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Azhia’s Adversity

Part 2

SIMS TOWN – BLOSSOM PARK

Picnic Date – Ken & Azhia

“OH MY GOD!” Ken screamed in pain, jumping away from his hold on Azhia slapping madly around his ankles and calves, “ANTS! ANTS! MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!” Pushing her off to one side, hopping from one foot to the other, Azhia watched in horror as the tiny biting insects scurried up and down his ankles toward the insides of his tennis shoes and bare legs.

“OH NO! Are you allergic?” She squealed, reaching down to help him brush them off as they darted away from the massive ant pile he had accidentally stepped in while kissing her.

“How the hell should I know?” He yelled back his chest heaving as the realization of what had just happened finally hit him. Dropping down to the blanket, he tugged off his shoes hurling them away from them toward the tree. “I’ve never seen ants in the park before. Oh God, they itch. Look they’re swelling up.” Trying not to scratch the reddening collection of bites up and down his legs and ankles he squinted up at Azhia pitifully. “What should I do?”

“Ummm, mud. I heard once that it was good for all kinds of bites. Down by the bank over there, just go step in it and rub it all over your feet and legs. Promise it’ll help.”

As he dashed back toward the muddy lake bank, Azhia couldn’t help but wonder what this would mean for the rest of their ‘date’. Clearly he was suffering, and now . . . on top of everything else, it was beginning to sprinkle.

“Azi!” He was calling her to help him, his muddy feet now down to his ankles, he was unable to loosen the suction enough to step up and into the wet grass.

With the rain pelting down around them, she couldn’t decide whether to take pictures of his pitiful, whiney face first to keep and laugh over later, or run to his aid. Opting to go get him first and record the incident later, she slipped closer, to stay out of the mud herself, reaching for his outstretched hand.

By the time he had fallen to the ground a second time under the large tree they were literally in the middle of a downpour. Wet, chilled and frustrated, now his mud covered legs were beginning to swell, and he was beginning to panic.

“I can’t breathe.” He gasped, hand to his throat, eyes wide in fear.

“Just calm down. You’ll be okay.” Azhia leaned over his large form, reaching for the paper bag their drinks had come in. “Here, take long deep breaths into this, you’re probably hyperventilating.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, she had to chuckle. He was being sort of a baby right now. Obviously he had never been hurt or bitten by a bug before. Just like s, they all seemed to have some grave fear of insects and kept their distance at all costs. It was a park for God’s sake! How could there not be bugs of some kind?

“I think . . .  I  . . . need to go  . . . to . . .  hospital. May . . . be . . . I . . . am . . . aller . . . gic . . .” He continued to gasp, following her orders and breathing into the bag, despite the pouring rain, cracks of lightening and booming thunder. “Call . . . 911 . . . hurry . . .”

Blossom Park – Azhia

IT was inevitable. With the ambulance called, the date was officially ‘over’. Azhia waved Ken off as they slipped him into the back, headed to the hospital for a shot of Benadryl and more than likely a prescription for itch cream. Sighing, she wiped the rain dampened hair around her face hating that now she would have to ‘walk’ the bike back to the car in the rain, as well as drag all the picnic paraphernalia along with her.

“Dear God, I hope we don’t have this kind of luck at the wedding.” She muttered as she headed off with the bike, squinting in the drops of rain that were still splattering around her.

Selena’s Family Room – Sims Players

“YOU’RE all lucky he didn’t die from that!” Azhia shouted, pausing the game long enough to scold the others for laughing at her dilemma. “Not funny. Wait until something happens to you! There aren’t supposed to be ants in Blossom Town. Even I know that. Did one of you do that to me? Yuri?” Accusing Yuri just seemed appropriate after everything she had already done to make waves.

“He certainly didn’t get much help from you did he? Of course I didn’t. Geez, it was probably the glitch. happens.” Yuri paused her game as well, her shoulders bouncing as she laughed. “Telling him to breathe into a paper bag. I heard you. Ant bites can cause anaphylactic shock, don’t you know anything? Poor guy. Now his bachelor party is probably ruined. He won’t be able to go.”

