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Chapter 1: Welcome to Rexville

The Rexville University had just started a new refreshing semester in the coastal city of Rexville, Costa Blanca, California. The now-former first-year students had just survived their intense college life experience that had just made them stronger and more readily steady for the second year in college. Hunter Montana wasn't worried about the new semester nor the first two semester that he had experienced with his friends. Who knew that he could have handle it just simply as that; just some plain old freshman year that he had manage to avoid those common and ridiculous college life cliches that we all have seen in movies which made it look like some kind of scare prank to target new-comers. Well, of course, college life can be a pain but if an average student quickly learns his or her routines, life can be better than expected.

The young 19-year-old brown-and-white wolf-man and second year student confidently wanders the university's warm tropical climate campus to the cafeteria nearby. Wearing late summer clothes for the appropriate climate weather: pine green short-sleeve button shirt and black cargo shorts and casual white tennis shoes. The Rexville University is one of the most talked about college choices on the west coast of California. It's known for its large coastal-side campus, sharing along with the city itself. It's modern, advance, and best sophisticated education. And it's affordable for everyone alike with second chances to look up for. Home of the Roaring Rex football team and soccer team, no one should really mess with the university's proudest team.

Hunter the wolf never doubted for a second that this will be his best first choice of attending Rexville. Just as planned, he won't be worried about being too far way from home. Everything for him was just a piece of cake. Now that things are a little more settled after one hot-headed summer and last semester, he now wonders how his friends are, he should be meeting them at the cafeteria by now.

Once inside the large air-conditioned room with countless of tables with students of all diversities, Hunter looks with his sharp, dark-green eyes at one certain table with four familiar occupants with it. They briefly had seen each other this morning, they have their own different classes and subjects of their dedications. They agreed to meet here as their only chance of gathering, or reunion of sorts, just a casual get-together.

The first one to notice the approaching wolf was a tall, seven-foot, pink-scaled western dragon-man in a teal-blue shirt and brown shorts. Despite his natural and unusual color, he sure looks tough-looking and quite menacing.

"Hunter!" The dragon said, his smile totally erased his tough-looking demeanor. "Welcome back, man. We've been waiting for ya!"

"Hi, Xerxes," Hunter said, "great to see you." He shakes his hand and half-hugged him, he turns to the table and sights his familiar student-mates.

A green-feathered parrot bird-man in a navy-blue shirt and blue shorts, stood up across the table and lend a hand, Hunter shakes it. "Nice to see you again, Hunter." Xavier Islas greeted. His hard-to-tell ivory white beak barely shows any sign of smiling, but Hunter is sure that his brown eyes can tell he's in a good mood. "Ready for the new semester?"

"Of course, I'm really, I'm not gonna miss a moment with you guys." Hunter said. He then moves to the two fellow coyotes, "Sergio, Milagros, how's it going, twins?"

The female coyote in a boyish gray hoodie unzipped with a lemon-green shirt and skinny jeans stands up from her seat and greets, "Hi, Hunter." Milagros hugs and casually kissed him on the cheek. Her twin brother Sergio in a sleeveless black jacket with black t-shirt under it and black shorts, simply hand-shakes and half-hugged.

"Great to see you, Hunt." Said Sergio with a slight grin.

"How are you and Xavier getting along?" Hunter asked Sergio.

"We're fine actually." Said Xavier. "As long he keeps his so-called funny-ass pranks away from me, we'll be fine." And stated. Sergio and Xavier share the same dormitory. Last year, Sergio pulled some series of pranks on Xavier or other people at college and published it on YouTube, they were friendly pranks, but it got too far that Xavier lost his last nerve and kept isolated from Sergio to not even talk to him. Sergio descried it as the ultimate cold shoulder ever given by a being. Of course, Sergio and Xavier make up at the end of the previous semester and the two are reconstructing their friendship in little steps.

"Great to hear." Hunter smiled. "Is Broderick and Sol coming?"

