Chapter 47: Heart of Glass

Sheridan teaches Kennedy to drive. But not without some grumbling about being seen in the pink Bwan Speedster.

"It's Quinn's car," Kennedy says, empathizing. Her older sister has the worst taste. "When I get my license, my parents will get me my own car. It won't be pink."

"Sensible girl," Sheridan says, "No one will respect you if drive a pink car. So, what are your future plans?"

"I'm going to be an astronaut," Kennedy answers matter of factly.

"Hmm, joining the military then?" Sheridan's question is meant to test her resolve, to see if she's just dreaming or really intends to pursue this career.

"Yup," Kennedy answers with the same grim determination, "I've already signed up for sports club and shop club to get a head start."

"Good thinking, Thessaly," Sheridan says, approving.

"I'm Kennedy, Grandpa," Kennedy sighs, knowing it's never going to get through.

"Hmmph, what kind of name is Kennedy, anyway?" Sheridan grumbles.

Kennedy shrugs, "I didn't pick it, ask my parents. What kind of name is Thessaly, anyway?"

Sheridan returns the shrug, "I have no idea. My father named your mother."

"Really? Why didn't you or grandma name her?"

"We were fighting at the time. We each wanted the other to name her."

"That is seriously fucked up," Kennedy remarks.

Sheridan glances sharply at her, "Does your mother let you talk like that?"

Kennedy smiles at her grandfather, "No, but you do."

"Hmmph."

Sheridan helps Kennedy with her training. No one knows more about bodybuilding than he does.

"Here, I want you to have this," Sheridan says, handing the gift box to his granddaughter, "You'll never drive a better, or faster car than this."

"There's a car in the box?" Kennedy asks, dubious. Maybe the old man has gone senile.

Sheridan laughs, "No, the keys and title are in the box. The car is in the driveway."

"You're giving me your Empire Eidolon?" Kennedy gasps, and throws her arms around him. Her parents had been trying to get her to accept a stuffy Yomoshoto Evasion, but even used, her grandfather's car was a far more impressive, and damn fast, vehicle.

"Not as fast as a rocket," Sheridan says, "But it's as fast as you can go on the roads."

Aislin visits with her friend Trent Roman. "It's our birthday tomorrow," she says, excited, "Are you having a party?"

Trent shakes his head. "No, my family still doesn't know many in people in town."

"Well, I'll share my party with you," Aislin offers, "We can have two parties at once!"

Demond and his daughter Devon are the first guests to arrive at Aislin's party. Now that she's grown up, Devon has decided to take over the criminal empire her father abandoned when he married her mother, the police officer.

"It's good to see you, my old friend," Demond says, though really, it isn't good at all to see Sheridan so shrunken and old.

"Congratulations," Sheridan says. Demond and Marta have just had twins, Maya and Rex Enmity-Riley. "You named the boy after my father."

"He was Marta's grandfather, too," Demond says, "We named them both after our grandparents."

Guests and family gather around for the cake.

Aislin becomes a teen.

Then Trent has a turn at his cake. His father, Roman Roman (yes, Roman Roman is his name. He's the one with the mohawk.) watches from behind.

And Trent becomes a teen.

"So, are you going to ask Trent out?" Quinn asks her sister.

"Hell, yes, I am. Did you see him? How could I not ask him out?" Aislin says.

"He is pretty," Quinn admits, jealous of her younger siblings' success at romance, "His hair's a little messy, though, don't you think?" Riordan and Aislin both have transitioned into teenhood with childhood friends ready made to become partners. Kennedy hasn't found love, but she hasn't sought it, either, in her pursuit of her military dreams. But Quinn does want love, more than anything, and but no one she's met has been the right one for her. Life is completely unfair.

After the cake and congratulations from her large family, Aislin finally gets a moment to speak to Trent alone.

"Happy Birthday!" she says enthusiastically, "I guess I didn't do such a good job sharing the party with you. My family made it all about me."

"I'm good with that," Trent says, "I'm pretty used to things not being about me."

"It's your birthday, too, silly," Aislin says, taking his hands, "Tell me what I can do to make it up to you."

Trent shows rather than tells.

Sheridan is a Sim Fu master. Just like his father. Though the two men were so different and at constant cross-purposes, they had remarkably similar interests in attaining physical perfection and adorning their bodies with tattoos.

It is while he's training that Sheridan's time to join his father comes. He pleads for more time, he wants to see Kennedy become an astronaut, but Grim is unmoved.

Grim keeps a scrapbook of pictures of grieving families.

Sheridan's urn is placed beside Chanda's in the mausoleum.

It took a lot of convincing to get Trent to sit outside with her; he really hates being outdoors. But Aislin has considerable charms, and he was unable to resist.

"We could stay out here all night," Trent whispers, "Lay here and watch the stars until the comes up."

"The psychic curfew police would catch us long before then, " Aislin sighs, "So we better get on with the heavy make out session before curfew."

"You've never seen someone with green skin before?"

"Oh, yes I have," Quinn says, startled at the woman's approach. She had been staring awfully hard at her, but didn't realize she'd been seen in return. "I have ancestors with green skin. But that was generations ago. I never knew them. Because they're dead. But, um, yeah," Quinn stammers as the woman stares at her.

"Then why were you staring at me?"

"I, uh, I was imagining what I would do with your hair. "

"Do with my hair?" the woman questions.

