Friday 6 April 2012

Dangerous type

Round 33: October 2037 (Spring)
last update/next update/Justin and Xavier's next update

Evan Moretti is 48, Ione is 41, Justin and Xavier are 16, Aurora and Bianca are 11 and Francesca is 3.
(Finn is 36 and Louisa is 17)
Narrated by Justin Moretti

The topic of college came up over dinner the other night and apparently, Aurora can’t wait for me and Xavier to get out of the house.

Not because she doesn’t like us, she was quick to assure us. But she just really, really wants to take over our bedroom and make it her own.

Bianca is just as keen for us to get out of the house. I guess the prospect of your own room is exciting when you’ve never had one before. Xavier and I used to have our own rooms but since Francesca came along, we’ve been sharing.

Don’t get me wrong; Francesca is pretty cool for a 3-year-old. But losing my bedroom did kind of suck.

It hasn’t been so bad but I’m already hoping I don’t have to deal with a roommate when I get to college. I’m itching to have my own space again. Sharing with Xavier is almost like sharing with Mum sometimes.

But I’m just so excited that I’m actually seriously going that maybe I won’t even mind where I have to live. I’ve been working really hard and it’s paid off.

Xavier’s also been working hard though and he still hasn’t heard back from Suffolk. He wants so badly to be a lawyer but I don’t even know if he’ll get into college.

He knows his chances are in doubt. He’s always struggled with anything academic way more than I have.

I’m trying to keep him thinking positive. This is just the first round of admissions. If he can pull his grades up by next year, Xavier might still be in with a shot. He's pretty upbeat about it but I still feel guilty than I’m in and he’s not (at least, not yet).

I also feel bad that it’s going to cost Mum and Dad so much money. They try to keep any financial talk away from us kids but it’s pretty obvious that we’re not exactly millionaires.

I mean, five kids is a lot! It’s got to cost quite a bit just to keep food on the table.

And then there's Mum's plans to open a toy store. It's been her goal for the past five years or so. She can make pretty much any toy you can think of but she’s got nowhere to sell them.

She’s had her dream store picked out for a while. It’s called Lullabies and it’s just a few blocks from our house.

It’s not actually for sale but Mum always says the second she has that kind of money to spend, she’ll make an offer to the owner.

Dad is a bit vague about how far away Mum is from being able to buy but he said the shop would cost over $60,000, easily.

He told me I don’t need to worry about that though and that he and Mum can handle the family finances without my help.

Uncle Finn is always telling Mum and Dad how they should play the stock market. He makes a good bit of extra cash for his family doing that.

You do need to know what you’re doing though and Mum really wouldn’t have a clue.

Uncle Finn said he’d advise her when she needed it but she said she’d be calling him every five minutes.

The stock market is for people with far more confidence and a far less nervous disposition than Mum, not to mention Dad.

Poor Dad would have a heart attack every time the stock went down a fraction of a point.

We’re not going to strike it rich on the stockmarket, so even though Dad says I don’t need to, I’m saving up some money of my own.

I'm still working at the lab on campus. My job is to set up and check equipment for the classes the next day.

When our school went to Open Day at the uni last month, I thought Louisa would love the lab. She loves science and kept talking about how she wanted to visit but when she got there, she seemed a little underwhelmed.

She’d been talking about all these new career possibilities, like botany, microbiology and geology but nothing there seriously sparked her interest.

She was expecting to like it more. She reads biology textbooks for fun and sees the Weather Channel as entertainment, so she thought it would be right up her alley. She was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t.

It makes sense to me. Maybe the thought of making something she does for fun into work just didn’t appeal.

I get that. I could play for hours a day but I don’t think it would be as enjoyable any more if I knew my paycheck depended on it.

Louisa thinks that might exactly it. She’s thinking of going back to her original plan, which was to study psychology and go into social work.

She already works part-time at the social services office downtown and she likes it there. She thinks she’d be good at it in a more official role.

I think she would be good at it too. Louisa is really compassionate and she’s just the kind of person they’d want there.

Louisa is a year ahead of me at school, so she’s only a few months away from graduation. The time when she actually starts university is incredibly close.

I’m excited for her but dreading it at the same time. We’re not going to be able to see each other nearly as often. She’s just across the street right now, not in a whole other town.

I've already driven there lots of times for work though and it's not so bad. Dad has promised I can take one of the cars on weekends to go see Louisa. It won’t be the same but hopefully, it will be enough until I finally get to Suffolk the year after.

