Gen 2 - Chapter 14: Several Birthdays and Sunstroke

Sooner than I would have liked, it came time for the triplets' birthday. Neither Elvy nor I had wanted another event like their first birthday party, since they probably wouldn't even remember it anyway. Zachariah was still the spitting image of Elvira. A very unique, and handsome little boy. Quintus looked quite a lot like his older sister, Dahlia - also a very handsome little man. And Jeremiel.. oh, such a little cutie, my Jere, just like his brothers. They were going to be quite the little lady killers. Unless of course any of them ended up like me, in which case.. uh, gentleman killers? That just sounds like they're murderers. Either way, you know what I mean.

Almost as soon as he was finished aging up, Jere came up to me and started to tell me a story. I'm not sure where he'd heard the story, but I thought maybe Elvy had told it to him while I was at work one day. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear half of what he said because Eulalie wanted to go to bed and she wanted to go to bed right that second. When he finished his story, I smiled at him, complimented his storytelling ability, gave him a hug, and sent him along to bed, even though it was the middle of the day. Him and his brothers had been on a different schedule from the rest of us.

When he left, I turned to see Quin smile up at me in a 'I'm not tired!' way, and just raised an eyebrow. "Bed, mister." He pouted, but didn't argue, and just headed along to the new bed we'd bought for him. Then it was little Lalie's turn. I turned to her and picked her up, then carried her to her crib, settling her gently into it. "There you go, my last little angel.. did you know you're the last toddler in this house, unless you or one of your siblings decides to stay here?" I cooed to her, and petted her pretty black hair. She just tiredly reached up towards me and gurgled cutely. Again, that feeling of wanting another baby. Our house was too cramped with the eight of us, though, so another was out of the question. I felt tears come to my eyes. I would never see any of my children get married. Have children of their own. I wish I had discovered Elvira so much sooner.. I leaned down and kissed the top of Eulalie's head. "Sleep well, sunshine."

Later that day, when Quin and Jere got up to get dinner, I was still kind of down in the dumps, but those boys certainly can cheer anyone up. I don't know whose house they think they're in, but it certainly can't be our's, because when the trash compactor broke after Jere used it, they both freaked out. "Jereeeeee you broke the trash thingy!" Quin cried, while Jere's cowardly side came out, and he quivered, nearly crying. "I know, I know, what if Mama Elvy gets mad?"

Oh. They're afraid of Elvira. I should have known, I'm afraid of her. I laughed, and went into the kitchen. "Don't worry, you two, she won't get mad. She doesn't even use it. Now go watch TV, okay?" I giggled to myself slightly when they both gasped and spun around to stare at me. My little ones are so adorable, and I dreaded them growing up more. Can't time be paused? Please?

They did like I suggested, and made a contest out of it. Whoever got to the couch got to decide what they watched. Quin won, and decided to watch the horror channel; Jere decided he did not want to watch something scary, so got on the computer instead. But Zach joined Quin at the TV when he got up. I listened to them talking as I busied myself in the kitchen, and was sure they were having a nice time, when I heard a shriek from the living room. I dropped what I was doing, and hurried as fast as my old legs could carry me into the living room. "What happened!?"

Zach wasn't in the room, and Quin was giggling to himself, though he stopped as soon as he saw me. "Zach got too scared and ran away.."

I sighed deeply at that, and nodded lightly. Ever since they'd grown up, both Jere and Zach jumped and screamed at almost anything, and I felt bad for the two boys. But Quintus.. he seemed to constantly be teasing them about it, watching the horror channel or telling them ghost stories. And they'd only been children for a few days! "Quintus Parodi, stop scaring your brothers, and watch a more kid friendly channel, alright? There are things on the horror channel that none of you should be seeing. There are things on it that I shouldn't be seeing." I grabbed the remote, and switched it to the kids channel, locking the horror channel. That oughta do it.

Except that it didn't do it, because Quin still kept teasing his brothers in other ways. Sigh.

