the business of winning an election

June 2079 - Bryson and Madison Riley are 57, Keri is 18.

It's been a rough couple of years for Bryson and Madison Riley, but after some time, Bryson has finally made things up to his wife. However, he has not quite made up so well with his daughter.

Keri graduated high school this spring, and her boyfriend, Justin wanted to drop off a token of his affections, a high school graduation present, a statue of a bearded old man? Strange idea of romantic!

But Keri finds it amusing. She loves how he can make her laugh. He left flowers too, which was nice.

Keri is going off for college orientation at the start of the month, and her parents want to have a few last words with her. Keri is actually quite interested in her mother's mayoral election at the end of the month. But anything her father has to say, well, she doesn't really want to hear it.

He wants to know if she'll study business in college. That was what they'd always agreed on, and that she would come back to work for him after she was done. But after the whole blackmail ordeal that went on a couple summers ago, Keri wants nothing to do with her family's business. She's thinking about studying government work, or politics like her mom. She always wanted to be a military general or something.

It's sad to leave on bad terms, but unfortunately sometimes, things need more time than they're given to mend. After she's gone, Bryson wishes he could give her a hug :(

Madison buys a nice new Mayoral-looking outfit, and the polls are looking good for her, so she hopes she's not getting too ahead of herself. And she even offers Bryson some advice, since he's running slightly behind in his polls. She says, "You need to do something big and public and seemingly selfless. Donate money to the university. People always like that!"

And Bryson does, in fact, have a little project in the works. It's something he's had in planning for a while now, but with the elections just around the corner, he thought he might speed things up a bit. After all, hasn't winning elections always been about who can throw the most money around? Or more precisely, who can spend money the most efficiently, since Bryson is trying to be Lake County's head of Treasury, and if there's anything Bryson knows, it's how to run a business.

Just in time for the coming school year, he commissions a business college for Lake City University - Riley Hall, School of Business, and he hopes it might make voters see his commitment to the community in a more favorable light. The school features a full computer lab, cafeteria, and the following classes are offered:

- public speaking
- golf course business talk
- architecture and city planning
- corporate lying
- logic
- sales
- finance and investing
- small business

Bryson meets with the current University President, Holly Miller, and by the end of the month, the handover is official. Classes will start in the fall.

Madison and her sister-in-law, Claire blow off a little steam in these last days before the election. They're both doing really well in the polls at the moment, and for now, they'll do best to just sit things out and not do or say anything stupid.

Madison says, "Well between the two of us, we're best friends or related to pretty much the whole town, so I think we're okay."

Well, we'll see on Wednesday :)

***

It's hilarious the dress Keri chose to grow up into, lol! She's always been far too much of a tomboy for gold ruffles and embroidered hearts!

Justin is thinking, is she serious?

***

notes: Keri is an odd fortune Sim who has almost no interest in money, lol. And the more I tried to have Bryson interest her in it, the more turned off she got. Maybe her mom or her sister might have better luck.

Maybe with Bella gone, and most of my college Simmies in stable relationships, you guys might get a chance to see some of LCU's campus buildings for a change. I'm usually overrun with too many pictures of Bella's debaucheries to have space for anything else, lol :)

Lake County elections end Wednesday at noon! :)