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Generation 2

Chapter 26: Of course I do

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Seeing her big brother in the cheering crowd made Gaby so happy, she rushes through the crowd to give him a hug as thanks, and a smack as revenge for not visiting soon enough. Lukas receives both with open arms.

“Araceli changed your mind, didn’t she?” Gaby asks as soon as her excitement calms down.

“Actually, it was Kenton’s idea. He offered to babysit his sister again, can you believe that?”

When she saw the teens hanging out behind them, she tries to keep a straight face. “Sure, I can believe that.”

Apparently the reason Kenton willingly went along in the first place was to meet up with Rhian Rivera, a cute freshman who just recently moved into town. He took it upon himself to welcome her today.

Araceli’s supposedly there to stand guard against Lily Maraqueza, who gets her heart broken to see her crush flirting with another girl. Her scary scowl is misunderstood as animosity towards the couple, though.

Rhian appreciates her classmate’s enthusiasm to stay on guard, but hopes that she doesn’t actually, you know, end up fighting someone.

Rocco is spared from all this teenage drama as he spends the majority of his free time hanging out with Brooks and the twins.

They usually hang out together in this tree house, which Gaby had requested her sister to make right after last chapter’s incident. She’d rather not have any kids crawling under fences again.

It’s only Layla at the tower today.

There’s no one for her to compete for it, since Rocco doesn’t like the spot anyway, and her twin is still at some scouting ceremony.

On the other hand, Brooks endures a fishing trip with Aunt Vinca.

With his cousin’s house just across the street, it’s so tempting to just throw the fishing pole away and make a run for it…

When he sees his aunt casually grabbing a jellyfish with her bare hands, Brooks decides against it.

Back at the house, the kids talk about the Mercado’s old home, Constant Springs. The family moved because both of her parents were relocated to Sunset Valley’s military base. They can’t afford to leave their kids behind, but Layla would have preferred that.

“It sounds like a really cool place,” Rocco says after hearing about all the trees, the mountains, the old mines, the dam, and the ruins, over and over again. The twins used to explore by themselves, unsupervised. He wonders if his mom would ever allow that.

“Everything’s cool for you, you know,” Layla rolls her eyes, but her smile shows that she appreciates the comment.

“Sunset Valley’s cool too,” Rocco smiles back as he looks around the place fondly. “We have the beach, the festival grounds, the bistro, more playgrounds, and the haunted mansion!”

Layla leans excitedly at the last part. “We should definitely go there!”

“Definitely not, we’ll get lost easily.” Rocco thinks about his options carefully. “Unless Aunt Ramona comes with us?”

“This town’s not even half the size of Constant Springs,” she grumbles.

Speaking of Ramona, she finally finishes immortalizing her nephew’s cuteness into this painting.

She gets along with the kids so well, it’s no wonder she gets dubbed as the “cool aunt.”

Ramona’s so cool that she lets the kids stay in their swimwear after an intense balloon fight just to tell them a ghost story.

One got spooked from a ringing phone, while the other pretends she’s not.

As Layla’s visit becomes more frequent, her stay also becomes longer. Rocco is excited to have another sleepover again.

Behind them, Gaby prepares breakfast for everyone. She’s also excited at meeting her son’s friends who are not his cousins. Nearly half of the people in this town are related to her somewhat, so the fresh batch of faces is greatly appreciated.

After breakfast, Gaby finally meets the new friend that her son keeps talking about. Layla is surprisingly reserved today, given that she’s normally energetic even with strangers.

It just hits her that an actual celebrity is really Rocco’s mom, and that he really wasn’t joking about getting autographs for the twins. Their family must be stinking rich.

Though not as “cool” as her twin sister, Gaby can be pretty chill (sometimes).

She’d probably won’t relax if she knew that her son was going through freak-outs. Poor kid has these episodes whenever he’s alone, and the unpredictability puts him on edge.

It’s probably one of the few things Rocco doesn’t want to tell anyone, because he thinks no one would believe him.

Everyone knows that he worries about others a lot, and he worries so easily, but it now reaches a point when people start worrying about him.

Ramona becomes concerned about her nephew’s increasingly neurotic behavior behavior, and was lucky enough to find him in the middle of his episodes.

“You can always tell us if something’s bothering you,” his aunt lets him know gently.

He looks up at his aunt nervously, as if he was caught off-guard. “Wouldn’t I be bothering you if I do that?”

She surprises the kid with a big hug. “Oh Rocco, you’re never a bother.”

“Do you really think so, Auntie?” he asks in a whisper.

“Of course I do.”

Brooks finally gets the chance to visit the house again. This time he brings his younger brother Neal to play together.

Rocco gets to know his cousin, who was initially looking forward to playing video games on their impressive set-up, only to remember that his brother is Brooks.

Brooks, who still hates technology, is already making his disgust known.

Rocco’s worrying is put into good use as he already prepared his toy chest to the living room for everyone to play with. The toys are greatly appreciated.

Rocco and Neal are both pretty bad singers, but everyone cheered for them.

The family had pumpkin pie for dinner that night, and Brooks and Neal were welcome to have seconds if they wanted to. Neal happily grabbed the last piece even while he’s still eating another.

If given the chance, Miranda will absolutely spoil each and every single one of her grandchildren with bedtime stories and midnight snacks.

For now, she settles with spoiling only three out of nine grandkids, and tucks Neal into Rocco’s bed with a bedtime story. (Rocco offers to let Neal sleep in his bed, and joined Brooks in the sleeping bag instead)

(Actually Neal stole Rocco’s bed, but Rocco’s too nice to shoo him away from it)

Generation 2

Chapter 25: On and on and on

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Graduation Day pictures reminds Ramona of her potential in what she could have pursued.

