Lyla Grunt is one of my favorite characters in the Sims 2, so of course I had to have a chapter dedicated to her life. I couldn't fit all of the major events of her life that I wanted to in this chapter, so I am going to continue it in chapter eleven as well. I hope you enjoy this. Please R&R if you can. :)

Chapter Ten: Lyla's Story

Ripp is standing in front of the eXtreme residence, looking up at the white-painted bricks that constructed the giant X. A few days ago, he wouldn't have to think twice about stepping on the property, but his shaking legs and the coldness of the summer wind reminded him otherwise.

Ripp scans the area for a moment before picking up a few rocks from the dirt. He sighs, "Here goes nothing," he says to himself as walks over to the nearest window. He grabs a few rocks from his trembling hands and chucks them softly at the window-after all he didn't want to wake up the whole house, just one person in particular. "Isabella!" Ripp whispers loudly between swings, "Isabella eXtreme!"

He waits for a few minutes before turning back towards the street, Ripp sighs, "I guess she's not coming," he responds in disappointment. He starts to walk away but is interrupted by the sound of the window opening. He turns around and sure enough, there she was, her hand resting on the side of the windowsill smiling about a mile wide.

"Ripp!" Isabella softly exclaims, "What are you doing here? You know we're not allowed to see each other."

"I know, I just couldn't stop thinking about you," Ripp states looking down at the ground trying to hide the blush that is creeping up his face. Ripp takes a deep breath before turning back towards the window, "Come on, I really want to show you something."

"Leave the house?" Isabella asks, her voice expressing her uncertainty, "I don't know, I'm really not supposed to sneak out of the house at two in the morning," she softly smiles, seeing the puppy-dog face that Ripp is giving her, "But I guess I could make an exception."

"Great!" Ripp exclaims trying to keep his voice down, he walks over to the window and reaches out his arms, "Come on, I'll help you down."

"Okay," Isabella responds pulling herself up on the windowsill, she positions her feet towards the sand before turning to Ripp once more, "You ready?" she asks, implying her escape.

"Yeah," Ripp answers, he arms only a few feet below her.

Isabella quickly jumps out of the window and into his arms, the force of her jump causing Ripp to lose balance and fall to the ground. They both sit up and turn to one another rubbing their injured arms; Isabella giggles, "Maybe we should've planned that better."

Ripp, already standing up, grabs Isabella by the hand, "Come on, let's get out of here before we wake someone up."

A Few Minutes Later:

Ripp and Isabella are sitting on the top of the crater in the center of Strangetown, looking out at the view of the town. "Wow," Isabella responds, still in awe at the sights, "You were right, you really can see everything in Strangetown."

"Yeah," Ripp responds inching a little closer to Isabella, "It's really pretty." Isabella nods continuing to gaze out at the scenery, Ripp sighs and begins to play with his hands. "Uh, Isabella?"

Isabella stops and turns her attention to him, "Yes?"

Ripp moves towards Isabella and gently places his lips onto hers; Isabella sighs and slowly closes her eyes, trying to take in the moment. After a while, they reluctantly move apart, filling their lungs with air. Ripp puts his arm around Isabella before leaning back towards her. Isabella gently nudges his head to the left with her own making his right ear face her, she laughs, "We don't have to do this the whole night," she softly whispers in his ear, "We can do other things besides kiss you know."

Ripp smiles, "I know, I'm sorry," he says, his eyes gazing into hers, "It's just been so long since I've seen you."

Isabella softly laughs, "Ripp, it's only been a week!" she states, having a hard time keeping her voice down.

"That was a week?" Ripp responds, dumbfounded, "It felt like a year!"

Isabella's smile grows as she pulls Ripp closer to him, resting her face to his chest. She sighs, listening to the whisper of the summer breeze surrounding them, before gently closing her eyes. "Mmm…Ripp?" she softly speaks, her head still resting again his chest.

"Yeah?" Ripp responds, feeling Isabella shift from her position and sit up to face him; she looks over at him, the gray irises in her eyes looking as though they were about to outshine the sun.

"I love you."

Ripp moves his left hand back, not expecting to hear those words. "She loves me? Isabella loves me?" Ripp's mind asks going a mile a minute, "She couldn't possibly love me. I'm stupid, I'm worthless, I can't do anything right. She should know never to say those words to someone like me. There's only one person that ever loved me and that was…" Ripp stops, his mind filling up with images of his blonde haired, brown eyed, elegantly dressed mother. "…Mom."

