Because I Can–A DITFT Legacy

As the summer went on, Jenna’s first crop began to grow. Thanks in a large part to the awesome sprinkler.  Though her good sense of humor would make it natural for Jenna to make tons of friends, she remained a loner on her farm. Billy and her plants were here only company.

“What’s brown and sticky?” Jenna asked the plant.

The plant didn’t reply.

“A Stick!”

Little did she know that Billy was creeping up behind her.

She went on, “What do you call a bee who is having a bad hair day?”

…..

“A Frisbee!”

“Are you telling lame jokes to that plant?” Billy asked.

Jenna giggled, “Oh crap! Pretend you didn’t hear any of that, alright Billy?”

“Does this mean the vegetables are going to taste funny now?” He asked.

“Actually, it has been scientifically proven that talking to plants help them grow.”

I actually have no idea if that is true, but if all the scientists in The Sims are super gardeners, and if super gardeners all talk to their plants…

“What made you want to become a farmer in the first place? It just seems like an odd ambition for a twenty-year-old girl with her entire life ahead of her,” Billy said.

Jenna shrugged. “It was my father’s life. Many people may think that a man should want more from his life than dirt and plants, but he saw something in the soil that was deeper than what other people saw. He saw the potential of the plants.”

“He also felt it was his duty, to carry on the tradition of one of the oldest and most important professions–farming. Farming is how we get our food. It helps us survive. And the fact that I’m a girl, well, should it really matter?”

Jenna realized that Billy was looking at her very strangely.

“Billy? Are you alright?”

“It’s just, what you said, that’s beautiful.”

“I guess this means we’re more than just friends now, huh?” Jenna said.

Over the next few weeks Jenna and Billy’s relationship progressed….

…quickly.

One day things were getting hot and heavy on the couch. Almost too hot and heavy for Jenna. She gently pushed Billy away.

“What’s wrong baby?”

“Billy, I have to tell you something. I’m so sorry. I should have told you a long time ago.”

She took a deep breath.

“I don’t believe in woohoo until after marriage. It’s a value that my parents taught me and I think it’s important. I realize you’re a modern man and you may have been expecting more from me, but I’m sorry. I just can’t give that to you. I’m not ready.”

“Than let’s get married,” Billy said.

Jenna froze and gave him a strange look.

“Did you just say what I thought you said?”

He nodded.

“Billy, I’m twenty-years-old. We’ve only known each other for a few weeks. I can’t marry you. I have a business to run, a life ahead of me…”

“Listen Jenna, I love you.” It was the first time he said it. The moment the words escaped his mouth Jenna relaxed and she smiled. No one had told her they loved her other than her mother and father. It was nice to hear.

Billy went on. “I’m inspired by your passion for farming. It reminds me of my passion for art. We are both passionate people. I feel we are meant to be together. I know that we don’t seem like the perfect match to other people, but I don’t care what other people think. I want to help you achieve your goals. It doesn’t matter how young we are. I will help you raise our family and run your farm. I will support you. Please, marry me…”

Jenna stammered. “I need to think…”

She got up from the couch and rushed outside.

She thought about how impossible it may be to marry Billy. Maybe in a few years when they knew each other better they could think about it. They were just so different from one another. Billy could be inappropriate in ways that Jenna didn’t understand. He was a slob while she was a neat freak. He preferred to spend his time alone working on his art while she liked to be outside. She should be marrying a man who shared her passion for the outdoors. Not…Billy.

But love is never predictable. It’s never how we plan. We may find our soul mates sooner than others. They can be hiding in places unexpected. The man of your dreams may not necessarily be the man in your heart.

Jenna turned and went back inside.

They were married in the garden where they shared their first kiss. It only seemed appropriate.

That night, as they lay together in bed, Jenna trembled inside. But she smiled at Billy.

“Are you ready?” Billy said.
She nodded wordlessly.

As she looked into his eyes, she knew in hear heart that their marriage was no mistake.

What Billy had not told Jenna, however, was that he was rich. He moved into the house with over 100,000 simoleans in possessions. He was excited to give Jenna a life she had never dreamed of. So that night, after Jenna had fallen asleep, Billy snuck out of the bedroom.

“Yes,” he whispered. “I would like to order two tickets to France please. Champes Les Sims.”

After Jenna first planted her fields in the spring, she would spend her afternoons wandering around Riverview searching for seeds. She wasn’t skilled enough to plant many of the rare seeds she found, but she kept a hold of them, hoping that she’d be able to plant an entire crop of rare plants in the coming years.

She found a field near her house that was full of rare seeds. Jenna didn’t seem to care if it was illegal or not to steal seeds out of another farmer’s field. No one ever caught her.

