FSE

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FELINE FOLLIES (HH)

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Heya, folks!

I'm very happy to be presenting this chapter for your reading enjoyment - and to declare the return of the series a success. The amount of comments and viewers was very pleasant indeed, and it does give me an extra boost of confidence and pleasure, certainly. I hope to keep writing, and sharing, and I shall look forward to your feedback, by all means.

Remember that all votes, faves and watches will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well!

Cheers!

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I was a bad student.

Not in general, but life as of recent had been strange and there was little time to concentrate on the things that I should have been doing. That was what had driven me to do what I was doing at the moment, reading up on Wikipedia on Gravity's Rainbow. I should have read it over the summer for the class on modern literature. I had read little, skimmed some more, and now the situation had escalated to the point that I was using the cafeteria's stupid slow wireless internet to try and figure out at least something I could say about it during Mrs. Balogh's literature workshop.

I tried to eat too. The stew kind of a thing didn't taste bad but it didn't really taste much like anything else either. The jumbo sized Sprite was still cold and nice, oozing water onto the cup and the tray. The tray was on the side and my laptop took up whatever space there was left on the small table. At least it wasn't the rush hour anymore. They really didn't like when you spread all your stuff around like that when everyone wanted a seat to grab their lunch.

It was more quiet now. Around this time there were students just hanging out on the tables, maybe having a nice chat with their buddies, or doing what I did, cramming up facts they'd only need for that one study group and then probably never, unless they wanted to impress someone with useless facts.

Probably not the best way to look at it, but it was all I could do at the moment. I shouldn't have been putting it all off, but the stuff as of late had been...a lot on me. What happened back home, the musical practice, that blow-off with Jessica and Mason...weird books weren't exactly on top of my mind. I didn't even know what Mrs. Balogh really wanted us to know about it, or to think about. Maybe she just wanted us to learn how to deal with material that was incredibly difficult to interpret. Or maybe it was just meant to be thought as such. Maybe managing to read the entire book was the actual test.

I scrolled down on the screen, took a forkful of food and drank some more fizzy soda. When I was doing that I caught a sight of Mason entering the cafeteria. He walked in with someone I knew, too, that guy from the store who had just started working there. I think his name was Paul. I'd only met him briefly once at the store when I went there to fetch Mason from work before we headed out to town. I knew he was a student at the university as well though Mason hadn't really said just what he was studying here.

I watched them go until Mason noticed me, and I lifted my paw. I smiled and he smiled back.

I waved a little.

They continued towards the service counter to get something to eat.

It was pointless to try to concentrate on the reading again, with Mason on my mind again, in my sights too, queuing behind a moose and before the tiger who also got something as well. It didn't take more than a couple of minutes anyway for them to come over, carrying coffee cups and goodies in their paws.

"Hej, Haakon!" Mason chirped in his funny and really American sounding Swedish accent.

"Hello," the tiger said.

"Tjenare," I said.

Mason smiled. The tiger looked really puzzled.

"Hi," I said again.

"Well I could guess what Mason was saying but I've no idea what you were saying," the tiger noted. "But you're a language student too, right?"

"I am, yes," I said. He was looking at me curiously. He wore glasses and had a backpack, and a tray of stuff in his paws. He put it down and extended his paw.

"Paul Lyndon," he said, "nice to meet you."

He was really polite, that much was sure.

"We met before," I said when I squeezed his paw, "though just quickly, at the bookstore. I think you were pretty busy then."

He smiled.

"Ah, yes," he said," shift change was ongoing and I don't think Mister Gliese would have liked me to spend too much time chit chatting."

Wow, Mister Gliese? The way how he talked about that Rory guy with his surname reminded me a bit of Doctor Faye of all people. Pretty funny to think about it like that.

"I've met him too," I said.

"Haakon knows everyone at work," Mason said. He sat down as well. He had coffee with him and it smelled really good. I started to want some.

"I drop by every now and then," I said, "sometimes to buy stuff, sometimes to just say hello."

"I better say hello whenever I see you, then," the tiger smiled.

"We were both working this morning," Mason said, "Marge and Crystal came in to work with Rory."

