waiting on whatever comes next

May 2077, Orlando Centowski is 62, Audrey is 61, Luke is 18. (Mariah Riley is 18.)

Luke's mom is acting weird lately. He is her last baby to leave home, and supposedly that's a pretty big deal for a mom. She often stops him and says, "Wait, right there, I want to remember you like this." His parents have always been kind of weird though.

It's also weird that Luke Centowski and Mariah Riley have been in the same grade their whole lives and never hung out until their senior year debate class. Though, he didn't start attending Lake County Private Academy until high school. Mariah and Luke ditch their senior prom in favor of a stolen bottle of champagne and a campout at North Beach.

Neither of them had any interest in the prom anyway though. Mariah had no boyfriend anymore, and had no interest in ridiculous high school boys. Luke succeeded in coming out to his family recently, but coming out to his entire senior high school class was an entirely different story and nothing he intended on going through. Besides, people in college were much more understanding about such things.

"Have you ever, actually, been with a guy?" Mariah asks.

"Well, um... yeah, there was one." Luke didn't feel the need to go on about Kevin, Kevin's old college flame, and a hot tub Luke found them in...

"I haven't," she says. "How much of prude does that make me?"

"There's a time and a place for everything," Luke says, "And it's called college."

"Amen to that!"

"Here's to better things," Luke says.

Mariah says, "Every girl should have a gay friend. It's refreshing to have a guy around with absolutely no interest in getting into my pants." And with that, they water balloon fight on the beach.

Audrey has passed her 60th birthday, and in her elderhood decides to go au naturel and stop dying her hair. We'll just call it the hippie in her.

Orlando is busy lately with being commissioned for two wedding portraits, and a 10th anniversary portrait for local couples. Audrey is now making tea sets and vases for their shop.

However, unfortunately the shop isn't doing very well lately. There seems to be a plague of finicky customers, and he thinks maybe his portraits may be overpriced because there are quite a few waiting on pick up. Or maybe it's just the bad economy around these parts lately.

(some kind of a cashier glitch - they throw down their bags as soon as they reach the register, even though there is a cashier there to ring them up... weird. I haven't seen it on any other business lot anywhere.)

They're grateful Luke has dance and communications scholarships to start out with in college this fall, because they can't really afford to put anything towards his education.

Graduation is just weeks away for Luke, and everyone likes to blow off some steam in those last few weeks. He calls his sister and sees if she wants to come out. She says, "Sure, but I'm not going to Red's. Last time I went with you to Red's, I met George, and we all know how that turned out!"

"Honestly though, Charlotte," he tells her, "What kind of a straight guy did you expect to meet at a gay bar?"

Luke isn't seeing anyone at the moment, since being ditched by Kevin. The gay scene in Lakeside Heights is pretty lame (as you can see by red-headed-emo-dude!). Luke wonders if he should sign up for a dating service? Too bad all the money he has is going towards college.

Well, Luke wanted to dance anyway, so they went to Crypt O' Night. Charlotte brings her roommates... Charlotte is newly single again now and tries to get her flirt on, and hey, she's not so rusty at it after all...

Cameron brings Bella and they sneak off into a photo booth. And man, those two are all about each other lately!

But Luke came here to dance. It's hard to tell who's winning, they all look like weirdos!

The guy Charlotte was talking to enters into the contest, and seems pleased that she came to watch, but she can't help thinking evil thoughts about George. Besides, she's rooting for her brother anyway.

Her? Really? Man, that sucks. Luke is feeling really pretty rotten about it.

Rematch dammit! And he's got this one, he just knows it! Except that he doesn't, and the guy Charlotte was talking to wins the second round. Maybe he better just call it a night. And maybe he ought to think about that dance major a little bit more, since he's obviously not too good at it...

Nobody in this family is very happy right now. Orlando wants his business to do well, and to sell great paintings but he can't even find the time to work on his own art with all the commissions lately. Even the damn dog won't stop yapping! Luke just can't wait until fall when he starts college. He'll feel better then.

This weekend, he's going off for college orientation. As he's getting in the taxi, his dad says, "Wait, just a sec, I want to remember you like this."

Weird, weird people.

***

Oh man! I just couldn't do anything for these people this time around! They were miserable! And poor Luke - I really do need some more gay boys in this 'hood for him to choose from!

on aspiration failure: anyone who goes into aspiration failure has to roll the random file - there is 10 in 20 chance they'll snap out of it (pursue their biggest wants), 9 in 20 chance they'll just mope around a while (be depressed), and 1 in 20 chance they'll do something a bit more dramatic and shakespeare-esque, like off themselves in the pool. I'm morbid, I know...

If they roll the suicide card (and I have yet to actually have this happen to anyone) I wouldn't actually carry it out for something silly like going into aspiration failure over a dance contest. Because that wouldn't be morbid so much as just stupid...