On a Saturday afternoon in early fall, 10 first-years are hanging out in a fourth-floor common room in Weld Hall, chatting about extracurriculars and classes, relaxing after a football game. A few of them are lying on the floor, a couple are loafing in armchairs and the rest are lounging on a tan-and-white striped couch.

That's the couch that made them friends. On move-in day, the girls of Weld 42 couldn't get the couch up to the fourth floor, so they asked the boys in Weld 32 to help.

"We said they could sit on it," says Sarah K. Hardin '04. "They took us up on our offer."

The boys came in with the couch and have hardly left.

"They carried up the couch and they thought they had ownership rights," says Susan M. Grossman '04.

"We feel free to come in here and do what we want," says Kristopher P. "Kip" McDaniel '04, later as he lounges in a chair in the girls' room. "They don't seem to care."

The six boys from Weld 32 and the six girls from Weld 42 are no different from other first-years. They come from across the country and beyond. They have diverse interests and goals. Two months ago, none of them knew each other. Today, they're fast friends.

The Class of 2004 has finished the opening lap: Extracurriculars have been chosen, classes picked, e-mail lists joined, and the lines at Annenberg are thinning out. The initial adjustment is over, but life at college is just beginning.