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September 2081 - Phoenix McCullough is 42, Brooke is 40, Fiona is 14, Robbie is 11, Connor is 4. (Liza Hathe is 13.) Last update, July 2080.

*** note: I borked Robbie, lol! I had to age him up to fix it, but keep in mind, he is still supposed to be 11 and in fifth grade. We'll just imagine he had an early growth-spurt ;) ***

*** note #2: and this is LONG! ***

Brooke and Phoenix McCullough try to steal a minute of peace in the bathroom - where else might you find a minute of peace with three kids in the house? But then there is Fiona in the background, except Fiona comes with a force that could never remain in the background. "Mooooooom!!! Robbie's hogging the bathroom and I need to PEE! I'm telling you, I will NOT be happy if I piss myself!!! And I would make YOU clean it up - except that you WOULDN'T because nobody cleans a DAMN thing in this ungodly foul house!!!"

Brooke would like to mention that there are four bathrooms in this house, and only five people living in it, two of which are married to each other - you do the math.

Being a teacher, Brooke McCullough would think her children should be star students. But they're not. Maybe Connor will break the mold in his first year of preschool, but for now, Fiona is leading the bunch with her stellar B- average, and Robbie is pulling Ds. They're capable children, especially Fiona, but they're all just very unmotivated.

Brooke feels a personal responsibility for this, being their teacher and all, and since she just received a promotion to guest college lecturer in addition to her duties at Bluewater Public Schools. They even awarded her with this custom-made bookcase for her strong and simple teaching style with the kids. It's not a very pretty bookcase, but the collection is one of the best to be found!

Phoenix is spending every spare moment he has mourning the loss of his entire life's work of paintings that were destroyed in a late summer atmospheric storm (=painting glitch...). Nobody is really sure how it happens, one day they're fine, and the next, they're altered unrecognizable and turned yellow and orange. He's heartbroken, to say the least. Man, you should have seen the originals. They were breathtaking! And they were the only copies in existence. He might be able to recreate some of them, he can only hope.

Fiona and Liza bring home Charlie Roseland from school - let us note, Liza Hathe does not actually live here, officially. But there are so many children in this house on any given day that she blends right in with the rest of them. So Fiona brings home Charlie, who is visiting Bluewater Township from Lakeside Heights, doing research for his school science project. Fiona can't get enough of him, but Liza thinks he's ridiculous. And besides, Liza said this before, and she'll say it again - she doesn't need any more friends - she has Robbie and she has Fiona, and that's enough, thanks.

And besides, this boy is mean!

Way to stick up for your friend, Fiona. Well, Fiona has other things on her mind. Fiona isn't sure if her mother (and eighth grade science teacher!) will like the topic of study for her science project this fall, which is a study on kissing boys. There is a science behind this romance business, and she is going to decipher it!

"Who is this little squirt?" Charlie says when Robbie gets home, and greets him with a noogie.

Liza says, "I told you he was mean."

"Ooh, that looked bad," Liza says.

Little late there on the sympathy, Liza!

Robbie doesn't really feel threatened by Liza's new friendship with Fiona anymore. He understands Liza must have girly things she wants to talk about, and needs an outlet for that - he honestly has no desire to talk about bracelets and lip gloss. He also thinks they could stand not to gossip about him and his failing report cards. Especially when he's right there! He says, "Fiona, I can actually hear you..."

Liza gets cornered in a bathroom with Charlie and Fiona, and she's thinking, Oh my God, they're going to start flirting in a minute, aren't they? God, let me out of this bathroom!

But most of the time, it's just the three of them. For some reason, Liza actually likes Fiona. Maybe they share something of an intellectual connection - close as she is with Robbie, let's be honest, he isn't exactly a shining example of academics!

But regardless, Liza doesn't completely trust Fiona yet, which is probably a wise move. Fiona is really smart, in a scheming kind of way. She likes to wear these stupid hats when she's reading because she says they stimulate her brain cells or something. She even says she wants to run her own cult some day, and the scariest thing is that they all believe she'll actually do it!

Fiona is mad. Not about anything in particular, but just mad in general. We're not really sure what this is about, and we're not sure if there's really any way to find out. Maybe it's just the pain of existence in this unhygienic world...

Oh, will the gods please ease her suffering???...

Because she's just so bored. Is there nothing to do in this awful, awful place?

Lucky for the kids, Phoenix banks an extra $10,000 by selling a very masterfully done forgery of a famous painting. He reminds himself that he is not actually a criminal and needs move ahead in this line of work as soon as possible. But the extra money comes in handy, since the McCullough family is dead broke. And with Brooke's recent promotion, they feel a little party is in order to celebrate, and the kids are more than happy to jump on board! It will be a simple country party - you know, bonfire and a beer keg!

