A Pleasant Story

Chapter Four

Operation New Mary-Sue!




After she'd cleaned up Daniel's trash, Mary-Sue wandered over to the piano and fiddled with a few notes. She wasn't very good at it, but she still loved music as much as she had as a child.





She was interrupted by a call--it was Cassandra, who was already on her way over away for "Phase One of Operation New Mary-Sue!"

While she was getting dressed, she heard some clattering and banging in the backyard, and went outside to discover. . . a thing.




Cassandra came up to her and said "Well? What do you think?"

Mary-Sue laughed, "I think you brought me a really ugly robot yard gnome."

Cassandra joined her. "Haven't you seen one before? It can change your desires! This will make you want to study music again like you used to."

Cassandra reflected to herself that maybe it would also help her friend be more nice and playful, like she was before Daniel took away so much of her exuberance.

Mary-Sue started to object, but Cassandra cut her off as she went on hurriedly.

"Look, your whole life when I knew you before Daniel you loved learning things and playing music. It was only after you got married that you became so focused on fortune. I know, I know, you had to be because Daniel was worthless at supporting the family, but I think you need to get back to the Mary-Sue that had passion for things other than making simoleons. This," she gestured at the machine, "will do that."






Mary-Sue was skeptical but she trusted her friend. Mostly.

"Will it hurt?"

"It'll rattle your brains a bit," Cassandra admitted, "but it doesn't really hurt. And believe me, you'll feel a whole new passion for your life when you're done."

Mary-Sue took a deep breath and stuck her head in the machine. As Cassandra had predicted, her brains rattled around some, but it didn't hurt. Instead, she felt all her simoleon worries floating away and a new desire to build her creativity take its place.






She pulled her head out and staggered a bit.

"Holy cow!" she exclaimed to her friend. "You weren't kidding! Listen, can I meet you at the mall later and we'll do our makeovers then? I've got something I need to do right now."



Cassandra agreed. "No problem--that will work better for me anyway. I have to go return Don Lothario's ring to him."

"Wait! What? What happened?" Mary-Sue asked.

Cassandra smiled. "You're going to love this story--but I'll tell you later. Let me go finish it and I'll meet you at the mall this afternoon."

Mary-Sue immediately went to the piano and began building her skill, and Cassandra left on her romantic errand. When they met at the mall later and Cassandra saw her friend, she was surprised.

"What are you wearing?" she asked.





Mary-Sue jumped up and bounced as she exclaimed, "I got a new job! Right after I rattled my brains I knew I couldn't go back to that prison of a campaign office, so I called them up and quit!"

Cassandra was delighted. "Gosh, that's great! So what's your new job? Something with music?"

"Well no, at least not directly yet. Right now I'm a playground monitor at the elementary school, but eventually I can teach music! And I tell you what--just going in to the school for the interview made me feel so free and happy. I don't think I'd realized how much that political job was dragging me down."




Cassandra laughed. "I thought I was going to have to DRAG you to make any changes, and look at you! Quitting jobs and stuff! I think you're ready for your makeover!"

The women headed into the mall and marveled at its amazing design. Somehow the architect had designed a roof that was open to the sky. It was intentionally breathtaking, and not at all an accident because the architect couldn't figure out how to include a ceiling.






When they got to the hair salon, Cassandra whispered to Mary-Sue, "Would you prefer the interesting cowboy or Mr. Bandana?"





Mary-Sue chuckled and began to reply, but was interrupted by the "Bandana Man" calling to her.

"Bonjour Madame! I am Francois and I will be delighted to achieve Madame's desires! What does Madame wish today?"

Mary-Sue whispered to him to explain how she wanted her hair done.

Francois frowned. "Is Madame sure? That is quite . . . unique for Madame."

Mary-Sue assured him she knew what she wanted.





Meanwhile Cassandra had headed for the other chair.

"Hi!" the cowboy said, "I'm Butch! Please sit and I will transform you!"

Cassandra sat down, but before she could explain what style she wanted, Butch had jumped right in.





Suddenly the room was whirl of activity!

Under her cloud, Mary-Sue was a bit worried by Francois' exuberance, but hoped for the best.





When he'd finished, Mary-Sue admired her reflection. Cassandra would LOVE this!




On the other side of the room, Butch handed Cassandra a mirror so she could see what he'd done.




"Do you think this is funny?" she asked.





Mary-Sue had thought she'd play a joke on Cassandra by getting a ridiculous look, but when she saw her friend she couldn't contain herself.

