her head as she got into the front passenger side of the car while her mother gunned the motor. "The sooner we let Jeremiah know what's going on, the sooner you and I will leave this town," the teen told her mom. "And I want to be far away from what'll happen next."

"You and me both," her mother agreed as they pulled out of the driveway. "You and me both. Let's get out of here."

Damn. Didn't expect for the Westons to jump ship and join the Westons, but they did it anyway. As for Kristen and her mom, they'll be seen a couple of times before they leave town. Coming up next, Orion's keeping Ja'Marco company with wicked intentions in play while Jeremiah and Felicia convince LaVanna and her family to leave town with them after learning about the Weston situation and the plans for Kristen and her mom to leave town for good. Don't go anywhere!

Media: "Love is Blindness" by Jack White. Dedicating this out to EthanFelixRomanov.

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