First day of my life

Round 25: Autumn 2021

Last updates: the girls/Calvin and Troy/Aaron/Nick

Next update/Patience's next update

Josie Benton, Patience Draper and Maia Novak are all 19 and Aaron Novak, Calvin and Troy Clarke and Nick Moretti are all 18.
(Jacob is 20, James is 46, Madelyn is 41, Lake is 64 and Kendal is 45)

Warning: Kind of long, as can be expected with 7 students to follow!

With the arrival of the new freshmen at Novak Hall, there are reunions going on all over the place. Aaron is thrilled to see his best friend Maia again and after being stuck in the dorm with two girls who aren't very fond of her at all, Maia's not sure if she's ever been happier to see anyone else in her life!

Aaron's boyfriend, Calvin, is pleased to see stepsister Patience again.

Patience is just a tiny bit closer to Troy though and Troy is quite keen to catch up with Patience too. Even if it is partly to fish around for information about his long time crush, Josie Benton.

Nick, meanwhile, gets lost on the way to finding his assigned dorm room and runs into Josie. Which is, even though they've theoretically smoothed things over, still slightly awkward.

Patience has been feeling a little lonely lately, so having her family around again is welcome. It used to be that Jacob was perfectly happy to flirt and kiss (and more) with Patience while Maia wasn't around and Patience wasn't expecting that to change once he got together with Claudia. It did though and Jacob rejects Patience's every attempt at flirtation now.

So Patience has, once again, been seeking comfort in the arms of Rob. Maybe it's time to move on from Jacob anyway. When she really thinks about it, it's kind of pathetic, at 19, to be hung up on the same guy who dumped her when she was 14.

And Rob isn't really so bad. He's cute, he's easy to talk to, they've got a lot in common. All of these things apply to Jacob too but Rob is a little more available right now.

Troy has never been much of an academic but he's keen to give it his best shot. For one of his general education classes, he's expected to have some basic cooking skills and the cafeteria worker in the dorm reluctantly allows him to fill in for her for a few hours.

It's just mac and cheese on the menu for lunch. A pretty simple dish but Troy still manages to fail.

The cafeteria worker gives him a good verbal flogging when she gets back and Troy is suitably ashamed of himself. He still can't cook and he won't be allowed near her stove again.

At least he's having a little more lucky with Josie. She gave him his first kiss in high school but has rarely deigned to talk much to him since then.

Josie could probably take or leave Troy but he's hoping he can eventually wear down her resistance, just by his mere presence.

It's kind of hard with that boyfriend of hers hanging around all the time though. If only they'd break up!

Maia is back into bug hunting, now that she has Aaron with her again. She fell out of it last year, because she had the distinct impression that Josie and Patience thought it was the weirdest thing ever but she doesn't feel quite as self-conscious about it now that Aaron is here. She forgot how much she enjoys it.

She also forgot how good it is talking to Aaron face to face. Talking over the phone is just nowhere near as good. Of course, Maia already told Aaron all about breaking up with Jacob and how he's now with Claudia but now they can really talk.

Maia's careful not to monopolise all of Aaron's time, even if watching him and Calvin together makes her feel a little wistful for someone of her own.

Since Aaron came out to his parents, he and Calvin have both been keen to get Aaron's dad used to the idea of them as a couple. With that in mind, they arrange to have dinner with James and Madelyn in Exeter one weekend.

It definitely starts out a little awkward, with James staring ahead, not quite sure what to say.

James is still really trying here though and Calvin is very good at filling painful silences with small talk, so all in all, the boys are going to call this evening a success!

Initial weirdness with Josie aside, Nick is liking university a lot so far. He's hardly had the time to be homesick at all. Between his parents and step-parents and his younger siblings, he gets at least a couple of calls from home every day.

It's during one of these phone calls that Nick hears Maia going completely insane on some poor student walking past the dorm. Normally, one wouldn't be able to hear conversations outside from the cafeteria but Maia is being loud!