"I think you won this contest!"

Cassandra tried to stay serious but she was so happy to see her friend laughing that she had to join in.






Finally Cassandra dried her eyes and snorted. "All right, enough! Let's do it right this time!"

They put Butch and Francois through their paces again, and now it was just what each had really wanted.

Cassandra gushed at Mary-Sue, "You just took 20 years off! This is fantastic!"






Mary-Sue returned the compliment. "But what about you? This is great! I love it!"






While the women raved about their looks, Francois thought about his favorite subject.





"Okay, now it's time for clothes," Cassandra said, "and listen, I want this to be my present to you. Call it a 'happy birthday' for the first day of the new you!"

Mary-Sue was going to object but then thought that with her sudden career change, she'd probably need to be careful with her spending, so she accepted Cassie's offer gratefully.

"Okay, but let me treat us to a snack--I'm thirsty!"

As they made their selections, Cassandra noticed the photo booth and said, "Oh, we're going to do that after we get our new outfits!"






They headed into the clothing store to check out the merchandise. Amazingly, it seemed that in Pleasantview every clothing store carried the exact same inventory, so Mary-Sue was already familiar with the choices and knew what she wanted. Additionally, each rack seemed to have hundreds of outfits to adorn every Sim, even though it appeared only eight were actually hanging there.

Mary-Sue checked out the clothes while Cassandra daydreamed.

Mary-Sue made her choices and Cassandra shoved her toward the changing booth. "Go put it on! I want to see!"




As Mary-Sue appeared in her new outfit, Cassandra said hesitantly, "Oh. Well. That's certainly . . . different."







Mary-Sue busted out laughing. "Did you think I was serious? Yeah, I am going to start eating granola and braiding hemp in addition to getting a new job."


Cassandra shoved her playfully. "All right, let's see the real one now!"




Mary-Sue headed back into the changing booth and reappeared quickly.

Cassandra's enthusiasm did not need to be faked this time. "I love it! The purple shirt goes with your hairband! And it's young-looking, but not TOO young-looking."

Mary-Sue agreed, "Yeah, I wanted something that wouldn't make me look like an old woman trying to look like a teenager."




Cassandra replied, "Speaking of being an old woman, I've got a present for you when we get back to the house. But right now it's my turn to get something different."

"Really? I like your dress. Your last name IS Goth, after all."

"Oh yes, hello, just call me Morticia! No, seriously--this thing is ugly and dark. I need a change too!"

Cassandra headed into the changing booth then called out, “Turn around! I want to surprise you!”



Cassandra posed happily. “So what do you think?”

Mary-Sue pondered, then spoke, “It's wonderful. So absolutely YOU. Reflects your personality perfectly!”




Cassandra laughed, then said, “Okay, now for the real one.”

The dress she chose had a suggestion of blackness, her signature color, but was much more playful and bright than her previous ghoul look.




"I love it," said Mary-Sue. "You look younger too!"









She continued, "Thank you for doing this for me. It's been such a great distraction from all the recent turmoil."




Mary-Sue looked in the mirror, almost disbelieving that this new person was herself. Then she noticed a handsome young man behind her, browsing the clothing racks.





Wow, she thought, cute. If only I'd met him when I was 20!

To her surprise, the young man smiled at her and walked right up to introduce himself.

"Hi, I'm Cyd Roseland. I just moved here--but I think I saw you last week at the politics office? I'd come in to register to vote."


Mary-Sue returned the introduction, then explained that she'd since left that job and would now be working in the education career as a playground monitor.





Cyd squealed excitedly, "Me too! I just got the same job! Maybe I'll see you at work!"




Mary-Sue thought he certainly seemed eager about the possibility of seeing her again. "Well that's good, so I'll see you around, then."

Cyd didn't seem to want to stop talking to her though, and proceeded to tell her a joke that made her react in a hilariously exaggerated way.



She felt a slight flutter in her heart but told herself it was ridiculous. "You're old enough to be his mother! Or at least his aunt."

She finally excused herself and went to find Cassandra so they could do their portrait in the photo booth--goofy, of course!





Cassandra collected the photo, then grabbed Mary-Sue's hand and pulled her over to a table on the center island.

"Okay, sit down, now I want to tell you what happened with Don!"

Mary-Sue made herself comfortable and grinned at Cassandra's excitement about her romantic entanglements.




Was there anything better than a good friend?