A fresh start
Chapter 25: a day of Clementine: part 1
All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're back with the next chapter. Now this chapter was originally going to be WAY longer, but there is too much to read in one go which meant I had to break it up into two parts. I'll probably update part 2 tomorrow, but keep in mind I'm quite busy this week because I got a exam coming up soon that I have to study for.
Clementine woke up to another summer's day. It was about a few days after Kenny and Duck had visited, and after she and Ed had gone to the latter's workplace. She heard a buzzing on her walkie-talkie.
"Clem, honey, breakfast is almost ready," Diana told her.
Clementine groaned slightly as she got out of the bed and put her hat on her head and proceeded to head downstairs. She made her way into the kitchen where Diana was making some egg and bacon, one of Clementine's favorite breakfasts.
"Morning, Mom." Clementine greeted, taking a seat at the table.
"Morning, Clementine," Diana responded as she sat down with a plate of her own breakfast. "Your dad had to go in early today, but he should be home around three this afternoon."
"Okay." Clementine nodded and picked up her knife and fork. She cut up her eggs and began to eat them slowly on politely, unlike Duck who ate his food like he was in an eating competition.
For a few minutes, the two females ate their breakfast in silence until Diana made conversation. "So, do you have any plans for today, honey?" she inquired as she took a sip of juice.
"I'm not sure." Clementine shrugged. "Sarah asked me if I wanted to come around her home for a while, but I just said maybe since I didn't know if I was going to be busy."
"You should invite her here again one day, we'd be happy to have her," Diana suggested with a small smile. "Oh, I may have to work the night shift at the hospital tonight."
"That's all right." Clementine assured with a nod. "Yeah, I think we should invite her here again. I don't see why not."
After breakfast was finished, Clementine cleared the table with Diana cleaned up in the kitchen. The family tried to keep a somewhat tidy house, but the results didn't always come out as expected.
"Where should I put this?" Clementine asked her mother as she picked up a box with all of her father's tools inside.
"Can you put that on the middle shelf in the garage?" Diana asked as she wiped the counter, looking over her shoulder.
Clementine nodded and went into the garage, placing the toolbox on the middle shelf like she was asked (even though that was the highest she could reach).
Ed certainly had a lot of tools for his job. Clementine proceeded back into the house but she stopped when she noticed her pet hamster walking across the table. She sighed and picked him up. "Mom, Nibbler broke out of the cage again."
Diana sighed as she walked over towards her daughter. "We may need a tighter lock," she said as Clementine placed Nibbler back into his cage, making sure to lock it tightly. "Well, at least he didn't eat half our cookies this time." Here she chuckled.
Clementine chuckled too as she thought back to that one night. They thought it was an intruder when they heard a bottle smash.
She watched for a moment as Nibbler walked over to drink some water, then went upstairs to get ready for her day.
Clementine had a shower and got dressed in some casual clothes and bid her mother goodbye when it turned 12:14 PM.
It took about five minutes for Clementine to reach Sarah's house. On the way, Omid noticed her and gave her a wave as she walked by, and she waved back. She rang the doorbell to the Hidalgo family's house, which was answered by an enthusiastic Sarah.
"Hey Sarah." Clementine greeted with a nod and a small smile.
"Hi!" the older girl chirped. She invited Clementine inside, and shut the door when she walked in. Pepper rubbed herself against Clem's legs.
"Hello, Clementine," Carlos greeted from where he was sitting nearby. "Sarah, can you please feed Pepper?"
Sarah nodded and went to go and find some food.
"Good afternoon, Carlos." Clementine greeted as she took a seat on the family's couch.
Sarah returned a minute later and took a seat next to Clementine on the couch. "Have you ever seen Hooked, Clem? Dad and I were watching that. Mom's not home right now."
"I think I watched it." Clementine answered but it was hard to remember since she watched a lot of movies. "Where is Astrid?" she asked Carlos.
"The school called the faculty for an emergency meeting," Carlos explained. "I can't understand why, it's the middle of summer."
"She wasn't happy to leave," Sarah added.
"I can imagine she would be." Clementine agreed as Pepper jumped off her lap and went into the kitchen. "Do you guys have any plans today?"
"Not exactly," Carlos responded, and Sarah shook her head in agreement. "We may go for a drive when Astrid comes home."
"That sounds nice, I guess." Clementine replied with a slight shrug.
The movie ended a few minutes later, and then Sarah turned to Clementine. "Do you want to come to my room with me?"
"Uh, sure." Clementine nodded as Carlos picked up a newspaper.
Sarah led her younger friend upstairs to her room, taking a seat on her pink and white floral bed. She picked up a book from her bedside table and held it up. "Have you ever read this book? It's called The Giver; it's about a utopian world where normal things have gone away."
"I thought The Giver was a movie." Clementine questioned as she took a seat on the same bed whilst studying the rest of Sarah's room to see some changes. She now had a computer with some more books on her shelf.
"It was a book first," Sarah explained with a small smile. "Oh, and I got a lot of those books in Macon. But I haven't read them all yet."
"That's cool. Dad brought me a book the other day called To Kill A Mocking Bird." Clementine replied.
"Really? I've never heard of it," Sarah frowned. But then she seemed to remember something. "Oh yeah, I found this one in my mom and dad's room." She reached into the drawer and pulled out a book that was quite familiar to Clementine (that she was told not to read). It was called Fifty Shades Of Grey. "I was thinking about reading this too."
