Tony sat up quickly in his bed. He glanced over at his bedside clock in the dim light.
"Noon. Already?" he muttered softly, annoyed by the late time. He pushed the covers off his legs, performing a few stretches on his bed to help him wake up. He grimaced during the motions, noting that he was bruised and sore all over his body.
Must have pushed myself too hard at the gym recently, he reflected, slightly confused.
The bull glanced up, observing the bulge in the bed still above him. Lazy cat. Still sleeping this late in the day.
Tony stepped out of his bed, pulling open the window shades. The gray, wet weather explained why the sun hadn't wakened him as usual. He heard a low grumble from the top bunk.
"Did you have to open those?" Kevin mumbled, turning over in his bed.
Tony grinned. "Sorry, Kevin. Forgot that you don't like waking up before dinner."
The cat muttered an incomprehensible retort. The only words Tony could understand were "you", "lunch", and something that sounded like "dagger".
The bull shrugged, confused. He grabbed his shower gear before leaving the room.
When he returned a little while later, Kevin had gotten out of bed and was sitting in front of his computer. His fur had fluffed up more than it normally did in the morning, eliciting a small chuckle from Tony as he hung up his towel.
"What's so funny?" Kevin queried groggily, not pausing from his typing.
Tony shook his head. "Nothing."
"Yeah, sure." Kevin smacked the mouse button quickly, before suddenly turning in his chair to face the bull. "Tony, I'm going to ask you a question that, frankly, scares me."
Tony glanced at the cat. Kevin, for once, looked somewhat serious. "What is it, Kevin?"
"What did I do yesterday that I can barely remember it?"
"Yesterday? Well, that was Tuesday, right?"
Kevin shook his head dejectedly. "That's what I thought. But it turns out that yesterday was Wednesday."
The bull sat down on his bed, thinking. "Really? Now that you mention it, I can't recall what I did yesterday either, or even the day before."
There was a moment of silence before Kevin snapped his fingers. "Oh, I remember what we did the last two days."
Tony looked at the cat quizzically. "What?"
"We drove up to a cabin in the mountains on Tuesday, remember? Didn't do much there because it was going to rain all day yesterday, which it did. So, we took our time coming back yesterday, hung around here for the evening, and went to sleep early."
"Oh... yeah." Tony nodded hesitantly, the experience slowly reforming in his memory. He couldn't remember all the details, but the general picture seemed to fit into the right place. Kevin turned back around in his chair, his attention reattached to the computer.
Tony stood back up, pulling on a T-shirt. "You want to go out to Young's for lunch?" he asked the cat, referring to a popular restaurant near the university.
Kevin shrugged nonchalantly, still looking at the monitor. "Sounds good to me." Standing up, he added, "I'll get ready while you round up other people." The cat grabbed his bathroom items and his towel, walking toward the door.
"Okay." Tony followed the cat out, leaving the door open. As Kevin retreated, Tony gathered up his courage, like he did each time, and knocked on Cindy and Lisa's door.
Lisa opened it a few seconds later. "Oh, hi, Tony. What's up?" Her slightly mussed auburn hair and red fur indicated that she had either been pulled away forcefully from Mikey or that she had just woken up.
Tony apologized to her, "Sorry, if I woke you up."
"No problem. Cindy and I have been awake for a little while already."
"Oh, that's good." Tony scratched the back of his neck before continuing. "Would you and Cindy like to join Kevin and me for lunch at Young's?"
"Sure, I will. Cindy?" Lisa looked over her shoulder.
Cindy walked slowly up to the door. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot, and she sniffled a little bit as she greeted Tony. "Hello, Anthony. I would love to join you three, if you don't mind my slight illness. I appear to have caught a cold of some sort."
"That's fine," Tony replied. For some reason, he felt relieved to see Cindy in this state. "I don't mind."
Lisa shook her head. "I don't mind either." Turning back to Tony she added, "Just give us a few minutes to get ready, okay?"
"Sure. Let's meet in the lounge in twenty minutes, okay?"
"Okay." Lisa shut the door quietly as Tony stepped down the hall to Scott's room.
