“Pretty nice, right? Lots of different options and it’s, like, buffet-style. Just beep your ID and fill your plate, y’know?” the opossum said, leaning against the wall next to the entry to the cafeteria. “There’s one like it in my dorm hall, but I figured you wouldn’t wanna wait.”

Zeke glanced around, “Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Kinda like high school, but, uh…real food,” he said with a half-sheepish, half-sly grin over at Rosalyn, who laughed in response.

“I know, right? I loved lunchtime, but I hated lunch. You know what I mean?” She sighed and stretched her arms over her head, arching her back and uttering a sound that caused Zeke to blush. “Anyway,” the girl continued after her stretch, jerking a thumb over her shoulder as she pushed off the wall with her foot, “I’m gonna get to my dorm, it’s getting late and I wanna get there before dark.”

“You’re not eating?” the ferret asked, ears laying back slightly, eyes widening.

“Dude, don’t break out the puppy eyes, that’s totally unfair,” Rosalyn objected with a laugh. “I already ate, and they’re doing construction across the way from the dorm. I don’t wanna dance with a backhoe in the pale moonlight, *and* I still have to get my stuff unpacked. I’ll look you up and shoot you a com, okay?” she reassured him with a cheeky smile, “You haven’t seen the last of me.” With a wiggle of her fingers, she turned and sauntered off; the opossum giving Zeke the mixed pleasure of watching her walk away. *I really hope she stays true to her culture and keeps wearing those pants. Wow.*

[center]***[/center]

Twenty minutes after watching Rosalyn walk away for longer than was strictly polite, the ferret hip-checked the latch bar of the door to push it open and emerge out into the evening air, paws stowed in the pockets of his red zip-up hoodie. He checked his com, glanced up at the streaks of wispy, orange-lit clouds above, and started down the path through and off the main campus and into the park. *Man, there’s so many trees here. I’m used to seeing them alongside the river, but they actually get enough rain out here for something other than spruce to grow in a park like this. That’s really cool. This walk is gonna be really pretty when the leaves start to turn.* He looked upwards, thoughtful; tongue pressed up against one of his fangs as his mind started to wander. *I’m gonna want to catch the shuttle bus when I’m on the way to class, though. I **never** get going early enough to actually make this walk when I have somewhere I need to be.*

*Anyway, it’ll be too hot to walk it in the middle of the day for a couple more weeks, and by the end of October it’ll be too freaking cold. There might even be snow. So it’s not a big loss. Looks like they’ve got golf over there, too; I wonder what else—*

The ferret’s train of thought came to a screeching halt as the next step he took dropped him a couple inches farther than he’d been expecting. His attention snapped from the golf flag he’d noticed off to his side back to what was in front of him: he’d stepped off the curb and almost tripped into an intersection. Flushing, he hopped back up onto the curb and waited for the light to turn, bouncing on the balls of his footpaws. *Glad there wasn’t a truck,* he thought, before the light turned green and he started across the road.

*Oh, hey, that’s the tech building across the street. Sweet, there’s a shuttle stop here. So if that’s the Foster Center over there, then Wright Hall should be up around the bend,* the ferret thought, reaching out to brush his fingers against the metal frame of the glass-enclosed waiting spot for the shuttle. He kept making his way along the path, then smiled as the dorm hall came into view. *Good job, map. Wow. The bike racks are packed, *he marveled, before reaching out to push open the door.

Thump. The metal-framed glass door bumped against its latch, but didn’t open. Zeke looked at it for a moment, then glanced around. Noticing the red light on the scanner next to the door, he flushed and twisted to bump his hip pocket up against the scanner; an awkward motion that, nonetheless, had the desired effect: the door unlatched with a “ka-chunk”, and he was able to pull it open and step into the hall. He paused and twitched his whiskers at the fading scent of carpet glue and paint, before smiling and making his way for the elevator. He reached out to press the “up” button, then paused, smile fading. *Dorm. Right. Roommates. More people. Well, *he thought, punching the button and rocking forward and back on his sneaker-clad footpaws, a smile flicking back over his features, *hopefully introductions and stuff won’t take too long. I want to get a good night’s sleep tonight.*

[center]***[/center]

“I’m telling you, power armor is the way to go. That’s why I play Breakers. Hacker Breakers, obviously, Fire Breakers are boring; I’m not into playing for the Provider.”

“Yeah, I guess, but the Emergent are just so cool. I get crazy cyber-monsters, *and* I get to roll more dice. Anyway…”

As Zeke opened the door and slipped in, the heavyset ground squirrel and lean coyote that’d been talking stopped and looked over. There was a moment of quiet that hung on the air, before Zeke coughed and flashed a little smile and wriggled his fingers. “Uh, hey. I’m Zeke.”

“Hey! I’m Peter,” the squirrel said.

“Uh, Tanner,” the coyote added.

“Nice to meet you. Uh, so what’re you guys talking about?”

“Warjack!” the squirrel said, “you heard of it? I’m trying to convert Tanner to the Hackers.”

“Yeah, I have a friend back home who’s into it. He plays Provider Airwave Corps, I have some Provider Agents, but I didn’t bring them this time. I mostly enjoy painting them. I love the books, though; I think the lore is really cool,” the ferret admitted with a laugh, unshouldering his bag and setting it down, before moving over to flop into one of the small, hotel-style blue upholstered chairs, sinking into it with a sigh and kicking off his shoes, wriggling his sock-clad pawtoes. “It takes so long to play a freaking game, though, you know? Frig, I’m beat. Where you guys from?”

