Chapter 13: The Art of Science

Story by SF3P0X1 on SoFurry

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#13 of In Chaos


Shadow followed close behind Rhonda and Jayden, watching intently as Jayden pulled the note from her skirt. She seemed oblivious to his presence as she opened it and read the small, scathing reply he had left for her.

'No, but the first to open their mouth usually gets my foot in it.'

Shadow smirked as he read her reaction. She seemed appalled, and slightly afraid. Perhaps now she'll think twice about being so forward and confrontational.

The girls entered the Science classroom, and Shadow followed soon after. As he was surveying the classroom, looking for a possible seat, he noticed that the desks in this class were triple-seaters, set across the classroom in five rows of three. Shadow guessed that, like the last class, any materials needed for class work were in the desks, and because of the size of the desks, there wee bound to be enough materials for all three people sitting at the desk.

Shadow didn't know where he was going to sit, or what group he might be privy to, so he went to the teacher for said information.

"Miss..." he hesitated, reading her nameplate and stumbling over her name. "Mrs. Cilohaegoops? My name is Shadow and I'm new, so I don't know where to sit."

It was that feign of innocence again, the one that Shadow hated having to use. Still, it worked on the teacher. She pointed to the back row, pointing out the only spare seat in the class. "Usually, I allow the students to pick their own seats, so there's really no assigned seats here. But that seat over there looks to be open, and it seems it's the only open seat. You can sit there, Shadow."

Shadow nodded, turning away and walking to the back row. Unfortunately enough for him, the seat was in the middle desk of the middle row, in the middle seat, between Rhonda and Jayden. He groaned inwardly at his bad luck of being seated next to Jayden, but was comforted in the fact that Rhonda was next to him as well. Perhaps this class wouldn't be so bad.

The bell rang, and the class calmed down. Jayden spent a good amount of time glaring at him, no doubt for the reply in the note, while Rhonda was too shy to even look at Shadow. He noticed these things, as well as the fact that a lot of the class was looking at him oddly.

The teacher stood from her desk and walked to the front of the room, standing in the middle of the class. Shadow admired her from the distance that he was from her, taking in her species and form now, as he was half-distracted before and didn't. She was an older woman, bovine specie, and looked as if the years had taken their hold on her. Her face held a maturity seen only in mothers.

She was dressed in a modest single piece dress that came down to her ankles, with buttons all the way up the front, white and decorated with flowers. She wore a light blue shoal over that, draped across her shoulders.

She clapped her hands together and smiled at the class. "Class, I'm sure you're aware of the new student in your midst, Shadow." The class looked away from the teacher to stare at Shadow again.

She continued. "Don't be rude. I'm sure Shadow will be with us long enough that any other questions you might have will be answered." The class turned and looked back at the teacher.

Smiling, the teacher carried on. "I'd like to extend my gratitude to Shadow for letting us have him in class. That said, let's get this class underway. We have a project I'd like to at least get started, and an assembly to get to about twenty minutes before the end of class, so we don't have much time.

"So... take out your anatomy books and turn to page 126, with the heading Science is Art."

Jayden lifted the front of the desk and pulled out her anatomy book, as did Rhonda. Shadow saw that there was not a third book in the desk, so he would have to share with someone. He was tempted to ask Jayden and see what her reaction would be, but could see out of the corner of his eye that his retort had caught a nerve.

So instead, Shadow turned to Rhonda. He began to open his mouth to ask, but the girl seemed to be ahead of him. Still not looking at him, she opened the book to the correct page and scooted the open volume over a bit, so it was seated between them. Shadow could see that she was blushing about as hard as anyone could.

Shadow diverted his attention from the cute girl on his left to the page in the book. He read the short paragraph to himself.

Science is Art

‘The body of any being is a work of art, and no two beings are the same. Even if they are identical twins, there's always some difference in the way they are created. The following project will allow you to see the true art in the creation of a being.'

Shadow had a sense of foreboding. The feeling was telling him that this would be a very different science lesson from anything he had ever been a part of. He heard a commotion and, lifting his head from the book, watched as students rose from their desks and went to the front of the class, receiving the necessary tools for the completion of the project.

