This chapter was a bit short but had some drama, good job nonetheless.

Preparations for College were already underway with the older Strangetown kids. Erik Halfdanarsson was adding the finishing touches to his skillset. His talent for drawing was mediocre at best, but he’d gotten a scholarship for sports, so that would help him out a lot.



Angus McGork was about to head to College as well. As he listened to his teenage sisters giggle all the way through his farewell meal, he couldn’t help but think that the dorms would be a lot calmer than his house.



All the eldest Strangetown teenagers had made it to College - Angus McGork, Helena and Isabella Salamis (still looking completely alike), Erik Halfdanarsson and Annalee Loste.

Pictured from left to right, missing one Salamis twin - I have no idea which one, probably Helena. They all live in separate dorms, Angus just invited his friends over for a housewarming party.



Angus soon found out that he had overrated the peace and quiet to be found in dorms. Leaving his room he encountered a cheerleader beating up some girl in a cowsuit who had just set off the sprinklers. He considered this rather strange, even for someone from Strangetown.

Honestly, that place wasn’t strange at all. At least compared to this.



“No, I totally know what you mean.” Erik said when Angus spoke to him about the incident. “I mean, have you seen that guy who just randomly takes his clothes off? And there’s a llama guy too, it’s not just the cowgirl. And I was writing an assignment when this woman came into my room and started yelling that I was out of shape and suddenly I noticed I was doing situps!”

“Wait, you just started and didn’t even notice?”

“I’m moving out of here as soon as I can afford it. Gundrun wouldn’t survive half a day in here, you know how shy she is. I’ll get some off-campus housing and I’m LOCKING MY DOOR.”



“Yeah, Helena and Isabella say it’s really nice, even if you have to do everything yourself.”

“Dude, you’re cleaning up for seven dormmates and a crazy cow. How bad can it get?”

“You’ve got a point.”


Very short update again, sorry for that. None of the other teenager stories really fit in with P.T. losing his mother and adding the Crazy College (tm) update to that really would have cheapened it. The next one will be longer, right now there's not much to say about the first five students other than "And this concludes my observation that college in the Sims world is completely and utterly insane and explains why from now on every student will get a house.".

Comign up next: Kitty Hogleg

this is really cool! Great job and excellent writing!

Curious, Hogleg



Glarn Curious had a girlfriend.

GLARN CURIOUS had a girlfriend.

Glarn Curious had a GIRLFRIEND.



He’d known Kitty Hogleg since they were both children. She lived with her parents, Cowboy Hamm and Eco Annie, right next door after all. Glarn hadn’t really thought much about Kitty before though. This planet was so much more boring than any other planet he’d read about.



Then puberty had hit Glarn like an asteroid and knocked him back down to earth. Right into Kitty’s arms, who had always liked the nerdy neighbor’s boy. Which was maybe even more unlikely than life existing on other planets. Scratch that, Glarn already knew this existed, so it was definitely more unlikely.



Life was awesome.


Halfdanarsson, Beaker



Time passed quickly and Siegfried Halfdanarsson was already preparing to start College. His brother Erik had prepared some off-campus housing for both of them and Gundrun as well once she was old enough. Siegfried wasn’t really keen on the idea of moving in with his whole family (wasn’t the point of college life to get away from the people you’d already spent your whole life with?), but the horror stories Erik and the others told of the dorms had their effect. Those without older siblings had already started to save money so they wouldn’t even have to set foot inside the dorms.



Little Gundrun had become a teenager now and while she was still too shy and kept hiding behind her brothers’ backs, her mother Ingibjorg hoped that she might grow out of it soon.



If nothing else, Bjorn Beaker would provide another back to hide behind. Gundrun had fallen in love with him as soon as she set eyes on him and he seemed to like the attention.



Soon they became a couple and Bjorn was all Gundrun ever talked about.


Muenda, Nigmos



Olive’s relationship with her father continued to be strained as she became a teenager. She was always civil towards him, but never warmed up. She preferred to ignore him until he spoke to her.

