“Okay, so you want to be more confident and social? Well, there’s no better place to do that than on a college campus!”
After agreeing to let Sam help him work on being more sociable and confident, Todd had assumed that they would start sometime in the near future. What he failed to realize was exactly how eager Sam was to help him. Before he knew it, Todd was being dragged out of the dorm and onto the “Great Lawn”, a large open area of grass in between most of the academic buildings. In the center was a fairly large plaza with a large oak tree in the middle, with various students sitting on the ring of bricks that surrounded it. Currently, the two young men stood at one end of the Great Lawn, looking out at the other “people” there.
“I-I don’t know about this, Sam,” Todd stuttered. “I r-really don’t know the first thing about being social, a-and being around other people just makes me n-nervous…”
“Aw come on Todd!” the jock said, wrapping his arm around the shorter male’s shoulder in a friendly manner. “Talking to people is just like riding a bike: you’re going to fall off a few times, but you’ll eventually get it!”
“I…don’t think that’s how the metaphor goes…”
“Really? Huh, I guess I misremembered it…but that’s not the point right now! Talking to people is pretty simple if you have something in common, and you have something in common with all of the freshmen here!”
“I…I do?”
“Yeah dummy! You’ve been transported to an entirely different world and you’re turning into an animal! Did you forget about that?”
“Oh…yeah. I guess I did…kinda…”
“So all we have to do is look for some people who aren’t fully transformed yet, and you’ll know that they’re probably freshmen too! Here, I’ll help you look.” Sam began looking around for other freshmen to approach, while Todd found himself trying to get adjusted to his new ears. While he didn’t hate them, they would definitely take a lot of getting used to. His hearing was significantly stronger than it used to be, meaning that he could hear a few people’s conversations.
“How do you think the freshmen are handling everything?”
“They’ll be fine! It takes some time to get used to, but they’ll definitely learn that being here is awesome!”
“I really hope I don’t have any slackers in my class this year. I hate failing students.”
“I do as well. I’ve been teaching for over 20 years, and it still hasn’t gotten any easier.”
“Dude, did you see the trailer for the new Tale of Selda game?!”
“You know I did! Exploring the skies above Hylore sounds so fucking cool!”
“Hey, Todd!” Sam shook the young man’s shoulder, bringing him back to reality. “I found some freshmen from our dorm!” Sam was eagerly pointing to a group of three boys that were waiting on one of the brick paths that acted as an outline for the Great Lawn. “I saw them leaving the dining hall, so I flagged them down to talk! Come on!”
Before Todd could even protest, Sam had grabbed his wrist and was leading him over to the group of people. As he dragged him over, Todd found himself looking over each of the boys. Each of them had a different hair color: brown, black, and blond. It didn’t look like they had experienced any changes, or at least, any changes that Todd could see from this distance.
Sam stopped a few feet in front of the group and smiled. “Thanks for stopping,” he said. “You guys are freshmen, right? I’m pretty sure I saw you guys during the orientation.”
“Yeah, we’re freshmen,” the boy with brown hair said. “I think I remember seeing you too. I’m Milo. This is my roommate Dare…” Milo gestured to the boy with blond hair. “...and our friend, Ollie.” He gestured to the boy with black hair.
“Nice to meet you all!” Sam responded cheerfully. “I’m Sam! And this is my roommate, Todd.” Todd tried to avoid making eye contact as he said a quiet “Hi.”
“Sorry, he’s a bit shy,” Sam explained. “I’m trying to help him be more social, so I figured that it would be a pretty good idea to talk to some of our fellow classmates. So…how did you all feel about that bombshell that was dropped on us this morning? Crazy, huh?”
“It’s still a lot to take in, but I don’t think it’ll be all bad,” Ollie said. “Even had my first change an hour ago!” He proceeded to show off his eyes as he’d done for Milo and Dare a few minutes prior. Sam looked at them and grinned before looking over to Milo, who showed off his tusks.
“Those are awesome!” the jock said enthusiastically. “Todd and I also had our first changes!” Sam turned around and showed off his tail.
“Dude! That’s so cool!” Milo said. “Can I touch it?”
“Totally man!”
Milo reached out and pet the fur on Sam’s tail, smiling as he did. Ollie then reached over and did the same.
Dare, meanwhile, found himself looking at Todd’s new ears. “Did those…hurt?”
Todd felt his heartbeat quicken when he realized that Dare was talking to him. He wanted to stay silent, but a slight nudge from Sam told him that wouldn’t be an option.
“N-No…they didn’t hurt. I didn’t even n-notice they were there until S-Sam pointed them out…”
“Well I think they look pretty damn cool,” Milo commented. “What kind of ears do you think they are?”
“Wolf…I think…”
“Neat. Oh, while I’m thinking about it, maybe you two could help me with something. I’m a photography major, and I wanted to do something as a project. I was thinking of taking a picture of my changes each day so I can see how they’ve progressed, though I want to add a few other people. Ollie here has already agreed, and we were going to get some coffee before taking the pictures. If you’d like, you can come along and be a part of the project.”
“Hey, that sounds like an awesome idea!” Sam exclaimed. “I’m totally in! How about you Todd?”
The shy 18-year-old was quiet for a few seconds before saying “I guess so…” which earned him a pat on the back from his roommate.
“Awesome! We can talk a bit more on the way to get some coffee!” Ollie said. “I think I saw a coffee shop near the student union building, so let’s hurry up! I need some coffee!”