And that's Dana, Teri, and Mike's time in the NIS Program. I've one more story about the triad, set a couple weeks later -- and that's coming up next.
I mentioned before that I tried several times to write this, using various permutations of these characters. In the first attempt, the Mike character was the young Quaker. Another time, the Dana character was the oldest, dating a grad student, and trying out for the International Math Olympiad team. Sometimes the Teri character was in a band starting to break out on YouTube, and sometimes a star athlete much like Sam in this version.
In all versions, though, the story was built around the image of three naked students huddled together for comfort and warmth during a mid-week crisis -- an ice storm, a student riot, a zombie apocalypse. (Believe me, you do not want to face the zombie apocalypse during your Program week.) (If you want that plotbunny for your own use, go for it.)
Regardless, this is the version I finally finished. And I'm still pleased with it.