Nick's not sure what Maia's problem is but he figures he'd better extricate her from the situation before she gets herself into trouble.

Once he's got rid of Marius and calmed Maia down a little, Nick asks her if she wants to head down to the uni shops for a bit and hang out.

In Nick's mind, he's just asked Maia out on a date, though it seems like it was a little subtle for her. She hasn't quite picked up on the hint.

He steps up the flirting but Maia is more confused than anything. Nick hasn't really shown much interest in her romantically since they were both pretty young teens, so it all seems a bit sudden to her. She was too hung up on Aaron to notice him then. What she doesn't know is that even all the way through his relationship with Josie though, Nick's always had a crush on Maia.

It all gets Maia thinking though, and she realises she might be developing feelings for Nick and she owes it to herself to see where it could go. So one night, over dinner in the cafeteria, she makes her move.

Things are going a little quickly for Josie and Will, at least according to Josie.

He's sweet and everything but the constant professions of adoration are a little much for her.

Then he does it. He proposes.

She saw him reaching for the box, all the while thinking "please don't be a ring". But it was and now she's going to have to turn him down.

The first words that come to her mind are "hell no!" and she needs to pause for a minute so she doesn't actually say them. Just the hesitation gives Will his answer though and he looks crestfallen.

In fact, Will completely falls apart.

Josie tries to cheer him up, telling him it's okay. They can still date!

That gets him to pull his head off the table at least. Josie feels bad, truly. But God, what is wrong with him? Josie can't get married! She's only 19, she's still got two more years of college and then there's medical school. Even if she was ready for marriage, she's not really sure it'd be with Will.

When Josie gets home, Patience is excitedly talking to Aaron and Calvin about...something.

Josie will try to care later. Right now, she feels like moping around.

While Josie was off rejecting Will, Patience spotted an ad on the bulletin board that caught her eye. An exchange program! Patience could totally be into that! How is she ever supposed to become an actress if the only experiences she has to draw on are the ones from her home town?

Patience is jumping the gun a little but she's really excited. She still needs to ask her dad for the money to go. It's going to cost twice as much as a year at Suffolk. Her family can afford it, easily, but Lake can be a little over-protective when it comes to Patience.

Patience is anxious to just get her request over and done with, so she heads back home as soon as she can and lays it all on the line.

Patience would like to spend her junior year in Cape Elizabeth and it turns out Lake is more receptive to the idea than Patience thought he would be. He and Kendal spent their honeymoon there and loved it and they're both satisfied that it's a safe place with plenty of culture for Patience to take in while she's there.

So Lake agrees. He and Kendal will pay for Patience to go overseas. What's the point in having all this money if you don't use it?

Nick and Maia are still dating and everything is going rather swimmingly.

For a girl like Maia, the park is pretty much the most romantic place a guy could ever take her, so she is pretty much completely smitten with Nick.

The first time they slept together, Nick was a little worried things would end badly, like they did with Josie.

But Maia really isn't anything like Josie. Nick can't think of a single thing the girls have in common. And Nick and Maia are much more attracted to each other than Nick and Josie ever were. He doesn't really even think about Josie any more.

Josie doesn't really think much about Nick any more either. She's more pre-occupied with Will these days. She just wants some assurance from Patience that she made the right decision in turning him down. Things have been a little awkward between her and Will, which was not unexpected.

Now though, she's wondering if she should still be with him at all, seeing it was partly out of pity and guilt that she didn't end it with him. And really...look at the gift he left her after a recent date. A rose and a stove. A cheap stove. Josie lives in a dorm and has never cooked in her life. What is he expecting her to do with a stove?

Josie's long-time admirer Troy has grown tired of waiting for her to notice him and has turned to a dating agency. The agency likes to pretend there's something mystical about the matches they make but everyone knows it really depends on how much money you're prepared to lay down, so Troy pays a whole $5000 for a date.

