Brandeis – Round 1

Hefina Brandeis: G1 Adult, Knowledge/Pleasure, LTW: Become City Planner, Virgo 9/2/6/3/5, Turn Ons: Fitness, Stink; Turn Off: Custom Hair
Lata Brandeis: G1 Adult, Pleasure/Grilled Cheese, LTW: Become a Professional Party Guest, Aries 5/8/6/3/3, Turn Ons: Athletic, Fitness; Turn Off: Vampirism
Shadya Brandeis: G1 Child, Taurus 5/5/3/8/4
Georg Brandeis: G1 Toddler, Cancer 6/3/6/4/6

Like most of the families new to Spectrum Hills, the Brandeis sisters spent most of their first day settling into their new house. There weren’t any jobs immediately available in their chosen fields, so they spent the day getting to know a few of their neighbors who dropped by, and Lata started working a bit with Georg trying to teach him some of his toddler skills.

For all that she was still ambivalent about truly taking responsibility for raising her children herself, Lata truly did love her son and daughter, and she never could resist stroking little Georg’s hair back when she laid him down to sleep.

And while it was Hefina who was up in the middle of the night playing with Georg and working on his potty training and walking when he awoke around midnight, Lata still did her part in trying to teach her son, and it was under her tutelage that he finally mastered using the potty like a big boy (though the midnight boost from the smart milk his Aunt Hefina fed him helped him learn it much faster of course).

Monday gave way to Tuesday, and as there were still no jobs in the offering that she was interested in, Lata decided she might as well start checking out the local male population. She started with introducing herself to a man named Dustin Cooke who walked by the house in the afternoon.

She spent a few hours chatting with him, and having a water balloon fight with him like a couple of kids would, but there wasn’t much chemistry there, so she eventually said goodbye to him as evening approached, and decided to head Downtown to check out the clubs. She started at a place called Midnight Flows, and it was there that she met Jonathan Kosloski. There were a few sparks flying between them, so she asked him to join her on a date then and there, and he accepted.

While there was some chemistry between them, for some reason the date just kind of flowed along pleasantly, with neither one really getting too caught up in the other. When they parted, Lata considered that she’d probably met a friend, but not really a lover.

Lata’s eyes were already roaming over the crowd, looking for other possibilities as she gave Jonathan a hug to end their date. She spied a hot guy standing not too far away, and she didn’t waste much time introducing herself. The chemistry between them was instant – and sizzling – and she knew this relationship had far more potential.

Things got heated between her and Malcolm in short order, and the date they started was going quite well when suddenly they were interrupted by Jonathan, who saw Lata getting friendly with Malcolm and suddenly blew his top about it. Lata was quite taken aback – and then quite angry about it – and gave him back as good as she got, letting him know that as far as she was concerned he had no right getting jealous because she was kissing someone else when they’d both agreed their date earlier was nothing more than just pleasant.

As Jonathan stormed off, Lata turned her attention back to Malcolm, and it wasn’t long before they were providing quite a floor show for the club’s patrons.

The rest of the evening and night passed blissfully for her, and she didn’t manage to drag herself away and back home until dawn was already lighting up the sky.

Meanwhile, while her sister was out partying at the clubs, Hefina was busy taking care of her niece and nephew. Early in the evening she spent time helping Shadya with her homework and teaching her how to study effectively before giving her a snack and sending her off to bed early so she’d be well rested for school the next day.

Then she made some more smart milk for Georg and worked on his toddler skills some more with him, finishing up teaching him how to walk, and teaching him how to talk. She was secretly quite pleased when one of his first words was “auntie.”  Thanks to the milk, he learned both quite quickly.

After all that learning, little Georg was quite tired, so Hefina got him settled down to sleep in his crib, then went to get some well-earned sleep herself.

