Prosperity Challenge - 7.5 (Days/Years 19-21 - College)
Finishing up round 7! College gets kind of crazy here, with the freshmen (Eli, Rochell, and Alvin) all arriving during the senior year of Shena, Belva, and Nevada.
College
Life was pretty quiet for a while at the Greek House. Junior year came with an increased workload for the Winterfell girls, and Melanie was busy as she prepared to graduate.
Even Nevada, who'd really never been that interested in school, buckled down.
That's not to say they never got up to anything interesting.
Melanie got over Bob Thigpen, and started becoming very adventurous with her love life.
Belva finished painting all of their portraits. (From left: Nevada, Belva, Melanie, Shena) They all agreed that the tradition should be passed down to all future Greek House residents.
Shena and Eli Haynes had kept in touch and remained good friends. Their romantic relationship had died out shortly after Shena left for college, however. It was just too difficult to date a high school student. Eli called one day and told Shena that he, Rochell Koepple, and Alvin Burkett would all be attending Academie Le Tour in the fall.
Shena told Nevada right away. "Fresh meat for the house! I wonder if Eli thinks we're going to get together again once he gets here."
Nevada sort of hoped not. She and Shena were so close that she wasn't sure how Eli would fit in. Rochell coming was definitely exciting, though.
Melanie mostly stayed out of the drama with the Winterfell kids. Her final term paper was finally done after a few setbacks with the computer.
She graduated and decided to move to Winterfell. Practically everyone she knew was from there or would be moving back there soon. (It's the dreaded track pants with heels! They're so bad they look like a mistake. Melanie the Romance sim would not be caught dead in this, and yet it's what she was stuck in until I could play her again!)
The big day arrived at last. Eli, Rochell, and Alvin all arrived at the freshman dorm. Eli and Alvin were best friends already, and Rochell and Eli had been seeing each other for a year. Rochell and Alvin didn't know each other at all, however.
(Eli's transition picture. Wow, he, uh, really developed quite a face there. I don't think he looks bad, he just looks nothing like he did as a teen.)
(Alvin - looking pretty good.)
The first thing Eli did was call Shena and invite her over.
They got a little carried away immediately.
Rochell walked up shortly thereafter, and Eli had no choice but to accept her display of affection. Shena just walked away without a word. Eli's heart sank into his stomach. That was probably the stupidest thing he'd ever done.
Rochell and Alvin wanted to rush the Greek House. Even though he hadn't straightened things out with Shena, Eli agreed to join as well. He didn't want to end up all by himself in the dorms.
The rush was mostly a formality, since Belva and Nevada were sisters with Rochell, and Alvin and Shena were good friends. Eli's interview with Shena was very awkward, since she just looked at him in silence for 10 minutes and walked away.
But when it came time to move in, Shena acted as though nothing had happened. Eli felt he should try to explain. "Shena, I'm sorry about...you know...", he stammered.
"It's no big deal Eli, I didn't expect that we'd get back together or anything. Seriously, I'm fine with it. Rochell is great, I'm glad you're happy."
Eli felt kind of confused. He thought he should be happy with how things had turned out - Rochell was great.
And she certainly loved him. But he was starting to think that he'd never really made a decision on his own. In high school, Anabel had decided when their brief relationship began and ended. Then, Shena had shown interest and they were together until she left and then they weren't. And Rochell had been the one to call him over and proposition him. Even now, Shena had decided there was nothing between them and Rochell had decided that there was. Shouldn't he have some kind of say?
He tried explaining how he felt to Alvin, but Alvin was never very sympathetic. "I'm not sure I'm seeing the problem with girls jumping into bed with you at every opportunity, man."
Alvin had been hooking up with Melanie when she would visit the Greek House occasionally. Suddenly he was an expert on women. (Some of the pictures get bad here for a bit - I moved to the new, better computer, but forgot to check the picture settings...after this they get much better!)
He could still be kind of a dumbass, though.
Especially when it came to Rochell. They never took to each other, and as the year wore on, they stopped managing to be civil to one another.
The one thing Eli knew for sure that was going right was that he was finally allowed to join the band as the drummer. Shena was so good that he was amazed, and Nevada was much better than she had been in high school. Eli knew he was the weak link and vowed to spend all of his free time practicing. (Oh, and here's where I tried Fraps on the old computer...)
Nevada never really warmed to him, though. He didn't know that she'd argued bitterly with Shena against letting him in the band.
The time came soon enough for Shena, Nevada, and Belva to get ready to graduate. They all spent a lot of time on their final thesis papers.
Shena seemed to be in kind of a sour mood towards the end of their time at the Academie.
She graduated and left for Winterfell without throwing a party, which was pretty unlike her.
Nevada and Belva quickly followed. Nevada planned to move in with Shena where they would spend a lot of their time on music.
Belva was moving back to the Koepple house, where Ian and Anabel were currently awkwardly living together.
The house seemed so quiet, and Eli was left feeling as though he'd still never really taken an action.
Notes:
Whew, playing six college kids at once takes forever. Someone was always breaking the computer or trying to make breakfast at the same time. They never lacked for pizza though, that's for sure. Also, ACR really shook things up here - Eli was regularly woohooing both Rochell and Shena in the house, and no jealousy occurred. I guess they felt no ring, no foul. Plus, Alvin and Melanie got up to their little romance behind my back in the hot tub. Nevada and Belva have yet to show any interest in anyone. I'm guessing they don't have any interest in following in their mom's footsteps with a million kids arising from several boyfriends.