the life of Vicky—an island in the sun

I could have sworn I did a history/backstory post for Vicky, but it seems I did not. I can’t find it anywhere if I did. But Vicky is a character that I’ve been writing about since 2008, and she has a lot of history between many blogs and game versions. It feels important to collect it all, especially since some of her future stories will begin to draw on her experiences a lot more. I can even see the possibility that her birth parents might come into the story a little bit down the line.

Her backstory was always “her parents were rich and couldn’t be bothered with her.” 

Well, okay, but family drama is never really that simple. That was a fine enough backstory for a townie ex-girlfriend whom we didn’t think we’d see again. But here we are, thirteen years and three game versions later, and Vicky has earned a little more detail to her backstory than that.

So, while it is true—she has two living parents who gave her up—there’s more to it than just that. Much more than even Vicky knows herself. But that much is basically true.

early life, birth to age 10: 

She doesn't have any photos of her childhood, by the way. Some photos must exist, somewhere, probably, but she's moved homes and guardians so many times from such an early age, she never had possession of any of them. The earliest picture she has of herself is not until she was fourteen. 

Vicky’s earliest memories, now that she’s becoming older, are starting to make a little sense, but they are also filling her with more questions than answers.

Her mother had headaches a lot and needed to go lie down often. Her grandmother was there, and Vicky was fond of her. She saw her dad occasionally when she was very little, but less often as she grew up. She assumes her parents were divorced.

Her grandmother died when Vicky was seven. After which, Vicky went to stay with her uncle Victor, aunt Camilla, and two cousins, Gloria and Luther. The family lived in Florida. The cousins went to boarding school because Victor and Camilla were not the type to spend a ton of energy on even their own children. So Vicky went, too. They were a fine family, but cold and busy. Her cousins weren’t super friendly to her.

And Vicky was not an easy child at this point. She was sent home from school often for mouthing off and fighting. At eight and nine years old, she already had a lot to be angry about.

Her mother was still “sick,” and her aunt and uncle didn’t feel equipped to deal with Vicky’s temper and misbehavior anymore. But they knew a couple who had a knack for fostering older children in the system, and so that was how at age ten, also the point at which she would have first moved to Lakeside Heights, Vicky met her foster parents. (I have never made this couple as sims, but I should because they seem lovely, lol!). This was also the time she met her foster brothers, George and Blair, who were raised by the same couple in Lakeside Heights.

Vicky thought her foster parents were fine. Though she would not allow herself to get close to them, she made a lot of progress during these years and her temper was pretty stable, she did well in school and made a few friends. Anyone who met her would describe her as a sweet girl, although maybe a bit quiet. She grew to think of George and Blair as brothers, though none of them were formally adopted.

TS2 Era, A Trainwreck Called Dallas, age 14-16: 

Vicky's first appearance on the Lakeside Heights blog, in the Jackson family update of 2079, she was described as a friend of Dallas. Likely they met at school. 

A few months later, Dallas had her wooed, and they became a couple. This was one of the better times of her young life. Probably the happiest, after everything and not knowing yet what would come next.  

As much as we love Dallas with Lucy, remember that he was also very sweet with Vicky for a time. He was a charming boy, so of course he made an impression. At a time when other relationships in her life were finally starting to stick, naturally she expected this boyfriend might stick around, too. Or she hoped, at least. 

They dated for sixteen months, which is practically an eternity when you're that young. 

But it did not last. Dallas fell in love with Lucy, and he cut Vicky off. He wasn't particularly gentle about it, either. (Shame, shame, Dallas!) It hit her super hard.

TS2 Era, the angry years, age 16-18: 

Vicky was angry. She was mad at Dallas. She was mad at Lucy. She was mad at anyone who knew Dallas or Lucy. She was mad at their friends for how they made her into the school pariah, Summer particularly. Angry Vicky, Crazy Vicky. Everyone laughed at her (author included, oops!) and it all felt very cruel because she was the one who got her heart broken. Their bullying only made her madder and dragged out the pain for much longer than it needed to last. Sure, she might have kicked over a few (dozen) trash cans, but every one of them deserved it. They deserved to pick up the trashy mess the next morning, and she hoped it was full of raccoon droppings and diseased roaches. 

Still not over it. 

Still not anywhere near over it. 

Leaving high school was a bright spot for Vicky. High school had been unbearable and awful in almost every way. 

Except that she turned eighteen and was finally legally obligated to no one. 

George finished law school and got his own place with bedrooms enough for Vicky and Blair. They went to stay with him and, soon after, his new girlfriend, Blossom. Vicky finally had her family for keeps. 

TS2-TS3 Era, what would April do?, age 19-20:

Fall 2083. Vicky is not the sentimental type, but she has to admit she’s had a few guardian angels in her life, and one of them is her best friend, April. April took Vicky under her wing when everyone else wanted to pick on her and push her away. 

It meant so much to Vicky to finally have a real friend. She had fun, she felt included, she had reasons to laugh and smile, for the first time in years. They would both influence each other in mostly positive ways. They are still BFFs to this day. 

Vicky whispers, "Psst, April eats rainbow dicks, pass it on."  

TS3 Era, Island in the Sun, age 20-22: 

May 2085. Of everyone in her birth family, Vicky has had contact most recently with her father, which is odd since he was the least present in her childhood. He was the one who offered the houseboat in Isla Paradiso, and she took him up on the offer. 