As the other genius of the family, Ramona has always focused her intellectual capabilities on more…unpredictable projects. Though the chemistry set that Gaby has loved as a child was left unused for many years, it may still prove to be useful.

Tonight, she is going to test that potential.

With the samples she gathered from the science facility, she plans to create her own mutant batch of plants for her own garden, simply out of boredom. What better way to continue her current lazy lifestyle while also satisfying her urge to delve into a little bit of chaos?

Good thing she listened to Gaby’s nagging to wear protective goggles today!

Gaby and Miranda expect no less from Ramona, and the three laugh it off together while Ramona puts out the small fire, but her nephew expresses great concern.

“Will you be okay, Auntie?” Rocco frets over her burns. He just can’t understand why they’re laughing about it. Even his mom, who usually nags her twin!

“Of course I’ll be okay, kid,” Ramona soothes, then proceeds to the balcony to cool herself down. She didn’t bother to wash herself until much later.

After being satisfied with a few more attempts and some extra explosions, Ramona goes on to the next part of her project: creating an appropriate space to dump her gardening equipment on. Getting some help from her big brother with the construction also gave the siblings an excuse to hang out properly together.

Gaby is just relieved that her twin stopped using her old chemistry equipment just as quickly as she started using it.

While her twin is out there trying to tamper with the laws of nature, Gaby deals with the uncomfortable situation of trying to reject someone as gently as she could.

She recently started to date again when the opportunity arises, but something about her indifference makes her worry that she might not be as emotionally ready as she once thought.

She wonders if her reluctance to start dating again may be because of her fear of how it would affect her son, who pretty much took the news about his father’s death relatively well.

Gaby will not let this affect her, and resolves to give dating another chance next time.

The mother and son duo finally end up visiting the new park, and as predicted, Rocco absolutely loves it.

“Araceli sent me pictures of this place, but it looks even better in person!” Rocco looks around in awe. This is definitely his new favorite spot in town.

He wishes he could visit again together with Araceli and Brooks, the latter who still doesn’t know about the park yet since he strongly refuses to own a phone (much to Araceli and his parents’ frustration).

Rocco sometimes catch his mother looking at him with a wistful smile, and sometimes he asks her about it. She just shakes her head and encourages him to go on.

Life goes on.

With Ramona out visiting Brentley to show her project’s progress and Miranda having dinner with old friends, Gaby and Rocco are left with the daunting task of repairing the sink by themselves. Rocco helpfully offers to run downstairs to grab his Aunt’s toolbox in the garden.

He worries if he could find the toolbox on time before the sink explodes and flood the entire kitchen, only to find two strangers standing between him and the toolbox????

His sudden appearance startle the kids, and himself. It took Rocco a while to realize that they are his new classmates who just recently moved to town.

This realization makes him sheepish, though it didn’t make him any less suspicious of them. “If you guys are here for my mom’s autograph, you could have just asked me at school earlier.”

The girl frowns at him, making him remember that her name was Layla. “What? No, we’re not here for an autograph.”

“I told you this was a stupid idea,” Samuel, her twin brother, whispers in protest. Layla continues, “We’re gonna see the rock star’s ghost.”

Rocco frowns back at her. “My gran-aunt’s not a ghost. She’s just dead.”

“There’s no way she’s not a ghost,” she scoffs, ignoring the fact that Rocco is related to a rock star. She have seen her grandparents as ghosts, so she knows what to look out for. “Me and Sam wanna see it for ourselves if it’s real.”

Behind her, Sam shakes his head furiously in disagreement.

Rocco is pretty sure that there are no ghosts haunting this house, especially not Gran-Aunt Eva, but he’s not comfortable about leaving them alone until they finally leave. So he sticks around, completely forgetting about the toolbox.

Layla is just as guarded as Rocco, but not as nervous. She’s not afraid of the other kids, or ghosts. Sam, on the other hand, would really want to leave before seeing one.

After a while, waiting becomes boring. Suddenly, Rocco remembers the helmets and goggles Araceli and Brooks left behind under the sofa, and begins weighing his options about letting these intruders use it. He decides to take a chance.

He offers it to Sam first, who appears to be easily intimidated (rather than being intimidating like his twin sister).

It turns out to be a good decision. Layla becomes friendlier when she sees that Rocco’s offer was not a threat, and the three kids start to create an elaborate make-believe of hunting down monsters from a helicopter. No ghosts appeared that night.

They stop when they hear Gaby calling out Rocco’s name, and they all look at each other. Layla takes off her helmet slowly, as if disappointed about stopping.

“We live just next door you know,” Sam admits to Rocco, as if trying to make up for trespassing. “Layla really hates our new house and would rather explore the neighborhood than stay there…”

“We’ll visit again,” Layla suddenly says without hesitation, but this time it sounds like she’s asking for permission. Kinda. The twins return Rocco’s stuff and walk over to the fence that separates the two houses. Layla pushes a loose plank aside and lets Sam crawl through first.

“Use the front door next time!” Rocco calls after them. Layla smiles and waves before crawling after her brother and pulling the plank back in place.

Last night’s events left Rocco very excited for school the next morning, he biked past the school bus altogether and got there an hour earlier.

By the end of the day, Rocco finds himself with two new friends. Which is just as well, now that Araceli has aged up to a teen just a few days later.

Now taller and older, Araceli starts to get along better with her older brother these days by pranking him in retaliation instead of arguing with him as usual.

Kenton is not pleased at all to see all of his favorite jackets hidden inside his bed sheets. It took him hours to find it.

Their father is simply pleased of his daughter’s growing teenage rebelliousness and relishes in his son’s frustration, which normally would not be tolerated at all if Lacey isn’t working overtime at the police station tonight.