Notes:
  • Title is from Dangerous Type by Letters to Cleo (a cover of a Cars song).
  • Poor Francesca got the shaft in this update but she'll be in the next update, which will be on Nick and Sarah. She's the same age as Catherine, so I'll probably have them go to pre-school orientation together. Sullivan exists in a place where pre-school orientation takes place whenever I feel like it, rather than at a time where it would actually make sense. ;) But given the Sullivan school year starts in February, November is a pretty sensible time for orientation.
  • Justin is quite the brain - he got seven scholarships! I was so hoping he'd get an 8th, so he'd be eligible for the free ride but he wasn't even close to getting that last scholarship. But six scholarships already cuts tuition in half, so that's already a huge help for his parents.
  • It didn't happen until seconds before I left this household but Xavier just scraped in to uni! He finally got an A+, so he'll be eligible for the Scholar's Grant, or whatever it's called. I'm also going to have both boys go for the Governor's grant, which was one of Zaria's election promises. I still haven't figured out exactly how that will work, except to say it will cover 100% of undergraduate tuition and will only be available to students whose parents couldn't afford university otherwise.
  • I started doing the career criteria thing with Louisa and Counseling Psychology came up as 5/5 for her. That jogged my memory and I remembered that pre-computer crash, I'd decided on Social Work for her. Duh. I even wrote about it in the Royce-Nihill update earlier this round. If only I could remember what I chose for her brother!
  • I really want to get Ione set up with that shop! She and Evan sold a couple of restorable cars this round but they're still only about a third of the way there. Although I think I could knock about $7000 off the cost of the place by removing the gargoyles on the roof, which a) are kind of creepy for a toy store and b) will be out of sight most of the time anyway.

16 comments:

  1. This poor family, they have struggled with money and keeping jobs since the beginning. It's unfortunate that it hasn't turned around with a lotto (ros) win or something to give them a boost, and get Ione the toy shop she desires. And um, yah, remove those creepy gargoyle's that is an odd choice for a roof piece. I bet that would drop it some too.

    I'm glad both boys are going to college! How crummy if only one did! And I'm curious how you'll do your scholarship. I think Louisa is as cute as a button, and I think the Social Work would work great for her, I hope her and Justin stay together while she is in college a year sooner.

    Finn is such an adorable little nerd! How sweet to offer advice to his sister, too bad he wouldn't just come over and do it for her once a week until she got her toy shop. Maybe swap babysitting for his effort. Not that they really need it now with Declan and Caitlyn so old!

    Can't wait to see Francesca and Catherine in the next update, I bet they are adorable as ever! Also looking forward to Aurora and Bianca aging up to teen, they are such cutie pies now.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It's true, Evan and Ione have had so many struggles. Without Ione wanting to buy the shop, they'd probably be okay right now but seeing they're saving for that, they need to be much more careful with their money than they might be otherwise.

      For the Governor's grant, I'm thinking A+ grades, financial need and maybe a high interest in school would be the criteria. The school interest would be something I'd only use as a tie-breaker. I'll have to sit down and figure out who might be a candidate. I think my kids going off this year are all coming from fairly well-off families but next year, not so much.

      Finn probably would do it for Ione all on his own but it'd still need to be her money. And even with her super-smart little brother on the case, she and Evan would be wrecks. They're not cut out for Wall Street, lol!

      I'm so close to birthdays, I can taste it! Aurora and Bianca are aging up but also Sylvia and Alice. And I'm sending five kids off to college as well, so it's a big birthdays post this time. :)

      Thanks for reading!

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  2. I loved the picture of all the kids in the living room! That really brought things into perspective as far as how many kids they have, LOL!

    Poor Xavier. It isn't easy struggling to get into college and its only made worse by your sibling getting in as if it's nothing!

    Louisa would be great at social work! Let's just hope she also has the stomach for it. It's not an easy job by any measure of the imagination. I am glad she didn't pigeon-hole herself into going for science.

    Keep dreaming those big dreams, Ione! After putting that many kids through college the universe has to repay you somehow ;)

    ReplyDelete
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    1. This is the largest family I've had in Sullivan and it definitely was not intended. But you know, BC failure, so what are you going to do, lol? I'm lucky these kids are all really nice, because otherwise, it might be a lot more crazy to play this house.

      There's always been such a contrast between Xavier and Justin, even when they were kids and Justin didn't have that Knowledge aspiration boosting him up. I don't know what it is but it's one of those story things born purely out of game play.

      My sister is a social worker and it really is emotionally draining. It's hard not to take it all home with you and it takes a special kind of person to cope. I think Louisa will be great at it though.

      I know, right? Raising five kids, Ione deserves something to have all for herself. :)

      Thanks for reading!

