Whew! It took forever to finish this chapter. Life kept getting in the way. Here's hoping some day I can write full time and churn out chapters every couple of days. That's the dream!

Before we begin, thanks to TheBigCat, The Little Chibi, Calvin Fan, and Calvin Age 6 for reviewing Chapter 2. Some of the questions you've asked, I think it's probably better if you read and find out. :D Thanks again. I really appreciate the feedback, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far.

Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Let's go!

Sweet Jehoshaphat's name

Calvin was standing at the door to Study Hall CAD3. His hand was on the handle, but he'd been standing there for almost ten minutes now, unable to turn it.

"Come on," Hobbes said. "We're already late. They're going to kick us out if we keep this up."

"Gimme a sec, will you?" Calvin said.

They stood there. A few students passed by, and threw Calvin curious looks.

"Someone is going to call campus security soon," Hobbes sighed. "Just go in. So what if it's a date?"

"It's not a date," Calvin snapped.

"Then what are you afraid of?" Hobbes cried, throwing his hands up.

"Shh!" Calvin went.

"I know I was teasing you before," Hobbes said, "but she called it 'passing by'. She would pass by. That's not a date."

"But then she called it a date," Calvin said, nibbling on his bottom lip.

"No, what she said was, 'It's a date'. That's just an expression," Hobbes said. "Dude, you're overreacting to an expression TV anchors use."

Calvin looked up into the pearly black eyes of his tiger friend. "You're right. I'm just freaking out."

"You are."

"I'll bet she won't even show up," Calvin said.

"Things happen," Hobbes said, with a noncommittal shrug. "Can we go in now? I don't want to miss another 'Who is Hotter' debate."

Calvin nodded hard, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Deep voices hit him hard. Moe and some of the club members were at the front of the room, shouting out an argument whilst the others yelled their contributions from their seats.

Calvin turned to his immediate left to take one of the seats in the back row. He stopped.

"Hey you," Ivy said, flashing a smile that dazzled Calvin for a moment. She was sitting where he had sat last week, next to Kofi, the Afro-haired boy who seemed to have moved a row back from their last encounter.

"Hey," Calvin finally managed to say.

Ivy patted the seat next to her. Calvin walked into the row, and took it. Hobbes, who was grinning so hard that Calvin wanted to smack him, sat to Calvin's right.

"What's up, man?" Kofi said, offering a fist bump.

Calvin obliged him.

"Did your class run late?" Ivy asked.

"What? Oh um, yeah, it did," Calvin said, running a hand through his blond hair. "Sorry, I should have apologized first for being late."

"It's okay," Ivy said.

"I should probably point out that I'm always going to be late," Calvin said, and then quickly added. "To these meetings I mean. Not to subsequent dates. N-not that I'm saying we'll be going on more dates. Or that this is a date for that matter. I'm just saying that my class always eats a few minutes into club time and so I'll really try to make it on time but oh god, I'm rambling again aren't I?"

Ivy looked infinitely amused. Kofi raised a brow, and tried to hide his smile.

Calvin cleared his throat. "So, what are we arguing about?"

"The hypocrisy of the film rating system in slapping PG-13 on gratuitously violent movies but putting instant R's on nudity and sex," Kofi said.

Calvin and Hobbes looked stunned.

"That…actually sounds smart," Calvin said.

Kofi chuckled. "Man, I'm just messing with you. Three pairs or four pairs of boobies for hot alien characters: the filmmaker's dilemma."

"Neither, obviously," Hobbes said, rolling his eyes. "Their backs would hurt too badly. Two pairs are all alien hotties need. Who are these amateurs? Ugh!"

Calvin's face flushed. "Geez." He turned to Ivy. "I'm sorry about this."

"It's fine. I'm not staying anyway," Ivy said, and gestured at the arguing boys at the front. "Not that this isn't awesome, but Susie is meeting me here."

"Oh?" Calvin said, trying not to sound disappointed.

"Yeah," Ivy said. "I'm taking her out to Yum-Hub for pancakes and bacon."

"Pancakes and bacon?" Calvin said, and blinked. "But it's past 4 pm."

Ivy grinned. "Yeah, she has a thing for breakfast food. Also she needs it right now."

Calvin was just about to ask why, when a voice croaked, "What in sweet Jehoshaphat's name is going on there?"

