Eugene's words rattle around in
Meghan's head the next few days, despite her abrupt dismissal of
them. Dustin's acting the same as he always has, and nothing seems
different about him. Her mind being the way it is, it helps her to
focus on one issue though, and she decides she does sort of want to know if
there's someone he likes. Not that she wants to ask him a question she barely understands the best answer to.
Also, what does like really mean? Kids make
out all the time in the emergency stairwell at school, then say
they're just friends or they say they 'like' each other and then
nothing ever changes. If she had to think about the word 'like' it
could mean anything, and being logically minded she just gets tripped
up paging through the thesaurus and can't fathom the context any
longer. There were few people she didn't like after all, so what's
the big deal about 'like'? Wouldn't the world constantly be at war if
people didn't like each other?
Dustin tries, for the most part to hint
at how he feels without putting pressure on her about responding.
Most of these attempts end as non-sequiturs because he can't bring
himself to take it far enough for her to understand. When he takes
Eugene's advice and compliments her intellect for example, the
response he gets is, “You not nearly as dumb as your cousin keeps saying either.”
With something like a teasing smile and a shrug.
When he gets her a book she'd been
eyeing at the bookstore that he knows she's been wanting for weeks,
she's thankful, but tells him she wants to pay him back for it. “It's
a gift...” He mutters, but she shakes her head.
“Nope no way am I going to owe you
more than I already do.” She says with confidence.
“You don't owe me anything.” He
tries to say, but she just looks at him knowingly. “Friends don't
take advantage of each other and I want to pay you back so drop it.”
He drops it.
Overall though he muses that Meghan...
is so easy to talk to. Even if what they have remains as mere
friendship, it wouldn't be so bad, he thinks.
That's a lie though, it
would be horrible. But right now, he's happy with the little things.
And then it gets weird. It always gets
weird. It's pretty obvious to everyone in the house by now that
something is going on with her. It's assumed to be because of her
childhood 'upbringing', but what if that's not where it comes from?
Here she's offering to fight off the horde of computers that might
one day take over the world. Or telling Dustin that he'd better not
secretly be one, it's not clear which.
Smooth recovery. He gets her on the
tangent, “What if you're a machine and you just don't know it yet?
What then?”
“Then prepare for the feel of my
digital army boots that will grind you into the pavement?” She
offers. “Also I demand that wifi be free everywhere so I can
autopilot the mother-ship from Earth.”
Oh you! It makes her feel sort of
normal that he plays along with her fantasy world. Things like that
mean more than random gifts or compliments to her. On her own, she
might have started to believe her theories. Cell towers are up
everywhere these days, and there's not a room at school that doesn't
have a computer in it. She tried not to dwell on it, or maybe she
should just learn how to tame the monsters so they can never hack HER
brain when the time comes that they make their move.
They run off to play some chess so that
he can be her deputy overlord and compete with all the computer
brains to rule by her side. If things ever escalate to that point in
the crypto-human war, of course.
“So did you find out who he likes?”
Eugene asks Meghan discreetly after a late night meal which she
begins to choke on.
“I have no idea what you're talking
about.”
“Uh huh.” He says smugly again,
folding his arms over his chest.
“Seriously,” She puts her fork down
on the plate in front of her. “Dustin gets along with everyone,
so... there's nobody that he doesn't like, right? So what's the point
of asking about it, or asking me? Shouldn't you ask Dustin about
this?”
Huh. So she's actively cultivating her
denial, Eugene thinks, amused. “Don't forget about prom. I know
you're pretending to be related but nobody will care if you two go
have fun together.” He says and gets up to clean his plate.
She doesn't say anything in response.
Eugene has other things on his mind
though than his cousin's ailing love life. A promotion and an
adorable kid for one thing. He has a party to plan. Half of the
neighborhood has been invited to Leon's birthday celebration. This
is in part because Eugene loves to have people over, but more
discreetly because the infamous prom is coming up soon and he has
fond memories of his own from back when he was in high school.
He's
hoping that Dustin and Meghan can make up their minds, and like any
good snoop he wants to see that they have healthy friendships and
other options if they don't like each other in that way. He hopes
that this is all the meddling he'll have to do.
Leon gets another few hours to play
before the big event, and chooses to spend quality time with every
single toy in the toy box (but especially Yanyan the Yeti).
He loves pandas, so even the cake is
panda themed. Just as Lize finished making her famous fried peanut
butter and banana sandwiches, a few kids arrive early, the studious
Jennika Wong and party-animal Karl Helgasen who is already eyeing
Drea in the other room.
Karl wastes no time in asking her to
dance. “Heeeeeeey you're that smart girl who likes to yell insane
things at people to get them to debate you later in club right? It's
cool how nobody can tell if you're serious or not.”
“Thanks,” She says taking the
compliment at face value. She already forgot his first name, but she
likes to dance so it doesn't matter.
