Chapter 4

It all started a long time ago when Erica’s great (times six) grandmother moved to Appaloosa Plains.  The old homestead is a vacant lot now, sadly and Erica did not want to have to build a house.

Erica found a farm for sale just down the road from where it all started.  The old couple who lived her previously had moved to be closer to their new great-grandchild.  It was a little outdated, but Erica knew that this was the place for her, Starweaver, Lily and Duchess.

She went straight to the school and enrolled and then it was off to find a job.

The animals were adjusting well to the new surroundings, even.  In fact, Lily got level 10 racing on the very first day.

Erica was shoveling hay when the censor blur came into view woohoo music started up.  I knew Starweaver and Lily were distantly related, but I was not aware they could woohoo.  They could not in Sunlit Tides anyway.

Erica had been on her own for almost two years now.  She came in after school one day and was quite surprised to see Katherine in her kitchen.

Erica:  What are you doing here?
Katherine:  Helping myself to dinner, hope you don’t mind.  It was a long trip.

As soon as the mac n’ cheese was done, the two girls threw themselves at each other.

Erica:   We were supposed to wait another year before contacting each other again.
Katherine:  It’s over.  Well, almost over.  Let’s eat and I will tell you over dinner.

Katherine:  Oh, this is so gross.  I might need a cooking class.  Anyway, I did what we agreed to.  I went around looking like a complete insane idiot and watched everyone and reported everything to Officer Macon and her partner.  It turns out that Shannon and Stanley were paying burglars to do the exact same thing in the hopes of trying to find out what happened.  The so-called witness to them buying accelerant was none other than that moron Andre Broke that you had Kimberly flirting with.  God, he was so gross. Turned out he was screwing that Eloise chick.

Katherine:  It will be years before the tourism board can call that hellhole a paradise again.  So, then Kimberly went all crazy and killed Andre right in front of the cop shop.  You have heard about all of this right?
Erica:  I got a copy of the police file and Officer Macon calls to check in once or twice a month.  I knew everything except that Stanley and Shannon were trying to solve things too.  You still have not answered why you are here or why you did not call for almost two years.

Katherine:  Well, I guess you know I was tied up in a barn for almost six months.  Clint came up to kill me, but I got away.  When Officer Macon got me home, things were horrible.  My nightmares kept the family up every night.  I did not last long there.

Erica: That was the last time any of us heard from you, you know.  You should have called.
Katherine:  I was safe.  I just needed to get away.  I had court ordered psychological testing and I ended up seeing a very nice doctor, but he thought I should go away to a facility that was better prepared for the trauma I suffered.  I am doing better, a lot better now.  Clint was charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.  The jury convicted him and he was sentenced to 15 years.  Sadly, Deuce is still free.  They think the rest of the Mercer and Broke clans have been hiding him away.

Katherine:  I was not sure what was going on with us when I headed out this way.  I bought a house just down the road with some money my parents put away for me.  I think I should really go on home now, it is getting late and there is school enrollment stuff that have to be faxed to my parents in the morning so that I can go to school and hopefully graduate on time.

Erica convinced Katherine that she should just move in and leave the house for her parents who might want to come visit some day.  Katherine did not even think about it before she agreed.

———

Time was passing slowly.  Both girls quickly shot to the top of their class and teen careers.  They kept their dates casual.  Erica enjoyed playing her dad’s guitar whenever she got a chance.

They had daily dates, which were enjoyable and fun.

At one point, Erica even asked Katherine to be her girlfriend.

The only problem the girls had was with Duchess.  Duchess had a crush on Patches.  Maisy Miller did not want her purebred anywhere near the Vinson mutt.

Then it happened.  Maisy was livid!  She chased Duchess halfway down the block with a shoe.  It would have been funny, except Duchess almost got hit by a truck.

Erica hated to do it, but it seemed that Duchess might need to be penned up to keep her away from Patches and Maisy.

Schoolwork came easier to Erica than it did Katherine.  It probably did not help that Erica was constantly trying to play footsie with her.

Katherine:  It’s our birthday, why do we have to finish this junk up?
Erica:  Just hurry up.  I got our cakes out already.

Katherine:  After all we have been through in the last four years, I can’t believe we are only now becoming adults.
Erica:  I think we were adults longer than we were ever allowed to be teens.

The girls enjoyed their cake immensely.

Erica had to have some trait changes for her job as an International Super Spy, so she bought a potion for it.
She is now Rebellious, Genius, Artistic, Athletic and Neat.

I laughed pretty hard when Katherine moved in.  She already had DNA specialist locked in.  Good, Family-Oriented, Perceptive, Friendly and Athletic.

With their teen jobs paving the way, the girls transition into being traffic cops, bypassing the need to go to the police academy.  Afterwards, they raced each other to the science lab to take logic classes.

Erica:  I have a great idea.  It’s graduation day now, and we have no work.  Let’s go out and maybe eat at the diner.
Katherine.  Sure, I am not that tired anyway.

