Sister Act

Kyle and I are thinking about going to Appaloosa Plains to visit Kayleigh and to watch her compete in this show-jumping competition there.   Ever since she and AJ broke up she went back home and went back to doing what she loves best.  It sucks that my brother broke her heart, but she's trying to pick up the pieces as best she can.  Psst - I wanted them to be together. 

But anyway, back to my sister.  Mom and Dad had to come to campus because she'd been arrested for spray-painting on the walls of one of the buildings on campus.  They brought in her therapist and a counselor.  And the next day there was a closed-door meeting with just them, the counselor, and the university president.  Which left me with Sierra.

So Sierra and I were having a grand sisterly time at Barnstormer's, eating pizzas and lasagna and pretty much being sisters, and out of the blue she drops this bombshell:

"Sage, I did hack into the computers at Fort Starch."

Now, I had heard that she was accused of hacking into their network, but I wasn't sure if she would actually be capable of it.  To hear these things out of my little sister's mouth was just jarring.
"What?  You did what?  You hacked into the computers?  Why, Sierra?" I asked with disbelief.  "Why'd you do it?"

Sierra gave me this Cheshire-cat grin.  She was completely unrepentant.  "I wanted to see if I could.  It wasn't hard at all to do."
"Sierra, do you realize that's a classified military network?"
"So," Sierra replied as she shrugged her massive shoulders.
"Do you realize you've just admitted to a federal offense?  You could go to jail for a long time for doing what you've admitted to doing."
"I'm doing them a service," she reasoned, laughing.  "If a teenage girl can get in, it's not that secure."

While I ate my vegetarian lasagna, I grappled with the idea of my little sister being a hacker.  It's difficult to believe anything Sierra says because she tells so many tall tales and she'll lie like it's nothing.  But it's hard for me not to at least consider that she might have actually done this.  I don't know what she is capable of anymore.  And that frightens me.
It just seems like the older Sierra gets, the stranger her behavior gets.  Even when she was little, she was doing stuff that made me shake my head.  We can't chalk it up anymore to just teen angst and rebellion.  And she pretty much doesn't give a darn. 
There's a part of me that's like, wow, she's really fearless.  I wish I could be that way.  But there's another part of me that says, there's something really wrong here. 
Sierra claims to have been abducted by aliens while we were living in Moonlight Falls.  And then there are all the shenanigans in college.  Now she claims to have hacked into Fort Starch's computers. 
Unlike my brother AJ, who hated Fort Starch with every fiber of his being, Sierra LOVED it.  She was like a kid in a candy store with all the electronic toys she got to play with.  The day she got there, she posted a pic of herself on social media making a bomb.  She loved all the physical exercise, the regimented schedule, and, apparently, hacking into their computers.  She even got a nickname while she was there - "Sierra the Terror."
I also grappled with the idea of notifying Mom and Dad.  She's my sister and I love her.  But she's admitted to a crime. 
What should I do?

May 23

Hidden Springs is especially beautiful just before sunrise.  You can feel the crisp mountain breeze on your skin and smell the freshness of the air.  It's higher altitude, which means the air is thinner and you tend to breathe faster.

I moved here from Sunset Valley just before I turned teen.  My two older brothers, Imsety and AJ, had been sentenced to a stint at Fort Starch Military Academy, and my dad decided that we needed a change of scenery to get away from all the bad press we'd suffered from. 

Except, I fell in love with the place.  Especially the woods and the waters.  There's a certain mystery in them. 

These days I enjoy taking nature walks with my dog, Bitsy, and feeling the cool showers on my body.

My parents' rental is just up the hill from where Kyle and I live, so whenever they're in town, I go over there and see them. 

There, Mom is waiting for me, usually with a story to tell.  This time, she revealed that Skylar, my baby sister, will be going to Starlight Shores soon because she's auditioning to be on a talent show.  She's been enrolled in Le Fromage Art School and will go as soon as she turns teen.

Speaking of which, Kyle was introducing himself to her and getting to know her a little bit better. 

Mom's butler was making another scrumptious feast for us to eat.

When we got back home, however, the burglar alarm had gone off.  Someone had attempted to rob us!

The suspect was caught and brought to county jail.

 

 

Early the next morning, Kyle and I decided to go to Hidden Lake for a mini fishing trip.  "What are you singing?" he asked, hearing me hum.

 

"It's 'Where is my Mummy?' a little Egyptian ditty," I told him.  "My mom and my sister taught it to me when I was little."

"You told me, you have an adopted sister from Egypt."

"Yeah, she was adopted along with her brother before I was born."

 

Even though Kyle held up a small fish, he seemed proud of it.  He takes pleasure in the littlest things.