Miranda starts to question her son’s ability to maintain discipline, and wonders if she should intervene.

While Lukas’ two older kids squabble in the background, Gaby gets to know one of his younger kids who recently had their birthdays. This one’s Jan.

Jan’s hairstyle reminds her auntie that she had the same hairstyle when she was a toddler herself. And they both look so cute in it!

Jan’s twin brother, Clay, prefers to cling to Auntie Ramona while she watches TV. It’s not clear from this angle, but he takes after his father A LOT.

With four kids running around the unit, Lukas and Lacey are definitely the busiest out of all of Miranda’s kids.

Rocco isn’t able to meet his youngest cousins with his family that night, since he’s sleeping over at Aunt Chelsea’s place to work on an assignment together with Brooks.

He would have preferred if Araceli was here to help them keep awake, but right now the boys are forced to fend for themselves. Brooks is already on the brink of giving up on his paper and on staying awake. Poor Rocco doesn’t know what to do first.

Homework becomes less of a chore when he works on it together with the Mercado twins. Contrary to what he assumed, Layla is less spartan compared to Araceli when it comes to working quietly. She mostly just shoots them an annoyed look.

Living just right next door, the twins visit the house more frequently, and just as promised, through the front door this time.

Though they consider each other as friends now, Rocco and Layla don’t always get along.

Layla’s indifference towards rules doesn’t always go well with Rocco’s obsession over following said rules. How can she have (almost) nothing hold her back? The thought of it is beyond him, and it’s frustrating sometimes.

Likewise, Layla sometimes gets annoyed at his rigid nature and his reluctance to make quick decisions. And yet despite these differences, the two become close friends.

Miranda gets to know her grandson’s new friends, especially Layla, whom she finds friendly and likable. She goes along with the child’s explanation as to why fish and chips is her favorite in the world.

Layla has always wanted to be an astronaut, like her grandmother. With Rocco’s handy costume chest, she reenacts the stories she loved from her childhood as best as she can.

Rocco breaks her immersion by pretending to be dinosaur in space.

In the end, Layla gives up on trying to reenact her story when her twin reveals himself dressed as a prince. She figures she’ll just create a new one to accommodate a lost astronaut, a green dinosaur, and a cowardly prince.

Rocco stares at the glitter coming out from the staff. “I don’t remember having that in my costume chest.”

“Oh he brought his own costume,” Layla shrugs. “He used to wear that ALL the time at our old school. The teacher got tired of telling him to stop so she just straight up told everyone that he’s gonna be the male lead in our play.”

“I bet he was great in it.” Rocco gives an applause to Sam, who continues shaking glitter all over the place.

(Author’s note: More kids! Rocco needs new friends, now that his main group is starting to outgrow him. )

Generation 2

Chapter 24: Fooling around

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Rocco is out to visit Araceli at her house to play soccer together, only to find her older brother Kenton watching TV.

Kenton, who has inherited his parents’ genius, is determined to make sure that his younger cousins are performing well in school (since they’re related, and he doesn’t want to be associated with any relative who fails), so he offers to help Rocco with his homework.

Surprisingly, the cousins get along well enough that he even offers to look after the kids so that they could watch one of Gaby’s live shows. (Mostly because Kenton just wants Araceli to stop nagging him about it)

His sister’s opinion of him drastically improves though, so it’s a win-win for both siblings.

Here’s Gaby preparing for one of her live shows.

Her audience is always so small, but they are enthusiastic and supportive, and that’s enough for her to do her best for every performance.

With the way how things turned out so differently from what she expected, Gaby feels like she’s in a pretty good place in her career, being dubbed as the “local favorite”.

Sure, it may not be as grand as her Aunt Eva’s or her mom’s careers, but it’s nice to see that she’s leaving some positive impact on the people around here.

Tonight, Kenton is on another babysitting duty, and leaves the kids alone to do whatever they want while he starts eating the dinner he made for everyone.

Here they are. Fooling around, as kids do.

Their older cousin, Brentley, gets to fool around with eating snowcones whenever he pleases, a pleasure that they can’t obtain (yet).

Talking about science only after eating snowcones. He’s an adult with real priorities.

One of his priorities was to recruit Ramona to the facility and secure her genius talent into the workspace, but her aunt never budges from her refusal, so he gives up.

Ramona agrees to take a tour of the facility though, and so off they go on a bright Saturday morning.

“Our class had a field trip here,” Ramona lets him know, since they were in different classes during high school. “I got in trouble for sneaking inside the greenhouse, but I was able to shift the blame on Shameka Humphries instead.”

Her nephew laughs. “Too bad she didn’t get locked in back then.” He’s not too fond of his first ex-girlfriend, who cheated on him with one of the older employees of the facility. “Now that I’m actually working here, I can give you unlimited access to the greenhouse!”

“That’s awfully generous of you, Brent.”

“I’m just kidding. Ma will kill me if she finds out I’m exposing top-secret experiments.”

“Ooorrr we could shift the blame on Shameka again,” she says thoughtfully.

They waste no time in harvesting some of the genetically-engineered plants that the facility has been working on. Some of the more “dangerous” plants are hidden deep in the greenhouse, and even Brentley doesn’t have enough authority to access those himself.

“Dad’s probably the one providing most of these unknown seeds,” Ramona muses as she gathers some seeds she couldn’t identify. She dumps them all in her pocket.

“What? You mean grandpa? I didn’t know he used to work here.”

Ramona smiles, remembering the times her father ranted about ‘those good-for-nothing-fools-in-labcoats. “He doesn’t.”

All that heavy work in carrying crates of produce got Ramona thinking that she should be buff by now, but is greatly disappointed that she isn’t. She plans to change that.

