Chapter 54: Facts of Life

  Alyssa was not so sure what kept happening to her Daddy's face.  There it is, no, it's gone again!  There it is! 

 

 How does he do that?

 

  Now how did Daddy do that again?

 

  Peek  a BOO! 

 

  Alyssa giggled.  It worked!  It worked!


  Ryder got a glimpse of what his future may hold..

 
    Alder liked to start his kids early.  "Okay Niall, the secret to a really great party, well, beyond inviting me that is, is..."

  "Party!  Party!"  Niall clapped enthusiastically. 

 

  Claudio taught his daughter how to walk...

 

  ...before heading out to Mick's Master Karaoke to do some graphic artwork for him.

   After teaching Niall about parties, Alder decided to go out for a while.  He ran into a very pregnant Jamie Jolina, his brother Puck's girlfriend.  "Hey Jamie."  Alder said with an easy grin.  "Wow, you're like..."  Alder paused, the word fat came to mind, but he didn't think she would appreciate it.  And neither would Puck.  "really healthy." he finished, awkwardly.

  Jamie smiled at him, "Alder!  You look fantastic yourself!"

  Alder kept his smile firmly in place while he contemplated her words.  How did she get fantastic from healthy?  "Um yeah, thanks." he muttered, and started looking for the exit door.  Awkward situations were not his thing.  Bailing, yeah, that was his thing.

  "I can't tell you how happy I am to have run into you!" she exclaimed.  "Your brother is gone for a few weeks, so I am totally free.  Free and very lonely, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since I met you at your brother's place a couple of weeks ago.  So, you know, we could go out on a date tonight, and I would totally rock your world."

  It was a trial, but he managed to keep his smile.  "Uh, yeah, as flattered as I am, " Alder said as he resisted the urge to puke.  He was not that type of guy, the type that would sleep with his brother's girl.  He had his standards, and lines that even he would not cross.  Alder had heard rumors that Jamie slept around, but had ignored them and tried to be happy for Puck.  Now he would have to talk to Puck about how he should make sure Jamie's baby was his.

  "I'm like really busy tonight.  See, I have to get to the store, and buy some dirt for these plants.  You know, potted ones that my sister Lia, you remember Lia right?  Yeah, well, she said I had to get her some dirt and to do it right away.  I can't upset her you know, so, hey, take care of my niece or nephew to be, and I'll see you later!"

 

   Alder retreated as quickly as his wings would take him, leaving a frowning Jamie behind.  Whew!  That was a close one.  Sometimes being so irresistible to women was a curse!


  The next day brought birthdays, Niall's and Alyssa's.

  Niall:

 

 Alyssa:

   Alyssa was excited to be a little older.  "We get to go to school now!" she eagerly clapped her hands.  "I cannot wait!"

  "I can."  Niall said, beside her.  "All those kids I don't know, it sounds scary."

  "No worries Niall."  Alyssa said cheerfully.  "I'll be there!"

 

  The next night was Ryder's birthday.  It also happened to be Spooky Day.  Ryder dressed up as a pirate.  "Ahoy ye Mateys!  Prepare to be boarded, I'm looking for booty!" he shouted as he flew from house to house.

    Otherwise known as candy...

  Niall dressed up as a somber Roman soldier.  He tried to keep up with his energetic older brother, but his legs were no match for Ryder's wings.

 

  Alyssa went as the Incredible Hulk.  She had lots of muscles for pounding on people if they tried to trick her out of her treats!

 

   Once Ryder decided he had enough booty, they all headed home.  Just in time for his birthday.  Though, maybe he shouldn't have eaten so much booty beforehand, he wasn't feeling so well. 

 

 With his new phone in hand that he got for his birthday, his upset tummy was quickly forgotten.  Ha! Ha!  Was that his Dad as a teen acting in one of Aunt Lia's films?

 

  Just wait until he showed his Dad that one!


******



  "Am I the only one that hears the doorbell around here?"  Lia muttered to herself.  Whoever they were, they weren't going away any time soon, so she might as well answer it.  She set down her writing notebook, and went to the answer the door.  She flung it open, and stared.

