LCU, packing up, moving on

LCU, spring semester, 2080

It's early one spring morning when Keri's sister calls, and this phone call is a warning. Mariah says, "Bella's coming over to see you. Just so you know."

Though Bella Bradshaw graduated last year, it hasn't been exactly unusual to see her finding her way back onto campus. What what is unusual about this is that she wants to see Keri. Keri's older cousins hardly ever give her the time of day, unless they want something. And Keri is sick of the way Bella thinks she's the center of the entire universe!

"I need to talk to Jeremiah!" Bella says. "I can't believe it, he got married? How could he get married, and he didn't even tell me?"

"Leave him alone," Keri says.

"Give me the number!" Bella says. "I need to talk to him."

"No!" Keri says. "He's married, they're newlyweds, they're happy! Leave him alone! He didn't call you, he never mentioned you, he's not even thinking about you! Not everybody on this planet is always thinking about you!"

Ugh! Keri says, "What are you looking at, mousy girl?"

What's also strange is how Stephanie is just gone. Neither Justin or Keri really thought much about it until they got back to campus and Stephanie's room was still there with all of her things in it and she wasn't. She asked her brother to come pick up her furniture and to Fed-Ex her photos and a few personal things, and Patrick has a thousand questions for them about what happened and how. "So she just got married? She got married and she's dropping out of college and she's not coming home? And you both think that's completely fine and rational?"

"Oh," Keri says. "I guess we didn't really think about it."

In fact, Justin and Keri aren't thinking about much at all besides the idyllic cloud of their new engagement. Keri even forgets that she hadn't gone to her own class yet. Somehow they both managed to be accepted to study at Takemizu Academy next fall. They set out in August and will be home next June.

This is a common pattern for Keri this semester, and we're not really sure what's going through her head. Maybe not much of anything is going through her head except for Justin. As much as she should care, maybe she's expecting her family's money or her mother's power to buy her out of the situation, or maybe she's just chilling out before some hard study in Takemizu next year, but right now, while Justin digs into his term paper, she would much rather start a gaming competition. She's not even afraid of being put on academic probation, though honestly, she should be...

***

After the semester ends, the boys will have to vacate the house for the campus reconstruction. This house, and the others in the row are all being torn down to make space for the new efficiency dorms. Luke and Jim have decided to live together next year, but Luke can't afford to live in Academy Hall, so they plan to rent one of the new off-campus apartments being built. Luke doesn't have much money, but he is doing well at work - so well in fact that even though he often shows up late, they still promote him to piano tuner.

Chandler can't afford his own place and since the efficiency hall won't be ready in time for fall, he asks, "Hey, you guys mind if I crash on your couch?"

"Maybe," Luke says.

"Hey, I'm broke too," Micah says. "I don't suppose you'll have two couches?"

Luke says, "Dude! You bastards are paying rent!"

LOL! Hula anyone??? Micah still does that hula dance that Amelia taught him, ages and ages ago, and now he's taught it to Luke and cheerleader girl.

LOL!!! Two gay dudes on a couch, and the only one looking at the streaker is the straight guy???

Luke is thinking, My eyes! I'm in a committed relationship!

This is Kana, who is tutoring Micah in a history class. She's happy to do it for free, since she has a huge crush on Micah. And the thing is, she's pretty. Very pretty! (three-bolt, 101 ACR kind of pretty!) It wouldn't be hard for her to convince him that he shouldn't wait around for other girls who still have technical boyfriends to make up their minds.

And just as Kana suggests they move this study session to somewhere more private, Luke steps in, and starts talking very enthusiastically about some great band he just heard. Luke doesn't care about the band, and neither does Micah, but Luke knows Mariah is giving the poor guy mixed signals, and he's trying to help her out, in his own strange way. Or at the very least, sabotage every chance he has to score with other pretty girls. You know, that's what friends are for!

Micah knows that he and Mariah are close, but he isn't really sure in what way. She gives him such mixed signals, like she says, "Call me later, we should totally hang out, I can't wait to see you again..."

But, um, you know, just as friends...

But hugging friends... lots and lots of hugs... Nothing longer than precisely four seconds though, because someone might get the wrong idea...

What's a guy to do? Luke won't be around every time some pretty girl wants to hit on Micah...

All this compels Micah to study couples counseling. Women are a perplexing species, for sure!

The thing is, it's not just as simple for Mariah as getting rid of a boyfriend - James was her first love, and she doesn't want to hurt his feelings. So she's been putting it off, unless you want to count avoiding each other as a break-up. He's always working at his "job," doing whatever dubious work it is he does, and she can never get him to come over and talk. But she figures she'll wait until after final exams anyway. No point messing up anybody's final grades.

