I'm bound to pack it up

Round 33: September 2038 (Spring)

last update/next update

Gordon Nott is 42, Lia is 41, Annabel and Georgina are 14, Gabriel is 11 and Peter is 1.
(Caitlin and Brendan are 15 and Simon is 13)

Narrated by Annabel Nott

I was never expecting Mum and Dad to have another baby but Peter is here now and I have to admit, he’s adorable.

You can tell how happy they both are that Peter's joined our family.

Peter really looks up to Gabriel and loves when he comes to play with him when he gets home from school.

It’s really cute to watch.

Our parents don’t force us to do the really awful baby stuff, so most of the time, we just get to have fun with Peter.

Not that it stops Georgina from taking it upon herself to do all the not-so-fun stuff as well.

Georgina often heads into Mum and Dad’s bedroom during the day just to check on him.

It’s like she goes around looking for more work to do. She never seems to have enough.

For a few months now, Georgina has been doing volunteer work at the hospital. A few afternoons a week after school, she does a three hour shift there.

She spends time with patients, does some typing and helps clean up in the cafeteria.

It doesn't sound like my kind of thing at all but Georgina says she enjoys it.

Georgina working there gave Mum the big idea that I should volunteer too, which I really don’t want to do.

I don’t want to do work at school for no money and then go somewhere else after school to do more work for no money.

But Mum insisted I needed to start learning some responsibility, so I told her I’d get a paying job instead.

I’m working for a photographer after school now. I normally just help out in the studio but I did get the opportunity to take pictures for our yearbook at school.

It was actually a lot of fun. I don’t know if I’d want to do photography as a career when I grow up but I guess I can keep it in mind.

The best part of my job is earning some extra money on top of my allowance. Although I ended up pooling most of my money with Georgina’s and using it to buy Dad a present for Father’s Day.

Gabriel wanted to contribute too but he doesn’t really have that much money, so Mum paid for most of his share, plus a little something from Peter as well.

We decided to get Dad some gardening supplies - a whole huge hamper of them, with everything he could possibly want.

He loved it and he couldn’t wait to get started with it all.

Mum and Georgina aren’t really into gardening or the great outdoors but Gabriel and I helped Dad get the garden going right after breakfast.

Normally, Dad is pretty cool so I quite like doing things with him on the weekend.

He's not always cool, unfortunately. I had Simon over the other day and he was hovering around watching us the whole time. So embarrassing.

He just had to take out the trash while we were talking on the front lawn. It wasn’t exactly subtle.

Dad didn’t really deter Simon at all. As soon as Dad went inside, Simon asked me out on a date. Again.

This time though, I decided I’d give him a chance. He’s been so persistent, so I don’t see the harm in just seeing how things go.

You never know. We might have fun together.

Simon and I haven’t even been out yet but Dad is already getting all over-protective on me.

He says he just wants to make sure I don’t get myself into any situations I can’t handle.

Mum told me Grandpa was even worse when she and Dad were dating, so I should thank my lucky stars.

I guess so, but I’m still hoping Dad just gets used to the idea and lays off a little.

I keep telling Georgina that all this is totally paving the way for her once she starts dating. Dad is sure to be a bit more relaxed about it by then.

Georgina always gets nervous and blushes whenever the idea of her dating comes up.

She has a huge crush on Brendan but hasn't told anyone. She didn’t even tell me - I just worked it out for myself.

It’s pretty obvious. And to me, it looks like Brendan feels the same way about Georgina.

You should have seen the look on his face when some random guy tried to flirt with Georgina! He got so mad, like she was already his girlfriend and this guy was honing in on his territory.

Whenever we go out as a group, Brendan and Georgina spend all their time hanging out together, leaving me and Caitlin to our own devices.

I thought maybe whatever was happening between Brendan and Georgina would be obvious to anyone, especially seeing I’ve been noticing it for a little while now.

But I guess Caitlin either didn’t see it or was in denial about it. She was absolutely fuming when she spotted Brendan flirting with Georgina and now she’s furious with the both of them.

Caitlin is saying she hates both of them right now but I really hope that’s not true. Maybe she'll cool down eventually. We've all been friends for so long and I don't know what it's going to be like for our group now.

Georgina is so upset about the whole thing. I’m trying to reassure her everything will be okay but I’m just praying that I’m right.

Spam:
Just a couple of extra Peter pics that didn't make it into the update (I ended up finding a place for more of them than I thought I would!).He's adorable, even when he's screaming his lungs out!

Notes:

• Title is from I’m Bound To Pack It Up by the White Stripes
• Georgina does get paid for her job and in truth, she’s an Emergency Medical Technician. But the structure of that career is fairly unrealistic for a teen, so I write it in differently so it makes a bit more sense.
• Simon and Annabel was all prompted by wants. When I entered the house, Annabel had the want to ask Simon out on a date and he still had the want to ask her. So I figured she'd decided to give him a shot.
• Brendan and Georgina though...that was my Sims getting themselves into ACR-prompted trouble once again. I wasn't sure either Brendan or Georgina were going to make a move, although Brendan kept giving her backrubs (though that's not an actual romantic interaction, so no dramas with that). And then Brendan tried to "squeeze" Georgina and I heard that BOING-OING-OING sound! I didn't realise Caitlin still had a red heart for Brendan. Caitlin has negative relationships with both Georgina and Brendan now. Jace and Magdalena are up next and I plan to delve into this drama a bit more then.