{"sf1_id":1688084,"sf2_id":"0mvb7WAm","title":" The Leaves of Fall Act 3: Something That Matters (Part 12)","author":"Oliver_Hart","words":1854,"posted_at":"2021-02-23T02:15:13.000Z","tags":["Adventure","Alternate Reality","Anon","Boy","Brother","Bunny","Classroom","Couple","Emo","Fight","Girl","Green text","Greentext","HMOFA","Halloween","Heterosexual","High School","Hmofa/","Human","Kissing","Plot Development","Rabbit","Siblings","Slow burn","Young Romance","anthro/human"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1688084-the-leaves-of-fall-act-3-something-that-matters-part-12","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/0mvb7WAm","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/5d/69/5d6952a8-e3b2-4118-83cf-037a9ba72817","description":"You've never really 'fit in' with the heavily divided Ranchview High School crowd. Jock, Goth, Prep, Cheerleader, Nerd... you were never any of these. But as Halloween approaches, strange things start happening, and a dark ritual begins with the finding of a curious red book. It's a race against time for you and your friends to stop a group of students from ushering in an age of darkness, and to also figure out just what the hell is wrong with that rabbit.  \n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  \n  \nAbout this version: originally, The Leaves of Fall was split into two pastebins to compensate for the length of the story. Given that pastebin has chosen to censor this story for ambiguous reasons, it will forever be stored here and on AO3. This new version contains spelling, grammar and content fixes. Please understand that the content is all the same as the earlier versions minus some sentences being changed and fixed up. I cannot stress this enough: no new content has been added. It's my hope that this is a cleaner, easier-to-read version of the story.  \n  \nCover: [https://imgur.com/a/vZS4Q](https://imgur.com/a/vZS4Q)  \nSam (drawn by Akella of /hmofa/) [https://imgur.com/a/nk3t1wT](https://imgur.com/a/nk3t1wT)  \nFan art collection: [https://imgur.com/a/SCCSIQv](https://imgur.com/a/SCCSIQv)  \nAccompanying playlist (WIP): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9aXlzDRA49QKxgYsOV2JuDd410\\_nI-0J](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9aXlzDRA49QKxgYsOV2JuDd410_nI-0J)  \nAlternative link: [https://www.sofurry.com/view/1479078](https://www.sofurry.com/view/1479078)  \nTotal word count: 147,552 words","content":"\\\u003eWhen at last you pull back from each other (you still shaking; hot air and steam dumping from your mouth), there's silence\n\n\\\u003eSam quickly pivots her body to face away from you, but you can see the unbridled joy played out across her face\n\n\\\u003eHer ears stand on high alert, and her little poofy tail is fanning as fast and as violently as a stubby tail can fan\n\n\\\u003eYou wipe your lip with the back of your hand, still tasting her on your tongue\n\n\\\u003eThat was your… well it was your fir-\n\n\\\u003e\"BRO JOB BRO JOB BRO JOB!\" Mike howls into the sky, clapping his hands like a madman. He pulls on an imaginary train whistle. “CHOO CHOO!\"\n\n\\\u003eHe stands up, wobbling on two shaky legs. “Hey, everyone!\" His voice booms. “Anonymous isn't gay!\"\n\n\\\u003e\"Mike get down! If you fall off this roof I swear to God…\" Jenna hisses\n\n\\\u003ePaying her no mind in his addled state, he cups his hands around his mouth for volume and belts out: “SAM GARLEN IS A-\"\n\n\\\u003eJenna yanks him down by the bottom of his jacket\n\n\\\u003eHe lands hard on his ass, grunting as the roof practically sodomizes him\n\n\\\u003e\"Ow,\" Mike groans, sliding down onto the slope of the roof\n\n\\\u003eYou scowl at him, still flush, head spinning from the kiss\n\n\\\u003eBut you can't say you don't deserve it a bit\n\n\\\u003eThe whole thing is stupid and silly and sappy\n\n\\\u003e\"Hey,\" Mike looks up at Jenna. “Thanks for that. I think I had a little too much.\"\n\n\\\u003e\"Oh, you think?\" She replies curtly, her own beer half empty\n\n\\\u003eWhen they start talking you disengage and focus back on Sam\n\n\\\u003eSam turns to face you, and her expression gives you pause\n\n\\\u003eShe has tears in her eyes, though she's doing her best to smile\n\n\\\u003eThe rabbit scrubs her eyes with the back of her hands\n\n\\\u003e\"T-Thank you f-for tonight.\" She pauses, as if she'd forgotten what she was going to say. “A-And for e-everything. W-Without you I-I don't think I-I'd have m-made it t-this far. Y-You saved m-me.\"\n\n“Nonsense,\" you say. “Samurai Outlaw saved herself. And I mean that. All I did was provide some of the grunt work.\"\n\n\\\u003e\"…I-I d-don't k-know ab-about that… I-I'm n-not a h-hero. I just d-d-dress l-like this.\"\n\n\\\u003eFuck\n\n\\\u003eWhat is it going to take for her to believe that she has some worth?