The old exercise DVDs that have been passed down from mother to daughter to sister for many, many chapters years ago still work, making Miranda realize how old she really is.

Another filler picture of Miranda having karaoke night with Rocco, because she hasn’t showed up much in recent chapters lately. She continues to live quietly, despite the recent attention around her memoir.

Most of these days, she pretty much does whatever she pleases, alternating between playing her guitar, writing a new book, visiting her older children and their families, and goofing around with her grandson and youngest children.

Rocco always tags along with grandma whenever she visits the rest of the family. He’s very fond of his cousins, and doesn’t mind it when Rissa suddenly dumps her youngest brother into his arms before rushing inside the house. She trusts Rocco’s ability to handle toddlers; the kid looks responsible enough.

At least little Neal looks happy to see him too.

As the new president of the art club, Rissa takes her new role very seriously by cramming on a piece she has to show off to her members tonight.

She will not be distracted by visiting cousins or by crying toddlers.

Rocco lets Brooks know what it’s like to see Gaby’s performances. In his eyes, his mother looks like she has always belonged on the stage, and she seems different somehow.

“Mom has the best voice ever, I bet she’s no. 1 singer in the world!” Rocco declares strongly; he has always admired Gaby, and isn’t embarrassed to hide it.

His cousin doesn’t care much for celebrities, but he agrees that his aunt sings really well. Brooks nods absently in response as he focuses on which piece to move first.

While the boys play chess, they exchange curious stares at the other visitor, Irma Vasquez, who Rissa let inside for some reason?

Apparently she’s here to receive the pieces that she commissioned from Rissa, who is pleased that she didn’t have to go to Irma’s house to deliver them. Maybe she isn’t too bad?

A new park was opened right next to the coffee shop just last night. It features a lot of playground equipment, space for kids to run around, a fantastic view of the ocean, and comfy seating for parents to rest on. Gaby knows that Rocco will love it here, and is already making plans about visiting this place with the whole family.

She runs into her sister-in-law Lacey, who’s also making the same plans for her own family. Araceli’s energy is too much to contain even in their big house, which sometimes leads to sibling squabbles, but the new park provides them a new place to ship their kid off to, and a new place to separate the two from each other.

“I’m glad Araceli’s close with her cousins,” Lacey confides. “Lukas and I were worried that she’s too energetic for the other kids.”

“Araceli’s the sweetest though,” Gaby reassures her. “She actually keeps the boys in check whenever things turn too rowdy. It’s cute to see her being the leader in their little group.”

The two women hug after Lacey lets her know about all the new stupid things Lukas has gotten himself into. Gaby appreciates the gossip.

Rocco’s room is cozy enough for one sim, if one doesn’t mind all the green.

It’s a bit cramped for three sims, but these three have been inseparable for a while now. The kids don’t mind having to walk over each other to get to the bathroom, whether intentional or on purpose.

Sometimes only Brooks visits the house, since Rocco is a better playmate compared to a busy older sister or a babbling baby brother.

Rocco’s ghost stories are his 2nd favorites. His no. 1 favorite is actually his sister’s, but that’s a secret.

Sometimes only Araceli visits the house so they could play video games. She doesn’t really understand Brook’s phobia, but knows well enough not to insist him into joining.

But whenever all three of Rocco’s cousins are around, there’s never a dull moment in the house. Sometimes Rocco wishes they can just stay here forever, instead of having to go back to their respective houses and beg their parents for another sleepover.

Araceli briefly holds sympathy for her studious big brother, and wishes her cousins could shut up for a moment.

Araceli glares at them while the boys wave their cardboard sticks. “You all look ridiculous.”

She’s annoyed that she couldn’t find her costume in Rocco’s treasure chest, but she knows that these two idiots are hiding it somewhere. Rocco, on his good conscience, insists that they didn’t do anything, unaware that Brooks is the true culprit.

(Author’s note: Just a chapter featuring ALL the cousins of the Ramos family. I’m really fond of all of them, and I don’t think I can let them go once Rocco finally takes over :(((

I’ve spent a lot of time planning for which cousin should I allow to spawn, since it’d be a shame that their lines would remain empty, though that would require some micromanaging on my part. But I’ll make it work out! I’m pretty far ahead in the actual game, and I hope I could catch up writing the next chapters soon)

Generation 2

Chapter 23: Keep it weird

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Rocco’s favorite color is actually green, and so the ridiculously blue nursery gets renovated into a decently green bedroom.

(This is actually a screenshot from the future, where Rocco has already went to a school trip and the summer festival, hence, the bento souvenir on the bedside table, but shhh)

The other side of the room features new toys from aunts and an uncle, and a bookshelf that contains all of Rocco’s bedtime stories.

Bedtime stories become a routine after Gaby started doing it on his birthday. Rocco values routines and sticking to it, just as much as his mother values the time they spend together.

Today, they’re reading The Name of This Book is Secret, a book that they only bought just because it sounds so tempting to know its actual title. (They’re almost nearing the last pages and they STILL don’t know what the secret is)

To Gaby, it felt like it was only yesterday that he was born, brought into the house as a sleepy infant. Rocco is growing up so fast, she wonders how long will it be before his graduation surprises her.

Now here he is, making his own food on his toy oven right next to her.

This, too, becomes a part of his daily routine. Rocco doesn’t even bake these for him to actually eat (he’ll just leave it in the fridge for everyone in the house), he just wants to make sure he gets to bake something at least once everyday.

Miranda indulges her grandson in letting him do these baking sprees every morning if he allows her to pinch those cute cheeks. She’s so proud that he always cleans up the mess afterwards.

He doesn’t think it’s a fair trade though.

It’s been a while since Gaby visited this park after her first live show. After going through several live shows and experiencing several mishaps every now and then, the memory of her first time doesn’t seem so embarrassing anymore.