“BET!” Azhia barked back. “And I did what I thought was right. He’s in the hospital isn’t he? And I’ll make sure he makes it to the party.” Stopping momentarily to think, she added, “In fact, let’s just ‘change’ the party to include the wives and girlfriends. It’ll be much more fun. Doesn’t matter what they have planned already.”

Looking around at the girls in the room, a small smile curled up the sides of her lips sheepishly, “Come on, you don’t want your guys at a bachelor party any more than I do. Let’s crash it.”

         “Wowww, you ARE nervous about this silly party huh?” Jane piped up. “I don’t know. Leo’s not gonna want me there. I come with children.” Thinking, “But, then again why not? Yeah, I’m in.” She laughed out loud, pointing to the toddler on her screen, hanging around the leg of the frantic looking avatar, who was pointing and shaking one finger at her wildly, shouting something that looked alarmingly like cuss words in Sims talk. 

“Wow, what causes that? Why is she so mad?” Yuri asked curiously, staring at Jane’s screen from across the floor.

“Have you checked your ‘free will’ option Jane? That’s what happens when they don’t want to follow your directions. Guessing your pregnant avatar doesn’t want to take a toddler to an all- night bachelor party.”

“Ehhh, so what Jane. Come on, how bad can it be? It’s a SIMS party. Pleeezzzeee.” Azhia begged. “It’ll be a blast. What about you Yuri? Ravi won’t mind. He didn’t want to host the party in the first place, right?”

Yuri sniffed haughtily, knowing for a fact that she and Ravi would have much rather the party been somewhere else where both of them could have just come and gone, without worrying about preparation and cleaning up.

“Okayyy. You’re right. We have better things to do, but you know ‘N’!” she emphasized, throwing a dirty look over to Selena. “He always gets his way, and this whole thing was he and Hongbins idea.”

Selena rolled over on the sofa grinning at all of them. Typically, the game wasn’t going as planned. She knew it wouldn’t. Last time they played there just as much bickering, and strange happenings as this time, but for some reason . . . they never remembered, and always came back for more.

“Yes. My ‘N’ DOES always get his way. SO, if you want to change game rules, and CRASH the bachelor party . . . go ahead. But, I’m not responsible for what happens after that.” She warned them.

“Awesome!” Azhia clapped her hands excitedly. Finally, she was getting her way for a change. With the date a bust, maybe she could salvage the night by including herself in the Bachelor party.

SIMS TOWN – BLOSSOM TOWN

Ravi and Yuri’s House

DRIVING down the street toward Ravi’s house, with the storm finally over, the sun was peeking out behind the clouds promising a clear, warm summer night. Azhia smiled to herself knowing Ken and the others would be surprised to know that she and the girls had gotten together and 

planned something behind his back. Lots of her friends had ‘couples’ parties before they got married instead of the traditional Bachelor and Bachelorette party. Since the day had gone south right from the get-go, she wanted to be a part of the evening fun.

“I still don’t know why you had to get all dressed up just to drop me off.” Ken questioned her, mildly scratching at the upper part of one shin. “And don’t worry about picking me up. If it’s late I’ll just crash at Ravi’s. He won’t care.” He added smiling.

Azhia glanced out the window, hoping he didn’t notice the sly look crossing her face as she answered his question meekly. “Oh, I had to shower anyway, thought I’d just put on something nice. And sure babe, don’t worry about later.”

Putting the visor down to shield her eyes from the blaring sun, she hoped none of the others had backed out at the last minute. With her cell phone in hand, she it in her lap. His face would be priceless when he saw everyone.

“Yah! Is that Ravi’s up there?” Ken lifted one hand off the steering wheel, glaring out toward Ravi’s large house, where perched in the front was a massive bounce house, and scores of children darting in and out, laughing, shoving and playing together. “Yuri hates kids. What’s the bounce house for? Can’t be for me. I ordered . . .”

Stopping himself in mid-sentence, he shot a look toward Azhia before his lips nervously, both hands back on the wheel.

“Ahhh wellll, maybe it IS for me. You know Ravi!” He barked, realizing that if Azi knew he had requested a hot air balloon for the evening fireworks over the park, she would be furious. Especially considering her attempts at a romantic afternoon date had gone belly up!

