3.2 Just Another Party

Aw hell no, this campus has a Sonic.

[noises of disapproval]

Solana and Arne are stopping in between classes to get some food poisoning, I guess.

The public speaking classes are Lydia's least favorite. To overcome her fears and deliver a speech worthy of the same grades her peers are getting, she has to put in long hours practicing in front of smaller audiences. Normally this is done at odd hours in a coffee shop, with a sympathetic classmate listening in.

"...Are... are the kitchen staff mocking me?" she whispers.

Raj turns a page in his book. "Probably."

Uh oh, Arne, what's wrong?

Food poisoning, huh? That's what you get for eating at Sonic, you witless fool.

Another trip to the library.

Despite her strong start in nanite technology, Solnana's scientific interests (and coursework) span multiple disciplines. One of her biology courses has her tending a communal garden.

"My mother is a pretty big fan of this," Solana chatters on idly, while Arne studies for an astrophysics exam. "She has a fascination with living independent from supply chains, and off the general power grid..."

"She thinks food from the grocery store has mind control chemicals in it," Arne reminds Solana that he already knows all this about her mother.

"Yeah, well. Obviously I don't believe that. But living off the grid is kind of a romantic idea."

"Well you can't live off the overgrid..."

"You know what I meant."

Arne's stomach growls, prompting him to get to work cooking tonight's dinner over an open flame.

"There's just something really comforting about knowing exactly where your food came from," Solana muses.

Arne can't help but wonder if this has something to do with the food poisoning they got at Sonic.

 The wind off the lake is cold, but Arne and Solana spend a lot of leisure time there fishing.

Little by little, Solana stops eating food at restaurants or the cafeteria, and makes her own meals at the dorm with ingredients she knows are fresh.

"I don't get why you bother," Lydia says, watching her sister labor over what will be a huge batch of pancakes. "Any leftovers are going to get pillaged by our dorm-mates."

It's true. Nobody seems to have respect for anyone else's stuff. Labeling food "SOLANA'S, DON'T TOUCH" did not deter Cora Sidwell from eating fully half of the spaghetti Solana made.

"At least I'm getting others to eat healthier," Solana replies.

"There's nothing wrong with the cafeteria food..."

"I don't trust it."

 "Oh. Okay." Lydia has irrational fears too, so she can't exactly criticize.

"When did you come in last night? I was up playing video games in the front room, but I didn't see you." Solana is trying to sound innocently conversational, but it's obvious she is concerned about her sisters' new habits.

Lydia won't meet her eyes. "Late. It was just another party. I don't know why I even go. I can't make any friends."

"How are your classes going?"

"I don't know. Sometimes I think I should switch majors."

"To what?"

"I don't know. Maybe technology. At least those people don't need social skills."

"You have social skills, Lydia. You just need more self-confidence."

"Hmph..."

"Try some of my pancakes? They're made with fresh grapes."

Lydia tries to hide her disgust. "No... I think I'll order a pizza."

"For breakfast?" It's Solana's turn to hide her disgust.

"For breakfast," Lydia confirms, pouting and squeezing her teddy bear a little closer. "I'm an adult now, I can do what I want."

"Well at least tip generously. You're making the delivery person go out in the rain..."

Lydia can't contain a smirk when Arne autonomously helps himself to the pizza instead of the pancakes. 

Lydia hasn't seen her roommate, Ann, since the beginning of the term... but late one night she is rudely awakened with loud music. Two heavily juiced women — other students Lydia recognizes only in passing — have turned on Ann's radio and are working out to the music.

"What are you doing in here?!" Lydia shrieks, too tired and startled for tact.




"We're friends of Ann's," the one in pink says. "Ann said we could crash here for the night!"

Her name is Ashley Corono and she is a business major. Not that we really care.

"Ann didn't clear this with me..." Lydia's complaint is drowned out by the beats.

The other one, Lizzie Mund, plops down on Ann's bed with a big yawn.

