IT'S CALLED THE 'TREE OF SHAME.'

☆︎ SEPTEMBER, 1997 ☆︎

"My life is over."

"Your life is not over."

"Cici is abandoning me!"

"No, she is not. You're being dramatic."

"She's moving into the Omega Beta Zeta house next semester! That's roommate abandonment!" Indiana shouted. She was in Jackson and Derek's room with them, as was Hallie. "I'm being abandoned, not dramatic."

"Members are required to live in the house for at least one semester," Derek told her. "It's the same with OKB but for a whole year." Derek had also been accepted into the fraternity of his choosing, but no one really celebrated like they had for Cici because the spot had basically been handed to him because of his father. "I'm gonna wait and move in my sophomore year, though."

"Yeah, then me and Randy are gonna room together," Jackson chimed in. He was tossing a small, plastic basketball at the toy hoop on the back of his door. Indiana was sitting under the hoop and would catch the ball to throw back to him.

And while she was returning the ball to him, she was processing the fact that Cici was moving out in January. Deep down, Indiana understood. And at least she would only be gone for a semester and not a whole year like some of the other sororities required. She also knew that she'd still see Cici in classes every day.

The real reason Indiana was so distraught was because she was scared that she wouldn't want to come back and be her roommate again after she got a taste of living with her sisters. Sure, they'd only known each other for a month, but Cici was one of those friends for life — at least, Indy was hoping she was. As selfish as it was, Indiana wanted Cici all to herself and didn't want to share with the Omega Beta Zetas.

"Well, good for fucking you, Jax," Indiana responded, rolling her eyes. "But I don't have a Randy to fall back on and room with. Sidney has Hallie. You have Randy. Cici and Derek have their Greek life. Who do I have?"

"Film dork," Hallie answered, not even looking up from her book. Instead of throwing the basketball back at Jackson, Indiana aimed it at the girl. Hallie looked at her with wide eyes, laughing at her childish response. "Hey! Girl, was I lying? You two are attached at the hip when you're together."

"No," she denied. "Me and Jax are attached at the hip. If any guy was worth making my roommate, it'd be him."

"Well, they wouldn't let them be roommates anyway," Derek spoke up, chuckling. "The RAs already have strokes whenever they catch someone breaking visitation hours to sneak a girl in."

"Cici just has guys climb up the huge tree right outside our window," Indiana informed him. "It's called the 'Tree of Shame.' If I'm awake early enough on the weekends, I like to get up and watch all the boys on that side of the building try to climb down. Me and the other girls throw shit and catcall them."

"You're on the third floor," Jackson pointed out, whistling lowly. "That's some dedication. You go, C!"

"I'll never get to watch one of her dumbasses climb through the window again," Indiana said, getting upset over it.

"Okay, swap places, Pouty McPouterson," Jackson said, rolling his eyes. "You need to work on your aim with practice starting next week."

He was right. While all athletes were required to attend team workouts all year long no matter if their sport was in season, the basketball teams were finally beginning to practice for the upcoming season. Granted, throwing a toy ball at a door wasn't exactly getting Indiana and Jackson back into shape, but it was fun.

The two of them traded places with Jackson sitting underneath the hoop while Indiana sat in his desk chair. She began making shots at the hoop, getting most of them in.

"Hey, Hal?" Indy asked absentmindedly as silence fell over them. She just hummed in response. "Have you and Jax fucked yet?"

"Indiana!" Jackson exclaimed while chucking the ball toward her head at full force. She just laughed as it bounced off her forehead a bit painfully. "None of your fucking business!"

"Well, I'm just asking because, from this angle, I can see a bra under your bed," she informed him. "And I've seen this bra in the room next to mine, and Sid would tell me if she had a thing for you."

"Oh, my god," Hallie grumbled, shutting her eyes in embarrassment. Then she took in a deep breath and rolled off Jackson's bed to retrieve her bra from underneath. When Indiana let out a high-pitched squeal, Hallie cut her eyes to her. "I don't want to fucking hear it!"

"I'm calling Sophia and Isaiah to celebrate our bass boy getting laid!" she exclaimed with a bright grin.