\n\n\\\u003eYou turn to face the moon again as all five of you lapse into a momentary silence\n\n\\\u003e\"Can you believe it?\" Alex starts. “Tomorrow is… the day.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\\\u003eHe's not looking at anyone\n\n\\\u003eHis eyes fill with moonlight\n\n\\\u003e\"Gonna go to that party and knock some skulls,\" Mike says, sitting up, grabbing another brew and leaning hard into Jenna\n\n\\\u003eUnsure of what to do with her hands, she hover-hands over Mike's waist\n\n\\\u003eAnd it's frankly fucking adorable how awkward she is around him\n\n\\\u003e\"Y-Y-You thi-think we ha-have a shot?\" Sam asks\n\n“'Course we do. The goths are a lot dumber than they appear. We're going to go to that dance tomorrow, kick some ass, and then…\" you drag in a deep breath of cold air\n\n\\\u003e\"I'm going to go to college.\" Mike says before you can finish. “I don't care what I need to do to lift this curse. I'm going to fuck some shit up and then go to college — put this all behind me.\"\n\n\\\u003eYou feel your throat tighten\n\n\\\u003eIt must be just the cold, right?\n\n\\\u003eHe's not going to… leave you all behind though, is he?\n\n\\\u003eLike, intellectually, you know he's leaving, but emotionally, you guess it really hasn't hit you yet that everyone is going their separate ways\n\n\\\u003e\"Me too,\" Alex joins in. “I can't think of anything more important. Or anything I'd rather be doing with my Halloween.\" He flashes his polished smile at you all\n\n\\\u003eYour heart jumps a bit\n\n\\\u003e\"You're going to school?\" Jenna says, looking at Alex like he just said he was pregnant\n\n\\\u003e\"'Course I am,\" he replies in a slurred voice, deep into another beer. “I'm going to be a politician and FIGHT for the rights of the people.\"\n\n\\\u003eYour hands start to sweat a bit\n\n\\\u003eCollege\n\n\\\u003eEveryone leaving\n\n\\\u003eAmbitions\n\n\\\u003ePlans\n\n\\\u003eGoals\n\n\\\u003eWhat do you have?\n\n\\\u003eA wild, vague notion, one that scares the shit out of you\n\n\\\u003eThe idea of leaving too\n\n\\\u003eYou glance down at your beer, see it's half-empty, and knock it back\n\n“I'm going to graduate,\" you blurt out, probably a lot louder than you had intended\n\n\\\u003eYou feel that familiar knot of anxiety start to coil up in your chest like a cobra\n\n“A-And I've decided: I'm going to college.\"\n\n\\\u003eStunned silence except for the rhythmic pounding of the bass\n\n\\\u003eSomeone at the party squeals with laughter\n\n\\\u003e\"Good,\" Mike says, matter-of-fact. “Of all the people I know, you're the most qualified to go to school.\"\n\n\\\u003e\"I'll drink to that.\" Alex hoists his bottle in the air like an amber torch\n\n\\\u003eYou weakly lift yours\n\n\\\u003eJenna lifts her (second) bottle with Mike\n\n\\\u003e\"A-A-And I'm n-n-never go-going back to my dad!\" Sam exclaims, thrusting her half-finished beer into the air\n\n\\\u003eWhat do you say?\n\n\\\u003eSomething cool?\n\n\\\u003eSomething deep?\n\n\\\u003eMaybe just anything\n\n\\\u003eSpinning around in your head, thoughts firing off in all different directions, you can only settle on one thing:\n\n“Here's to something that matters.\"\n\n\\\u003e\"It's easy, Sam. Even I've driven a car,\" Alex slurs from the passenger seat. “It's like… like riding a bike.\"\n\n\\\u003e\"I-I've n-never r-ridden a b-\"\n\n\\\u003eAlex groans\n\n\\\u003e\"What else haven't you done, breathed air?\"\n\n\\\u003eYou shoot him a defensive look\n\n\\\u003eSam sits perched on your lap, her slender fingers gripping the wheel. Your foot rests on the brakes\n\n\\\u003eYour car, the rustbucket, is humming steadily, crammed in between Mercedes and BMWs\n\n\\\u003eLike a pimple on a perfect face\n\n“Listen, you're going to do just fine,\" you assure her. “Just take us ba-back to the old church.\"\n\n\\\u003eYou can still taste the last beers on your tongue, and the sloshing in your stomach makes you wish you hadn't been so zealous tonight\n\n“I work the pedals, you steer. There's nothing to it.\"\n\n\\\u003e\"I-I don't k-know…\" she starts, but Mike cuts in from the backseat, his words even sloppier than Alex's\n\n\\\u003e\"Yours is the only one thats sober,\" he says\n\n\\\u003e\"Hey, I'm sober enough,\" Jenna whines. She's laying horizontal in the backseat, her head in the crook of Mike's lap. Mike runs a gentle finger through the fur on her skull, causing her ears to fold back\n\n\\\u003e\"You kidding? I wouldn't trust you to even rides a scooter right now,\" Mike leans his head back against the seat and closes his eyes. “You and me got a good set up back here anyway.\"\n\n\\\u003e\"Normally I'd claw you for that.\" Jenna nuzzles into Mike's lap. “But this time you're right.\"\n\n\\\u003e\"On which part?