Night of A

Thousand StarsAdmit One

Join us for A Night of

WonderatLulu LoungeOn the

Evening of May Eighteent

h

Menu: ~Roast Turkey with Gravy , boiled Vegetables, and Mashed Potatoes~ Penne Pasta in Red Meat Sauce with Seamed Vegetables~ Cobb Salad with a Side of Hardboiled Eggs and Choice of Dressing

Meadow, Thanks for putting this scrapbook together and sharing it with the yearbook committee. This was an amazing night that deserved to be memorialized for all of us.

~ Calla Elkthorn

PS: Congratulations on Prom Court! You and Eric are an adorable couple.

“Say Cheese!”Click. Click.Anariel smiled nervously as the camera bulb flashed twice, Viridia taking an extra picture

for luck. She couldn’t quite believe that she was going to prom – and with an older boy at that.

“Hurry up you two, you don’t want to be late.”

“Aw man, stop blocking the path.”“Shut up Vasquez,” Aranel said, “We’re taking pictures.” “Damnit, Aranel, your mouth is open. And Trevor, you don’t have any lint, so stop trying

to brush it off.” “Sorry, Shar,” Trevor said, unconsciously fiddling with his suit.

Click.“Damnit, Trevor!” Sharlene said, peering at the screen again.“Oh look, Ara’s mouth’s open again.”“Don’t be silly, Maura: Ara’s mouth is always open.”Aranel shot a look at the other two girls, who were standing at the end of the red carpet,

heads bent over the camera.“I heard that. Now get in the picture, we’re holding up the line. Hey, Vasquez! Be a man

and take our picture!”Friends gave the unlucky Vasquez a shove to the front.

Click.

Once inside Lulu Lounge, the five of them broke off in opposite directions.

“Hey guys,” said Maura, who had headed directly for the fountain, “Do you know,

I’ve always wondered what would happen if you put something in a fountain…”

“Let’s pretend that we don’t know her,” Aranel said to Trevor.

“Agreed.”

Meanwhile, their arrival had attracted attention from other prom-goers. Amy St Julien waltzed up to them with a fake smile plastered on her lips.

“Hello, Sharlene.”“Hello, Amy. That’s…” Sharlene was clearly hunting for something unremarkable to

say, “quite a dress.”“It is, isn’t it? Mother wanted the dressmaker to have the seam higher, of course, but the

designer agreed with me that fashion shouldn’t be constrained by the morals of the past.”Aranel turned and walked quickly away from the conversation before she cracked up

laughing.

And she nearly ran into trouble coming the other way. She wasn’t sure if she imagined the slight twitch of Nymea’s lip as she past, but she knew that her own smile froze for a minute.

There were only a few months until graduation, and then she’d never have to deal with any of these petty people again. Surely she could manage that long?

She’d avoid Nymea and Amy during prom, and everything would be drama-free. She would resist the urge to grab Nymea by the collar and tell her what a bitch she was to blackmail her own brother, and the urge to tell Amy that her “sophisticated” accent sounded like a duck blowing it’s nose.

It should be relatively easy.* * *

It should be easy, right? Anariel smiled nervously at her date, and tried to act like she knew all about prom. She hadn’t realized that it would be almost all upperclassmen at the dance, instead of people that she already knew.

Not for the first time that night, she missed her friends. Actually, she missed Lydia, but Lydia was at home, having a movie marathon with her brother and kid sister, and probably making kettle corn.

Ana could taste the salt and sugar at the corners of her mouth as she thought about it. Maybe that was just the lipstick she’d convinced her mother to let her wear.

“So? How do you like the decorations?” she asked, hoping to start a decent conversation. Where were the jokes and banter now? Why couldn’t she think of something wittier to say?

Jacob shrugged, “It seems like they didn’t do much to this place. It always looks like this, you know.”

Anariel didn’t know, since she didn’t make a habit of going to fancy downtown clubs. Actually, she didn’t know how Jacob could have known, because if LuLu lounge hadn’t been reserved for the night, he would have been carded at the door. The lounge didn’t exactly cater to teenagers.

“Hello, Jacob.”Ana and her date turned around at the sound of a not-so-amused voice by

the door, and Ana just had the time to take in a very elegant looking blonde, clearly an upperclassman, and a boy who was all white smiles and dark good looks.

The blonde’s gaze passed over Ana and kept travelling.

