Chapter 31: What Matters Is Today

In the wake of Ida's engagement, her and Josie's argument is nearly forgotten. Ida has silently decided to forgive Josie and let her off the hook - after all, she's the president of two clubs, gets straight B pluses at school, and doesn't whine overmuch when asked to do chores around the house. For her part, Josie has thought about what Ida said and has been trying to avoid Nicholaus Frio and is being extra-nice to Mindy Andrews in school.

Rain comes over in the morning to congratulate Ida on her wedding. But first, she has a few bones to pick.

"What the hell, Ida, you get engaged and wait until morning to tell me? I should have been the first to know! You're a terrible little sister."

And then, without skipping a beat, she switches tacks.

"So? When's the wedding? Are you having a bachelorette party? Am I going to be your maid of honor? Can I help plan?"

Ida just laughs and rolls her eyes at her hopeless romantic sister. "I don't know when it'll be, maybe Love Day, that was Marlin's idea. I still think we should just have a private ceremony and get it over with, but he wants a party, so I think we'll compromise a little and have a small wedding party at home with no frills."

Rain rolls her eyes right back. "Where's your sense of romance, sister of mine?"

Josie is excited to see her aunt. They may not agree about a lot of things, but they are still very close.

"Hey, my favorite little heartbreaker!" Rain jokes. "Your parents are getting married!"

"My parents are getting married!" Josie whoops excitedly, and they do a little victory dance.

"Can you believe Mom wanted to just not have a party? Is she crazy?"

"Actually, she's eccentric. Which amounts to the same thing, sometimes." They giggle together.

Ida: "My ears are burning, are you talking about me?"

Oh, Aubrey is here too. It's a regular old family reunion.

Harvey, Rain and Aubrey's son, joins them when school lets out.

Harvey's a bit of a grump, and shouts his protests when Alexander tries to pinch his cheeks. "Grandpa, stop, you're embarrassing me!" he shouts. Personally, I'd be more embarrassed about those pink sandals, buddy.

This is the first time Josie is meeting Harvey. She's a fun older cousin.

Three generations of video game addicts.

Ida and Rain get a moment alone in the Marlin's old room (it's converted into a music room - he sleeps with Ida now, of course).

"I'm proud of you, sis," Rain says with feeling.

"You know what? I'm proud of me, too," Ida says happily.

Rain and her family have moved into Marlin's old home after Pauline's death. Ida and Alexander are invited over to meet toddler Lizette, Harvey's younger sister.

"I think you left a sleeping bag there when you were a teenager," snarks Rain.

Wow, she wasn't kidding.

Lizette is really cute. Unlike her brother Harvey, who mostly inherited his mother's looks, Lizette's face is a nice blend of both parents. Alex coos and awws like any doting grandparent should.

"Ah! Grampy, a monster!"

"Ahahaha. Just kidding! It was a hand."

"That's right, I am a Hand," Alexander tells her, smiling.

The next few days are stressful for Josie. She has to give a monologue in front of a famous actress and perform guitar in front of a famous rock star on two consecutive afternoons. She practices her monologue until the early hours in the morning, and spends the days catching up on rest in her classes.

She's less worried about the music performance, although she wishes it was on piano, her main instrument. Music has always come naturally to her, even as a toddler, but she's had to work hard to be charismatic and charming.

Her hard work pays off - she gets picked for best monologue and best guitar performance by both celebrities! One of them, the actress, even pulls her aside and tells her, "You've got star quality, kid, I can just see it. Don't give up!" Josie is so giddy she feels faint.

Jami Bunch waits outside to congratulate Josie after the second afternoon of performances. "You were so awesome in there!" she enthuses. Since it's raining, the girls decide to head back to the Hand residence for a little celebration.

Sometimes Josie wishes everything in the world was as easy as her friendship with Jami Bunch.

After Jami leaves, the family does a little jamming in recognition of Josie's efforts at school.

When did my family get so musical? Ida wonders.