Everyone in Calvin's row looked right to see Susie standing in the aisle. Susie, to put it kindly, looked like an untidy bed. Her brown hair jutted out at weird, tangled angles, and her eyes had the telltale dark bags of shed tears. She was wearing a dirty, tan jacket over Hello Kitty pyjamas, and her slippers were on the wrong feet.

"How did a bag lady get in here?" Kofi asked.

Ivy looked apologetic. "That's my friend, Susie."

Susie pointed a limp finger at the boys in front. "Did I hear one of them say 'purple areola'?" She sounded incredulous.

"Film club," Calvin said.

Susie looked at him. "Don't just drop those words like they magically explain why they should be talking about purple areolas."

"The adjective he left out was 'bad'," Hobbes said. "Bad film club."

Susie narrowed her eyes. "Is that Moe?" she asked, her voice hitting a new octave.

"That was my reaction more or less," Calvin said.

"Huh," Susie said, pausing to regard him. "He actually looks kind of cute now."

"And this is where we go," Ivy said, standing up. "Anyway when it starts hitting five, all the weirdoes who also like breakfast food get out of work and crowd the Yum-Hub." She looked at Susie. "No offense."

"Hey, you're the one who only eats plants," Susie grumbled. "I'm not the weirdo here."

"Oh," Calvin said, looking up at Ivy. "I just realised I wanted to ask you something. About uh…" Calvin noticed Susie staring. "Your uh…your um…" He lowered his voice. "Your book?"

"What?" Ivy said, leaning down. "Say that again?"

Now, she was too close and Calvin could smell the lavender oil that still glistened ever so subtly on her neck. Also, her v-neck was a little low.

"Never mind," Calvin said quickly. "I'll see you around."

Ivy smiled. "Okay." She sort of flicked the side of his head, and walked out of the room, with Susie following close behind. Susie gave Calvin one last curious look, before closing the door behind her.

"So," Hobbes said, with a grin and a shrug. "It wasn't a date. That's good."

"I guess," Calvin said.

"You guess? Dude, there's no pleasing you," Hobbes said.

"You guess what?" Kofi said, looking at Calvin.

"What? Sorry, I was talking to um…myself."

Kofi raised his brow again, and gave Calvin a half-smile. "You're an odd kinda guy, huh?"

"It's been said once or twice," Calvin said.

Kofi glanced over at Moe and his friends. "Man, that conversation ain't going anywhere."

"Probably not."

"Want to see something cool?" Kofi asked, with a sly grin.

"More often than not," Calvin said.

"Come on." Kofi stood up and walked out of the room.

Calvin threw one last look at the boys in front, and then he and Hobbes got up too.

Holy mother of cows

"Holy mother of cows," Calvin said, his jaw dropping.

He had just stepped into Kofi's room, which might have been more accurately described as a den. Every curtain was drawn, so there was no natural light. But the room wasn't entirely dark; it was lit with the neon blues, greens and soft whites of eleven, maybe twelve screens. Small red and yellow lights blipped in the shadowy edges of the room. A few transparent wires lined the walls, and they glowed.

"Nice," Hobbes muttered, following Calvin in.

"Kamadhenu," Kofi said.

"Kama-what-now?" Calvin said.

"Kamadhenu. The holy mother of cows? That's her name," Kofi said. "She's a Hindu bovine goddess. She's why they don't eat cows, you know?"

"I didn't," Calvin said. "Well, I knew Hindus didn't eat cows, and I knew it was for religious reasons, but now that religious reason has a name." He paused. "I forgot it already though."

Kofi grinned. "It's alright."

"Tigers try not to eat humans too," Hobbes said. "Although that's more out of pity than reverence."

"But this is amazing," Calvin said, touching the surface of one of the screens. The blank white screensaver dissolved away, and the desktop of an operating system showed up.

"Most of them are touch screen," Kofi said.

Calvin leaned in closer. The taskbar at the bottom of the screen was rippling like water. He touched it, and a whole new window scrolled up filled with games and applications. The icons were all three-dimensional, and they bobbed gently in place like they were flying on the screen.

"This is really cool," Calvin gasped. "I've never seen this OS before."

"That's because I made it from scratch," Kofi said, dropping into a swivel chair. "And it can run programs from all the major systems, in addition to my own custom programs of course."

"Oh, ask him if he has Furious Birds," Hobbes said. "Ask him, ask him."

"Um, do you have Furious Birds," Calvin asked, with an embarrassed laugh.

Kofi swivelled around. "Computer, run Furious Bird on Monitor 5."

