“Hmm,” Winston said to himself. “I think the sauce is just about perfect.”

He was experimenting with ethnic dishes at the moment. Today the treat was authentic Egyptian shwarma.

“Lunch is on!” he called out the window to Victoria. “Come get it while it’s hot!”

“This is really tasty,” Victoria observed after a taste. “Much better than the last thing you tried. This one doesn’t burn out the inside of my mouth.”

“You’re kind of a lightweight when it comes to spices,” Winston said.

“I just don’t think eating should be an endurance test,” Victoria retorted.

“I was thinking I could cook something like this, and we could serve it at the dance party we’re throwing tonight.”

Victoria nearly spit out out her meat. “Dance party? You’ve got to be crazy!”

Winston pulled her aside conspiratorially, though there was no one else in the house. “Come on, you know we can do it without Mom and Dad knowing.”

“Have you seen the mess that’s still in the den?” Victoria demanded. “We’re already going to get our butt kicked when Mom and Dad come home if we can’t clean it up.”

“I’ll clean it!” Winston insisted. “And I’ll make sure that everything is perfect when the party is over. Come on, everyone does this when their parents are out. If we play this with our noses down the whole time, we’ll never get another chance.”

“We already nearly burned the house down,” Victoria said. “Isn’t that enough for one vacation?”

“I swear you won’t be able to tell when I’m done with it,” Winston pleaded. “You know you want to do this too.”

Victoria thought about it. “All right, but only if you make good on your promise to clean the den.”

So Winston cleaned.

Then he called everyone he knew, plus a few people he didn’t know.

Afterward, Victoria helped him move the furniture in the living room to make space for dancing.

Gamora was supposed to be staying with her cousins while Sawyer was gone, but she’d barely been home since the adults went away. When she was not at school, she was usually at the dojo.

She was getting very good if she did say so herself.

The teens started arriving at the Sample Estate at sundown.

Crowds of them.

Winston was delighted. The first thing he did was make sure everyone was fed.

Then he stole some time to flirt with Paulette Callender, his date from prom.

Victoria was nervous, but she was committed now, so she tried to relax and have fun.

Unfortunately, one of the first sims she talked to was Kain McWilliams, who wanted to complain about Connery.

“Doesn’t that dog of yours ever stop barking?”

“Not when the music’s loud,” Victoria said. “Think of it as a bass beat. Now if you’ll excuse me…”

Once she made it to the dance floor, though, things really started to get rolling.

But it was hard to concentrate on dancing. Victoria couldn’t stop staring at Judith, who only had eyes for Mason James.

Her face was alight with a glow Victoria had never seen.

Could Judith be in love?

Gamora found Whitney Ursine-Sample at the local salon and spa, Tinkerbell’s Beautique.

She didn’t waste any time. She crept up behind him while he was looking away from her

And tackled him.

“That’s what you get for messing with Gamora Sample!” she announced as he picked himself up off the ground.

“You are insane, girl!” he shouted.

“No, but you sure are if you mess with me or my dad!”

Cortney Pierce-Hodgins showed up late.

Winston’s head snapped around so fast he nearly fell over.

His body language was so powerful, some of his classmates noticed and snickered.

He tried to pretend that it was no big deal that Cortney was at his party. He tried to look anywhere but at her.

Cortney circulated through the room, catching up with her friends from school. She hadn’t even said hello to Winston yet.

“Hey, Vickie!”

“Roderick!” Victoria said. “I didn’t see you there! Are you having a good time?”

“This party is fantastic!” Roderick Winter said. “You’re really lucky that your folks trust you with the house like that.”

“Yeah… ” Victoria said. “We’re lucky, I guess. I just hope we don’t screw it up.”

“I’ve been trying to get your attention all night,” Roderick admitted.

“Really? I haven’t been avoiding you or anything. It’s just easy to get lost in this crowd. What can I do for you?”

“I, ah, wanted to know if you would like to dance.”

Victoria froze.”Really?”

He looked into her eyes with such intensity. Victoria could feel herself blushing. She’d grown up with Roderick. When did he become so attractive?

“I’d love to dance,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t waver.

 

Winston saw Paulette dancing alone and looking out of place. He jumped at the chance to focus his attention on someone other than Cortney.

“Hey, Paulette,” Winston said. “I haven’t seen you dancing much. Are you having a good time? Would you like to dance?”

