4.19 Thundercloud

Dragan might still be a little kid, but he was big enough to know when to avoid his older siblings. He quietly took his plate away, before leaving to get ready for school. It wasn't Irena he worried about, she just looked a bit tired; but he'd seen Niko entering looking like a thundercloud. And he had no intention sitting around and waiting for the silence to crash down.

Irena on her side did her best not to look at him, mainly because she'd called him skinny yesterday. But that couldn't be the reason he was so angry. That would be silly, beeing slim wasn't exactely bad.

You sure you should eat that? You're getting fat. 

I'm hungry. Maybe you should have an extra piece of pie? Like she hadn't noticed him having one of mums calorie-bombs for breakfast.

Lardface! Niko snared at her, making sure Irena got what he meant. He wasn't actually angry at her calling him skinny; because he was. He'd just woken up on in a terrible mood for some unknown reason. Then he made oink- sounds at her face! And she hadn't exactely had a good nights rest either.

She was not in the mood for arguing this early. Besides they already were getting cramped for time. It was a schoolday, and she hadn't even showered yet: I'll let it pass for now. Baby brother. Emphasising the last part, Irena was sure she had the upped hand. She was still older than him and dominating the younger siblings was a natural part of who she was.

They barely had time to get ready for the day, before Irena decided to extract her well deserved revenge: Shouldn't your voice get deeper soon Niko? You sound just like Dragan. You sound like a little baby, are you a little baby Niko?

That's the best you have miss Piggy? How about you roll around in the mud fatty, so you don't get a sunburn! 

What was he talking about? Like he was better at insulting than she was? She wasn't fat. Her butt was kind of big, though: Atleast I have a butt! You just have a very long back with a hole in it! 

And your still a fatarse! I bet Larrys going to dump your fat arse as soon as he gets the chance! You know he just asked to go steady so the entire school can laugh at you when he dumps you. Having little piggies like you thinking they're hot is a classic joke. 

Okay, that did hurt. He was really mean today.

Neda cried all the time, hulking: I do to have friends. 

No you don't. You don't have any friends. No one likes you Neda. 

They do to. What was wrong with not having friends? She played with Dragan all the time. And mum and dad and the cats and the dogs. So she had friends.

No they don't. I've seen you when I go by your school Neda, your sitting on the "friendbench" all alone. And no one ever comes up to you. If you had friends you wouldn't be sitting there. 

Neda sobbed, she didn't want to go to school: I have friends.

Oh yeah, name three. 

Dragan, Hades, Fudge....

They are animals Neda. Animals don't count. And Dragan's your brother, so he just playes with you because he feels sorry for you. He doesn't actually want to play with you.

Hearing Neda breaking out in tears put a smile on Irenas face. Beeing mean to someone smaller than felt great! She was in a lot better mood now. She should practice more on Neda before taking on Niko again.

Your short Dragan. I was a lot taller than you when I was a kid. Next unfortunate target for Nikos wrath was his kidbrother: You're a wittle baby still. Picking on his littlebrother was a nice change of pace from Irena; because she actually answered back. As much as he hated admitting it, he was a bit scared of her.

Dragan giggled a bit, Niko was stupid: No, I'm not a baby, I'm a big boy. Mum and dad say so. He was a big boy, because he had started school and had just started reading on his own. And only big boys went to school. Besides, his teacher said he was really good at counting; twentynine, twentyten, twentyeleven, twentytwelve....

You can't even subtract Dragan. Do you know what that means? Do you?

Dragan hadn't heard that word before, but it sounded like something he'd taken a lot of times: Is it about the subway? He wasn't allowed to take the subway alone yet. But he would soon enough.

It's not about the subway stupid. You're a stupid little baby!

Just like that, Niko lost his temper again, taking all that teenrage out on a kid: And only babies like dinosaurs! Dinosaurs didn't even look like the one on your stupid shirt. Dinosaurs had feathers, you know; like birds. Bet you didn't even know that, because you're just a stupid little baby.

Ugh, bigbrothers were so dumb. Why did they always think everything was so obvious: I know that! Dinosaurshirts look like this because they look like the toys! And it's easier to draw. And because they don't know how the feathers looked, or how many they were or what colours they had! You're stupider than me Niko.

I mean, have you looked at birds, stupid Niko? Have you seen how big and scary talons eagles have, or how big vultures are? Have you stinky Niko? Na ah, if you have. You're stupid Niko. 

Birds were really cool, and kind of terrifying and gross. Just because everyone wanted to think about small birds and think they were cozy and cute, didn't meant they were. Birds were grotesque monsters!

And your full of hair! You're stupid and full of hair, and you're smelly! And that stupid lint on your upperlip is icky!!! Because teenaged Niko was gross! And his voice was stupid to! Besides, that stinky stuff he kept showering himself in gave him respiratory problems!

