2.17 The Other Really Long Chapter

Dot is successful in attracting young families to her daycare. Her first two clients are Chase Bayless and Jaron Wheloff-Goode. 

Chase, after many years of being single, is now dating Shark Racket. Their daughter together is a pleasant surprise. 

Being back in business has its ups and downs... 

But she's happy to be open again. 

"Need any help?" Santos offers. He's writing his article about DeAndre Wolfe. He hopes it's the first of many. 

"No, there are only two of them. Before I closed down, I was looking after four or five at once!" 

Santos whistles, impressed. "Sounds like you already know what you're doing. I'll leave you to it." 

After years of being tucked away, the Sykes' toys are being played with again. 

"Mom, you gave my toys to these kids!?" Not everyone is happy about Dot working again. 

"Sweetie, you haven't played with them in years." 

That doesn't change the fact that Kaira doesn't want them playing with her toys! 

"They'll get them dirty," she whines. 

Dot turns a stern eye to her daughter. "That's enough, young lady. You have plenty of new toys in your room. Now, don't you have homework to do?" 

Karia pouts, but pulls out her worksheet. 

Damaris is enjoying her retirement. 

She's never just hung out at the beach. Now she has plenty of time to lounge around, meet people... 

It's a little too quiet for Damaris. She finds a lighter for the bonfire and decides to get this party started. 

Tatum, on the other hand, is not having so much fun tonight. Sure, she was the one who asked for driving lessons, but she didn't think they would be this difficult. 

"Eyes on the road," Dot reminds her daughter. 

Tatum's gaze snaps back to the road in front of her. How do people in movies have full blown conversations while driving? It's taking all of her concentration just to stay in the lane! 

The driving lessons are only so exciting to watch, so I checked the SP notifications. I got one about Pancho and Ume hanging out, so I checked it out. 

Apparently Ume likes to work out at the fire station. 

And Pancho comes here because...? 

"I don't have a console at my place," Pancho explains. The firefighters let him play video games there as long as he buys some new ones once in a while. "Anyways, how've you been? Did you go boy-crazy yet?" 

When Ume blushes, a grin splits Pancho's face. 

"Aaaaahaaaaa! Tell me, who is it?" 

"C'mon, I won't judge! You heard the stories of mom's ex-boyfriends! I can handle anything." Pancho is prepared to point out that his own father was a wanna-be tattoo artist. 

"Well... I met this guy at work..." excitement takes the better of Ume, and she starts gushing about her new boyfriend, "He's so nice! But a bit absent-minded... "

"Wait," Pancho stops his sister, "What did you say his name was, again?" 

"Woodrow, why?" 

"Weeeeeeeeeeelllllll...." 

Tatum collapses after a long, tiring driving lesson. She'd be happy if she never drove again! 

But her mom's already scheduled her next one. Tatum is to tired to dread it and falls into a deep sleep. 

The next morning she's feeling more chipper. Damaris smirks knowingly when Tatum hushes her to talk to "Elias". A boy, huh? 

"Say hello to your boyfriend for me." 

"He is not my boyfriend!" she hisses. 

"What?" Elias says on the other end. 

"OH! Nothing, just talking to my grandma. Anyyyyyways..." 

Smooth, Damaris thinks, suppressing a chuckle. 

There's not much room for Tatum to have a private conversation in the house, but she does move close to the backdoor. 

"I looked at your sketch that you sent me last night. I was with my mom so I only saw it when I woke up. It's really good! You should definitely submit it for the school exhibition," Tatum praises her friend's work. They're in the same art class at school. 

"You're just trying to be nice, it wasn't that good..." Elias sounds genuinely disappointed with himself. 

"No, no! I'm serious. You should show it to Mr. Potts, I'm sure he'd tell you the same thing!" 

The topic changes to prom eventually. 

"Oh, I was thinking of just not going. No one's asked me out anyways..." Tatum adds the last part nervously. Will Elias think she's a loser for not having a date? 

"I asked Jenell to go with me." 

"...Again?" it's no secret that Elias has had a huge crush on Jenell Curious-Prudence since, like, fifth grade. He's asked her out several times, being rejected every time. 

"It wasn't like the other times! She said yes..." 

"Oh! Congrats. I'm sure you guys will have fun." 

Tatum feels a pang of disappointment when Elias hangs up, then chides herself. What did she expect? For him to ask her to go? Prom is dumb, anyways. I don't need to go. 

She doesn't have a lot of time to dwell on it right now. The school bus is honking impatiently outside. 

"Did you get the ingredients yet?" Kaira asks in a whisper. 

"Huh?" Tatum totally forgot about their deal. "Oh... not yet. I need some time to find everything..." it is a pretty long list. "Hey, you could help me gather some of this stuff." 

