A Beautiful Cove: Let Me Loose (Fall 2014)
(Sim Directory Update)
Carlos Contender is 64 (Benjamin Baldwin is 38, Isabel is 35, Sofia is 8, Marcus is 4, and Jessica Peterson is 31)
It's one of those fall days when his niece's family comes to visit. The previous night had been so chilly there's now a layer of frost on the ground. That morning, as he went out to collect his paper, the grass crackled under his feet. Carlos has never been a fan of winter. This time of year had always been his off season; now every season is. Isabel, his niece, always asks him why he won't retire already.
Every time, he always gives the same answer: nostalgia. For his team, for the sport, for his glory days. He doesn't play anymore, he doesn't even coach. He just craves that feeling of walking down the street and still turning heads. Stadium dedications, fitness center opening ceremonies, he's done them all. Still does them. His name is still out there and he still can throw it around and have a pretty little thing on his arm at the end of the night.
Carlos knows Isabel doesn't understand it. On the other hand, he doesn't understand her. He could never do it; he could never settle down and have a family. For him, that's obscurity. With the life style he chose to have, it just wasn't an option; marriage and kids could never mix well with a lifestyle that was subject to constant change. Still, Isabel is his niece; since his brother died, Carlos has been keeping an eye out to make sure she and her family are doing well. They're doing fine without him though; they've recently moved into the nicer part of town, which Isabel is constantly aglow about. Always talking about how nice an influence it'll be on the children. Sometimes when he hears her go off like that, it makes him feel like she's the one watching out for him.
Benjamin arrives with the kids just before lunch. Marcus, who just celebrated his fourth birthday, is the first to get to Carlos. Isabel has been telling Carlos about how the kid has just found out about his great-uncle's soccer career. Looking at him now, Carlos can tell he's got stars in his eyes.
Benjamin takes Sofia inside to watch some TV program she can't miss; meanwhile, Carlos is outside with Marcus, who's been shyly looking up at him. Carlos can't help but grin at this. For some reason, Isabel, his amazingly outspoken niece, has managed to produce two passionate yet introverted children.
"So, I've heard you've taken a shine to my career?" Carlos asks Marcus.
Suddenly, it's as if the floodgates have open. Marcus begins talking animatedly, his hands waving around in that way only kids can manage.
Sofia is the same way. As Carlos sits down next to her, she reaches quietly over for a hug. When she pulls away, Carlos asks how her dancing classes have been. Suddenly, her eyes light up.
In no way is Carlos a family man, but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy the company of his great niece and nephew. He's proud of them too; Sofia's taken a shine to dancing, and it seems as if Marcus can't stop talking about sports. They're Contenders by blood, even if they are legally Baldwins.
-----
They've just finished lunch: hamburgers, made on Carlos' new grill, which he has not forgotten to show off to Benjamin. The kids are off again, exploring Carlos' home gym. Meanwhile, Carlos and Benjamin are enjoying some adult talk at the kitchen table. Recently, Isabel has been going to interviews, looking for a teaching position in one of the nearby schools. She's suddenly got it in her head that she wants to be a teacher and surround herself with more children, as if the two she has aren't enough.
Carlos hears the front door open, and the sound of footsteps fill the entrance to the kitchen. Carlos turns around to see his niece, who walks over to plant a kiss on her husband's lips.
"Hello," Benjamin says, smiling. "How did the interview go?"
She frowns. "Apparently they already already had a candidate they wanted to hire. Interviewing me was just a formality." She sighs, frustrated. "It shouldn't be this hard to find a teaching job around here." She smiles at Carlos, the first time she's acknowledged him since arriving. "Hello Carlos." She bends down to give him a kiss on the cheek and then sits down on the chair between him and Benjamin.
"How have the kids been?" she asks, trying to dispel the negative mood she walked in with.
"Great, actually," Carlos responds. "Marcus couldn't seem to run out of stuff to ask me about my career. Great kid."
"That's wonderful," she says warmly, smoothing a wrinkle in her dress that Carlos himself can't notice. "I'm glad he's found something he's passionate about." Then she's silent for a moment, and Carlos knows this isn't just some friendly visit.
