Chapter 29

Welcome back! When we last left off, Xi, Rose, and Farid passed away; only Nate and Ziyi were left to care for Chase and Alana.

Ziyi, wanting to help her step-father, decided to plan a mass funeral.

She invited the whole family.

Surprisingly, Nate wasn’t interested in reminiscing over his loved-ones. He opted to spend the time with his children instead.

Aaron wasn’t interested either; only Charlie and Louisa showed up.

Ziyi knew Nate would be OK as long as he had his kids, so she turned her attention to Aaron. He seemed to be taking the whole situation very hard. She comforted him….

… but soon, that turned into flirting.

Flirting quickly became kissing, and Aaron was happy he missed the party.

When Ziyi returned and found Nate by the fire pit, she felt the need to apologize for her actions with Aaron. Without knowing why, she felt guilty. Maybe it was because they’d grown up like brother and sister.

While the parents were having their dramas, the kids were thriving peacefully. Chase met another kid at school, Tomika Burkett, and they quickly became best friends.

Tomika came over every day without fail.

Though Tomika occasionally wore dresses, she looked and acted nothing like a girl.

One day, when Chase invited Tomika over, she seemed to have grown up. This suddenly reminded everyone that it was Chase’s birthday.

A party was quickly thrown together…

… and Chase transitioned into a teenager. He rolled Great Kisser as his fourth trait.

Alana shared Chase’s birthday…

… and quickly grew up into a very cute child. She rolled Party Animal as her third trait.

With the kids beginning to lead their own lives, Nate and Ziyi were able to enjoy some free time. Lately, Ziyi chose to spend hers with Aaron.

Soon, they were woohooing on a regular basis.

Nate wasn’t dumb or blind, so he knew what was going on; and he didn’t like it. Since Aaron moved out, he’d turned into the town thug. He also had quite a few children. Nate didn’t want Ziyi to be taken advantage of.

Ziyi quickly dismissed Nate’s advice when he confronted her.

Nate couldn’t stop himself from slapping Ziyi. He just couldn’t stand to watch her ruin her life.

The fight quickly dissipated as Nate’s birthday to adulthood arrived.

Nate grew to look much older.

After the fight, Ziyi slept on the bench in the park. She was too upset to go home.

That only lasted until she began to feel sick to her stomach, though.

She ran to Nate to tell him that something was wrong…

… and right then, she realized she was pregnant.

Nate pushed aside his fears for Ziyi, and was thrilled. After all, he loved his kids, and he loved the idea of more coming into the family. He congratulated Ziyi from the bottom of his heart.

Ziyi had started to have some trepidations, though. Since she and Nate fought, she hadn’t seen or heard from Aaron. He wouldn’t answer her calls. She felt jilted.

Nate knew how Ziyi felt, and how her pregnancy would look. Ziyi was a smart, quiet, private person. Her relationship with Aaron was nowhere near public; the neighbors would assume the child was Nate’s, so he might as well accept responsibility for it. He decided he and Ziyi should become a couple.

They exchanged a small peck to seal the deal; however, that peck turned into a long and passionate kiss, and the two realized that they had shared feelings for each other for some time.

Nate dragged Ziyi to the park, even though it was the middle of the night.

He dropped down onto one knee, and proposed to her.

She said yes…

… and the two were quickly married right next to the fountain.

Not too much changed after Nate’s and Ziyi’s wedding. The kids were too young when their mother died; Ziyi had always seemed like their mother anyways.

While Nate and Ziyi were off getting married, Charlie had also gotten married! His wife, Susan, seemed nothing like his type, but they got along well.

Chase was also beginning to develop a love life. He’d met a girl in school: Ericka Lotus.

He was instantly smitten, to the point that he felt the need to change his style. He decided to go all-out rock-a-billy.

The Lotus’ actually lived next-door, and had twin boys: Lyle and Kyle. Alana quickly became friends with Lyle.

One afternoon, Aaron was walking to a friend’s house, and happened to run into a rather rotund lady. She instantly ran up and began flirting with him. This was unfortunate for two reasons: one, she wasn’t exactly his type…

… and two, Nate happened to be walking by. The rotund lady ran away quickly after Aaron’s reproach. He felt pretty smug, but that wouldn’t last for long.

Nate quickly jumped in and attacked Aaron. He was angry at his brother for knocking up Ziyi and never returning her calls.

Right at that moment, back at home, Ziyi went into labor.

Since Nate was too busy fighting with Aaron, Chase had to drive Ziyi to the hospital.

Soon, Ziyi left the hospital with a new baby boy: Ryan. He rolled Evil and Virtuoso as his two traits.

Ryan was quickly dropped off in the nursery…

While Ziyi climbed into bed with Nate. He was too busy sleeping off the fight with Aaron to even notice Ziyi was gone.

The next morning, Nate didn’t even check in on the new baby.

Ziyi was worried that maybe Nate was regretting his decision to marry her and raise his nephew.

She had no need to worry, though, as Nate was just distracted. He had a lot of housework to do. He also felt no bond with this new baby as he did with his biological children.

Alana and Chase were far from forgotten. Ziyi made sure to give them just as much if not more attention than she gave to Ryan.

Alana developed an interest in fashion…

… while Chase developed an interest in handy-work.

Chase was also quite interested in girls. He was soon going home with his neighbor, Ericka Lotus, every day after school. They had bonded over inside jokes about the bus-driver’s lack of talent using bronzer.

Ericka’s father wasn’t such a fan of Chase. He was pretty sure Chase would grow up to be a criminal, considering his mean-spirited nature.

It probably didn’t help that he would say things like “Our house is a lot bigger than yours. A lot more privacy. We should totally go over there”, when her father was right behind her.

Since they hadn’t progressed beyond friendship, these comments lead to quite a few awkward moments.

Chase eventually tried to make his move….

… although the house really was tiny, and Ericka’s mother was only a few feet away. She was horrified to see her only daughter with a kid such as Chase, and cried out in horror.

Ericka’s father took Chase aside and gave him a stern talking-to. The topic of the conversation is unknown, but Chase sat with his legs crossed whenever he visited Ericka after that.

Ryan was the quietest baby to ever have lived, and never cried.

This gave Nate and Ziyi time to bond.

They were finally able to woohoo like the newlyweds they were.

Soon, though, Ziyi began to crave strange foods at random times. She had a sneaking suspicion that all the woohoo had had a side-effect. Will Nate and Ziyi have more kids? Will Chase ever get around to kissing Ericka? Check back soon for the next chapter to find out!