Spring 2012 - Elementary and Jr./ Sr. High School

New Eden Elementary and Jr. / Sr. High School 2012 - Melody Harris - Kindergarten, Elsa Straight - 1st grade, Bryce Ebadi and Bridget Ebadi - 2nd grade, Lance Huffington - 3rd grade, Kendra First - 5th grade, Sierra Thaytowski - 10th grade, Augustus Thaytowski - 11th grade, Dana Todd, Bryan Carson - 12th grade

 

This school year was going to be a new experience for Hope.  Since the hood had not yet found a replacement for Jessica's position as the elementary school teacher, Hope was going to be pulling double duty.

She gave the older students some brief instruction while the younger children were at recess, then set them up on independent study, doing research papers and preparing oral presentations.

The students had expressed an interest in robot building and the school was able to budget some money to purchase the tools to allow the students to experience shop class as well.

With the older students settled, Hope focused on the younger students.  She knew this must be a confusing time for them, so she wanted to make sure they felt comfortable and felt free to discuss any feelings they had or ask any questions that were on their minds.

She decided to push the desks aside and sit in a circle on the floor and have a little chat before starting their lessons for the semester.

Bridget's metaphor of her mother's passing being like her leaving on a very long trip to a place far away, provided a natural segue to the day's lesson on geography and foreign cultures.

"What are some things you are curious about places that are far away from here and about the sims that live there?"

Bryce spoke up, "I would wonder if they play the same kinds of sports and games that we do."

"I bet they do," Lance added.  "Just think, if you lived where there was snow and mountains, you;d probably go skiiing all the time.  There's no where to ski here."
Melody added, "Other places might have different kinds of birds and animals."

"Those are all good thoughts.  What about food?  Do you think sims in other lands eat the same type of food that we do?"

"No, and I don't think I'd like the kind of food that they eat.  I only like my food."

"You never know," Hope replied.  "If you tried it, you might find something new that you really like."

"I heard in some places around the world, sims eat bugs."

Bryce frowned at his sister.  "That's disgusting.  Can we go back to talking about sports instead?"

"I heard there are even places where sims eat rats."

"Ew.  Seriously, stop it.  Let's talk about something else."

Hope posed another question.  "What do you think about traveling to other nations and meeting sims from around the simworld?"

Elsa thought it would be great to make lots of new friends.  Bryce thought other sims from places far away would be too strange and foreign.

Hope then shared with the students the culture of her homeland, a nation that constantly had to rebuild, that was ravaged by continual storms, and considered the number three, incredibly unlucky.

After their discussion, Hope sent the children to the art room to work on creative projects.

The older students, Kendra and Lance used the easels, while the younger ones gathered around the coloring table.

They were to come up with their own civilization and draw a picture to represent it.

When it was time to break for lunch, Hope continued the international theme, by ordering Chinese food.  Even Bryce, who seemed so adverse to foreign foods gobbled it down quickly and was asking for seconds.

Winter 2011 - Jr./Sr. High School

Violet Cormier, Owen Rossi, Geneva Rossi - 12th grade, Augustus Thaytowski, Bryan Carson - 11th grade, Sierra Thaytowski, Dana Todd - 10th grade

This year the students' studies focused on physical education and health class.  They started with basketball

and then moved outside for some soccer.

The soccer game was cut short by a rainstorm

so the class headed inside for their health lesson.

Class went well until it was time to put the books away and finish class for the day.

Then Bryan and Sierra were at it again.  Hope was beyond frustrated with the pair of them.  Why wouldn't they just listen and behave themselves? What was it going to take to get through to them that this was no acceptable.

Soon it was the end of the school year and time for graduation.  This year three sims were graduating, Violet Cormier, Geneva Rossi, and Owen Rossi.  She was proud of all of them and she could tell their family members in the audience were proud as well.

Tosha thought her sister-in-law looked beautiful in her pretty pink dress.

"Please join me in congratulating our graduates and wish them the best as they continue on with their education and the next stage of their lives."

