"This one?" The feline admissions officer said as she lifted an application ruffled by a breeze coming through the window. Her expression darkened as she flipped through it, well, more at the attached notes. "Expelled from two colleges in two semesters?" Her brows rose at an affixed letter. "Well, his father is offering quite a bit to take him. He'll be a difficult one. But that's enough money for three students." A fe of the others around the table eyed her, but they all spoke to it on occasion.
Another application nearby, fluttered in the breeze and she picked it up to peruse it. "Better pick. Foster care, but no money to speak of except a small savings. Ah.. you want one to pay for the other" She felt the breeze ruffle her fur as she guessed properly. She didn't know how a wind could feel smug, but it did.
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Milo didn't know what to make of his new school. Hell, he hadn't even expected to attend college. He had been pushed to apply to a few by one of his teachers. He had never heard of Claw Valley University before he found their oddly small brochure among the others the school kept on hand for students to look through. But he liked the look of it so he applied, asking for financial aid and everything. He didn't have much money and school meant loans, loans he didn't want. But when the school had replied with a full ride scholarship, room, board, tuition, and supplies, well, he would have been an idiot to turn it down. Some grant for those with no other way to get to college.
He sat at the orientation day picnic lunch, eating alone. Most were sticking with their families for now. It wasn't that Milo's didn't come. He just didn't have any. The school had even paid for his trip out here. He gleefully ate the hamburger offered, he didn't care what people said about school food, it was better than anything at the state housing. And the campus was amazing, full of old ivy covered buildings and tall trees, a large open green, and a beautiful glassy lake. There was an odd closeness to nature that was missing from the city he grew up in.
A voice called out from off to the side, telling group 2 they could come get their dorm assignments now. They had been letting people into the dorms by groups to keep move-in congestion to a minimum. Milo turned to eye the one shouting, a burly twenty-something with thick arms and a short black and white mohawk that Milo had been eyeing since he arrived. Way out of his league and probably straight, too. He knew he wasn't an impressive sight himself. He was probably what most people would describe as depressingly average. Not really tall, but not short, not athletic, but not overweight. Brown hair and eyes didn't help him stand out either.
He polished off his meal, and got up as he was part of group 2. He'd also have to swing by the office to pick up his stuff. With no car to leave it in they had agreed to keep their eyes on his meager possessions. It was about fifteen minutes later that he made his way to the third floor of the freshman boy's dorm with his overstuffed backpack, and less full banker's box. It was everything he owned.
When he finally found his room the door was blocked by a thick around the middle man in a suit. It looked expensive, Milo wasn't the best judge of these things. But the slightly more rotund woman next to him wore a ridiculous amount of jewelry and was holding her nose in the air like something stank. They were both turned into the room, talking to someone inside. "This is your last chance, Daryl. You understand that, right?" The man's voice was heated. "After those stunts you pulled last year this little backwater flyspeck was the only place that was willing to take you and it cost me tuition nearly eight times over."
Milo coughed politely, trying to let them know they weren't alone anymore.
The man went right on. "If you come home again, we're going to have a long, difficult discussion about your future, and you're not going to enjoy it."
Milo coughed again, shifting the box in his hands. The woman finally noticed him and tapped her husband on the shoulder, directing his attention to Milo. "This is a family matter, scram kid." The man said dismissively before turning back.
"Sorry, this is my room." Milo said, nodding to the piece of paper taped to the door then shifting the box again so he could motion at his sticker name tag they were forcing all the new arrivals to wear.
The man turned back to Milo, eyeing him up and down like a dog that had just tracked mud into the house. "Amount of money I'm paying he should have got a single. Well, maybe it'll do him good." He turned back to the mysterious occupant of the room. "We'll go wait in the common room. Try not to get expelled before the day is over." The pair of them cleared out, finally letting Milo into his room. Whatever he had expected of Daryl from seeing the backsides of his parents, it wasn't what sat on the bed, casting annoyed looks in the direction his parents wandered off in.
A lean swimmer's body, tousled blond hair, and the brightest green eyes Milo had ever seen. If only he wasn't sneering. And when Daryl looked over to Milo the sneer disappeared replaced by a look of resigned apathy. "So, you're my roommate." He looked Milo up and down with the same critical eye as the older man. "I guess I've had worse."
"Gee, thanks." Milo said with a bit of sarcasm as he set his stuff down on the other bed. Daryl wasn't unpacking, despite having three times what Milo had with him. Well, except for the state of the art laptop that sat on the desk at the foot of Daryl's bed. "I'm Milo." He checked his tone, trying to stay polite.
"Yeah, don't get buddy, buddy, I'll be out of here before the end of the month. Then you get a room to yourself." Daryl hopped to his feet, his lean frame over-topping Milo by a few inches.
