After what felt like an eternity of driving, the two cousin finally arrived at Simport...
As they entered the city through the Downtown district, the two took the time to look at everything that the town had to offer, from the shops to the stores, to the clubs, to even the spots that didn't really have much significance to them. The streets were filled with people either going to work, hanging out with friends, or just walking around and enjoying life in general. This was pretty much an average day here in Simport, just like everywhere else; nothing more, nothing less.
Despite the uneventful nature of the town right now, both tomboys couldn't help but smile at the sight of everything that they were seeing; however, both had different reasons of doing so. Obviously, the reason why Katie was smiling was because of the fact that she was in her hometown again, after four years of being away. Candy, on the other hand, was smiling at the fact that there were so many clubs around here, probably more than New York had; and the thought of fitting into a town like this was going to be easier than she initially thought. Hopefully, for the latter that is, there was a job around here that's party-related, or club-related, that she can get hired at; and if not, then she'll just have to try and create one from scratch somehow; but for now, since they have just got here, she'll worry about that situation tomorrow.
After some time driving around the city, the cousins eventually made it to the neighborhood. "Well, we're here." Candy says aloud. "Do you remember where your house is, Kate?"
There wasn't any response from Katie, obviously due to the fact that she had her music blasting as loud as she possibly could, clearly unaware of the fact that her cousin turned her own music down; after discovering this, Candy yanked one of the earbuds out of the former's ears. "What the hell, dude?!" The studious tomboy exclaimed as she glared at her cousin. "What was that for?!"
"I was asking you a question, that's what." Candy told her in a serious, yet somewhat sarcastic, tone of voice. "Do you remember where your house is?"
"I do." Katie replied as she took her other earbud out and then faced forward. "Just turn left on that street that's coming up here, then keep going until you see a house that is green."
"Then what?"
"Then just pull up into the driveway or park right in front of it." Katie replied with a shrug. "I'm sure that my dad won't mind if you do either one of those, as long as he's able to park his own car somewhere."
After turning down the road that her cousin pointed out to her, Candy continued to drive until she found the house that they were just talking about seconds ago. Something that Katie forgot to mention about her house was that it was the only one on her street that was painted green, making it completely stand out from the rest of the ones around this part of the neighborhood; and ironically enough, green wasn't even her favorite color, nor was it her dad's favorite either. Now that she thought about it, she actually didn't know why her house was green in the first place. Regardless, it was great to be back home.
Upon arriving at the house, both tomboys noticed that there was a person kicking around a soccer ball on the driveway. The girl had short black hair that, like Katie, reached down to her shoulders; and was wearing a purple t-shirt with a black vest over it, as well as a red plaid skirt with black and white striped leggings underneath, and she also wore some black shoes as well. Katie knew who this girl was, and she couldn't be any happier to finally be seeing her right now.
Once her cousin parked her car on the side of the road, Katie got out so that she can greet her friend. "Hey, Crystal!" She shouted, while waving a hand at the latter. "We're finally here, dude!"
The girl with the soccer ball, Crystal, turned her head to look at the two tomboys getting out of the car behind her, and once she saw her the studious one of the two, she couldn't help but smile as she walked over to them. "For a second, I thought you guys weren't gonna show up." She commented as she went up to her best friend, giving her a hug. "Oh, I missed you, Kate."
"I missed you too, Crystal." Katie says while hugging her best friend back. "It's so totally awesome to see you again."
"Totally, dude." Crystal says before the two stopped hugging and soon backed away from each other; it wasn't until now that Candy finally decided to come over and join their conversation, immediately after she unloaded the trunk of her car after receiving both of her luggage from it. "So, I'm guessing you must be Candy."
"You bet." Candy replied with a smirk on her face, walking up to the two girls. "You can call me Candy, or DJ Candy, or, if you ever want to call me by my childhood nickname, Supergroove."
"Supergroove?" Katie asked her cousin in a very unimpressed tone of voice. "You really want to be referred to as that? That nickname sounds utterly ridiculous."
"Hey, it's what the boys call me every time I bust an awesome move on the dance-floor; and also, it has a totally cool ring to it too."
"Your nickname sounds more like something that came out of a seventies sitcom." Katie commented, resulting in her cousin's smile to falter soon after.
"Whatever..." Candy muttered as she adjusted the strap of her sports-bag that was clinging to one of her shoulders. "Regardless how you feel about my nickname, I'm still cool, and awesome, and totally sexy." She then turned her direction back over to Crystal, who was just staring at her with a look of uncertainty. "Well, you seem pretty cool, at least; you're not as nerdy as my cousin here."
