Changes - Part 1.2

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Changes

Part 1.2

by Dego

Author's Note: This is a very long story about a fox. If you're not interested in sitting in for the long run, don't read it and don't give me a bad vote. The story is split into 10 sections and numbered 1.0, 1.1, 1.2... and so on. I will post a new section each day. Please enjoy.

*****

The next morning was a new experience for Charlie. His alarm clock went off a little later, which Charlie was decidedly pleased about. He rolled over sleepily to fumble for the snooze button, and he was asleep again before he even remembered hitting it. This morning was different too because he didn't hear the piercing morning call of his mother demanding he come down, another perk Charlie liked. After lazing about for 3 snooze periods, Charlie finally dragged himself out of bed. He brushed his teeth, taking extra care to make his incisors shine, dressed in his school clothes, and went to the kitchen for breakfast. For the first time, Charlie met no one. The kitchen was empty except for a note from his mom, detailing the location of some waffles. They were still lukewarm in the microwave, and Charlie was happy to start the day with a nice breakfast. He enjoyed them so much, in fact, that he lost track of time. When he looked up at the stove clock, he yelled "shit!" and ran to grab his backpack. Charlie was late, so he raced to the bus stop as fast as he could, making it just in time. He climbed the steps of the bus behind some cheerleader vixen with quite a short, frilly skirt, Charlie noted. He tried to sneak a peek underneath, but was forced up the stairs by a wolf and soon turned to look down the bus aisle at a mass of loudly talkative furs. Charlie was depressed to see that many furs already knew each other and were sitting together, and everyone that didn't have a mate to sit with were occupying the remaining window seats. He sidled down the aisle until he found a seat next to a tiger. In monosyllabic lingo, Charlie asked the tiger, "sit here?" while pointing at the empty seat, to which the tiger nodded once, then placed his head in his paw and turned to look out the window. Charlie sat down and asked, "What's your name?" Without turning, the tiger answered, "Lucas."

"You new here?"

"Mmhmm."

Lucas never even looked at Charlie and he seemed uncommunicative, so Charlie didn't press conversation. He sat silently, tuning in to parts of other conversations: "...Julie's skirt, oh-em-gee..." "...Did you see that movie? Yeah, he was badass..." "...you taking this semester?..." "...Ugh, she's such a slut!..."

Eventually, the bus arrived at Charlie's new school. Charlie was hustled down the aisle, and as he stepped out and headed for the front doors, towards the huge furry mass of students bottlenecking at the doors to get in, he read the sign of the school his parents had enrolled him in without his input. It read "Northledge."

Charlie walked to the doors and eventually squeezed through, at which point he began searching for his locker. He recalled his number, 203, and worked his way through the hustle and bustle upstairs to the '2' lockers. His was right in front of where the stairs ended and to the left a bit. Charlie hadn't had a chance to visit Northledge before the first day, so he didn't have a chance to set up his locker and unload his textbooks for the latter half of the day there. What he hadn't expected was such a volume of overcrowding, very unlike his much quieter middle school in his old town. Charlie was pressed up against the locker and forced to fumble with his backpack for the shelf to put in his locker. When he finally got hold of it, he tried to yank it out. He was bumped by passersby and lost his grip, causing the shelf to fall to the floor right in the middle of traffic. Before he could react, an otter accidentally kicked the shelf back towards the stairs, so Charlie would now have to go against the grain of traffic to retrieve it. Fortunately, an Akita was walking up the stairs just then and caught the shelf. Charlie caught his eyes, and the Akita grinned as he elbowed through the crowd to return Charlie's locker shelf.

"Oh, thank you so much!" Charlie said.

"Yeah, it's no problem. You new here? I'm Jack." Jack extended his paw and Charlie smiled as he shook it.

"Hi, I'm Charlie. I just moved here, what about you?"

"I've lived here for a few years but this is my first time at this school. Hey, catch ya later; I've gotta set up my stuff too."

"Ok." Charlie waved bye and watched the akita leave, but was happy to see him stop at locker 217, on the opposite wall just a little ways down from Charlie. Charlie turned back to his things now, and, since the crowd had thinned, managed to set up his locker shelf and books without issue.

When Charlie turned back from his locker, the akita had gone and the crowd had dwindled considerably. Charlie worried he might be late for his first class, so he hurried downstairs to find his theater room. This was one thing Charlie had gotten a say in: theater. Charlie just had an affinity for acting and loved doing it, and he was pleased that it was his first class of the day. He entered the room to find it lively with furs. He looked for a place to sit, which was a bit difficult since the classroom had replaced individual desks with large tables where 6 furs could sit. He saw an otter, at the head of one of the tables, beckon to him. Charlie was thrilled inside that someone was actually inviting him to sit, but he maintained a cool dignity as he strolled to the seat next to the otter and sat down.

"Hey, I thought I recognized you." said the otter.

It took him a moment, but Charlie recognized that this was the otter that accidentally kicked his shelf away.

"Oh, yeah, hi." he said. "You're the guy..."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't mean to." the otter replied. "I'm Ethan." He raised his whiskers in a smile at Charlie as he extended his paw. The otter was thin and streamlined, as all otters are, and had a dark brown back and sides but a tan belly. Charlie shook paws, then said "I'm Charlie. I just moved here and I'm new to this school."

"Ah, a fish!" replied the otter. Some other furs at the table snickered. Charlie looked confusedly at Ethan until he explained "It just means you're a freshfur. Me and my friends here are sophomores."

"Oh." Charlie replied. He recalled some unspoken rule about how freshfurs and sophomores were allowed to interact with one another. He heard that they have to sit at different tables and freshfurs aren't really allowed to bother sophomores unless the sophomore starts the conversation. He didn't want to offend Ethan, though, so he resolved to sit at that table and try to make friends.

Ethan turned to one of his other otter friends and started something about football, which Charlie never had any interest in. All the sophomores were talking amongst themselves so Charlie just got out his notebook and waited in silence for his theater teacher.

When she finally came in, 5 minutes late and with a mug of coffee, she sat down at the front, making no apology for her lateness and commanding attention like everyone else was late and it was her inconvenience. She was an old dog with some wild, uncombed headfur. Charlie wasn't sure he liked her, but she started up a game where everyone had to use the first letter of their name in an adjective describing themselves. The game started with the teacher, who came up with "Sandy, spunky." Everyone chuckled at that, and then a girl on the other side of the room took up the game. When it came to Charlie's table, Ethan, at the head, came up with "Ethan, exceptional" and smiled wide. Charlie rolled his eyes, but soon it was his turn. He used "Charlie, captivating." Everyone 'ooooh'd at that, and Charlie smiled at his creativity, then slapped his head. That starts with a 'c' too.

The class was little more than introductions and the bell rang right on time, so Charlie headed off to his English class. On the way he marveled about the overcrowding of this school; so many furs were pushing and shoving just to get down the hall. Charlie passed a bunch of mosh pits of furs blocking the hall with their chatter, which caused him to wonder why they can't talk somewhere more open to block the hall less. Passing period lasts only 5 minutes, and soon Charlie was upstairs in English.