Tony heard it from outside the building. The sound of a ruckus involving Kevin was an obvious enough sound over the general din of stereos and traffic. However, this particular Kevin-related disturbance didn't sound like the normal Brad, Biff, or Dani types. Tony wondered what that feline friend of his could be up to.
The dorm had been pretty quiet this Monday thanks to spring break this week. Most of the students had left campus for other sunny places.
Like this place wasn't sunny enough, Tony always thought when some of his friends described their spring break plans.
Most of the Richter third floor residents, however, had stayed around at DeMontfort due to lack of funds with which to leave, lack of motivation, or other plans that forced them to stay.
Kevin fit all three categories this particular spring break. He spent most of his extra money on a few nice computer supplies and programs a few weeks ago and didn't want to bother his parents for money again; he rarely had motivation to leave the campus if he didn't really feel the need to; he also despised the idea of spring break. "Hey, if I wanted to go to a beach and sunbathe, I'd travel a few miles west to the coast and do it there," Kevin usually explained when asked.
The nice thing about this spring break though are the facts that Brad has left for Colorado to visit a friend, he claimed, and Biff is incredibly busy with spring football practice and partying. Thus, for a week everything on the third floor should seem so much quieter, Tony reflected. So, with Biff and Brad gone, who else could Kevin be harassing?
His question was answered when he finally got to the third floor. Kevin's smart-aleck wit was obviously turned on, as Tony heard some good zingers in Kevin's voice. However, what took Tony by surprise were the immediate responses, and similarly harsh quips, in a voice he didn't immediately recognize. As he entered the room, the two voices started laughing heartily.
"Dang, man. I wasn't expecting to find someone who could keep up with me on this campus!" exclaimed Kevin after he finished laughing. Noticing Tony, he cleared his throat.
"Hi there Tony! How was your gym fix?"
"Eh. Fine," Tony responded. He scanned the room quickly and finally saw the embodiment of the other voice he had heard, leaning against the wall near the bunk beds.
He was a tall and quite large brown bear. Like Kevin, he was not exactly overweight, but obviously not in perfect shape. Unlike Kevin, though, the bear stood probably a good 6 foot 5. While not the most physically perfect, it was obvious from his bearing that intellectually he just might be close.
Kevin started, "I guess I should introduce you two. Tony, this is --"
The bear extended his hand, interrupting Kevin, "Paul. Paul Danure. You must be the infamous Tony I've heard so much about already."
Tony accepted the handshake. "What's Kevin told you about me? I can bet half of what he's told you is wrong."
Paul just laughed. "Don't worry. I wouldn't believe anything Kevin told me without checking up on it myself."
"What?" the cat exclaimed. "Why is it no one ever seems to believe me?"
Paul smiled slyly and turned back towards Kevin. "Are we supposed to believe that?"
Kevin chuckled. "Touché. You and your darned logic."
Tony watched the previous short exchange with interest. Looks like Kevin finally found another good friend. In particular, one that can keep up with his jests, the bull thought. But before he could continue that train of thought, he noticed that Paul was looking expectantly at him.
"Um, yes, Paul?" Tony stuttered.
"Ah, mind was elsewhere, huh?" Paul grinned again. "Hope that doesn't happen too often." He paused, and apologized to Tony, "Sorry, you'll have to excuse my good-natured ribbings. I tend to do those pretty often."
"Don't worry about it," Tony replied. "I get worse with Kevin, I'm sure."
Paul chuckled. "Yeah, I bet. So, anyways, I had asked you, during your little mental trip, what your major was."
Tony grimaced. Of all the questions, everyone seemed to start off with that one. "I'm still undecided, really. Too many interests, you might say."
"Ah, understandable."
"How about you?"
"I'm actually a grad student in math. Got my bachelor's in math and physics from a different school. Typical nerdy type, you might say." Paul flashed that now-familiar grin. "I also have too many interests, but math is my biggest one."
"Ah." Tony just stared at the other two. Paul felt like a good match for Kevin. Intellectual, able to hold his ground in a war of words. He's probably cynical about athletes just like Kevin.
