A Whole New World

September 2029 - Britechester, Illinois
Foxbury Institute - Ethan Smith is 19

Ethan has just moved into his dorm room at Foxbury Institute. It seems like an entirely new world, 800 miles away from the home he’s always known.

His roommate Alfred is also a freshman. He tries to make a good impression that first day, sitting in their room and asking Ethan about his family and friends.

But Ethan is too busy getting a head start on his class studies and so he doesn’t give much answer to the questions. Alfred gets annoyed after a few tries and leaves the room, mumbling about how arrogant Ethan is to think he’s too good to talk to his dormmates.

The notes about his first impressions seem to travel quickly because everyone else avoids him even when he comes out of his room. It’s like everyone else believes the rumors that Ethan thinks he’s too good to have time for them and so they decide not to have time for him.

Foxbury holds a welcome event in the courtyard for their students and Ethan does break away from his studies long enough to go out there. He really should get to know some of the other Foxbury students since they’ll be around each other for the next few years.

Someone wearing the Britechester mascot costume shows up, probably just so she can crash the party and intimidate the Foxbury students.

But the Foxbury mascot isn’t afraid and he goes up to her, threatening a mascot battle right there. The Britechester mascot does leave, backing down from the threat before it becomes reality.

***

Ethan meets up with his brother at a small restaurant in between their campuses.

“So how has your first week at Foxbury been?” Adam asks.

Ethan sighs. “Terrible. My dormmates are ignoring me, my roommate hates me, and I’m having a hard time keeping up with my classes. I didn’t think it would all be this hard.”

“It’s just the first week,” Adam tells him. “It’ll get better. You can go out and meet people.”

“I tried,” Ethan says. “But everyone was too interested in watching the mascots almost get into a fight.”

“I heard about that,” Adam says. “Wish I’d been there to see it.”

“I just really miss Lily,” Ethan says with a frown. “Texting or talking on our phones just isn’t the same. She’s halfway around the world, I can’t run next door to see her anymore.”

“You need to find someone to take your mind off her.”

“No,” Ethan insists. “I’m not looking for someone else.”

But Adam isn’t listening. He stands up with a smirk on his face. “Just leave it to me.”

***

“Hey, Adam. Sorry I’m late.”

Ethan looks up to see a girl he doesn’t recognize standing just behind him at the table where he and Adam were eating lunch.

“Hey,” Adam says to her. “This is my brother Ethan. Ethan, this is Chaya.”

“Nice to meet you,” Ethan says. But he makes a face when Chaya looks away from him and heads to a seat on the other side of the table. He knows Adam is trying to set him up, but he’s not interested. He’s promised himself to Lily and that’s the way it is.

“Aya will be here soon,” Chaya tells them.

Another girl joins them at the table minutes later. “Sorry I’m late,” Aya says when she sits down. “Professor Rice held me up for a while.”

The girls talk on and on, barely pausing to breathe. They tell about how they met and became best friends because their names rhyme. Adam laughs at their jokes and stares at Ethan. as if he’s waiting for Ethan to join in.

But he doesn’t. He sits there and thinks about Lily while everyone else goes on and on. He doesn’t care what Adam thinks, his heart belongs to Lily even at a far distance. He’s happy when this “date” finally ends and he can go back to his dorm away from Adam’s insistence on meeting other girls.

***

Ethan finds his dormmates playing at the ping pong table that night. He gets there just in time to see his roommate bounce the ball into a cup, causing his opponent to have to drink it down.

Ethan has heard of it, but hasn’t played. But he wants to actually get to know the people he’ll be living with for at least the next few months. “Can I take a shot at it?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” Alfred says. “Are you any good at it?”

And at first he’s not. He misses shots while his opponent easily bounces the ball into Ethan’s cups, causing him to have to drink the beer inside. Ethan hasn’t had beer before now and it’s not the greatest taste, but he quickly swallows it.

But his bad luck doesn’t last long. Suddenly Ethan is making all of his shots, causing his opponent to have to drink his cups down.

“Not bad,” Alfred says.

Ethan smiles. “Thanks. How about another round?”

Now that he’s made friends with his dormmates and talks to Lily when he can, Ethan turns his focus back to his classes.

The last two days of the semester are busy ones. He hurries back to the dorm after his last exam, hoping maybe he did something right.

———————

As you can see Ethan’s semester was terrible, no matter how hard he tried.

I expected to run into problems with this first try at university, but I feel so bad for Ethan. I know now what to do to have better luck at passing these classes, but he’s not the only one who gets to deal with this during my first round of university. :( And after this, my Sims do not take 4 classes in each semester anymore. I learned my lesson about that!