Mia Ryman’s

Bachelorette Challenge Mzyra

Last Time on Mia’s Bachelorette Challenge:
Andy Rocker was narrowly evicted after a bad conversation about music that may or may not have been
influenced by Rodney. He gave the simselves a miniature concert before heading on his way back to his
normal life in Chemic’s Rocker Legacy.
The remaining bachelors, in order of how well they’re doing, are: Chephren, Juan, Rodney and Noah.
Mia and the bachelors sat down for some lunch once Andy had left.
“About half-way now guys; three gone, three to go…” Mia gave them an apologetic smile.
“I’m sure we’ll survive – hey, didn’t somebody tell me that this is the day that the kissing starts…?” Noah asked
cheekily.
“It’s weird getting this serious with people when you know you’re not going to be with three out of the four
anyway…”
“I’m sure whoever wins won’t mind what you had to do in order to pick them,” pointed out Juan.
“Well Andy won’t be the only one on a plane at the minute – the kids are due at some point this afternoon, so we
should hurry up with the hot tub.”
“There are three of them, right?” asked Noah.
“Yes. And they don’t know that some of their fathers are here. One of them might figure it out, but possibly not –
there isn’t that much resemblance.”
“So they won’t be biased against those of us who aren’t?” asked Chephren.
“They shouldn’t be, no.”
All of the bachelors went quiet with their own private thoughts, mostly of anxiety – none of them had had
(other) kids of their own yet.
That day Rodney was so quick to the hot tub that he actually beat Mia there. There was no way he was being left
out again.
“So… don’t you think your kids might be a bit scared to meet somebody who’s technically dead? I mean,
zombies are generally monsters in children’s stories…”
“Well… My eldest is probably too old to be so easily scared and I think the youngest is probably too young to
understand that she might be scared of such things. I suppose the middle child might at first, but Juan’s
friendly, I’m sure they’d adapt pretty quickly.”
Speaking of Juan, he had finally been persuaded to get in a hot tub – but he chose to get into the empty one,
despite there being plenty of space in the first at the time. Maybe Mia claimed the fact that he was a zombie
didn’t matter, but it didn’t mean that people wanted to see quite so much of a zombie and he was sticking by
that. Besides, he didn’t need Rodney’s jibes all afternoon.
So he tried to ignore Mia and Rodney playing and splashing each other in the other hot tub. Luckily they weren’t
alone for long as Chephren came up to join them.
And then Noah joined them too.
“There’s still space? I thought for sure I’d missed my chance.”
“Juan decided not to join us, Noah.” Mia informed him.
“Though if you think you don’t deserve the place maybe you should get out and leave us alone,” glared Rodney.
Noah wasn’t listening; “ I love these hot tubs!”
“So what are we going to do when the kids get here, Mia?” Chephren asked. “Toddlers and children can’t use a
hot tub.”
“Well we do have the giant TV… And Liv will probably have some toys that you can help her play with, there
will be plenty of ways to bond with the kids if you want to and you probably should.”
“Aren’t we a bit old to be playing with toys?”
“Well maybe, but-”
“Hey Chephren – watch out!” Mia was cut off by Noah unexpectedly splashing Chephren in the face.
“Yeah, playing with toys probably won’t be a problem,” she mumbled, rolling her eyes.
“Not all men are immature, Mia,” Rodney pointed out.
“Just most of them?” she teased.
“Given my experiences... Yeah, that’s about right.”
“Anyway, are you guys sure you’re going to be okay with the whole kissing everyone thing?”
“Er, so long as we only have to kiss you?” checked Rodney.
“Yeah, it’s only kissing Mia, lighten up. It’s not that big a deal,” Noah chipped in.
“It’s a pretty big deal to me – I know I’ve had children without ever being married, but I always thought I would
be in each case. And now I’m going to have to kiss three guys who I know I’ll never be with.”
“But you don’t know which of the four of us you’ll wind up with, right?” asked Chephren.
“Well no-”
“Yeah, exactly. It’s helping you decide, it’s no big deal.”
