There won’t be much suspense in this one, since I spilled the beans about the social worker and the headmaster in my last post, but here’s the full report…

Here’s little Aidan just after birth. Everyone looks eager to welcome him into the family — except for the maid, who is just trying to get some work done, for heaven’s sake. Unfortunately because of my poor micromanaging skills, Aidan was doomed to leave his family the very next day…

But first, his sister Taryn grew into a lovely teen (and just in time, too, or she would have gone with the social worker as well). Without the glasses and the hair in her face, she looks almost exactly like her sister Fiona. I forgot to mention that when I rolled randomly for Fiona’s aspiration, it came up with Family. I decided not to use my Holiday Veto since Family isn’t so bad. I thought I’d save it for Taryn because I wanted her to follow in her uncle’s footsteps and be a Knowledge Sim. As luck would have it, I ended up rolling Knowledge for Taryn, so I still haven’t used that Veto!

That same day, Leo had a bunch of wants to interact with his granddaughter Maire, so I kept her home from school. Since she had just become a child and hadn’t had a chance to do homework to raise her grade, missing school lowered her grade from a C to a D+. I figured it would be no problem, since she’d go to school the next day and get homework.

Well, the next day rolled around. Fiona and Taryn went off to school like good little teens. I was busy with the other family members and wasn’t paying much attention. Only too late did I notice that Maire hadn’t gotten on the bus with her sisters. She was still asleep in bed! I woke her up right away, but there was nothing I could do — the bus was long gone. Evil messages kept popping up, warning me about the social worker taking kids away if they failed in school, so I figured it was only a matter of time. Lo and behold, she appeared in the living room and headed straight for Maire. I watched, utterly powerless, as she led Maire out to the van.

That was bad enough, but then the evil lady strolled back into the house and removed Aidan from his crib. Poor Kaylynn just stood there and watched them leave.

Later, in the bathroom, the reality of what had happened finally hit her…

I felt pretty guilty about that, but turned my attention back to Leo, who was destined to meet the Reaper at any moment. The whole social worker incident would be in vain if I didn’t at least get that platinum headstone! Leo was solidly platinum, but as a back-up plan I had Liam’s fiancée Melissa Fancey move in. Leo had the Relative Gets Married want again, so I figured if he slipped into Gold, Liam and Melissa could get married on the spot. Just for the record, Melissa is a Romance Sim (bleh!), but she has a cushy job (Professional Party Guest) and brought 10 family friends with her.

The previous night Fiona had called the Headmaster to invite him to dinner, so he showed up at 5:00. I had Taryn greet him and chat with him for a bit (unsuccessfully), then give him a tour of the house. While that was going on, I had Leo prepare the Lobster Thermidor. He had managed to put it in the oven just before old Grimmy came looking for him…

The Reaper genuinely freaks me out every time he appears. He just glides in from nowhere, trailing smoke, accompanied by sinister sound effects. Then the hula girls appear and the Hawaiian music kicks in, which lightens the mood a bit. “Have a drink, Leo!” he seems to say. “You deserve it. Now come on, we’re late for the luau.”

That’s his granddaughter Taryn crying for him. The hula girls couldn’t fit in the kitchen for some reason, so they were out in the hallway. Leo departed this earth leaving a beautiful platinum urn behind him, so all was right with the world for at least a few minutes. I deposited the urn in the backyard where it became a lovely marble headstone and directed Kaylynn to take the lobster out of the oven before it burned. I then had her call the headmaster to dinner. Unfortunately he had trouble sitting down, no matter what chair he used…

He would sit, end up floating, and just get back up again. Eventually he said he was starving and left. There would be no private school for my teens the next day. Or the day after that, because when I tried to invite him over again, he failed to show up. I tried that for three days in a row, but no headmaster. I fear that my lot is bugged as far as that goes, so I don’t think any of my future generations will be going to private school either unless a fix comes out. Phooey.

Sometime after all that mess, Devin transitioned to elder. He resembles his father Leo, but is more distinguished-looking somehow. Must be the hairdo.

With all of the friends Melissa brought to the family, Devin was able to get promoted to Chief of Police. Awhile ago I locked in his Have 30 Best Friends want, but I’ve been neglecting to work on it — it always seems like there’s something else for him to do. My plan is to get him to the top of his career, then have him retire and work on getting those 30 best friends, since it counts as an Impossible Want, worth 1 point in the challenge. I foresee him spending a lot of time on community lots…

In the meantime I had Melissa move out, even though it meant I’d have to make some more family friends before Devin could get promoted again. She had served her purpose, and I wasn’t ready to have a Romance Sim around. Liam didn’t seem to care that she left — he was too busy studying. He eventually maxed all his skills, fulfilling another Impossible Want. Woo!

After the social worker tragedy, Kaylynn wanted to have another baby. I still felt badly for her, so I decided to have her and Devin try for one. Well, she was a couple of days from transitioning to elder, so the Try For Baby option wouldn’t even show up. I ended up having her drink the elixir which put her 5 days from elder status, then had them try for a baby again. They were successful, so there’s another little Shanley on the way! Kaylynn will be an elder mommy, but hey, she’ll be happy. She has so many vacation days saved up from all her maternity leave that I let her stay home most days, doing whatever she wants. She seems to enjoy painting in the new gallery.

Fiona is close to becoming an adult, so pretty soon I’ll have her get married and start working on the fifth generation. Liam is one promotion away from reaching the top of the Science career. He’ll also be an elder soon. There’s always something going on, I tell ya. And we had THREE ghosts roaming around the house last night — two downstairs and one upstairs, so no one could get any sleep. I ended up deleting Bree’s headstone because she kept haunting the second floor where most of the beds are located, and her headstone wasn’t platinum anyway. Sorry, Bree! You had a good run.