The Story of Bella Bachelor ~ Chapter 10: Birthdays
So this chapter is a few months after the last, I couldn't be bothered to write more about Bella and her broken ankle. So, it's not broken anymore. And if you guys didn't guess, what actually happened between the fighting sisters afterwards was that Jessica slapped Bella back after she came back home, but just as their parents were coming downstairs! Talk about unlucky. Jessica attempted to spend more time with Zelda after Parker eventually told her. Anyway, there's a couple of birthdays in this chapter, and Bella finally reaches her teenage years. Also a quick shoutout to my new reviewers, PondGirl11 and GothicWolfDream! This is gonna be a long chapter, lol.
Several months later
It's Mortimer's 13th birthday today. I wrote him a card and bought him a case for his phone. I'm trying to repay him for what he did back in December. It's also my birthday tomorrow. I wonder what I'll be getting. Zelda always buys me ridiculous presents every year, for a joke. For my 9th birthday she bought me an egg timer. Yes, an egg timer for a 9 year old. It's actually come in useful now I'm older and more independent, and can make my own meals. Also, when she signs cards, she signs it with her first and last name, 'Zelda Mae'. I love her name, it's so unique.
I heaved myself out of bed and went downstairs. It was the last day of school today, too. My parents and younger siblings are still sleeping. I moved into Jessica and Michael's old room a few months ago, and Louise and Victoria moved into my old room. I haven't talked to Jessica since boxing day. She's due to visit any day now. Anyway, I microwaved a bacon sandwich (yes, that's actually possible) and then ate that. I then retreated upstairs again to get dressed. This was my last day of being 12, of course. I eventually chose a black strappy playsuit and brown flat sandals. I straightened my hair and tied it back into a ponytail, leaving the side of my hair at the front hanging down. I actually decided to wear sunglasses just for the bus ride and between lessons, it was extremely hot outside today. Afterwards, I packed my bag and quickly wrote out Mortimer's card. I hope he likes his present.
I set out for the bus stop, outside Town Hall. The bus used to pick us all up from our individual streets, but now we're all picked up together. I prefer the old way. Anyway, I set out of the house. My family? Still asleep. Lazy. Also, Holly gave birth a few months ago to a baby boy, we called him Tommy. My handsome nephew. When I arrived at the bus stop, I was relieved to see that only Mortimer and Miraj were there. I wished Mortimer happy birthday and gave him his presents, and I slapped my cousin on his back.
It wasn't very long before Kaylynn, Parker, Darlene, Arlo and Kate (Darlene's little sister, if you forgot) came rushing towards the bus stop. It's Parker's last ever day at school today. Darlene couldn't slow herself down in time and went flying into me, causing me to fall straight back onto the road. Thankfully, there were no cars in sight. I was laughing too hard to be able to get up, so Miraj and Arlo grabbed home of my arms and tossed me back onto the path, sending me about 25cm into the air. The Clavells, Bessie and Buster, were walking by at the time and tutted.
The bus eventually arrived, and I ran to the middle to sit next to Brandi, who was already there. I smiled to her as I sat down.
'Hey there, so of course we're gonna meet during Summer break?' I asked. She nodded.
'Duh. We should all camp out again in your yard.' Brandi grinned.
'Oh my gosh, yes! And who do you mean by 'all of us'?' I asked.
'Everyone. All of our friends, and maybe all the kids our age from Sunset Valley?' she replied, looking hopeful.
'I'll see.' I laughed.
The bus ride seemed longer than usual, and my head hurt. It must have been the sun. Brandi laughed as I groaned from the humidity and leaned my head back, hand on hair. It didn't help that the colour black attracts heat, so bad choice of clothing for me. Thankfully, the bus driver put the air-con on, and I actually stood up to bask it all in, even though some of the Twinbrook kids looked at me strangely. They didn't know me as well as the Sunset Valley kids. As we drove on into Riverview, we passed Jennifer and Daniel, walking to school. They didn't see us.
School was pretty fun seeing as it was the last day. All we did during Art was listen to music and in French we watched a film. Before we knew it, it was the end of the day and we all ran out of the school gates, screaming happily. Everyone piled into the bus, even more than usual, so Darlene, Kaylynn, Brandi and I had to squash together onto the seat. Lucky me, being stuck right next to the window.
The next morning
I awoke with a groan, before realising that it was finally my 13th birthday! Someone had came into my room during the night and placed some presents at the end of my bed with a note attached, saying that I was free to open them. I opened the biggest to find a flatscreen HD TV! I opened the others and the things included; a Macbook Pro (!), an iPhone 4S to replace my still smashed BlackBerry, a case for my new iPhone, some clothes, a funky looking hairdryer, some DVDs and CDs. And that was only some of the things. Wow. Turns out that my sim card was already in the iPhone, so I fired it up, along with my Macbook. They were both amazing! I connected them with the iTunes account on my iPod and I was good to go. My parents eventually came into my room and hugged me as I thanked them for my presents. I had no idea that they had that kind of money. It wasn't long also until the triplets ran into my room and pounced onto my bed, but I just laughed.
It turns out that my parents were planning this birthday for weeks seeing as it was major, so as a treat they took me to iHop for my breakfast, I love it there! I chose the New York Cheesecake pancakes, my favourite. Oh, and Michael came along too. He and Holly bought me some red Vans. I'm wearing them today. Jessica sent a card and some cheap makeup and that was it. Considerate. She's arriving in town later tonight. I have the sudden urge to slap her again. She's really blocked me out, sad thing is that we were really close when we were younger, just like me and Michael. But now she's just a gobby cow. Anyway, after breakfast we went back home and my friends came over, Zelda included. They had all pitched together and bought me am iTunes gift card worth 25 simoleons! Mortimer had also sent a Target giftcard through the door.