"Running," a soft computer voice said from hidden speakers, and the screen marked '5', the plain desktop was replaced with a colourful canvas, comical round birds and a pulsating 'Press Start' instruction."

Calvin's mouth wouldn't shut.

Kofi looked thrilled by his reaction.

"D-don't you have roommates?" Calvin asked.

"Nope," Kofi said. "Hacked into the administration records a few weeks before orientation. Moved some names around. Everybody still got a bed. But I'm one of the lucky few who got an empty room. Also, they'll never fill it up because they think I'm rooming with a Francis Oswald Hatcher."

"That's an oddly specific name," Calvin said.

Kofi smiled. "Think about the initials."

Calvin thought about them for a moment. He laughed. "Mean, but funny."

Kofi shrugged. "I have a dark sense of humour."

"I'll say," Hobbes said, after he'd noticed one screen showing a muted video of two zombies enjoying a casual conversation over a plate of brains.

"Are you some kind of genius?" Calvin asked.

"Only if you want to get technical," Kofi said.

"What are you doing here in John Thomas then? You could be at M.I.T. or I dunno, NASA or something."

"I don't think NASA has a college," Kofi said.

"You know what I mean."

"Actually," Kofi said, "my passion is really for film editing and special effects. I sent a project I worked on to a bunch of film schools but I got turned down every time. So I decided to apply to a school with a really great film club instead. But every college was through with admissions, so I picked out the only one still taking admissions with a film club."

"John Thomas University," Calvin said.

Kofi winked. "Bingo. Figured I'll just kill time here till I can reapply next year to some film schools."

"Do you know why the film schools rejected you though?" Calvin asked.

"It might have been the film project I sent them," Kofi said. "I was trying something experimental and I'm guessing it flew over their heads a little bit."

"Oh," Calvin said, and paused. "Can I see it?"

Kofi whirled around in his chair to face his screens. "Computer, search for video file 'Film Project 4' and play on Monitor 6."

"File found," his computer droned. "Playing."

Monitor 6 went dark, and video began to play:

First there was darkness. Then, a light appeared in the distance. The light grew, and grew, till it suddenly rushed in and the screen was engulfed in the random flickering dots of video noise. The noise flickered away, and now there was an eye on the screen, in black and white. The eye blinked twice. Suddenly, the eye was replaced by a woman screaming; a terrifying, bloodcurdling scream. Now, there was a fly on a piece of bread. One fly became two flies, and then three, and then a hundred. The piece of bread turned mouldy before everyone's eyes, and all the flies flew away. Maggots appeared on the bread. The maggots grew into more flies. The video cut to an athlete nursing a bleeding knee, and then to two muscular guys slathered in black mud making out, and then to happy children skipping rope. A team of desperate doctors and nurses, using defibrillator paddles to shock a flat lining old man back to life. An egg. A broken egg. A fried egg. A panting dog. A bawling baby. An old timey couple, from maybe the fifties, walking out of a suburban house. The woman kisses her husband, and the man puts on his hat. He says goodbye. A long-distance shot of an atomic blast, the mushroom cloud curling upwards and outwards.

Darkness.

Calvin and Hobbes were speechless. There was silence for a full sixty seconds.

Kofi whirled back around. "Did I mention I'm not great at telling stories?"

Calvin gave him a weak smile. "You probably should have led with that."

Damn right I will

Strobe lights flashed, and beams of coloured light cut across the sky over the concert grounds. The cheering was deafening, hands grasping luminous sticks waved in the air, and the crowd was splattered with the neon phosphorescence of glow paint.

A row of fiery pillars and sparks shot up along the front of the stage, as two figures rose slowly out of the stage, silhouetted by the bright lights behind them.

The crowd went wilder.

The figures came to a stop, the pyro effects ceased and all the lights blinked off, plunging the entire grounds into pitch black. The cheering continued, almost quaking the earth.

A spot light exploded upon the first figure: Calvin, with a Mohawk, triangular shades, leather sleeveless jacket and tight pants, a tattoo of a skull on his right cheek, and a chrome electric guitar slung around his neck.

The cheering turned to screaming.

A second spot light: Hobbes, with small round shades, a small hoop in his left ear, a tooth pick in his mouth, gold chains, a shredded jeans jacket and pants, and a blue bass guitar thrown over his shoulder like a bat.

The screaming turned to hysteria.

Some unseen shadows took their places behind the drums and the keyboard.

"New York," Calvin yelled into his mike. "Are you ready to rock?"

