2. “ Mix a pancake, Stir a pancake, Pop it in the pan; Fry the pancake, Toss the pancake, Catch it if you can.” This is an actual song by someone named Christina Rossetti.
3. It was a family breakfast that the Aldriches sat down for one morning. The three guys were dressed for the day but the ladies were still clad in only their PJs. It was relatively quiet at the table until…
4. … until Lark cleared her throat and broke the silence. “ Right. Um. I’m going off to college tomorrow morning.” “ Well, you have fun then,” Leon said. Noah wished he could have kicked his twin from under the table. Holden and Phoebe just wished their eldest good luck. “If we managed to graduate, then we’re confident you can,” Holden remarked.
5. The rest of Lark’s day seemed to go by in a blur. Her last day at work…no one seemed to really care that she was leaving. Not that she minded. She’d reached as far to the top as she could at her job in the Dance career.
6. The next morning, Phoebe and Holden looked into each other’s eyes. Then Phoebe said, “I can’t believe Lark is already going off to college.” “Well, we’ll see her again. She’s coming back here after she graduates, right? So, there’s no need to well up,” Holden replied. “But think about it. Leon and Noah will leave too. Then we’ll be empty nesters until Lark gets back,” Phoebe responded. Then she realized just how nice it might be to have the house to themselves…they heard the sound of a car horn.
7. “ Thanks for at least giving us time to say good bye since you didn’t warn us that you were leaving,” Holden said. Phoebe rolled her eyes and he laughed. “Bye, sweetie. We love you,” Phoebe muttered. “Bye, guys. I’ll see you later,” Lark replied.
8. “ Well, Lark sure left rather fast,” Leon commented as he prepared to pull out of the driveway. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t let me say good bye to her,” Noah grumbled. “Oh, come on. Suck it up. We’ll see her again when we go to college,” Leon retorted.
9. With all three kids gone, Holden decided that it would be a good idea to play with wolves. At least he’s not dancing with them, right?
11. Back at Melanie’s house… “ Ha! I win!” Gemma cried as she soared down to the finish line. “Yeah. What is this? Your fifth one in a row?” Janae asked. “Sixth,” Gemma corrected.
12. Cooper had gone off to college the moment that he received a phone call from Lark asking where he was. His girlfriend, Nicole, had been rather sad to see him go. But then she figured that maybe she could just join him in college.
13. Speaking of dating… Janae had absorbed much of her brother’s flirting skills. They appeared to work quite well on one Alvin Futa.
15. “ Um…yeah. No. That’s not happening, Janae. I don’t want to get serious with you…ever,” Alvin said. “But…but…” Janae sputtered.
16. Alvin turned on his heel and he walked away, leaving a very crushed Janae behind. She watched him go. Then she turned around and started going back inside.
17. But then she lost control of her emotions and broke down crying outside of her house.
18. Gemma noticed right away how mopey her older sister was acting. She followed Janae up to her bedroom and she asked, “What’s wrong?” Janae sighed. She figured that Gemma would noticed something was up.
19. So, they sat down and they had a heart-to-heart. Janae told Gemma all about Alvin and how she’d thought that maybe they’d one day get married or something. Gemma listened intently, absorbing every word that her sister said. When Janae finished, Gemma told her, “You’ll find someone else.” She sounded so confident that Janae couldn’t help but believe her.
20. Meanwhile… “ Are you kidding me? I’m in a dress? Oh, but not just any dress, oh no! I’m wearing a freakin’ apron! Seriously?”
21. “ Eh. It could be worse.” At least they didn’t grow up into neon colors or plaid.
22. Right after Cooper and Lark changed into something more suitable, the phone rang. Lark was already on her way outside, so Cooper answered it. It was his dad. “Did you two make it in okay?” Talin asked. “Yes, dad,” Cooper sighed. Talin then began to grill him about the ride there, what major he wanted, and everything other thing imaginable.
23. A few days later, Lark met her mother at a local diner. “ So, how is college going?” Phoebe asked. Lark smiled to herself.
24. “ It’s been fun,” Lark said. “I’ve been studying, playing poker, and putting bubbles in the water fountains around campus.” This earned a raised eyebrow from her mother but nothing more. Lark was an adult after all, right? “Have you met anyone?” Phoebe inquired. She had noticed that Lark hadn’t dated anyone as a teenager.
25. “ Oh. I met someone. I mean, there was this one guy I was…interested in but it turned out that he wasn’t my type. Then there’s this other guy. His name is Aren. I already did a background check on him, so dad doesn’t have to do that. I’m currently dating Aren, actually. He’s nice. Don’t know if I’ll stick with him, though,” Lark answered.
