Thursday 7 April 2011

Halcyon days

Round 30: October 2032 (Spring)
Narrated by Elspeth Romilly

Our original plan for spring break was to camp out at the beach. It would have ended up costing us hardly any money, we were right on the beach and we thought it would be a lot of fun too.

Most of us thought it would be fun, anyway. Hope didn't agree and once we got to the campgrounds, she informed us all that she refused to sleep in a tent.

So to placate Hope, we found the cheapest hotel we could instead and checked in. Sophie even sweet talked the desk clerk a little bit to get us a reduced rate.

Seeing it was such short notice though, there were no twin shares left, so Hope and I had to share a double.

I wasn't thrilled about the idea. After the thing at the campgrounds, I really didn't know if I wanted to put up with Hope for the next week or so.

But then, I wasn't planning on spending the whole trip at the hotel. I wanted to see the sights, have some fun...

...maybe meet a boy or two. It feels like I've been single forever and I'm ready for that to change.

There were seven of us in the group all up; me, Hope, Josh, Lila, Audrey, Connor and Sophie.

Connor wasn't going to come but Josh didn't want to be the only guy on the trip, so he talked him into it.

If Connor hadn't gone, I don't think Audrey would have either. But seeing he did, she tagged along as well.

Sophie tried to convince her boyfriend Jack to come but he flat out refused, so she came on her own.

I would be so pissed if any boyfriend of mine did that. Maybe pissed off enough to do some revenge flirting.

Sophie just laughed when I said that. She's annoyed but not that annoyed.

It was fun having that girl time without boyfriends getting in the way anyway. Sophie and I had a great time.

The shopping there was not fantastic but we browsed anyway. Neither of us have much money, so the fact the lack of shopping was probably a blessing in disguise.

Luckily, the beaches were free and beautiful. That's the main reason we were there, after all.

Despite my initial hesitance about Hope, she actually ended up tagging along with me and Sophie most of the time.

And surprisingly, we actually got along! Hope and I actually have a lot in common. I'm just slightly less of a princess, apparently.

The only incident between us was when she brought some guy back to our room and expected me to find another room to sleep in for the night.

Yeah, right. I stood my ground and they ended up going to his room and I got the bed to myself for the night.

It was probably the best night's sleep I had all week.

The next day though, I was dying to know if anything happened between Hope and Shaw, her guy from the night before.

She was playing coy for a while but she finally admitted that nothing happened. They just made out for a while and fell asleep. Hope's not planning on seeing him again.

In between hanging out with me and Sophie and flirting with Shaw, Hope found the time to drill Audrey on her sex life.

Audrey and Connor have been together about a year and Hope has decided for her that a year is long enough. Audrey says it just hasn't felt right yet.

Hope insisted on sharing with me all the details of her conversations with Audrey about Connor. I never did manage to make her understand that I don't really want to hear about my ex-boyfriend's sex life, even if we were really young when we dated.

Whenever she started up about that, I would normally go and find Josh and hang out with him for a while.

As long as he wasn't with Lila, which he so frequently was.

They didn't see each other very often last year, so this year, they're taking full advantage of being so close by.

I was been able to steal Josh away for a little bit on occasion though, and it was so great.

Things were a bit weird between us for a while when he started dating Lila but when we hung out on vacation, it was like old times.

I was majoring in Art but Josh talking about his classes made me change my mind and do Political Science instead. I feel much more excited about it than I did about Art.

Lila has always been jealous of the relationship I have with Josh. Josh and I have been friends since we were 10 years old, so we have a bond that he doesn't have with Lila.

Lila is a good friend to me as well and I've really never had any intention of coming between her and Josh.

I've always thought Lila was worried over nothing but maybe not. One night towards the end of our trip, while everyone else was upstairs in their rooms, Josh kissed me.

It was just a closed-mouth kiss at first. Almost like a peck.

But it quickly turned into something much more. Josh has tried to kiss me before, pre-Lila and he even succeeded once before. But since then, I've always stopped him.

This time though, it was a while before I had the presence of mind to push him off me.

I don't know what to do now. Josh was always just Josh to me but since we kissed, I'm looking at him in a different light.

Josh and I have agreed not to go any further but the kiss shouldn't have happened in the first place. I'm just feeling so guilty now, because Lila has no idea.

