Friday, September 28, 2012

1.13 - If You Love Something ... Set It Free

The summer of Isabel's birthday, and last days in Appaloosa passed quickly. Far too quickly for Simon, who knew his soon-to-be ex-wife intended to take his little girl away with her.

Isabel, it turns out, is growing exceptionally intelligent. She now spends most of her time reading to herself, Even as a tiny toddler, she seems to comprehend what all those symbols mean.


"Oh The Destinations You'll Briefly Visit" (This is prophetic!)

Simon spends a great deal of time every evening reading to Isabel and telling her elaborate adventure stories which she loves and sits attentively listening, hanging on his every word. Isabel is destined to be adventurous.

"More Dragon story, more more!"

Emma, meanwhile, spends her remaining days in Appaloosa - networking.

Schmoozing it up with local celebrities and money-makers might come in handy once she got back to the city and needed some references.


"My Father is on the city council in St. Claire, I will put in a good word for you."
(Yes, apparently Booker Singleton is running for Mayor, what a scoundrel!)

Emma tries to take Isabel to her round of parties and social gatherings.

But Isabel is not impressed.


"How can you guys stare at that stupid moving picture box? It's so boring!"
(Malina and Ethan Parrott growing up on a steady diet of television reality shows.)

Saying good-bye to her best friend Melody was hard for Emma. Melody now had two young daughters and her husband was a traveling businessman so she was lonely a lot.


"I'm sad you're leaving Emma, but I understand your marriage was just not working out."

Emma's been wearing her hair up in a sophisticated up-do Melody taught her, and she's also been teaching her to do Isabel's hair like little Anna and Bethany's. Such cute little girly-girls.

Emma promises to have Bethany come visit them in St. Claire as soon as she's settled in.


"Lets get together and go shopping and to the spa town of Bradford, soon!"

Emma gets a call from Daryl Jackson, who has something special he wants to give her for a going away present. Daryl's wife just had twins, and they already had two sons, so their house is quite full, but Emma dresses up for the occasion since Daryl's a celebrity.


An appropriately snooty look ...

Daryl asks Emma to step into his office and shows her a new website he's working on for his catering business. At the top is a tab for the various locations catering can be ordered, and Emma notices right away one of the listed locations is St. Claire!


"Emma, I'd like you to help me run a new catering division in St. Claire if you're up to it. Your style is great!"

Emma's stunned. She expected to return to St. Claire a failure in her parent's eyes. A single Mom and struggling to make ends meet. But here is an opportunity to work for Daryl in a business which allows her to socialize and work with wealthy people. How perfect! Suddenly everything's looking up for Emma.


"Me?! I can't believe it, this is the most amazing business opportunity I've ever been given. Yes of course I'll do it!"

The day of Isabel's birthday finally arrives. Emma's planned for them to leave immediately after Isabel has some cake and spend one last day with her Dad.

Simon, of course, wants nothing to do with big parties or 'strangers' at the house, and its too small to have more than a couple of people inside anyways. So Isabel gets a tiny party in the yard with just her parents and Cupid.

Emma dresses down in old clothes. She doesn't want to get sticky cake or dog hair on her new city clothes. (My how quickly she's changed from the girl-digging-in-the-garden-days!)


"Emma please, for her sake, can we just pretend to be happy for one day?"

Isabel's already got a wish ready - she's been waiting for this day since she could talk and walk!


"Someday I want to find the dragons!"

And then she gets that funny little tickle thing happening ...


Cupid: "Woah, there's sparkles coming out of your butt!"

And ages up into a very pretty little girl.


Happy Birthday Isabel!

She promptly does some fist pumping in celebration while Mom blows a horn in her face.


"Oh YEAH - this ROCKS!"

Isabel gains the Genius trait. This was pretty much a given considering how quickly she learned her skills and how well she could already read books!

Simon's not at all surprised. He's very proud of his little girl. It's a sad moment for him, his wish for her to be a genius came true, but now she's leaving.


Awww... poor Simon!
 What's even worse, Simon gets to be the one to break the news to Isabel that she's going away that very same day.