"Oh, yeah?" Jackson asked, raising a challenging eyebrow. "I'll call Virginia and tell her—"

"Tell her what?" Indy interrupted. "That I'm getting good grades? That I haven't gotten trashed at a party? That I haven't done anything remotely scandalous or exciting since getting here?" Jackson remained annoyingly silent. "Exactly, Jax. You don't have shit to tell her."

Jackson crossed his arms and huffed. "Well, I'll call and tell her the minute something weird happens between you and Mickey."

"What do you mean? Weird?" Derek asked, tilting his head.

"I don't know," he admitted, shrugging. "But he'd wanna do some freaky shit like use that camera or something. And with how much you love to be in the spotlight, you'd let him. That'd be enough to get a Virginia lecture about morals."

Indiana scoffed and grabbed a pillow off Derek's nearby bed, chucking it at her friend. "I would not let Mickey film us having sex! You are such an ass, Martin."

"And to clarify," Hallie said, smirking. "You're outraged by the video part, not the sleeping with Mickey part?"

"I'm going back to my room!" Indiana declared while getting up and stomping her feet. "I shan't take this abuse."

"I'll be sure to let Mickey know he needs to learn to climb trees if he can't already," Jackson teased.

"Fuck you, Jax," she said, letting out a laugh. "Oh, wait. Hal's already done that."

"Jesus, you two," Hallie said, rubbing her forehead. "Get a little melanin in you, Indy, and I'd think you two were twins. You're exactly the same."

Though Indiana was nearly out the door, she still took the time to shoot a flirty smile at Hallie. "So, what I'm hearing is that I have a chance with a babe like you since I'm so much like your smush buddy?"

Jackson narrowed his eyes at her. "Call me a smush buddy again, and I'll go to Altieri's room right now and ruin your life, Winger."

☆︎

Given how many movies that were covering in their film theory curriculum, the classmates decided on a weekly movie night to watch one of the films discussed. Sometimes Professor Mac made it, and if it was appropriate enough for children, he'd bring his daughter along, who was only seven — granted, there weren't a lot that were appropriate for her whether for language or violence.

The movie nights occurred in one of the auditoriums in the media building. There were countless seats and a huge projector that they could watch the movies on. Since they were covering techniques and bits used in comedies, they were watching one of Jacob Fanning's movie choices — The Three Amigos.

Indiana was in the front row, seated between Mickey and Cici with Randy next to the other girl. She brought along a bag of popcorn that they were passing around as they watched the movie — most everyone always brought snacks.

It wasn't a silent viewing by any means. Jokes and sarcastic comments were frequently made by all the film students. There was lots of commenting on the outdated humor as well. What few inappropriate jokes there were flew right over Julie McDonald's little head as she laughed at Dusty and Lucky.

Mocking the way that the guys in the class made demeaning comments about women in other films they'd watched, when the three men were stripped of their clothes and fired, Indiana and Cici began wolf whistling and cheering, the other girls soon joining in.

"Take it off! Take it off!" Indiana chanted. "Look at those calves on Ned!"

"Show some skin, Chevy!" Cici cheered. But then she broke into a fit of giggles, unable to stay serious.

And when it came time that the men were fully dressed again in their fairly-offensive costumes, all the girls booed and threw their popcorn at the screen.

"You are such a sleaze," Mickey muttered teasingly while wrapping his arm around Indiana's shoulders.

"Only for Steve Martin," she said, leaning her head on his chest and working her own arms around his torso and behind his back, practically hugging him. "What a silver fox."

Mickey raised an eyebrow. "Need a cold shower?"

"Probably so," she said, the corners of her mouth turning up. "You're welcome to join."

He looked much more interested in her than in the movie after that, his mouth feeling a bit dry. "Is that a formal invitation, Sweetheart?"

Indiana laughed quietly and shook her head, looking back to the screen. As she did so, the arm squished between his back and the seat moved up and she absentmindedly ran her fingers through his hair, which was getting a bit long. Mickey's eyes shut for a moment and he let out a soft hum, enjoying the feeling.