"Alright," he says wryly, "what's this about?"
Isabel glances at Benjamin, who gets out of his chair and leaves the kitchen, muttering, "I'll go get the kids."
In an instant, Carlos is out of his chair with the intent of following him, but Isabel manages to catch him by the arm. "Carlos, I just wanted-"
"What, to lecture me, tell me how I shouldn't be living my life the way I am now?"
"No!" she cries, her frustration from before beginning to bubble up again. Her eyes wander the room before she bluntly states, "I've heard the town bicycle has been keeping you company lately."
Carlos snorts derisively. Of course, he should have seen this coming.
Isabel, sensing he isn't going to say anything beyond that, continues. "Carlos, if you really insist on maintaining this public persona, you really have to watch the people you surround yourself-"
"Isabel, if you haven't already forgotten, I'm a fully independent adult who is quite capable of making his own decisions."
"You don't think I'm aware of that? Look, Jessica Peterson just doesn't have a good reputation. If she's hanging around you, I'm sure she doesn't have good intentions." Seeing that Carlos hasn't shown any signs of budging, she sighs. "I'm just trying to watch out for you Carlos. I don't want you doing something you'll end up regretting. Especially with this woman."
Carlos grins wryly. "I've lived the past 60 years of my life without doing something I'll completely regret. It doesn't seem like it, but I do know what I'm doing." He reaches out to hug her. "Thanks for watching out for me as usual, but I can be the judge of my own decisions, even if they don't agree with you." He can tell she doesn't believe him still, but he looks her in the eye and says steadily, "Trust me."
-----
Of course, Carlos gets why his niece is so concerned. Jessica has a sketchy background, which she has willingly indulged to Carlos about. But they're both consensual adults that understand what's going on between them is nothing more than what it is; no commitments, no promises, nothing. They're having "responsible fun". At least, Carlos hopes this is true for the both of them. Sometimes, he's not sure though. Take today for example.
Before dinner, they went out shopping, per Jessica's insistence. "New jewelry," she had said over her shoulder as they headed into the shopping center downtown. Of course, Jessica's recent paycheck isn't nearly enough to cover what she has her eyes on, and Carlos pulls a few bucks out of his own wallet to pay for it. He doesn't mind too much; he has more than enough to go around.
Today's not the only time they've gone out shopping. However, this time, Jessica was a just little too focused on the rings that are on display. Her eyes had shone just as much as the diamonds, if not more so. She'd asked him what he thought of them, to which he had promptly looked the other way in response and muttered something about needing to use the bathroom. She didn't mention anything after that, but Carlos can't get his mind off of it.
He won't mention it any more than he has to though. He likes things just as they are.
-----
When Carlos gets a call from Jessica asking him to come over to her house one afternoon, he immediately gets a sinking feeling in his stomach. Of course, he gets calls from Jessica all the time, but this time it's different. There's an urgency in her voice, and in the two years they've known each other, she's only asked him over once. She'd said it was embarrassing, him being a star athlete while she's living in a trailer park in the seedier part of town.
He lets her know he'll be over later in the night; it'll give him enough time to let him play out his worst fears in his mind.
He's at her house at a little before nine o'clock. He can tell when she answers the door and ask him to sit down that she's irritated; it's been hours since her call and she's lost her steam for whatever she was planning to tell him.
They're silent for a moment as they sit, both wondering what to say. Carlos takes the moment to take in his surroundings. Everywhere he turns, it's pink. Pink tables, pink couches, pink counters... and all the while, he can't help but think it doesn't fit Jessica. It doesn't fit this moment. He'd take black, gray, blue, any other color but this. It's screaming at him, trying to throw happiness in his face when he feels it's going to be ripped from him in the next moment. He's already figured out what Jessica's called him over to tell him, and he's not ready.
It doesn't take long for Jessica to finally bite the bullet.
"Carlos," she breathes, "I'm pregnant."
Suddenly his resolve shatters and his readiness to accept whatever she was going to say disappears. All he can think of is that he doesn't want this. All of his life, he's had the cameras and lights focused on him, but now, in this dingy trailer, it feels as if the whole world is watching him and waiting. Suddenly, he's weak.
