Chapter 17: Emerald Crush

As a young overachiever, Shepard got a part time job in the bookstore. Ewan meets him in the schoolyard after school to make sure his homework gets done before his shift starts.

Ewan repairs the broken dishwasher while Allyson mops up the mess.

"I'm a superstar actress, I shouldn't be mopping up puddles. I should have a maid for this," Allyson complains. But Ewan insists that that they can't have strangers in the house who might be MorcuCorp spies.

Now when Allyson attends local parties, she isn't schmoozing with other celebrities; she's already befriended everyone in this town with any claim to fame. Instead, she finds herself the center of attention, having her photo taken and signing autographs. For once, Ewan has nothing to be jealous about.

"What's happening to me?"

"Dude, you're going through puberty. It'll just take a second."

Wyoming becomes a teen. He's a hopeless romantic. Hopeless, because there just aren't enough girls in this town.

Wyoming is also neurotic, so he frequently needs to look out the windows to be sure nothing is looking in.

And of course compulsive handwashing.

The few girls in high school are unattractive, taken or both, leaving party animal Shepard to dance by himself.

When Allyson gets invited to a party (swimsuit required) at the Greenwood house, Shepard tags along, hoping to spend some time with Emerald Greenwood, the only pretty girl in town. Emerald is not home, instead, the house is packed with all the elderly women in town. As a future politician, Shepard knows the importance of the senior vote and makes the most of the situation.

Silver Racket openly expresses her opinion of this dull party.

Emerald finally shows up as the party is winding down (as if it could possibly wind any further down than its starting position). She's a bit older than Shepard and has been going steady with Thomas Castor since forever, but now that Thomas has graduated, Shepard is hoping he has a chance. But he doesn't have time for more than a dance before the town's strict curfew forces him to leave. The next morning he learns Emerald aged up after the party and married her high school sweetheart right away.

"Grandpa, it's a school night! I have to get some sleep!"

Misty's ghost is startled by the approach of a burglar, but Shadow's daughter knows no fear.

Like her father, Allyson will fight to defend her home and property. Burglars will think twice before trying to rob the McDermotts.

In life, whenever Misty thought about training on the martial arts dummy, something always pulled her away, finding something else for her to do. Now that she's dead, she's free to use it all she wants.

At last, she's earned her first belt.

"So, why don't you and Shepard have girlfriends?" Allyson wants to know.

"Mom, have you seen the girls in this town?"

Since she's such a superstar, the studio has delivered a star trailer to Allyson home. Allyson's not sure what she's going to do with a trailer parked in her front yard.

Ewan comes up with a few ideas.

One of the girls from the babysitting agency, Rosalie Judd, moved in with the elderly Pidgins recently. Shepard met her at school and invited her back to the house. He'd intended to chat her up himself, but she developed an instant rapport with Wyoming. They are both Virgos and had an animated discussion about housecleaning techniques. So Shepard dropped himself out of the picture and let his little brother get the girl.

It's love at first sight for hopeless romantic Wyoming.

It's Saturday, and Wyoming has a date. He brushes his teeth three times before heading out to meet Rosalie. Because, you know, germs.

Wyoming meets Rosalie at the Red Rendevous. Today also happens to be Shepard's last day as a teenager, so he comes along hoping to find someone to celebrate with. Emerald Greenwood happens to be there, and dances with Shepard.

"Wow, your brother really knows how to dance," Rosalie remarks.

"Yeah, well, I brushed my teeth three times before I came here."

"Oh, good, I love a nice, clean mouth."

Shepard shows Emerald all his best moves.

"I'm going to be a man tomorrow, so I was thinking you and me could, you know..."

"That's sweet, Shepard, but I'm married."

It's his last night as a teen, and Shepard has never had a real date and he has a crush on a married woman. He tries not to be jealous of his brother's good luck.

Challenge Notes:

Both Allyson and Ewan have achieved their LTWs. Allyson has 4 stars of celebrity, and I'm not sure she'll ever get 5, though she keeps trying. As I've mentioned before, I use a mod that makes gaining celebrity status harder.

Shepard has fulfilled the Perfect Children requirements. Wyoming needs one more promotion in his part time job to fulfill his, and he has 7 days to do it, so that looks good.

Rosalie Judd was a recently spawned babysitter NPC. Since we are so short of females this generation, I added her to the Pidgin household (both women in that house are now childless elders). I did edit Rosalie in CAS so she wouldn't be vanilla. Her hair color was originally yellow blond, but I strawberried it up a bit, for flavor.