Undergrads: Bootleg

By tim gueguen

Episode 1-Reboot

Based on characters and situations from the cartoon series Undergrads, created by Pete Williams. This fanfiction series is intended for non-commercial entertainment purposes only, with no intent to violate commercial copyright and/or generate financial recompense for the author.

As Rocko shifted the 24 pack of beer in his arms he heard a familiar voice calling his name. "Hey, Rocko!" Looking over he saw, as he often thought of her, that hot but annoying piece of ass Jesse walking towards him.

"Yo. What do ya want?"

"Have you seen Nitz lately?"

"Nah, haven't seen him in a while," he replied, shaking his head. "I've been outta town for a month. Went to California to do some surfing." He frowned as Jesse started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"You, surfing? I didn't think you could walk and chew gum at the same time," she snickered.

Rocko glared at her. "Sometimes I really hate you. You know that, don't you?"

"Later, dude," she said and walked away. Rocko shrugged. If she were going to be like that then he wouldn't tell Nitz she was looking for him when he ran into him.

Jesse walked back over to where her mother was waiting, looking in a shop window. Her mother had driven her into town, arguing it was easier to carry all her things that way than trying to pack them on the bus. The beginning of the fall semester was still 3 days away but Jesse had decided to avoid the rush and move into her dorm room before classes started.

Seeing the expression on her mother's face it wasn't hard to guess what she was going to ask. "Jesse dear, was that young man a boyfriend, or someone you're interested in?"

So typical of Mom, she thought. She laughed. "No, Mom. He's just a friend of a friend. Just wanted to see if they'd run into each other lately. Besides," she said as she waved a hand in Rocko's direction,"he's the kind of guy I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy." She was able to keep her annoyance from showing when her mother relaxed. She could just imagine the result if she had said she was interested in Rocko, namely her mother asking why she couldn't find a better class of boyfriend, preferably a nice Chinese boy studying medicine or law.

She smiled ruefully as they resumed their course down the street. It could be worse. At least her parents lived several hours away, so their ability to interfere in her life was limited during the school year. That's gotta be one of the few advantages of coming from a small town in the middle of nowhere, she thought.

Jesse sat on her bed and leaned back against the wall. After spending some time shopping together and eating an early supper her mother had helped Jesse carry her things into Chilton Hall and had left for home. With her mother gone she would have a couple of days in the calm before the storm that was the first week of classes to figure out what to do about Nitz.

From almost the moment she had met Nitz Walsh she had been his confidant, shoulder to lean on, and personal "advice columnist." Unfortunately Nitz had done little to acknowledge her help, and as time wore on it became obvious he had begun to take her friendship for granted, despite some not so subtle hints on her part of her growing frustration with him. Things hadn't been helped by Nitz's long running crush on Kimmy Burton, who he'd been interested in since high school. The redhead rubbed Jesse the wrong way for a number of reasons, and Nitz's behaviour regarding anything to do with her often crossed the line into the unnerving. He had even gone so far as to consider not coming back for the fall semester if Kimmy decided to leave State U., an obvious sign in Jesse's opinion that his crush was on the verge of becoming an unhealthy obsession. Ditching her at an end of term party he had dragged her along to, so he could be with Kimmy, had been the last straw. When they had run into each other the next morning she had exploded with anger, pouring out her frustration and disappointment with his actions. She had then driven away before he could respond.

She'd made a deliberate effort to not think about Nitz as she started her summer vacation. For a while it had worked, but as the weeks went on he slowly began to creep back into her thoughts. She eventually started to consider what had happened between them and what she might do about it.

Of course she had to admit her own attraction to Nitz had played a role. If he were just a friend his behaviour probably wouldn't have bugged her so much, and she wouldn't have let him get away with some of the things he did. But there was something about him that had drawn her to him when they first met, and she had developed feelings for him. When his insecurities and Kimmy obsession were on the back burner she enjoyed being with him. He was smart and had a sense of humour that she liked, although he didn't show it often enough. Even though she often teased him about it she kind of admired his loyalty to his weird and often troublesome childhood friends. And she found herself silently cheering him on as he cautiously, and sometimes clumsily, opened himself to new people and experiences.

