Chapter 22: Firsts

Floramaria had a stomach full of butterflies.  Prom night.  She didn't have a date but she was excited nonetheless.  Her mom and sisters had taken her out for a girls' day to find the perfect dress.  Her heart wasn't set on any one dress in particular and she eventually settled on a long flowing purple gown.  Bella attempted to surprise Floramaria with a morning at the spa on prom day but with two older sisters Floramaria already knew it was coming.  She checked herself in the mirror one last time to make sure make-up wasn't smudged nor a hair out of place before the limo arrived.

Damen, on the other hand, could have cared less about prom.  He was going because his girlfriend Heather expected him to take her.  When the girls had their day, Mortimer took Damen out to rent a tux.  Unlike the girls they were done in less than a half hour.  Damen went with a simple and traditional style, spruced up with a top hat.  He didn't have as much work to do as girls did figuring out what to wear for prom.  Heather told him the color of her dress and he was obliged to match.  He was thankful, at least, that she didn't stick him with pink.  Damen might have ended up telling her to find a new date if that was the case.

Prom was uneventful, but enjoyable, for Floramaria.  Damen, however, had a busy night.  First, he talked Heather out of her dress in one of the back hallways of the school.  Then, instead of returning to the dance with his date he decided to release all of the frogs from the biology classroom.  He did not get caught in the act with Heather, but the principal did catch him red handed as he released the last frog.  Under normal circumstances the principal would have just called his parents but since he was no stranger to pranks around school the principal called the police department instead.  An officer arrived and took Damen to the station for booking and to call his parents.

Mortimer arrived to pay the processing fee and set the court date for Damen's hearing.  Luckily for Damen, Cassandra's antics as a teen had softened his parents a little and he didn't face as much trouble at home.  He wasn't looking forward to the community service he would likely receive as punishment.  Mortimer handed out the typical grounding to Damen, including disallowing Damen to visit and help out in the Diner kitchen for two weeks.  Floramaria was less kind.  She laid into her brother for causing such a mess at prom, standing up his girlfriend, and almost ruining her first, and only, prom.

Cassandra filled her spare time with painting.  She and Don had agreed to not end their relationship immediately; but to take some time and truly think about what they want from each other and the relationship before they moved forward with any wedding planning.  Cassandra used painting to clear her head and think.  Her once simple 'yes' answer was now a much complicated 'maybe'.  She couldn't get Monte out of her head and seeing him in the office every day wasn't helping matters either.  Monte would throw her the slightest of a sly smile when no one was paying attention.  It should have irritated the hell out of her, but color rose to her cheeks before she would excuse herself out of the room.  In response to Monte's attempt to fluster her, Cassandra became aggressive and hostile in the boardroom, often fighting with the other board members and especially fighting with Monte.

Mortimer's retirement was approaching but he still had the option of taking a sabbatical from the lab.  Mortimer had offered, as a peace offering, to stay home a take care of Betsy and Sheldon so Cassandra and Don didn't have to hire a nanny.  They gladly accepted the offer.  Cassandra was especially thankful that she would not have to go through the ordeal of vetting out the perfect nanny.  Mortimer set up a small science lab in the garage to use during the tots' nap-time and committed himself to days of potty training,  play groups, walks to the park, and messy meals.

After living together for awhile and many intense discussion about their future Cassandra and Don agreed that the wedding was still on and began on setting a new date for the nuptials.  In the meantime, Mortimer and Bella surprised the couple with a couple's retreat focused on reconnecting and enhancing communication.  the basis of the retreat was couple's mentoring so Mortimer and Bella would be attending the retreat as well.  The four of them would enjoy a three night stay at an exclusive spa resort where they would participate in the relationship building exercises, as well as having some down time to just enjoy each other's company.

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While the cats are away the mice do play.  The night after Mortimer, Bella, Cassandra, and Don left for their getaway Damen and Floramaria threw a party.  The party was mostly Damen's idea and he was responsible for the guest list and the refreshments.  Floramaria had minimal involvement but she didn't dissuade Damen and when it was party time she was one of the first to get wild.  Floramaria and a friend stormed Cassandra and Don's room to grab some pillows and began pillow fighting.  Before Floramaria knew, the pillows were coming apart and feathers were flying through the air.

