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Oscar Mercer bolted awake right before alarm clock gave off its incessant beeping.

The young arctic wolf took several calming, shuddering breaths as he buried his face into his paw. He swallowed, trying to push down the horrible lump in his throat. Of all things to have a dream of, he had to dream that.

Wiping his eyes aggressively, Oscar blindly tapped for the alarm clock on the nightstand next to him. The wolf exhaled as the beeping stopped and laid his head on the pillow. He stared blankly at the plain white ceiling for a full minute before he threw the blanket off and pushed himself off the bed. Oscar slowly padded across his room, completely in the nude, pushed through the curtains aside and looked out from the window.

The sky was still somewhat dark among the gaps between the numerous high rise buildings surrounding his apartment. However, cars were already zooming back and forth between the lamp-lit streets below. A lone aerotram silently glided past, suspended below its rails which was lifted hundreds of feet above the ground, filled with early morning commuters inside its carriages.

All in all, it's a pretty normal morning in Gatesbridge.

Oscar stood by the window for a few more moments, not caring if the neighbors from the adjacent towers could see him naked--not that they could see much of anything, watching as the sky gradually brightened and the street lights flicker off. Holding back a yawn, Oscar finally let the curtains fall back to their place and turned to look at the date by the digital clock. The second week of school had begun. As much as he'd rather not go, he'd never heard the end of it from his father if he skipped today's classes.

With much reluctance, the young wolf pulled a clean towel, wrapping it around his waist and went out to the hallway. After just a few steps, he stopped right in front of the plain, unmarked door that was a few feet down from his own.

Behind it was Marcus' bedroom... his twin brother's bedroom. A bedroom that had been silent ever since that accident four months ago. Oscar had always forced himself to walk right past it, perhaps pausing once in a while, but always moving on.

And yet now, with an inexplicable urge, the wolf found himself turning the knob and peered inside, before stepping in.

Their dad made sure that the room was always clean and tidy, but it was stuffy from being unoccupied for a long time, and his brother's scent had almost faded. By all accounts, Marcus' room was similar to Oscar's own; the bed was set right next to a computer desk and a large bookshelf dominated one side of the room, filled with random knick-knacks, athletic trophies, school books, and various magazines.

Other than the athletic trophies, the only differences between their rooms was that instead of a bunch of game consoles and cartridge casings, Marcus had filled his own bookshelf with a large collection of novels, most of which were classics from the past two centuries, and model airplanes. Furthermore, while Oscar had decorated his room with a bunch of video game posters and various pin ups of famed superheroes, Marcus had littered his room with a ton of black and white pictures--which he had personally captured, printed, and framed--along with a bunch of vintage movie posters.

Oscar's eyes swept past various pictures of Marcus, himself, and their dad taken from their many family trips. His gaze landed on a camera that laid untouched on the computer desk, covered in a fine layer of dust. It was his brother's camera that had produced those pictures. Oscar felt a dull ache in his heart as he held the bulky black camera with his paw gingerly. The lense was heavily dented and a severe crack ran through its surface, a testament to the accident which has hospitalized Marcus in the first place.

He had gotten that camera for their seventeenth birthday, as Marcus had loved photography. It wasn't easy getting that particular brand of camera, but it was worth the money and effort. Marcus adored the piece of equipment and had taken a very good care of it. The wolf had taken it with him almost everywhere, finding every chance to take a picture whenever he could. His brother had an eye for detail. Their dad often joked that Marcus could get hired as an art director in any publication company with his numerous collection of photos.

In fact, his twin brother had been meaning to take several pictures of the sunset from the Skyarch Bridge. It was a popular tourist destination as it had the best views in the whole island. The two of them had gone there, not knowing that it would be a target for a supervillain attack.

The villain had collapsed the entire bridge to distract the heroes. The villain was eventually caught of course, but Skyarch Bridge had been completely decimated, and there had been a number of casualties, along with a lot of people sustaining heavy injuries.

Oscar took almost two weeks to recover, but he was cleared from the hospital. However, Marcus had it worse. He was told that his twin brother got a full blast of the villain's psionic bomb and the doctors wasn't sure of Marcus' chance of recovery. Even if he did recover... Marcus wouldn't be the same wolf.

The camera, surprisingly, had been recovered, and their dad had took it home. Oscar had thought to get the camera repaired but... he couldn't bring himself to do it. Even holding it in his paws right now had him on the verge of tears, the memory of that night still seared into his brain.

Blinking rapidly, Oscar shook his head and placed the damaged camera down on the desk and stepped out, closing the door softly behind him, and finally made his way to the bathroom. The lights turned on automatically the moment he stepped inside and he swung the door closed with more force than he intended to. It slammed against his tail which made him jump a little.

"Stupid door..." He grumbled under his breath before his gaze flicked to his reflection in the large mirror in front of him. The wolf reached for his toothbrush and began his morning routines.

He was often told that he resembled his father with the striking, stormy gray eyes, silver-white fur, and a strong jawline. While he wasn't as tall or as muscular as his dad, Oscar himself was at a respectable six foot two and years of dedicated exercise also had given him some firmly defined muscles, although most of them weren't very visible due to the thickness of his fur, winter coat and all. That and the fact that he had been neglecting his workout routine somewhat over the last few months.

Oscar absentmindedly ran his paws through his thick, messy hair, which was the same silvery white hue as his fur as he brushed his teeth.

"I need to have a proper trim soon", he thought before he gargled and rinsed his mouth clean. The young wolf then hung his towel before entering the shower tub. The steady stream of hot water that cascaded down his body calmed his nerves and seemed to help wash away most of the miserable feeling he'd woken up with.