“Sandra!” exclaimed Jacob, a strained smile leaping to his face, “And… Derick. I didn’t think I’d see you here. How are you?”

“Oh, I’ve been just fine, Jacob. And you know I would never miss our senior prom.”

“It’s Darrin,” the other boy said, but Jacob and Sandra were busy staring each other down, ignoring him and Ana. The atmosphere in the room was starting go get uncomfortable.

“Oh, yeah… of course,” Jacob said. “This is my… um, date, Annie.”

Anariel grimaced. She hated it when people messed up her name. Ana wasn’t that hard of a name to say.

“Hey, Jacob!” another girl walked into the room, smiled at Jacob, and then noticed Sandra staring at her. “Oh, hi, Sandra,” she said without enthusiasm.

“Jules,” Sandra replied, “I haven’t seen you in ages.”The redhead turned to Jacob. “Don’t tell me you’re back with her,” she said.“Jules, this is Annie. Sandra’s here with Dereck.”“Darrin.”

“Ana,” Anariel corrected, shaking the other girl’s hand while Sandra attached herself to Jacob’s neck with extra enthusiasm.

“Jules. Here, I’ll show you the snacks table,” replied the older girl, watching the antics going on behind Ana’s back with a grimace, “You’re probably going to need some.”

* * *

“So,” said Arcadia uncomfortably, as they all stood around on the darkened dance floor, waiting for prom to really get underway, “Did you hear? One of the seniors just put soap in the fountain. The clean up committee is really mad.”

She ended her sentence with an extra large smile, despite the fact that Achenar had been with her when she’d heard that news, as had everybody else.

Achenar smiled back, though. “Good thing we’re not cleaning up, then.”“Yeah,” Arcadia replied with a laugh, “That’s going to be messy.”

“So, um, I heard they’re going to be playing Pink Flamingos later,” Arcadia said, “You know the song, ‘Dance in the Rain?’ I like that one.”

Calla, who was on student government and had reviewed the songs list, cut in. “Nope, the trustees voted it down. Apparently the line ‘dance naked in the moonlight’ was too risqué for a school dance.”

“Seriously?” Achenar laughed. “How’d you get ‘Crazy for you,’ past the moral guardians

then?”

“Because they were told that the third verse was, and I quote: ‘Lovely true blue,’ instead of the obvious rhyme.” Calla replied, only a hint of a smile breaking through her completely straight face.

Achenar laughed, “I can’t believe that you squeaked that past.”Calla shrugged. “It wasn’t me, it was Tessa. That girl can lie like you wouldn’t

believe, and the adults just eat it up like she’s the sweetest thing. Of course, usually she looks like an angel by comparison, since she’s standing next to Melody Tinker.”

“Ha ha, you’re right, Calla,” said Arcadia. When Calla left to talk to Vince, she spoke up again. “So, um, Achenar, you think maybe we could stop by the snack table or something?” When Achenar didn’t react, she waved a hand in the air. “Achenar? Um, Achenar, are you... hungry… for anything?”

“Huh?” there was a moment of disappointed silence as Achenar focused his attention once more.

“I… never mind, I’m not really hungry.”“No, if you want to…” Achenar fumbled. Behind him, Calla and Vince were talking, and he

couldn’t hear anything but the word college.“Just something to do, really,” said Arcadia.

“Excuse me? Sim State is not the ‘soft option’ and neither is majoring in Education!”Conversations around Calla and Vince died as they screeched to sudden halts and

crashed.“I believe,” said Vince, “that you may have misunderstood -”“Oh, I understood.”Calla turned on her heel and stalked off towards the back hallway without a

backwards glance, effectively stranding Vince in the middle of a small circle of spectators.

No one had much to say after that. “I guess I… er, I should go see if she’s okay,” Achenar said lamely to

Arcadia. “Yeah, I guess… good idea,” Arcadia replied, waving her hands about,

“Just… if you need help or something…”“Thanks,” Achenar said, before heading off as well.

“Hey Calla?”“What are you doing here, Achenar? This is the hallway to a girls’

bathroom.” She sounded angry to him, but she turned around anyway.

“Just wanted to know if you’re… you know.” Achenar rubbed the back of his itchy suit collar quickly, then, deciding that humor was the best route, adopted an incredibly fake “mafia henchman” accent.