As one can imagine ... Isabel's reaction is priceless.


"Just this one day here, for your Birthday. Then your Mom is taking you to a new school in St. Claire.

Simon tries to find a constructive way to tell Isabel her wealthy Grandparents are paying to send her to a fancy boarding school while her Mom settles in and gets a business going in St. Claire - but he just blurts it out because it makes him feel sick at his stomach.


"What?! But this is my home, I don't want to go away to some stupid boarding school!"

Simon tries to explain all of the exciting things she'll get to do in this new school. A new adventure!


"Your Mom says there's a great art program there ..."

But Isabel's not impressed.


"The only art I want to see is the school getting nuked into oblivion!"

Simon can't help but chuckle at how brave his little daughter is, and how smart too.


"I'm not going to a boarding school, I'm going to live here with you!"

Simon casually says that's an issue she'll have to take up with her Mother. (Secretly he hopes she does)

Suddenly, Isabel's got a plan ...


"Oh. Well that's easy!!"

Emma comes back from some last minute planning and business paperwork with Daryl, and is anxious to get going, ready to rush poor Isabel out the door.

Surprisingly, Isabel doesn't put up much of a fight ... for now.

Simon tries one last time to talk Emma out of her decision.


"Just think about what Isabel wants?" ... Emma's losing her cool. "NO Simon, we're getting a divorce! We don't even have anything in common anymore and I want this business opportunity! Isabel will do great in the city!"

Resignedly, Simon hugs Isabel goodbye and tries to keep from showing any emotion at all.


"Bye Daddy, see you soon!" Isabel whispers to Simon ...

Emma's not even afraid to flaunt the fact they're riding away in a taxi. She's happy to show Simon she's absolutely done with the "Going Green" deal! (And flaunting Watcher's roll too!)



Emma dreams of her new exciting life ahead while Isabel  - plots revenge.

Hours later, they finally arrive at the boarding school where Isabel is to be enrolled. Emma can barely keep up with her daughter who suddenly seems very anxious to go inside.


"Isabel wait, we have to check in at the office!"

But Isabel rounds on her Mother and glares angrily at her. She tells her she's not going to be embarrassed and coddled about this stupid school idea. If her Mom thinks she's old enough to go to a boarding school, then Isabel thinks she's old enough to go in all by herself!


"All the other girls will laugh at me, and call me a baby! I don't even want to BE here, but I'm going to go in alone!"

Emma's not that surprised by Isabel's anger. She expected her to act out long before now actually. She's relieved its just a case of the jitters and independence. Isabel's a brave girl, she's going to do fine.


"Well, if you're sure ... "  says Emma   --  Isabel sighs, "Yeah, I'm sure Mom."

Emma has no idea just how clever her daughter has become.


"Bye Mom, I'll call you tomorrow when you get to St. Claire. Don't worry about me."

And just like that, Isabel's chance to escape is wide open.

...


Simon, meanwhile, has been having an absolutely terrible time.



This is not a dog you'd want to mess with, right? (even with happy face thoughts!)





















Less than 48 hours has passed, and in that short span of time everything has gone wrong. First a thief came and tried to get in the house. Cupid manages to run the invader off, but not before they make off with Simon's bike AND the ratty old washing machine!


How, exactly, do they DO that?! (Santa Claus magic bags I guess)

Then Simon has to explain to Cupid that no one has stolen his best friend Isabel too!


"Dude.... WHERE IS SHE?!"

Cupid is now thoroughly convinced everyone's a bad guy and here to steal his humans.

The mailman does not fair well and runs for his life.


"Aaaaagh, haaaaalp!!!"

Simon can't sleep. He wakes up several times a night with anxiety attacks.


"This all feels so WRONG!"

He can't even focus on work, and stays home. Worrying.

Simon ends up sitting up half the night on the floor next to Cupid. Isabel has not returned his call. He has no idea if she's doing ok at her first night of boarding school ...




Isabel is doing ok, but she's not at boarding school ...

Everything with her escape plan goes pretty good, at first.

Scoring a bus ride was no problem. The half asleep attendant never even looked at her when she bought the ticket, nor did the bus driver care that a kid was traveling alone.

