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Chatter rolled through the large lecture hall, furred faces smiling and chuckling as they muttered to one another. At the head of the room a small ferret was scooting things around his desk, his whiskers twitching every few moments. The Professor wore a pair of tan slacks and a pullover sweater with a pair of small glasses precariously balanced on his nose.

Terry walked in with a bag strung over his shoulder, quietly observing the enormous room. As the coyote had grown up in a very poor area, his school had been extremely small. Classrooms felt extremely cramped, even with their very small class size of fifteen. Terry was one of very kids from his part of town that actually attended school, his mother was the sole reason that he had been able to attend school consistently. Many students had actually been picked up right in front of his school by gangs and were dragged off towards initiation. Terry wouldn't see those students for weeks until he either saw their names in the obituaries or with guns shoved down their pants.

Terry's mother had driven him to school every day to make sure that he had gotten in alright, and after the coyote met Jack, Terry's mother was more than happy to oblige by driving him to school as well. Terry blinked as he realized that he had drifted off, the ferret had stood up and was writing things on a small tablet which projected what he drew from a projector hanging from the roof.

The coyote quickly glanced around the room, his eyes rolling over different animal's faces as he looked for an empty chair until he found one... right next to Mary and her boyfriend, Chuck. "Shit..." Terry muttered to himself. He quickly looked around for any other open seats but then a voice from behind him interrupted his thoughts.

"Excuse me, are you going to take a seat young man?" Terry turned around to see the ferret looking at him inquisitively. The ferret glanced over Terry's clothes with slight disgust, "I'm sorry, but I think I should ask." The ferret's eyes flicked up to Terry's, "Are you in the right building?"

Embarrassment rushed through the coyote. That morning, instead of taking Ralph's offer of wearing his clothes Terry had decided to wear his own ratty clothing. "Y... yeah, I'm in the right building. I'm a student here."

The ferret sniffed briefly and Terry heard him mutter something, "They'll let anyone in these days..." The professor shoved his glasses up his nose, "Alright, take your seat mister...?"

Biting down his rage, Terry muttered. "Terry."

The Professor sniffed, "Ah, Terrrance. Yes, I've heard about you. You come from the slums, correct? On some prestigious scholarship along with that."

The little ferret was starting to get on Terry's nerves, "My name is Terry, not Terrance. And no, I don't come from the slums." By this point, the coyote was practically spitting out the words. "And yes, I did get a scholarship. I worked my butt off for it, and I wish you'd show me a minute amount of respect for that."

The murmurs throughout the room from the other students stopped as they waited for the professor to answer. The ferret took off his glasses and wiped them on his sweater before slipping them back on, he then cleared his throat and spoke clearly. "I don't give my respect to little shits like you. Personally, I think your scholarship should've gone to someone from a respectful family. Not a coyote who can't even afford to buy some respectable clothes for college."

No words escaped Terry's mouth, the coyote's eyes had widened and his ears were flicking back and forth in rage. The little ferret had a lot of guts for insulting him like that. A strong impulse to wrap his hands around the professor's neck ran through his mind, but he was able to resist it. "W... well... I'm sorry you think that sir."

Chuckles rang from the back, specifically from a certain bunny and her boyfriend. The ferret's lips started to curl up into a self-satisfied smile, "Yes... now why don't you go sit down. You've taken far too much of my class's time, Terrance."

Bile rose up in Terry's throat but he said nothing as he pivoted in place and walked mechanically towards the back with no emotion showing on his face. Too many times in his life had he needed to turn off his emotions, the coyote sank into the chair next to Mary as the professor introduced himself to the class as Professor Maro. As Terry attempted to listen to what the professor said Mary and her boyfriend were spending time sucking one another's muzzles.

Terry felt anger well up in his stomach but he knew that if he lashed out at anyone, he could easily be kicked out from the class. The coyote tried to pay attention but found that he was too sick of the professor already to listen and let his head sink into his elbows, a moment later Terry was lost in his dreams.