"They're coming," said Xerxes, "just wait."

The Hispanic parrot sighed, "Those two sure like to make a nice entrance. Especially the first day of the semester."

"And damn sure, you're right!" Popping right behind him, a reindeer antler-man shakes Xavier's shoulders from behind with a sneering grin. "Nice to see you guys gathered here so soon before us!"

"Hi, Broderick, you can stop shaking my shoulders now." Xavier orders. Broderick lets go of him, he knows he doesn't like to be fiscally touched in humorous manner. Otherwise, he will unleash his unforgiving wrath if anyone messes with him.

The big athletic build antler-man in a black-and-yellow shirt and dark jeans sneered, "Jeez, don't be so cold, Xavier. You know I was...vacilando." Last semester, Broderick was in the same Spanish class with Xavier, Sergio and Milagros. Their odd influences taught the reindeer some common words from both of their native countries: Mexico (Sergio and Milagros) and Puerto Rico (Xavier).

"You sure are learning fast, Broderick." Milagros smiley said.

"So," Hunter started, "any sign of Sol?"

"Right here!" A leopard in a blue-and-red soccer jersey and gray jeans walks up to them. He looks at Hunter with an additional exciting smile, "Hunter, my man! How's it going?" He headlocks him and gives him the noggin on Hunter's head with his golden yellow-furred fist. The brown wolf yelped at the aggressive rustling of his feline friend. In a swiftly second, Hunter skillfully locks the feline's muscular arms behind his back like would a police officer in the force would stop a thug. "Ow! I was just messing with ya, Hunt!"

"I know you long enough, Sol. You should be laying this off." Hunter said and let's go of him.

The black spotted feline rubs his wrist, "Damn, you sure got stronger last time I saw you." Sol said.

"Self-defense lessons sure paid off." Hunter rested his hands on his waist with a proud smile. "Don't try playing tricks on me or you're gonna get it."

"Lesson learned." He rolled his eyes.

The circle of friends gathered for the first time on the every first day of the new semester. Solomon Stone, Broderick Wood and Xerxes Windsor had just started their third year in Rexville, while Hunter Montana, Xavier Islas, Sergio and Milagros Primeras started in second year. It sure is exciting, the seven friends having lunch in their best chances of their class schedules. They hope it could be this way like last time. Only that it is going to be different from one another because of their subjects, lectures and clubs, but anyways they can always be a little flexible.

"Milagros, did you really dump Lenny after that wild fraternity party?" Xerxes asked.

"Yeah, he was manipulating those poor first-years." Milagros said. "One of them almost got severely hurt after getting intoxicated and falling down from the second floor of the building."

"Ouch, that was harsh." Said Broderick.

"I heard there's been a lawsuit after the incident before the semester ended." Xavier added. "Must be the infuriated parents whom had heard the incident."

"So, anything interested happened last summer?" Hunter started. Hoping anyone answers the new subject. Or simply he should start himself. "Because I spent mine on a trip to Rio de Janeiro with my family."

"You visited Rio?" Sergio scoffed. "My family explored almost the entire Central America in two weeks." He lay back on this seat and pressed his hands behind his back.

"Come on, Sergio, not everyone can travel around the world in one night." Milagros said. "So, how was Rio, Hunter? Did you get to see those grand carnivals they held there?"

"Sure, we even visited some sightings around the city and wandered around the beach." Hunter said. "So, what did you two visited in Central America?"

"Nicaragua, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica, to name a few. It was part of the package tour that includes hotel stays, bus rides and flights." Sergio said.

"That must have been amazing." Xavier spoke. "My parents spent their summer in Barcelona, Spain for their anniversary. Sadly, I didn't come, and I spent it in my home country with my relatives instead."

"Why didn't you come, Xavier?" Hunter asked. "You've always talked about wanting to go to Spain."

