Chapter 2.8 Evelyn - Aurora Skies

Evelyn took once last look around the home she grew up in, memorizing the worn wooden floors, the chilly breeze that wafted in through the windows, stared at the familiar trees covered in a thin layer of snow.

She had already gathered together her extended family and friends to tell them goodbye. She hadn't gone into particulars, just told everyone that she and her family were leaving. Wyatt wasn't surprised in the least. He hugged her tightly and promised that he would visit whenever he could, tears flowed freely down both their faces. She would miss her best friend.

Early the next morning, Evelyn, Anthony, Silas, Lily, and the kids gathered what few belongings they had and headed for the boat that would take them to their new home. It was fitting that today, of all days, it was raining. She promised herself that she would come back someday.

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Evelyn stood in front of their new home in Aurora Skies. It was huge and bright red, everything Emit had said it would be. She loved it. Arlyn just seemed happy to be off the boat.

It wasn't long before everyone started to settle in, and they were all especially happy to have their own bedrooms with brightly painted walls and soft carpet beneath their feet.

Evelyn immediately began upgrading anything she could get her hands on. Even after all this time, she was still paranoid about fire. And leaks. And, well, everything.

Silas discovered video games and spent hours upon hours in the office, muffled yells often heard even through the thick doors.

Anthony, true to his friendly nature, immediately made friends with their new neighbors. One of them told him about an opening at the nearby school. He would have to start as an Elementary Teacher but Anthony was just fine with that, he might even be able to teach his son, who would be starting classes in a few days! He just hoped that the school would be willing to hire him, considering he had no formal education in teaching, nor did he know the curriculum in this new town. Still, he happily walked down to the school to apply for the position.

And he was in luck! They would take him on as a sort of teacher's aide on a trial basis, where he could learn about how this school worked. If he did well, they'd hire him on as a full time teacher! The pay wouldn't be great, but Anthony was just happy to be working with kids again. His time in Oasis left him eager to get back to what he loved doing.

In a surprising turn of events, a fight erupted from upstairs, but instead of Silas throwing punches, it was Evelyn!
"You guys are all freaks!" the man had told her, she wasn't even sure how he'd gotten into the house, let alone why he was suddenly insulting her family.
"Go back to the shithole you came from!" What the hell was this guy's problem? Who just comes into someone else's house and starts hurling insults? Well, besides Silas. Actually, Evelyn wasn't shocked at all, now that she considered her father. But still! This was her house and her family!

The man shoved Evelyn then, so she, in an uncharacteristic fit of rage, punched him.

She may have lost the fight against an angry man twice her size, but he never dared set foot in her house ever again.

At least she was finally finding the time to care for her children. She had a lot to make up for now, after neglecting them both for so long. Her only saving grace was that they both seemed too young to remember how often she was absent.

"Whose the cutest baby in the whole wide world? You are!" Evelyn tossed Arlyn into the air, listening to her peels of laughter and happy gurgling.

But not everything had changed. The Rivers still had their nightly family dinners where they caught up with each other, learning about what new things they all discovered that day. Silas found a bar a little ways away that he started to moonlight at, Anthony was starting to get the hang of the school's curriculum, Lily bought a new set of paints and could be found in the office most days, and Evelyn split her time between tending to her kids and working on her newest gadgets, she'd even started to sell them at the local shops!

Ryan was always the first stop for the bus driver, so he was usually alone for awhile before the other kids got picked up. He wasn't too sure about this bus driver, something about him gave Ryan the creeps. At least he had been making friends at school! His new best friend's name is Loki Beaker and they do everything together! Even if Loki's ideas kept getting Ryan into trouble. He just wanted to fit in here, so he went along with whatever prank Loki was going to pull next. Ryan was just glad he didn't have his dad as his teacher this year. 

Arlyn seemed to have already forgotten about Cyrene and Oasis, just happy that she was getting more attention from mom and dad. All she needed to be happy was a warm bottle, a pink bunny, and some cartoons. 

Life was moving along just fine for the family.

The biggest plus was that Silas was never home to pick fights with anyone.

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"I'm winning, dad!" Arlyn shouted in triumph. "You suck at this game!"
"You're clearly cheating, you little cheater!"
"I am not! You're just terrible!" she laughed.
"I had a long day at work!" Anthony grumbled back at her.
Evelyn chuckled at the two as she slid into second place, cementing Anthony's loss. She briefly wondered where the time had went, Arlyn would be starting her first day of elementary school tomorrow. She felt like just yesterday they had moved here to Aurora Skies, not 3 years ago! Anthony had long ago been hired on as a full time teacher, he had even been bumped up to middle school, much to Ryan's chagrin. It was official: Anthony would be his teacher this year. Evelyn herself had gotten pretty well known around town, many many people flocked to her to commission this or that thing, or to repair broken items. Her and Anthony's small fame was almost enough to offset the town's mutual dislike of Silas.

"What's elementary school like, Ry?" Arlyn asked over a bowl of brain freeze a la mode.
Ryan shrugged, "It's okay, I guess. Homework sucks but recess is fun. Loki likes to play pranks on everyone, which can be fun." He took another spoonful of his ice cream.
"What kinda pranks?"
"I dunno, like, loosening the faucets so it sprays the next person that turns it on, or putting tacks in the teacher's chair, or putting cat poop in the sandbox."
"Ewww! Gross! Boys are yunky, mooooom!!"

Evelyn and Anthony were too busy to notice the kids eating ice cream for dinner, let alone what they were talking about. The kids just tried not to look in their direction.

