Chapter 41: Love is in the Air

Hey, everyone. It's Spooky Day! Since they so rarely get a holiday from school, Blaze and Zinnia go on a date to celebrate. It's a beautiful day.

... I said, it's a beautiful day. These two nerds...

Yes, that's better. Blaze tries to convince Zinnia to try out the haunted house, but she is resistant. "You can hold onto me if you get scared," Blaze says. "Come on! I dare you!"

Zinnia would really rather wait outside, thanks.

Well, all right. "I'll bring you back a souvenir," Blaze jokes.

Afterwards is snacks.

And some half-hearted apple bobbing.

This turns out to be actually really gross, since everyone is putting their open mouths in the same trough of water, so Zinnia and Blaze leave early to go to their mothers' costume party.

The truth is out there.

Tony chooses a more "down-to-earth" costume.

Blaze commemorates the beginning of the party by saluting to the SimNation flag.

The party rages well into the night. Rolando arrives a few hours late dressed like... well.... something.

Racquel is extremely turned on.

Apparently love is in the air tonight, because while Racquel and Rolando are getting busy in the bedroom, Blaze and Zinnia take the opportunity to do some slow dancing.

They decide to ditch the rest of the party and go to the movies.

Zinnia thought the movie was lame, but Blaze enjoyed himself immensely. Apparently cheesy action flicks are exactly his type of film.

The next morning, Zinnia finds Blaze working out by the stereo.

"Hey," he says, "You're up early. Want to join me?"

Zinnia is way too clumsy to be doing jumping jacks and things. She always finds a way to skip gym class during school.

"No, thanks," she says, "I think I'll just cheer you on and... enjoy the view."

Instead of being turned off by the corniness, Blaze finds himself working out even harder in an effort to impress Zinnia.

Josie bounces into the room a few minutes later. "I'll join you!" she says.

"Mom, club dancing is not working out," Zinnia criticizes.

Josie tsks at her daughter. "I'll have you know that dancing burns just as many calories," she says. She's a little bemused at her studious younger daughter - sometimes she wonders how she managed to raise someone so unlike herself. Zinnia will never know the rush of being a party animal.

In other news, Zoe finally gets that first kiss!

Yay, girlfriends. Here's another for good measure.

That's... quite an intense face you've got going on there, Zoe. Zoe is a grump, and can be kind of intense about her misanthropy, but Glenda is fiery and gives as good as she gets and they make a great pair.

Josie practices, and life goes on.

Blaze asks Zinnia out to a fancy restaurant. He's planning on asking her to go steady tonight.

It's raining, and cold, but they don't let that disrupt their plans.

Their favorite thing to talk about is science. Now that they're in high school, they are beginning to learn more about specific fields. Blaze's interest is mainly astronomy, and Zinnia's is genetics.

Back home again, too soon for their liking. It's too cold to stay out for very long, though.

They both put their all into dressing up for this date. Zinnia even tried her hand at makeup.

She takes his hands, leaning in for a kiss, but he pulls back, uncharacteristically shy.

"You look amazing tonight," he mumbles, and steals a kiss.

Which soon tuns into more kisses.

Blaze stops them before they can get too carried away. He's planned this moment for a while now, he only hopes he can pull it off.

He dips her like he saw on one of Zoe's favorite soap operas, supporting all of her weight, showing off how strong he's gotten from sports club.

"Be my girlfriend?" he asks.

She nods. They kiss. It's beautiful.

They make cute faces at each other as they say good night.

I'm in love with her, he realizes. Like, I actually am.

Zinnia's coming to a similar conclusion herself. I want to marry him, she thinks. I'm going to marry him.

Meanwhile, Racquel is in the next room, ranting about sunshine and happiness.

Kids suck! Love sucks! Life sucks! ...and all that jazz.

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Notes -

This chapter is short, because it took forever to do, because Blogger hates me.

I have a confession to make. I've played really far ahead. Like, really really far. Like, generation five are children already, in my game. So the next several chapters might be a little disjointed or confused, since I am paying less attention to story and more to catching up, and just making sure all the important stuff is there.

Anyway, more to come soon....