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With plates piled high with synthmeat and some mashed potatoes that seemed to be concealing some veggies we headed into the heart of any school: the cafeteria. It wasn't anything fancy, just a long hall with a windowed wall and rows of composite foam bead seating filling the floor, with a stage of some sort occupying the far end. We headed to the back and took the last three seats, one large for and one small for myself with a medium sized one in the middle. Without any sort of visual clue the girls took up the first half of the same table and left the other half for the boys to fill in afterwards. The Rats took one of the smaller round tables off to the side, leaving another round table empty.

I deliberately let the Wolf get a head start eating for all of thirty seconds. Concentrating on my food helped to get most of it in my muzzle without too much mess, but my shirt still needed a more than a few licks of mustard and mashed potato.

"This is really good. They have a Human chef?"

"Well not a lot of Kin in the food" omf " service industry. Otherwise they're IN the food service industry" Fang said in between bites.

I lost a pea out of my nose laughing at the stupid joke.

"But if you mean instead of Robots? Yeah. They had a whole crew back there. They say it makes the difference but I can't tell" Fang Gestured back to the servery with a fork, sending a bit of meat flying onto the snout of the Fox sitting to his left. He gave the Wolf a wry look and slurped his tongue out "You lose it you lose it"

Fang leaned back so both foxes could see each other. "Staccata Vulpes, Ronan Vulpes. Are you two..."

"NO" we said in unison. Fang almost went off the back of the seat laughing. We both thwaped him with our tails at the same time

"I know I know. Plantigrade, digitigrade. Me and the Fox are probably more closely related than you two."

"We met in Gym class. Kinda. Sweet moves by the way." he complimented me "If you get those to work you'll be unstoppable."

" Thanks, that bit with the Mouse was hilarious. I hope someone got a Video"

"They have video of everything. Everywhere. All the time. Don't let the posted surveillance levels fool you" a ruddy skinned Human of circumpolar descent took the seat in between myself and Fang, despite having to sit pretty much in the Wolfs armpit to do so.

The white canine looked down "Erm.. Hi" the human stuck out a hand " I'm Amarok. Guess we both are. So what are you in for?"

I opened my mouth out of habit and He cut me off. "Not you. Everyone knows what you're in for. " I flattened my ears. "The use of force in a system that demands a monopoly on violence" After parsing that for a second I thought he was on my side...

Fang rolled his eyes. " I MAY have overspent a little trying to get someone's affections and went a bit beyond my means. But you should have seen him! Tall, lithe, had the heart of a poet and the soul of a warrior. And... wow buying the hovercart seems REALLY silly now that I'm thinking with only one head."

"And he's in for illegal radio broadcasts." Staccata pointed at the human.

"They censor the web. How else was I supposed to get the Truth out there?" I had to duck as Amoraks rant was accompanied by an eye endangering gesture with his fork.

"Not interfering with an observatory would have been a start..." the Fox retorted. "And I may or may not have represented a client who may or may not have blurred the line between lawyer and accomplice. Allegedly"

"You're a lawyer? Ugh. And I thought what I did was unpopular" we all laughed. Staccata the hardest.

"Well I figure if you're a Fox they assume you're lying , you may as well get paid for it. "

I grumbled a bit at the truth of that and looked down the table. Andy was at the far end near the girls talking and laughing with the Bear.

"Kid, if you're holding out for universal popularity you're going to be disappointed. Unless you're that guy." Staccata pointed at a human pushing a desert cart. All three of my companions fished around their pockets for a wooden token. After a second Fang took out an extra one and handed it to me.

"Pay me back later. " and looked at Staccata "No interest though"

The creamalier opened the cart with a hiss of cold air. I snagged the strawberry ice cream on a and eight licks later was munching on the cone while trying to keep the sweet and creamy taste . And giving my shirt eight licks too. Most of the table was in a similar state, and after the ice cream even some of the girls were dabbing at their shirts with napkins. The windows slowly dimmed and the front wall started showing a pony show while the back wall lit up with live action giant fighting robot league. Staccatas ears swiveled a bit to listen to the ponies instead of the heavy clang of metal on metal. When I snickered at him he turned his snout up " I've already seen this one"

Otack came in through the door that lead outside walking funny. It took me a moment to realize that he was, to his human eyes, creeping through the darkness.