"Well, before you came along, I was technically the 'cool one' between us." Crystal stated as she points to herself with her own thumb.
"Really?" Candy asked, sounding intrigued by this information.
"Yeah." Crystal answered while nodding her head, before immediately noticing the unamused look on her best friend's face. "Although, Katie was always considered the cooler one back when we were, like, still in the eighth grade; mostly because of the fact that I didn't know how to skateboard as well as she does back then. Heck, most of the kids were actually quite surprised to see that a girl who was usually doing more academic stuff knew how to skateboard."
"Well, my dad had an arcade machine that had that one Tony Hawk game on it, and I played the hell out of it when I was a kid." Katie stated, smiling fondly. "It shouldn't have been that much of a surprise to them that I knew a few tricks thanks to that."
"Katie being the 'cooler' one between you two doesn't sound real to me." Candy sarcastically stated, causing her cousin to glare at her.
"Don't you have some luggage you need to unpack?" Katie asked, now getting annoyed.
"Yes; as a matter of fact, I do."
"Then get your ass inside already." Katie demanded calmly, allowing her cousin to walk past her. "Also, I want to go over some rules with you once you're-"
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you!" Candy interrupts as she was already walking up to the front-porch, causing her cousin to groan in frustration.
"This is going to be a long summer..." Katie then muttered as she slowly faced her best friend, who was staring at her with concern now.
"Well, if you didn't want to put up with her, all you had to do was just leave her in New York without a word." Crystal stated as she crossed her arms. "If she's a bitch just like my sisters, then it's only fair that you'd come back home by yourself instead."
"Quite frankly, I was previously debating whether or not I should do that, but ultimately, I decided against it." Katie explained to her best friend in an annoyed, yet still clearly calm, tone of voice. "Despite the fact that she's an obnoxious party girl whose everyday activities revolve around the club, getting drunk, and trying to hit on anyone she seems 'hot' or 'beautiful', she's still part of my family; and I couldn't just leave her in New York all by her lonesome. She ran away from home as a kid; her parents are divorced, her dad's...who the heck knows, and her mom doesn't even like her because of her partying habits." She then paused for a second so that she can look at Candy, who was just silently ringing the doorbell. "Not to mention that my dad wouldn't appreciate hearing the fact that I've also decided to up and abandon her too; because in hindsight, doing so would just prove to him that I'm no better than his little sister...or Candy's mother, if you want to be technical here."
"You always wondered why you were constantly called a 'Goody-Two-Shoes' back in high-school." Crystal comments in a snarky tone, only to receive an unamused glare from her studious friend as a result. "I was just saying that as a compliment."
After letting out a sigh, Katie's glare falters and was replaced with a rather depressed look. "Speaking of my dad; how has he been since...y-you know?" The studious girl asked solemnly.
"Oh, right...I forgot about that..." Crystal asked, now sounding just as depressed as her best friend was. "I've been paying him visits from time to time, and all I can really say is that he's been...well, handling everything a lot better nowadays than he's been when he's first heard about it back in January."
"Do you know if he's gotten over it yet?"
"I...haven't asked." Crystal replied with an awkward cringe, placing both of her hands into the pockets of her skirt. "He seems to have gotten over it, as far as I'm concerned."
"Oh..."
"What about you?" Crystal asked as she stared at her best friend with concern.
"What about me?" Katie asked in a somewhat bitter tone.
"Are you over what happened yet?"
"Have I gotten over it?" Katie asked as she gave her best friend a bewildered look. "Dude, I've been over it months ago."
"Are you sure though?" Crystal proceeded to ask, clearly looking hesitant to actually do so. "If I know anything about you, it's that you're not very good at handling situations like these. Should I bring up the day your fish died, and you spent the past few days keeping yourself together, then suddenly during art class you broke down into tears?"
"Must you really remind me of such a thing when this is supposed to be a happy day for all of us?"
"Look, dude, all I'm saying is that sooner or later, you're going to have to-"
"Yo, Kate!" Candy shouts from the porch, causing her cousin's best friend to immediately stop talking. "Your dad's finally coming downstairs! Hurry up and get your ass over here, dude!"
"Coming!" Katie shouts back, before turning to face her best friend once again. "Let's save this topic for later, shall we?"
"Sure." Crystal says reluctantly, shrugging her shoulders before following her friend up to the porch.
Once all three girls got up onto the porch, the door opened, revealing Katie's father, Maxwell, on the other side. The man appeared to be in his early to mid-forties, and has well-combed brown hair; and he wore a purple button-down dress-shirt, black dress-pants, and black loafers. He, pretty much, looked like your average everyday businessman you'd see on the streets, without the jacket and necktie.