He'd feel more relaxed if he could submerge himself with hot water in the tub. However, since he didn't have the luxury of time to do so, the seventeen year old focused on the task of washing his body thoroughly for the next few minutes, filling his paws with the shampoo and bodywash and proceeded to lather them all over his body. He ran his paws all over his arms, neck, giving his head a good rubdown. He then moved down to his muscled chest, down the ridges of his developing abs, and then a quick scrub of his balls, sheath, and also underneath the pouch.

Naturally, his manhood was coaxed out from its protective confines. Oscar barely gave his thick, semi-erect member notice as he made sure that it was clean, before moving down to his legs, his footpaws, buttocks, running his fingers between them before he moved up and scrubbed his tail clean, which took a longer compared to the rest of his body. It was then followed by a thorough shower, which left him feeling somewhat heavier.

Oscar resisted the urge to shake the excess water off as he reached for the knob that would activate the automated fur dryer. Warm, dry air immediately blew from the corners of the shower tub, drying Oscar within a minute. However, it had the unintended side effect of making his body appear outrageously bouffant.

It took a few more minute for Oscar to wrestle his fur and hair down with his brush to appear more presentable. The arctic wolf then wrapped a towel around his waist and headed out to the hallway, coming face to face with his father.

"Oh, morning son," Damian Mercer greeted. The older arctic wolf had a towel draped over his shoulder and was clad only in a form fitting boxer briefs. Standing at seven foot five with strong, powerful muscles and coupled with scars across his arms and chest, the wolf was a pretty imposing sight to behold.

From what Oscar had been told, his dad was an aspiring football athlete in his youth, and was actually the wide receiver for the Empireston Kings for a few seasons, but a deadly bus crash quickly ended up Damian Mercer's dream career. His dad never wanted to talk about that accident, understandably enough, but he still retained his passion of football. Something which became their family's favourite past time until...

Damian gave Oscar a warm smile. "You're up early."

"Yeah," Oscar rubbed the back of his head. "I... had that nightmare again."

The older wolf placed his large, muscled arms around Oscar's shoulder and pulled him into a hug. Almost instinctively, Oscar nuzzled into the crook of Damian's neck as he embraced his dad's warm body. The hug was pretty brief, but Oscar had to admit, it was nice.

"Better?" Damian asked as he ruffled his son's head.

"Mhmm..."

Damian smiled and gave Oscar's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Well, we can talk about it later if you like. But we better get ready. Breakfast is on the microwave, and I'll drive you to school today."

"Okay, dad," Oscar nodded. With that, he headed back into his room. After ruminating the contents of his closet, the wolf went and picked the plain blue hoodie and black jeans from yesterday since they didn't really smell. Satisfied with how he looked, Oscar grabbed his bag and headed out of his room.

* * * * * *

Now clad in a smart grey business suit, Damian drove his pickup truck through the morning traffic. Oscar was seated securely beside him and was looking outside with a blank expression. It was a relatively quiet ride, with the morning news coming from the radio serving as a background noise. It wasn't long until Damian decided to break the silence.

"Oscar? You okay, son?"

"Huh, what?" the arctic wolf blinked, looking away from the window to his dad absentmindedly.

"Thinking about the bridge again?" Damian prompted.

Oscar shook his head slowly. "I... no. It's just a bad dream," he said.

His father peered at him closely for a minute before letting out a small sigh. "You know, you can always talk about it with me, Oscar," he said as he looked to his son with concern reflected on his grey eyes.

Oscar nodded. "Yeah, I know," he replied but didn't elaborate further.

"Alright," Damian sighed as he turned his attention back to driving. "So... will you be doing anything interesting at school today?"

"Dunno... maybe not," Oscar answered, sighing as he continued. "They've been announcing tryouts for the clubs and sports teams."

"Well, you can always tryout for football," Damian suggested. "It might be a good thing to give your school team a try this year. You and Marcus loved playing that game in middle school."

Oscar's ears flattened somewhat at the mention of his brother's name. He fidgeted with the strings of his hoodie, and then sighed. "I dunno..."

His dad just gave him an encouraging look, if not a sad one. "Just give it a thought, alright? If not, you can always join other clubs."

"Okay..."

The next few minutes were spent in silence as the truck continued along the road, silence that Oscar was grateful for. The news then switched to an upbeat music while Oscar absentmindedly observed the tall buildings moving past them. They gradually grew shorter in height as they approached the coastline.

Northworth Academy was one of Gatesbridge's largest schools, and not to mention, being one with some good academic and sporting reputation. It was one of the reasons Damian registered his sons to attend the academy's high school division when they moved to Gatesbridge.

As the academy was built alongside the state university complex, a few high end offices, and also a large park by the coastline, it enjoyed direct access to the city's many public transportation services. And as Northworth's high school building was built facing the shoreline, it gave some pretty good views of the series of bridges linking the island and mainland California. In fact, students could often see San Francisco with its towering skyscrapers in the distance when the weather was clear.

Once the truck was within the vicinity of the school building, Oscar unstrapped his seatbelt and went to open the door. He jumped down before it came to a full stop, studiously ignoring the annoyed and admonishing look his dad was giving him.

"Well... have a good day at school," Damian said.

"Thanks," Oscar replied. "I'll take the Aerotram back home."

Damian nodded. "Alright. See you later, son," The older arctic wolf smiled.

"Bye, dad," Oscar closed the door and watched his dad's truck drive away.

A gust of cool autumn wind blew past, which prompted the wolf to pull the hood of his jacket up to his head. Turning around, Oscar walked across the quad and joined the other high school students towards the high school building, which was directly opposite the middle school building across the huge quad.

