Facing the Changes

.

June 2024

Dee Ottomas is ; Kyla Bonaccord is ; Remus Bonaccord is ; Roman Bonaccord is 29; Krysti Bonaccord is 4; Penny Tarro is 23; Danny Tarro is 18; Samantha Bradshaw is 24; Andrew Goss is 25; Helen Green is 34 .   (*Whew!*)





Dee sat down and took a long sip of the cold coffee.  She'd made it before the phone rang.  Before everything turned upside-down.  Funny how your whole life could change in, well, in the time it took for a cup of coffee to get cold.



This wasn't entirely unexpected, she knew that.  There was always a chance this could happen, and in some ways she was actually surprised it hadn't happened sooner.



When she thought about it, when she really gave the news some time to sink in, she realized that it wasn't all bad.  It would mean some changes to her lifestyle, but maybe that could be a good thing, too.



By the time she finished the coffee, Dee felt a lot more positive.  She got a piece of paper and started writing lists.  There was a lot to do, and she'd need to be organized from now on.

---- 

"I really think we can do it," said Kyla.  "there's your savings, and the money I inherited from Granddad... we can make the deposit.  The mortgage payments are going to be higher than the rent we pay here, but not too high for us to manage."



They'd been looking at buying a house for some time now.  The kids were getting bigger and would need their own rooms soon, and Kyla wanted them to have a yard to play in, room to run around... Remus agreed.  An apartment like this is all very nice, but not suitable for a growing family.



"So... we do it?" Remus asked.
"We do it."

The house they'd found was perfect, really - modern, low maintenance.  A bedroom for each of the kids, a yard, swimming pool.  A little office upstairs, now that Remus was working more and more from home.  Perfect.  There was just one little problem...



"You want to tell him?"  Remus asked?
"He's your brother."
"And you're the reason he's stayed here so long.  If you'd let me make him get his own place sooner..."



Kyla sighed.  "There is that family room upstairs.  We could turn that into another bedroom and - "
"NO.  We agreed on this.  He's 29 years old, its time he learned to look after himself..."

----

Penny Tarro put the page down.  Reading it again wasn't going to change the words on the page, or make it any easier.  Damn!  How the hell could this happen?  Ok, sure, it was always possible this might happen... but unlikely.  Or, at least, she'd thought it was unlikely.  Obviously she'd been wrong...



Just when things were going well for a change... She was working during the day now, but she'd found a babysitter living nearby, to look after Arabelle until Danny got home from school.  Danny would look after the girls over the summer, too.  Then Arabelle would start school and Danny would start work, and their childcare arrangements would depend on what kind of job he found... but the babysitter could be flexible, and she was sure they could work something out.



At least, she had been sure, until she got the letter.  Now... it just wasn't going to work out even remotely the way she'd planned it.

Damn... just, damn!  She screwed up the note and threw it across the room.  Then she just sat there, until she heard a key in the lock.  Danny.  She quickly jumped up, grabbed the crumpled letter and pocketed it.  He'd have to know, eventually... but just not yet.
“What’s up?” Danny asked.  “What’s that?”
“What’s what?”
“That – the piece of paper you put in your pocket”
“Nothing,” replied Penny, trying to sound casual.



“Come on – what is it?”  Danny made a grab for her pocket.  “A love letter from your secret boyfriend?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said, pulling away.  She wasn’t in the mood for teasing.  “And you can’t talk about keeping secrets.”
“What do you mean?”
“Trying to hide your college scholarship,” she said, glad for the chance to take his attention away from the letter.  “What did you think, that I’d force you to go or something if I knew?”
“How did you know about  that?”
Penny nodded. “I saw the Education Board letterhead in the rubbish and thought – “ She stopped, but he’d already worked out what she was going to say.



“You thought I was in some kind of trouble, didn’t you?”
“You or your sister,” she admitted.  “I certainly wasn’t expecting that.  It’s a pity you don’t want to go… you might not get an opportunity like that again.”
“What makes you think I don’t want to go?”
“What?”
“How could I go?  Who are you going to get to look after the girls while you’re at work if I go to college?



“Come on, Danny.  Don’t put this onto me. You threw the letter in the rubbish.  It doesn’t exactly look like you were planning to – “
“Fine.  Then I don’t want to go.  Forget I ever said anything.”
“Danny, are you serious?  Do you really want to go to college?”
“Nice of you to finally bother to ask.  You know, given that you know everything already and all – “
“Danny!”
“Alright, yes, I want go to college.  Not that it matters. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
“No, you’re wrong.  Maybe we can work something out," she said.  She wasn't sure how, but if Danny really wanted to go, there had to be a way of doing it.  But first of all...
"There’s something else you need to know,” she continued, pulling the letter out of her pocket and handed it to him.

