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It's Spring! And Widespot kind of already ran on woohoo; who's woohooing whom, who used to, who wants to...So it should
come as no surprise if the spring fever spreads around here like an epidemic! Without further adieu, here goes Round 3.
Actually, now there's a little further adieu. I really, really didn't want to further subdivide this but I cannot devote another minute to trimming the fat from the html or figuring out what other scenes I can cut. Yes, it's wordy. Isn't it always? But I arranged and wrote it as one "Part One" so it still is to me. The cut-off's pretty arbitrary, I just found the halfway mark. And now:
"Shame you always got to be gettin' off to work so early, Day..."
Valentine pulled her in close and whispered something in her ear about "extra innings" before he kissed her.
"Mornin'," he said when he pulled back and saw Sandy standing there.
"Good—" Sandy cleared her voice of the early morning hoarseness, "good morning," she managed.
After all, why should she be the one embarrassed?
Daytona watched to see Valentine was heading back into the room, 'stead of standing around in his drawers, before she turned a frosty glare on that no-good hussy.
She'd told Hamilton when he first brought her home—Daytona had told him she was gonna be a lot more trouble than she could be worth to him but would he listen?
Now look at them. She had nerve to be holin' up here, too. No shame in her game. Look at 'er, holdin' that boy's baby...
"You got somethin' to say to me?" Oh, she dared her! Daytona was ready for her this morning. "Didn't think so."
~
Sympathy may have garnered some votes. (For Hamilton.) But strength, savvy, sophistication, that was what was going to carry them through. That was the legacy.
Any hint of dysfunction, like with that love child out there looming and lording it over them, went wholly
against the image Daytona had worked so hard to project so she just had to redouble her efforts.
But by main force of will she would plow that path to the mayoralty.
Hamilton saw how hard Mama was working.
He was proud of her, and he was rooting for her.
She was ambitious enough for them both of them, though.
It isn't that Hamilton was content to coast but actually competing with Mama? That was out of the question.
He valued his sanity too much, and peace in his house, so it was his intention to pace himself.
"Hey there, Rock. Uh, after school tomorrow, you and Virgie are both going straight to the Lands' right? Isn't it tomorrow they invited you guys to dinner?"
"Yeah. But I think Ms. Beulah's gonna make us do work first, like outside or helping cook. That's what Delta said."
"Fair's fair, son. Sometimes you gotta sing for your supper."
"Sing? Not me, Dad!" They didn't call him the frog prince for nothing. "But maybe River? You think he will?"
"It's just an expression, Rocky, so I doubt it."
(River was a ham though, so Ham just might be wrong about that one.)
Hamilton didn't waste an opportunity. He and Penny were still making time for a bit of the 'no strings attached' whenever they could.
Penny hadn't bothered to tell him about her run-in with Sandy because she didn't figure it was about him, it was about Rhett.
But coming back to this bedroom—as often as she could—and that bed and, and this picture (that he still hadn't taken down)...She'd
said this wasn't about revenge, and Ham agreed, but with so much Sandy here everywhere, sometimes it kinda felt like it.
He didn't understand the problem, he'd turned around the other photo but that, "that's my baby," he said, "Sandy's just up there in the middle."
"Come off it, Ham. You expect me to believe that?"
"It's the truth."
"Okay, but if you ever came over and saw I had a giant photo of Rhett's big head
hanging over my bed, what would you think? You'd think I wasn't over him."
There was no comparison between his marriage of 20 years almost and her fling, or young love, or whatever it was; it wasn't the same thing.
"Look. I'm not looking over here wishing we could go back to that, if that's what you're worried about,
but I can't erase her. I could try but that's a waste of time. We spent almost half our lives together."
He probably had a point but...she didn't know, it still felt like she just slept with Sandy's husband.
Mostly cuz he seemed perfectly content living with her lingering presence here.
But Ham was still on his high horse.