More screaming. More hysteria.

Hobbes grinned at Calvin, and he grinned back.

"Let's get this party started," Calvin cried. "One! Two! Three! Four!"

Their music hit the air like a hurricane. It was loud, and angry, and rhythmic, and beautiful.

Man o man, you're such a pill

Prowling like a tiger, and a craving to kill

Think you intimidate me with those monster eyes still?

Teach you a thing or two, damn right I will

"Damn right I will, damn right I will," Calvin crooned.

"Damn right I will, damn right I will," Hobbes roared.

"Damn right I will," they yowled.

And Calvin began his electric guitar solo… But then a hand touched him on the shoulder.

Calvin jumped, and whirled around.

Ivy herself jumped at his sudden reaction, and then she laughed—that laugh like silver bells. She was in a tank top and short pants. Also, she was barefoot. There was a plastic container of something in her hand.

"Sorry," Calvin breathed. "I didn't see you come in."

She said, "I guess this makes us even, huh?"

Calvin converted the tension in his chest into a soft laugh. "I guess it does."

"What are you doing? Playing a game?" Ivy asked, looking at the plastic guitar controller in his hands. Her eyes drifted to the flat screen behind him, with the flashing simulation of a rock star on stage.

"Yeah, we're having a duel. Kofi lent us some of his video games," Calvin said.

Ivy looked around the dorm room. "'We'?"

Calvin looked at Hobbes by his side, thumbing the buttons of his own guitar controller.

"I mean me and my roommate, Jeremy," Calvin said.

"Hey," Hobbes muttered.

"What are you doing here?" Calvin said. ""Not that you aren't welcome here any time you want."

"Any time," Hobbes said, looking up and grinning.

"But you know what I mean," Calvin said.

"I wanted to bring you these," Ivy said, lifting up her plastic bowl. She took the lip off.

"Muffins?" Calvin said. "These wouldn't happen to be of the same stock Susie used as ammo, are they?"

"The legendary same. I made them actually."

"Here on campus?" Calvin asked.

"Yup."

"How did you get access to an oven?"

"Oh," Ivy said, with a shrug. "I used the microwave."

Calvin stared at the perfectly square lumps of pale brown. "They look…interesting."

Ivy looked amused. "Just try one."

Calvin picked a square muffin and took a cautious bite. His eyes widened. He took a larger bite, and then stuffed the rest of the muffin into his face.

"Hey, save a bite for me," Hobbes said.

"It's amazing," Calvin managed to say, after he'd swallowed enough of his mouthful to speak.

Ivy grinned. "Thank you. It was tricky getting them just right with a microwave, but I just had to play around with the settings and the recipe a little."

"Wait, these aren't from a mix?" Calvin asked.

Ivy looked insulted.

"Sorry," Calvin said. "Can I have another?"

"They're all yours," Ivy said, handing him the container. "We had an excess back at my place. I made them to cheer Susie up." She paused, considering whether or not to add her next words. "She broke up with her boyfriend."

"I gathered."

"I was also trying to make it up to her," Ivy said, "for losing her notebook."

Calvin stopped mid-bite. "Her what?" were his muffled words.

"She had this special notebook she did all her writing in," Ivy said. "I was reading a story she wrote, till I misplaced it. I've tried retracing all my steps, but I can't pinpoint where I left it. I've been feeling horrible about it. It really was an awesome story."

Calvin swallowed. "You don't say."

"I do." Ivy sighed. "Well, you can bring that back to me when it's empty."

"Huh?" Calvin realized she was talking about the plastic container she'd handed him. "Oh yeah. Sure. Thanks."

"You're welcome," Ivy said. "See ya around." She twirled around, and walked out of the dorm room.

Calvin and Hobbes shared a look.

"Looks like have a mission on our hands," Calvin said. "We have to return that book without Susie ever finding out we had it."

"Yeah, yeah," Hobbes said, turning back to the screen. "Can we get back to our game? I'm not done thrashing you."

"You weren't thrashing me," Calvin said, with a frown.

"Uh…yes, I was," Hobbes said, with a scowl.

They bumped foreheads, and glared.

Suddenly, the roar of the crowd came rushing back, and they were on stage again.

What the devil-monkey

Nine symbols in a perfect square; they flashed intermittently in the rocky surface, till a fuzzy finger pushed against them in a seemingly random sequence. The symbols ceased flashing, and they all turned green.