After a while came the day I hated. While Elvy was at work, their 'abandoned warehouse' was discovered by the police, and she was arrested. Her co-workers that were also arrested got hauled away immediately by the cops, and left her with a rather incompetent policeman. He lead her to the sidewalk, and used ankle cuffs on her; evidently, something they used on vampires to slow down their super speed so they couldn't run away. He told her to wait while he went to get the car. Not able to really walk anywhere, and being a respectful person, she waited, despite the sun beating down on her. Why couldn't he have made her wait inside?! Or in some shade? The idiot! 

She waited. And waited. At home, I began to notice that she was a little late, but she'd been late before so I didn't worry too much. A couple more hours passed, and she was still waiting, the sun still bright as can be. I had no idea what was happening at the time, but I knew it couldn't be good. Lalie knew, too, and when I was trying to comfort her, all she would do is cry for 'malvy'.

Another hour, two, and she still wasn't home. A million things crossed my mind. Arrested for good, and she hadn't gotten her one phone call; cheating on me, she'd done it before so I knew she was capable of doing it again; but worst of all, sunstroke? Little did I know that she was suffering from sunstroke. She'd passed out there on the sidewalk. Estiu was the only reason why she survived. She found Elvira, and used one of her many powers to pick the lock, then teleported her home, safe.

I will never be able to thank Estiu enough for saving my Elvy.

Later that same day, I got sad news from Jamal, Dee's now young adult son. Dee had passed away in her sleep that night. I was even more thankful to Estiu for saving Elvy - I couldn't have handled the death of my sister and my wife on the same day.

After the sunstroke incident, Elvira was even weaker than during or after her pregnancy with Eulalie, and she could barely get out of bed to do anything. She was also still incredibly close to death, because evidently vampires with sunstroke needed to drink plasma as soon as they thought they might need it. She told me of some other vampires she knew who died that way - they really were an amazingly frail race, for being able to live so long. It worried me, thinking about my children having to deal with that.

Thankfully, they all seemed completely oblivious to what nearly happened to Elvira. Dahlia, my little genius girl, was busying herself with discovering previously undiscovered stars and naming them after family members. The first star she found she named Sean, even though she never got to meet her grandmother. Such a sweet child. Quin seemed to be growing out of his trouble making (for his brothers, at least) since he started going to school, and often I'd find him by himself, playing with the dollhouse. Or watching Drazen, then doing whatever Drazen does - he even told me he wants to do the same thing as Drazen when he grows up, master painting and guitar. To say that I didn't find it completely adorable would be a lie!

Time goes so fast.

The time came for my eldest children to become teenagers, and we didn't throw them a party simply because Elvira was still suffering from her sunstroke, and I was worried too many people may have aggravated the problem. Drazen, being the oldest, grew up first, just as he was about to start painting. He grew up far too handsome, and I wondered if he was going to be one of those boys that the girls hang all over. I wondered a lot of things, really.

As soon as he grew up, he cheered, before grinning widely over at me as I turned to go celebrate Dahlia's birthday with her, and excitedly asking, "Mom, can I have my guitar now!? You said I could!" Oh. Well, so I did. I laughed, and smiled, still walking towards the dining room.

"Yes, you can have your guitar now."

"AWESOOOOME!" He was more hyper active than I would have imagined.

Dahlia, ever my calm little sweetheart, didn't cheer nearly as much as Drazen had, and grew up into a gorgeous young lady. Instead of hiding her naturally curly hair, now, she wore it proudly, and I beamed at this fact. I'd gotten only a little of my Mom's natural curl, but she'd gotten it completely and totally. Actually.. looking at her, she looked practically like a clone of my mother. I know there were subtle differences, but I've never been able to spot those easily.

It was somewhat funny, the boys didn't seem to realize it was their older siblings' birthday because when Jere entered the dining room and saw Dahlia and her new growth spurt, he panicked a little. "Wh-wh-who are you?!"

She smiled lightly and looked towards him. "It's me, Dahlia. I grew up."

"Dahlia! You.. you.. you're... big like Mama Lyr and Mama Elvy!"

