Hi guys, so this is an AU story set in the present day, hope you all enjoy it. (Thanks to Mayalala who urged me to get my butt in gear and start writing again) It was wrote shortly after watching Clerks for like the hundredth time, so take from that what you will. Enjoy :)
Prologue.
Once upon a time, at a party hosted and attended by seniors of the University of Chicago, during a heated and somewhat inebriated discussion about why Zombie books certainly were (and always would be for that matter) better than any other genre of literature, a bet was made; involving a pad of paper, a Law major-come-writer named Nicholas Miller, and a then-un-named alcoholic drink in a blue cooler that ensured anybody who drank it had minimal memories of the night.
Under Nick Miller's drunken fingers, a short story was sketched of a lonely zombie detective named Julius Pepperwood, a tale that he considered both moving and terrifying- his masterpiece, and it was upon finishing this masterpiece (and subsequently finishing the last of the concoction in the blue cooler) that he announced to the full room that he had just wrote a story that they would tell their grandchildren about, a tale so great that he must insist that they turn off the music and listen to it.
Of course, given his undeniably intoxicated state, the story itself was written less like a piece of literature and more like a film script, and when read to a full room of equally drunken seniors, was greeted not with awe and quiet terror as he had intended, but with laughter and loud cheering.
Browbeaten, he had crumpled up the paper in annoyance, thrown it in his bag and, thanks to another blue cooler worth of the un-named alcohol, had forgotten all about it by classes the next morning. He was somewhat confused therefore, when students he had never spoken to before repeatedly approached him in corridors stating how much they had enjoyed his film idea, and Nicholas Miller will attest even to this day that the word 'genius' was mentioned on more than one occasion.
The encounters led to a bewildered Nick digging out the battered looking piece of paper from the bottom of his bag and reading it once more, discovering that he had, indeed, written a brilliant and rather hilarious spoof film about a zombie apocalypse.
The film had to be made of course, and Nick enlisted the help of his best friend Winston Bishop, who just so happened to be majoring in Theatre and Performance Studies, and group of people from his classes to map out a plan for the production. His roommate Schmidt was also invited to partake after Nick discovered that he would have to use their dorm to film certain scenes and it would appear less intrusive if he was along for the ride. He also quickly discovered that one of the main characters he had sketched out mirrored his roommate completely, and the match seemed too perfect to simply ignore. The other roles were respectively played by himself, Winston, and a group of his friends and family who he had practically forced into volunteering.
Restrictions on the college campus meant they could only shoot at night (which Nick argued was perfect, since it only added to the atmosphere of the film) and during filming Nick sold his collection of rare baseball cards his father had given him, maxed out two credit cards and dipped in to over half of the money he had put aside for law school. It also became clear after a few months of filming that to keep the cost of production low, the film was going to have to be in black and white rather than colour. It was hardly ideal, but a goal was set, and after months of working non-stop (and forgetting almost entirely about their senior theses) the film was finally complete.
The final cut (which was eventually named Pepperwood) was played first at a special viewing on the college campus attended not only by their fellow seniors, but by freshmen, sophomores and a few well-informed professors, and it received a reaction and was more than Nick, Winston and Schmidt had ever imagined. It gained high praise at the Independent Feature Film Market and within no time (and certainly with no idea how they had ever pulled it off) Pepperwood became increasingly well-known, leading eventually to them being nominated several times at the Sundance Film Festival and being picked up by Miramax.
The boys appeared on talk shows and did magazine interviews to increase their incomes (and as Nick would happily admit: to pay off their huge debts) and when they finally graduated, they collectively packed up their cars and drove to LA, settling together in a large loft in a private complex overlooking the sea, where they planned to write and plan their next project.
Articles about them would attest that they owed their success to Nick's brilliant writing, Winston's knowledge of the film business and Schmidt's expert comedic timing. Nick always smiled knowingly at these critiques however, as he was aware that only he and his two best friends held the secret to the one thing they truly owed their success to: The alcoholic beverage in the blue cooler, the drink that they had all affectionately come to know as Bro Juice.