The owner of the finger was a tall anthropomorphic tiger in silver pants, black boots and a pair of electronic goggles. He pushed his goggles up, and grinned at his slightly shorter companion, a blond young man in a blue one-piece suit, with a black eye-mask, yellow gloves and boots, and a blaster hanging from his utility belt.

The two explorers were standing at the foot of a mountain, beneath a bloody sky and an orange sun. A red-sand desert stretched with seeming infinitude around them, and howling winds carried sky-high curtains of dust across the landscape. In the distance, a herd of giant sand mammoths thundered along the horizon.

The tiger pushed against the side of the mountain with both hands, and a door in the stone wall grated wide open. He gestured at the entrance he had discovered, and said, "Ta-da."

"Good job, Fauzzie," his campanion said.

"That's Captain Fauzzie, to you, Spiff," Fauzzie said.

"Captain?" Spiff looked incredulous. "If anybody is the captain here, it's me. I've been doing this way longer than you."

"As far as you know," Fauzzie said.

"In fact," Spiff snapped. "You call me Captain now."

"I am not calling you that," Fauzzie sniffed. "You're just a 'Spaceman'."

"It's an accolade!" Spiff said, throwing his hands up. "I've been to so many galaxies that I'm known by that name on three hundred and twenty-five inhabited planets, okay? You on the other hand are not even wearing a shirt!"

Fauzzie stuck out his tongue. "That's 'cause I have sexy pecs and the ladies love them."

"Can we just go in please?" Spiff said. "Can we do that, before I suffer a brain aneurism?"

"Sure. Ladies first."

"Unbelievable," Spiff muttered, stepping into the darkness.

Fauzzie chuckled to himself and followed him in.

The stone path sloped down into a surprisingly dank cave. The sound of dripping…something…echoed in the black emptiness around them.

"This is slippery," Fauzzie muttered.

Spiff released a capsule from his utility belt, and popped it between his fingers. There was a puff of dust, and a flashlight appeared in Spiff's hand. "Always prepared," Spiff said, turning it on. "That's the kind of quality you expect in a captain, don't you think?"

"Let it go, Spiff."

"Just saying," Spiff said.

The beam of light cut across the expanse above them, glistening off wet, rocky protrusions from the high ceiling. The light swept down.

"Woah," Fauzzie said, as the flashlight revealed the true precarious nature of their path.

They were walking down a narrow ledge, a wall to their left, a gaping drop to their right. The ledge travelled against the damp wall, spiralling down continuously into what looked, from here, like a bottomless pit.

"I'm so glad you talked me into this," Spiff said.

"Don't give me that," Fauzzie said. "You're the one who wanted to return Artefact 22 to Planet Zu-zi. I'm only here for the scenery, and of course, the potential endless 'lulz' at your failure."

"You can stay in the space ship next time," Spiff said.

"I'll take you up on that offer."

Spiff shook his head, released another capsule and popped it. "We're not walking all the way down," he said, pointing his newly acquired grappling gun up at the ceiling. He squeezed the trigger.

The cave echoed with a metallic burst, as the grapple rocketed up. It hit the ceiling, and then with a loud whirring sound, it bored into the rock and sunk its claws in.

Spiff spread his other arm out. "Do you want to join me, or will your big head help you float down?"

"Ha ha," Fauzzie said, wrapping his arms around Spiff and holding on.

They leapt off the side of the path, and sunk down into the black. After a full sixty seconds of rapid falling, the light from Spiff's flashlight finally hit the bottom. Spiff slowed their descent.

When their feet touched the ground, Spiff left the grappling gun dangling. "We'll use it to go back up," he said, as he untangled his arms from Fauzzie's. He threw the beam of his flashlight around.

"Oh that's comforting," Fauzzie said, upon seeing the dry skulls that littered the area around them.

"Hey, there's a tunnel here," Spiff said. "Come on."

They walked into a tunnel, and followed it for a few minutes. The tunnel finally ended at the mouth of a vast cavernous chamber. A piece of rock floated several feet in the heart of the room, its golden podium glinting subtly under the soft alien glow of the luminous moss lining the ceiling.

Spiff touched his utility belt. It clicked under his touched and released a capsule. Poof, the capsule went, and now he was holding a cerulean blue tome encrusted with gems.

"How are we going to get it up there?" Fauzzie asked.

"Damn," Spiff muttered. "I left my jetpack in the ship."

"So much for always prepared huh?"

"Don't start now."

"Hey," Fauzzie said, "are rocks supposed to move?"

"What?"