“You want I should whack ‘im, boss?”Despite herself, Calla giggled. “Thank you, but that’s not necessary.”“Whatever the boss lady says.”

“He’s… well, he’s irritating, but it’s not really…”“Ah. I’ve heard that about him. He’s not really that tall.”Calla poked Achenar in the ribs. “I meant, Vince, he’s just… well, I don’t think he

thinks before he speaks at all. He takes other people’s dreams and he dismisses them out of hand.”

“Somebody’s always telling me that that’s just what boys do.”“Yeah, well… at least you’ve never laughed at me for wanting to be a teacher. Or

anything else that’s actually important.”

“There’s nothing funny about it,” Achenar said. “And, for what it’s worth, I think…” Calla looked at him expectantly. “Well, it’s a good dream to have,” he finished, lamely. “Plus, Vince really is extremely short.”

Calla smiled again, but it was more of a twitch than anything else. “You should go on out and see about Arcadia,” she told him, “They’re going to start playing the dance music soon.”

“Yeah. I should, I bet she wants to dance or something,” Achenar replied absently. “What about you?”

“’Enar, I have it taken care of.”

“Are you going to admit to enjoying prom now?” Maura asked Aranel.

“What?”

“I said, are you going to admit that prom isn’t that bad?” Maura hollered back at

Aranel.

“Maura, I can’t hear you over the music!”

“Now you’re just messing with me – oh, Look!”

“What?”

“For Pete’s sake!” Maura took Aranel by the shoulder and spun her around to point, “Rean! He’s totally hitting on Trevor!”

“Oh crap.”“Oh crap? What are you thinking of, Aranel? We’ve only been certain that would happen

since forever -”“Maura. That’s Trustee St. Julien headed their way.”“Trustee..?”“Amy’s grandfather.”It took Maura a moment to assimilate that information. “What are we going to do, Aranel?”

she asked.

“… Aranel?”

“Young man, I would very deeply hope that what I just saw wasn’t what I think it was,” Makoto St. Julien said as he approached.

“And what was that, sir?” Rean asked, surprised at just how reckless he felt. “Dude. He’s a trustee,” Trevor muttered behind him, “you’re just getting us

in trouble. Cut it out.”Nymea was close enough to hear the conversation, but it was Amy’s laughter

that was ringing in her ears. There was nothing about this night that could get any worse. She was being completely humiliated.

“Of all the appalling, degenerate behavior…”“Mr. Makoto, I was here with them, they were only dancing -”“Exactly! How dare they, in public, make a mockery of this school with their

perversions -”“Mr. Makoto!”“Silence, Christine!”“Excuse me, sir, but when did it become any of your business who I dance

with?”

“SORRY, HONEY, BUT I CAN’T EVEN HEAR YOU!”

“IT’S URGENT, I HAVE A -”

“Of all the insolent -”

“Mr. Makoto, as a member of the PTA I am perfectly capable of chaperoning these

boys -”

“You will both have to leave this establishment -”

“Oh my god, my life is over,” Nymea moaned into her hands, “I am so embarassed!”

“Eh, serves your fag brother right,” said Amy, who was checking her teeth.

“And both of your parents will be informed -”

“Would Trustee St. Julien step up to the stage?” The sudden silence now that the music was off was deafening. Heads turned all over the dance floor. She could see that, over by the edge of the

dance floor, all heads were turned her way.“Trustee St. Julien? If you would step up to the stage for a brief announcement…”

She could see him headed forward now. “Thank you, Mr. Trustee,” Aranel continued, thrilled with her own daring. She turned to the crowd as he put on his blandest smile.

Now, many of you know Trustee St Julien,” she said, “He has long been a

respected member of the school board, instrumental in many of its important

decisions, and he has long attended school events. He likes to think of himself as a

moral guardian for us,” here she paused. It didn’t seem like he was getting it yet.

“Trustee St Julien came to our prom tonight, as he does every year, to be a part of

an old school tradition: the Junior and Senior prom.

“Now, prom is traditionally a time of celebration,” Aranel continued. She had no idea what she was going to say next, but the trustee was standing next to her, smiling at the crowd that had started to gather around the microphone, and basking in the attention. That was going to have to change, soon. “We gather on this one night of the year, not to party our brains out, but to recognize a transition, the act of leaving our childhood and our dependence on the guidance of our elders behind us. We celebrate both the energy and optimism of youth, and the freedom of our approaching adulthood: the freedom to make our own decisions, to change the world for the better.”

