Hello there! This is Huntress, and I'm the main writer here for IKU. I realize that this isn't the first time anything like this has been done, but nonetheless, I hope you enjoy both mine and Vix's take on it! As you can guess from the title of this chapter, we'll be meeting a few of our freshmen, along with some returning upperclassmen. Enjoy!

A mix of excitement, fear, and dread filled the crisp air as the sun beat down on the old buildings. Rapunzel clutched her suitcase and marveled at the mere sight of the university quad upon stepping out of the gold taxi cab. She giggled and squealed, jumping excitedly before reducing her emotions from ecstatic to a more approachable demeanor. She bounced along the brick macadam, her flats keeping a synchronized rhythm while she took in her surroundings.

Despite arriving an hour earlier than she was supposed to, the girl was armed with a rolling suitcase in one hand and coffee in the other, prepared to begin her college experience. Looking for someone to converse with, she approached a young woman sitting at a foldable table at the front of the quad, who was fixing strands of her bright red hair. She smiled and glanced up at the person standing before her.

"Welcome to Iger-Katzenberg University!" she greeted, "I'm Ariel, and I'll be one of the many tour guides here to help you throughout the day! I need your name so I can sign you in and give you a name tag."

"Hello!" the girl in question replied with just as much enthusiasm, "I'm Rapunzel. Rapunzel Corona. R-A-P-U-N-Z-E-L."

"Alright, Rapunzel," Ariel nodded, handing her a name tag, "It's very nice to meet you! It's great to see a freshman who's so excited. We don't get that as often as we used to."

Rapunzel straightened her posture proudly, "Well, I'll be sure to fill the quota."

Ariel giggled, "You'll fit right in with us, huh? You can take some pamphlets or browse the activity fair, if you're interested! It's open until 11:00 this morning. It was nice meeting you!"

"Thanks, you too!" Rapunzel shouted as she walked away, further exploring the campus and searching for someone to strike up another conversation with.

After a quick scan across the school grounds, she had made the decision to plop herself right on the same bench as a girl who appeared to be listening to music in an attempt to remain aloof. Unfortunately, Rapunzel wasn't the best at taking hints that people weren't very talkative at 8 in the morning.

"Hi, I hope I'm not bothering you….but I love your hair! Purple's such a great color for you."

She was met with a bewildered expression and deafening silence.

"I'm Rapunzel," she extended her hand to the girl in front of her, who raised an eyebrow and paused her music.

The girl blew a bubble with her gum and reached out to shake the palm that had been offered to her, "Gogo."

The next thing Gogo knew, she was having her ear talked off by Rapunzel, who went off on a passionate speech about how much fun she was going to have attending the university. It wasn't that Gogo hated incredibly happy people. Hell, she'd been around worse, but there were some times where she relished in her solitude, and those times were absolutely at 8:21 in the morning with only her music and the autumn leaves falling across a quiet campus. Even if it was just one song, she still appreciated taking time to tune the world out while taking the world's sights in….Unfortunately, it didn't seem like it was happening with this girl. Gogo abruptly cut in.

"Do you like to listen to music?"

"Music? Oh, I love music! I'm quite fond of-"

"Then just put this in and just listen, okay?" she held out an earbud for Rapunzel to accept.

She smiled, "Alright!"

Silence. Finally…for a good 15 seconds before a string of questions were thrown around about the music artist and the origin of the song.

This is gonna be a long year.

Jack adjusted his backpack straps and lifted his younger sister into the air, sticking her on his shoulders. She cackled wildly and pulled on his brunette tufts of hair.

"Are you gonna come back and visit us?" she questioned, arching her body so she was face to face with her elder brother.

"Nah, I think I'll just leave you forever," he answered sarcastically.

She pushed on his nose, "Stinkbrain."

"Alright, Jack, put your sister down," a maternal voice commanded, "I don't want to make any impromptu hospital trips."

He shook his head as he lowered his sister onto the ground, "Aw, come on. You're no fun."

His mother turned to him, "Promise me you won't do that either, okay? And don't get into any trouble."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll behave." Jack responded sincerely.

"Well, we should be on our way," his mother took her daughter by the hand and jingled her car keys, "Give us a call when you've settled in!"

Jack watched as his mom drove away, sister waving goodbye. Regaining his composure, he stopped at a table with a "Welcome New Freshman" banner draped across the front. The girl in front of him was checking her phone, tapping against the screen until the clearing of his throat caused her to look up, eyes widening.

"Uh…This is freshmen orientation…" Jack pointed to the sign, "Right?"

Her doe-eyed expression dropped and she plastered a grin onto her face, "Yes! I'm Ariel, and I'll be one of the many tour guides here to help you throughout the day! I need your name so I can sign you in and make a name tag!"

"Jack Overland," he stated flatly, staring at the assorted papers across the table, "Am I allowed to take one of these?"

