cherry blossom girl, part 1 (prom 2088)

May 2088. 

seniors: Delphie Deppiesse, Dakota Deppiesse, Austin Turner, Desmond Banks 

juniors: Ryanne Phoenix, Malia Kapule, Sam Harris, Shannon Brett

chaperones: Violet & Orion Deppiesse 

—

“Hey, check this out. Doesn’t it rock so hard?”

Dakota’s fingers fluttered across the fretboard in a movement so quick and delicate, it was astonishing how she made that instrument scream. The sound that came out was heavy and abrasive. To be honest, Shannon’s style was probably more Katy Perry than Metallica. But she did like Dakota.

 

She liked Dakota a lot.

— 

“Terminal” was the word Dakota had thought of to describe her relationship with Eric. Never mind Shannon for a moment, with their secret make-out sessions in Dakota’s secluded basement bedroom, all that discovery and awakening. There was the ever-present weight of the looming summer. Graduation day, goodbye parties, packing up to move away to Arizona for college. Dakota was so fond of Eric, but she was moving on and he was not. Shannon wasn’t moving on, either, to be honest, for as much as Dakota enjoyed kissing her. Dakota wanted to go out west and kiss people who weren’t Shannon, too. She wanted to date people and explore and see what the world had to offer.

And she cared for Eric, truly, so she put this terminal thing to rest.

But for Shannon, it wasn’t that simple. Her history with Jake ran deep. And maybe he was boring and square sometimes. Maybe he was strong when she craved soft, or tender when she craved bold. Maybe she didn’t even know what she wanted at all. But Jake was her best friend since they were both wearing diapers, and when push came to shove, she couldn’t break his heart.

So she didn’t.

—

Back at school on Monday, Dakota was seething with anger at the unfairness of it all. The senior prom trip was this weekend. They’d spent the whole year planning it. They were traveling to Mt. Komorebi in Japan. Only juniors and seniors were invited, which meant that she and Shannon could go, and neither of their boyfriends would be there. And maybe they’d even come out with their romance, Dakota thought. They’d hold hands while exploring the bamboo forests, they’d dress each other in kimonos for the festival of lights, and they’d take pictures and dance together at prom. No more hiding. No more guilt. Dakota did the right thing. She broke up with Eric so she could go on this trip with a clear conscience.

But Shannon didn’t break up with Jake.

And the worst thing was that Dakota hadn’t told anyone about her secret fling with Shannon, not even her twin sister. So she had no way to explain all this anger and disappointment.

—

The world didn’t pause for disappointment, and their long-awaited senior prom trip was imminent. Sullen or excited, this group of juniors and seniors were swept away across the globe for an adventure. The flight was long, and the group arrived stiff and jetlagged, but excited to explore.

[gameplay notes on senior prom trip...]

This year’s senior class comes from some rather rich families, so the price tag was not a factor in their decision. They picked Mt. Komorebi, where they would enjoy the slopes, and attend the festival of lights. The culmination of their trip would be their prom, which would be held in a local hotel.

Not all of the juniors could spring for a ticket, but four of them did.

The flight was long and uncomfortable, but they were here and ready to have some fun!

Although they’ve been in contact all year for the senior planning committee, Dakota hadn’t met Austin Turner in person before today. They hit it off quickly, admiring each other’s brash attitudes and taste in loud music. And she couldn’t help but notice that he was named after an American city. He’d fit right into the Deppiesse family! “Don’t tell me your parents had a weird place names thing going on, too?”

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “My sister is named Rose.”

While Dakota and Austin raved about which lead guitarist slayed the hardest, Delphie took notice of Desmond, who had crept into their group—or perhaps, had always been there—unobtrusive as a light pole. “Oh, hi, Desmond,” Delphie said, “Glad you could make it on such short notice. Sorry, I left your name off the roster for the planning council. I sort of forgot you were in our class.”

“It’s okay,” Desmond said, “people forget about me all the time. I’m used to it.”

Delphie and Dakota’s parents, Violet and Orion Deppiesse, were unanimously chosen to be the group’s chaperones, for their famous hands-off parenting style and hope that they would let the kids do mostly as they pleased.

Though their chaperones might not have a plan, Delphie Deppiesse, class president and all-around type-A teenager, had a very elaborate itinerary that promised to keep everyone entertained, fed, and safe.

Day one: arrival, lunch, onsen bathhouse (or the slopes if you’d prefer), dinner at the lights festival, sleep by 9pm for an early start tomorrow morning!

Day two: hiking in the haunted forest, monuments, lunch in town, shopping, return for some quiet time and getting ready for prom. 7pm, prom! Midnight curfew.