As Oscar walked past the front doors, he immediately caught sight of a familiar bespectacled tiger who was standing a few feet away, chatting with a couple of his friends. The tiger grinned when he noticed Oscar approaching and he gave a wave.

The striped, amber furred feline quickly said goodbye to his friends and walked up to Oscar.

"Morning Oscar! I didn't see you much last weekend," the tiger chuffed.

"I just didn't feel like going out, Hugo," Oscar replied. "Went to the hospital with my dad and nothing much else really."

"Oh. I see, well..." Hugo quickly sobered up. "How's your brother doing?"

The arctic wolf sighed. "He's doing fine. No changes from last time."

Hugo nodded and gave an encouraging pat on Oscar's shoulders as they continued along the corridor. "Well... you wanna hang out sometime soon? It's been a long time you know..." he finished, rubbing the back of his neck and fidgeted in embarrassment.

Oscar couldn't help but smile a little. Hugo Hoshino was his closest friend. In fact, the tiger was his few first friends he made when his family had moved from Empireston when he was still in middle school. Hugo was always friendly and helpful, and when Oscar found out that he and Hugo shared the same hobbies and interests, they had stuck together ever since.

"Sure," he finally said. Hanging out with Hugo might give a good change of scenery.

The tiger's tail looped excitedly behind him. "Awesome. We can catch a few movies or play some games if you like."

Oscar gave a non-committal nod. "Whatever you want, man."

As they ascended the stairs to the second floor, Oscar stared as he finally managed to take a better look at his friend.

"You're looking a lot... stronger," he remarked. He didn't remember when the tiger had gained more mass, the good sort of way of course. He could see Hugo's pecs pressed against the tiger's t-shirt.

"Oh, really?" Hugo pushed his glasses further up his nose. A sideways grin quirked up his muzzle. "Well, uh... I've been following this new workout and dieting plan for the past few months now. I'm glad the results showing."

"Ah, I see." Oscar nodded.

They turned to the corridor on their left, weaving past large crowds of students, before they reached their homeroom. It was filled with its usual loud chatter. Their homeroom teacher, Miss Hilde, was already seated by the teacher's table.

"Oh, I just remembered," Hugo spoke as he settled to the desk beside Oscar. "I've read your dad's article, you know, the one-on-one interview with Magnus."

Oscar inclined his head as he plopped down on the chair. "Mmm."

"Must be really cool huh? To get an interview with him," the tiger was practically gushing, in a self-controlled sort of way. Hugo was always like that when it comes to Superheroes.

"I guess," Oscar nodded absentmindedly.

He had read the article of course. His dad was one of the staff writers of ICON, a popular monthly magazine which covered superheroes, health, and lifestyle... but mostly superheroes, particularly from the west coast.

"The article was quite informative, and the full body shot of Magnus in his latest costume was totally awesome."

Oscar couldn't help but chuckle. Indeed, last month's edition had several pages full of pictures of Magnus striking various heroic poses. It was a shame that Marcus couldn't see it himself, Oscar thought with a hint of sadness. His brother would have loved to read that issue.

Magnus was a renowned superhero hailing from the west coast, and not to mention one of the strongest Powered hero of the past three decades. Some say he was on par with Sentinel, America's leading superhero and national icon. It was no big secret that Sentinel and Magnus had a long standing rivalry ever since their debut on the superhero scene, and no one was sure how it began.

Along with Nightsaber and Tempest, Magnus founded and led the Infinity Alliance superhero league, which was based just outside Gatesbridge. Getting Magnus for an interview and a photo shoot was a high prestige for various news reporters and journalists. It was no wonder his dad gotten such a nice bonus from his boss.

The wolf was so lost in his musings that he nearly missed as someone else piped into the conversation.

"Magnus has a new costume?"

Oscar and Hugo turned to look as a sturdily built Rottweiler eased into the desk behind Oscar. The canine was giving them inquiring looks with his bright amber eyes as he folded his thick, muscular arms together.

Hugo looked at the Rottweiler in confusion. "It was on this month's issue of ICON. I thought you had a monthly subscription of it, Derrick."

Derrick Furnossen shrugged his broad shoulders. "I subscribed to their online magazine actually, and I hadn't had the time to check it yet with football practice and other stuff going on," he replied, before he leaned over his desk with an eager grin on his face. "So tell me about Magnus' new costume! Does he look sexy in it?"

When Oscar first met Derrick, he hadn't thought the Rottweiler who was the school team's linebacker would come off as being extremely geeky when it came to superheroes. Perhaps it was why he and Hugo found it easy to befriend and hang out the jock. Besides, he was much friendlier and less obnoxious compared to the rest of the football team... even though Derrick could be rather intense once in a while.

"Ah, I don't have the picture with me. Magnus had yet to "debut" with his new costume, outside of the photo shoot anyway," Hugo spoke. "It's basically an upgrade of his old one. There's a lot more red and gold, and he has a new visor that doesn't cover his entire face anymore. Also, it looks like he had added some armor pieces."

"Armor? Why would Magnus need armor?" the Rottweiler looked as if the notion was blasphemous.

Hugo rolled his eyes. "He's not bulletproof like Sentinel, you know. Of course he'd need armor."

"Mmm... good point."

"Anyway, he's got like, shoulder pads and a chestplate and other stuff that's incorporated into his new suit," Hugo continued. "I read that it was designed by Arcturus Innovations."

"Didn't they make Nightsaber's latest armor suit too?" Derrick remarked.

