EXT. NORTH CAMPUS - NIGHT
JULES, a sprightly high school senior, makes her way towards a dorm on north campus. She walks briskly, her hands buried in the pockets of her denim jacket that is buttoned up all the way. It is much colder than she was expecting it to be. A weekender bag hangs off of one of her shoulders.
She reaches the dorm and swipes into the building with a keycard.
INT. DORM - NIGHT
An empty dorm hallway, alarmingly silent. Jules is shivering, despite being inside.
JULES (V.O.)
Awful quiet for a Saturday night.
She makes her way down the hall and stops outside a door and opens it.
INT. DORM ROOM - NIGHT
A messy dorm room, a single. Jules sets down her bag and surveys the space. The bed is lofted and a space is cleared underneath the bed, albeit dusty with a thin layer of clothes and miscellaneous fabric coating the tile floor.
JULES (V.O.)
This is a great time to be severely allergic to dust.
Jules looks around at the floor around her feet. Dirt everywhere.
JULES (V.O.)
No vacuum, is there?
She glances around. That's a negative. Jules sighs and crawls under the space below the bed. It's pretty dismal. Her body still shivers.
JULES (V.O.)
I have accepted my fate. I am going to die. For Oberlin.
She takes off her denim jacket and places it underneath her head as a type of pillow, and crawls out to turn off the light in the room.
JULES (V.O.)
I hope my host comes back soon. Maybe they can give me a blanket or something. A blanket would be nice.
Jules crawls back under the bed. She takes out her phone and opens Snapchat. A burst of light emits from her screen as she takes a forward-facing Snapchat selfie of her lying down on the floor, a weak expression on her face accompanied by a feeble peace sign. She captions it,
JULES
Literally sleeping on the floor rn. Thanks, Oberlin.
Jules sends the snap out and then locates an outlet and plugs her phone into the charger.
INT. DORM ROOM - NIGHT - SOME TIME LATER
Jules tosses and turns on the floor. She SNEEZES VIOLENTLY several times and she is still shivering. By now she has taken the denim jacket from beneath her head and has put it back on again.
She rolls over so that she faces the door of the room and stares at it.
JULES
Are they ever going to come back? I probably could just sleep...
Jules begins to crawl out from under the bed, but she stops herself.
JULES (V.O.)
No, I shouldn't. That's gross. I should just accept my fate.
She crawls back to her original spot and stares back at the door. In the darkness, a pair of eyes are visible on the frame of the door. It's a poster of The Cure's Disintegration.
JULES (V.O.)
You're not being helpful, Robert Smith.
Jules stares into the darkness of the room.
JULES
Leonardo DiCaprio should star in a movie about this. I bet he'd win an Oscar for it.
INT. DORM ROOM - DAY
Sunshine pours through the slits in the venetian blinds of the window. Jules's eyes flutter open, her hair looking like a rat's nest. She checks the time on her phone and crawls out from under the bed. Jules looks to see if anyone is sleeping in the bed, but it is vacant. She blankly stares at it for a few moments more before heaving a sigh.
Except, a hacking COUGH follows the sigh. After she finishes coughing, she straightens herself up again and then realizes what has occurred.
JULES
Oh no. Really?
Another COUGH happens.
JULES (V.O.)
I am going to cry.
Her face remains stoic though as she packs up all of her things into her bag and leaves the room.
EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY - SOME TIME LATER
Jules walks to a car where her DAD waits outside. She hands him her bag and he puts it in the trunk of the car.
DAD
So how was it?
JULES
Do you have a tissue?
DAD
Yeah, right here I do.
He opens a pack and hands her one. She blows her nose for an extended period of time.
DAD (CONT'D)
Uh-oh.
JULES
I think I am sick.
DRAMATIC MUSIC [preferably something composed by Ennio Morricone].
INT. HIGH SCHOOL THEATER - DAY
Jules stumbles into a theater where a stage is set up with various rock instruments, including a DJ console, with a zombie-like quality. A MUSIC TEACHER coils some microphone cables and spots her entrance.
MUSIC TEACHER
Hey, Jules!
JULES
(half-awake)
Hi.
Her voice is several pitches below where it usually is.
MUSIC TEACHER
Are you feeling alright? You don't look or sound yourself today.
JULES
I'm actually not. I think I'm coming down with something.
MUSIC TEACHER
You know what, take rehearsal off today and do what you need to do. You can come back when you feel up to it, it's not a problem.
JULES
Really? It's tech week, though.
MUSIC TEACHER
I think it'll be better for your sake.
Jules heads towards the door.
JULES
Alright. Thanks, I appreciate it. I'll go to the doctor and see what's up.
INT. CLINIC - DAY
A NURSE takes Jules's temperature with a thermometer.
NURSE
Whoa.
Jules's eyes widen slightly.
NURSE (CONT'D)
103.7 degrees.
JULES
If I had the vocal ability to scream, I would.
NURSE
Honey, you need to rest.
Jules nods.
JULES
Yes... that sounds like a plan.
JULES (V.O.)
I wish I was on The Office so I could look directly into a camera to express my feelings about the situation.
And that is, more or less, the story of how All Roads went for me last year. I hope no prospective student this year has experienced something similar in their overnight, and from what I've heard about All Roads from people who also did it when they were in high school, my ordeal is very much an anomaly. At that point, I had already been accepted Early Decision II to Oberlin, so I guess it didn't really matter in the end. Despite catching some form of the Oberlin plague, I had a great time at All Roads, largely because of two friends in the class above me who I went to high school with that let me hang out with them and their friends. Additionally, and more importantly, they showed me around the studios for WOBC, which got me hyped to apply for a show there as soon as the application was open because I was instantly enamored at the sight of shelves and shelves of vinyl (and CDs too, but I like vinyl more).
So even though I fell sick when I was re-visiting Oberlin, at least I got to see the inside of the radio station, because that's when I knew WOBC was something special that I wanted to become a part of. And I think that's what love is, besides an abstract concept that lots of people write songs about.
