Among the Stars
Rain was falling down in torrents outside, where students padded up and down the sidewalk as hastily as they forseeably could, against the chill autumn wind that made the windows shake and howled like a hellish, tormented demon. However it wasn't the howling of the wind, nor the rattling of the windows that kept Zain from concentrating on his studies, nor any of the myriad other sounds that a strong Autumn gale can produce. He looked across the rain-soaked lawn outside his window, sipped his coffee (still a bit too hot to drink quickly), and thought about his first week of classes. They were interesting, definitely. The bright young fox had a voracious appetite for learning and especially Astronomy. He had enjoyed the animated Proffesor Yangston's lectures, rife with enthusiasm and vigour, made all the more memorable due to the Deer's seemingly boundless energy that led him to pace about the room, gesturing to the sky that so captured his imagination. Zain smiled as he
remembered the Deer nearly squashing a late-comer flat as he paced to and fro. Intriguing though his classes were, they quickly receded to the background of his musings as he remembered the real reason for his temporary lack of interest in his studies. For all of his enthusiasm for science (he normally adored being in class), and despite the capering about of his new favorite teacher, he had still found himself distracted. There he was, sitting in his first class on his first day of college, full of nervous excitement for what was to come, but through the door had walked something-someone- that had sent his heart racing and still made his fur tingle.
"Zain!" shouted his roomate, Matt from down the hall. "Zain! What are you sleep- The tiger rounded the corner, and poked his head through the doorway to find Zain staring out the window. "Hey, dude, Earth to Z!" "Huh? Oh, sorry Matt I guess I zoned there for second, what's up? Zain said with a sheepish grin. "Haha, that's okay, I know how you science guys are, got your heads in the clouds... or the black holes or whatever. The guys and I are going into town for a while, you want to go?" The tiger's tail was swinging behind him, echoing the excited grin on his face. Zain thought about his neglected homework for a moment, but seeing the tiger's earnestness, he decided a few hours of relaxing might do some good. "Mhmm, sure, just let me change." was his reply. He looked about his rather untidy dorm room (what would his mother say if she were here?) and spotted his favorite purple and black sweatshirt, and pulled on a pair of jeans. Deep-set jade green eyes, as green as summer, stared back at him from the mirror on the back of his door. He was pretty tall, (for a fox) about five foot eleven, he had a feminine frame-and as skinny as toothpick on a diet, as his mother used to tell him, and as black as a jar of ink from ear to paw. "Man, I look tired." he thought to himself as he closed the door behind him and went to join his roomates at the door.