"Yeah, they did," Hugo nodded enthusiastically. "I read that Adrian Hargrave was so grateful that Nightsaber managed to prevent the destruction of his company's headquarters that he provided the hero with a new armor."

Derrick sniggered. "Heh, with how often Nightsaber was involved with Hargrave, you'd think they're secretly lovers."

Hugo rolled his eyes and Oscar snorted. Typical of Derrick to think that way.

"Anyway, how's it going, dude? Didn't see you anywhere last weekend," the Rottweiler turned to Oscar with a wide grin.

The wolf groaned inwardly. "I didn't do anything much. Visited Marcus and then went back home."

The Rottweiler gave nod of understanding. "Alright. Oh right, I heard from James that we'll have a couple of new students in our year," he said. "Two of them to be exact."

"Yeah?" Oscar hummed, glad that Derrick changed the subject. "How did he know?"

"His mom works in the school administration, remember?" said Hugo.

Oscar blinkedc, "Oh, right."

"Maybe we'll get some of them in our classes," Hugo thought out loud.

"Who knows? It'd be great if they're hot!" said Derrick with a lewd grin.

Hugo rolled his eyes. "Perv."

"Like you haven't taken several non too discreet peeks at my junk when we changed in PE," Derrick smirked knowingly at the tiger.

"T-that's...!" the tiger suddenly looked flustered. "Well, it's not like you can even keep your paws from feeling up Oscar everytime!" he whispered harshly.

This time, Oscar felt his face grow warm. Especially when Derrick's smirk grew rather lascivious and gave Oscar a playful wink.

"But you don't mind it, do you Oscar?"

"Dude..." Oscar made a face to the Rottweiler before he turned around and laid his head on the smooth, cold surface of his desk as his friends continued their jibes.

"This day just can't go any slower," he thought as he glanced at the time that was blinking back at him from the top corner of the monitor that was built into his desk.

The rest of the students were quickly filling in the remaining seats as the minutes ticked by. Some were loudly chattering with each other while the others were engrossed with their own phones, while a few members of the football team joked loudly with each other as they entered the classroom.

Leading the small group was Trent Lennox, the star quarterback and the captain of the football team. The sandy furred timberwolf looked every bit the part with his solid, well built body. He moved with a confident swagger as if he owned the place. Understandable since his grandfather was a member of the school board and his dad was the head coach of the football team.

Oscar barely paid attention when the quarterback moved to greet Derrick in their usual loud and exuberant manner. They exchanged a few words, and Oscar thought Trent was about to move away. However, he stared when he realized that Trent was making his way towards him instead of his usual seat by the back.

"Yo, Oscar!" he greeted with a wave, before turning the feline beside Oscar. "Hugo."

"Lennox," Oscar greeted with a nod while Hugo returned the wave. He wondered what the timberwolf wanted with him. They hadn't exactly exchanged more than a dozen words throughout tenth grade.

"You know, you can call me Trent, right?" the blonde canine said cheerfully, pulling up an empty chair and sat down right beside the white furred wolf. "How's it going, man?"

"I'm fine."

"Mhmm. I heard you used to play football in middle school."

"Figures. Jocks and their football obsession", Oscar mentally rolled his eyes. Though, he wondered where the hell Trent found out about that. He was about to answer Trent when Hugo piped up.

"He did. He was the wide receiver reserve for Ridgeton Comets, actually."

Oscar quickly shot Hugo a sharp glare as the tiger was about to add something. The feline closed his mouth immediately and looked apologetic. This exchange didn't escape Trent's notice, but the wolf's grin became wider nonetheless.

"Ridgeton Middle School's Comets? That's still something..." the blonde wolf whistled appreciatively. "Anyway, I'll just cut to the chase," he said. "The coach will be holding tryouts for the football team tomorrow."

Oscar blinked. "Okay?"

"I was wondering if you'd like to come have a go. We could use a few guys like you. I've seen you playing with your brother at the park a number of times, and I think you have the right build and experience to make the team," the other wolf gave Oscar's well defined body a once over and seemed to nod in approval.

The wolf blinked. Thrice. "I see..."

"Well, I would have invited Marcus too you know," Trent shifted on his seat, looking somewhat uncomfortable despite his grin. "But since that you're the only... er, well, forget about what I said. I mean to say, that I hope your brother is doing well," he continued, rubbing the back of his neck. "How's he holding up by the way?"

"Not going to wake anytime soon, if you really want to know," the words came out harsher than what he intended. "Just... I dunno. Sorry," he quickly apologized.

"No, no. It's fine. My bad bringing that up," Trent waved him off. "Well... just giving you a heads up on the tryouts," Trent continued.

Oscar's smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "Thanks, but I'm not sure about the tryout stuff," he trailed off.

"Just give it a thought, kay?"

With a parting grin, the timberwolf returned to join his friends. Oscar turned to give Hugo a glare, but his attention was once again diverted when Derrick nudged him.

"You never told me you played for Ridgeton," the Rottweiler sounded accusatory.

Oscar looked annoyed. "Didn't think it was important."

"Alright, alright," Derrick grunted. "But you better tell me the full story sometime. Did you really play as the wide receiver?"

Oscar sighed. "I... yes, but later, alright? Not really in the mood," he said just as another student entered the classroom. It took Oscar a moment before he realized that he had never seen that particular person before, and the chatter of the class died down a little when they too realized that there was a new student in their midst.

It was a lanky but athletic looking red fox and he looked as if he had run all the way into the building. In fact, the fox was walking in a steady, if somewhat hurried stride toward their homeroom teacher. He produced an administration slip from his jeans pocket and handed it to the osprey, who gave it a quick read before signing it.

