The Tanakas - Round 2

Starring:

Yuuna Tanaka, Elder Family Sim, LTW Marry Off 6 Children

Inari Tanaka, Child Family Sim, LTW Grow Up Well

Aki Tanaka, Child Popularity Sim, LTW Grow Up Well

~*~*~*~*~

Last time at the Tanakas, Yuuna nearly lost it trying to handle then-toddler grandchildren Aki and Inari, despite the help of teen grandchildren Jiro, Mariko, and Kimi. Even with the help of a butler, and later a nanny, couldn't keep the house afloat. The teens moved out to university, and things finally started to become manageable when the toddlers grew into children. Can things continue on an upward swing this winter? We'll see.

Yuuna and her two youngest grandchildren, Aki and Inari, sat in front of the television on a cold Sunday morning. They were all slowly becoming closer, in part because of their shared love for cuisine.


Yuuna still wasn't the best caretaker in the world, though, and the children came to accept that and learne to become independent in the house. They could bake in their oven if they were hungry, call the repairman if something broke, and clean nearly everything in the house thanks to necessity and practice. They made a bit of time to spend with Yuuna, true, but mostly they stuck together and ignored the rest of the world.


They giggled, gossiped, and played at all hours of the day, and they always managed to get themselves in bed and up in the morning to go to school. They were both extremely bright children, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to know that if they got in trouble at school, Yuuna might come down on them harder and start paying more attention to what they did.


Instead, they were happy to govern their own lives, pretty much autonomous.


Yuuna, having heard from her friend Santiago Villalobos that energy-producing elements could help alleviate bills, invested her last few thousand dollars in some wind turbines. When her next set of bills was due, she got a refund instead of a bill, and that money went toward a telescope for Inari and a sewing machine for her.



She couldn't afford to buy the children clothes, but if she got talented enough, it was possible she could make them some, she reasoned.


She could usually make a few items a day in the quiet while the children were at school, then took a nap just in time to wake up refreshed and ready to play with Aki and Inari as they got home.


They were so bright, they hardly needed her help in learning to study, but she dilligently stood by while they worked anyway.


Both of the children admitted that even though they could get tutoring at school if they needed it, Yuuna's help did make the job of studying and doing homework go faster than if they attempted it on their own.



All that hard work paid off, and their grades went slowly up, from a C to a B. With such rocky beginnings transitioning from toddlers to children, they started in the hole, but they were determined to work their way out.


After only another few days, they were both up to A+ report cards, and Inari immediately rushed off the bus waving her grades at Yuuna, excited that they had done it. Yuuna knew she didn't exactly have that much to do with their success, but it made her proud nonetheless. Not only that, with grades so high, she thought she could likely get the children into private school.


That night, she invited the headmaster over and greeted him at the door. She gave Inari the job of showing the headmaster the house while she made dinner. Inari started showing the man around, and when Yuuna went to the refrigerator, she panicked: there wasn't anything in the fridge except an old salad and a few frozen dinners! How could she have been so scatter-brained again!? "I'll ruin their chances!" she exclaimed softly, wringing her hands.

The telephone caught her eye, though, and she dialed swiftly to the market to order a delivery. If only they could stall. Inari had already finished with the tour

"Aki!" she whispered forcefully, when she found the boy playing with his blocks. "Go relieve your sister and chat to the headmaster. Tell him about your parents and how hard you've been working in school. Just keep talking until I call you for dinner, alright?" The little boy nodded and bounded up the stairs.


Finally, as night settled in, Yuuna finally had received her delivery and made pork chops, calling them all down for dinner. By that point, Aki was so exhausted, he simply went to bed.


Nevertheless, it was Aki who impressed the headmaster the most, and as he shook Yuuna's hand goodnight, he expressed his great enthusiasm for having such bright and promising children set to join Rosebud Academy. Yuuna sighed a huge sigh of relief and collapsed into bed, not even bothering to clean up the dinner dishes first.


The next morning, the children woke up early to find the whole world covered in a blanket of snow so deep they could hardly push the front door open. It was a snow day at school, and they tiptoed around the house so as not to wake the exhausted Yuuna, playing, watching tv, and eating in their pajamas.


They weren't so lucky as to have two days off, though. The next day, the snow melted a bit, the roads were cleared, and they headed off to their first day at Rosebud Academy. Apparently, most of the students there weren't very fit because Inari found that she was way stronger than most of them. It suited her fine. She was used to playing with boys anyway, having grown up with one.


Yuuna stayed home and spent every day sewing away at her sewing table, making what seemed like a parade of potholders until finally, she felt comfortable trying something new. She found a few new patters for teddy bears and curtains and set to work trying her hand at the more challenging items.


That afternoon, Aki brought a friend home from school, the pretty Tessa Ramirez. She was the smartest girl in Aki's science class, and he was pleased to find she wasn't at all stuck up either. "Hey, do you wanna stay for our birthday?" Aki asked her. "Me and my sister?" "Okay," Tessa said, shrugging.


In the kitchen, Yuuna had placed a cake for each child, and Inari stood to ponder a birthday wish. "I wish to have pretty, smart babies someday!" she thought, and blew out the candles. She grew up into a beautiful teen right before their eyes.

Inari Tanaka, Teen Family Sim, LTW Become Education Minister

Aki was next, and he pondered his wish just as carefully. "I wish to know lots and lots and lots of people and always be really cool and popular and have a dog." He blew out the candles, and poof, he became a teenager.

Aki Tanaka, Teen Popularity Sim, LTW Have 20 Simultaneous Pet Best Friends

They all gorged themselves on cake and turned in for the night. Winter was giving way to spring, they could feel it in the air, and great things were on the horizon for them, if they just kept up their good work.


Next up, follow the Rosebud teens to University. Will Alain, Fiona, Caitlin, Enzo, Paolo, and Vincente sink or swim in the big new world of Sim State? Will Jiro, Mari, and Kimi be able to build up the status of their greek house, the Oresha Cham House, before they graduate? Stay tuned to find out.

~*~*~*~*~

Scoring:

No new points.

Net worth to be added to the neighborhood total: $26,742

[[Author's Notes: Boy, this was a brief update, huh? They're a pretty simple household. The kids play, skill, do their homework and eat muffins, and Yuuna sews and sleeps. That's pretty much it. I hope I can get Yuuna up to making clothes before she dies. I decided that since I gave all the other oldies in the 'hood a swig of elixir, I would give her one too, to make it fair/even. Only problem is that no one in the house has enough aspiration points to get it! Thankfully, she survived the round, though, and the older teens have aspiration points coming out their ears, so one of them will foot the "bill" for the elixir when they return to the family home. Nothing much else of note to say other than I love green energy solutions!!!]]

This Entry's MP3:
I Can Do It Without You by Kaiser Chiefs (from the album Yours Truly, Angry Mob)

Bloopers:
Not a blooper, but awwww. // I dare Maxis to find a domestic cat who will do this.