26. “ Please don’t ever tell a guy that to his face,” Phoebe remarked. Lark turned to her mother. “Mom! Do you honestly think I’m that stupid?” Lark retorted. “I’m not the one eating cake for lunch, though, am I?” Phoebe rejoined. “Touché. Although, that has nothing to do with my intelligence,” Lark replied. Phoebe chuckled. “Well, you certainly sound like you’re enjoying yourself. Your brothers and Janae can’t wait to join you and Cooper,” Phoebe said. “Hmm. That’s nice,” Lark muttered.
28. And he would have proposed to her if he didn’t have any reasoning skills. Luckily, he realized that he should take it slow and wait awhile before popping the big question. After all, he and Nicole would be together forever if they got married.
29. “ Why does it seem like I grow up into ugly sweaters every time?” Pretty soon, Leon, Noah, and Janae joined their sibling/cousin in college.
30. “ Pink is definitely not my color.” “ I was thinking the same thing about this purple polo.”
31. Usually, this is the part where I show their makeovers and such but I decided to skip that and go right into Talin’s birthday! Talin is two days older than Melanie and Phoebe. This is because I played him a bit while I was waiting for the twins to graduate.
32. “ Woo. He’s getting old.” “ Yeah! Go dad! Go into those sparkles!” “ Whoa! He has a lot of candles on his cake.”
33. “ What the heck am I wearing?” Talin did manage to reach his LTW to become a Celebrity Chef, so he aged up platinum.
35. Needless to say, Melanie was still strongly attracted to Talin even though he was old.
36. Oh! Look! A house! A house that I built! This is the house that every Aldrich who goes to college will live in…unless, of course, they decide to go to another college. Of course, the Aldriches were able to afford to build a house because Janae brought in roughly 5500 in scholarships.
37. Honestly, I just added this picture in because I thought that it was cool that the butterflies were flying around Lark.
38. “ Hello! I’m Janae! Who are you?” Janae greeted the young blonde man. “Er…hi. I’m Aren, Lark’s boyfriend,” he replied. “Aren? That’s a nice name. How do you spell it?” Janae asked. “A-R-E-N,” he spelled out reluctantly. “That’s a weird way to spell your name,” Janae remarked.
39. Lark came outside, beaming. Then she heard Janae say, “Did you know that you’re the first guy Lark has ever dated? I kid you not.” Lark quickly cut in and said, “Hey, Aren.”
40. Janae got the hint as they started making out. She made a face and decided to go downtown.
42. Meanwhile, Janae was at a local pub downtown. She’d just been tipped for playing the piano when she noticed the poker table.
43. She sat down at the table with three others. She glanced over at the guy dealing the cards and she found herself thinking, “Well, he looks very suave.”
44. She noticed that each time he was waiting for someone to go, he’d pick up one of his chips and flip it into the air. She thought that was quite cool. As did I.
45. She caught his eye at one point, she almost blushed. Almost. He may have been suave but he wasn’t exactly her type. That and it was kind of weird that he had brown facial hair but blonde hair on top.
46. Even if she didn’t think of him romantically, Janae couldn’t help but show off in front of him.
47. When the game finished, Janae cornered the man and she asked him, “What’s your name?” “My name? It’s Phil. What’s yours?” He answered, giving her a winning smile. “I’m Janae. You played a good game,” she replied. “Thanks. You have impressive shuffling skills,” Phil responded. “Thank you. Well, I should get going,” Janae said. They said good bye and she left.
48. But she didn’t immediately go home. Janae spotted a club and she had to go inside. She got on some strange orb thing and started spinning around.
50. Before she left, she took some pictures to immortalize the night on paper.
51. As she left the club, Janae ran into a very happy vampire. She stopped to talk to the vampire for a bit before she went on her way.
52. Back in Duo Borough… Holden invited his kids over to visit one day. He missed them, in a way, and he knew that Phoebe would love to come home to see her kids.
53. “ So, Lark, how has college been going?” Holden asked. “Great. It’s not nearly as boring as I thought it would be,” Lark answered. They heard a car door slam from outside, even though they were all of the way upstairs. “That must be your mother,” Holden remarked.
54. Of course, Leon was the only one downstairs. When Phoebe saw him, she ran over and hugged him. “ Yeah. It’s nice to see you too, mom,” Leon muttered. “Now let go,” he added to himself.
55. Noah had found that his guitar was still upstairs, so he began to play it until…
57. The kids eventually left. Holden and Phoebe were alone in the house once again. And, quite frankly, they didn’t seem to mind. They probably knew that their house would be once again filled with kids. At least, they hoped so.
58. A certain other generation 2 member was not quite in a college yet. Gemma decided to go out for a day in Downtown.
59. Gemma decided that the best place to go to was a bowling alley. When she saw the DJ booth, she flocked to it like a moth to light.