Isabella, seeing the uneasiness in Ripp's face turns to him, her face filled with genuine concern, "Ripp, are you alright?" she asks.

"Yeah," Ripp responds slowly turning to her, trying to stead himself; he sighs, "Isabella, I have to tell you something."

Isabella scouts closer to Ripp and gazes at him intently, "Yes?"

Ripp moves his eyes to the ground, having a hard time making eye contact with her, "Come on Ripp," his conscience speaks, "Tell Isabella about her, she has a right to know. You can't keep this inside of you forever, I'm sure she'll understand. You can tell her anything."

Ripp sighs and turns to Isabella, "I uh, I love you too."

"Oh Ripp!" Isabella squeaks out before throwing her arms around him; a small smile grows on Ripp's face as he wraps his arms around Isabella, hugging her back.

"Oh well," he says to himself satisfied, "Close enough."

The Next Day:

Ripp and Isabella are seen lying down on the hilltop looking up at the stars after sneaking out at two in the morning a second time. Isabella sighs, embracing the summer night before turning to Ripp, "Ripp, I've been thinking," she starts.

"About what?" Ripp asks, sitting up to face his girlfriend.

"Remember that one time we went to Ophelia's and saw Olive's garden?" Isabella asks, her eyes filling with wonder.

"Yeah," Ripp answers uneasily, unaware of where this conversation was going.

"Ever since that happened I can't stop thinking about all of those people buried there. I know they're no longer with us, but they seem so interesting. Imagine how many memories they have and all the stories they would tell if they were still here."

Ripp sighs, his eyes catching the garden in the distance, "Yeah," Ripp replies, a sinking feeling forming in his stomach as his eyes come to his mother's grave, "You know Ophelia's parents are buried in the garden."

"Really?" Isabella responds, "I didn't know Ophelia was an orphan."

"Yeah," Ripp states, still looking out at the garden; "Olive is actually her aunt on her mother's side of the family."

"Wow," Isabella replies. Silence fills the Road to Nowhere. Isabella stops looking at the garden for a moment and gazes at Ripp, "Ripp?"

"Yeah?" Ripp replies, not taking his eyes off of the garden.

Isabella sighs, carefully planning out her words in her head, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure Isabella," Ripp responds, now taking his eyes off of the garden and looking straight into hers.

"What happened to your mother?"

Ripp's stomach drops, his heart feeling as if it has stopped dead in its tracks. His eyes drop quickly to the ground, as Ripp struggles to fight off the bad memories filling in his head; he turns to Isabella, trying to push out a response, his world spinning rapidly around him, "My mother died a few years ago."

Isabella gazes at Ripp, sensing the sadness in his voice. She puts a comforting hand on his shoulder before responding, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Ripp replies, feeling something change in his heart, "I'm sorry too," he says, before lifting his head up to look at the stars, "Because she was a great person, and she had a great story to tell."

Isabella gives Ripp a small smile, "I'm sure she did."

"Yeah she did," Ripp responds turning towards Isabella his eyes shining, "Do you want to hear it?"

Isabella smiles, her face lighting up as she looks back at him, "I would love to."

Ripp turns to Isabella, his conscience feeling lighter by the minute, "Well, I don't remember a whole lot about her childhood, so I guess I'll start with the day she first met my dad, and quite a day that was if I do say so myself…"

A girl dressed in a light pink short-sleeved t-shirt and white Capri pants is sitting at her desk in front of the classroom, struggling to keep her brown eyes open and on the math written on the blackboard. She sighs as her teacher walks across the room to write more problems on the board; the girl begins to fiddle around with her mid-length blonde hair.

"Pst Lyla!" one of the girls seated to the left of her calls out, Lyla turns to her, eyeing the teacher now at the back of the room.

"What?" Lyla softly responds to her friend, Elizabeth. Elizabeth scans the area before handing a note to her. Lyla is about to take it when someone else's hand grabs a hold of it.

"Ms. Vandermorgan," her teacher responds, holding the note up to her face, "You know there is no note passing in my class."

"Yes, but-"

"No buts, you know the rules Lyla. Now, I have no choice but to read this aloud to the class," the teacher opens up the note and reads it aloud, her face frowning, "'Hey baby, how about you and I go out sometime so I can show you my amazing quads?"

The class erupts in laughter as Lyla turns to Elizabeth, her face crouched down in embarrassment. Elizabeth turns to Lyla and points to brown-haired boy dressed in green behind her. The boy winks at Lyla, giving her a flirty nod. Lyla groans before placing her head face down on her desk.