“Yeah, I get you. The last time we played it took two days. I mean, not all at once. It took two sessions. Uh, we’re from Harmony,” the coyote said, gathering up his shoulderblade-length black headfur and binding it up into a ponytail with the elastic band he’d had on his wrist. “We’re friends from high school. We got in this morning. You?”

“Little Bowl. I spent, like, three hours on the interCity, then got lost on the Metro for a while, then went to see the adviser. Then I met a cute opossum gal and she showed me where the cafeteria was up on north campus,” the ferret said, resting his cheek on his fist and lidding his eyes halfway. “Good day so far, but I’m dee-you-en, *done.*”

“Hey, the cute girl and the eating part sound pretty great, at least,” the squirrel said with a grin. “We’ve just been nerding out all day. Oh, right. I’m CompSci. Tanner is Info Management. What’re you in for?”

“Uh, Data Archeology for now, but I’m not married to it or anything. It sounds cool, though.”

“Cool. Hey, we were gonna fire up a game. I got an RPG I wanted to try out, you wanna watch?,” the squirrel asked.

Zeke thought about it, then sighed and rocked forward to get up to his feet with a little sound of exertion, moving over to plunk down next to the squirrel on the small couch. “Sure, I’m down. What’re we playing?”

The squirrel and coyote shared a grin, the coyote reaching back and over to flick off the light, leaving the common area of the dorm suite just lit by the TV. “Last Voyage. It’s gonna be real cool; the story was written by the guys that worked on the Neverfade series. The *good* ones, not the new ones. But it’s all new tech and the quality of life features are supposed to be great compared to those old games. I love them, but sometimes it’s hard to get people interested if they didn’t play them when they were kids, y’know?” the squirrel said as he started a new game, letting the opening cinematic play.

“I’m so behind on all this stuff. I was a Lightcomp kid when I was little,” Zeke admitted.

“Oh, fate, I’m so sorry,” Tanner chimed in with a laugh, “how was all the edutainment?”

“More *edu-* than -*tainment*,” Zeke said in a flat tone, rolling his eyes and smiling as he settled in to start watching, “I played the first three levels to *Deathmarch*, like, eighty times. That’s all the Lightcomp demo had.”

The other two guys groaned, shaking their heads, “Yeah, well, you’re in college now. It’s time for you to get a *real* education,” Peter said, bumping his shoulder to Zeke’s.

Zeke grinned. “Damn straight,” he replied, eyes locked to the TV screen. “I should crash soon, but, screw it. Educate away!”


[center]***[/center]


Zeke rested his forehead against the tile, lost in a groggy early-morning haze. He languished under the pulsed water from the showerhead, letting the water batter its way through his fur to massage the back of his head before sheeting its way down his slicked-down fur. He basked in the heat right up until the point where he was so overheated he started to feel a bit dizzy; only then did he muster up the willpower to grip the temperature control and turn the valve to “off.” He ran the blade of his paw down each arm, his chest, and his sides to squeegee the water out of his fur before bending down to to do the same with his legs; pivoting at the hip to wrap his fingers around his tail and squeeze the water out of it, too. Finally, he stepped out of the shower, stretched, and toweled himself off briskly; fluffing his fur out to better help it dry.

His towel about his waist, he opened the bathroom door, took a peek around, and scampered across the hall into his bedroom. *Thank goodness for individual rooms and a bathroom per suite. I don’t know how I’d deal with one of those barracks-style halls,* he thought, resting his back against the door and tipping his head back to lightly bump the back of his head against the faux wood surface, eyes closed. *Ugh, I’m full of “don’t-wanna” today. Why did I make Calc 1 my first class of the day? And why at fuck-me-o’-clock in the morning? I gotta pay more attention when I agree to shit like this, and I can’t keep staying up until I hear birds chirping, even if these guys are a lot more fun than I could’ve hoped. Ugh, I gotta get the cussing out of my head now so I don’t mouth off in class. Frig. Shoot. Darn. Heck. Got it, okay. Pants time.*

The ferret pushed off the door and started to root around in his bag, pulling out a pair of jeans. He winced at how wrinkled they were and flipped them out, snapping them against his bed a couple times to try to work the creases out. Then he busied himself with the fundamentals; checking off the “become presentable” boxes in order: black boxer-briefs, black socks, black jeans on. Belt on, adjust to get the proper amount of hip-droop without flashing underwear. Secure the tail catch. Light gray t-shirt, sky blue button-up, left unbuttoned. Dressed? Check.

*You’ve got this, Zeke. It’s just math, right?* he thought to himself as he rolled the long sleeves of his button-up carefully, making sure to get a nice cuff at the elbow, before he plucked up his leather wristband and snapped it around his left wrist. He checked himself out in the mirror, running his fingers through his headfur to try to get the proper amount of carefully careless frizz going on, before he twisted to make sure his tail was fed through the catch right and that he hadn’t overlooked something. *I look okay today, I guess. Oh right, shoes,* he thought, plunking down to pull on his sneakers. A sharp tug of the laces and a few nimble loops later, he dumped out the stuff in his backpack onto his bed, shoved a notebook back in, snagged his favorite pen to clip into the neckline of his t-shirt, and then he was out the door and on his way to class.

*Okay, no problem, I’ve got just enough time to get back up to North Campus. I hope.*