Students were already filing onto the bus, but Katasha held back, hoping to join Turtle. "Oh hi!" he said when he saw her. "How did the hike go for you? I simply had a blast!"

  Katasha was about to answer, but Mirabelle's voice cut across the crowd.

  "Come on, everyone!" she called from inside the bus. "Let's get ourselves back to dear old Isleywood!"

  They were among the last to get on the bus, and Katasha walked down the aisle right alongside Turtle. He was telling her more about the salamander he'd found. It had a red back and a yellow underside. Turtle wondered if the limp nature of its body structure could be preserved in a larger, sentient version. "That would be interesting," he said. "Don't you think?"

  Katasha started to mew an answer, but suddenly Turtle was busy turning about, looking for a good place to sit. Katasha was going to suggest he sit with her -- there was an empty pair of seats a little further along -- but, then his eyes lit on Claire. He sat down beside her without another word. Katasha hadn't seen him speechless before. Surprised, yes. Without words? No.

  Katasha took a seat across the aisle and one row back, beside a bushy furred girl who'd already leaned her floppy-eared head against the window and fallen asleep. It would be a long bus ride back.

  Katasha was disappointed, but she couldn't begrudge Claire the look that Turtle was giving her. Overhearing their conversation, it was clear that they had everything in common. A bizarre passion for Paw-Paw music. Gentle, sweet-natured dispositions. Claire had even raised tadpoles in a tank as a puppy.

  Besides, they simply looked right together -- an easy-going brown-freckled spaniel boy, staring adoringly at a shy, quiet, black and white shepherd girl. It wasn't hard to see how gorgeous Claire was, with her tufted ears and flowing, mid-length fur, in Turtle's eyes.

  Katasha was envious, but she couldn't be jealous.

  Chapter 18

  When the bus got them back to campus, the Intro to Isleywood students were taken to the recreation center to take showers and wash the week's worth of dirt out of their fur. Then they were met by Bruce, the overweight Mastiff who was Dean of Admissions. He gave the group a speech about how proud he was that each of them had accepted the challenge of coming to Isleywood. He was sure that each and every one of them would do well, because he'd picked all their applications out with his own paws. "Besides, how hard can a few science classes be after a strenuous week of mountain climbing?" he woofed.

  Katasha flattened one ear. Had Bruce ever taken a science class? She was beginning to wonder exactly what Bruce's background had been before he became the Dean of Admissions. Fortunately, rather than dragging his speech on any longer, Bruce handed a packet of room assignments and keys to Mirabelle.

  "I'm sure you all want to start settling in right away," he said in his booming voice. "So, I won't keep you any longer."

  Mirabelle handed out the papers and keys to all the Intro to Isleywood students, and everyone scattered toward their own personal little pieces of campus.

  Katasha's papers included a half sheet that said, "GREENE DORM, RM 205," with a key taped to it and a black-and-white printout of a campus map. Greene Dorm was circled on it in red ink. Katasha sighed; the air of her breath passed between her sharp teeth.

  "Hey, which dorm are you in, Katasha?" Jimothy asked.

  Katasha held up the paper for him to see. She still didn't especially feel like talking to Jimothy, though she figured she'd better get over that soon. It was better to have a good friend than not.

  "Turtle and I are out in Delaney," he said. "It looks like it's the dorm farthest from the rest of campus..." He was staring at his own copy of the campus map, tracing the pathways between the buildings with a blunt claw. "Yeah, Delaney is way out on the far side of the quad." He pointed to the big square on the map that must represent the large grassy expanse in front of the college recreation center where the whole Intro to Isleywood hike began. "It looks like Greene Dorm is nice and close to the dining hall, though!"

  "You're in Greene?" Claire asked, overhearing Jimothy. "I'm in Greene, too." According to the slip of paper in her paws, however, Claire's room was on the first floor.

  Greene Dorm was a giant C-shaped building with a courtyard in the middle, shaded by a single, leaning elm tree. There was a dorm lounge in the back of the C, and student rooms lined the hallways running down each arm. The main entrance led to the dorm lounge, but there were entrances at the end of each of the two long hallways too.