Peponi had never outright admitted his love for Hecate Nigmos to his wife, but over the years Lerato realized that her eldest daughter had been right. She kept a close watch on both, but neither Peponi nor Hecate wanted to ruin their happy family lives. Lerato decided that this was enough for her. Her husband couldn’t change his feelings, and as long as he didn’t act on them it would be better for all of them if things just continued as they were.

Olive watched all of them dancing around, denying their feelings, clinging to their image of a family. It was disgusting.



Willow was happy with her family as it was. If she knew anything about their troubles, she never let them see it. She loved her parents and she loved her older sister, even if Olive was weird.



And most of all, Willow loved Creon Nigmos.



The childhood crush of hers Olive had always made fun of had survived childhood and turned into a teenage crush, then love. Her and Creon would get married and have a big family.



Their parents were happy for their children. Both Peponi and Hecate secretly felt that if they couldn’t be together, there was something beautiful about their children loving each other so much.

Olive wanted to puke.

Pictured: Daisy Simnitch



She kept mostly to herself. Olive had found something new to be interested in.

When she turned thirteen, her parents had given her a package from her grandmother, who had died when Olive was just a baby. Inside, Olive found a letter, a book and a cauldron.

The letter explained that the women of the Muenda family had always been magically gifted. Unfortunately, her grandmother had only had one son, Peponi, and the talent had skipped a generation. To Olive, the eldest granddaughter.

It was wonderful. While Olive disliked the fact that this power came to her through her father, she couldn’t deny that her new abilities made it all worth it. There was so much to learn.

Nobody would ever dare to cross her again.


Olive is a very disturbed individual.

Bjorn and Gundrun, even ignoring the fact that their names are spelled completely wrong and have actually been adjusted in my game, are two very disturbing individuals. They're both Romance sims, but they really suck at it. Both had wants to Go Steady with each other right after their first kiss. So I made Gundrun a Family secondary. She seemed like one. She rolled nine points in Nice and zero in Outgoing to top things off.



Sometimes aging outfits are okay. Sometimes they're stupid. And sometimes they are so very very right...

Coming up next time: Llamas are lame

I love that green wallpaper in college!

I love this so far, can't wait to see what Olive does with her new "talent"

Halfdanarson



Finally, peace and quiet.

After an exhausting first year, Erik Halfdanarson packed his things, waterstained and scorched as they were, and fled the dorms to a nice, secluded house near campus. How did those people do it? Had anybody who lived in his dorm even passed their first year?



For Siegfried, the College years began with the horrifying realization that he looked more like his father with every passing year. Maybe it was just the red hair that made it seem that way, but Erik looked nothing like Leif.

The fact that Siegfried was wearing his father’s hand-me-downs to save money certainly did not help.



But when he saw Erik’s exhausted face relax that evening, when Erik looked up from his clumsy attempt at painting to the table where his brother sat and wrote an assignment, and when Erik smiled and said “This is nice.”, it was worth it.


McGork



“Owen! You’ve grown!”

Angus, also recently escaped from the dorms even if they hadn’t been as bad for him as for Erik, greeted his newly arrived brother.

“Come in! We’ll have to make room for the twins next year, but for now it’s a big house just for us.”

“Man, can you remember the time when we had space? Space that wasn’t occupied by dolls?”

“Almost, yes. So… back home?”

“Rose has already taken over our room. It’s pink now. Weep.”


Loste



Arabella Loste also joined her elder sister Annalee in the new house, as the final Strangetown teenager who was already provided for. The other three, Michael Simnitch, Ray Frehndly and Siri Loner, had listened to Erik’s and Angus’ warnings and taken on parttime jobs to finance housing.


Loner



For Siri Loner this meant that she couldn’t afford much more than food and rent. She ended up spending most of her time either at the college library to study or hang around campus, doing some odd jobs.