At night, Shanti wants to congratulate her granddaughter as well. She pays a visit to a sleeping Josie.

But when Josie wakes up, she sees nothing.

...That's weird, she thinks before shrugging it off and heading towards the kitchen for a midnight snack. She hears music coming from the garden room, but doesn't check it out. It's probably just her father or grandfather practicing his guitar.

In fact, it is her grandfather, serenading Shanti's ghost.

He plays "One More Dance" and smiles through his tears. "I'll be with you soon," he whispers, but Shanti just smiles and shakes her head before floating upstairs.

Still her favorite spot in the house.

The morning of her mother's wedding, Josie drives over to the Andrews house to try and make up with Mindy. Mindy's not been any less cold recently, but she no longer goes into an apoplectic fit whenever Josie's name is mentioned or demands to be switched to a different class when they end up in the same room together. So maybe there's hope.

Nope, still snubbed. Josie runs off, trying not to feel like maybe she might cry, because how pathetic would it be if she blubbers like a baby just because one person doesn't like her? That would be beyond pathetic.

As she leaves, she glimpses Mindy flirting with a freshman, Torrey Mae. She's already moved on, so why is she still mad at Josie?

Josie gives herself credit for waiting until she's in the car before screaming and kicking the door in frustration.

Wooo! Wedding day! Josie gets ready for the party by autonomously dancing on the counters. I didn't know teens could do that.

Yeah! What-ever, Mindy Andrews!

The party is immediate family and close friends only, so naturally it's incredibly crowded. Little Harvey shows up in an adorable tux. Doesn't he look just like Rain?

Rain attends, of course, along with Aubrey, Rosalind, and Marlin's younger siblings Junior and Shana. Also, Ida's old high school chums, Everett Morris and Morris Alto, plus one crasher, a man Ida went to school with named Mathew Ansari-Wadsworth.

Instead of hors d'oeuvres, they order pizza. And instead of a traditional wedding dress, Ida wears a long sundress.

"Are you ready?" Marlin asks quietly.

"Yeah. I'm so ready. We should probably wait for Dad to finish his pizza though."

Everyone gathers round as soon as Ida and Marlin announce they're ready to say their vows. Well, they try to gather round, anyway. Most of them kind of get stuck in the garden room.

Alex is extremely happy. I don't know if I mentioned this, but besides the hopeless romantic trait, he also gained the family-oriented trait after playing a lot of video games, back before he was an elder. So I guess that's why he's happy and not crying like everyone else:

Rings, promises, and sappy looks are exchanged. Marlin is solemn as he slips the gold band around his new wife's finger, and remembers the night they promised forever to each other, what feels like a lifetime ago, when they were teenagers. Not a lot of teen sweethearts end up happy together, so Marlin can only be thankful for their journey to now, regardless of how much time they spent apart. What matters is today.

Yay! Time for cake.

"Hey, how cool is it that we're officially sisters-in-law?"

Shana is too focused on cake to hear. Off to the side, Harvey eats his cake facing the wall, pouting because he couldn't find a seat next to his cool cousin Josie.

After cake, Ida excuses herself to the bathroom....

...where Marlin is already waiting for her. Really, guys? You can't wait until tonight, or after the party, at least?

Wow, okay. I've never had sims have party sex before. Cool.

Finally, the last guest leaves and the newlyweds head to their bedroom.

"Are you happy?"

"Yes. Are you?"

"Yes."

They don't speak much for the rest of the night.

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Notes -

Hooray! This was my first generations wedding party. It wasn't even a real one, I didn't use the arch, but I think it went well!

I had to get rid of the pod sleeper, because it was glitching out. It's too bad, because it prevented Ida from always feeling out of sorts. Now she'll just have to keep breathing into a bag, I guess.

Alex is very old - I thought maybe traveling messed up his age so I checked but nope, he's 120 days old! I've never had a sim that old on normal, without using ambrosia or the Young Again potion. I was planning on doing the move after he dies but the way things are going, he may have to move to SC with everyone. Josie is almost a young adult!