Arlyn was super nervous about her first day of 1st grade and couldn't sleep. She asked mom for a bedtime story, and Evelyn was all too happy to oblige. She still had to make up for all those years.
"Once upon a time, there was a beeaauuutiful princess named Arlyn," she began, trying not to wake her sleeping husband.
It only took 3 stories for Arlyn to finally fall asleep; Evelyn let her sleep in her bed, quietly slipping out of the bedroom and into Arlyn's empty one.

"The bus driver is looking at us funny, Ryan." she tried not to look at him, but couldn't help herself.
"He always looks at everyone funny, just ignore him. I don't know what his problem is."

"These stupid kids live on the total opposite side of where everyone else is" was his problem.

"Are you excited to have dad as your teacher?"
"NO! Loki is going to be miserable! We wont be able to prank anyone! And he definitely can't put any thumbtacks in dad's chair!" Arlyn just rolled her eyes. Boys.

Silas closed his eyes when he looked around the living room.
"Well this is freaky as hell," he thought. Stuffed bears sat in a circle around Arlyn's play table, all of them staring straight into his soul. Silas didn't know what this was, and Silas didn't want to. He slowly backed out of the room and head for the Blue Lagoon.

"And then some damn kids loosened all the faucets in the entire house! It's completely flooded!" Kristy went on, "There's not a dry spot anywhere!" Evelyn nodded her head, already suspecting who was at fault, not that she could prove it.
"Don't worry, Kristy, I can fix the sinks for you, free of charge. Replacing the flooring wont be cheap." Kristy was one of her neighbors and frequently had things break or explode in her house. At first, Evelyn thought she was clumsy or just really unlucky, but lately, she had a sneaking suspicion....

"Hi guys!" Arlyn called out cheerily to her eager audience. She'd been in school for months now but barely knew anyone. At least her stuffed bears kept her company. They all talked to her, their chatter filling the room. Her mom said she had an overactive imagination and she'd eventually grow out of it, but these were the only friends she had! She didn't want to lose them! So she played with them every single day, making sure that they never got lonely and left her.

Today Miss Sparkles, her fairy bear, was very well behaved so Arlyn picked her up to reward her with a tea party!

"You are a very good bear, Miss Sparkles! Very good indeed!" Arlyn bowed after giving the bear a well earned juice. Not one thing was broken in the house!

In the next room, Anthony glanced around at the conglomerate of bears, and listened to his daughter chatting away in her room. He thought she would have outgrown this by now and he was a little concerned for her. He was hoping she'd make a few friends in school so she'd have real kids to play with, but after asking his coworkers, Arlyn tended to shy away from the other students, preferring to play with stuffed toys during playtime. Evelyn wasn't too concerned when he brought it up to her, but he also knew she was trying to overcompensate for practically ignoring their kids the first few years of their lives.
"Once she gets some friends, she'll be fine, dear," she's said dismissively, "you shouldn't worry so much, she's only 7." When he'd brought up that she ignored other kids in favor of the toys, she'd only sighed and said everything would be fine. Anthony wasn't convinced.

"Everyone says you're weird, Arly." Ryan chewed on his pencil for a moment before writing the answer to a question down.
"I am not, they just don't hear them." I am not weird! They just can't hear the bears!
"Hear what?" he glanced at his baby sister, real concern in his eyes.
"The bears, when they talk."
"What do they say?"
"I dunno, stories n stuff." Arlyn furiously wrote in her notebook, trying not to look at her brother.
"How come I can't hear them?" he asked her.
"I dunno! I don't know why I can!" she started to cry then and Ryan dropped the subject. He was almost 10 now, he didn't need to deal with baby stuff anymore.

A few weeks passed in a blur and school was almost out. Arlyn's first year wasn't so bad, she thought. She learned lots of new stuff and very few kids cried in class anymore.

"The Eriksson's commissioned another one of my paintings this week. They have so much money, they buy one off me at least once a month! I don't even know what they do with them all, really." Lily was saying.

Suddenly Arlyn felt funny, an overwhelming feeling came over her, like something bad was going to happen, and soon. She looked around the room for anything that might be the cause, before her eyes settled on Lily.

"Grandma," she whispered.
"Yes, dear?" Lily whispered back.
"You're going to die soon."

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Author's notes: I at least tried to make it seem like the kids weren't children for 7 days, I swear. Ryan was only a kid for around 3 or 4 days once they moved to Aurora Skies. I'm trying to grit through living here, though. I haven't played around much with it and never realized how glitchy it makes my game. Nothing major happens, but my Sims just kind of stand around for ages before they finally do what I direct them to. Evelyn's bed and the showers are the worst culprits. Sometimes it'll take my Sims 3 hours just to take a shower or go to bed. I haven't cheated much with motives unless I was trying to set up a specific shot or trying to gather up the Sim I wanted around for something, but I've been so frustrated that I keep dragging their motive bars up to where I think they would be in the amount of time that passes while they stand in front of the bed/shower/whatever. The kids and Anthony also keep getting booted out of the school for some reason, resulting in a lot of low grades/performance. I didn't notice at first until Ryan aged into a teen and noticed he kept coming home with the "scolded" moodlet. Turns out they were both getting kicked out of the school, which Anthony would then scold Ryan for "skipping." Very annoying! Luckily Ryan is about to age up in YA and Arlyn is halfway through her teen years now so I wont have to deal with them always being grounded, at least. 

Bloopers: 

Aliens visit every single week! Fortunately, Evelyn is the one always getting abducted so no one is having any alien babies. Ryan went up a few times but he's a teen so no babies there, either!