Howdy hi hi hi! Last time in Already in Progress, some of the Sims we’ve been following reached the age at which I send them off to Uni. (Seven days to Adult, in case you were wondering.) And you know what that means, right?

That’s right! It’s college chapter time!

So without any further ado, let’s join our story: Already in Progress…

Four lucky Teens headed off to college at the same time. From left: Jo, Anastasia, Rebecca, and Cecil.

I thought that perhaps identification would be helpful, since they all Grew Up into such hideous clothing as to render them nearly unrecognizable.

Actually, I quite like Anastasia’s outfit, and think it looks very nice on her. But I see her as a lot more sporty than that. So off you go to claim your dorm rooms, everyone, and then we’ll go shopping.

Oh, come on! I haven’t even got all the dorm rooms claimed yet!

And he’s supposed to be your friend, Anastasia! What about Frederic back home? You know, the one you pretty much stalked? For him you had plenty of heart-farts, but none for Cecil. (sourly) I hope you don’t think you can have both of them, because you can’t.

This takes all my plans for both of them and ruins them completely.

Poop!

I suppose I should be glad that Cecil doesn’t really seem to know what to do with a girlfriend now he has one.

CECIL: Pillow fight!

ANASTASIA: Cecil, have you ever considered that perhaps girlfriends and boyfriends might do things that aren’t pillow fighting?

CECIL: You mean like kicky bag? Or bowling? You like bowling, right?

ANASTASIA: Yes, I like bowling. But I was talking more about kissing. And stuff.

CECIL: It weirds me out when we kiss. I mean, that’s what you do with friends. Plus, your sister is always around. And I used to kiss her.

ANASTASIA: Oh, yuck! You would have to bring that up. (dry spits repeatedly, to get rid of the kissing-your-sister-by-association cooties) Blech! Can’t you think of other people for once?

Anastasia isn’t really encouraging of intimacy, though. Every chance she gets, she’s heaving a small, dense projectile at her boyfriend’s head.

Mind you, Cecil is just as Mean, and would probably do the same thing given half a chance. But Anastasia has much better aim.

Rebecca has wasted no time in scoping out the local population for potential lovers. So far, we have determined that she has negative chemistry with just about every male in the dorm.

Which reminds me: you know how I messed up, so every dormie has a doppelganger? Well, you see the guy in the dashiki and the afro?

His doppelganger also moved into the dorm. No problem, right? I already made over the guy in the afro, so now Cecil just needs to make over the other guy. They’ll still have the same outfit, but that should help a little.

It’s a pity Cecil is terrible at makeovers.

Really, really terrible.

Fortunately for the dormie, I have always been good at sticking with something until I got it right.

Now he has “recessive” red hair genes, and I can tell the two apart at a glance.

No, I don’t remember his name. It’s probably Abhijeet.

Funnily enough, Rebecca turns out to be pretty good at makeovers.

She’s also pretty good at convincing other people that they want to do her homework for her. I know you have to just take my word for it, but Pong Dennis there really is writing her term paper.

Rebecca also decided after her first day in class that she wanted to major in Psychology. I think that’s the fastest I’ve ever had a Sim decide on a major.

Jo has been devoting herself to making friends. She’s Fortune, not Popularity, but that hasn’t stopped her.

Especially not once she found out that the people wearing the dorky suits with a llama embroidered on the breast have special connections and sometimes show up to class in a limo.

That was the beginning of a determined, concentrated campaign of befriending everyone Jo could find wearing a llama jacket.

A successful campaign, I might add.

Albeit one with unintended consequences.

JOSEPHINE: Hey, Phoenix. Do you wanna hang out sometime?

JOSEPHINE: Great! And maybe when we’re bowling you can tell me all about that really sharp jacket you wear sometimes.

PHOENIX WREN, VICE-PRESIDENT OF I CAN’T TELL YOU ABOUT IT: It don’t get any better than this. Dinner at a great restaurant with my girl by my side…!

JOSEPHINE: Phoenix, I’m not your girl.

PHOENIX: Sure you are! I’m not that kind of Romance Sim. You don’t need to worry about me.

JOSEPHINE: No, I mean we aren’t dating.

PHOENIX (jovially, to nobody in particular): Says the girl who kept calling me up to chat and hang out.

JOSEPHINE: Phoenix, I did that with a lot of people. I wanted the jacket.

PHOENIX: But you didn’t let Magnus buy you dinner.JOSEPHINE: No.PHOENIX: Or Pao. Or Ratna.JOSEPHINE: No.PHOENIX: Or Karen or Lisa or Ashley.JOSEPHINE: No.PHOENIX: But you let me buy you dinner. That means you like me best.JOSEPHINE (exasperated): Phoenix…!PHOENIX: It’s okay. It takes a while to come to terms with your feelings. I’ll wait. Hey, do you want dessert?

Round about Sophomore year, Rebecca took to hanging out with her ghostwriter.

REBECCA: Hey, Pong. You don’t mind if I sit with you, do you?

PONG DENNIS: No, of course not! It’s always good to see you.

REBECCA (indicating the TV): So what are we watching?

PONG: It’s the first round of the World Golf Championships!

REBECCA: Oh. Awesome…

Who turned out to be helpful in other ways, too.

REBECCA: Come on, Pong. You’ve been a big help. What do you want in exchange?

PONG: Oh, nothing…

REBECCA: You don’t want anything?

PONG: Well… I’d like to be saved from death.

REBECCA: Don’t be ridiculous. Too risky. Okay, what are you most afraid of?

PONG: I’m afraid you won’t want to kiss me if I ask.

REBECCA: You know what, Pong? Today is your lucky day.

Cecil declared a major in Far Eastern Philosophy and a minor in Far Eastern. Which I suppose makes sense, since it helps to be able to read philosophical texts in the original instead of in translation.

His parents are not particularly thrilled about such a useless major, but they sent him on a study abroad language immersion course for a whole semester.

Cecil’s fluency has increased rapidly. The program brings together students from many countries, and then arranges them into conversational groups to practice. The catch is that each student in the group speaks only Far Eastern and their native language.

That means that if Cecil wants to chat with a pretty girl, like Heidi here, he has to really master his vocabulary and pronunciation.

There’s nothing like the right motivation, is there?

Since he’s been burned already and Anastasia is a long way away, Cecil made a stop at the fortune-telling shrine.

CECIL: Boy, does this feel dumb… (self-consciously) O great shrine, please tell me: Will I be lucky in love or not? And if I’m not going to end up with Anastasia, could you maybe give me a hint about who I should be with instead. Because I’m not sure that she’s kidding when she lobs those baseballs at me…

CECIL: So… is that a good thing? Or not?

…You know, Cecil, I’m going to take the Fifth on that one.*

Next time around, get ready for an extra-special Plot-filled crossover story featuring the cast of Ruth’s (u)OWBC. If you haven’t read Ruth’s yet, there’s still time to get caught up. So what are you waiting for? [/shameless self-promotion]

Until next time, Happy Simming!

*For my non-American readers, to “take the Fifth” is to take advantage of the Fifth Ammendment to the Constitution, which states that a person can refuse to answer a question in a court of law if the answer would tend to incriminate them.