She didn't imagine this generosity would mend any fences or make up for a childhood of neglect, but since she was waffling in school, she thought a gap year would do her good. And the year would prove to be quite enlightening, if nothing else. 

It wasn't her intention to pick up a boyfriend right away, but Matteo happened whether she wanted it or not. He was as different from Dallas as he could possibly get, which intrigued Vicky. 

They got to know each other, and he waffled between flirty and warm... 

And awkward and closed off.

But one night he invited her out. She got dressed in a lovely white sundress, anticipating perhaps a romantic evening under the stars?  

She kissed him. But that wasn't what he had in mind. 

It ended badly. 

Turns out, he had a fiancée. Why he was flirting with Vicky, she still couldn't say. She's bad at feelings, so perhaps she misread him. But it seemed he loved this fiancée, so they ended the flirtation. For now. 

But whatever, she took a step back and decided to focus on herself and new experiences, which was the point of this year anyway. She learned to garden. 

She learned to drive a speedboat. 

She learned to deep sea dive.

She relaxed and she played. It was lonely, but Vicky was used to being alone. She was born to be alone, she sometimes worried. She might as well learn to like it. 

But Vicky wasn’t alone for too long. She made a friend. 

Imelda was mysterious and vivacious and intriguing. Her life represented an entire set of life choices that Vicky never considered a woman could make. She was nearly forty, never married, never had children, and was happy as a clam. She called herself a spiritual medium and gave séances and palm readings for a living. 

Vicky became her protégé, learning all matters of herbalism and spiritualism and occultism. 

Vicky didn't know yet what she was meant to do in life, but she decided then that she definitely wouldn't be returning to LCU to finish her pre-med degree and become a doctor.  

After a couple months, she ran into Matteo again around town.

And they began talking again, with the same confusing mix of attraction and rejection. Oh, how she longed to have a regular, uncomplicated, normal relationship someday. To like somebody and be liked back. For it to last. Would it ever happen? 

Imelda was generous with the advice. Vicky might consider her a mother-hen figure in her life, but Imelda would correct her and say, "How about, big sister? I'm not that old!" 

Vicky was rejected by more boys. 

She paid for the affections of some boys. 

A little desperate, perhaps, but this one was worth it!

She didn't completely strike out with others. 

Although it looks like Imelda didn't approve of this one. 

To which, Vicky scoffed, "But how come it's okay for you to take somebody home, but not me?"

"Take him home, by all means," Imelda said. "But don't invest your heart." 

Some ways of life that Vicky learned under Imelda's tutelage would not always prove useful to her, but this lesson was useful to her in that moment. Vicky brought this boy home, she had a good time, and she didn't involve her heart. 

She continued to dive, and became quite adventurous at it. 

And when she told Vale that this close encounter with a shark wasn't the most exciting part of her year, she was telling the truth. Although she'd have to admit it got her heart racing a bit. 

The last months of her year in the islands went by like a flash. It was a series of bad choices and lucky escapes. Shark included. 

[note: no further pictures because this was the point TS4 came out and my TS3 game became sluggish and frustrating to work with. But the latter half of Vicky's story was already drafted.]

She continued to meet with Matteo, as dumb as that may have been. He continued to confuse her with his hot and cold attentions. He got her involved with his work, a one-off gig, being a decoy while some other guys robbed a bank. 

There was kissing involved. Mild kissing without tongue—"It’s like acting," he described. They were instructed to get saucy and draw the police over to chastise them for public indecency, while the other guys slipped quickly in and out of the bank vault. But Vicky couldn’t say that she was acting. 

The robbery went off without a hitch, but the kissing did not. It proved to Vicky that her feelings were valid, and his attraction was real, too. Adrenaline was high and they slept together later that night. 

After which, Matteo promptly called their encounter an absolute and terrible mistake. 

Absolute and terrible. 

It was a punch in the gut. Vicky felt used, thrown out, and completely worthless. She doubted everything, even their friendship. She was angry. She was done. She wanted off the island fast. She sold her father's houseboat, and she didn't really care much if that made him mad. Perhaps she should have cared. She sometimes wonders how bad her karma must be for all the shitty luck she’s been dealt. She used the money to pay off some of Imelda’s debts, and buy herself a plane ticket back home to Lakeside Heights. 

TS4 Vicky, age 22+

June 2086. It was good to be home with her family and real friends again. Vicky came back in time to attend Blair & Amy's wedding—she would have come back for the wedding anyway, but she had hoped with less drama. But anyway, she was home and she took April as her date. Vicky had a lot of stories to tell her bestie!

The year wasn't a complete flop. She learned to grow medicinal herbs, to deep sea dive, to read palms. And she got a cool picture with a shark. 

— 

Where we are now: Vicky has access to her birth family's contact information, but she hates them all, within reason, and hasn’t cared to reach out. She’s afraid her father is super mad about the boat, probably, but she also feels it's kind of even for ditching her since she was a toddler. 

She lost contact with Imelda after the move, and still feels a little sad about that. 

Her foster parents still keep tabs on her through George, though she doesn't often speak to them personally. She adores her foster brothers and their growing extended family, and considers them the only family she'll ever have.

She's more interested now in looking forward than dwelling on her past, but that might not always be the case. She has a lot of missing information and it’s a great deal of anger and sadness and rejection about it, and so many questions she wants answered.

Vicky has since appeared in [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] entries on this blog.