"Of course!" Ariel beamed, "You can also check out the activity fair! It's running until 11:00 today. Actually, orientation's starting soon. You'd better get over there."

"Right," Jack peered at the watch fastened against his wrist, "Well, I guess I'll see you around."

"Have a great first day!" she chirped before lifting her phone as casually as possible and snapping a photo.

Jack turned around quickly, examining the girl in confusion. He could have sworn he saw some kind of flash come from her direction.

"God, my eyesight must be going nuts today," he muttered, walking further onto the campus.

The young woman's fingers quickly slid across her phone as she typed a caption for the photo she had just taken. Within a matter of seconds, Jack Overland's face was gaining more attention than he would have preferred over various forms of social media. Because of this, he was quite quickly being recognized outside of the digital world, as well. As he trudged nonchalantly through the crowds of students, he could have sworn he heard frequent giggling and felt unnerving stares.

Finally fed up with his bewilderment as to why so many people were laughing at him, Jack decided to address a male student who appeared to be only a year or two older than him.

"Is the whole laughing deal a regular thing here?" he inquired.

The young man glanced over at his female companion, who was staring at Jack with an unimpressed expression besmeared across her face. Something about her presence was terrifying to Jack, but before she could survey him anymore, her male counterpart responded.

"You'll get used to it," he said emphatically.

"O-kay then…" Jack frowned before walking away.

After he had left earshot, the young man had nudged the girl next to him.

"Hey, Elsa. Free eye candy," he smirked in an attempt to fluster her.

"Hardly," she rolled her eyes, clearly not shaken by the supposed "handsome" stranger's presence, "Although give it some time and I'm sure I'll be hearing all about him from Anna."

He shrugged, "Eh, he seems like a bit of a tool, anyway."

Hiro was experiencing sensations similar to that of those he had once felt right before he threw up at the San Fransokyo carnival from eating funnel cake prior to boarding the Tilt-A-Whirl. His stomach was churning and he could practically sense the Poptart swirling against the edges of his abdomen as he was haphazardly thrown off of his brother's moped. With barely enough time to recover from the rapid journey to the university, his brother throwing his bookbag towards his gut didn't exactly help his slight motion sickness.

Hiro scowled, "Just so you know, this is your fault."

"Just get to orientation on time, Knucklehead," Tadashi gave his sibling a hearty shove on the back, "Aunt Cass is gonna kill you if you miss it…Correction, Aunt Cass and I are gonna kill you if you miss it."

The younger of the two grunted as he started sprinting to the freshman registration table. No one was currently occupying the table, but Hiro had known what to do at the mere sight of name tags, markers, pamphlets, and an attendance list. Scribbling his name onto a sticker, he ripped it off of the paper and smacked it across his jacket.

After grabbing a pamphlet, he continued to race across campus, following the signs directing him to freshman orientation and nearly falling flat on his face by tripping over some poor guy's prosthetic leg. He rounded the corner of the main building, slamming his right foot down to gain traction so he could start running once more, finally discovering the crowd of students gathered around the fountain. He exhaled and squeezed the straps of his bookbag, hoping to God no one had seen his clumsy entrance.

"Since when did the second graders start invading college?" he heard someone snort.

In any other situation, Hiro would have turned around and given the speaker a piece of his mind, but considering his late status and how he had promised Cass and Tadashi he'd try to stay out of trouble, he instead took the painfully difficult route and tried to pay attention to the tour guide.

"…can check for a wide variety of activities every day," she continued, "Granted, we're also - Oh!"

The tour guide ceased speaking when a tall black man strided across the campus and faced the group of freshmen.

"Thank you for that fine bit of information, Ariel," he clapped a hand onto her shoulder and retained a regal composure, "Hello, and welcome to the Iger-Katzenberg University. I am Mufasa Nuru, the dean here at IKU. However, I've continually expressed how I prefer the term 'sir.' If you ever have any major questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to stop by my office. I'd like to do whatever I can to help my students accomplish bright futures. That being said, we expect attendees of this school to uphold a certain image.

"You all are very fortunate to be accepted into this university, and I hope you all realize that. As much as we want our students to feel comfortable and have fun during their time here, we also look down upon certain shenanigans. Here at Iger-Katzenberg, you are expected to uphold honor and dignity, and stay on your best beha-"

"COMMENCING ANARCHY."

In a mere moment, a cold splash of water crashed into Hiro's right ear, followed by another burst of cool liquid colliding into the back of his neck. Hiro zipped up his jacket and flipped his hoodie up, watching as students screamed in response to the surprise water balloon attack. Hiro caught a glimpse of the previously calm dean, who was now boiling with rage.

"Wratchford!" he barked at a security guard, "Find them!"

He saluted before chasing after them, "IT'S THE FIRST DAY, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! CAN'T I GET A BREAK?"

Hiro grimaced, shaking his hands free of the water before unzipping his hoodie to wring it out.

He murmured to himself, "So much for best behavior."

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