Chapter 2 - Gen 7 - Ocean

"Hello, and what's your name" the old man smiled at me

"I am Ocean, I have moved in next door"

"Oh you must be Neo's daughter then, your pretty like your Mom - I am Chase Swan"

"Oh, I didn't think ..... " I shut up before I said something I shouldn't

"Your surprised to see me here - don't worry, I know what you are probably thinking -- things around here take a bit of getting used to sometimes"

"Is Kandice home?"

"She's at work, but you can come in and wait if you like, she won't be long"

Strange I thought Kandice was married to Lex, so what is Chase doing here?

I spotted a familiar face, Max Swan, my Dads Uncle.

"Hiya Ocean, what are you doing here?  Your Dad won't be too impressed!!"

"I popped round to say hello to my new neighbours"

"Oh, so your the one living next door, I did wander what Neo was playing at, building a house next door to his least favourite person in the world!!"

I looked around to see no one was in earshot then said quietly to Max

"So what's the story, where is Lex and why is Chase here?"

"Well Lex and Kandice broke up, he had had enough, what with Chase and your Uncle Nial, she was upset you know when Nial refused to see her and she made no attempt to hide it, and with Chase being back in town she didn't hide that fact either,  that he would always come before Lex - Lex just sort of gave up and left, I feel really sorry for him."

"So why is Chase back in town, I thought he was married to that woman, Oh - your Grandma, I keep forgetting Chase is your Grandad!!"

"He was, but she was a lot older than him and Grandma died, that's when he came back to Riverview with their three boys, I am suprised you have not seen any of them around, River, Pheonix and Nial funnily enough"

"No, I can not say I have seen any of them."

"So what is my tearaway nephew Nial up to these day?"

"He is married to Shantel, they have a daughter Codie, by the looks of things, he has settled down,  much to the amazement of my Dad!!"

"Not just your Dad, all of us I think, but mostly Kandice"  Max started to laugh

"Did I hear my name mensioned??

I turned round to see Kandice stood in the hallway.

I just stared at her for a while, the woman I saw in front of me was definitely what I was used to seeing.  She looked like she had totally let herself go, she was now very fat, you could see the age in her face and from her work clothes - she was not doing too well, she used to be a sports legend once - she was far from that now!!   Me and Kandice had become good friends over the years, even though I had only met her a few times in my life, I had spent years talking to her online, at first I think she just used  me get information about Uncle Nial.

"Ocean - how nice, and what brings you here??"

"I came to say hello to my new neighbours"

"So your the one living next door in the new house? That's great, I did worry for a while your Dad would be moving in, I know how much he loves me"  she started laughing

"No - its just me!"

"Its quite funny you should turn up actually, my son was talking about you today"

"Your son, I don't know your son!!"

"Leon, you don't know Leon - well you will do soon enough, you will be working together, your his partner at work, he said you were assigned to him today, his last partner retired and your the new girl aren't you!!"

"I won't know till tommorrow - my first day"

"You'll like Leon, hes a good boy, a little clumsy but he's a good boy!!"

I was waiting for the question she always asks me

"So how is Nial?"

"He's fine!!" 

"Still marriage to Shantel?"

"Yes!!"

I thought that Chase was a sweet old man, I could not imagine what he might have looked like when he was my age.  I could not imagine him being a rock star either, which I know he was before he retired.  Of course when he found out that I like music he quite eagerly talked about nothing else, he even tough me a Chinese song that he had learnt from Kandice.  I forget sometimes that Chase Swan is my great great Grandad.  It is not easy when you are a vampire keeping track of all your relatives, most humans are lucky to even know their grandparents and we still have Great Great Grandparents knocking around.  I am stood here looking at a third generation Swan, I am a seventh generation Swan - it is pretty mindblowing really to think there are four generations between us!!!

It was taking some getting used to living alone, rattling around in this big house.  I was nervous about starting my first day at work, and I think it helped a little that I knew I would be working with Kandice's son, even though I did not know him yet, I am sure it would not be too bad!!  He is a Swan like I am and somewhere in the distant past we are related somehow, I would have to try and work that one out!!

There is no getting away with the fact that I am a slob, plain and simple, wherever I go I leave a trail of mess, which does not bother me in the slightest.  Dirty sinks, toilets, laundry baskets, plasma cartons everywhere, piles of dirty laundry, smelly sims all make other people puke, me I don't even notice them.  You see this nice clean and tidy house my dad has built me - it will not look like this for long - wait till I have lived here a week - then you will see I will be living in a pig sty!!!  I can not even have a shower without leaving a mess behind me.  Dirty clothes and puddles of water everywhere - thats me!!!

I no longer have anyone to pick up and tidy up after me - this worries me a little, because even though the mess does not bother me and does not affect my mood in the slightest, I think maybe I should make some effort into at least doing something about it.  Cleaning - that is something I just do not do - ever!!!!  So rather than cleaning I am upgrading all of my household appliances to self cleaning - so they can clean themselves!!  I actually enjoy DIY and am half way to mastering my handiness skill - so this should not be too hard a task for me - upgrading everything.

My first day at work I was pretty stressed out, the pressure of a new workplace, new people, I was glad when my first day was over.  I decided I wanted a music box so I went to the consignment store to buy one.  I was a little surprised to see Mason Swan working their.  He did not have any music boxes he said I would have to pop back another day.  I vaguely knew Mason - he was another Swan related to me somewhere down the line.  The problem with this town, was who wasn't related to me somehow - these people were very few and far between!!

 My third night in my new house and I was woken up by a squealing noise.  It took me a while to realise what the noise was - the burglar alarm.

