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 2010 - Jr. / Sr. High School

Maia Hayes, Sofia Hartman -12th grade, Violet Cormier, Owen Rossi, Geneva Rossi - 11th grade, Augustus Thaytowski, Bryan Carson - 10th grade, Sierra Thaytowski, Charlotte Platz - 9th grade

This semester was Hope's first teaching the students and since Rich had gotten fired she was doing it on her own.  The subject of focus for the semester was home economics.  The students started out in the morning, learning how to sew.  Each student created a simple potholder of their own design.

Charlotte Platz was late for class.  Hope knew that she hadn't been feeling well lately, so she excused her this time, but told her she needed to be more punctual from now on.

Once the students had finished their sewing projects they went up stairs to do research.  They were to research and write a report related to cleaning and devise a meal plan that they could cook themselves.

Once the papers were turned in and the meal plans approved, the students headed down to the cafeteria to try their hands at cooking.  Today they would be preparing their own lunches.

Hope was close on hand in case anyone had troubles in the kitchen.  By the results and differences in complexity of their meals, she could tell the students had a wide range of cooking skills and experience in the kitchen.

She was glad that, for the most part, students were getting along.  Except for Sierra and Bryan who still had to be kept separated from each other, the other students were all becoming friends.  She was pleased to have a close-knit group.

She was beginning to develop a closer relationship with the students too.  She was glad that they were feeling comfortable enough with her to confide in her when they needed someone to talk to.

She wished she was getting to know some of the other sims in the neighborhood better.  Sometimes she longed for adult conversation and someone to confide in herself.  Especially now that she was faced with a problem she was not expecting to have to deal with when she took this job.

She had noticed, for the last several weeks that Charlotte Platz was not acting like herself.  She was often late for class or asked to be dismissed early because she wasn't feeling well.  She always seemed tired and was becoming withdrawn.  Her personality was changing and so was her style of dress.   She started wearing baggy clothes and looked like she was gaining weight.

Concerned, Hope had Charlotte pay a visit to the doctor for a check-up.  The results shocked her and she immediately called in Charlotte's parents, Bethany and Chandler who still lived in Eden.  She dreaded making the call, but it had to be done.  How do you tell the parents whose fourteen year old daughter, who is under your care, is pregnant?

As soon as the Platzes arrived, Hope scheduled an emergency meeting with them and the boy who had gotten her pregnant, Owen Rossi, and his mother.

"I can't believe this.  How could you have done this?" Alexis hissed under her breath as they waited in Hope's office for Hope and Charlotte.  "What are you going to do about this?"

"I could ask her to marry me," Owen offered with a shrug.

"Marry you?  Are you kidding!  You are too young to get married and she is way too young to think about getting married."

"I know we're young, but maybe we could just get engaged at least and wait a few years to get married . . ." his voice trailed off quietly when he noticed the hateful glare, Charlotte's mother was sending his way.

"I don't think the two of you realize how serious this is," Alexis whispered as Charlotte strutted in.

"I know it's serious," Owen replied.  "But I think we can make it work.  Charlotte and I are best friends.  Isn't that what marriages are supposed the be based on, friendship?  I want us to stay the best of friends forever."

Hope mustered a smile as she entered the room, trying to put on a brave face.  "Thank you all for coming in today.  This is a difficult situation, but I feel if we all come together and discuss what's happened, we can work something out."

She felt so bad for the Platz's.  They had the comments you would expect, such has how could such a thing have happened.  Hope apologized profusely about what happened.  She knew that they had trusted their daughter's care to her and she had let them down.

After the initial upset, Bethany's motherly instinct kicked in.  She wanted to make sure that she was eating right and taking care of herself.

Then came the question of what they were going to do.  Charlotte wanted to keep the baby.  She promised she would work hard to take care of it and to get through school.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is going to be for you to take care of a baby.  You're still a child yourself.  You shouldn't have to work so hard.  You should be a kid.  You can't be a parent."

Charlotte hated to hear it, but she knew her father was right.

"I can't believe you got yourself into this situation," he muttered.  "You're too young for this type of behavior."

"But it was our first time," Owen declared.  There was a little too much pride and excitement in his voice for Charlotte's father's liking.

"It doesn't matter if it's your first time or not.  Pregnancy can happen at anytime, especially if you aren't being careful and using protection," Hope said, gently, trying to tone the tensions in the room down a notch.  She made a mental note that maybe sex education should be added to the curriculum next year.

Bethany looked down in shame, the situation was too much for her to bear.  "First we were told that our son had died while at college.  Now we're told our teenage daughter is pregnant.  We sent our children to New Eden, hoping they would have better lives, but look how it turned out.  We never should have let either of them move so far away from us."

Hope felt a great deal of sympathy for the Platzes.  She could only imagine what they had gone through over the last year and what they were going through now.

"I know things look bleak now and it's hard to look ahead, but I truly believe every cloud has a silver lining somewhere."

"Right," Bethany said decisively.  "We'll just have to make the best of a bad situation and hope for brighter days ahead."

The meeting concluded, Charlotte was sent to her room to pack her things and say goodbye to her friends.  She would be traveling back to Eden with her parents where they would take care of her and the new baby when it was born.

I love when sims conversation bubbles work out well with what they are supposed to be discussing.  The topics and expressions were all them.  I couldn't have staged it better myself.