Random Simming: Chain Reaction 2.2: Daisy

     I hope I don't sound full of myself, but I like me! I can already tell that being a teenager will be awesome!
     I have my whole life ahead of me. I could be anything! I could explore space! I could become a doctor! I could become a super-secret special agent! I could be a world-class chef! Anything!
     I...don't think I'll be an accountant. Sorry, Dad, your job sounds boring. I don't do boring. Bar tender? Mom has awful work hours. That'll be the time of day I'll wanna party! It's fine. I doubt they expect me to follow in their footsteps.

Now that everyone's about ready to puke blue cake everywhere since we've already celebrated mine and Claire's aging up, Branden takes his turn. For some reason, he still looks irritated. I don't know what his deal is. He's always complaining about something.

     Claire distracts me. "Lookin' good, monkey boy."
     A strange, nervous laugh comes bouncing out of me before I can stop it. What was THAT? "Not so bad yourself, red," I say, hopefully recovering quickly enough to where she wouldn't notice the odd laugh. Then, I really look at her. She's...she really is pretty. Has she always been pretty?
     "Oh yeah, and no one's ever thought of that before," she says in a jokingly-snide way, talking about me calling her 'red.'

   I shrug like it's all cool. "Well, I haven't yet."
   "That settles it then. You've gotten it out of your system."
   "Ha ha ha!" I laugh knowingly. "Shows what you know. Since you 'like' it so much, that might be your new name, especially if you're going to keep calling me monkey boy." That works!

I'm too awesome to be monkey boy.

     "Fair enough. It's worth it to keep calling you monkey boy, monkey boy," she says with a laugh in her voice, and she walks away to get more cake.
     Why am I monkey boy? Just because I used to wear a shirt with a monkey on it...
   I need to come up with a better nickname. I look back at her while she licks frosting off her finger.

    Then, she turns around to walk into the living room, and it hits me. Daisy, I think, referring to her shorts. And I'll bet she never will figure out why. I laugh to myself while Claire goes to talk to Emily and Drake.
     Emily and Drake... They're just friends. And are they even that? I suspect he just uses her to do his homework for him, but Emily still chats away about stuff that's probably way over his head. I don't like the way he looks at her, like he's always planning something.
     Branden complains we don't have a stereo system. No one else seems to mind, but he thinks a good party is only a good party if there's dancing involved. I bet if we had a stereo, he'd complain about something else.
      I get sick of listening to it, so I offer to take out the trash.

     I go down the stairs, turn the corner, and find Claire standing there. "Hey," I say casually. Someone knocked the trashcan over. "What are you doing out here?"
     She puts on a fake innocent voice when she says, "Nothing."
     "Uh huh," I reply like I don't buy it. I walk around her, pick up the trashcan, throw away the trash in my hand, and walk back around in front of her.

     "You had to escape Grumpy Smurf too, huh?" she asks like she totally gets me, which she does. She knows me better than Branden does. If he did, he'd know he was irritating the hell out of me.
     "Yeah," I agree. "What is his deal?"
     "I don't know, but I'm trying not to let him ruin our birthday." Then, she randomly asks, "Oh, hey, are my teeth blue?" She grins at me to get me to check.

"No..." I say slowly. "Nice white teeth in a nice smile." Yeah. What has come over me?
At least Claire doesn't act like she thinks that was weird. "Awwww! Ethan, you're so sweet!"

    She hugs me.
    She's never hugged me before.
    We've known each other for forever, and she's never hugged me.

I like it.
Her hair smells nice.

She quickly jumps back and does a nervous laugh like I did earlier. "Uh, yeah. Thanks."

     I answer slowly in an automatic way, "You're...welcome." Do it...again.
   So...I say something nice and she hugs me. I can say more nice stuff...
     Wait. Do I look stupid standing here like this?!

     "I mean, yeah. Duh," I quickly say and strike an awesome pose. That's better.
     What were we talking about?
   Branden walks out of the house and sees the two of us talking out here. "I'm going home," he says and rolls his eyes. "I'm throwing the next birthday party." He implies like he's going to do it so it'll be done right.
   "Sure. Bye!" I call out and wave.
   "Happy birthday," Claire says to him, but he only acknowledges her with a single wave as he walks away.

     "Let's go egg his house," Claire says with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.
     "We just became teens. You already want to do something that'll get us grounded?" Her shorts are really...short.
     "C'mon. Your mom has tons of eggs left over. It's like she'd planned on baking a dozen cakes," she reasons, and I randomly wonder to myself how her shorts could already be ripped if she just got them.
     I shrug. "I dunno. Maybe she was. Once she gets baking, there's no stopping her." Is that her pocket sticking out from under the shorts?
     "Let's do it!" she says, grinning.

"Do what?" I ask, now utterly distracted. Yes, that's her pockets. Why even bother putting pockets in shorts that tiny? If the pockets weren't there, you could see right through that rip.
"Hello? Sim planet to Ethan! Come in, monkey boy. Let's go egg his house." She grins again.

I almost sound like I'm scolding her when I say, "You mean like sneak out in the middle of the night with two dozen eggs, somehow keep from breaking them, and then throwing them at my best friend's house." I pause. "You're right. It's foolproof." She'd better know I'm kidding.

    Her smile disappears. "I thought I was your best friend."
    That takes me by surprise. "Oh! Uh, well, you're a girl." I nervously rub the back of my head.
    "And...?" She pauses while I try to think of something to say. "I think I've been the better friend, don't you?" She watches me as I continue to say nothing. "Really, Ethan? We're not kids anymore. Nobody cares if your best friend is a girl." She guessed right. "Okay. I'll just go home then. See you tomorrow at school." She goes to walk past me, but I grab her hands like it's a reflex.

     "I'm sorry. I just never thought about it." I decide to be honest and hope it doesn't come back to bite me. "You were just the only girl out there that wasn't annoying."
     She sounds a little mad still when she says, "Well, good to know I'm not annoying. Phew! I'll sleep better at night knowing that." She all but glares at me.
     "That came out wrong. I'm just telling you what I thought as a kid."
     "Well, you're not a kid," she reminds me like I need it.
     "No, I'm not." I look at her hands. I'm still holding them.

     "And you're right," I say, and her expression looks happier. Good. "You've always been the better friend."
     "Okay," she says simply, kind of like her mind is wandering.
     I watch her while her mind wanders. This morning, as a kid, I would've thought this was a dumb kind of weird. Now, it's kinda cool, and I want to hug her again. That wouldn't be weird, would it? We're friends...

She sighs like this is exactly what she wanted me to do. That's good. I hold her a bit tighter, and I like it more.

     Have I been hugging her too long?
     She lets go, and I take that to mean I should too.
     "We'll have to go egg his house some other time," I say, trying to make sense of everything while she brushes her hair out of her face.
     "Sure thing, monkey boy. See you at school tomorrow." She walks away, waving.
     I wave back and turn to go up the stairs. Then, I remember something as I look at her shorts. "Happy birthday, daisy!"
     "What?" she calls out, confused.
     I do nothing but laugh as I walk into the house.

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