Shake it off

Round 30: March 2031 (Autumn)

last update/next update/Malcolm's next update

Malcolm Novak is 21, Hope Collins and Julia Gray are both 20 and Audrey Lachance and Jack Benton are both 19.
(Nathan is 21, Charlie is 19, Connor and Sophie are both 18 and Grace and Everett are both 1)

Narrated by Jack Benton

I'm missing Charlie a lot more than I thought I would. I guess it's natural that I would, seeing this is the first time we've not lived under the same roof but it's weird not having him around all the time.

Camilla got angry at him about wasting time after class and making her late for her own classes, so I go and visit over there more often and keep him out of trouble.

I still can't believe Charlie has two kids now. I figured we'd both have a little while before we had to start worrying about kids.

I'm definitely planning on waiting a long time before I have kids. I'll just stick to doing the uncle thing for now.

Being an uncle is probably more fun than being a father a lot of the time anyway.

My patience for dorm life is wearing a bit thin. Unless you want to hole up in your room the whole time, it's hard to get time to yourself. There always seems to be someone around.

Way too often, that person is Julia. I try to avoid her because I honestly think she's nuts. One day she'll be smiling at me like everything's fine and I'll think that finally, we might be able to move past this.

Then I'll go and talk to her later on and she'll act all weird again.

I feel bad about the way we ended things but it was so long ago now. I wish she'd move on.

Last year, when her boyfriend Nathan was living here, it was a little better. He used to rein her in a lot.

Then again, now that he's not living here, Julia tends to go out more often, to hang out with him. So I see Julia less but the times that I do see her are sometimes way more unpleasant.

Since Nathan moved out, Malcolm has had his dorm room to himself, which is probably a good thing, because he's been spending a lot of time in there.

I don't think he slept a single night in there last year; he was always with Hope in her room. But Hope dumped him just last week.

Hope had big ideas about her and Malcolm moving in together after graduation.

She was really unimpressed when Malcolm told her he didn't want to discuss that until he'd finished med school.

So they had a massive fight...

...which ended with Hope telling Malcolm she wasn't planning to wait around for him for five years.

Malcolm is pretty bummed about the whole thing.

Somehow, I've become his sounding board for whenever he wants to rant about how much of a bitch Hope is.

I don't ever really know what to say to him. I've never liked Hope much but I hate being dragged into other people's drama.

It's near impossible to avoid it here though.

Everyone else seems to love gossiping.

I'd like to move out of here but I don't really want to live entirely on my own. I like my space but I'd get bored living alone. I've tried convincing Sophie to get a place with me next year but she's not so into the idea.

We're different in a lot of ways and Sophie actually really likes living in the dorms. She thrives on being in a bustling place like that and her eyes actually light up when she talks about it. If she wants the dorm experience, who am I to deny her?

Apart from that, Sophie thinks moving in together is too big a step for us right now.

I don't quite see it that way. I mean, we've been together for four years now. But I don't know what to say to make her feel differently, so I guess this is where we're staying for the time being.

But man, I really want out of here. There's also Audrey but I don't think it's a great idea for us to live together at the moment, as much fun as I think we'd have.

The dorm is different but in our own house, alone, in close quarters? I don't know about that.
Lately, I've felt some niggling feelings for Audrey, which I haven't really felt since before I got together with Sophie. We usually just hang out and everything's fine but every now and then, I start thinking things that I really, really shouldn't. At least, not while I'm with Sophie.


And not while Audrey's with Connor.

I never saw that coming but they met through Charlie. Connor asked my brother if it would be alright if he asked Audrey out. Then he did and she said yes.

Charlie says Connor is a decent guy and that he wouldn't have let him ask Audrey out if he wasn't. I've only spoken to him a little. He seems okay, I suppose.

I should feel happy for Audrey. She hasn't really dated anyone since Charlie and that was a long time ago. But when I see her with Connor, all I really feel is jealous.

Extras:I took this picture of Jack and Everett and was immediately reminded of this next picture.

David and Camilla, when she was a tiny tot! I wish I had zoomed in a bit more on Everett but I wonder if he actually has Camilla's eyes; from this angle at least, it looks like he might.

Notes:

• Title is from Shake It Off by Wilco.
• All of this gang are maintaining 4.0 GPAs, except for Hope, who's now got a 3.8.
• Hope and Malcolm were sort of a surprise. I never really saw them staying together forever but I wasn't expecting them to split up until after college. But when they arrived on the community when I sent them on a date, they got some weird glitch. I got a pop-up from both of them saying something like "you jerk, how could you stand me up for someone else!". They were also furious with each other and their relationship scores shot right down to around about -75. I had this glitch with Luc and Asha fairly early on but because they're Romance Sims, I could use the "Smooth Talk" interaction to fix the relationship pretty fast. Neither Hope or Malcolm are Romance, so I decided to write it in instead. It was going to happen eventually anyway.
• When I loaded up, Jack's wants were mostly centred around Charlie, so he's missing his little brother (Charlie is 6 months younger and Jack is adopted, for those who are not aware).
• His focus changed somewhat as the session went on, as you may have guessed. He rolls romantic wants for Audrey and then it's like he feels guilty and remembers he has a girlfriend and rolls a bunch of romantic wants for Sophie.
• Audrey is similarly confused. She and Connor started up autonomously (he initiated, I think. I just heard that crush music and went "WHAT?!? WHERE?!?") and she's rolling wants for both Connor and Jack. So the saga continues!