Lata slept for much of the day after being out all night, but when she got up and learned about all that Hefina had done with and for her kids the night before, she felt a bit guilty, and a bit sad that she’d missed out on seeing Georg take his first steps and say his first words. There wasn’t much left to teach him, but she still sat down with him and tried to teach him one of the nursery rhymes she remembered learning as a child. He wasn’t very receptive to it at first, but eventually he caught on and started singing and waving his little arms along with herm.

Leaving him to have some play time with his skill toys before putting him down for the night, she went and cuddled with Shadya on the sofa while watching the end of a kids movie with her.

Once the movie was over, she took Shadya into the kitchen and helped her with her homework so that Hefina could have some time for her own studies for a change. Lata wasn’t much of a scholar, but still she felt confident that she could handle first grade Simlish assignments.

Hefina spent the evening working on her own skills, then took a few minutes to check the new job postings just after midnight before heading off to bed. To her delight, a position had opened up in the architecture field. It was just an entry level position, but it was a start, and all that was required was an online application which she quickly filled in then waited nervously for the few minutes it took it to process. She nearly shouted for joy when the message came back that she’d been accepted and the carpool would be by to pick her up early in the morning. She hurried off to bed to get some sleep so she wouldn’t start off her first day too tired.

Besides being Hefina’s first day of work, Thursday was also Georg’s birthday, and Lata decided to throw a party for him. It was a fairly impromptu affair, with Lata simply making a few calls, first to a local bakery to have a cake delivered, then to several of the people she’d met in the area to invite them to the party. She invited several men, thinking to introduce them to her sister, but she hadn’t realized that people here were so used to spur of the moment parties that they assumed you meant for them to come over immediately when you called to invite them. So she was a bit taken aback when everyone started arriving almost before she’d even had a chance to get dressed. Among the first to arrive was Malcolm, and Lata didn’t waste much time slipping away to the bedroom with him to get…better acquainted.

For a short while as she cuddled with Malcolm in Hefina’s bed, she forgot that she had a houseful of guests who had come over for her toddler son’s birthday. Little Georg, meanwhile, was quite forgotten by  everyone there, though he was entertaining himself quite well with his little xylophone toy.

Hefina did eventually remember her guests, and got re-dressed and joined them. When she judged the time was right, she went and got Georg and brought him into the kitchen to blow out the candles on his cake while everyone gathered around. With a little help from momma, the candles went out, and Georg completed his transition to child while his mother’s new friends looked on.

The party ended up as a roof raising success, though Lata got a bit of a scare when the school called wondering why Georg hadn’t been in school that day. Lata tried to explain that he’d only just grown up around noon, but the woman on the phone said it didn’t matter – that he’s already lost a letter grade for missing a day of school, and if he missed any more they’d have to send the social worker to investigate.

Lata promised he would be in school the next day, and hung up. She hoped that Hefina would have some ideas on what to do to help the situation when she got home.

Hefina arrived home around the same time as Shadya did, and she came home with a promotion after only one day on the job.

Shadya came home with good news as well – she’d gotten her first A+ report card that day. She ran into the house to tell her mother, who cheered ecstatically for her.

Since Shadya was doing so well, after hearing about the call from the school regarding Georg, Hefina suggested that she could help him get a bit of a headstart by working through Shadya’s homework with him. He would learn the material that had been covered that day, and Shadya homework would still get done. (Author note: picture is mislabeled – that’s Hefina helping Georg with the assignment, not Lata)

While Lata really was trying to be a better mom to her kids, she still couldn’t resist the call of the clubs, so while Hefina was working on the school assignments with Georg, Lata slipped away to another club Downtown. She told herself she was just celebrating her kids’ accomplishments in her own way.

She had a few drinks, talked to a few people she met, used the karaoke machines a bit, but otherwise spent a relatively sedate evening out for her. She did manage to meet one woman who offered her a free TV if she’d just do a short survey for her, an offer that Lata eagerly accepted.