(Just a mid-chapter update, I just wrote a massive part of this chapter without saving it, and my laptop overheated and shut itself off! Grr! So here onwards is the rewritten part.)
A few hours later
I was relaxing on the sofa and enjoying my birthday so far, when Mai jumped up onto my lap and literally glued herself there. I didn't know why until I looked up and saw Jessica standing by the sofa, staring at me. Just let yourself in without knocking! I looked at her for a few seconds before saying very plainly,
'Oh, hi Jessica.'
'Hey, Bella. Happy birthday.' she replied, showing no real expression and actually looking quite bored.
'Long time no see.' Is this how awkward our conversations will be now?
'Yeah. May I join you?' she asked. I nodded and managed to shuffle along the sofa, despite Mai being on my lap. Strange puppy. Jessica sat down and just looked straight ahead.
'So. Why?' I simply asked, and she looked at me with confusion.
'Why what?'
'Why didn't you talk to me for all these months? Zelda too? We were supposed to be the people who knew you best. I'm not too sure now.' I confronted. My older sister looked down.
'I... don't know. I guess that I got too caught up in my own world and forgot about the ones who would always have my back.' she quietly admitted. Wow.
'Yeah. You went pretty low.' I replied, voice somehow getting deeper.
'So. Bella. I truly am sorry for everything, and I really mean it. I'm gonna be there for you more. Zelda too, I feel awful now, knowing how upset I made her. I know I got you a bad 13th birthday present so I'll make it up to you. We'll go shopping tomorrow and if you like anything, I'll buy it.' I smiled. Mission accomplished.
'It's alright. And thanks, sis.' I smiled again and hugged Jessica.
'Hey, where's everyone else?' she asked, already turning back into her former self.
'Upstairs, putting the youngsters to bed. They're restless. Your nephew is also upstairs, but he's sleeping. Stay downstairs and surprise them.' I suggested.
'Alright. But first, could you come over to Zelda's house with me?' Jess asked, looking suddenly anxious. I agreed and we set off, after I left a note to tell my parents where I was.
We slowly walked across the road from where Sim Lane turned into Skyborough Boulevard to Sierra Tango Lane, where Kaylynn and Zelda's house was. It was actually the only house on that street because it was facing down Maywood Lane. So even though it's basically the same street and right next to Darlene's house, it has to be different. Anyway, after a quick debate between ourselves we decided to just knock on the front door instead of going round the back and into Zelda's room. I actually do that all the time now, it's my Friday night ritual. Go to bed early, wake up at 1 in the morning, go to that house for a bit just to chat (sometimes Kaylynn and Parker join in) and then go over to the graveyard to talk to the deceased ones that I used to know. It's more relaxing than you actually think. Back to the main topic, we knocked on the door and waited a few moments before the door opened and nobody other than Iliana was standing there. Was she home early today or something?
'Oh, hello you two. Looking for Zelda or Kaylynn?' she plainly asked, making it obvious that she wished we weren't here. The thing is, she just hated my family for no real reason, yet she's very talkative with everyone else. I don't understand why, we've always been there for Zelda and Kaylynn. She always had her hair scraped back into a tight bun, and her clothes were very high-end. Her home was always spick and span, she was neat and Kaylynn had inherited that trait from her. She actually makes quite a lot of money at work yet that family doesn't live in a larger house. I'm surprised. They could easily have enough money with loads left over to live in Summer Hill Court. She makes over 2 and a half thousand simoleons per week. Not as much as Gunther Goth though, he makes over 7000 a week. Pretty sweet, huh? Anyway, back to reality.
'Yes please, is Zelda in?' I asked a little over politely.
'Yes... shall I go and get her or do you want to go and see her?'
'Please may we go and see her?' asked Jessica, playing along with the politeness act.
'Okay, come through.' We both walked though the front door, thanked Iliana and worked our way through the ground floor to Zelda's room, letting ourselves in.
'Hey. Guess who?' I asked Zelda, who was facing the other way, as Jessica ran and hid behind the curtain, almost like a repeat of the night in December.
'Oh. Hey Bella. What brings you here?' Zelda replied, turning around.
'Just wanted to ask you something.' I replied, to which I made out a wink from the side of the curtain.
'Alright, go ahead.'
'So, do you miss Jessica? I've jut found out that she missed her flight and the next one isn't until tomorrow night.' I majorly lied and I think I heard Jessica keep back a giggle.
'... I see. Yeah, I really miss her. I wish she was actually around more.' she replied, looking down to the floor. Now was Jessica's time to shine. She stepped out from behind the curtain and spoke,
'You mean like now?' This made Zelda literally squeal and jump up from her bed. Just like when she was very younger and I have a slight memory of that. Jessica came over and hugged her old- well, not old but you know - best friend hard and they stayed like that for a while. Now THIS was a nice top-quality birthday present for me. Kaylynn walked in, preparing to talk, but I shushed her. This was an emotional sight.
So this was a long chapter in my opinion. The reason this took a little longer is because I was watching Curtis Paradis' 2 hour livestream last night when I could have been working on this. If you haven't heard of him, he builds AWESOME Sims 3 houses! Also, my town had torrential rain and the city that is very near to me had extremely bad flash floods, all travel to there was very slow, I've heard. Two of the main bridges across the river there are closed, it's pretty bad out there. It's the second time this Summer that it's happened and that's why I can't wait to escape to Florida for 2 weeks, a week today. Also, credit to this link: for the street names in a map of Sunset Valley. I knew that Bella lives in Sim Lane (like she has all her life, as proven by the other Sim games), Mortimer lives on the extremely expansive Skyborough Boulevard and that Kaylynn and Zelda lived on Sierra Tango Lane. But I didn't know what the street name was for where Darlene lives.