Tutoring the llama mascot was Siri’s most challenging job. She considered herself rather smart and had some experience in teaching, but this guy was something else.

For starters, he always wore that llama costume. Always. She’d asked him if that was part of his contract, but he’d just glared at her.

She didn’t even know his name. She’d asked, obviously, but his answer had simply been “I am the Llama. You will address me as Llama. That is all you need to know.”

He was very resistant to learning. Getting information inside this guy’s head was almost impossible. Of course, he was also as stubborn as, well, a llama, so he insisted that she just had to teach him better.



“Pay attention, woman, to how my disciple handles a situation like this.” The Llama announced suddenly in the middle of a studying session. He got up and walked towards the cheerleader.

“Share your wisdom with me, oh Inspiring One.”

The cheerleader immediately broke into a school chant. On closer inspection, Siri couldn’t help but notice that the words were kind of different.

“Bones! Muscles! Skin! That’s where we’re in!
Neurons! Transmit! Info!
Gooooooo, Info!”



“Wait, you want me to do your anatomy lessons like this? Forget it, I’m not getting paid enough.”

“I do not wish for you to sing, if that is what you are worried about. It was merely meant as an illustration. An example for you to strife towards.”

The Llama turned around and left.

“I shall see that you are better instructed, Wise One.”

“Wait, we aren’t finished here yet! Come back!”



Shaking her head, Siri returned to her kitchen. Suddenly she heard footsteps behind her and a student wearing a blazer with a llama symbol walked towards her.

“Wait, how did you get in here? My door is locked!”



“Whence does the llama point?”

“What?” The guy didn’t smell like he was drunk, but he certainly seemed that way.

“Whence does the llama point?”

“What are you talking about?”

He let out an exasperated sigh. “Are you Siri Loner?”

“Yes?”



“The Llama sends me. We shall see that you are instructed in what ways to best serve Him.”

Siri sighed. This job really wasn’t worth the trouble it got her into.



The weird llama guy drove her to a house where other people in weird llama outfits stood. Siri was handed a uniform and told to go change.



“Siri Loner!” Weird Llama Guy intoned as soon as she was done. “You have been chosen to instruct the Llama”

“the Llama” the crowd murmured.

“yet you do not know about Him. It is our duty, as His followers, to properly instruct you in the ways we worship the Llama.”

“the Llama.”



“You have entered a privileged position, Siri Loner. Our secret headquarters, which you must never reveal to any living soul, contains anything needed to make sure you will not get distracted in your quest to further the Llama’s”

“the Llama’s”

“eternal glory. Serve the Llama

“the Llama”

“and it will serve you.”



He lead Siri outside, shoving aside a puking member of the Llama Cult.

“There is only one thing you must know. Our one basic tenet. The rule we must all follow.

The Llama is Good.”



“The Cow is Evil.”



“Trust not the Cow.

Speak not to the Cow.

Befriend not the Cow.

Follow only the Llama.

The Llama is Good.

The Cow is Evil.”

‘Eh,’, thought Siri, ‘What the hell. It’s not as if this job can get any weirder.’


Praise the Llama! This is probably my favorite storyline during Gen 1, too bad it won't involve any plot sims.

Coming up next: A College Cow named Desiree

My name is Desiree!

keep up the good work!

But do you fart on people and block their door when they want to go to class?

The llama Cult sounds like it could be a real thing in the sims, it should be

um no

There was a cow at Michael Simnitch’s college house.



She - somehow he knew it was a she - would show up day and night. Digging through his trash. Standing outside his door.



Watching. Waiting. Always there.



He tried to confront her.

“This is a private property.” he said. “You can’t just sit around here all the time.”

She farted. Then she tried to convince Michael that it was him who had farted.



She called him. All the time. She’d just moo into the receiver.

Mooo.

Mooo.

Mooooooooooooo.



He tried to ignore her, but she kept showing up in his thoughts. In his art. He drew her with a bouquet of flowers. Flowers for who?