60. Naturally, she got bored with being a DJ and she decided to go bowling. Many strikes were involved.
61. Then Gemma met Melody Tinker. “ So, why aren’t you dancing?” She asked Melody. “I can’t dance,” Melody answered. “Nonsense! Let me see your skills,” Gemma replied.
62. “ Is that usually how you dance?” “ Er…yes?” “ Wow. You are bad.”
63. “ Here, let me show you.” “ Er…no…” “ Fine then. I’ll smustle and you try to follow the steps, okay?”
64. “ I don’t think I’m doing it right.” “ Nonsense! You can’t go wrong with the smustle!” “ I think I am.” “ That’s fine! At least no one is laughing at you.” With that said, Gemma decided to go home.
65. She called up one of her friends and invited her over. She got there rather quickly. “ Gemma! How nice to see you!” “ Thanks, Beth! So, what have you been up to?” “ Not much. What about you?”
66. “ Okay. I’ll tell you but you have to keep it a secret. I’ve been out having fun. I taught this girl how to dance. But, most of all, I’ve decided that I want to meet a witch.” “ A witch? Why?” “ Because…one of my ancestors was one.” “ Ooh. Neat.” “ Yes. It’s quite spiffy, actually. I bet meeting a witch will be fun. But I may have to wait awhile.”
67. The two girls talked for quite awhile before Beth had to go home at about three. She had work, apparently.
68. “ So, I’m going to be old and crusty like you soon,” Melanie remarked. This, sadly, was true. It seems that the founders are finally going to be elders.
69. Did I ever mention that Phoebe has an apple tree and Melanie has an orange tree? No? Well, they do. And they’re really easy to take care of.
70. As Melanie stepped up to her cake, she noticed that it seemed to be on fire.
71. “ Wow, Melanie. That dress doesn’t suite you at all.” “ It really doesn’t. No cleavage.” “ Mel, I don’t think you need to show cleavage anymore…since, you know, you’re sagging.” “ Shut up! You’ll be old soon too!”
72. They partied for a bit until the cops came to break up the party. The funny thing is that Melanie sent everyone home because I forgot that the party didn’t end when the guests left (Sims 2 101, folks). So, I had Gemma call everyone back and I just barely managed to get the party score back up before the cops showed up. So, Melanie’s party was a roof-raiser.
73. Naturally, Melanie grew up quite well. She completed two lifetime wants in her life. The first one was obviously the Woohoo With 20 Different Sims and the second was Become a Professional Party Guest. This is one of the few times I’ve ever completed 2 LTWs.
74. Of course, not too long after Melanie grew up, it was time for Phoebe and Holden to age. Holden went first…
76. But they managed to change into outfits that seem to suite their personalities better. Phoebe completed her lifetime want to Become Captain Hero. Holden also completed his lifetime want to Become City Planner.
77. The party was a hit. Everyone smustled ‘til Holden kicked them out. He and Phoebe had the house to themselves, after all, and they quite enjoyed the peace and quiet.
78. “ Yes. I would like to head off to SSU. What’s SSU, you ask? Why, it’s Sim State University. Okay. Thank you.”
79. “ Oh, dear PlumbBob! Did you guys just…never mind. I don’t want to know. But…er…can you move? I kind of need to get down there. Taxi to catch and all…”
80. By the time that Gemma got downstairs, the sun had come up.
82. Janae met with Phil, the man with a new hairstyle. I wanted his hair to match his facial hair and eyebrows.
83. It was then that Gemma arrived at the house in SSU. Needless to say, her outfit was quite…well…it definitely didn’t fit her personality at all.
84. Thus she changed her outfit to something much better. I don’t think that I ever mentioned what everyone is majoring in. Lark and Leon are both Drama majors. Cooper is majoring in Psychology. Noah is a major in Biology. Janae is a Philosophy major. And Gemma is a Political Science major.
85. College was quite boring. Janae worked at a local coffee shop for a bit. Gemma got to know her cousins better. They studied, did assignments, and all of the usual stuff. Then one day…Janae gathered everyone up and told them to pack.
86. “ Where are you dragging us to again?” Leon asked as he brushed by Janae. “Twikki Island. I’ve heard that it’s a very fun place,” Janae responded.
87. One by one, they got in the cab. As Lark started to sit next to Janae, she asked, “Do we even have enough money to pay for this?” “Of course we do! I don’t know if we’ll be able to stay long but…well…it’ll still be fun,” Janae answered, grinning.
88. This is where the chapter ends! Everyone seems to have their legacy Sims go to Twikki Island, which is fine. Twikki Island is place of mystery and excitement and fantabulousness, is it not? Anyway, thank you for reading! Stay tuned for the Aldriches trip to Twikki Island and so much more!