 

She didn’t stay out late that night, and was up to see the kids off to school the next morning. Georg had a good first day at school, and the work with Hefina the night before paid off as he came home with a C+ report card. Certainly not wonderful grades, but it was enough of an improvement that Lata stopped getting the automated warnings from the school about his poor grades and she was able to breathe a sigh of relief that the crisis appeared to have been averted. Besides the moderatly OK report card, Georg also brought a friend home from school with him – Khayri Tyrian who lived around the corner, and whose grandmother had been at Georg’s birthday party the day before. The two boys chatted and then played cops and robbers in the front yard before Khayri had to hurry home for dinner before his grandmother came looking for him.

Hefina’s second day at work didn’t go quite as well as the first, and a decision she made to sacrifice speed for quality of workmanship cost her at the end of the day when she ended up demoted because she didn’t finish building what should have been a fairly simple project on time.

Hefina was discouraged, but thankful she hadn’t lost her job completely, and she spent the rest of the evening studying up on skills she knew she’d need eventually for the job.

Finally the weekend had come, and by late afternoon Lata could be found holding down a barstool at yet another one of the Downtown clubs.

While she found herself highly attracted to Malcolm, she still yearned for the thrill of going on a first date with someone new, so she looked around the club for a likely candidate. Her first thoughts were…unexpected.

Seriously Lata? Sorry, but Vadim’s married, not to mention he’s old enough to be your father. Ew. Just…ew. 

(Narrator clears her throat - *ahem* – and regains a more neutral viewpoint to continue with the story)

Now then, as I was saying, while Lata appreciated how attactive some of the elderly men at the club still were, she was ultimately more interested in finding someone more her own age for a date. She noticed another blue, a guy named Kelvin McIlhenney, and went over to introduce herself and ask him on a date. Somewhat to her surprise, he accepted after only chatting with her for a few minutes.

The date progressed well enough – they were both having a nice enough time even though the earth didn’t tremble and sparks were few and far between, but still, they had a good time. At least until Malcolm showed up at the club and went ballistic on Lata when he saw her flirting with some other guy when he though they’d been developing something meaningful between them.

Kelvin simply stood by and watched as the brief fight erupted between Malcolm and Lata, though eventually he wandered away to let them sort it out themselves. Lata was quite taken aback by Malcolm’s response, and suddenly realized that she’d probably just screwed up big time by asking Kelvin on a date when she knew Malcolm would probably be hurt if he found out. After Malcolm stormed away, she stood looking after him, tears gathering in her eyes, before she pulled herself together and went to find Kelvin. It took her a little while to locate him in the busy club, but eventually she did, though by then he’d decided that he really didn’t want to risk getting beaten up by a jealous boyfriend, so he thanked Lata for a nice evening  but told her it was best if they were just friends. She agreed, hugged him briefly, then went off to find Malcolm to apologize and see if she could salvage anything of that relationship. Not unexpectedly, Malcolm was still furious with her, though he did listen to her apologies and told her he’d think about it when she asked if they could talk about it and work things out. She nodded mutely, then called a cab to take  her home, her desire to party completely gone for the time being.

Meanwhile, Hefina had been watching the kids, and helping with their homework so it would be done and they’d be able to enjoy a carefree day on Sunday. She worked with Georg first since he still needed the most help to catch up. (Author note: Hefina was afflicted with some bubble glitch after getting home from work until sometime Saturday evening. Not sure what caused it, and it went away on its own eventually.)

Shadya could manage pretty well on her own by now, but she still welcomed her aunt’s help since she was able to finish much more quickly that way.

Lata slept restlessly after she got home Saturday night, still upset at having messed things up with Malcolm. Sometime in the few hours before dawn, she gave up trying to sleep, and stared out the window. That’s when she happened Malcolm walking by and, thinking he might be coming to see her, she rushed out to greet him, heedless of the fact that she was only wearing her flimsy little nightie. She apologized several times again to him, pleading with him to forgive her and assuring him that it wouldn’t happen again. He seemed somewhat receptive this time as he tried to calm her down so she wouldn’t wake the neighborhood and make a scene this early in the morning.

