Click here for the first week with the Brokes.
After more than two years in real life since I have last played them, the Brokes are still in their original home. It is still modest, but I changed the inside to make it much nicer and let the family have a bit more cash to pay those bills without Dustin having to work after school.
Here is Brandi with Bob, her youngest. He was named after her late Dad, Bob Newbie. Little Bob has learned all his toddler skills by now, much of it due to the help of his big brother Dustin.
Here are Dustin and Beau, Brandi's older sons who were born when their Dad was still alive.
On this Monday, with the older two at school and Bob happily playing with his xylophone, Brandi orders some groceries - there is next to nothing left in the fridge, but it is cheaper to pay the delivery service than to have a Nanny look after Bob while she's out shopping.
Back from school, both boys do their homework and then help with things to do around the house, such as washing up or taking the rubbish out.
Dustin combines the want for constant skilling (there must be a Knowledge Sim hidden inside him) with his Fortune aspiration and sells his very first painting. 20 Simoleons may not be much, but it is a start, and he already dreams of a golden future where his paintings will fetch much more.
As usual, on Tuesday a stack of bills arrives. Fortunately, the modest house with not all that many commodities means that Brandi does not have to fork out a huge amount.
Dustin comes home from school with Brittany Love in tow - she's obviously working at a shop in town, and with her surname, I will of course make her playable by sending her to college.
Two hours later, Beau is dropped off by the school bus. He, too, has company: Brittany Tinker. For a moment I am excited, thinking the game has generated an NPC child with a playable surname. Then I remember that the Tinkers have adopted several children, one of them young Brittany.
Yay!! Bob is a child - no more bottles and potty for him!! :-D
The first snow of this winter falls on Wednesday, and the boys are quite excited, at breakfast talking about building a snowman after school. But by the time school is out, what little snow had fallen was already gone. Also, they would not have had time for snowmen, because it was going to be an important afternoon for the family.
Brandi is busy all morning. She makes sure everything is spic & span, and is quite upset when both the toilet AND the shower need repairing - today of all days!! But she pulls through, and a couple of hours later nobody would have thought anything had gone wrong today.
Dustin and Beau do their homework without help, but it was Bob's first day at school today, and so Brandi shows him how it is done.
And then it is 5:00 pm, and the headmaster's car pulls up! Dustin has been wanting to get into Private School "forever", and his younger brother Beau feels the same. Dustin welcomes Mr. Jitmakusol and offers to show him around. "I know it's not much, sir, but it's home," he smiles shyly.
The headmaster likes the house well enough and is only disappointed with the boys' room - it is clean and tidy, but there are no toys, no posters or collectibles or anything that is not strictly necessary.
He also likes the pork chops Brandi has made, and Beau age-transitioning into a teenager right over his dinner plate doesn't seem to bother him in the least.
But no matter what Brandi and Dustin try in terms of schmoozing, they don't really get through to Mr. Jitmakusol, and his assessment yields only 75 of the required 90 points. Dustin is disappointed, but it is not the end of the world, is it! By the way, Beau's aspiration is Fortune, and he dreams of becoming a Business Tycoon - growing up financially poor obviously makes him wish never having to worry about money ever again.
Dustin sells his second painting on Thursday, and it fetches twice as much as his first one. 40 Simoleons is still a very modest price, but he's working on that masterpiece!
When the boys are at school, Brandi tries once more to find something valuable buried in the garden. The previous week she found a piece of rock, and earlier this week a bone was unearthed - it sold for 55 Simoleons, which covered the Thursday bills nicely. Now, though, all she gets is water, and lots of it!
By the time Wanda Tinker walks by, she has shoveled the dirt back into the hole and stomped it firmly back into place.
Of course Wanda wants to meet Brandi; after all, her oldest daughter, Melody, goes to school with Dustin, and one of her younger children, Brittany, has been visiting with Beau and Bob.
For the first time this week, Dustin wishes to see his girlfriend, Angela Pleasant. In fact, he does not only want to see her but rolls wishes to flirt with her and then to make out. The two lovebirds aren't in the least bothered by Dustin's younger brothers watching closely! (It's a bit creepy, isn't it, but that's what happened.)
Winter is at its end, and so is Dustin's childhood - he will move to college this afternoon. While he is really looking forward to all that learning (he may be a Fortune Sim, but his lifetime want is all about skilling), he is going to miss his home, his Mum and his little brothers.
The last painting he sells from home fetches 85 Simoleons.
Just before the school bus arrives, Brandi plays with her youngest in order to get Bob's mood up for school.
At 1:00 pm, Dustin and Beau are dropped off by the school bus, and Brittany Love is with them again. She and Beau eat together, while Dustin packs his meagre possessions for college.
