Under the Influence

Chapter One: Coed

By: Jondy Macmillan

A/N: I started this story the second half of my freshman year of college. I'm now approaching the end of my senior year.

Sora was nervous. He normally never had problems with social situations. This was different. This was something he just couldn't prepare himself for, even though he'd known it was coming. This was a coed dorm.

"Honey, are you just going to stand there, or are you going to find your room?" his mother asked with an amused smile on her face. How could she look so utterly serene about this? Weren't mothers supposed to suffer from some kind of hysterical breakdown when their only son went off to college? Weren't they supposed to have empty nest syndrome, even though he had yet to leave her side? If Sora knew one thing, he knew his mother was not supposed to be checking out the orientation guide's ass rather than helping Sora cope with this overwhelming sense of anxiety.

Said orientation guide beamed at him, "No need to be nervous, kiddo. I felt the same way when I was a freshman. I'm actually the RA on this floor, so if you ever feel like you're having difficulty with the transition, you can knock on my door."

"Is it only freshmen aside from you?" Sora's mother batted her eyelashes at the guide, who smiled in return.

"No ma'am. This is a freshmen dorm, but several sophomores and even a smattering of juniors prefer the open atmosphere of this place. I myself can't stand the quiet student villages set aside for seniors. Most of my friends like those places better, or they live off campus. They say it gets too noisy round these parts."

"That won't disrupt my son's study time, will it?" Sora loved how him mother managed to sound concerned while she was openly admiring the guide's well muscled biceps.

"Oh, I've never had a problem, but if Sora decides he can't concentrate, the library is right around the block. It's open till midnight, and after that he can head back here- we have 'quiet hours' from midnight to eight am."

As he spoke, the tall, burly boy led Sora and his mother down the hall to room 623. It was the farthest point from the elevators, a corner room. Sora had actually been surprised that the university had set up student guides for the incoming freshmen. They didn't do much, except show each student their room and help them find the blue carts required to move in, but it was kind of refreshing. The orientation guide's friendly face kind of made the experience a little less nerve wracking.

"You have a triple, so it's sort of crowded," the guide said apologetically as he knocked on the door. He explained that he didn't want to open it in case any of Sora's new roommates were already in there changing or something of the sort. Yesterday had been the first day for move in, after all.

Seconds later, a somewhat irritated boy opened the door about three inches and said, "What?"

The guide smiled cheerfully, "Ah! I haven't met you yet. I'm your RA, Wakka, and this is your new roommate, Sora."

Dubiously, the boy opened the door all the way, to reveal that he was wearing nothing more than thin pajama bottoms hanging low on his hips. Sora's mother squealed in delight at the sight of him, and whispered into her son's ear, "Can I move in instead?"

"Mom," Sora groaned, ignoring the butterflies in his stomach as he stepped forward to greet his new roommate, "Hi."

"Sora," the boy muttered, shoving a hand through his thick silver hair, "You know you're getting the top bunk, right?"

Damnit. Sora knew they should have come yesterday. Wakka seemed to think this was funny, "Eh, your other roommate has moved in?"

"Bloody annoying ball of energy woke me up an hour ago. Now you guys," the silver haired boy shook his head, "Try not to make too much of a racket getting your stuff in."

With that said, he slammed the door in their faces. Taped onto the door were three circles of paper colored like blitzballs. Each read a name in bold black ink. Sora, Riku, Tidus. Sora wondered whether that angry boy was Riku or Tidus.

Cheerfully, Wakka produced the key to the room from his back pocket, "So this is where you'll be living this year. There's a mandatory hall meeting tonight at eight, where you can meet everyone on the floor. I'm in the room next to the elevator on the right side, if you need me. But I'll probably be downstairs, helping the new arrivals all day. Don't hesitate to ask for my help!"

