The day before, the contestants were taken off to town to shop for clothes, get their hair done, and for a photoshoot. They stayed overnight in a large flat in Belladonna Cove, but none of them got much sleep, instead, sitting up and talking exitedly about the Challenge and what might be involved. Just before dawn, they all piled into two taxis, eager to see the farm.
The contestants were dropped off at the farm just before dawn. Not at all sleepy but very excited, they looked around and filtered into the main living room.
First glimpse, left to right: Juliette, Meadow, Tara, Chastity, Roxxie, Jodie, Natasha, all hyped up and full of coffee.
Natasha decided to sit and look at the garden for a little, in the dawn light. "It is so peaceful!" To be truthful, she felt quite stressed after the all-night chatter of the other six and was glad of the quiet.
Gabe and Tara in the still-dark kitchen. "I don't really like the city much, it's too busy. Everyone is rushing everywhere."
"Yes, and to have to do everything by the clock - well, it feels wrong to me. Aunt Ginia and I, we did things when we got around to them, not when the clock said."
"Did you grow up in the country, Tara?"
"Well, no, it was more like a suburb. Aunt Ginia had a little cottage, with a big garden. But it was a very old-fashioned town, and there was farmland close by. Aunt had a business breeding pedigree cats, you see."
"So, moving out to the countryside wouldn't be an issue for you?"
"Not at all. And from what I saw out of the window of the taxi in the dark, this district is very beautiful."
"Do feel free to explore the farm. I'll show you all your bedrooms later. Now I have to go and talk to the other ladies. Nice meeting you, Tara."
Going back into the sitting room, "Well," Gabe thought, "what a rabble. Some of them haven't a clue how to dress in the country. Heels? White trousers? And summer dresses with bare shoulders? It's autumn already. They have a shock coming."
First to approach Gabe was Jodie. She tried hard to flirt with him, and they had a rather stilted conversation.
"So, you have all of us 'birds' here. I wonder how it's going to work out, and which will be the first to fly the nest."
"Um, yes. I see from your resumé - very professional, by the way - that you're in business."
"Yes, I am, with my brother. I hope we'll be able to remain friends, even after this is all over, by the way."
"I'm sure we will. And you are aware that this is all going on film, I take it?"
"I know... it's a great opportunity."
"I read the contract carefully. I want to make it clear that I'm willing to do whatever it takes."
She looked meaningfully at Gabe and repeated. "Whatever it takes. To make a good program, of course."
Gabe felt a little uneasy around Jodie. He looked a little embarrassed. He preferred a little more modesty, and he had no intention of woohooing with anyone until they were married!
Jodie had calculated the odds, gamer that she was. "Of course the odds are not bad, we have a 14% chance of winning, each."
Natasha looked at Jodie blankly. There are seven of us, not 14," she said.
Jodie sighed.
Gabe decided he would rescue Natasha.
Natasha relied heavily on making big doe eyes. Oh, and on her cleavage. The dress had been expensive, but it was worth it. But when she opened her mouth... oh dear, thought Gabe.
"Yeah, chuck, I thought this contest would be fun, you know? And you are the farmer, right? I sort of thought farmers were big and beefy, bodybuilder types, from throwing all them pigs about, you know? 'S'cool, though. Nice to meet you. You got pigs here? I like bacon."
Meadow wandered outside. "The sky here - it's so BLUE! I never saw a sky so blue." She spent quite a bit of time that day exploring the farm, more than the others did.
Meadow was trying to help Natasha consider her career choices. "How about nursing?"
"Does it involve pottery? I like making jugs. Maybe they need bedpans making..."
Juliette simply sat and watched the TV, rather tired out, while Roxie was considering the chess table.
Juliette told Gabe she really loved films and might someday want to be on TV. Gabe reminded her that there were cameras throughout the farm, and she asked if there were microphones in the bathrooms. "I do love to sing in the bath." She sighed. "My fiancé is a musician. But - he isn't my boyfriend any more." She looked down. "I'm sorry."
Gabe was astonished to see tears in her eyes, but she clearly had issues of her own.
"I'm sorry too, Juliette. I hope you'll enjoy your stay here. There are lots more DVDs of films under the set there, do put on whatever you like."
Tara wandered outside to the small garden at the front of the house, where Natasha had been earlier, and settled into a comfortable daydream, of a farm with cats and growing crops.
Some time later, Gabe joined her.
Tara was startled out of her dream. There had been babies in the dream, she knew, but she wasn't quite sure how they had got there.
"Don't get up on my account! It is so nice out here, isn't it?"
"It's peaceful. I like people, but sometimes it's nice to have a little think by oneself, when...."
"I know. When you have had a little too much of the world... And it IS a beautiful day!"
The weather is always a safe subject, if you don't know what to say to someone. And Gabe was already quite interested in Tara.
Going back inside, he declared an early lunch, then showed them around the farmhouse, the Guest House and their rooms.
Why DO Sims always congregate in kitchens? Just like humans, I suppose.
"...it was the first live elephant I had ever seen. I thought they were something you only had in stories, like dinosaurs!" laughed Meadow.
Chastity grinned. "They are quite ridiculous looking creatures, aren't they? But that was a very fine circus. I hope they come back someday. Oh, talking of creatures, did you know the new Art Gallery has a dinosaur?"
"Ooh I would like to see that - tell you what, when all this is over, we should have a group reunion and take everyone to see the dinosaur!"
"I was just telling Roxie, chuck, she would make a grand waitress."
"Roxie has passed her degree, Natasha. She might want to do more..."
Looking at Natasha, Gabe couldn't help comparing her with Roxie, whose bright personality shone like a diamond against Natasha's light wood.
