Fall 2012 - Huffington

Heather (35), Lance (8), Jimmy London (32)

Finances were tough for Heather.  She had been struggling to get by as a single mom with only child support payments and her small salary from her minimum wage job.  Now that the hood was collecting loan re-payments, and the value of her lot was very high, she was in over her head. 

She did have a few options.  Her first thought was to get a roommate.  Her lot was actually designed as a commercial building.  She and Lance only occupied the first floor of the building.  The entire upper floors were completely vacant.  She talked with Jimmy about possibly renting the upstairs and he readily agreed to the suggestion.  But most of his funds were tied up in his newest business venture and he didn't have much cash to help out at the moment.

After considering her options, Heather decided the best thing to do was to move.  There was a small, two bedroom house that had been vacant for a few years.  The house was cute.

And once she decorated it to her liking, it was a much better fit for her and her son.  After purchasing some modest, but stylish furnishings, Heather had plenty of money to repay the money she owed the hood and the hood was glad to buy her old home and renovate it for a community administration building.

Lance was at the age where he had lots of questions.

"I thought Mr. Jimmy was going to live with us."

"No, he was going to move into the upstairs of our house if we hadn't moved."

"Will he still come over to see us?"

"Of course he would.  He's still our friend."

"Are you and my dad friends again?"

"We're trying to be.  I hope we will be again."

Jimmy did still come around to visit.  One day he came with an interesting proposal for Heather.

He and his brother Frank had recently gotten together and purchased the local mall.  For years it had housed a small clothing shop and lots of vacant space.  The brothers had both shared a love of cooking.  Frank was a professional chef, just like their father had been.  They were using the part of the vacant space to start a diner.  And the rest of the space would be perfect for a salon, and they needed a stylist, if Heather was interested.

She was thrilled.  To work in an actual salon without worrying about running the business from home would be great.  It had to be better than working at a golf course or gas station, late hours.  The hours would be more flexible so she could be at home with Lance in the evenings.

Lance was starting to take an interest in new hobbies.  He signed up for music classes at school and started practicing the violin.  Gareth offered to stop in and give him lessons, if he was interested. Although the violin was not his instrument, he could offer his general knowledge about music.

One day on his way over for a visit, Gareth saw Lance collapse while playing a game of tag with Elsa Straight after school.  He called out for Heather, who immediately ran over to their sons' side.

She knew he'd been ill from food poisoning, since that careless nanny had served him rotten jello.  Maybe she hadn't been as worried as she should have been since it was just food poisoning, but time had passed and he still hadn't gotten better.  As they rushed Lance to the hospital, she prayed that her baby boy would survive.

With treatment and some time resting in the hospital, Dr. First assured her that Lance would make a full recovery.

I installed a "realistic sickness" mod which I may have to get rid of since I've had so many sims not recover and die from it. 

ROS - Lance takes up a new hobby (carried over from the last round, since I forgot about it.)
ROS - Reunited with a friend/family member/ lost love - Jimmy London (this also goes with Joy's wedding too.  He's not really a playable character, so it's hard to know where to fit this in)

Summer 2011 - Huffington

Summer 2011 - Heather (34), Lance (7)

Heather was starting to have doubts about choosing a career in the slacker track.  The hours were terrible and the pay even worse.  She hated getting up at the crack of dawn, counting on a nanny to get Lance up for school in the morning, but the measely pay was better than nothing.

The nanny was attentive to Lance, even though he didn't care much for her "old people's" jokes or her chatter about "boring, old people's" hobbies.

Heather didn't appreciate her wasting her food supplies, but cooking a full plate of pancakes that no one was home to eat.  But at least she didn't burn down the kitchen as some nannies have been reported to do.

With the nanny leaving food out to rot, it was no wonder that Lance got food poisoning.

On her afternoons off, before Lance got home from school, Heather enjoyed meeting new people and kept her eye out for sims who were walking by.

James stopped by and they had a long chat about the struggles he's had with his love life.

Having experience with heartbreak in the past, Heather offered the consolation that there's always someone new to meet.

James was grateful for her understanding.  She was a sweet girl.

And a cute one too.  Not even Alon could deny that she was a hottie.

Lance's teacher had sent a note home indicating that he was falling behind on his homework and in danger of failing and repeating the second grade.

Heather sat down with him to help him get caught up.  She hadn't realized how much homework had piled up unfinished.  She was outraged that a child so young should be given so much homework to do.  It was ridiculous.

Even though they worked late into the night, Lance was still falling behind and was getting discouraged.

