Chapter 26: Parties and More Parties

Now that Marlin is staying over most nights, Josie has plenty of time to learn all she can about music and the life of a rock star from her dad. Unfortunately, Marlin's more into the composing-producing aspect of music, rather than the "rock star" part. Josie thinks that's lame; what's the point of being a musician if not to party?

Marlin listens to his daughter chatter animatedly about the latest hit dance records and catches a glimpse of the photo sitting on the dryer. It's the one taken on Spooky day, seemingly a lifetime ago, when he and Ida were still teenagers, and still happy in love. He spares a wistful thought for all the happy days he and Ida could have had, if he'd only been stronger for her.

"I think it's time for bed, don't you pipsqueak?" he says to his daughter, laughing through her protests as he leads her to her room. 

He lets her dance to one last song before tucking her into bed.

Ida creeps into the room to make sure Josie is asleep. She takes a moment to thank Marlin for helping out with Josie.

"You've definitely passed on your exceptional dancing skills," Ida teases him, smiling.

"I don't know, you're not bad yourself. I remember some pretty amazing moves at our prom," Marlin returns. They laugh quietly as they remember how ridiculous and dorky they both were at their prom, doing the chicken dance.

They both turn quiet at the same time, looking at each other, each waiting for the other to speak. "Well," Ida says finally, "good night..." She reaches out to pat him on the arm, just as he leans in to kiss her on the cheek. They laugh again, awkwardly, and settle for a hug.

"Good night," Marlin says softly, watching her go.

Meanwhile! Alex is having a bad day, and decides to blog about it.

The blog is quickly discovered by fans of his nectar, and he gets flooded with nectar-related messages within minutes. No one cares about his personal problems.

Frustrated, he runs around the house kicking all the weird magically-appearing gnomes he can find.

"None of you freaks were around when we first built this place," he mutters. There are at least five of these vampire ones alone.

His bad mood is tempered by the realization that tomorrow is a holiday, and he finally goes to bed.

The next morning, Ida and her daughter dance in their sleepwear and chat about what music to play at the feast party they're planning.

Ida is trying to convince Josie that Chinese music is a perfectly acceptable and lovely choice of party music, while Josie is more into pop and rock music.

Just when their discussion is starting to get a little heated, they hear music coming from somewhere other than the stereo.

Apparently Marlin and Alexander have decided on live music for the day's entertainment.

Shanti decides to pay a visit to her old friend Sandi Bunch in the morning, and invite her and Arlo to their party. "Grandma, do your friends have any kids my age?" Josie asks. Josie is eager to make friends so she can start throwing her own parties.

Shanti thinks for a moment. "I know Sandi and Arlo have kids, three of them, but I think they are all a bit older. But why don't you come along anyway and meet them?"

So Josie visits the Bunch household with her grandmother.

As it turns out, the youngest French-Bunch spawn is a child, and only a few days older than Josie. Jami Bunch is friendly, if a bit of a slob, and the two are fast friends.

Before they can spend a lot of time socializing with the Bunches, Shanti and Josie have to go home to their Feast Party. Sandi and Arlo have  their own party to attend, so Jami is not allowed to come over.

Most of the guests at the party are couples; there's Rosalind and Dana, Rain and Aubrey, and Morris Alto and his new wife Shana (Marlin's sister!). Other guests include Marlin's mom Pauline, his younger brother Junior, and Everett Morris, the shop club geek.

The first thing Shana does is throw up in the front yard in front of everyone. It can't be the food, the party hasn't even started yet. Wonder what that's all about?

No one invited Perry Alvi, but he shows up with curry so he's instantly welcomed into the fold.

And Josie gets to meet her Dad's mom for the first time.

"Hi, other grandma!"

Josie and Pauline get along great; both are party animals.

Inside, Rain and Ida catch up over a game of chess.

Rain and Aubrey have finally moved out and got their own place to raise little Harvey. Their old shared house with Dana and Rosalind was getting a little cramped, and with Rosalind's two kids and Dana's difficult personality there just wasn't any room for Harvey to grow.

Dana doesn't get along with anybody; he's mean-spirited. Here he's fighting with Morris Alto, one of Ida's best friends. It's no wonder Rain doesn't approve of him.

Other party activities include Sim Gnubb (featuring a starstruck Shana),

Playing catch, Alex's favorite pastime:

And, of course, dancing.

Arlo and Sandi are able to make it towards the end of the night.

The two worst noses in the town decided to have kids... *shakes head*. At least they seem to be happy with each other.

"Hi, Auntie Rain!"

Rain thinks her niece is just adorable, and offers to ditch the party and take her trick-or-treating.

Josie may be a party animal, but this party doesn't have any kids her age so she agrees readily, and rushes to prepare her costume.

Too cute!

Unfortunately, all of her neighbors seem to be out at parties or at the festival. By the end of the night, Josie is frustrated and more than a little upset. She just spent all night running from house to house and only ended up with one piece of candy. Unbelievable.