Jayden leaned over and whispered fiercely to both Shadow and Rhonda that she would go and get the supplies, so Shadow turned back to the book and began to read the instructions to the project.

Instructions :

1) Taking the measuring tape, pick out a friend or a group partner who's gender is different from your own. Measure that person from head to toe, around their waist, around their chest, around the crown of their skull, the size of their feet, and the length of their tail (if they have one). Record these measurements on your paper, as well as the person‘s name.

2) Ask your friend or group partner for a sample of their fur. If they have no fur, ask for a hair sample. Tape this to the paper using scotch tape.

3) Now, on your paper, draw your interpretation of what that person looks like. Be as detailed as you like, but try not to take more than ten minutes to draw it, and try to take up less than half of your paper. You still have one more thing to put on it.

4) Press your ear gently to that person's chest, and count their heartbeat. Get another person to help keep the correct time. Record this statistic on your paper.

‘This is not the end of the personal data, just the end of part one. Part two uses the Styrofoam cup, and part three will use another piece of paper.'

Shadow could not make sense of this particular project, nor could he make out why it was related to anatomy, besides the fact that they were recording stats about a person's measurements. He didn't think the project could get any more personal, but as the estimated time to finish part one was roughly thirty to forty-five minutes, he figured he'd wait until they got to part three to find out.

Jayden had set a piece of college-ruled notebook paper and a pencil in front of him, and had grabbed the tape measure as he was finishing reading the instructions. The teacher hadn't told the class to begin yet, so Jayden would wait until then to use the instrument.

Satisfied that the class had all the supplies they needed, the teacher clapped her hands together and smiled. "Before we begin, are there any questions?"

A male mouse near the front of the room raised his hand. "Yes, Carl?" she asked him.

"Mrs. C, what if your partner has no fur OR hair?" Carl asked.

The teacher nodded. "Good question. If your partner is a scaled being and has no hair, ask for a scale sample. If your partner is a skinned being or a shelled being, and has no hair, ask for a nail clipping."

Another hand shot up. It was a female this time, a turtle. "Yes, Amy?"

"Are clothes required for this project, or can we remove our clothing to achieve the most accurate measurements possible?" Shadow could hear the flirtiness in her voice.

The teacher pondered the question for a moment. "How about we take a vote... class, put your heads down on your desks and close your eyes."

Shadow put his head to the desk, closing his eyes. He wondered what the point of doing so was, but didn't question the order.

The voice of the teacher wafted over the class. "Raise your hand if you prefer clothes on."

Shadow raised his hand, and kept it in the air. The last thing he wanted was to have to strip in front of Rhonda. Or Jayden.

After a couple minutes of silence and chalk-on-chalkboard sounds, the teacher spoke again. "Okay, hands down. Now raise your hand if you prefer clothes off."

Shadow obviously kept his hand down on this, but felt the eagerness in Jayden's movements as she raised her hand high in the air. Apparently, she boldly shows what no one has shown before.

Another couple minutes pass, and the teacher speaks a final time. "Okay, hands down. You can look up again."

Shadow raised his head and let his eyes readjust to the light. He read the board and his heart plummeted.

**On: 13

Off: 16**

"Someone didn't vote, but it doesn't matter. Clothes off, class," the teacher said. She seemed to be smiling, but nobody seemed to want to shed their garments first.

Then it happened. Jayden rose from her seat and started to unbutton her shirt. She shed the garment from her body in an almost sensuous display, dropping it to the side of her desk. She turned and undid the clasp holding her skirt together, letting it drop to the floor. As she kicked it aside, she turned so that her back was to Shadow. Then she teasingly slid her panties down her legs, over her and off her body, placing it on top of the pile of clothing that now lay on the floor at her feet. She left her socks and shoes on.

Jayden gathered this pile of clothing and tucked it underneath he desk, then took her seat once more, shivering at the feel of the cold plastic on her now bared privates. By the time she had sat down, more than half the class had risen to take off their uniforms. In fact, the only ones refusing to partake in the stripping activity were Shadow, Rhonda, and Carl.

