FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This story is actually completed, but is a full-length novel, so in order to not bore readers to death, I will be releasing it in chapters, each of which are split into two or three sub-chapters written from the three main characters' perspectives. The story contains adult material, which I tried to add, in order to maintain interest, but I really hope you'll fall in love with these characters as much as I have. Ultimately the story features male body on female and some solo exploits in the coming chapters.

Chapter 1-A

Belle

A lot of us have sibling situations which border on unbearable. Maybe you have one who hogs the bathroom for hours on end. Maybe your sibling consistently finds ways of interfering with your daily life, or maybe simply makes a nuisance of themselves as often as they can. My relationship with my brother is different, in that we don't intentionally go out of our way to inconvenience one another, but unfortunately we oftentimes find ourselves doing just that. I... we are a chimera, born from the ancient blood of an extinct, 'mythological' beast with the head of a goat and a lion, and a tail of a serpent.

As you might've guessed, we share the same body. I am the goat portion. This, unfortunately leaves me with just my own head and occasional use of the right arm. I am little more than a sentient growth on my brother, by all accounts. My brother, the lucky one, is the lion head, and thereby has control over our entire body. This caused us some grief in our earlier childhood, as we would fight constantly over my meager existence. As we grew up, as many siblings often do, we began to grow closer, and now, though I am only a sibling in the furthest stretch of the definition, I don't think either of us could imagine a life without the other.

My brother, Raphon is what one might call 'a jock.' He's not particularly book-smart, though he does enough to stay above water, and keeps our body in a strong state. He works hard to keep us healthy, and I know from all the stares in the school hallway that he's done more than adequate work. This brings me to grievance number one: My brother has the overactive sex drive of any other eighteen year old male. This, combined with the athletic shape he keeps us in, results in many an opportunity for him to sate his hyperactive cravings, as every girl in school seems to want to take the star quarterback for a test ride. I don't mind. Sex is fine, and I feel the pleasure of the activity as much as he does.

The problem is that I am little more than a third wheel, whenever he gets involved with one of his floozies. They are there for him: my outgoing, charismatic brother. Not me. Try to imagine how awkward it is being attached to the body of someone else, watching them kiss and suck all over another individual just inches from you, and be treated like you don't exist. I know he doesn't realize how it feels to me, and I wouldn't dare tell him. I want him to be happy. I expect that this will just be my life: a tumor on the neck of an otherwise-perfect male specimen, which people ignore so as not to ruin the illusion of excellency.

What's worse is when someone does acknowledge me. This brings me to grievance number two. Four years ago, I discovered that I identify as female, and in doing so, changed my name from Bael to Belle, in order to keep the ridiculous play-on-words donned on us by our creators, who only seemed to find this fascinating on a social-experiment level. This went over more smoothly with Raphon than I had actually expected, and he has worked wonders to accommodate a lot of my lifestyle changes. He's a good brother, after all. However, it comes out a lot, when his ladies-of-the-evening start talking about their experiences, they often use me, jokingly or not, as an excuse for having 'a threesome' or 'a lesbian experience,' despite not even having the wherewithal to look me in the eyes during their uneventful copulation. This leaves me with a lot of odd looks, following his antics.

I guess it's fine. I'm usually buried in a book, or listening to a podcast or novel-on-tape, so I am good at avoiding the awkward glances.

My last grievance comes from our legal guardians: The scientists who created us. While most of the scientific staff in our home treat us like experiments and try not to get too close, a few individuals have taken it upon themselves to raise us over the last eighteen years, and have done an excellent job. They have even created a section of the lab that is fully-furnished, homey, and comfortable for us. They care about our well-being far more than anyone might for a test subject, which is why it's always so embarrassing when I have to stand and listen to a lecture about bringing strays home to fuck. They wouldn't dare stop Raphon, if only because his sex drive provides them with more data, however, the parental side of those that are closest to us feel it necessary to remind him that he should be more careful. I sometimes wonder if the parents of his tramps find out about his defloration of their 'little girls' and complain to the lab staff.

"Oh hey, you're awake."