"Your hair's getting shaggy," she murmured. It wasn't like he could pull it into a ponytail or anything, but it was starting to fall in his face.

"Think I need to cut it?" he questioned, caring more than he wanted to admit about what she thought of his appearance.

Indiana tilted her head to look up at him and study his handsome features. "I like it either way," she decided with a smile.

"Indy," Cici whispered suddenly, tapping her friend's arm and pulling her attention from Mickey. Indiana turned to Cici and removed her hands from his body, not seeing how Mickey's head fell back in disappointment. "Jacob is trying to get your attention."

Indiana turned her head around and saw Jacob sitting at the end of the aisle behind them. He was next to a few of his closer friends in the class and had a huge grin on his face. Once they made eye contact, he nodded to the screen where the German was about to leave the bar. She shot him a wink and then faced the front again.

"What was that about?" Mickey asked, glancing over at Jacob as well. His smile was long gone and there was a jealous glint in his eyes, though Indy didn't catch it.

"Yeah," Cici said as well, though she was curious for a different reason. "He was talking to you before class the other day too."

"Don't worry your pretty little head, Buttercup," Indiana said, moving to kiss Cici's cheek.

The blonde frowned at the new nickname. "Buttercup? Where... Oh, my god," she sighed, realizing what she was doing. Or rather what she was going to do. "You're not?"

"Oh, trust me," Randy chimed in, leaning over Cici to whisper. "She definitely will."

Mickey seemed to be the only one not connecting the dots, but then again, it'd been a while since he'd watched the movie. However, when Dusty moved to the piano, he began to get a rather good idea. "Are you guys gonna—"

He was cut off by Indiana jumping to her feet as soon as the opening piano notes began. Before any of them knew it, both Indiana and Jacob were standing before them, a portion of the movie projecting onto their bodies as they were in front of the screen.

Together, Indiana and Jacob began to sing along to My Little Buttercup, dancing in sync with Steve Martin and Martin Short on screen. Everyone laughed and clapped along to the beat as they got into it. Then Professor Mac's daughter ran over and started to dance with them, getting the steps wrong as she did.

Mickey had never heard Indiana sing and he still hadn't, because she was purposefully off-key to sound as bad as Jacob was naturally. He couldn't wipe the grin off his face as he watched her dance around and have fun. When the crowd in the bar was forced to join in the song out of fear, their classmates joined for fun, shouting the lyrics with them

Indiana smiled at him as the song came to an end, and she and Jacob posed together. Then, as the class cheered them on, she blew an air kiss toward Mickey, who dramatically caught it and held his clenched fist to his chest — the same chest felt tight and warm like it never really had before meeting the girl that first day in class.

Fuck, it was an annoyingly inconvenient feeling for someone who'd always thought he was incapable of such things.

☆︎

September was a hard month for everyone from Woodsboro. Jackson called home a lot more to check on Sophia, spending hours on the phone with her. Sometimes, they'd just have their TVs on the same channel and silently watch something together. Randy's own family was the same, constantly calling to check up on him and hear about the things he was learning.

Virginia knew that Indiana was doing just fine in Ohio, but she still checked in every few days as the end of September neared. They never talked about what happened — the conversation stuck to things like how the basketball team was looking and Indy telling her stories about her new friends. She was really hoping Virginia would get a chance to get to know them better in person despite so much distance between them.

Sidney was doing the worst, understandably. September 28th was officially the worst day of the year, a constant reminder of her mother's death and everything else Billy and Stu did to them. So, the month of September was spent constantly keeping her busy and her mind off of any triggering memories. Derek and Hallie would get her to go to parties. Cici took her shopping. Randy and Indiana would get her favorite movies to watch with her.

That was what they were continuing to do three days before the anniversary of Maureen Prescott — watching a movie. Men in Black was hands down Sidney's favorite movie that came out that summer, and there were still two months to go before it was released on VHS. However, Randy managed to get his hands on a less-than-official recording of it. So, after letting Randy into their dorm building along with Mickey, who had his trusty camcorder in hand and wanted to watch as well, Sidney led them up to the third floor.

