Plush

Round 32: March 2035 (Autumn)

last update/Josh's next update/Elspeth's next update

Josh Royce-Nihill and Elspeth Romilly are both 21.
(Camilla, Sophie and Lila are all 22, Chris is 20 and Veronica is 18)

Narrated by Elspeth Romilly

It's my senior year now and I've finally put some thought into what I want to do with my life. I want to design video games. I play them a lot and I think I have better ideas than some of the crap out there.

Of course, that line of work does require a skill set I don't currently possess. Game companies around here are desperate for employees right now, so I'm hoping that means they'll be less picky. It's too late to change my major but it's not too late to take some classes that will help me.

They're very challenging but it's a good kind of challenge. I'm keeping up okay, even though some of the other students have been doing this stuff longer than I have.

I'm so excited about it. It's nice to finally have an idea of what I'll be doing next year.

Josh must be this close to telling me to shut up about it. I haven't talked about much else lately.

I have to talk to to someone about it though and Chris appears to be exhibiting a care factor of approximately zero lately.

Half the time I'm talking to him, he's not even looking at me. He's so distracted. It's getting really old.

I've chewed him out about it a few times and he always insists I'm overreacting or imagining things.

Just recently, I figured out why. On the way back from class one day, I spotted Chris with another girl. I don't even know who she was.

Chris looked like he knew her pretty damn well though.

He turned around as I headed over to confront him with this stupid grin on his face, like everything was just fine. It most certainly was not fine. I don't think I've ever been so furious in my whole life!

I told Chris it was over right then and there and he stood there with his head in his hands, like it was a shock that I'd want to dump him.

Our first break-up was fairly amicable; this one is not so much.

I tried to storm off, only to be followed by Chris's girlfriend or whatever she is. She wanted to apologise.

She kept saying she didn't know Chris had a girlfriend and she would never have touched him if she did. I have no idea why I should believe her.

When I got back to the dorm, I hid away for a little while. I just wanted to mope around and feel sorry for myself for a bit, without having to discuss it all with Josh.

I didn't want to talk about it with anyone, really. I just felt really stupid. Who knows how long Chris has been going around with this other girl, making so little attempt to hide it? And who knows if she's even the only one?

When I finally ventured out again, I bought a lottery ticket. Normally, I think people who buy those are idiots. You're basically just throwing your money away.

For whatever reason though, I couldn't resist the impulse. Maybe I was hoping that after my bad luck with Chris, I might balance it out with some good luck.

I was hoping for maybe $100 but when I checked the numbers the next day, I found I'd won $10,000!

As soon as I told Josh, he insisted I shout him lunch to celebrate.

I'm going to save the vast majority of the money but I agreed to spare $50 for a meal.

The money is nice but taking my mind off Chris for a few hours was better.

Josh and I had a heap of fun. It was just what I needed.

I need to do more things like that. Just taking time out for myself and forgetting about Chris. I do not want to be sobbing over him for months.

Things are a lot less awkward between Josh and me without Lila around. It's been like old times again.

I don't even know if she cares what Josh does any more but I always felt a bit strange being too friendly with him in front of her.

He seems to have moved on from me, finally. Lately, he's been after Veronica Moretti. She started as a freshman this year and Josh is rather smitten.

Veronica is not quite as taken with Josh as he is with her.

I'm almost positive she has a boyfriend. But me having a boyfriend never stopped Josh from flirting with me. He's quite persistent.

And this is all on top of this little casual thing he has going on with one of our dorm mates, Meg.

I'm hoping Veronica or Meg (or both) keeps Josh occupied for a little while, at least until things are completely smoothed over with Lila.

Just the other night, I went out for the first time in a long time with Sophie, Camilla and Lila and it actually went okay.

It was good to see them all again, especially Camilla. She makes more of an effort to come out with us now than she did when the twins were still tiny but there are still times when she just can't do it.

Lila tended to avoid looking me in the eye when we were all together, which did not go unnoticed by Camilla or Sophie.

Camilla and Sophie have their hearts set on us being friends again, so there were a lot of "trips to the bathroom" and "breaks for fresh air", leaving me and Lila alone.

The conversation was a bit stilted, the topic being mainly restricted to our darts game.

But Lila and I always got along so well, before that whole thing with Josh, and it was not as hard as I thought it would be to slip back into that.

Once I graduate, Sophie wants me to move in to the apartment she shares with Lila, which Lila has apparently okayed.

I'm happy to have a place to live next year but I'm just hoping things with Lila and me continue to move in the right direction.

Notes:

• Title is from Plush by Stone Temple Pilots.
• Elspeth will be the last student allowed into Game Development with a dubious major like Political Science. ;) I've been looking at my careers and comparing them to a link Flit posted on Pinterest and adjusting what majors they would require accordingly. I originally had Game Development requiring any old degree but now, they'll need to be Mathematics majors (or possibly Art, I'm still deciding), with a minor in Game and Interactive Media Design.
• Josh's major already fits his chosen career quite well. He also did Political Science and wants to go into Journalism. In the future though, I'll probably tack some kind of minor on to it or something.
• Elspeth rolled the "Large Lottery Prize" ROS and scored $10,000. She has quite a bit of cash now. Together with her scholarship money (which has been earning interest while she's been at college), she has almost $25,000.
• Elspeth had lost most of her interest in Chris and he'd all but forgotten about her. They do hate each other now though, so I'm hoping one or both of them doesn't go all Julia on me! It wouldn't really be in character for either of them. I don't think it would be in character for either of them to dwell on this relationship for too long.
• Lila was showing signs she wanted to reconcile with Elspeth last round, rolling up the occasional "talk to Elspeth" want. She started the outing that way again but once she fulfilled that, she'd roll up "entertain Elspeth", "play with Elspeth", etc. It was kind of sweet because these two were very close at one stage.
• Meg was an ACR woohoo that happened near the very end of my play session (it was the last pic I took). If I'd picked someone out for Josh, she would have a less Maxis-y face than poor old Meg. I don't think Josh is too picky at this point. ;) He's had nothing but rejection since Lila, first from Sophie and now from Veronica.