That middle daughter of mine...

I had a lot to think about when I left the counselor's office.
The video of my daughter, my flesh and blood, pummeling this poor young man into submission sent chills through every pixel I have.

What scares me is how MUCH Sierra resembles me.  And I'm not just talking about facial features.   She IS me, all over again, only more extreme than before.  Even down to her complete lack of desire to socialize.

The whole three days we were at freshman orientation, the only person she'd really talk to... was me.

 

Sage and I rented a moving truck the day she moved into her dorm.  It took all three of us to help Sierra get her things moved in.  She's got a lot of stuff!  There's her athletic equipment, her chemistry set, her clothes, her books -- sheesh I don't think AJ and Sage COMBINED had this much stuff.

When Sierra was twelve years old, we'd moved to Moonlight Falls because I'd gotten a job as the curator for the Museum of Antiquity there.  She was dabbling in alchemy, fascinated by supernatural creatures of all kinds, and then, the piece de resistance, I found out she was seeing a psychic.

 

 When I confronted the psychic my daughter had been seeing, in a rambling telephone conversation,  I was initially upset because I felt this woman was taking advantage of my little girl.

But now, upon further reflection, I think I owe her an apology.  Because subsequent events have caused me to rethink this situation.

I now believe Sierra purposely sought out the psychic.

I mean, she was a twelve year old girl.  Twelve year old girls don't seek out psychics.  I had a hard time believing a 12 year old girl would purposely seek out a psychic.

But I also know, now, that she inherited this from me.

It was highly hypocritical of me to go after the psychic when I was doing the same thing (only at a less extreme level) at her age.

Sierra tells this story that she was abducted by aliens right after we moved to Moonlight Falls.  I don't know if her purported abduction took place before or after she started seeing this psychic. 

But as she's gotten older, her behavior has become stranger.

 

There was that time in Hidden Springs when she challenged her brother to a hot dog eating contest.  Poor AJ was doubled over and couldn't eat another bite, and she stood there laughing at him.

As time went on, it just got worse.  Even our butler, Max, allowed her to get away pretty much with murder.

She sneaked out of the house in plain sight...

...and every time she got busted we got into these shouting matches.  

Then there was this tape that showed her viciously attacking this boy. 

She was then sentenced to Fort Starch Military academy, with absolutely no remorse for the incident.

A couple of days after we'd taken Sierra and her stuff to the university, my older daughter, Sage, calls me at home.   Sage was finishing off her environmental studies course work and she wanted to keep an eye out for Sierra, her younger sister by 6 sim days.

She tells me that Sierra plopped her sleeping bag down right in front of the movie theater.  

She said other sims passing by were pointing and laughing and taking pictures, but she just remembers being a bit embarrassed and definitely worried.  "I just wrapped her up in that sleeping bag and brought her back to the dorm," she told me.  

And just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, it did.  

The very next night, Andy and I got a call from the university.  

Sierra had been arrested on campus for defacing public property.

Andy and I collapsed into each other's arms.   We're at a complete loss for words. 

Counseling

Back in the Valley, the three of us (me, my husband Andy, and our daughter Sierra) were eating pieces of birthday cake in my parents' formal dining room.  My husband doesn't talk much, but apparently Sierra's behavior had struck a nerve with him.

"You're going to counseling, miss," Andy said firmly. "Your mother and I are not going to be bailing you out of prison. You've had it much too good for you to be doing the things you're doing. We do not want to see your face on a wanted poster."

Sierra peered at her father through her new horn-rimmed glasses. "If I go you're going to have to come with me."

"Oh, your mother and I are coming with you. If only to make sure you do this." Andy stopped for a moment and paused. "And another thing. You're going to college."

"College?"

"Yes, college. One of the conditions of your release from Fort Starch is that you go to college. They strongly recommended it because of your high test scores. You're smart but you never applied yourself - or at least, you applied yourself in the wrong way."

A week later, the three of us were in Dr. Bill's new Sunset Valley office.

Sierra and I didn't even look at each other during the entire session.

