505

Round 33: March 2038 (Autumn)

Emma's last update/Jessica's last update/next update

Louisa Gentry, Emma Gottlieb and Jessica Royce-Nihill are 18.
(Mitchell is 19 and Declan, Justin and Lauren are 17)

Narrated by Jessica Royce-Nihill

Starting at Suffolk with Emma and Louisa has been so much fun. You hear people say living together is the quickest way to kill off a friendship but that hasn't been true for us at all.


We’ve just been having an awesome time together. It’s just like in high school, except there’s no parents around to tell us to go to bed.

Lauren is still finishing school, so she’s not here with us yet. We all speak to her on the phone at least a few times during the week instead.

The phone isn’t quite the same as catching up in person but we do that most weekends.

I don’t envy Lauren this year. She’s mainly been hanging out with her brother and his friends during the week and she's really missing having time with girlfriends.

She’s also feeling kind of smothered by her parents at the moment and is dying to get to campus and be a bit more independent.

Emma, Louisa and I all felt like that near the end of high school, so we know the feeling. Getting out on our own has been a good move for all of us.

I'm a Culinary Arts major and it's not quite what I imagined so far. I have yet to even set foot in a kitchen, for instance.

This year, I think I'm going to be stuck in a lecture theatre most of the time.

The theory side of things is more involved than I thought - there's nutrition, sanitation, the history of different cuisines. It's a lot to take in.

I've made friends with Mitchell Carmody, another culinary arts student. He's a sophomore and I've been grilling him on what next year might be like.


From the sounds of it, it'll be a lot more interesting. Mitchell told me his classes are much more hands on this year.


That's what I'm after! I want to actually improve my cooking, not just read about the importance of hand washing or storing meat correctly.

Emma is loving it here on campus. She surprised us all a little when she announced she’d be majoring in ceramics though. She never really talked much about it in high school and I think it was somewhat of a whim for her.

Emma spends a lot of time between classes honing her craft at the uni art studio. She’s getting really good.

She made me a little vase for my dorm room, which matches the decor just about perfectly.

She’s met a new girl while doing her pottery as well, who she seems to really like. Her name is Makenzie.

Emma says they get along so well and that Makenzie has managed to not say a single thing to annoy her so far.

That’s pretty rare for Emma. She even gets grumpy with me sometimes and I’m her best friend.

They’re not dating but they’ve hung out a little and Emma wants to take it further. She knows Makenzie is gay, or at least bi, so there’s at least that hurdle out of the way.

So far though, they haven’t done anything more than flirting.

Louisa and Justin, having been together for three years now, are a little more serious than Emma and Makenzie.

I'm not her mother, so I haven't said anything but I think he's distracting her from her studies a bit. She's on track to end up on academic probation this semester.

Justin is here on campus every weekend visiting Louisa. The second Louisa knew she was enrolling at Suffolk, Justin was making sure his dad would let him use the car to drive up here.

Next year, he’ll definitely be here on campus with us. He’s already been chosen as the first recipient of the Governor’s Grant, so he won’t be paying a cent in tuition either. The separation has been hard for them, so they’re counting down the days until Justin starts here at Suffolk.

My boyfriend Declan is also still finishing up his final year of high school, which Emma occasionally likes to tease me about. She calls me a cougar and Declan my toy boy.

She teases everyone about everything though, so it would be silly to take it personally.

If Declan wasn’t still in school, I don’t think anyone would even notice an age difference. He just turned 17 and I’ll be 18 in July, so there’s not even a year between us.

Declan and I didn’t have much time together before I went off to college, so in a way, I think the separation is easier for us than Justin and Louisa. We both knew it was coming before we got together and that really does seem to have made a difference.

Or maybe it’s just that after my experience with Noah, I’m more aware of how hard long distance can be and more willing to work at it.


So far, so good. I still get so excited about seeing Declan every weekend.


We’ve become quite enamoured of pool lately. The pool hall on campus is usually empty during the day, so it’s almost as private as my dorm room would be!


Sometimes we just hang out all day and drink coffee instead.


We seem to be able to talk forever. I don’t feel any of that weirdness seeping in, like it did with Noah near the end.


It makes me feel that little bit more confident that Declan and I can survive the rest of the year.


Still, it’s going to be really nice when Declan is here on campus and we can see each other whenever we like.


Notes:

• Title is from 505 by Arctic Monkeys.
• Louisa did end up on academic probation, so she'll be graduating a semester late. :( She has a 2.6 GPA. Emma has a 3.6 and Jessica has a perfect 4.0.
• On the plus side for Louisa, she and Justin are still rolling a lot of wants for each other. They can't roll romantic wants, even with my teen/adult wants hack but they're clearly still very into each other.
• Declan and Jessica are about the same. So I guess both couples will make it until the younger one gets to campus. I would have been sad if they appeared to lose interest but that doesn't seem to have happened.
• Makenzie and Emma have two bolts, without matching turn-ons, so they're a very decent match. Not sure what will happen between them but unlike Tim and Marius, both girls are relatively outgoing, so I don't think I'll be waiting long to see them take things further. But who knows?