"Hey Ronan, Could I talk to you outside?"

I ermed and got up to follow. I caught the scent of fox urine and immediately tucked my tail. Amok "accidentally" spilled some milk from his carton with his elbow to where I'd been sitting and wiped the milk and the.. other stuff up with a napkin.

The sunlight outside was blinding for a few seconds so I shut my eyes. I was NOT crying dammit. The security guard clumsily patted my head. "Your friends pretty clever. Sorry, that was my fault. Should have told you, you can go home and take care of..erm. things during story time. I'll get you first crack at the playground but you have to promise NO running after lunch okay... Ronan?" I was already trotting across the playground back to the dorms. That wasn't running right? Stupid baby girl parts couldn't even... okay I was definitely running now.

Kaash was waiting for me in the dorm with a mat and some supplies ready as I ran into the room, almost tripping over the mat. "Alright I need... some help."

Kaaash mmhmmmed. "And I need you to slow down so you can be helped."

I grumbled and sat on the floor with a huff. He stood there, swaying slightly, staring at me.

"What? I'm Not moving. Can't go slower than this unless you want to stop the planet."

"If only my task were that easy. Would you like to watch the show on the ceiling?" The snake offered as the giant robot fight started playing out on the ceiling.

"You COULD just ask me to lie down. You don't need to trick me" I turned around and lied down on my back. Stupid AI wa..oo wow the Dinosaur robot got a wicked uppercut on the humanoid robot and sent it flying into a building.

"It's weird that it looks fake. Like, how is all that stuff staying up in the air so long?"

"Paws up" the robonanny paid no attention to my input, instead handing me my teddy bear. I took it without thinking

"Hey! Who said you could know ab.. touch this" I hugged him close and pet his soft fur under my paws which.. I'd imagine kept my paws well out of the way as the snake lifted my legs way up in the air with two coils and slid my diaper off with another. When had he untaped them?

Wiping my.. diaper area got a murrr that I tried to hide with the teddy bear. But after that I just watched the video and felt my legs being moved about and tried not to think about what was happening. My rump was set back down on a soft and rather thick diaper very thoroughly powdered then brought up between my legs, pressed to me, and taped on. The snake wiped himself on a cloth and then curled around me, propping my head up on his coils like a surprisingly comfortable pillow. The tip of his tail teased my lips with the pacifier, and he praised me with a "good kit" when my instincts took over and I started suckling on it.

I settled into a light doze until the credits music came on with the robot dinosaur doing a victory dance on top of the ruins of the city, with a picture in picture showing the team working the controls.

"Alright, even the ice cream ought to be digested by now. Time to go burn some of it off."

I awwed as his head dipped under my shoulder blades and shooed me up.

"You don't want to lie down, now you don't want to stand up. Make up your mind" he teased.

"You want me to lie down, you want me to get up, YOU make up your mind" I quipped back and headed out the door. Then stopped, turned back to the room and tossed the snake my pacifier.

A game of kill the carrier had already broken out by the time I got o the playground. Brock was sprinting away with the ball under his arm when Madorik dove at his legs to knock him off balance. Fang fell on him and he tossed the ball up into the air.

"I got the Rock I can't beli..." a stampede of boys headed trampled him to the ground running my way towards the ball. I picked it up in my teeth and ran off with it. Even with the padding wriggling between my legs I sprinted over the lawn going left right left around and between legs, flicking my tail into Brocks knee as I dropped to my belly and slid between his feet. After that the boys got smarter and made a big circle to gather around me and closed it in slowly, all jumping on me at once.

"OMF.. alright I..giive." I wheezed letting the ball fall out of my hand.

Stacata helped me up. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

I grumbled at him.

"It's NOT because of your ahhh situation" he looked over where the girls were playing on a swing. "Not directly anyway. The differences are pretty small for Foxes. But you are still kinda young for"

"HEADS UP!"