Clementine raised her eyebrows. Although she had never read that book, she'd heard of its contents and wasn't sure if Sarah would understand it.
"Uhh, she should probably put that back." Clementine suggested. "You said you took it out your parent's room, right? Well, isn't it wrong to take things without permission?"
Sarah looked a little regretful. "I was just seeing what they had..." she stated a little sadly. "I still haven't read it. But maybe I should put it back."
"Yeah, that, uh, sounds like a good idea." Clementine agreed with a relived expression.
Sarah left her bedroom and went to go and put the book back and returned a moment later and took a seat on the bed.
Sarah had a relieved expression on her face; she didn't seem to realize that she shouldn't have taken the book. But it was okay since she's returned it.
"So, you got a computer now?" Clementine asked, her eyes narrowing towards the computer.
"Yeah!" Sarah brightened then. "It was an early birthday present. I have some games on there."
She stood up and walked over to her computer, with Clementine following.
"What games did you have?" Clementine asked as she took a seat in one of the chairs.
Sarah had a few classics such as Pacman and some find and search games, and also The Sims 3.
"Do you want to play a game?" Sarah offered kindly.
"Sure." Clementine accepted. "Can we go onto The Sims 3? That game's supposed to be great and funny."
"Sure!" Sarah exclaimed, getting on. "Let's make some new people."
The two made their characters on Sims 3 and began to play on the game once everything was created. Now all they needed to do was create a home on the game.
"Umm..." Sarah trailed off, moving the mouse around. She clicked on an empty lot, and their characters were standing near the front. "Oh! Let's make a really big house!"
Clementine nodded and took hold of the mouse.
The two created their home and had a different bedroom, two bathrooms, a living room, a big kitchen, and an outside porch. And for some reason, they created a rocket outside.
"Ta-da!" Clementine announced.
Sarah beamed. "Okay, now what?" She squinted her eyes as she moved the controller over to her character.
"Well, we have to give our characters jobs." Clementine replied, clicking onto her character to view the job she wanted. "Hmm, I think I'm going to be...A comedian."
"I'll be an acrobat!" Sarah declared. Clementine couldn't help but snicker, since she couldn't really imagine her older friend as such.
While the characters were getting their jobs, Sarah shifted over to the Sim versions of Carlos and Astrid and noticed them going over to their bed. They were moving around under the covers, and both girls were confused.
"Clem...why are my parents wrestling in their bed?" Sarah wanted to know. Clementine just shrugged.
"I have no idea." Clementine shrugged and looked around the neighborhood on the game. "Okay, we should explore the town for a while."
The girls shifted over to Clementine's character, and something really strange happened. Some guy in the game suddenly caught fire for no apparent reason, and everyone else in the area (included Clementine) just walked over and began to scream and freak out, not bothering to help him.
"Why is everyone screaming?" Sarah asked, her eyes widening slightly.
But right after she asked that, the poor guy burned to death and turned to ashes. Both girls jumped slightly when the Grim Reaper appeared.
"Is that the Grim Reaper?" Clementine asked, but before they knew it, a tomb stone appeared and the Grim Reaper disappeared.
"That was really weird," Sarah commented. But then she began to giggle. "But it was funny too."
"I guess." Clementine chuckled.
The girls continued to explore the game for a while, and Carlos came to check up on things.
"Everything okay up here?" he asked.
"Yeah, Clementine and I are playing a game!" Sarah responded brightly.
"Yep, everything's good." Clementine nodded with a small smile.
Carlos nodded and saw himself out, closing the door.
The two girls continued to play the game, and later that Sim day, they could hear a noise that left them confused. Soon enough, a meteor fell from the sky...and hit someone that was passing their very colorful house.
"Why are there such weird things in this game?" Sarah inquired.
"I have no idea." Clementine agreed. "What confuses me the most is how they speak?"
"Yeah...how come they don't speak normal?"
Eventually, the girls got bored with their own characters and decided to create people from their neighborhood for a while.
First they created Lee and created a house for him next door on their game. Surely he wouldn't mind if they do, plus, it was funny to do. Next they created Omid and Christa.
"And let's just shorten Omid's height." Clementine said as she clicked on the height option.
"I'm taller than him," Sarah teased in a singsong voice. She didn't mean any harm though.
Clementine giggled as this was true. They made Christa rather tall, and next they created Kenny's family. It wasn't as easy as they thought to find Kenny's amazing mustache and beard, but they found something rather close.
And lastly, they decided to create Carley for now and have her in the same house as Lee.
Sarah mentioned that Lee had told her that he'd actually liked Carley, which intrigued Clementine. She would have to ask him herself for confirmation next time she saw him.
Clementine designed Lee's and Carley's houses, and Sarah designed Omid and Christa's. Of course she couldn't forget to create Whiskers, who was a black cat with orange spots.
"And that's our neighborhood." Clementine declared as she leaned back and praised herself and Sarah on a job well done.
"We did good," Sarah agreed. She saved the game and shut it off for now. "We can play it again next time you come over."
"That sounds like a great plan." Clementine agreed as she lifted up her hand and checked the time. "Whoa, I didn't realize I've been here this long. I guess I'm going to head home now. I'll see you later, Sarah."
"Okay, bye!" Sarah waved, and Clementine saw herself out. She said good-bye to Carlos, and Astrid pulled up in her car just as Clem walked out of the house. They bid each other a quick hello and good-bye before Clementine walked off.
That's it for this chapter, folks. Like I said earlier, I'll try update part 2 tomorrow, but no promises. Until next time, ciao.