Of course, in order to go on said date, they had to liplock no less than 800 times.

Erica:  I know this is not the perfect spot, but will you marry me anyway?
Katherine, was shocked and excited.  She said yes, of course.

Graduation was done early since they were just around the corner after their perfect date.  They both graduated with honors.  Erica was voted most likely to take over the world and Katherine got most popular.

I then watched them flirt, kiss and hug for eons afterward.  I finally had to check.

No wonder they can’t keep their hands off each other.  I don’t think they are going to remain virgins for very much longer, although I am not going to instigate any of it.  I want them at level 6+ before I worry about kids.

Things went slowly that first year together.  They both decided to to concentrate on their careers.

Erica even found time to meet some of the weird neighbors that always seemed to show up at her door.

They still found time to flirt and have fun, but so far neither one were inclined to take it further.

They both really loved the old farmhouse and even took time to redecorate it.  It was so nice to play chess in the light.  The room had been so dark and ugly before.

They also found it fun to distract each other by flirting their way through the game.

Each piece was replaced by a different, more expensive piece.  I added extra lighting and some painting from the family and also job reward objects like Roarke’s fox thingy from the evil branch in Generation 5.  The room is a lot more pleasant now.

With the household almost empty, it was not surprising when Duchess had three pups born.  The one on the right and the one with its back turned are identical.  The one on the left is the one they kept.  EA chose Yumi for her.  Her brother and sister are Petunia and Bear.

As they start progressing at work, the Paprazzi are getting more annoying.  Erica and Katherine start worrying that their exploits will get back to Sunlit Tides.

Katherine warns him off and Erica was pretty excited over something a pup was doing and not paying attention to what was going on behind her.

Lily found herself wanting to set fire to things.  She definitely didn’t want to destroy her home, so she went across the street to the old Loveland place.

Katherine and Erica were horrified to smell smoke and went to investigate.  They thought nothing of it to see Lily watching the blaze.

Erica shooed Lily back towards the house and then the two battled the fire.  Luckily it was pretty easy to put out.

Katherine was excited that the fire was out, but Erica was listening to Gracie’s accusations that Lily started the fire.  Could Lily have done something that destructive?

She promised Gracie that she would keep an eye on Lily in the future.

Magic unicorn or not, both girls scolded Lily who just looked at them disdainfully and went to play with her ball.

It was all too much for the girls and they finally consummated the relationship.

Several times.

The pups finally celebrated their birthday.  Petunia and Bear are no residing over at the Miller house.  Maisy did not seem happy, but oh well.

She is just too cute.

It was not long before Duchess had her elder birthday.

Even more surprising was when this little girl was born.  EA decided her name should be Booty and the girls just shrugged and left as is.

She might be cute and all, but the girls realize that there is something off about her.  They also noticed that Lily seemed more like her sweet self again.

 

The girls finally got promotions at work to level 4.  They hated that fact that they were now required to spy on their neighbors and write reports on them.  Katherine thought it was one thing to spy on your town to solve a murder and quite another to spy on a town for no good reason.  Erica said that maybe it was to make sure no one was plotting anything or prevent bad things from happening.  Katherine was not so sure, but she did her duty anyway.

If the two weren’t so loaded, this piece of Supernovium they fished out of the garbage would have excited them.  It must be nice to just toss $5,000 into an inventory and forget it exists.

After so long, the couple finally decides to tie the knot.  It was a private wedding since neither of them were really good at making friends.

They kissed to seal the deal and were ready to start the next chapter in their lives.

————-

Ugh.  The girls were so unexpected.  They both showed that they were straight in Sunlit Tides.  I had some concern ending the Vinson family back where they started.  I just needed to avoid Gussie Bell, Imogen Pelly and the Singleton guys and also Cruz Martingale, I figured the others in town were fair game.

So when this happened when I put Katherine in town, I was quite shocked.  I wanted to build them up to best friends, but things took a strange turn.

So then this happened and I figured they would have been secretly dating in Sunlit Tides instead of best friends. 

It was also halfway through the play session (just after Lily’s wild hair to set a fire) that I realized that autonomous woohoo was turned off to prevent July and Keith from mass producing (and the settings carried over from the move).  So, I did turn them back on, but the TFB and risky chances were both set for 10%.  They have a long time to go before I want to add kids to this.  If the first child is a female, they probably won’t have anymore.  Especially since that child would have to have 10 kids.  So far so good though, they now screw around the house and no babies yet.  

I did not want to add another horse into the house, so when I realized that Lily and Starweaver could mate, I let them.  Then when I went to check on something, I realized that she was not connected to the family.  Then I remembered that her parents were alive and forgotten in Sunlit Tides.  I will have to fix that and reconnect Lily, which makes it funny that Booty is an aggressive hateful little thing.  Must be inbreeding.