Summertime blues

Round 29: January 2029 (Summer)

last update/next update

Kit Royce is 69, Max Nihill is 42, Zaria Royce-Nihill is 41, Josh is 15 and Jessica is 9.
(Lila is 16, Elspeth is 15)

Narrated by Josh Royce-Nihill

Primary school is so much easier than high school. Jessica gets straight As without even trying.

I used to be able to do that too. Lately though, my grades have slipped from As to Cs. Mum is "very concerned".

I wanted to head off the nagging, so I promised I'd try to do better.

She wasn't convinced though, so she got Dad on my back as well. That was really fun.

I'm worried about my grades too; I do want to go to college one day so I can become a journalist. But I'm so sick of hearing about it every day from both my parents.

Grandma is worried too. She's trying to help me with my homework but school has changed a lot since she went. I don't know how much she's really helping.

Dad started taking me out every morning to play basketball. He said I was getting lazy and it was spreading to my brain.

I kind of rolled my eyes at that but I like basketball so I went out with him anyway. If nothing else, it was fun.

My grades aren't all the way back up yet but I'm now getting high Cs, as opposed to low Cs, so they're improving. Maybe Dad's basketball theory worked or maybe Grandma helped more than I thought she did.

Grandma has been living with us the past couple of years and I guess it's permanent.

Mum can't cook at all, so now that Grandma's around, we can get decent food even when Dad is at the restaurant.

Dad works some pretty late nights sometimes.

Mum doesn't love it but Dad loves running the restaurant, so she never says too much.

I just hope he never asks me to take over! It's way too much work. But even Dad says it's not something you should do unless you've got a passion for it. I definitely don't have that.

I think he's got designs on training up Jessica anyway. He pretends he doesn't but he takes her down there as often as he can. But she loves it.

If Dad doesn't offer to take her down himself, she begs and begs until he takes her.

She's a weird kid but she's really interested in cooking and that kind of thing.

I think she'd try to cook at home if Grandma would let her.

Grandma and Jessica go out and do other things together instead. They go out and do something at least once a week.

I'm always invited, but I never go. Jessica sucks at bowling. No challenge.

Plus, I think I'm too old to be hanging out with my grandma in public. I just can't risk someone from school seeing me. Especially not Elspeth. She'd never let me live it down.

I was optimistic when Elspeth broke up with Connor, thinking it might finally be my chance. I've liked her for so long and she's always turned me down.

Nothing has changed there though. She's still intent on being "just friends".

I don't know what's wrong with her. We hang out all the time already. Things would be better if we were dating, not worse.

Sometimes I think I kind of Lila as well. We get along okay and well, she's kind of hot too.

But she's kind of crazy as well. She'll be fine one minute and then furious the next, over the most insignificant comment.

And she brags about herself all the time. She's the best at soccer, she's way smarter than everyone else at school, blah blah blah. Who wants to hear that all the time?

Outtakes (a ton of them!):
So do your Sims lie down when hanging out? It seems like mine used to do it all the time but I haven't seen it on anyone older than teen in forever. But Asha did it three times.

I don't know if I'd set Max to a facial overlay and forgot to remove it but he was sleeping with his eyes open at one point and it was really creepy.

Some very random Ruby and Zack spam. Ruby is quite keen on Zack but Zack is not particularly fond of Ruby.

There's a picture theme at N99 right now for favourite families and Laura and Shana have both posted some extended family portraits. It inspired me to do some for my own families. I can see this getting addictive, but I haven't tried it on any of my huge families yet! That's not going to be quite as fun. ;)

Also? Kids bowling is the cutest thing ever! I've never done it before but I will have to include them more often (and also build a non-fugly bowling alley but that's off-topic).

This is animated so cutely. You could really see her struggling to pick up the bowling ball.

Bowling balls are pretty heavy for skinny little 9 year-olds, after all.

I totally love Jessica's technique!

It's not successful, but that's pure enthusiasm right there!

Aw, maybe next time, Jessica!

Notes:

• Title is from Summertime Blues by the Who.
• I'm always far too pleased with myself when I manage to fit everyone in the family into my updates, especially with teens. It's tempting to get caught up in all their drama sometimes, to the neglect of everybody else!
• I was really surprised when Josh's grades dropped! He has been getting As all this time and now Cs. I think getting some more body skill points playing basketball with Max might have helped. Josh is a Sports Sim, so I have a feeling body points might be what he needs to raise his grades.
• Josh is still rolling a ton of wants for Elspeth. The boy is obsessed! Lila is quite keen on Josh though, so I guess we have yet another love triangle in Sullivan. I'll have to watch what happens when I play the Sitko family this round. Or the high school, which is coming up sooner.