"I gave Mason a ride," the tiger said.

"It was really convenient!" Mason wagged.

It almost made me feel jealous, this tiger getting to do something nice for Mason. I also felt a bit envious over the fact that he had a car at his disposal. Getting one for myself would've been difficult.

"Sounds good," I said.

"I was coming here either way," the tiger noted, matter-of-factly. "Got the lab to do tonight. Nice to take a breather now."

He had tea on his tray, and some sort of a big sandwich that smelled almost as good as Mason's coffee. He slurped it through the little hole on the plastic lid on the takeaway cup.

"Paul's a pre-med!" Mason sounded excited. The tiger didn't look too excited.

"I'm not sure if I know what that is," I said, "I don't know all of the secrets of the American school system."

"Pre-med is when you're going to become a doctor!" Mason grinned.

I looked at the tiger again, to size him up a bit. He didn't look too much like a doctor, though maybe looks could be wrong, too. And if he really was going to become one, that meant he had to be really smart, and ready to study for a long time. It would be an impressive thing to do.

"So you study to become a doctor?" I asked from this Paul guy.

"Not yet," he shrugged, "I'm just taking a lot of scientific courses here in college, and then I have to apply for a medical school after a few years through this big examination. And if I get accepted, then I will be able to start in a medical school. Maybe here at Taylor. They have a very good academic program at the hospital."

"Sounds good, then," I said. I didn't really know what else to say. If his mind was set on becoming a doctor, then that was what he wanted to do. What was I going to say? I didn't know him. I'd just talked to him for a minute yet.

He stirred his tea with a little plastic spoon.

"It's a start," he said, "I don't know how it will turn out. I've only just started."

I thought he looked a bit young. Must've been just out of high school. Younger than us, definitely.

"Good luck to you," I said. I hoped it sounded friendly. I didn't know yet what to think about him.

"Thank you!" the tiger smiled before drinking his tea.

Mason drank from his own cup too. My own food started to feel inadequate. I continued eating it none the less. I still had to eat before the upcoming class. The wall of text on the computer screen called for me, but I couldn't put my mind to it with the double distraction now with me.

"What are you reading?" the tiger asked.

Was he being genuinely interested, or just friendly? Mason gave me a glance, but went back to eating his sandwich then. He knew what I was reading and he couldn't care less, I knew as much. I didn't blame him. He had picked a wholly different elective class for this autumn term and didn't have to suffer through what I did.

"Thomas Pynchon," I said. I snapped the laptop shut and it went into sleep mode on its own when I did that. I could as well give up the emergency cramming for now.

"I've heard the name," the tiger said, "but I don't believe I've read anything by him."

"Most haven't, I think," I said.

"Joys of studying English," Mason laughed. "We get to read all sorts of stuff most people have never heard of or would even think of reading."

"Must be like biochemistry then," Paul said. "Unless you're a biochemist?"

"It's still probably more useful than knowing your Joyce," Mason said.

I chuckled.

"Not Pynchon?" I asked.

Mason smiled.

"I didn't wanna make you feel bad, dude!" he grinned.

I felt he really meant it.

"Maybe I should know it too," Paul said. "I'm sure my mother and father would say that it cultivates character. It's the kind of thing they would say."

Sounded not like my parents who thought that doing all sorts of physical things was the way of...cultivating...character. I liked doing them, of course. Exercise made me feel great. With the muscles burning and blood rushing through me...it was good.

It was a shame that my copy of the book was in my bag and not on the table. If it had been there I might have made a gesture of handing it over to him.

"Well you work in a bookshop," I said instead, "you can use a staff discount, like Mason does."

"You could!" Mason grinned. He was wagging again.

Paul appeared more wary.

"Does it have a lot of pages and difficult words?" he asked. "All my books do."

His backpack looked like it had bricks in it.

"Definitely," Mason said. "They like to experiment with stuff."

The tiger let out a sound that was a bit like a chuckle but not quite. My throat wasn't capable of making that exact sound. My voice was too high for that.

"I'm supposed to be experimenting with tubes and Bunsen burners today," he said.

I didn't know what to think about him and the fact that Mason seemed to like him a lot.

*

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