Or at least, she didn't seem like she had any idea when she came running into my room on the last morning of our trip.

Josh and Lila had sex and I was the first person she told. She was so gushy about it and she said she just had to talk to someone. That's so unlike her - she's really not the gushy type - and it just made me feel even worse.

I don't really know what Josh is thinking about all this. It feels so awkward talking to him now.

I thought things would be less awkward once we got back to the dorm and were away from the "scene of the crime".

It hasn't been that way at all though and being in close quarters with Josh is making it even worse.

I don't think Lila suspects anything at the moment but I'm worried it will only be a matter of time.

Notes:
  • Title is from Halcyon Days (Where Were You Then?) by Local H.
  • The real reason they didn't camp out is because my campground is flooded. :( I did terrain surgery and replaced the original Twikkii Island map with an edited one with more roads but unfortunately, a couple of the lots are now flooded and I have no idea how to fix it. The fancy hotel, which I love, is one of the affected lots.
  • More Hope and Audrey in tomorrow's update but this is it for the rest of the gang for this round. There wasn't much of Audrey in this update anyway but there is more story to tell with her.
  • Hope is not particularly interested in Shaw. She just wanted to flirt with somebody and he was convenient. She wanted to kiss him once and then she was done with him, lol.
  • Elspeth and Josh kissing was the event that made me rewrite pretty much this entire thing! Lucky I didn't have to re-do too many pictures - I just repurposed them. ;)
  • The way it happened was I was doing something with Sophie at one end of the lot and decided I'd go check on Elspeth. She was standing in front of the hotel with the big "I Just Made Out With Someone New" lips floating above her head and Lila and Josh were standing there making out themselves. So Lila must have just missed Josh and Elspeth's own kiss.
  • Just in case any of you missed it on Twitter or N99, don't ever take Sims on vacation as guests if you're planning on doing any sort of posing! The pose boxes work but forget about Freezer Clock and Look at Player. Even the intro pic took forever and those are usually very quick for me. I got it done but Audrey's still not looking at the camera. This whole update was such a pain but I think I like it, so hopefully it was worth all the hassle!
  • I think in the birthdays, I said Josh was doing Literature and Elspeth was doing Art. I must have decided on that but not actually had them call up and declare their majors, because they both wanted to major in Political Science when they woke up on the morning of their vacation. So even though, "Become Visionary" is Elspeth's LTW, I don't think I'll be fulfilling that for her. It's obviously not the direction she wants to go in any more.
  • I played these kids through their two semesters once they got back. Connor is the only one who still has a 4.0, Lila is close behind on 3.8, Josh and Elspeth both have 3.6 and Sophie has 3.2. Sophie also finally had the university force her into Philosophy, seeing she never did roll up a want for a major! She also completed her LTW this round, which was to make 20 Simultaneous Best Friends.

21 comments:

  1. Oooh! The Elspeth-Josh drama is pretty scintillating. I feel bad for Lila though...they took such a big relationship step and it's marred now.

    What an awesome spring break update!

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  2. I admire you for taking such a large group on vacation-yikes! I'm surprised that Elspeth changed her major and the kiss...I smell nothing but a big pile of stinky trouble.

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  3. ooh, sukey-sukey now! but why am i not surprised?

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  4. The drama... Why are the college kids always so dramatic??!! Can't wait to see how this unfolds...
    Great update! :D

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  5. Rachel, I'm glad you thought so! I was happy with how it came out. But I am feeling sorry for poor Lila as well, because she was quite hesitant about sex, at least last year.

    Thanks for reading!

    Apple Valley, ugh, yeah, well, I'll be doing it a very different way if I ever take a group this large again, lol!

    Elspeth changing her major makes sense to me, because I never really saw her as an artist. I'm going to think of it as a whim she had and has now grown past.

    The kiss...yes. Trouble for sure! I'm sure this will have some repercussions next time we hear from Lila/Josh/Elspeth.

    Thanks for reading!

    LaurelCrossing, I'm really embarrassed to say that I actually have no idea what your comment means but thank you for reading anyway!

    coolkat2, it must be all those hormones. ;) Most of my romance drama does tend to take place in the college years but I adore it! We should be visiting the college kids again in March 2033. Not counting the next update, which is another college one but which will not include most of these kids in a huge way.

    Thanks for reading!