Meanwhile, outside the house, the kids finally arrived. Luckily for Lyle, Jose was naturally well-behaved and
Liv had slept most of the way there, so they hadn’t caused havoc on the transport over. None of them were
sure what to expect when they arrived, but a holiday was a holiday and they wanted their mother to be happy,
so they came without complaint.
The house had been built with the kids’ eventual arrival in mind, so there was plenty of space for Liv to be set
down to play with some toys while the boys could do other things without worrying.
“Bunny!”
“Looking forward to this, Jose? We’re going to get to play games and everything! Make new friends..”
“Grown-up friends,” he replied uncomfortably. “I have been missing Momma though. Do you think she’ll have
time to play with us?”
“I’m sure she’ll make time if we want her to. We might be allowed to go and play on the beach too later on.
That’ll be fun, won’t it?”
“Maybe…”
“Stop being so gloomy, Jose – we’re on holiday!”
And Mia did have some time for them, as it got dark and she got out of the hot tub.
“Hope the journey wasn’t too difficult, boys?”
“No Mum, it was pretty great – first class!”
“The food they gave us was weird.”
“That’s ‘cause it was expensive stuff we’ve never had before, Jose.”
“As long as you all got fed and didn’t cause any trouble.”
“No Momma, we were good!”
Mia smiled “I wouldn’t expect any different.”
A little later the Rymans were finally joined by a bachelor as Chephren came downstairs from the hot tub.
“Er, hi! I’m Chephren – a friend of your mother’s.”
“My name’s Jose and that’s my big brother Lyle.”
“Nice to meet you Jose. Enjoying it here?”
“I guess so – look how big the TV is!”
But Chephren wasn’t the only one getting acquainted with the Rymans. Juan avoided the larger crowds and went
to investigate the room that was now opened, where he discovered Liv. And you can’t meet Liv Ryman
without her trying to make you hers – Juan never stood a chance.
“Up! Up!”
Elsewhere, however, Rodney and Noah still hadn’t left the hot tub.
“You packed your bags yet? You’re definitely going next.”
“Gee thanks. What makes you say that anyway? We’ve spent as much time with Mia and neither of us have seen
the kids.”
“Yeah, but I’ve already been in a relationship with Mia; Liv’s my kid. You can’t stand up to that.”
“Mia said that didn’t matter.”
“Yeah, whatever. Trust me; you’re next, then Spock, then zombie-boy and I’ll win.”
“So is that why you’re not even trying?”
“Why bother?”
But ‘Spock’ wasn’t giving up so easily and thought it far from decided. He was getting on especially well with
Lyle; it wasn’t so long since he’d been that age himself, going to high school and everything, so chatting was
easy. Trying to talk with Jose was harder since he was both younger and shier, but since none of the other
bachelors were talking to them, hopefully befriending Lyle would be enough.
Of course, Chephren was unaware of Juan still upstairs equally bonding - if not more - with little Liv. And, being
so young and loving, it was even easier to win her attachment than her more self-conscious older brothers.
Lyle was quite happy to be chatting and making friends with his mother’s potential boyfriends, but Jose was
having more problems. Sure, there was a huge TV to watch and he was far from an extrovert so he wasn’t
entirely comfortable talking to all these new people, but the way in which he was effectively being ignored
while Chephren and Lyle talked across him was getting him down. Why didn’t anyone ever want to pay him
any attention?
Luckily Lyle was quite perceptive and soon broke off the conversation to play with Jose. And the return of Mia
meant that Chephren wasn’t alone either*…

*Autonomous, but not ACR. Thanks a lot, Chephren! This picture would have been great if Liv had been there too.
Upstairs Liv was willing to spread her adorable toddler love, but Rodney and Noah weren’t paying any attention,
still sat in the hot tub talking after over 6 hours, though how this was possible when they didn’t really like
each other…

“… They should have toys for hot tubs. You know, like you have rubber ducks and things for bath tubs? They
could have like… toy ships or whatever.”
“That’s really the only thing you could think to say, huh?”