First Dr. Bill directed me to a large television set in his office, where he pressed play on some kind of player.
 

When the video came on, my heart sank.  I knew it was my daughter.  I knew it was her, just from the way she walked and her short blond hair.

First Sierra slaps a random boy in the face, knocking him nearly unconscious.

Next she proceeds to put a choke hold on him, leaving him gasping for air. 

The fight continues for another ten minutes, and Sierra emerges 'victorious' from the top of the pile.

Andy and I shook our heads in disbelief.  We didn't raise Sierra like this.  Not even AJ and Imsety, as rebellious as they were, were ever this violent. 

I told him how much disbelief I was in at the things my daughter Sierra has done.  The only thing that kept me from reaching over at her and wringing her neck is Andy gently whispering 'Calm down' in my ear. 

Dr. Bill looked at me.  "I have Sierra's entire Fort Starch record in front of me, and in my opinion, this girl is dangerously out of control, and if we don't get a handle on it now, she will spend a miserable lifetime behind bars."

I sighed.  "I agree."

"I hope you also agree that this girl did not become like this in a vacuum.  This didn't happen overnight.  I have parents who say, their kid was the perfect child until a certain age when bam, the bottom just fell out."

 I shook my head.  "Well, she started skipping school as a young girl.  Missing the bus, that kind of thing."

"Worst thing that could have happened was her teen birthday.  She just became completely outrageous."

Dr. Bill stopped me.  "What do you mean by 'became completely outrageous'?"

"She was being brought home by the police all the time.  Throwing eggs at people's houses, breaking and entering, that sort of thing.  Her poor brother was so distraught when she was brought home that he passed out and he ended up in the hospital. 

"My husband was simply beside himself."

"And it got worse.  I took this job in Moonlight Falls as the curator for their Museum of Antiquity, and I moved the kids.  Sierra, she loved it, the whole atmosphere.  It led to her trying a whole lot of different things...

"She dabbled in alchemy.  She used to go to Aleister's there and talk to the supers and I know she was reading texts and trying to make potions."

"She dyed her hair a whole bunch of different colors.  It's been every shade in the rainbow.  It's been pink, it's been red, it's been blue, green, black, purple.  It's been a different hue for every day in the week pretty much.  She's a natural blond like me and I don't even remember (other than today) when it's been that color."

 

"Then, we found out she was seeing a psychic.  I mean, what am I supposed to think, I find out my twelve year old is seeing a psychic.  That sent chills down every pixel I have."

Dr. Bill interrupted me again.  "Mrs. Cheesman, you're by trade a paranormalist?"

"By trade I'm an adventurer and historian.  I did do ghost hunting for a time."

"Sounds to me like she's taken after you."

"What do you mean?"

"Mrs. Cheesman, you said in your written statement that you were like this when you were a teen."

"Yes, I was, that's why I recognize the signs.  But I wasn't this extreme, though, Dr. Bill."

"She's a seeker.  It seems to me like she's looking for something.  It seems to me like she's looking for some guidance or some direction for her life.  Like I was saying before, I have her Fort Starch record in front of me.  I have all the notes they made on her.  Just from hearing you for the last twenty minutes, I'm getting the impression that this is an extremely bright young lady who needs some guidance, direction, or some kind of structure for her life.    She seems to be hungry for knowledge, just by listening to the story you're telling.  Her curiosity is apparently off the chart.  What we have to do is find a way to harness all of that for good."

Introducing Sawyer

This is my youngest boy, Sawyer Nathan Cheesman.
He asked to join the Boy Scouts and we let him.

He enjoys playing in (and sleeping in) Sierra's old tree house.

He likes eating breakfast with Skylar even though she is due to turn teen soon.

The other day he asked Sage if she could take him to the summer festival, and, well, how could she refuse?

 

So she took him, even though by the time they got there, it started pouring rain.  No matter, they're Andy's kids, they don't mind getting soaked to the bone, as long as they enjoy being outside.

 

Sawyer's even proving he's got a way with animals as he walked right up to a horse he had never seen before and handed it a treat.  