"But we used protection..."
"Accidents happen," she insists. When he doesn't respond, she continues. "What are we going to do about this, Carlos?"
It flashes through his mind that maybe the baby's not his, maybe she's just trying to set him up, to take advantage of him. He won't say his suspicions out loud though, he won't admit that maybe Isabel was just voicing his deeper concerns all along.
"Well I can't be a father. I can't." He doesn't know what else to say. His mind is reeling and all that time he put into mentally preparing himself has gone to nothing. "Damn it Jessica, I've never had kids before! You think I know how to raise one? I'm almost 65. If anything, I should be having grandchildren right now, not children of my own."
"You think I want this anymore than you do, Carlos?" she demands. "My last marriage fell apart because Armand wanted a kid." She gestures wildly at the area around them. "Does this look like a place I can raise a child by myself? I'm not asking a lot from you right now, only that you recognize that this is your child and your word that you will raise it as your own."
Carlos can only look at her, deep in his own thought.
"Besides," she says, "it wouldn't be so great for your reputation if people found out you had a child you weren't taking responsibility for."
He doesn't realize it until now, but his entire body has gone numb.
**********
Jason Cleveland is 46, Marissa is 45, and Justin is 16
Justin's mother is cooking breakfast when he enters the kitchen with the full intent of making a bowl of ramen just so he can hole back up in his room and play video games in peace. It's Saturday morning and both of his parents are home today; he plans on having minimal contact with them today, if at all.
However, it doesn't seem as though today he'll be as lucky as he hoped. As he's opening the microwave door, his mother turns around from the stove, her hand supporting a plate full of pancakes.
"Justin," she chirps, "I made breakfast today." He grunts. "I hope you plan on joining your father and I for breakfast. He's off of work today, and you know it's hardly ever we get a chance to enjoy a family meal."
He wants to say no, to just take his ramen and hightail it out of there, but he can feel his mom's eyes boring holes into his back, and he relents. So much for holing up.
Family meals are code word for "parent double team time". Justin's parents hardly ever get a chance to talk to him together, but when they do, they take advantage of it. Or at least, his mother does. When Justin's alone with his dad, sometimes he's able to forget that his dad can be just as harsh about being "successful". It's possible to watch a sports game without the topic of college or homework or grades coming up. When his mom's around though, his dad turns into someone that preaches to him words of wisdom about his future that his mom supports with nods and small motions of agreements.
Ever since they've moved to the richer side of town, his parents have been even more insistent on him getting "perfect" grades and gaining the "perfect" education, which only means going to Belladonna University. It being the fall of his junior year, his parents have been even more persistent about this, making sure he's doing all of his homework and having an ordered life. Over the summer his mother even got him into a training program with the military. She'd given him the brochure to the program with that smile plastered on her face, chattering about "rules" and "orders" and "discipline". He'd thought he'd hate it. He had thought that when school started up again, he'd stop attending. But this course has given him ideas about his future, ones his parents surely won't agree with.
"Marissa, did Justin tell you about his plans?" Jason begins once they've sat down at the dining room table.
"No, I'm afraid not," she responds. She looks at Justin, her eyes feigning curiosity.
Suddenly, Justin is on the spot, and the only place he can think to look is at his pancakes. "I'm going to join the military once I graduate," he says.
He'd let it slip to his dad one day when they'd gone out jogging. It'd felt right at the time; it was something he'd been mulling over in his head for a while, and if he was going to tell one of his parents, it was going to be his dad. Jason hadn't said anything at first. He'd kept staring ahead as they continued to jog, and they'd ran the rest of the block in silence, the only sound being the sound of their sneakers against the pavement.
At the dining room table though, there was no were to run as his mom's eyes narrowed. "What about college?" she asked, her voice edgy. "You know we have more than enough to provide for a good education for you."
"Well, the military program you enrolled me in got me thinking about what I do with my life," Justin says, trying to defend himself. "I don't see how this is any different from dad's job. I want to make some kind of difference in the world, not just as a lieutenant in a police force."
