Pinenut Plaza Dorms is still the only place on campus currently inhabited by students from New Maximiliania - with the town's population getting lower each round, there simply aren't many young people eligible for going to college at the same time.
Wilma Williamson has just arrived for her Freshman Year. Her outfit is pretty, but her hairdo - a bridal veil?! Not quite what I'd advise as the proper thing to wear at college!
Since she seems to be into pink and flowers, pink and flowers is what she gets for her new hairdo.
The students who already live here are Nellie Nelson and her twin brother Nelson (not pictured), both Seniors; Perseida Powers, a Junior...
...and Sophomores Stephen and Meike Riley.
At the start of the semester, the campus coach is paying a visit. Stephen, always polite and kind, complies with the coach's wishes.
The coach is happy to find a new target, and Wilma works out until she maxes out her body skill.
While two of the students are busily tapping away at the keyboards, writing their term paper, a streaker appears. But as usual, nobody takes notice.
Outside, Nelson has been raking the leaves, and burning them. Not only them, I'm afraid!
Some piles of leaves are left... and so is a small pile of Nelson's ashes.
The students are shocked - but having been born and raised in New Maximiliania, they are only too familiar with this cause of death as one of the most common ones in their world.
With only 5 playable students, three of the slots at this dorm are filled with NPC students. I do not stop my playables from interacting with them, but I do not encourage them, either. Here, Wilma apparently seeks this NPC student's help with learning the Hula, a dance no student can go through college without.
One fine morning early on in the semester, she wakes up with the wish to declare her Major in Physics, and that is exactly what she does.
Oh! I didn't see that coming - Stephen Riley autonomously leaps into Wilma's arms, and the two of them are on full red-hearts love mode from that moment on!
Wilma has discovered the exercise bike upstairs and works out for so long...
...she does not even manage to get to her own room on the ground floor, but faints with exhaustion on the floor of one of the nearest bedrooms.
Nellie, now without her twin brother, is the first one to finish the semester.
The very next morning, the other four follow suit.
This semester, Stephen is first to finish his term paper.
It's skilling and term-paper-writing time until everyone has met the requirements to complete the semester. After that, as you know, I leave the students pretty much to their own devices.
As you can see, winter has set in.
Meike makes omelettes for everyone very early one morning - too early for the dorm cook to start work, but not too early for her to be hungry.
Meanwhile, Stephen decides to give the boys' shower room a good scrub.
Meike rarely leaves her room without making the bed first.
Like Wilma before her, Perseida has been working out on the exercise bike for so long she falls asleep on the spot - for her, that means standing in front of one of the toilet stalls. She nearly misses class that day!
Nellie returns from class, delighted to find it has snowed enough for her to build a snowman.
She is very cold by the time the snowman is finished, but there is a fireplace in the upstairs common room, and she puts it to good use.
Four out of the five playables roll the wish to go ice skating, so I have Wilma call a taxi that takes them to The Hill Community Centre, a Maxis-made community lot I play very rarely.
Skating is new to the girls, and Wilma is not the only one to land on her rear today!
Still, they all have fun and soon get the hang of it.
To warm up, they retreat to the log cabin, where mugs of hot chocolate and a cozy fireplace await them.
Back at the dorm, Stephen congratulates Wilma to how her first year at college has been going so far.
Nellie has just graduated Summa Cum Laude . "I wish Nelson was here with me now," she muses.
She will never see Nelson again, but her mother Ginger, aunt Gabriella, older brother Nigel and uncle Gavin all come to her graduation party.
[Aunt Georgia is here, too. She and the others quickly line up for a round of Hula dancing :-)
Ginger has been grieving the loss of her younger son, but she is happy to see her daughter so grown-up, and is very proud of her.
Stephen, Wilma, Perseida and Meike have finished the semester, too.
Wilma's first year went well, apart from the shock at Nelson's death. She has made friends and found a boyfriend. Nellie has graduated, and we'll see where she has moved and how she's getting on during the next round.
There has been no fight between Llama and Cow this year - and surprisingly few visits from these two mascots and the cheerleaders anyway.
Who will join the four students left here? Nobody this round, that's for sure, but next round I think several teenagers will be old enough to move to college.