"It was for my parents' anniversary, not for me, so I have to let this one go. Besides, I was little homesick, so I wanted to stay in Puerto Rico for the summer." Xavier stated. "I had a great time there, though." He supposedly smiled.

"I spent my summer working as counselor at a summer camp at Dancing Lake." Sol announced.

"You?" Milagros scoffed. "Worked at a summer camp?"

"Yeah, and also Broderick and Xerxes volunteered."

"Yeah, while the little high schoolers were having their boredom of their lifetime because of their parents force them to do so, we secretly held our own parties." Broderick said.

"Don't tell me you guys got yourselves wasted every night?" Hunter said.

"What? We're almost 21." Sol said.

"Yeah, you both are 19." Xavier remarked. "Your birthdays aren't until..."

"I'm 20 now, Xavier." Sol corrected him. "Last February."

"And I already turned 20 last March." Broderick added.

"Same here, last February." Xerxes also.

"Yeah, but you two are still underage to drink. But you, Xerxes, you can drink legally at 16 because you have a higher alcohol tolerance as a dragon."

"Yeah, and thanks to that, I've been smuggling some booze every night at camp." Xerxes stated. "Legally!"

"Now that's an example for 'heroes who don't wear capes'." Sergio laughed. Everyone laughed.

"You people are terrible..." Xavier laughably muttered.

Xerxes started, "Guys, we should do something for the weekend since this is our first week of the semester."

"A get-together would be nice and simple, but where?" Xavier added.

"I didn't mean to sound like a little girl," Milagros stepped in, "but there's a newly opened amusement park by the Sun Drench Piers." She grinned.

"The Sunshine Park? I've heard of that."

"It's like Pacific Park in Santa Monica, but more bigger with more attractive rides."

"We could go one of the weekends, but future home-works are going to get in the way." Sergio said.

"Time will tell." Hunter said. "We'll stick with the get-together for now. I'm sure we all gonna have a good time this year." They all nodded in agreement.

The fellas went on with their lunches before their next lecture. Afterwards, Hunter had history class of California at 2:00 PM, trying not to make a first bad impression with the professor on the first day. The young wolf-man arrived the 200 building, searching for his last class of the day. A number of students wanders almost aimlessly to their next class or leaving the building. Looking at the map, Hunter realized is at the second-floor westwards. Finding the staircase, skipping two steps per step. Looking directly at westwardly, there it was...

"Room 229... Here it is..." He said to himself. Looking inside, doesn't seem the professor arrived in class, and students were already there in their seats. Most of them sitting away from the front row seats, like if they don't what to volunteer while the professor is teaching them for any examples or asking them to answer a mathematical problem, even though, this is not math class. Hunter is not like that, gladly at least he got a close seat to see the whiteboard and the modern touch projector screen up close.

Before he could even step inside the classroom, Hunter hears upcoming panting from behind. He turns around and saw another student running the hall, heading towards him. He stops forcefully and catching for breath. He bent down and resting his white-furred hands on his knees. Hunter obviously assumed he's been running late to his classroom.

"Is this...History of California class?" He huffed for breath.

He straightly stood up from his knees and Hunter had a good look at him. He's a young white arctic wolf-boy in a blue t-shirt with an unzipped purple hoodie jacket with a single light-blue stripe around the mid torso, dark-blue jeans and some gray sneakers. He's almost one foot shorter than Hunter of five-eleven. His white fluffy tail shows his expression of tiredness for running amok the entire campus on his first day. Even his pale-gray eyes can even tell this. As he recovers after asking Hunter, he picked a bottle of water and takes some gulps.

Hunter responded, "Yes, you're right on time. The professor hasn't arrived yet."

"Oh, good, I though I wasn't gonna make it."

Hunter took his seat at the front empty rows of seat, next to him was the young arctic wolf-boy who followed. Not too soon, a male human professor walks to the desk.

"Good afternoon, students. Sorry for waiting for me." He said. He grabs a black washable marker and popped the cap open and writes his name. "I'm Prof. Paxton Sheehan, I'll be teaching the history of California like no one has ever learned." He said after writing his name on the whiteboard.