Twenty minutes later, five of them had gathered in the lounge. Mikey was still out elsewhere and Dani had already had lunch, so Kevin, Tony, Lisa, Cindy, and Scott started walking to the restaurant.
It was a short walk, punctuated with complaints about the weather and Kevin's joking with Scott. Within a few minutes, they approached the familiar double doors of the restaurant. Tony, chivalrous as usual, let the others in first, holding one of the doors open.
"Thank you very much, Anthony," Cindy said, smiling as she entered the lobby. She closed her umbrella, shaking it lightly. The others followed her in. She heard her name being called from behind her, so she turned around and noticed a trio already waiting in the lobby, including a petite female ferret she knew.
Lisa watched Cindy walk back to talk with the three behind them and was about to join her when a large black bear greeted her.
"Hi. How many will there be today?" the bear asked Lisa, over the din of various patrons chatting loudly.
"Five."
"Well, as you can see, we're a little busy. All we have left right now is a bunch of small tables for two and our large party booth that seats eight." The bear pointed to the back corner. "If you don't mind having that much room, we can put you there."
"What do you guys think?" Lisa queried the others behind her, pivoting around to face them.
Scott shrugged. "Fine by me."
"Would anyone mind if I invited three more to join us?" Cindy asked, turning around from her conversation. Turning back to the trio, she queried them, "Would you three like to join us?"
After a bit of chatting and arguing, during which their bear host grew slightly impatient, the three stood up. Tony glanced at each one as they approached the group.
The first one was Cindy's friend, the diminutive female ferret named Sharon. He knew her since she had TAed his Chemistry class. Behind her, there were two men, one a tall cougar and the other an even taller eagle who towered over everyone there. For some reason Tony couldn't fathom, he thought he already knew the cougar, even though he was sure that he had never met him before.
The eagle thanked them, "We were thinking of taking it ourselves, but didn't want all that space. Thanks for being so kind to let us join you."
"No problem," Lisa chirped. "Any friend of Cindy's is a friend of ours."
The bear grabbed some menus. "Are we ready now?"
Cindy looked back at the others and nodded at the bear.
Tony gestured their guests to go in front. "Please, go ahead." He watched them as they walked in front of him.
He felt a tap on his shoulder. The bull looked over at Kevin, who had a confused look on his face.
The cat leaned over, whispering to Tony, "Do some of them look familiar to you?"
Tony nodded. "Yeah, I know Sharon, but they do look familiar." He shrugged and followed Scott toward the table. "Let's get some food."
"MIKEEEEEY!" Lisa exclaimed as she spotted the fuzzy kangaroo from down the late-afternoon sunlit hall. Her flying tackle hit the surprised marsupial in the small of his back. The couple rolled comically for a couple of feet before they stopped, Lisa planted squarely in Mikey's lap, cuddling the kangaroo around his neck.
"Errgghhh..." was all Mikey could utter before the stranglehold cut off his air supply.
Scott sighed, shaking his head. "Well, time to save the roommate again. Thanks for inviting me along to lunch. It was fun."
Kevin chuckled as the iguana walked toward the pair sprawled in the hallway. "Just make sure that you don't try and hit on women that are already involved. Especially if her boyfriend's sitting right next to you."
"Hey, how was I supposed to know that?" he replied. He squatted down next to Lisa. "You want to take him to a more private place?"
"Sure!" came Lisa's quick response.
Scott opened his room door, letting Lisa drag the kangaroo in. Tony, Cindy, and Kevin caught glimpses of the pair as they passed, heading toward 303.
Cindy stopped at her door as the cat and bull stepped into theirs. "I'll join you two gentlemen in just a moment. I just need to get something from my room." She sneezed softly, turning her head to the side.
"Bless you," Tony replied to the sneeze, adding after a short pause, "The door'll be open, as usual." Tony turned around, watching Kevin boot up his computer. The bull sat down heavily on his bed.
Kevin spun his computer chair around quickly, plopping down in the comfortable seat. He turned to face Tony. "Well, that was a weird lunch."
Tony patted his stomach. "I don't know. I thought it was quite delicious. Particularly dessert."