Though the last time Phoenix got around a beer keg, they ended up fighting for a year over it! Hopefully he won't do anything too embarrassing this time.

Not too cold for water balloons yet.

Liza's mother happens to walk by just as Brooke is hanging out some balloons in front. She's probably here to take Liza home, since the girl never rarely ever goes home anymore. Brooke is reminded of how young Liza's mother is, and a month into Brooke's fortieth birthday, she just has to stop and try to do the math in her head. She doesn't look a day over twenty! But of course, she must be, unless she had Liza at seven, which is unlikely. Anyway, it's not exactly the kind of question one can ask. So instead she asks if Riley has read any good books lately.

Riley says, "What is it with you college people with your fancy college books. I didn't go to college, and there's nothing wrong with people who didn't go to college."

Brooke changes the subject. "We're having a bonfire tonight, do you mind if Liza stays for dinner. Do you want to bring Chad and Shaun over? We're roasting hot dogs."

Riley says, "I run a dog shelter. I'm a vegetarian."

"Oh," Brooke says. "Marshmallows then?"

She better not say anything more, she just turns around and goes back inside.

But by the time Riley makes it around to the back yard, she finds her daughter indulging her curiosity about what that beer tastes like.

"What do you think you're doing, young lady?" Riley says.

"Oh, Mom," Liza says, "I was pouring it for you!"

"So this is where you spend all your time?"

And it looks like that wasn't her first glass.

"We're going home," Riley says. "Immediately!!!"

Liza is shocked. She's never seen her mother's face contort that way before!

Then Riley starts on Brooke. But Brooke is mostly unaffected by it, seriously, this woman is half her age! Well, maybe not half - but the point is, Brooke says, "You better stop right there, little girl."

Liza says, "Sorry, Robbie, I kind of have to go home now."

He says, "Are you drunk?"

Her arms are flailing in front of her and she's falling forward a little, and she says, "I just wanted to see what it tasted like."

"That was dumb. Can you come back later?"

"I don't know," she says. "I think I'm in trouble. Don't try it. It's gross anyway."

"Bye Robbie," she says, her voice suddenly lyrical and full of whimsy. "I'll miss you!"

He says, "You're acting weird, maybe you better go sleep or something."

So the party goes on, and is largely uneventful. Phoenix decides to let the kids get into the bulk of the trouble for the night, as he has no desire to fight with Brooke for another whole year. Their entire family is there, and the Deppiesse family is a large one. The hotdogs are served, bonfire lit, and beer keg flowing!

This might be Dallas and Lucy's first unofficial date, and even if always chaperoned, they still manage to spend so much time together that they don't even realize they've started to dress color-coordinated!

Lucy is still not allowed to date until she's sixteen, but her parents actually let her out of the house tonight since they figured there would be plenty of parents in attendance at this event...

But what they didn't realize is that Orion is the only one actually trying to keep tabs on any of them, and these Deppiesses have way too many children to keep track of! He pretends he just wants to dance, but really, he's not much of a dancer. The younger kids spend most of the night inside, hanging out and listening to music, which is fine with their parents since it's nice and far away from the beer keg.

Fiona has gotten to know Charlie well enough to know that he appears to be reasonably hygienic, and she'd like to include him in her "study" except that uncle Orion is on chaperone duty and keeps coming in and out of the room.

Robbie hangs out with his cousins, since Fiona is occupied, and Liza had to go home. Robbie, Delphie, and Dakota will all be starting junior high next year, and Natalia just started junior high this year, and she's excited to tell them about it. "It's not as bad as I thought, so far. Nobody put my head down the toilet, yet, and Hazel and I have lunch together. You know, nobody wants to sit alone at lunch."

The twins feel comfortable enough to talk about their unusual heritage around family, and Delphie wants to know if there are any other alien kids in junior high. Natalia says, "No, um, I don't think there are any other alien kids on the whole planet."

At some point in the evening, Robbie sneaks out to try a sip of that keg - for solidarity, maybe. If Liza is in trouble, then Robbie will get in trouble too - you know, if your friends all jumped off a bridge... well, Robbie would absolutely jump after Liza. Maybe that's not smart, but it's just the way it is.

But Robbie didn't get into trouble. All these grownups and not a single one of them were paying any attention. These Deppiesses have way too many children to keep track of! They're rarely able to pay attention to what each of them are actually doing!

As we were saying, way to many to actually keep track of...

Natalia knows her father is something of a failed romantic - after all, she's been observing things for quite some time now - so she offers him a little help. She says, "Dad, you're supposed to tell mom she looks pretty at a bonfire!"

And just when Fiona thought she might be alone with Charlie for a minute, her mom and aunt Violet have an impromptu book discussion about her new novel.