After Wakka had left them, his mother helped Sora unload his things from the car and into the rolling blue carts. He noticed on the way back to his room that the little blitzball papers were tacked on to every door. It seemed like the names on the right side of the hall were all boys, and the left were all girls. Girls. Sora couldn't believe he would be living with girls. He wasn't sure if he was excited or if he just felt he should be excited because that was the normal reaction. The truth was, Sora didn't have much experience with girls. He could only count the times he'd kissed a girl on one hand, and he hadn't even managed to have one steady girlfriend through high school. Instead he'd had less than a handful of short flings. Most of them barely lasted a week.

Sora's mother helped him set up his bedding and computer. The silver haired boy had been sleeping less than soundly on the bottom bunk when they'd come in. With a large scowl on his face, he'd grabbed a towel and left for the showers, which were located right next to their room. The room itself was pretty small. There was a bunk bed on one side, which Sora and the silver haired boy would share, and a lofted bed on the other side with a desk and a dresser set up beneath it. Sora was glad he wasn't in the lofted bed; he was scared of heights, and he figured that at least if this bed collapsed, the silver haired boy and his bed might provide some cushioning. Their desks were set up next to the bunk and the lofted bed, with dressers adjacent to each. There was only one small closet, but Sora figured the dresser would be enough. He chose the only remaining desk and dresser, and found he had room to spare once he put his clothes away.

Clapping her hands, his mother told him brightly that after they picked up his books, she'd be on her way. The campus bookstore was right around the corner, so it was a quick, albeit expensive trip. She helped him carry them back and then she was gone.

"Peace at last," Sora murmured, leaning his head against the door. The university in Radiant Gardens was pretty prestigious. He was really looking forward to being here, it was just...Now, without his mom bugging him, he realized he was going to miss his island home. This place didn't have the familiar beach smells of salt and sand, and even decaying fish at low tide. Instead there were bright, fragrant flowers planted at ever corner of the university, and the smell of fresh cut grass every time he stepped outside.

He climbed up into his bunk and stared at the ceiling. The previous resident had left those glow in the dark stars up there to stare at. Sora didn't even realize he was falling asleep. It was four hours later when he was shaken awake by a blonde kid with a pearly white smile and a black shirt reading 'I'm only wearing black until they make something darker.'

"Ah…hello?" the blonde boy said, "I'm Tidus."

"Sora," Sora croaked, sitting up and promptly hitting his head on the ceiling. This bunk thing would take some practice.

"Nice to meetcha. I just thought I should wake you. The hall meeting's in a few minutes."

Sora carefully climbed out of the bed, using the silver haired boy's desk. He supposed if this was Tidus, the other boy had been Riku.

"Where are you from, Sora?" Tidus asked amiably as Sora shrugged out of his shirt and put on a clean one.

"Destiny Islands," Sora mumbled sleepily, "You?"

Rather than answer, Tidus chirped, "I used to live on the islands! I moved when I was ten."

"Swell."

"You really don't like being woken up, do you?"

"Not so much," Sora retorted, yawning, "Let's go to this meeting."

The meeting was in Wakka's room, which, Sora noted jealously was about three times as big as his and it only had one bed in it. And a mini kitchen! He wanted a mini kitchen! Sora resolved in his mind that he would have to become an RA. Could freshmen do that?

There were about ten girls and nine other guys including Wakka squeezed in there. Wakka guiltily explained at the start of the meeting that all the other floors had a common room, but for some reason theirs hadn't gotten one put in. He then proceeded to explain things like guest policies, quiet hours, and the rules on drinking and marijuana.

"If you're in doubt about what you're going to do, don't," Wakka said wisely. He was just as friendly as he'd been this afternoon, "But, I know this is college. You're all going to experiment. Just try not to get caught. Leon, this means you."

Half the people in the room looked startled as Wakka directed his comment at a brunette boy in the back of the room. The boy, Leon, lazily acknowledge Wakka with a curt nod.

"Leon passed out in front of the guard booths last year," Wakka chortled, "He had a little too much Jack Daniels."

"Alcohol poisoning," a dark haired girl seated next to Leon said solemnly.

"Yeah. That's what we try to avoid," Wakka grinned, and explained, "We were a good floor overall last year. At least we weren't doing lines of coke in the common room like those kids down on the fourth."