"Even if I could find some way to miraculously get her outta the middle somehow so you see only me and Virgie,
she'd still be there. One, because I remember that day. And two, because she lives in my children. Ain't no way
around that, Penny," he said, "But that is the past. She can't come in the middle of us if you don't put her there."
Not that he conceded them but Penny had made a coupla home points.
The way his room looked was almost all Sandy's doing. Time to make some changes.
Hamilton didn't expect to find Mary working the sales floor.
"So you pried yourself away from the twins, huh? Or are they here?"
"Oh no, I left them with Mama. I like to come in sometimes an' help Junior, and Dixie watch 'em most days but she say she busy today."
Mary shrugged. She didn't buy the idea of her sister bein' busy but she usually say when she don't wanna be
bothered so she don't know what Dixie's up to. But she still got to come into work so she's not gon' worry 'bout it.
"I saw you pick up some paintin' stuff, y'all redecorating?"
"Nothing big. Mama wants to redo some walls and I, uh, I need a change. What the
place could really use is a scrub top to bottom. But that's not gonna happen."
The cutest crinkle crept up between her brows when she was thinking. Mary said, "I'm real busy with the babies
and all but, but I guess Junior can do without me. At the store. So if y'all want I can come an'—'"
"Oh, no, Mary. We could never, no. We're not too saditty** to clean our own house," he laughed, "it's
only finding the time. And the motivation, I won't lie. I should be puttin' those kids of mine to work."
"Yeah, you should," she said, surprising him. "Hi Daddy!"
"How's it goin', Junior?" Hamilton made small talk when he went to pay. "Married life treating you right?"
"Hey, I got no complaints!"
So it starts. They were a Popularity family, though, so it was only right that Rocky took his place in the ranks.
Again!
Hamilton was hot on her heels once more and that did not sit well with his mama.
Daytona was working her tail off and all he had to do nowadays was show up. He was practically being pushed through
the ranks while she was fighting the clock to chip away at that glass ceiling, and swinging that chisel with all her might!
Peter came by soon as she called.
Daytona needed some reinforcement.
When they got upstairs and she shut the door he got a little ahead of himself.
Daytona swatted away his grabby hands and pushed him aside.
"Now then," she said, flicking on the spotlight and settling down into the new chair she'd ordered from Penny last month. "You stand there."
Peter laughed and leaned in toward her but Daytona held up a hand and directed him back to the spot, like she said.
"All the way over here? And how—what can I do from here?"
Daytona sat back and told him, "Use your initiative."
So, uh, he did.
Hamilton couldn't say he missed the days of being Mama's right hand so he was glad she had somebody to help her out even if Ottomas wasn't
exactly qualified. Hamilton didn't expect he knew much about politics but at least he was able to shoulder some of the weight on the business end.
;-}
He hoped she found the right guy to help manage her campaigns soon but in the meantime, while his own career was on the uptick, he didn't
mind running a few errands for her. And good news spread almost as fast as bad around here. Homer caught up to him in the post office, saying,
"Congratulations Assemblyman Beech! Keep up the good work, son. You keep doin' what you're doin' and we'll sure keep votin' for you."
Peter came down to find Daytona straightening up in the kitchen, about to make dinner for her family.
That was his cue to head on out and get home to his. "So, I guess I'll be back tomorrow."
"Huh?"
"To help with the renovations. The walls, remember, you wanted me to redo the panelling."
"Oh, that's right. Ok then, tomorrow, that's fine. Thanks Peter."
It wasn't exactly The Doorstep Challenge, because Virgie didn't know what that was, but she had collected lots of extra painting supplies and
rounded up all the teen-folk on Saturday morning and they all marched (or straggled) over together from the Round Barn GS to the Newsons' house.
"Ayo, somebody get that, I'm still gettin' dressed!" A voice yelled from inside.
"Gabby, get back, I got it," Gavin said opening the door to see...all of them. What?