Brandi finally gives him the present she has carefully been hiding all this time - a computer! And a really good one it is, too!! Dustin can't believe it; he knows his Mum would have showered her boys with gifts if she'd had the means, but money has always been tight, and so he appreciates his going-to-college gift all the more.
Bye-bye, Dustin! We'll see you at uni.
Brandi is in the bathroom (because she needs it, or maybe also so that her sons don't see the tears she's shedding over Dustin leaving the family home?) when Bob returns from school. He brandishes his first A+ report and shouts through the door: "Mum! Muuum!! I've got an A+!!!"
Of course, she is very, very proud of Bob, and tells him so. Against all odds, her boys have been doing really well, private school or not!
Brittany has patiently been keeping quiet and watching TV while all this was going on, and now that Brandi joins her, she remarks how hard it must be to see a child grow up and move out. Brandi thinks what an insightful girl Brittany is.
(By the way, Brittany will now move to college, too.)
One of the moments I find most touching in our favourite game is when an older sibling tucks in a younger one, like Beau does here.
Dustin's bed is gone, and now it's just the two younger brothers sharing the room, which suddenly feels so much bigger.
Saturday is still chilly, but spring is in the air, and Brandi walks to the Woodland Park with her boys.
Beau tries his hand at fishing and is soon joined by Lilith Pleasant.
Meanwhile, Brandi rolls a series of romantic wishes - for the first time since the death of her husband, she doesn't have little ones to look after, and remembers that while she still feels first and foremost a Mum, she is also a woman.
I have her check out some of the other Sims visiting the park, and guess what, Police Officer Vince Knight turns out to be her three-bolt man!! I would have prefered for Brandi to find someone among Pleasantview's playable Sims, but as I keep saying, 3 bolts are hard to ignore. They share a joke and a few pleasantries, and there is even some flirting which is not rejected.
Then, as the three leave (on foot, the same way they came), the game crashes... and unfortunately, the visit was not saved; Brandi has no memory of meeting Vince.
I have an idea and let her call the police even though there is no need; maybe Vince will turn up? However, it is Ramin Centowski, and he does not even wait for Brandi to explain things to him (let alone check how many bolts she may have for him) - he fines her 500 Simoleons for this unnecessary summons! And with no regular income, the family would certainly have had better ways to spend that kind of money.
Later, Nina Caliente comes visiting on her own accord. She has some of Brandi's vegetable stew and keeps Bob company at the table, and is rewarded by him telling her everything about his first A+.
After Brandi's unlucky memory loss on Saturday, I try to remedy things for her on Sunday and send her back to the park, this time on her own (and of course on foot, just like before).
And who shall appear just as she arrives but Vince Knight! Brandi can't believe her luck and immediately walks over to Vince to greet him.
Greeting is not all she does - the two of them strike up a conversation, and there is some cautious flirting going on. To my relief, they are still (or again) three-bolters. Brandi then walks home, and everything is fine - the game doesn't crash. Phew!
Back home, the bathtub needs repairing again. Beau is busy at the easel and Bob spends the afternoon talking on the phone to his classmate Brittany Tinker and then skipping rope. Once the bathroom is back in order, Brandi rings Vince.
She really wants a date, but she is also aware that her circumstances are not exactly date-friendly. Still, if she and Vince have a future together, it is vital that she is honest with him from the start, and so she invites him over. If he sees her modest circumstances and still wants to get involved with a widowed mother of three, then he really is the right man for her.
They talk... and flirt... and have their first kiss... and Brandi shows Vince what she feels for him. The date goes very well, but it is late, and Brandi is really tired. Before things can turn sour (because she has a tendency to be grumpy when she's tired), they kiss good-bye.
Vince returns a little later without making himself noticed and places a beautiful rose for Brandi on the porch. It now has pride of place in her kitchen.
I really like playing the Brokes! Their circumstances make things a bit more challenging than playing other families, but apart from the boys not getting into Private School and Brandi's bad luck with calling the police only because she was hoping to see Vince again, they did rather well.
Something odd happened with Brittany Love: As you saw, she came home from school with the teenage boys, being a teenager herself, but obviously an NPC shop clerk. I intended to send her to college along with Dustin, but her name did not appear in the list of "sendable" teens. Instead, when I entered the campus neighbourhood, there she was in the student bin, waiting to be moved into a dorm or house!
I guess I must have "met" her before when playing some other household in Pleasantview last round, sent her to college and then forgot about her. But since she'd already been in the student bin on campus, she should not have been able to be on the school bus with the boys, should she? Anyway, she's now in the same dorm as Dustin.