The field was also full of rare butterflies. Jenna caught a peculiar striped one that was worth a surprisingly large sum of money. She decided to hold on to it in case her finances ever became dire. She would sell the butterfly to science.

One day, Jenna’s seed finding travels brought her down to the cemetery in town. It had been weeks since she’d been in town, and she was beginning to feel lonely from the lack of companionship. She found a death flower plant in the cemetery. It didn’t have any flowers for her to harvest, but it did provide some interesting conversation.

After catching a few moths and finding some apple seeds, Jenna wandered out of the cemetery. Suddenly, a handsome young man wearing a black beret and a devilish smile approached her.

“Excuse me miss, were you just talking to that plant?”

Jenna blushed and then swallowed her pride. She shook the young man’s hand, remembering her run-in with Jon Lessen. She was prepared to be mocked by the young man. She could tell from his dress and the paint under his nails that he was an artist. He hand as he shook hers was smooth and not calloused from a long life of hard work. Jenna suddenly felt embarrassed for her own rough hands. Her nails were chipped and there was dirt lodged in her cuticles. They were not lady like hands. She looked into the stranger’s handsome sparkling eyes and felt a rare ping of regret that she had become a farmer. She could have been the type of woman who wore dresses and who men wooed with flowers. She could have been the type of woman that men wanted. Instead, she had chosen a different path.

“Yes. I was talking with the flowers,” She looked into his eyes, defiantly. She considered making a joke, but changed her mind.

“That’s awesome!” He said.

“What?”

“It’s beautiful, in a way, you know?” He went on. “Speaking to a living plant inside a cemetery. It’s like finding harmony between life and death. Almost makes me want to cry…”

“Er…” Jenna stammered in shock. She wasn’t sure how to respond to the man’s over-dramtic speech.

He seemed to notice how taken back she was. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I can be over dramatic sometimes. I should sell tickets to my own pity-play.”

“Yes, you could be the next Mindy Valentine,” Jenna said lightly. She began to impersonate the famous celebrity and the man laughed.

“That’s an amazing impression of her!”

He tried his own hand at the impersonation, throwing his arms up by his head and screaming in a horrible mock female voice, “Look at me! My fifth husband left me and I’m a millionaire! What am I to do?”

Jenna laughed loudly. It wasn’t often that someone was able to understand her rare form of humor. Most people didn’t think she was that funny. She appreciated finding someone to follow along with her jokes.

The two both giggled together. The man gave her a slight smile, “I’m Billy Caspian,” he said.

“Jenna Smith,” she replied, “Still giggling.”

The sun began to set and twilight came over Riverview. The two continued to talk with one another until they were in the midst of a hilarious conversation. It had been a long time since Jenna had laughed with someone. Not since her father died. She couldn’t believe how enlightened the laughter made her feel. Billy asked her to do more impersonations of famous people, so she pretended to be Chuck Mason, Lydia Neville and his favorite comedian…Marcus Vorelli.

“Look at me!” She yelled, in a thick italian accent, “I’m the wise guy!”

Other people in the town looked over at them, and Billy grabbed her arm, shushing her and giggling. She smiled up at him.

“It’s getting late,” she said. “I have to wake up early to tend my crops…”

She looked up at Billy hesitantly,  but he didn’t scoff when she mentioned that she was a farmer. Instead he smiled. “You own your own farm? That explains why you were talking to the plant. Do you tell your plants jokes? I bet if you do they’ll be the tastiest fruits and vegetables in the United Sates of Simland.”

“You should come over and see them sometime,” Jenna said. She surprised herself. “You’re welcome to my farm anytime. It’s nice to have a friend in Riverview.”

Billy shook her hand and lay a friendly hand on her shoulder. “I’m glad to be your friend. And I’d be glad to visit.”

***

It was the very next day when Jenna heard her doorbell ring and opened it to find Billy standing there with a sheepish smile. “I thought I’d invite myself over,” he said.

Jenna opened her door to him in shock and then tensed up as he looked around her tiny cottage. She waited for him to say something inappropriate about her humble dwellings, but instead he asked her how her crop was going.

“It’s growing slowly,” she admitted. “Harvest season couldn’t get here soon enough. Right now I’m just trying to get through my summer.”

“Well I’m sure tending the garden is keeping you busy.”

She shrugged, “Not as busy as I’d like. I spend most of the day reading or searching for seeds.” She shrugged and walked back into her main room.

“Would you like some salad?”

She had just finished placing a fresh plate on her counter. Billy grabbed some and sat down to eat with her. “IT’s a nice place you have here,” he said.