\"\n\n\\\u003eShe replies: “Quit while you're ahead.\"\n\n\\\u003eWhich Mike does, the crowned champion of the evening\n\n\\\u003eOr, at least of the back seat\n\n\\\u003eYou have Sam\n\n\\\u003eAnd that's enough\n\n\\\u003eAs if to remind your inebriated self of this fact, you wrap your arms around her waist and lightly pull her against you\n\n\\\u003eShe squeaks a little, but her typical tremors never come\n\n\\\u003eEven at her boniest, most emaciated, you don't care about having her weight on top of you\n\n\\\u003eYou just need to feel the weight of a single person to anchor you back to earth\n\n“Ready?\" You whisper to her\n\n\\\u003eShe nods and grips the wheel a little tighter\n\n\\\u003eYou throw the car into reverse and give a little gas\n\n\\\u003eSam angles the wheel to compensate…\n\n\\\u003e… And your car goes the wrong direction, scraping into the curb with a painful shriek\n\n\\\u003eHer body tenses up\n\n“Don't worry, don't worry,\" you say in as soothing a tone as you can muster, but your tongue trips over your words and you just end up doing a lot of drawn out syllables\n\n“Just angle the wheel the other way when you're going in reverse.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\\\u003eShe pulls the wheel over and you give it some gas\n\n\\\u003eThe car comes free\n\n\\\u003eYou throw the transmission into drive and give the accelerator a little gas\n\n\\\u003eYou pull away into the night, leaving the pounding bass and debauchery of the party behind you in a swirling trail of loose leaves\n\n\\\u003eSam is surprisingly good at navigating her way around town, and her steering motions — while labored and cautious — get you out of the the ritziest part of town\n\n\\\u003eShe hardly even needed you to navigate the main roads\n\n\\\u003eHer memory is impressive, to say the least\n\n\\\u003eIt's probably what helps her draw so gracefully\n\n\\\u003eThe night is slow and cold, the radio low, but the car is a warm little torch carving down the empty roads\n\n\\\u003eAnd it feels good to have Sam's delicate body resting up against yours\n\n\\\u003eShe feels like she's made of glass sometimes\n\n\\\u003eBut then you remember her running away from her dad, opening up to you, defying Stella, going through ALL the shit that she's been through in her life\n\n\\\u003eAnd you know she's made of sterner stuff than what her bones and mottled fur say about her\n\n\\\u003eFor how boring and shitty the party was, the rest of the night turned out to be perfect\n\n\\\u003eUntil you got to the church\n\n\\\u003eYou should have sensed something was wrong as you piled out of the car\n\n\\\u003eYou should have been more alert, but the beer had blunted your already blunt senses\n\n\\\u003eHow could you have not seen it there, just in the moon-cast shadow of that tree?\n\n\\\u003eSam and Jenna sensed it too, but neither of them seemed to be able to place their sudden, hair-raising anxiety\n\n\\\u003eIt was just that gut-kicking, involuntary sense that something was here that did not belong\n\n\\\u003eThe two exchanged worried glances the second they got out of the car, Sam's ears high and alert, Jenna's mouth opening up in a snarl\n\n\\\u003eYou ever have a moment, right before something goes horribly wrong, where everything happens in slow motion?\n\n\\\u003eThis was one of those moments\n\n\\\u003eYou saw Alex adjust his fedora and straighten his suit jacket out, brushing off dust and grit from Braydon's roof\n\n\\\u003eYou saw Mike smile at Alex, his mouth shaping silent words as he pulled his jacket around him\n\n\\\u003eSam looks towards you\n\n\\\u003eHer face is shock and horror, her body weak lines and frailty collapsing into her clothes like a failing bridge into troubled waters\n\n\\\u003eShe opens her mouth to say something\n\n\\\u003eBut\n\n\\\u003eEverything went quiet\n\n\\\u003eAnd then a light shineth into the darkness, spraying your shadows up against the front entrance of the church\n\n\\\u003eTwo lights\n\n\\\u003eOld headlights\n\n\\\u003eFrom an old sedan, wearing belts of rust and cracks on its windshield, as if it shared blood with your own rustbucket\n\n\\\u003eAn old and shitty Sedan that Mike had seen before in the neighborhoods on Tuesday\n\n\\\u003eThe old and shitty Sedan that you saw in the school lot, that followed you here last night and left without suspicion\n\n\\\u003eThe old and shitty Sedan that Sam's Dad is climbing out of\n\n\\\u003eThe silver of a worn pistol flashing in the headlights","series":{"name":"The Leaves of Fall","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1686470-the-leaves-of-fall-act-3-something-that-matters-part-11.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1689579-the-leaves-of-fall-act-3-something-that-matters-part-13.json"}}