  Since Claire's room was on the first floor, the two girls stopped off there first. "It's kind of exciting," Claire said, pulling the tape off of her key. "This'll be my room for the next year." She turned the key and opened the door.

  The room was small. The walls were white and bare, but there was a large, curtained window looking out on the courtyard. The only furniture was two beds, bunked above desks with a chair at each desk. Simple. Spartan. "I guess, I get to pick which side of the room I want," Claire said. "Do you think Ivy will mind if I take the bunk on the side with the door to the bathroom?"

  Katasha peeked into the bathroom. It had a second door inside it, linking it to another dorm room.

  "Which side do you think you'll take?" Claire asked. "Your room will probably be shaped the same."

  "My room will probably already have a roommate in it," Katasha said.

  Claire tilted her head questioningly.

  "The Pathways Program for Cats," Katasha said. "My roommate is probably in it. From what I understand, most new cats are, and they've been on campus all week while we were camping."

  "Well, what are you waiting for?" Claire said, suddenly excited. "I won't get to meet my roommate for another day or two, but we can go meet yours right now!"

  As they walked upstairs, Claire talked about how roommates in college must be kind of like littermates at home. "If you're close to your roommate, then you can kind of look out for each other," she said.

  Katasha couldn't help thinking that Claire already had someone who'd be looking out for her on campus. Before Jimothy and Turtle had left them at the entrance to Greene, heading on to Delaney, Turtle had made sure that the four of them would all meet up for dinner later that night. He'd included Katasha as well, but he'd mostly been looking at Claire with his sweet, eager, puppy eyes.

  Nonetheless, Katasha was glad to be part of a small group already. Most of the new students hadn't made it to campus yet. She hadn't even met her roommate. But, she already had a small circle of friends. Mirabelle had been right about the value of the Intro to Isleywood hike. She tried to encircle herself with that thought as she tread the last few steps toward the door to her own room in Greene Dorm.

  She tried the door handle with her paw. It was unlocked, and she was torn between knocking and simply entering. It was her room after all. Still, she didn't want her first impression to be a bad one, and she had no idea what Daria would be like, what might upset her. So, Katasha compromised, rapping her paw lightly on the door twice, before slowly opening it.

  "Hello?" she said, peering around the door. The first side of the room she saw was empty. Then, as the door opened further, she saw that the bunk on the other side was made up with a pink comforter. There was a computer on the desk, a gilt-edged frame housed a photo of five white-furred kittens and two proud looking white-furred cats, and a poster of Alanna, the indie feline pop star, was tacked up on the wall. A small bookshelf had been crammed in beside the desk. In addition to books, the shelves held small, glass figurines, mostly blown glass cats, edged in gold and silver, wearing ball gowns and dancing. On the top shelf, there was a large snow globe featuring a carousel.

  But Daria wasn't there.

  "You don't need to worry about your roommate being messy," Claire said. "That's good." She was right. Everything on Daria's side of the room was immaculately arranged.

  Katasha stood in the center of the room, trying to imagine it being her home. She felt hugely disconnected from her past, the room she'd lived in with Corina, and the house she'd shared with her parents. Yet, she couldn't truly picture her future here. It was an upsetting experience.

  Then she heard a voice like her own from a minute ago echoed behind her. "Hello?" the voice meowed.

  Turning, Katasha saw a white cat with long fur flowing over the v-neck of her tunic. The fur around her ears was orange, and the skin inside them, as well as her nose, was bright pink. She had golden, inquisitive eyes.

  "Are you my roommate?" Daria said. Her mewing voice was much higher than Katasha's. She recognized that now. However, when Daria first spoke, it was simply so surprising to hear another cat's voice after an entire week surrounded by dogs that the overriding quality of it was felinity.

  "Katasha?" Daria asked, consuming her with those golden eyes.

  "Yes," Katasha said. "That's me. You must be Daria?" Katasha held out a paw, but Daria looked at her for a moment and instead of accepting the paw, threw her arms around Katasha, embracing her. Then, suddenly looking embarrassed, Daria pulled away. Her ears flickered, nervously in different directions, and she stepped backwards until she was firmly on her own side of the room. Nonetheless, her wide, gold eyes stayed focused on Katasha.

