Chapter 40: Kissing and Stuff

"How fascinating," Blaze says. He strokes his chin and squints. "It grew."

Blaze wants to keep the tiberium and experiment on it, but he hasn't got the resources. They sell the gem to the science center instead for a hefty sum of money.

By the way, it is Fall now. You can just barely see the new carpet.

The boy reads a lot about sports. He wants to play basketball for school, for some reason. The physics of the sport fascinate him, or something. I don't know.

Oh, there's the carpet. While Blaze is a genius, he's also joining the basketball team and the debate team and spending all his (minimal) free time reading comic books and playing video games. Zinnia, on the other hand, just works really hard in school. She's very single-minded about her studies.

More schoolwork. Zoe would rather be napping.

Even more schoolwork, plus a glimpse of Racquel's Fall outfit.

Josie's fall outfit. She's been teaching Jonesy how to play piano.

Blaze fights with his mother a lot. She wishes he were more like his father.

He wishes she were more like Josie.

It's not only Blaze who gets into it with Racquel. Tony finds her very hard to get along with as well.

Zoe finds all this drama is reasonably entertaining.

It's raining this afternoon. Blaze wants to go bowling. For science! He has a strategy that he thinks would net you at least 50 points every time.

What? He's going with Zinnia, of course. Who else?

There is a rollerskating rink at the arcade. Zinnia doesn't want to try it; she claims she's too clumsy.

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Blaze pretends to search her face, peering exaggeratedly into her eyes. "I know it's hiding there somewhere..."

Zinnia giggles. OK, maybe just for a minute...

"This was a bad idea," she says shrilly as she fights to remain standing. Blaze, having honed his coordination in sports club, is having no trouble at all.

"Here, try it like this," he suggests, holding out his hands.

"This is better," Zinnia tells him. Blaze thinks so, too. Holding hands is always better than not holding hands.

Until, of course:

OW. Okay, adventure over.

Blaze thinks of something he'd rather do instead.

"Zinnia," he says, catching her hands in his. "I think you're awesome, and I'd really like to kiss you. How do you feel about that?"

Zinnia is at a loss for words, so she closes her eyes and purses her lips and waits.

This is how you do it, right?

Mwah!

It's just a peck, but Blaze thinks it was awesome. He tells her so, once she opens her eyes.

"I liked it, too," she says sweetly, blushing.

Bowling. Zinnia is too busy daydreaming about that kiss to see Blaze somehow score a strike while faceplanting.

More epic fails.

"Ow. Can we stop now?" she asks. They've been at it for a few hours already.

Blaze offers her a massage to make it up to her.

"Now it's my turn," he says jokingly. Zinnia just smiles and orders him to turn around. "I wasn't serious...." he says, but shuts right up as she zeroes in on his tense spots.

After all his extracurriculars and extra workouts, Blaze's body really needed this.

More nerdiness. Blaze spots a claw machine. "Gonna win you a prize," he tells Zinnia, remembering that she likes teddy bears.

It's a genie bear. How lovely!

The date ends with a festival picture and synchronized yawning. They both had a blast!

Everyone continues to overlook Tony. He can't seem to catch a break, these days.

Tony wouldn't admit it to anyone, but yesterday he got so lonely he bought a plant... but it died because he didn't know how to take care of it...

Zinnia coaxes it back to life.

Meanwhile, Zoe makes a pretty friend named Glenda Funke.

They have a lot in common, and Zoe just thinks she's so gorgeous.

"I bought you flowers," she says. She had to get dressed and leave the house and everything to get these flowers, don't you know?

Glenda appreciates the flowers, and the gesture.

Wow, Zoe thinks. She looks really happy. Maybe I should - 

Oh. Maybe next time, Zoe.

Zinnia observed this whole encounter from inside the apartment.

"You didn't tell me you were gay," she says. She pouts a little. Zoe shrugs.

"I'm not, I guess," she says. "I'm, like, bisexual? Anyway, it doesn't matter, she doesn't like me. At least cake will always love me..."

"Well, for the record," Zinnia says, "It looked to me like she liked you. She was probably just tired, or something. Don't you get cranky too?"

Zoe thinks about this. "Well, she is a bit hot-headed..." she says. "I guess I could ask her about it tomorrow."  Zinnia smiles at her sister. "What do you know about kissing and stuff, anyway?" Zoe asks, suddenly suspicious.

Zinnia just blushes and mumbles something about homework and flees the room.

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Notes -

Short chapter since I'm in a rush to get through this generation. All the goals are met and I really want Blaze to take over already, lol. My gameplay these days consists of me following Racquel around all day having her take pictures of different stuff so that the Blaze and Zinnia will have enough funds to move into the house I built (I rolled Change of Scenery). Also, I am eager to play and less eager to write, but I know if I don't keep this blog up then I'll lose my motivation to play... it's a weird cycle. The more I play, the less I want to write; but the less I write, the less I want to play.

Sounds weird, I know. But I have an anxiety disorder, and the Sims is a very important coping mechanism for me, so I will write if that's what it takes to keep things interesting for me. Even though I do not always enjoy writing or think I'm any good at it.