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!)