He's set up with a girl named Penny. She's cute but no Josie.

Or perhaps she's more like Josie than it first appeared. Maybe it wouldn't be to most guys, but this sort of thing is actually quite endearing to Troy, after his years of infatuation with Josie.

And Penny does have a pretty cute butt. Another plus.

Troy thinks he might actually really like Penny.

When he makes a move to kiss her as they're saying goodbye though, she tells him she's a lesbian. What?!?!?! Why would she sign up with a dating agency and agree to a date with a guy then?

Troy meets another girl a couple of weeks later. Her name is Andie and at first glance, he's pretty impressed.

They hang out a little at the uni bar and things seem to be going well.

Andie is quite keen on Troy but Troy feels like he's just going through the motions with her. He actually felt more of a spark for Penny the Lesbian, if that's even possible.

Extras:
Most of my Sims, when initiating an ACR romance, tend to either just jump right into bed, or failing that, they make out, especially if they're already friends. Nick is the only Sim I've had try to woo a girl by kissing her hand, which is pretty adorable!

OK, what the holy hell is this about?

Does anyone else get this glitch a lot with their college girls? It happened to Cordy while she was at college, to Josie last year and now to Maia. I always know when it's the glitch because I get the pop up but no lullaby chimes. I still always frantically check the pregnancy scanner to make sure they're really not pregnant though!

When Nick and Maia get all lovey dovey (a fairly frequent occurrence around Novak Hall!), sometimes Patience will do this. The action is called "Approve" and comes complete with a head nod and an enthusiastic "uh-huh!". I don't know why Patience seems so thrilled that Nick and Maia are together but it seems to please her, for some reason!

Notes:

• Title is from First Day Of My Life by Bright Eyes.
• This household took forever to play! Finn and Victoria are next and I think I might find two college students with a newborn a nice change of pace! Plus side of a crazy busy update - insane amount of outtakes, including some really funny ones that I'll post at the end of the round.
• All these kids have 4.0s currently, except for Maia who has a 3.5 and Troy, who has a 3.0. Poor Troy never did get that cooking point he needed. Or the mechanical point he needed for his second semester!
• So, three ROSs for this one household! I considered reassigning them to other households but two are only little ROSs anyway, so I kept them.
• The first ROS was Fire! Place two intense fires on the lot, which Troy rolled. I failed at that, because I know I have a hack that gives me the interaction "Create Fire Here" or something and I could not find it! So I improvised.
• The second was PMS - annoy the next walk by 3 times, which I rolled for Maia. Blonde dormie was the victim but I was kind of hoping it might be Jacob!
• Travel for 1-2 years, obviously, is Patience's ROS. It'll only be a year for her, because I think realistically, that's probably the longest a student would go on an exchange and it works well for the way I structure my rounds too. I'm not yet sure exactly how I'll handle Patience's exchange. I don't think things through! But I have a game year before I have to decide for sure, so I'm not too worried just yet.
• Calvin really wanted to be friends with James. I didn't lock the want but it didn't roll away, so I sent them out to dinner together. They are friends now but it's borderline. James is getting there.
• If you're curious, Nick and Maia are two bolts with an attraction score of 36. That's not actually much higher than he had with Josie (one bolt with an attraction score of 31) but they are so very clearly a better match!
• I kind of feel bad for Will, because I forced the rejection with a debugging cheat but I had never seen the Surprise Engagement rejection and it's pretty hilarious. Kind of sad at the same time, because Will really does want to marry Josie but she's not nearly as into him. She still never rolls any wants for him, unless they're on a date. Sometimes not even then.
• For all Troy's posturing about wanting to lose his virginity, he's sure taking his sweet time! He rolled plenty of wants to make out with Andie (and with Penny, but that so wasn't happening) but he didn't roll the want to woohoo with either of them. Perhaps he's saving himself for Josie? I don't know. He did manage to become best friends with her this round, so that's a little victory for Troy!