"Justin, you know this isn't about what job you eventually want to pursue," Jason insists. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to join the military. But I'm sure that when your mother enrolled you in that program she wasn't looking for you to want to join the military straight out of high school. She wanted you to take the discipline you gained and focus that in your studies. We just don't understand how you can't join the military after college."
There it is. The "we". The collective body that includes both of Justin's parents, and him, only if he'd be more willing to follow what his parents ask of him.
The tension in the room is thickening, and he's beginning to think only on impulse. "I guess you're right, but I don't need a college education to join the military." He can feel his mom tense up next to him, and he quickly adds, "but if it'll make you guys happy, I'll think about going to college, okay?" He knows they won't accept this answer, but he doesn't want to talk about it anymore. He shovels his pancakes into his mouth, making it evident that he wants the topic to be dropped. And they do drop it. At least for this day.
After breakfast Justin is on the phone in a heartbeat, dialing a phone number he's memorized to heart. After that talk, he feels as if the walls are starting to close in on him, slowly suffocating him. He needs fresh air and a chance to breathe, anything to get out of the house.
When the phone on the other end of the line picks up, he lets out a large breath, not realizing until now he's been holding it. He can hear the person on the other end is out of breath, breathing heavily as she greets him.
"Hey," he says. "You want to meet me at the park?" It's the one right across the street from his apartment complex.
There's a pause at the other end of the line. "You interrupted my workout just so you could ask me that?"
Justin manages a laugh. "Yeah, well, it's just my... "
"Your parents." She finishes his sentence for him. Another pause. "Alright, I'll meet you there in a few minutes, I have to change. You could not believe how bad I smell right now."
Justin grins. "I probably could." He grins even wider at the indignant cry at the other end. "See you in a few."
- - - - -
Allyn meets him at the park in ten minutes. If he hadn't been talking to her earlier, he would never had known she'd been going through her grueling workout routine.
Allyn Chung. They've been friends every since high school began, starting on the day she broke his nose for something he said about girls not being able to play sports.
"Okay, spill," she orders. "What's going on with your parents this time?" She examines his face, and guesses before he can answer. "You told them about joining the military?"
"Yeah," he says grimacing, the memory still fresh in his mind. "They want me to go to college first."
"Well why don't you?"
"Hey! That's easy for you to say!" He groans. "You're practically already in college." It's true; Allyn's been scouted by Belladonna University, and she's practically guaranteed a full scholarship to the school based on her soccer skills alone. It doesn't hurt she maintaining excellent grades in school too. "Whose side are you on anyways?" he mutters.
"I'm not on anyone's side," she retorts. "If anything, I'm on yours. But why not take into consideration what they're offering? If the military doesn't work out, you have something to fall back on."
"Then I can pursue a higher degree after I've had my time in the army. Look, it's not just about me figuring out what I want to do in the future." Allyn's staring at him intensely now, and he almost falters in what he has to say. "I just... I want to make it on my own, okay? Crazy as that sounds, considering how much my parents could support me if I wanted them to, this is what I want. I just need this, a chance to get away from them and a way to get to know other places instead of Belladonna Cove. You know? Some kind of freedom."
"It's not what I'd do, but I will support you, since you are my best friend. Just don't get too in over your heard, alright?"
He nods.
She pulls him up from the bench as she stands up. "Listen, I have to go. Unlike you, some of us still have college to worry about." A worried look must have passed over her face, because she squeezes his hand reassuringly. "Dude, you still have two more years to think about this. Don't freak yourself out." She starts walking back in the direction of her house, but turns over her shoulder to wave at him. "I'll see you around, 'kay?"
- - - - -
The clock has only struck noon when Marissa hears the front door of the condo opening and the footsteps of her husband at the entrance. Before she can say anything though, he envelops her in a hug, and she can feel his smile as his face brushes up against her cheek.
She's laughing as she pulls away. "You're home early," she observes.
"Well, I got a promotion at work today."
"Really now?"
"Yes, two of the sergeants down at the station were a bit sloppy in apprehending a bank robber. Needless to say, the way I dealt with them earned the attention of the chief, and he offered me the newly vacated position of SWAT Team leader."
