Trapped in the Sims (complete)

Part 8

At first it is darkness inside the school hall, and I fear the worst. Rabbitholes in the Sims really are just that, not programmed or anything. Eight Sim hours will be spent in blackness, and it will be really boring. Even though Sim hours go past really fast so it won't be as long as real time.

Real time. My mind is trying to remember the concept. How many minutes in an hour? It takes me a few moments to remember this very simple fact. I am beginning to panic until -

The blackness dissipates and I see the school hall lit up for the first time. I instantly forget any thoughts I may have had just a moment ago.

"Whoa."

Melissa is talking again, but I don't register many of the words. "Yeah, I know it's not great, but ..."

Because I am seeing the inside of the school for the very first time. The school exterior I have seen onscreen, but for a total fangirl like me, seeing the actual inside of the actual school is amazing! It's nothing like my school, it's a long corridor with classroom doors dotted all along the wall. But I can hear chatter, laughing in Simlish, conversations that I can now understand, being a Sim.

'Ooh we got homework today -'

'You think Bella Goth will ever get with Chase -'

'I wonder where Melissa is - oh there she is!'

I am jerked out of peacefully listening to the chatter when two girls come over smiling. They are the Sims I saw in the photograph, a tall bubbly girl with short blonde hair and a dark gothic looking girl with long black hair. Melissa smiles widely, greeting her friends happily. "Fran! Emily!"

"Hey Mel," greets Emily. Fran is looking at me curiously.

"Oh this is Rachel. She's living with us for a while," Melissa tells them. I'm amazed that they aren't finding the fact that a random girl is living in their friend's house slightly odd. But this is the Sims.

"Hi Rachel!" beams Francesca. "I'm Francesca, but you can call me Fran or Cessy. This is Emily."

Emily smiles at me, her smile a little less wide, more reserved. But she seems nice enough.

"We can totally show you around!" continues Fran quickly. "I mean, it's not much, but we go on field trips every now and then, so it's a bit better."

Generations expansion pack, my mind tells me informatively. I smile. "That'd be great. Thanks."

Melissa smiles. She seems so at home, so relaxed here with her friends. I find myself missing Hannah. "It's fine. New girls turn up all the time, it's no problem showing you around."

And I follow them down the corridor and into my first day of school.