I had been awake for nearly an hour, actually, and was silently staring at the ceiling, trying not to look at the naked cheerleader that was laying atop our much-larger form, nestled into the thick lion's mane. She was a tiny, pretty thing, not as much a bimbo as so many of the other booty calls I was used to dealing with. My brother had worked hard to get a smart cookie like her into bed, which was quite unlike him. I had barely heard the voice beckoning me through the sounds of the fantasy novel playing through my earbuds, and assumed it had been Raphon. It had taken a moment to realize that the stirring against our chest had been the source of the sound, and I craned my neck to find a pair of green eyes and a tan-and-white, doe face peering up at me.

I can't honestly recall the last time one of our 'guests' had actually tried acknowledging me, without it having been me that started the conversation. With this history in mind, I ended up just staring at her, skeptically. Her left brow tilted up as if confused by my silence, and she began to wiggle up the front of our body, resting her head just under my chin. I could feel her soft, supple form against our muscular body and I suddenly found our heart beating rapidly in response.

"You don't like me, do you?" she muttered, "It's okay. I understand."

"I don't dislike you..." I moved my arm, with some effort, removing the earbud from my right ear so that I could more actively participate in the conversation.

"Okay well, you probably think that just because your brother wooed me here, that I don't care about you, and I don't want that." I felt her head nestle deeper into the mane beneath my chin and I found myself at a loss for words. This had... never happened before. Nobody wanted to talk to the weird extra head on my brother's shoulders.

"Faye, was it?" She let out a soft hum that might have passed for 'mhm,' so I continued, "I don't hate you. I guess I don't know what to say. I've been down this road a few dozen times now. Raph brings home a girl from school, they go on a date or two, and then I get to spend an evening with whiplash after they bump uglies." She became silent, I wondered what was going through her head.

"I must admit this is the first time I've been involved in pillow talk." I added

"Yeah, your brother thinks with his dick a lot, but you're boys, that's pretty normal. It's okay though, he talks about you a lot when you've got those headphones in. I can tell you guys are close. I think that's why I started talking to him more, he's a really friendly, caring guy. I imagine you're a lot like that too."

I grunted, "I'm not a boy..."

"Right! Sorry! He told me, you're a girl." She offered sincerely, disregarding my annoyed tone.

It wasn't that I didn't appreciate her effort. Truthfully I wasn't even sure how to feel. I wasn't used to this sort of attention. Someone wanted to get to know me? Why? I spent my time ignoring people and trying to remain unseen, my attentions buried in books and my phone. "I'm not like him. I don't really like people."

"Why?"

"I have my reasons. One of those reasons is I am an accessory." I snapped back rather quickly, and almost felt bad for the biting tone I presented. I could tell by the following silence that she felt offended or hurt, but I only registered my disrespect or her feelings in the back of my mind. Looking back, I know I was being hot-headed and standoffish, but I was far more interested in my novel than some bimbo who thought that the spare head on Raphon's shoulders might be an interesting toy.

"Look, you don't have to schmooze me just to stay with my brother. I'm sure you'll do fine without needing to pretend to be my friend. You've got tits, he'll stick around as long as you keep flaunting them." Even in my irate state, I knew I had said something unfair, if not deplorable.

There was a rustling below, and she sat up, straddling our chest and looking, with a hurt expression, down at me. I observed the body which, some hours ago, had been bouncing atop us in a mad fit of heat, and blushed slightly. She wasn't thin: That just wasn't my brother's type. She was strong, though had an ample filling of fat deposits to give her a curvy, feminine frame and two rotund breasts, youthful and taut on her chest, with just enough sag to create an appealing, natural shape. I had noted all of these fantastical features the previous night, but right now I was fixated on those sad, pleading eyes.

"That was really rude..." She huffed, appearing to be holding back her rage as best she could. I felt her hands clutching tightly to our mane, tangling themselves in the thick fur

"I don't care." I sneered back. I did, actually, but only because I felt bad, not because I wanted her to stay.

"You know... maybe the reason you feel like no one wants to get to know you is because you push them away before they can?" her voice was bitter, and I knew that this was going to get worse before it got better, which surprised me almost as much as her attempts to bond with me. I instantly knew I had made a mistake.