"We saw you at Mahmoud's party," Ashley continues. "We thought you'd be, like, cool..."

Lydia is pissed off, but also afraid of confrontations. She bolts from the room.

She stands outside in the hall, alone, sobbing quietly.

She isn't sure who she hates more... Ann, for sending her friends to their room, the friends, for misbehaving, or herself, for being completely unable to deal with it.

"It doesn't have to be this way," she tells herself, as she tries to dry her tears.

Lydia returns to her room late the next morning. Her first class is starting now, but she doesn't care. Skipping one isn't the end of the world, maybe.

Lizzie and Ashley have gone, leaving unmade beds and general untidiness in their wake.

Lydia scowls at her bed; she can tell one of them slept in it, left crumbs in it, while Lydia herself slept curled up next to the television in the first floor common room.

Lydia stalks over to her bookshelf, and carefully sifts through her boxes of belongings.

She hid her elixir stash under a pile of ugly sweaters.

One big gulp later, and her coward trait has swapped to brave.

And she's. Still. Angry.

It's mid-afternoon before Ann responds to Lydia's urgent texts.

"Did you tell those girls they could show up here last night?"

"Ash and Liz? Yeah, I gave 'em my key. It's not like I was getting much use of it."

"They waltzed in in the middle of the night, super juiced, and started playing speakers full blast. Then they basically trashed the place."

Ann glances around at the room that has been cleaned up quite nicely since then. "Uh..."

"You didn't even ask me if this was okay!"

"Look, Lydia. I know you've had it easy not having to deal with a roommate so far. So maybe you can sit your priss ass down and deal with it now. Ash and Liz aren't that bad. They need a place to crash. Their landlord kicked them out of their apartment."

"WHY?"

Ann recoils from the shouted question. "I don't know?"

"Okay that's it," Lydia fumes. "You get the bees."

"I get the what?"

Lydia hurls a glowing yellow bottle at Ann's feet. The sound of glass breaking is sharp, and shocking, but not so much as the swarming buzz that fills the air next.

The bees are only interested in Ann. They dart around her in a fury, stinging random spots of exposed flesh.

Ann's piercing screams of terror do not phase Lydia.

"I'm an alchemist," Lydia explains. "I have the power to summon bees. So let me be clear now. I'd rather not see you OR your friends here ever again."

Lydia never heard from Ann again. 

 

She wondered if she'd hear from their Resident Advisor, or even campus police, but she did not, which is just as well. She would have obviously denied having the power to summon bees...

On Friday night Solana and Arne take a rare break from their science'ing and invite Lydia out for bowling.

Of course physical prowess is Laurel's thing, not Lydia's.

Lydia has always been one of three sisters, but now she feels like a third wheel.

Lydia has been hitting the elixirs pretty hard, since digging out her old stash.

This one allows her to go days without sleeping.

Too busy wrapped up in each others' arms, Arne and Solana do not notice when Lydia leaves them in favor of the bar upstairs. They didn't notice her chugging an elixir, and they don't notice her ordering cheap drinks.

Even after getting booze in her system, Lydia's bookworm trait leads her to gravitate away from the crowd and settle into a corner to read fantasy novels.

She's hopeless.

After a while the bar closes and kicks Lydia out. Instead of going back to her room, she starts "tagging" the corner store. This would surely earn her points with the local rebels, if she were to get caught.

Perhaps Lydia missed her calling as an arts major.






__________________________________________________
Etc.: SimBurger (the diner in Sims University) is most probably modeled after a Sonic Drive-In.

Sonic Drive-In has made attempts on my life and I'm still mad.

I'm having Solana obey the "homemade" rules now, but haven't forced Arne or Lydia to comply (yet). Sadly the meals are of mediocre quality, as she does not have access to a fantastic garden, and I forgot to dump all of Rock's ancient (but still fresh!) harvest into her inventory before I shipped this trio off to university. So Solana has been harvesting crops around the campus.

And yes, the roommates (who are not under my control) will eat up meals stored in the fridges.