Prof. Sheehan started to talk about his own rules in the class like chewing gum not allowed but Professor actually have no problem with that and to make sure to take it out into a trash can which is right next to the desk instead of sticking it out under the tabletops, no cellular phones during the class unless there's an emergency. He then started to introduce the subject of the class of what they are going to talk about the rest of the semester. From founding to becoming a state and then later an independent country. Like everyday first days of the semester, professors usually start to get to know their students and names, where they live and what they attend to do in Rexville.

"Well, now that all is settled for today. Let's get to know each other." Prof. Sheehan said. "Since most of you students usually sits at the back of the class room, I'll be starting from the back-row seats." He smirked. "Let's star with you around the left corner, miss." He pointed at the young human girl sitting way beyond the left corner."

The girl received a few chuckles when the professor addressed her in the most least humorous manner. She didn't even stand up from her seat. "Hi, I'm Frankie Edwards." She awkwardly said which fellow student chuckled, she continues, "I'm from Sacramento and I'm studying culinary arts at the 400 building."

"Nice introduction, Ms. Edwards." Professor said. "Next!" He points to the next student, a rabbit-man.

"I'm Oliver Olivera from Long Beach and I'm studying engineering mechanics." The fellow student said.

This follows on and on, there were like 30 or more students in the class. For Hunter wasn't a big deal as he had done it several times previously but for the young white wolf-boy is a little timid, unfortunately, he hadn't made his introduction at an earlier class because his English class was cancelled on the first day and he had to wait for his next class which he hopefully could attend. He sort of forgotten he have to introduce the class about a little of himself.

"What's your name, young man?" The white wolf turned to the professor but was talking to the brown-and-white handsome wolf-man. Wait... What...

"My name's Hunter Montana and I freely live here in Rexville, and I'm studying in engineering technology..." Hunter said. The white wolf heard that right, is he really from Rexville?

"That's very aspiring, Mr. Montana." Professor smiled. He finally takes his attention to the last one in the seat. "And what is your name, young man?"

His shy little heart skipped a little beat, it's now his turn. It's very simple as he had heard it over, and over again. He can make it very short and simple like they all did. He noticed everyone and even Hunter are curiously staring at him. Hunter had no doubts he's adorably shy... Wait...

"I'm... I'm Keanu Winters." His soft deep and shy voice is hardly heard for the students sitting at the back.

"Ah, like the actor." Prof. Sheehan chuckled. The professor knew he was timid, so didn't wanted to push him to speak up, he can still hear him.

"Y-yeah, I-I... I also live here in Rexville with my father, and...this is my first-year, I'm studying architecture and designs." He said and rubbed the back of his neck. It wasn't that bad at all. Then he realized he mentioned his father. Now he felt weird.

"It is great that we have students this year looking for some thriving careers for their future like you, Mr. Winters." Said the professor. Keanu made a nervous, chuckling grin.

Class was dismissed, and all students left to their respective dorms or to go out and explore the campus if they are free this afternoon. Hunter picks up his backpack and proceeded to leave the class and saw that the young wolf named Keanu Winters already left. He sure left in a hurry, thought Hunter. It would be nice if he could just make a nice greeting to him and make him welcome in the campus. But it seems he wants to be alone for the first day. Hunter proceed to leave the class and fetch his cellphone and text anyone of his friends if they are free this late afternoon.

Leaving out the building, Hunter look at his messages from anyone which he didn't received from one. He started with a simple "R U free this afternoon?" text to Sol to see if he would response. Sol told him he was free after his 2:00 PM chemistry lecture. It was 3:30 pm, he should be out now. A ringtone message rang. Hunter looks at it; "Sure, why not we meet at my dorm to start this semester. If you know what I mean?" It ended with a semicolon and a past parenthesis with an eggplant emoji on it...

The wolf-man blushed...