Generation 5: Part 5. You make me feel like dancing

Apparently, four teenagers in the house were a little too much. Every now and then one of us freaked out and started randomly insulting somebody else. Well, to be honest with you, usually it was Ivy. Ever since Grace left, there was nobody she could really fight with, which seemed to be a big part of her personality. Things weren’t going that great with this Eric guy, some of our teachers didn’t accept the way she dressed and she still hadn’t found a hobby that could distract her from her troubles. Naturally she had to take this out on someone or something. And since she was always compared to her great, successful, responsible, respectful twin sister, Bella regularly was in for a fight. Those two really were as different as two people could possibly be. 

I was really worried about Ivy sometimes. I already told you that she had some issues in school and in her love life (which was nonexistent, as far as I knew), but her behavior got more and more irresponsible. Somebody had to tell her that and since I seemed to be the only one realizing where she was heading, I chose myself for this task. Unfortunately she didn’t seem to understand that I was trying to help her, instead she thought that I wanted to patronize her. If I was confronted with one of my younger siblings telling me what (not) to do, I would probably freak out, too. Still she shouldn’t have slapped me in the face. That wasn’t very nice and hurt like hell. And when she told me that I didn’t know anything about the real world and that my mind was as empty as a white sheet of paper, I ran off to my room. Where was the Ivy that protected us all and who cared about our family? 

Sometimes I thought about the time when I still was a child. Life was so much easier then, although Grace had still been there at that time. When something went wrong, I often went to my room, looked at my favourite chair and waited till its face made me laugh. Then the worst part was over. Somehow its magic disappeared with the years – when I looked at it now, I could only see a drooling mouth and ridiculously black eyes, staring straight ahead. Was this what growing up felt like? Then I didn’t want it to continue. Feeling serious all the time was something I didn’t approve of. 

Apparently, this was a feeling known to my siblings, too. One day when I went to clean the bathtub, I met Bella who just wanted to wash her hands. When she opened the water tap, a giant water fountain came shooting straight at her. So fun to look at! I guess Ivy was the one who had prepared this little trap, as she coincidentally walked in the bathroom the second we were there, too. I couldn’t help but giggle when I looked at her smiling face and as soon as we had left the bathroom, we burst out into laughing. Maybe the old Ivy was coming back now? 

At least she tried to get her life back. Whenever she could, she invited Eric over to hang out at our place. And you could see that she had a thing for him. The way she smiled at him when he was talking, regardless of what he was actually saying, and the look on her face when he turned away for a second and she felt unobserved. 

She even wrote him a song about how he made her feel like a natural woman. When she played it to us later, I couldn’t help but think that I had already heard this somewhere. And by the way, wasn’t this a little lame? I was lost until I found you, blah. If I ever wrote or dedicated a song to a boy, it would be so much more fun. Something like “You make me feel like dancing”. Life was colorful and moving so fast. No time for talking like you were living in the 1950s. 

Apparently he thought the same way. When she tried to pull him into a close hug, he pushed her away and told her he wasn’t really interested in her that way. She was devastated and immediately rushed back home, where she found me sitting on the couch, watching TV. As soon as I saw her face, I turned off the TV and hugged her for a long time, before she was able to speak. And although I kind of admired him for his honesty, I kept telling her that he was a jerk. That was the right thing to do, wasn’t it? 

My mom didn’t think that way. She had always liked Eric and was sure that this was just a phase those two were going through. By telling Ivy to forget about Eric, I apparently was pulling her away from him, despite their wish to be together. If you ask me, that was nonsense. But nevertheless my mom kept blaming me. Life really wasn’t fair when you were a grown up or a teenager. But hey, after every rain there is sunshine. 


Author's Notes: We're still around...! :) I have played quite a lot ahead, so now I really have to catch up. In my game Julia has just aged into an adult, which means something like ten chapters to come,considering the enormous amount of pictures I have taken. For now a little chapter showing how life in our legacy house continues after Grace moved out. It instantly got a little more boring, but since Ivy decided to act according to her traits, it didn't stay that way.
Make sure to check out the two songs I linked above, if you missed them before. ;)
Hopefully I will get some chapters out the next weeks - the next two weeks, starting next Monday, there is no school here, so I don't have to work (which is really fun, by the way). I planned to write at least two of my term papers during those weeks, because after that university starts again. My new class schedule is way fuller than the old one and considering that I still will work in 5th/6th grade two afternoons a week AND want to try some new stuff as well, there won't be much time to post. But I'll try and keep you posted. Literally. :)
(Chapter title: Obviously a great song by Leo Sayer, even if it's pretty old. I tried to find the choir version I know, but the videos online are pretty crappy. Anyway, believe me when I say that this song is even more amazing in that choir version a friend's husband made, who is a known arranger here.)

Generation 5: Part 4. Thank you for the music

I’m back from the cake! It was just as delicious as it looked and I enjoyed every bite of it. Unfortunately I couldn’t save you any, because – as I predicted – Henner was too fast for me. Within seconds he had eaten three pieces! I’ve never seen anyone eating this fast. Well, actually I did – when Flip was still alive, he ate a lot and really fast. This is what Henner reminded me of, but when I told him, he just laughed and went back to the counter to get another piece. If he didn’t start exercising soon, he would be as round as a melon one day! Not that I wouldn’t love him anymore then, but he would look funny in family portraits. A couple of people, possibly one or two dogs and a melon. Huh.