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  6. Seeing your students on vacation make me wish I was on a nice sunny beach myself :)

    Great update! I loved the whole trip. They seemed to have had a great time.

    Elspeth and Josh ... I always thought their could be something if she would just give him the chance... I wonder what's going to happen now, it can't be easy on the both of them with Lila around all the time.

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  7. So I'm a bit pissed at Josh! Why run and have sex with Lila after kissing Elspeth? I'm with Apple Valley, I smell so much trouble brewing from this! This makes me want to take Caleb and the gang on a springbreak and see what happens lol

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  8. Poor Lila!

    I hope that Josh will clear the air with Elspeth, and decide what he wants to do... but it seems like he wants to be with Lila. Hope they were being safe, btw! I feel like they are both neat sims.

    I wonder what's going to happen with Connor and Audrey, I'm glad she hasn't gotten too intimate with him, I'm hoping they both find someone more fitting. I want a big family guy for Audrey, who will be relaxed with her family, and not mind Tatiana's fretting, and just be genuinely nice!

    I had those same issues with Zeke and Morgan's wedding, SO frustrating! As for the terrain, I had that issue, and I fixed it by putting the old terrain back, moving the lots to the bin, putting new terrain in, and putting lots back down. When I tried short cutting it, my terrain still didn't work.

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  9. LMAO @ LaurelCrossing "ooh sukey-sukey now". I know exactly what she meant but I don't think that saying travels as far as Australia. It basically means "ooh sh!t" in urban/African-American slang.

    But I pretty much ditto her LOL. I was wondering what drama caused the sudden re-write. All kinds of things were going through my head. I thought maybe someone got pregnant or something until I started seeing Elspeth and Josh getting closer. Josh just got a little less hot to me now after this. This could get ugly and ruin at least 1 friendship between all parties involved :\. I hope if he really wants Elspeth, he lets Lila know soon. She's already given up so much already. Poor girl.

    Great update! If you figure out a way to take a large group of sims on vacation, please share your tips. I don't have any large trips like this planned anytime soon, but I may need to in the future. I don't have much experience with vacations since that EP came out while I was on a simming hiatus.

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  10. Oh, I feel so bad for Lila. It's not going to be pretty if she hears about Josh and Elspeth. But I'm glad that Elspeth stopped before anything else happened between them. They both need to figure out what they want and how they really feel about each other before they hurt Lila even more.

    I can imagine how annoying it was to not be able to freeze the guests on this trip! I hope you figure out a way to get your lots unflooded. :(

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  11. Tanja, it would be nice, indeed, as I sit here in my winter pyjamas!

    There's always been *something* between Elspeth and Josh but this was the first time she's let him go this far. Though of course, she did stop him, even this time. Josh, Elspeth and Lila are all living in the same dorm together, so awkwardness abounds at the moment.

    Thanks for reading!

    Mizzgin03, I don't know if Josh or Elspeth were thinking clearly after their kiss and having sex with Lila so soon after was probably not a good decision. In Josh's mind, he might have been cementing his relationship with Lila but if she finds out, it's doubtful that she'll feel that way. :\

    I'd love to see your college kids on spring break! Do it, lol!

    Thanks for reading!

    Maisie, I don't know what Josh wants yet but I hope he gives me some sort of sign soon! Though if Lila finds out, she may make up his mind for him. As for BC, yes, Lila is a neat Sim, so they were being safe. :)

    I can't say too much about Connor and Audrey but there'll be much more on them in the next update. They are definitely not a perfect fit.

    Oh, see, now you've given me my job for the day! This terrain thing is driving me absolutely up the wall and I'm not going to be able to play until I sort it out, lol! It'll give me some time to sort out my notes for Audrey's update anyway. Thanks for the info.

    Thanks for reading!

    Danielle, LOL, oh, thank you! I seriously had no idea. No, that slang hasn't made it out here. I think we get most of our American slang through movies and I've never heard that one!

    Ha, I knew you guys would think someone got pregnant. Last time I remember having to do a huge rewrite, it was when Camilla got pregnant, so it makes sense that you'd think that! But no, it was the Josh/Elspeth thing. Josh needs to have a really good think about what he wants to do about this. He's got six months until I play him again, so that's enough time, lol!