“Ordered what?” Flipping her head around to face him as they pulled into the driveway, dodging and honking at the neighbors kids, he parked turning off the engine and trying to get the door open hurriedly to avoid her question.

“Oh nothing. Ahhh, big cake. I ordered a big cake!” He belted, swinging one foot out and nearly knocking down Leo’s little boy Jr. in the process. “YAH, little man, watch out for Uncle Ken,” muttering under his breath . . . “why the hell is he here? This is supposed to be a bachelor party for God’s sake. LEO! Kid in the driveway! Why is your kid in the driveway?”

Leo stuck his head out of the bounce house, pointing toward the small crowd of women perched at Ravi’s front door. “Call the mama. I’m busy. And, hi by the way. Hope you’re feeling better.”

And his head disappeared. Hauling Jr. up with one arm, Ken perched him around his shoulders striding swiftly toward Jane, giggling on the porch with the other girlfriends and Yuri.

Why was everyone here? Someone had made a huge mistake when planning this party. Who was it? He thought they had a planner? Surely not N? He would never allow this to happen. It looked more like a kid’s birthday party than anything else, and he was looking for clowns and animals to appear at any moment.

“Jane, take your kid.”

He smiled at the rest of the girls, pushing through them and into the spacious living room where N, Hongbin and Hyuk were playing video games.

“Someone want to tell me what’s going on? Why is there a bounce house in the front yard? And . . . what about the . . . you know?” He whispered, realizing that not only had Azi followed directly at his heels from the car, but now the other women were filtering in, chattering behind him.

“The YOU KNOW! Well, it was raining . . . you were stuck in Emergency, and YOU KNOW, we just figured this would be more fun.” N laughed out loud, high-fiving Hongbin beside him, wrinkling his nose in success.

“Awww, come on guys. This is my bachelor party!” He whined throwing both arms down at his sides in frustration. “And why are the girls all here?”

“Don’t know. Azi called them all, said it would be more fun to be couples. Didn’t think I wanted to argue the point.” N sighed, skirting the room for Selena. “You know women. Anyway. No balloon. Sorry dude. You didn’t want me and Hongbin puking in the middle of the fireworks now did you?”

“Whatever.” Ken stomped away from the little , headed toward the pizza and drinks in the kitchen. “Where’s Ravi? He was supposed to be in charge of this thing. Can’t believe he let YOU take over.” His legs throbbing, he was lightheaded and suddenly tired from the Benadryl, and now the party was going to include children, and women. Not exactly one for the record books!

“Don’t know. He disappeared like fifteen minutes ago with Leo. I’ll call everyone in for food now that you’re here. Nearly married man!” N slapped Ken on the back his toothy grin infectious, waiting for his friend to return the smile. “Come on. You love this. A bounce house! How long has it been since you partied like a kid? You’re about to become a REAL MAN! Have to put those boyish ways aside. Loosen up tonight, have some fun.”

“Yeah, okay.” Ken shoved a large piece of hot pizza in his mouth, nodding with pleasure as the spicy pepperoni slid down his throat. “At least you got my favorite food.” He mumbled through his bite.

“Only the ‘best’ for my hyung.” N snickered, pleased with himself.

Ravi and Yuri’s Front Yard – Bounce House

RAVI, struggled to his feet, hearing N’s loud voice calling everyone to the house for food. Watching Leo roll backward out the large doorway, his long legs over his head he chuckled. This was probably the best and ‘awesome-est’ idea N had come up with yet. Even having the kids around was a blast. If Ken didn’t like this, he didn’t know Ken as well as he thought he did.

Nearing the opening, he reached for the flap, when suddenly Hongbin’s wanna-be girlfriend Shahrul flew through the doorway knocking him flat on his back again, the air rushing from his lungs without warning.

Before he could catch his balance, or clear his head, her lips and hands were all over him . . . warm, inviting and sensual, and without realizing ‘what’ he was doing or ‘why’, he felt himself begin to respond . . . his mind going blank while blocking out the shouting and children’s laughter from outside the tent around them.

He was kissing her!