------

"You're throwing me out?!"



"Basically, yeah. ", Remus started, " It's - Ow!"
"Sorry, was that your foot?"  Kyla asked sweetly.  She turned back to Roman and smiled.



"What he meant was, you shouldn't think about it like that.  Think of it as an opportunity.  You'll have more space, more privacy.  You won't have to worry about things like people walking in on your visitors in your bathroom."
"It was my bathroom!" Remus said.
"Whatever,"  Kyla said, her foot edging closer to his again.  We're not leaving town or anything.  You can visit whenever you want.  You'll have the best of both worlds."

Roman sighed.  If he didn’t have Kyla on his side, he knew he didn’t have a chance.  Best just try to make the most of it..
“Can I take the tv?”

-----

Samantha had seen him somewhere before.  The customer had introduced himself as Andrew Goss, but the name didn't mean anything to her.  Yet she was sure she'd seen him somewhere.



"Probably, you've just seen me here," he said.  "I’m in here often"
Samantha shrugged.  She didn't think that was it, although she couldn't work out where else she'd know him from.  She handed him an order form and got back to the business at hand.  "If you fill this in, I can fax it this afternoon, and the book will be here in a week or so."



When she looked at the details on the completed form, she remembered.  "The boarding house, on Woodlands Drive!" she said.  "That's where I've seen you."
He nodded.  "That's it!  But you're not there any more, right?"
"I moved out.  You?"



"I'm still there.  It suits me.  Small, no housework…. “
“… no privacy?”
He laughed.  “That, too!’  He took a breath.  “Hey, I have an idea... since we were practically room mates, how would you feel about going to a movie or something with me some time?"
"Um... its really nice of you to offer, but I don't think so, really.  I'm kind of busy, and I don't even know if I'm going to stay in town long, so it might not be a good idea to - "



"I'm not asking you to marry me or anything!  Its just a movie," he said.
"Sorry, but really, I can't."
"Ok," he said, "But if you change your mind, you've got my contact details on the order form."
She nodded, but Samantha didn't think she would change her mind.  He started to say something else, but Samantha spotted Helen, coming into the shop.  Perfect timing.  She excused herself to go talk to her roommate.

The minute she saw the look on Helen’s face, she forgot all about movies and dates and the guy from the guesthouse.

     
“Are you ok?” she asked, realising that she sounded ridiculous, when Helen very obviously wasn’t ok.
"Yeah... no... um, something's happened. Is Cory here?"
"He was, a minute ago."  She looked around.  "He must have gone out the back."

"Thanks.  Is it ok if I...?"  She gestured to the office door.
"Yes, of course," said Samantha.
She wanted badly to know what was wrong, but Helen wasn't volunteering any information. Helen closed the office door behind her, and Samantha had to fight the temptation to put an ear against it to listen.  With some difficulty, she pulled her attention back to the shop and the fact that she was the only one there to deal with the customers.

------

“You do realise that, if it were possible,  you’d better off just staying the size you are now?” Roman told Krysti.  She laughed in response.

“I’m serious, princess” he said.  “Growing up is highly over-rated”
She just laughed again.
“That’s why I won’t be teaching you anything anymore.  The less you know, the better.”



Kyla sat down beside Roman.  “What was that about?", she asked, directing Krysti through the door to her father.
Roman shrugged.  "Life just sucks sometimes."



"The apartment hunting isn't going well?"
"It's not just that.  There's this other problem... its about this girl..."
"It usually is," Kyla grinned.
"No, this is different," Roman said.  "This is serious..."
"Okay...".  She nodded for him to go on.



"There was this girl... we weren't that close or anything, just having a bit of fun... and we were careful.   Really, we were.  There was just this one time we were a bit impulsive.  Or maybe twice.  Anyway, we were careful, most of the time, but - "



"Roman, you didn't?!".  Kyla had guessed where this was going.
"Yeah, I did,"  He confirmed.  "She's pregnant.  I'm gonna be a father."

----

Just to clarify… because I realised that it might read that way… they’re not all pregnant… lol… even I’m not that mean to my sims!  One of the three is pregnant (it happened in-game, unplanned), and the other two also have major life changes happening.  We’ll catch up on them all in the next few posts.