Fauzzie pointed up. Higher than the floating rock, something was stirring in the ceiling. Well…a dozen things. All together, their eyes flashed open, sulphurous yellow. One of them screeched.

They descended, their leathery wings beating against the air, their cries piercing the silence.

"Mutant bats!" Spiff screamed.

He and Fauzzie dove out of the way of a swooping bat. It was a hulking mass, and the claws of its feet cracked the stone earth.

Spiff rolled back up to his knees, and whipped out his blaster. He set it to 'nice and crispy'.

Fauzzie pulled two metal hilts out of his pockets, and switched them on. The hilts produced blades of throbbing, orange light.

"One with the most kills gets to be called captain," Spiff said.

Fauzzie flipped out the way of another swooping bat, slicing through its torso in the process. "Yeah?" he said, as the creature screamed and thrashed in separate pieces behind him. "You're already losing."

Spiff started to shoot, and Fauzzie started to cut. Their movements were swift, and their judgments, absolute. Blue mutant blood sprayed in the air, and painted the walls. It was when Spiff was at five bats and Fauzzie was at six that the lights came on.

"What the devil-monkey is going on here?" Susie screamed.

She was standing in her bedroom doorway in pyjamas, staring at Calvin running around her living room furniture from an angry little bat.

"Open a window, open a window!" Calvin cried.

Susie ran to her window and opened it. The bat let out one last indignant screech and fluttered out of the room and into the night.

Calvin collapsed into the couch, panting for air. "Oh my god, thank you."

Susie looked like she was going to lose her mind. "What are you freakin' doing in my dorm, Calvin?"

"The real question is: how come you guys have a living room and a kitchen," Calvin said. "That's not fair."

"Calvin…"

"And why is there a bat in your dorm? You guys really need to check your hygiene. Bats are just rats with wings, you know. They eat dirt and stuff. Probably. Or fruits, or something. You wouldn't happen to have any oranges in here, would you? That would do the trick—"

"Calvin…"

"Gosh this sofa sure is comfy," Calvin said, bouncing on the couch a few times. "Where did you get this? Did you pick it off a sidewalk? Gosh, I hope not. I'm pretty sure you can get leprosy that way. Contagious diseases, am I right?" He laughed.

"Calvin, I'm going to stab you in the face if you don't answer my question!" Susie roared.

"Fine, fine!" Calvin yelled back. "I saw Ivy step out for a bit, and she forgot to lock the door."

"So that's how you got in here," Susie said. "Now why? Why are you here, Calvin? Don't make me call campus security."

Calvin sighed, and reached back. He pulled out a blue notebook from between his pants and his waistline, and dropped it on the coffee table.

Susie stared at the book. "Is that…"

"It is," Calvin said.

Susie narrowed her eyes. "And you have my notebook…why exactly?"

"I didn't steal it, if that's what you think."

"Pray, do explain," Susie said.

"I thought it belonged to Ivy," Calvin said.

"That doesn't sound any better."

"She left it in the laundry room," Calvin said. "I would've returned it earlier, but I started to read it, and it was really good, and I couldn't stop, and then I realized I had kept it for too long, and I was embarrassed to bring it back because I didn't want Ivy to think I was a weirdo—"

"You are a weirdo," Susie interrupted.

"But honestly," Calvin said, catching his breath. "If I'd known it was yours, I would've just brought it back immediately, considering I don't give a hoot about your opinion of me and all that."

"Ah, that's the Calvin I remember," Susie said, with a wry smile.

"He's always in there somewhere," Calvin said.

"Of course he is," Susie said.

They didn't say anything for a few moments, the silence marinating in discomfort.

"It really is a fantastic story," Calvin finally said, softly.

Susie hesitated, and then said, "You think so?"

"I do," Calvin said.

Susie looked down. "Thanks," she murmured.

"I should go," Calvin said, standing up.

"You should," Susie said quickly.

At the door, Calvin turned back one more time. "Hey," he said. "You should come to Film Club this week. I know the guys only care about hot actresses or whatever, but maybe you and I can talk about your story instead."

Susie didn't look thrilled by the suggestion. "I don't know."

"Just think about it," Calvin said.

"Maybe. We'll see."

Calvin smiled. He closed the door behind him.

Aaaaaand that's a wrap for today! Did you like it? Hate it? Have suggestions? I love to hear from you guys. So please fill in the review box and send me your thoughts. Alternatively, you can send me private messages. Thanks, and until next time!