There was a llama as well.

The Llama wasn’t important.

Not as important as the Cow.



Then one night, Michael heard a commotion outside. He found the Llama beating up the Cow. He just watched, spellbound.



The Cow fled the scene of her defeat. The Llama remained victorious. Over the next several days, the Llama would come by daily and perform a strange dance in front of Michael’s house.



The Cow did not return.



“It would be better if you forgot about the things you had seen”, the Llama told him. “Lest you meddle with forces beyond your understanding. I have made sure that the Cow will no longer plague your waking hours.”

Michael wasn’t sure about this. He had wanted her gone. But he also wanted her to return.



And one night she did.

Standing on the edge of his property, barely touching the ground.

“I returned to see you, Michael.” she said. “I have been chased away from here by my ancient foe and it will take me a while until I can regain enough of my strength to come back.”

“What is going on here?” Michael said, grabbing his head. “I don’t understand any of this. Who are you? Who is he?"

“He is the Llama. I am the Cow. That is all we can ever be to you, Michael.”

He was silent.

“I have to go now. I was… happy, being near you, Michael. I love you. But I can only ever be the Cow.”

And with that she disappeared into the darkness.



“I see she has tried to return to you.” the Llama said. “I only wish you well, Michael. Don’t let her fool you. Most important, do not let her get close to you.

She will only break your heart.”



Michael did not ask the Llama what he meant by this.

He already knew what the Llama would have said.

“You know the answer already. You have seen it and affixed it to your kitchen wall.”


So, remember how I said the game sometimes writes stories for me? Michael, originally Daisy Simnitch's unimpressive older brother, spent his first year of college being stalked by the Cow. She was always there. She'd yell at his door for hours, leave and be back in the morning. Every single day. Then the Llama started to come visit as well. And then she disappeared.

As for why I have all those cow paintings in my Paintings folder, that's a whole different story.


Coming up next: The Arty Party!

Funny. And her name was Desiree? My game has never generated that name

I'm playing in German, so the generated names are different.

Desiree is a French name

Grunt


Meanwhile, back in Strangetown, Rock Grunt had decided to turn his life around. Always an advocate for discipline, he had decided to retire from his position as a top chef and join the military. Even at his advanced age, Rock quickly rose through the ranks and people were sure that he would be a general in no time.

Rock had found his true calling with the army and he hoped that his son Chip would follow in his footsteps and make this a family tradition.


McGork


The McGork family had shrunk down to four members. Rose and Grainne still kept their parents busy, but they would leave for College soon. It would be an interesting change for Moira and Gwrtheyrn, but they were looking forward to having some time to themselves. Not that it would last long. Their eldest, Angus, was already halfway done with his studies and he’d recently announced his engagement to Isabella Salamis. The couple would move in with the McGorks soon after graduation and Gwrtheyrn expected grandchildren to arrive shortly after.



Grainne was currently dating Xanthos Salamis, Isabella’s younger brother, and the chances were good that the two families would end up celebrating another marriage soon.



Grainne herself wasn’t so sure about this. There were plenty of other boys who found her attractive. Xanthos was merely her first boyfriend. But with one wedding on the horizon, everybody seemed to take it for granted that she’d follow Angus’ example.

Sure, Xanthos was a great catch, but there were other boys who were way hotter than he was.

Guest Appearance by Vikram Loner, who refused to do anything interesting until his son was a teenager. Here he does a short animation before disappearing into obscurity.



Take Arty Loste for example. Creator’s gift to women, he considered himself, and while Grainne would never feed his ego like that, he did have a point.



Her sister thought that too.

Arty was very pleased with himself. His success in making out with both McGork twins almost made up for his failure with Strangetown’s other set of twins. The age difference had probably been too great. Unlike Helena and Isabella, who even their parents could barely tell apart, Rose and Grainne were completely different people. Arty was very pleased to find out that one thing both of them had in common was an attraction to blond masterpieces like himself.