Upon noticing Katie among the trio standing before him, Maxwell smiled happily . "Kathryn." He says as he stepped closer towards his daughter, prompting the two to hug. "Oh, I missed you, dear."
"I missed you too, dad." Katie says as she hugged her father back.
The hug between the two relatives lasted for about a minute or two, as Maxwell eyed Crystal standing to their left; but sadly, the hug stopped as soon as he noticed Candy standing to their right. "I'm...sorry, I don't believe I've seen you before." He told the girl, clearly confused.
"I'm your niece, Candy." The blonde tomboy informed her uncle. "But, if you ever feel like it, pops; you can always call me DJ Candy."
"I believe that I'm better calling you Candy instead."
"Yeah, I figured that..." Candy muttered as she lifted up her sports-bag off of the ground beside her. "I'm gonna go place my stuff upstairs while you two have your little 'family reunion' down here."
"Your room will be the one across the hall from the bathroom; the one with the list of rules on them, so you can read and learn about our day-to-day life in our-" Maxwell soon stops talking as he noticed that Candy was now heading up the stairs behind him. "I believe this is going to be rather...oppressive, isn't it, Kathryn?"
"Maybe." Katie answered with a groan. "Although, she probably just wants to sit down and relax after five hours of driving; something like that would be pretty draining for someone, especially if it's her."
The three could then hear the sound of a door both opening and closing coming from upstairs. "I don't believe she's even taken the list of rules I've placed on her door..." The father lamented as he shook his head, staring down at the floor.
"When Candy gets settled, I'll go over every single rule you've written down on that paper; don't worry." Katie assured her father, before turning her head to look at her best friend beside her. "Hey, Crystal; do you mind helping me unpack my things?"
"Totally." Crystal replied as she and Katie headed over to collect the luggage from the latter's cousin's car, all while Maxwell remained standing there on the porch, letting out a happy sigh.
'It's great to have my daughter back...' He says in his thoughts.
An hour later...
"You can't be serious here..." Candy says under her breath, glaring at the list that her uncle had handed over to her minutes ago, all while Crystal and Katie were currently busy rearranging the furniture in the room beside her. "What kind of rules are you losers trying to dump on me here?!"
"Just the ones that you should follow, Candy; and by the way, don't call my dad a 'loser'." Katie said while setting up a folding-chair in front of the desk against the wall. "Everything that my dad's got written down on that paper there are actually very reasonable for you to follow without issue."
"Well, I have issues with this." Candy retorts as she held up the list in front of her. "No parties? What do you guys do for the holidays around here?"
"Technically, my dad's referring to the parties that we've typically encountered throughout college the last few years."
Candy silently continued reading the list some more. "No blasting music late at night?" She asked as she glared at her cousin again.
"Well, that's just common sense, Candy."
"You should've seen the last time that Katie's done something like that." Crystal chimes in with a smirk, straightening out a picture frame on the wall above the blonde tomboy's bed. "She had Third Eye Blind playing so loudly one night that the woman across the street came over and complained about it; but luckily, she didn't bring this to court or anything, as she was actually quite a fan of said band." She then smirked. "For an attorney, she has some really good taste in music."
"Well, she was in college during the nineties-" Katie started off saying, only to be interrupted once again by Candy.
"Okay, this one's ridiculous right here!" Candy says as she smacks the paper in her hands. "My friends aren't allowed to sleep over, as long as I've gotten permission?!"
"That's also common sense, Candy." Katie says as she turned around to give her cousin an annoyed look again. "The same rule applies to me too."
"Although, sometimes, I just invite myself over whenever I feel like it." Crystal commented.
"With that context added, you can tell your dad that he can shove this bullshit list up his ass!" Candy told her cousin after ripping up the list into pieces, then proceeding to toss them into the air around her.
"Did you really have to tell her that?" Katie asked her best friend in a deadpan tone, before turning to face Candy once again. "Look, I totally get that all of this may seem like a pain in the ass for you, but just like I've said on the way here: if you're going to be living with me and my dad, you're going to have to adjust to a few changes. Our house isn't like anywhere you had previously lived at back in New York." She then knelt down to pick up the destroyed list that was all over the floor. "Anyway, I'm gonna go see if my dad is able to fix this. I'll be back up in a minute."
Once her cousin was out of the room, Candy decided to focus her attention on Crystal now. "Alright, dude; what's your story?" She asked.
"What's my...what?" Crystal asked as she began carrying a nightstand over to the blonde tomboy's bed.
