100 Baby Challenge Chapter 8 - Yvette

Today was my birthday, I came home from school with straight As and my mom had a birthday cake all ready to go for me.  It was amazing, I can't believe I'm going to high school tomorrow. I'm excited and nervous at the same time.  I moved to high school faster than of some of my middle school classmates so I hope I make friends quickly.  Middle school was easy for me so I hope high school is the same. I wish Trixie was here, I miss her a lot, I'm the only girl in a house full of boys and mom just isn't around for me to talk to very much.  She's always been busy, if she's not gardening, she's painting, and if she's not doing those things she's usually sleeping.  I need Trixie, I have so many questions, questions about life, boys, how to become successful in this world.  Oh well, I guess I can look those things up on the computer, Hoogle has the answers to everything.

As I sat down to a delicious grilled cheese I just whipped up for myself, my mom sat down next to me.  "Yvette, honey.  There's something that I need to talk to you about." Kami said a little uneasily.  Mom was usually so confident and inspired that when she spoke we listened, today she didn't sound confident at all.  So I looked at her and I listened, she wasn't her usual self so this must be important.

*Earlier in the day*
While all the kids were at school, Kami placed herself in the garden for a few hours.  This was her unwind time and since she turned 65 she'd begun to slow down drastically.  It took her longer and longer to get through tending to her garden and she knew that time was not on her side any longer. She knew that Yvette would be turning 15 today, she would start high school tomorrow and with that came a growing need to pass on the family legacy, and her duties as heir to the Turner family line. Speaking to herself; "what am I going to do?" "how do I tell Yvette about her responsibilities now that she's going to be coming of age?"  This shouldn't be this hard, I must remember what my father told me, but it was so long ago I just can't remember the words.  I guess I could just say, look your life will not be like your brothers and sisters, you will be responsible for carrying on something so much more special, I hope she thinks it's special otherwise the next 30 something years will just drag for her.  You are my heir, and with that comes some rules and responsibilities.  I'll just spell them out for her and hope she'll understand.  I hope that I can make it clear to her why this is so important.  Maybe I'll bring out the secret family album and show her all of her generation.  She hasn't met all of her siblings so I doubt she knows much about what is going on.  As the last child she didn't get to see everything her brothers and sisters did, she wasn't around when there were twins and triplets all in the same house, or when there were 5 teenage boys running round like mad.  I want to tell her of the good times we had, camping and going to the parks.  It wasn't all bad and stressful.  I became quite successful without being able to really work in the traditional sense.  Maybe if I nap on it I will see my path, and maybe I'll be able to communicate this without freaking her out.  A little rest will be good for this tired old body, 25 kids really has taken its toll.

Yvette listened intently as her mother explained that her father; Mort Turner, Yvette's grandfather had run into some trouble with the government and he had caused a mishap at a science facility resulting in the loss of generations of Sim DNA.  As repayment, Mort's youngest daughter and all the youngest daughters in each generation there after would have to provide as many children as possible in her lifetime, and no two children could have the same father unless the pregnancy resulted in twins or triplets.  The debt would be re-payed once 100 children had been born from all the youngest daughters in total.  Kami could see the shock on her daughters face, it worried her that Yvette might not really be prepared for this undertaking.
"Are you ok Yvette?"
"You know mom, I knew something was up, but I had no idea to the extent of what that something was.  You're telling me that I cannot hold a job, and I have to be a baby factory until I can no longer bear children and then at that point my youngest daughter when she comes of age will have to take over."
"Yes, that's right."  "It's not so bad, I mean look at us, we have a large house and I was able to add on to it slowly each year to make it what it is now.  I tried my best to provide the best life I could for all of my children, and your children will start in this house where you were raised.  Alexis and Brandon started out in a bare bones home with shoddy furniture and appliances.  Things were broken all the time."
"Alexis and Brandon? Exactly how many of us are there?" Yvette asked intently.  "I was able to conceive 25 children in my lifetime. Alexis and Brandon are your oldest sister and brother, they are twins." Kami responded.  Yvette's face went blank and her mind went numb almost instantly.  "I need to go do my homework, I'll be in my room if you need me." As Yvette ran to her room, with no intention of doing homework she pulled out her cell phone and called Trixie.

Yvette and Trixie talked for hours, how would Yvette get through this, she didn't want to have 25 children and no job.  She wanted to spend her time outside working, not inside rearing children. Her body would be ruined, how had her mother stayed so thin? This is an impossible feat, what about the men, were they ok with this arrangement? How did her mom keep this going?  So many questions and so few answers.  Her head was spinning and Trixie didn't really have the answers for her, Trixies only advice was to talk to mom, get her perspective.  This was inconceivable but it happened and she lived through it so mom must have some advice on how to deal. Yvette didn't even know how babies were made yet, she had heard of woohoo but she didn't know how it worked. Trixie gave a brief explanation of woohoo but even mom hadn't had that talk with Trixie.  I wonder if she had that talk with any of her kids?  Yvette hung up with Trixie feeling no better about the situation but decided to go to bed early, who on earth could think about homework at a time like this?  She would do her homework in the morning before school.

