2.41 Someone Worth Impressing

Malcolm spends as much time as he can making Jyoti less angry at him. She stopped wanting to hit him a long while ago, but she also stopped talking to him after his confession. He's never seen her this quiet, so the tension mounts.

“You're not going to run away now, are you?” He asks when she turns around. She shakes her head slowly.

“If you don't want to talk to me right away, I can understand. It's been difficult to know what I could trust. If I did something that might endanger him,” He pauses, “I could never correct it. He's the best of both of us and I would give up anything for him. Even if that something... is a chance to be with you.”

She still doesn't seem to trust her voice, so he makes some coffee and tells her to stay as long as she likes, that she doesn't have to say anything until she is ready.

Then she spends the next hour slowly drinking the bitter drink and listening to him work.

Eventually, as if by some unspoken agreement, she joins him for a break. She plies him with tentative questions (it still all seems so impossible, she was literally there when Emir was born).

...and then, when she finally believes what he's said is real, she makes sure he won't regret trusting her again.

They stay out until the next morning and have to head directly to work afterwards.

Caz cannot stop grumbling to himself. What the family had, worked, it was fine, and he didn't want any more changes.

...is it because the Shifts live across the street? It never bothered her before.

He knows what his mom and grandparents are up to, but he doesn't have to like it. The Realtor had touted all of the room for outdoor activities, the central location in town, the expectation of privacy from generous landscaping, and of course, the charming architecture. The school bus drives by the new place and he has so many mixed feelings.

“You'll get used to it Cazzie, it'll have enough space for friends to stay with us or for the family to grow.” He supposed to be practicing for debate club, but he's actually just reliving the past few days with his mom. She has been promising all sorts of changes that he wants nowhere near his life. Quiet places are better than busy ones, and this one seems like it's going to be very busy.

To make things worse, Tiger Lily's time is up today.

Jyo wakes up with a familiar ringing in her head. “Do you have to do this so often, lately?” She asks him. It's not that she didn't know her dogs were getting up there in age, but everybody meeting the reaper in one season just feels like too much.

Jyo can't handle that this is happening in her own bedroom this time.

So, because she's been working hard to tire herself out lately, and she already called off of work for once, she manages to sleep through it.

Leila would like her back right away, please. If that's not what she's thinking, then she's become self-aware.

The Sparrow elders head off to the Boardwalk to have a special day together where they can decompress from all the strain of the past few months.

“Is that the sort of things kids are wearing these days?” Dustin mutters as the coaster climbs shakily up the first hill.

Meghan snickers. “He's from Starlight Shores for sure.”

“It's not bad...” Dustin says with a shrug as the cart literally sends them off the rails and up in the air.

Apparently you can't make thrills that excite ancient magicians and scientists who have actually bribed the reaper.

“Whee.”

Finally something is more than a little bit thrilling.

That's better.

Required makeout session in the photo booth after surviving the ride goes just about how a blog reader might expect.

Retirement is pretty great for these two now. Finally they are worrying over their children and grandchildren less.

Old people dancing.

Life is good.

Casimir gets ready for school but the movers have taken most of the art pieces out to the new place already. He's becoming cautiously excited for the new start.

Lyra invades Jyo's date with Malcolm at the diner after work, just to show us that she's been unable to get a higher level teaching position since Jyoti was in grade school, or something.

Jyo comes back from her date with Malcolm not saying much. The dining room seems so much bigger without the table and curio cabinet.

Her dad holds his arms out to her though. “He'll come around Jyo, it'll be okay. Malcolm still loves you. We all would like him to be here with us, but he's built a life of his own, and it won't just merge into our lives so easily.”

She nods to hide the fact that she wants to scream and doesn't say anything for awhile.

Meghan gets one last sleep in her sleeping bag before moving out...

...and into this place (the Holiday House). There's a newer construction in the center of town that has everything the Sparrows need, and will finally have some basement space again.

Some brave soul made a home with a seasonal lot marker on it, making a fun nightmare to decorate, as there is the potential to have five versions of certain furniture or decorations. I was conservative, and only used 4 (HAH). Super cool concept actually.

...my apologies making everybody dizzy trying to show it.

Caz has his own room again, downstairs in the finished basement. He was not in charge of the décor, the family had 'hired someone'. Sailboats are a thing in this town, but the floral comforter looks like something that his grandma would wear on her bathing suit. He tries not to think about it as he falls asleep.