Jenna smiled. “No it’s not. But thank you for lying…”

After that, Billy came over to visit in the evenings, to keep Jenna company after a day of tending her crops. She was surprised by how quickly she came to enjoy Billy’s company. Other than his kindness and ability to understand her sense of humor, the two of them had nothing in common. Billy was an artist and he was wealthy. When he tried to talk to Jenna about art she just looked at him, confused. She could never understand art, not having an artistic ability herself.

Also, Billy tended to be inappropriate at times. He often liked to make himself comfortable on Jenna’s bed without asking.

Jenna was a very modest girl, and never had a man lay in her bed before, with or without her. She wasn’t sure what to say to Billy to make him get off her bed without hurting his feelings.

He tried to help her in the garden, despite the fact that he had no skill. Jenna was afraid that he’d accidentally kill one of her plants if she left him alone with it.

Despite all this, she was happy to have him as a friend. He even made her laugh harder than the sprinkler did.

Hello everyone!

I’ve been playing The Sims since Number One came out in 2000-2001 (the exact year is foggy, I was eleven) and ever since then I have been obsessed with playing the game. However, despite that I am now a writer in real life, I have never actually written a Sims 2 or Sims 3 story.

I have become inspired by the DITFT legacy and legacies such as A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss and Let It Be. I decided to finally try my hand at writing a unique legacy. I think the lack of lawn living in this one really motivated me. Rules for the DITFT challenge can be found here.

Jenna Smith stood nervously along the side of the road and surveyed the parcel of land her father had left her.

It was a beautiful patch of grass with rolling hills and thriving green trees. It had been one of the many pieces of property her father had owned when he was alive. However, when he died, taxes took all the properties except for this one. Jenna was his only child, so she inherited the land.

Jenna’s mother died when she was born and her father never found it in his heart to remarry. He had always wanted a son though. Jenna wanted to prove to him that she could work just as hard as a boy, and helped him in the fields. Now that he was gone, she was determined to run her own farm. She knew many people didn’t think a single woman could do such a thing, but Jenna was no normal woman. She may have been plain looking, but her body was muscular from years of working in the fields. She also had a bright sense of humor, which helped her make friends with boys and girls alike. When other sims doubted Jenna’s abilities to run a farm on her own, she let their insults run off her back like water.

Jenna hired an architect to build her a small farm house and she plotted out the first of her fields. She was excited about the crops she would soon plant.

Starting a farm in Riverview required the proper zoning. So Jenna called up city hall to register as a farmer and receive all the proper tax breaks.  They needed her to come down town and sign some paperwork.

Riverview was a large farming town and Jenna’s father always struggled to compete with the town’s old and rich farming families. Jenna shivered in her taxis as she rode by large fields and barns. How would she be able to compete?

As Jenna ran into town hall she smiled at the sigh of two identical twins walking by. Jenna was family oriented, and someday she hoped to have many children. But not yet. She had a farm to run first.

Legacy spouse bait was meandering through the park across the street from city hall. I was tempted to snatch up the robber for Jenna, but I didn’t think this would be the appropriate generation.

Jenna was so excited about registering as a farmer that she wasn’t looking where she was going, and ran into Jon Lessen, bumping him hard on the shoulder. Jenna flushed red.

Jenna knew to make a joke out of an embarrassing situation, so she shook Jon’s hand. “Hi, I’m Jenna Smith,” she said. “Didn’t you hear the forecast? There are going to be dozens of me running around town this afternoon, smacking into strangers. You should have stayed inside.”

Jon clearly didn’t understand Jenna’s sense of humor. However, he wasn’t going to let a new pretty face pass him by.

“What’s a pretty thing like you doing in Riverview, when you could be on a beach somewhere–with me.”

Jenna could sense he was flirting, and being a modest gal, she wasn’t into it. She ignored him.

“No beaches for me,” she said. “I’m a farmer.”

“A farmer?” Jon looked dumbstruck as he looked Jenna over once again.

“Yeah, you know…I grow the food that you eat everyday.”

Jon began to giggle. “Hot lady farmer. Just my luck.”

Than he laughed loudly, finally excusing himself and walking away.

Jenna shrugged her shoulders and sighed. There was no love lost between them. Kids always used to tease her in high school about being a farmer’s daughter and the would laugh when she told them her plans to start a farm herself. She was used to it.

So she took a quick glance around the town of Riverview, and then hailed a taxis home. She had to wake up early in the morning to plant her first crop.

In the early morning light, Jenna bent down and placed her first seed in the grown. She sighed with contentment. From this seed, not only would her crops grow–but so would her legacy. It all began with that little bit of dirt.

Not the one to get too sentimental–Jenna than celebrated the planting of her first crop with a little dance through the sprinklers: