Carmine – Round 1

Claudia Carmine: G1 Teen, Knowledge/Fortune, LTW: Become City Planner, Capricorn 7/4/1/8/5, Turn Ons: Unemployed, Custom Hair; Turn Offs: Blond Hair

After her father’s sudden death upon their arrival at their new home, Claudia had gone inside to grieve in private. She quickly realized, however,  that if she was going to make it on her own she’d have to pull herself together and get on with doing the things she needed to be doing, instead of sitting in the house crying about her father.  And the first thing she needed to do was go to school. She was a knowledge sim after all, and anxious to see her new school and get back to learning more about the world and all the subjects in it. And so, even though she knew she’d be late and could easily just wait until tomorrow to start, she decided to walk up to the school and at least make sure that she was properly registered and get her class schedule and such. While there, she met a few other teens, and one of them, Kurtis Watson, decided to accompany her home on the school bus. When they got there, several people from the neighborhood were waiting to welcome her to Spectrum Hills. She greeted them, invited them all in, and spent the afternoon chatting with them and with Kurtis until finally bidding them all goodbye around dinner time so she could get her homework done and get to bed at a reasonable hour.

The next morning while she was fixing herself a bowl of cereal for breakfast, she discovered that she really liked cooking and wanted to learn more about cuisine in general. School was uneventful that day, and when she got home, there was an old gypsy hanging around on the front lawn with a crystal ball. Claudia went over to speak with her and the woman explained that she could help Claudia find true love…for the right price of course. Mindful of her limited funds, and the need to conserve what money she had right now, Claudia politely declined the offer, but promised to give the woman a call if she ever changed her mind. After saying goodbye to the old woman, she went inside and heard the phone ringing. It was Kurtis, and he invited her to come downtown with him and some of his friends who were going to SimBowl Lanes. Claudia agreed to meet them there.

Upon arriving, Claudia was surprised to find that the group wasn’t just teenagers, but people of all ages, including a little girl and an older man. She was excited to see that two of them were reds like her, as she was afraid she might be the only one left since her father died. After the taxi pulled away, she struck up a conversation with one of the, Archie Hakimi.

After talking to Archie for a bit, she went inside and mingled with the others in the group, eventually getting everyone to sit around and talk as a group so they could all get to know one another.  While everyone had a ok time, when the time they’d allotted for the outing was over, everyone agreed that it was just ok, and not spectacular, and they weren’t entirely sure if they wanted to get together again or not.

Claudia stuck around a bit after the outing ended, bowling a few frames with Archie, and chatting with a few of the other people there. Before long, however, she found she was getting tired, so she called a taxi and headed home.

That evening and most of the day on Wednesday went by fairly uneventfully. She got her homework done, slept, went to school, came home and took a nap before starting on her homework since she was still tired from the outing the day before. Though she didn’t notice him since she was still asleep on the couch, her father’s ghost appeared out front, and wandered around the yard and inside the house for awhile, looking sad, and re-enacting his own death.

It was at this point that something curious happened. Time seemed to warp a bit, and when she awoke from her nap it was Tuesday afternoon again and she was just getting back from the bowling alley. (Author’s Note: I accidentally exited the game without saving while trying to get a picture of Nelson’s ghost re-enacting his death, and thus I had the time-warp. Nelson didn’t make a re-appearance when I played things through again.)  Again, Tuesday evening went by un-eventfully, but on Wednesday, one of the girls from school that she’d just met came home with her on the bus. Her name was Tessa Shelton and she and Claudia hung out for the afternoon, watching TV, chatting, and having a water balloon fight.

After Tessa left, Claudia had a quiet evening of homework and painting before getting to bed. Thursday turned out to be a good day for her. She got her first A report card that day, and she had a little celebration for herself as she got off the bus.

Another potential friend came home with her that day. Her name was Karly Brewer and they hung out together for the afternoon, watching TV and chatting.

That evening Karly had left, while she was making herself some macaroni and cheese for dinner, she looked out the window and noticed a large black dog in the yard. He almost looked more like a wolf actually instead of just a dog, and it piqued her curiosity. She went outside to say hello to him, and was glad that he appeared to be friendly. She petted him, fed him a few treats, somehow knew that his name was Diddy, and then started to try to teach him a trick.

Before long, however, her grumbling stomach forced her to go back inside and finish her dinner. She saw Diddy lope off down the street. She made her dinner, did her homework, and then climbed into bed, exhausted.

Friday afternoon, a guy named Bastian Grant came home from school with her. He bore a striking resemblance to Kurtis, whom she’d met earlier in the week, but she felt that she and Bastian might have a bit more of a connection. After chatting with him for awhile, she tentatively started flirting with him, and he seemed receptive. Encouraged, she hugged him, and as they embraced, she decided she wanted to have her first kiss to see what it was like. Slowly, she leaned in…only to be crushed when he suddenly pushed her away and asked her what she thought she was doing and told her he liked her well enough, but wasn’t ready to go there with her yet. She nodded mutely, then they chatted a bit more and she managed to mend the damage to their budding relationship that her premature attempt to kiss him had caused. She didn’t try again, and gave him a simple friendly hug and wished him goodbye when he told her he needed to get going. The rest of the evening went by fairly uneventfully for her.

Finally the weekend was upon her, though she didn’t have any big plans like other teens might have. Instead, she was looking forward to the extra time to work on her skills and catch up with a few things around the house that she hadn’t had time for during the week. And so, she spent the weekend mostly painting and reading, developing her creativity, mechanical skills, and cooking skills. On Saturday, she met Cyrus Orpiment who lived down the street from her when he walked past her house. She chatted with him for a little while, but she didn’t really like him much so she said goodbye after only a short while.  She also spent some time talking on the phone with the various people she’d met during the week. Diddy wandered by again and she got to spend a little time with him, and she also encountered another dog/wolf named Rascal. He had glowy eyes that fascinated Claudia, but she found that it was harder to try to get to know him. Before she knew it the weekend was over and it was Monday morning again and time to get ready for school.

And that is where we leave Claudia for this week. Join us again soon when we spend a week with the Gamboge family.