Racehorses, rock bands, and night clubs -- you can name them any random stuff you want.

Possibly due to the length of teenhood with the aging mod, or possibly due to the teen-restricted lot with the beer keg on it, the teen drama in Centuryville is like nothing I've ever seen before.

Some time back, Sophie Hatter and her BFF Howell Jenkins were both at Lover's Lane. As readers/viewers of Howl's Moving Castle have probably already figured out, when I made them I set them up to be together as adults, so the chemistry is good, and they'd been friends gravitating toward each other since before I gave them turn-ons, constantly playing, chatting, and generally orbiting each other every time they were on the same lot. Not that girls haven't been coming home with Howell and trying to get his attention all along, either! However, he was presently mildly inclined toward his own sex, thanks to previous stops on this lot, when a drunken teen boy flirted with him and was accepted. On this day, however, Sophie got into the beer and the next thing I knew was proposing to Howell, who accepted; and the game called it valid and marked them as engaged. Shortly after that they started occasionally rolling romantic wants about each other and Howell soon became bi. Not that he knows what that is. They even went on a date and went steady.

None of this stopped other girls from chasing Howell. I'm not sure what the draw is, though compared to Sophie he's pretty easygoing. The much younger Eugenia Argent-Spoon is particularly tenacious, with no hesitation about interrupting them any time they're interacting at a party or on a community lot, or even trying to put the moves on Howell when Sophie is busy with her ongoing feud with Sophie Miguel. Howell is friends with Eugenia, so she could have caused damage, but he serenely outwaited her every attempt to flirt with him and only let her get to the front of his queue for innocuous actions like conversation and play. However, he accepted another drunken flirt from a boy, right in front of Sophie's little sister Lettie, on one of the rare occasions when he was there without Sophie. So Lettie hates him now.

Another couple I had assumed was a lock was Mary Beth Familias and Wilbur Gorestic, the two kids who came home with everybody and made friends all over town, even though Mary Beth is from the Right Side of the Tracks and Wilbur from the Wrong Side. Wilbur is too shy to be Popularity, so when he grew up I made him Fortune, which would mesh tidily with Mary Beth's obvious and necessary Popularity aspiration. But then came Mary Beth's birthday party, described further up the page, with Mary Beth accepting a flirt from Milton Climber and Wilbur putting the moves on triple-bolt Eugenia. When Milton's lot was played next, he invited Mary Beth on a date, got his first kiss, and went steady with her. Wilbur is pegging away at making friends with Eugenia, who blows hot and cold with him but also doesn't seem to like it when he talks to any of his numerous friends who are girls. Their relationship is creeping steadily upward.

Now we come at last to the neighborhood's only dyed-in-the-wool playable gay boy, Aster Flower. He is, as you may imagine, having a hard time of it, as his flirts never go anywhere. He has one bolt with Randy London, who somehow only walks through lots without stopping whenever Aster's on them, a negative bolt with Howell (and a healthy fear of Sophie), and a negative bolt with Orlando Bertino. His only friend in the neighborhood is Wilbur, who has not talked about anything but Eugenia since he grew up. But Aster keeps going to Lover's Lane and trying, hoping somebody will be drunk enough to accept sometime. Most recently, when he went, he witnessed a bombshell of an event -- after getting her ass kicked by Sophie Hatter, yet again, Sophie Miguel took the ultimate revenge and flirted with Howell! Who accepted! Sophie Hatter immediately kicked her ass again and Howell doesn't seem to understand what he did wrong.

By this point, Aster had drunk a fair amount of beer and made a couple of low-level flirts at Howell and another boy, which were rejected. As he stood there wondering why he even wanted this when he obviously wasn't supposed to, Mary Beth walked up to him and flirted with him, so he accepted. Just in time for Milton to see that first thing he came onto the lot! It was all too confusing, so Aster went home and spent the rest of the day painting.

Mary Beth's household was next on rotation, and she came home with her BFF, Eugenia. While Mary Beth was washing her dog, Milton came by to steal the paper, and I had Mary Beth's grandmother greet him, to see what would happen. They had one short interaction where he tried to talk to her, which caused Mary Beth to fall out of love with him and proceed to ignore him. He got along with Grandma great, though, and spent a lot of time playing chess, then went out back to play with the dog. Where Eugenia tracked him down, and flirted with him. He refused; but a few minutes later, when they were both back inside watching Mary Beth play piano, he walked up to Eugenia and flirted with her -- and she accepted. Mary Beth didn't seem to care, since she'd lost her love tag, but at this point I'm thinking that if Eugenia and Mary Beth are best friends, who needs enemies?

I took a peek in various wants panels before I left the game last night and Milton wants to break up with Mary Beth (100% valid) and Howell is afraid of breaking up with Sophie (so why did you let her arch-enemy flirt with you, you idiot?). Sophie wants to go to college and buy items not available till she's a very old woman. So we'll see how that goes. Howell and Sophie are both going to college in a week, and I intend to send Sophie Miguel at the same time. Aster's college career will overlap with them and I trust he'll locate the campus's queer underground, so at least some of this won't be teen drama for much longer.

ETA: Milton successfully broke up with Mary Beth and then romantically hugged Lettie Hatter. These kids are vicious. I just finished playing Howell's lot, where he had a persistent fear of breaking up with Sophie, so while he was talking to Mary Beth's father on the phone, when he saw Sophie coming to kick the trash can, he hung up and ran out, in a raging storm, to apologize several times in a row. She wouldn't hold hands with him but she would let him give her a backrub. Before he could try another flirt, though, lightning struck her and she had to leave.

A cold is going round Centuryville. I have no idea what could be causing that.