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"The winner of the scholarship is... Terry Derian." A cheer arose from the meager group of eighteen. The coyote was in tears as he walked up to the pitiful wooden stage that the principal stood on.

As Terry took the paper that signified his scholarship into his hands, he was speechless. Across the United States, he was the one to win the scholarship. The clapping in the small room continued for five minutes, each of his fellow schoolmates were crying. They were all happy for him, Terry the son of an alcoholic rage prone coyote. The loudest person in the crowd though was Jack, the fox had an enormous grin on his face as he stood on his little wooden crate of a chair.

Turning to the graying bear who had handed him his scholarship, Terry wiped away tears and smiled. "Thank you... so much..."

The principal smiled, "Don't thank me; I only gave you the certificate. You're the one who earned this award. Thank you for being such a brilliant kid, especially in this run down community of ours."

Cracking a smile, Terry turned to the crowd and held up the award as if it were a trophy. The crowd cheered once more, the award proof that their school wasn't complete trash. That there were intelligent people, even in bad circumstances.

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Ralph was silent as the english professor explained latin prefixes, his gaze was turned to the roof as he sank deep in thought. The wolf had tried his best to pay attention to the professor but he couldn't, his mind was stuck on Terry.

Having only met Terry a day prior, he knew that he shouldn't of been this fixated on the coyote. But something about him reminded Ralph of himself. Missing a piece that had been stolen from his puzzle.

"Yo... yo... yo!" Ralph snapped up as he realized that the zebra behind him was glaring at him.

"M... w... what?"

Giving him the evil eye, the zebra poked his hand at Ralph. "Are you here to learn or what?! I didn't come to college to start dealing with bonehead jocks again who can't do anything but think about big breasted bitches."

Feeling embarrassed as he realized that now everyone in the room was looking at them, Ralph scratched the back of his head. "S... sorry... I... I'll pay attention." The professor cleared his throat, clearly annoyed but continued on with his lecture anyways.

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Terry walked slowly towards his dorm room, his mind far behind him as he walked. Thoughts of his past wouldn't leave him, it was starting to get extremely annoying. The corridor that he walked in was dimly lit with the small lights hanging on the wall, it appeared that the college didn't turn on the main lights during the day as to save energy costs.

Walking down the hall, Terry neared his dorm room while relief started to lift the stress of the day from his shoulders. Coming down the hall was a colorfully dressed orca who seemed to be bopping his head to some unheard music with a bottle of beer in his head. Terry pulled his key card to his room out of his pocket and started to slide it down until the orce passing by him accidentally dropped the bottle to the tiled floor below allowing it to shatter.

Normally this wouldn't be any problem other than a simple irritation, but for Terry his whole body suddenly froze and his hackles rose. The orca looked down in surprise, "Oh... sorry man, looks like I got a littttle tipsy." He giggled unaware of Terry's expression of terror.

A scream rang through the hallway which echoed for what sounded like miles. The orca jumped back in horror as Terry fell to his knees and he clasped his hands to his body, "Nooooooooooooo!" His scream had complete and utter horror wrapped in it. "Leave me alone, leave me alone, get away from me!" Terry was screaming at nothing now, his eyes had glossed over as spittle flew through his lips.

Not knowing what was happening, the other residents of the dorms poked their heads out of their doors to see what the source of the noise was. The coyote seemed to be smacking at phantom ants now, "Get... don't... please... the blood..." Terry whimpered as tears rolled down his cheeks.

Suddenly from down the hall a shout rang through, "Get out of my way, right now!" Everyone parted to let a wolf through, Ralph ran right over the glass letting some of the sharp shards sink into his paw pads but he didn't notice as he kneeled down by Terry. "Terry... Terry, snap out of it!"

Terry froze as his blank eyes rolled over to Ralph and a surprised look appeared on his face, "J... Jack?" He muttered in confusion before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed into Ralph's arms.