Matthew made his way down the bustling corridor, holding his books so firm against his chest that he may well have been attempting to break his ribs with them. There were people all around him, going about their business, discussing what he supposed must have been classes (but in actual fact were anything but.) He was careful to maintain his smile but found it all the more difficult to keep his eyes anywhere but on his feet.

He reached the door to his room unaccosted and found that he was somewhat disappointed. While he was afraid that he wouldn't know what to say if approached, he thought that it would feel somehow better to at least be approached. Well, nevermind. He slid the key into the door of his room and twisted it aside.

Oh and wasn't the new student in for a big surprise when he found out who his roomie was. Up until now Maverick Roderick and Luke had been in a room on their own, primarily because the headmaster wasn't sure how much space they'd need but now that they'd settled in he figured it was safe to add a second student to the room. So when the door opened the young hydra turned his, er, their? attention mostly to the new arrival. The head on the left finished reading a page in their textbook before following suit and all three heads gave a smile.

"Hello there, so you're the new student that's going to be sharing a room with us? Good to meet you, I'm Maverick. This is Luke, and this is Roderick. Heh, we don't mind if you forget our names either, we've even had teachers starting to call us Left Right and Center."

The middle head was the one talking, introducing the left head as Luke and the right one as Roderick. Each gave a nice smile and a polite hello before they got up and walked over to the new and much smaller student offering a hand with his books. Luke hoped they didn't seem too imposing, or confusing. Three long necks and heads on a very stout and relatively tall body could be startling especially if you've never seen anything like them before.

For a moment, Matthew was completely dumbfounded. He stared up at the three with a sort of... vacant, ponderous look. As though the mouse were contemplating whether or not he ought to scream or politely accept the assistance. Thankfully, he decided to offer his books out with a meek,

""Uhm, thank you. I'm sorry, I don't know if it's odd to ask, but, um, uh..." He swallowed hard and thought that he may very well be asking the question that'd end him. At least he remembered to put on his smile! ""Is it alright if I, uhm, ask what you are? A dragon, right? I'm sorry if it's stupid..."

"Oh sure, we don't mind at all. We're getting to be such a rare sight anymore it's perfectly understandable. The three of us are a hydra. Multiple heads, one body. Some myths like to trace us to a sort of dragon heritage but really we're as different from them as a dragon would be different from an iguana."

The stocky creature carefully took the books and set them down on a dresser next to the until now spare bed, one head always seemed to be looking at him while another was always focused on where they were going and what they were doing. "We're kind of unique really, three completely different minds, one body. Think about conjoined twins, or triplets, and that's a good start on figuring us out. But we don't want to ramble on and make you feel less at home, sorry, three minds and three mouths kind of accidentally have us taking over conversations sometimes. So would you like to tell us a little about yourself?" The left head gave him another smile as they all returned their focus on him, glad he hadn't been scared right out of the room so far.

"Uhm, well..." He appeared to take a moment at that. Although he didn't have books to hold onto any more, he still kept his arms tight around his chest. He took to keeping his eyes on his feet, stealing glances up at the trio only to look down again when he found a head still peering at him. Despite his apparent shyness, it would seem he had a sense of humor all the same. "I'm a mouse."

"But I think it's really interesting that you're a hydra and all," he added to that, with another budding enthusiastic smile. "I think I've read about people like yourself. Only little bits and pieces, nothing really... um, substantiated. I guess you don't fight much over who'd sleep on the top bunk, huh?"

His pink tail coiled about one of his ankles and he otherwise remained rather still. Nevertheless, he wore a pretty broad, excited smile, even if he couldn't quite look up at the hydra for more than a couple seconds here and there.

The right head burst out laughing, smiling and patting the mouse's shoulder with what might be called "his" arm. "Hahahah, I like you, good sense of humor kid. Yeah about the only thing we ever fight over is if Luke here is up all night reading and has the light on. Heh, imagine how hard it is for us to try and fight over one pillow to block the light when he's already using it to sit up all proper like and read."

"Oh don't put too much stock in what Roderick says, he's only teasing me because half the time I have to whisper answers to him in class since he Never gets all of his homework done. Each of us has our own courses we're taking and half the time I read their lessons anyway."

Maverick was more interested in the body language of their new roomie, the glances up instead of a steady gaze and the tail around his ankles, he was shy and trying not to make himself look too embarassed. "Relax, this is a good school and whenever we're around you're just about guaranteed one of us will be in a talkative mood. And you'll probably see us in half your classes anyway, heh, we'll try not to sit in front of you and block your view of the board or anything."

"Um, thank you." And he appeared to mean that sincerely, looking right on up at Maverick as he said it. He did appear to calm down some. He didn't even squirm away as Roderick patted his shoulder.