***

Bella often finds her way over to Academy Hall to visit Mariah. The two of them have always remained close - and maybe that's because they never slept with each others' boyfriends? Today, Jeremiah is on Bella's mind. She says, "He was my best friend. What am I going to do? I called him almost every day."

"Were you really friends?" Mariah says. "Maybe you got more from that friendship than he did."

Bella takes a sip and says, "Oh." She's dumbfounded for a moment. And maybe this is part of a maturing process for Bella, to become aware enough of her actions to feel dumbfounded. "I can't believe what Keri said to me."

Mariah says, "Yeah, she's got a mouth on her, doesn't she?"

Nobody really feels like throwing an end-of-year party this year. They're all cramming for their finals, and packing up for their moves. Next year will be a little strange. Mariah feels nostalgic having seen everything change over the years, everybody packing up and moving on. Relationships growing, and changing, and ending. Embrace the future, she thinks.

Mariah finally gets James available. Nobody really likes doing what she has to do. She says, "Can we sit down?"

She says, "You know I love you very much..." And maybe James already knows that no good conversation ever started with that phrase. Mariah says all the usual things, "It's not you, it's me. I just need some time to explore things on my own. I need to find myself. If it's meant to be, it will be..." He knows what she really means - that she thinks they should see other people.

All he said was, "I wanted to marry you."

He doesn't get mad, or yell, like she thought he might. But he just gets up, cries for a minute, composes himself, and he leaves. And Mariah wonders, how do you know if you've done the right thing or not?

She sees a light coming from underneath the art room door, and she finds Micah inside. She says, "I didn't know you were still here."

"Yeah, sorry, Jim let me in. I needed an easel." He says this with a silly grin on his face, "I needed to paint something for my art class." He brings a silly grin to her face. He lightens her heart. Maybe it's something he learned in that couples counseling book.

So she hugs him then, and it lasts much longer than four seconds. She needs this hug, because James was an okay guy, even if he wasn't the guy for her, and she's feeling a little bit like a monster right now.

And in other parts of campus that night, some people are getting their semester grades back...

At about the same time as other people are trying to say their goodnights...

But goodnights will have to wait. Keri has run across campus, in hysterics, and needs to talk to her sister. Mariah can barely make out what Keri is saying in between sobs - she failed her exam, she doesn't know how. Her GPA is destroyed. She was notified that she is now ineligible to attend Takemizu Academy.

Mariah says, "What happened?"

Keri says, "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know! Spring break? The engagement? I don't know!"

Mariah says, "But Justin managed okay, didn't he?"

Keri says, "He worked so hard to get in there for me, so we could be together." She starts sobbing even harder. "And now we're going to be apart for the whole year!"

Mariah says, "Oh, it'll be okay..." Not because she believes that, but just because it seems like the thing to say.


Congratulations Graduates! LCU Class of 2080!

James Porter: B.S. Economics.
GPA: 3.3
Employment: crime, bookie.
Plans: moving to South Lake City.

Dana Gilmore: B.S. History.
GPA: 3.1
Employment: artist, canvas stretcher.
Plans: moving to downtown Lake City.


Report Cards for 2080, Spring
Mariah, junior, philosophy: B
Micah, junior, political science: A+
Luke, junior, drama: A+
Jim, junior, physics: A+
Chandler, junior, economics: C+
Justin, sophomore, economics: B
Keri, freshman, economics: D+

***

notes: oh Keri! *sigh* Her head was totally in the clouds this semester...

You may have seen Dana around LCU before - she's been a RA in Frosh Hall a while (placeholder Sim) and it's time for her to graduate and go out into the real world. She doesn't have any real ties to our story, so she'll just remain ageless and she'll become a downtownie like any other downtownie, except educated ;) James though, will be moved into an apartment somewhere like other ex-boyfriends of the past, and you may see him again occasionally.

We have a lot of juniors now, and once they graduate, LCU is going to be fairly quiet maybe these next few years - though, you never know with these college kids, lol. For one year in particular, there will only be Justin and Keri in college, then Keri's senior year, Beau and Tyler Jackson will finally be freshmen - OMG, the Jackson twins in college, can you even imagine? lol! :)

If some of these pictures look better than others, it's because I finally bit the bullet and started using Snag-it, since that seems to be what everybody loves (and now I know why!). But half the pictures are from before, and some in-between while trying to configure the settings, and some after, and I think a couple might even be from the in-game camera still, lol.