LCU, love, all around

LCU, fall semester, 2078

Bella and Mariah are living in Academy Hall this year. In her sophomore year now, Mariah declares her major in philosophy. Not because she's known to be a big thinker, but because... well, because her guidance counselor told her to.

In her senior year of college, Bella wants to put her maximum amount of enthusiasm into her music and dance classes, and she wants to buy a ballet barre to practice on in her room. She's beginning to look for internships, and though she doesn't find anything lucrative in the acting field, she does pick up a gig as a pop and lock dancer for some decent pay.

They have a party one night, because you can't live in Academy Hall and not have parties! Funny thing is that it was once known for being the most studious residence on campus, but it's roominess and pool also lends to really great parties :)

Cameron and Jeremiah are at each other's throats any chance they get. Bella doesn't even have to encourage it - it's a small campus, and they all know the same people. Bella and Jeremiah haven't even been on speaking terms lately. Not after that stunt he pulled last semester. But he came to the party anyway, and would gladly like to rip out Cameron's perfectly dyed and groomed hair... but nothing happened, except for some harsh glaring at each other.

And later in the night, Justin and Keri sneak off into Bella's bedroom for a little bit of messing around. Bella never locks her bedroom door because she's hardly concerned about the sanctity of her bedsheets, and in fact, this just might be the most wholesome act to ever happen in Bella's bedroom. Charlotte feels the need to rate the experience.

***

At the start of their freshman year, both Justin and Stephanie are pretty sure what they want to study, even if they aren't sure what they want to do with their lives. Stephanie declares a major in art, and Justin declares a major in economics.

Stephanie is finding college life a little lonely. She just has so many things on her mind. She never realized how shy she is. She's still a little sad about breaking up with Julian. She thought she'd be able to spend a lot of time with her childhood buddy, Justin. But now that Keri is dating Justin, every time she comes to campus to visit, she's there to see Justin, and it's like Stephanie has lost her two best friends all at once.

And above all else, Stephanie can't make any sense of why she keeps wanting to ask Justin out on a date!!! She's known him for over ten years and never wanted to date him before, but now it's all she can think about. He got taller over the summer, and cuter maybe, and she kind of wants to kiss him all over his face. And she just hooked him up with Keri, so the timing couldn't be worse. Stephanie can't make sense of any of it.

So she entertains a flirt from Thomas to distract herself, even if she doesn't like him very much. Or at all.

Meanwhile, Justin made a point to introduce himself to EVERY SINGLE PERSON in that pub! Male and female alike! No joke!

Thomas is mildly attractive. He's not badly dressed. He's nice, and works out. He used to date Mariah Riley in high school a long long time ago, and actually grew into his face a little better. But eh, there's just no spark. And the one person Stephanie feels a spark with is dating her friend now, and it's all her fault. Stephanie is beginning to wonder if maybe college wasn't such a good idea? She could have gone traveling instead.

One afternoon, Justin corners her in the kitchen and says, "I thought maybe we could go out tonight, do you have anywhere in mind?"

Go out? Stephanie thinks. With me? She feels a wave of panic consume her until he adds, "You know, I want to take Keri somewhere really cool."

"Oh, right, Keri!" Stephanie says. Duh! God, for a minute she thought he was going to ask her out or something! That she kind of, sort of, totally wanted him to ask her out, and that she likely would have said yes, would have been even more awkward!

"You okay, Steph? You're acting kind of weird," he says.

"Yeah, totally fine" she says, "I know of somewhere." She kind of feels like dancing anyway.

In fact, it just happens that Joseph called, a friend of her brother's, and it's his night off. Joseph is a DJ at that new nightclub, House of Fallen Trees.

He says, "Hey, do you want to come out tonight?" And oh boy, does she ever! She isn't really sure if Patrick knows she hangs out with Joseph sometimes. Truth is, Joseph is smoking hot, but he's friends with just about everybody, so she's not really sure if he thinks of her that way. She thinks he has a girlfriend, actually.

Justin and Keri are "catching up" in the hot tub, leaving Stephanie to feel like a total third wheel. He probably meant that he wanted to take Keri out alone, without a third wheel. Duh. So Stephanie goes to find someone else to talk to.

Then Joseph is SO very popular at this club that Stephanie couldn't actually get a word in with him all night.

So she decides to jump into the electro-dance-sphere and falls flat on her behind, in her bathing suit! How's that for embarrassing!?! At least Joseph is far too busy to notice. Justin and Keri don't notice, either, because they have their tongues down each other's throats. She hikes her bathing suit back into place and finds a corner to hide in until it's time to go home.