Matthew spent a moment surveying their room, noting the furniture and so on. As he did, he mentioned, "I'm doing biology, trigonometry, algebra, chemistry... And, um, I think I chose environmental sciences too. I know they don't sound very exciting... I, um, I bet you do ancient history and stuff, huh?"

"Well between the three of us, we're taking every class. Seems kinda stupid I guess but we all have our own goals eventually and it's best to try and tackle it all at once. Actually sounds like you've got a pretty good set of courses to start with. Of course with us taking every class you might not see us here too often on a couple of the busier days but we'll still be around."

Roderick grinned as he leaned down closer to their new roomie and whispered to him. "And if you ever get bored, I'd be more than happy to help you pull a prank on these two, keep things interesting. Or just hang out, have fun, whatever you want."

"Um, Roderick, you do know we could hear you just now, right? And that, well just about any prank you want to pull on us is going to be done to you too?"

"Aw that's part of the fun Luke, trying to come up with stuff that doesn't bother me but really gets to one of you. Or hanging out, doing whatever."

"M-maybe you could dye yourself a colour you like, but that Luke and Maverick don't?" Matthew immediately adopted a look that stated his thoughts for him; 'what have I done?' That look turned to sympathy and remorse as he glanced to the two would-be victims.

"Not that I think it's a good idea! It's just, um, thinking aloud... Uh, what do you all want to be? Since you're doing every class n' all..." Changing the subject like the socially clumsy little mouse he is, Matthew also shifted his weight about and cleared his throat some.

Roderick grinned, laughing and patting the mouse's shoulder again. "That's a great idea! Heheh, now putting it into practice will be the challenge. Well let's see, one of us wants to be a psychiatrist or psychologist. That'd be Luke, he's always curious how people's minds work even our own. One of us would rather be a more physical doctor, or a vet. And, well, I don't really know what I want to be but I'll figure it out. I keep changing my mind on that. All I know is I like to have fun any way I can."

"You could be a writer. I, um, think that's fun... I think everything y'all want to be is real interesting." The mouse appeared to be calming down well enough. He shuffled on further into the room, finally closing the door as he did so. Then he realized that he left his key in the handle, opened it again and scooped the key up. He cleared his throat and did his very best to play the mistake off.

He made his way over to the bedside dresser, rummaging through his books. He retrieved one of them, a fairly new-looking collection of poems and short stories. After a moment of hesitation, the mouse offered it up to the hydra with one of his odd chipper-anxious little grins. "Stuff like this n' all. It seems fun to make things up and share them."

"Hmm, writing... that does sound good. Especially when I can have my own proofreader right beside me." Rod took the book with a smile, opening to a random page and reading a couple poems.

"Oh my gosh, I really have to thank you, this is probably the longest Roderick's actually kept his nose in a book. Except he'll probably have me doing as much writing as proofreading for him."

Maverick sighed. "Oh why do I always get stuck between you two taking jabs at each other? Oh well, least they aren't aimed at me. So how do you like the room? Anything you want to change?" If they were going to be in the same room the least they could do was offer a chance to change things around. Any suggestion even, they didn't have to agree right away but at least listen.

"O-oh, um, I like it! I think it's fine how it is, thank you. Though, um, I think I should probably ask when I should have my light off and all. A-and, um... cleaning and laundry stuff. Oh, and maybe we should talk about, uh, I... I guess stuff to put on the walls. Paintings and stuff. Posters, I mean." Matthew started to babble on like this for a short while, describing just about every possible thing you could discuss about a dormitory room. It was pretty clear that he was just excited for the conversation, now that he'd eased into it.

As he went on, he started to move his paws about while he spoke. Not in some sort of exaggerated, comical way, but it was more motion than simply clutching to his own elbows. His tail had uncurled itself from his ankle as well. In fact, he appeared pretty exuberant and energetic for a brief while. Then he sort of crashed back down when he realized he'd been carrying on, dropping his eyes again.

"If, um, that's okay, I mean."

The three heads had surprisingly been keeping up with everything he said and paid close attention. When he asked if it was okay the three looked at one another and each gave a nod. "Sure, it's fine with us. Sounds pretty good actually, a lot more creative than what we have here right now."

Roderick had been listening but he'd also been the one this time watching their roomie's body language. It was good to see him more relaxed, more at home in the room. "Yeah, sounds great. We'll be glad to help too."

"Oh, um," he looked for a moment as though an idea had arisen. The scrawny mouse's excitement bubbled back, and he looked right on up at the trio with an eager grin. He even bounced on his heels just a little, as though it were difficult to contain his feelings without literally bubbling about. "Could you show me around?

I wouldn't ask, but, um... It's kind of daunting to explore alone is all.There sure are a lot of people here, and I dunno the first thing about any of them."