  "You're here early," Daria said. "I didn't expect you until tomorrow at the earliest."

  "I'm with the hiking group," Katasha said.

  "We got back today," Claire said. "I'm Claire. We were in the same hiking group."

  Daria's eyes flicked briefly to Claire, but her glance gravitated back to Katasha before Claire was even done speaking.

  "You must have been the only cat on the hike," Daria said.

  "Yes," Katasha answered. "I was."

  "I figured," Daria said. "Because I think you're the only cat in the incoming class who wasn't in the Pathways Program this week. We've all been looking forward to meeting you!"

  Katasha cringed inside. Even in absence, apparently, she'd been a part of the Pathways Program. This was exactly what she didn't want. Besides, why did Daria keep staring at her while barely acknowledging Claire? She'd known cats who were prejudiced against dogs before, but simply failing to acknowledge Claire was pretty extreme.

  "Actually," Daria said, rushing on in her musical mew of a voice, "Blue says that he, Leon, and Rover already met you last fall. At a mixer for new students? They have a suite in the other arm of Greene dorm, on the first floor. Hey, would you like to come to dinner with the Pathways cats? We've all written essays as our final project for Pathways, and we're going to read them to each other while eating at the Persian restaurant down in Old Town."

  Katasha started to demur, but Claire spoke up first. "Wow, that sounds great," she said. "I can tell Turtle and Jimothy that you're busy tonight. I'm sure they won't mind."

  In fact, Katasha thought, Jimothy would probably be jealous. He'd love to spend the evening hanging out with all the new cats at Isleywood. She, however, was less than thrilled. She wanted to hang out with her new friends, not be drawn into a cultish feline sub-culture. She didn't want to isolate herself that way.

  Nonetheless, Daria was her new roommate, and she was going to have to get along with her, or else life would be miserable. "Sure," Katasha said. "I can change my plans and join you."

  Daria clapped her paws together happily and bounced on her toes. Claire excused herself, saying that her father would be arriving soon with all her things, and she should really head out to meet him.

  "Will your family be coming today?" Daria asked Katasha.

  "My brother Dominic is coming tomorrow," Katasha said. She looked over at her side of the room. Daria must have seen her looking at the bare mattress, because she quickly offered to lend Katasha a quilt and pillow for the night.

  "Now, come on!" she said, taking Katasha by the the arm in much the way that Corina often had. "I want to introduce you to everyone."

  And, of course, as far as Daria was concerned, everyone was cats.

  Chapter 19

  The atmosphere of the Persian restaurant was thick with tinkling music and the scent of spiced meat. The walls were draped with gold and magenta curtains, and the floor was strewn with silk pillows. The whole place reeked of luxury and affluence.

  "Do college students come here much?" Katasha asked Daria as they entered. "It seems kind of fancy." It was also about a fifteen minute walk from campus.

  "This is the big celebration dinner for graduating from Pathways," Daria answered. "From what I hear, the really popular restaurant among Isleywooders is the breakfast place a few blocks back. It stays open all night."

  Katasha could see how that would be a plus.

  "And they have bacon in just about everything," Daria added.

  That sounded like a good idea, too.

  The Pathways cats were in a back room, curtained off from the rest of the diners. Daria plopped down on a royal purple pillow as soon as they entered. Katasha selected a powder blue pillow, placed it beside Daria, and settled down more tentatively. Looking around, she saw Blue and Leon lounging nearby. It almost looked like they were carrying on the same argument about religion that they'd been having at the cat-mixer four months ago. Rover was in a corner, by himself, scribbling away at a sheet of paper. Possibly, he was putting final touches on his essay.

  A few of the other faces might have been familiar from the cat-mixer... Katasha wasn't sure. More likely, the rest of these cats hadn't been local enough to make it to that. So, she was probably seeing them for the first time.

