Chapter 28: Act Like a Grown-Up

Josie visits her best friend Jami Bunch and is attacked by her cat. I swear, all the cats in this town are pure evil.

"Owwww.... why do you hate me?"

The cat doesn't know why it hates humans so much... but the urge to bite, scratch, and tackle is overwhelming.

In contrast, Ida's adult birthday is extremely underwhelming.

As usual, she's in the basement when it happens. No one even notices; Shanti and Alexander are in bed together two floors up (they still roll wants to woohoo all the time), and Josie is outside playing Gnubb with Jami.

Yeah, Josie is really bad at this game. 

She's bad at most games, really. Here she is playing rock, paper, scissors with her Dad.

"Aah! Dad, you scared me!"

She learns fast. Marlin plays along.

"Nooo! It's a monster!"

It's a Sunday, so Josie can spend all morning playing tag with Marlin.

Ida remembers how much she loved playing tag with her sister in France when they were kids, so she joins in too. 

Ida: "Hey, kid, you're pretty cute! Are we related?"

That's Harvey Langerak, Rain's son. He really is adorable.

Shanti and Alex take turns snuggling the toddler while Ida and Rain catch up. Rain is a minor leaguer now, and her team is doing well. She comes home fatigued most nights of the week.

Josie hasn't met her cousin yet; she's at home "finishing her homework." Actually, she's on her phone making plans for her next party, which will be... drumroll, please.... her teen birthday party! Woo!

She gets one last bedtime story before she's too old for that junk. 

The morning of the party. Josie thinks it's totally whack that she has to go to school on her birthday, but Ida insists she go.

Rain comes over early to help out with party preparations. Also, she's pregnant again! "I found out last night, after you guys left," she explains. This time, she wants to know the gender of the baby. "Because I want a girl, and I don't want to get my hopes up if it's not."

It's a girl! Alex is over the moon, of course. His third grandchild is on the way - how lovely.

Shanti watches with love and affection in her eyes. She'll be glad to see the new baby, too.

Meanwhile, Ida and Marlin set up for the party. Well, they're supposed to be setting up, but Ida has screwed up her courage and decided that today is the day she talks to Marlin and resolves this weird precarious "thing" blossoming between them.

"Marlin, I've been meaning to talk to you. The truth is, I still... um, well, that is, I think I-- I mean, I never.." As usual, too many thoughts try to make their way out of her mouth at the same time, and she fumbles with her words.

"Slow down," Marlin says, drawing her close. "I think I know what you're going to say, and I think you already know what I'll say back, too. So why don't we just skip that part and move on to the next?"

Ida can't help herself - she laughs. "It's not that simple," she says. "I have a lot to make up for, for what I did to you, and... And for one thing, I don't know how you feel about the whole thing!"

Marlin groans. "I already told you, I'm not mad at you for all that. And we both behaved poorly that day, and you said you're not mad at me either, and that you didn't mean what you said, so we're even. And if you didn't mean what you said, that means you didn't stop loving me, right? And the way you've been looking at me these past several days... Actually, hold on," he inturrupts himself. "Let me put on something less ridiculous while we're doing this." He changes out of his sleepwear quickly. "That's better. What were we saying?" He takes her hands in his.

"Um, but, I mean, wait. Just wait. Does this mean you still.. feel.... things? Um, for me? That you're still..."

"God, Ida, I thought it was obvious. I never meant to leave you before, and I never hated you, and I never stopped loving you. So yes, I am 'still.' Are you? 'Still?'"

Ida looks away, blinking back tears. "Ida? You with me?" 

She steals a sudden kiss.

"Yeah," she murmurs when they break apart. "I'm 'still,' too."

That wasn't so hard, Ida thinks, and after that there is very little thinking.

Haha. Cuties.