"Surprise!" Virgie said and they all held up their brushes and stuff.
"Let me run up and get dressed," Gavin said after they all piled in.
Virgie watched him head up the stairs, some small unfamiliar part of her wondering if he...needed...help.
Then Ginger came out and she blushed, like that girl could read her thoughts.
"Hey, Goldie! What it do, boo? What y'all all doin' here?"
"Um, you guys were sayin' how Gavin's room was the only one not done so Virgie, um, she thought we could help."
"Oh."
"We're gonna paint!" Virgie chimed in. It was her project, her initiative. Ginger only gravitated to Goldie cuz they became friends so fast.
She didn't know how it happened but she was going to fix that! But first things first...
"I didn't know what colour you'd like so I just went ahead and picked out one that I like. Hope you don't mind," Virgie said.
"Mind? You kidding? I can't even believe you an' everybody..." Gavin couldn't get over this town. What did he care what colour it was!
"Okay, people. Let's get started!" Virgie said and started listing off and suggesting tasks.
Ginger wasn't as thrilled by the bum-rush as her brother, it was like nobody in this damn town thought twice about intruding.
(Plus her room was already painted and furnished.) But since they were here might as well make it into a kinda paint party.
"We need music. I'm-a go get the radio from downstairs an' make sure the kids stay put."
Everybody got to work. Well, Virgie was supervising and Ginger did Ginger.
"Taking a break?"
"Yeah, I just wanted to see how it was all lookin'."
"And? You do like the colour, right?"
"Yeah, no doubt. It's cool. I'm not used to people bein' so nice, for like no reason though."
Virgie smiled and sat down next to him.
"But this whole town is like that. It's weird, but I think that's, you know, one of the reasons I really like it here."
River had scrubbed as hard as he could to clean up the messes as they made them but it didn't look
like there was any way to get that spilt paint out. It would drive him crazy but maybe Gavin won't mind it.
"Yo, you in the way, we gotta move this bed," David said and proceeded to shove the air mattress back away from the walls with Gavin and Virgie still on it.
"What the—"
"David!" Goldie screeched.
"Get your lazy butts up and help."
"David!"
"Wha-at?"
Scot spun around to see what was going on. "You play around too much sometimes," he told David.
"He's right," Goldie echoed for only him to hear.
"Come here," Scot said.
"I'll help you up."
Gavin got out of their way. That back wall did still have to be done.
"Everybody's working here and you're the reason why," Scot tried to point out the obvious, "so you can
join in and get a brush or a roller in your hands and do some manual labour. It's not gonna hurt."
"Funny," Virgie said, taking the roller from him. She could paint with the best of 'em.
"Goldie? Now what's wrong with you?"
"Didn't you see Scot was mad?" she whispered.
"It wasn't even nothin' to be mad about."
But Goldie resolutely shook her head. He'd be mad if he saw her rolling around with another boy. On a bed!
Scot stood by for a while watching Virgie looking like she was about to start painting but still not doing any painting.
She was strategising, all right. Did he mind?
Actually, yeah, kinda. "Up and down, that's all there is to it," Scot said, "Up. And down."
"Hmph." Glancing out the window she started muttering to herself, "what's she doin' out here? Oh, who cares."
And she turned back to the more interesting subject of these bare walls.
Sandy was out for a stroll. She had to make that time for herself, to breathe, she had to.
They were cute kids, the new family in this house, but they were under a lot of pressure. She really hoped they made it. Together.
It wasn't an entirely conscious decision when she kept walking straight, and she ended up outside her old house...But Sandy didn't stop.
They didn't make it. The past was past.
Hamilton had helped with the living room and foyer since Mama wanted them re-panelled but now that was done he was all helped out.
Besides, the upstairs was a much smaller job. It was the weekend and he was gonna spend some time hanging out with his son.
He caught sight of Sandy rounding the corner at the end of their block. As long as Rocky didn't see her!