Nodding, she then directed the fox to an empty seat just as the bell rang. Just as the bell ended, she called for attention to the whole class, which sent the entire homeroom scrambling for their respective seats.

"Right, I'll be starting the roll call. Now if you'll all be quiet please." Miss Hilde's piercing voice cut through the general chatter from the students. Her sharp black eyes swept over the class. The intimidating and severe look were enhanced by her sharp avian features.

"Good," she nodded as everyone quieted down and she glanced her list. "Charlene Abner?"

"Present," shouted a lioness from the front row.

"James Abrams?"

A badger raised his arm. "Here."

"Elle Ackerman?"

"Present!"

The roll call was quick as usual, and the class' hushed conversations were slowly returning as their homeroom teacher went through the list.

"Hugo Hoshino."

"Here," the tiger answered, raising his paw as he doodled aimlessly on his notebook.

"Mr. Hoshino if you would pay attention," Miss Hilde raised an eyebrow, and Hugo hastily dropped his pencil and sat straighter.

"Friedrich Howlton?"

"Present."

The list went on and Oscar merely raised his paw when his name was called without answering, and proceeded to ignore Miss Hilde's light reprimand. He tried to tune out the teacher's voice, which was proven to be slightly difficult, but he managed as the names listed were fairly familiar to him. However, his attempt of blocking out everything didn't last long as Miss Hilde read out a completely new name.

"Jon Noble."

"Present," replied the brown haired fox. The entire class, Oscar included, turned to look at the new student. Jon Noble was sitting rather low on his chair, arms folded behind his head with a relaxed smile.

"Welcome to Northworth High, Mr. Noble. I hope you'll find your time here enjoyable," said Miss Hilde in her usual quip as she adjusted her reading glasses.

The fox simply gave the osprey the typical sly but confident smirk that only foxes could seem to pull off. "Oh, I'll manage, Miss Hilde," he said in a clear, distinctive accent. There was a hushed silence before most of the girls gasped and began whispering excitedly.

"Whoa, dude, you're British?" Derrick exclaimed, eyes wide with surprise.

Jon gave the Rottweiler an award winning smirk. "That is absolutely correct," he replied.

Oscar thought he heard a collective swooning sigh from somewhere.

"Ahem, if we could continue," Miss Hilde interrupted, raising her eyebrow. She nodded as everyone settled back in before continuing through the names until it was finished with Kenneth Yates and Michael Yamazaki.

"Seems everyone is here," the avian nodded as she scribbled something on the student's list before she regarded the class with her sharp stare. "Alright, and now for announcements..." she trailed off, picking up her tablet from her desk.

"The principal would like to remind you, once again, that Building C is extremely off limits during renovations. Any students found sneaking around Building C or tinkering with the construction equipment will be facing suspension. Any serious infraction will be dealt with..."

Oscar slowly tuned out the announcement. It was the same old news. Miss Hilde continued to inform about today's lunch menu, after school clubs and activities, as well as the upcoming competitions.

"...and any student who wished to join the football team, tryouts will be held tomorrow after school, at the high school football field. Students who wanted to participate should fill in the form provided by Coach Lennox which you can find at the bulletin board. The deadline to fill the form will be at 2 pm sharp tomorrow," Miss Hilde continued. "Similarly, auditions for the school's winter musical will be held in two days in the Auditorium. Any student who wished to participate should fill in the form..."

It was awhile before their teacher finished with her announcements. Oscar almost fell asleep on his desk but the loud ringing of the bell from the hallways snapped him back to consciousness.

There was a collective groaning and scraping of chairs as students quickly got up from their seats and gathered their things. However, their homeroom teacher wasn't quite finished it would seem.

"Oh, Mr. Noble, could you stay behind for a while?"

The fox, who had been fiddling with his wristwatch for the last couple of minutes, immediately stood up and went to the teacher's desk. Oscar spared a quick glance to the fox before headed out to his next class with Hugo and Derrick in tow.

"That new guy seems pretty interesting," Hugo remarked as they retrieved their books from their respective lockers.

"I guess." Oscar hummed with a shrug.

The tiger chuckled. "Not everyday you have a Brit as a classmate," he said as he struggled with his locker door, unable to get the latch to click into place. "Ugh, stupid door," the said annoyedly, slamming his locker closed only to have it swing open again before he could even tap the electronic lock button.

"Need help?" Derrick asked.

"No, I got this," Hugo said as he slammed his locker door shut. It swung open again.

Derrick snorted. "You really should have your locker checked."

Hugo merely grunted a reply as he continued to wrestle with the door.

They waited patiently until the tiger managed to secure his locker and they headed back upstairs for their English class. Oscar gave a light yelp when Derrick wrapped his arms around his shoulder and also Hugo's and pulled them close, much to Oscar's annoyance. As much as he wanted to pull away, Derrick was pretty strong, and he couldn't fault the dog for being quite handsy. Plus, Derrick's arm was pretty warm...

Derrick removed his arms when they reached English class. The three of them were one of the last few students that came into the classroom, followed by Jon Noble. Thankfully, Mrs. Chapelle didn't comment and waited until everyone was properly seated before she began the class with by taking the attendance.

Like Ms. Hilde, Mrs. Chapelle welcomed Jon into the school, and the fox attracted much attention because of his accent. Even the Border Collie looked somewhat starstruck as she ticked off his name before continuing down the list.

"As I mentioned last week, we will start with The Great Gatsby for our week-long project." She said after she finished the roll call. "Take out your copies and open your text to page 25."

Oscar flipped open the flimsy copy of the 20th century novel on the table while his paw accessed the desk's in-built computer, watching as the screen lights up--which dominated half of the desk--and tapped on the ENGLISH LIT 3 file. He swiped down with his paw until the page had scrolled to the designated page.