Damen started a dance party in the kitchen.  Heather had initially told him that she wasn't going to be able to make it to the party so Damen grabbed the first pretty girl he saw to dance with.  Everyone at school knew he had a girlfriend but everyone (except his girlfriend) at school also knew that he like giving his attention to other girls and they liked to see who could catch his eye.  His dance partner moved in close for a little dirty dance.  She moved all around Damen and slithered up and down, feeling him up in the process, much to Damen pleasure.  The dancing was great until Heather walked in on the party and stormed out of the room in disgust.

By and large Damen ignored that Heather had even come into the party. He figured that if she wasn't going to cut in and put this other girl in her place then it was her loss.  Damen grew tired of the girl dancing on him, as she didn't want to dance in a more private area of the house, so he set his sights on a more timid party guest.  The quiet types always had a little freak hidden somewhere inside and Damen was determined to figure out what would make this girl's inner freak surface.  He pulled her close until they fit together and Damen placed his hands on her hips to move her with him.  She stepped away after a few minutes seeming more comfortable dancing apart.  Damen obliged her for a minute before he left to go find his girlfriend.

Heather was in the living room, pouting as usual it seemed.  Damen tried cuddling up to her and tickled her knee, a spot that usually got her laughing every time, but she stood up and snapped at Damen for his attitude. This led to another fight about her clingy behavior, about his wandering hands, and about the reputations they were getting.  This fight led to half offered apologies, which led to making out.  As expected at any good teen party Damen's make out session resulted in a quick and fumbled romp between the sheets in his bedroom.

While Damen was upstairs making Heather feel like she was the only girl he had on his mind, Floramaria was left to attend to the party.  The liquor that Damen had retrieved from the cabinet had long run out and Floramaria was not as eager to get some more.  She set out some juice from the fridge and warmed up some snacks before getting back to getting her groove on.  Floramaria loved to dance and didn't care much who she was dancing with as long as they were having fun.  She blasted the volume and bumped up to the nearest guy.

It was the earliest hours of the morning when officers from the police department arrived at the manor.  The skies were just beginning to turn into the faded indigo and pink when the knock on the door was just slightly heard over the blare of the music.  Damen had just rejoined the party before he answered the door.  The officers pushed their way into the house rounding up as many party-goers as they could before they bolted into neighborhood.  Damen and Floramaria were busted.  An officer stayed with them while other officers delivered the non-drunk teens to their respective houses and  escorted the inebriated to juvenile lock up.

Luckily, though unbeknownst to their youngest children, the police chief made a call to Mortimer before they visited the manor.  Mortimer immediately called their getaway weekend short.  He was so infuriated that he just jumped into the car in his boxers while the others barely had time to get dressed and throw their luggage into the trunk.  Mortimer worked out an agreement with the chief to ensure that Damen and Floramaria would not be arrested.  He raced into Sunset Valley with Bella pleading with him to slow down.  She also had it in her mind to thoroughly punish Damen and Floramaria for their actions.

The officer had let Floramaria go to bed but Damen was too juiced up to head upstairs.  He knew he was going to face the wrath of his parents when the officer told him they were on their way home from the resort.  There were no excuses, no lies he could tell.  Damen would just have to take whatever his parents dished out.

Bella stormed into the house, completely bypassing the police officer and headed towards her youngest, "Damen Jesse Goth I cannot believe that you would decide to betray our trust by throwing a party."  Damen stood in front of his mother silently.  "Don't you even think about going to bed.  If I'm up at this early hour then you are going to be up at this early hour.  Now, go sweep and mop the kitchen.  Your father and I will discuss this next month with you when you are finished."