But then there was the problem of not knowing her way around town when she got back to Appaloosa Plains. She decides to just sit and think about it for a few minutes ...


Isabel's first big adventure, falling asleep on a park bench!

And then she runs into a cop outside the coffee shop.


"Oh hi there officer! Time for donuts?"

And of course, can't explain why she's out in the middle of the night with no parents. Nor can she even give her address since she never learned it before Mom dragged her off immediately!


"Looks like you're going to have to come down to the station with me little lady."

Simon's half asleep when he gets a phone call from the Appaloosa Police Station. Every parent's worst nightmare ...

The boarding school also calls Emma to report that Isabel never showed up for check-in. Both parents are appropriately freaking out right now.


"Sir, we have a little girl here named Isabel, who was picked up at the local coffee shop. She says you're her Father, can you come down here and bring some identification please?"

Isabel waits casually outside the police station for her Dad to arrive.


Playing with her dragon. Of course!

And then Simon gets there and scoops Isabel up in a fierce protective hug, crying and laughing at the same time - relieved that she's safe.


"Daddy! Yes, yes I'm ok, its ok, its ok!! I'm so glad to see you too!"

Simon immediately calls Emma, because the first order of business is ironing out this mess.


Isabel's thinking, "Oh man, I'm so busted."

But Simon talks a looong time with Emma, and to Isabel's surprise, Simon's very firm about Isabel staying there with him now that she's returned. Isabel can hear her Mom yelling on the other end, but then things go quiet for awhile, and after a few more words, her fate is decided.


"What do you want to do Emma, force her to run away again?!"

Emma's apparently so relieved that Isabel's safe, she relents and says Isabel can stay, she won't seek full custody when the divorce is final.

Simon gives the required lecture and threats for punishment if Isabel ever tries anything dangerous like this again!


It was actually a pretty scary thing to do, but she's determined not to let it show!

And that night, everyone slept safe and sound.


This little girl gets what she wants! (and enjoys sweet dreams in her very own bed.)


Go on to read Ch. 1.14 - "Just Me and My Dad" HERE!


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Notes:

- I hope you enjoyed Isabel's first BIG adventure! This chapter was so much fun to write! I'd been planning it for some time. I originally thought of actually enrolling Isabel in boarding school and having her flunk out or demand to return after a short while, but the 'runaway' scene wrote itself when she struck up a convo with a police officer one evening outside the Flying V coffee shop!

- The mailman attack scenes and burglaries were totally unscripted and really happened the same day Emma and Isabel supposedly 'left town' (Emma actually just spent the night at Melody's then I removed her haha) so I figured the fates must have decided this was a bad idea for Simon's family!





23 comments:

  1. You keep on mixing up Emma and Isabel, you called Isabel Emma at least two times. Great chapter, Emma's turned evil XD I guess you kind of had to in order to get her out of the house. I would just do a proofread right now before anybody gets really confused.

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    1. Actually, I've counted four now, even in the little subtitle thingys XD Though I'm not sure if I'm opposed to my name being everywhere XD

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    2. Thanks for the heads up haha, I am going back and fixing it. Yeah, I worked on the pictures a long time and not so much on the text, so I rushed a bit and got them confused a couple of times. =)

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    3. They should all be fixed now, haha!

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    4. I looked through too, they're all fixed :D Now the chapter's perfect! *grins*
      Love Isabel, stubborn = awesome in my eyes :) (Maybe to make myself feel better about being a stubborn goose, as my BF would say XD)

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  2. D'aaaaaw Isabel is such a headstrong little girl. She's going to be big trouble for her daddy...

    Still, she's adorable and I wuv her.

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    1. I'm glad you like her. I took some inspiration from some of your own 'headstrong' girls (love the bitchy ones haha) to give Isabel the determination she needs to get what she wants. Having the brave trait seemed to make it a no-brainer that she'd try anything, even dangerous if need-be to get her way. Fortunately her Mom is a complete pushover and Daddy will be easy to work! =)

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  3. I love this legacy so much! I'm glad Simon gets to keep Isabel. :D
    I wonder who Simon will find as the second love of his life!

