Chapter 3

"Rocko, how on Earth did you manage to stay at your fraternity?"

"Hey, you know. I just turned on the charm and boom, I get to stay."

Nitz shook his head. "Charm? You?"

"Shut up. Now if you don't mind I'm gonna return to looking at porn." Rocko grabbed a magazine and began leafing through it.

Nitz got up from his bed and looked out the window. "Where's Cal? I told him we'd be hanging out in my room."

"Why do you want to hang out with that wad again so soon? You already spent enough time with him as your roommate last year."

"Come on, Rocko. It's the clique. Friends forever, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Less talk, more looking at porn."

Nitz sneered in his direction. He went to sit back down, but a knock came to the door. "That'll likely be Cal."

"Hey former roomie guy, how's it going" Cal walked in with the usual cheesy grin on his face. "I would have been here sooner, but the work of an RA comes first."

Rocko yelled out from the corner. "You mean you weren't banging some chick?"

"Well, yeah. Isn't that what I said, guy?"

Nitz sat back down on his bed. "Man, I missed hanging out with you guys here at college."

"Dude. We hung out all the time back home."

"Yeah, but it's a different atmosphere here. All we need is Gimpy and the clique is back in full swing."

A sudden loud knock came to the door and Nitz nearly fell off his bed in shock. When he opened the door, his brother was standing there, grinning as wide as he could muster.

"Jay? What's up?"

"Nothing. What are you guys up to?"

"Just hanging out."

"Cool, can I join you?" Without hesitation, Jay shot into the room.

"Jay, hold up..."

"What the fuck's going on?" Zack had just walked into the doorway, holding a laptop under his arm and smoking a cigarette. "There better not be any partying going on. I need to study."

"Isn't that what you were just doing?"

Zack walked up to Nitz, looking very agitated. "No, I was researching, smart-ass. Now if you don't mind keeping it down..." He set his laptop down and sat down at his computer. "Hey, why's my computer on? And why is there a porn site up?" He shot a glance around, but everyone had already high-tailed it out.

The four escapees managed to find a free table at the cafeteria, laughing and bad-mouthing Nitz's roommate.

"Man, could the school have given you more of an uptight wad of a roommate?" Rocko uttered through mouthfuls of french fries. "Didn't classes just start for you guys?"

"Yeah. Someone needs to loosen him up before the end of the year."

"So Nitz, have you talked to Jesse yet?" The normally quiet Jay suddenly spoke up, stopping the conversation cold for a few seconds.

"Jay?"

"Nothing, never mind." Jay stood up and walked back to the cafeteria line.

Nitz let out a sigh. "Good, let's talk about something else."

"Hold up, Nitz." Rocko interjected. "I'd like to know what's up."

"Me too, guy."

Nitz put a hand to his forehead. "Look, guys. I've had a crush on Kimmy forever. I'm staying with her. Besides, Jesse still is kinda mad at me."

"Dude. The way you described how she looked. Maybe she did it to get your attention."

"Nah. She wouldn't do that." Out of the corner of his eye, Nitz noticed Jesse walking into the cafeteria and talking with Brody and Kruger. Her hair was falling off her shoulders and she was wearing a similar outfit from when he saw her last. "Would she?"

"I'll ask her, guy. HEY JESSE LADY!"

Nitz put a hand over Cal's mouth. "Cal, what are you doing?"

Jesse waved to everyone, said something to Brody and Kruger and walked up. "Well, if it isn't the clan of dorks. Rocko, Cal."

"Meh." Rocko seemed more interested in devouring his food.

"Hi, lady! Nitz wants to know if..."

"NO CAL!" Nitz looked over at Jesse and started to blush.

Jesse tilted her head to the side and grinned. "OK, what's this all about?"

"No, seriously. It's nothing. Really."

Jesse 's grin began to shrink. "Well, if it's nothing, I suppose I'll go."

"Um, OK."

Jesse hesitated a bit, but eventually turned around and walked to the end of the cafeteria line where Brody and Kruger were.

A french fry hit Nitz in the head. "Hey! Rocko!"

"What?"

"OK, so I have feelings for Jesse, are you happy?"

"Huh? I was just throwing french fries."

Back in line, Jesse eyeballed the table she just left.

"That fucker still gets to you?"

"Shut up, Kruger. We're not talking about it. Brody, talk about your next script or something."

"Oh, I'm glad you mentioned it. I see it as a cross between The Godfather and Weekend at Bernie's..."

Kruger nudged Brody with his elbow and shook his head. They noticed Jesse still looking off at Nitz's table.

"Ahhhhhh, just smell that fresh air." Gimpy inhaled deeply and spread his arms out.

"Sir, the air in here is stagnant and a bit nauseating to tell you the truth." Mump clutched his head.

"Fool! This is the room of a shut-in. What did you expect? Flowers?"

"Perhaps one of those potpourri scented plug-ins would do this room good."

"Hmmm...duly noted." Gimpy sat down at his wall of computers and started typing away.

"Sir, it's too bad we couldn't afford that offshore oil derrick like we wanted."

"Yeah, well. What do our parents know? Stupid meddling..." Gimpy trailed off and tapped away at his keyboard some more.

Mump stood awkwardly by as Gimpy sat silent, save for the keys clacking. "Sir? Um...what are you doing?"

Gimpy twirled around, twiddling his thumbs and staring off into a corner of the room. "In short, fellow Tekerson student, I am out of practice."

"OK...out of practice of what?"

"That's...none of your concern." Gimpy swiveled his chair back and returned to typing.

"Come on, sir. You can tell me. Maybe I can help."

Gimpy stopped typing and merely tapped his fingers off to the side. "I don't think so. It's a personal matter."

