The dust clung to the air in selfish desperation. As Jake walked into the lab, he noticed that it was a bit more crowded than it usually is. Pete was in the back corner with the blue glow of a laptop reflecting off his glasses. Jake walked toward him and lethargically placed his bag on the table.
“Feeling better?” Jake asked Pete.
“That I am, chief,” Pete replied.
“What are you writing?” Jake inquired.
“I’m not writing,” Pete answered.
“So what are you- Oh, I get it,” Jake commented, “Hey, if it’s the freaky stuff, make sure you got the volume on low.”
“What? No! I mean I’m not writing anything right now. I haven’t been able to think of anything to write about for the past couple of days.”
“Aren’t you worried about the test we have in an hour?”
“No, I’ve been studying for the past week or so. Besides, there’s nothing I can do in an hour that can affect the outcome of that test.”
“So that’s why you have this extra time to get back to writing. You actually studied while you were sick?”
“Yes, my dear Watson.”
“What exactly are you writing? Is it that Batgirl story we talked about?”
“I told you already: That’s never going to be in my repertoire.”
“Aw, why not?”
“My reason is twofold. One: DC doesn’t take unsolicited scripts. Two: Even if they did, I couldn’t think of any motives for Poison Ivy to create a lesbian orgy with Harley Quinn, Renee Montoya, Mercy Graves, Stargirl, three of the Batgirls, and two of the Supergirls.”
“Two?”
“Power Girl.”
“Nice. But who needs a motive?”
“And you wonder why you’re not a good storyteller.”
“What are you doing being all creative? You’re an engineer, remember?”
“It’s not all of who I am. Besides, I need a release.”
There was no response from Jake other than a stifled giggle.
“What time did you get here?” Jake finally asked.
“I think I got here about 10 o’clock this morning.”
“You’ve been here for hours, staring at a blank page?”
“No,” Pete paused, “I’ve been staring at a blinking cursor that happens to be on a blank page.”
“This whole time?”
“No, I went and got something to eat. Then, I drew caricatures of the entire department.” Pete gestured to the cartoons on the board behind him. “And after that, I watched internet videos for about half an hour.”
“Like what?”
“There was this riveting interview of Kurt Vonnegut-”
“Seriously, what’s her name?”
“Molly.”
“Mememolly?”
“Isn’t she adorable?”
“Yes, that’s why I watch the cute blonde talking about video games… because she’s adorable.”
“Well it’s true.” Pete pouted. “And the same goes for Natalie of CommunityChannel, Tessa from Meekakitty, and of course the lovely Miss Nunes.”
“No wonder you can’t get any writing done, you keep getting sucked into these internet memes. It’s a wonder you got any studying done.”
“I just need one idea to get me rolling along.”
“What about that time at work when you met Julie? Or what about last year at Comic-Con? How about that conference?”
“I just don’t see how anyone can be entertained by all that mundane stuff. It was fun to us, sure,” Pete winced, “but if I write about that I might as well be writing about this pointless conversation we’re having.”
“Well, if it comes to that, we’ll all know how desperate for ideas you really are.” Jake took his bag and headed toward the exit.
“Where are you going?” Pete asked. He looked at the clock and saw that they still had roughly an hour left to start worrying about the test.
“I want to get a good seat for the test… Then take a nap until then.” Jake answered.
“Sweet dreams,” Pete waved to Jake. As Jake left, another classmate burst into the room and was surrounded by the other students in the lab. “Hey, what’s all this?”
“Aren’t you worried about the test? I mean, especially since you weren’t here last week.”
“I’m fine. I’ve been studying while I was stuck in bed, sick as a dog.”
“But how did you get the assignment?”
“Assignment?” Pete’s skin turned white and his pupils became pinpoints on his eyeballs.
“It was a take-home assignment. It counts as 30% of our test grade. You’ve got an hour you can still do it if you hurry.”
“FRAK! Dammit, Jake!” And with that, Pete left his writing to be completed at some other point in the future.
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