  "Uh, I'm looking for Alder, Alder Kahekili?  Is this the right house?"

  "Alder, it's for you.  It's important, so get your hiney down here, and pronto!"

  Alder came down the stairs grumbling loudly.  "Lia, you know I'm writing songs for my next album, and I can't...be...dis...turbed..."  He stopped in the middle of the room, in the middle of his sentence.

  "I think they belong to you."  Lia said mildly, as Alder took in the three pairs of eyes staring back at him with a mixture of curiosity and hostility.

  "Belong to me..." he echoed.  "But where did they come from?!"

 

  "Surely at your age, I don't have to explain the facts of life to you, now do I, brother dearest?"  Lia said with a smirk.  She couldn't help it, she found it highly amusing.  She had told him for years that something like this was bound to happen.

  "Ha!  Ha!  Very funny Lia."  None of the three teens had spoken yet, but their heads had swiveled back and forth between Alder and Lia during their word exchange. 

  "I'm Mike."  the one with red hair said.  "The oldest, by a few minutes any way.  That's Isaac" he pointed to the boy with blond hair, " and that's Reagan" he pointed to the girl.  "We're triplets."  Mike added, when Alder continued to stare and not say a word.

 

  Mike smiled a little uncertainly at Alder.  "You really didn't know, did you?  About us, I mean.  Mom said she was going to tell you, but I guess I was too impatient to meet you, and I beat her to it."

  Alder shook his head, and then surreptitiously pinched himself.  Ouch!  No, he wasn't dreaming, he really did have three teens, triplets!, standing in his house that belonged to him.  "Um,"  Alder cleared his throat.  "No, I didn't know about you guys."

  "It's why we moved to this town.  So we could get to know you better."  Isaac, the blond one said.

    "Move to, so, you guys just recently moved to Sun River?"  Alder felt like he was drowning, grasping at anything, just trying to stay afloat.  Who was the mother?  He looked at Mike a little closer, that red hair.  That red hair.  Aha!  Alder had a fairly good idea who their mother was.  Now the question was, why didn't she tell him?  She'd had plenty of opportunity to.  Surely he deserved to know that he had three other children out there in the world.  He could have helped support them, if nothing else.

  He waited for a reply to his question, and resisted the urge to rub the back of his neck.  He could feel his daughter's semi-unfriendly stare.

 

  "Yeah, we just moved here a few days ago.  Mom's still unpacking stuff.  She said she didn't want to raise another one on her own, and so we moved here."

  Alder was confused.  "Another one?  She has another kid?  Besides you three?"

  Reagan moved to stand closer to her brothers.  She also wanted to watch her father's face, and see his reactions.  She wasn't sure if she could believe in him yet, believe that he really hadn't known about them.  "Yeah, she has another kid by you.  Cori is only a toddler though.  Mom was supposed to tell you about us that one time she came to visit, instead she came home knocked up again."

  "Reagan!" both Mike and Isaac said at the same time.

  "What?"  she defended.  "It's true!"  She shrugged.  "So we moved here, so you could learn how to be a real Dad."  Reagan said in her tough girl voice, though she didn't feel very tough inside.

 

  More shocking news to assimilate.  He had another child with Esther, besides these three?!  And they all lived here, now, in Sun River?!

 

  "Did you ever love our mother, and want to marry her?"  Reagan demanded to know.

  "Reagan!"  Isaac said.

  Alder stared at his daughter, that was such a funny word on his tongue, daughter.  How could he answer that?  He had liked Esther well enough, but love?  No, love hadn't had anything to do with his relationship with Esther.  And marriage?  Definitely out of the question.

   Mike seemed to sense some of his father's hesitation, and took pity on him.   "Cori is a bit much to handle."  Mike said, wresting control of the conversation from his sister.  "We all have school, and afternoon activities that we go to, and Mom has a high powered job now, so she needs the help.  You didn't know about us before, but now you do."  All eyes were back on Alder.

  "I'll have to call your mother, and set something up."  Alder said vaguely.  He wasn't quite sure what that something was, or what he should do exactly.  He only knew there were six eyes staring at him with great expectations that he would do something.  Lia chuckled, and Alder threw a glare at her.  Lia had watched all of it unfold with great amusement.