"This is not happening," Lyla says to herself.

Ripp smiles and turns to Isabella, who is listening intently to the story. Ripp smiles a little, before looking back up at the stars and continuing, "Now my mom made it very clear that she wasn't interested, but my dad was never one to take no for an answer…"

Lyla is standing nearby the large oak tree outside of the school talking with her two friends, Elizabeth and Theresa; Elizabeth groans when she sees someone approaching them.

"Watch out Lyla, here comes the military nut," Elizabeth says to her friend, as Buzz walks over to Lyla, completely ignoring the other two.

"Hey Lyla," Buzz responds, looking her straight in the eyes and putting his arm around her, "I just beat up all three of the Curious brothers and Loki Beaker. Am I manly enough to be your boyfriend now?"

"Uh, Buzz?" Lyla says, beginning to feel uncomfortable, "As interesting as you are, I'm not really interested in being your girlfriend. I thought you would get the hint by now."

"Haha, oh Lyla, we all know that you secretly love me," Buzz says, squeezing her tighter, "I mean, what's not to love? But seeing that you've been too afraid to admit it, how about you go out with me this weekend?"

"Uh…" Lyla stalls, glancing at her two friends. They quickly shake their heads 'no' and frantically move their arms in disapproval. Lyla turns to Buzz who is smiling huge; she sighs, "Alright."

Elizabeth and Theresa turn to Lyla and mouth 'what?'

Lyla shrugs and turns to them, "What's going to happen?" she says.

Ripp stops talking and softly laughs, "Little did she know what that would lead to…a strange marriage and a bunch of crazy kids. Now the first few years of my parent's marriage actually went pretty well, mom used to tell me about how happy my dad was the day Tank was born…"

Lyla is seen lying down on a hospital bed in exhaustion, her body positioned towards the white crib in the middle of the room. Lyla smiles as Buzz picks up the tiny blue-eyed baby and picks him up to his face.

"Aww, look how cute he is Lyla! He looks just like me! See?" Buzz turns Tank towards Lyla, positioning his face next to his own, Lyla giggles.

"Yes, he does," she responds.

"Oh he's going to be great," Buzz continues, turning Tank to face him, "He's going to be the best General the world has ever seen!"

Lyla sighs, "Sweetheart, he's just a baby."

"I know Lyla," Buzz responds turning towards her still holding Tank in his arms, "But someday he's going to become a general and make me proud."

"From that day on Tank became the apple of dad's eye. Tank was the world to him, so it was no surprise that when my dad found out that my mom was pregnant again, he was excited," Ripp says, he turns to Isabella smirking, "Little did he know that this baby wouldn't be anything like the last one…"

Lyla is lying in the hospital baby holding baby Ripp in her arms, she turns to Buzz smiling, "Look at him Buzz, he's so adorable."

Buzz walks over to Lyla and kneels down next to her, "Yeah, he is," he stands and picks the baby up, "Come to daddy boy!"

"Uh honey-" Lyla begins, but it was too late, in a few minutes Buzz is covered in vomit.

"Eww," Buzz responds, holding the baby out as if it were infected with lice, "Here, take him back."

Lyla smiles and takes Ripp from his arms; Ripp laughs, causing Buzz to turn to Lyla.

"Hey! He did that on purpose!" Buzz responds, "That little-

"Buzz, calm down," Lyla replies, "There's no way he did that on purpose."

Buzz crossed his arms and glares at the baby, "I guess so."

"So, did you do it on purpose?" Isabella asks as soon as Ripp ceased talking.

"Huh?" Ripp asks, his mind still racing through the memories of his mother, "Oh, the whole throwing-up on my dad thing? Yeah, I guess you could say so."

Ripp looks up at the night sky before turning to Isabella, "Well, I think that's enough for one night. I should probably get you home."

"So soon?" Isabella replies, "I was really hoping that I could hear the rest of it. You know, the rest of Lyla's story."

Ripp smiles and softly laughs, "I'll tell you the rest of it tomorrow, I promise."

"Good," Isabella responds, "As long as you promise me one more thing."

"What?" Ripp asks, turning his full attention towards the words that were about to come out of her mouth.

"You'll tell it to me in the garden with her," Isabella proposes, her eyes trying to hold back tears.

Ripp sighs and looks down at the ground, a real smile forming on his face for the first time in years, "I wouldn't have it any other way."