She stood up and began to pace. She knew that deciding how to handle Nitz wasn't simply a matter of blandly weighing the pros and cons. Personal relationships didn't work that way. Listening to your instincts, trusting your gut feelings, following your heart, whatever you wanted to call it was involved, and hers told her not to give up on Nitz. Although she wanted more, something told her that even if all she and Nitz ever were was just friends it would be worth the effort. But if they were to stay friends things couldn't keep going the way they had been.

"I wonder if Nitz has been thinking about this too?" she muttered as she walked over to the window. He hadn't tried to get in touch with her over summer break, and she couldn't decide how she would have reacted if he had. I guess I'll find out if he has soon enough, she thought as she looked out at the darkening sky.

Jesse grinned as she made her way across the quad and took in the chaos around her. As she had expected the first day of classes was a madhouse. No matter where you went it seemed like half of the State U. student population was trying to go there as well. This year's crop of freshmen weren't hard to spot given that they all had some combination of confusion and nervousness on their faces. Of course last year she had been one of those poor unfortunates, so she was hardly unsympathetic to their plight.

As she walked along she carefully scanned the crowd, looking for a specific face. "Aha," she muttered, finally spotting her blond haired quarry. He's apparently been taking fashion lessons from the Duggler, she thought with amusement on seeing the white bathrobe he was wearing over his usual shorts and bunnyhug combo. "Cal! Hey, Cal!!" she shouted at him, waving her arms. He looked over, waved back, and began walking towards her.

"Hey, Jesseladyguy! How are you?"

"Not bad. Have you seen Nitz?"

Cal frowned. "Nitzguy is gonna be a day or two late starting classes. He won a trip to the Bahamas, but then the company went broke, so he got stuck there."

"Oh good grief!" Jesse replied, rolling her eyes. "That sounds just like the kind of weird thing that would happen to Nitz. So, do you know what room he's getting this year?"

Cal looked down at the clipboard he was carrying and began flipping through a stack of papers. "He's in 543."

"Hmmm, same as last year."

"Yeah, but I'm in 502, 'cause I'm an RA now, and RAs can't have roommates."

Jesse nodded in agreement. "Yeah, they want people who come to you guys to be free to say what's on their minds, without worrying about someone else listening in, and you wouldn't want to have to chase a roommate out every five minutes."

"That's right," replied Cal. He looked down at his watch. "I haveta go, Jesseladyguy. I have to go to a meeting. RAs have to go to lots of meetings!"

"Yeah, I imagine."

"If I see Nitzguy I'll tell him you're looking for him."

"Thanks, Cal." As Cal walked off she couldn't help but smile. Knowing Cal's fondness for the ladies she bet he'd be unlikely to last out the fall term as a RA. Either he would find it interfered with his social life too much and quit, or he'd get canned for violating the rules about RA's having personal relationships with students on their floor.

Well Nitz, it looks like you've been given a stay of execution, she thought wryly as she headed off to her next class.

"Hey, Nitz."

Nitz looked up in surprise from his chair at the sound of Jesse's voice. "Hi, Jesse," he replied. She looked pretty much the same as when he'd last seen her. Hooded sweater, olive drab cargo pants, midriff baring t-shirt and short, shaggy hair.

"Heard you had an interesting summer adventure," she said as she walked into the dorm room and sat down on his bed. "The Bahamas, in summer?" she asked, and shook her head. "You're supposed to go in the winter to get away from the cold."

Nitz shrugged. "Hey, it was free. I didn't remember entering any contest for a trip, but I wasn't going to turn down a free trip, even if I had to take it right away." He frowned. "Of course that should have been a warning sign. That, and that it was a trip for one. Guess they figured you wouldn't go by yourself and would buy the ticket and such through them."