Staccata turned just in time to catch the football in his stomach. Followed by catching the entire scrum in the face. We both wound up flat on the ground under a pile of would be ball carriers.

"Maybe I"M not old enough for this yet..." Staccata groaned

An hour or so later we were all grass and mud covered and reluctantly heading inside. "you run pretty good with balls in your mouth Vix, but I guess we all knew that" Madorik teased. The comment didn't hurt but the classes laughing at it did. "Awww.. baby foxy gonna cry because I hurt her feewings?"

I grrred, as angry at myself as I was at him because I WAS crying. Or at least tears were welling up in my eyes, and I wanted to hit him and I was scared of getting in trouble for hitting him and embarrassed and.. arrgh this stupid girl brain had too many feelings to come up with a good comeback. It was also too busy to watch where I was going, as I put my paw out to turn a doorknob and instead hit a brown furred knee.

Looking up, and up, and even further up was an enormous hawaiian shirt topped by a giant fuzzy head. Said head was looking down and smiling rumbling in a deep bass "Well hello there" that stopped the laughing and teasing dead without even trying.

He walked inside and traced on the lightboard "I am Mr. Kuma. My first name is Barry but I can't think of any reason why any of you children would need to know that. This is environmental science. I see many of you brought your own samples" people fidgeted a bit and tried to dust themselves off. "This is good thing. Do not worry. This lab is made to scoop up dirt after some experiments get messy.

"Now, some of you are thinking that dirt and rocks are boring. Some of you are thinking you already learned this and remember most of it." I fidgeted a bit at that one and tried not to tuck my tail. " A lot of what you you will learn in this class is how to remember and learn. Depending on how far you were regressed, the circumstances of your regression, the skill of your doctors... and whether or not you paid attention the first time this may be harder or easier for you." my ears swiveled in the direction of Brock gulping "There will be no showboating and no mocking your classmates". There was no "or else" in that rumble. It simply wouldn't happen.

"This is a test. The results are not important. Do not worry if you do not do well. Do not do worse hoping to get a better grade by improving more. You are only cheating yourself. We need to assess your brain and memory. Begin when you get the paper"

My test was two pages , which made sense when I saw how much room there was for me to write. Along with the test came a copper lead holder with some nice heft to it.

Rock extruded directly from the earth was Igneous. Rock that had been changed was metamorphic. ____

______ is the process by which water, ice, wind, or gravity moves fragments of rock and soil.

That's easy. It's. It's... arrghhh.... Why couldn't I remember this? Trying to think of the word was like trying to grab greased spaghetti with ice numbed fingers. My brain tried to push harder but there was nothing to fight against. My paws clenched into fist as my stupid stupid brain wouldn't....

Mr. Kuma slammed his hand down on my desk. "Answer!"

My tail frizzed out and trying to tuck I just thought about it, and shook my head. He quickly sat down with an grunt, although even in the buddah pose he still towered over me. "Sorry, the sudden distraction works sometimes. Others, not so much. Yes Maddorick, you may go to the bathroom" he said without turning around to see the students raised hand. "The information is PROBABLY still in your mind. It is disconnected. We will try to rebuild those bridges. And teach you to build them yourself. Just say the first thing that comes to your mind. "Wind"

"Farm"

"Water?

"Jet"

"Glacial?

"erratic

"Soil?

"EROSION " I shouted out at the top of my lungs, and immediately put my paws over my muzzle. He smiled and scribbled "lil help" next to my answer

"If you get upset at the question, you leave it blank and move on."

Easier said than done, but he saw me getting frustrated at a few questions and glared at me, I settled for covering it up and moving on .

After collecting the tests into a pile the teacher started his lecture. "Unless you live in a spaceship, the natural environment will be a part of your daily life..."

"How was Class?" Migel asked me coming around the corner. Upon seeing me he spun in place and turned around.

"Not knowing stuff you know is REALLY annoying. But getting the answers kinda like poping a zit" I paused "I just realized we don't need to worry about zits anymore..."

