University - Round 8 - Part 1: The Girlfriends

Starring:

Neal Cleary, Young Adult Knowledge Sim, LTW Become Media Magnate

Silvio Vinci, Young Adult Fortune Sim, LTW Become Prestidigitator

Also:

Tessa Ramirez, Young Adult Knowledge Sim, LTW Inaccessible At Present Moment
Beth Thayer, Young Adult Popularity Sim, LTW Become Hall of Famer (I think.)

~*~*~*~*~

Last time we saw these four young adults, they were teens in Rosebud: Neal was dating townie Tessa Ramirez, and she pulled some strings and seriously defied her father's wishes in order to attend Sim State with Neal. She also brought along some hefty cash...enough to rent them a sweet house on the outskirts of the campus, though she hasn't told Neal exactly how she managed to land such a great pad. Silvio was newly smitten with his childhood playmate, townie Beth Thayer. It will only get worse now that they're living in the same house and Beth has grown up to be quite the hottie! Let's see how the new Freshmen do.

The first thing the housemates did was choose their majors. They wanted to waste no time studying toward a general studies major when they would eventually have to switch over to something more standard anyway. Beth, popularity sim that she was, chose a Drama major. It suited her.



Tessa chose the same, even though it was less suited to her knowledgeable goals in life. She didn't really WANT to work when she got older...she'd never had to, so she picked something that seemed fun and would provide her maximum time with her new roomie, Beth. Her intentions in deciding to go against her father's wishes had been good, but she still had a lot to learn about the real world after having been a pampered little princess at home.



Silvio, always the conscientious student and worker, chose the very serious literature major. He hoped that a knowledge of the language would help him become a better speaker someday, and a strong grasp of words and grammar was essential to being a prestidigitator.



And finally, Neal chose a philosophy major. He was a thoughtful, sweet young man, just as he'd been as a child and teen, and though he wasn't exactly sure what he would DO with this high-brained major, he knew it felt like the right thing for him to choose.



The best thing about their new house was the expansive outdoor patio, walled in and complete with a grill and a bar and a bangin' sound system. The inside of the house wasn't fantastic, frankly, though it wasn't a dump either. It just appealed to the YAs to spend the majority of their time outside...especially while it was still warm enough to do so.



Neal, of course, was elected house chef because he was the best cook among them. Silvio could barely make a lunchmeat sandwich, and the girls had no cooking skills at all. He tried out their new grill while Silvio and Beth worked on their first assignment.



Tessa made sure they would have the proper supplies to remain hydrated. One thing rich girls knew was how to make a good, stiff drink, so she allowed her skills in that area to be her contribution to the house.




They all sat down to a glorious and frankly celebratory-feeling first dinner of grilled ribs. The feeling of being out on their own and able to provide for themselves, in a nice house, and without the guidance of their parents was a dizzying feeling. Most of their conversation revolved around the parties they could have there instead of the schoolwork they would need to do.




Of course, Neal was ecstatic. He hadn't even known that Tessa was going to be coming to Sim State until he got a call from her telling her to come to a specific address near campus. When he got there, Beth and Tessa were waiting and Silvio was approaching from the other direction. Neal couldn't remember ever getting a more shocking or more welcome surprise. Now, everything in life seemed perfect. He had his girl, his freedom, and a great place to stay. It was a little weird living with a relative...after all, though they were the same age, Neal was technically Silvio's uncle. But Neal thought it was more silly than anything.



Silvio didn't see it quite the same way. He was worried that his mother's youngest half-brother would go snitching back to her if he did anything wrong, and that idea displeased him a lot. He didn't really know Neal, but he couldn't say much for him if he felt free to make out on the couch and make such a display in public. Or well, sort of public.



He would never do that sort of thing with Beth. Not the making out, but disrespecting her and his housemates by doing it out in the open. He was also a lot less...confident than Neal appeared to be, and though he knew Beth liked him, he was on somewhat unsure footing now that they were in college that their high school crush would last.