Day three: sleep in, or wake up and have breakfast by the pond. Flight home at noon.

Perfect, Delphie thinks.

—

After they settled in and grabbed a quick bite to eat, the group split up between those who wanted to lounge in the hot springs and those who wanted to hit the slopes. Delphie, Malia, and Shannon chose to relax in the water and share gossip, while the others went out into the snow.

Austin didn’t do too badly for a desert boy who was seeing snow for the first time in his life.

Then there was Desmond, who chose neither the springs nor the slopes, and instead found a cozy place to take a nap. The others may laugh at him for being boring, but they’d be sorry later when they found out there was nowhere in this town to buy a real coffee!

Ryanne and Sam had managed to see quite a bit of each other since she moved out west with her family. They decided to keep up a long-distance relationship, rather than break up, and it was still going strong over a year later. With just one year of school left, they had no doubt that they would make it to their ultimate goal of going to college together.

A townie woman sighed, beholding this precious scene, and said, “Aww, why can’t I find a love like that?”

“I don’t think there’s any caffeine in this matcha,” Dakota muttered to herself, wishing she had gone for a nap in the lodge instead.

While the others were having the best time ever, Dakota broke out her journal to write. (She could have written somewhere warmer, like the onsen, we might note.) She had a lot on her mind. Shannon, who didn’t break up with Jake; her ex-boyfriend, Eric, who she didn’t hate and kind of missed; and she didn’t know if she was a lesbian or bisexual or pansexual or omnisexual, which was something she never gave much thought to before two months ago.

And yes, she boasted that for sure she’d go skiing with Austin, who shouted now from the slopes, “Hey, Dakota! Dakota, get out here! This is so insane!” But now she kind of didn’t want to anymore. To be honest, she had killer cramps on the heaviest day of her period, and she had a monster zit on her cheek. This senior prom weekend was turning out to be an all-around bad time.

But Delphie found her first. “Hey, what’s wrong, why aren’t you skiing?”

Dakota finally told her twin everything. Mostly everything. She told her everything that was certain so far.

“It’s okay,” Delphie said. “I know what you need. Let’s go sledding down the bunny slopes together.”

Austin finally caught up with Dakota at the bottom of the hill, just as she was running off with her sister. He didn’t try to call out to her this time.

—

After a rather bruised and battered afternoon on the slopes, the group gets ready to attend the festival of lights. The brochures looked so pretty and they had their hopes set high.

The festival delivered on its promise of breathtaking displays, backdrops of floating lights, silky fabrics to wear and take selfies in, but the teens soon ran out of things to actually do here.

Dakota saw that Austin looked bummed out, and she felt bad for ditching him earlier. “Hey, weird. There’s not a cloud, not a bird, not a star, not a damn thing in the sky. Wanna check it out?”

“For sure!”

So they grabbed a clearing of hard stone to rest their weary teen-troubled bones and gazed up at the deep blue nothingness. How metal, Dakota thought.

“Hey, sorry I flaked out on skiing today,” Dakota said to Austin. “Women stuff.”

“Oh, gotcha. No hard feelings.”

“Cool.”

It took all of ten minutes to check out everything this festival offered. Pretty as it was, it was boring as hell. They ate some food and wrote profanities on the wish tree. Neither of them had any plans of putting on a kimono.

“Wanna ditch this snoozefest?” Dakota asked him. “We can sneak back to raid the hotel bar while everybody’s here.”

“Obviously!” he said.

And they were out.

The teens made wishes and drank coffee that had no caffeine in it. They lit the bonfire, they watched the fireworks, and they wore the kimonos. Everybody was really tired from such a long day, and most of them trickled back to the hotel one by one.

The only one of them having much fun here tonight, shock of all shocks, was Desmond! He met a townie girl and they had an engrossing conversation. What luck! Desmond may have a shot at scoring a date to prom after all.

Bet you all wish you had a nap earlier, Desmond thought. 

~ to be continued ~

gameplay notes: Of course The Sims is coming out with real prom after I just finished doing my own giant fakey prom. Oh well. Probably I’ll end up hating the in-game proms and want to do my own anyway, lol!

And dammit, Shannon, you had one job!!!

I loaded them up to get the deed done, after she’d been messing around with Dakota on the sly for a good couple of  months. The house was quiet, no distractions, no interruptions. The conversation was serious. Is it time? Is she going to break up with him?... And she sprang this nonsense on me. 

What!? Really, Shannon? Are you sure about that? 

So she didn’t break up with him. Yet.