  He was somewhat saved from answering further when the front door banged open and Niall ran in, followed by Ryder.  "I'm home!"  Niall hollered.  "And boy am I starving!"  Niall took off for the kitchen to make himself a sandwich.

  "Hey Ryder, come over here, I have someone, well, someones plural for you to meet."  

 
  Ryder took in his father's strained smile, the sparkle of laughter in his Aunt's eyes, and the three teens who were now watching him very closely.  He sighed.  He had a pretty good idea of what was going on.  His Dad's eyes were pleading with him though, so with another sigh, Ryder walked over and stood by his Dad.  "More kids Dad?"  Ryder asked.  "How many this time?  Three?"  Ryder stared back at the three that were staring at him.

  "More kids?"  Mike questioned as Alder said, "Four actually.  The other one is still little.  And what do you mean by more, it's not like I have a whole bunch of you, you know."

  Ryder leaned down to flick off an imaginary speck off his pants.  Four more kids!  His mother was going to freak out.

 

     "Dad,"  Ryder said patiently.  "You have..."

  "Triplets."  Alder said, helpfully.  "Mike, red hair, Isaac, blond hair, Reagan, pink hair.  Triplets.  Multiples run in our family you know.  Not my fault.  I think it should count as only one.  You know, it was just once, one last hurrah after graduating from University, before even moving to New City where I met your mother."

  Ryder snorted.  "You want three kids to count as one?  You're whacked.  You have a set of triplets, three Dad, that means three, plus another one?  When did that happen?  Nah, never mind, I really don't want to know.  That makes four, plus Niall and I, that would be six, then you add in Francois from that little trip to France, and poor little Wilbert.  Eight kids Dad, you have eight of us.  Eight is enough."

  "Wilbert isn't mine."  Alder said stiffly.  "And how did you find out about Wilbert anyway?"

  Ryder pointed to his phone.  "The Internet.  It's a huge scandal in New City.  Your name is plastered all over the news there.  I'm surprised we haven't had the paparazzi on our doorstep.  It's good news for you Dad, it's made you more popular, and pushed your album sales up."  Ryder looked at Mike, who was chuckling.  "What?"

  "Here we were, having this awkward conversation, and you blow in and make it feel like family.  Do you always talk that way to him?"

 

   "Thing is about Dad, he's really like a big ole kid."

  "Hey!"  Alder objected as Lia started laughing hysterically.

  "It's true, he has the maturity level of a twelve year old sometimes.  He's a great Dad though, so once you get to know him, I'm sure you'll agree with me."

  Alder had been counting the many different ways he could punish Ryder for that little comment of his, but after Ryder's last statement, he reconsidered.

 

  "If you kids will excuse me a moment, I need to make a phone call."

  "Don't forget to call Grandma Dad.  She'll be happy to hear you have more of us."  Ryder smiled innocently at Alder's sour look.  Four more kids that ought to send Grandma into hyperwarp, Ryder chuckled.  He adored his Grandma Elly.  It was also no secret that her number one goal was to see his Dad married and settled down.

  "Hello?  Esther?  Hey this is Alder.  Listen, I had three kids, well, teens, show up on my doorstep today..."

 

  Ryder approached Reagan, the more prickly triplet.  "Hello."

  "Hi."

  "You're kind of quiet."

  Reagan laughed.  "Mike and Isaac were trying to shut me up earlier.  I wanted some answers to some questions, but they always think I push too much too fast."  Reagan shrugged.  "Maybe I do."

  "Like what type of questions?"  Ryder asked curiously.

  "If he ever loved our mother, if he would have married her if he had known about us.  We grew up in a really small town, and we got looked down upon a lot, as bastards because our mother wasn't married.  I know it shouldn't matter in this day and age, but it does, especially if you live in a small town."

 

  "Ah," Ryder said thoughtfully.  "I understand.  But Dad, he's not the settling down type.  He's a free spirit, his words, not mine."

  "He seems to have settled just fine with your mother.  Mom says she's been living here with him."