Marissa can't suppress her own smile now. "Then we have to celebrate, don't we? I'll make a nice dinner for the three of us tonight."
The phone rings later that night. Justin's still not home yet from his military program and Jason is upstairs working on the computer. Marissa is first to the phone, though from the caller idea she already knows who it is before she picks up.
"Hello Jason," she says evenly into the receiver. It's ironic really, that his name is the same as her husband's.
"Marissa," he says smoothly in return. "You wouldn't happen to be busy this evening would you? One of my students has cancelled on me tonight, and I figured I haven't seen you in quiet a while."
"Of course, considering my son is no longer taking piano lessons with you."
"Well I'd like to think we were friends at least. Just to catch up with each other." Marissa hesitates as she sees Jason enter the room out of the corner of her eye. He continues. "I don't have many other free nights to do this."
She doesn't want to get into an argument at that moment, not with her husband standing there. So she relents, "Alright, I'll meet up with you later then."
He gives her the address of a restaurant downtown and hangs up.
"Who was that?" Jason asks, taking a seat on the couch, ready to watch tonight's soccer match.
"An old friend from university who's passing through Belladonna Cove, says she wants to meet up for tonight." She doesn't know why she's lying to him, but if he knows the truth she can imagine he won't be too happy about it. She smiles apologetically. "It doesn't seem as if we'll be able to have that celebratory dinner tonight."
"No worries, go have fun with your friend."
Besides, she thinks to herself, she kind of does want to see him again.
- - - - -
"I'm glad you could make it," Jason Mennon says to Marissa at the restaurant. "Proud wife of Lieutenant Cleveland was able to find some spare time for me, I'm honored."
"SWAT team leader, actually," she says proudly.
"Is that what he's doing now," he muses, chuckling. "Good for him."
"Anyways, our table is waiting for us." He gestures. "Shall we?"
Jason had taught Justin piano since he was in kindergarten, until he had dropped it at the beginning of sophomore year. During that time, as the one who brought Justin to those lessons, Marissa had slowly but surely developed a sort of friendship with Jason, which had begun with parent-teacher updates at the end of lessons and ended up in half-hour talks while Justin waited in the car with a book or video game for his mom to return. After Justin had stopped going to lessons, Marissa had barely seen Jason, never finding a reason to seek out his companionship, until now.
The one thing about Jason that's intrigued Marissa since the beginning is his occupation as a piano teacher. As the son of the former owner of Mennon Industries, it seemed only natural to her that he'd eventually end up with the company. That hadn't been the case however. He'd always brushed off her questions too, saying that life doesn't always end up how you expect it to.
He's always telling her to loosen up a little, have some more fun. She doesn't think she needs advice from him, considering she's perfectly happy with her own life, which have matched up with her expectations perfectly, minus her stubborn son. She does feel loose sometimes though around him, like she's letting go. It makes her uncomfortable.
"Thank you for indulging me," he says after dinner. "I've missed your company."
"And I yours," she admits out loud, for the first time this evening.
"That your son has stopped taking lessons with me shouldn't stop us from being friends, don't you think?"
"I suppose not."
"I'll try and keep in touch then." He smiles. "It was nice seeing you."
- - - - -
Justin has been thinking a lot. About school, about two years from now, about the military, but mostly about Allyn. It started when one of his guy friends told him, "You guys should date." Ideas have been floating in his mind ever since, and he can't help but wonder if they should.
He's probably been staring at her for a good while, because she breaks him out of his revery.
"Hey, still dazed from the fact that I kicked your ass at bowling?"
"What?" he spits out. "N-no. Just thinking."
She makes a face. "Man, you've been doing a lot of that lately, haven't you?"
He sighs to himself. Yes, but not in the way that she thinks.
When their food arrives, Allyn starts going on about how she's talked with the scouts and she's pretty much 100% sure that she'll be going to Belladonna University on full scholarship. He can't help but smile when he sees how happy she is, especially considering that they're only juniors.
This is the moment, he decides. There's less of a danger of coming out of this with a nose bleed while she's happy, as opposed to being in one of her moods.
He waits for a lull in the conversation before he takes the plunge. He's set his resolve, and he's going to stick to his guns. Even if he comes out of this looking like an stupid fool.
