Growing Up Fast

Growing Up Fast is the second quest in Fallout 3. The player is awarded the Vault 101 Citizenship Award achievement/trophy for completing this quest.

Detailed walkthrough
This quest begins immediately after the Baby Steps quest, though it takes place 9 years later, on July 13, 2268, at the player character's 10th birthday party. They will be congratulated and be given a Pip-Boy 3000. The Lone Wanderer then has to speak with the guests to advance the plot. There are only two guests that must be spoken with, these being Amata and Old Lady Palmer. Amata will more than likely be the first to speak with them, with three different dialogue options. Each option except "Um, a date with Christine Kendall/Freddie Gomez" will result in her giving the player character a "Grognak the Barbarian issue #14." comic. Seated opposite the Overseer, Old Lady Palmer will give the player a sweetroll. Optionally, Stanley, the one responsible for setting the Wanderer up with the Pip-Boy 3000, can also be spoken to for a kid's baseball cap.

After Old Lady Palmer has been spoken with, Andy, a Mister Handy robot, will try to cut the cake, but will accidentally destroy it instead. This will agitate Butch DeLoria, and he will demand the Lone Wanderer's sweetroll as he is hungry. Various dialogue options are presented at this point. Most of the time, Butch will end up attacking the Lone Wanderer, particularly if the sweetroll is not given. Officer Gomez will eventually break up the fight. The situation may be explained to him if this happens. One scenario to note: if the sweetroll was eaten, and the Wanderer calmly explains this to him, he will just sit back down. Also, if the sweetroll was dropped, Butch will sit back down and the sweetroll can be retrieved from where it was dropped. Regardless of what happens,, Amata will approach the Lone Wanderer to see what Butch's outburst was about, and Dad will also ask what happened if he is spoken to.

Shortly after this, Dad will get up and go to the intercom, where he converses with Jonas over it. He will at this point direct the Lone Wanderer to go down to the reactor room for a surprise he and Jonas have been working on. Head out the door Dad just opened and turn right; Beatrice will then likely speak with Wanderer on the way there. She will give them a poem which can be read in the "Notes" section of the Pip-Boy 3000. Turn left at the "reactor" sign, then head down the hall and turn right. Go down the stairs and enter the room. Talk to Jonas, and he'll direct you to see Dad, who is just coming down the stairs. When he speaks to you, he'll give you a BB gun. A new objective pops up at this point. Head through the nearby door, and shoot all three targets with the BB gun.

After each target has been shot once, a radroach will come wandering into the area. The player character is tasked to kill it with their new BB gun. After this, Dad wants to capture the moment, and asks Jonas to take a picture. Stand next to him at this point to complete the quest. After the "Six Years Later" transition, the Future Imperfect quest will begin at the Lone Wanderer's age of 16.

Transition quotes
Full transition audio:

Bugs

 * It is possible that you will receive the Pip-Boy yet not the Vault 101 Citizenship Award trophy.
 * After shooting the three targets, when the radroach appears the game may crash while James is speaking to you. This can be fixed by restoring the action mapping to its default keys.
 * If Old Lady Palmer is spoken to after the Lone Wanderer is instructed to meet Jonas at the Reactor Level, Butch won't ask for the Sweetroll when she gives it to them.