Plenty of Fish

Narrated by Seiki Ono.  Seiki is 17, Yuki is 5.

Fall Semester, Freshman Year, Year 603.

Last Update/Next Update

The day I went off to PSU, I went in to say goodbye to Yuki.  She was sitting on her bed, acting like she was meditating.   Mom said she told her she  was going to "be present in the moment" so she could remember this important day in our life.   She said her soccer coach in after-school has been teaching them techniques for positive thinking.  That kid says some funny things for a five-year-old.

I don't need to meditate to remember the first time we drove onto campus.  We used to live in Port Prominence, but even back when I was 16, it seemed like it would be forever before I would be moving to campus.

It just didn't seem real, even when we first pulled up to the freshman dorm.

After mom and dad left, I took off my sweaty shirt and sat on my bed and looked around at my tiny room.  My room at home was small, but this one is smaller.  Just enough room for my desk and my bed.  I don't plan to spend much time in my room anyway.   It was about time for supper, so I headed down to the dining hall.

My RA, Josh, was already eating so I sat with him.  

He seems like a good guy.  He's the only upperclassman in our dorm, of course.  Josh asked me what I wanted to major in, and I told him I didn't have a clue.  Really I'm just happy to have some freedom--my parents are very strict and I've been getting antsy to be on my own.  Maybe I don't want to always do my homework, or have a strict schedule every day.  Maybe I want to see what comes up and change my mind at the last minute sometimes!

After dinner I wandered into the computer lab and killed time to see what would come up.  There was another freshman in there.  He said he had an 8:00 class tomorrow, so he left soon.  Not the kind of friend I was looking for, really, although he's probably a nice guy.  Too worried about the schedule.

I headed outside, thinking it would be fun to meet a girl.  I had noticed, since earlier that day, that there were  plenty of girls everywhere!  Like when I was still moving stuff up to my room, this one girl looked really friendly, and she smiled at me.  So I smiled back. Next thing I know, she's launched into the Llama fight song, and I join in.  

I saw her later at dinner, but I don't know, I didn't really feel like sitting next to her when I saw how she ate. I have never seen a girl or a guy eat quite like that.

So I decided to head out.  I got right outside the door, and this girl, Deanna, was there.  When we were moving in, she said she was in to tinkering, when she saw my robot sticking out of a box.  So I thought, Hey, maybe she likes me, you know.  I got ready to turn on the charm.

Next thing I know, she's telling me she's got to go clean out her sock drawer.  She probably hadn't even unpacked her dang socks yet.  I look over, and there's Josh, the RA, and the dude looks like he could see the whole thing coming.  Well, it felt a lot like being a little kid again and I got really mad.

I took off walking.  

I walked up the hill  and looked over the bay for a while to let myself cool off.  Its not like me to get mad like that, what was wrong with me?  The more I thought about it, I guess it was just a long day and the heady feeling of being free, being on my own, made me feel like I couldn't go wrong, but somehow, I did.  "you've got to think before you act, Seiki," I told myself.  I promised myself not to get caught up in the moment so much.

When I got back to the dorm, Josh was coming in for the night too.  He said the student union was holding a cookout at the beach in the morning, I should check it out.   I still felt a little prickly over his know-it-all attitude earlier, but I kept the reaction to myself this time and went up to go to bed.

I headed for the beach .  It was a beautiful, crisp fall day.  

There were hot dogs for everybody, and tons of people already at the beach.  A bunch of RAs were sitting near the grill and I heard them talking about the honors dorm, where Julia Jones stays.  I kind of listened in for a bit but I didn't hear anything interesting.

Everybody was hanging out on the pier, but I wanted to do some stuff on the beach, like swim in the ocean and sunbathe.  I hadn't done that since we moved to Simdale Valley because there isn't a swimmable beach there.  So I braved the chilly morning air and jumped in.

I swam out a ways, and when I swam back in more people had come down to the beach.

I still figured there's gotta be some girls somewhere that are interested in guys, so I went back up to the pier.  This guy named Anand was there--he said he is in Phi Beta Kappa, my dad's old fraternity.  He was pretty glad to meet me and told me to come out at pledge week in the Spring.

He introduced me to a girl in  his sister sorority, Kappa Kappa Chi.  Her name is Hattie, and we got to talking about some of the places in Port Prominence that we both used to go to as kids.  Hattie was really pretty and really easy to talk to.  I started thinking about asking her out.

But I decided to wait until I could figure out when and where would be best, got her number, and left to go watch the Llamas play the Longhorns at Llamas Dockside.

The Llamas were running all over the Longhorns.  We were so far ahead, nobody was really watching the game much.

Except the half crazy girl next to me.   She looked like a goth and acted like a cheerleader.   I think I could meet every girl at this school and still not predict what one was going to do next.

I got back to the dorm that evening, and ran into Deanna in the computer lab.  After the nice time with Hattie and the huge win on the football field, I felt like giving it another go and this time, Deanna acted like she was in to me.  Like I said, who can predict?  I decided to go ahead and ask Hattie out for tomorrow afternoon.

She said yes!  She said she'd meet me at the Crab Shack tomorrow afternoon.  Feeling pretty much unbeatable, I played chess with the evil mascot for a while.  And won.  

The next afternoon, Hattie was at the crab shack waiting when I got there.  We had a great lunch, we talked a lot.

When she's listening, you feel like the most important person in the world.

After dinner, she wanted to dance, so we went inside.

We had some good laughs.  That RA was there, and she has some unique dance moves.

After a while, I took Hattie's hands and held them while we danced.  And she didn't let go.

In fact, when I asked her if she wanted to go back outside and look at the sunset over the bay, she said yes.  I hugged her, and she practically melted in my arms.  She ran her fingers through my hair and I could feel her breath on my neck.

I was thinking, maybe she would like to go back to the dorm and make out.  But when I asked her to come back to the dorm with me, she got this look I didn't think her face could make, and she said goodbye.  Before I knew it, I was standing there by myself.

I hung out a while, thinking what to do next, and decided to go dance some more while I was there.  There was a song I wanted to request from the DJ.

I started talking with another girl, and she told me her friend liked me.  But it was enough for one day, so I went home.  

Well, in case you are wondering, about a week before exams, I decided to declare the art major.  I don't know if I will stay with it, and I don't know what mom and dad wills say, but it sounds fun for now.  

Notes:

• Seiki kept rolling wants to flirt.  The only girl he rolled specific wants for, was Hattie.  All the other women in his attraction panel are adults, except Julia and Hattie.  (By the way, I need to take some money away from him.  I guess with the base hood uni, he got $20,000 for moving out, but he only got two scholarships actually).

• The first day I played him, he went to class autonomously.  That's the only thing academic he did, except for his exam, but he still finished with an A+ so I'm not sure if that's a glitch or its because he has a lot of skills.  When I made his family, I randomized his skills because most of my teens have a lot of skills by the time they graduate high school, which is about the age he was when I began playing him.  He did roll a fear of being on academic probation once.  Every other fear was of being rejected, and after he met Hattie, all his fears were specific to her.

• This is Julia's RA in the honors dorm, Ophelia Nigmos!  She'll make an appearance in Julia's update, next.

• Hattie is a sim I downloaded, to start a sorority house.  Her brother, David, is a roommate of Anand, the blond guy Seiki met at the beach.  I also set up the fraternity so next semester, Seiki will work on making friends with those guys so he can move there for sophomore year (if he makes it).