Thursday, July 30, 2020

2.27 Get it Right


Dot still hasn't found a day care assistant, so cleaning up the house before her clients come over is still her full responsibility. The number of kids she's receiving is only increasing. She might have to make a waiting list soon or else she'll drown in chores and child care. 



"Kaira, wait," Aloiso stops his niece before she enters the spa for her shift. 

"What is it? Are you also going to lecture me on how much of a failure I am, or say that I'm a maniac?" since the fight at school, Kaira has been called by or visited by her aunt and all of her uncles except for Aloiso.

"No, it's not that." 



"What is it?" her curiosity is piqued. 

"Some guy came to the spa yesterday, the dad of the girl you got into a fight with. He was saying how we should fire you and he wouldn't stand for, uh, 'that crazy girl' still being employed here." Aloiso starts picking at his sleeve. 



Kaira's expression becomes neutral. Her mother warned her this could happen. A town this small and people talk. "And? Weeks after the fact, you're here to tell me that I don't have a job?"



"No. I told him to stuff it. We're short-staffed as it is and...you've always been a good employee." 

Kaira's surprised. "Why'd you do that? I thought you hated my suggestions." 

"I told you, I appreciated your input even if we couldn't do anything with it at the time. Besides, brawls are nothing new around here..." Over the years, Aloiso has seen his fair-share of teen-drama induced black-eyes in and out of his workplace. It always makes him sad to see kids fight like that. 

Kaira blinks. "I'm not sure what to say..." 

"Thank you would be nice," he smiles at her. 

"Yeah, of course. Thank you." 

He looks at her, more serious now. "But it's also your last chance. It's a small town and people talk. When you're an adult, the boss is going to start caring if you show up all battered up...or have to miss more shifts to serve detention...or jail, as it is for us old people." 

Kaira frowns. She hates that he's right. "I understand." Good thing I'll be getting out of here after I graduate... she just has to grin and bear it for another few years. 



When she gets home from work, she greets her mother as usual. 

"Ami, aren't you happy to see Kaira? Say hiiii," she tickles the toddler. Ami shrieks with laughter. 

"Hiiii," is Kaira's scripted, bland response. 



Her head pulses with frustration as she does her homework. Why is it the longer that she stays here, the more trapped she feels? 



"Do you wanna talk about it?" 

Kaira snorts, "I saw you enough when I was suspended for a week. We've talked enough." 

Lu can only raise his shoulders and accept defeat. "I'll be here if you change your mind!" 

Not likely. 




Dot chats on the phone with Pancho. He's moved out of the house he shared with his now ex-wife Marcie and their daughter, Coral. 

"Quartz offered his couch, but he and Shanda live in a smaller place now so I said no. Aloiso has a free room he can spare..." Aloiso has had a long marriage with a now-elderly woman. They have no children together and thus their spacious house remains mostly empty. 

"You could always stay here if that doesn't work out," Dot is quick to offer. "I can put a bed upstairs..." 

"I'll be alright, Dot. Now, tell me what's this I hear about a you and a certain Erich Ball-Bailey?" Pancho eagerly changes the subject. 

Dot blushes. "Shush." 

"Are things between you two going well?" Pancho presses. 

"I think so. We're taking it slow for now. I only see him once or twice a week since he works the night shift at the bistro and I'm busy with the daycare." 

"No luck finding an assistant?" 

Dot sighs, "Unfortunately no. Not too many people around here interested in childcare..." 

The two siblings chat for a while longer before Pancho has to go. "My shift starts soon. Talk to you later!" 



Meanwhile, Kaira finally gives in to Lu's insistence that they spend some time together. 

"If we take some pictures together, will you go away?"



A deal's a deal. 

(AN: I didn't realise IFs show up in photographs! Neat.)



Once Kaira heads to the nursery to ask her mom something, a toddler is shoved into her hands. 

"I'll just be a minute, I really need to call her mother," Dot says in a hurry. 

Kaira plays with the young Colette Bayless, Elias's youngest cousin. "You're not a dope like your cousin, I hope," Kaira shares her low opinion of the boy with Colette.

*** 



Tatum sighs. She's been drafting this letter for hours. She can't decide whether or not she'll accept the admission offer from the university to study art. 



She erases the last line of her letter. 

I can't do this. What will I even do there? She thinks to her painfully low number of friends. Elias is right, it would be a waste of time... 



Kaira is dismayed to hear that Tatum has rejected the admission offer. 

"Are you crazy? I would love to get out of this town!" 

"I'm not you," Tatum pouts, "Besides, unless I get really good, art wouldn't be a well-paying career path..." 


"Aren't you already really good? Your art was in the gallery and everything." 

Tatum shakes her head, "That was just a fluke. No one outside of this town has heard of Twinbrook's gallery anyways..."



"I still think you're making a mistake," Kaira sighs. "There's nothing to do here!" 

Tatum sulks. "I'll figure something out!" 


"Oooh, maybe you could dumpster dive! Plenty of garbage around to do it in," Kaira says with an eye-roll. 