Today, she’s on a mission to give Nicole an “indiscreet” romantic invitation from a fellow proprietor across town.

“You don’t have to audition again, you know,” Nicole laughs while taking the bouquet. “You can just ask me! Una the Great Ballad is free to perform here again anytime.”

Gaby is amused with the idea of playing cupid to the two proprietors, whose way of courting is sweet, albeit silly. Ronald Sikes of Mick’s Karaoke Bar is more amused to see that his lover has responded positively to his gifts.

It’s one thing to play cupid between lovesick teens, but these two are basically her tickets to more job opportunities, so she takes these sing-o-grams with more enthusiasm than she could possibly express.

All this romance happening around Gaby makes her wonder what could have happened if Jayson is still here. Marriage would have been probably the most reasonable thing to do, but she does not regret not taking the chance, nor does she think it would change anything.

At the back of her mind though, she wonders if Rocco is yearning for a father figure.

Rocco finishes his baking sprees earlier today and offers to help his aunt with the gardening, but Ramona insists that he plays instead.

There are a lot of bugs and questionable content in the fertilizer she uses, and she’d rather not deal with Gaby discovering mysterious bites or rashes on her son.

And knowing her nephew’s anxious nature, it’s probably the best to not expose him to the notion of it in the first place.

She’s also aware of Rocco’s increasingly neurotic nature, and gently tries to appease the child’s concerns to let him know it’s okay to play or watch TV instead of doing the dishes for every meal.

Rocco chokes in response, and proceeds to stare at his aunt as if her hair turned into something normal-looking, like black or blonde.

The compulsion to make sure that every plate and utensil is washed clean by his own hands remains strong as ever. Miranda and Gaby aren’t really bothered by it, and sees it as the child having initiative.

“He can wash as many dishes as he wants,” Gaby says when her twin pulls her aside to talk about it. “It’s okay to have a little bit of weirdness every now and then. Remember how you were also weird?”

“I haven’t exactly outgrown the weirdness,” Ramona reminds her, a bit hurt. She also remembers the time when people was treating her differently. It still stings. “Maybe he won’t too, but maybe it’ll be different for him as well.”

Luckily for Rocco and Ramona, family is a special type of friend. The weird compulsions and oftentimes unpredictable behavior are tolerated at best, and Gaby is startled to hear her twin bring out the issue. No one has ever really talked about it, and a guilty pang is felt as she imagines how alone and hurt Ramona must have been since these years.

“We’ll figure it out better this time,” she responds softly, as if apologizing.

Rocco’s aware that his mother grew up with a lot of siblings, but though he is an only child himself, the presence of his many cousins helped make the house feel a bit less empty. Out of his six cousins, he forms a close bond with Araceli Su and Brooks Keaton.

Brooks lets them know that his older sister cleans and scrubs the old gravestones at the cemetery to get paid, and he thinks that THEY should do that too. “Think of the stuff we could buy with that extra allowance!” he insists.

Araceli think it’s a horrible idea, and would rather stick with what her mother already gave her. Rocco just recoils at the thought of touching icky and grimy old gravestones.

Pillow fighting to get rid of that post-homework stress.

Rocco discovers that he’s not the only one with strange issues when Brooks lets him know his discomfort about seeing the TV on.

“We can play outside instead if it makes you feel better,” Rocco offers kindly, which his cousin really appreciates. He’s used to not being taken seriously that this surprises him.

Meanwhile, Araceli sneaks inside the art studio to find her artistic aunt on the verge of dropping to sleep.

(Levar Vasquez, head chef of the bistro and fellow fishersim at the beach, commissioned her to make 15 paintings after learning about her noteworthy skill, and poor Ramona hasn’t rested properly in a while)

Ramona gets her rest back soon enough, when she finishes all 15 paintings just in time for Levar’s retirement party. She was even invited to witness the grand reveal to the public, and receives Levar’s hearty thanks over and over. He is pleased to see the bistro decorated with lovely paintings of fishes just before he leaves the establishment.

It’s strange to have her skills acknowledged by the people like this, and even making new friends along the way, but it’s not an unwelcome feeling.

Gaby wants to become more active so that she can run better and faster in heels, and so she joins her mother at the gym for a quick run together.

Gaby’s 2nd time on the treadmill is a fail.

“I’m okay,” she grunts as she ignores her mother’s giggling. Luckily for her, they’re the only ones using the gym this morning.

Across the gym, her twin is having a better time playing soccer with Rocco.

Araceli, Rocco, and Brooks spend their recess running over to the park to play soccer together, barely getting back to their classes right on time before the school bell rings.

He’s definitely getting better at it — and smug about it too.

Eva’s next random visit to the family turns out to be her last.

The sisters were supposed to go out to the karaoke bar together while Gaby, Ramona, and Rocco were at Lukas’ house.

She recalls the memory of Stanley dying in this very room, and sobs even harder. Eva seems to be so immortal, so full of life, Miranda almost forgot that her sister is much older than her or Stanley. It doesn’t make the loss any less painful though.

The loss plunges the family back into grieving again.

All these recent events confused and overwhelmed Rocco, and he’s not sure how he feels about the whole thing. He isn’t close with his rock star of a grand-aunt, who spent the remainder of her life traveling by herself again, but the loss still disturbs him, and he wants to push the discomfort away as far as he can.

By the time Gaby gets home, she finds her son on her bed, as if waiting for answers.

Instead of facing questions about mortality and the afterlife, Rocco surprises her with a different query in mind.

“Gerald was telling me that celebrities are always fighting with their partners and their marriage never last,” he starts. Then a pause. “Is that why I don’t have a dad? Because you didn’t get along and he has to leave?”