She stood, immediately rushing to her clothing and dressing as fast as she could, making no small amount of noise in the process. Next to me, Raphon was beginning to awaken, and he called out, "Faye? What's going on? Are you..." but he was cut off by the slamming door. He turned his head to look at me, and I simply stared at the ceiling, pretending not to care.

"What happened?" He sounded concerned, which struck me as odd, given the nature of his relationships.

I used my hand to brush my pink bangs from my eyes, "I dunno. I think it was your snoring," I presented my answer flatly, with enough disregard to indicate that I was lying out of our collective ass. He rolled his eyes, though I couldn't see it. I just knew, and it made me almost want to smirk. What didn't was the sensation of a paw already gripping the thickness of our shared morning wood, and my face faulted to annoyance.

"You literally just woke up and got dumped, can't you pee and have breakfast before you start thinking about sex?" I don't know why I always felt the need to argue against his hormonal behavior. I enjoyed the act almost as much as he did, and yet I consistently felt annoyance at his incessant need to present himself with more attention.

"Well you scared off my morning romp, so yeah." I felt his fingers tighten and begin their expert pull toward the tip, and sighed. There wasn't going to be any stopping him. I felt his hand slide along our dry shaft, completing all fourteen inches from base to tip, then returning back to where it began. He was teasing on purpose, because he knew that annoyed me more than anything. I could feel our lungs working harder, and I knew that it was because my breathing had picked up pace in response to the phantom, though not at all mysterious, hand I felt on my now-rock-hard cock. In its turgid state, I could feel the irregular, segmented shape of our unique stem bump the leathery pads of his paw.

I bit my lip and closed my eyes, steadying my breathing with one swift inhale. I wasn't going to let him get to me. I felt my own paw move of its own accord, absentmindedly sliding over our toned torso and down between our legs, pushing aside the thick, swollen balls that were now taut with our excruciating arousal. Was I controlling that hand? Was he? I didn't even know, but I didn't seem to possess the necessary will to stop it. I felt the thick digits of my index and ring fingers as they slid firmly over the perineal skin deep between our muscular thighs. I closed my eyes tighter, enjoying the probing sensation provided to such a sensitive region of our person.

I was lost in all the hot-and-bothered agitation for a minute; maybe two, but ultimately awoke from my stupor and realized that I had dozed off slightly in the hypnotic bliss of being tended to by another entity. The new sensation that had enlivened me out of the dreamy state was the pressure of our butt tightly enveloping something that hadn't been there just moments before.

"Oh for the... We don't have time for this nonsense, we have to be at school in an ho-" My protests were quickly molded into a high-pitch squeak, followed by a hiss of air between bared teeth as I felt the very hand I normally controlled press the thick, lubricated, silicon figure just the first two inches into our shared back door. I instantly clenched our ass tighter, despite having no actual control over it, gasping from the pain I knew he could feel as well. Why had I clenched!? I breathed in and out in swift succession and tried to loosen our back door as best I could. We did this sort of thing all of the time, honestly, but no matter how often we did, the initial penetration of our experienced hole still required no small amount of preparation.

Once I had accustomed to the first two inches of the tapered length I, of my own conscious doing, retracted the lubricated, rubbery device from within, feeling the cavern pucker tightly as it was cleared. He laughed smugly, "So, you're going to let me have some fun then?"

I sneered and shoved the fucking dildo right into our collective ass, past the tapered tip and right to the thickest section of the shaft. God, but it hurt! I felt like crying, but some part of me still found enough joy in hearing his arrogant banter twist into an unholy whine of regret as he bit onto his own lip to avoid yelling out. I could see the angry glare he was sending me out of the corner of my eye, and it brought me just enough joy to ignore how our ass burned and stretched.

"I h-hope that fucking hurt." he managed to gasp out, our legs twitching below to try and position ourselves more comfortably.