Fiona has never been one to give up, but maybe she might consider if it's this much hard work, it just might not be meant to be. At the end of the night, Natalia comes in and says, "Are you Charlie? My dad says we're giving you a ride home, and we're going now."

"Who is this girl?" Charlie asked Fiona.

"Oh, that's just my cousin Natalia." Fiona introduces them with Natalia's head underneath her armpit.

But it seems Charlie liked the whole damsel in distress thing, and Natalia eats up his brash attitude. They even find out that they're both in sixth grade at Lakeside Heights Junior High, and even have a history class together. They're enraptured, or something.

Fiona says, "You've got to be kidding me! He's not even that funny, could she be any more cheesy?"

Fiona says, "Okay, bye then."

But Natalia and Charlie somehow manage to push the force that is Fiona well into the background. And as they both tried to make it through the door at the same time, their hands brushed. Natalia says, "Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to..."

Charlie says, "Me either."

He's lying, a little. And so is she.

After all their family has gone home, it's just Fiona and Robbie, minus Liza, and it feels kind of like an arm missing. Both Fiona and Robbie think the world could possibly end if they were never allowed to see Liza again. "She'll be allowed back," Fiona says. "Trust me. She only has two best friends, and that's us." Fiona says this because she would miss Liza just as much as Robbie would. Truth be told, Fiona doesn't have many real friends either.

Robbie says, "So I think I want to learn to breakdance - where do you learn something like that?"

"I don't know," Fiona says. "Maybe in the city. Do you have enough money for a cab?"

"No, do you?"

"No."

"Hey," Fiona says. "I wonder if I could get an after school job as a criminal, do you think we could find one of those in the city too?"

Robbie says, "Are you serious?"

"So my date left with my cousin."

"Probably because you have a big honking zit on your forehead," Robbie says. "But he wasn't your date, you said he was your friend."

"Well, he is my friend, but I thought maybe we would kiss a little. Robbie, let me tell you this right now, boys and girls can never be just friends. It always gets messy."

"What do you know?"

"I know a little," she says. "And that's enough."

Brooke and Phoenix decide to finish off the rest of the keg after the kids go to bed. It's a terrible mess, but they decide to leave it until morning, both knowing that their dear Fiona will have a panic attack over this mess, but they're just that tired. And Brooke is glad nobody did anything REALLY stupid tonight.

The next day, Phoenix was just framing the horizon when Liza's father walks up into his view.

Chad says, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, nothing," Phoenix says.

Phoenix says, "Listen, about this beer keg thing, we don't want to go and break up best friends and all. I know we should have kept a better eye on that keg, I guess. I wouldn't happen again."

Chad says, "I'm a little concerned, McCullough. We're a close-knit community around here, now how did I miss getting invited to this kegger?"

"What? No, you were invited! You were totally invited!"

"Well I better not miss the next one then."

"Okay," Phoenix says. "So it's settled."

And thus Liza Hathe was allowed to visit the McCulloughs again.

And she does.

Which makes both Fiona and Robbie very happy.

Because their Smustle just isn't the same without all three of them.

***

notes: LOL, when you don't know what else to do for an update, just have a party and throw in a beer keg ;)

Also note that I discovered that the bonfire does not actually cast any light on its own (blah!) so I placed three of those tiki torches inside it, which worked nicely.

I'm still trying to make sense of Fiona's personality (if that's possible, lol!). She's romance/knowledge, OTH is science, LTW is to be a cult leader (I've never had one before, so that will be fun!), and she's super neat, kind of shy, active, playful, and mean. And LOL, she totally did roll a want to get an after-school job in crime! :)

I'm also trying something new with my teens now. When they turn twelve, they'll all have their ACR tokens turned off, because I really don't like having my twelve-year-olds so gung-ho about the romance. My more outgoing teens and romance aspirations can have their tokens turned on at fourteen, and the shy ones at fifteen or sixteen. Because with ACR in full force, we really miss that funny awkward stage where they're interested in the opposite sex, but have no idea what to do about it! :)

Though, the default Maxis interactions will still be available to younger teens if they want them, and those can happen autonomously sometimes too! I had to cancel out a bunch of them between Liza and Robbie! He's not supposed to be a teen yet!!!

So I borked Robbie, lol! He tried to drink out of the beer keg (they all tried at one point or another, lol!) and I canceled the interaction, but the foam stayed in his hand. So the only way I could fix it was to age him to teen, one year early. You'll find out his aspiration and other goodies next year with the other kids in his grade.

And I don't know if you all were curious (because I know I was!), but just as I suspected, he and Liza are a solid three-bolts, right out of the box! But *sigh,* Hazel might like him too, and she's a good bit more forward than Liza is...

As if Dallas wasn't syrupy sweet enough on his own - add Lucy to the mix and it's enough to cause a toothache!

The twins are eleven now, and maybe a bit old for this, lol!