Chapter 7

Living at college, in different dorm rooms, and majoring in different subjects was making it hard for Sean and Suzie to spend as much time together as they both wished. Since this was one of two classes he shared with Suzie, they were walking to class together holding hands. His excitement was almost palpable. She did not look anywhere near as excited as he did.

They stepped out of the dorm building. It was a beautiful September morning. The sky had a few puffy clouds, the temperature was perfect, and there was a soft breeze in the air. Freshman students were walking to classes filled with anticipation of what they were about to experience. Seniors, jaded by three years of education, shuffled towards classes thinking they only had another year of school and then they would free.

On the lawn outside the dorm building, the squirrels were scampering around stealing food from each other and generally bickering. Occasionally, one squirrel would stop to watch the people walking past. Women passing by clutched their purses tightly. Men held a hand over their back pockets to protect their wallets.

A squirrel spotted Sean and then chattered, "I want a bagel."

"I'm not giving you any more bagels," Sean replied.

Sean was finding it impossible to walk anywhere on campus without a squirrel coming to him demanding a bagel. His efforts to get them to stop stealing money were proving ineffective.

"I want a bagel."

"No. I've told all of you before that you have to stop stealing money."

"I want a bagel."

Several other squirrels took up the chant, "We want bagels."

Suzie, not understanding what the squirrels were saying, said, "The squirrels sure are acting weird."

"Uh ... yeah," Sean said.

"They've been stealing money from everyone," Suzie said.

The first page of the latest edition of the school newspaper had a sequence of pictures of a squirrel approaching a woman's purse, rummaging through it and then emerging with a wad of bills in its mouth. The headline on the paper announced that Baron University had been invaded by a criminal gang of squirrels.

"I'm trying to get them to stop doing that," Sean said.

A big fat squirrel came waddling out. He said, "We want bagels and we want them now."

"Stop stealing money," Sean said.

"Our agreement was, we find money and you give us bagels."

"I'm ending the agreement."

"You can't do that."

"Yes, I can."

"No, you can't."

"I'll make you stop," Sean said.

"We want bagels and we want them now!"

The squirrels all started closing in on Sean and Suzie. The aggressive stance of the squirrels was beginning to make Suzie nervous.

Moving to stand closer to Sean, she said, "I don't like this."

"Don't worry, Suzie. "I'll take care of this," Sean said.

"Good," Suzie said.

Facing the squirrels, Sean said, "I'm warning all of you. You've got to stop stealing money and demanding bagels or I'm going to have to do something to stop you."

"Your threats don't scare us. We outnumber you," the fat squirrel said confidently.

Sean said, "I speak hawk."

"Hawk?" the fat squirrel asked nervously.

"Yes," Sean said. He let out the screech of a hunting hawk.

The squirrels scattered. Each ran to a tree and climbed up it. Peeking around the trunks, the squirrels started shaking their fists and barking angrily at him. The big fat squirrel was still trying to climb up the trunk of the closest tree, but was having a little difficulty getting his massive body up the tree. He turned to Sean and said, "This means war!"

Sean let loose with another screech of a hunting hawk. Within seconds there wasn't a squirrel to be seen anywhere. Even the fat squirrel managed to make it up the tree.

"That took care of that," Sean said.

"Thank goodness," Suzie said.

Sean said, "I hope they got the message to stop stealing money."

"I'm sure they did," Suzie said.

"Let's get to class. I'd hate to be late to class, especially this class," Sean said.

Suzie frowned at Sean's enthusiasm. She asked, "Did you explain to your adviser about your enthusiasm for certain topics?"

"Yes. That's why I'm taking this class from Dr. Waters. My adviser said he really loves enthusiastic students," Sean answered.

"That doesn't worry you?" Suzie asked.

"I'm looking forward to it," Sean said.

"I guess it'll be okay," Suzie said with only a slight trace of concern in her voice.

They walked across the campus to the building in which there class was to be held. Much to their surprise and pleasure, there wasn't a squirrel to be seen. They entered the building. With each classroom they passed, Sean's excitement grew while Suzie's nervousness increased.

She slowed while passing one of the labs and looked at the sign over the door. It read, 'Atoms split here.' A little further down the hall was another room with a sign over it. It read, 'Burn stuff with a tightly focused beam of light.' Suzie slowed her step and nearly turned around to leave the building when she came across a room with the sign over the door, 'Future headquarters of the new world government.'

All was mostly well until he spotted it. That hallowed room at the end of the hallway called to Sean with a power too strong for him to resist. He nearly dragged poor Suzie to the door. He stopped and looked at the writing above the door. It was a simple message that resonated with Sean – 'Pour, pour, step back, boom!'

"The chemistry lab," Sean said with an awed voice.

Suzie not only looked worried, she was worried. The potential for disaster loomed large on the horizon. There were shelves containing rows and rows of chemicals locked behind glass doors. She could see that they were beckoning Sean, tempting him to mix them in all kinds of ways – both natural and unnatural. She hoped that the chemistry instructor would be able to moderate Sean's enthusiasm.

"Oh look! Sulfuric acid! Nitric Acid! Acetic Acid!" Sean exclaimed pointing to a collection of bottles on one of the shelves.

"Uh, we should get to our seats," Suzie said nervously.

"I need keys," Sean said almost maniacally.

"No you don't," Suzie said horrified at the prospect of Sean having unfettered access to the chemicals.

Sean went to get in one of the seats at the front of the lab, but the first row of tables were roped off as were half of the seats in the second row. The plastic tape that was used to keep people from using those seats were marked with 'Do Not Enter. Police Crime Scene.' There was a major chunk missing out of one of the lab tables in the first row. Actually, it was more than a chunk. About all that was left of the table were parts of three of the legs. There were little pieces of glass embedded in the other lab tables along with burn marks.