Around the World Legacy, Chapter 28

Lis has been invited to join the ranks of the Young Nobles, a club led by Sophia Abrantes which, until now, was exclusively for those born or adopted into noble titles. This could open doors for Lis: a path into the noble court of Ondarion, if she chooses to follow it.

Next week, Lis and her parents will celebrate Harvestfest alongside the rest of the Espinoza Dynasty! Full chapters leading up to this point can be found on my blog, PaxxiePlaysSims!

The ballroom cafe I built for this chapter can be found on my Gallery under PaxxieLovesDinosaurs or Lilting Waltz Tea Parlor, if anybody wants it for their own noble gameplay!

The first day of break, Lis started her morning by doing some chores. Arabella and Peter both had work, and she had the place to herself. May as well get the trash taken out and the house cleaned up before she decided what else to spend the day on.

The plants around the cottage were starting to gray and wilt with the coming winter cold, and colorful leaves covered the path. Lis couldn't wait for fall to come to an end, and winter to set in fully. She loved the snow, and she loved the winter holidays.

While she was hanging the laundry out to dry, Lis' phone rang. Sophia was calling, and wanted to know if she minded her and Amarachi coming over to hang out. Since she was almost done with chores anyway, Lis cheerfully agreed.

"Hello, Lis!" Sophia was very excited to see her when she arrived, and Amarachi wasn't far behind. "Oh, your house is so lovely!"

"Thank you." Lis smiled. "It's a good home."

"I'll have to have you over sometime. Anyway! Amarachi and I had something to ask you."

"What is it?" Lis wondered.

"I'm the leader of the Young Nobles Club in Ondarion, and we've started accepting members from other Dynasties and kingdoms. Would you like to join us? You might not have a noble title, but your family holds a lot of influence. I think you already know Channing? He's joined us, representing Willow Creek."

Lis blinked, surprised. "Oh! Well... what sorts of things do we do in this club?"

"Practice swordsmanship and dancing primarily, but it's also a great way to build alliances. And it's just a fun way to spend time together! Sometimes we do a study group together, and our hangout is a cafe with incredible tea and pastries."

"I do like swordsmanship." Lis smiled. "Okay, I'd love to join!"

"Perfect! We're having a gathering tonight at the Lilting Waltz Tea Parlor, you can meet us there and we'll hang out!"

The Lilting Waltz Tea Parlor was located in Newcrest's Ridgeline Drive neighborhood, and a light snow was starting to fall when the club convened. Lis had to take a moment to just take it in. She loved winter so much!

After admiring the snowfall, Lis followed the group inside the cafe.

Gentle music was already playing inside the cafe's beautiful ballroom, and Lis couldn't help but be breath-taken by the charming elegance of it all. Was this what Sophia was used to? Lis loved her home in Glimmerbrook, but this was an entirely different type of beauty.

"I'll teach you the waltz, if you want." Channing offered, breaking Lis from her reverie.

"I'd love that." Lis agreed. "Thank you."

After Lis and Channing finished their waltz, Amarachi challenged Lis to a friendly duel. Lis felt a little bit silly, taking out her wooden training sword to combat Amarachi's much more professional one, but Amarachi assured her it was all in good fun.

"Maybe we can take you to visit the blacksmith another day."

To Amarachi's shock, Lis actually ended up winning the duel! Despite her wooden sword and minimal skill, Lis had managed to best her.

It was impressive! But also a little embarrassing. Sophia and Channing applauded from where they'd been watching, and Lis helped Amarachi back to her feet.

"Good duel." Amarachi told her. "I'd better not underestimate you next time."

After dueling and waltzing, the group headed upstairs to the actual cafe area. Sophia made tea on one of the beautiful china trays, and they sat down and just talked. Amarachi was a big fan of Harvestfest, like Aeris.

"It's a time of family unity and thankfulness. I always enjoy the time spent together. How about you, Sophia?"

"Oh, Harvestfest is nice. I love all the holidays, though. It just hasn't been quite the same since Thiago got married, now holidays are spent over at the Thebe castle. It's still nice, but it's... different."

