The Underclassman

In Settlement of Debts Incurred

Abigail was very chatty that Tuesday morning, even more so than usual, while Mick and herself walked to calculus together. She went on and on about everything and anything, even the upcoming spring break as they took their seats in class. "We've only been back like three weeks," Mick pointed out, "Break is still over two weeks away!"

"You say something then," said Abby sounding piqued, "I'm tired of talking."

"Umm... well," started her friend, but before he could respond any further Abby cut in asking, "Did you hear about the big snowstorm we're getting!"

"In passing," answered Mick.

"What!" she shot, "I thought you were the guy who was always reading the news and up on current events?"

"Don't know what to tell you," he replied.

"If they close the campus what should we do?" asked Abby, "Will you still have to go into work?"

"I have no idea," Mick told her, and by the time the instructor called the class to order, he felt a bit worn out from the entire conversation.

It had been an unseasonably cold winter for the region but there had not been much snow. By the time Wednesday morning rolled around the entire student body was abuzz with talk of the impending storm. "Did you hear how we are going to get clobbered?" asked Katrín as she dropped into her seat next to Mick in chemistry lecture.

"That's what everyone is telling me," said Mick.

"Sound like we might be closed on Friday," she remarked, "but we should be able to get the chem lab in tomorrow."

As had happened previously, Perry Betrand moseyed into the classroom late, but by five minutes this time. Mick took a gander at the teaching assistant and thought, "What a douche." Perry was wearing a black blazer over top of a The Clash concert tee shirt and dressed in designer jeans with pressed creases down the legs and a pair of black brogues without any socks. "London Calling... I hate that fucking song," Mick silently said to himself.

Before Perry could get going with the day's instruction, a striking young woman strolled into the room and began speaking to him. She had a medium complexion and appeared to be Asian, having dark hair with long, lazy curls which evoked thoughts of Whitney Harrington. By the way she smiled at the instructor and vice versa, it was easy to conclude that their conversation was more congenial in nature than official. Mick followed her strides as she walked out, taking note of her tight gray denims and over-the-knee black suede boots.

"I need a few minutes," said Perry before directing the class to, "Review your chapter notes on reactions in aqueous solutions in preparation for tomorrow's lab on titration."

"He's getting worse," Mick mumbled to himself, wondering if Perry's tardiness and now interruptions were going to be a continuing trend.

After the chemistry lecture concluded, Mick had some time before the next class so he walked over to the food court to find lunch. After settling on a fajita chicken burrito bowl, Mick sat down and began to read through his emails on his cell phone. Three down from the top was a message from the university chancellor.

The university is preparing for a major weather event that is expected to disrupt normal operations from Thursday March 1st into Saturday March 3rd. Pedestrian and vehicle travel across the campus is expected to become treacherous as snow is forecast to accumulate at a rate that facilities crews may not be able to keep the walkways and roads passable. Out of concern for the safety of our students, instructors and staff, the university president has ordered that all university functions and activities will suspend as of 8:00 pm on Thursday March 1. This temporary closure includes scheduled classes, all extracurricular activities including but not limited to sports, drama, clubs, etc., the physical fitness center, the health center, shuttle and dining services. Normal operations are expected to resume at 8:00 am on Saturday March 3 but may be revised as conditions warrant. Students should immediately begin to prepare to shelter in place during this time and plan accordingly for the disruption to dining services. To assist in the effort of snow removal from campus roadways and parking areas, all student vehicles must be relocated to the south end of the main parking lot no later than noontime on Thursday March 1st. Public safety personnel will be onsite to assist you. Students should monitor local weather forecasts and more information will follow as it becomes available.

"Wow, this is pretty serious," thought Mick as he sat there devouring his bowl. He did a quick mental inventory of his supplies as he always kept some canned soups and stews, microwavable mac and cheeses, frozen meals and breakfast bars on hand, not to mention coffee, sports and energy drinks and cans of Coca-Cola for cocktails. To the best of his ability to recall, Mick figured he could probably weather the storm just fine, but he did question what his current adult beverage situation was.

When Mick arrived back at Bradley Hall in the late afternoon, he ran into Abigail and Zoe in the lobby. "Hey, we're running out to grab a few things, want to go?" asked Abby.

"I think I'm all set," he told her.

"You're welcome to tag along and just go for the ride," offered Abby.