"Shadow, this is a group activity. If one must do so, all must do so," the teacher instructed, although she stayed fully clothed. "Rhonda, Carl, you too."

Shadow sighed, and stood. Rhonda mirrored him, and the two seemed almost synchronized as they stripped of their clothing, although Rhonda had one less piece of clothing to shed than Shadow did. Rhonda seemed to have forgotten this fact and blushed upon realizing it, but blushed even harder when Shadow took her panties from his pocket and placed them on her pile of clothing, smiling.

When the two were finished, they sat, trying not to look at each other. Jayden was doing all she could to try to get Shadow to look at her, and the rest of the class were staring at Shadow. He figured it was either his red stripes or his white chest fur that were drawing this attention.

Carl had stripped down as well, so now the entire class was naked, save for the teacher. Shadow shivered at the feel of the cold plastic on his bare quills. He was pretty sure that he would have no trouble keeping ‘things' under control, no matter how close he was to another pretty girl, no matter how naked she was.

"Anymore questions?" the teacher asked the class, and waited. When a minute passed and no hands raised, she smiled. "Okay, you may begin the project. When we have ten minutes left until the assembly, I will instruct you to stop the project, and you may put your clothing back on."

The teacher walked to her desk and sat down, and Shadow watched as activity began stirring in the classroom. Tape measures were being unraveled and students were standing, being measured and groped in all different sorts of places. Shadow swore he heard some laughing, and even what sounded like moaning in the class, and the teacher wasn't doing much but watching and smiling!

Shadow looked at his paper, re-reading the instructions.

1) Taking the measuring tape, pick out a friend or a group partner who's gender is different from your own. Measure that person from head to toe, around their waist, around their chest, around the crown of their skull, the size of their feet, and the length of their tail (if they have one). Record these measurements on your paper, as well as the person‘s name.

Shadow felt a poke in his side, and turned his head. Jayden was holding the tape measure out and smiling.

"Can I use you for my measurements, Shadow?" she asked, a flirty and slightly evil grin on her face. Shadow shrugged, standing.

Jayden then took the measuring tape and started to get all the measurements needed. First she held the tip of the measuring tape to the tip of his topmost quill, and dropped the bulk of the tape measure so that it fell to the floor. She stepped on it where it came to rest on the floor, and read the measurement to herself, writing it on her paper next to his name.

Next came the chest measurement. She had a little trouble with this, as she was at first unable to tell the difference between where his chest was and where his chest fur was, and didn't press the tape to his chest for an accurate measurement. Eventually she got it right, but only after she had to erase her measurement a couple times because it was wrong.

After the chest came the crown of his skull. The crown is the widest part of the head, where hat size is measured. She measured this part, having a little trouble finding the crown because of the odd shape of his quills. She wrote down the measurement, then knelt to get his foot measurement, and wrote this down as well.

Next was tail measurement. Jayden almost skipped this part, thinking that he had no tail, but Shadow showed her it was a tail and not just another quill. She took the short measurement, and wrote this on her paper as well.

Last but not least came the waist measurement. Jayden had kept this until last, for a chance to tease Shadow and perhaps get him back for his rude reply to her note. She stood in front of him and wrapped the tape around his waist, noting the measurement. Then she feigned like she wasn't sure about the measurement and wrapped the tape around again, this time lower, giving her a reason to rub her hand against his groin.

Shadow moaned involuntarily, but was able to exert extreme self-control and keep his member from reacting. A lesser being would have become, at the very least, only half-limp from Jayden's expert ministrations, but Shadow was able to hide it all, causing Jayden to become agitated.

She wrote the measurement on her paper huffily, handing the tape to Shadow and no longer looking Shadow in the eye. In fact, as Shadow turned to ask to use Rhonda as the test subject, he felt a pain as Jayden forcefully pulled a single quill from his body. Without asking.

"Why you..." Shadow had to control himself before he used profanity. No doubt the girl would lie and he'd find himself in trouble. He ignored the pain this time, but swore he'd get back at her for this. There was no reason for her to be so rude!

Ignoring Jayden, he turned back to Rhonda, to find her looking at him. Their eyes met and he blushed, which caused her to blush as well. He cleared his throat, but she spoke first.

