Cindy noticed several marks on the side of the weight stack, the lowest two read Olympic Record - Raw, and Olympic record - Assisted. Cindy slid the pin in several slots above the third user added mark and prepared to lift.
A huge man blocked her light. "A pretty little thing like you oughta go easy, you have it set just a shade lighter than the gym record, which also happens to be my personal best.". Cindy glared at him,l this wasn't her first lift. "Better yet, if you really want to get all hot and sweaty, we can go downstairs to the change rooms and I can give you a 'special' personal workout.", the man mountain leered.
At the reception desk, one of the employees placed a call to Steve in the upstairs office. "Yeah boss, 'Rick the dick' just got in and he is harassing some new chick!", "That asshat is going to get me closed down, I'll come deal with it.", Steve sighed.
"Mmmm", sighed Cindy, licking her lips, "Normally I just love me some big dick, but I am going to have to decline, despite the fact that I think you are probably the biggest dick I've ever met.", Cindy said in the sultriest voice she could summon. The giant bodybuilder was about to retort with a far less witty comment when the manager arrived.
"Is there a problem?", Steve asked, knowing full well there was. "Nah, I was just bein' friendly and pointing out that she had set the weight too high, there's no way such a scrawny chick like her could lift that much. She's just wasting time there, while other people could be doing some real lifting!", Erick complained.
"The setting is just fine, and who are you calling scrawny?, I can lift this easy you steroid junkie!.", fired back Cindy, who had switch from flirt mode to stomp mode. "C'mon guys, surely we can settle this in a civilized manner.", whined Steve, who didn't want to be beaten up by either.
"Sure, If she lifts it first go, I'll apologize for trying to be helpful, and if she can't lift it, she can get the hell of the bench so I can do my workout!", Erick growled. "How about this, I'll smash your record, and you cut up your membership card and find somewhere else to do your jerking!", Cindy snarled back. "And when you fail big mouth?", Erick snapped back.
Steve stood back, wishing he had pursued his singing career instead of Gym Management. "If I don't take your record out, me and my big mouth will go downstairs with you and do your 'special' workout like you suggested, and I'll wash your stinky gym gear for the rest of the year!", Cindy yelled. Most of the people in the gym were now standing around watching the slinging match.
"Your on! I'll take that deal sugar lips!", Erick said. Cindy pulled the weight pin and reinserted it halfway been Ericks 'personal best' mark, and the 'Olympic raw' mark. The few remaining people that had pretended not to hear the yelling also gathered around.
Cindy settled back onto the bench and squirmed a little to make sure everything felt right. There was a gasp from the crowd as Cindy strained to complete the massive lift. Erick snapped his membership card in two, threw the pieces at Steven and stormed out.
"Lifetime Platinum memberships for you and your friends!", Steven gushed as he presented Cindy with five application forms, "That tosser has caused so much trouble here, and you just solved that problem, thank you so much!"
The girls celebrated their free memberships at Simburger, "How the hell did you lift all that weight, I'd be lucky to do a quarter of that, and I'm pretty strong!", Coral asked. "An average Plantsim is about as strong as an average Werewolf or Vampire, but unlike all the other species that have a peak strength, Plantsims don't, the more we work out the stronger we get. That's why you don't see Plantsims at the Olympics. We are banned from competing in and holding records in any sport that involves strength."
"I've never seen you work out, the entire time of known you!", Jess interrupted. "Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen", grinned Cindy, "When I was a sapling, my grandfather worked in a giant scrap metal yard, and I used to help him push car wrecks around the yard, he used to say I was 'supple like a willow, strong like oak, and prettier than a winter rose.' So yeah, I've always been really strong, we just don't show off because it freaks every out.", Cindy laughed.
"I heard you talking to your doll, does your, um, does your doll ever, uh, talk back to you?" Delilah asked Jess one day out of the blue. "I like to think it does. Why", Jess replied noncommittally. "I had one when I was a little kitten, and I'm sure he talked to me, but I think one of my cousins stole him, he just vanished one day after they had been for a visit.", Delilah confessed.
"Her name is Mia, and I can make her real if I can find the right things, My Dad's sister Emily made her's real, her name is Dolly, and she became real and went to school and everything.", Jess explained, showing Delilah the list that Emily had given her. Delilah made a mental note of the unticked items on the list. "I might be able to help you out with a few of those things.", Delilah grinned.
Later that night, Delilah obtained the first two missing items from the list.
Mia made a mental list of all the things she wanted to see and do if Jess could make the potion.
Evie's lecturer had suggested that she take up martial arts or meditation to help her focus her inner wolf, which was apparently distracting her from her studies, so she decided to do both.