As the applause died down, the girls celebrated with some good natured punches.
The only thing missing at the graduation was Miss Ebadi.  Before her accident, Jessica had talked about having a dance for the high school students.  Hope didn't know much about how high school dances were supposed to be, since she came from a hood that was removed from SimNation customs, but the students had a lot of ideas and worked hard to help plan the evening.

They rented out a local club for the night.  Hope and Neil Hayes chaperoned the event.

They even got the internationally known band Aerial Bionic to play, since band member Gareth Thayer was also uncle to two of the students, Augustus and Sierra.

Owen still hadn't learned that bragging about being a teenage father was not the way to impress the girls.
"I got to go visit Charlotte and the baby, he was so cute.  I think he's going to look just like me when he gets older."

At least it was not the way to impress Sierra and she wasn't afraid to say so.
"The two of you were so dumb.  How could you get her pregnant?  She was way, way too young to have a baby and so are you."

"You don't know what you're talking about!  You don't have the right to judge me or Charlotte . . . no wonder nobody likes you . . . Hey, Dana, do you want to dance?"

As Owen and Dana danced together, Sierra turned around and cried.  Why did all the guys at school have to be such jerks?

Meanwhile, Violet and Bryan got up on stage with the band to share a slow dance.  Trevor seemed to think it was kind of cute,

but when they started making out on stage in the middle of their song, Gareth couldn't hide his annoyance.  This was the last time he'd agree to do something as menial as a high school dance, whether it was family asking or not.
As chaperone, Hope jumped in.  "Bryan Carson!  Violet Cormier!  Get down from there this instant!"

The kids seemed to have a fun time dancing.  Geneva and Augustus and Owen and Dana coupled up on the dance floor and danced exclusively with each other all night.

When they got tired of dancing they grabbed some refreshments and chatted.

Bryan was having a good time for the most part, but seeing Sierra just reminded him of the fights he'd lost to her and how humiliated she made him felt.

Violet noticed him giving Sierra the evil eye and stepped in to distract him.  She reminded him that they were having a fun night and that they wanted to keep it that way.  He agreed knowing that he was already on thin ice after the incident in health class.  He was lucky that Miss Miguel let him attend the dance at all.  He knew how much this night meant to Violet and didn't want to do anything to ruin it.

Unfortunately, Sierra didn't have anyone to distract her and once Bryan was free for a moment, she started insulting him again.  Luckily for Bryan, Miss Miguel was there to witness the whole thing.  Sierra clearly was the one instigating their confrontations. 

Since she was not making an effort to get along, Hope sent her home.  She was not going to tolerate any fighting from either of them any longer.

The students looked like they were having so much fun on the dance floor that Hope had the urge to join them. She asked Neil to dance with her, but after a few fumbled footsteps left them feeling awkward, they decided to just focus on chaperoning the kids.

At midnight the band signed off and the students lined up for pictures before they had to head home and call it a night.

Since they seemed to naturally fall into pairs over the course of the night,

they decided to take pictures as couples.

They each left with a keepsake that some of them would take with them to college next fall and the others would keep as reminders of friends that went ahead while they are finishing their last years of high school.

Winter 2011 - Cormier

Winter 2011 - Rich (28), Tosha (28), Violet (17)



After what happened to Jessica Ebadi, the darkening storm clouds made Tosha apprehensive.  She was eager for these autumn storms to go away and hoped the weather this winter would be more peaceful.

Rich could tell how shaken his wife was about the accident and did his best to comfort her.  It came as a shock to him too.  He knew Jessica very well from teaching with her at the Jr./ Sr. High School.  She was only a few years older than he and Tosha, so the news of her unexpected passing hit close to him.

He knew with her death the school system would be lacking for teachers.  No one had approached him about getting his old job back, but he had a feeling that if he wanted it, it would be his for the taking.  He wasn't sure if he wanted to return to teaching.  He thought this might be a good opportunity to explore something different.