The last thing he needed was her causing a scene that would leave him having to pick up the pieces over the next few weeks.
Ginger made up a batch of grilled cheese when she was downstairs checking on the kids.
"Okay, Virgie, you proved your point. You're no slacker. Take a break and eat," Scot said.
"In a minute, I'm almost finished."
"But you're going do it sloppy cuz you'll rush. Leave it and we'll go back to it."
"I will not. I am going to do it perfectly."
The smell of fried butter and cheese enticed some younger Newsons upstairs.
Ginger collected plates when everyone was done and then pumped up the volume on the radio to get this party back on track.
The two shy guys stood by and watched.
David had already walked Goldie home when he ran into Virgie heading in.
He thought Goldie was overdramatising but he had to double-check Virgie wasn't upset from when he pushed the bed with her and Gavin.
He didn't know it was so light, (but, well, air); he didn't expect them to fall back so hard. But when she was telling him he'd stopped paying attention.
"Dad? Uh, hey. I didn't know you were working today."
"Life of the odd jobs man. I told your mom yesterday I'd have to come back and finish up." Peter was about to ask him where Goldie was, they were
usually joined at the lip and he figured she'd be staying to dinner again but he noticed Daytona's granddaughter out there. Well, boys will be boys.
~
Daytona was surprised, but delighted, when Valentine agreed to come by and have dinner with her family.
"Drink?" Hamilton asked.
"No thanks. Don't really touch the stuff these days. Kinda lost the taste."
No one had told Virgie they were having 'company' for dinner.
She wasn't sure how to feel about...the grandfather. Grandma obviously wasn't mad at him,
neither was Dad, so she kinda wasn't either. But that tolerance was negotiable. Let it be known.
Rocky prompty cleared up after dinner. Right after he puffed out. Rocky's waistline had proven so resilient, too, in the winter.
It's that grandma homecooking once again. A few bites and that was it.
"What are your intentions, may I ask, with our Daytona?" Virgie approached Valentine where he and her grandma were sitting, only half-mocking.
Daytona didn't shush her or send her away either. She was kind of curious to know herself.
Well, Val could play along. "That's an easy one. To keep her as happy as's within my power for as long as she'll let me."
That was a perfectly evasive answer, Virgie thought, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It was meant to sound like he was saying something great when
the words might turn out hollow and still be true. Who could say how far 'his power' went? It occurred to her that celebrities and lawyers might have a lot in common.
Valentine didn't much care about passing Virgie's test but he knew Daytona wouldn't
have let the girl go on like that if there wasn't something she was listening to hear.
"You're the one setting the tone here," he whispered. "When you want me to stay, don't I stay?"
Well, he didn't always.
"The ball's in your court, hun. We're playin' your game."
Well then. That fired up her imagination. Daytona led him upstairs.
"Interestin' place for a chair."
"Ain't it tho." Daytona smirked. "Special order."
"You don't say," Valentine instinctively manoeuvred her and took over the favoured seat himself. "Why don't you show me what's so special about it."
Well, there is one aspect of Daytona's life that isn't stagnating, not by a long shot.
Virginia saw all the house lights were off when she crept up so she thought she was home free.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. She was so busted!
"Dad? What are you doing up?"
"What am I do—Virginia, what are you doing out of the house at this time of night? You're going to tell me,
right now, where you've been. Is that boy out there, that where you were? Call him in here. Right now."
Hamilton craned his head to see if he caught any shadows moving past the windows.
"Dad, no, it's not—"
He made a move to shuffle toward the back door where he'd be able to head the kid off as he tried to sneak home.
"It's not like that. I wasn't with Scot."
"You weren't?"
"Well, but I mean, I mean not with him alone. It wasn't like that, it was all of us."
Oops. Did she just narc on all her friends? Dang.
"All of who? Where were you?" he demanded.
"Just right there at the—at the Spot," she hesitated to say that word and make him even more suspicious.
