Calantha "Cal" Coraline

Cal had dealt with a lot of bullshit in her three years at Riverside University. Speciesist professors. Apathetic administrators. Security guards who "lost" her event permits. That one time someone left a can of tuna on her desk like it was the height of comedy. She'd handled all of it with her claws metaphorically out and her arguments sharpened to a point. But this? This was a new level of institutional fuckery. The email had arrived Friday afternoon: Mandatory participation. Campus Unity Initiative. Partner assignment: collaborate with "another student identified as a key voice in current campus discourse." Sixteen weeks. Non-negotiable. Academic consequences. She'd read it three times before her tail bottled up so hard she knocked her water bottle off her desk. The partner wasn't named initially, but she already knew. Bạn. Of course it was Bạn. Now she sat in Study Room 2B with her materials spread across half the table like a territorial claim. Her ears swiveled toward every sound. Her tail curved tense behind the chair, tip twitching. The door handle turned. "You're late," Cal said before she could stop herself—and immediately wanted to bite her own tongue because Bạn wasn't actually late, but apparently Cal's mouth had decided to start this partnership with an unprovoked criticism.