Oh, and then she does finally get a word in with Joseph at the end of the night, as they were waiting outside for their taxi. Maybe it's the girlfriend? Maybe it's being best friends with her big brother? Whatever it is, Joseph definitely thinks of her as the little sister type. Damn.

***

Jeremiah, Luke, and Chandler are sharing a house this semester. Charlotte comes over to see her brother, but Luke is out. She gets to talking to Jeremiah, and she actually finds him very easy to talk to. Well, he is quite charismatic, we suppose.

Jeremiah is still feeling a little insecure about the happenings of last semester. He gets that Bella is just a giant walking disaster and may actually be lacking human feelings all together, but he can't help but feel rejected. He's going to be blunt with Charlotte, he doesn't care, he doesn't have anything else to lose anymore. "So, do you think I'm hot?" he says.

"Yeah, you're alright," she says.

Well, talk of hotness is one thing, anything beyond that is apparently off limits.

And then Bella stops by in the morning, and Jeremiah wonders what on Earth she could possibly want? What is she doing here, exactly? Does she even know? Or is this just another mind game? He asks her all these questions, and she, miraculously, draws a blank.

Jeremiah says, "Come on Chandler, we're going shopping! " They need groceries, and Jeremiah just needs to get out of the house. Jeremiah has decreed from now on, he will only date nice girls. And nice is something Bella definitely isn't.

Maybe it's the purple shirt, he wonders? Maybe the color purple has "doormat" written all over it. So he's checking out a rack of clothes, and generally feeling baffled by his lack of fashion sense, and from out of nowhere, a girl says, "Maybe try the blue one. I think it'd look nice on you."

That was how Jeremiah met Stephanie Nova, who is, in fact, a very nice girl.

This is Jim Bar, and Luke met him out at Red's one night - which is, Luke decides, the saddest little gay bar in the world! Luke makes a note to himself that he needs to get his own gay scene started. But if not Red's, Luke would not have met Jim. Jim Bar, his name is. Luke says, "I'm going to start up my own club some day, and I'll name it after you. Jim's Bar." Luke gets kind of lame when he's nervous.

Stephanie comes home with Jeremiah, and while he changes into his new shirt, Stephanie finds herself in Luke's room using his ballet barre. Stephanie, get out of there, can't you see they're having a private moment? lol!

Unfortunately for Luke, having a ballet barre in his room means everybody wants to use it all the time!

And Jeremiah really does look better in blue!

He really, really wants to get her into his bedroom. But Jeremiah, silly boy, nice girls don't work that fast! So Stephanie thinks maybe they should go somewhere. Out. In public. Like, on a date. Jeremiah is okay with that too.

They go to Midnight Flows for some karaoke and dancing and dinner.

And look who showed up at their date - it's Joseph! I don't think he's stalking her, but he sure does look regretful back there, and would proceed to wait there to talk to Stephanie the whole time she and Jeremiah ate. Too late though, Joseph had his chance.

And it seems like their first date is a hit! Jeremiah likes that he can be all cheesy and romantic with Stephanie - Bella was never affectionate like that. And he also makes a mental note that he should stop comparing them. Bella is SO old news!


Report Cards for 2078, Fall

Bella, senior, drama: A+
Jeremiah, senior, political science: A+
Mariah, sophomore, philosophy: B
Luke, sophomore, drama: A+
Chandler, sophomore, economics: A+
Stephanie, freshman, art: B+
Justin, freshman, economics: B+

***

notes: Well, regardless of what his life plans were supposed to be, Luke is now going to open Lake City's first gay bar. I think he wanted to be a dancer, so dancer/club owner could work out. It has to be an owned lot for the customer selector to work. I actually have a realistic 20% gay/bi population in the neighborhood, but without the customer selector, it's leaving out the tourists and young adults who should be included in that. I think it might even bring in vacation locals, so we'll have to use our imaginations and just pretend it's the damn coolest gay bar in the world, and that's why they travel so far, lol.

on niceness: I use the full facemask turn-on for niceness in my game. It's a little tedious, as I have to manually change appearance for all of my nice Sims, but I think it's worth it, since niceness is a turn-on I always wished was in the game. It would be nice to have other personality traits as turn-ons, playfulness, neatness, etc, since that makes much more sense than being turned on by weird things like glasses or hats? I may have written about this before.

Anyway, Jeremiah's decision to seek out nice girls bumped him and Stephanie up to a pretty decent three bolts (117 ACR). And having replaced the charismatic turn-on, bumped Bella down lower than that. I think it might do him good to stay away from the charismatic girls for a while.