"Thank you," replied Mick who told his friend, "I need to spend some time studying for tomorrow's lab." The three said goodbyes to one another and quickly parted ways.

Mick ascended the stairs to the second floor and after unlocking the door walked into his dorm room. He put down his belongings and took off his coat, then went about checking how well he was provisioned to ride out the snowstorm for the next few days. It was apparent that he had plenty of food, but Mick only had half a bottle of rum, even less vodka, and three beers. He contemplated if he could get by on such meager stock or not as Mick knew there was a fair chance that one or more of his fellow dorm mates might stop by for a visit during the storm and he surely wanted to be ready to adequately entertain them. He wondered if Brenda was going to hit him up, so Mick texted her to preemptively to ask her. At some point he would have to move his car anyway, and Mick struggled with when to possibly make a booze run as he really did want to study and prepare for chemistry lab the following day.

Around 7:20 pm, Brenda finally replied to Mick's text, letting him know that her and her friends were all set, and she thanked Mick for thinking of them. By that time, he had little interest in getting into his cold car and driving to the package store, much less walking back from the main parking lot. Mick decided to sleep on it and if he felt motivated enough, he would run out in the morning prior to his 11:00 am chemistry lab and relocating his vehicle to the main lot.

Mick studied for another hour before deciding to hang it up for the night and watch whatever game happened to be on. He thought about making himself a drink but did not want to deplete his refreshments any further just in case. Before shutting down his laptop he took a quick look at the forecast, and it seemed rather portentous.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PUEBLO CO

749 PM MDT WED FEB 28

... WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM THURSDAY TO 9 PM FRIDAY

* LOCATIONS... ADAMS -- ARAPAHOE -- DOUGLAS -- ELBERT -- EL PASO -- SOUTHERN JEFFERSON -- PUEBLO COUNTIES

* ACCUMULATIONS... 6 TO 10 INCHES OF SNOW IS FORECAST THROUGH THURSDAY MIDNIGHT. AN ADDITIONAL 10 TO 18 INCHES OF SNOW IS FORECAST FRIDAY MORNING THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING. TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 16 TO 28 INCHES ARE FORECAST. LOCALLY HEAVIER ACCUMULATIONS ARE POSSIBLE.

* HAZARD TYPES... HEAVY SNOW, BLOWING SNOW, DRIFTING SNOW AND WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS.

* WINDS... NORTH-NORTHWEST 5 TO 15 MPH, INCREASING TO 25 TO 35 MPH WITH 45 MPH GUSTS AFTER MIDNIGHT.

* TEMPERATURES... IN THE UPPER 20S.

A LARGE WINTER STORM WILL BRING THE POTENTIAL FOR HEAVY SNOW, SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS AND DANGEROUS WINDS THURSDAY MORNING THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING. LIGHT SNOW WILL BEGIN FALLING ACROSS THE REGION LATE THURSDAY MORNING AND INCREASE BY MID-AFTERNOON. SNOW IS FORECAST TO FALL AT A HEAVY RATE WITH INCREASING WINDS AFTER MIDNIGHT. BLIZZARD CONDITIONS AND SNOWFALL RATES IN EXCESS OF 1 INCH PER HOUR ARE FORECAST FOR FRIDAY. SNOW WILL BEGIN TO TAPER OFF BY FRIDAY LATE EVENING BUT GUSTY WINDS ARE FORECAST TO CONTINUE THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING BRINGING THE POTENTIAL FOR BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. TRAVEL AT HEIGHT OF STORM WILL BE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AS ROADS MAY BECOME IMPASSIBLE AND WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS ENCOUNTERED.

Mick sprung out of bed when he looked at his alarm and realized it was 9:53 am. Somehow he figured, he must have hit the silence button and not the snooze bar and drifted back off to sleep. Mick had intended to rise twenty minutes earlier in order have his breakfast, a shower, do some review for technical writing, and still have enough time to move his car and make a run to the bottle shop in preparation for the storm, all before class started at 11:00 a.m. He considered just washing his face and wearing a ball cap in lieu of a shower to be able to get to the store and back in time, but ultimately decided he would just make do with what alcohol he had on hand.