“Trustee St Julien, who takes a very active hand in guiding the fate of our school,” Aranel continued, “Is a man of many opinions, which he has no qualms about sharing. He has been a part of Riverblossom Hills Academy for many decades, and he would like to think of himself as our moral guardian.”

Was it possible that he didn’t get it yet? She risked a sidelong glance, but the old fool was still smiling benignly, as if he hadn’t just been cagistating a student. He probably thought he was being praised for his actions.

Well. That would make her job just that much easier.

“As a proud alumnus of our school,” she continued, “and as a respected member of the community, Trustee St. Julien has a moral responsibility to uphold: that of responsibility, of integrity, and most of all of tolerance.”

She was having some trouble keeping a straight face, but she met her classmate’s eyes, hoping that they, at least, would understand.

“Trustee St. Julian has stuck with our school through many changing times,” she said, quietly, “He embodies a small and no doubt important segment of our past. But times have changed: we have changed. We are the future, and he is the past.”

“A few moments ago, I witnessed an event that made me realize that, as an adult, it will be my moral duty, in the name of integrity and tolerance, to oppose the societal norms of that past. I witnessed our trustee single out a couple on this dance floor and tell them that, although they are both members in good standing of our school, they are not entitled to the same freedoms and privileges as the rest of us. And for what reason? Because their identity offends his old-fashioned sensibilities: because Trustee St. Julian does not wish to accept students whose sexual orientation he opposes.”

“Trustee St. Julien,” she pronounced loudly, trying to forge ahead quickly while the old man was still stunned, “wishes for this school to remain in the oppressive, unenlightened, and morally wrong grips of a past notion of normality. He wishes to deny us the right to participate in our own school event if we do not conform to his expectations!”

There was a boo from somewhere in the crowd – it took only a few seconds before the rest followed suit, and there was cacophony for a minute. Cries of “Unfair!” and “You suck!” were tossed at the old man, who stormed off.

“Turn off the microphone!” he yelled at the DJ. “Turn it off.”

“He’s going to cut my mic,” Aranel all but shouted, “Because he can’t take the truth.”There were more boos in the audience, “That’s what he does when people disagree

with him: he tries to silence them, tries to make them go away. I’ve only got a bit of time left, so I won’t waste it on him, but if you disagree with the trustee’s idea of who we should be and what kind of prom we should have, follow me on out this door. He can’t stop us from leaving, and he can’t deny what we know. We’re nearly adults now – we know right from wrong – we deserve a voice and we’re going to make it -”

A grating whine of feedback cut her off, mid-sentence. She glanced at the DJ booth and saw that Trustee St. Julien had taken matters into his own hands and yanked the microphone cord out.

“Young lady,” he began.

Aranel stepped forward and walked out.

* * *

When she woke, Lydia wasn’t sure what had snapped her out of her dreams until she heard the rattle of pea-gravel on the window across the room, sounding like a brief fistful of impatient rain.

She got up with a glance at the clock – she’d only been asleep for about an hour – and crossed the room, flinging open the window and sticking her head out.

Down below, Anariel waved cheerfully at her with a gloved hand full of gravel.

“But see: what light breaks through yonder window?” she misquoted, grinning

up in the darkness.

Lydia sighed. “I don’t know whether to be amused or horrified that even though

there’s a memorization test on Romeo and Juliet on Monday, you still managed to

mangle that line,” she admitted to her friend.

“Just let me in, Lyds.”

“Fine, just one sec.”

Lydia crept downstairs and unbolted the apartment door to find her best friend

standing on the porch, wearing a giant grin. Instantly, Ana threw her arms around her

neck and hugged her.

“So… prom went well?” she hazarded, steering Ana inside the door and bolting

it again.

“Actually, surprisingly well, considering,” Ana replied thoughtfully. “Upstairs?”

“Yeah, upstairs,” Lydia replied. “I’m surprised Mom and Makir aren’t awake.”

The two of them trooped up the stairs after Ana slipped off her high heels. Lydia wondered for a moment at the absolute silence of the house around them as their bare feet padded across the carpet.

“Actually, can I use your phone?” Ana asked once they made it upstairs, “I ought to call my mom.”

“Sure.”