Life as a teenager started out the exact way childhood ended. I had to do my homework we were assigned to do for the first day in high school. It was nothing big, just writing a report about ourselves, mentioning our hobbies, family and wishes for the future. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in the future, so I wrote not much about that. The rest was really easy, but still it took a lot of time. When I looked up from the three pages I had written, everybody else had already gone to bed. Sadly I scraped the last pieces of cake together and went to my room, where a huge surprise was waiting for me! I had totally forgotten that my siblings had promised me something, so the surprise was even bigger. They had taken out all of my childish furniture and had replaced it with more mature things. I have to say, the best part was that they left my favorite chair in its place – it was yellow and had a big smiley face on it. It was so comfortable and I would have hated it if it had been gone.

The next afternoon Ivy had a friend over. His name was Eric and he seemed like a pretty nice guy. Apparently Ivy thought so, too, because she didn’t stop talking to him for a second. This way she couldn’t find out much about him, but he learned a lot about her. How she always stood up for her siblings (true), how she always tried to be nice and courteous (honestly? Not so much true) and how friends were the most important thing to her (I guess that’s at least partly true). The poor guy barely managed to say a sentence or two in between, but maybe he didn’t want to, either. If he was a shy guy, maybe the right person for him actually was Ivy. We would see how that would go.

Even if he was not right for her, he got along great with our entire family. When mum started a spontaneous jam session, he listened and afterwards admired her guitar skills. You could tell that he knew what he was talking about. It was so nice to have another sim around who loved music as much as our family did! Even if their conversations distracted me from doing my homework. After all, I wanted to be a good student with straight As!

My parents approved of my decision, obviously. Still they made sure I didn’t work too much and relaxed every once in a while. Pillow fights were a great way of forgetting all the trouble in school. And since I found out pillows CANNOT feel any pain, something I actually believed when I was a kid (how embarrassing! Everybody knows that their organism is too primitive for that, while blankets are very well aware of what is happening around them), they became a daily routine. Teenage hood was so much fun.

Not only because I could eat anything I wanted without gaining any weight. Apparently, this was something my sisters were jealous of, but it’s not like I did something to make this happen! I swear! No matter how much cake I ate, my clothes still fitted perfectly. Well, there is no better excuse to eat cake than saying that my body stays slim because of it! And there was no way to prove the opposite. Mhmm, cake…

Unfortunately, this was not a happy time for everybody. Henner and Grace still didn’t get along at all and had fights all the time. And I mean ALL the time. Sometimes it seemed like Henner’s hand felt a magnetic attraction towards Grace’s face or something. It was still sad to see, but something we eventually had to get used to.

Our parents never stopped getting mad at them for acting this way. More than one time they were grounded and had to stay inside the house for a few days. Henner used that spare time to work on his guitar skills, while Grace just stomped around, “accidentally” breaking this and that and shouting at everybody coming in her way. I couldn’t wait to get rid of her.

All of those fights and discussion inspired me a lot. I started writing my first own songs, mostly on the piano, although I wasn’t that good yet. It felt so good to write about everything that was happening and I could practically feel the tension disappearing. Sometimes, when the piano didn’t really help me, I switched to my guitar or tried some new rhythms on my drums. One of those instruments was always perfect for my mood and for what I wanted to say. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be like a One Sim Band sometime and be perfect in playing the drums, the guitar, the piano and the bass? Yes, this was what I wanted to do with my life.

Finally the big day was here! Grace had finished high school and was about to age up into a young adult. Finally she would be able to move out of the house, something she had promised to do a long time ago. I think the main reason for us celebrating was this one, not the fact that it was her special day. And I’m sorry for saying this. But try and live with her for more than a week, then you will know what I mean!

What can I say. Of course I wished her luck for her life outside our family, but it was not like I wanted her to call every day or anything.

Bye, Grace.

Author's notes: ..and once again, we're back! Sorry it took me so long, but the last weeks were full with stuff. I continued being in elementary school two days a week, in the meantime decided to drop out because the combination of the kids and the situation with my colleagues was a little too much for me, but then decided to stay there. In addition, I started working at my old high school three afternoons a week, supervising the fifth- and sixth-graders while doing their homework (and helping out when necessary). That job came pretty unexpectedly, as I only wanted to do an internship at the school But the new headmaster asked me to do this, and as I am getting paid reeeally well and am able to learn so much about pupils in that age, I accepted right away.It's a lot of fun and since I already know some of the fifth-graders from last year when they were in "my" elementary school, I felt home from day 1. By the way, it's really fun to walk through the staff room as if I belong there, especially when some of my old teachers are in it. (Not to mention one very nasty situation with my former music teacher, who used to be my idol for years. Most of the time it's fun to be in there.)

Starting my three-day weekend, my body decided to be funny and gave me a pretty bad cold, which means I've been in my bed for the past 48 hours. Since I need to get back to school tomorrow I just hope I will be better by then. At least I had some time for posting ! :)

Chapter title: An old, yet amazing song by ABBA.