"Is this gonna be in a language we don't know like your copy of Jumanji was when we were in high school?" Sidney asked him skeptically. The bootleg he acquired was all in German, and they were all left clueless as to what was said the whole time. Indiana and Stu ended up trying to read the lips and make a script of their own, which, as one could imagine, was a nightmare.

"Certified English, baby," Randy assured her, holding up the blank case with the movie inside. "Mickey has a way better movie guy than Darren back home."

"That's right. I got a movie guy," Mickey said with a smug smile as he zoomed his camera in on the illegal copy of the movie. "Be sure to mention that to Indiana."

"Well, that's an embarrassing request," Randy said flatly. "And she knows you have the movie guy because you told her two times already about how easy it was for you to get this. You were making it sound like you're part of some underground crime ring for bootleg movies."

"Well, Will Smith would be totally worth joining a crime ring for," Sidney joked while going toward Indy's room instead of her own. She knocked on the door while opening it. "Hey, we're here for... uh, what, um, have we walked in on?"

"Hey, just a second guys," Indiana greeted casually. "We can start the movie when Brian is all cleaned up."

Indiana was laid out on top of her bed, wearing only a pair of Windsor sweatpants and a sports bra, her arms above her head. Some guy, presumably Brian, seemed to be giving her a tattoo with a beat-up-looking machine, the buzzing sound filling the room.

Mickey was pretty sure his brain stopped functioning for a moment, looking at Indiana's abdomen. She wasn't even that uncovered, but he couldn't help but stare at her longingly, making sure his camera was capturing the sight.

"Are you getting a fucking tattoo in your dorm room?" Randy asked, his eyes wide.

"Yeah," Indy replied, looking at them. "This is Brian. He gets the Delta Lambda Zeta's their weed. Gave Ashley Day in history her tattoo for forty bucks."

"You've never mentioned wanting one," Sidney said, coming closer. "What are you getting?"

Indiana bit her lip as they looked at the tattoo on her ribs, just an inch above a pink scar. Brian was finishing off the last letter in a neat, simple, small font.

Mickey tilted his head to read it better, the random letters making no sense to him. "NYFFG? What does that mean?" he asked while making sure his camera picked up on the letters.

It was Sidney that answered him, a somber expression on her face. "Not your fucking final girl," she said quietly.

"They, um, I saw they started filming the movie today," Indiana told them, avoiding eye contact. "You know what's gonna happen, Sid. We aren't gonna let them turn us into their Sally or Nancy or Laurie just cause they wanna immortalize those assholes on film."

"Thought you didn't care about the movie," Randy mumbled, looking down with a frown.

"Yeah, I won't care twenty years from now when we all get together and get drunk to rewatch it and make fun of it," she admitted with a tense, angry smile. "And I get why they're making it, ya know. I love The Town That Dreaded Sundown. But Tatum's body wasn't even fucking cold before Gale goddamn Weathers sold the rights to the story that's got nothing to do with her."

Indiana had always seemed the most well-adjusted of them all, but that didn't mean she wasn't still angry. In between the jokes and nicknames, she was seething inside half the time. They were gonna put Billy's face on fucking t-shirts next to Michael Meyers and Freddy Kreuger all because Gale wanted to make a name for herself.

"I know how you're feeling," Sidney said gently. "I mean, I don't know if tattooing your last words to Billy on your skin forever is the best way to handle those feelings, but still. We just didn't know you were so bothered by everything."

"I'm not completely apathetic, I'll have you know," she mumbled half-heartedly. "And yeah, maybe it's not the best thing for it, but I saw Brian after class and made an impulsive decision that I'm not regretting so far."

"Well, I think it's badass," Mickey then told Indiana. Her frustrated expression faded as she turned her attention to the boy that was completely uninvolved. "You're a badass, Indiana. And so fucking strong for getting through all that. They're gonna have to invent a whole new horror character trope to cover you. The tat is just reminding everyone of that."

"Thank you, Mickey," Indiana said, smiling up at him softly. "So, is it looking okay so far?"