Niko really hadn't expected Dragan to bite back that hard. Why couldn't he just cry like Neda did?  
 

Niko. That's no way talking to your brother. He's just a little boy

Ofcourse that brat ratted him out to mum. That was unfair; didn't she know how tough it was beeing a teenager? Niko wanted to insult mum to, but that was probably not a smart choice at the moment. Not only would mum get sad, but dad would be on his back to. He was pretty sure Irenas meanness came from dads side of the family. He was kind ofcourse, just a little misunderstood.

And you liked dinosaurs when you were little to. 

We don't treat eachother like that in this house Niko. Do you understand? Aino hadn't been prepared for her kids growing up beeing so mean to eachother. She'd never had siblings, but Daniel said they were acting pretty normal.

Yes mum, he did feel a bit guilty, but he was just tired today. She didn't understand, mum was old. Old sims couldn't understand how it was beeing young.

Good. Now appologize to your sister and brother, then go to school

Okay mum, he lied. No way was he appologizing. Irena and Dragan were stupid and annoying: I'll do it at school; when I get home I'll appologize to Dragan okay? I don't want to be late.

That's okay honey. Off you go. It was good that he was responsible about school.

I love you mummy! Dragan had eavsdropped, hoping that mum would yell at Niko. But instead he was going to appologize after he got back home. That was good enough for him. 

Aw, I love you to. You're mums big boy aren't you? She ruffled his hair a bit, Dragan atleast wasn't a loudmouth teenager yet.

But Niko didn't go to school, instead he hid in the nerdshop putting out a surprise for an unsuspecting victim. Then he waited

He cleverly pretended to use VR- goggles as the victim approached. And as she was pregnant, the possibility that it was her that farted without noticing was already high. Success!!! The pregnant lady got very embarassed at his prank to.

Daniel sat down with a cup of coffe. He'd had an extremely early day so a little pick- me- up before work was welcome. Just a little something that needed to be fixed in the business that he'd just bough up. He'd never though it would be possible to be a stockowner in some of the highest paying businesses in town. Yet here they were. 

Hey baby. Aino still gushed over him. They had finally gotten over the little rough- spot, and whatever had been bothering her husband had finally disappeared: I thought you had left early for work. 

No, I was just doing some business- related shit.

Aino wasn't entirely sure what he had invested in, but he'd pulled out nearly everything they had in their bankaccount a little while back to buy stocks. Some opportunity he claimed they had to jump on. She'd been worried, but it had already payed off. They weren't rich, and probably never would be, but they could live normal lives without any problems.

Are you worried or smug? What if they were bankrupt? What if the businesses had to close? What if....

We're not in trouble gorgeous, It's my smugface. It was just... I just did something and it felt a lot better than I thought it would. The day might have started early, but it had been worth it.

Well, as I just said. You're fired. Starting today; as soon as you leave this room actually. That's when you're out of work; as soon as you leave. The meetingroom was giant, as it should be. Not that he spent a lot of time there, but it still showed the wealth of the business.

What? How is that... What?

Daniel voice echoed, the rooms acoustics was amazing. Maybe he should start renting it out to boring sims that held boring seminars, so they could yapp about things he didn't care about. Who cared, as long as he earned more: You're fired. You don't belong to the team anymore. You're done, it's over. You are no longer wanted or welcome. Sheesh, he couldn't be any cleared now could he?

You can't do that. This isn't how this works. I don't even know who you are. This entire thing had come down on Kol as a huge surprise.

Seriosuly? He didn't know who he was? It kind of pissed him off a bit.

Daniel did his best remaining calm, he really hated that guy. But sometimes the long road was a more satisfying one: I'm the owner of the stadium. 

So? You're the owner of the stadium. Only the owners of the team can lay me off. 

He had to admit that he didn't know a lot about football. A bit embarassing since his sister had been a star of the team; but she was retired now: Yeah that's techically true. But this is the only major stadium in Jericho, and there aren't room to build any new ones. Since your teams name is tied to the stadium, it'll be way expensive to just rebrand yourself...

... all the merchandise will be worthless, the consumers will be furious and they'll stop supporting you and move on to another team. Not to mention that every single contract with every single sponsor will have to be renegotiated, and ofcourse it also means lost simoleons to the city; so they'll likely butt in. He was such a good bluffer, he still couldn't believe the team owners bought it. He was a scaringly good liar when he wanted to.

You can't do this! The team has a contract with you.

Actually no, they have a contract with the previous owners. And since the owners of your team is screwed unless I say yes, they pretty much have to do as I want right now. If they try to sue, it doesn't matter to me, because they can only do that to the company; which is worth a fortune anyway. I'll be left unscathed. So, you're fired.

