It was Monday night- the first day of class was over. We find Jack walking down the hallway of the dormitory, lugging his backpack and thinking unpleasant thoughts about the people who were playing Frank Sinatra about 100 decibels too loud in one of the rooms on his floor.

“I don’t care WHO he is! No one deserves to be subjected like this to him!”

He opens the door to his room and is about blown back out into the hallway.

“WHAT THE HELL???” he stops and thinks for a second and then, “PAUL!!!”

We see Paul’s head appear from behind a wall that separates the bedroom area from the living room.

“What’s up?”

“ARE YOU DEAF OR JUST STUPID?”

Paul turns off the music, “What did you say?”

“Oy vey!”

Paul just stares at him, “Huh?”

“Can you please keep the music at a reasonable level?”

“Like what?”

“‘Like’ you’re not shaking the walls with it.”

“Oh, but of course.”

“Thank you.”

Jack drags himself up into his loft. Paul sees this.

“Long day?”

“You could say that.”

“Humm.”

Jack hears from scribbling from below. He leans over the side of his loft.

“What are you doing?”

“Drawing.”

“Really?”

“Yeah... Why, don’t I look like the type?”

“Nah, I just didn’t think you’d have time.”

“I have enough time. I even have a date tonight.”

“WHAT??? Already?”

“I work fast, Jack.”

“I’ll say.”

“You wanna come?”

“No, I have reading to do.”

“Aww, come on. It’ll put hair on your chest.”

“My chest is plenty hairy already, thank you very much.”

“What time is it?”

Jack glances at his watch, “Ten after seven.”

“She’s supposed to be here.”

Just then there is a knock at their door. Paul answers.

“Hey, Vicki!”

“Hello, Paul.”

“Well, let’s go!”

“Oh no, I wanna see your digs this year.”

Jack perks up, “‘This year’?” he mouths.

For the second time that evening, Jack leans over the side of his bed but this time finds himself looking at the top of a auburn-haired woman’s head. She feels someone looking at her and she gazes up with her blue eyes to see Jack.

“Who’s your friend, Paulie?”

“This is my roommate, Jack-”

Jack interrupts, “Jack McCoy.”

“Well, hello, Jack.”

“Great, you’ve seen our place, now let’s go.”

“You seem surprised by something, Jack.”

Jack smiles at Paul and Paul mouths something rather foul in response.

“Paul had me under the impression that you had just met today.”

“‘Today’? Oh please! Paulie, you work fast but not that fast,” she turns to Paul, “No, Jack, I’ve known Paul since high school. He calls me up when he wants to go out for an evening and doesn’t want to go alone.”

Paul looks about ready to crawl into a hole.

“Oh really?”

“Yup... Now- Paul, let’s go.”

Paul stays back for a moment, “You’ll pay for that.”

“Aww, poor Paulie not like it when someone out-smarts him?”

“Paul, get moving!”

Paul, reluctantly, leaves and Jack sits smugly in his loft, watching him go.

“I’m good.”

The night moves on without further disturbance until a hoopla somewhere in the hall calls for his attention. He climbs down the ladder and jogs to the door. Sticking his head out he realizes that the noise is coming from the room across the hall. We see him arch his eyebrows and consider investigating but he dismisses this to resume his studies. Less that ten minutes later there is a knock and when Jack answers he is greeted by one of the guys from across the hall.

In a thick Australian accent, “Hey! My name is Trent. I live right over there with Max.”

“Yeah... I’m Jack.”

“Nice to meet you, Mate.”

“Same here. Umm, not that I don’t appreciate the visit but why are you here?”

“Wondering if you’d like to come over and have some squirrel.”

“Nah, I don’t think so... I have a test day after next and... Wait a minute... Did you just say ‘have some squirrel’?”

“Yup...”

“But... you’re not supposed to eat squirrels!”

“Why not?”

“It’s... It’s... It’s just not something you do!”

“Them’s good eating.”

“But... No... Just, no...”

“Well, it wasn’t even my idea.”

“Then whose was it?”

“Max... He’s from Michigan... He said they do that kinda stuff there.”

Jack makes a mental note never to visit Michigan and then continues his questioning.

“Where did you find the squirrels?”

“In the park by a swing set.”

“How did you kill it?”

“Be-be gun.”

“And so I’m clear here- you’re eating it?”

“Yup... Skinned and cleaned them in our bathroom.”

“That is so wrong on so many levels.”

Trent shrugs, “You want some or no?”

“I think squirrels are cute to feed... Just not to people...”

“So no?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Suit yourself...”

Jack shuts the door and just stares at it for a moment.

“Squirrels?”

10pm rolls around and Jack is once again up in his bed reading. He hears the door opens and looks up to see who is coming in.

“I swear! I don’t know how my hand got there!”

“Sure, Paul.”

“What? I mean it!”

Jack rolls his eyes and goes back to reading.

“Paul, next time you want to play grab-ass with me first think very carefully about how much you value the ‘family jewels’.”

Despite his disgust with his roommate, Jack can’t help but grin at Vicki’s comment.

“Good night, Paulie.”

Door slam and sound of foot steps entering the bedroom area.

“You up there, Jack?”

“Oh yeah.”

“You hear all that?”

“Oh yeah.”

“She’s more trouble than she’s worth.”

“I dunno... Sounds like the kind of woman who can keep a guy on his toes and in line.”

“You enjoyed all that, didn’t you?”

“I think you got what you deserved.”

“Yeah, well, she’s a regular spitfire and right nasty if you tick her off. Lota fire in that one.”

“And you just got burned.”

Paul glares at him for making this awful pun.

“Any ways, what did you do to her?”

“She sat on my hand.”

“Uh huh... Right.”

“Hey! I swear, that’s what happened!”

“And in other news from the Land Of Make Believe...”

“Aww, forget you...”

Jack hears Paul leave for the living room.

“We got any food around here? I’m starving.”

“Try across the hall- they were cooking earlier. Maybe they have left-overs.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah...”

“Great! Talk to you later!”

The door slams again and now Jack is smiling to himself.

“Hope you like wild game, Paulie.”