"Yeah, if I look down again, I'm just gonna stare at your bra," he shamelessly admitted, a wolfish grin on his face.

Indiana rolled her eyes in amusement before looking over at Brian, who was wiping away ink and a little blood from her skin. "I'm just about done," he told her in a thick, Jersey accent. He was putting the finishing touches on the G, making sure it was fully filled in.

"Hey," Sidney said almost hesitantly to Brian, who glanced up at her for a second. "Just forty dollars?"

"Yeah, you wanting one?"

"Yeah," she replied after a moment. Then Sidney grabbed one of Indiana's hands, squeezing it tightly. "You and me, right?"

"You and me, bitch."

☆︎

On September 28th, Cici and Hallie wouldn't let Indiana and Sidney stay locked up in their rooms. All four girls had a picnic on the main quad for lunch that Sunday, and it wasn't long before most of the others joined them. The only ones missing were Jackson and Derek, but Hallie left a message on the phone in their dorm, inviting them to the meal.

Indiana wasn't really sure how she ended up in the position, but she was balancing a basketball on her head while her friends watched in amusement, wondering how long she could go. It was impressive that she was managing to carry on conversation while keeping up the performance.

"Okay, so when you say that Tim has 'insanely blue eyes,' do you mean like a Rob Lowe blue or an Emilio Esteves blue?" Indiana asked her roommate. Cici met some junior named Ted at a party the other night and was desperately waiting for him to call like he said he would.

"Think Jonathan Taylor Thomas blue," she said with a dreamy sigh.

"Damn," Hallie muttered in between dipping her soda, "that's a good blue."

"God, I love blue eyes," Sidney said, staring up at the clouds. Because she was looking upward, she didn't see the way Randy and his blue eyes were fixed solely on her with a lovesick expression.

"I prefer brown most of the time," Indiana said absentmindedly. And suddenly, Mickey's expression matched Randy's, who'd been silently observing and documenting the balancing act on his camera.

"Brown eyes are boring," Hallie muttered. "I'm thinking about getting colored contacts. Maybe a dark green."

"Well, Indy describes them really well in her song journal," Cici said with a sly smile, making a point to not look at Mickey.

For half a second, Indiana thought the basketball was going to roll off her head as she narrowed her eyes, but it remained in place. "It'd be mega great if you could stop going through that, babe."

"No, what'd she write about brown eyes? Make me not hate mine as much," Hallie said with a grin.

"I don't know all the exact lines, and she scratched through a bunch of the options," Cici went on. "But it was like the color of the earth after it rains. They're warm like the feeling of home. And when the sun falls on them, the color melts like golden rays of honey, a sunset of their own making — but ya know, it was rhyme-y and stuff."

"Hence why the lyrics were crossed out. Those were shit" Indiana said, giggling as Cici tried to recall them from memory. "But Hallie, your eyes aren't boring. They remind me of the mountains and nature around us — subtle, but beautiful and rich in every form and season."

"Ooh! Do mine," Sidney said, sitting up straight and grinning at her. "Talk about my eyes."

Indiana smiled and thought for a moment. "Your eyes are flecked with gold, like lightning in a storm-darkened sky."

"My turn!" Randy said, smirking.

"They're blue," Indy said flatly. Randy's shoulders dropped as he scowled at her. "I shan't participate in the over-romanticization of blue eyes when all other colors are beautiful too."

"Well, I've got brown eyes," Mickey spoke up. "Let's hear a poem about my gorgeous eyes."

Indiana shut her eyes and thought, glad that she was still balancing the ball so that she didn't have to look into his light brown eyes as she spoke. "A picture of heaven could be painted with the hues of your brown eyes — from the caramel to the mahogany. Yes, show me your eyes to show me heaven."

Mickey was silent, watching her lips as they carefully formed each word, speaking so softly that he nearly forgot they were on the quad in the middle of the day, surrounded by people. He forgot she wasn't only speaking to him.

To the side, Sidney, Cici, and Hallie were sharing amused looks at the awed look on the boy's face.