After getting himself together and ready for the day, Mick exited Bradley Hall, jumped in his car and sparked the ignition. Between the tired battery and sub-freezing temperature, the engine hesitated to turn over. Once he was able to get the vehicle running, Mick drove over to the main parking lot and followed security's directions to ditch his car for the impending wintry blast. He locked up his vehicle and began the jaunt across campus for his chem lab beginning at 11:00 am. As Mick neared the building, he could just begin to see some scant snowflakes begin to drift lazily down from the clouds.

Later in the day when Mick entered the chemistry laboratory, he immediately spotted Perry Bertrand sitting at the front desk with his medium brown hair sculpted into a pompadour. His slicked-back, shiny bouffant emphasized his honey-toned highlights and suggested the exuberant application of pomade, or some other men's hair care product. "What a douche," Mick mumbled under his breath en route to his locker where he withdrew his textbook and lab notebook from his backpack before stuffing the pack into the bottom of the long, slim cabinet. He grabbed his safety goggles and white lab coat before shutting and locking the door and walking over to his workstation.

Mick took another gander at Perry and could see that he was wearing a black tee shirt with the iconic image of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash at Sun Recording Studios. He had the short sleeves of the shirt rolled up and Mick noticed he had sideburns like Elvis. "I guess he thinks he's a greaser," Mick quipped to himself. "Million-dollar quartet... at least his taste in music has improved," he thought.

Around 4:30 pm, Mick felt his smart phone vibrating in his back pocket, and when he pulled the cell out, he found a message from his friend Sean asking, "What are you up to?" Mick texted Sean back to let his buddy know that at the moment he was finishing up his chemistry lab experiment. Less than ten minutes later, Sean walked into the laboratory and greeted Perry by shaking his hand. From the cordial nature of the brief exchange between them, it was apparent to Mick that Sean and Perry were more than just passing acquaintances.

Sean strode down to where Mick was working and said hello to his friend. "How much longer are you going be?" asked Sean. Mick told him that he had just finished his final titration and needed to make the calculations. "Do it later," said Sean, "Let's get out of here." Mick explained to his buddy that a completed assignment was to be turned in before the end of the lab.

"I figured you'd be aware of that seeing you're a chemistry major," shot Mick.

"Chemical engineering major," retorted Sean, who advised Mick to, "Ask Perry to let you turn it in over the weekend."

Mick scowled in obviously dislike to his friend's suggestion and told Sean that, "He's the last guy I'd ask a favor from."

"What's wrong with Perry?" asked Sean while chuckling.

"I don't know... nothing I guess," admitted Mick before saying further, "There's just something about the guy that bugs me."

Sean told his workout partner that he came to find him to see if he had any interest in taking a walk to the spirit shop. "Absolutely!" Mick exuberantly replied. Sean informed his friend that he would be around in the sciences buildings somewhere, for Mick to text him when he was done.

When the two stepped out into the frosty evening it was almost dark. Mick immediately pulled his jacket's hood up over his head as the snow was coming down moderately with three to four inches on the ground already. He wondered if his Timberland Euro Hikers would be enough boot to keep the snow out and his feet warm and dry. "What do you need to get at the Cork and Bung?" asked Mick as they traipsed through the snow.

"Actually," said Sean, "I want to go to Liquor in the Front Range... The beer selection is better."

Mick quickly pointed out, "That's an extra ten minutes' walk."

"It's not that far," Sean assured his friend before adding, "and we can stop for wings at Aspen Ale Works on the way." Hearing that, Mick protested no further.

Mick and Sean arrived at the brewpub and dipped in, sitting at one of the empty high tables in the bar area. Their waitress walked up immediately and took their drink and food orders as there were very few patrons in the establishment. While they waited for their pints, Mick said, "There was this hot-looking Asian girl who came into class and talked to Perry the other day."

Before he could say anything further, Sean laughed loudly and informed his friend, "You can forget about her, that's your buddy Perry's girlfriend, Terri."

"Perry and Terri," mulled Mick silently, "How absurd that sounds." Not that he needed any more cause to dislike Perry, but now Mick had more.

"Speaking of hot girls, what are your plans for when we get back?" inquired Sean. Mick told his friend that he would probably see if there were any parties going on in his dorm, or maybe try and interest one or two particular young ladies into stopping by for some cocktails. "You should come back to the Lodges with me," Sean tried to convince him, "There's always some outrageous shit going on when there's a big storm."

"Like what?" asked Mick, "Quarters.. beer pong.. flip cup?"

"All of that of course," responded Sean, "and more."