"Um, Shadow, since we're, um, group partners, can I use you for, um, the measurements?" Rhonda seemed much shier now than she had been in math class, no doubt because now she was standing in front of him stark naked. Shadow swallowed hard, trying to get the lump out of his throat that he didn't remember having before. He nodded, and handed Rhonda the tape measure.

The measurements this time weren't as confident as they were before. Rhonda's nerves were taking their toll, causing her hands to shake as she clumsily tried to find Shadow's statistics. Her first shot at getting his chest measurement resulted in her losing her grip on the tape measure, causing it to snap back into the base. This action took some of Shadow's chest hair with it, and made Shadow wince at the unexpected pain.

Rhonda dropped the tape measure and covered her mouth with a gasp as she saw Shadow wince, but the tape measure landed on her foot and caused her to cry out in pain. Luckily, the only person that heard her cry out was Shadow, who instantly bent over to pick up the tape measure and massaged her foot where the object had struck it. Once her foot had been sufficiently massaged, he rose to face her again.

He smiled and handed the tape measure back, pulling out what few chest hairs were still stuck inside it. "You can use these for step two," he said.

She mouthed a thank you, unable to actually speak out of embarrassment. She took the tape measure again, and proceeded to try to measure the crown of his skull, which she had an easier time with than Jayden did. After she recorded this measurement, she bent over to measure his feet; or rather, his shoes.

She did the measurement as best she could, then searched his body for a tail as she rose. Finding one, she measured it, and added these two measurements to her paper. Finally, all that was left was the waist measurement. She placed the tape measure at his hips and wrapped it around, sliding it down to waist height when she realized she was too high up.

She measured this as carefully as she could, then recorded the statistic on her paper. When she was finally finished, she closed the tape measure and handed it back to Shadow, then sat down, expecting him to turn to and measure Jayden instead of herself.

See, Rhonda had a self-esteem issue. She was well aware of Jayden's efforts to woo Shadow so far, but was unaware of his answers and reactions. It happened every time whenever there was a new guy in school, or even whenever Rhonda liked someone. Jayden would throw herself at the guy and steal them away from her, and when they were hers, she would proceed to treat them like crap. Jayden always told Rhonda it was for her own good, that she was weeding out the bad guys and leaving her the good guys.

But so far, all the good guys had turned out to be bad guys. Not a single guy had "passed Jayden's test" as far as she could tell. What she didn't know is that whenever a guy broke up with Jayden, she would tell them that Rhonda was just as bad, if not worse than she was. This always deterred guys from asking Rhonda out. In this way, Jayden held a sense of control over Rhonda, and it made her feel good.

Speaking of Jayden, she was watching Rhonda stumble over herself and laughing on the inside. 'No way in hell the new guy would want someone like that,' she thought to herself, smirking. 'Guys like him want confident girls like me.'

Back to Shadow. Rhonda sat down, and Shadow immediately proceeded to bend over near her ear and ask her for her measurements. Her eyes widened (though Shadow didn't see it), and she turned her head sharply and looked at him. He smiled, and she blushed, then nodded, standing up again.

Had anyone been near her seat, they would have noticed the wet spot that Rhonda left as she stood. Something about this new hedgehog was turning her on immensely. She continued to blush as Shadow carefully wrapped the measuring tape around her chest, moaning lightly as his fingers brushed her aroused nipples, trying to find the right place to position the tape. He got the measurement and rolled back the tape, turning to his paper and writing down the stat, as well as her name.

Next came the height measurement, which Shadow did in roughly the same way that Jayden did. He read off the height and wrote it down, then rolled back the tape measure and checked his paper for the next stat to measure.

Next came the foot measurement. He knelt and measured her right foot, as the right foot is always a bit bigger than the left. Receiving this stat, he moved around behind her and measured her tail, then went back to his paper and wrote the two stats down.

The last measurement to get was the waist measurement. Rhonda was most nervous about this, hoping Shadow wouldn't notice her humidity issue down below, or at least wouldn't say anything about it. Shadow's hands brought the tape measure up to her hips as she had done with him, then slid the measure down to her waist level, seeing as his original was too high as well.