Loste



Not that they were the only ones to think so. It had taken Daisy Simnitch a lot of courage to confess her love for Arty, but he very much appreciated the effort.



Daisy was completely different from the other girls Arty had kissed. There was something strong hidden behind her shy exterior. She’d even managed to talk Arty into going steady with her, just by building up the courage and asking him.

Arty didn’t let that stop him from making out with other girls, but sometimes when he saw Daisy he couldn’t help but feel bad about it.



But not too much.


I may have gone slightly overboard with Arty. Unlike other Romance sims, like, say, Bjorn and Gundrun, he actually showed the typical Romance wants. When he also rolled triple bolts for both McGork twins...

That reminds me, one of these days I need to make the mailman playable. Every single sim with an attraction to men pukes when they see him.


Coming up next: P.T.'s and Glarn's college experience!

“Alright!” Glarn jumped out of the car and took his first lungful of college air. “We’ve made it! Education and excitement!”

P.T. looked around discomforted, starting to realize that his prior life had not prepared him for this at all. There were strangers everywhere and they kept staring. He tried to tell himself that the reason why was because Glarn kept yelling about how awesome everything was going to be and stopped at every corner to point out new things, but the real reason was probably himself. His green skin. The other Strangetown children had been used to it, but here there were so many strangers.

They had barely unloaded their luggage when Glarn dragged P.T. off to the campus center.

“I thought we could use some help finding our way around campus, so I booked us an appointment with an older student who’ll show us around. She should be somewhere around here.”



A redhaired woman approached the two. “You two seem like you’re new here. Is one of you Glarn Curious?”

“That’s me! And my friend here is P.T. Smith!”

“Glabe Jones. I’m a second-year at La Fiesta Tech. Erm, excuse me for asking, but… Are you feeling alright, P.T.?”

“I always look green.”

“He’s a space alien, that’s why!”

“Oh? That’s… certainly unusual. Well, why don’t we start our tour?”



Fortunately, Glabe seemed to get over her initial shock of meeting P.T. fast. The campus tour ended almost as soon as it had begun, when Glarn discovered the arcade machines. Glabe and P.T. settled for cheering him on.



The challenge of meeting new people done with, P.T. was ready to face a second one - cooking.



It couldn’t be that hard, could it? The Drone never seemed to have a problem producing delicious and healthy meals whenever P.T. felt hungry.



The burnt smell coming from the oven informed P.T. that maybe cooking wasn’t so easy after all.



“And that is supposed to be…?”

“Chicken…”

“Charcoal style?”

“It tastes better when the Drone makes it.”

“Wait, have you been eating this?”

And that was when Glarn decided to take over cooking duties. This lasted about until he found out that P.T. also didn’t know how to clean, at which point he simply signed his friend up for some home ec. courses.


I directed P.T. to make a meal and thought to myself "It would make for some great pictures if he burnt it, since the Drone has always cooked for him." Then he did. This is getting scary.

Coming up next: Michael's friends are very concerned

Simnitch



“How’s college life been treating you, Michael?” Daisy Simnitch asked her brother. “Mom and Dad haven’t heard much from you for the past year.”

“Yeah, I’ve been busy I guess.”

“Arty says Annalee hasn’t written much about you either, but we weren’t sure if the two of you were still together. He said considering your age difference, she might, well…”

“I don’t know if Anna is seeing someone else. We haven’t spoken much.”

“You’ve been busy?”

“Yes…” Michael trailed off as he looked outside the window. “Daisy, did you hear something just now?”



“No. Did you?”

“I thought I did. But I wasn’t sure. And besides, it could just be him…”

“Who?”

“You’re better off not knowing, Daisy.”

“Michael? You’re starting to scare me, Michael!”

He didn’t even seem to listen. Michael just kept staring into the night.



The next day, Daisy called Annalee Loste as soon as Michael had left for his classes.

“He’s been like that since I arrived, Anna! And there are these weird cow paintings everywhere, I don’t understand! What’s going on?”