    Next time I take a large group on vacation, I will probably temporarily move them all onto the same lot, so I can just take everyone as regular playables. I was trying to avoid doing that but it would have been so much less work than this ended up being!

    Thanks for reading!

    Shana, Elspeth did the right thing, even if it was a little too late by the time she did. That probably won't be a comfort to Lila though, when/if she finds out.

    Not being able to use Freezer Clock drove me nuts! I didn't realise how much I relied on it. I don't know how I did posing for so long without it and without Look at Player! I'm hoping Maisie's advice about the terrain will work for my lots. I really don't feel like rebuilding anything.

    Thanks for reading!

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  12. I love seeing your students on spring break. It looks so much fun.

    Wow, another love triangle is brewing in Suffolk! I feel bad for Lila but I guess it's not exactly an easy situation for any of them.

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  13. I've been wanting to read the spring break update and so glad I'm finally here!

    The camping and sleeping in a double bed thing (no matter why you had to do it), was so real I was sitting here laughing! I've done the camping on the beach with the outdoor saltwater showers and it gets old really fast. I love your shots: the lighting and the landscaping really feels like the beach.

    People at that age move in and out of relationships as they figure out what they like and what they don't. They throw around the term 'cheating' pretty easily, but there are some intense emotions involved. I feel sorry for Lila but not that much. Josh seems confused about what to do, and having sex with Lila may have been his attempt to rinse Elspeth and the kiss out of his head.

    When I've had flooding problems, I had to fix them the say way Maisie did. It's a multi step, annoying process.

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  14. Drama I see. Well, you knew it was bound to happen. They are college kids. LOL

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  15. Sari, despite all the issues I had, I did actually have fun with them!

    I think right now, seeing Lila doesn't know anything, it's probably harder on Elspeth and Josh. If Lila finds out though, she'll probably try to make it harder for them!

    Thanks for reading!

    S.B., oh, sharing a double bed is something I had to do with my best friend on one of our school trips once. There was some sort of snag with the rooms and there weren't enough beds. I'm pretty sure I was the annoying one though!

    Well, that's a good point too. People that age can look fickle, when they're really just figuring out what they want. Josh and Lila wouldn't be the first couple to not survive the move from high school to university, if they broke up over this. Your explanation of Josh's actions is basically how I'm interpreting what he did as well.

    Thankfully, I fixed the flooding problem, using Maisie's advice. I'm very relieved, because I probably wouldn't have thought to do that! But yeah...very annoying and tedious!

    Thanks for reading!

    Riverdale, of course! College kids always seem to bring the drama; that's why I love playing them!

    Thanks for reading!

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  16. Wow, that's a juicy bit of gossip just waiting to be found out later. It's going to be bad for Elspeth, Josh and Lila down the line.

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  17. HeredonCove, no, it's probably not going to work out too well for anyone. At least initially. If Josh and Lila aren't meant to be, he may have done her a favour in the long run.

    Thanks for reading!

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  18. Oh, I never commented on this one! I meant to say, "Oh, Elspeth! Shame, shame!" But LOL! I was waiting for this day to come, and I wouldn't doubt she's been scheming this in her head for years now, lol!

    And you know, I don't even have an opinion on this one, so I look forward to seeing what Josh makes of this mess! I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but this feels kind of shady. I also got the feeling he might have only gone all the way with Lila because of the kiss, but I sure hope that's not the case. Poor Lila! :(

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  19. Laura, if anyone has been scheming, it was probably Josh! Elspeth has always enjoyed the attention but she's never really had any sort of romantic/sexual feelings towards Josh. Or no feelings like that which she's identified as such anyway. ;)

    Josh has been wanting to go all the way for well over a year now and Lila had turned him down until now. So I think the kiss was only part of the reason he had sex with Lila and it was more of a reason for the timing. But you know...tell Lila that, if she finds out. :\

    Thanks for reading!

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  20. Oooh Josh and Elspeth! I look forward to seeing more of this whole situation. I'm particularly curious as to what's going on in his head.

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  21. Lunar, there won't be too long before you hear more about Josh and Elspeth again. I'll touch on it in the Royce-Nihill update and then much more for the first college update of the round. Man, that came up quick! It's easier to keep moving when there aren't 6 million birthday posts to get through! Anyway, the first college update is going to be from Josh's perspective.

    Thanks for reading!

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