  "My parents."  Ryder shook his head.  "I don't understand my mother staying with him all these years.  But if you think about it, Cori disproves your theory.  Cori wouldn't be here if Dad was settled."

  Reagan nodded.  "True."  Reagan looked up at Ryder.  "How can you take this so calmly?  Aren't you upset at all?  Worried that we may take his affection away from you?  Any thing?"

  Ryder shrugged.  "Upset?  Not really.  It would be nice if I didn't sound so much like him, so that when I answered the phone I wouldn't hear stuff that I don't want to know."  Ryder made a face.  "It's annoying that girls at school only want my number or want to come over and hang out on the off chance they get to see or talk to him.  But it's who he is."  Ryder rolled his eyes.  "Women really love him, the phone rings all the time, they show up on our doorstep.  It can get pretty crazy."  Ryder paused, lost in thought for a few seconds before resuming, "He's the fun Dad that takes you fishing, you know, because you want to learn how to fish, even though he doesn't know a thing about fishing."  Ryder chuckled at the memory of his Dad trying to put a worm on the hook, and hooking his thumb instead.

  "He's the Dad," Ryder continued, "that took me for my first motorcycle ride.  Now that was thrilling.  He takes me with him when he goes on tour, so I've seen a lot of the world.  France is my favorite place.  It's so nice and warm there, and the people are so friendly."

  "He sounds great."  Reagan said wistfully, as she stole a look at Alder, who was still talking on the phone to her mother.

  "He is."  Ryder agreed.  "He's loads of fun, but you'll find that out for yourself soon enough.  I can't understand what he has against commitment, but if you're his kid, he's pretty committed as a Dad.  I think it is because Grandma Elly pushes him to get married all the time.  He's still rebelling."

 

    "Grandma Elly?" she questioned.

  "Yeah, Dad's mom.  You'll meet her soon enough, you guys have the same hair color."  Reagan touched her hair, she had always wondered where she got her pink hair from.  Ryder continued, "Thing is, Grandma Elly is worse than Dad, so don't say I haven't warned you.  She is quite fond of tricks and pranks, and babies.  Whatever you do, don't mention a thing about marriage or babies, or you'll never get away."

  Reagan laughed.  "She can't be that bad."

  "No, she's worse!  But you'll find out.  The rest of the family, and there are a lot of us, isn't too bad.  It was really nice talking to you Reagan, I hope you stay in touch, but I probably should go say hi to the brothers now."

  Reagan smiled.  "It was nice talking to you Ryder.  It's nice to have another brother, I'll definitely stay in touch with you."  Ryder smiled back, and then made his way over to where Mike and Isaac were standing.


****

  Alyssa was so excited!  She had permission to go over to her best friend's house after school.   She had been begging her parents for for-evah to let her go over there, and finally, finally!  She got the okay.  It was more of a distracted, "Uh, what?  Whatever Lys, can't you see Mommy's writing?"  type of answer, but Alyssa would take it.

 

  Paeris was a faery, just like her cousin Ryder.  Which meant he was fast, he was even faster than she was, and she was the next fastest kid after him.  They both liked playing baseball, and tag, and all kinds of fun physical type stuff.  Stuff that her cousin Niall didn't like doing, and that Ryder thought he was too old for.

 

    Though Alyssa decided that faeries had an unfair advantage when it came to playing tag.  She was starting to get tired, and Paeris wasn't even the slightest bit tired yet.

 

  Alyssa didn't understand what the big deal was with her going over to Paeris house anyway, he came over to hers quite frequently.  Her mom would only say that she hadn't met his parents yet.  Alyssa had, and they were nice.  They even did that yucky kissing a lot like her parents did.  His parents were busy though, both of them were doctors and worked long hours.  Paeris liked coming over to Alyssa's house, because then he wasn't stuck with a babysitter.

  He had two younger siblings, and Alyssa thought they were kind of cute.  But they cried too much, and Paeris agreed.  And they didn't really do anything but eat, sleep, drool, and poop in their diapers.  Alyssa thought the last two were especially gross. 

  "It's getting dark Alyssa.  Maybe you should go home, before you get in trouble."