 When I got downstairs the police had already arrived and he wrestled the burglar to the ground.

 I was pretty tired and could see the policeman had everything under control so I went back off to bed.

I was promoted pretty quickly from Snitch to Desk Jockey,  I needed to get to know Leon better, he was my partner at work and while we got on ok, our work relationship needed to improve, for us to advance in our careers.  So at the weekend we had two days off work, and I wanted to invite him over, so I took the chance on Saturday morning of inviting him round, I was pretty surprised when he agreed to come and even more surprised to find out he was single and unmarried.

I giggle at him sometimes, and have quite often at work, while he is a lot of good things, I have never met anyone so clumsy before, he is always tripping over something, most of the time his own feet.  He does not like it much when I laugh at him, but I just can not help it!!!  I liked Leon and would go as far as classing him as a friend, but there was something very strange about Leon Swan that I just could not put my finger on!!

But all in all we had a few traits in common and got on pretty well!!

We spent the rest of the day hanging around jamming together and relaxing in the hot tub.

 "So your not married then?" I asked him

"No, never found the need to, I've had girlfriends but nothing serious - what about you?"

"Never even had a boyfriend, I have only just left school remember"

"Yeah, I keep forgetting you are just a baby!!"

"What does that make you then - an old timer!!"

"Nearly, I am lot older than you Ocean"

"So you live alone then"

"Not exactly, I live with my sister Lacey and her husband, you know Horrace Hess from work, and their kids."

"How many kids?"

"Sore subject, but three"

"Why is it a sore subject?"

"Well to say we  have kids living in our house, we don't anymore - Gary the eldest lives with my Mom and Dad, the younger too, social services removed, which I don't want to talk about"

"I still can not get over you being Kandice's son, I expected you to be different some how"

"Yeah well, my mother isn't someone I like to admit to readily, I can tell you and the least we talk about the better for me!!"

"I have one question and then I won't mention her again"

"Go on - one question"

"Your Dad is back ...."

"More fool him and yes they have remarried if that is what you was going to ask, and my Uncle Lex divorced my Mom because of Dad coming back to town and the other one she was ........."  He looked at me then  "He's your Uncle isn't he!!"

"Yeah Nial, sorry!!"

"Not your fault they are all fools for putting up with her in the first place - now change he subject, I really can think of a lot better subjects than my mother!!"

He was good company and I wanted to become best friends with him and there was only one way to do that spend more time with him, so I asked him to stay over, not really expecting him too, but he did.

The next morning I found the sink had sprung a leak somehow.  So I went about repairing it.  Leon came down after me so I knew it had not been him who had done it - it was very strange!!!  While I was there I upgraded the sink to self cleaning.  Leon drank plasma juice then wandered off down into the basement again.  When I followed him down there I expected to find him  on one of the musicial instruments.

I found him in the swimming pool, it took me a few minutes to realise his clothes were by my feet and he was skinny dipping.  I thought about hiding his clothes for a minute, but then decided against it and thought it might be a laugh and joined him.  I had never been skinny dipping before!!

 Later on before Leon went home, I was a little speachless when he came up to me and took my hands and just held them while he spoke to me.

"I need to go home, something has happened"

"Nothing serious I hope!!"

"Well, yes, and I suppose you will find out Monday at work, Horrice has passed away, Lacey is distraught and I need to go home"

"I'm sorry, you better go - she will need you!!"

"She does, I will see you Monday at work"

"Ok!!"

"Bye Ocean"

I stood there for ages, a little dazed, not by what he had said, it was what he had done.  He had held my hands, had that meant something, or was I just letting my imagination run away with me??  No, I must just be reading more into it than it really was!!!

I spent the rest of the weekend keeping myself amused, I enjoyed the evenings when I could be outside, this is something I have missed since becoming a young adult.  I decided to plant a few things that I had lying around, seeds and fruit,  I had enjoyed keeping up Uncle Noah's little patch of garden when I lived with my parents.

My agent called me with some promotional work, well a book signing. at the bookstore.  I was eager to do as much agents work as I could, it paid well and I needed the money - I no longer had my father supporting me and it was a lot harder than I thought.  I was not used to paying bills and looking after myself.

On the way out of the bookshop I bumped into Lex, I did not really know him too well, so I was grateful that he did not want to speak to me because I would not have known what to say to him anyway!!

I noticed the toilet was looking a little green - it did not bother me but it might bother any visitors I had.  I upgraded it to self cleaning so I would not have to worry about it again!!

Sometimes I hated being a slob, but it was in my nature and I couldn't help it.  It did not really make a lot of sense to me that I could take better care of my little garden patch better than I could the inside of my house!!!

I spend the rest of the evening chatting to anyone I could online, the day had really dragged

I could not wait to get back to work tommorrow!!!!


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Chapter 2

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I did not notice until after I had built Oceans new house that I had done it next door to Kandice's house.  I thought Oh it won't matter I probably will never see them, then one of the first wishes Ocean rolls is to hang out with Kandice - ggggggrrrrrrrr - I am never going to get away from them am I!!!!!!

Then Leon has to go and be her partner at work - I think I need to move to a new town soon!!!!

Poking around in the family tree to see if leon had any kids since i moved him and lacey out when I was playing generation 3 I noticed they were living in the same house together still and lacey has a husband - it also shows 3 children - 1 teenager and 2 children.   The eldest child is at Kandice's house permanantly i have seen it going in and out the house - the 2 children have gone awol.  story progression providing another story for me maybe lol.  NOT TO MENTION the fact that story progression has broken up Kandice and Lex's marriage - Lex is married to someone else, a townie and chase and Kandice are married again - ha ha - isn't that hysterical!!!!!