Oh the New Places
#2 of Oh the New Places
WARNING: This is going to be a pretty long introduction and story.
I haven't written in a long time (been so d*mn busy) so I thought I'd at least get something in. I hope its to everyone liking. As always please comment!
I'm very nervous and excited as I sit in the car watching traffic and the scenery wizz by. I listen to music on my headphones and daydream about what this next year is going to be like, mindlessly fiddling with my leather wristband. I'm going to a huge college pretty far from home, my parents say it's going to be different from anything I've ever experienced. You see I come from a small town with less than 8,000 people in it. I don't know where all those people live because all I see are corn and wheat fields from my house. My high school gets the nickname of the hick highschool by the other schools we play against, because we're pretty small compared to them and are in the middle of nowhere. As I was saying, I watched as the scenery turned from miles of endless fields to the occasional billboard but now I see buildings pass by, they get bigger with each passing mile. I figure we must be getting close.
I'm going to the biggest school in my state, in my country in fact. The amount of students going there is about 6 times the size of my whole town, and many many times that of what my high school was like. I'm not sure if I'll like it, but it's too late to turn back now!
I guess I should introduce myself before I get too far. My name is Zach, I'm a 18 year old fox. I'm average height, have a slim athletic build. I'm always getting compliments on my smile, which is great because I just love to smile! I have one green eye and one blue eye though sometimes it looks like they're both green or both blue depending on what I'm wearing. I have the standard orage-red and white fure of most foxes with just a tad of black markings here and there. I take good care of myself and people notice, I have the softest fur most people have ever felt on a fox and I'm told I'm pretty darn huggable. I'm somewhat shy but get me talking and I might never shut up. My hair is somewhat short and spiky on top and I dress nice most of the time, polo shirts and torn jeans that everyone seems to wear.
Back to me in the car. I can sense that we're getting close even though my parents haven't said anything. I can see out of the corner of my eye my mom glancing back at me more and more. I know it's upsetting her I'm not staying close to home, I saw her tear up as we packed up my things this morning. I feel a pang of sadness, but also excitement at what my new life is going to be like away from home. My dad takes and exit and instantly I see the football stadium of the school, a huge beautiful building that (from what I'm told) holds well over 100,000 people on game days. I can feel the fur on the back of my neck stand up as I realize that this is it, I'm almost to my new home for the next year. We pull into a parking lot of a tall tower like building, my dorm.
My dad sighs "Here we are kiddo" as he puts the car in park. I look to see my mom looking at me, her paws tightly gripping the headrest as shes' turned around in her seat. Her eyes are starting to water.
"Great! Lets get all that crap you call my stuff up to my room." I say quickly and open the door, giving myself an excuse to occupy myself so I don't get all sad too from my mom. I don't want my new roommates to see me all teary eyed when I move in. Every other car in the parking lot it seems are people in similar situations, parents and students unloading boxes and carrying them up the stairs to the walkway to the dorm. I see two grey wolf parents hug their child, a plump looking girl goodbye. Her mom is sobbing and she is awkwardly trying to break away from her grasp.
"Ok honey, lets get you unpacked" My mom says softly, ruffling the hair on my head and giving me a quick hug. I have to go up an elevator to get to my room, all the way on the 12th floor of the 26 floor tower. I haven't seen my room and to be honest I'm kinda shocked as I open the door. It's soo...tiny. I knew it would be small but it was only about 1 and a half times as big as my room back home and it sleeps 3 people. I don't let my disappointment show, my parents warned me dorm life would be cramped but I chose it anyway. None of my roommates are in the room, but I can see one has already moved in. A blanket with the arch rival of my favorite pro football team covers the bed.
"I can see this is going to be an intersting year for you" My dad chuckles as he too notices the blanket. Fans from both teams are notorious for hating each other and I can't help but worry that we'd be set to hate each other from day one.
"I'm sure you'll get along just fine." My mom says, as though reading my mind.
Unpacking takes awhile, about half an hour even though I didn't bring much. I don't pay much attention though I just keep thinking that soon my parents are going to go back home and I'm going to be on my own for the first time ever. By the time we're done I feel less nervous and more sad. Even though my dad isn't perfect and can honestly be a major ass a lot of the time I can see he's going to miss me and I know for a fact my mom is missing me already even though I'm still right there!
"Well I guess this is it...." My father says kinda awkardly, he shuffles his feet and runs his hand through his greying hair.
"Oh Honey, you call and let us know how everything goes on your first day ok?" My mom says, hugging me. "Did you forget anything? Do you need anything? Are you hungry?" my mom asks. I can tell she's just looking for an excuse to stick around longer, trying to avoid letting me go.
"I'm fine Mom, I've got everything. Careful on the way home, you won't be the only emotional parent on the road ya know" I say. I give both my parents a big hug. "I love you, see you in a couple months."
"Love you so much" My mom says, stealing one last hug
"Behave and watch yourself out there, there's a lot of goofies at college" My dad says. "Alright, lets go Mom before you decide to live up here so you don't have to say goodbye."
"Love you Mom, Dad." I say
"You too" they say and walk out the door. I sit down on my bed, I chose the bottom bunk since the single bed was already taken. I sigh, get up and reorganize some of my things.
"Hey! I'm guessing you're Zach eh!" I hear behind me. I turn and see a wolf standing in the doorway, a bag of groceries hanging from one paw. "Hi, I'm Ethan" the wolf says and extends his free paw. I shake it.
"Hi, yea I'm Zach. So I guess you're my roomate huh, darn shame you chose a crappy team to root for" I kid with a smile.
"Oh? Is that so? Well we'll see what happens this season!" He replies with a laugh. "Well I'm just putting these up here before I head out and go to dinner with my parents, nice to meet you!"
"Likewise" I reply. He puts his bag on his bed and trots out. I can't help but think that he's not bad looking.
I guess it's at this point I tell you I'm not completely heterosexual, I'm actually bi. I've never had a boyfriend or anything, that would never go over well from where I'm from but I've always had an interest in guys.
By the end of the day I meet my other roommate, a tall and lanky coyote. Both of my roommates seem pretty cool and I can feel my worries about having terrible roommates ebb away and begin to think this is going to be a great year.
A few weeks go by and I can tell this year is going to be busy. I'm neck deep in my engineering classes and am instantly regretting slacking off in my high school calculus class. My roommates are still pretty cool, the Coyote is named Jeff and he's in my major but is waay smarter than I am. He keeps to himself mostly and studys a lot. Ethan is the opposite, he's taking an "easy" major and spends most of his time playing video games, being loud, and sleeping. I guess you can say I'm in the middle, I don't spend all my time studying, but I don't slack off a lot either. I spend my free time going for runs around campus which is HUGE! There are so many buildings, trails, and people. I feel like I'm in a new world. The initial shock has worn off but I still have trouble going to new buildings throughout campus as I have no idea where anything but my initial classes are.
I've made a few new friends in my dorm, my next door neighbors being a loud but friendly giraffe named Ron, and a funny Koala bear named Eric. The other side of me is a single and hes a bear. His name is Lee and he's quite intimidating but is quite friendly once you get to know him. We hang out a lot in our common room in the evenings, talking about what our classes are like, where we're from, and what we like to do.
(Continued in part 2)