It's still a delicious piece of candy, though.

Meanwhile, back at home, guests are beginning to leave. Ida sits against the side of the house and breathes a sigh of relief. It was a great party, everyone had a lot of fun and the food was excellent, but it was still pretty hectic, and she's glad to have a minute of quiet.

Marlin sits down next to her. "Nice party," he says, touching her fingers gently with his. 

"Thank you." They smile at each other.

Just then, Josie comes bounding into the yard demanding to hear a song from her Dad before bedtime. 

He plays her her favorite, "Pa Fights the Bear," while Alex entertains the last of the party guests as they're leaving.

Everett Morris: "WOOoooo, yeah! Great jams, Mr. H! Oww!"

The next day is Josie's first day of school. She gets up bright and early to get in some pillow fighting before school starts.

Her grandma is the only one up at this time, but that's okay - Shanti is the best at pillow fighting.

Also, some smustlin' before the bus comes:

After school, Josie goes home with a girl named Lyndsey Zaidi. Lyndsey is the half-sister of Josie's Uncle Aubrey, which makes her Josie's kind-of not-really aunt. Confusing? Yeah, a little.

Lyndsey's parents, Kaylynn and Cycl0n3 Sw0rd, just got divorced, and her mother is already fighting with her new husband, Reggie Zaidi. Josie feels sorry for Lyndsey; her own parents might not be married either, but at least they get along. Although sometimes, Josie can sense a weird tension between them...

When the girls try to go inside, Kaylynn is screaming her head off at Reggie, sticking her finger in his face and brandishing her cane like a weapon. "You'd better just go home," Lyndsey tells Jodie miserably. Jodie agrees, not wanting to stay and make things more awkward, but she's already planning a way to cheer her sort-of half-aunt up.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!" Josie chants to get Ida's attention.

"Just a sec, Jo, Mommy's just gotta finish up this trait chip..." Ida says. Josie rolls her eyes; she thinks robots are kind of lame, and doesn't understand why her mom spends so much time down here building them. 

"Moooooom," she groans.

"Yes, all right, what is it?"

Josie explains about what she witnessed at the Lyndsey's house earlier, how sad Lyndsey was and how mean and scary her mother was acting. "And that's why I want to have a slumber party! Here! And I'll invite Lyndsey, so she doesn't have to spend time with her mean old mom, and we'll dance and play games and it'll be fun! Please, mom? We'll be good, we won't stay up too late I promise!"

Now it's Ida's turn to roll her eyes; she knows if Josie got her way she'd stay up all night till the sun rose. "Do you promise to go to bed when I say so?" she asks in her best Stern Mom voice.

"Yes. Mom, don't you trust me at all?"

No, Ida thinks, but is helpless under the beseeching gaze of her only child. "Yes, okay, fine," Ida says resignedly. After all, it's a Friday night, and it's for a good cause. Poor little Lyndsey...

Josie begins planning right away.

Jami Bunch comes over wearing the same pajamas that Josie picked out. Thankfully, the girls aren't yet at the age where they would fight over these kinds of things.

"Nice PJ's!"

"Thanks, yours are great too!" *hugs*

Mindy Andrews, Rosalind's daughter and therefore a friend of the family, is also invited. 

Josie tries to bond with her by complaining about school, but Mindy thinks school is pretty great, actually.

Lydnsey arrives and makes a beeline for the costume chest. "We don't have one of these at home!" she cries excitedly. 

She's also really into Josie's personal jukebox.

The party is a success, mostly. One of Ida's creations escapes the basement and spills oil on Josie's carpet.

"Sorry about this, Lyndsey, we'll be out of your way in a second."

"It's okay, Ms. Hand, that thing is way cool!"

Mindy insists on doing her homework while the other girls dance and play Gnubb, and ends up leaving early in a huff. Well, whatever, thinks Josie. She only invited Mindy because she's a friend of the family, anyway.

The remaining girls have a blast and are in their sleeping bags by Ida's pre-agreed bedtime.

Saturday morning, Ida is feeling restless and stir-crazy. She waits for her daughter's guests to leave before approaching Josie.

"Pack your bags," she says. "We're going on a trip."

--------------------

Notes -

I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate the attraction system!!! Argh! I can't get Marlin to stop flirting with Shanti. It's ridiculous! Shanti's been eternally faithful for like two in-game years! So why are they flirting and accepting each other's advances? I hate it, it makes no sense at all. I might have to find a mod to either tune the attraction system or get rid of it all together. I can't invite Rain over, either, because she and Marlin start flirting right away too. Even though she has the Hopeless Romantic trait and is also married. Shouldn't the hopeless romantic trait make you more faithful?? /rant

Aaaaanyway.... Josie is so much fun! She's very different from both Ida and Rain when they were kids. I can't stop taking pictures of her dancing, lol, she's just so cute. Here's an extra one that I like a lot:

:')