"Shit, that was good," Randy spoke up, jealous he wasn't getting attention for his eye color anymore. He didn't care about ruining the mood — besides, there was barely a mood given Indy had a ball on her forehead. "Can't believe you only said Billy had the soulless and penetrating eyes of a serial killer, and that was when you were in love with him."

"Was so not in love with him," she said, letting out a loud laugh. "And was I fucking wrong? I'm like a prophet or something, I swear."

"Look more like a seal to me," Derek said while walking up to them, a smile on his face. "How long you been doing that, Indy?"

"Eight minutes," Sidney said, glancing at her watch. "Very impressive."

"Mickey has to write her next film theory paper if she hits the ten-minute m—"

Cici was cut off as Jackson tore through the quad and rammed right into Indiana, tackling her to the ground. She groaned, and their friends all winced as the basketball rolled off. Seeing that she landed on her side with the fresh tattoo, Sidney cringed and put her hand protectively over the one healing on her forearm that matched Indiana's.

"Oh, god, I think I'm dead," Indiana coughed out, recovering from the blow. "What the fuck, Jax? What was that for?"

Jackson grinned down at her, still completely on top of her. "Wanted to," he said with a shrug. "You looked like you needed a good tackle."

"One day, when you're least expecting it, I'm gonna push you down a flight of fucking stairs to get you back for this," she grumbled as he finally rolled off her. She ended up near Mickey from how far Jackson sent her.

"Can't wait," he said, laying down next to her, shoulder to shoulder. "Anyway, happy one year to the time you were making mental plans to have a threesome with two killers while my baby sister was bleeding out in a garage."

Sidney flinched, and Indiana dug her nails into her palms. "Thank you so much for that reminder, my dude. Really, thank you. I had forgotten that detail. It was overshadowed by the betrayal and murder, ya know?"

"You were gonna — with Stu too?" Cici asked, raising an eyebrow. "BTW, not judging because of the two guys thing. Just the killer thing. Love the ambition and sexual freedom."

Indiana could only shrug. "Of course, I wanted Stu too. He was very charismatic, and I am weak when it comes to pretty boys."

"He wasn't so charismatic that you should've been making out during the movie," Randy grumbled. "It was disrespectful to Jamie Lee, not to mention my eyeballs."

"Well, maybe if you'd have been playing the best horror movie in existence instead of Halloween, I wouldn't have gotten myself into that situation," she shot back at him.

Randy and Mickey groaned in sync as Indiana just grinned.

"No. Just no," Mickey spoke up, looking pointedly at her. "I don't care what you keep saying. I simply can't believe that Killer Klowns From Outer Space is actually one of your favorite movies."

"It's a great movie. You're probably just watching it wrong when you do," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow condescendingly. "I'm incorrectly watching a movie? Didn't know that was something a person could do."

"Dude, I've had this argument with her a hundred times," Randy said, shaking his head exhaustedly. "You're not gonna make her fold."

Mickey smirked and leaned down and closer to Indiana since she was still laying down. "Hmm, then I guess you'll have to teach me how to correctly watch it. Say next weekend? Just me and you, Sweetheart?"

Indiana opened her mouth, but a response died before she could even form a syllable. Because there Mickey was, asking her on a date and suddenly making all the hatred she had for September 28th wash away.

"Damn, that was smooth," Jackson muttered, seeing that his best friend was speechless — a hard thing to achieve. "You gotta say 'yes' now, Indy."

Slowly, Indiana nodded up at Mickey, feeling a little shy as all her friends were watching. It didn't help that Randy was pointing Mickey's camera at them with a stupid little grin on his face.

"Yeah, okay, Altieri," Indiana finally said. "My room on Friday. Bring snacks."

"Bring the shitty movie."

She narrowed her eyes at him, fighting off the urge to defend her favorite film. "I'm gonna regret agreeing to this, aren't I?"

Mickey just smirked at her, pleased she even said yes to begin with. "Probably so. But I'm still looking forward to it."

Indiana smiled softly at him then, staring into the beautiful brown eyes she always struggled to write about. "Yeah, me too."