The Boys are Back in Town

October, 604
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Peninsula State University
Narrated by Seiki Ono.   Seiki Ono and Gordon Nott are sophomores.  Anand Surfer and Harrison Brown are seniors, and David Granger is a junior.

Seiki's Last Update/Seiki's Next Update

This semester has been by far, the best yet in college.  Gordon is a great roommate.  We got to know each other real well during rush, and pledging, last spring.

It is a good thing, too, because we've got the smallest room in the frat house.

We're the only guys that have bunks, but I guess it is worth it just to be out of the dorms.  

There's no "Resident Assistant," a.k.a., "Pseudo-Parent in Residence" at Phi Sigma Beta.  Harrison, one of the seniors, came in, mainly to laugh at us, while we were unpacking.  He and Anand shared this room when they were underclassmen.

He thought it was especially funny to bring in a cheerleader to inspire us to "git 'er done," as the football coaches say.

Once we got most of the stuff unpacked, it was time to kick back and read the latest Popular Mechanics.

And the upperclassman found a spot in the attic for my work area from home, and dad brought it up to Port Prominence for me to use.

Between the workbench, fixing stuff that breaks around the house,  my magazines, and tinkering blogs on the internet, I can always find a fun way to avoid spending any more effort than necessary on school work.

There's also a cool retro arcade game in the living room, but I've yet to make it on to the scoreboard.

Although Gordon and I have gotten good at Mario Kart Wii.  No time limits like at home.

Gordon spends a lot of time working on his bug collection-- hey, he's got some pretty cool spiders! -- and one day a whole hive of bees followed him into the house.  It is never dull.

And there's no one to tell us what a proper breakfast is... it might be cold pizza, spaghetti, or Cap'n Crunch.

We are only a block from the beach, and its one of my favorite things to hang out there.  One afternoon Tosha and I were there, tossing the ball around, waiting for kickoff to go back and watch it on TV.

 Just before we left, I saw Julia Jones, whose grandparents live next door to us in Simdale Valley.  I don't think I'd seen her since we got to PSU.  She said, "Hey, Seiki, why don't we ever talk?"   I've wanted to ask her out so many times; right then and there I wanted to; but I'm sure she'd turn me down.  So I just smiled and waved.

The next weekend, we were having a toga party, and it was boring.  Hattie was there, but she came in with an attitude and wasn't any fun to be around.

Tosha and I had an argument, 

she wanted to go out, and I wanted to hang around and see what happened at the party. 

She said nothing was happening.  After she wouldn't let it go, I finally said, "Fine, you can leave, or stay, it doesn't matter to me."

 Harrison was trying to cheer me up after that, for a while.

I tried to talk with this guy, Abram Carver, who is a friend of Anand's, but he didn't want to talk about engineering.  He was really rude. 

All the girls were having some kind of meeting in the bathroom.   

 So I decided to give Julia a call....what was there to lose?  Actually I was really afraid she wouldn't even want to talk,

But when we started talking it was just like the time we met after high school, we talked a long time. 

One night, Gordon and I felt like going out.  We ended up at the Reitz Union, playing poker, and won $170 between us.

While we were there, Gordon talked with that guy, Abram Carver, and found out that the dude is dating Julia Jones.  When Gordon mentioned I was his roommate, Abram seemed pretty shocked.  Apparently he'd heard some gossip about Hattie, through the girls in the sorority.

 Gordon says Abram is a top student in the prestigious economics program.  He says Julia and Abram are practically engaged.  I asked, "Are they engaged, or not?"  And Gordon said, "Well, they aren't but they might as well be."

The next party we had, I asked Anand to make sure and invite Abram Carver, and he was like, "yeah, he's a good guy."  Anand has probably never met a person he didn't think was great; everybody he meets becomes his friend.  He was inviting all the girlfriends, too, but I told him Tosha wasn't coming.

As soon as Julia and Abram arrived, they headed straight to the hot tub.  I instantly began to regret inviting them. 

I couldn't stand it.  I went in the kitchen and started making burgers.

As if the day wasn't already ruined, guess who came in the kitchen? 

I'm so glad she left without giving me a hard time.  I really didn't want to talk to her.   She's so confusing all the time.

 Then Julia and Abram came in to eat.  I felt glued to my seat...in spite of wishing I could be anywhere else, I couldn't move.  And Abram was just looking at me with this "you're pathetic" look.

 Then he started talking about a green initiative at his internship site, and I said something about the engineering required to make that feasible, cost efficient.

Julia looked at me, right at me; she wanted to hear about what I was saying. 

 Abram was land-blasting me about not being "environmentally friendly," but I think Julia even agreed with me.

 Later she was telling me about the latest pirate mania in Simdale Valley, with the opening of the new Jolly Roger pub, and made me laugh.

As true Port Prominence natives, both of us can appreciate the absurd lengths to which Simdalians take their pirate lore. 

 But then I made a mistake, I think.  I told Julia about how Tosha and I fought, and she seemed kind of distant after that.  I should have known that was a bad idea; Julia is pretty idealistic and I can see her not appreciating  a bitter attitude.

Notes:

When Seiki talked with Josh Smith, his RA, about the environment, Seiki made it clear he wasn't interested in recycling.  

So it made me laugh to see that while Abram agrees with Josh on this issue,

Julia is on the same side of it as Seiki!

 

Tosha and Seiki still have about 60/80, love on their relationship panel, but he didn't roll specific wants to interact with her so I did not push him to; he also didn't have any ACR interactions with her although he did flirt with another girl at that party, which was why Tosha was mad at him.  

He only rolled to have a date once this round:  After seeing Julia at the beach, he wanted to ask her on a date, but he  also had a fear of being rejected by her for a date.

Julia also called the frat house and left one of those messages, "Why don't we ever talk?" because I guess their relationship was getting close to falling below friendship.  So Seiki gave her a call, but he also feared having a bad conversation with Julia.

Julia lost friendship points with Seiki when he bad mouthed Tosha.