There was a small silence. Both Kevin and Paul were looking at him. Tony started. Obviously he had missed another question posed to him.
"Sorry, thinking about something else," he explained. The other two looked at him and then each other before they started to both give Tony a sly grin. Tony, correctly sensing a possible verbal pouncing, deftly circumvented the attack by adding quickly, "So, I'll just leave you two to whatever you were doing. Need to take a shower."
Tony quickly grabbed what he would need as he said that and rushed out of the room a few seconds later.
As Tony returned from the shower, he noticed that Kevin and Paul had moved to the lounge, and were watching something obviously engrossing on the TV. Kevin noticed him, and motioned to him as he passed to join them in the lounge. Tony, still naked excluding towel, gestured back the complex message that he still needed to dress before he would feel comfortable watching TV in a dorm lounge. Kevin properly interpreted the message, and let Tony go. Tony tossed on some shorts and a t-shirt and wandered down to the lounge.
Kevin and Paul were watching some sort of anime video. That much was obvious. What it was, or even what it could be about, Tony couldn't figure out. There was a large stack of videos on top of the TV, so they were probably going to be in the lounge all night.
"Hey Tony. Sorry to bother you like that. Wasn't thinking," Kevin explained.
"Like you ever do?" Paul quipped. "Engineers thinking? That's a new one to me." He chuckled.
"Who needs to think?" Kevin retorted. "We just leave all that thinking stuff to you egghead mathematicians. Meanwhile, we get useful things done, like designing this TV you're watching."
Paul feigned surprise pain at the use of the term "egghead" and turned his attention back to the anime.
"Sorry, Tony." Kevin smiled, turning his attention back to the bull. "Anyways, would you like to join us for dinner this evening? We're gonna look around town for a decent restaurant and get some good food in us for once."
Tony thought for a moment. "Sorry, would love to. Almost forgot about the other dinner plans I had tonight." He sighed.
"Ah, yes. Those plans. Forgot about those." Kevin turned his attention back to the TV. "Well, I'll let you get ready then. You have a good night, then."
"Thanks. You too."
"Have a good evening, Tony!" Paul chimed in as Tony was leaving the lounge.
"Thanks. See you later!"
Tony left the two friends to their videos and changed into dress clothes in preparation for what he expected to be a long night.
As he walked slowly back to Richter across campus, Tony realized that he was in a bad mood. Not that this was unexpected, but it was a strange feeling nonetheless. The football award dinner hadn't been anything like he expected it to be. He had only gone after a lot of convincing from various people, including Kevin, surprisingly enough. Kevin had told him that being a part of the team had been good for his confidence, and the least he could do is go to the dinner. He couldn't tell if Kevin was actually being serious about that, so Tony just took it as being serious and finally decided to accept the invitation.
He had expected to be harassed continuously about rejoining the team by the coach and the other players while at the dinner. It was comforting then that the players only offhandedly asked if he was thinking about rejoining the team and mostly conversed with him about non-football things. Even Coach Carradine was very civil about the whole situation, and never asked Tony about rejoining. It was amazing what a few months can do to people, Tony thought to himself. During the awards ceremony, Tony found out that he had actually been nominated for the Newcomer of the Year, but ended up losing the award to a great freshman linebacker.
The dinner had actually been very pleasant, so why was he feeling so angry? That was why the bad mood was such a strange bad mood. He had nothing to be angry or worried about anymore. But the strange sense of dread he felt still lingered no matter how much he tried to reason it away.
As he neared Richter, he noticed the third floor lounge's lights were off but lights and shadows flickered around. "So, Kevin and Paul must still be watching those videos," Tony mused. "Four hours earlier they just started, and they're still watching. Must be interesting."
He paused outside the Richter hall doors. Perhaps, I'm just jealous of Paul and Kevin's relationship, Tony thought. Perhaps that's why I feel so bad.
But that reason didn't calm the internal dread or any of the other bad feelings he had. However, the feelings started shortly after he had first met Paul, so obviously the bad feelings had something to do with him.
