The Search for Desert DadWintergreen became a teenager.
Once again, Ally offered to tutor him to give him a head start at school. They’d barely got started when…
Ally suffers badly from morning sickness, which is very unfortunate from her point of view (especially given the challenge she's doing) but great from mine, since the pregnancies get confirmed long before the spin. This time, she was even worse than usual. It’s just as well Sim pregnancies are so short – the poor woman did very little
other than throw up for the next day or two
.
Valerian aged up for the first time.
I’m not sure where that hair’s come from – it’s certainly not a standard colour but doesn’t match either parent. I thought his skintone looked a little unusual, so popped him into CAS to check and, yes, he’s inherited his grandfather Shorty-John’s very light red skin.
The teenagers went to prom together with their friend Bronson Littler, who’d come home from school with them. Or, at least, they did after they’d finished getting stuck in the gate.
The boys didn’t seem to know what to make of Bronson’s formalwear. They spent a lot of time staring at his clothes but I couldn’t make out whether they were envious or quite the opposite.
Iris knew what she thought – although someone who goes out on a warm summer’s night in a coat and scarf isn’t perhaps the best judge of other people’s clothing choices.
(Sorry these pictures are so dark, by the way – this version of Bridgeport seems to be particularly murky and the house is a long way away from the bright lights of the town centre.)
At last, the Pregnancy from Hell came to an end.
The baby was named Fluellen, which seemed appropriate for the son of a scriptwriter (but no, he won’t speak with a ‘comedy’ Welsh accent when he grows up).
The teens had been left in charge of the younger ones. Oddly, Sage, the eccentric alien genius, tends to be much better with the babies than Wintergreen, who is supposedly family-oriented and nurturing. Maybe he’s secretly inherited his dad’s dislike of children anyway.
As soon as the new baby Flower was settled into the nursery, Edelweiss had a birthday cake and left it.
And somebody else also joined the household, although only Edelweiss could see him.
Sadly, even Eryngo’s human doesn’t have much time for him – he’s an ambitious loser, which seems like a really sad combination of traits, and Edelweiss isn’t exactly riveted by his choice of conversational topics.
Alison decided that she deserved a holiday in the sun.
A working, looking-for-potential-fathers holiday, obviously. This time, she didn’t limit herself to the single men…
…or even to the living.
Although even Ally seemed to hesitate at the prospect of flirting with a half-naked married man. In his bedroom. With his wife present. Not that she let that hold her up for long.
Every single person she met was attracted to her: she could have had a whole string of half-Egyptian babies – and there were plenty of women who’d have been happy to pair up as well. The leading candidate emerged when Hassan Badawi told her his star sign. Yes! A Leo at last!
Ally cut short her holiday, returned home and invited Hassan to visit. It didn’t go well.
Hassan was far more interested in Ally’s books, TVs, computers and new games room than he was in her – and Ally seemed oddly reluctant to use her usual methods. After all, Rainia Badawi was her best friend. Eventually, she pulled herself together. It wasn’t as though she was stealing Rainia’s husband, really. Just… borrowing him for a while.
At last, she managed to catch up with Hassan just after he’d fallen off the climbing wall and did her best to distract him from his bruises...
…but he insisted that he was too tired for anything more than a kiss and took himself off to the spare bedroom to sleep.
In the morning, she finally persuaded him to join her in the bathroom.
Even then, he seemed to have the impression that she was merely offering him the use of her shower. Ally wasn’t going to be put off that easily. She opened the shower door, squeezed in and made her intentions known. Chimes first time! Thank goodness.
I don’t think either of them enjoyed it particularly. Ally marched off to the kitchen with a very determined look on her face. And as for Hassan, he got dressed and promptly reset back to his home in Al Simhara.
Tired after the pursuit of Hassan, I left everyone on free will for a while. Billy showed off his ball-control skills to Alison…
(Incidentally, what could she possibly be learning here?)
…until I remembered he had a job opportunity to complete and sent him off to the science lab. Wintergreen offered his mother a massage…
…while Sage spent the evening failing to make potions. (I forgot to take any screenshots but he somehow managed to get singed four times in a single evening, which may be some kind of record. A bad kind.)
Edelweiss had gone round to the Hemlocks’ after school. It was no surprise how she and Belisama chose to spend their time once their homework was finished
.
After a few hours, I realised that Billy ought to be home by now and found him, still at the lab.
And poor Valerian, abandoned by the rest of the family, passed out on the nursery floor.