Yvette woke up with a sense of purpose this day, first day of high school, homework done in a rush but done none the less.  Kami woke up in time to see her daughter off to school, but Yvette did not want to speak to her just yet.  She had to focus at school and this was going to be hard enough as it was, she didn't need a reminder right before school.  It wasn't fair, why hadn't Trixie or Sam been picked for this?  Sam is gorgeous and Trixie too, they would be much better suited for this task than me.  If she had just stopped after William and Xander I wouldn't be doing this.  If she had stopped, I wouldn't be here.  That thought made her shiver, that wasn't something she wanted to think about.  For all the shittiness of this task that she must take on, she couldn't imagine not knowing her brothers and sisters. She couldn't imagine not being here.  At that moment, Yvette decided that she would be fine, she would make the best of this life and try and get through as many children as she could.  It won't be so bad having lots of kids, the house will always be busy and she'll always have someone to talk to.  She did dream of having the perfect man, who would seduce her and woo her and make her feel like the most special Sim in the whole world.  The man who would have only eyes for her and that she could grow old with, but this wasn't meant to be.  She would be the one seducing and wooing until she could get pregnant and then she would move on.  Nothing like a little "wham bam, thank you sir."  She couldn't think like that, this was her job now, it was the only way to think of it since she couldn't have a paying job where she rose in the ranks for promotions.  She would succeed at this, she didn't want future generations to suffer because she hadn't kept up.  She wanted her grandchildren to be released of this bond as soon as possible.

The school day came and went, it was like a blur.  When she arrived home she set herself to the task of cooking dinner and then making a few more meals to help with her skill set.  She had to cook a few more meals before she met the requirement for school.  Homework and extra credit were done but she needed to speak with her mother again.  She had so many questions, and she needed the answers.  Yvette went down to the basement apartment to speak with her mother.

"Mom?"
"Yes, honey. What's up?"
"Well, I have all these questions about what we talked about yesterday, things that only you can answer.  Can we talk about them now?"

Kami explained that for her it was just a job.  She loved all of her children equally and the job part didn't diminish how much she loved her children but she had to think of it as a job so that she could rationalize how many men she had to sleep with.  She explained how often she would go out and how mainly she met guys who were out running in front of the house.  It helped that she didn't have to go far to find men.  Only when she had a teenager in the house would she allow herself to find her next man other than near the house.  She then explained that making money wasn't hard if she painted, or wrote book.  She could also make money from selling fruits and vegetables from her garden.  She explained that some men would reject her, wooing a man would never be the same way twice.

"Some men I had to work extra hard at, some men I just gave up on because they weren't keen to my advances and then there we others that just made it so very easy.  They were willing to come with me almost instantly. It wasn't always easy, I usually had an infant in the house when I was starting my next pregnancy so you'll want to make sure you get plenty of rest.  If you don't you could literally die of exhaustion."

Yvette then asked the tough question, "What about woohoo? How does it work?"  This answer took far longer for Kami to explain.  Kami wasn't given the talk before she took this endeavor on, she was the only girl of 4 and she was the oldest so none of her brothers had experience with this sort of thing.  At 18 her dad kicked her out with the clothes on her back, her mission and $20K to buy a house, and settle in for some of the longest years ahead of her.  Kami did her best to explain flirting, and the actual act of woohoo.  Yvette looked terrified and disgusted all at the same time.  Kami decided not to push Yvette to the max and stopped at woohooing with a man sometimes led to pregnancies and sometimes not.  Kami was actually pretty tired, she didn't realize how much this conversation was draining her.  Just before Yvette kissed her mother goodnight to head to bed, Kami handed her a little brown leather book.  It wasn't old looking but it definitely wasn't new.  "This is the book that I have recorded all the births in.  All of the fathers are recorded here and  the correlate to pictures of all your siblings.  This is the book that the science lab will want to see when you are done bearing children.  I made the trip while you were still a child.  You will need to pass this book down to your heir when it is her turn to succeed you.  How you keep your record is up to you.  I birthed all my children at home, there are no birth certificates.  You may either go to the hospital or have your babies at home, it is entirely up to you."  Yvette looked at her mother, to the book and back to her mother.  "Thank you, I will keep this safe.  I am excited that you will be able to help me add to it when I come of age to have my first child."  As Yvette walked up the stairs she thought to herself, "at least I won't be doing this alone.  I'll have my mom and she'll help me for as long as she can. She'll be able to share in the joys of children again without having to actually be their mother." She did the math while she was heading to her room, if each generation can keep up with 25 children we'll be done in 4 generations.  Before she closed her eyes, she started to flip through the leather book her mother had handed her.  Her mother's picture was on the inside cover, with her name and the title matriarch below it.  The pages were filled with pictures of people she didn't recognize, some of them looked like her mother, some of them looked nothing like anyone she knew.  It wasn't until the last few pages she saw people she recognized.  She kept flipping and realized her picture wasn't there, but her fathers name was.  Slightly upset about this, Yvette closed the book, laid it down on the floor and decided to ask her mother about it in the morning.  Too much had transpired today to be angry now.  Her fate was sealed the moment she had been born and there was not much else she could do about it.

Kami watched Yvette walk up the stairs, she knew her daughter wasn't happy about inheriting this mission but was definitely handling it remarkably.  Kami went to her room and lay down on the bed, as she drifted to sleep she thought about seeing her first grandchild and helping Yvette through her first pregnancy.  She was excited for Yvette, for she had no one to help her when she had her first babies.  She was scared and alone in a two bedroom rambler hoping for the best.  She made it through and she knew that Yvette would too, she somehow knew that Yvette would make a wonderful mother.