A Woman Scorned, Chapter 7
Warning for: under-aged woo hoo and typical coming of age drama
The new house in Strangetown is a much roomier two-story, four bedroom home with plenty of space for a growing family to spread out.
Cassandra quickly transforms on of the bedrooms into a nursery/playroom for Laila, while Darla and Malone enjoy having their own bedrooms for once.
Darla really seems happy with the new house, doesn’t she?
Laila begins her exploration of the new house by discovering the location of the dog food dish. Yucky!
The fact that she seems to have preferred the dog food to her own breakfast is not lost on the rest of the family.
“Face it, Mom,” Darla proclaims when the cereal bowl goes flying across the dining room. ”Laila is a born brat.”
Cassandra cannot help but wonder at her youngest daughter’s discontent. Could it, perhaps, been caused by the severity of the depression she’d felt while pregnant with her? Or perhaps, on some subconscious Jungian level, Laila knew that her father was dead?
Whatever the reasons, it is quite clear that Laila is NOT a happy child.
As Cassandra is once again working, it falls to Darla to watch over her younger siblings when she is not in school. So it is Darla who bears the brunt of Laila’s mischief. She often feels defeated and dejected, swearing that she will never, EVER have children. Not like this one. Not ever.
The only respite she gets are the precious few moments when Malone finishes his homework and can play with Laila, too. She likes to play doll house, although her method of play looks more like torture.
And occasionally, she can be adorable, though.
Especially when she’s asleep.
Cassandra has a difficult time making friends at first.
Their next door neighbors, the grunts, are a family men with a predisposition for being … very regimented. Well, the father and oldest son, for sure. The middle son is a teenager with long hair and a reputation that precedes him along the Strangetown grapevine. The youngest is an awkwardly chubby boy.
The old lady who lives in the house up the hill - Olive Specter, as Cassandra soon learns - is the only one who stops to greet her in those first few weeks. Cassandra finds her to be … very odd.
“Secrets are plentiful, my dear, like graves. You never know what is buried beneath the surface.” This she says, rather like a warning, while fixing an all too keen eye upon Cassandra. It made Cassandra feel uncomfortable, to say the least.
“You guard yours for now, but they will out ere long. Trust no one, especially not the winged cherubim who promises amour. His is the deadliest lie of all.”
Cassandra had been a Goth long enough to know a prophetic statement when she heard it. Or at the very least, a loaded statement. There wasn’t much prophecy in it when she knew that dear departed Donnie was the winged cherub who promised love and brought only lies. The crazy old lady was a day late and a dollar short there.
While her mother struggled to make friends, Darla was making plenty. In no time at all, she’d made friends with Johnny Smith, Ripp Grunt (and his brother Tank) and Ophelia Nigmos.
The only trouble with Strangetown was … there was nothing to do unless you were a science geek or a military brat. Plenty of stuff to do on the base, especially if your father was general… plenty of stuff to do if you were a Beaker or a Curious.
Darla found herself sneaking out at night to hang with Johnny, Ripp and Ophelia. It was thrilling and different. They’d drive out into the desert, build a bonfire and just hang out while counting the stars. Johnny knew a lot about stars.
Sometimes when the stars got boring, Ophelia would shut her boyfriend with a deep kiss.
The first time it happened, Darla was nervous, because what do you do when one half of your group suddenly becomes a make out session?
“Maybe we should go or something?” she suggested that first time. she started to stand up, only to be stopped by Ripp’s hand on her arm. He was laughing. It turns out, Ripp knew a lot about kissing.
Sneaking back into the house was easy enough, and Darla soon learned that she could crash on the couch and leave her school books on the floor nearby. It looked like she had fallen asleep doing homework, so her mother never questioned it.
Sometimes, however, Darla worried that the whole thing would come crumbling down around her any minute now. Her mom didn’t seem to know what was going on, and when she was home, she was totally into taking care of Laila. But she’d say things… like how she needed to do more with the baby, so Darla wouldn’t be so tired at night anymore.