Dustin and Meg have the master suite on the first floor.

Jyo puts her workout equipment in the garage.

It's cozy.

And Caz enjoys the new game room in the fully finished basement.

He plays online a lot. Not all of the classmates that play online games choose to pet virtual animals like this, but the ones who do are deeply into the series. It's his way of meeting people his own age, assuming nobody online is lying about their age.

Then there are the in person obligations, which are not socially acceptable to avoid outright.

Like study dates. One of which being where he meets this kid from school at the cafe.

His name is Emir, and he is in an unnecessarily good mood.

Caz says a quick greeting and listens to the other boy's explanation of why this cafe is the best one to study at compared to the several other ones that all seem to be right next to each other off of the shoreline. The views of the ocean, the late hours, the student discounts and the karaoke machine are all a part of his opening remarks.

Caz explains that he doesn't care about ocean views, rather it's unsettling how vast the gray expanse of water is, and it would be horrible during a storm to sit by a humongous wall of windows...

Emir doesn't get why Caz dislikes weather and nature and all of that, but other than this quirk they seem to get along easily.

“It's better to see things for yourself.” Emir is saying. “Fresh air, you know, not stale. We were stuck in school all day and even in summer we have to go, so unless you have a world class gallery at home to look at instead, well actually I don't think photos and painting do the real thing justice-”

Caz glances to the side and sees it for himself. A huge flock of seagulls take flight overhead on the beach and a bunch of sunbathers have to flee from their droppings, using their towels to cover their heads and pick-nicks. Then the birds land, and begin making desperately obnoxious vocalizations and fighting over what half eaten food the beachgoers abandoned. Is Emir looking at the same 'real thing' that Caz is right now?

“My grandparents paint enough that I don't have to go outside to see a view of the ocean if I don't feel like it.” He says, trying to drop the subject.

Emir frowns. “Your Grandpa is Dustin Sparrow, right? He paints? I didn't know that.”

“Stop. I know what you're doing.”

“What the heck are you talking about?”

“You are not going to make up stories about my family. One random show-up-to-the-party-late uncle was enough. Acting overly friendly with me is not going to work.”

“Ex...cuse me?”

“Let's get this straight that you are not one of us, just because you have a similar first name to someone who died from my family. I do not believe in the rumors, and ghosts are not real. Except our dog, but that's not a real ghost, she's just broken.”

“Emir is the name I was born with, genius. I didn't just pick it up to impress you. And who says you're someone worth impressing in the first place?”

“Not me. My mom, my uncle, my grandparents, our cousins, all are well respected in this town. And everybody wants a piece of me just in case I make it big, too. Well I'm not interested in being scammed by you. So don't waste your time trying to get on my good side.”

“Hold up, are you trying to say that you actually have a good side, because the faces you make all the time in class make it very hard to believe that you do.”

“Ad homonym. Very nice. That's just my face. I was born with it.”
“Well this is my name, and I was born with it.”

“...why do you pay attention to me in class?”

“If you have to know, it's because people talk and not everyone can figure you out so there are rumors. However, since you brought up the grandparents and all of that mess you ought to know that Emir is my real name, I know I share it with someone from your family, and that's not all we have in common.”

“Here it is.” Caz grumbles. “Well, go ahead.”

“Jyoti Sparrow is also the name of my mother.”

“Hah! You're an idiot.”

“Alright, respectable debate club member, If I'm unintelligent, then so are you. Because like it or not we're actual family.”

Casimir scoffs and rolls his eyes. “I am so tired of people pretending to be related to us. If you were actually some long lost half brother, then Uncle Jet would have written about you. My mom can date whoever she wants, but that doesn't mean that you're a Sparrow just because your dad is dating my mom.”

“You know they're not dating, they're married right? And it doesn't make any sense for them not to live together? Well I get it. You guys just moved, you don't want any more change. But what if our grandparents moved to make room for the family to come back together? Shouldn't you be open to that?”

A cursory glance at Casimir's face doesn't help Emir know why he's so deeply upset. He lets out a short huff of breath. “Truth is I'd live outside all the time if it were socially acceptable. I hope you like your four new walls, and I don't really care if I end up there with you or not. But you should know that the reason our uncle Jet didn't write about my dad and I is that it wasn't permitted by my dad. I'll be an adult soon and he won't be able to stop me from sharing our story then if I want to. He's just ...overprotective.”

