The Grunt family life continued in harmony. Buzz had never had the slightest suspicion about Lyla’s affair and she had settled into her role as a housewife for a while. With Chip’s and Missy’s passing, there was a lot of work in the household that kept Lyla busy.



Buzz kept getting promoted in the army and already little Tank seemed like he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. He was a lot like Buzz at that age.



Ripp didn’t show as much interest in the military as Tank, having inherited more of his mother’s chaotic nature, but Buzz was convinced he’d be able to bring him round eventually.



When Ripp was old enough to go to school, Lyla was overjoyed to have some time to herself.



She started to tag along with Chloe on trips to the city, where they would visit bars and discos and generally have a good time away from home.



Those outings often went on long into the night, much to Buzz’ annoyance. He didn’t approve of his wife staying out so late, especially not with one of those greenskins.

Lyla, however, very much enjoyed her newfound freedom.



That freedom abruptly ended when she found herself pregnant for the third time.



Chloe took the news pretty calm. Her and Gallagher had thought about having children for a while (with an added wedding to please P.T.), so she decided to keep her friend company.

“We’ll be the hottest moms in town, you’ll see!” Chloe announced.



At the Grunt household, Ripp still didn’t show any enthusiasm for the army and Tank relentlessly bullied him about it.



Lyla wasn’t around for most of the time and Buzz figured that a bit of rivalry might be just the push Ripp needed, so the fighting continued.



The situation got more difficult when Buzz caught wind of Lyla’s activities at the Newson household.



Bubble Blowers and Fruit Juicers were considered unhealthy for pregnant women, and on hearing that Lyla was enjoying those activities at Chloe’s house, Buzz put his foot down.



They had long, drawn-out fights about this. Buzz demanded that Lyla should stop seeing Chloe, insisting that she had always been bad company and now was putting his unborn child in danger. Lyla wouldn’t hear any of this.



Lyla eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Buck, so Buzz thought all would be fine now. After all, Lyla would naturally calm down now that she had a new baby to take care of.



Lyla, however, saw things differently. She left Buzz.



When it became clear that the divorce was final, Buzz resigned himself to his fate. He raised his children and eventually got promoted to general.



Tank became a teenager and was excited to continue the military tradition. Like Buzz before him, he joined the army at the earliest possible age, trained hard and constantly wore facepaint.



Ripp, meanwhile, was more of a socialite, especially when it came to girls. He was insanely popular with them.

Hey, it's Angelika Newson, aka the not-green twin!



Little Buck grew into a quiet, bookish child. His father was busy with his job and his brothers were always fighting, so he kept to himself a lot. He barely knew his mother. The kids spent time with her on alternate weekends, but she was busy a lot of the time. Lyla now had an apartment in the city, she worked at a fitness studio and had an extensive social life. “I’m finally living.” Ripp overheard her telling Buzz one evening.



Then Ripp’s birthday rolled around. Birthdays were one of the few occasions when Lyla still entered the Grunt household and he was looking forward to it.

But the birthday came and went and still there was no sign of Lyla.



“Just eat already.” Tank broke the long silence. The children had waited at the table for a long time. Eventually Tank had eaten his pie and Buck had gotten started on his, before putting himself to bed early. Only Ripp was still staring at his uneaten pie, fork in hand.

“I’m waiting for mom.”

Both boys stared in silence for a while.

“I don’t think she’s…”

“Shut UP!”



Finally, Ripp threw his fork down and went upstairs.

Tank didn’t even reprimand his brother. He just cleaned up the dishes and went to bed as well.

Ripp spent the first night of his teenage life staring holes in the ceiling and wondering where his mother could be. It was the first of many night spent in that fashion.



Sorry for the break, my sister kidnapped me last weekend. Have an extra long update!

With that, the Grunt household has arrived at the starting point of Maxis Strangetown. Lyla has disappeared and that's all they know for now. As to how and why, that's for another update. I will leave you with this cut picture, however:



The boys look pretty close to their Maxis counterparts, although it's pretty funny that this time around, Tank is the one with softer facial features and Ripp's are harder. In fact, Ripp looks more like his father than he'd like to admit. As for Buck, he looks like the Maxis Buck, but with child sims it's easy. Unless they're called Jill Smith and insist on being green. He still looks like the Maxis Buck when he grows older, so there's that.


Coming up next: Ophelia's new home