The Life and Times of Sandi French - Part 7 - Character update; boarding school; Unlucky-in-love Lucky; the inheritance; Austin becomes a teen.

Sandi is still struggling with her middle-age crazy state. She decided she needed a makeover, so she went to the salon that is above the consignment store and got a new look. Then she met this guy at the consignment store, found him attractive, and wanted to flirt with him. She chatted him up then flirted.

Things didn't go as planned, not only did he resist her flirtations, but she soon learned he had a screw loose!

I'm not quite sure what he said to her, maybe it had something to do with how fit she looked, but it was clearly an indecent proposal of some kind. 

She quickly wrote him off. On another occasion, she ran into her old friend whom she tried to flirt with in the previous episode. He was apparently fresh from the pie eating contest at the festival and might not have realized the state of his face. Sandi apparently didn't bother to tell him.

Her desire to flirt with other men subsided and she came to realize what a great guy she ended up with. As for poor, long-suffering Bernie, I don't have a lot to report. He rose to the forensic branch of the law enforcement career, but despite having the "observant" reward, he doesn't seem to be all that observant. You can see him in the background of this shot talking to the precinct, and they are apparently on the lookout for a thief, but it's clear that Sandi is more aware of her surroundings than he is!

He's exactly the kind of cop the citizens of Barnacle Bay want, I guess. 

Now for the kids.

Little Austin quickly made his interest in writing known. First he wanted to learn the writing skill and take a writing class, then he wanted to write a novel.

He started a novel called Double Lucky: An Imaginary Friend Story, as both his imaginary friend and Thor's imaginary friend are named Lucky. 

 This is the Lucky who became real (Thor's Lucky). I will call him Lucky French or Lucky F since his last name is French, like Thor's - if or when I need to distinguish them. The other Lucky, Lucky Butler or Lucky B, is just a toy at this point so won't be mentioned in this episode. 

Lucky F has issues with the evil chicken and can often be found fighting with him.

Sometimes, like on this occasion, Lucky wins, but there has been times that he loses. When he showed up on the Butler's doorstep, one of his first wishes was to join the education career. I don't know what he was thinking as it quickly became apparent that, like Sandi, he dislikes children. 

When Austin asked him to read a bedtime story, he flat out refused and acted offended. Lucky F has the photographer's eye trait and likes talking about photography and cameras. He wants to buy a camera. For some reason no one in the family owns even a cheap camera and they have to use their phones to take pictures.

Austin looks up to Lucky F, and has decided he would like to learn to be a photographer too. I had Lucky F register as a photographer and make frequent checks at the consignment store to look for a camera. So far no luck. He has improved his photography skills a lot, and is making money from it. Since everyone else in the family goes to rabbitholes during the day, I go around with Lucky and take various pictures. It's funny that the best pictures for displaying on the wall aren't worth much, but if he tries to photograph something from a collection, no matter how bad the picture is, it seems, it's worth considerably more. Lucky F is also a Bot Fan, which means he can change into the cardboard box bot as well as take toy form at will - not that I've had him try this yet. Lucky can be grumpy at times, and is also disciplined, which I think is why he's interested in athletics and autonomously helps clean up the house. 

Lucky wants to learn to make Bots and I can see him owning one or more at some point in his life.

We'll get back to Lucky in a bit, but first back to Austin. Sandi noticed Austin's interest in writing and convinced him to try attending a boarding school for the arts.

 

She even offered him a gift of ninja vanishing potion just in case he encountered bullies at his new school.

He left for school the next day. However, by the middle of the term, Austin was calling home and saying he hated it there - he was always spilling paint on himself and the focus didn't really seem to be on writing, but more on painting. What are parents to do? They let him come home. Bernie was glad to have his boy back.

The kid clearly doesn't have what it takes to be a professional athlete. 

As for Thor, despite his sneakiness and proclivity to all things evil, he has managed to establish a decent relationship with Sandi and Bernie.