She didn't go to makeout or, or do anything else. Honest!
"Virgie, you can't be following behind those new kids. Their lives are completely different from yours. You're a leader? Act like one."
"Daddy, I..."
"Go to bed, Virginia."
Hamilton grabbed a flashlight and headed for the back door anyway, to be sure.
He spotlighted both the Land boys and Woody heading home. They didn't run. That was good. They froze like a trio of deer.
Another father might panic to see the number of boys multiply but he knew Virgie, so he was relieved; she hadn't lied tonight.
He clicked off and headed back to bed. Let 'em stir, knowing they were caught. They'd probably end up telling on themselves.
Hamilton bought the supplies but Mama was the proactive one who had already gotten both the living room and the hall done.
He figured it was about time he followed suit. (At least changed those sheets! Penny wasn't wrong on that score.)
"Oh good, there you are, Virginia. Come here, I want you to help me with something."
"What is it, Dad?" she asked, trying to be conciliating and regulate her tone because he hadn't said anything more yet about her coming in so late last night.
"Your mother's stuff. It's all still here. Clothes...all of it. I want you to help me go through the closets and stuff and collect everything so we can bundle it all up—"
"And burn it?"
"Virginia."
"Okay, fine. I guess I can help."
"Is this my punishment?"
"Helping out your father's a punishment?"
"No, but tricking me into helping her...eh, whatever." Virgie shrugged her shoulders and relented, it didn't even matter.
She knew how she felt about that woman. She'd betrayed them. And the more traces of her they got rid of—purged—the better.
"Oh—Wait, Virgie, not that drawer!"
"Huh? Oh..."
"...eww."
It wasn't a task that he relished either but Hamilton could do that drawer and the rest with Sandy's silkies later on himself.
Still, he didn't know how Virgie imagined she and Rocky came to be if their parents had never gotten a little frisky.
And she wasn't a child anymore, but even then Virgie hadn't been one of those kids who got all embarrassed and grossed out by the parental PDA.
When she was little she would giggle to "catch" them kissing and as she got older she'd only smirk and shake her head at them.
For Virgie, her mom didn't only ruin their family, she'd destroyed her fantasy. Replaced it with nothing but fears for her own future.
If their love couldn't survive then...what was even the point?
"I'm done. That's all of her crap that I could find in here. Can I go now?"
Rocky wasn't ever one to mouth off or act up. But he had his own ways of dealing with his feelings.
*He was supposed to be doing his homework to get rid of the D+ he brought home but I turned my back and caught him doing this instead. Again.
Since he's still so determined about having his comfort food he can just go ahead and stay round. (At least until he's got sufficient motivation to be otherwise...)
Both his fun and hunger levels were completely full and all the rest were comfortably green. He'd just rather bake up some starch than study.*
"That was a good speech today, Mama."
She appreciated that he said so but Daytona could only judge that by results.
"We'll see when the vote comes down," she told him.
"Lookin' good, Daddy."
"Thanks, Virgie."
"Can I—?"
"No."
Hamilton pulled out a list of chores that he'd drawn up and handed it to Virgie.
"That's gonna take up more than one afternoon so you might wanna hop to it."
~
Happy Simming
~
Proceed, if you please, to Part One: B
**Okay. Well, the word refers to class affectations but that's not why I made this note. I hate when I can't figure out how something should be spelled, (vernacular/slang, I even looked it up!) but I have no idea where this word derives from! I know where it comes from, culturally, (that you can wiki!) and I relented because it is exactly what Hamilton would say when talking to Mary, but I have no idea what words or sounds originally morphed into this expression. Should there be an apostrophe somewhere? Double d instead of t? Ah well, random Quinn rambles. Maybe 'high society' morphed into 'high saditty' and then sometimes just 'saditty'? The world may never know...
*I'm sleepy, so I'm going to go attend to that, but subpart B (sheesh) will probably be up before anyone has even seen A.*
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