Paulette was such a nice girl, and she really liked him. He’d been chasing after Cortney since grade school. He knew he needed to stop mooning over her. Paulette was a lot of fun, and she didn’t make him feel like she was doing him a favor to hang out with him.

“It’s been great,” Paulette said. “But it is kind of loud in here. I think I might have to go someplace quieter for a bit.”

Cortney definitely noticed Paulette making eyes at Winston. She looked straight at Paulette and then shouted over them. “I’m getting a headache from the lights! Anyone have a painkiller?”

Winston flushed with embarrassment. “I’ll check upstairs,” he said to Cortney.

While he was sifting through the medicine cabinet, Paulette drifted into the den, where she watched the winter simlympics with Kain McWilliams.

The quiet space away from the crowd calmed her down, and it turned out that Kain wasn’t bad company either.

Winston didn’t see her again for the rest of the evening.

Gamora drifted in and surveyed the party crowd.

“Wow, you guys really are the typical teens,” she said. “I hope you don’t expect me to clean up this mess.”

“You don’t have to do anything,” Winston snapped.

Gamora shrugged. “OK. I’m heading up to bed.”

Winston noticed that she climbed the stairs with a bit of a limp, but who ever knew what was going on with Gamora?

Winston wasn’t even sure exactly when his parents were getting home, so he started nudging everyone out the door after midnight.

Victoria caught her best friend before she left. “So what’s with Mason?” she demanded.

“I don’t know, but he was so amazing!” Judith exclaimed. “Do you think he likes me? Do you think I acted all right around him?”

“You have no idea how attractive you are,” Victoria said.

Cortney was the last one dancing when Winston finally turned off the stereo.

“Hi, um, Cortney. I just wanted to say that everyone kind of has to leave now.” Winston could kick himself.

“Winston, I was hoping to get some time to talk to you alone,” Cortney said.

“What?” Winston said. “I mean, you were?”

“Look, I’m sorry I haven’t been returning your phone calls,” she said. “I’ve been a real jerk to you, and you didn’t do anything to deserve it. It’s just that things have been kind of crazy at home. Dad had to resign as chief of police, and I didn’t know how to talk to anyone.”

“Wow,” Winston said. “I didn’t know things were so rough. You can always talk to me about it. I want to be there for you.”

“I know,” Cortney said. “You’ve been my best friend since grade school. I want to be a better friend to you again.”

Winston felt his blood run to his face as she gazed into his eyes. She was so beautiful. “Maybe we could hang out sometime soon?” he asked hopefully. “Maybe this weekend?”

“That’s a great idea!” Cortney said. “I’m going to turn a new page in our friendship. Maybe we could go on a double-date! Me, my boyfriend, and are you seeing anyone?”

“No,” was all Winston managed to say. Then he managed to say goodbye, and she was on her way.

It had been such a wonderful party, but now all Winston wanted to do was crawl under his beadspread and cry.

———-

Woo! Time for a teen party! So much awesome stuff happened! I even got some of the teens to actually dance! And Victoria has another romantic prospect! Roderick is really cute.

Paulette Callender is (I think) the granddaughter of a Matt Smith simalike, and wow his features do not look good on her. It’s too bad, but it’s nice that not all the sims are beautiful. BUT she’s also descended from February Callender, and it’s awesome to see her hair still around! Her parents are Justin Mai, the obnoxious woman-and-man-izing actor Abby dated, and Dion Callender. The game gave her the last name Mai, but since Dion actually gave birth, it should have been Callender by my mother’s-surname naming rule in StoryProgression, so I changed it. I have way too many Mais in my game.

My game crashed near the end of the party, and I had to play it again. The second time through, Mason James took up with Cortney instead of Judith. Cortney having a boyfriend makes sense, since Winston just can’t get anywhere with her despite the fact that they have a maxed relationship bar, and he finds her attractive. But those shots of Mason dancing with Judith were so sweet that I may use MasterController to stick those two back together.

I think the crash-and-reload caused the game to forget that there was a teen party going on AND that the adults were on vacation. I had to use MasterController to reset the lot and get the adults home. That meant there was no chance for the parents to come home early, which would have been fun.

Oh, and I’ve learned that the Consider Attraction interaction is from Woohooer, and it’s broken. It only gives 1 or 10. I need to use Scan Room to get proper comparative attraction scores. I’ll be doing that from now on, though it doesn’t give such a cute message.