He was taking advantage of his time off, getting caught up on household chores that he never seemed to have time for during the school year when he was teaching, and getting ready for the new baby.  Their house was fairly small with only two bedrooms.  He and Tosha had the master bedroom of course and Violet had the much smaller bedroom.  She often complained about how cramped the space was, but there wasn't really any room to spare.  When the baby was born, he or she would sleep in a crib in the master bedroom.  By the time he or she was ready for their own room, Violet would be away at college (with any luck).  Still Rich was thinking about adding on to the house.  As he looked at the house and started to get new ideas, he started considering architecture as a possible career. With all of the building projects going on in the hood, he was sure James McMillian could use some assistance.

He also had a second possibility for his new career.  He wondered if he could make it as a writer.  So he sat down at the computer and started coming up ideas for a novel.  He knew writing a novel would take a lot of time, but he had time at the moment and working from home would be ideal with the new baby on the way.

Rich and Tosha were both really excited about the new baby.  They had wanted to start their family earlier, but getting pregnant took longer than they had anticipated.  Tosha was glad that Robin was pregnant again.  It was nice to have a friend who was going through the same thing at the same time to talk about her pregnancy with.

Things in the household were about to change in a major way, so the family took the time to enjoy the quiet moments before the baby came and before Violet left for college to watch a movie together.

Nine months of pregnancy went by quickly and soon it was time for the baby to come.

Rich was relieved that mother and baby made it through the delivery safely.

He and Violet were excited that the baby girl was finally here.  They named her Rosalyn after Rich and Violet's mother, Rose.

Tosha still had a few days of maternity leave left after Rosalyn was born, but being homebound during her pregnancy was giving her cabin fever.  She handed Rosalyn over to her daddy and ventured out to the grocery store to restock the refrigerator.

She was delighted to run into Robin while she was there and tell her friend how well things were going with the baby.

Things were going well for Violet too.  She had really hit the books during the last few years and managed to get her grades up to a passing level.  She had applied to New Eden University without high hopes that she would get in, but her charisma not only helped her ace her interviews and get accepted, but also earned her a scholarship as well.

She adored her little niece and offered to help out with the baby as much as she could.

But when it came to changing smelly diapers, she did not mind handing Rosalyn over to one of her parents.  She was learning first hand how hard taking care of a baby could really be.

Tosha seemed to come to motherhood naturally.  She enjoyed spending time with her baby girl, but was eager to get back to her work as an oceanographer.

It broke her heart anytime the baby cried or was unhappy.

Violet was nervous when Ms. Miguel called the house one evening to talk to her.  She was terrified that something was wrong with her grades and that she might not be graduating afterall, but she had nothing to worry about.  To her relief, Ms. Miguel was making calls to all of the graduating seniors to congratulate them and talk to them about their plans for graduation and beyond.

Violet wasn't sure what she was going to study in college or what career she would pursue after her education was finished.  She didn't know what the future might hold, but she hoped that Bryan would be a part of it.

As excited as she was about going to college, the achievement was bittersweet, because Bryan still had another year before he graduated high school and could join her at university.  She knew she would miss their lively discussions,

and being able to see him whenever she wanted.  She wanted to make sure he would never forget her.  She decided she was ready to take things to the next level before the next year would take them apart.

But their plan was not well thought out.  Rich couldn't believe they were stupid enough to try using their bed while both he and Tosha were both home and Rosalyn was sleeping in the crib three feet away.  He was just relieved that he caught them before anything actually happened.

He immediately sent Bryan home and decided it was time to have another talk with Violet before she left for school.

But first she let her walk Bryan out and say goodnight, provided that she was back inside in five minutes.

Once Bryan was gone, Violet was safely alone in her room, and Rosalyn was asleep, Rich and Tosha decided to put the bed to good use.  It might seem a little soon to start thinking about baby number 2, but with as long as it took for them to get pregnant with Rosalyn, they decided not to wait.