Edvin's girlfriend Candace came over
without him. “He's applying for college grants so he didn't want to
go out tonight. She explains. Hey, it that Deaf Llama? I love this
song, crank it!”
The party gets underway despite some
people's insistence on doing their own thing, or acting like they're
starving literally to DEATH (ahem Meghan)
Candace annoys everyone by not
celebrating the kid's birthday at all and sitting in front of the
cake. Leon is too busy flicking his long hair around to notice she's
in the way of it though, he can't wait to reach all the stuff on the
counters.
Blocking the cake seems to be a theme
at this party because Jennika does it next. The only difference is
that she's not being ignorant or spiteful, she simply has an agenda.
“So I don't want to go to prom alone.” She announces, not letting
Dustin pass. “Let's both go and be not alone together.”
Dustin thought about how much he liked
Meghan, who seemed so indifferent, who was probably dancing with Karl
again, some kid she had just met. Was he just fooling himself, should
he ask Meghan or would that be too much pressure on her?
If it was possible, Jennika jutted her
hip out even further, impatient. She was obviously not used to
talking to the opposite sex.
“I'll let you know...” He says
vacantly.
“Great. Cool.” She says, leaving
the room.
Soon, Candace...
Karl is dancing with Edvin's sister Lynn Oss-Valquist
now, he never even stopped moving for cake.
Eugene contemplates the dance moves
of the younger generation, hiding an amused smile behind his fork as
he eats. “Does everyone your age dance as if they're trying to
punch a kangaroo in the face?”
Dustin shrugged. “I've seen worse.
That or they can do better.”
That's when Karl slipped and busted his
ass on the floor. “See?” Dustin offered. “He'll pretend later
that he did that on purpose.”
Jennika left immediately after having
cake, so it was unclear whether she wanted an answer from Dustin or
not. Eugene noticed her leave and he and Dustin shared a loaded look.
“She asked me to prom.” Dustin
said, confused. As a junior in high school being asked by a freshman
it seemed obvious that it was just an attempt to get to go to prom
earlier than her grade was allowed, but he didn't know if he believed
that after the way she'd left. It's as if she was embarrassed by
asking him.
“Do you like her?” His cousin
asked, cleaning up the plates.
A shrug again. “I just met her.”
Forceful girls weren't really that cute, she had actually managed to
make him kind of freaked out by it.
“Mm-hmm.' His cousin hummed. “You've
never been serious about anybody before anyways, why not go for it?”
“Hey! I'm serious about Meghan!” He hissed, loud enough for Eugene to hear him.
“Then, ask Meghan.” Eugene retorts with the kind of flippant tone that says he can't possibly do it.
Dustin grumbles, not having a real response. Why do people always laugh at him when he's not trying to be funny?
His hands dropped limply to his
sides. He hadn't tried anything more than flirty with Meghan for a
reason. She just didn't seems ready for something like that. How
could he explain this?
“She ran away from home with you.”
Eugene pointed out mildly. "Hey your new girlfriend hasn't left yet."
"She put a pink letter in the mailbox, you got a love letter too!" I bet she sprayed her perfume on it and it smells like petunias!"
Dustin frowns, sure that's a lie. “I'm going to go
finish my homework.” He says, leaving Eugene to laugh at his
expense and his new 'girlfriend'.
“She's cute though in a bossy sort of
way,” He says of Jennika. “Don't sleep here though.” He added
when he saw Dustin setting up his sleeping bag. “Just wait until
the party is over. It's like you're having a tantrum, or something.”
Meghan was somewhat oblivious to the
drama that happened inside as she spent most of the evening standing
in falling snow and looking for stars to name after herself or her
alias. The last one had the honor of being named 'Drea's Bitch'. The one before that also carried the moniker 'Drea's Bitch'. Would it ever get boring?
Loki stayed long after several of the
other guests had gone home and was pretty good company. Turns out he
spent his free time writing and was pretty ambitious, she could see why
he and Dustin got along so well as they were both creative types.
“The party was fun, tell everyone
else I said thanks for the invite.” He says as he shrugs into his jacket.
“Sure. And hey Loki, if you don't
have a date yet. do you want to go to prom with me?” She asked.
“Hmm. Maybe if you keep your hands to
yourself,” he joked. They didn't know each other that well yet.
“But sure, why not?”
“Awesome, call me with details?”
“Sure. See you later Drea.”
“Bye Loki, have a good night.”
Well that was easy.
Yeah Meghan doesn't really worry about stuff. Or rather, regarding social situations, who cares? It might all be a figment of her imagination after all, why not wing it and try new things? She treats life like a dream she may be having.
Dustin is pretty cautious for a brave sim, but it's not like he can attack his girl trouble head on and 'defeat it', so he's somewhat out of his element.