"Not how it works." Came a voice from the doorway. It was the jock with the black and white mohawk. 'Stripes' was written on his nametag. "We don't expel mid semester, only at the end. Academic probation and community service for infractions isn't off the table though." Stripes shot Daryl a bright grin. "Read your file, I think we'll come to an understanding. I'm Stripes, I'll be your RA this semester."
Daryl stepped up to Stripes as if trying to intimidate him, but in that confrontation Stripes was the bigger guy, by far. But he just stepped aside and motioned for Daryl to pass. He did, muttering something under his breath that sounded rude. Stripes just shook his head and turned to Milo. "You're Milo, right?" Then he held out a bag he had at his side. "Here's the laptop the school promised you. Along with the photo editing software you'll need for your major."
Milo reached out and took the bag almost reverently. Until now his most expensive possession was an old camera that had been his father's. Old, but good, he had been a photojournalist. "Photography, huh?" Stripes said with a grin. "I bet that'll be fun around here. Let me know if you need a model." The older student joked with a wink. "Anything I can get you? I read your file, too. Just know if you need anything, even just a friendly ear, I'm just down the hall."
"How about a new roommate?' Milo couldn't help but let the comment slip out. He had been coming here with dreams of hitting it off with his roommate, having a new friend, a friend. Didn't seem that would be the case.
Stripes winced. "No can do. Those are picked by that personality survey you took. You can request a change between semesters and there's a few circumstances in which we allow moving dorms, but not just for 'rude prick.'" The big guy leaned on the door frame. "If it's any consolation I hated my first roommate, too."
"What happened?" Milo found himself asking.
"Oh, we're still roommates, and he's my boyfriend." Stripes shrugged. "All I'm saying is give it a chance. He might come around. Maybe not for dating, but.. college changes people." So Milo had been wrong about the straight thing, good to know. Not that he'd ever have a chance.
Milo pulled out a piece of paper and looked it over. His class schedule? He looked up at Stripes. "Yeah, I snuck an early copy for you, most will get theirs tomorrow."
"What's this.. Anthro 101? I didn't sign up for anthropology classes." They sounded interesting, but not anything Milo wanted to get into his first semester.
"Oh. That's not anthropology, um, it's a required course first semester, just a weird class code. You'll see. No classes tomorrow though, most of the upperclassmen will be moving back in, and the faculty. So, I'd take the day and get t know the campus. Anyway, orientation is in fifteen be in the common room." Stripes knocked on the doorframe before wandering off to take care of other business.
Milo spent most of the rest of the day alone. Orientation still saw people in family units, though with the possible clumping of families by dorm room. He eyed Daryl and his parents, but none of them seems inclined to want to talk with him. Daryl's parent's even wanted one last dinner with their son before they left, so the idea of trying to talk him into eating together at the cafeteria fell apart. Milo didn't mind eating alone, it was calmer than at the state home, and the food was still better.
Milo spent the rest of the evening getting used to the photography software on his new computer, a little smile on his face as he did so. At least something good came out of this day, and he met one person who seemed sincerely nice. It wasn't until Milo had already settled into bed for the evening that Daryl came stumbling back into the dorm room. He must have found a party somewhere on campus, probably at the older student dorms. He was unsteady on his feet and Milo could practically smell the beer coming off of him.
Daryl didn't even seem to notice his presence, as he striped completely naked, giving Milo the full view of everything. It was a pity such an asshole had such a nice body, and a thick... Milo flicked his eyes away as Daryl fell on his bed, on top of the sheets, buck naked. Stripes words about his own roommate came back to him, and his dreams were full of Daryl in ways the other guy would probably punch him for even thinking of.
Milo woke up early the next morning. He always woke up early. It was the only way in his old home of getting a decently warm breakfast you didn't have to fight over. A glance across the room told him Daryl was still naked and still completely exposed, his morning wood stick right up in the air. With no where else safe to look, Milo glance outside and blinked a few times. A wolf ran by on the walk below. A wolf on two legs, wearing shorts and headphones. Jogging. He passed a couple of women sipping coffees, except these women weren't human either, a fox and some type of white-furred weasel thing.
He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes and then looked down at himself. Human. Daryl was definitely human, then back outside. Half-dressed, hottie wolf still jogging. Even the statue he could see changed. Having been a man holding a book, it was now sported goat features. What the hell was going on?
Milo slipped out of bed not bothering to put on more than slippers, added to the pajama pants he already wore. He rushed into the hallway, intending to go ask Stripes what the hell was going on and ran into something solid, furry, and damp. He let out a shout of surprise and felt a pair of hands land on his shoulders. "Woah. Watch where you're going, kid."
Milo looked at what, who, he had run in to. A six foot tall otter stared back at him, wearing shorts and a tank top, and.. "Why are you wet?" That was not the question he intended to come out of his mouth. Nor did it seem to be the one the otter had been expecting.
"I go for morning swims, otter fur needs to air dry." Well, he had asked. "Um. My name's Grayson, uh, go wait in the common room. Stripes should be out shortly to explain things. I need to make sure no one bolts before he can."