"I was asking you what your life's like outside of your friendship with my cousin." Candy told the girl as the former went over to sit down onto her own bed. "Out of everyone Katie's talked about, other than her dad, she's talked about you the most; so, since this is the first time we're actually talking to each other, I want to know a little bit more about you."
"What do you want to know about me?" Crystal then asked as she pulled the chair out of the desk, sitting onto it once she got it out.
"Well, anything really; like what do you do for a living whenever you're not hanging out with Katie, or what other friends do you have, and if Katie's friends with them too." Candy explained as she lays down on the bed with her hands behind her head. "Just stuff like that."
"So, just the basic stuff, huh?" Crystal asked as she scoots a bit closer towards the bed. "Alright then..." She taps her chin for a bit, trying to think to herself about all of this. "Where to start..."
"Why don't you start with how the first example I've said?" Candy suggested. "What do you with your life whenever you're not hanging out with Katie?"
"Well, I hang out with some of my friends who used to be apart of the goth clique from our high-school." Crystal started off explaining. "It's pretty hard to tell from the looks of me alone, but...I used to be part of the goth clique too; although, most of the members, and some of our classmates as well, never really saw me as one; most likely because of the fact that I was more rebellious than I was...well, spooky to them. Despite that though, they were willing to let me hang out with them, since they saw me as cool anyway; and I'm pretty close with their leader Goth Boy and his girlfriend, Yuki Aoki." She then chuckled at one thought that was coming to her head. "Speaking of her, Yuki's once helped me pull an awesome prank on our school's cheerleading squad during Senior Year."
"Katie always said you have a hatred for cheerleaders."
"I am the only one out of five girls in my family who didn't want to be one, so..." Crystal told the blonde tomboy, leaning back in the chair while kicking one of her feet up onto the front end of the bed. "She's not wrong on that..."
"My parents always wanted me to join the cheer-squad back in middle school, but I also thought it was for chumps; and besides, I'm better behind a turntable than 'cheering for the home-team'."
"Between you and me, you did yourself a huge favor there."
"Uh...thanks, I guess."
"Hey, girls, I'm back." Katie announced as she came walking back into the room. "Unfortunately, my dad wasn't able to fix the list that you destroyed, Candy; however, he had a spare in case you were to rip that one up." She explained as she pulled out said list out of her jacket, handing it over to her cousin, who was now completely dumbfounded by this.
"How wonderful..." Candy muttered as she took the list out of her cousin's hand, reading it to herself as she just continued to lay on her bed.
"Anyway, did I miss anything while I was downstairs?"
"Not really." Crystal replied as she got up from her chair, placing it back into the desk afterwards. "We were just getting to know each other a little better."
"Hopefully, you two were only talking about good things up here, and not-"
"We were talking about how much we didn't like cheerleaders and all that shit." Candy outright says, causing her cousin's once delighted smile to slowly become an unimpressed frown again.
"Oh, how am I not even surprised?" Katie asked herself as she rolled her eyes, before proceeding to get back to rearranging the room's furniture once again.
Another hour later...
"Damn, that was exhausting..." Crystal says as she collapsed onto her best friend's bed, all while Katie went over to sit down at her own desk. "Remind me again why we had to move all of that stuff from the attic into her room?"
"The only things we had in our guest-room was just the bed and a couple of stuff that my dad and I both considered 'junk', and we couldn't let Candy sleep in a room that was cluttered." Katie explained, looking through her backpack to see if there was anything else left for her to put away; after giving it another second or two, she found that there wasn't. "Looks like we're done with everything here, dude."
"Awesome." Crystal says breathlessly as she began stretching her arms out wide. "Now we can both sit back and relax, and enjoy the rest of this awesome day without any more interruptions to-" Before she could finish the rest of her sentence, the sound of ringing came from her phone, causing he to stop, open her eyes, and frown; clearly, she spoke too soon.
"Who's that?" Katie asked as her best friend pulled her phone out of her pocket.
"Ah, fuck...I forgot; I was meant to meet up with Yuki at Gino's Pizzeria this afternoon."
"I thought you told me over the phone that you didn't have anything planned for today."
"I did." Crystal replied as she slowly stood up from the bed. "Like I've said, I completely forgot that me and Yuki already made plans, like, two days ago; it's just that we didn't know you were planning to come back here today." She then headed over to the door, then glanced behind herself at her best friend after opening it up. "If I'm not busy later tonight, I'll give you a call to see how everything's going."
"Alright." Katie says as she placed her backpack aside. "Have fun with Yuki, dude."
"I'm sure I will." After this was said, Crystal headed downstairs and out of the house.