Evette quickly discovered that of her two new hobbies,
that meditation was the least most likely to cause black eyes.
After a significant amount of painful thwacks Evie understood 'cause and effect' much better, and the training dummy got in significantly less hits.
As Cindy was walking back to the dormitory after her last class for the day, she noticed two students at the kissing booths who were attempting to raise money to enhance the local gardens, considering the subject for which they were raising simoleons, Cindy considered it a worthy cause. She couldn't decide who looked the most kissable, so she she chose 'option C', both.
"I, ah, I um, I don't do girls.", mumbled the female kissing booth attendant. "If you were the kind of girl that would 'do me' for §5, I don't think I'd get this close.", Cindy purred. The attendant relented, "I guess it's for a good cause.", the blonde said. Afterwards, she considered offering Cindy her §5 back for another.
"Have you got a minute, I need to talk to you about some things.", Coral asked quietly. Jess and Coral spent the rest of the evening talking about sex and nudity, and different peoples views on the subject. Coral learned more about the subject in one night with Jess than she had in a lifetime. Even though Jess was still a virgin, she was quite knowledgeable.
"This really is a stupid game!", Delilah growled as Evie trounced her for the third game in a row., "It is, isn't it!", agreed Evie, "Let's do something else, your choice."
Delilah's choice might not have been to play in the pile of dry leaves, but the distraction was too great, and Delilah threw herself into the pile and showered Evie with them. Evie smiled at Delilah, although she really wasn't that amused.
Coral could hear a constant thumping noise over the sound of the pelting rain. "Oh Maker, can you hear that banging noise? It sounds like this storm is going to take the roof off!", Coral told Jess. Jess laughed, "That banging noise is not the storm, that's Delilah and Evie banging like bunny rabbits!"
"But they are on the third floor!", gasped Coral, "It's a full moon so Eve's a wolf, and Delilahs just a tiny cat, ewww, that's so gross!", Coral complained, trying to replace the image of Eve and Delilah in her head with cute fuzzy bunny rabbits. The cute fuzzy bunny rabbits that formed in her mind were also shagging frantically.
"You are so weird!", Jess giggled. "Changelings aren't affected by the moon, so Delilah is still Delilah, and because Eve is a pureblood, when the moon forces her to change, she can control by how much, so she takes the half wolf form. Evie is still mostly Evie, just hairier and with a much longer, more dexterous tongue, or so Delilah says.", Jess explained, enjoying watching Coral squirm a little at the thought.
"So, um, your Buzzberry plant looks like it's doing well", offered Coral as a conversation starter. She was grateful that Cindy no longer paraded around the shared room naked, but couldn't help but steal a quick glance at Cindy's barely covered form.
With exams finally completed, Jess went on a shopping frenzy with all of the coupons she had collected that week and brought home chocolate gnomes and orange spheres for the household to celebrate before heading off to the ceremony.
The queue to get into the auditorium was incredibly slow, Jess waited impatiently under her umbrella until she got closer to the door before throwing her graduation robes on. Naomi, who was on her second degree did the same.
Delilah found Kim searching the crowd and waved her over. "Edward and Sally are here somewhere too, we got separated and you know what Edward is like when there's more than three people.", Kim explained to Delilah and Jess. "I am so proud of you all!", Kim beamed as the girls all showed the A's they had earned.
It was impossible to get a descent photo of the proud graduates together at the ceremony, so afterwards, Kim, Edward, and Sally, took their 'lineup' snaps back at the dorm. The girls gathered up their belongings and headed home.
Authors Note:
I had planned on having Naomi say that it was tradition for all of the graduates from that house to streak a lap of the backyard together, Coral was even going to grudgingly join in, (albeit wrapped in a towel). And then the removalists kicked us out of the house and we went back to Midnight Hollow, where Jess and Coral finally graduated after arriving home...
Kim, Edward, and Sally show up for the graduation, I lost Sally in the crowd, and Edward disappeared inside the building before I got a screen shot of him. Graduation Piddle Puddles. I put in four all-in-one-bathrooms to prevent this people, there is just no excuse for not using them!
When the girls returned home they had discovered aliens had taken over the universe, bathing the world in some weird green glow as well as Midnight Hollows already unusual red atmosphere. If a reboot doesn't defeat the aliens, I'll trying a lighting mod, If that doesn't fix it, I 'll think of some clever reason for everyone suddenly no longer living in Midnight Hollow. If moving to a new town doesn't fix it, expect more aliens in future generations :P
(Turns out a reboot solved mah problem)
