To be young

Round 22: Autumn 2016

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Araminta Romilly is 53, Henry is 51, Finn is 15 and Elspeth is 2.
(Ione is 20, Evan Moretti is 27 and Victoria Kirby is 15)

Elspeth is 2 years old now and Araminta has baby fever again. She's 53 and deep down, she knows it's not a realistic dream but she just can't seem to shake it.


Henry doesn't agree. After Elspeth was born, he made a comment in passing that maybe they should try for another 7 kids and make it an even 10. He was only half joking but the thought quickly left his head.

Henry is still amazed that Elspeth was even conceived and is content with what they have. He's kind of glad Araminta's chances of falling pregnant again are so slim. Three kids is definitely enough!

They can just barely afford the three children they have and some weeks, they have to live on sandwiches. Paying off the last of Ione's college tuition really stung and they're still trying to put some away for Finn.

Seeing Ione's tuition bill and thinking about Finn's has inspired Henry to finally try for that promotion. Over the years as a detective, he's been passed over for promotion while younger men went on to success. He's just not fit enough and that has to change. He wishes he hadn't waited until he was in his 50s to try - physical activity is no longer as easy as it used to be!

Finn is only 15 but he's already excited about college. His homework is always done the second he gets home from school and he knows paying for tuition will be hard for his parents, so he's hoping to score some scholarships to make it a little easier for them.

So Finn's a hard worker but that doesn't stop his boss from firing him from his after school job. And all for trying to keep a client on the phone instead of hanging up! He's still not quite sure what he did wrong.

It doesn't end up mattering too much. He decides to get a job in cadets with Victoria and she even pulls some strings to get him a promotion on his first day!

Seeing she's already there, Finn suggests they hang out together. Anywhere but at home! Ever since Elspeth was born, Finn's parents are around all the time and it's much harder for he and Victoria to get any privacy.

Finn being Finn, he still hasn't really forgotten about being fired and it's the main topic of conversation over the game of darts at Lost Generation.

Or maybe he was trying to distract Victoria from how crappy a player he was.

But she doesn't love Finn for his skill at darts...

...or his dancing.

Victoria is totally and completely in love with Finn though, or in love as much as you can be at 15 anyway.
Lately, Victoria has been thinking she'd like Finn to be her first. She's a little too shy to actually say so she's hoping he'll get the message with her actions instead. Finn's a 15 year-old boy, so he doesn't really need much hinting to start thinking about sex.

And not that they would have done it right there on the couch but the interruption from Aaron Novak's dad was still very unwelcome.

But you know, he's the owner and all, so they have to be polite. But Finn and Victoria take that as their cue to leave. It's a school night and they've already been out too late.

A few days later, early in the morning, Henry is once again running through the litany of reasons why having another baby would be a bad, bad thing.

There's the fact that they probably couldn't even get pregnant again even if they tried, the fact that they are struggling financially already, the fact that they wouldn't have any place to put another baby. Henry could go on but he doesn't. They've been through this so many times and Araminta is still unmoved.

They're so wrapped up in their discussion that they don't even notice Ione has arrived. She tries to come back home at least every couple of weeks. She feels like she's missing out on lots of bonding time with her baby sister by being away at college.

On this particular visit, Ione's brought along her boyfriend Evan, who gets along great with Araminta...

...and just happens to be very best friends with Henry. They've worked together since Evan finished high school. It was a little weird for Ione at first but now, she's mostly just happy her parents like her boyfriend.

Finn spends most of his Saturday mornings holed up in his room studying but he does make an appearance downstairs to catch up with his sister.

Getting all his studying out of the way in the morning leaves Finn's nights free for Victoria. Finn especially wanted to make sure tonight was free because his parents are leaving the house, for what feels like the first time in 2 years, to go on a date night. They are literally rushing out the door just as Victoria arrives.

Finn and Victoria are both pretty excited about this development. Elspeth sleeps through the night now, so they won't even need to worry about her.

This will probably be the last time Finn tries to be romantic by slow dancing. Stomping on the girl's foot is a bit of a mood killer.

But Victoria is used to Finn's terrible dancing and after her foot stops throbbing, she thinks maybe the fact that he can't dance makes her love him even more.

And so they do the deed. There's a lot of fumbling, it's a little awkward and not really that great. But they don't regret it and they have their whole lives to get better at it anyway.

Not tonight though. Victoria's not even really supposed to be over at Finn's without his parents being home so the evening ends with a quick kiss and Finn watching Victoria rush out the front door.

Random pics:

(click to enlarge)

LOL! Finn was obviously planning on pulling out all the stops for Victoria! I didn't buy him one though, if you were wondering. If he's so keen on going to college, he might want to let his parents put away some money for his tuition rather than wasting their money on frivolities! You will also notice that Finn wants to buy a rug. This kid is nutty foo foo for rugs. If I had to pin down his most common want this round, apart from "Make Out With Victoria", it would be "Buy a Rug".

A glitch but I really liked the picture anyway. I actually love it! I bet I could recreate it with the Freezer Clock, if I needed it again. I'm not positive how it happened but I think Victoria might have started the make out animation before Finn's animations could catch up. They were only like this for a split second.

Notes:

• The title is from the Ryan Adams song. Appropriate based on the title but Finn and Victoria are neither sad nor high, so lyrically, not so appropriate!
• I have a few rules for teen woohoo in my game. Whether or not I allow my teens to woohoo depends on a couple of things. I like them to be at least 15 and to have been together for a good while (for Romance Sims and certain personality types, I'd be flexible on this but it hasn't come up thus far). I also watch their wants and thought bubbles. Teens can't roll a want for woohoo but sometimes their wants give me clues anyway. The massage table was a big clue for me as to where Finn wanted to take it. They were both rolling one make out want after another and that was another clue. They've always been very lovey-dovey but the multiple makeout wants were new. So they got my permission.
• Who knew James was such a prude? He stood there in front of Finn and Victoria waiting to "greet" him for like forever, like he wasn't going to stand for this sort of behaviour in his club! Maybe James is just bitter than he never got any in high school!
• The Romillies being poor is not just my imagination - they really are! They've got a gorgeous house but not much money at all. I think when I left them, they had $5000 and that's it. Unless Finn gets 8 scholarships and earns a free ride at Suffolk, they'll have to fork out at least $2000 of that for his tuition and taxes are due next year too - after Ione's graduation, so they'll have one less dependent. It will be interesting to see how they cope.