After putting her backpack aside, seeing as there was nothing left for her to put away, Katie noticed something that she had completely forgotten about after she left for New York years ago, which was her bedroom window. She remembered that, across the fence, there used to live an old man who would say 'Hello' to her anytime she'd peek out to see him in his upstairs-pantry, which for some reason had a window on it; probably to take to her father better back then, since her room used to be her father's office before she was born. Sometimes, she'd tell him hello as well; but not as often as her father did. Since it's been awhile, Katie decided to get up from her chair and walked over to her window, opening up the curtain to see if her neighbor was standing in his pantry right now.
There was somebody in there, but it wasn't the neighbor she grew up with; instead, it was someone whom she's...never seen before in her life. The person appeared to be in his twenties, just like her, and he had spiky red hair, tan skin, and had on some dark blue sunglasses; and he was wearing a black leather jacket with a white t-shirt underneath it, as well as blue jeans and some brown boots. Just from the looks of him alone, Katie could easily assume that this guy was some sort of biker; the fact that there was a motorcycle parked in the driveway, which she could easily see from her window, only further prove this assumption correct.
'Hello...now who might you be?' Katie asked in her own thoughts, keeping her eyes on this person, all while keeping a hand held on the curtain.
The new neighbor wasn't doing anything much in the pantry; just looking through a couple boxes of what Katie could only assume was food, despite it didn't really look like it from her distance. Leaning closer towards the window, Katie immediately took notice that it wasn't food that the man was taking out of the box; it was actually some tools, used for the sole purpose of building stuff out of wood. It wasn't clear to her why this guy would have that kind of stuff upstairs and not in something like a shed, but...then again, since this guy's new to her, she could only assume he was going to be building furniture or something; possibly even fix some stuff that were probably broken around the house.
Once the man put the box away, he turned his head towards the direction of the window...and that was the moment when he finally noticed Katie standing there, looking directly at him. "SHIT!!!" The tomboy exclaimed as she quickly closed the curtains, then backing away from it.
"Kathryn, is everything alright, dear?!" Maxwell asked hastily as he rushed into the room. "I heard you scream in here! Are you hurt?!"
"I-It's okay, dad..." Katie assured her father as she casually leaned against the dresser behind her. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, totally." Katie says again, eyeing the curtain once, which her father thankfully didn't notice. "For a moment, I thought I saw a...bug on the wall, that's all."
"That...seems rather peculiar to be startled by a simple bug, dear; unless..." Maxwell paused as he rubbed his chin, feeling a bit unsure thanks to this. "What kind of bug was it?"
"I, uh...don't know." Katie lied as she turned to eye the window again. "Like I've said, I thought I saw a bug; not that I was one-hundred percent certain."
"Well, just in case you actually did, I advise you to call me up here."
"I will."
"In the meantime, I'm going back downstairs to continue making lunch." Maxwell says as he exits the room. "Later tonight I have something to give you as a rather late birthday present."
"W-What is it, dad?"
"It's a surprise, dear; I can't exactly tell you what it is just yet."
"Okay; then I'll be patiently waiting until then."
Once her father left the room, Katie went back over to the window and peeked out the curtain to see if the new neighbor was still there; when she checked, she found that the pantry was empty, except for, of course, the boxes of tools that filled the room. She didn't know if the guy was nice or not, but whatever he's like, she hoped that she didn't indirectly made a rival on her first day back here. 'This is going to be a long summer...' She thought to herself as a cringe came to her face.
Note: Well, this one took a bit longer than I hoped, but it was worth it in the end. Three characters (or two, if we're going by name) have been introduced here, and a new neighbor has mysteriously moved in next door to Katie and her father; who is he, you may wonder (even if it's kinda obvious), you'll just have to wait and see to find out.
Anyway, I don't know if, like, the wait between new chapters will continue to take this long or not, mainly because I want to try and write some of my chapters a little bit longer than how I used to; like how some other stories tend to be at times. All I can say is that I hope that I don't make you guys impatient with these large amount of time, waiting and anticipating for, like, an unknown period of days, or weeks.
So, let's see what reviews we have for today are...
lordgemini: Candy being at college with Katie was because the two share some of the same things when it comes down to appearance, such as the fact that they're both tomboyish, they both have freckles, and that they have chill personalities. The stuff that they like, however, are completely different, and that's what made me think that the party girl herself would make for a better partner than Crystal when it came to them being in college together. Also, since Sapphire is James's cousin, Candy might as well by Katie's; Zach is unlikely going to be the cousin of one of the other sims, or be in this story, but who knows.
That should be it for now. I'm not sure if this'll be happening, but I think we'll focus on Crystal and her life in the next chapter. Until then though, I'll see you all next time, and stay safe.