“Hey, buddy, this is a family place, put the mouse back in the house!”

SCENE

Dining room in Cat’s home. The table is littered with pizza boxes, breadsticks containers, and buffalo wings. Bottles of IBC rootbeer are strewn about, half-empty. The ceiling fan is on, its soft hum the only sound heard over the rustling of napkins and the munching of pizza.

CAT, TD, and HANNAH sit at the table having dinner. TGIM walks in with ALLI. She is holding a pet store box containing a brand new baby gerbil.

ALLI: [displaying box] I got a gerbil!

General “oohs” and “aahs” ensue.

ALLI: [conversationally] One of them I thought had babies, but it was actually only his tentacles.

Silence. Then…

EVERYONE: Bwahahaha!

ALLI: No, really, guys.

More laughter.

ALLI: I’m not kidding! Those tentacles were huge.