"You know it did." I spat, though the tone was more from the painful stretch of my sphincter around that big blue toy. "Now hurry up, before we wake Pip." Pip is the... entity that is our tail, and is little more than a hognose snake, with no functional sentience. If they weren't attached to our spine, I'd consider them more of a pet than anything else. Regardless, the dull-eyed expression of a pet snake watching you collectively masturbate is a bit of a mood killer. Thankfully, he often falls asleep for any and all sexual endeavors.

The next few minutes were exhilarating, as our solo exploits often were, and consisted of myself probing our ass in swift, but balanced strikes of the thick silicon phallus, pounding against our shared innards and stimulating our prostate expertly. The hand I could only feel but not control, was stroking our thick, meaty shaft with an expertise of our own body that only we, ourselves knew, thumbing the bulbous head with each forward pass and grinding the underside with the base of his knuckles.

It wasn't going to be a long session so I tried hard to focus on anything I could envision to push the process along. I passed the visions of Raphon's past exploits through my mind, biting into my lip as I pictured each one of our previous encounters, picturing them, as I had seen them before, impaled on the bulk of our immense pole in positions that varied from partner to partner, stretched and gasping from the sensation of being filled so fully. I tried not to think about how the act was done, and instead just pictured the different bodies of each guest: Some were lithe; others round, our most recent encounter had been especially curvy, and I locked onto an image of her above-average breasts dangling just millimeters from my face, her hard, pierced nipples just grazing my snout as they swayed past from each bounce atop our body. I could remember every swollen curve of her voluptuous form, and feel the thick padding of her full, almost globular ass squeezed beneath our paws.

That was all it took. I felt our guts tighten and convulse, and our heart miss an entire beat as we came. Beside me, Raphon gasped, having been holding his breath as he pumped our throbbing dick furiously to completion. In that left paw, our mast jerked of its own accord before sending a spray of warm seed up along our front, coating our belly fur, mane, and my own face. I clenched my face tight, closing my mouth and eyes as I felt the gooey shot mark a trail over the left side.

"You asshole! You did that on purpose!" He exhaled in a heavy laugh in response. I reached up with a filthy, lube-spattered paw, feeling our abused orifice dispel the slippery toy in the process, and slapped him across the face, smearing the goo across his cheeks, quickly ending the laughter. He was silent for a few seconds as he processed my revenge in his tiny brain.

"Well played, Belle." I didn't have time to feel proud of my vengeance; we were in desperate need of a shower and were already going to be late for class.

Chapter 1-B Raphon

I never understood why Belle was so obsessed with punctuality in school. The first half hour was homeroom, at which time she'd veg out and listen to her most recently-downloaded book on tape while I flirted with Tammy Chun in the desk beside ours. On top of this, we were seniors, and with her academic record, we were so far ahead of our class that we didn't really need the credits anymore. Some days I could talk her into skipping out, so long as I took her to the local museum, or shopping for a large portion of the day, but as we neared graduation, she had become more and more inflexible regarding our attendance.

We managed to blow through a shower, which was disappointing because I honestly just wanted to relax under the hot water for a bit. The game against Leska High two days ago had left our body pretty sore, and I was only now beginning to feel better. Our adventure with Faye, the previous night hadn't done much to help, really. 'Damn' I thought to myself. I was still disappointed that Belle had blown my chances with her. She was just about the hottest girl I had ever brought home, and definitely one of the smartest. She owed me after that one.

As we finished slipping into an overly-large, red, button-up shirt which we left unbuttoned enough to allow our necks a fair amount of mobility, I looked at her via the mirror in front of us. "You know, I really thought you and Faye would hit it off. If you'd spent some time with your headphones off, you might've heard how much she wanted to talk to you." There was a visible hint of shame on her face as her eyes cast to the floor and her lip tightened, and I realized that whatever had transpired between the two must have been something Belle regretted, so I changed my tone from critical to understanding.

"Hey, it's okay. Don't sweat it." I offered a smile in the mirror, "How about after we finish classes today, we go check out Gamestation?" Belle was not good with people, but she had a good heart, and she was still my sister.

She half-smiled. "I'm sorry I blew it. She was actually really nice. I said some stupid things."

I simply shrugged in response, "It's fine, really. How many times have I said stupid things to a girl?"

