I summon you

Round 28: Spring 2027

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Maia Novak is 25, Calvin Clarke and Aaron Novak are both 24.
(Araminta is 64, Magdalena is 63, James is 52, Madelyn is 47, Ethan is 21 and Tessa is 18)

Narrated by Aaron Novak

Maia and I have always wanted to go camping. We were planning on going once I graduated but we weren’t counting on how little money we’d have! It's finally a possibility for us now and we're both looking forward to it.

Calvin isn't as convinced about the joys of camping but we're making him come along anyway. He can learn to love it.

Maia's younger sister Tessa came along too...

...as did my brother Ethan.

I wasn’t sure about going with such a big group but I don’t think it could have worked out better. Maia and Ethan didn't know each too well before now and Calvin and I hardly knew Tessa, but we all really clicked together and had a heap of fun.

It meant nobody cared if Calvin and I wanted to sneak off by ourselves for a while, because we weren’t leaving anyone in the lurch.

Maia was able to get some much needed catch-up time with Tessa. They haven't seen each other as much since Tessa went away to college, naturally.

And Tessa and Ethan were both just happy to get a break from their classes for a week or so.

Maia and Ethan ended up getting on great. I don't know what I was expecting, because Ethan and I are a lot alike but it was good to see. I want my brother and my best friend to get along.

Three Lakes is amazing. There's so much to do and I can't wait to go back.

I didn't even care that I sucked at log rolling. I think Calvin really enjoyed the fact that I sucked though.

So Calvin enjoyed himself more than he thought he would but I don't think we've turned him into an outdoorsman yet. He was pretty content to sit back and watch most of the time.

Calvin has his limits though. He didn't say anything but I could tell he got bored watching us fish after a half hour or so.

He did enjoy eating the huge catfish Maia managed to reel in though.

Once we got home, I was talking to Calvin about how great our trip was, just to get away and relax. He agreed but then he asked if I noticed how much Maia and Ethan hung out together.

And yeah, actually, I had. Maia and Ethan did seem to spend an awful lot of time together while we were camping.

A couple of times, I worried about Tessa feeling a little left out but she seemed to be off in her own world so much of the time that I don't know if she even noticed.

I was just about to ask him what he was getting at when he mentioned that he'd noticed Maia and Ethan getting a little flirty with each other, more than once.

Calvin was a little surprised I hadn't seen anything, because I was apparently never far away but I guess he's more observant than I am.

He also saw them looking kind of cuddly on the last night, when he got up to use the bathroom. It must have been really dark but Calvin was adamant that he knew what he saw.

I decided I'd ask her about it. I was sort of annoyed that she didn't tell me herself but I tried not to let it show.

Maia was honest about it, at least. She and Ethan flirted a little and kissed a couple of times. Ethan asked her out, Maia's not sure whether she wants to. She said she didn't tell me because she thought I'd be angry at her.

I'm not angry at her. I wanted them to get along and I guess they really did! If Maia decides she doesn't want to pursue anything with Ethan though, I just want her to be up front with him about it. She promised me she would. I don't think Maia would intentionally hurt anyone but Ethan's my brother, and I just feel like I have to watch out for him.

I saw my parents a few days after we got back and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from mentioning Ethan and Maia. Mum isn't the type to nag but she is really nosy sometimes and she kept asking if I knew if Ethan was seeing anybody.

I haven't even talked to Ethan about it yet and it's not my place to say, so I had to pretend I had no idea about anything. Dad changed the subject, thank goodness.

Mum moved on to me then, wanting to know if Calvin and I are planning on getting married. I promised her she'd be the first to know when we decide on that.

If it was totally up to me, Calvin and I would be engaged already.

I've talked about it with him - not a proposal, just a discussion. As a maybe-someday-in-the-future sort of thing.

Calvin's just not interested in the idea at all. He doesn't see why a piece of paper is that important to me, if we're already committed to each other.

My parents didn't get married until they'd been together for more than ten years and I know they were still committed before then. I just think it'd be nice for us to stand up in front of everybody and make it legal.

I'm hoping Calvin might change his mind in the future but for now, I'm very focused on my job. I just have to get promoted soon. I cannot take waking up at 3am to be at work by 5 any more.

Calvin's really sweet about it. I always end up waking him up when I get up and he hardly even grumbles. He's got to be getting just as tired of this as I am though.

Maia's parents have both been on her back about finding a boyfriend lately and she was expecting more of the same when her mum came to talk to her.

Magdalena came to nag Maia about her job situation this time. Her friend Araminta is an events planner and the firm she works for is looking for new people and they're willing to train people on the job.

Normally, I think Maia would roll her eyes and shrug off her mother's advice but she was sick enough of the convenience store that she agreed to go and meet with Araminta.

Maia wasn't entirely sure that events planning was a good career for her but she thought she'd go and talk to Araminta about it anyway.

So they talked about what a typical day was like, the kinds of things Maia would need to do and anything else Maia wanted to ask about. She decided it was something she might like, so she applied and she got the job! She started out as Araminta's assistant but she's now doing kids' birthday parties independently.

She really loves it. I've never seen Maia excited about a job before but I knew she'd find something eventually! There's a job out there for everyone.

She was so over the crappy wages they were paying her at the convenience store and now she's getting paid twice as much! I'm so proud of her.

Notes:

• Title is from I Summon You by Spoon.
• Ethan rolled several romantic wants for Maia while I was playing him at uni this round, so I invited him on the trip to see what would happen (Tessa got to go just 'cos). I was really surprised when I checked their chemistry. Their attraction score is 148, which is higher than Josie and Troy, the previous title holders for highest natural chemistry. I'm not sure what will happen with Maia and Ethan. Ethan's rolling lots of romantic wants for her but she's only rolling platonic ones for him. They haven't been on a date or anything though, and sometimes my non-Romance Sims need a date before they look at another Sim in that light.
• Aaron has a marriage want right now. Calvin has a fear of same, probably due to his Romance secondary. I don't think of Calvin as being scared of it, exactly, though, so I haven't written it in that way. It's not out of the realm of possibility that he'll roll the want one day though, so who knows? I don't need his permission to make them get married anyway. ;) I only need one Sim to roll the want, though I often wait a while to see if the other will roll it.
• I used Apple Valley's system to decide on events planning for Maia. I've adapted her system, to add in the custom careers and I've outlined the changes here. It must have been meant to be too, because when I sent Maia to the computer to find a job, events planning was the first one to pop up!