The drive out of Lyre/Animalia to their college in Oregon took a bit of time in managing, particularly as they had to move around some of the various fires in the area, including some in Nevada that were also burning. It meant a lot of road blocks, detours, and single lane roads with a pilot car and it was something that startled and surprised both Samson and Abby. They'd seen some of the news reports on these fires and the consequences that came from them, but actually going through the areas where the fire fighters were working, or detouring to avoid the fires was something else. This left both of them a bit tired as they pulled into the parking circle for the dorms that they would have at their small ag school, Base Valley College. Thankfully it was in a small town that wasn't in an area in danger by the fires, which was a relief for the mid August time period.
"The air still smells of smoke," Samson commented as he slipped out of the passenger seat and looked over to Abby who got out of the driver's side.
"I'd imagine that's a result of some winds that have blown smoke from these fires here," Abby commented, "even if the fires aren't here."
Samson nodded as he looked over to some of the other cars, vans, and at least one truck that was there in that circle. All of them had students and some even with family carrying things into the brick building that made the dormitory that Samson and Abbey were in. They were on different floors and different wings, as part of the college's girl floor then boy floor policy, but Samson generally accepted that and understood that there were visiting hours and that the future for him and Abby would always look good. He was about to move over to the back of the bed when a young woman came running down from the steps to the building and looked up to Abby with a great smile. Samson came around to join them as they approached.
"Hello, welcome to Base Valley College, Frosh Hall, are you moving in?" the woman spoke.
"Yes, we are," Abby answered, "I'm Abby Brown and this is my bond-mate, Samson. Based on the paperwork, this should be the Hall we were assigned to."
"Yes..." the woman said excitedly, "Base Valley's first Animalian students! Some things may not be the most comfortable as we aren't as Animalian specific as WSA... but we have made some orders. I'm Susanne Conner, I will be helping you both move in. Ms. Brown you are in room 223 on the second floor and Mr. Samson, you're on 510 on the fifth floor. If you'll come with me, I'll get you your keys and then you can get started on things. You'll meet with your RAs at eight PM to discuss dorm rules, class schedules and everything else. This will include socially distanced options and masks will be needed as well."
"Well... it's three PM now," Abby said to Samson and then to Susanne Conner, "we can move our things in and get our books before eight, right?"
"Right," Susanne Conner nodded, "and the campus dining hall serves all kinds of foods, including vegetarian faire, and is open from six PM to eight thirty PM."
"Okay," Abby answered, "and we can keep our truck parked here while unloading?"
"While unloading, yes," Susanne Conner nodded.
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Nate's trip back home and he ended up spending the night in what was normally his bed at home before his father drove him to his own campus. It was an early start, but Nate also knew that things were not such that he could really get out of things. He had to power through and move forward, even if he missed Shuixing even more than he had before he became a Water Buffalo Animalian. This left him kind of sleep walking as he went through breakfast and packing his things, which his father finally called him out on as they rode along from the Bowman Farm to the University of Wisconsin.
"It's only one more year, son, you can do it," Ulysses said to him, "you can't just zone out because you've changed and Shuixing isn't here."
"I know... but... we've gotten so close," Nate commented, "closer than before... and I really think she's the one, and would have been the one regardless of how well you got along with Blueberry."
Ulysses didn't immediately answer, as that was something he'd expected. While he'd seen less of Shuixing than Nate had, the times when he'd been able to go to Animalia so Nate could meet his girlfriend "halfway" and when she came to visit the farm, he could see the added joy in both of them. In that sense, he knew the two of them had been falling in love, regardless of the circumstances of how they first met. And as much as Ulysses wanted to keep his farm "in the family" as it were, a part of him also had to realize that Nate might not want the farm if it meant losing Shuixing. Falling in love with Blueberry after she was uplifted was something that came later and eased the "keep in the family" issue for Ulysses, but that didn't remove the other pressures that came with a "long distance relationship" that Nate and Shuixing had had.