Lines of coke? Sora felt his eyebrows shoot up into his hairline. What kind of place was this?

"By the way, Leon and the girl next to him, Lulu, were my charges last year as well. Lulu's the only junior on the floor, I think," Wakka looked around to see if anyone would disagree, "She has the other single. We have four sophomores other than Leon. That would be Aerith, Tifa, and Irvine; glad to have you guys back. And Axel?"

A red-haired boy raised his hand casually, "That's me."

"Nice to meet you," Wakka said, "Now, could the freshmen introduce themselves? I'm sure this is all a little intimidating."

"I think its fun," a bouncy brunette girl announced, "I'm Selphie Tilmitt, and I think you're a great RA. Yup. Great, great, great. These are my roommates, Kairi and Yuffie!"

Selphie slung her arms around the two girls next to her, one a shy looking redhead and one a girl with short black hair and a mischievous smile on her face. Tidus nudged Sora, "She's cute."

Sora could only assume he was talking about Selphie, because she was wearing a slogan shirt like his that read 'Well behaved women rarely make history'. It was green and the letters stretched across her rather formidable bust.

"You girls are in the triple down the hall then," Wakka laughed, "Right next to Aerith and Tifa."

A girl with long, braided brown hair and one with dark hair about the same length turned to the three girls. They immediately started talking in low whispers and giggling through the rest of the introductions.

Sora made sure to memorize the names. There were two more brunettes, both cute and considerably shy. Their names were Yuna and Olette. Yuna was rooming with a girl in punk rock attire called Paine. Neither seemed to like each other very much. Olette was rooming with an energetic blonde called Rikku. He thought it was funny that there were two people named Riku on the same floor, even if it was spelled differently.

The boys included a blonde who was apparently pretty unhappy about rooming with Leon. His name was Cloud. There was Irvine and Axel together, and then two younger looking blondes in military attire called Seifer and Hayner.

"Now. I know several of you are going to be embarrassed by this, but school rules say I have to talk to ya'll bout it," Wakka paused, "The sex thing. This is probably one of the only dorms that does not hand out condoms in hall meetings."

One of the boys dressed in army fatigues groaned, "Man, we're missing out on free condoms!"

Calmly, Wakka said, "But- there is a but. They give them out free at the local clinic, which is located in the bottom of the student union."

Both Seifer and Hayner cheered.

"I don't want to sound like I'm advocating sex. The university's official position is that abstinence is the best policy. However, the university also recognizes that very few of the students think the way they do, and thus provide services when…ah…accidents happen. All this information can be found at the medical clinic-"

"With free condoms?"

"Yes, Seifer. With free condoms," Wakka sighed, "By the way, I know most of you are at your sexual peak, or at least overly hormonal, but please try to keep the sex to a minimum when your roommates are around. Also, if it turns out your roommates fall into the perpetually horny category, I recommend becoming close friends with some one else on your floor. That way, when said roommate sexiles you, you won't have to sit out in the hall for an hour to wait for them to finish."

Tidus turned to Sora and mouthed, "Sexiles?"

Sora shrugged. It sounded rather unpleasant.

"I think that about wraps it up," Wakka grinned, "There's a plate of cookies by the door on your way out. Don't thank me; Lulu made them."

Sora lunged for the cookies. They were freshly baked chocolate chip ones. They tasted pretty good.

One of the brunettes, Olette, marched up to him and declared, "You're only supposed to take one cookie."

"So?"

"You have three," she said solemnly.

Sora offered her a cookie, but this didn't seem to placate her. Instead she shook her head and said, "I don't like you very much."

"Uh, okay," Sora wondered what exactly he'd done wrong. When she turned and left he asked Tidus, "Did you see that?"

Unfortunately, Tidus had missed the show because he was deep in conversation with Selphie. Sora noticed that Riku hadn't shown, even though the meeting had been mandatory. Great. So he had one potentially emo roomie with a blitzball obsession and another who seemed to think avoidance was an acceptable form of socializing.

College was going to be super.