Sparrows over Birmingham

Round 24: Winter 2019

last update/next update/Patience's next update/Calvin and Troy's next update

Lake Draper is 62, Kendal is 43, Patience is 17, Christopher is 4 and Calvin and Troy Clarke are both 16.
(Aaron is 16 and Matilda is 13)

Narrated by Calvin Clarke

Once Grandpa died, I had a feeling Grandma wouldn't be too far behind him. I always knew her death would hit Troy and me pretty hard and even Christopher - she wasn't his grandmother, but she was the closest he had to one. I wasn't expecting Patience to be so upset though. I didn't realise Grandma meant that much to her too.


Nobody felt much like cleaning for a while, which was driving Mum insane, so she hired a butler. We all thought she was insane but it's turned out to be pretty awesome.

You make a mess, he picks it up right away and it's gone. And he makes dinner every night. Mum is a pretty great cook but since she started working again, she hasn't had the time.

Mum also needed someone to watch Chris in the mornings before he goes to pre-school.

Chris is a bit of a handful sometimes though, so I wonder how the butler is coping with him. He hasn't quit yet, so I guess that's a good sign.

After Grandma's funeral, we all tried to keep busy. Chris decided he wanted to open a lemonade stand - I think he saw it on TV or something. Patience showed him how to make it and then he was set.

Now we can't go outside unless we've got money handy because Chris never goes off duty. For a 4 year-old, he's a pretty tough salesman.

After she was done teaching Chris the finer points of lemonade production, Patience's next project was redecorating Grandma's room and claiming it for herself. It was sad to see all of Grandma's stuff being sold off but the room wasn't going to be used for anything and it meant that Chris got Patience's old room, instead of being crammed in with Troy and me.

The good news for our family is that Patience, Troy and I all got into Suffolk. Patience starts in 2020, and Troy and I start the year after that. Mum and Lake are both really proud of us.

I overheard them talking about our post-college lives and there is apparently a hell of a lot of money held in trust for each of us. Mum has never spoken about money with us, so that was a total shock to me. But I guess we're all set after we graduate?

Troy has gained himself a little admirer recently.

Her name is Matilda and she's only 13. Troy feels sorry for her, so he talks to her but he won't let her go any further, though she tries.

I think he's just flattered by the attention, personally. He laps it all up.

Matilda is pretty persistent. She's not even deterred when she sees Troy with other girls.

But then, she makes swoony faces at me every time she walks by too. Maybe she's just not picky! I'm with Aaron anyway but she seems more into Troy anyway - she's never actually tried to talk to me much or anything.

Aaron had a crush on me for a long time - since we were about 12 or 13, probably. But he was so shy and he never made a move and I was dating around anyway. Then one day, we were talking in his front yard and then all of a sudden, we were kissing. Never thought Aaron would do that, but we've been together for around 9 months now.

Whenever we're together though, Aaron is always on the lookout for his parents, in case they see us together. He's not "out" to them yet.

We started having sex a few months ago and honestly, now that we're serious, I think it's time Aaron comes clean. We did it at his house even, while his parents were just downstairs. However they react, it's going to be a lot better if he just tells them, instead of letting them walk in on us or something.

It won't even be as bad as Aaron thinks it's going to be. When I told Mum, she was totally cool with it. She even said she kind of already wondered, from when I was pretty young. It's not even an issue in our house.

It's all so much more relaxed when Aaron and I are at my place, compared to hiding out in his bedroom when we're at his. Aaron's like part of the family now.

Mum seriously loves Aaron! They get along so well and I sometimes have to drag him away so I can spend time with him. It would be great if I had the opportunity to have that with Aaron's parents. Aaron keeps saying he'll tell them and I just hope that time comes soon, preferably well before we head off to college.

Notes:

• Title is from Sparrows Over Birmingham by Josh Rouse. That link is only a short audio clip but it was the best I could find. Anyway...it's my favourite song right now.
• The sobbing over Georgette's death was comparable to the sobbing when Samson died. And oh, that was a lot of sobbing. It was unbelievable.
• This house is going to be half the size next round - Patience, Troy and Calvin will all be at college. Troy and Patience got 4 scholarships each and Calvin got 6. Total tuition for all 3 kids is $10,000 which is a drop in the ocean for Lake and Kendal. I'm thinking of upping my college tuition but I don't want to make it out of reach for my poorer families either. I'll have to think about it. After he graduates, I think I'll move Calvin (and Aaron, so he'd better come out to his parents before then!) back home - Calvin has always been a bit of a mama's boy, so it fits.
• Oh, Matilda...why she is so keen on Troy is beyond me. Troy is Family, she's Pleasure and they have negative chemistry. Yet she autonomously got her first kiss from him at school (she initiated) and rolls up wants for him all the time. She's much too young for him anyway right now, though three years won't seem like such a big gap when she's 18 and he's 21. We'll have to see what happens.
• I have never had a couple who grin at each other as much as Aaron and Calvin do. It's pretty adorable but if I ever want them not to be smiling, I'm going to have to resort to overlays because they're hardly ever even neutral. It's a relationship of convenience (for me - not them!) but I actually really love them together now.
• I'm using this fantastic hack that Riverdale pointed me towards. It's two years old and I can't believe I'd never heard of it before! It lets your teen Sims roll adult wants, like woohoo. I don't know if they'll roll the want to get engaged or married - I haven't been using it very long. The woohoo wants do work though, which is what I wanted it for and the hack takes a bit of guess work out of it for me. I'll still be using my own discretion though - 15 is still the magic age and I'll still be taking personalities and other details into account too. Just because they roll the want, it doesn't mean they'll get to do it!
• Aaron and Calvin rolled the simultaneous want to woohoo, have their very first woohoo and woohoo in a car. They're 16 and have been together 9 months and were clearly quite keen, so I let them. I didn't take that picture of them on Aaron's bed until after I'd already finished the other pics and done a rough outline of the entry. Their first time was actually in Kendal's car, outside Greasers Cafe. It was truly a beautiful moment. ;)