2.1 New Memories

Paolo's adulthood naturally begins with a game of chess. In between shop club and the soccer team, he never got to learn chess after school. With all of his free time now, there's nothing stopping him from doing it now. 

"Are you sure you don't want a graduation present? You could ask for almost anything you know, a computer, some money...a computer..." 

Paolo waves off his dad's offer. He knows they can't afford one right now and doesn't want to stress his parents. 

"Hey, now that I'm an adult, should I go...clubbing, or something?" 

Marko shrugs, "Whatever you want, son. It's your life." 

Krista is still in high school, so Paolo calls his sisters to help him embark on this sacred passage to adult-hood. Tulip is busy with work, so only Xara can make it. 

"Heeeey, look at my little brother, all grown up!" Xara does the shaka-bra hand signal, which Paolo clumsily returns. 

"Let's go, this'll be great!" Xara grabs her brother's arm and drags him inside the karaoke bar. 

Happy hour is still a long way off, so Xara ropes Paolo into a game of pool before they start drinking. Some of her old classmates from school are here, like Keith Chandra. He happily joins them. 

Paolo melodramatically blows dust off of the end of his pool stick. 

"You guys ready to lose?" he taunts. Xara snickers and Keith mockingly straightens up. 

"Watch yourself, Winterly. You're talking to a pool master." 

"Pfft, like you know how to use a stick," Paolo jokes. 

Xara blushes a bit at the dirty joke, but giggles all the same. 

"Why're you thinking about my stick, anyhow?" Keith shoots back smoothly. Everyone laughs. 

Turns out Paolo had reason to doubt Keith's stick-proficiency; he manages to sink the 8-ball on his second shot. 

"Dude, you haven't even had anything to drink, what's wrong with you?" Xara chuckles. Keith rests his head on the table. 

Truth be told, his mind isn't on the game. He recently caved and joined his dad's line of work, "shipping", as his family tells other people. After all the threats of what will happen if he "rats anyone out", he's been jittery all day. 

After they re-start the game, it becomes clear that if anyone there is a pool champion, it's Paolo. 

Perfect sink. 

Eventually his streak ends and it's Keith's turn. He cheers as he sinks his first ball. 

"See, I'm not too bad, eh?" he smirks. 

Xara rolls her eyes, "Yeah, but Paolo did, like, half the work for you." 

"Hey, that last 2% of effort is the hardest to put out," he jokes. 

Keith eventually goes home to look after his mother, leaving Paolo and his older sister to themselves. They take a picture to commemorate Paolo's newly acquired adulthood. 

Happy hour finally rolls around. The bar tender is late for his shift, so Paolo mixes some juice and nectar together in an abominable attempt to make drinks. 

"Wooh, Paolo!" Xara cheers, beginning to reach over the bar to add another nectar vintage to the mix. 

She quickly forgets about the drinks when there's a scream from the other side of the room. 

Felipe Marshall's time has come. 

Grim quickly comes for him. Felipe gets down on his knees and begs for more time with his family; he and his wife always wanted lots of children, but were only able to produce two daughters who are now barely adults. He'd like to at least see his first grandchild before he goes.

Xara can't bear to look. This is just too sad. 

After seeing that, Paolo definitely needs a drink. 

After his fourth or fifth glass, everything seems to go by in a blur... 

The last thing he clearly remembers is drunkenly jumping into the community pool at 2 AM. So strong was his intoxication that the game crashed, forcing me to repeat the entire outing. 

I decide to be nice and spare Paolo and Xara the trauma of seeing old man Marshall die and send them directly to the pool instead. 

Apparently Paolo can defy the laws of nature now. 

Xara arches an eyebrow at Mitchell Blanco-Riffin, her childhood crush. He's only gotten weirder as he's gotten older, doing things like jumping into pools while fully clothed. 

Can all sims do this when they age up?? What have I been missing out on?!

Paolo just knows he's adorable. 

Xara sits on the swing set next to her brother. They both idly sway back and forth, loosely gripping the chains. 

"So, how are mom and dad?" 

"They're good..." Paolo trails off. 

"Are you ok?" 

Paolo sighs, "It's just that I don't know what I'm going to do with my life! You and Tulip moved out and got jobs... I'm don't really feel interested by anything in particular as far as work goes, and I can't imagine living somewhere else..." 

Xara nods understandingly. "Yeah, I know how you feel. It's like after high school everyone suddenly had all these ambitions and stuff, and you're just like, 'wait, when did that happen?'" 

"Yeah, pretty much. Mom and dad don't really seem to mind that I'm not doing anything, but I feel kind of bad." 

"Well, if you think you need a change of scenery, you could always move in with us!" Xara says brightly. 

Paolo chuckles, "No I think I'm good... I'll figure something out, it'll be fine." 

They change their clothes and head to the movie theatre to watch, "Explosions 2: Bigger and Better". 

If they really wanted to see some explosions, all they had to do was stay home and watch Marko's chemistry experiments, really... 

After the movie, they finish off the night with some arcade games. 

"So, how's working at the theatre?" Paolo asks conversationally as he destroys Xara's fleet. 

She frowns at the game, and fumbles for another coin to put into the arcade table. 

"Ugh, it sucks. Sure, seeing the rockstars is really cool, and sometimes I get to hang out back stage during the shows, but most of the time we're just told to get stuff for other people." It's always Hey you, get me a coffee, or hey blue-hair, bring me that ladder, or Hey whats-your-face, call me cab, will you? She can't wait to get promoted and not have to be an errand-girl! 

Paolo makes his way home at 2:30 in the morning, tired but happy to have seen his sister. 

He'll definitely treasure these memories! 

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AN: I can't believe Tulip went out with Kanoa! They were "going steady" for a few in-game days and then broke up. A day later Kanoa died. I just couldn't not mention it. Xara also has a love life; a little bit after that last picture of Paolo coming home was taken, I got a pop-up saying she was flirting with Bertram Bedlington! For those of you who have never played in Appaloosa Plains, Bertram Bedlington is the husband (often soon ex-husband) of Patricia Bedlington when you start the game. 

Also almost forgot; The stick joke was inspired by similar jokes between Jason, Moudy, and Liz from MommyIce's legacy, Hiding out in Sunset Valley.