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    1. That's the million dollar question this weekend as I start to play through his own remaining requirements. I wanted to focus on the big drama of the divorce and Isabel's running away first, before trying to worry about who lady #2 will be! Isabel's going to be the heir, I've decided, even if kid #2 ends up being the most spectacular sim ever created! =P

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  4. Isabel's adventure is awesome! She cracks me up. Great chapter!

    Cupid being convinced that his humans were being stolen is hilarious. Poor guy.

    I'm sad that Simon and Emma split up - they were so cute together in the early days. Oh well, that's how the roll goes.

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    1. Thanks Hayley - I am going to have fun writing Isabel's life. Cupid really has some comical facial expressions. I had no idea pets were so expressive haha.

      Simon and Emma were really cute in the beginning, but a lot of marriages are until people settle in and realize how vastly different they are.

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  5. Sad to see the end of Simon and Emma. Emma sure glammed up nice! That hairstyle looks terrific on her!

    And Isabel, what a clever little girl! I loved her first adventure, and I think her relationship with her father is really sweet! :)

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    1. Yeah, I'm loving how Isabel is turning into a Daddy's girl. She's got his no-nonsense non-frilly attitude, but without the neurotic bits thank goodness haha. It was also fun to dress Emma up and do her hair in a way I thought she'd rather like for city life and business. :)

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  6. I love Isabel's dialogue with Simon about boarding school and Cupid's interaction with the postman! You go, Girl!

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    1. Cupid went after the mailman so fast (and he's never done that before) I barely had time to pause and catch the shot. I was really laughing!

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  7. I love Isabel! So determined to stay with her daddy and not be dumped in boarding school :)

    I'm sad that Simon and Emma had to split up, but I s'pose they were just too different. And Emma did wind up rather self-centred, not caring about what her daughter wanted only what she wanted. Frankly if she had so little time for Isabel that she was going to dump her in a boarding school why not just leave her with her father?

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    1. That's exactly it Ali! If Emma's going to be so caught up in her 'new life' of running a catering business and rushing off to the city without even considering how Isabel might feel (and putting her in boarding school) then Isabel is far better off with Dad. I honestly think Emma was far too idealistic in believing she could move to a small town and become a 'gardener' and was only doing it to please Simon. When that failed to make her happy, she turned to the more snobbish / wealthy ideals in town and got caught up. It goes to show you should not try to go against your base personality!

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  8. Cupid was great in this chapter.
    I love the way Isabel ditched school and ran back to her father. And I'm even glad Emma is going to have a rewarding job in the city.
    Isabel is a great character, she makes a great heir.

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    1. Thanks! I really wanted Emma to at least have a happy future life since she had to go (according to the roll for second chance). I think the couple started out very idealistic and a little too 'perfect' white-picket-fence dreams and all that. Reality is never that perfect and forcing yourself into unrealistic expectations is doomed to failure. I've learned this one from real life myself. =)

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  9. Haha, I love that once the divorce was a done thing and they were just waiting on paperwork, Emma gave up her "country" ways and began dressing and acting more true to herself. She and Simon really didn't belong together.

    I like Isabel and like her spunk. However, I just hope that she realizes that going against all the rules and doing what you want to get what you want can sometimes have negative consequences and not turn out just like you had hoped. I don't want her to find out the hard way.

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    1. Yes, there is definitely a danger in being TOO headstrong and manipulative, I agree! Growing up with just Dad is going to define who Isabel becomes for sure, as well as being overly confident in herself even at such a young age. Her adventures to come with generation 2 will be interesting to say the least!

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    2. Oh and yes, Emma was just way too happy to ditch the country bumpkin routine. hah! She gave it a good effort for a long while, I'll give her some credit where due. But I agree she's going to be much happier going back to the city. :)

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  10. Well, I think everyone will be happier now that Emma is gone. She and Simon really brought out the worst in each other. I can't wait to see Isabel as she grows up. She's a gorgeous kid, so I can only imagine how pretty she'll be when she ages up.

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