Kaira folds her arms. "Why should I?" 

"Because you're the one who wants this potion? Or maybe I should just forget about this..." 

"No! Wait....urghhh fine. I'll help you." 

With an uneasy deal struck, Tatum has to leave her younger sister. She's going to be late for her first class! 

Kaira's already thinking about lunch. The cafeteria food is awful. She's not sure why her mom won't pack her something nice to eat, like roast turkey...or sushi... 

Tatum's stuck in a long queue to get inside. She waits impatiently behind a group of elementary school children who are pushing each other and rough housing. 

Behind her is Jereme Hong-Sykes, her uncle Aloiso's step-son and her half-brother, Jeremie Hong's, half-brother. Family trees quickly get tangled in a town this size. 

"Ha! They're probably not moving 'cause they think you're one of them!" Chanda mocks Tatum's inability to get through the kids in front of her. 

Everyone tries to ignore Chanda. 

No, Damaris isn't wearing a jetpack. 

She's just having fun on the trampoline! 

She steps off to collect some seeds. There's an empty planter in Tatum's room. Maybe she'll develop an interest in gardening? 

She runs into Marcie, now Pancho's wife. Damaris takes the opportunity to needle her about grandchildren. 

"I only have two! Soon I'll pass away and not see my descendants," Damaris bemoans her many difficulties. 

Marcie, to her credit, just laughs at Damaris's theatrics. 

"As soon as me and Pancho start trying for kids, we'll let you know." 

Damaris hmmphs, but it's the most she can ask for. 

It looks like her concerns were valid. 

Damaris passes before any of her other children have kids of their own. 

She goes with the reaper willingly. She moved out on her own, travelled, raised five great kids, saw the birth of two of her grandchildren, fell in love, and got to be a superstar! It was a pretty good life. 

RIP, Damaris. 

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AN: My life span is set to 100 days. Damaris passed away at around 101 days, which took me by surprise. I never got around to having her and Santos get married. It was actually only looooong after this point that any of Dot's siblings had children of their own, so Damaris would've had to live for a super long time to see that. 

Ume is in a relationship with Woodrow, which also was unexpected. He spent his entire life before this point not dating anyone, even just at the romantic interest level. 

Dot had a weird glitch with her career. She had a very long maternity leave and when it was over no one was bringing their kids to the day care. I had her quit and start over, which fixed the problem. 

2.16 Siblings

For this week's social outing, I send Dot out to see her half-brother, Woodrow Bull. 

Woodrow is single, childless, and lives with his half-brother, Erick. They both work at the science lab. 

"I don't suppose you've met my sister, then," Dot sighs. Ume texts frequently but never has time to call. Dot wishes her younger siblings would check in more. 

Woodrow thinks, "Is she the one with pigtails?" 

"No..." 

He shrugs. 

Woodrow is much better at dancing than he is remembering acquaintances. 

"My hair isn't dyed. I used to think my mom was exposed to tiberium during the pregnancy or something, but it turns out it's natural." Woodrow tells Dot a large variety of random, unconnected things. 

Dot's just happy to learn about her sibling. "What was your mom like?" 

"Huh?" Woodrow is surprised by the question. His mother passed away some time ago. "She was a stylist. Really into "aesthetics" and stuff like that. I never understood it. Her clothes had weird patterns... I used to scream whenever I saw her reptile patterned stuff."

"I was completely convinced her snake handbag would eat me in my sleep," his laugh is a little too forced for Dot to dismiss this as a child's overactive imagination. Woodrow doesn't pick up on her discomfort. 

"Do you ever go fishing?" 

"Uh, no-," 

"Don't! You know what kind of fish they have at the lab!?" 

"Robot-fish..." 

Woodrow barely registers she's said anything, "One moment you're tweaking aquatic ecosystems and the next they ask you to put circuits into fish! And they say I'm the weird one!" 

He trails off, looking disturbed until he suddenly looks at Dot and smiles. 

"Sorry. Tangent. It's hard to focus sometimes..." 

Dot smiles back, "No, don't worry. Your job sounds really interesting. Too bad I've never been good at biology..." 

"I should go," Woodrow says abruptly. 

Dot blinks. "Alright..." 

He pauses to hug her goodbye, then leaves without even waving. 

Dot scratches her head. She has a lot to learn about her little brother... 

In the meantime, Dot sets to promoting her daycare online. In her long absence the kids she used to look after are in high school already. She needs to reach the new families in town. 

She frowns at her video editor. She wanted to make a promotional video, but she can't figure out how to overlay audio onto a video... 

"I should call Santos..." she mutters. 

Santos isn't home right now. He's finally been given an interview for work and he will not mess this up! 