Caz rolls his eyes. “I guess that makes some sort of sense. But it's not easy having some new people show up and try to join the family every couple of years. On top of all the rumors about the Sparrow family, and the fact that we're so well known, I'd envy you if you were actually my brother, and nobody knew about it.”

“I'm guessing you didn't put much thought into that statement.” Emir says with a grimace. “I can think of several reasons that I wouldn't want to be me. But you know what, Casimir? There are loads of people who have it worse off than both of us and don't have the luxury to care about being well known. Becoming famous is easy, in the first place.”

“Who cares, I'm just going to play video games all the time anyways, my family has enough money I can do whatever I want.”

“Sure.” Emir agrees, walking away. Sure.

Caz feels marginally better once he's out of the sun, but something about that kid is annoyingly familiar. He'll have plenty of time to figure out what that is, because they have a research project together.

“Let's get this over with.”

“Sure.” Caz mutters.

“We could do our written portion on a game that explores or uses machine learning as those are also an interactive media. You know a lot of different games because you like them, right?”

Halfway through the assignment Casimir begins to realize that he's being a bit unfair. Emir hasn't made any crazy claims in particular that can't be easily disproven. If there was a relation, it would be somewhat weird, but given the secretive nature of his mom's boyfriend-husband (Casimir's not exactly stepdad), it's not completely unbelievable that Emir being alive was being kept secret until the last possible moment. That would be a recycling bin of a secret to keep from one's own wife though. There's also the fact that Casimir has yet to be introduced to him.

Caz promises himself on the spot that if he ever gets married, there will be no secrets between him and his family. He's watched his mom suffer too much trying to figure out his own dad's lack of interest in their family and now Malcolm's nonsense about not wanting to live with her. If he was hiding their kid from her, that could explain it. And make Caz want to hit him a few times. If he were a violent sort of person, which he's not. Realization dawns as he watches the other guy click away.

“Emir, what's your last name?”

“You're curious now, are you? That's right, there's a law about that here. I almost forgot.”

“Right. To protect the people who immigrated from Starlight, so they wouldn't face discrimination in school.” Not that it mattered all that much as there were natural differences between the people groups. “So if you're underage, the school's not allowed to share it or show it. I was already here before when that law took effect, so people already know that I'm from the Sparrow family.”
“That's not exactly true though, is it? You're name isn't 'Sparrow'.

“Malcolm Meir is my dad's name from before, when he married our mother. You're named after him, too. It's Sparrow-Meir.”

Without looking up from his work, Emir flicks his driving permit onto the table.

Face up on the card under his picture is his name; Emir Sparrow-Meir.

“Son of a-”

“Vampire?” Emir grins.

“Uh, maybe...? I don't think that's really true though.” Casimir grumbles. He gets the point Emir is making, but he doesn't have to like it. “Maybe neither one of our dads are perfect.”

“Mom too, nobody is. Dad just wants to protect me until the Director- I mean, Circe Beaker, finishes rotting in her cell the way she left us to do.”

Caz listens to the anger in Emir's voice. “I'm glad you made it out then.” He says quietly.

“Even if that means I end up staying with you? We don't have to do that though, we'll be adults before we know it.”

GET OUT OF MY SHOT, FAERIE!

(ugh enough random smug Kevins, you're not on the title card I tell you-)

There's another round of getting work done before both boys begin to lose focus on it.

Caz breaks the silence. “Do you want to visit the new place? Mom's done with work by now.”

Emir busies himself with what's in front of him, not sure how to respond. He's the one who hasn't wanted to meet his mom yet. His dad left it up to him, and Emir has his own (reasonable to an estranged teenaged son) fears about that. But, Caz at least is okay so far.

“It's not like I'll be able to focus on the assignment right now.” Casimir presses.

“I guess, we may as well.” Emir says finally, grabbing his ID off the table and closing the computer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the saddest faces he will make in his entire life. At least, it seems that way right now. Casimir may always seem like he is the same, but he cares deeply and has just lost a lot of things in his life that would have given more stability. This is just the face that all sims make when having coffee in my game...

Speedy's Auto Repair is the other lot I've got up on MTS for those who want it.