The Sims 2 Presents: Foster's Valley!

[Cassini90125]

My thanks, as always, to those who commented. It's always nice to hear a few words of appreciation.

Foster's Valley - "Secrets revealed"

(Warning: long post ahead)

Madame Foster was up the stairs in no time; not an easy thing to do at her age. She was confronted by a very angry-looking Frankie and knew immediately that she was in trouble. "You called, dear?" she said in a nervous voice. Frankie didn't say a word; she simply pointed at the painting. "Oh, my, isn't that nice?" Madame Foster said. "Did one of our lovely hosts do that? It's very good, everyone looks so cheerful." Frankie again didn't say a word; she held up the Season 2 DVD case barely six inches from her grandmother's face. "Oh. Frankie, I can explain-"
"WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!?!" Frankie was clearly upset:



"Frankie, please understand, I did this for the House-"
"You traded the stories of our lives for the House?? This had better be good, Grandma, this had better be real good!"
At that point Wilt and Mr. Herriman showed up. "Is everything okay?" Wilt asked. "What's going on here?" Mr. Herriman added.
Again, Frankie pointed to the painting and held up the DVD case. "Our lives have been animated and put on public display," she growled. She directed their attention to the TV. "See for yourself." Wilt and Mr. Herriman sat and watched in stunned silence as the events of Where There's A Wilt There's A Way unfolded before their eyes:



"But... a lot of that never happened!" Wilt said, distraught. "You can't do all of that in the space of one basketball game! And I'm not an astronaut or a dentist!"
"Well, perhaps now you all understand how I felt when that video of me entertaining my creator was posted on the web!" said Mr. Herriman. "Waitaminute... Oh, no, don't tell me they made an episode about that!"
"I don't know," said Frankie. "I don't know how many episodes there are, or what they're about, or how this all happened without us knowing about it, but we're going to find out! Aren't we, Grandma?!"
Madame Foster sighed. "It's a long story."
"We have time," Frankie said. "Spill it."
Sparky arrived at that point:



"Um, you mind if I sit in? I know it's none of my business but I'd like to hear this, too, if nobody minds," she said. "I've been a fan since the show started. We all have; that's why we were so eager to have you come spend the day with us. And Madame Foster, I'm sorry this got out. The painting and the discs were supposed to be put out of sight; I don't know why they weren't."
"It would have gotten out eventually," Madame Foster replied. "No one's to blame for this but me." She shifted gears for a moment, trying to lighten the mood. "So, who's your favorite character?"
"Terrence."
"The Cassiman punk??" Frankie was incredulous. "He's in the show too?"
"Not lately," Sparky said unhappily.
"But why... hold it, Grandma, stop changing the subject!"
"Sorry, dear, just trying to lighten things up a bit."
Wilt excused himself at that point, feeling a need to tell the rest of the IF's what was going on. Eduardo didn't believe him at first:



"Animated? And on TV? No way!" Wilt did convince him pretty quickly, and Coco, too; feeling rattled, both headed for the bubble blower. Berry giggled and wanted to watch the show; Bendy, still engrossed in Night Of The Living Dead, didn't much care. Wilt was feeling pretty rattled and a little violated himself and needed to talk to someone about everything. Fortunately, this was the Never Forgotten house so there were definitely a few people who might understand what he was going through:



"It's a really good show," Jekylljuice told him, "and you've got a lot of fans out there, and in here, too. It's something you should be proud of."
"Yeah, maybe, but it was done without me being asked. I'm sorry, but I'm kind of a private person; I mostly keep things in and don't tell the world about my life. Now a lot of it is on TV. Madame Foster should have asked me first, I wouldn't have liked it but I wouldn't have said no."
"You never do," smiled xxxClaire.
"Never been able to. Hey, how'd you know... oh, yeah. I guess we've both seen Where There's A Wilt There's A Way now." A little laughter, a little healing. Upstairs, Lynnie joined the group; there wasn't any laughing going on as Madame Foster told her story:



"It all started about five years ago. The House has always been short of money, and as you can imagine the bills are huge, what with all the residents we had. After the incident with the Imaginary Klingons-"
"Imaginary Klingons??" said Lynnie.
"Yes. Some Trekkie kid created them. Two months later another Trekkie kid adopted them. In the meantime they broke things while playing 'Capture the Mugato'. They decided Eduardo was the Mugato, whatever that is, and terrorized the poor dear, and you know how he gets when he panics. After we paid the repair bills we barely had enough money to stay afloat. One day while I was at the mall I met a man named Craig McCracken, who it turned out was working for Cartoon Network. We chatted for a bit and ended up having lunch together. He told me that he was working on a new show for CN, a show focusing on Imaginary Friends, so I told him about Foster's and what we do. He was fascinated by the stories I told him and it hit me that they might make for good TV. And a good bit of money from the royalty checks. It took me quite awhile to convince him that the show he wanted to do was in the foster home that I ran but in the end I talked him into it. The problem was that I knew no one in the House would want a bunch of animators and writers following them around, asking personal questions and telling them to hold still while being sketched. The 'being on TV' part would be even worse; the shyer IF's, not to mention private people like you, Frankie, and Wilt and my dear Mr. Herriman, would never have agreed to it."
"True," said Frankie. "There's a reason it's called a 'private' life, Grandma."
"I know. But we needed the money so bad. What's more, Craig was on a deadline and I didn't have time to tell him all the stories I knew. That's when it occurred to me that everything he needed to make a show about us was on the House security tapes."
"You sold our security tapes to cartoon people??"
"I did. I asked him to please not go into too many background details or personal stuff but other than that, do what you want with them. Before I started mailing the tapes to him though I had to figure out how to keep everyone from finding out about it once the show started airing. I was able to convince the IF's that CN wasn't worth watching; I showed Wilt a few episodes of Billy & Mandy and that show with the three boys named Ed and he wrote of CN as having no educational or cultural value. Eduardo, I let him see what was on Adult Swim, and he won't go near CN now. Same with everyone else; I convinced them all that CN wasn't worth watching."
"And what if we went out, hmm, Grandma? How'd you plan to keep us from finding out from someone else's TV?"
"With one exception, that wasn't as big a problem as you might think. Most of our day trips were to the parks or the beaches, places without TV or internet. I kept you from finding out online at home with blocking software and search filters and such. Other trips out. like to the mall or anyplace with a TV, well, I kept my eye on the TV schedule and worked around it. The IF's seldom went out on their own much anyway, fearing that a child who might want to adopt him or her might arrive while they were out. I played on that fear to keep them in. The exception was you, dear. You had a life outside the House; you'd go out with your friends at night or on a date or some such thing and I had no way to keep you in. But I did find a way."
"And I'm guessing that this is where Rhonda Cassiman enters the story," said Sparky. "Rhonda, and Bloo. Oh, hell, I think I know what you did. Dang, Madame Foster. Just... dang."
Frankie spoke again. "So do I. But I want to hear you say it."
"First I want to say that I'm ashamed of myself," Madame Foster continued. "All I was thinking of was the House, and the money, and the plan. I should never have dragged the Cassimans into this. Like with Craig, I met Rhonda at the mall one day, and we chatted and had lunch. The poor woman was clearly tired and I asked why, which is when she told me about her problems with Bloo and her children. I suggested that she pack up Bloo and send him to my place but she wouldn't hear of it. 'I can't just ship off my son's best friend, imaginary or not,' she said. 'I need relief from him but it wouldn't be right.' I explained to her what I was up to with Craig and CN, how it would get Bloo out of her hair and get Mac out of the house to meet new friends, and in the end I offered to cut her into the deal because the way she described him, I had to have Bloo. I had to have him in the House because this loud, messy, destructive, egomaniacal troublemaker of an Imaginary Friend was the only thing I could think of that could wear you down and leave you too tired and cranky to go out and discover that I'd sold your life to Cartoon Network. And I've hated myself for inflicting him on you ever since. Frankie, I am so, so sorry that I did this to you." Madame Foster had tears in her eyes. So did Mr. Herriman, Sparky, and Lynnie. So did Frankie as she got up and left. To be honest with you all, so do I.

(To be continued...)