"Your name is Hiroshi, correct?"

"Yes." The Siberian Husky in front of the desk replied.

"Alright then, here are your papers." The white cat receptionist moved her paws to grab an orange file sitting on her desk, and handed it to Hiroshi. The file felt heavy in Hiroshi's white paws. He glanced at the file before returning his gaze to the receptionist's deep blue eyes.

"Thank you." Hiroshi said, while nodding his head.

"All of the information you need will be inside that folder." The white feline said. "Your dorm number, dorm key, and classes will be listed in the papers contained in that file."

Hiroshi clutched the orange file to his chest, and with one more quick nod, left the main building. He walked to the dorm building, while looking at the pleasant, end of the day scenery around him. The setting sun cast an orange glow all around the school property. Multiple students were walking to and from the school and dorm buildings. Hiroshi would've stayed outside to enjoy the scenery, but at the moment he wanted to see his dorm room, and more importantly, meet the roommates who he was going to be spending the rest of his high school life with. Hiroshi entered the dorm building, passing a pair of jaguar students on his way in, and temporarily stopped to open his file. Inside was a student ID with his school picture on the right hand side. On the left side was, from top to bottom, his student ID number, date of birth, his species, and his name. At the bottom of his picture, was the headmaster's seal.

There was a large student handbook in the file. This must be the cause of the file's heaviness, Hiroshi thought. He pulled the handbook out and looked at it. The book was leather bound, with the Cherryton Academy emblem printed in a gold material on the front. Below the emblem, the words Cherryton Academy Handbook, were printed in the same gold material. What a waste, Hiroshi thought, I doubt any of the students here have even read this thing. He opened the handbook to the front page and found a little pocket containing his dorm room key. He took the key in his fingertips and examined it. The numbers "701" were etched into the top of the key.

"This must be my dorm room number." Hiroshi barely whispered to himself. He put the key in his uniform pocket. The last object in the file was a paper that listed his classes, the teachers who taught them, and the rooms where he would find them. With everything in the file examined, Hiroshi put the handbook back in the file, and walked down the hall. He began to look at the numbers on the many doors that passed by him. 50, 51, 52 ,53. I'm nowhere near my new dorm.

Hiroshi ignored the doors and tried to find the stairs. The hall he was currently in was long, and seeing no stairs in sight, he began to quicken his pace. Where are the stairs? Hiroshi wondered. Hiroshi continued to walk, growing impatient. Before he knew it, he felt a small animal crash into his side.

"Oof!" Hiroshi staggered to the left, but was able to catch himself before he fell. Hiroshi looked around, trying to find who bumped into him. He looked to the ground and saw a red panda, sitting on its knees, a bunch of papers scattered around its body.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Hiroshi crouched down and immediately began helping the red panda collect its papers.

"I-It's alright, " the red panda responded in a quiet, soft voice. "I wasn't even looking where I was walking."

With the red panda's first words, Hiroshi realized that the red panda was a girl, and was also a Cherryton student.

Once the two finished gathering the papers, they stood up.

"Are you alright? I didn't injure you did I?" Hiroshi asked, with more concern showing than he would like to admit.

"No, I'm fine." The red panda responded, looking up at Hiroshi. She stood at about the height of Hiroshi's stomach.

"Good, again I'm so sorry, I was so focused on finding the stairs that I gave myself tunnel vision."

"Well, you pretty much found them." With those words the red panda pointed behind her, at the set of stairs leading upwards. Hiroshi had been so preoccupied with bumping into the small, red panda, that he didn't notice that he indirectly accomplished his goal of finding the stairs.

"Oh, at least something good came out of this little accident." Hiroshi chuckled, and began to walk towards the stairs. Before ascending he turned around to say goodbye to the red panda. "Goodbye!" Hiroshi smiled and waved. The red panda, with her papers clutched to her chest, moved one of her arms and gave a little wave, before hurrying down the hall. I hope I didn't scare her off. Hiroshi thought. She did seem kind of shy though, maybe she just didn't want to talk to me, we did have a pretty awkward meeting. With that thought Hiroshi walked up the stairs, still thinking about the red panda student.

Thankfully, Hiroshi no longer struggled with finding the stairs, since the different staircases were all next to each other as you went up to the next level. Eventually, after going up an incredible amount of staircases, Hiroshi found the 700 rooms. He found room 701 easily. Hiroshi took the dorm key out of his pocket, hesitated, then put it back in.

I'll knock first, then use my key if I have to.

Hiroshi rapped his knuckles on the door, being careful to not startle whoever was inside. Hiroshi heard movement behind the door before it opened with a quick movement. Before him was a cheerful looking golden retriever standing in the doorway. The golden retriever looked confused, then he looked at Hiroshi, and his face immediately lit up.

"Hello!" The golden retriever smiled. "Are you our new roommate?"

