Jack came home to find his younger brother sitting on the couch, scribbling furiously in a notebook. A pile of other notebooks lay beside him.

"What have you been up to?"

"Homework for my creative writing class. We're supposed to write a short story." He looked at the pile of notebooks. "But this is turning into more of a novella."

"You mind if I read it?"

"Go ahead, let me know if you think it's any good."

Jack picked up the bottom notebook and began reading. It was actually surprisingly engrossing, even though Jack usually preferred nonfiction. The story loosely focused on two teenaged brothers who went on a road trip to find James Dean's grave and had a number of philosophical conversations en route.

Shawn got up to get another pen.

"How is it?"

"This is really good. Is the Cole character supposed to be based on me?"

"No, Cory. You think I need to change the name more?"

"No, nobody'd recognize it. This kid's way smarter than Cory."

"Hey, he's not an idiot."

Jack looked at Shawn skeptically.

"Ok, but he's my idiot, and he's the reason I didn't turn out a lot worse than I did, so cut him some slack."

"If you say so." Jack really didn't like Cory, but he didn't want to press the issue with Shawn. If there really was something more than friendship between them, which the phrase "my idiot" seemed to indicate, he didn't want to get between it.

Shawn appeared to finish the novella and switched to his trigonometry textbook. Jack remembered that he had reading of his own, and skimmed through it before ordering Chinese food for dinner.

When he came back upstairs with the food, Cory was in the living room with Topanga and a camera.

"What's going on?"

"It's for our film class," Shawn explained, "Cory's doing a spoof of The Real World."

"And we're in it?"

"You guys are the only attractive 20-somethings with a large apartment in the big city and really dramatic personal problems I know," Cory admitted.

"I told Cory I'd be in his project if he was in mine."

"What's your project?"

"It's a horror movie spoof based on the recurring nightmare I have every time Cory and Topanga break up."

"Jesus, I'm in over my head here." Jack muttered. Cory poked the camera into his face. "I don't think the mic picked that up, can you say it a little louder."

Jack swatted the camera away. "Look, I only ordered food for three people."

"Don't worry," Cory said, "I'll just sit back and get some b-roll."

Topanga sat down at the table.

"How long is this going to go on?" Jack asked.

"Until he realizes you're not going to have a big emotional blow up and kick Shawn out of the house."

Shawn leaned in "He's not?"

"I didn't mention that you guys had resolved the issue with the letters when he came over to apologize, so he thinks you're going to torment Jack about it without actually telling him why you're upset until he finally gives up on you."

"Dang, he's got me pegged. Why didn't you tell him?"

"You have to admit, you let him off pretty easy."

"I mean, the getting me to move in with Jack part actually worked out."

"True, but if I'm going to be living with this guy for the rest of my life, he needs to learn boundaries."

"Ok, how about we try another way of teaching it?"

"I'm game if you are."

Shawn turned around in his seat. "Cory."

Cory appeared to be inventorying the furniture. "Yeah, Shawn."

"Jack's mom was hiding the letters from him. We talked it out."

Cory whirled around. "Really?"

"Yeah, so there's not going to be any drama."

"I'm taking him ice skating as soon as we can get passes to Pennbrook's rink." Jack volunteered.

"How am I supposed to do a Real World spoof without any drama?"

"Wait," Shawn interrupted. "You were going to let me walk out on literally the only biological relative I have that doesn't have a criminal record, for a class project?"

"Don't worry," Eric yelled, "the girl next door just broke up with her boyfriend, and Jack and I are totally going to fight over who gets to go out with her."