Bella grabbed a quick shower and change of clothes before she went to go roust Floramaria from her bed.  First on the list of punishment is that the teens would not be seeing a day of sleeping in for the next month.
"Come on Mom!" Flora pleaded.  "It wasn't even my idea!  Why do I have to have his punishment?"
"You didn't pull the plug on the party, now did you young lady?  You may not have invited all those people over but you were equally responsible, if not more, for this house.  That means you have the same punishment," Bella explained.  Damen and Floramaria both had their keys taken away, the maid received a week paid vacation as they took over the cleaning, and they were grounded from all extra-curricular activities for a month.

~~~~~~~~~~

After their return, it seemed as if Don was going through a punishment of his own.  Despite Cassandra's objections, Don was given a promotion as Cheif Executive Officer of Marketing for Doo Peas News Corporation (DPNC).  Cassandra didn't so much object to the promotion, but she suspected the move was a power play by Monte.  Don also expected this, placing yet another reminder of the problems he and Cassandra faced.   The promotion meant Don would be moving offices to the DPNC side of the building.  It also meant that earlier hours could and would be expected of him during rating months.  All in all it meant that they would no longer be a united force in the board room and Cassandra would be working directly with Monte, though Cassandra pointed out that she would also be working closely with the Landgraabs as well.

The family gathered together on a quiet even to celebrate little Sheldon's birthday.  Don held him up to the cake and leaned over to help Sheldon blow out the candles because he couldn't manage to force out enough breathe to put the candles out.  Don gave Sheldon a picture frame with his mother picture to place on his nightstand next to the bed.  Cassandra and Don bought a bicycle for him.  Mortimer and Bella doted on Sheldon and spoiled him just the same as if he were Cassandra's biological son.  Jada, Cyrique, and Alexander even stopped over for a couple of hours to give presents and have some cake.

It was a short time after the release of Dr. Ubiquitous before spies notified the police department that super secret building and manufacturing was going on at the criminal hideout.  The best intelligence indicated that Dr. Ubiquitous was attempting to build a weather machine to disrupt the perfect climate Sim Nation enjoyed.  Due to the fragile nature of such a device the department contracted the help of Mortimer to safely dismantle the machine but they agreed to let him take it back to the lab to do some studies on it.  After Mortimer had the machine safely inactive the SWAT team swept the building and hauled the group back to jail.

As expected the was some minor retribution from the crime ring, though they didn't have smarts to break in to the manor during the night.  The burglar was easily apprehended by officers before she made it through the front door.  Mortimer's latest stint as the police departments hired mad scientist and the result attempted break in solidified his resolve to retire.  It was time for him to hand over the reigns to the younger and crazier scientists at the lab.  Mortimer felt comfortable in decision, especially since Jada had come into the department he would leaving.  He delivered the remnants of the weather machine to Jada for further development and testing.  The project was given and classification code of TS3:S 08; or known fondly by the scientist as Project Climatron Control Unit.

It is said that bad new spreads like wild fire.  About the only thing that travels faster than bad news is good news dripping in scandal.  That is how Bella first heard that Jada and Cyrique were married.  She was quietly counting inventory in the wine alcove when she over heard a patron quietly tell another patron that she had heard from her sister's best-friend's niece's friend that Jada Goth had eloped at city hall.  Bella nearly dropped a 200 simoleon bottle of wine.  She quickly touched base with the sous chef and left the restaurant to get answers right from the source.  Cyrique greeted Bella and he could tell by the look on her face that she had found them out. He put some coffee on for Bella and called Jada at the lab to let her know that she needed to come home to talk to her mother.  At first Bella was hurt that there wasn't even a wedding, then she was worried that it happened so quickly that Jada was pregnant.  Jada and Cyrique quickly quashed any baby talk and explained that neither of them were interested in a wedding, but have the marriage done at city hall without fanfare.  Bella couldn't convince them to have even a small wedding but Jada and Cyrique understood a celebration was important to their families so they allowed Bella to throw a small celebration reception at the manor.

It had happened again.  The little sister was first in a big life event.  This time Cassandra didn't care.  She was happy for Jada and Cyrique.  They had been together and there was no one else for either of them.  They deserved to be celebrated.  The soft melody of R&B floated through the room and Cassandra pulled Don close as they swayed to the music.  She rested her head on his shoulder breathing in the scent of his cologne and listening to the faint beat of his heart.
"Don, will we ever celebrate like this?" Cassandra whispered.
Don pulled her up to look into her eyes, "Goddess knows I love you Cassandra.  We are working on a lot, but I would like to get married by the end of the year.  If that sounds good to you."
Cassandra smiled and laid her head back on his shoulder as they danced slowly for the rest of the song.