   Alyssa sighed.  Paeris was fun, but he was such a stickler for the rules.   "Let's make a snowman first."

 

   "I think when we grow up we should play on the same baseball team."  Alyssa announced.  "Then, when we're too old to play, we could open up our own Management agency, and we could be partners!  What do you think Paeris?"

  "I think this snowman has too many lumps, and he needs to be more round."  Paeris grumbled as he tried to smooth the snowman's body shape.

 

  "Not every thing needs to be perfect you know."  She told him.  "And I wasn't talking about the snowman.  What do you think of my future plans for us?"

  Paeris eyed the snowman critically.  Nope, still more spots to fix.  "I think you are going to get old before I am."

  "Hmm, good point."  She had forgotten that faeries also lived longer.  Alyssa thought about it for a moment.  "I know!   I could retire from playing, you keep playing, we could still go into business together, but you could be a silent partner.  What do you think of that plan?"

 

  "I don't like the silent part."  Paeris said truthfully.

  "Why not?"  Alyssa was confused.  "You don't talk around other people anyway."

  "But I talk to you."  Paeris said, his voice a bit muffled.

 

  "That's true.  We couldn't be silent, because we talk too much.  Okay, then we'll just take out the silent partner part.  Agreed?"

  "Agreed."  Instead of shaking hands, they pinky swore instead.   Pinky swearing made it a sacred deal.

  They both stepped back to admire their handiwork.

 

  "We make an awesome team Paeris!"  Alyssa grinned at Paeris.

  Paeris grinned back. "We do!" 



___________________________________________________________

  Notes: I really had no plans to put Paeris or his family in my Legacy.  I just wanted to see what Talfryn/Evie babies looked like, and as this is the save I play the most, it would be the quickest way to find out, lol  I took them through CAS when they aged up, but left them to their own devices.  Then Alyssa ages to a child, and suddenly SP is sending Paeris home with her after school all the time.  And he's inviting her over to his house.  They became really good friends, very quickly, since they have very similar traits.  Both are Athletic, for example.  And they were just too cute together!  I couldn't resist.  I'm still going to keep the parents mostly out of it though, and to be clear, while genetically they are Talfryn/Evie, they are NOT Talfryn and Evie, lol  I should come up with different names, I just haven't been able to think of any that suits them as well as the ones they have, lol  Thanks again Cali, for uploading them!  They have beautiful kids! :D

  Esther was one of the sims that Alder did a Risky Woohoo with while at University.  She was quite pretty, so I had Alder invite her over, I wanted to see if she was pregnant or not.  I added her to the town, and she had triplets, lol  Full moon craziness.  Then I left them alone for a long time, until I got the notice they were all teens.  Then I thought it would be fun for Alder to meet these 3 kids of his as teenagers.  For story purposes, I invited Esther over, thinking she would want to own up to them first, before they showed up.  Instead, she and Alder couldn't get enough of the shower, he even did a TFB, silly guy.  But it did result in one more kid.  None of them count in the challenge, as none of them are in the active household.  But I sure wish Mike had been.  He is so cute!  And Reagan---there is just something about her face that I love.

  And yes, Alder went to France.  His Gen Goal is Opportunist, so I have been taking all the Opportunities thrown his way, one required that he go to France.  Alder being Alder, well, he has a kid in France now, lol  I may have been thinking about some old 80s tv shows when I wrote this chapter, lol  :P

  Jamie Jolina really was going steady with Puck (they have since broken up), and she was pregnant with his kid, and she did hit on Alder.  She's the town tart, she hits on everyone, lol  Alder didn't want anything to do with her though, it was kind of funny. 

  And last, but definitely not least, as promised, fat Monty pics.  Poor Claudio, lol  So if you were wondering where he disappeared too, now you know.  Story wise--this never happened, lol :P

 

  He had a girl, her genetics were quite disappointing though.  She is a clone of her alien mother, there is nothing of Claudio in her.

 

  And since Elly seemed to have so much time on her hands---

 

  among the dozens of Elly notices I received, I gave her the baby to raise.  She always wanted more babies!

  Thanks for reading! =)