I am not sure that anyone is reading this or not, or doing the challenge or not, but personally I'm having fun, and if someone is reading or playing - great. I hope you have fun! While I posted gen 1 (Claire) in one comment, I've come to realise it would be far, far, too long if I did the same with gen 2 (Laurie), so her story I will write in installments. Stay tuned, because this is a real soap opera. But first meet Laurie:
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Her individual story really started with the death of her father Benny, who died of laughter the day after Winterfest when she was still a teenager (poor Claire was completely heartbroken when the love of her life died so soon, she wasn't even an elder, and their younges, Cloe was still just a child). Laurie loved her father, and was thrown into grief which she dealt with by partying. She spontaneously flirted and whoohooed, but, on only her third date in total she met Mathias and in him she found her purpose:
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Mathias was older (the equivalent of 14 years older), wore a suit and had a receding hairline that really shouldn't have been attractive to a young woman at all, but Laurie fell head over heals in love with him even though all they really did on this first date was talk (him) and woohoo. The same pattern emerged on the following dates. Mathias would talk - Laurie listen - then they'd kiss and she, but never he, would get little thought bubbles of rings, houses or hearts. He'd ask her to woohoo - she'd say yes - and he would either go to sleep or leave the date when done. Not the best basis for a relationship I'd say, but Laurie disagreed.
With risky woohoo turned on (as Laurie's erratic side didn't make me think she'd be too careful with birthcontrol), it did turn out to be the best basis for getting pregnant fast and Angie was born while Laurie was still living at home:
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While Mathias had seemed sort of pleased when learning about her pregnancy, he wasn't really dancing with joy the way her father had been when Claire shared the news with him. More importantly, he showed no interest in changing the status of their relationship. He DIDN'T ask her to be his girlfriend, or propose, or anything else that might have indicated that he actually wanted a relationship of any kind. Instead their dating pattern much remained the same both before and after Angie's birth. When the day came that he was supposed to meet his baby, he promptly left the room. Fair to say, he wasn't the most enthusiastic of fathers - or interested in Laurie past her abilities in bed.
Claire really didn't like this man. But Laurie was still so, so, in love, even when Mathias asked her out less and less. In the meantime Angie started to grow up:
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Then, on Angie's first birthday, as Mathias showed up to her birthday party, Laurie found out just why those requests for dates had become less frequent. Mathias had gotten married too someone else!
Laurie was hurt, but Claire was angry and confronted Mathias and asked him what his problem was. His answer? "He couldn't be entirely blamed for the situation."
For anyone with half a brain this would mark the end of Laurie and Mathias - but Laurie was still in love, Mathias was still asking her on dates, and there was the part where she was already pregnant with their second. Soon a mother of two, Laurie moved into the new houses built in Newcrest and opened a live in day care as she cared Angie and baby Allyson. Claire and Cloe (now NPCs) moved into the house next door to help with the growing family that still has no proper dad in sight:
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