From Kitten to Cat
Nepeta Mary Leijon had just been enrolled into Crocker Institute for college. Arriving on one of the transport buses from Mars, the scrappy young girl was covered in band-aids and marks, looking a bit worse for wear than many of their enrollments. Her clothing of comfort made others around her think maybe she was a misguided high school student, or even a middle school one! But even with the remarks made behind her back, she strolled up to the campus with the rest of them.
She had gotten here a bit too early for the school year, but she didn’t mind; the school had already had an apartment set up for her until she could officially move into the college dorms. After getting all her papers and information sorted out with the guidance counselor and whoever else, she set out that way to go check out her new home for the next four or so months. Along the way she figured she’d also check out on of the cafes or bookstores for work; she had been told they were easier to get into as many of these chains were owned by the dean, so students usually got hired.
After unpacking her things, she decided to take a walk and explore the place. It was midday and she was still feeling a bit pumped up from the ride over here. She had rarely ever left her colony on Mars, even to visit the others scattered around the planet, and now she was in a whole new place! There was no way this buzz was going to die down any time soon. She decided to hit up one of the libraries after investigating the coffee shop near her place, hoping to see what kind of new books she could find. She was an avid writer and reader, often using inspiration from the stories she read to write stories. She had been doing it for quite a few years already, racking up quite a few viewers and making her own site. A lot of readers loved when she did stuff relating to their favorite series, whether it was a book or a show; though there were some that also urged her to work more on her original creations. She pandered to each whenever she felt like it, although lately she had taken a hiatus; coming to Skaia though, she hoped that it would give her that spark to continue. And so she pressed on, searching through the fantasy section, looking for the books of a particular genre. The ones involving space and aliens were easy to find, but the ones she liked were labeled broadly under fantasy by itself; faeries and fae, creatures that lived among humans with nothing more than a magical disguise. Those really itched her fantasy scratch like no other, and she really hoped that on a planet like this, they’d have a wide variety.
Boring, dreary, empty, and all around not fun. This day had been, all around and in one word, uneventful. Nothing new on campus, no new messages to check out, no events going on, and to top it all off it was raining. While Rose loved the rain, something about it just put a damper on campus life. Nobody wandered around outside except for the hardcore sports players, or the occasional white girl who would still be in booty shorts and crop tops in three feet of snow (AKA: The kind of people Rose could never understand). To make matter worse, Holms was getting restless. Yes her black little cat was tired of being cooped up in Roses dorm room, the ball of fur never stopping its mowing at her door.
She wasn’t, technically, allowed to have Holmes. The campus only allowed service pets and... he certainly wasn’t that. That didn’t stop a lot of people on campus, hell Rose had seen a frat boy trying to sneak a baby crocodile into his dorm room. That... probably didn’t end well for either of them. The solution to this was simple, however. Go to the library. Solves a days boredom, and since nobody ever stayed in the campus library long enough to care, Rose could bring Holmes along with her.
So that was the first mistake Rose had made. Once she was in the library, Holmes sitting in her bag with his head poked out, she moved to the back and sat down, opening her bag enough to grab her book and start reading. That, however, was enough for Holmes to bolt and explore this wonderful new world he had been brought to. Of course Rose planned on taking him out and keeping him in her lap, but now Holmes was running free. And she had to go after him. She sighed and set down her book, jogging after Holmes knowing full well running at full speed would draw too much attention. Hopefully someone else didn’t find him- oh.
By the time Rose had managed to catch up to and find Holmes he was rubbing up against someone's leg. This was someone she had never seen before, and considering the student body wasn’t that large (Especially this early in the year) Rose knew this must be an early transfer. Bingo, perfect. Nobody needs to be suspicious of anything. Rose approached this newcomer and cleared her throat.
“Terribly sorry about that miss, Holmes seems to have gotten away from me. Could you, perhaps, do me a favor and keep this between us. I'm afraid animals aren’t allowed on... campus...” Rose said. First thought into her head- too much information this new student probably didn’t even know pets weren’t allowed on campus yet. Clearing her throat once more, Rose spoke. “My name is Rose Lalonde, I hope my cat didn’t bother you any. God forbid you have allergies.” Rose said, scooping Holmes up into her arms when she finished.