/end sappy romantic shit

Preparations for Josie's birthday are ready! They include: a cake. That's pretty much it. Several of Josie's friends have already aged up, including Lyndsey Zaidi and Jami Bunch, so the party will be a good way to introduce Josie to the high school social scene.

I felt that I've been lax about photographing parties lately, so I made sure to capture every one of Josie's guests this time - and there are a lot!

Windy Mae and Nicholaus Frio are still children, and a bit jealous that Josie gets to be a teen before them.

Also among the younger kids are Mindy Andrews and Cory Sekemoto.

Cory's facing away because his face clips a bit and it's kind of a horror show...

Lyndsey Zaidi (left) and Jami Bunch both aged up recently. Actually, Jami doesn't look half bad, considering her parents (Arlo Bunch and Sandi, if you don't remember).

There are also some parents there to chaperone - Jacklyn Sekemoto (left) is the daughter of Claire Ursine and Jared Frio, and Edith Mae is one of Zelda Mae and Xander Clavell's three children, as well as Ida's old school chum. 

 And that's Pauline, offering us a rare glimpse at the stairwell and hallway. Hi, Pauline! Where are you going?

....Oh.

Oh, no. Shanti....

Ida sobs. Her mother passed away right next to her medical trophies, which only makes Ida cry harder. She did so much good, helped so many people... not least of which was Ida herself. 

Josie is grief-stricken as well. She and her grandmother were close.

And Alex...

Oh, Alex. 

Josie takes a deep breath and prepares herself for the rest of the party. Life is testing her, she thinks, testing her to see if she can act like a grown-up. And people came here to eat cake and see her age up, so that's what she's going to give them. And if she's a little solemn while blowing out the candles and cutting the cake, well, who can blame her?

Josie ages up looking almost identical to how her mother used to look at this age. The only Wan she has in her is maybe a bit of a rounder face. She gains the Social Butterfly trait.

None of the immediate family are quite in the mood for cake. And in the next room, Edith Mae is distracted by something alarming:

Apparently a very heavily pregnant woman named Farrah Morris decided to crash the party and then proceed to go into labor directly after the death of the birthday girl's grandmother. How rude!

Everyone crowds around panicking about what to do, but no one seems to want to take her to the hospital. So Farrah begins heckling everyone in sight.

"BOOO! This party blows! Aren't you going to take care of the pregnant woman in labor, huh? Disrespectful tryhards!!"

The nerve of this woman is astounding to Marlin. First she crashes a party, then goes into labor, and then begins heckling people right after someone dies? What's your problem, lady?

Sickened by this display of immaturity, everyone abandons their cake and finds other ways to amuse themselves for the rest of the party.

Cory Sekemoto: "This is the most exciting party I've ever been to!"

Me: "Boy, I'm sure glad I didn't roll Hands Off."

Finally, Ida sucks it up and takes Farrah to the hospital.

Farrah insists on driving, and Ida spends the whole ride wondering why she has to come along if Farrah is well enough to drive. This woman is ridiculous. 

Also ridiculous:

Pauline is celebrating the fact that she is not the first of Ida's grandmothers to pass away. Kind of insensitive of you, huh Pauline? 

After the guests leave (they are all extremely pleased with the party), the house is full of mourning. Alex heads straight to bed, wanting to escape into dreams of his healthy, beautiful, and clever wife. Marlin bites back sobs as he remembers how Shanti used to do the laundry for the whole house.

And, when Ida comes back from helping Farrah Morris, she hands over Josie's birthday gift. "It was your grandmother's idea to get this for you," Ida says sadly. "She so wanted to see how you liked it." It's a lovely portable keyboard; Shanti wanted her granddaughter to practice at the things she loves, like Shanti herself did.

"Thank you, it's beautiful," Josie sniffs. "I'll never forget her."

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Notes -

Finally Ida and Marlin are acting like adults. Josie's doing pretty good too. Shanti lived to something like 107 days, it's a lot, and Alex is the same age so it shouldn't be too much longer for him. :(