Bring it on down

Round 37: August 2046 (Winter)

Nihill 1 household profile

Steve Nihill is 51, Olivia is 49, Jacinta is 16 and Theo is 11. 

(Ramona and Jon are 19, Grace is 16, Thomas is 15 and Andrew is 10)

Narrated by Jacinta Nihill

At the beginning of the year, Mum got me a job at her work. Ramona worked there too, when she was in high school. 

I don’t really get to do anything fun, like designing clothes or anything, but answering phones and running errands for people isn’t a terrible way to spend the afternoon. 

It’s pretty easy, I can earn some money and it will look good to Suffolk if I have some work experience. 

Grace and I can both apply to uni this year. We just have to on the results of the SAS. 

Grace is really nervous about it. She gets good grades, she’s super-smart, she has everything Suffolk would be looking for…so I don’t know why she’s so freaked out about it. 

I think I should do okay. I mean, I’m not going to literally break records with my score like Ramona did but I’m fine with that. As long as I get in, I’ll be happy. 

Dad is a little bit worried than I haven’t narrowed down what I want to do once I get there yet. Maybe something creative but I’m also considering law or journalism (like both Dad and Ramona) or maybe architecture. 

I just haven’t decided yet but I figure I still have plenty of time. I have a whole year of high school left after this one. 

Ramona comes back home once a month or so to stay for the weekend. 

I’ve really missed having her at home with us. She keeps saying she can’t wait until I’m on campus with her, so I guess she misses me too. 

Sometimes, Ramona brings Jonathan along with her. 

She and Jonathan dated in high school, broke up because they didn’t think they’d be going to uni together, then it turned out that they *did* and they ended up getting back together. 

He’s a nice guy but I still don’t feel like I know him all that well. He’s very shy!

I think I would struggle with someone like that, because I’m the exact opposite of shy. 

My boyfriend, Thomas, isn’t quite as outgoing as me but that would be almost impossible anyway.

We’ve been arguing a little bit lately, because Thomas is really intent on knowing what’s going to happen with us when I go to uni and he still has a year of high school left.

He wants a “plan”, whereas I’d rather just enjoy whatever time we have together and whatever happens, happens. 

I’m not going to pre-emptively break up with him or promise that I’ll wait for him because I just don’t know how I’ll feel once I get there.

It’s over a year away and I can’t predict the future.

I think I’ve calmed him down about it a little now but I can tell it’s still bugging him inside. 

I really do like him and don’t want to spend our time in an unhappy way, so I hope he gets to be okay about this, eventually. 

Theo loves Thomas! If we want to hang out alone when he comes over, we have to hide from Theo. 

Sometimes Theo is too busy annoying Mum or Dad to bother us, which works out for me. 

His current thing is a drum kit. He turned 11 this month and begged and begged for a drum kit for his birthday. 

My parents put a stop to that and said he could wait until next year, when he was in high school. 

I think they’re hoping he’ll forget about it by then and honestly, so am I. Can you imagine the noise of a beginner drummer while I’m trying to study for my last year of school?

Theo was bummed but he was content with what he got instead, which was an RC helicopter. 

It obviously wasn’t what he really wanted but he’s been having fun playing with it with Andrew.

Well, Theo’s playing with it, anyway. He doesn’t let Andrew use the remote, because he knows Andrew will immediately direct it to crash into a tree or something. 

Andrew’s first instinct is always to cause chaos, however, he can. 

I really hate it when he comes over.

I probably have enough on my plate already but I decided to pick up a new hobby anyway. We started learning toy-making at school and I quickly became obsessed with it!

I sold some of the toys I made at school online, which earned me enough to get a workbench to make them at home and I play around with it any chance I get. 

I don’t know if I’d want to ever make a career out of it or anything but I’m having fun with it. It’s a nice way to procrastinate when I’m supposed to be writing an essay, at least!

Notes:

• Title is from Bring It On Down by Oasis.
• I hadn't intended on having Jacinta work with Olivia like I did with Ramona but Fashion Design happened to come up on the computer! So why not?
• Jacinta's toy-making and Theo's future drumming is part of the new sub-hobbies system (created by Pleasant Sims, but I will likely edit it a little for my own liking) I'm trying out. I've always used hobbies as a part of my sims' personalities but I think this will let me use them a bit better, with specific things sims are interested in within a hobby. 
• Jacinta doesn't really roll any wants for Thomas but he does roll them for her. So I think there's a bit of an imbalance going on there, much as they get along. I don't see them lasting once she goes to college but hey, who knows?
• Jacinta's SAS score was 54, which is one point shy of half-tuition! She is secondary Knowledge but I see her as someone who cares about her education but doesn't necessarily put in maximum effort at all times, so a 54 fits for her. :)