Gaby frowns, mostly at herself for not explaining his father’s death any sooner, and at the teen who’s giving her son weird ideas. “No, it’s not like that, hun. Your dad isn’t here because he died from a fire accident,” she says softly. “He was a dedicated acrobat, but a little clumsy at times,” Gaby smiles sadly at the thought.

Rocco’s eyes widened in surprise with this information. Then he looks at her more seriously. “Why didn’t you talk about him before? Why doesn’t anybody talk about it?”

“I think his loss still affects me,” his mother admits. “Dying from accidents feels…different from dying naturally. It would have been better if he’s here to see you grow up,” she adds wistfully. “Do you want to see pictures of him? I can tell you more stories about Jayson.”

Rocco nods in response. He can’t wait to let Gerald know how wrong he was about him being left behind by his own father.

Her sister’s passing made Miranda more aware of her own mortality, and she dedicates this newfound energy to write an autobiography about two of the most important people in her life. She doesn’t want to forget them, ever.

The draft is entitled Stanley’s Garden. It’s a simple story, but she takes her time in writing it.

In an effort to lighten the mood, Rocco surprises his mom and aunt by being the one dragging them to the park this time. To his delight, his efforts are appreciated.

As a reward for his thoughtful initiative, Aunt Ramona offers to buy them food. Rocco is having a hard time choosing between the funnel cake and the chili cheese fries.

Their stay in the park becomes longer because of an all-out water balloon war.

Betrayed by her own son and sister! Too bad Miranda isn’t here to avenge her.

Ramona pilfers from these apple trees while mother and son bond together on the skating rink.

All seems to be forgiven over Rocco’s ‘betrayal’, since we see the pair trying to pull off a spin together. Rocco is impressed to know that his mother actually knows how to roller skate, and completely puts his trust on her skills as she leads!

Gaby’s “sorry” is muffled by the floor this time.

(From a distance, Ramona’s laughter can be heard nonstop.)

(Author’s note: Just a lot of things happening! So many pictures! So many text! I want to flesh out my sims’ narratives more but I’m not sure if this is a good way of doing it? Please let me know!)

Generation 2

Chapter 21: Gravitate towards the weird

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Miranda may be getting older, but her aging body isn’t an indicator of her waning strength, and she proves that by accepting her old friend and former co-worker Michael Su’s request to help him with his training.

Apparently, he wants to challenge Lukas, his son-in-law to his dear daughter Lacey, to a little race all over town.

Miranda decides she won’t stand in the way of whatever little feud that’s going on between her son and Michael. She secretly expects her son to win this thing though.

“You call that running?” Miranda scoffs at him. “There’s no way you can win with that awful footwork!”

Michael finds himself in a position where he can’t really complain, so he simply grits his teeth and lets himself be taunted by the older woman.

After training, Miranda goes home and switches to a more soothing and silly voice while reading to Rocco. He never really sits still whenever he gets very excited, and seems to have an endless amount of energy that can easily tire the adults out (even Ramona).

Curiously, Gaby discovers the one thing that can actually make her kid sit very still: cooking.

She’d love to see if this happens more than once, or if it happens whenever someone’s cooking, but work has taken the entirety of her day lately, as she gains more reputation and popularity among the townsfolk.

Work has also taken her to weird places as well.

She really, really hopes she hasn’t gotten herself pranked right now. The caller’s request was to hunt down this woman named Irma Vasquez. Apparently she made herself a lot of enemies, because she got a lot of calls requesting sing-o-grams specifically for her, as if out of spite.

She’s aware of Irma being the second of Brentley’s failed relationships, and though she’s sorry for the heartbreak her nephew had to deal with, she’s glad that he doesn’t have to deal with her anymore.

Unfortunately, she actually finds the woman here in the cemetery, harassing an older man who just wants to visit his dead wife’s grave in peace.

Gaby tries her best to get over the awkwardness of this situation and hopes that the old man is able to escape. She hopes that Irma doesn’t turn her aggression on her instead.

Irma knows she’s special, thank you very much, and receives the performance with indifference.

Oddly enough, having to perform a sing-o-gram at the cemetery in the night wasn’t the one thing that weirded her out the most.

At first, she doesn’t think about it when this guy named Jovan Maraqueza called her out for a sing-o-gram at 11pm in a secluded area where a lone streetlight stands, but when he starts to grin creepily at the box and mutter something incoherent, Gaby quickly takes her leave.

Another caller lives on the outskirts of the beach, and she has really considered calling this one off before this turns into the start of a horror movie.

But her brave trait kicks in today, and so she runs towards the sandy shores in highly inappropriate footwear.

Thankfully, all the aforementioned sing-o-grams didn’t end in a disaster, so Gaby gets home safely just in time to put all the toys back into the toy chest.

Everyone’s already asleep by the time she usually gets home, so she tries her best to move around as quietly as she could.

Not everyone in the household stays asleep for long.

Ramona gets restless sometimes, and has created a habit out of going out to the sea to greet out the moon long before the sun rises to take its place. Now she continues fishing just to do preoccupy herself.

She catches a minnow, and squirms at the sight of its struggle. She doesn’t really understand how she manages to convince herself to start fishing in the first place.

I probably don’t even miss our pet goldfish that much, she muses. I’m just trying to fill up space with something that might feel familiar. She throws the fish back into the water and watches it swim away.

It took a while before Ramona realizes that she isn’t alone this morning.

Levar Morris-Vasquez casually reels in a large salmon before dumping it on a large container beside him, which is already teeming with freshly-caught fish of various kinds. A dedicated chef at the local bistro, Levar takes his craft very seriously, and sees to it that he provides the high-quality ingredients himself.