The only thing that she really seemed enthusiastic about was food and cooking.
"Now I could go for a knickerbocker glory right now."
Gabe smiled. "What on earth is that? Or shouldn't I ask?"
"An ice cream sundae... it's best made with greengage plums, brown sugar - that is VERY important - and a sprinkling of almonds. it's LUSH."
"Greengages? That sounds really good. I wonder if I could grow greengages in this climate."
Touring the farmhouse.
"Tell me about your hobbies, Meadow?"
"Well... I like science. I mean, I'm not as clever as Roxie and I dropped out of Uni but I DID enjoy watching the stars through the big telescopes there. And whenever I went there always seemed to be a gang of boys hanging around the telescope. They wanted to make the adjustments to the lens for me. And I let them, since it made them so happy. But I saw shooting stars."
"So I got invited to a secret place where they have telescopes, and microscopes, machines for making medicine, and ant farms and masses of other stuff."
"I did win a prize at University too."
"What was that for?"
"Oh, boring stuff. Beauty queen. All I had to do is wiggle the right way and smile a lot."
"I can believe it - you won a beauty contest? That's really good! Congratulations."
"Yes, this is how I wiggled... and the best bit was, I won a violin for the prize!"
Gabe laughed. Meadow was fun, and not at all dumb. Uneducated maybe, not cut out to be an academic, but then not everyone was. The viewers would love her.
He tried again to talk to Chastity and Roxie, couldn't get a word in edgeways - looks as if she and Roxie are more interested in one another than in Gabe...
Chastity didn't talk much, but when Gabe managed to separate her from Roxie and the chess table, they talked about TV and games.
Juliette volunteered to cook dinner, lobsters from Gabe's fridge. "We will do some fishing tomorrow," he explained. "It's amazing what you can catch in our little pond."
SCORING at the end of Day 1
Gabe sat at his computer and started to fill in the evaluation forms.
| First Impression Clause | relationship score | plus 5 points per bolt | total for day | |||
| Juliette | 1 bolt | 5 points | 36 | 5 | 46 | Shy. I look forward to see how she will blossom, and she's a fine cook. Good-natured. |
| Natasha | 1 bolt | 5 points | 58 | 5 | 68 | A little odd - talks about little other than food, especially grilled cheese, and her pottery. |
| Tara | 2 bolts | 10 | 64 | 10 | 84 | Rather sweet, enjoys her own company, seems not very worldly wise but that really isn't an issue in the countryside. Strange taste in clothes - she looks as if she is wearing a child's Christmas dress. The odd thing is that it suits her really well! Likes animals, which is a plus. Hope that goes for pigs as well as cats! |
| Jodie | 0 bolts | 0 | 41 | 0 | 41 | WALKS. Wanted me as a business contact. Seemed to suss very early on that she wouldn't be making the grade. |
| Chastity | 2 bolts | 10 | 55 | 10 | 75 | She's a listener, rather than a talker. And apparently Roxie is more her type than I am! Attractive though, lovely skin and eyes. Not sure how that Mohican would go down in the village. |
| Roxie | -1 bolt | 0 | 64 | 0 | 64 | We talked about business, work, research. She was very interested in my Uni teaching of course, though she has never been on my course. We talked about what she had studied - her major is Psychology. She feels very much like one of my students. I don't think I could ever marry her. Not at all flirty with me, but seems to be sending out signals to some of the other girls. |
| Meadow | 2 bolts | 10 | 65 | 10 | 85 | Young, very sweet, very pretty, lively and fun with it. Could be a handful, but at present she is clearly in the lead. |
"Now I need you to fill in your evaluation form please, Jodie."
| She was fine - professional, courteous, and nice looking. Never seemed to lose the knowledge that she was on TV, and so was never completely immersed. Completely not dressed for the country of course, in heels and WHITE trousers. She never once went outside the house to even look at the farm itself, though there was plenty of time. And I had the feeling she was - well, a woman's woman, if you know what I mean. At least, she seemed more interested in Roxie, Chastity and Meadow than she was in me. I think she may have sussed, almost as soon as she arrived, that she would be the first to leave. |
Jodie was asked, as all the contestants would be, to complete a form about her relationships with members of The Farm.
| Gabe | 28 | Not really of interest as marriage-material. Too ordinary, and I suspect not willing to be moulded to my tastes. | |
| Juliette | 57 | Sweet but empty. | |
| Natasha | 37 | A little dotty for my tastes; nice figure. Talks about grilled cheese all the time. | |
| Tara | 55 | She has become a good friend. I will stay in touch. She's unusual, a little old-fashioned but sure in her tastes and has style. With a little more confidence she will be someone special. | |
| Chastity | 85 | Attractive, bright and fun. Someone to go clubbing with. | |
| Roxie | 40 | A very confident, attractive, sexy Sim. Brains are sexy! 2 bolts. | |
| Meadow | 63 | Another one who has become a real friend. Young and innocent but streetwise. | |
| Overall impression of the Challenge | Well, thanks for the opportunity, this will look great on the CV. | ||
Head high, she walked toward the taxi and her smile only slipped for an instant as she turned away. She had liked the farm, and Gabe, but he had seemed totally uninterested in her. A man who wouldn't push? Not even to get her attention away from her girlfriends? She could only conclude that she wasn't her type. BUT she had made some very good friends among the females here and would certainly add them to her network.
Jodie bought a small house in Belladonna Cove, with the intention of
establishing a small business.
| We need to find them some suitable country working clothes tomorrow before they start work. Or we will have some very long faces. Blisters and muddy feet aren't photogenic, not to mention what those heels would do to my finely worked tilth. |
So: shopping again, this time for sensible working clothes.
And then on to Day Two.