But what could it be? He's a nice guy with a sense of humor. Did one of his jabs at me hit me in a sensitive spot? Tony just couldn't figure it out. He decided finally to just drop the subject from his mind. I'm probably just in one of those weird, inexplicable moods, and all this thinking about why I'm in a bad mood is making me more irritable.
As Tony walked down the hall to his room, Tony saw Kevin spread out on the lounge's couch, eyes fixed on the TV. Paul sprawled lazily in the nearby chair, also preoccupied with watching. Tony stood outside the door for a moment, collecting his thoughts and catching a few glimpses of the video. Paul was the first to notice Tony's presence outside the lounge and waved at Tony; Kevin noticed Paul's movement and also waved. Kevin hit the Pause button on the remote, and sat up.
"Hey there Tony. Good dinner?" Kevin smirked.
"Yeah, better than I thought it would be," Tony admitted. "It was a very nice dinner, really."
"That's good to hear."
There was a bit of silence while Kevin stretched. Paul stood up from his comfortable position and walked out of the room. "Be back shortly," he said, wandering toward the bathroom.
"So, Tony," Kevin started after Paul left, "you wanna join us here for the night? We're in the middle of this anime series, but it wouldn't take much to get you up to speed, if you like." Kevin paused. "Or are you thinkin' of sleeping already?"
Tony checked his watch. It was only 10:30 p.m. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I had thought a long night's sleep might be nice, but sure. Sounds better than sleep."
Kevin chuckled. "Yeah, we're college students. Sleep is unnecessary."
"Sleep is for the weak!" Paul had returned and was standing behind Tony. Tony stepped into the lounge, letting Paul through the door.
Paul chuckled quietly. "Sorry," he explained, "that's a joke between me and my roommate."
Tony smiled. "Ah." Addressing Kevin, he said, "Yeah, just give me a few minutes to change into something more comfortable."
"Okay," Kevin replied. "Hurry back. We're almost done with this episode."
Tony returned a few minutes later in his characteristic t-shirt/khaki combination. Between Paul and Kevin explaining the plot and characters, Tony felt more comfortable with the show as the three watched well it into the early morning.
The credits rolled for the last episode. All three stood up and started stretching.
"Well, that was a neat ending." Tony broke the silence first. "Definitely not expected."
"Yeah, the whole story was amazing. Excellent series," Paul agreed.
"And the artwork for the last few episodes was spectacular," Tony added.
"Well, this is one of my favorite animes," Kevin said. "Now you know why." He smiled and yawned.
Paul took a look at his watch. "Geez, only three in the morning! I was expecting to stay up till sunrise." He laughed. "Oh, well. I guess that means I should get some sleep."
"But, sleep is for the weak, right?" Kevin retorted.
"Yeah, but I never claimed that I wasn't weak," replied Paul.
"Ah. Good point. Didn't think of that."
"I think we've already established the lack of thinking, haven't we?" Paul flashed a crafty smile.
Kevin just shook his head in disgust. "I'm tired. I'm not at my best when I'm this way," he complained.
Paul paused for a moment and stretched. "So, still planning on joining us tomorrow, then?" Paul asked Kevin.
"Sure, might as well. Gets me off this darn campus. And it sounds like fun. I rarely pass up fun."
Paul smiled. "Good reason I suppose. Tony, you wanna join us too?"
Tony, who had been watching the credits, thinking he recognized one of the English voice actors, jumped a bit at the sound of his name. "Huh? Join you where?"
Kevin explained, "Paul's heading up into the mountains tomorrow. We're heading to a cabin a friend of his is letting him use for a few days. We're going to do some role-playing; you know, Dungeons and Dragons and that kind of stuff, with a small group. You don't have to join the role-playing. There's a nice lake nearby and trails all around, and I know a few people are going up to spend time at the lake and hike. But you get off campus and out into the wilderness."
Tony looked perplexed for a moment. "Who's all going?"
"Well, of the people you know," Kevin said, "we convinced Cindy and Lisa with the lake and trail bits today. Scott's part of us role-players. Dani's the only RA left in the building, so she can't join us. And Mikey's being his normal busy self, even over this break. He claims that he would rather do his homework than have fun this break."