When he wasn't worrying about Beth or Neal or his studies, he was worrying over the state of the house. He didn't exactly live with a bunch of slobs, but none of them had as high a standard for cleanliness as he did. Nor did they have the mechanical skills needed to do little repair jobs around the house. He thought back to the packed house in Rosebud, where everyone had had to learn to do things like this and help out where they could. He found himself grateful for his parents and his upbringing.



Things between Neal and Silvio weren't very pleasant, though. Neal felt the underlying film of tension that seemed to always be over their interactions, and he didn't understand it. Silvio probably couldn't have explained it either, but he felt an almost childish need to disagree with whatever Neal said, just to be difficult. Their relationship with one another quickly plummeted, much to the girls' dismay, since they got along famously.



And so the boys avoided each other and started spending more and more time with the respective loves of their life.



In his frustration with Neal, Silvio buckled under gentle questioning from Beth and admitted both his worries about Neal tattling on him or potentially feeling superior AND his worries about Beth's continuing feelings for him. He quickly found out he needed have worried about that second part at all. And Beth even convinced him to try "just a little bit" to get to know Neal for who he was instead of hating him on potential for betrayal.




Soon, the first semester was over, having seemed to breeze by in hardly any time at all. Neal and Silvio still weren't exactly best pals, but they managed to not argue with one another every time they were in the same room. Neal was relieved. It wasn't in his nature to have problems with another person so much.



Tessa, too, was learning. She made sure to contribute to the housework, even though it was totally unfamiliar to her. She gamely took the trash out when it was her turn and tried to buck all the spoling she'd gotten.



Of course, she DID at least make herself a cocktail afterward. To reward herself for all her hard work.




Tensions between Silvio and Neal exploded one evening when Silvio played a nasty trick on Neal. He didn't expect the normally so kind (Silvio thought "wimpy" was a better description) Neal to retaliate.



When the ice cold water of a water balloon hit him full on in the face, trickling down the back of his neck and soaking his shirt, Silvio was furious. "You arsehole! Who do you think you are!? And who do you think has to clean up all this water now!?" Neal could see Silvio was furious.



Moving evasively, Neal tried to diffuse the situation. "Look, Silvio, I don't know what I've done to you to make you so angry with me, but it seems like you've hated me since the moment we moved into this house. If I'm doing something wrong, tell me, and I'll try to stop. But we can't live in this house and constantly be fighting. I'm tired of it, and I want to resolve this once and for all."




Silvio didn't AT ALL feel like "working it out," but the look on Beth and Tessa's faces told him that they were really unhappy with all of this. He agreed to at least try to say nothing, if he couldn't say or do anything nice, and Neal agreed to the same out of charity...knowing this was Silvio's issue and not due to something he'd done. How could it be? The two had never even talked before college.





Beth and Tessa decided that the house needed a morale boost. Beth, the popularity gal extreme, decided to throw a big party, inviting all of the teens from Rosebud. The Vinci twins, Liam and Conor, came, along with everyone in the Greek House: Imelda, Guillermo, Aurélie, Alexandre, and Marquez. A few stragglers even wandered in, drawn by the music, happy chatter, drinks, and the smell of food cooking on the grill.




The party did the trick, and even though they got broken up by the cops on account of making too much noise, the entire household felt refreshed and happy.



That night, flushed with drink and happier than he'd been in a long time, Silvio decided to ask Beth if she thought they could go all the way. He never had, and he felt shy and stupid asking, but she just grabbed him and pulled him down with her.



It was, though he didn't know it, the one thing that would change his attitude around the house. Maybe he'd been worrying about Beth too much, and taking it out on everyone but her. Regardless, he felt utterly content and complete, snuggling with her under the warm covers afterward.




Before they knew it, the semester and Freshman year was over. Neal couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief that they had all made it, remained fairly calm in the house, and that they were no longer the low men and women on the college totem pole. It was a great feeling.





Neal and Tessa decided to celebrate the completion of their Freshman year...or at least that's the excuse they made. In reality, they had been quietly tossing around the idea of sleeping together for the last month or two, and now they finally felt ready.