He's been sent to gather information about DeAndre Wolfe, the only rockstar Twinbrook's had since...well, ever. Santos starts with the late singer's son, Quartz. 

Hm. 

Quartz, skilled at talking about himself even with no one around, is not phased by this glitch. 

Ouch. 

After this, I put Santos on the clipboard in "edit town" mode and put him back into the household. His wishes are deleted, but at least he has corporeal form again. 

Quickly checking in to make sure Tatum still has her physical form. 

Santos is back! 

"How did the interview go?" Dot is unaware that her "dad" briefly phased out of existence. 

Santos stretches, "Weirdly exhausting. But your brother had a lot to say... did you know about his 'singing debut'?" 

Dot laughs, "His performance in the school talent show." 

"I figured..." 

"OH you're so precious!" Damaris reaches in to pinch Kaira's cheeks. 

"Whoaaaaa grandma," Kaira dodges her grandmother's pincers, "I'm not a baby! No pinching!" 

Damaris isn't the least bit deflated. 

"There's my other precious granddaughter!" 

"No pinching!" Tatum hurries away. 

Damaris pouts. Her grand-kids are no fun. When will her other kids have their own children? She doesn't have forever.

Dot invites Woodrow over for some coffee. He finds their trampoline way more fun than caffeine. 

"I haven't been on a trampoline in ages," Woodrow says, testing the trampoline's bounce with a small jump. He's satisfied when his foot shoots up in the air. 

"Me either. But I'm sure the kids from daycare will use it." 

"I think I'm getting spacesick," Woodrow reports queasily. It doesn't stop him from bouncing as high as he can during his next jump. 

"Are you alright?" 

"If I close my eyes, it's like I'm a bird!" he doesn't want to admit it's because he feels like throwing up. 

Still, Dot can see he isn't feeling well. 

They get off the trampoline. Dot regales Woodrow with some daycare stories. 

"This one time, Renee William-Brown comes strutting in. She looks at me like I'm dirt on her shoes- 'I can't believe I have to go outside for this brat. He wanted me to play tag. You believe that? Tag! As if he's a five year old!' I actually had to remind her that her grandson, was in fact, four." 

"And she huffed at me! 'Then you go outside and eat ladybugs or whatever he does out there.' I told her insects are very nutritious. I swear she wanted to vaporize me with that glare she gave me..." 

Woodrow has his own stories. 

"I used to tend the Cow-Plants. After the second time I locked myself overnight with them, I got promoted to work with the fish instead. I think they just didn't want me to get eaten by accident." 

"Second time? No one let you out?" Dot is...concerned...about the conditions of Woodrow's workplace. 

"I'm also not the last one to leave anymore..." 

The hour grows late and cold. Woodrow hugs his sister goodbye. 

"Let's do this again, alright?" 

Woodrow nods. "You have a nice trampoline." 

With those words, he begins his long walk back to city centre. He forgot to tell Dot that he left his car parked in front of the library before she drove him here. 

"Stop it," Kaira hisses. 

Tatum's brow furrows, "I'm just eating..." 

"Not you! Him." 

Tatum looks around the room. No one's there. 

"I don't see anyone..." 

"It's not like you need a microscope to see him. He's right there!" Kaira points angrily to the fridge. 

"...Sure. What's your friend's name?" 

"He's not my friend! But his name is Lu." 

"Is he a doll, by any chance?" 

"Well, yeah. But he's bigger now! The same size as me!" 

At Tatum's skeptical look, Kaira's tone becomes irritated. 

"I saw in your potion booklet that there's a potion to make imaginary sims real-," 

"Don't go through my stuff!" Tatum snaps. 

"The book was lying on the floor! Stupid head." 

Tatum glares at her sister. 

"The book says you need a bunch of stuff, but it should work..." Kaira couldn't make sense of the equations in the "high school" version, but in the "for elementary schoolers" section the list seemed simple enough... 

Tatum is about to tell her sister that this potion is probably just a gimmick, but the Kaira keeps talking. 

"Once I give Lu that potion and he turns real, you'll feel super dumb." 

"Fine. I'll try making it. What was on the list?" Just to wipe that smug look off of her face... 

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AN:  "The one with the pigtails" is one of the other women who works at the science lab, Quartz's half-sister Dina Bayless-Wolfe. 

Despite having the family oriented trait, none of Dot's siblings have had kids yet! Pancho is married to Marcie, Quartz is married to Shanda, Aloiso is married (but his wife is already in the elder stage), and Ume is single. 

I never had Quartz or Aloiso quit their high school part time jobs, so they both still work in the spa. Pancho is in the music career. 

I can't remember Kaira's third trait, but she's a perfectionist snob otherwise.