Paul piped up, "Plus, there are four others that you probably don't know. A bunch of my friends, most of whom will be role-playing with us. But you might know Sharon. I believe she TA'ed one of the freshman chem classes. She's going up to role-play with us."
Tony thought back to his chemistry class. "Yeah, Sharon was my TA, if I recall correctly. A petite ferret with some very distinctive earrings, right?"
Paul nodded.
Tony sighed. Well, anything has to be better than sticking around with only Mikey and Dani here, he thought. "Sure, might as well. How long are we staying up there? Do we need tents, sleeping bags and all that?"
"Nope." Paul said. "The cabin is pretty big, has six bedrooms and a good number of couches in the living room. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon around 2 p.m. and should be back in by Friday morning. So, you get two full days and three nights up in the hills. It's a nice setup."
"Okay. Sounds like it could be fun."
Kevin chuckled. "It should be. And you get to spend some quiet time off campus with Cindy, right?" Kevin jabbed Tony in the ribs with his elbow.
Tony just grinned and blushed. "Well, that thought did cross my mind, but" -- he stopped for a moment -- "that wasn't the only reason I'm going."
Kevin winked at him. "Yeah, sure." Turning his attention back to the bear, "Two p.m. then at your apartment?"
"Yep. And make sure to pack up enough clothes and such for a few nights and also pack up a few anime videos. You never know when we might get bored."
"I doubt we will, especially with the hints you've dropped about our campaign. It sounds great!"
"Thanks, but I'm not sure I can make it work out yet." Paul smiled, chuckling softly to himself.
Tony, who had been listening to this exchange, did not like the hidden meanings in that smile. There almost seemed something wrong with that smile. But he dismissed any idea of wrong-doing, because Paul struck him as a very nice guy.
"Well, off to bed with me. See you two tomorrow afternoon, okay?"
"Sure," Kevin replied. "Night!"
"Have a good night, Paul." Tony called toward Paul's retreating figure. Paul waved back without turning around.
After Paul was out of sight, Tony and Kevin picked up the trash scattered about the lounge. Luckily, Dani had been out for most of the night helping out on the other floors, and never said anything to the three when she returned. Anime tapes and VCR in tow, the two returned to their room.
"So, how'd you meet Paul, anyways? You don't normally seem to be around grad students," Tony asked as the two were preparing for bed.
"Eh. Nothing special. I had to go to my math professor to ask him a question about the homework last Thursday. Paul was in there, though, talking with the prof, so I waited in the hallway. Paul must have noticed that there was a student waiting to talk with his advisor, so he cut the conversation short. When he left the office, he noticed me and told me to go on in. He apparently then noticed my Gundam key chain I have on the zipper of my backpack, and asked if I liked Gundam Wing. Well, we chatted about anime for a moment and he invited me over to his place to watch some with him later. That's where I was Thursday night, in case you were wondering. So, we set up this time to watch some of mine. He and I hit it off pretty good."
"Yeah, he seems like a person you might get along with," Tony said, slowly changing into his sleeping clothes.
"What do you think of him?" Kevin asked.
"Well, he's a lot nicer than Brad or Biff --"
"Like that's hard to be," Kevin interrupted.
They hopped into their respective beds. Tony lay down and continued with a smile, "Yeah, true. Besides his nearly continual wisecracks, which I'm used to thanks to you, he seems like a level-headed and nice guy. A few times, I got the feeling that he might be just plain evil, but I'm sure I was imagining those. I could just be slightly jealous of you finding another good friend. Don't know why I should be jealous of something like that, though. I never acted that way before around your other friends." Tony paused for a moment. Hearing no immediate response from Kevin, he added, "But, overall, he seems like a nicer version of you."
"What do you mean by that?!?" Kevin leaned over his bed, noticing Tony's sly smile. "I'm a nice guy, just not all the time."
Tony chuckled. "I know. Just checking if you were still awake."
"Well, hopefully I won't be in a few moments." He turned off the bedside lamp. "See you in the morn."
"Night, Kevin."