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When Cliques Collide (Updated 1/13-- Chapter 53, Part 6 now up!)
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Next: Chapter 1, Part 2
This is my first Sims 2 story. While this is overall a fairly clean story, there are some things in this story that might offend a few people (mostly what's implied, rather than actually stated).
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The group of pretty teen girls danced and twirled to the music, flashing toothy smiles and winking.

The music finally stopped, and the attractive blonde stepped forward and said, smiling flirtatiously, "Well, we had a great time, but we have to go now. See you guys later! We can‘t wait for next time!"




The woman groaned and threw a chalkboard eraser at the wall-mounted television in disgust, hitting the power button and cutting off the image of the giggling pink-clad girls. The screen went black.

"I feel stupider now, just having watched that for five minutes," she muttered, rummaging in her drawer for a cigarette.

Knock knock knock.

The sound startled her, making her jump slightly.

"Come in," the woman called out, trying not to sound as irritated as she felt. She gave up her search for cigarettes, at least for the moment, and waited to see who was bothering her during lunch.

A pretty young woman with brown hair and green eyes stepped into the room, and the teacher immediately cheered up. "Hey, Ms. Gibson," the visitor said, grinning.

The teacher returned the smile and hugged the visitor. "Charise, my favorite former student," she laughed. "How have you been doing, kiddo? How's college been treating you?" She removed her spectacles and set them on the desk, looking worried. "You haven't gone all party-obsessed, have you?"

"If I was supposed to, I didn't get the memo," Charise responded with a chuckle. Ms. Gibson let out a huge sigh of relief. Charise continued, "I'm doing great. In fact, I'm going to be working part-time as tutor here."

"Well, how come? As smart as you are, I figured you'd have financial aid coming out the wazoo! I always thought the college would pay you to attend, not the other way around."

"Not quite. Remember, financial aid is kind of unavailable when your family is like mine. Besides, it doesn't cover expenses that aren't education-related. I need to eat and pay rent and all those other things too, you know."

"Ahhh, true. You must forgive me; it's been a while since I've been in college. Well, I was about to take a smoke break, but you interrupted the cigarette hunt. If you'd like to follow me outside, we can continue the conversation. I'm sick of looking at the posters and the drab white walls," Ms. Gibson said, reaching into a drawer and, wonder of wonders, pulling out the cigarette package and lighter she had been trying to find.

"Sure," Charise said, but she stopped, noticing the eraser on the floor. She picked it up and put it back in its proper place. "You're slacking off on the housekeeping. It‘s not like you to leave erasers on the floor," she remarked, following the teacher out the classroom and to the parking lot.



"Actually, I threw the eraser at the TV. I was sick of watching the mindless drivel," Ms. Gibson replied. She took a cigarette out of the pack and lit it, then held the pack out to her former student. "You smoke?"

"Nope."

"Good girl. Never start. It's a nasty habit.”

"Wait, wait, don't tell me. I think I know why you're so ticked. The so-called school spirit show is still going strong," Charise guessed correctly.

"Unfortunately. And they're showing more skin than last year." Ms. Gibson rolled her eyes and sighed. "At this rate, in a few years, they'll be performing naked."



"Don’t worry, I think there's laws against that," Charise said with a chuckle. Then, she turned serious again. "So, are there any intelligent shows now, at least? News shows, or anything like that? Anything to stimulate the mind, rather than letting it atrophy like this brainwashing eye candy for the male student population is doing?"

"Nope." Ms. Gibson took a long drag off her cigarette, trying not to chuckle at Charise‘s choice of words. "Lack of interest."

"In watching it or in creating it?"

"Creating. We couldn't get enough people to want to be on the show as anchors, and the few people we did get were cheerleaders. The news program ended up becoming part of that inane dance show."

"I see." Charise thought a moment, chewing at her bottom lip. "Okay, okay, look, this is just me brainstorming, talking off the top of my head, but listen. I have an idea. Suppose you created a news show, one that actually had news stories in it, but each anchorperson was a representative of a clique here."

"I don't follow."

"Like, for instance, there could be an athlete, a brainy kid, and a member of the alternative crowd. That way, students aren't just looking at the pretty people. They're looking at people that they can identify with."

"Interesting concept. Anything else, Charise?"



Charise thought for a few minutes more, and then babbled, as though trying to express all of her ideas before she forgot them. "Give it a catchy name. Don't call it Oakdale High School News. That's blah. You need something that lets people know that there's all cliques represented, and there's breaking news. Clique News Break, or something like that. Oh, and put in some gimmicks occasionally. Stuff like matchmaking, makeovers, and so on. Make it part news show, part talk show. People want to watch interesting things. Just make sure that it's not completely mindless, or it'll be just like that stupid dance show. Remember, not everyone watching is an idiot, but most of them are, shall we say… easily amused by simple things."

"I like those ideas. You might be on to something."

"Thanks."

"How's everyone been?" Ms. Gibson asked.

"The same as ever," Charise replied. "S is majoring in music and theater, Cy is still living with my family, Tacita is the same boy-crazy woman she's always been, and Sheridon and Gideon are still together. Dad and Gramma Cici are also doing well."

Charise paused for a second, then asked, "May I sit in on your next class, please? I promised I'd help out with part of the seventh period art class before I have to go tutor students, but I have some free time after lunch and nothing to do."

"Certainly, Charise," Ms. Gibson replied, surprised. "But you'll be bored out of your skull. The students will be making speeches on topics that matter to them, which means, of course, that most of the speeches will involve cheerleading, makeup, sports, and so forth. Not exactly mentally stimulating. You're welcome to sit in on it, though. Now go get some lunch so you don‘t starve. I'll be in the classroom."

Charise hurried off to the cafeteria.

Ms. Gibson dropped the cigarette butt onto the cement and ground it with the heel of her shoe, making sure it was extinguished.

"I think she’s a genius. Why didn't I think of that stuff?" she muttered to herself. She hurried back to her classroom to write down the ideas that were already forming in her head.

Click Next: Chapter 1, Part 2 to continue...

 
Next: Chapter 1, Part 2
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