Downstairs Chephren and Lyle were bonding once again through the magic of chess. Chephren figured this
might be a good time to test the waters as to the reason he was there.
“So Lyle, how do you feel about this whole thing? I mean, your Mom and guys…”
“Well, if she winds up with a good guy who she loves and loves her and makes her happy, then I don’t mind.”
“Yeah, well, your mother’s a great woman, and if I were to win, I’d definitely do everything I could to make her
happy.”
“Um, okay…”
Chephren wasn’t the only one showing autonomous love; once Juan had managed to tear himself away from the
adorableness of Liv, he too was all for showing Mia some love. Luckily she’d always been fairly active and
could hold an overweight zombie for a short amount of time. But this did seem a good time to go to bed that
night.
The next morning (almost 18 hours later), Rodney and Noah were still chatting in the hot tub. Medical experts
would like to clarify that this is really not a good idea, but surprisingly the two bachelors seemed fine, if
hungry, tired, desperate for the bathroom and in need of a shower.
“Aren’t you ever going to get out of the hot tub, Rodney?”
“Aren’t you going to get out of the hot tub?”
“I asked you first.”
“I’m not getting out until you get out.”
“…No.”
Though to be fair Juan hadn’t gone to bed yet either; once Mia went to bed Juan reverted to hanging out with
Liv. It was nice bonding with somebody to young to speak – there were no awkward questions or anything,
and it was cute. Of course, Juan knew Liv wasn’t his child, he just wished that he’d been around for his own
child being this age. He’d missed out on so much.
When Mia got up again she discovered that none of the bachelors had gone to bed at all that night – Chephren
had still been playing chess when she started the deliberate one-on-one interactions.
“Hey Cheph. Aren’t you tired?”
“A bit, yes, but I didn’t get up ‘til quite late yesterday so it’s not so bad.”
“That’s good. I saw you talking to Lyle and Jose a bit yesterday – it’s great to see somebody fitting in with the
family so well. And it means I can see you in more than just a romantic light, not that the romantic light is
bad…”
And she drew him in for a kiss to prove her point – and also because it was generally very tempting.
It took a few moments of happy, shy smiling to recover, but the conversation continued.
“It was no trouble Mia, I love meeting new people and your kids seem great. I had a good long chat with Lyle
yesterday, I think we could be good friends.”
“That’s great,” she said genuinely. “Now I’d better go and talk to all the other guys, if I can find them…”
She ran into Noah in the upstairs corridor.
“Hey Noah, how are things going? I didn’t get to see you at all after I left the hot tub yesterday.”
“Um, yeah, me and Rodney had a kind of impromptu competition to see who could last the longest in there – we
only just called a truce and got out.”
“Oh. Right.” Mia wasn’t sure what to say about that. It was a bit… odd, but then nearly all the bachelors were a
bit younger than her, maybe they were a bit less… mature.
“Um, I know we need to interact, but do you mind if you come back to me? I haven’t eaten in almost a day, I’m
starving…”
“Oh, okay, sure.”
Of course Rodney was also nearby, having come from the same situation.
“Oh hey Rodney, I heard you’ve only just got out of the hot tub with Noah.”
“Hm? Oh, yeah, that was his idea. I thought I might as well humour him, you know…”
Mia wondered briefly whether that was true, but decided to let it drop. “So I guess this means you haven’t been
in to meet your daughter yet?”
“Ah, um, no not yet, but I definitely will soon. I’ve been meaning to ever since they arrived, but there was the
hot tub, and now I need to eat and shower and everything. And I looked in once, but she was asleep,” he lied
smoothly.
But Mia wasn’t very good at reading Rodney and it sounded sweet the way he said it, so she leaned in to kiss
him too.
“So I guess you’ll be evicting Noah now, huh?”
“What makes you think that?” she asked, taken by surprise.
“Oh come on Mia, you’re not that hard to read and it’s obvious. You’ve got two fathers of your children and
Chephren clearly comes above Noah, so he’s got to go.”
“You shouldn’t be so complacent about that, Rodney – Zack was Jose’s father and he was the first to go.”