Hiroshi was surprised at the dog's happy demeanor and enthusiasm.

"Yes. I'm Hiroshi, good evening." Hiroshi held out his hand, and the golden retriever, looking less enthusiastic, took his hand.

"I'm Jack! Nice to meet you too!" With those words Jack shook Hiroshi's hand. Hiroshi smiled and internally scolded himself.

I'm always too formal. This is my new roommate, I think I can be casual with him. It's not like I'm talking to my boss.

With a smile Jack beckoned Hiroshi into the dorm. Hiroshi followed and soon found himself in what he thought was the main area of the room. There were three sets of bunk beds in the room, and one smaller bed no doubt made for a smaller animal. Sitting on the bed closest to Hiroshi was an English sheepdog, who looked up at him when he and Jack came in. At the pair's entrance the English sheepdog stood up. Hiroshi noticed that he and the sheepdog were about the same height, both standing eye to eye, except Hiroshi could not see the sheepdog's eyes, as they were covered by thin white strands of fur.

"Collot, this is our new roommate, Hiroshi." Jack said. Hiroshi nodded and said, "Pleasure to meet you." Hiroshi said. Collot smiled. "You too," he responded.

Hiroshi turned to examine the room and noticed two new animals, a coyote and hyena, both standing next to each other, with a fennec fox at the hyena's knee. Jack, noticing where Hiroshi's gaze was, turned to the three and began introducing them.

"That hyena's name is Miguno," Jack said.

"Sup." Miguno said.

"The coyote there is Durham."

"Hi!"

"And the fennec fox here is Boss."

Hiroshi had to look down to see Boss's little wave aimed at him.

"I'm delighted to meet you all." Hiroshi said, giving a little smile as he did so.

"No need to be so formal." Durham said with a joking tone to his voice.

Dammit. These are my roommates, not my boss, I need to remember that.

"Oh it's alright," Jack said with a quick glance at Durham that said, "don't joke right now".

With introductions done, Jack began to show Hiroshi around the room. "The closets are over here, you have your own right here," Jack said, pointing to a group of closets that belonged to the dorm's inhabitants. The closet Jack was pointing to had Hiroshi's name written on it. Hiroshi opened the closet and found his suitcase, along with the backpack he brought for his school items he would soon be carrying around. Inside the suitcase was all of the clothing that he brought, along with toiletries, like a toothbrush, shampoo, and toothpaste. In the backpack were empty notebooks and folders, soon to be used for his classes, along with his favorite mystery novels and manga.

"With the closets out of the way, there's the bathroom down the hall and the beds, obviously." Jack continued showing Hiroshi around the dorm.

"It looks like you'll be sharing a bunk bed with Collot," Jack said, looking towards Collot. "We would like to hang out, but it's already pretty late, and you have to get up early so you can be ready for the day's adventures!"

Jack pumped his fist in the air with a large smile on his face. Everyone moved towards the bathroom, except for Boss, who stood in place.

"Oh! We forgot to mention someone, there's one more roommate." Hiroshi looked back towards Boss.

Another roommate? I guess there is one extra bed.

"Oh yeah, Legoshi!" Jack yelled, quickly walking towards Hiroshi. "I can't believe I forgot to mention him!"

Hiroshi waited while Jack continued. "Legoshi is a gray wolf, pretty big guy, and he's pretty quiet and awkward, but he's nice when you get to know him."

"Where's he at right now?" Boss asked.

"I think he's doing something for drama club, I think it has to do with the Adler play."

Adler?

"What's Adler?" Hiroshi inquired.

"It's a play that the drama club puts on for the new students," Jack told Hiroshi. "It's a pretty big deal for the drama club, since the play is the new students' first introduction to the drama department."

A play? That sounds interesting. I hope it'll be showing soon.

"Alright, with all that taken care of, let's get ready for bed!" Jack said this with lots of enthusiasm, enthusiasm that Hiroshi thought was strange, but he appreciated it nonetheless.

After everyone brushed their teeth, they all entered the main area again, separating to go to their bunk beds. "Looks like we're bunkmates," Collot said, "I promise I won't snore." Hiroshi smiled at Collot's words as he removed his shirt and climbed into his top bunk.

"Good night everyone." Hiroshi said before closing his curtain.

"Night!"

I'm sort of getting better at not being so formal.

Hiroshi pulled the covers over his body as he saw the light seeping through the curtain fabric disappear.

Someone turned off the lights.

The mattress was very comfortable, Hiroshi was impressed with the quality of it. Hiroshi settled into a comfortable position before closing his eyes.

I'm glad I got good roommates, I don't know them that well but I'm sure we'll become friends. Though I am curious about who this Legoshi is, I hope he's nice.

These were Hiroshi's last thoughts before he drifted off to sleep, nervousness and excitement filling his body at the idea that he was finally starting his new life at Cherryton academy.