“I wish I knew.” Annalee sighed. “I was really happy when Michael moved to college, you know? I showed him around campus and we hung out a few times, but then he just grew distant. I thought it was just me, but he stopped talking to all of us.”



“I confronted him about it, told him we were all worried about him, but he just said there was something he needed to do. He was so weird all the time, we were worried he was taking drugs or something.”

“Why didn’t you tell anybody back home?”

“We were going to, but Siri told us to wait until she had spoken to him.”

“Siri Loner? Why?”



“She was the only one that Michael didn’t ignore. He was actually kind of hostile towards her. Said that she had ‘the Llama’s stench on her’ and stuff like that. Anyway, the rest of us all thought he was nuts or high, but Siri said there was something she needed to look into first.”


Loner



“Alright, spill it!” Siri demanded. “My friend Michael keeps drawing the Cow, he says he’s on a mission and he tells me I have the Llama’s stench on me. I know you and your freakshow have something to do with this, so tell me!”

The Llama pumped himself up to his full size. “And you, the least of my disciples, have the gall to demand answers from me?”

“Oh, I have the gall alright!”

“…Very well. The Wise One is always thirsty for knowledge. You adapt well to the role that has been chosen for you. However, such knowledge comes at a price.”



“I’ll show you where to shove your stupid price! Leave Michael alone or else!”

“It is not I who calls upon the one you call Michael. She, my one Enemy, has chosen him as her Champion in our eternal struggle. Too weak to free herself from the chains that bind her, she will call upon those of the weak mind to fight her fight. Her Champion will do her bidding, just as the Inspiring One will further my agenda.”

The Llama looked down at his unfinished coursework.

“Know this, Wise One: I feel sorry for your unfortunate friend. I truly wish my followers had found him first, as we did with you. But to stand against me is futile. Her Champion will perish.”



The cheerleader, frozen blue from the cold, started an inspiring cheer as the Llama finished his homework assignment. Siri couldn’t take it anymore and ran into the house.



Several hours later, she found the Cheerleader still outside, performing her routines.

“Aren’t you freezing to death out here?”

“The Llama’s heat!
Fills every beat!
And I must serve!
With every nerve!”

“Seriously, why are you doing this?”


I love writing the Llama. The Strangetown students have been caught up in something that may be beyond their understanding. Let's hope they make it out unscathed.

Coming up next: The Arty College Party

You're right about the stories that start to write themselves, but YOU still have to do the work of fleshing it out. Interesting and fun!

The McGork twins had finally arrived at college and joined with their elder brothers.



Rose was very happy to find that Arty Loste looked even hotter now than as a teen.



As for Arty himself, college life was a wonderful experience. There were so many beautiful women everywhere.



Grainne McGork was only too happy to help herself and Arty to new experiences.



As was Rose.




Arty wasn’t the only person to notice that Rose had grown up well. Ray Frehndly had been looking forward to seeing his teenage crush enter college for a year now.



But when he tried to ask her out, Rose turned him down.



“I’m really sorry, Ray. I just don’t feel the same for you. I… didn’t even think you were… well, interested.”

“I’ve always loved you, Rose. Ever since you kissed me in school.”

“You still remember that? Look, that was… we were probably the only two teenagers who hadn’t kissed anybody and I just… wanted to get it over with, I guess…”

Ray hung his head in silence.

“Besides, you…”



“Madhuri, am I dorky?”

“Yep.” Ray’s little sister replied without missing a beat.

Well, that was fast.

“You’re Dorky McDorkington. You’re dorkier than Glarn ‘SPACE ALIENS’ Curious. If there was a Mr Dork competition, you’d…”

“Okay, okay. I get it. I’m a dork.”



“I mean, where did you even get that suit? Why haven’t you bought any new clothes the whole year? And the faces you make! And your eyebrows! And your hair! And…”

“Madhuri!”

“Shutting up.”