Rhonda began purring with the feel of Shadow's hands caressing her body. He went around behind her to make sure the tape didn't interfere with her tail, or vice versa, his hands keeping light contact with her body. The he read her measurement, then his hands slid around in front of her body to make sure the tape didn't snap any of her fur or tail into it when it went back into its base.

Rhonda took advantage of Shadow's position, and the fact that the rest of the class and the teacher were preoccupied with Amy's measurements, which were hindered slightly by her shell. Rhonda grabbed one of Shadow's hands, picked out his middle finger, and pressed the digit inside of her.

Shadow recognized the feel as the same way his member felt that night in the park. He was caught completely by surprise so he didn't react at first, but that was fine by Rhonda. She bucked once, twice, three times against his finger, then came hard. She was so turned on my Shadow's oblivious ministrations that she was already that far gone. As she came down and removed Shadow's finger from her body, she turned around and kissed him deeply, wrapping her arms around him.

For Shadow, this was his first real kiss. He didn't know what he was doing, but that didn't seem to affect Rhonda much. She pressed her tongue into his mouth, pressing it against his own, and he took the challenge and pressed back. They tongue wrestled for about a minute, then released, a light trail of saliva hanging between their mouths.

Shadow was in a daze, and Rhonda was embarrassed beyond all belief. What made it worse was that when they broke away, the class erupted into applause. Why applause? Because they knew what Jayden did to every guy that Rhonda ever liked, and were proud that Rhonda put the moves on Shadow, AND that Shadow resisted Jayden long enough for it to happen.

The applause snapped Shadow out of his trance, and he just looked at the floor, his face turning as red as it can get beneath a set of black quills. Rhonda, too, was embarrassed, and sat down in her seat, hiding her face in her arms. The teacher called for the class to quiet and announced that it would be best for everyone to put their clothing back on.

Shadow redressed, watching Rhonda carefully out of the corner of his eye. She seemed to be avoiding his eye, though, as she dressed. He did notice, however, that once her clothes were back on and she was seated in her spot again, her hand lingered on her lips, her eyes closed, as if relishing the moment.

Shadow finished his redressing and sat down. The finger that Rhonda had ridden had gotten some hair on it as it rubbed over her fur on exit, so he taped this hair to his paper and passed his paper up front like everyone else was doing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jayden sitting in her spot, a defeated look hanging on her face. She seemed genuinely upset at the actions of Rhonda and Shadow, and he felt this to be odd. 'Jayden is Rhonda's friend,' he thought to himself. 'I'sn't she supposed to be supportive of her?'

Once the rest of the class was dressed, the teacher called for the class to line up at the door and get ready to head for the gym. Jayden seemed more than eager to go to the front of the line, whereas Rhonda and Shadow both hung out at the back. The teacher shut off the light once everyone was lined up, and herded them all out the door.

Shadow and Rhonda were wordless until they got to the gym. The doors were designed as such that only a couple people could go through them at one time, so it meant a bit of waiting for a class of 29 students. While the teacher was preoccupied with getting everyone inside, Shadow tapped Rhonda on the shoulder to get her attention.

Rhonda turned at smiled, then blushed hard and looked at the floor. Shadow placed a gentle hand on her chin and lifted her head, looking her in the eyes.

"Would you... like to go out sometime?" he asked.

She smiled, nodded her head, then threw her arms around him, hugging him. When she let go, it was time for the couple to go into the gym, which they did, holding hands. Shadow had himself a new girlfriend.

The hedgehog was seated with his class on the set of bleachers directly across from Sonic's class. He was seated next to Rhonda, on the outside edge of the bleachers. Behind him sat Jayden, who was fuming. In front of him sat the turtle girl Amy, and next to her was Carl. The two seemed to be holding hands as well.

Sonic saw Shadow enter, but made no move to be noticed. He did, however, noticed the black hedgehog holding hands with some lioness that he didn't recognize.

'Did Shadow find a girlfriend already?' he asked himself, but didn't have the time to answer that before the Principal took center stage in the gym.