Selective memory

Round 22: Summer 2016
Principal Augustin Novak is 61, teacher Tatiana Lachance is 33, Sarah Carmody is 11, Ethan Novak and Matilda Jacobson are both 10, Adrienne Novak is 9, Rebecca Kirby and Tessa Novak are both 7, Malcolm Novak, Nathan Collins, Dominic Lachance and Susannah Carmody are all 6 and Julia Gray and Hope Collins are both 5.

It's the first day back at Sullivan Primary School and unfortunately, it's raining. Let's hope the rain holds out or the teachers will be cooped up inside the school at lunch time with some very insane children.

Tatiana has her son Dominic in her classroom this year. Dominic is quite a sweetheart and is often found giving his mum a quick hug. Nathan Collins is not the hugging type and thinks Dominic is a bit of a suck-up.

And maybe he is. He's the only kid who heads straight for his books as soon as he enters the classroom. It's probably safer to behave yourself if your teacher is also your mother though - she might continue punishment at home if you don't!

Most of the kids really like Tatiana. It's hard to keep most of them concentrating on their work because they're constantly rushing up to tell her about their weekends, what they're going to do in their holidays or stories about their families.

Tatiana has a couple of new kindergarteners in her class and Julia seems to have a case of first day nerves. That'll be fun for Tatiana to clean up!

None of the other kids see her throwing up, thankfully for her, and she's soon befriended by Nathan.

So it turns out that there's not really much for Julia to be nervous about anyway. Story time? Not scary.

Despite the rain, Augustin really, really wants to play soccer today, so he takes the big kids out anyway. Ethan indulges him for a little while.

Soccer in the rain is fairly unpleasant though and the other kids soon start occupying themselves in other ways and Augustin decides the PE lesson is over.

Fortunately for everyone, the weather is fine by lunchtime.

Dominic spends his lunch time telling Tessa how great it is that he doesn't have to ride that smelly school bus to school and gets to go in a car with his mother instead. He probably won't be as appreciative in 4 or 5 years, so he should enjoy it while he can.

Lately, Augustin and Tatiana have been having a minor problem with the older students' tag games spreading out past the school gates.

It sets a bad example for the younger students because if the big kids do it, the little ones will soon follow.

But the kids are mostly well-behaved and usually only need a quick reminder of the out of bounds areas and they'll come back without much fuss.

Hope Collins might have found a new best friend in Julia Gray. These two girls are inseparable!

One is rarely seen without the other somewhere nearby.

Hope's brother Nathan has found himself having to revise his initial assessment of Dominic. If Dominic is willing to laugh at Nathan's "secrets" about his grandmother, he can't be that much of a suck-up!

Once school is over, Tatiana heads home with Dominic and all the other students head off to their own homes. Everyone except for Adrienne and Malcolm, that is.

They have to wait for their grandpa to finish "working".

Notes:

• The title is from an Eels song.
• I'm still not quite sure about the heights for the older kids. I may still adjust them a little.
• I am still not sure why Julia threw up in the classroom. She was on the merry-go-round outside but she'd been chatting to other kids for a little while inside before she finally threw up.
• Augustin will eventually retire (from his real job and from the school) but not until he's at least 65. He may stay on longer but he already has the want to retire, so he's looking forward to it. Seeing Sims get a pension when they retire, I've decided they can't claim that until they're old enough. I guess Tatiana will be the new principal at that point, but I'll need another teacher too. I'm glad I have a few years to figure out who that'll be!
• I'm planning on choosing a treasurer/governor/some other title that won't conflict with the Maxis Mayor sometime before next round. The only reason I haven't done it so far is because I've been trying to think of a title, which is really lame of me. Previously, my Sims' taxes have just gone off into the ether but now they will pay for town betterment! Anyway, the governor/treasurer/whatever's job will be to collect taxes and distribute them around to areas of Sullivan that need it, including the schools. Once Augustin gets some of that money, I'm planning on refurbishing the school with it. I didn't have community lot versions of any of the reward objects when I built the school but I do now and I think I might be able to do some cool things with those.