How to live alone

Round 24: Autumn 2020

Last update: Maia/Josie/Patience

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Maia Novak, Josie Benton and Patience Draper are all 18.
(Jacob, Finn and Claudia are all 19)

Maia is settling into Novak Hall and in contrast to how she spent her time in high school, she's already got cracking on her course work. Academics are still not her strong point but she doesn't want her parents to feel like they've wasted their money in paying for her tuition - to her family, the tuition is a lot of money.


Josie's having her own problems. She really has to learn to start locking her door. If she was at all attracted to the shirtless guy who seems to think he lives in her room, this might be acceptable. But she's not, so he can get the hell out!

Patience is - very half-heartedly - attempting to get over Jacob and find someone new.

The first guy she flirts with rejects her, rather brutally. Patience tries to shrug it off but her confidence is shaken. She won't be flirting with anyone else for a while. Except maybe Jacob, if she can get him away from Maia for a few minutes.

Maia still doesn't know about what happened with her boyfriend and Claudia so she and Jacob are still together.

Occasionally, Maia gets a sense that something is wrong but Jacob has got very good at distracting her, asking her about her new classes, anything to change the subject.

Jacob's been thinking that he really should sort his head out with this whole Maia/Patience/Claudia mess he's got himself into before he gets any more serious with Maia. But when she actually invites him back to her dorm, he can't resist seizing the opportunity.

Maybe it'll clear up some of the confusion.

But it didn't and it was probably stupid of him to think it might. Jacob is still confused and still has no idea which of the girls he really wants to be with.

Not Josie. He knows that much.

Lately, Josie has been hitting on him relentlessly, right in front of Maia. It's getting really old.

Not for Maia. Maia doesn't think she's ever seen anything as satisfying as Josie being rejected by Jacob. Seeing it again and again and again is even better.

There's still Patience to worry about. Jacob has declined her advances a couple of times and they haven't actually done anything...

...and they do act very flirty sometimes.

They're both smart enough not to do it in front of Maia but she's still suspicious of their relationship and annoyed by Patience's monopolising of Jacob's time.

She's tried to join in their conversations, but they usually talk about their literature classes and being a drama major, Maia doesn't share many of their classes, so she usually doesn't have much to contribute.

Despite all this, Maia has been trying to make friends with Josie and Patience. They might have to live together for the next four years, so from Maia's point of view, they might as well be friendly.

Josie rolls her eyes at any of Maia's attempts at conversation.

Maia thought she might have made some headway with Patience, when Patience stopped her in the halls and congratulated her on getting into college. Later on though, it occurred to Maia that Patience's comment might have been a dig at her less than stellar grades during high school, or at her parents' financial situation. Maia's never sure how to take Patience.

Maia's trying not to worry too much about Patience and Josie. She's made plenty of other friends at Novak Hall anyway, so she's not too lonely.

And she really looks forward to the phone calls from Aaron and Calvin. She can't wait until they both start at Suffolk next year!

Deciding to forget about Jacob (who she was never really serious about anyway - it was more an attempt to bug Maia than anything else), Josie has started dating Will Bartholomew.

It's lucky for him he's so cute because if he wasn't, and he'd chosen to start their first date by talking about how he wants six kids one day, Josie would have run screaming out of the bar.

Instead, she changes the subject and challenges Will to a game of poker. Josie rocks at poker!

Will kind of rocks at poker too and he rocks at it harder than Josie. He ends up walking away with $210 while Josie loses $50.

Josie isn't quite sure she likes this blow to her ego.

Or the grinding.

But Will is rather charming, even to a cynic like Josie, so by the end of the night, she'd agreed to see him again.

Patience is getting no action right now, so she's living vicariously through Josie. She bursts into Josie's dorm room the next morning before Josie's even had the chance to get dressed, demanding details!

Maybe Patience would get some more action if she focused her efforts on boys who didn't already have girlfriends.

She's a little ashamed of herself, because she likes Victoria, Patience has actually tried to flirt with Finn a few times. Fortunately (for all involved, probably), he remains completely unmoved. There will most definitely be nothing happening between Finn and Patience.

Patience's complete cluelessness over where she's going wrong on the guy front is endlessly amusing to Josie. It seems pretty obvious to her that, at this point, moving on from Jacob is the best course of action.

Deep down, Patience knows that too but she's not quite ready to let go just yet.

Although Rob Ashton is really wishing she would.

He's been pursuing her with some enthusiasm ever since she moved to Novak Hall but she hasn't responded positively to any of his advances.

Patience is quite fond of Rob, just not in "that way". Not in the way he'd like her to think of him.

Slowly but surely, Josie is starting to like Will in "that way".

He's a little too sweet for Josie. Josie isn't very sweet herself and meeting someone who's that nice makes her a little suspicious. Her ex was a nice boy too. For some reason, at least so far, this seems to be Josie's type.

Josie is usually focused on Will when they're out together.

But the other night, she couldn't help noticing her cousin Claudia, making out with someone. Josie decided to interrogate Claudia on this turn of events later on but it took all her will power to not go over and question her right then and there.

But that would have just been rude, so Josie took Will back to her dorm instead.

And at least she didn't immediately want to break up with Will after they'd slept together, like what happened with Nick. That's a point in his favour, right?

The morning after, the events of the night before required a lengthy gossip session with Patience. Of course.

Especially seeing Patience had some news of her own to share. All of Rob's flirting must have finally wore her down.

It was purely physical for Patience, which she probably should have made clear to Rob. She's now a teensy bit concerned that it might have meant much more to Rob than it did to her.

Notes:

• Title is from How to Live Alone by Pernice Brothers.
• Excuse this entry if it suddenly changes tone halfway through. I usually write at night and schedule the updates to be released the next morning (my time) but I had so many pics for this one that I couldn't finish it without falling asleep at the keyboard. So I wrote the latter part of it just this morning, minutes before it went up! As a result, I don't think it flows as well as it might have.
• Oh, Jacob. I still have literally no idea who Jacob will end up with. He's making it very difficult for me! His wants seem to depend on which girl he's currently with - they're so fickle, these 19 year-olds!
• Josie doesn't roll wants for Will unless they're on a date (like ever) but she's got the constant want to go on a date, so she keeps Will around for that. I don't see it lasting but you never know!
• Patience's highest chemistry is with Finn (his highest is with Victoria). You all know that I never meant Finn and Victoria to end up together for this long and Patience was the one I had originally planned for Finn to be with in the end. It's so funny but I can't even imagine that now! They are just not suited to each other at all.
• So apart from the "Fall in Love with Jacob" want that will not roll away from Patience's wants panel, Patience spun up no romantic wants at all, generic or specific. So this thing with Rob, after her rejecting all of his attempts at flirting? I think she might have just wanted to get laid! Maybe this will finally get her over Jacob. Who knows?
• I'm planning on playing the other college kids today. I dropped in last night to take $3500 away from Jacob (apparently, he thought Maia had need for an enormous television in her dorm room) and the drama has already started over there! I have Finn and Victoria over there at least - they're always sane!
• Rawr, forgot grades! Josie and Patience both have 4.0s and Maia has a 3.5. She aced her second semester though so if she keeps up the trend, that might climb. She's doing pretty well for someone who probably wasn't even going to get into college up until last round.