"So the company went broke and you got stuck there."

"Yeah. Took a few days to arrange a way back, but the hotel was nice about it. Let me stay in exchange for helping with some rooms they were painting."

"Lucky you," she chuckled. "Guess it could have been worse. And at least you didn't just sit around your house all summer."

Nitz nodded in agreement. Several moments passed in silence as both of them considered what to say next. "Umm, Jesse, its not that I'm not glad to see you, because I am, glad to see you that is. Its just, well...."

"You're surprised to see me here after what I said the last time I saw you," she said, finishing his thought.

"Ummm, yeah."

Jesse crossed her arms. "It's true, I was pretty pissed at you. But I had the summer to calm down and think things over."

"That's good. So we...."

"Hold it, Nitz," she interrupted, raising a finger to silence him. "Just because I decided I'm not giving up on our friendship doesn't mean things are going to stay the same. You and I need to get a few things straight!"

"Ummm, okay," he replied lamely.

A stern look appeared on her face. "First of all, you can't keep coming to me expecting me to solve every little problem you have, you have to figure out things for yourself. It seemed like every time you had a problem you expected me to tell you what to do." She frowned. "And that's so weird, because you're able to give your buddies sensible advice. You also have to stop overreacting to everything."

"I don't do that," he said rather unconvincingly.

She glared at him. "Oh really? Does the name 'Room Guy' ring a bell? Or better yet that ridiculous nonsense about quitting school if Kimmy left State U. And that's another thing, the world does not revolve around Kimmy Burton, or your relationship with her. So don't expect me to sit there and listen to you go on and on about her! You also need to remember that there are other people in the world you need to pay attention to, like your friends!"

Nitz pulled back slightly from Jesse. The obvious anger in her voice unnerved him.

"Since I brought her up, I do have a question to ask," Jesse continued with a sigh. "Are you going to to out together?"

Nitz nodded. "I asked Kimmy out and she said yes."

"Good."

"Huh? But you don't like Kimmy," replied Nitz, his confusion obvious.

"No I don't. But you do, and if being with her makes you happy, well, we'll just have to agree to disagree. Besides, you going out with Kimmy has got to be an improvement over listening to you obsess about her all the time." Jesse let out another sigh. "But you know what really got to me? That you took me for granted, that you'd just start throwing your problems at me without even asking for my help first. You just assumed I'd give it to you. And to make matters worse you didn't thank me when I did help you." She gave him a hard stare. "I deserve better than that, Nitz."

Nitz looked down at his feet in embarrassment. Jesse really hadn't said anything he hadn't already figured out himself. But it was still painful to actually be confronted with his failings, and seeing her anger and disappointment with him once more drove the point home. He looked up at her. "I'm sorry, Jesse. I know I've been a jerk, and I'm sorry I didn't try to get in touch with you to apologise, but I wasn't really sure what to do. You know I'm not the greatest at dealing with people." He looked back down at his feet again. "I honestly didn't try to hurt your feelings on purpose."

"I know, Nitz," she said, her featuring softening. "But that doesn't change the fact that you did." She stood up and walked over to the door. "If you had done what you did to deliberately hurt me I wouldn't be here. But cluelessness only works as an excuse for so long. In other words, Nitz, as far as I'm concerned you're on probation." With that she walked out the door.

Nitz looked out his door for several moments after Jesse left. "She's scary," he finally said in a meek voice.

"Who's scary?" asked a familiar voice.

Nitz looked over at his computer, seeing Gimpy's face on the screen. "Jesse," he replied.

"Of course," said Gimpy matter of factly. "After all, girls are the enemy, and Jesse is a girl."

Nitz rolled his eyes. "Hmmph, like you're such an expert on girls."

The bug eyed young man just shrugged his shoulders and smiled.