Ray plopped down onto the couch and hid his head in his hands.



“Why did you ask that anyway?”

“I asked Rose out today. She said I was too dorky.”

“And not blond and sexy enough. She’s been all over Arty Loste the past six months.”

Ray’s shoulders slumped. “Arty Loste?”

Madhuri took a big bite out of her burger. “You have no chance in hell, brother.”




Of course, Arty didn’t just keep himself limited to two girls. There was also Gundrun Halfdanarsson. Sweet and shy, brown-haired, just the way he liked them. Gundrun seemed receptive to his advances, blushing and giggling in a very promising way.



So Arty kissed her.



The next thing Arty knew his face was hurting from Gundrun’s slap. There was a surprising amount of force behind it, too. Of all the things Erik could have taught his sister…

“…can’t believe you’d do something like this, you pig! Oh, you’ll be lucky if I don’t tell my fiancé about this!”

“Wait, you’re enganged?”



“To Bjorn of course! And if you ever pull anything like this again, you’ll be sorry!”

Engaged during first year. And here Arty had thought Bjorn was a cool guy.




Arty’s chain of successful conquests took yet another big hit when Rose unexpectedly returned home early and caught him and Grainne in bed.

“I can’t believe you’d do this to me! With my sister of all people!”



“And you! You knew how much I loved him! How long has this been going on, Grainne? Does Xanthos know about this? Want me to tell him?”

“What, did you seriously think you were the only girl Arty was doing? God, how naïve are you? He’s been through half the sorority girls by now.”

Arty decided that this was the perfect time to sneak out.



Rose left the room and started to cry.


Well, the Arty Party has come to a screeching halt as the love... octagon? starts to implode around him because it really needed to be sorted out in time for graduation. Another thing that just imploded is the drama meter, so next time we will return to P.T. and Glarn for some nice, non-dramatic college fun.

Coming up next: Glarn's drama bomb


...Wait...

Cooking issues aside, P.T. was quite happy at college. By the end of their first year, people had gotten used to his green skin, just like they got used to seeing people in animal costumes and cheerleaders beat each other up. The place was already strange enough that a guy with green skin who had learned all his social skills from Glarn didn’t even make the top ten.



P.T.’s cooking did not improve, but he was confident that by their final year he might be good enough to only set the kitchen on fire once per season.



Glarn didn’t even seem to notice the weekly house fires anymore. One day, during a surprisingly unburned breakfast (pre-cooked pancakes, but P.T. had added the strawberries all by himself), he explained to P.T. what was on his mind.

“So I think I might like Glabe.”

“Yes, she’s nice. So, how are the pancakes? I think I arranged the fruit rather nice there.”

“No, I mean I really like her. I’m in love with her and I don’t know what to do!”

Realizing that there would be no conversation about his topic of choice, P.T. instead tried to recall everything he knew about human reproduction.

“You could mate with her.”

Glarn did not seem to think this piece of advice helpful.



“…And that’s the gist of it. I like Glabe, I think she might like me back, but I haven’t asked her. But Kitty might still like me. Or she might not. We’ve been busy with our assignments, so I don’t think we’re even still dating, but maybe she thinks we’re still dating and maybe that means we are dating or maybe…”

“Glarn.” Olive interrupted her increasingly confused friend. “Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because my roommate is from another planet and thinks... Actually, that part is not important. He’s not helpful. At all.”



“No, I mean why are you talking to me when you should be talking to Kitty?” Olive seemed increasingly angry with Glarn. “I don’t care who you’re dating, P.T. wouldn’t care who you were dating if he understood what you were talking about. If you think Kitty cares, go talk to Kitty.”

“Well, but what if Kitty gets angry? Or what if Glabe doesn’t like me? Or what…”

“Talk. To. Kitty.”



“You know about my parents, Glarn. I know you never believed me and my mother never did either, but they’re really unhappy together. Because they didn’t break up when my father realized he liked another woman better. So if you like Glabe better than Kitty, even if it’ll make Kitty unhappy, even if Glabe might not like you back, TALK TO HER.