Mrs. Chapelle then proceeded to have several students read out from the first chapter and Oscar began to tune their voices out. His grey eyes glanced at the thick paperback school-issued book with a numb ache. The words swam across his vision as he absentmindedly leafed through the page.

Oscar himself couldn't comprehend a single word that was written in there, and had given up trying to read past the second chapter. His twin brother was the one who liked classical literature. Twentieth century narrating style was confusing as hell and he had wondered how Marcus had even enjoyed it and even memorized entire passages throughout the entire novel.

Oscar sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't know why everything had to remind him of his brother today, of all times. The memories always brought back the heavy, depressive mood which Oscar had been trying to stuff into the darkest, deepest recesses of his mind to no avail. His paws curled into fists and shook as he tried to suppress the wall of emotions that threatened to break his composure.

Taking a few deep breaths, Oscar tried to focus on the text as best as he could... and failed utterly.

Classes slowly drifted by throughout the morning. Before long, the loud bell signaling lunch break echoed through the hallways. Mr. Martinez, the Algebra teacher, dismissed the class with his usual droning voice. Oscar, who had tuned out nearly everything since morning, barely listened to the old mongoose as he gathered his books and almost walked into another student.

"Whoa, you alright there?"

The white furred wolf blinked a couple of times as his brain finally registered that it was the new student he had bumped into.

"Ah, sorry," Oscar murmured. "Was distracted."

Jon Noble was giving him a searching look with his unusually deep hazel eyes... which suddenly filled Oscar with a small sense apprehension, as if his whole instinct was screaming at him to distance himself away from Jon. Those brown eyes felt off. They looked too bright and at the same time, looked... ancient.

"That can't be right..." He shook his head as he dispelled the ridiculous thoughts away.

"It's alright. You did look really distracted. Something on your mind lately?" the fox intoned conversationally.

"Not really..."

"I was going to ask directions for the cafeteria," Jon went to add, waving a pamphlet of the school. "They don't really give a really detailed instructions here."

"Ah, we can show you there if you'd like," Hugo said brightly as he stepped up next to Oscar.

Jon broke into a grin and immediately followed the group. "Sweet. I'm Jon by the way. Jon Noble, but I guess you've known that," he said, extending his paw. "But just call me Jon."

"Oscar Mercer," Oscar said automatically, taking Jon's paw with a short nod and a rather tight smile.

"Hey, Derrick Furnossen," the Rottweiler, who had joined the trio earlier, grinned widely.

"Hugo Hoshino."

"Oscar, Hugo, and Derrick. Got it," the fox beamed. A melodic beep stole his attention away to his phone, which he quickly opened. His eyes shot up. "Oh, look look!" He exclaimed, tugging Oscar's sleeve in obvious excitement. "There's a Blightroid swarm invasion in New LA and the Infinity Alliance was there!" he said, showing the newsfeed displayed from his screen to Oscar's face.

"Blightroid swarm? In New LA?" Derrick voiced out. His brows furrowed in confusion. "Didn't they got sent back to their home planet by the Infinity Alliance and the Colossus a few years back?" He recalled.

"Yeah, and apparently they're back this morning. It's everywhere on the news," Jon informed as Oscar read the news article on the glowing semi-transparent screen. In big, bold letters, the title read: BLIGHTROID SWARM ATTACKS NEW LA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Oscar let out a slow nod as he skimmed through the article. "That's interesting..."

"I know, right?" the fox grinned excitedly. "I wonder what these aliens were doing at the New Los Angeles Institute. It's true they've attacked in large swarms, but certainly not in small scale like the article mentioned," Jon thought out loud as they ascended to the second floor.

Derrick goggled. "Say what? Let me see!" He reached for Jon's phone from Oscar's paws. "Man... at least three different smaller swarms infiltrating the institute, coming from some sort of portal that opened right above the whole place. I wonder what made that happen..."

"Looks like they've managed to break free from whatever held them back from our planet," the Rottweiler summarized after he read through the whole article, grimacing.

"Luckily, the Alliance acted quickly and subdued the Blightroids before they could deal more damage and close the portal in time," Jon chimed in. "Imagine how much damage they could wreck if the portal was left open longer."

Oscar was barely listening to the conversation as Derrick and Jon discussed back and forth about the topic as they made their way to the cafeteria. Hugo was sporting an amused smile on his muzzle.

"Looks like Derrick has found another partner to geek out with about superheroes," the tiger chuckled.

"Yeah, looks like it," the corner of Oscar's muzzle twitched.

The cafeteria was already packed when they arrived. A line was quickly growing by the buffet table. The four students immediately slipped into the line before it could grow any longer and grabbed their trays.

"I wonder if they have fish and chips," Jon wondered as he grabbed an apple juice from the ice box.

Oscar shrugged. "They might have," he said as he grabbed a coke, a large turkey and cheese sandwich and a small side of fries.

Jon whispered "Oh, brilliant!" when he grabbed a steaming plate of fish and chips and got himself a custard pie along the way.

"C'mon, let's get our table," Hugo suggested when they'd cleared the queue, pointing to an empty table stuffed snugly to the corner, directly next to the big window that overlooked the bay area.

"Looks good." Jon nodded.

"Ah, well, perhaps I'd join you guys later. Trent's been calling me over for five minutes now." Derrick spoke up. Oscar looked up and saw that the sandy furred timberwolf had waved his arms and beckoned for Derrick to come from a few tables away. Trent's table seemed to be filled with the entire football team by the looks of it.

