Once everyone had signed in, the tabby stepped over to the group.<br/><br/>"I'm Betty," she said in a soft, gentle voice.  "I'll be escorting you to the school.  If you step through this side door, you will find a bus waiting for you.  The truck with your baggage will follow us up to the dorms, where you will be able to get your things.  Some of the older students will then show you to your individual rooms.  Each of you will be parntered with a student of your age who has been here for at least a semester.  They know what they are doing.  Please follow me."  She stepped outside into the drizzle and climbed onto the waiting white bus, sitting in the driver seat.  Once everyone was seated and more-or-less still, she began to drive.<br/><br/>On the opposite side of the airstrip, about three hundred yards past the fence, the trees stopped and there was a sheer drop of a hundred thirty-three yards.  On the side opposite this, there was a gate that opened to a gravel road leading up the mountain at an angle of approximately nine degrees.  The road curved like a snake up and up and up for nearly three miles, where it reached another tall fence and gate surrounding a large compound.  The students could see as they entered the compound that it was composed of six buildings:  four large three-storey buildings that were obviously the dorms proper, one that was labled CAFETERIA in white letters on red brick, and one that seemed to be a gym.  The dorms were labled thus:  Alpha, Beta, Psi, and Omega, both in Roman letters and Greek.  Boys were distributed among Alpha and Psi, while girls were brought to Beta and Omega.  The older girls were taken to Omega.<br/><br/>The layout of the buildings in the rectangular compound was as follows:  The southwest corner (on one side of the gate they entered) held Alpha.  The Southeast corner (on the other side of the gate) held Beta.  Psi was in the Northeast corner and Omega was in the last corner in the Northwest.  There was another gate to the north, presumably leading to the campus itself.  Between Alpha and Omega was the cafeteria, between Beta and Psi was the gym, and in the middle of the compound was a grassy field about fifty yards by one hundred yards.  There were gazebos in front of each dorm and benches along the outside of the field.<br/><br/>When the girls were escorted into Omega building, they were greeted by a large lobby filled with a dozen or so students of various species.  They were all girls and all seemed to be at least 19.  The dorm director, a stocky mouse, gave a short speech about safety, following rules, and being nice.  Then, each new student was given an ID card with a magnetic strip.  It was used for everything on campus:  meals, dorm entry, any money the students would make or had in bank accounts could be put on them.<br/><br/>Then the girls were split into small groups among a few of the older students.  Both girls ended up with a chunky rabbit with gray fur and green eyes who chattered at her and the other two girls about a great many unimportant things until they reached the first room on the second floor:  Lauren's and Katie's room, number 232, one of the few suites that housed more than two students.<br/><br/>"You two ended up with the same partner," the rabbit said to them.  "She's a good student and has been here for a few years."<br/><br/>Through the door was a living room-type area with an entertainment center featuring a large plasma TV, an X-Box 360, a Playstation 3, and a hundred different games and videos.  There was a couch, a table with four chairs, a kitchen area with a sink, a fridge, and a microwave, and four doors in the opposite wall from the hall entrance.  One on the far right was open, showing a tidy room with a desk, dresser, full-sized bed dressed in blue Doctor Who bed spreads, and a closed closet.  The center-right door was also open showing the bathroom and shower.  The left two were closed.  Everything was tidy and clean.<br/><br/>Their roommate was sitting at the desk in her room, papers spread all around and textbook open.  She was a fox with a long bushy tail tipped with white fur, rust-red fur all over except her belly (which was exposed underneath a short-cut tank top), and ears that were laid back against her head in frustration as she scribbled furiously over the paper working on, presumably, homework.  She didn't seem to have noticed them enter.<br/>