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  3. So glad they're both going, not having your twin there would suck :(

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I know. :( Despite the fact that Justin is itching for his own space, he really would miss Xavier if he went off to campus without him. And vice versa too, I'm sure.

      Thanks for reading!

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  4. I'm happy both the twins get to go to uni! I hope Justin and Louisa will still be able to see each other because they are such an adorable couple.
    Can't wait to see Francesca in the next update- she is so cute! I adore the picture with all the kids together in one room. It just shows the chaos Evan and Ione have to deal with having 5 kids! I hope they will be able to get that toy shop eventually.
    I have to ask where did you get the beds in the boys bedroom? They're great!
    I can't wait to see how the boys will cope wit uni life

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They've only got a year to wait, so hopefully, Justin and Louisa will be okay. The car and the fact that Justin goes to the uni quite a lot anyway will help, hopefully.

      You know, the house isn't quite as chaotic as I was expecting it to be when Ione got pregnant, I have to say. I think it helps that there's just the one toddler - multiple toddlers would definitely make for a crazier household!

      Justin and Xavier's beds are part of the Uni bedroom set at Around the Sims 2. They are donation but personally, if you're going to donate anywhere, ATS2 is the only place I'd dole out money to. Once you've donated once, you have access to all the donation stuff forever. Unless your computer crashes and you lose the file where you'd written your username and password, of course! Which is the situation I'm in, unfortunately.

      Thanks for reading!

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  5. It's too bad that Ione and Evan can't afford that toy shop, but at least they're making some headway on that front. Justin is so sweet, trying to make money to help his parents out. It's good that Xavier got into college, but here's hoping he can maintain his grades.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. This whole family is insanely sweet, because of Evan and Ione's good examples, lol. I keep crossing my fingers for a lottery ROS for this family but it hasn't come up so far!

      Yeah, that's going to be interesting with Xavier. Getting in is one thing but actually doing well while you're there is another. A lot of my Sims who scrape in end up getting some extremely poor to mediocre grades. But I hope Xavier is an exception.

      Thanks for reading!

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  6. I'm so glad Xavier made it in at the end. We've had issues at my rl university where one twin got in and the other didn't. They try to help the other out as much as they can, though, which is nice. But hopefully it won't be too overwhelming for him.

    I hope this family will catch a break soon, money-wise. I could see Ione really thriving with that toy store. I hope they can get it next round but sending 2 boys to college will really take a hit. Hopefully one of them will get that scholarship.

    Louisa is really sweet and I think she'd make a very good social worker. I hope you can figure out what her brother should get into!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Oh, I bet that kind of thing happens all the time in RL! But yeah, I'm glad Justin and Xavier will be going together. These big life changes are much less daunting when you have a twin by your side, I bet.

      I have my fingers crossed for a lottery ROS for this family. Or just something! A lucky chance card would be good too. I have most of their money in their bank account, in the hopes of building up some interest and getting that toy shop a little faster.

      Eddie rolled a want for a specific major when I was playing him at Lauren's house last night, so hopefully that will help me narrow down something for him. Louisa is set, I think - social work would be perfect for her.

      Thanks for reading!

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  7. I'm so relieved that Xavier got in too! It would have been such a huge disappointment for him if he didn't. I'm looking forward to seeing these two in college.

    The toy shop looks nice. Hopefully Ione will be able to afford it some day.

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    1. Xavier has his heart set on law school, so he's more motivated than most to actually get into uni. I hope he doesn't struggle too much with his grades once he's actually there. ::\

      Fingers crossed. I'll be redoing the toy shop quite a bit if Ione ever manages to buy it. I was in love with it when I first decorated it but it was a quickie job and it shows to me now!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  8. You know what's my problem when I read a lot of your updates in a row? Each time I see the characters of a story, I think "Ohhh, yes, they're my favorite"! But of course, it gets a bit silly after having thought that 15 times... This said... They're really some of my favorites!!! I'm sooooo rooting for Ione and her toy shop!!! She soooo deserves it!
    And the kids... I'm happy for Xavier, I love this little guy!
    Justin and Louisa are so cute! *swoon*
    (Ooooooooh, my, I've just checked the profile's pages of the girls!!!! *jawdrop* What incredible teenagers they'll be!!!)

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I have that same problem with Sims, my own and other people's! I should just stop trying to pick favourites, really. ;)

      I really hope I can get Ione's toy shop set up for her next round. I think I'll be able to do it for her eventually; it's just a matter of when.

      I was so happy Xavier got into uni. Now I'll just hope he finds a nice girl, so he can be all sweet and in love like Justin and Louisa.

      The Moretti twins turned out very pretty, didn't they? I can't wait to play them as teens. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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