"Sure, sure. We'll catch you later." Hugo nodded.

Derrick gave a friendly smack to Oscar's back as he left, causing Oscar to grumble as the Rottweiler's smacks could be rather painful sometimes.

The remaining three made their way to the empty table and quickly settled down. However, before Jon could tuck into his food, his wristwatch let off a rhythmic beep. The fox turned to look at the blinking screen inquisitively, before his brow furrowed.

"Strange. It can't be..."

Sharing a look to Oscar, Hugo turned to the fox and asked, "What's strange?"

However, Jon seemed to be oblivious to the looks he was given. He continued to tap his watch for the next few minutes before he gave a shrug and turned his attention to Hugo.

"Sorry, did you say something?"

"Uh, your watch. Did something happen?" the tiger asked.

"Oh? This old thing?" Jon chuckled, showing the plain looking smartwatch to the wolf and the tiger. "It tends to go bonkers. I might need to have it repaired soon," he said as he dug into his lunch. "So, anyway what's this winter musical about?"

Hugo gulped down his coke. "Oh that. It's something we do every end of the semester, like a sort of arts festival and whatnot. We usually do plays, but Mr. Chadworth, our Theatre teacher, is into big into classic musicals lately... and musicals gets the Music club involved, so everyone's happy, I guess."

"I see then," Jon nodded. "Sounds fun actually. What will you guys perform for this winter musical then?"

"Phantom of the Opera," Hugo replied with a slight purse of his lips.

Jon whistled. "Ooooh, the Phantom. Should be exciting," the fox grinned.

Hugo groaned. "Exciting, yes... but this might be the hardest stuff for us to do this year. Knowing Mr. Chadworth, he would make sure that our school production would be on par or even better than the Broadway," he said.

"Oh," the fox nodded. "I take it you're in the Theatre class then?"

"Yep."

"Nice, any roles you're aiming to play?" Jon grinned. "The lead parts perhaps?"

"Er... not really? I never landed a major role before so I don't think I'd get the lead parts," the tiger said. "But still... it's gonna be very challenging, even for the ensemble. Heck, I say this might be the most ambitious production for Northworth so far."

"Oh, I can definitely see that," Jon nodded. "But it'd be a lot more interesting if you get the lead, wouldn't it?" the fox remarked with a grin.

Hugo made a face. "I'd rather play the ensemble. I don't think my vocal range would fit the Phantom or Raoul... but I bet my friend here would be a perfect Phantom," He gave Oscar a playful nudge.

Oscar sent Hugo an exasperated glare but otherwise stayed silent.

Jon stared at the wolf. "You sing?"

Oscar rolled his eyes. "I'd rather tryout for football than make a fool of myself on stage."

"But really, you sing?" The fox pressed him, looking interested.

"Don't. Ask," Oscar grunted and took a bite from his sandwich as the sound of footsteps coming closer reached his ears.

"Ah, well alright. But what's this about football tryouts? Are you going then?"

Another voice chimed in before Oscar could answer. "Oh, yeah, let us know if you're gonna join, dude!"

For once, Oscar felt a headache coming on. Of course Derrick just had to reappear right at this moment. It was as if the Rottweiler has an innate sense of everything concerning football.

"No. I don't know. Just... please stop asking about it," the wolf huffed as Derrick settled into the seat next to him.

"Well I heard you say football and I couldn't help but wonder." Derrick grinned brightly and gave a playful pat on Oscar's shoulder.

The white furred wolf grunted. "Weren't you joining Trent and the rest of the meatheads earlier?"

Derrick chuckled good naturedly. "Trent managed to gather some guys to join the tryouts. One of them happened to be another transfer student. Since he had to meet the coach to discuss stuff, Trent asked me to take the newbies and the new guy to sign up," he said. "Anyway, he's also asked me to persuade you to join. That wolf won't shut up after he found out that you were the main wide receiver for the Comets for two straight years."

Oscar's stared at his friend. His brow furrowed together. It was true that he was the reserve team, but he was quickly made into the main team after one season. His gaze then flicked to Hugo, and gave the tiger a pointed glare.

"Don't look at me. I didn't tell him anything," Hugo raised up his paws and shook his head.

"Trent went to check Ridgeton's alumni records online," Derrick looked almost smug. "Figured you were hiding something so he couldn't resist finding out. Your list of academic and extracurricular achievements were listed in there. Now he'd really like you to join the team."

Now, Oscar felt like punching someone, but he settled on a withering glare to the Rottweiler's direction instead. "Just great... and paws off, man."

Derrick simply raised an eyebrow, but rolled his eyes and gave Oscar's shoulder a comforting squeeze before he removed his paw.

"Who's this new guy you mentioned by the way?" Hugo asked the question on Oscar's mind.

"Lance Warren. He's a direwolf, and he's in the junior year like us," Derrick answered. His grin dimmed somewhat. "You know direwolves. Warren is as huge as they can be. He'd make a good linebacker perhaps..."

Jon whistled. "Not everyday you got to see a direwolf in the west coast. What's he like then?"

Derrick shifted on his feet. "Black and grey fur. Pretty friendly overall, and he gets along well with Trent and the others."

"Which means that this Lance Warren is probably a meathead like Trent," Oscar concluded inwardly.

"Well, anyway perhaps you'd like to come with us, Oscar?" the Rottweiler continued, leaning his head closer. "I mean, you don't have to sign up or anything. It'd be great if you do, and it won't hurt to have a look around. Besides, you can explain to Warren how things work in this school better than me."

Oscar stared at Derrick for a full minute, eyebrow raised. Why did he get the impression that Derrick was not comfortable with this Lance Warren? He finally sighed when he saw signs that his Rottweiler friend was about to give him the puppy dog eyes.