Rodney studied his fingers with a relaxed smile. “Huh, sure. But you never saw him with his child, and that
would make it an entirely different ball game.” And with that he walked away.
Mia frowned at his back. I’ve never seen you with your child either, she thought.
Partly wanting to prove Rodney wrong, Mia searched Noah out again and resumed their conversation with a
quick kiss.
“Mmm, what was that for?”
“Oh, you know,” Mia quietly and shyly explained, “it’s kind of mandatory anyway, but-”
“Ugh, I hate that,” he suddenly vented. “Nothing is spontaneous or because you want to, I don’t know why you
bother if it’s all just a chore.”
“Hey! I didn’t say I didn’t want to kiss you! And maybe you could have done something spontaneous like
Chephren and Juan if you’d just got out of the hot tub at all in the past day!”
“Well it sounds like you’ve made up your mind already, why don’t you go interact with them instead?!”
Mia gaped at him angrily before storming off to do exactly what he said, just to spite him.
Whilst trying to find Juan it did occur to her that Noah had had no sleep and had spent most of a day with
Rodney, who wasn’t always nice, so perhaps he was just in a bad mood, but it wasn’t really an excuse for just
blowing up like that.
By the time Mia had gotten to Juan he had in fact got some time in bed and was definitely in a far better mood
than Noah was.
“So you guys do need sleep then?”
“Yup. Comfy beds in there, too.”
“I didn’t see you hardly at all yesterday Juan, except for that time you jumped me,” she laughed, “what did you
find to get up to? Chess again?”
“Huh? Oh, no, I met your daughter and then, once she got my attention, it was very difficult to pull myself away
again.”
Mia was so pleased she had to pull him into a kiss right then. She had thought that Chephren was the only
bachelor to do anything with the kids, but obviously she hadn’t been paying enough attention herself. And
she was also pleased that this would presumably mean that Juan wouldn’t just favour his own child and
hopefully could be a good father for them all, if she needed him to be. She was just a little surprised that he
hadn’t been driven by curiosity to meet his own child first.
“So you’ve made friends with Liv, but you should meet the other two, you know…”
“Yeah, I know,” he sighed, “but it was so nice and easy to make friends with a toddler who you know won’t be
thinking or asking about complex issues like whether you’re their real father, whether they’d rather
somebody else, whether you’re going to eat their brains – which I swear I never would, but the way, it’s just
what some people might think.”
Mia laughed. “Well I’m sure when the other kids get to know you that won’t be a concern at all. Give it a try –
they’re just as unlikely to bite as you are.”
And then, with everyone having got at least a little bit of sleep, it was eviction time again.
“We should get ice cream one day soon. I bet the kids would like that. Everyone likes ice cream, don’t they?”
“I don’t know,” Juan responded cautiously, “I should probably be cutting back on stuff like that. Apparently
zombie metabolisms aren’t exactly fast. The kids could have some though.”
Rodney rolled his eyes at their trivial conversations.
“Right guys, well it’s that time again. Somebody has to go.
Now the idea was that the kids would be helping me out with my decision from now on and that has kind of
happened. Kind of, because none of them have met two of you at all yet and, to be perfectly honest, those
two are at the bottom of the list, meaning that really it comes down to my decision anyway. Maybe if they
had interacted with the kids…!”
“But anyway, I’m not angry at anyone about it. It’s nothing personal and by this point I hope you’d all agree that
I’m good friends with all of you. And I hope it stays that way.
So yes, it was close in the end between the two people, but the person who’s going to have to go is…”
“Hey Noah.”
“Ah, man… Look, if I upset you earlier with what I said, I’m really sorry-”
“Don’t worry about it, we’re still friends, you were probably just in a bad mood, right?”
“Yeah, right.”
“And we can all stay friends, can’t we guys?” Noah asked, glad that Rodney wasn’t on that side of him too, since
he wasn’t really including him in that sentiment. Especially since he’d just been proven right.
“Sure Noah,” responded Chephren while Juan gave a relaxed nod.