It was unnerving. There were many, many times when Darla almost told her the truth about her late nights, but decided against it before she opened her mouth. She’d be soooo grounded if she did.
In the midst of her turmoil, Cassandra’s hours got switched to nights, leaving Darla to baby sit at night now, rather than after school. This spoiled their desert parties anyway.
At least until Ripp got the idea come over and hang out with. ”You just live next door,” he explained. ”I can tell my dad that you feel unfortable being alone at night while your mom’s at work. He’ll let me stay for a while anyway.”
“Are you sure, Ripp?” she asked. Ripp didn’t have a good relationship with his father. General Grunt was kind of strict.
Ripp just shrugged. ”What can go wrong?”
Darla’s fears about their sneaking seemed pretty much unfounded, actually. Her mother went to work, Malone and Laila both went to bed… and Ripp came over.
Most of the time, they hung out in the living room, watching tv or listening to the stereo. Sometimes, Ripp brought over a video game.
Sometimes they made out. A lot.
Darla liked Ripp a lot. She thought she might even love him. One night, they were upstairs in her bedroom. Her mom had bought her a guitar for her birthday and she was showing to Ripp how she could play. She only knew one song, but according to Ripp “man, could she wail it!”
She finished up the song and they sat down on her bed, talking at first, and then things naturally progressed to kissing… and then to…. other things.
It felt right and good… warm and glowy and wonderful and Darla swore that she felt the earth (or maybe just the bed) shake when she pulled Ripp down on top of her and into her for the first time.
“Ohmygod! DARLA! WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?”
They sprang apart, Ripp falling off the bed and taking half the blankets with him. Darla frantically grabbed at the bedsheet and watched in sheer horror as HER MOTHER scooped up Ripps discarded clothes and threw them at him, barking an order to “get dressed, young man, and go home!”
“But I can explain!” Ripp protested, just as upset as Darla was, clearly.
“No, you cannot,” Cassandra shot back. ”And I strongly suggest that you do not try. Go home, and stay away from my daughter!”
“MOM!!!! You can’t do this! I LOVE HIM!” Darla wailed as Ripp sobbed.
Cassandra pointed sternly at the bedroom door. ”If he leaves now, without a hassle, I won’t tell his father,” she declared, seething.
“I’ll go…” Ripp said at last, wiping his eyes. He could barely look at Darla and he hung his head as he slunk from the room and from the house.
“HOW DARE YOU?” Darla shouted, not caring if she woke her siblings up at this point.
“Me? How about you, young lady? How long has this been going on? How long have you been… ” she was choked up on anger and parental concern and couldn’t actually say the words, so she cast her eyes meaningfully at the bed and the sheets. ”… with that boy?”
“That boy is Ripp, and he’s my boyfriend, and I love him. And it shouldn’t matter how long it’s been going on or how many times we’ve had sex or how often I plan to do it with him after this. At least, it shouldn’t matter to you.” The last part was sneered viciously at her mother. ”I’ve done it once… once with someone I LOVE… but you… you just keep spreading your legs for whomever comes along and… and… and… popping out babies like they were Pez!!!”
Cassandra’s mouth flew open, but nothing came out. Darla didn’t say anything after that either. They both just stared at each other until Cassandra finally closed her mouth with an audible ::snap.::
She turned and left her daughter’s bedroom then, pausing at the door with a long look back at her little girl who was no longer a ‘little girl.’ ”We’ll talk about this later,” she said at last in a strained voice. Cassandra wanted to cry, and they both needed time to cool down before someone said something else they might regret.
Darla huddled on the bed long after the door closed behind her mother. In the silent that followed, she whispered, “I’m sorry, Momma. I didn’t mean it.”
Simmer’s Notes: ACR, ACR, ACR. Cassandra has been having a hard time hooking up with anyone, but Darla… not so much. Good thing I don’t any teen pregnancy mods, huh?
Mirrored from The Simming Life.