Which was to say, unsettling.

"Fine, fine, I'll come with you later."

A grateful smile spread across Derrick's face. "Thanks man! I'll meet you by the stairs after lunch!" he gave the wolf a friendly slap on the back again and quickly headed off.

"Ow..." Oscar was left rubbing the sore spot on his back. He was sure it'd be a bruise by tomorrow if Derrick gave him any more of his "friendly" slaps.

* * * * * *

Oscar didn't know how but Trent had managed to rope in at least a dozen of bright eyed freshmen who were coming to tryouts. He wondered how many them could even make the team. Only about half of them looked like they knew how to play or looked strong enough to play. The rest were cocky young men looking to impress their girlfriends or boyfriends and they looked way too eager to please judging by how they interacted with Derrick like some lovesick pups.

Lance Warren, however, easily stood out the most from the group.

As a direwolf, Warren towered over almost other canines at school. Oscar knew direwolves in general are large, but he'd never anticipated that Warren would be that big.

Oscar guessed that Warren was around seven foot eight, and his muscle mass complimented his height, making him look very well rounded. Curiously, the direwolf moved with particular ease and confidence that almost felt natural despite his size. With his predominantly black fur, Warren gave the impression of being even larger, and it certainly intimidated not only Oscar when he first saw him, but a lot of other students too.

What Oscar found quite odd however, was how apprehensive Derrick looked. He'd never seen the Rottweiler acting this nervous around anyone before. Normally, the dog would cozy up to any new people and throw in a few jokes. The Rottweiler answered Warren's questions politely, but he kept his distance, as if he's scared of the direwolf... for some odd, inexplicable reason. Nevertheless, Derrick hid his feelings rather well.

Oscar wasn't the only one who noticed this, naturally.

"What's wrong with Furnossen?" Connor Kingsley, the wingless dragon who shared a number of classes with Oscar, asked as they descended the staircase. "He looks very... I dunno, jumpy."

"I have no idea..." Oscar shook his head.

"Warren seems like a nice enough guy, though," Connor remarked. The navy blue scaled dragon gestured to the direwolf with a perplexed look on his face. "He scares me a bit. I mean, can you believe how tall he is!"

Oscar nodded in agreement. "Yeah..." He turned to look at the striped feline. "So, what makes you want to join the team?"

"Just curious I guess," Connor answered. "I've always wanted to try football and it could be fun. How about you?"

The arctic wolf shrugged. "Honestly, I'm here for Derrick. He asked me to accompany him."

"Ah, I see," the dragon nodded.

They reached the central staircase on the bottom floor. A multitude of thin black screens, neatly arranged into groups were hung on the walls of the staircase lobby where notices and colorful advertisements cycled continuously.

Derrick lead them towards one of the group of screens to the side which was labeled as "SPORTS" and pointed to one screen on the middle row.

"Here's where you sign up for the tryouts," the canine said, informing the group. "Football related announcements would also appear on this screen, this one here, and also that," he indicated to the next couple of screens which was showing highlight clips of last season's game.

Slogans such as "SPARTANS RUMBLE!" or "NORTHWORTH SPARTANS FOR VICTORY!" were emblazoned across pictures of various members of the football team in full gear--but mostly Trent--in the middle of action.

One by one, the younger students eagerly wrote their names down, but Oscar was barely paying them any attention. His eyes were directed to the promotional video which was shot last year, showcasing the strong points of the Spartans and their past victories. He had to admit, it was a very solid video. Whoever shot it was very skilled.

"Hey, you gonna write your name down?"

Oscar pulled his attention away from one particular picture which showed Trent's intense and determined blue eyes gleaming from under his helmet and blinked at Warren.

"Uh..."

The direwolf was standing casually with his arms folded across his chest, an easy going smile was etched on his muzzle. Looking to the side, Oscar noticed that the last of the freshman, a tall and sturdy looking hare, was writing his name down. A few feet away, he spied Derrick was giving what he could only interpret as a hopeful look.

"You and Connor could go first." He said, gesturing to the dragon who stood beside him.

Shrugging, Warren accepted the stylus from the hare and bent down to write on the screen before handing it Connor. Peeking at the list, Oscar counted that there were only a few names coming from the junior year. Most on the list were freshmen and sophomores, with only a smattering of seniors.

Not everyone would end up in the team naturally. This year's newcomers would compete with return players from last season, and Coach Lennox had a pretty high set of standards on who would be in the team. Oscar imagined that he probably won't make it. It's been more than a year since he played the game after all... might be a waste of time for him.

Or perhaps it won't. That thought ran through the wolf's head as he looked intently at the list once more. Running his paw through his hair, Oscar exhaled and contemplated his choices. It won't hurt if he tried out... but it would definitely be different without Marcus by his side. He felt odd playing football without his twin brother. Almost wrong, somehow... like he might make some silly and highly embarrassing mistakes tomorrow and made himself look like a rookie.

The team of coaches wouldn't appreciate that, and the far more experienced team members would be watching the newcomers intently. But... no one would really give him beef if he didn't make the team, and he could always look for other clubs.

Bringing his attention back to the digital board, Oscar saw the Derrick had gave him occasional glances and cocked his head towards the bulletin board, that hopeful grin was still etched on his face.

Oscar pushed down the feeling that he was making a fool of himself as he went up to the bulletin board and grabbed the stylus. He smiled dryly when he saw Derrick's features lit up as his paw hovered right in front of the screen

"I've got nothing to lose, have I?" Oscar thought with a sigh and wrote his name down.