"Alright sir. I'll just be on my way. We're still on for Star Wars Monopoly tonight?"

"Mmmf. Fnehh." Gimpy waved him away and resumed his typing. Mump waddled off and Gimpy stared into his computer, as if looking directly at someone. "She Prime. Wherever you are, I will find you. And I will take you down."

Nitz's face loomed large on the computer screen.

"Ahhhh!" Gimpy jerked back in his chair. "Nitz?"

"Hey, Gimpy. How did the move back into the dorms go?"

"Long but necessary. There's no time for me to dilly-dally, Nitz. I am on a mission of grave importance."

"Sounds epic. What mission is that?"

"A mission of truth. A mission of hope. A mission of setting all that is wrong right again."

"You're going after She Prime, aren't you?"

"Of course."

"Well, when you're done setting all that is wrong right again, a bunch of us are going out for pizza. I hope you'll come."

"Oh. OK, sure."

"Be at Papa Joe's by seven. See ya." Nitz disappeared from the screen.

Papa Joe's was packed with students from State U, Tekerson Tech, and of course Rocko.

Gimpy scratched his head when he approached Nitz. "Heh. I hope you don't mind I invited everyone at Tekerson to join us. And it looks like most of them came."

"Don't worry about it. Glad you could make it. This is a rare occasion indeed! Though, I don't know if there's anywhere to sit." Nitz surveyed the area, noticing Cal surrounded by tons of girls and Rocko half-drunk with his face laying in one of the pizza boxes. "Oh, wait. There's a seat over by that girl."

"What girl?"

Nitz pointed to a girl in the far corner with a hooded sweatshirt quietly eating while everyone else was mingling. "Oh wait, never mind. You don't want to associate with girls."

"Ah, what won't kill me will only make me stronger, right?"

Nitz shook his head. "I'll talk to you later." He watched Gimpy walk away and then felt someone hugging him from behind. "Kimmy?"

"How did you know?"

Nitz turned around and they both kissed, hearing several whoops from the peanut gallery. "Yeah, yeah. Just eat your pizza! Kimmy, I thought you had a thing tonight."

"I did. But when the police broke up the protest, it ended much earlier than I would have liked. So, here I am."

"Police? Well, I'm glad you're OK."

"And since I'm free tonight, do you want to..." Kimmy whispered into his ear and he froze.

"K-K-Kimmy. I really should stick around and talk to everyone. You see Gimpy just got here and...OK." Nitz grabbed Kimmy by the hand and headed for the door, only to find Jesse walking in and not looking too pleased.

Meanwhile, Gimpy had sat down across from the girl with the hooded sweatshirt. She dropped the slice of pizza she was holding onto the table and started stammering. "Wh-wh-what do you want?"

"Calm down. There wasn't anywhere to sit except here." Gimpy, rather rudely, stuck his hand into the pizza that was in front of her and grabbed a slice.

"Must you be here?"

"Get used to it." Gimpy scraped off all the cheese and ate it, tossing the dough portion into the box.

"You know, you're more annoying than Hayden Christensen in Episode II."

Gimpy stood up and pointed a finger inches from her nose. "Do not bad-mouth Star Wars ever again. It is the greatest movie series of all time. George Lucas had his reasons for hiring him."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you really believe that?"

Gimpy's finger wavered and he sat down in a heap. "Of course not. The name of Star Wars has been sullied forever." He raised a fist at the ceiling. "Damn you, Lucas!"

"Jesse! H-Hi" Back with Nitz, he awkwardly said hello and stood around.

"Nitz." Jesse stood with her hands in her pocket and wouldn't say anything more.

"Well, come on in, Jesse. There's pizza for everyone."

"Were you two just leaving?"

"No! Of course not! We barely just got started! Kimmy and I were just going outside for a minute."

Kimmy gave him a weird look. "Oh. Yeah."

"Well don't let me stop you."

This time, Kimmy grabbed Nitz by the hand and dragged him out the door. Nitz just looked back at Jesse until they disappeared around the corner.

Jesse merely sighed, finding herself standing next to Rocko who was making bubbles in the cheese.

"Jesse, what's up?" Gimpy walked up to her, grinning uncharacteristically.

"Gimpy, what a rare treat to find you out of your element for once." She noticed a girl standing beside him. "And with a girl too? This can't be the same Gimpy I knew."

"This is Carrie. We are both in a state of denial of the current Star Wars movies and therefore will only acknowledge the original three as ever to have existed."

"Is that so? Nice to meet you, Carrie."

"Same here."

Gimpy interjected. "We're off to discuss all the discrepancies of Episode I online. Later."

"Later, Gimpy." Jesse watched the two of them leave and stood next to Rocko again. "So Rocko, where's your date?"

"Wha?" Rocko lifted his head up, completely covered in cheese. "Didja say sumthin?"

Jesse winced and began to back away. "Never mind, Rocko. I think I'm just going to leave." She swiftly headed for the door. "Maybe I better just find Nitz and say goodbye. I don't even know why I came." When she stepped outside, she noticed it had begun to drizzle. "I bet he and Kimmy just left anyway."

She suddenly heard someone by the back of the pizza joint. When she turned to look, there wasn't anyone in view. "Please let that be anyone but Nitz and Kimmy." She circled around and peered around the corner only to find what she feared. Nitz and Kimmy were making out in the back of Papa Joe's. She quickly withdrew her head and just stood there for a minute to get her bearings. The rain started to pour down harder and she looked up into it, slowly walking away and contemplating what to do.

"I need a drink."

I'm glad a few of you are actually reading this. Undergrads fans are few and far between. Later, UG fans!

-KTF/Xfox