He briefly glances at Ramona to see her reeling in another minnow and nods at her before reeling in another fish, this time bigger than the last one. She nods back.

Ramona knows she’ll never match up to that enthusiasm.

All that running and singing makes Gaby crave for an actual break — she keeps putting off about making one — so today she finally takes the day off and visit her favorite brother’s house for a change.

She’s surprised to find out that the lanky teen who invited her in was none other than Kenton, who was last seen in previous chapters playfully spitting saliva at her face as a toddler.

“You’ve grown a lot since then!” Gaby marvels at the family resemblance, ignoring the fact that it has been too long since their last visit. “Soon you’ll be taller than your father in no time.”

Kenton shrugs. “I think that’s a title my sister would want to own.”

Before Gaby could even gasp at the fact that Lukas has not just one, but two children, the door opens with a loud creak behind them, and a little girl strolls inside.

“That’s Araceli, who works out at the gym more than she works on her own homework,” Kenton introduces his sister to Gaby in mock disappointment before Araceli could glare in response.

“You must be very sporty! My older sister works out a lot as a kid too,” Gaby smiles at the girl, whose demeanor suddenly became a bit sheepish.

“I play for the soccer team,” Araceli admits sheepishly, recognizing the woman as her Aunt Gaby from the many photo albums their dad has. Then, rather abruptly, she faces her brother and points at the two people outside. “Your friend is waiting. Aren’t you going to let her in?”

Kenton stares at her as if she’s out of her mind. “Um, no? If Miralia thinks she can leech off my homework this time, then she’s being delusional.” The real reason behind not wanting to invite them in is due to the fact that he doesn’t want to acknowledge that the toddler Miralia is carrying is actually an aunt from their mother’s side, but he doesn’t want her to know that.

The discussion ends with Kenton’s decision being final, so Araceli marches upstairs sulkily to prove her point that this isn’t making everyone happy. Gaby awkwardly follows the kids upstairs to look for either of their parents. She wonders about the teen and the toddler outside the house, but decides not to ask.

“Look, I’m doing you a favor by not inviting drama into this house,” Kenton sighs. His mother’s side of the family is really messy at best, and he’d rather not deal with it right now. “Why not try talking to our actual aunt here?”

Araceli changes her mind about working on her homework while upset, so she tentatively approaches the local singer.

“Are you on TV a lot? Because I really wanna know.” Her older cousin Rissa has been boasting about the famous personalities in their family, but she wants real evidence to show to her friends before they’d believe her.

Gaby raises her eyebrows at the question. “I don’t have any TV coverage, but I’ve been doing live shows all over town, and tonight I’m doing another one at the coffee shop!”

That perks Araceli right up. Seeing it live is soundproof evidence. “Can I attend? Can I invite my friends? Can you tell Dad that I’m going with you?”

(Gaby says yes to all these questions)

Unfortunately, Araceli’s father doesn’t give her permission to go out late on a school night, even if her aunt is there, and so she continues to sulk at home.

Gaby hopes to make it up for it by being better at persuading Lukas next time.

Compared to her first live show, everything else that’s happening right now is a huge improvement: the weather, the audience, the equipment, even the songs that she chose for today. It feels like things are all in the right place.

Today’s audience consists of her whole family (Miranda and Rocco not included in this picture) who actually dressed up nicely for this occasion, this old guy with the radical pigtails…

….VJ Alvi who sports another cool hairstyle, and an ecstatic former high school classmate Sun Mi Yoo, who became Sun Mi Yoo-Street after marrying her girlfriend.

Gaby’s chipper personality quickly rubs off on everyone, and she ends the performance with an enthusiastic crowd.

All that jumping and dancing tires Ramona a bit, so she leaves her mother and sister to tend to their fans while she goes inside to hang out with Rocco, but not before bumping into another high school classmate, Karina Street.

“Gaby’s so cool, you know? I didn’t really think she’d become a singer after graduation,” Karina sighs dreamily before she launches into reminiscing their high school days.

It’s just a small high school crush, she tells herself first when she glances at the ring on Karina’s finger. There’s nothing she can do about it now. “Congrats on getting married,” she says sincerely. Karina beams at her before running off to the arms of Sun Mi, her wife.

When the crowd finally starts to dissipate and the spontaneous autograph session ends, Miranda takes her daughter aside to a secluded spot.

“I’m so proud of you,” she says softly. “Your father would have been proud too.”

Gaby takes her mother’s words to heart as she works the next day.

Another day, another sing-o-gram to deliver. Today’s customer is someone who works at the city hall, and has the audacity to want to receive it right in front of her boss’ office.

Before she goes inside the building, Gaby spots Chelsea and Lukas among the rallying crowd. Something about routing errors, but she decides not to get herself involved with it.

Ella Adams, leader of the protest, briefly lets go of her tough persona to express her utter surprise at receiving a gift from her brother, who has always supported her rallying efforts (even if most of them haven’t brought on any actual changes).

Karina is pleased to see her old classmate again, this time in the comfort of her new garden. The young couple has recently bought this lovely home from its moving owners.

“Oh, thank you Gaby,” she gazes lovingly at the flowers. “Sun Mi really knows my favorites.”

Sure, sing-o-grams are fun (most of the time), but today Gaby aims to take it slowly by recording most of her songs into a flimsy plastic album, and making sure that it sells.

She bumps into her older sister at one of the community pools, and prepares her best pitch.

Chelsea takes it anyway, even without the silly pitch Gaby has prepared.

(Author’s note: I’m trying to get the extended family slightly more involved in the story, since I know what I was getting into the moment I got 5 children as the roll requirement for the 1st generation. It’s fun keeping track of all these kids, but I wish that none of them would have to make more babies. Keeping track of 7 more sims’ descendants is too much for me!