She grinned now, her face practically devoid of regret and completely replaced by mischievousness. "You mean there's been a point where you didn't?" We both felt a telltale jerking around our lower back, just in time for a slender, hog-nosed face to rise up from behind us, its glassy, baby eyes sitting stagnant in its head.

I huffed, "Pip, good morning. You slept through an entire night, half the morning, and even a shower. You truly lead an exciting life." The serpent peered up at me curiously, though without any sort of other reaction. It has always been strange having a third creature attached to our body, especially when it had the intellectual acuity of something you might find under a rock.

Belle used our right hand to gently scratch Pip's chin, to which he curled against her, coiling around her wrist slightly, "Hey he's got it rough! He's bound to our backside. Have you smelled your farts?"

"Why is it my farts? We have the same ass."

She stuck out her tongue, "Because you're the one who eats chili cheese dogs."

I had begun walking from our room and out into the quaint hardwood hallway just outside. On all sides, there were pictures of us as children and the scientists who had created us, as well as others that had assisted in raising us. It was a nice home, even though the door to my immediate right led to a large, heavily-staffed research and development facility. There was no privacy, in our life, and some of the lab staff were probably watching us at this very moment, while others had most-likely been tuning in to our wanking session just a brief time before. It was a weird way to live, but when you exist attached to another person, you stop feeling as embarrassed when someone sees your dangle.

Pip slithered up our back, resting his head between our necks and growing dormant for now, as he often did when we cut through the lab. It got a bit chilly, and he would often keep close for our body heat. Exiting into the stark-white, sterile hallway, we were greeted, almost immediately, by one of the lab technicians, a middle aged woman named Dr. Peregrine. She was a black vulpine who was just tall enough to reach our shoulders, with the occasional gray sprouting from place to place to indicate a combination of age and fatigue. I imagine we had given her a substantial portion of those throughout our childhood. She was the closest thing we had to a parent.

"Good morning, kids." She chided kindly, to which we both smiled. I think Pip would've smiled too, if he had the capability.

"You know we're eighteen now right?" I offered.

"You've been doing things you're supposed to be eighteen for since you were fifteen, despite our best efforts." she muttered with only the faintest hint of annoyance.

I grinned, and I could tell that Belle was probably embarrassed, "Look, I still don't know how he got those magazines or the pot. I don't even remember him using the pot." Belle offered defensively.

"That's how pot works, Belle." I grinned.

"Nevertheless, you're still my kids, to me, and will probably always be. Now I trust you're off to school?"

I nodded quietly. "Yeah we had a late start this morning," I could almost feel the collective eye-roll between Dr. Peregrine and Belle, "Okay fine, but Belle owed me, she scared off a really cute girl. We really connected,"

"He means she had really big jugs." Muttered Belle.

"She did. They were like cantaloupes." I grinned, not even denying the obvious jab at my integrity.

Dr. Peregrine scribbled a few things down on the clipboard in front of her, and began giving us the usual treatment of checking our pulse, temperature, eyes, ears and mouth: all in a very uncomfortable twenty second period. "Oh, we all saw her, she nearly bowled over Doctor Cringle on her way out."

I couldn't resist casting Belle a smile, and she seemed to have the precognition to know exactly what I was about to ask, "Did you..."

"No, we didn't tell him she was a Christmas Present." Dr. Peregrine interrupted without looking up. She knocked him down pretty hard in her hurry." I felt a little bad, now. Not so much for Dr. Cringle: he was a cranky old man. There was a new bubble of guilt that had formed now, as I learned just how upset Faye had been. Belle looked about as guilt-ridden as I felt. Doctor Peregrine had probably sensed that there was a bit of awkward regret about the whole scenario, probably based on the sudden silence that befell the room, and looked up from her notes.

"Dr. Cringle was hit pretty hard. Saw visions of sugarplums for like five minutes." All of us laughed at that, feeling moderately better.

Soon the morning niceties were dealt with, and we were on our way to school. Class started in ten minutes, so we were already going to arrive fifteen minutes late. This gave me time to talk to Belle. "You know... even if you don't want to date her anymore, you really need to apologize to Faye."