"And I'm happy for you, son, believe me," Ulysses answered, "You and Shuixing will have a very bright future... and Blueberry will be coming into season so... We're hoping to conceive siblings for you... but all of that is the future, and we must still be responsible in the present. And you'll have email and Skype and all the other ways you've had to talk to Shuixing before, right?"
"Right," Nate nodded.
"So... yeah, it'll be tough, but you can do it," Ulysses told his son and gave a smile, "you're my son. You can do anything you put your mind to and everything will be fine. Just take it one step at a time. For in a way... the school year will fly by... as it always does."
"Assuming Covid or politics doesn't derail it," Nate grumbled.
"There's nothing we can do about that," Ulysses nodded and then sighed, "and I've heard our state's numbers are ticking up again... all we can do is be careful, okay."
Nate nodded as they rode along. The ride took much of the day, and eventually Ulysses got Nate to share some things on where he'd stayed on Heiya Island and how Shuixing's sisters accepted him and so on. There was a little on him and Shuixing being able to practice together on a more even playing field, though Nate also said that she easily won the sparring match, and things like that. Talking about that actually made Nate feel a bit better, as it was something he could look forward to. True he was practically half the world away from the woman... or rather the Animalian he loved... but there was a lot to look forward to. That managed to keep his spirits up as they came into where the Senior Dorm at the University of Wisconsin was.
The arrival was about as quiet as one could expect from new or returning students, in Nate's case, at a major university. However, the big thing was college had apparently bought several large plastic tubs on wheels. Normally he would have thought these were for dealing with garbage, but he found them all parked together with assistants and RAs moving them to every new car that came in. To Nate's surprise, one of his friends was pulling one of them up as Ulysses put the truck in park.
"Gus! You're an RA this year?" Nate asked as he got out.
"A student assistant to the RAs," the other student, Gus, corrected and then looked up to Nate, "and DAMN you got big."
"Well... water buffalo aren't exactly small animals," Nate answered, "and Shuixing... I love her so much... we had the time and a moment... and... well... it was wonderful."
"Yeah... the college gave updates on you and got a whole special bed for you and all," Gus answered, "but still... you're bigger and buffer than I expected. If the Big Ten were still playing... you could be the Offensive Line now."
"There aren't enough Animalians out there in the various colleges to integrate college sports, regardless," Nate reminded him, to which Gus shrugged. From there Nate turned to his next question, "So what's with the tub?"
"This?" Gus answered and tapped the handle of the red plastic tub on wheels, "this is the college's solution to helping slow the spread of Covid... at least on move in day. You put your things in there in one go and then you're not walking back and forth and touching everything several times. You load it here, I'll lead you in to your room... you unload it and then I get to wipe the surfaces with disinfectant... and then repeat. That's pretty much what everyone is doing. It'll save on time, keep things reasonably clean and so on..."
"And consume hand sanitizer," Nate commented, "much of which may not do well with my fur."
"It'll be better than nothing," Gus reminded him, to which Nate nodded and moved back to the bed of the truck to begin unloading things from the bed of the truck and into the tub that Gus had brought out, with his senior year in college ahead.
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Sophie was thumbing through the saved photos on her phone from her email as her father navigated the hectic and at times crowded roads that were Dallas, Texas. It was something that let her avoid the occasional four letter words that her father had when someone cut him off or he had to go an extra block before being able to make the turn he wanted to, and it was a good thing as there were a few good ones to see. One of them was a photo with Malice, Sarah, and Jessica together posing with Princess and Tiffany with an email that had the title of "Joining Pi Etta Tau!"
"Well, I'm sure they're having fun," JC commented as he looked over to Sophie, "Already on their campus and in the Animalian Sorority/Fraternity..."
"They had a shorter distance to go than we did," Sophie reminded her former pet, "and given the updates that Animalians that graduated WSA and Lyre High before we did, many of them went to UNLV and joined PET when it was formed."