"huh? Oh yeah those might have been a problem for you. I was waaay past that."

"So uhm.." what are you in for sounded too cliche. "Why are you here?"

"Oh me? Just being a cheapskate. My family's about 100 years away from actually owning our dirigible if we avoid any unnecessary expenses, like a private rejuve facility. "

"You're a sky captain? COooooolll You get to fly one of those things... " I said making zooming motions with your hand

He chuckled "The computer does most of the flying. It's more like being a party planner and camp counselor than a fighter pilot. And if the dirigible is doing THAT someone has seriously messed up"

The last classroom was large and rather bright thanks to a transparent domed ceiling over a column of window to window bookshelves. The books were either real, or someone had gone overboard with that library scented air freshener. At a bench in front of the classroom sat a rather portly, light skinned human with steel gray hair, a cane and biogel frame on his leg. It was the closest thing to a regulation seat in the room. The rest of the seating were bean bag chairs. I picked a big one and flopped belly down on it.

The mischief of rats came over to me , with a very young one with no teeth or claws pointed at me and hissed something.

"Uhmm.. hi?"

"Eza lildim boss lemeehand" the little Mouse from Gym class dropped the slang to talk to me "My Bo..erm. Friend would like to sit the entire family together and you got the biggest cushion. Could we take that one?"

"Oh sure..." I stayed on all fours to take the one next to it with a groan. That last tackle had hurt more than I thought. They all looked to each other, and then to the little Rat who shrugged. And they filed onto the cushion chattering. I flicked my tail to send another pillow at them, but they declined to spread out.

"Eza bittacoalthatone butstupnice." the Mouse told her friend quietly, but not quietly enough to keep me from making it out. Still couldn't understand what they meant though.

"Bitahuman and still gotsteeth?" her little friend shook his head and rubbed his gums " Lawsoft onFoxes."

THAT I understood. The teacher stuck his head out the door to some stragglers before I could correct him.

"Hey guys, come on in. I'm Jack Ridley. School insists you call me Mister Ridley and that's one of the areas I'm not going to fight them on. Now, I'm sure a lot of your teachers are going to complain that as first timers you weren't taught enough. For history I'm going to be annoyed you were taught badly. They're getting a little better over the years but not much really "

He picked up a paper copy of the door stopper History of the Empire and read from the introduction

"Although the Empire has had it's problems it continues to advance towards equality. Each successive generation refines the complex web of social interaction that define us as a society..."

"I don't need to tell most those of you that wind up here one way or another that that's... sorry, not supposed to swear around the "children" so we'll call that horsefeathers.

"What I can do is show you WHY there's horsefeathers all over everything. We'll start with the Betelgeuse accords and the Fox known only as "Mange".

The front screen showed an angry, ragged looking Fox horrifically denuded of all but a few wisps of fur

"The traitor who turned on their own humans?" I didn't need to look over to see that the speaker was human. It was a bit of a surprise that it was Mulligan.

"That's one way of looking at it. What might be another?" The teacher prompted

"That if their boss wasn't committing war crimes they wouldn't have had to stop them" I shot back, tail bristling. My parents hadn't talked about the wars much but Mange was a hero to just about every Fox.

"Course a Fox would say that..."

The teacher let out a sharp whistle. "You're free to make a counter point but no ad homs."

Mulligan grumbled a bit "A soldiers job is to follow orders. Breaking the chain of command has all sorts of consequences, I mean, look what happened! The entire army broke down after that. Soldiers don't get to make those kind of policy decisions."

"Well why do generals and politicians get to?"

"And there we have the convergence of history and government. Who gets to decide these things? Are there great men in who's biographies we are all but footnotes? Or are they merely riding the tide of the masses below them? Did Mange cause the Kin Armistice to happen or was it inevitable? Baring time travel we'll never know. But let's look at the big picture. Corporations were using armies of Kin to claim as much of the newly terraformed planets as they could. Without the enduring bonds of nationalism...."

Class passed surprisingly quickly, and I was legitimately disappointed to shuffle out. But there was always class tomorrow.