Tatum glowers at her sister. "Whatever. Plenty of people here make a living..." 



"Like how?" 

"Like...by fishing!" Kaira rolls her eyes. Tatum adds, "Inventing, teaching, reporting...there are things to do around here." 

"Yeah...if you like the smelly, dirty swamps." 

Tatum rolls her eyes herself. This conversation isn't getting anywhere. 





Santos has an assignment to interview people in various professions in Twinbrook. Something about promoting local industry or some such. It's a bit bland, but it does get him out of the office. He interviews first Joni Bayless-Drudge, mother of Tatum's classmate Elias and Quartz's step-aunt. She's a conductor in the local orchestra. He then moves on to Marcie Self (formerly Sykes before her divorce). She's the only registered scuba diver in the city. 

"It's nice work, but very physical. Sorry if I still smell like seaweed," Marcie apologises. Twinbrook's sea is not a glamorous one. She mostly finds starfish, common shells, and occasionally old things people have thrown away. Not that interesting, she thinks. But it leaves her with flexible hours, great for spending time with her daughter when she can! When I can... splitting custody with Pancho was the best thing to do, but she wishes she could see Coral more often than every other week. 



Marcie tries not to wince visibly when Pancho walks by them. Aside from conversations about Coral's upbringing, the two have not talked in some time. 



Pancho pointedly ignores his ex-wife. Although they've both been seeing other people since the divorce, Pancho's emotions are still conflicted and confusing. He doesn't want to think about them.



"...Marcie?" Santos tries to recapture his interviewee's attention. 

"What? Oh, I'm sorry. I was just distracted." 

Though Dot has filled him in on Pancho and Marcie's tumultuous relationship, he chooses not to ask about it. Santos refuses to write the local gossip rag! 

"So, have you ever found anything interesting while diving?" 

Marcie would love to tell him about the genie lamp she found during a dive in Isla Paradiso, but she'd have to explain how she, ahem, borrowed it from a cave filled with angry mermaids. 

"When I go to other towns, I sometimes find valuable gems and stones. Once I even fished out a Vampire's Eye!" she goes for her more mundane tales of her job. 

Santos meticulously notes everything she says. If he does well, maybe next time he'll get to interview another celebrity. 



Back at home, Dot finally lets Kaira off the hook for getting into a fight at school. She can have friends over, go out again...as long as she's back by curfew. 

Kaira tries not to roll her eyes. If she'd really wanted to stay out late, a mere grounding wouldn't have stopped her. Just the utter lack of classy things to do in town has kept her inside. Dot frowns at her daughter's bored expression. 

"I hope you realize that you're graduating soon. Getting into fights when you're older can get you into a lot of trouble. Being grounded would seem like a walk in the park compared to spending the night at a police station, or at the hospital. You could've seriously hurt yourself and Jenelle!" 

"Yeah, yeah, geez, mom! I get it. I won't do it again. I already told Jenelle that I was sorry." Sure, it was mandated by the principal to finally end her detentions and delivered with all of the emotion of a rock, but she did apologise! Jenelle didn't seem to care, anyways... 

Dot sighs, but knows she'll just have to trust Kaira to not get into trouble again. If there's a next time... Dot's frown deepens. Hopefully there won't be. 



Kaira's foul body odor hits Dot's nose. 

"Kaira! Why do you smell like that?" And how did I not notice before? 

Kaira flushes guiltily. "I had PE last period today. The showers at school were broken so I didn't get to clean up before coming home..." 

Dot looks at her daughter with sympathy. "Go, freshen up. I'll call you once dinner is ready." 



Kaira walks towards the house, homework in hand. She knows she should shower... but this poem has been on her mind for weeks! The stanzas never seem good enough, profound enough. She needs to get it right! 



"Whatchya working on?" Lu asks curiously. 

"Simlish homework," Kaira grunts. 

"The poem again?" 


She sighs. "Yeah...again." 

She'll get it right. She has to! 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN: Wasn't sure how else to end the chapter. Hopefully Tatum will graduate high school in the next chapter! 

Marcie is actually the only scuba diver in Twinbrook! She's been in that career since she was a teen, I was surprised she never changed jobs. 

Tatum is, indeed, not going to university. That has more to do with my general dislike for how repetitive the university gameplay is and also the fact that it wouldn't do anything for Tatum's career since she won't be working at a rabbit hole. Her career should be revealed within the next two chapters.

A mistake I made: I have been calling one of the toddlers Dot is looking after "Lawanda". Her name is acutally Ami. She is the niece of Lawanda Ball-Bailey, but there's no way that Lawanda would still be a toddler after all this time barring a glitch! Ami's the daughter of Solomon Ball-Bailey. He's the brother of Dot's current boyfriend, Erich, and the son of Buddy Bailey and Gala Ball. He appeared in earlier chapters when Tatum was still a child. He was dressed as a skeleton for their costume party on Spooky Day! 

I will go back to edit Ami's name into the chapters where I called her Lawanda. But just so you guys know! 

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