The Complicated Nature of First Love

Sierra is in the throes of her first teen crush.
That it happens to be on a girl has surprised me - but only a little.  Nothing Sierra does surprises me anymore.

I met Lily Jade Richards, the object of Sierra's affection, at the library in Hidden Springs yesterday. She was there studying with a male friend. Have to say, she's an interesting character. Her father is Chinese and Irish, and her mother came straight from Shang Simla, so she's three-fourths Chinese.  Her traits are brave, eccentric, genius and athletic. I kind of see why she appealed to my daughter as Sierra has three of those same traits. 

As far as I'm aware, Lily is the one who pursued Sierra, at the prom. 

The new relationship, if you call it that, partly explains Sierra's sudden interest in science and inventing.  She locks herself in her room for hours at a time, working on her experiments.  Apparently it stems from Lily's eccentric trait, she's into that kind of thing.  I know that Sierra built a bomb at Fort Starch, in fact she posted pictures of it online, and that "bucket list" she wrote has a lot of potions and robotics and stuff she wants to try out on it.   

At any rate, Sierra is positively smitten with this girl.  She's writing notes to her all the time and texting her on her smartphone. 

Quite a pair, these two are. I don't really know what to make of them. 

 

I keep searching for ways to talk to this girl and I keep failing, miserably.  

I cannot talk to Sierra, not only because she IS me, only more extreme, but when it comes to her a lot of the time, my verbal faculties disappear.  

She defies belief.

As for my older daughter, Sage... 

Sage has started to date Kyle Heilman, a fellow student she met in her fine arts classes.  He's the first guy she really seems to be serious about.  And apparently, he's also crazy about her.  So much so that they've moved in together.  

 

They're living in this environmentalist cottage in the woods in Hidden Springs.  Sage took her horse, Eager Traveller, and her dog, Bitsy, with her.  They're a couple of bohemians who found each other.  I swear, I think they were both born in the wrong decade. 

They talk about hunger strikes and energy conservation.  They grow veggies in the garden and fish out of Hidden Springs' many ponds.  I've heard Kyle plans on buying a horse to go along with Sage's.

Kyle works as a volunteer fireman for Hidden Springs' fire department.  I haven't heard what Sage plans on doing with that shiny new degree she's got.  

 

I have told her that I think she is moving too quickly.  She's just started dating him and already they're in their own place together.  

I fear it is headed for disaster.  But I can't tell Sage that.  She's in the throes of puppy love, just like her kid sister.   

  

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about my oldest son, Andrew Jr.  

I hate to say it as I love my son to death, but he is a walking disaster in the romantic department.

 

At issue, of course, is his on-again, off-again, stormy romance with Samantha Grey, a girl he met at college.   She's a fine arts major and took a lot of classes with Kyle and Sage.  I think she was studying to be a fashion designer or something.

Anyway, he and Samantha had a bad breakup because she cheated...

 

.

..and he briefly rebounded with Kayleigh Andre, who just happens to be Sage's best friend and who just happened to have had a crush on him since she was a teenager...

 

So please explain to me why, after he got his shiny new tech degree....

 ...did he and Samantha reconcile and move in together?

And the poor guy's apparently got a stalker too.  He and Sage went to the gym to workout.  

 

This girl just kept staring at him.  

 She whipped out her camera and started taking pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures.  I wouldn't be surprised if she has a shrine of him somewhere in her bedroom.  It's a bit creepy.

Sometimes I wish I weren't a Plumb, so that my kids wouldn't have to deal with this.  They have to deal with this because of who I am and because of who my parents and brother are.  

Sage says she's used to it.  

She would say that, she's like her father, nothing bothers her.  

 

I have tried to hold my tongue, because I have a strong belief in allowing my children to form their identities and live their lives, but I cannot hold it any longer.   I think they're all making horrible decisions in the romantic department.  It's hard for me, being such a control freak, to take hands off, but I feel like I'm watching a train wreck and I can't look away.  

When their relationships crash and burn, I'm going to be the one to pick up the pieces.  

I'm mom.  That's my job.