"Hello?"
"Hi, Isaac? It's Jarod."
"Oh, hi Jarod. I'm just going to switch phones so I can hear you better."
"Okay."
Isaac hurried into the office and picked up the phone. Jarod's image came on the screen.
"Hey, long time no see," Isaac grinned. "Happy New Year, by the way."
"Thanks. Happy New Year to you too," Jarod looked like he was going to burst. "Psy had the babies!"
"Hey, congratulations!"
"They're all girls. And get this, Adrienne Jude and Donna Eileen were born at uhh," Jarod checked a paper, "10:39 pm and 11:56 pm on December 31st 2020, and Madeline Lucy and Iris Mathilda were born at 1:03 am and 2:17 am on January 1st 2021."
"Hang on," Isaac asked, a little confused. "How does that work? It's only… 6:30 pm on December 31st."
Jarod laughed.
"Two words. Time lag."
"Oh hello, duh!"
"I think we're fifteen hours ahead? I don't know. It keeps changing depending on what part of the country you're in and daylight savings, blah, blah, blah. Maybe it's seventeen hours…"
"Whatever," Isaac laughed. "How's Psy anyway? I assume since you're talking about times and dates and years and stuff that she and the babies are fine."
"Yeah. They're small and they're on ventilation at the moment, but the doctors reckon they'll be just fine. I just spend the last few hours making sure," Jarod smiled wryly. "Psy's doing great considering she just had four kids. She's sleeping now. I'm making the rounds, calling up everyone I can think of to tell the news."
Isaac laughed.
"Been there, done that."
"Yeah, I know. I've had those phone calls," he groaned jokingly. "You must forget about time zones a lot."
"I do," Isaac admitted ruefully. "Someone is always reminding me that I can't call such-and-such now because it's the middle of night where they are or whatever. Did you want to talk to Babsie?"
"Yep."
"I'll just get her for you. And just so you can save yourself extra button pressing, Taylor and Rita are here too. We're having a party."
"I see. Blowing up stuff as usual I suppose?"
"Every year!"
Jarod laughed.
"I'll just get Babsie, hold on," Isaac grinned.
Isaac left the room, and bounded down to where Babsie was in the ballroom.
"Jarod's on the phone."
"What?" Babsie asked.
"I said Jarod's on the phone!"
"Oh! Right."
"The office."
"Okay. Thanks."
Babsie headed upstairs. Not long after, she came back down, told Taylor and Rita that Jarod wanted to talk to them.
"Where's the fire?" Xavier asked her when he saw her face.
"Australia," Babsie grinned. "You now, finally, have cousins on your mothers side."
"Aunt Psy had the quads?"
"Yep. Born in two different years too," Babsie giggled. "How cool is that?"
"I'm sure I would agree if I understood… ooh, wait… it's January 1st down there huh?"
"Yep. Two born today, and two born tomorrow."
Xavier laughed.
"And," Babsie went on, "they named them after songs."
Xavier laughed some more.
"What's so funny about that? I'm named after a song."
"That's what's so funny," Xavier chuckled. "The twin who is named after a song, names her kids after X-men, and the twin who has the name of an X-man, names her kids after songs."
Babsie stared, then joined in with his laughter.