If they only knew what his friend's family was like! (Spoiler alert: when he ages up, Thor joins the criminal career. No big surprise there, I guess.)

It wasn't long until Thor aged up to a young adult. Congrats Thor! He gained the daredevil trait. Add that to his existing traits: disciplined, evil, genius, and snob, and we have an interesting young man. 

Austin was still away at school at this point, so Sandi, Bernie, and Lucky F took Thor to the lounge for his first (legal) drink. 

Thor has been wanting to sing karaoke, so this was his chance. 

He also tried to impress some people by bragging about his possessions; (he doesn't even own a car of his own!) His audience was not impressed.

It lead one guy to mocking Thor and insulting his sister . . . 

. . . which lead to Thor's first brawl.

Brawls last a lot longer than a regular fight. But Thor won in the end. 

I've made a few more changes to Barnacle Bay. This Little Roses Lounge is actually a building I repurposed from Champ Le Sims. I also replaced the business rabbithole with the business/restaurant I built for Adventureland. And the local watering hole in this world now has more activities to do than just foosball and drinking. The group went down to check it out during the grand re-opening. 

While there, Lucky noticed a very pretty young woman at the bar and tried to talk to her.

He said "Hi," by way of introduction, which seemed a good thing to do, but before the positive indicators faded, she yelled at him.

Then she hauled off and slapped him!

He tried to shake it off and discuss cameras and photography with her, which seemed like it was helping. . . 

 . . . until she slapped him around some more. This made him angry. 

He then insulted her intelligence, which led to, you guessed it, another slap!

Three strikes and you're out, lady! (Her name is Mandie Timmons. We'll keep an eye out for her.) Come on, Lucky. We'll find you a better woman. They didn't part as enemies, but they are darn close to it. They  deeply dislike each other. 

Now that Thor is a legal adult, it's time to visit the lawyer and release his trust fund to him. It seems Molly left her bakery to her grandson Austin (but he can't go back to that version of Sunset Valley, so he may have to "sell it" when he gets older. It's the only venue I know of that the family ever owned.)

The lawyer explained that Molly left both her children around 33,000 simoleons. Thor was excited because now he and Lucky could go get their own place, but Sandi wasn't sure Thor was mature enough to handle his money responsibly. She insisted that the attorney must know a way to hold off the distribution until Thor was twenty-one, but the attorney said there wasn't any legal way to do that. Then Sandi implied that he was a hack.

He apparently thought she was beautiful when she was angry.

Not very professional, dude! (Now that I think of it, this might be the pie-faced guy from earlier!)😅😅

I still want to play Thor and Lucky, but it didn't make sense for them to keep living with Bernie and Sandi now that both are grown and gainfully employed. So I saved them to the library for a spin-off at a later date. I added a few extra houses, and there were a few still empty, so Thor went house-hunting. The only two bedroom house he could afford was called "The Brethren" but it looked like females must have lived there before. There was a lot of pinks and florals - not what most single young men would choose. Thor's favorite color is lime green, and Lucky's is Kelly green, so I kept that in mind when they redecorated. Here's what the interior looks like. The exterior isn't much to look at - just a square gray-brick house, but I figured they wouldn't care about the exterior that much. I added a few bushes and flower around the front, and some outdoor lights, but that's it.

Lucky used some of his photos for decor in the main living area, so the walls didn't look empty and the place had a more personal look.

Lucky's room. 

Thor's room.

Usually, I set up a nice place for the sims I move out, but Story Progression quickly moves them somewhere else. We'll see how long they manage to stay here. 

Austin's teen birthday came around. Bernie threw a party for him, inviting kids, teens, and friends of the family. 

One kid seems excited for Austin. The other looks bummed out. Maybe because the TV broke.

Austin doesn't look half bad. I changed a few outfits, but that's all.

No luck fixing the TV, Dad?

That's it for now. Well see how raising a teen goes for Sandi next episode. She also has a wish to buy a boat with her inheritance, so we'll try and make that happen. She has the sailor trait, after all.