"I was talking about our company." The cat rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, that part was a little strange. It almost felt like I knew some of them before, but I know that this was the first time we met."
Kevin nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that was the same feeling I had. The only one who was really new to me was Preston."
"That huge eagle?" Tony replied, picturing the avian in his head.
A soft knock drew their attention to the door.
"Come in, Cindy." Kevin said, waving the equine in.
"Thank you, Kevin." She stepped in, standing next to the bunk beds. Looking down at Tony, she stuck out a hand containing a few bills. "Thank you so much for paying for my lunch today, Anthony. I still cannot believe that I left my purse here."
Tony hesitantly accepted the money. "It was no trouble, Cindy. Don't worry about--" He was interrupted by another abrupt sneeze from the equine.
"Bless you. Are you going to be okay?" he asked, concerned.
She nodded. "Yes, I should be fine. Thank you for your concern, though. I just don't know where I caught this illness."
"That's too bad, Cindy," Kevin replied. "Good luck on getting over it quickly."
"Thank you, Kevin. I hope I can. Have a good evening, you two gentlemen," she said, stepping out and closing the door behind her.
"See you later," Tony responded, waving to her as she left. He sighed, falling backwards onto his bed. His body still ached from the bruises and he really wanted to rest.
Kevin picked up the dagger-shaped letter opener on his desk, waving it casually in the air. "So, there was that Preston guy. He seemed nice enough."
Tony stared at the bunk above him. "Yeah. But it was Rich and Sharon that confused me. I just couldn't shake the feeling that I had met Rich from somewhere else."
Kevin chuckled. "Yeah, well, it was even weirder when both he and Sharon admitted the same thing about the rest of us."
"That was a little strange."
The cat shrugged and began unconsciously juggling the letter opener in his hand as he continued chatting with Tony. "It's too bad about their friend, though."
Tony draped his arm across his chest, turning to face the feline. "Yeah. What'd they say happened to her? Something involving an accident of some sort?"
"Rich said that the details were a little blurry, but apparently their friend..." He paused, lost in thought for a moment before continuing, "...Crystal was her name, right?"
Tony nodded, prompting Kevin to continue, "Anyway, she got into an accident and was carried into the emergency room by a stranger, who disappeared before anyone could get his name. It sounds like she'll be fine, but she had some serious internal injuries."
"Yeah, hopefully she'll be fine." Tony yawned slightly. He watched Kevin's juggling hypnotically before an odd thought struck him. "Since when are you coordinated enough to do that?"
The cat looked confused for a moment before he followed Tony's eyes to his right hand which was still flipping the letter opener casually. Kevin watched himself doing this for a while, as if his hand was doing it without his knowledge. "I don't know. But it is a neat trick." He caught the blade safely once again, placing it carefully back on his desk.
Tony laid down on his bed. "Weird."
Kevin spun around in his chair, double-clicking the mouse to load his e-mail program. As he read his messages, one in particular struck him as strange. His puzzled expression soon prompted Tony to ask what was wrong.
"I just got this weird e-mail from someone I don't think I know. It isn't spam or a virus; I can tell. You know who this might be?"
Tony rolled out of bed and walked behind Kevin.
"pauldanure@arapatta.com?" Tony said aloud. "Haven't the faintest. What's the message say?"
Kevin replied, "One word: 'Thanks.' That's it."
Tony shrugged. "I don't know, Kevin. Sorry."
Kevin hit the delete button. "Oh well. It doesn't make any sense, so it gets deleted." He finished reading his e-mail, clicking the mouse frantically.
"Time to play online a bit more tonight," he said, booting up his favorite game.
"Well, don't stay up too late again tonight," Tony replied, as he laid back down.
Kevin looked at Tony, replying sarcastically, "Yes, mother."
Well, at least it's going to be a relaxing evening, he thought before closing his eyes. The bass on Kevin's speakers kicked in, rumbling an explosion sound at 50 decibels louder than it probably needed to be. Tony's eyes shot open at the sound, before slowly closing again. At least if Kevin decides to turn down the volume.