They were as happy as Beth and Silvio had been, and Neal couldn't help but feel more expressly tender for Tessa. She was so beautiful. He couldn't wait to marry her one day.



Life continued on in their sophomore year. Silvio and Neal learned to co-exist in the same room and not bicker. Silvio mostly thought to himself that it was for the girls, but he had to admit that Neal could be somewhat decent, and it was refreshing not to constantly have to eye him suspiciously all the time or wonder if his comments were secretly snide and condescending.




Silvio DID continue to scour the house obsessively though, griping that he was the only one who did any housework. He'd never admit that he actually thought cleaning was sort of fun and that the reason no one else did anything was because he never gave them the chance. The rest of the housemates were coming to understand that Silvio simply liked to complain, and they chipped in when they could and ignored it the rest of the time.




First semester sophomore year blew by, and the kids had great grades again. That was one thing they all had in common...except Beth. Beth would have been happy with B's, but the other three in the house were so obsessed with good grades that she figured she may as well join their study sessions when they occurred.



She still remained the house's primary social director, though, and they had several more parties with the other Rosebud teens who were presently at Sim State too. Again, the cops were called, and Beth got a well-earned reputation for throwing the best parties on campus, even though the Vinci twins always seemed more interested in studying than partying.



Tessa told Beth that she'd had too much to drink at the party, when Beth heard her best friend puking in the toilet. Tessa knew that wasn't the reason though. One thing she knew was how to hold her liquor: snipping drinks from open bars at her parents' large fetes had taught her that. No. She knew with a mixture of excitement and terror: she was pregnant.



She managed to hide it even from Neal those first few weeks, but when she woke up in the middle of the night and realized she was starting to really show, she knew she had to tell him. She knew he wouldn't be mad...she just didn't know what they were going to do.




And of course, Neal wasn't mad. He was delighted though equally perplexed about how they should handle an impending birth and baby when they weren't married and were still in school. How would the housemates appreciate a crying baby in the house? "We'll figure it out," Neal reassured Tessa, who was really sure her Mom and Dad would be pissed at her now. "I'll call Mom and Dad in the morning and see what they think." They hugged tightly, and Tessa felt some of her fear melt away. "I love you," she whispered into his chest.




A few short weeks later, it was the end of the semester, and all four of the young adults were now officially upperclassmen. Tessa was waddling instead of walking these days, but she managed to do plenty of studying while her feel were propped in Neal's lap, being rubbed by his patient hands. None of the four were sure what their Junior year would bring, but one thing was certain: it wouldn't be boring.


[[Author's Notes: I experimented in university for the first time with giving my sims some autonomy. The method I devised was to keep my full, typical neurotic control of them until their grade meters filled up, then I let them have free reign to do as they pleased until the end of the semester. Of course, the exception to my hands-off policy was having them do need-related jobs, and I allowed myself to command them to do anything they actively had in their wants panel. The results were kind of shocking to me! I never realized until this point that Silvio only has one nice point! He's really not a very pleasant sim! He hated Neal the MOMENT they moved into the lot, and I have no clue why. He spend the majority of his autonomous time playing tricks on my poor Nealbaby and generally arguing and picking fights with him. Fortunately, things seemed to have calmed down by now. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about Tessa's pregnancy... I mean, she's going to have it, but after that, I don't know what I will do with the baby or if Tessa will drop out, etc, etc. I'll figure it out. I don't think there's much more to add except sorry this is so long! The Vinci twins are up next, and they're shorter, but the Greek House post is going to be a monster too. I'm starting to understand why people hate University! (Or at least blogging about it!) It's insane trying to get 11 sims through two years of college at a time! Blah. Anyway, on to bloopers.

Bloopers:
Why is it all sims feel the need to spy on the neighbors the moment they get a little autonomy? You know what's going to happen, Tessa, don't you? // I told you so. // Neal, is the house really so noisy that this is the only quiet place to do your homework? // Autonomous sims need better internal thermometers. // Look, even in Sims 2, the Sims 3 sims have pudding face!!!! // I'll have you know that Linda is considered very attractive by many other peeping toms in the neighborhood, Silvio. ]]