 

"What's that?" he asked when he saw me open a small chest I'd fished from the bottom of the lake. When I opened it, there was a bottle of bubble bath inside.

Bubble bath?  Oh well.

May 21

Okay, it's not funny anymore.  In fact, it's downright frightening.
Sierra's behavior stopped being funny awhile ago.   In my opinion, she is in real serious trouble. 
If she keeps going like this I'm afraid she will die or be sent to prison for the rest of her natural life.  Or she could be locked away in some asylum. 
My little sister may be a pain, but I don't want to lose her.  I love her to pieces.  No matter what she does.

As most of you know, my little sister just started college.  It's funny, I keep referring to Sierra as my 'little' sister even though she's now taller and bigger than me, but she's younger than me by 6 simdays.  I changed her diapers, I read her bedtime stories, took her trick-or-treating when she practically begged me to, heck, I even took her to that psychic she wanted to go to and didn't tell mom about it.  (Mom, being Mom, found out on her own.)

But here's why I'm worried that Sierra might be in serious trouble.

The other night, we went to the movies, and when I came out of the theater, she'd plopped her sleeping bag in front of the building and was calmly dozing off to sleep. 

Sims laughed, pointed, even took pictures.

My reaction was, 'Oh, dear Watcher, child!' as I wrapped her up and took her back to the dorm. 

It's gotten to the point now where, it's more than just her being rebellious.  I'm actually worried for her mental state. 

She loves her physical education classes, but more than that I just think she enjoys playing with her anatomy skeleton. 

My sister has always been a bit on the eccentric side.  But eccentricity runs in our family.  We wouldn't be who we are without the thread of eccentricity running through it.   Ever since she was little, she's hated dolls and dresses.  She used to run around our rented house in Hidden Springs pretending she was a race car driver. 

She cut her hair short as soon as she was old enough and has worn it that way (even through all the different colors) ever since.  She gets up at 3 in the morning to exercise.  She's done it every morning, like clockwork, since she was thirteen.  And this was before she went to Fort Starch. 

When she was really little, she really loved being around my brother Imsety.  And he liked being around her, too.  Even though a few days after that picture was taken Imsety was gone to Fort Starch, I suspect his absence has created a void in her life. 

Anyway, the morning after that incident at the movie theater, I called Mom back in Hidden Springs and told her about it.
I could hear Mom's tired-sounding sighs.  Sure, I believe and maintain that Sierra got away with WAY more than AJ and Imsety ever did, but right now, she's putting mom and dad through hell.  And I'm about ready to join them. 

Because that same night, it got worse.

Sierra was arrested on campus for spraying graffiti on a building.
 

After she was fined a thousand simoleans, she was remanded to my custody.

The next morning, my parents met with Dr. Bill, Sierra's therapist, and with Dr. Simlius, the university president, to decide her fate. 

I know that sweet little girl is in there somewhere.  I know my little sister is in there. 
I don't care how long it takes.  We're going to find her.

May 18

After we were done moving Sierra's stuff in, we were starved, so we stopped by this new pizza place called Barnstormer's.  (They replaced Sim Burger, my old hangout)

But before that, we had to find Sierra.  She'd disappeared from orientation, apparently running back to the dorm by herself.

"You never went to college, Mom?" I asked her.
"No.  They were building the school when I was your age, and it hadn't been completed yet.  I got my education in the tombs."

Just then Sierra reiterated her desire to go to Egypt.  "I want to go, Mom.  I'm serious.  There's so much I want to do and see."

"I know," Mom replied between bites, "that's what scares me."  I know that Mom has reservations about Sierra going there, but she hasn't told us why she has them. 

 

Then mom shot me this look that said everything and nothing, all at once.  "Watch her for me," she whispered.  "Please, watch her for me.  I'm scared."

May 17

My sister, Sierra, has told me yet another whopper of a story.  She now claims she was abducted by aliens.
 

"I had just come from the summer festival and I had just finished whipping Jules MacDuff's butt in one-on-one soccer.   He had no chance against me and he knew it.  When I powered my last kick past him, he said, 'You're better than everyone on our team.'  Pathetic little wimp.  Anyway, I had beat him badly, embarrassed him, really, and I had come home to rest."

"I went outside to enjoy the crisp cool night air when suddenly I heard a noise.  I looked up to see what it was...

"I was like, no, it couldn't be...  but it was.  Definitely an alien spaceship."

 

"It beamed a laser down to me.  I tried to run, I tried to escape, but the light was too strong... it scooped me up before I even knew what had happened."

"I don't know the alien's name, and I don't even remember what happened once I was on the ship.  I guess I blocked it out or something.  All I know is that I was gone about an hour earth time."

I don't know whether to believe Sierra or not.  She's told so many wild stories it's hard to keep count.