The Siti Legacy – Gen 2, Chapter 1

B1 : Bailey was sitting downtown outside the library, where she had just bought for herself a new illustrated copy of Sim and Prejudice, her favourite novel ever. She was going through the pages like they were water and she was a fish when, suddenly, she saw him hanging out with his friends on the other side of the little park.

B2 : Him was Skip Broke, a beautiful boy she had only gotten to know recently after he stopped her in the school’s hall to borrow a pen. He was a few years older than her and had that seducing assurance very few guys her age had, she thought.

Of course, the fact that he was a Broke was a bit of a problem, and she knew that their love was impossible, especially now that she had been chosen heir, but wasn’t impossible love the most romantic thing in the world?

B3 : She closed her book and walked up to him, taking a deep, nervous breath.

“Hi, Skip!”

“Hi….” His face showed absolutely no sign of recognition.

“Bailey. My name is Bailey Siti.”

Just at this moment, his phone rang. He held up one finger, asking her to wait a minute, and clicked the “talk” button of his SimPhone.

“Hey Mike! What’s up?”

Bailey waited a good three minutes for his conversation to end, and it seemed an eternity. By the time he hung up, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say : could she ask him out, just like that? In her romance novels, girls never asked the guy out first.

B4 : “So… Bailey, you said?”

“Yes, that’s me! I just… I… I wanted to… maybe…”

Skip looked at her while she blabbered like an idiot, looking for her words.

“Would you… maybe… I, I mean…. I have to go!”

And she ran away home before he could answer.

B5 : “I looked like a complete idiot!” she confided to Barcelona once she arrived home. “I just suddenly, completely lost my ability to talk! He must think I have a handicap, or something!”

B6 : “Bailey!” Barcelona cut her off, throwing her arms in the air. “Just stop it! You’re talking about Skip Broke! You know you can’t do that… I mean… he’s a Broke, Bailey. A BROKE!”

“Shhh, mom will here you!”

“Exactly! Brokes are a big no-no when it comes to dating, you know that. Look what happened to Berlin.”

B7 : “I know that!” Bailey said, her eyes all starry. “But isn’t it soooo romantic, that we are not allowed to live our love? That we have to hide and meet in secret until I am legally adult and heir, before we can finally be together for real?”

Barcelona looked at her sister without a word, waiting for her to calm down. Bailey kept looking at her with dreamy eyes, and it was clear she was already picturing their blond, blue-eyed babies.

B8 : “Bailey! Snap out of it! If you date Skip, mom will kick you out and will elect Bogota as heir! Bogota! And you know this will only end badly: she will paint us purple and make us rain-dance to protest against global simming or something. And I can’t have that!”

B9 : Lucky for Bailey, Alexandria wasn’t around to spy on her discussion with her twin. Instead, she had crossed the street to visit her son, hoping to mend things with him. His welcome had been polite and cold, and he hadn’t said a word since she had entered his home.

“Berlin… I am so sorry for how things went down. You know I love you, and I only want the best for you.”

B10 : “You kicked me out, mom!” Berlin finally answered, a little loudly. “You kicked me out because I wouldn’t do as you said!”

“Berlin… you know that’s not it! But you didn’t let me time to think things true! It all happened so fast, and you know how I feel with the Broke’s family.”

Berlin shook his head.

“That’s so ridiculous, mom. Bailey is still a kid; she might end up marrying someone as bad as the worst of the Brokes. Hey, did you even know that some of them are in her classes? She could end up marrying one of them, too!”

B11 : Alexandria stared back at her son. “Oh, Berlin! Now you are just being ridiculous : your sister might not be a future doctor like you, but she has more sense than that! And I don’t want to talk about her : I want to talk about you.”

“Well, there’s nothing to say about me. Susie and I are married and I love her and we’re happy.”

“And I am happy to hear that. And like I said earlier, I am really sorry for what happened.”

B12 : Alexandria walked to her son and lightly grabbed his arms. He turned his eyes from her and looked down on the carpet.

“Berlin, please. You have to forgive me. I am willing to work on this. You and Susie are welcome home anytime, and I’ll make huge efforts to get to know her. Okay? Will you just please, please forgive me?”

“Okay mom… as long as you’re nice to her.”

“I will. Promise.”

B13 : Later that week, Bailey decided to ask her mom for advice on her relationship with Skip – without mentioning his name, of course.

“Mom… can I ask you a question?”

Alexandria turned off the television and smiled at her youngest daughter.

“Sure, honey. What’s up?”

B14 : “Well, there’s this guy I really like, at school, but… every time I talk to him, I stutter and can’t say anything! My brain turns off or something, and I don’t know what to do! I’ll never be able to ask him out!

B15 : “Oh, Bailey, that’s normal! It happens to everyone, I swear. Those butterflies in your belly, they make you nervous. Just try to take a deep breath next time, and remember that everyone goes through that.

“But can I ask him out? Isn’t he the one supposed to ask me out?”

“Oh girl, it doesn’t work like this anymore : girls ask guys out all the time.”

Bailey smiled.

“Really?”

“Really. I was the one who asked your father out, and look how that turned out! So… who is that lucky guy?”

B16 : Bailey blushed and shrugged.

“Oh you know… just that guy from school! You don’t know him. Anyway, I’ve got lots of homework to do… thanks mom!”

On that note, Bailey rushed to the bedroom she shared with her sister and emailed an invitation to Skip right away.