Heather received a promotion at work that meant worse hours.  She had to work nights.  She hated leaving Lance with a nanny all night, but she had to make money somehow.

After traveling for a few weeks for his job, Neil was back in town.  He knew just how to raise Lance's spirits and cheer him up so he could keep working to get caught up with his school work.

Heather still called up Jimmy when she was feeling lonely for a little male company. (A little more privacy when they tried to get together would be nice.)

Jimmy was her go to guy to take care of her physical needs, but James was quickly becoming her man for intellectual conversation.  She was glad to be forging so many new friendships.

Spring 2010 - Huffington

Heather Huffington (33), Lance Huffington (6)

After the failure of her beauty salon business, Heather decided to try something new, flower arranging.  Maybe if she got really good at it she could start a little flower shoppe.  Surely that would be easier than trying to run a salon single-handedly.

Unfortunately, flower arranging took awhile to learn, and with a young son to support, Heather needed to start earning money immediately.  She decided that maybe she wouldn't mind being a waitress or a barista, so she sent her resume to a few places.  The only place she heard back from was a country club and they didn't need a waitress, they needed a golf caddy.  It wasn't exactly what Heather had in mind, but she decided to take the job.  She hoped that something else would come up soon and that the tips were good in the meantime.

Neil was still hanging around.  When he didn't stop by to check on Heather and Lance, he would call to chat with Lance about school or the latest episode of their favorite sci-fi show.

Heather decided to talk with Lance about the friendship over dinner one evening.  "You talked with Neil on the phone for awhile tonight, didn't you?"

"Yeah, he's my best friend."

"Don't you think it's weird having a best friend that's so much older than you are?"

"No, you're my best friend too, Mommy, and you're older."

Heather cleared her throat.  She wasn't that old.  "Yeah, but I'm your mom."

"Neil is kind of like a dad.  Kendra has a dad that pushes her on the swings and teaches her to play catch.  Neil's a friend like that, since I don't have a dad like that."

"Do you wish your real dad was here to play with you too?"

"Sometimes."

"What if we called him and invited him over sometime.  Would you like that?"

"I guess that would be okay."

Heather went to the phone and dialed Gareth's number while Lance waited anxiously.  The last time she tried to call, he barely gave her the time of day.  This time he listened while she told him about how Lance needed his father in his life and chastized him for missing their son's birthday.  Feeling guilty about not being in Lance's life more, Gareth agreed to come over.

He couldn't deny that he still found Heather attractive

But he couldn't forget that she had cheated on him before they found out that she was pregnant with Lance.

It was quickly apparent that Heather had invited him over so that she could spend time with him and get back into his life, not so that he could spend time with Lance.  He decided it was time to set things straight.

"It's over between us.  I don't want anything to do with you and if we didn't have a son together I wouldn't be here now.  Don't call me again, unless it's really about our son."

Since Gareth had made his feelings perfectly clear, she decided it was time to move on with her life and meet someone new.

The first guy she met as a set up was good looking enough

But not so great to talk to.

She tried meeting someone on her own in the neighborhood, but he tried to get too handsy too soon and she was just not interested.

Then she happened to meet Jimmy one morning as she walked Lance to the bus stop.

There was an instant spark between them.

Jimmy was really easy to talk to

And had a great sense of humor.

They parted feeling like they had known each other for ages.

The next day Jimmy was waiting at the bus stop, hoping to run into Heather when she came to pick up her son at the bus stop.

And Heather was glad to see him.

From there one thing led to another

Heather was mortified when Lance walked in on them in an intimate moment.  It was an eye opener to realize just how carried away she was getting with Jimmy.  She was already entertaining thoughts of making babies with him when becoming a single mom to another child by another man who might not stick around was the last thing she needed.

 On the way to school she had a chat with Lance about what had happened.

"Sometimes even Mommies need to meet new people and make new friends.  You don't mind that Jimmy has been spending a lot of time at our house lately, do you?"

"No, I guess it's okay.  Can I just go to school now?"

"The bus isn't here yet.  I'm trying to talk with you."

"I hope the bus gets here soon."

Meanwhile going to school was allowing Lance to make his own friends, friends his own age.  The girls were kind of boring.  They only liked to talk about girly games and new babies.

Bryce was kind of cool though.  He liked bugs almost as much as he did.

He was even willing to give Jimmy a chance and tried to get to know him over a game of catch.

 He wasn't sure if Jimmy liked kids much though.  He kind of wished his mom and Neil got along better.  That would be the best.