Hello! Welcome back to Auspicious It Ain’t, my attempt at a Nickel & Dimed Challenge. There’s no scoring in this challenge -- it’s pass/fail, and so far I’m passing. Barely.

However, I do have something of a dilemma now. You may recall that when the first chapter came out, I told you all about how Ygraine and Beaudelaire had recently come out of the hospital after being admitted for threeps.* So what’s the dilemma?

*“Threeps” is a disease that unravels alien Birth Queen DNA and will flat-out kill any purebred Birth Queens. This is why the aliens are so interested in coming up with a viable human-alien crossbreed. But you knew that.

The threeps seems to have not been as complete as previously thought. See Beaudelaire’s neck and scalp?

This is hugely exciting from a scientific standpoint: the first evidence that threeps might be reversible! It’s the first documented spontaneous reversal, and rest assured that Ygraine and Beaudelaire will be poked, prodded, tested, and measured until they are sick of the sight of anyone in a white coat.

Not that they will be paid for it, of course, and it doesn’t make the previous hospital bills go away, but… SCIENCE!

Genevive never manifested any Birth Queen DNA, and she never had threeps. This is good, of course, and means that she will not be poked, prodded, tested, and measured.

Unfortunately, that also means that she’s often the only member of the family with enough free time to do chores around the hou -- er, trailer.

After the spontaneous remission, Beaudelaire’s birthday was hardly worth taking note of. In accordance with ancient tradition and Eaxian programming, it took place in the bathroom.

I wouldn’t shake Beadelaire’s hand just yet if I were you. I know what he was doing ten seconds before the sparklies began.

Now that the kids are old enough to care for themselves, Ygraine has found a job. Although it would have been awesome to find her a job as a Test Subject, jobs in the Science track are against the rules. Instead, she has a job in the Gamer track. This also sounds awesome, until you realize that her job is to insert and eject a game disk, over and over, and to time how long it takes the console to perform both tasks.

Ygraine bought a gently-used table and chairs to celebrate. Now the kids can do their homework together!

All that studying pays off, too.

GENEVIVE: Mom! Mom! I got an A+!YGRAINE: Wow.GENEVIVE: An A+, Mom! An A+!YGRAINE: In a minute, honey.

YGRAINE: But I have a job now! I’ll get my first paycheck at the end of the week. Can’t you wait until Friday? Please…?

Ygraine is mostly functional. She’s able to knock out many chores before the carpool comes, and both kids are big enough to help out now.

They largely keep themselves amused, and sometimes even bring home the right kind of friends.*

*The blond girl in the ponytail is Winifred Tsvirkunov from 100 Days of Awesome. The family may not make a big deal of it, but they are filthy rich.

The biggest problem with the kids isn’t really their fault. You see, the bus leaves at eight in the morning. Ygraine sees the kids off, does a few chores, and heads out in her car pool at nine.

The bus gets home at three p.m., like all buses in everyone’s game everywhere.

Unless they have some sort of hack or mod, I guess.

Ygraine gets home at four.

The game has so far only given me a warning about Beaudelaire -- I suspect that Ygraine came home before it could warn me about Genevive -- but the Social Worker is a real threat in this house.

Everybody needs a good splurge with their very first paycheck, and Ygraine was no exception. To celebrate Mom’s new job, the family painted the hallway and main room. Sure, the walls and the carpet make an unusual combination, but it goes great with the linoleum in the kitchen.

YGRAINE: What are you doing? Why are you doing your homework on the floor? I bought you a table and chairs!GENEVIVE and BEAUDELAIRE: Yeah, yeah.

Although that might not have been the best investment. You see, I place a breadfruit tree on the lot.

The tree caught on fire, as breadfruit trees do, and refused to go out.

I decided to sell the breadfruit tree, but the rules state that you can only sell something to upgrade to a better one.

The breadfruit tree costs $270, so I upgraded to a $275 tree.

Which promptly caught on fire.

I was able to direct Ygraine to a safe distance away from the fire so that she wouldn’t burn to death like a couple of Sims I had once.*

*See Already in Progress #10, part 2

Unfortunately, that “safe distance” was exactly where lightning was next scheduled to strike.

I suppose there’s a reason this story is called “Auspicious It Ain’t,” huh?

Until next time, Happy Simming!