"Not completely. I'm just a teenager."

"Oh. Oh kay."

Teenagers - to be perfectly honest, I had been dreading my children becoming teenagers. I'd heard they were difficult. So far, I was so relieved to have teenagers around the house, especially while Elvira was still suffering from her sunstroke. Drazen absolutely adored Eulalie - he took care of her every chance he got, and tickled and snuggled her and was just the best big brother he could be. It kind of made me wish I had a big brother, but a baby brother had always worked just fine. I love my brother, and wouldn't trade him for anything.

I was still working on my book in my spare time - which I have a lot more of than you can see, but I only try to show you the interesting stuff - but I had.. to be honest, I was losing interest in doing much but things that had to do with my family. They were all so much more important to me now than anything. I knew I'd never master writing and painting, now all I could hope for was to survive long enough to see my children grow up to take care of themselves, and each other. I was still going to write, but it no longer was my focus.

To be honest, I'd been worried about Dahlia since she'd witnessed the death of her teacher. Before that, she was never a very social girl, but after.. when she was still a child, she never played with the other kids. As a teenager, she had yet to mention any cute guys - or girls - and I.. well, I didn't know what she did outside of school, if anything. I really didn't know her at all, because when she was home, she was always at the telescope, trying to discover five previously undiscovered stars.

One day, I saw her soaking in the hot tub, and I took it as my chance to speak with with just her for the first time in.. ages. I slipped into the tub next to her, and sighed happily. "Hmm, been too long since I soaked in here.."

"It's my first time. I like being a teenager; I've always wanted in the hot tub, but Mama Elvy said to wait until I was a teenager." Evidently, trying to get something out of her wasn't going to be as hard as I suspected it would be.

"I agree with her. It would be too hot for a kid, it's almost too hot for me sometimes."

"Yeah. But I love it. I especially love the waterfall."

"Oh, it's one of my favorite parts. Imagine, if I wasn't a five star celebrity, we wouldn't have this."

"Thank you for being super-famous, Mom," she laughed, then leaned back, closing her eyes.

We both went silent for a while, and I didn't know what to say. I wanted to find out if anything was the matter, if I needed to send her to see a psychiatrist or something. Finally, I thought of something, and opened my mouth to speak..

"I'm the heiress."

What? I didn't say that. I blinked, and looked over at Dahlia. The heiress..? What was she... OH. Oh! The heiress, like I was! "Did Estiu find you and tell you, then?"

"Yeah, the other day. You know when I was late getting home on my first day? Estiu found me after class and told me all about our wish-granting power and everything, then that I was the heiress. Oh, and she told me to tell you that she got married."

I was startled at both, but mainly the second. Who would marry Estiu? I mean, sure, she had a good personality I suppose, but she seemed like a lot to deal with..

Our conversation continued on like that, until we were both too tired to continue, and we went to bed.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Elvy was finally well enough again to get around and concentrate on things other than staying alive. The first morning after she started feeling better, she proved to me again that Drazen is her favorite, and played video games with him before he was supposed to go to school. Those two are so close, it's downright amazing.

(A/N: I was going to try and make this long enough to be the last chapter of gen 2, but I just.. can't write chapters that long. So I'm going to try and get the next one out a.s.a.p.! So, the thing with Elvira and the cop? So frustrating. She got arrested, and the cop told her to wait, then drove off and never came back. I waited. And waited. And if her 'wait' action hadn't been a non-delete-able action, she would have died of sunstroke. She stood there for about fifteen real life minutes having the 'dying of thirst' moodlet count down then restart several times. Finally, I gave up and decided to try 'reset Sim' and thankfully it worked, so I wouldn't have to have her stuck in my household dying for the rest of forever. 'Expire' was actually even in her action queue. It drove me nuts. Anyway! Next time is hopefully the last chapter of gen 2, hopefully hopefully, and if it's not, then it's second to last. I can't wait to get to Dahlia's generation, because it's been the most interesting so far, since I have yet to move any of the kids out.)