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Round 23: Winter 2018

last update/next update/Finn's next update

Araminta Romilly is 55, Henry is 53, Finn is 17 and Elspeth is 4. 
(Ione Romilly is 22, Evan Moretti is 29 and Jacob Weaver and Claudia and Victoria Kirby are all 17)

Narrated by Finn Romilly

Dad and I have had the university talk many times now and I'm still never happy with the outcome.


Basically, if I want to go, I'm going to need to front up a lot of the money for tuition myself. There's just no way my parents can afford it. They might be able to just barely pay for the first year's tuition and that's a pretty big maybe.

I guess I should probably give up on the idea of going but I just can't. I want to be a teacher and no school will hire me without a degree. Apart from that, Victoria's going, Claudia's going, Jacob's going. I don't want to be the only one stuck in Sullivan next year. I haven't even told Victoria that this is up in the air for me. She's so excited about going.

I'm trying not to whine too much about it. Dad has other things on his mind right now. Mum usually takes care of most of the household stuff but Dad's in charge right now, as Mum has come down with the flu.

Dad had to take a couple of vacation days so he could watch Elspeth in the mornings before she goes to pre-school in the afternoons. Elspeth isn't very good at getting herself ready and she'll sit around in her pyjamas playing video games until the second she has to leave if you let her. Seeing Dad was trying to catch up on work stuff and take care of Elspeth, she's been late for pre-school a lot since Mum got sick.

Mum is the worst patient ever. Dad will send her to bed and put the cat in there with her for company and order her not to come out.

Then he'll find her half an hour later, dressed and insisting she just had to get up to check on my ant farm or something stupid like that. She doesn't like lazing around.

I decided to make Mum this special soup. I'm not really a great cook but the soup is supposed to be great for sick people.

Dad says it's a Romilly family recipe. I don't know about that. Once Victoria was finished drinking straight from the milk carton (a habit I think will drive me insane when we start living together), she said it looked exactly the same as the one her family makes.

She said she was positive it was the same soup once she ate it. I'll let Dad continue to think it's a special Romilly thing though. Anyway, Mum ate it too and insisted right away how much better she felt. She'd say anything to get out of bed though, so we'll see.

I was pretty certain Mum was feeling better when I came home from school the next afternoon and was greeted by the sight of my dad's bare ass and my parents going at it on the couch. I think I'm scarred for life now.

I'm happy they're still in love and everything but I don't need to see such graphic evidence of it right in front of my eyes! Geez!

Victoria and I almost got caught ourselves once! My bathroom is the only one in the house with a tub and Mum had decided to take a bath.

Thank God it was while she was sick and she alerted us to her presence with that terrible cough that comes along with the flu. We had just enough time to get dressed and make the bed before she came out.

Everything's gone back to normal in our house now. Mum and Dad are both back at work and Ione has been coming over in the mornings to watch Elspeth. She works nights, so three hours watching our sister during the day works out perfectly for her.

And Elspeth loves it, of course. I hope Ione gets some better hours soon though. Elspeth and Mum are the only ones who get to see her. Dad and I are at work and school while she's over. She takes Elspeth to pre-school at 12 and then goes home to sleep before her night shift.

Victoria and I are making the most of our last year as kids. Once we turn 18, we won't be allowed into Lost Generation any more so we've been hanging out there a bit. I think we're already a bit past it now though - too many 12 year olds around.

Victoria's twin sister Claudia and our friend Jacob usually come too. Jacob's girlfriend never seems to come with us, for some reason.

Victoria and I usually end up hanging out at Lost Generation for a couple of hours and then we ditch them and head to the playground. There's never any kids around at that time.

Which means Victoria has the play equipment to herself. I keep telling her they're not going to have any of that at university next year and she says that's all the more reason to enjoy it now!

Mum and Dad received a phone call from the school, asking if they would come down, with me, to meet with the principal. So on Monday morning, we all headed down together before school. I was pretty sure I wasn't in trouble and Mum and Dad seemed pretty relaxed but I was still a bit worried. I couldn't think what else we'd be in there for. Maybe I did something wrong and forgot about it?

Finally, Principal Carmody came in, set Elspeth up with some children's books at one of the desks and sat down with us at her desk. She told me right away that I had nothing to be nervous about but I wasn't going to believe that until I knew why we were here!

It must have been driving Dad nuts too because he told Principal Carmody the suspense was killing him.

Someone - someone who wishes to remain anonymous - made a donation to the school and insisted the money be earmarked to go to a student who has qualified for college admission but cannot afford tuition. And apparently, that student was going to be me!

I couldn't believe it! I'd already gotten into Suffolk and the only thing that was stopping me was the lack of money. And then, just like that, someone is just handing me that money! I don't think I've ever been so happy!

Mum and Dad are so proud of me and Principal Carmody is thrilled. She knows I want to be a teacher and she said she hopes to be hiring me in a few years' time. I'm actually thinking of teaching primary school but maybe I'll change my mind and I will end up back here! I've got a four years to decide!

Random pics:

This is what Finn is does every time I leave him to his own devices.

LOL! Is it because he's outgoing? It's funny because he's not that outgoing (7 points) but he does this more than any other outgoing teen I can remember.

Hey, did you know Sims looked at each other through car windows? That's awesome. I've never noticed it before!

Notes:

• Title is from Photograph by Weezer.
• Araminta is Sim #9 to be hit by the Flu Epidemic ROS. What happened to Sim #8, you ask? Well, that was supposed to be Augustin Novak and I forgot to infect him! Oops. Let's just pretend his case was so mild he didn't even notice it! ;) I actually forgot to infect Araminta as well but I remembered just as I was leaving their house so I went back and did it quickly. That's why she got soup - I didn't feel like playing through 3 days of the flu.
• Maia always turns Finn down when he invites her to come out with the group. I don't think he knows her well enough. She should really be keeping an eye on that boyfriend of hers, but oh well!
• I can tell you now that it was Cordy Lane who rolled "You're feeling inspired and donate 10% of your personal net worth to charity. Maxmotives because you feel so good" in the ROS this round, so she is the anonymous benefactor. 10% of her worth is actually not very much - she and Eliot spent most of Eliot's trust fund decorating their house but she was able to donate $1000 to Finn. I think she'll stay anonymous to Finn but I'll address it from her perspective in Cordy and Eliot's update this round. Anyway, Finn is all paid up for two years now (Henry and Araminta paid the other $1000). He'll owe another $2000 once he enters his junior year but his parents should be able to scrape together another $2000 by then but if not, Finn should be able to pay it with his grant money. So he's all set!