Chapter 9- Spiral

Chapter 9- Spiral

                Heather turned the corner and caught a glimpse of an obnoxiously large birthday cake sitting on the small kitchen table.

                Surely, Kiley and Craig had taken pity on her. Most likely Kiley. Craig was at work and had forgotten or ignored most of his own kids’ birthdays.

                Out of curiosity more than anything, Heather walked over to it. She had never had a cake before. Usually her mother would take her to a greasy spoon and that was it. Once she had gotten a pack of socks from her dad as a gift. William was the only one ever who remembered her birthday in a favorable way.

                Heather sighed heavily. ‘Not anymore he won’t,’ she thought glumly.

                But for the here and now, she had a cake on her birthday. She went ahead and lit the candles smiling to herself.

                She had finished when she looked up to see William watching her from beside the fridge. However, even he could not spoil that she had a cake.

                William watched apprehensively. He didn’t want his hand detected in the appearance of the cake. Originally he had planned an elaborate celebration at the bistro followed by a concert. Nothing could induce him to go through with those plans. His senior officer’s reprimand had provoked him to this small gesture.

                Kiley came in armed with a noisemaker. Her older daughters heard and trooped in to take part in the celebration.

                Well, Daphne did at least. Velma was forever late.

                “Make a wish!” Daphne gasped at Heather.

                Obediently, Heather bent toward the cake. ‘A wish,’ her mind reeled.‘ Until this morning she wouldn’t have had a wish to make. However, it didn’t take long for Heather to make her mind up.

                “SECURITY!” Heather shouted the wish in her mind, blowing out the candles.

                Having made her wish she straightened to watch the smoke from the candles spiral into the air.

                Her wish had not changed the fact that William’s name was mud with her still. She hid it though. Velma had just walked in, finally, with a noisemaker of her own.

                A memory bobbed to the surface of Heather’s mind. William had snuck her a noisemaker on the bus that morning. It was the bus drivers birthday, and William and Heather were the only kids who actually liked her. After all the other kids had filed off the bus and stood in lines to go to class, William and Heather had raised their noisemakers, spinning them wildly and sang a Happy Birthday wish to the startled driver. It had been fun. And was something the two of them had giggled over in the past.

                William watched Heather raise the spinner over her head. The same memory came to the forefront of his mind.

                Merely for the sake of who she had been, rather than the corrupt person who stood in front of him, William lifted a spinner he had in his pocket as well. Their eyes met across the room, both grinned as the others looked on.

                Then, she felt it.

                Glowing, burning, stretching, pulling. If it wasn’t so brief growing up would be excruciating.

                Heather wobbled for a moment after her transition.

                “What the plumbbob?”Heather stared at herself.  That skirt was a terrible choice with that top! And her hair!

 
                Much better!

                William looked at Heather with resignation. Her new look seemed to cement his opinion of what had happened to her. She had left him behind.

                For a moment, William was reminded of the silly plastic flamingos perched on the lawn. Heather’s hair was the same color.

                Heather whispered a Thank You to Kiley as she went past to the dining room. Kiley truly pitied the young couple and held her silence about who the cake was really from. If William wanted recognition for being nice, he’d ask for it.

                Kiley’s only hoped her girls could find someone as nice as William when the time came.

                Tentatively, William sat next to Heather at the rather modern dining table. Instead of talking though, he decided to eat his cake.

                As Daphne walked in, Heather decided to be the grown up she had become and start the conversation herself.

                “That was my first ever birthday party,” Heather said.

                “This is my very first birthday cake too! Did you know that?” Heather continued to Kiley.

                “It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The cake was a fantastic birthday surprise.”

                No one had responded, so Heather gave it up as a bad job and decided to get a taste of the triple layered cake.

                “I think the party would have been nicer had there not been dirty dishes left on the table,” Daphne said sharply, eyes turned on Velma.

                Heather’s head came up. That was her lunch plate. She was so upset over William she had forgotten to put it in the washer.

                  ‘The washer,’ thoughts sprang unbidden to Heathers mind. 

                ‘The party, this house, this family aren’t mine anymore. It’s over. What am I going to do?” The thoughts spinning in Heather’s head fell on her soul with crushing weight.

                ‘I’m going to have to move out, and soon. Where am I going to go?’

                ‘No one here wants or needs me. This house isn’t mine to stay in. What am I going to do, now?’

                ‘William is going to move on without me.’

                Heather was going to miss the family, disjointed as it was, that she had come to know in this house. Velma had even begun to grow on her. She’d been tutoring her, she had pulled up her grade from an F to a D.

                Kiley had acted more as a mother to her than Tammy ever had. How do you repay that? Worse still, how do you walk away from it?

                Over the dishwasher, William silently sobbed. The same thoughts had hit him. She had been more family to him than his mother, step-mother, or siblings ever would be. She had most likely prevented more bullying than he’d ever be aware of.

                ‘Lily Pad,’ he thought furiously.

                Lily Pad had been like his left hand. Heather was his right. But he had been foolish and blind and let his left hand gain a mind of its own.

                It had reached farther than he could reach.

                And when he had finally pulled his left hand in, it had a frightening mind of its own.

                He couldn’t control Lily Pad! Or his left hand! His right hand reached to tug at his left arm.

                “No-Lily-Pad,” he had gasped as his left hand closed murderously around his neck.

                Heather tried fruitlessly to drag the murderous Lily Pad back so Will could breathe. He was choking! Unable to escape Lily Pad’s influence his right hand was powerless to save him! 

                William heard a gentle tread on the flags. He turned and saw Lily Pad bounce into the room.

                He dropped his hands, and cleared his expression.

                William had half hoped that Lily Pad would turn and leave after seeing that he was alright. But a glance showed him she was still coming toward him.

                William stared hard at the painting on the wall his mother had completed and hung here. Lily Pad stopped far too close to him, and then inched closer, as though longing to breathe the same air William did.

                Feeling  boxed in, he took a silent step sideways, away from his doll. 

                Lily Pad noticed that he seemed to want some time alone and decided to go and keep tabs on Heather instead. William stared hard out the window.  He’d cut off his right hand for his left, and his left hand how had the upper hand. His mind ran in circles and he was powerless to make it stop. Maybe if he changed his clothes, his mind would change too. He would go try that. Maybe a wet suit would do the trick.

                He walked by Heather without even seeing her, he was so intent on his task.

                Heather was still feeling very lonely and almost squeaked out a sentence to her ex-boyfriend. She didn’t however, and he kept going.

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                That is an animation EA threw in for when sims with the insane trait are idle for a few seconds. Again, something that was much to fun not to put into play. I love Heather, poor thing.