Growing Up Famous “Mummy, what’s a fusslander?”
“A fusslander? What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I was asking. Granddad said it.”
“When?”
“Last night. To you. He said, ‘Sue fusslander’. So what’s a fusslander?”
“No, sweetheart. What Granddad said was, ‘Sue for slander’. Slander means saying nasty things about people that aren’t true.”
“Kind of like bullying, then?”
“Yes, I suppose so. Yes, it’s a sort of bullying.”
“But I’m not a bully! Why did Granddad say I was?”
“Granddad? He wouldn’t…! Oh! He didn’t mean you. It wasn’t a ‘Susanna’ Sue. Sue’s a doing word as well as a name. It means taking the bad people to court. Making them own up to being nasty bullies.”
“Like telling a teacher?”
“Yes, sort of. And then they get punished. I hope.”
Jane sighed. Her daughter wasn’t having the easiest start in life. It was pretty tough on her, too. It had been a shock to find out how old Anderson was. She’d known he was considerably older, of course, but to discover that he was already sixty when they married…
He’d made the most of the time he had, taking an equal share in teaching Susie to walk and talk.
“Your mummy’s a great cook, Susie. She makes nice food. Can you say ‘food’?
“No? Well, maybe we’d better stop for a bit. I’m hungry and you probably want a bottle, too.”
“Hungry!”
Even discounting parental pride, it was obvious from the beginning that Susie was clever. She picked up all of her toddler skills at top speed and was soon ready for another cake.
That same evening, tragedy struck. In the space of an hour, Jane lost both her mother and her husband.
And now her darling daughter was worrying about the price of fame as well as grieving for the father she’d hardly known.
“Why would anyone do anything so horrid? What did we do to them?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all. It’s just because we’re famous.”
“Are we? Is that why I got that half-price fishing class?”
“Probably.”
“But I don’t want to be famous, Mummy! I just want Daddy back!”
“So do I, Susie. So do I.”
* * * * *
Time may not heal wounds, but it does make them easier to bear. Jane won her court case and threw herself into raising her daughter.
Susie and Robbie caught Jane’s enthusiasm for hunting insects. Both were fascinated by all things logical and scientific.
Then Rob had another birthday.
He asked for a Science Research Station as his main present.
A couple of days later, it was Susie’s turn.
Her present requests were more modest. She’d always loved water: now she wanted a decent fishing rod and some snorkelling equipment.
Sue and Rob grew closer as teens. They studied together for hours…
…but somehow both were too shy to take it further – at least, until the night of the afterschool club awards. Rob should have looked handsome in his formal suit. As it was, Sue thought he looked faintly ridiculous. In which case, why was it that she found him so attractive?
As usual, the journalists were lurking. They’d sort of got used to one or two hanging around the entrance during the school day but didn’t they ever go home? Maybe that was why Rob made such a mess of things. They were chatting in a friendly kind of way and then he tried to compliment Sue’s appearance.
It didn’t quite work. Couldn’t he have chosen better words? ‘You’re all green, like an alien – or a zombie’ wasn’t really the best way to a girl’s heart. Then he asked her to Prom. If the circumstances had been different, she’d have been only too happy to say yes. As it was…
The paparazzi loved it.
Fortunately, Sue wasn’t as socially awkward as Rob. When she saw how upset he was, she chatted for a while then drove him home in the Motive Mobile. Once they were safely inside the house,
she asked
him to Prom. He accepted.
The evening was a triumph. His performance of the Chicken Dance totally won her over. (OK, she was probably willing to be won.) Neither of them put a foot wrong all night. All their dance moves, however stupid, were eagerly taken up by the rest of the school. Sometimes fame could be a good thing.
The following day was Rob’s birthday. Sue pleaded and begged in a quite embarrassingly un-adult way until she was allowed to have a cake too.
And then they were grown up and ready to take on the world together.
Next chapter (interlude)More outtakesNext chapter of main story
Like Alex, Rob is named after two earlier Sims. One was the eldest of the fourth generation of my legacy family. Robert was a mad scientist. A very, very mad scientist. He was almost permanently stuffed, with garlic breath, until I got wise and started telling him to fertilise the garden with bell pepper instead.
Bob James was a professional author who specialised in satire.
His wife Suki was a Master of the Arts, who was primarily an artist. Bob and Suki were my Ambitions testers and were also first reserves for this dynasty. Susanna’s name is a vague nod to Suki but it was also the Name I Didn’t Quite Use in the Life States – Louisa was going to be Susanna until I changed my mind at the last minute.