"Such as?" replied Mick, "Tell me." Sean put his forearm down on the tabletop to lean in closer towards his dinner companion and began to speak in a lowered voice.

"Last year, there was a legitimate, full-blown Roman orgy in one of the common rooms," Sean told him.

"People wrapped in their bed sheets fucking each other?" said Mick dismissively.

"It went way beyond that," stated Sean before explaining in detail what had transpired.

He told Mick that at least a dozen people took part in what was staged as a convivium, or Roman dinner party, and everything was as authentic as they could possibly make it. The room was lit only with flickering LED candles and they had period music playing in the background. The food consisted of a whole ham and roasted chicken, breads, cheeses, olives and fruits, especially grapes. "Somehow they even managed to get their hands on fresh oysters," said Sean. Water and wine were the only refreshment, no beer or hard liquor. Everyone dressed authentically and no shoes or socks were allowed. Two members of the men's wrestling team donned loin clothes and grappled for the entertain of the guests. "Then after dinner, that's when the jimmy hats got passed around," said Sean.

"Let me guess," interjected Mick, who then facetiously speculated, "They were lambskin?"

"Not sure about that one," replied Sean.

"And no one reported this?" inquired Mick.

Sean told him that they had reserved the room and it was a closed-door party. Sheets were hung and paper placed over the windows to thwart prying eyes. "The resident assistant was supposedly inside the room with his back against the door the entire time!" Sean vehemently added. He went on to say that half of those involved had already graduated, and the rest have remained extremely tight-lipped about what went on. "Although it was whispered that there was one girl who got banged by three dudes all at once," Sean avowed.

Over wings and beer, the conversation meandered through their courses for the semester, their recent lack of workouts and the storm, ultimately circling back to Perry Betrand. "I cross paths with him all the time in the chemistry department, so I've gotten to know him," said Sean, assuring his friend that, "He's an okay guy." But before Mick had a chance to ask, his buddy told him, "I've seen Terri at a few parties... she is a total smoke show."

As they were getting up to leave, Mick got a text message from his boss Gil telling him not to come to work on Friday evening as The Dugout would not be opening. Mick was now doubly happy to be on a booze run as he was going to have some extra time on his hands.

The pair walked up towards the end of the block to the liquor store where Mick wasted no time grabbing a bottle of Sailor Jerry rum and a bottle of Tito's vodka. He perused the coolers searching for something hardy and fitting for the weather, but not quite a porter or stout. Mick found a lonely six-pack of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale still hanging around but passed, hoping to come across something familiar from back east like Smuttynose Old Brown Dog or maybe Brooklyn Brewery Brown Ale. "Avery Brewing Ellie's Brown Ale," he said to himself as he caught site of the beer and figured, "Why not?"

After getting ID'd and paying for their purchases, Mick and Sean stepped back out into the weather for the trek back to school. Mick immediately noticed that the wind had begun to pick up some just in the short time they were in the store.

Nearly twenty, frosty minutes later, the two of them reached the edge of the university grounds and continued to tramp through the accumulating snow headed for Sean's dormitory. When Mick and Sean cut between the library and administration building, they found that a large snowball fight was taking place on the quad. Curious, the two friends moved toward the combat zone to get a closer look.

"Look at this!" said Mick, amazed as he took in the spectacle that had to involve at least one hundred students with a few dozen onlookers. There did not seem to be any sides, no factions, just one big snow filled donnybrook. "Any interest?" Mick asked his cohort.

"Get in on it if you want," replied Sean, "Catch up with me later when you're done."

Mick dropped his backpack and set his beer into a small berm of snow that had piled up from the walkway being blown off as Sean turned for his dormitory. He commenced to pack snowballs together as quickly as he could to wing them at the chosen opportune target which was usually someone with their back turned. After fifteen straight minutes of absolute bedlam, Mick trotted off the field of battle to catch his breath.

Not far from the commotion, there was a campus patrol officer sitting inside a Polaris Ranger. He was keeping half an eye on the students while talking to one of the facilities plow drivers who had pulled up next to him. Mick stood there over top of his twelve-pack weighing the likelihood of attracting some grief if he were to dig into his beer.

"Taking a quick break?" asked a young woman's voice.

Mick turned to find a beautiful girl standing next to him. She had dark eyes and dirty blond hair the flowed out from underneath her grey knitted beanie which had long braids ending in tassels dangling from the ear flaps.