  She noticed there was a dog in the room too. He was a skinny, wiry fellow with very, short gray fur. Probably a whippet or Italian Greyhound. His cotton tunic and trousers hung on him like he was a scarecrow, and he kept his shoulders hunched. He had a brightly colored Mobius puzzle in his paws and was working the interwoven strands of it faster than Katasha had ever seen done before. He wasn't even looking at it, except for the occasional quick glance, and yet the strands rapidly shifted from one intricate pattern to another. He was clearly an expert with it.

  "Who's that?" Katasha asked, bumping Daria with a paw to get her attention.

  "Oh him? That's Moby," Daria said. "He's one of the upperclassmen advisors. Everyone calls him Moby because he's so good with that Mobius puzzle. The other one is Aaron." Daria pointed an extended claw at a long-haired, orange, smoosh-faced, Persian cat wearing a star-swathed cape and a rakishly tilted beret. He looked truly ridiculous.

  "Wait..." Katasha said, trying to remember back to the cat-mixer. "Is Aaron the upperclassman in the suite with Blue and the others?"

  "That's right," Daria said. "He's very strange. He runs around campus reciting poetry. At first I thought he was a vampire. Okay, not really. But, he does kind of act like one... what with all the poetry."

  Katasha tilted an ear skeptically at Daria. What do vampires have to do with poetry? Katasha wondered. Besides, the last time she'd been told that one of these cats was reciting poetry, it turned out to be First Race scripture. She hoped all these cats weren't crazy First Racers like Blue. That was one of the things she really liked about Jimothy. He had such an even head.

  Katasha sighed.

  There was so much gossip and chatter around her here, all about cats she hadn't really met yet and things that had happened in the last week while she wasn't around. It was fast-paced and complicated, and it made her head hurt. She wished she were having dinner with Claire, Turtle, and Jimothy.

  Turtle might talk a mile a minute, but it was all about... turtles. Jimothy and especially Claire were both very measured in their statements, nothing unnecessary said. Here, Katasha had heard pieces of at least five conversations analyzing other conversations already. It made her dizzy.

  Even so, these Pathways cats would be her classmates too. It would do her well to get to know them. She could always catch up with her hiking friends later.

  Aaron called the final meeting of the Pathways Program for Cats to order as soon as the waiters finished bringing around platters of saffron scented drumsticks and curried cubes of lamb.

  The difference between this experience and her week long hike could not have been more striking -- soft pillows, gourmet food, and gossip. For a moment, in the heady thrill of tasting the excellent food, Katasha wondered if she'd made the wrong choice. Perhaps she should have signed up for Pathways. It certainly would have been easier than trudging through those mountains. And, as the cats took turns reading their essays, she couldn't help getting drawn into the intrigue of politics she could see in all the subtle glances and eye rolls, whispered words, and discretely gesturing paws that provided the constant background to the readings.

  Besides, it wasn't like things had worked out with Howell or Jimothy.

  Blue, however, kept glancing her way. Would it be so bad to date the kind of tomcat that her sister wanted for her? Not so bad, perhaps. But Katasha couldn't get excited about it either.

  Closing her eyes to shut out all the extra stimulation -- which cats were looking at each other, whose ears flattened and when -- Katasha listened to the final few essays blindly.

  "Are you okay?" Daria asked when the essays were over. She was so tuned in to Katasha's slightest movement that she'd noticed the closed eyes, of course. "Do you have a headache?"

  "I'm just tired," Katasha said. "It's been a long week."

  "I can imagine!" Daria mewed. "All that hiking. Sleeping on the ground."

  When Katasha opened her eyes, she saw Daria staring adoringly at her.

  "You're very brave to go on the hike instead of doing the Pathways Program," Daria said. "Are you worried that you'll have trouble keeping up with the coursework?"

  Katasha dipped her ears in irritation. She didn't see how a single week of playing catch-up would make much difference once the school year started. Nonetheless, she had to admit, at least to herself, that she was worried. "Not really," she said.

  Daria purred. "You are brave. Maybe we can work on homework together sometimes."

  "I'm sure we will," Katasha answered. It would be hard to avoid it while living in the same small dorm room.

 

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