"Hey Allyn..."
"Do you want to go out on a date or something?"
She stares at him for a while. He's not sure what to make of her reaction, and his mind starts backtracking, trying to come up with a way in which what he just said was not what he actually meant to say. Something, anything.
He reaches for a bite of his burger when he hears Allyn laughing. He feels as if his worst fears are coming true, but then she pokes him in the side, saying, "Took you long enough dummy."
"You mean..."
"I was pretty sure I was going to take matters into my own hands if you didn't ask me yourself soon enough.
"So..."
"Yes, I will go out with you, even though you've been so angsty lately," she laughs, taking his hand. "Guess the rumors are true now, huh?"
He grins, and it's as if the room around him has opened up.
Justin figures as long as Allyn's supporting him, he'll be alright. If anything, he'll show his parents that he doesn't need a college education to make a place for himself in the world. He's set his resolve; there's no going back now.
**********
Timothy Riley is 35, Sally is 8, Vivian Cho is 33, and Etsu is 4.
It's their big day today. As Sally reaches up to give Timothy one more hug before they head to the hall they've rented for the morning, he feels a calm wash over him. He figures if there's one thing he shouldn't feel right now, it's nervousness.
When they get to the hall, Timothy finds Vivian dancing with Etsu. He lets them be for a moment, just watching, smiling.
She steps back from her daughter when she realizes that he's arrived.
"Hi," she says quietly, almost shyly.
"Are you ready?" he asks.
"More than ever."
They have a small ceremony in front of their daughters, in which they share wedding rings and vows.
They figure that since they've both done this before, with large, extravagant weddings, there isn't a need for there to be a second time for either of them. They'd both agreed to something small and low key; neither one had family around anymore, besides their daughters.
When the final words are spoken and their daughters begin to whoop and holler, Timothy takes Vivian's hand in his own, thumbing the golden band on her ring finger, and then pulls her in for a kiss.
Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Riley!
===== Author's Note =====
Warning! Large block of text ahead!
Thank you for reading my first official update for A Beautiful Cove! I'm so excited to finally have this off the ground, and I hope you enjoyed reading this. :) I'm a bit rusty with picture taking and writing, so as I begin to write more, hopefully I start to learn a little more and get into the hang of things.
My plan is that, after every update, I would write a bit about the characters and the story itself, and how exactly I can come up with these characters and plot lines based on the sims in Belladonna Cove. I figure it would be interesting for the readers to see how this thought process comes about. :)
If you've also noticed, at the beginning of the post is a link to the Belladonna Cove Resident directory, where I'll be posting updates on when sims age up and an index of sim profiles, which are currently still in progress.
This story begins about two years (if you can imagine that) after the initial Belladonna Cove that the player starts out with, As such, some of the toddlers as you can see have aged up to children. This has allowed me to develop the characters and relationships a bit more so I know what I'm getting into.
Since I've started playing Jessica Peterson, she's rolled up the want to marry Carlos. Carlos on the other hand, is not quite so keen on getting married as she is. I interpreted Jessica to be a something of a gold-digger, so I imagined that she'd take advantage of this pregnancy to somehow worm her way further into Carlos' life. Carlos rolled up the want to have a good reputation, so it seemed as if he would take responsibility for his child if only for the sake of not looking bad in the public eye.
Justin's a bit complicated. He has the LTW of becoming a General, which doesn't quite fit in with his mom forcing him to go into the military career track. I came up with the idea that he was forced in, but took an eventual liking to being in the military. He's never rolled a want to go to college, as opposed to his parents, who are always rolling wants for him to get a scholarship and to go to university. Thus arises the conflict of interest.
Justin's wanted to be friends with Allyn since he met her, so in game they're currently BFFs. Justin's bio says he's friends with Tara DeBateau, but beyond that, the Justin in my game has not shown any interest in being friends with Tara, so I didn't end up pursuing that. Justin and Allyn have chemistry, and via ACR, they're constantly flirting and kissing so I thought why not make it official. I'll see how their relationship progresses as they age up into adults.
Thank you for reading, and comments are greatly appreciated!