"I still don't know why so many uplifted pets would agree to join the "pet" house," Pauline commented, "granted many many pet owners treat their pets quite well... and you were most caring for JC, from what JC tells me... but you don't see him as a pet anymore, do you?"
"No," Sophie admitted and said nothing more on that, as there were the times where she did kinda see where JC got the whole image of Sophie as his mother. As there were all the times where she wanted to protect him and keep him safe, just as her own mother did with her. "Though I think the name was ultimately done in jest. So far as I know, Tiffany and Princess see each other the way Sarah and Malice do... as sisters."
"The name still puzzles me," Pauline repeated.
Sophie nodded as a frustrated groan of "finally" drifted back from the front seat. She looked up to the front where her father was finally able to turn onto a road that had a sight that read "SMU ^ 1.5 miles." That was a relief, as it meant that they were coming up on the college and let Sophie think over the things that had gone on at Dino City before completing the last leg of their journey to the college. They'd gotten the confirmation that Dino City would find space for the new Animalia Ambassadoria team to upload videos from when they did live updates from Dino City, which would likely be part of summer or holiday updates when there was something big to report on, and that was not necessarily referring to the Dinotopians themselves. There was also one brief flight over the city that Sophie and Roland were allowed to stretch their wings a bit. It included misidentifying the "nightclub" that had been part of Dino City since the beginning as a "new strip club," but that was ultimately written off under the fact that when Sophie and Roland had covered the initial tour of the city, they didn't get a look at that because of their status as minors at the time...
Having to be reminded by Tyra, who they found coming in to work, that the club was NOT a strip club as Dino City's interim government had written in rules that forbid that sort of thing in Dino City. Drinks, dancing, and music were fine, but no nudity and no dancing for money. Tyra called it frustrating, but also admitted that once all the Covid pandemic ended, she and Heather both had plans to conceive eggs and that it might not be a good idea to be working as a stripper while raising infants. Thus the club served more like a high end nightclub than anything else. After apologizing for the mistaken identification, they flew back to where they'd left their parents waiting with JC and Pauline... who had remained with the Albers and Luwrie parents to "make sure they didn't sneak off to convert" as Sophie had instructed, though not that that was likely...
And it didn't happen. Her parents were still human and judging by the frustration at the traffic, Sophie doubted that her parents would even consider converting at the moment given how it would interfere in dropping Sophie, JC, and Pauline off at the college and then navigating the long road back to Lyre. Sophie took some comfort in that as they came onto the campus grounds and began navigating their way to the sets of freshman dorms that she, JC, Pauline, and Roland were assigned to. They found Roland waiting at the entry area to one with a couple of Humans holding big plastic wheeled totes with them.
"What is all this?" Sophie's mother asked from the front passenger seat as Sophie's father managed to parallel park the car as Roland came forward with the others following.
"We'll find out..." Sophie answered as she, JC, and Pauline moved to climb out.
And they found it was a system rather like what Nate had found in Wisconsin. The big tubs would allow incoming students to place all their belongings into one bin and save on the trips back and forth to vehicles and hope to curb the potential spread of Covid 19, a big thing, since Texas was one of the states where Covid was still a potential threat, particularly in the metropolitan areas, like Dallas. And while Animalians were more resistant to those things, the fact that there was one confirmed Animalian that had caught the virus over the summer was proof that they weren't outright immune or incapable of catching Covid 19. Papers were given that showed when Sophie, JC, and Pauline had last been tested for the Virus and had it come back as negative and they were welcomed in to begin loading their things. Though they were also told that no windows were to be damaged to allow for flight out of the windows and they weren't to fly onto the roofs of buildings.
"They also want a picture for the college yearbook," Roland then finished.
Sophie nodded to the other two Dinotopians with her and figured that wasn't too much of a request that came with their arrival at SMU.