As much fun as they were having, it was getting late, and they all had to get home. Lis bid her noble friends goodbye, and Amarachi promised to have her over to the Darong estate sometime soon.

"I can tell we're going to be great friends, Lis. Take care!"

And with that, the group all headed home.

Lis got home at the same time as Arabella, and happily welcomed her home from work. "Thank you for all the work you did around the house, Lis. It looks great in here." Arabella told her.

"It's no problem, not like I had anything else going on!"

When they sat down for dinner, Arabella had some other news for her. "We're going to be celebrating Harvestfest with the rest of the family, this year. Our family will be hosting, but we're going to meet at a venue to share dinner and celebrate."

"Oh! Is everybody coming?" Lis wondered.

"Just about." Arabella confirmed. "So there'll be a lot of cooking to do the day of. I hope you'll help me with that?"

"Of course, I'm glad to help." Lis agreed.

"Good. I'll do some prep work tomorrow, and Peter will help too day of. So you'd better get some sleep, it'll be a busy couple days!"

Lis spent the early hours of the next morning practicing her swordsmanship again, to be ready for the next club gathering. Her practice was interrupted, though, by a call from Aeris.

"Hop a train and come hang out with me! I'm at Camp Gibbi Gibbi today, we can do an archery contest and go swimming, it's still warm-ish here!"

"Sounds great, I'll be over soon!" Lis agreed.

Lis was excited to tell Aeris about the Young Nobles Club, but to her surprise, Aeris was less than enthused.

"Those royal types are all the same, Lis. Rich and snobby and out for themselves. You're better off not falling into that crowd."

"Channing is noble." Lis argued. "He's not like that at all."

"Channing is adopted, remember? He actually knows what it's like to live normally. Not the same thing."

"Sophia and Amarachi seem really lovely, I really don't think that's the case."

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you. Let's go shoot some arrows, the targets are finally open."

Lis hadn't expected Aeris to be so hostile to the idea of her hanging out with the noble kids, but she brushed it off for now. Maybe she'd had a bad experience with someone else? Regardless, Lis was certain she'd come around eventually.

Instead, Lis poured her attention into archery. She was getting quite good now, but so was Aeris, and their competition was quite close. Ultimately, Aeris ended up winning this time.

"Good match!" Aeris grinned. "Go again?"

"No thanks." Lis laughed. "My elbow is screaming. Let's go for a swim instead, it's way too cold in Glimmerbrook."

The water surrounding Camp Gibbi Gibbi was chilly but still pleasant to swim in, and the clouds offered a much needed shield from the sun. Lis and Aeris spent a couple of hours playing and chatting in the water, enjoying the last bit of warm weather in Gibbi Point before winter set in.

"I'm sorry I got so worked up over the nobles club thing." Aeris told Lis as they were leaving the lake. "That Duke Capp from Bellacorde came to talk to Dad a couple days ago. He wanted to buy the camp."

"Whatever for?" Lis asked.

"Some sort of vacation house. Dad said no, obviously, but it's insulting. He waved some vague threat over us as he was leaving. But you're right, Channing isn't like that, and it sounds like those other two girls are nice. Shouldn't have tarred them all with the same brush."

"It's alright, Aeris." Lis answered. "I'm sure everything will be fine. Should we go catch some butterflies before I leave?"

"Let's!"

After some time searching around the lake, Lis found a flock of owl butterflies! Though most of them flew away, she just managed to catch one.

She wanted to have a whole butterfly habitat eventually, but she had nice little individual terrariums for them in the meantime.

After that, it was starting to get late, so Lis said goodbye to Aeris and headed back home to Glimmerbrook.

Lis got home just in time for dinner, and Arabella was already talking to Peter about the plan for tomorrow. They would arrive at the venue in the morning and spend the whole day cooking, then the family would all come over in the evening.

The list of dishes Arabella was firing off made Lis's head spin. How were they going to cook all that in twelve hours? But her mother seemed confident, so she would be too.

She'd better head to bed early, though. It was going to be a busy Harvestfest.