~*~

Josh stalked around his room, looking under the bed, in the closet, through the trash. Where the hell could he have lost the damn thing?

Cal walked down the hall and heard shuffling coming from room next door. This was not the regular loud rustling/breathing/yelling that emanated nightly from the room on the other side of his-Tasha's room. This was Josh looking for a lottery ticket or something.

Josh cornered him the instant Cal sashayed toward his door in a pathetic attempt at a swagger.

"Uh...something wrong, Cal?" Josh asked, leafing through his collection of Mercenary Quarterlys.

"Uh, no. Why?" Cal absently twirled his braid until he felt the paperclip begin to give way.

"'Cause you're walking like you've racked yourself."

"No, I'm cool." Call began to blush and he turned his face away, pretending to be inspecting the hood of the JC Penny Jedi Robe ™.

"I don't suppose you've seen a...uh...a hat- kinda green and grey camo motif?" Josh asked as he started sifting through a mountain of dirty laundry.

"A hat?" The description sounded familiar, but Cal was pretty sure he hadn't seen it something like that on anyone's head. "No, but I'll keep my eyes open," he promised his neighbour. A figure wearing a frilly orange frilly chiffon dress let himself into the room on the other side of Cal's. "Tasha got another faulty light fixture?"

"Grrr." Tasha's door was slammed in the Padawannabe's face. Cal turned to unlock his door.

"Jumpin' jawas!" Cal leapt back from his door, his face screwing into a expression of disbelief. Every picture of the General that he had proudly displayed on his dorm room door now sported a blacked out tooth, Hitler moustache or Frankenstein bolts.

~*~

Darry sat on the floor amidst the trashed rooms she called her Clinic. She had really appreciated the fact that one of the many temps hired by the bots had cleaned up after she'd taken off for Alderaan. But, now the room looked worse than before. Everything on the walls had fallen off, the exam bed sheets were twisted, the jars on the shelves had all fallen off and their contents spilled all over the floor.

Surveying the wreckage, she smiled- she'd always wanted to act out part of "The Tall Guy". The General hadn't seen the film, but early on he figured out the gist of the scene. She sifted through the debris and retrieved her new answering machine. There were two messages. Lighting up a smoke and adjusting a strap on her Dior chemise, she pressed "play."

"Greetings, my dear. I heard you had returned. I'm sure you must look even lovlier with a tan." It sounded as though her Senator was speaking through clenched teeth. "I'm anxious to see you the first chance you get; there's a tad bit of paperwork we need to discuss, and I would appreciate a reply at your earliest convenience."

The mellifluous voice stopped and a sound not unlike what one hears when taking off a sweater in cold weather crackled across the line. Darry pressed "next" as fast as she could. Maybe he'd calmed down before leaving the second message.

"Hi, Angel!" an adolescent voice sang out. "My friends bought me some beef jerky and I have a big two-liter bottle of Pepsi with my face on it for our picnic. I was thinking we could watch the sunset together, but my mother wants me in bed before that. Did you come to the race? I didn't see you. It doesn't matter, though cause there's another one tomorrow. In fact, there's always one tomorrow...that's kinda weird, now that I think about it..."

The tape ran out and Darry banged her head against the wall. The senator had obviously gotten his credit card bills and this little dweeb was still out there. Her Clinic was trashed again and she'd just run outta smokes. Damn. Oh well. She'd been through worse. And things were at least patched up with the General.

Tasha pushed open the door as far as it would go before banging against the drug cabinet, which had fallen down behind it.

"Have you seen these?" She thrust several papers into the Nurse's hands. Between Hos, bots, Spacedog and shoes, Darry had had no time to read the latest editions. Darry inspected the latest Tattler headlines:

"GARDENER SPREADS SEED WITH CO-ED"

"Oh Tash, I'm really sorry." Darry sighed.

"Not as sorry as you'll be after seeing this." Tasha handed her another paper.

"NAUGHTY NURSE CAUGHT BREATHING HEAVY WITH JAILBAIT PODRACER"

Luckily there were plenty of things lying at hand on the floor next to Darry. Tasha ducked.