Chapter 3.14: Michele's Exodus

Claude can't stop thinking about Varinia. Seeing her ghost has him shaken and he can't bear the fact that he is still toiling away while she's in the afterlife. He cuddles Brooke. Tries to remember to enjoy what time he has left but it's difficult. It seems, to him at least, that his own expiration is far past due.

 

 Amira invites Moira over to spend some time with their father. She isn't blind or oblivious. She sees how Claude has been deteriorating slowly.

"Dad has been depressed," Amira says. "He barely eats or sleeps. He just walks around like a zombie."
"Maybe just buy him a few new books to read?" Moira suggests. "You can't expect him to be the same happy man he's always been."
Vera joins the conversation with a low sigh, "It's not just that he's lost interest in things, auntie. He literally has lost the desire to do anything other than hole up in the art studio. He barely talks to anyone. He's like a ghost."
Moira frowns and says, "He may as well be."

Drew is visiting again. Lindsay wanted to play space invaders but the weather has kept them inside.

"Maybe you should lock Tim out of the house on a sunny day? I read that hurts vampires."
"It doesn't work on kid vampires," Drew replies. "I already tried."
"Maybe he's not an evil vampire?"
"Have you ever met a not evil vampire?" Drew asks.
Lindsay thinks for a moment and responds, "Well, I've only met your brother. Besides, is he really that bad?"
Drew shrugs, "I guess not. . . yet."

The very important Vampire!Tim summit is interrupted with a play date. Amelia Pittman-Solo gets dropped off with her brother at the Van Hofwegen estate at Vera's insistence. Apparently Lindsay needs to interact with more children your own age. Lindsay thinks this is dumb but apparently the school is concerned and now she has to make friends.

Drew, Amelia, Brandt, and Lindsay play catch in the rain.

"You have horses?" Amelia yells through gasps of breath as she stops to look at the training posts.
"Yeah," Lindsay calls back, "My dad just got a black horse last night. You better run, I'm going to catch you!"

Amelia takes off running and tries to find the mysterious horses.

Moira tries to get her father to come to her symphony performance but he declines and ambles to the art studio to paint.

"One time, during a heist gone wrong, the security guard got beaned in the head with huge balls of hail. It was hilarious."
"Really? Did he get hurt? Did he go to the hospital? Did you get away with the loot?"

"Not an appropriate story for children, mother," Vera interrupts. "Drew, she's kidding. No one got hurt."
Amira frowns and then whispers, "He definitely got hurt and I definitely got the loot."

She winks and Drew's face splits into a grin.

"You are so cool," Drew says before running off.

Deric invites Michele out on a date. He asks her to meet him at Beachside Fun Park.

"Welcome to our Not-Prom Night."
"Don't they close in like 20 minutes?" Michele asks.
Deric winks, "I know a guy."

He grabs her hand and drags her toward the park entrance.

Michele screams and laughs and remembers why she's stuck so close to Deric all this time.

He gets her like no one else ever has.

At the end of the night she kisses him hard and holds him tight. She rests her forehead against his and lets her words rest on his lips.

"Don't forget about me."
"It would be impossible," he answers.

And somewhere in all the craziness Brooke reaches toddlerhood.

Michele arrives home just in time to enter adulthood.

Jude, triumphantly returning from the Long Hunt Cross-Country Race, is completely unfazed by Michele's aging.

Michele, on the other hand, is rather proud of her accomplishment in aging.

How you doin'?

"I guess it's time for me to spread my wings and fly the coop," Michele says nonchalantly.
"Wait what?" Jude asks. He looks around startled and finally realizes that Michele is a young adult. "When did this happen? Where did the time go?"
Michele shakes her head, "Seriously, dad."
"Where are you going to go?" he asks.
"Well, Deric and I can't move in together yet but we will eventually."
"Yup," Deric says, "and then we'll have our own adorable babies to play with."

Deric swings Brooke through the air and makes silly faces at her. She giggles and reaches for his nose.

"But no babies right now or tomorrow. You'll have babies much later, right? Right?" Jude asks worriedly.
Vera rolls her eyes, "Jude, let her be. She's old enough to make her own choices."

"You can relax, dad. First, we wait for Deric to graduate and then we want to travel and then we'll settle down."

Jude has to stifle the cheer that is threatening to escape.

"That sounds great," he says and high fives Michele. "You two should travel a lot."

Practicing for the future?

Drew hides in the tree house when it's time to go but his dad finds him and drags him home.

One of the Golden Llamas is on display at City Hall and Amira is not going to let the opportunity to acquire it. She sneaks into city hall and manages to get past the multiple layers of security in order to get her hands on this priceless work of art.

Mother and daughter share a similar hairstyle.

Michele's graduation is the very next day. She has to stop her packing to attend.

Somehow, the entire family fits in the 4-Everything Van. It's and all-encompassing automotive wonder!

Everyone looks extra snazzy in their Sunday best for graduation.

How many of my classmates are going to run off and get married tonight? How many will be starting families soon? Will Deric still want to marry me when he finally graduates?

These are the only questions plaguing this graduate's mind.

The Dailey siblings tease each other like only werewolf siblings can.

Deric teases, "You may be an adult but you've still got your juvenile canines."

"You call these juveniles?" Rosanna responds while showing off her teeth. "If these are juvenile canines then I'm a monkey's aunt."

Deric and Rosanna burst into giggles.

"Do you really have to go so soon?"
"Ah, little brother, just admit you're going to miss me but it's time for me to go explore the big wide world."

These two are always the most in love sims in any situation.

"Ready to move in to our new place, roomie?" Rosanna asks.
"I still have some packing left to do," Michele admits. "What about you?"
Rosanna grins, "Packed up and ready to start unpacking at our new place."
"Wait, you never said you were moving in with my girlfriend!" Deric interrupts.
Rosanna bats her eyelashes innocently, "I didn't? Must have slipped my mind."

Jude gives his daughter a statue that she won't appreciate and some cold hard simoleons that she definitely will.

Rosanna and Michele drive off into the night and on to their next adventure.

Having two horses has summoned a Horse!Gnome. Varinia would have been very suspicious.