He told her he still needed more time to cool off and think about things, and that right now he just wanted to go home. She nodded and headed back into the house. He watched her go, then cursed himself for going soft already after catching her so blatantly cheating on him. In a burst of frustrated anger, he kicked the trash can over before storming off down the street toward his own home.

Sunday passed fairly quietly. Lata was subdued and mostly kept to herself when she wasn’t spending time with the kids. Hefina studied various books for work and for personal interest, and the kids spent the time playing, and working a little on skills. Shadya watched a few of the DVDs they had – movies she’d seen a dozen times already, but still liked to watch – and Georg spent a fair bit of time painting at the easel his mom had gotten him for his birthday. He spent so much time at it that in the late afternoon, a woman dropped by the house and invited him to come to a special place for artists. He thanked the woman and said he’d ask his mom about it.

As Monday morning dawned, the Brandeis’s first week in Spectrum Hills came to a close. While many things had gone well for them during the week, many uncertainties remained about the future. Would Lata be able to earn Malcolm’s forgiveness and keep from cheating on him again? Would she ever find a job that would help her fulfill her dreams of becoming a professional party guest? Would Hefina make up for her mistakes at work and get promoted again, and possibly find a man of her own some day? Only time will tell…

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Author’s Notes: This was certainly an eventful house to play, both in terms of the story I had in mind for the two sisters and the kids, and because of the things they got up to on their own. Lata’s clubbing probably had more to do with me carrying on the back story I’d written for Lata as with her actual wants, though as a Pleasure sim she did sometimes want to go out, to have drinks, and to go on first dates. But mostly her secondary aspiration – Grilled Cheese – predominated in her wants. It was rare that anything besides grilled cheese got cooked or served in this house, and usually it was only when Hefina made something for herself, or occassionally for the kids as well. They all ate so much grilled cheese to satisfy Lata’s wants to serve it, eat it and talk about it, that I could almost hear the conversation between the kids at the table sometimes:

Georg: Hey sis, what’s for dinner?
Shadya: *rolling her eyes* Mom's cooking - guess.
Georg: *heavy sigh* Grilled cheese...
Shadya: Yup. I don't think she knows how to fix anything else.

Given the 3 bolt attraction with Malcolm, and given her general lack of “cheating” wants, I think Lata probably will settle down in the future, but who knows. She may find a wild streak and stop thinking about grilled cheese all the time after all. As for Hefina….well, ACR says she’s straight, but I’m sort of getting “spinster aunt” vibes from her. I think she might well end up being like a lot of Knowledge sims are and be perfectly happy keeping her nose in a book most of the time and never really do the romance thing. But who knows.

The thing with Georg’s party and near-disaster with school was my fault. I hadn’t done a birthday party in forever in game, and I thought when I’d tried them way back when that they didn’t start until 5pm by default. So I had Lata call to invite the guests early in the day just so I wouldn’t forget and leave it until too late and miss the chance to throw him a party. So I was surprised, and a little unprepared, when all the guests showed up right away. Still, I had more success with the party that I usually do, so that much worked out ok. But then the warnings about his grades started. I guess because I’d let him age up too early in the day, it got counted as though he’d missed a day of school. Luckily he wasn’t yet failing because of it, and doing Shadya’s homework that night, then going to school the next day, fixed the problem. But, lesson learned. Don’t do the toddler-to-child birthday parties too early in the day, or it will cause problems.

And that about does it for this entry, though I’ll end with noting how bad the clubs Downtown are for taking screenshots. Most of them are so dark inside it’s hard to see much in the pictures, and so I had to play with brightness/contrast considerably on some, which adversely affected the picture quality at times. So my apologies for some of the fuzziness on some of the shots. Also, I’m probably going to end up having to go in and add tiles in under the roofs so I can get a visible ceiling for the pictures taken in buildings Downtown. The sky showing over the walls is annoying me.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and as always, comments are are welcomed and appreciated. Until next time…