“Right,” he smiled. “A bunch of new friends. I may not have a new girlfriend, but maybe friends are more
important. And I’m sure I’ll find a soul-mate somewhere else if me and Mia aren’t meant to be.”
Mia was just happy he hadn’t blown up again at being rejected.
“Right. So we’re friends, no hard feelings, Mia?”
“No. You?”
“No, life’s too short for that kind of stuff. Hopefully I’ll see you again someday, but I guess I’d better go for
now.”
“Bye Noah.”
Day 4 Scores:
1st: Juan; 100/53 + 0/0 + 0/0 + 100/21 =
274 (148+0+6+120 = 274)
2nd: Chephren; 100/54 + 100/9 + 1/1 +
0/0 = 265 (153+103-6+0 = 250)
Sucks to be Noah – if he’d had just one good conversation with one of
3rd: Rodney; 99/51 + 0/0 + 0/0 + 0/0 =
150 (142+0+0+0 = 142)
4th: Noah; 99/49 + 0/0 + 0/0 + 0/0 = 148
(150+0+0+0 = 150)
‘Kay, now I’ve got to try and explain this… The first score is still Mia
for each bachelor, then the three scores added are always Lyle’s
feelings, then Jose’s, then Liv’s and the numbers in the bracket are
the bachelor for each one in that order too. Also, note that Chephren
has a -6; that’s not a typo, he ended the day -3/-3 about Jose.
the kids rather than sitting in the hot tub, Rodney could have gone
instead. And going by their own feelings about Mia, he should have
beaten Rodney anyway.
“Sorry you didn’t get further Noah, but you did pretty well really. I would have thought you’d at least get in the
top three though.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty disappointed, but, uh… why aren’t we in your office?”
“Um, well besides the fact that I’m giving up keeping all the girls away from Chip but don’t want to have to see
all the PDAs, so I’ve let them have the office – but there’s another reason… I thought this should be more
private.”
“Right… What’s wrong? It sounds bad.”
“Um, yeah… you can’t really go home.”
“Can’t really go home? Why? What happened?”
“Um, I’m led to believe that nearly your entire family is… well… dead.”
Noah stared. “Nearly?”
“I’ve heard that there’s definitely your niece and nephew and a… first cousin once removed? But as for your
siblings and other cousins…”
“W- What happened to all of them?”
“I believe there was a fire or two and then the family was attacked by an enemy… The survivors were just a teen
and children at the time they lost everyone else.”
“So everyone else is gone…? Mum? Dad? Lark? Even Leon?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Man…”
“But- but- If I have a niece and nephew who are just like kids still, shouldn’t I go back and help them out?”
“… Not exactly. Do you remember how you got here, Noah?”
“No, not really.”
“Well it wasn’t really just a plane journey and it all means… there’s a time difference.”
“What, like they’re a few hours ahead or behind?”
“No, like said nephew and niece are, by now, adults and probably married with children of their own. They’re
probably beyond needing your help and it’d be odd if you suddenly reappeared after what would be
considered decades in their time.”
“So I’m homeless then. What do I do? Where do I go? What?”
“Don’t worry Noah, I’m not about to kick you out to nothing. I’ve never brought in any permanent immigrants
to the neighbourhood before, but… I believe there may be a space in the family for you.”
“When you say ‘the family’, you don’t-?”
“Not Mia, no. You’d have to let any idea of that go, but I have someone else in mind…”
“My family are dead so you’re setting me up?”
“… Yes. Does that bother you a lot? I’m sorry if it does, but I think it might work.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
“Like I said, you’re not going to get kicked out to nothing. If you want to stay, you can.”
They sat in silence for a little while as Noah let things sink in a little bit. He couldn’t go home. Nearly all of his
family were dead and he’d never see them again. He was completely untied from anything. He had no-one in
Simfield, but then he didn’t have anyone anywhere anymore. What could it hurt to go there and meet
whoever?
“Okay. Okay, I’ll go wherever and meet whoever you think. It’s not like I have anything else to do anymore.”
“Okay Noah, I’ll send you right over and try to set up a meeting. You’ll settle in sooner or later, I promise.”
“I hope so.”