Or I’ll fucking kill you.”



Taking Olive’s advice, Glarn talked to Kitty. She seemed to take it well. She admitted that she had hoped they would stay together, but wasn’t too surprised that they’d grown apart.

Really, Olive was a nice person, no matter what anyone said. Sure, she really needed to stop threatening bodily harm to people who disagreed with her, but she made a good point.



And Glabe really did like Glarn. Everything was awesome.




Missy Melons was completely shocked to hear Kitty’s story. “He just broke up with you like that?”

“Well, we weren’t really dating anymore…”

“Still! Glarn Curious just dumped you like that? He must be crazy!”

“He’s really not. I guess I just assumed too much.”



“Oh, cut it out!” Missy pulled her friend into a hug. “That Glarn jerk doesn’t know what he’s missing out on, I’ll tell you that!”

“He’s not…”

“Shut up. He’s a big mean jerk. End of story.”



P.T. was surprised when Kitty showed up at their house. “Hey Kitty. Glarn’s not here right now.”

“I know.” Kitty sighed. “I wanted to talk to you. About Glarn and… Glabe…”

“Erm… I… don’t really know that much about… that sort of thing…”

“But you know her. Is she… a nice person?”

Telling the truth seemed like a bad idea even to P.T., so he just stammered around for a while until Kitty took pity on him. “I really just want to know if Glarn will be happy with her, P.T., and that she’ll take good care of him and all. So, is she?”

“Yes. Really nice.”



“That’s good. I want Glarn to be happy. Thanks, P.T.. I knew you’d be the only friend who wouldn’t just tell me that Glarn was a jerk.”

“Oh, was that the acceptable response?”

Kitty smiled sadly. “Not really, but people seem to think it is. Never stop being yourself, P.T.. And thanks, I really mean it. I probably won’t see you around much, but call me if you need anything, okay?”


Turns out that while P.T. might be very knowledgable on the subject of comic books and his planet's customs, relationships were not on Glarn's or Drone's curriculum. I'm sure this will never come back to bite him.


Coming up next: The Muenda sisters

Willow and Creon had moved in together for College. Creon was an only child and Willow’s sister Olive had made it very clear that she wanted to live alone, so it made sense. Besides, they were going to get married right after anyway, so what difference did it make?



The two had their future all planned out. They would move in with Creon’s parents, raise their children (three at least!) and live happily in Strangetown together.



It didn’t come as much of a surprise to Willow when Creon took her out to the pool near the end of their first semester and started to fidget a bit.



After some stammering, Creon dropped to his knees and pulled out a ring.



Of course Willow said yes.



By coincidence, Olive was there as well. Willow’s future seemed all planned out. But what about her?



While Olive didn’t care much about having a family, there was one thing she needed to consider: Her duty. Grandma Muenda had made it very clear in the letter Olive had received so many years ago that the Muenda bloodline could not be allowed to die out. Now that Olive had received a taste of that magic power, she could only agree with her. She had to bear a daughter, an heiress to the Muenda magic.



Olive never did things by halves. Her research led her to an extinct magic bloodline, the DeMise. Diluted through bad alliances, the magic had finally left after three generations of sons. But when paired with a witch, even a second-generation-witch, the dormant power might still revive. The eldest son, Earl E. DeMise, would help Olive bear a powerful witch.



Of course, informing Earl about her reasons for choosing him would be no good. The magic had left his family line long ago. Even Olive’s own father didn’t know about his heritage, someone like Earl would never understand it.



Fortunately, it wasn’t too difficult to convince Earl to fall in love with her.


Normally I hate it when people beg for comments, but I'm feeling lonely here and the page is getting pretty full. Anybody read this?

Coming up next: Wrapping up drama in time for graduation, the final Arty Party

Of course somebody reads your story! :D

I love it and can't wait for the next chapter. This is so exciting!