> This assignment was actually turned in by two English students:
> 
> Rebecca <last name deleted> and Gary <last name deleted>
> English 44A
> SMU
> Creative Writing
> Prof Miller
> 
>                   In-class Assignment for Wednesday
> 
> Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story.
> The process is simple.  Each person will pair off with the person
> sitting to his or her immediate right.  One of you will then write
> the first paragraph of a short story.  The partner will read the
> first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story.  The
> first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and
> forth.  Remember to reread what has been written each time in order
> to keep the story coherent.  The story is over when both agree a
> conclusion has been reached.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted.  The
> camomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home,
> now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times,
> that he liked camomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs,
> keep her mind off Carl.  His possessiveness was suffocating, and if
> she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again.
> So camomile was out of the question.
> 
> Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack
> squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to
> think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named
> Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago.
> "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic
> communicator. "Polar orbit established.  No sign of resistance so
> far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed
> out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay.  The
> jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across
> the cockpit.
> 
> He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he
> felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one
> woman who had ever had feelings for him.  Soon afterwards, Earth
> stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of
> Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space
> Travel." Laurie read in her newspaper one morning.  The news
> simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window,
> dreaming of her youth -- when the days had passed unhurriedly and
> carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her
> from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around
> her.  "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she
> pondered wistfully.
> 
> Little did she know, but she has less than 10 seconds to live.
> Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched
> the first of its lithium fusion missiles.  The dim-witted wimpy
> peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty
> through Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile
> alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race.  Within
> two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were
> on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the
> entire planet.  With no one to stop them they swiftly initiated their
> diabolical plan.  The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere
> unimpeded.  The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine
> headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the
> inconceivably massive explosion which vaporized Laurie and 85
> million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the
> conference table. "We can't allow this!  I'm going to veto that
> treaty!  Let's blow'em out of the sky!"
> 
> This is absurd.  I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My
> writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.
> 
> Yeah?  Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts
> at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.
> 
> You total $*&.
> 
> Stupid %&#$!.