Ana dialed, and Lydia sat down on the couch, listening. “Hi Mom. Yeah, we left prom

early. No, I’m at Lydia’s house. The other kids were going to a party and I didn’t want to

go so I headed there. Yeah. No, I told Achenar I was leaving. Aranel was kind of busy.

Actually…” she looked at Lydia and mouthed ‘can I stay?’ Lydia nodded.

“Yup, I’m staying overnight. Mom. It’s not like I haven’t shared Lydia’s toothbrush

before. We’ll figure it out. Love you too.”

She hung up the phone and flopped down next to Lydia.

“Funny,” Lydia said, “Wasn’t this the plan before you got asked to prom?”

Ana leaned back and looked at her with a smile. “I never said that getting asked

to prom didn’t mean I wouldn’t spend part of the weekend with you.”

Lydia snorted. “All right, spill. Why did you really leave prom? I mean, I

know you don’t like parties too much, but you seemed all right with the idea of

going to prom.” With an upperclassman, her brain supplied as extra information.

Ana shrugged. “Prom sort of stopped early,” she said, “You know my sister’s

friend Rean? Well, he finally started dancing with this other guy and one of the

school trustees tried to throw them out of the dance for it.”

“That’s stupid.”

“Yeah. So Aranel got up on stage and gave this long speech about how that wasn’t

fair. And we all left prom and headed out to the parks. Pretty much everybody else was

going to the after prom parties, but I didn’t get invited and I didn’t want to tag along

after Ara or Achenar, so I called up a taxi and came here. By the way, if I promise to

pay you back, can you cover bus fare in the morning? Taxis cost more than I thought.”

Lydia rolled her eyes.“So? What did you do?”“Movie marathon. I watched The Princess Bride and Indiana Jones with Orion and

Delphina, then Orion and I watched Spider Man when Delphina had gone to bed.”“Which Indiana Jones?”“Raiders of the Lost Arc – not Temple of Lame Special Effects or Kingdom of the

Alien conspiracies.”

“Hey, it could have been… that other one. The one with Indy’s father.”“Exactly. You still haven’t told me how prom went, really.”Ana shrugged. “Well, turns out my date spent most of the night staring at some

other girl – his ex, I guess – so I kind of just hung around. Danced a bit with the other’s girl’s date after it became painfully clear that we were both being ignored, hung out with a pretty cool older girl, named Jules, who was nice. She gave me some pointers on college applications, but other than that and her being really pretty, we didn’t have a whole lot to talk about.”

“Good thing you came here to fill up your quota of intelligent conversation, then,” Lydia replied.

* * *

Author’s note

Yeah, sorry about this one taking so long, guys. Part of it was massive crowd scenes (setting up LuLu Lounge for prom was an

epic undertaking) and the fact that I can’t play my game at all when it’s over 90 degrees (which it was, very often, this summer) for fear of frying my graphics card. I need my graphics card.

The other bit of it was either the insanity that went with work, or the not-good things that were happening, including medical stuff. I’m all good now, with physical therapy and whatnot, and didn’t need surgery after all.

That and I went on vacation, then returned to school, which rounds out my usual laundry list of excuses.

That said, this was epic amounts of fun to shoot. Well, play and shoot, once I got things set up, which required making over Lulu Lounge and getting more than 20 teen sims on the lot.

… Not for the faint of heart, guys. Yes. This is Elirand’s prom date being hit on while he stands there with his hands

in his pockets. He spent the whole night unable to get his relationship score with her above 30.

… Aaaand this is Elirand’s prom date being hit on by Ana’s prom date (who needs to forget it, seriously, because Jules O’Mackey and Sandra Roth are both at this party,) while she heart-farts Achenar.

Yeeeeah. Hard luck, dude.Oh, public service announcement: Makoto St. Julien is not really an evil sim. In fact, I

couldn’t keep him from initiating townie social interactions all over the lot or randomly finger-gunning the teens. But when I saw that he shared a last name with Amy, I decided he was perfect for this role.

Anyone else notice that Maxis got teenagers dancing pretty much exactly right? Yeah, I swear this is the last slide, folks. Stay tuned for Graduand part 2, and then college. Because it has taken me four years to get Aranel to college, you don’t even know…

As a side note, if I am ever crazy enough to do this again I will need to find more teen male formal clothes. And that is really all, folks.