She had put on one of her novels, but had only placed the earbud in the ear opposite myself, so she heard me speak to her and instantly grumbled, "I know. I don't even know why I was such a bitch. She was trying really hard to be nice."

I rolled my eyes at her, looking ahead at the sidewalk that stretched out before us. It was a simple, semi-commercial area lined on either side with warehouses, business offices and the occasional apartment complex. The morning was a bit cold and dewy, and I could feel pip nestle deeper into our mane, having long-since climbed up our shirt. Winter was beginning to reach it's conclusion, but it still struck with what remained of its icy bite in the early mornings. "Look, I know you don't like hanging out with the guys after school, and I know that you care for my girlfriends even less, but maybe if you tried to talk to someone on your own, you'd find yourself opening up to..."

"I don't feel any need to make friends with the immature rabble at that school." She cut me off. She didn't sound as biting as she normally would during such a response, and I considered it possible that this time, she might actually be warming to the idea.

I pointed out another thought. "You know... I don't want us to be a solo act forever. I want to meet someone and be happy with them."

"Well maybe I'm not..." she muttered in reply.

"Regardless, one day I'm going to find someone who loves me, and I want to know that my sister will treat them with respect and kindness..." I knew it was unfair to expect her to be in a relationship for my sake, but it was just as unfair for her to want me to be alone for our entire lives just because she wanted to be. She huffed in response and simply popped in her other earbud, ignoring me.

I continued to gaze at her from time to time, out of the corner of my eye. Maybe she didn't need someone romantically in her life: not everyone did. Still, I knew she needed to make a friend. She'd shut the prospect of meeting new people out of her life for so long that it had become arduous just connecting her with new teachers. As the front sign for Grover High School began to appear in the distance, I leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She was still my sister, even if she was kind of a pain. I don't know if she smiled, but it didn't really matter.

Chapter 1-C

Clover

I had arrived at school with plenty of time to spare that morning, which was fine with me, as I would spend half an hour in my homeroom, before it even began, playing games on my phone. It wasn't that I was a particularly scholarly person, or some kind of teacher's pet, I just preferred school over home, most days. It had always been that way, but more so over the last year. I reported to my desk quietly, waving to Mr. Dieter as I entered. He was kind enough to let me stay in the room until homeroom began, most days, so long as I didn't interrupt his work. It was better than being in the crowded cafeteria with the bulk of the student body, packed in like bulls in a pen, waiting to be released into the open field.

I relaxed in my seat and plugged my phone into the wall, flipping on Pastry Panic and attempting to beat the next in a stretch of stages I had just unlocked the previous night. It was nice to have the room mostly to myself, save for Mr. Dieter in the corner, grading papers, and I reveled in the opportunity to be in silence and left to my own devices. I hadn't always been so standoffish with people. The year before, I had actually been in a lot of circles, and was even involved in a lot of social events. Over the Summer, a lot of things in my life had changed, and I had found that, once these alterations had occurred, a lot of the people I knew before no longer found interest in me. The first day back, which I had once associated with the excitement of seeing companions and reconnecting over stories of the past months' exploits had become a dismal realization that the people you call 'friends' at this stage of your life were more-often-than-not, only accepting of you when you met their set social standards.

After a few weeks of disappointment, I learned that it didn't actually matter. I found that I had gained the time needed to improve in school since cutting out unnecessary things like social status, and had even found time to enjoy some of my own nerdy joys that I had suppressed in order to appeal. I still had a few people I talked to on occasion, but I wouldn't consider any of them 'friends.' I didn't extend that word to people any more.

One such person was an avian girl, who's parentage was so varied that she appeared to be some fantastical mixture of several breeds of parrots and macaws. Her named was Julie, and while I still regarded her at arm's length most of the time for my own emotional safety, she was the closest thing I considered to a friend. We had been friends for years, starting in elementary school where we both bonded over being hybrids. Hybrid genes aren't particularly rare, per-say, but it was more common that a child picked a specific parent's genes than for the child to be born a mixture of two species. I think I read once that the chance of a baby being born with mixed species was ten percent, which had made me feel special... until last year.