"It's, uh, you're very...you have great features. But your hair is...and you don't wear make up....with a makeover, you could be gorgeous." Quinn blushes as she stammers.

"Well, that's a new one," the woman says, and extends her hand, "Tina Glass. If you want to buy me a drink, we can talk about this makeover."

"Oh, uh, sure," Quinn says, brightening at the prospect of a real date. If that's what's going on here, she isn't really sure. "The Reserve Tavern isn't that far from here."

Quinn orders drinks.

"Pink drinks, huh?" Tina says as she takes the glass.

"I love pink," Quinn says, and blushes, hoping it wasn't a stupid thing to say. "Did you just move to Riverblossom Hills?"

Tina tells her she's just been stationed here, she's a squadron leader with the military. "My aunt Marta is in the military," Quinn says, the only thing she knows about the subject.

Tina suggests they dance rather than talk about work. Quinn is happy to oblige.

Meadow, out for a drink with Fred, walks by the dancing couple. She hasn't maintained contact with her sister's family in generations, but she knows them all by face and by name.

"Oh, crap, it's curfew," Quinn says, "I gotta go."

"Curfew? As in the stupid curfew they have on minors in this town? You're a teenager?"

"Oh, well, yeah," Quinn says, "I thought that was obvious."

Tina looks Quinn up and down; in hindsight, yeah, it should have been obvious. "Well that's just....you better get going," Tina says, kicking herself for being so stupid.

"My birthday is on Sunday," Quinn says, "Will you come to my party?"

"This would be the 'I'm a legal adult now' birthday?" Tina asks. Quinn nods. "All right then, I'll be there."

Quinn squeezes Tina in a quick hug before she leaves, "See you then. I can't wait!"

Tina watches the girl run out of the bar, racing against the curfew. "I've either just had a stroke of luck, or I got hit with a stupid stick," she sighs to herself.

With prom coming up, Aislin and Trent spend Saturday practicing their dance moves.

As well as practicing their kissing skills.

Quinn's birthday arrives.

"You made it," Quinn greets Tina when she arrives.

"Look at you, all grown up," Tina says, and whistles.

Quinn leads Tina out to the deck for a moment of privacy. She made it all the way to adulthood without a first kiss, and Quinn means to rectify that immediately.

"I've been wanting to do that all day," Quinn sighs.

"I thought you just wanted to style my hair," Tina laughs.

"Oh I do, very much. At the very least, comb it," Quinn says.

"It'll just get messy again," Tina says, running her fingers through Quinn's styled hair.

"I've bought a place up on Winter Road, I'm moving in tonight," Quinn says, "Maybe you could come help me unpack."

"I'd love that," Tina says.

Tina helped Quinn move into her new house, stayed the night, and promptly at dawn, the young couple had a private wedding. Riley was waiting in the yard when Tina got home from work the next day.

"That was an awfully quick wedding," her new father-in-law says.

Tina is not sure how to respond, everything has been moving faster than she even thought was possible. One thing she's sure of, she fell in love at first sight, and being with Quinn is the best thing that ever happened to her. She's just not sure how to convey this to Quinn's father in a convincing way.

Quinn arrives home from work herself, sparing Tina the task of explaining things to Riley.

"Dad!" Quinn exclaims in surprise, "I guess you heard..."

"Nothing's a secret in this town," Riley says.

"I was going to call you and Mom, but it was so busy at work. I got a promotion! On my first day, even."

"You know we would have thrown a real wedding for you," Riley says.

"I'm sorry, Dad, I really am. It's just, we're so happy together, and we just wanted to be married without a lot of fuss. I hope you can understand that."

"Of course I understand," Riley says, "Your mother and I did the same thing. Though we waited longer to get around to the actual wedding part...but we never were the go getter types that you are."

"I'm glad you're happy, that's all that matters," Riley says, "We didn't have time to shop for a proper gift for you. So, we wrote you a check, buy whatever you need."

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Challenge Notes:
Quinn's LTW is for the Business career. I hadn't planned on hooking her up with anyone, but when Tina immigrated to town right before Quinn's bday, I just had to have her in my story.
I don't have any green skinned Sims in my Bin, so I think SP is pulling genetics from the town itself. Tina is the second immigrant to come in with green skin.  Also, recently there's been a kid adopted with the blue skin and hair color of Santos, Demond's brother. The child is not a vampire (though her adoptive father is one, but he's not a blue skinned vamp.)
When Quinn says she has green-skinned ancestors, she's talking about Rex's family, his mother had green skin.

Trent Roman is also an SP immigrant, along with his father Roman Roman. I laugh every time I see Roman Roman's name. With Aislin, I was going to try to avoid the marrying the childhood friend trope, but when I saw him age up, well, look at him! There's not a better looking teen in my whole town. I'm just sad that Aislin rolled one child only, so there's only once chance to breed him.

Aislin has several outfit and hairstyle changes since turning teen. She rolled Fashion Diva. Though it's not required until YA, I'm getting started early. Since she'll be going into acting, I'll probably change her up more often than I did to Thessaly.

In my last chapter, I said that Demond was the 2nd oldest vampire in town. I don't know what I was thinking, because he's not. For one, his father is still alive (and he's 2nd oldest.) Also older than Demond are Collin and Fred Martin. And I believe Meadow is older than Demond as well, though they are close in age.