Next chapter, it’ll probably feature Rocco’s birthday, which will be the first proper birthday that I’ve prepared for since….Chelsea and Vinca’s birthday? That long? Yes, it was that long. Honestly, the thought of having to invite all the relatives to the house is a bit daunting, but that would be more fun!)

Generation 1

Chapter 14: Good folks

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Even as the snow has gotten past his ankles, Lukas braves the cold in his underwear just to grab the mail as soon as he wakes up. He’s expecting an intricate and well-written love letter from Lacey, and he needs to get it quickly before his sisters find it first.

Back inside, Stanley mumbles a complaint as he feels the lack of weight beside him.

Miranda simply shushes him to sleep before checking her ringing phone.

Her older sister just called in at 6 am to tell the wonderful news of her getting married to her boyfriend at the age of 95!

Miranda’s so proud of her. She wishes she could have at least called later in the morning, but whatever! Once Eva gets going, their conversation is gonna last until Stanley wakes up.

Ramona tags along with her nephew Brentley to the Ramos-Velasco house to work on a project together.

Tammi isn’t really sure how to interact with this in-law, unlike with Gaby, whose enthusiasm sticks on easily. So when she sees her wife’s signal that she can take over instead, she gladly excuses herself from Ramona’s stare.

Apparently she just wants to give them an update on Miranda, who is starting to show her age.

Behind them, Tammi just hopes that her son is better at handling Ramona’s unpredictability.

Despite the initial weirdness between the two, the sisters express their shared concern over their elderly parents’ slowing pace. The long winter may have been harsh on them; and Stanley’s probably taking it the hardest, who is really fond of his garden.

Vinca smiles reassuringly at her youngest sister. “Just look after them for me okay? Especially Dad.”

After that quick sweet moment between the sisters, Ramona lets Brentley in on the latest gossip on the older kids in school, especially from Lukas’ class.

Then work on their project outside in the snow because they can.

Miranda’s promotion earns her the privilege to ride in a pink limo, and her husband’s eagerness to ride in one.

They’re here to visit Chelsea and Jebidiah, whose child recently aged up to a toddler. Both grandparents are really excited to add a new photo of their grandchildren in their collection, though it’s mostly Stanley handling the growing collection.

Chelsea’s here to greet her parents to her new house as enthusiastically as she could.

Mother and daughter settle in to watch some TV while Stanley grabs Rissa from the nursery.

The young couple got themselves a good house down on the same street where Vinca and Tammi have theirs. Miranda is delighted to see her two older children living close together.

Both grandpa and grandchild are really enjoying this visit as well.

Stanley couldn’t spoil Brentley like this: his parents are always travelling somewhere and bringing him along, and the Ramos-Velasco only really settled down once Brentley started attending high school.

While Brentley is now halfway through high school, Lukas is graduating from it soon. The family prepared a family get-together for his birthday today, and Miranda opens the door to see her older sister gaping at her.

“I can’t believe it; my little sister, wearing gray hair!”

Miranda rolls her eyes at this. “It’s good to see you too, Eva.”

Chelsea sneaks past her mom and aunt to bring in some fancy-looking dish!

Later she admits that it was her mother-in-law, Justine Keaton, who made it.

Tammi spares an amused glance at her older in-laws as they still continue to talk outside in the cold.

But eventually everyone starts piling into the living room, because it’s finally time for the main event!

Jebidiah finds himself being pulled aside by his mother as she gestures to the door. “I have to leave early son, we don’t know how long your father can handle Rissa’s energy.” Her husband Marty has been left with the important task of looking after his energetic grandchild while her parents are out.

“Are you sure mom?” He glances back at his wife who’s clapping enthusiastically. “You should tell them first –“

“Nah, it’s okay,” Justine smiles at him. “You got some good folks there. Let them look after you.”

He turns back to cheer again just as the crowd turns livelier. Beside him, his sister-in-law is silently hoping that her wife can catch up to the party soon.

There’s her wife! Letting all the snow in, just like what her own mother did to this room several chapters ago.

Birthday candles were blown, and everyone sees Lukas Ramos grow up into a beautiful chiseled man.

The cake rush was bad and everyone else had to eat somewhere else in the room, and these three were lucky enough that they have a second cake in the fridge

Miranda finds herself talking about the future of this household with her two youngest children, who have been making plans for a while now. It’s good to know that there is at least two of her kids are planning to stay and look after the house. She’s not sure if she and Stanley can maintain their property at this age.

On the other side of the room, Lukas sings a lovely duet with Vinca. They would have loved to sing with Chelsea too, but she has to leave early with her husband to let her in-laws rest from looking after Rissa.

Stanley is just about to grab the TV remote to watch a movie with Ramona when THIS happens.

The ringing from her phone remains ignored, and Ramona gasps as she slowly acknowledges that her father is suddenly transparent in front of her. Then she starts to sob loudly.

Miranda, who just finished brushing her teeth, rushes to the room to see what the commotion is all about.

When the last of Stanley’s ghostly silhouette fades from the room, Miranda finds herself shaking, and Tammi has to quickly catch her mother-in-law from stumbling.

The older woman is devastated; today was supposed to be a good day.

Behind them, Gaby walks away from the room in silence and went straight to bed.

Amidst the shock, Lukas goes around the house to look for his youngest sister, and finds her sobbing heavily in the bathroom.

(Author’s note: I take it back, this is the longest chapter that I’ve written. The poor sim just turned 90, and I really didn’t expect Stanley to die just as he was legible to do so. Eva, his wife’s sister, is several days older than him, and she’s still kicking and even married her boyfriend after this long! At least his lifetime wish was fulfilled, but it’s too bad about the grandchildren wish — he would have at least waited for 3 more.)