This isn't over! Kol tried to threaten

Yeah, it is over. For you it is, it's over for you. You'll get the papers in the mail today. He'd really wanted to be the one to tell him about it. The best part was that he was so old he'd struggle to get a new job. Man, he hoped he died already; got a heartattack or just fell into traffic. That would be nice.

What was better? That sounded suspicious.

Just someone I had to let go. I don't like him, so it felt very good to fire him.

Oh... Well, she guessed he knew what he was doing. After all, she'd done some morally questionable things lately to. Wonder what he'd say if she told? Instead she stroked his cheek, pretending she didn't notice that he still had stubble.

Even if it kind of ached in his feet to go to school, Niko found a spot with a roof to read under. He just needed some air today. But it was so typical that the day he decided to skip school, it was pouring down.

Evetually it cleared up, and he could spend some time at the park. Niko was an outdoorsy type, that often found himself wishing for life at somewhere less city like. The air was always thick with smog even if mum claimed the air was freshed than when she was young. And it was always noisy and everyone was so loud. He wasn't a loner in anyway, but it would have been so much better if noise came from foreign markets instead of traffik and sims shouting profanities at eachother from the windows.

When school was over, he decided to go visit his cousin, Jack. He was older, but they still spent time together in recess. He had enough friends, but for some reason he always ended up talking to Jack a lot. He just looked up to him; he was easygoing and everyone like him.

Not to mention he was huge, where himself was skinny: How much do you work out? Niko had to know his secret.

A lot.

Well, duh: Like, how many hours. Jack was also like every other jock that lived; you had to drag a longer sentence out of him.

One to two hours a day. 

That many?! He'd thought he'd say a few a week, not like every single day! Who the hell worked out that often?! Not even dad and mum did that!

If you want to get big, you got to work out a lot. And watch what and how much you eat, you can...

Bored already. Niko interrupted and they decided to watch the game instead. In silence, like real dudes.

 It was late before he headed home, and all the mention of food had made him hungry. Thankfully the city was full of foodtrucks that sold unhealthy food. If this didn't make him gain a bit of weight, he didn't know what would.

He'd be yelled at as soon as he got home. Bet Irena had already ratted him out. Having siblings was aweful.

Little did he know that Irena had arranged to do homework with Larry, but that he was a no- show. Which was highly insulting- But maybe if she just waited a bit longer he would show up? Atleast she got her homework done for a change.

Niko was in a lot better mood by the time he got home; even the gnome seemed a bit more  welcoming than usual

The first thing that met him was a puddle of water from one of the dogs after bathing. Why hadn't anyone cleaned it up? Why was it always him doing these things?

The second thing was his brother pulling a face at him; clearly not forgiven there either.

The third was beeing yelled at by mum. She jumped him as soon as he entered the hallway: Niko! Where have been? I've been worried sick about you! What was the point of having phones when they never answered?!
  
I'm sorry mum, I forgot time. I was doing homework with Jack....

Are you lying to me?! I know you skipped school! Young man, you are so grounded! Go to your room!!

Niko stomped upstairs to make sure everyone knew how unfairly he had been treated. Irena was home late to, but mum didn't yell at her did she? No ofcourse not, he always got yelled at and his stupid sister got away with everything

He was going to sit here and sulk, because that would show everyone!

Daniel invited his brother out after work. They hadn't seen eachother for a while. After the days long awaited victory it just seemed right to meet someone he didn't actually hate.

He'd unfortuntaly forgotten how embarassing brothers were: What's with the sunglasses indoors?

So the paparazzo won't recognize me ofcourse.

Yeah, you don't look remotely suspicious wearing those dark shades indoors mate. Daniel bet he wanted to be caught by the paparazzo, so he'd get the frontpage of a magazine. 

Ah screw it, it just meant that he'd have problems seeing anything.

Which meant he won!
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Irena and Niko have gotten the difficult teen- mood every other day. In addition, I can't get them to talk to eachother after loosing the friendship- status. So, by the look of it, their relationship is pretty much impossible to salvage

And I worked very hard to be able to buy up the arena to fire Kol, and finally managed it; it was just a gaming goal I had for myself for the record, trying to make it a bit harder. I contemplated leaving it out, but figured that showing that I'm petty and vindictive even in games was more important (this is what I'd do if I had lots of money in reality; buy up businesses of people I don't like just to fire them)

I don't think I'll be able to buy up the other two business. Or, they'll be able to buy them up, just that then they probably won't have the ammount of simoleons to use for when the kids age up. I usually buy with the household funds to make sure that it gets emptied once in a while.

So it's part ownership: bookstore, theatre
and full ownership: the stadium/arena

Thanks for reading