I want to break free

Round 28: Autumn 2027

Last updates: Ethan, Matilda and Adrienne/Rebecca/Tessa
Next updates: Matilda/Ethan/Adrienne, Rebecca and Tessa

Ethan Novak and Matilda Jacobson are both 21, Adrienne Novak is 20 and Rebecca Kirby and Tessa Novak are both 18.
(Dominic is 17)

Narrated by Tessa Novak

Since I arrived, I've been having a lot of fun here at Suffolk!

My dorm room definitely wasn't my kind of place though. I'm pretty sure a guy was living here before me.

We're not allowed to paint the walls but I did manage to make it so that I feel a bit more at home in there.

I'm not actually in my room so often, seeing it's so small but it's nice to have somewhere quiet to go to study, or just be by myself for a while.

I have barely had a chance to miss anyone at home. If I'm not on the phone with my parents, it's one of my sisters, or an uncle, aunt or cousin. I bet Dad's put them up to it!

I'm so glad Rebecca and I ended up in the same dorm. She's been trying to convince me to major in psych with her.

Psych actually sounds pretty interesting but I don't know how useful it would be for business. I'm sticking with my original plan - economics.

I wouldn't say economics is the most fun major in the world. The readings are pretty dry. Any time I complain about it, Rebecca takes yet another opportunity to try to win me over to psych.

Most of my downtime lately has been spent in the greenhouse. I still can't believe our dorm has a greenhouse but I love it.

Ethan's been the only one tending to it for the past couple of years, so he's asked me to make sure I look after when he graduates.

It's all my responsibility already, really. Ethan's grades are slipping, so he's trying to devote himself to more intellectual pursuits this year.

He was maintaining a 4.0 until this year. He's finding it hard to keep motivated knowing he's so close to the end.

Ethan mightn't be the best student but he has been a really good friend to me so far this year.

He loves the outdoors about as much as I do - it's almost like having Maia around.

For some reason, it never really occurred to me that there'd be so many scenic places on campus but Ethan knows where they all are.

I'm glad someone is interested in that kind of thing!

I didn't think I'd ever get to know Adrienne or Matilda. They both spend a lot of time absorbed in video games and poker.

They seem really insular sometimes but I think that's probably what Rebecca and I look like to outsiders.

Even a couple of months in, I still don't know Matilda very well and I guess I won't. She's graduating along with Ethan at the end of this year.

I have got to know Adrienne a little bit though and I actually really like her. She's not the nicest girl, exactly, but she reminds me a lot of Rebecca in some ways, so we get along well anyway.

She's a little bit cagey about her first two years here but she did open up a little and tell me that she got pregnant and gave the baby up for adoption. That was kind of a shock to me. I've never known anyone who'd gone through that before.

Adrienne hasn't been dating at all until very recently - she was kind of scared off it after getting pregnant. But she's casually seeing a guy named Elijah now, who she met last year.

She's really quick to correct anyone who refers to Elijah as her boyfriend, even though I haven't seen her with any other guys since I got here.

All I know is I don't want to ever get in that hot tub!

But he does seem like a nice guy. I was talking to him while he was doing an assignment and he hardly minded at all!

Rebecca grew up on a farm but you'd never know it. She has no interest in nature or anything like that. She's whining a lot right now because she's got really into soccer but everyone else in the dorm is too lazy to play with her.

Sometimes, she manages to rope me into a game but it's not something I enjoy.

But Rebecca's my best friend and I don't mind too much. We have so much fun together.

Rebecca and I both really love the bar on campus. For me, it's because despite the fact that it's sort of dingy, it's also kind of cozy and comfortable. For Rebecca, I think its appeal lies more in how much her mother would hate the place. Mrs Kirby is a little uptight and Rebecca thinks it's funny when she gets all riled up.

Last time we went to the bar, I turned to say something to Rebecca and she'd disappeared.

She's got a huge crush on this guy, Lucian. She's liked him from the second she laid eyes on him. Lucian's all flirty with her whenever they see each other.

Rebecca's not shy but it took her a little while to work up the courage to ask Lucian out. Finally one day, she called him...

...and he says no!

Rebecca's pretending she doesn't care but I can tell she does. I was all ready to have a long rant session with her about what a jerk he is but she doesn't want to talk about it.

She says she'll be fine and she just wants to sulk for a little bit. Well, okay. I'd rather bitch and moan about Lucian but I can't force her.

I've had a few guys try to hit on me this semester but I'm not really interested.

I have Dominic waiting for me back in Sullivan and I'm a one-guy-at-a-time kind of girl.

We only started dating about a month before I finished high school but we decided to stay together and see how we went. We're doing okay but he still has one more year of school, so we can only really see each other on weekends.

We both really look forward to the weekends! Dominic's not planning on going to university, so we'll still be apart next year. But he'll be on his own and will be a bit more free to spend his time how he wants.

Neither of us can wait! It's hard to say goodbye knowing we won't see each other for another week.

For now though, we're just trying to talk on the phone as much as we can and look forward to next year!

Outtakes:

So I don't really know what was going on here. I was experimenting with pose boxes and all of a sudden, Tessa and Rebecca pulled these faces!

I love how Rebecca's getting all mad and rolling her eyes and Tessa's just continuing her story! They've been friends since kindergarten, so Tessa would be well used to Rebecca's crabbiness by now. I doubt it would faze her any more.

Matilda is not so keen though!

Notes:

• Title is from I Want To Break Free by Queen.
• While I had Dominic and Tessa on their date, they rolled the want to woohoo, which I didn't think could happen on teen-adult dates. So that was something new. I don't think Tessa's a hot tub/sauna woohoo kind of girl though and Dominic doesn't strike me as the type either, so they're going to have to wait.
• Adrienne still isn't going too crazy with the romance wants. She rolled the want to go on a date, so I set her up with Elijah, who she met last year. Then the romantic wants progressed as they usually do on a date. Once they woohooed, she rolled those crazy multiple woohoo/make out/public woohoo wants but once the date finished, she was back to her sedate, study-oriented wants, with the occasional date want thrown in. So she really is being a little more careful now. She really needs to be careful too, because she's a slob and can't use birth control. I did make sure I had try for baby turned off for her this time though! No more oops babies for Adrienne, except through risky woohoo!
• Not much Matilda in this one but she wasn't really doing much of interest, actually. She rolled an engagement want for Ethan but Ethan is well and truly over her and rolling wants for somebody else, who I will reveal at a later date. ;) Hopefully, Matilda will find somebody else to focus her affections on.
• Ethan and Matilda have graduated in game, Matilda with a 4.0 and Ethan with a 3.6. Graduation details will come in the Summer birthdays.