Until last year, I had just been a border collie with a spotty, cow print that others seemed to find cute, big clomping hooves, and two horns that topped my head in a perfectly adorable way. At least, that's how it had been described to me. It wasn't a bad mixture at all, and after seeing what can happen when a baby has two different species for parents, I felt fortunate for my design.

"Hi, Clover!" Julie smiled with that curved beak, an expression that took practice identifying and seemed to rely wholly on the eyes. I hadn't even noticed her approach. I smiled back and set my phone down for a moment.

"Morning, Julie."

She looked to-and-fro before leaning close, "Hey... did you hear about Wendy Rosemeyer?"

I looked confused, and wracked my brain for the identity of the person in question, "Isn't she the Junior cheerleader with the 'butt that could end worlds'?" If she was the bongo-girl I was thinking of, she had a rather impressive ass, to say the least, and I recall seeing her in the cheer-leading uniform with her horizontal bongo stripes practically outlining the shape of it. I was a little jealous.

"That's her. She broke her leg!" I'm sure I was more than a little surprised.

"That's terrible? How?"

"Tripped over a chair." I couldn't help but laugh at the response, but quickly quieted myself as I received an annoyed look from Mr. Dieter. Julie continued, "So... they say there's going to be a special tryout for squad soon."

I shook my head, "I didn't apply this year because... you know..." Julie looked downward and nodded, in understanding, "Thanks for the head's-up though." Julie responded by giving me a big, unexpected hug, to which I awkwardly returned. She gave an embarrassed look, soon after and rushed off.

That was weird.

I leaned back in my seat, resting my head against the wall behind me, my tiny bovine horns clicking the painted cinder blocks lightly, and finished another stage. By the time the homeroom bell rang, I had successfully completed another ten stages. The game was becoming too simple, and I thought I might need to start raising the difficulty somewhat. I put away my phone as we were forced to watch the daily news channel that the school board forced students to attend each morning. It was the sort of ridiculously-juvenile news show they created to try and be 'hip' with the current generation, but didn't succeed in reporting much in the way of actual news. By the time it was over, I had nearly fallen asleep in my seat from a combination of exhaustion and boredom.

The bell for first period rang, and I rushed to my locker, thanking Mr. Dieter once more for the place to hide before leaving the room. I quickly unlatched the padlock on my locker and tossed open the door. Inside, atop the books I needed for the next few classes, sat an envelope which must have been passed through the grating. Who would have left me a note? I lifted it from my locker, looking both ways down the hall in curiosity, as though maybe I'd see the individual who left it if I searched hard enough. Ridiculous, as the halls were amassed with shuffling students, each struggling through the crowd to reach their classes.

I hooked a claw into the envelope's sealed edge, and slid it down, cutting through the paper before giving up being ginger with it, and simply ripping the top with a hooked fingertip. The letter inside was labeled: 'From the Grover High School Cheer Committee.' I was instantly surprised and began reading with an odd, mounting excitement.

'From the Grover High School Cheer Committee,

Thank you for your interest in the squad, your letter and credentials have been received, and we are happy to inform you that a spot has opened for the junior year squad.'

I stopped reading, my heart skipping a beat as I felt the joy hit me like a ton of bricks. This was my chance! I had always told myself that I didn't need the social scene. I had ensured myself that I was better off focusing on school and ignoring the triviality of status. Here I was though, filled with anxiety and delight over a position I had applied to my sophomore year. It's truly amazing how quickly we all fall back into our old habits. I continued reading.

'We will be hosting a private tryout for you and several other potential applicants during fourth period. Enclosed is a note, allowing you to leave class to attend this event. Bring your spirit and good luck!'

I would have jumped for joy if I weren't surrounded by nearby students. I had been trying to join the squad since my freshman year, and hadn't made it to tryouts last year. This was great! My mother would be so proud of me! As I took off toward first period, I had a nagging thought in my head: Would they let me join with my... imperfections? They had to, right? They certainly wouldn't have sent the note if they didn't know what I looked like.