The Root of the Matter

The War of “2 on 2” had begun and it wasn’t pretty. 

The boys from Floor 2 were understandably indignant about the Floor 3’s new rule and decided to retaliate by making their own “2 on 3” policy. Tensions began to grow which manifested themselves in the form of pranks including putting towels outside the 3rd floor boys’ showers in the morning and turning on the water so that anyone wanting to take a shower would believe that they were taken. I believe the Floor 3 boys also did their fair share of plotting and pranking. However, tensions reached a breaking point one night when Floor 2 took things a bit too far. 

I was in my room hanging out with my roommate, Sarah, and her boyfriend when my other roommate came into the room looking a little dazed and befuddled. 

“Whats wrong?” I asked, concerned. 

“There’s a forest in the stairwell,” she said. 

Sarah, Nick and I laughed. “What?” I said. 

“There’s a forest in the stairwell,” she repeated and finally we realized she wasn't joking. 

“Wait, really?” Sarah asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Well, there’s a tree,” she said slowly, looking as though she didn’t quite know what to think, “I couldn’t go up the stairs. I had to go around.”

Just then someone knocked on our door. I got up and opened it to find Chris Bill was standing there. “Do you have a broom?” he asked, looking anxious.

“No,” I said, “I think Natalie might though. Why?”

“There’s a tree in the stairwell,” he said. 

“Seriously?”  I said, shocked, “How’d it get there?”

“Floor 2,” he answered darkly before continuing his search for a broom.

I glanced back at my roommates and they nodded, standing. Still half disbelieving, we all made our way to the stairs and sure enough, upside down and still covered in leaves was a huge tree. All the branches were bunched and tangled together completely blocking the way downstairs and the broken end of the trunk was sticking up through the railing of our floor. 

“Oh my god,” I said, dumbfounded, totally understanding my roommate’s reaction now, “There really is a tree.”

It didn’t stay there for long though. Someone told my RA and a few of the boys made quick work dragging it back down the stairs and out into the quad, Chris Bill sweeping up the leaves behind them. It was made very clear that that was a fire hazard and that it will NEVER happen again. We still don’t know who put it there and I don’t think we ever will. 

But the root of the matter was if this battle continued there definitely needed to be a few rules. And it was also clear that, in the words of John Keats, "The days of peace and slumberous calm are fled."