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Chapter 6: October, Homecoming

The school year had run through the weeks rather quickly due to all

the assignments and extra-curricular activities that Tyler had become a part of. At school, he finally got talked into joining varsity basketball, and the days he didn't have practice, he was over at the Art Oasis brushing up on his drawing skills with Kelly, occasionally seeing his classmate Aaron there.

Ty and Alex were still inseparable, even more now than beforehand, but Alex also had his fair share of things going on. Alex was focused on band and track and was finding it hard to juggle both with all the sports schedules and him being on a team as well. Needless to say, they were struggling just to find time for themselves, spending whatever little free time they could outside of their obligations. Early October rolled around and by the time they knew it, the school was already getting ready for Homecoming. The hustle and bustle of cheer committees doing the planning, and the idea of hanging out with friends all night after watching the varsity football team playing, getting to sit around a great big bonfire, it sounded like bliss if only for a night.

Ty and Alex had been flip-flopping staying over at each other's houses pretty much nightly just so they could have their "them" time. Monday morning came too soon and so did 7:30 AM. Tyler groaned as he rolled over, throwing his paw over Alex. Groggy eyed, he laid there focusing on the small brown patches on the dog's head and giving him a soft ruffle behind the ears.

"Wake up Alex, we gotta get heading out"

"Not again, I want my sleep back" Alex whined as he buried his face in his pillow.

Last night was Ty's turn to stay by Alex, his alarm hadn't gone off yet, but his internal clock had already adjusted to his busy agenda. They were both looking to be done with all this craziness, but sadly, that wouldn't be happening until nearing Christmas break.

"Alex, come on, we really do have to get up puppy" came from the wolf.

"I know, I know......I just ugh, so tired!"

Tyler finally coaxed Alex out of bed, walking over to his overnight bag and grabbing his clothes and morning supplies to get ready for school. As Tyler was in the bathroom, Alex slithered out of the bed like a drunk snake, very clumsy and slow. He knew that he was going to have a lot on his plate, but he wasn't expecting his obligations to take this much out of him. He was looking forward to Friday, when he didn't have to worry about practice or band, he'd be able to just relax for once and be able to pick it up again after the weekend.

Tyler came back to the bedroom about fifteen minutes later "hey pup, your turn."

Alex waved and hobbled to the bathroom while his wolf finished getting ready for school. Another ten minutes or so and Alex came back into the room looking slightly less of a mess than he did before.

"It's only two days, we can do this!"

Alex only gave an aggravated glare and waved the wolf away as if to say "fuck off"

Finishing getting ready for school, Alex and Terry reluctantly left the house, making their way down the street.

"I don't think I'm doing anything like this third quarter. It's just too much."

Alex scratched his head with slight embarrassment, "yeah, I know what you mean. It's great to try something out but should have tested the waters before jumping in headfirst."

They got to school and headed to the weight room. They had been getting up earlier to work out with their teammates a half hour before schools starts. It was an everyday Monday through Friday schedule, and it was mandatory until their seasons were over. The morning regiment was roughly to minutes of warmups and the last twenty minutes of varies weightlifting or other strength building activities.

The five-minute warning bell finally rings leaving the boys run to their gym lockers to get changed and up into their homeroom. Entering homeroom Ms. Williams gave the standard enthusiastic morning greeting. With the second bell came business as usual, roll call, announcements, and sometimes updates about scheduled fire drills or other important items to bring up to the students. A brief period later the first period bell rang, and Tyler and Alex were on their way.

First and second period usually seemed to go by rather quickly, but today was a test day and those tend to feel longer due to the rooms being so quiet. It was an awfully hard morning for both boys as they were running on fumes, but then, there was that beautiful audible savior that that came to save them, the lunch bell.

Alex and Ty met up for lunch as they always did, sitting with their usual group of classmates split between the two of them. There was usually more talking than eating most days, and lunch time seemed to go by faster and faster with each passing day. Soon enough, that bell would ring, and it was back to class.

Third and fourth period were a bit harder to deal with especially when the time seemed to drag on. There was no talking in these classes either because of the tests going on. The school curriculum here was far more involved than Wyatt was, and this was something that Tyler was still trying to get used to. Once class finally broke for the day, Ty and Alex found each other at their lockers briefly, gathered their stuff for any homework assignments, and departed from the school.

After leaving the school, Alex and Tyler would say their goodbyes, heading in their separate directions until they would see one another later in the evening. With today being Monday, it was drawing class at the art oasis. Ty usually walked all the way there along with Aaron, and the class usually ran about two hours, so he would usually get back home about 5:30 PM and tend to his homework right away. Mondays for Alex walking about a mile over to Eckhart Park to meet up with the track team. It was still nice outside, so they practiced at the field. Once it gets too cold, the will eventually mov into the park house. After practice, Alex would usually head straight home and get his homework down. Depending on the time, he would either try to meet up with both Ty and Terry if it wasn't too late, or he and Ty would just spend their evening together quietly and then head to bed so they could do it all over again the next day.

Tuesday was no different for either of them. On Tuesdays Tyler had basketball practice and Alex had band after school. After the usual path of the daily agenda, both boys would end the day by dumping their gear into their lockers and go straight to the gym and the band room. Alex's acting roll in school band was one of the drummers of which there were four. he loved making rhythm, so instead trying his hand at a melodic instrument, he went straight for the sticks. In basketball, Tyler found his calling as a center, he had the height, and the heft to play the position well. It kept him out of the spotlight which he appreciated, he left that reserved for Marco, who like mopping the floor with him during practice, the Tiger was extremely competitive.

Wednesday and Thursday were like Monday and Tuesday in that the afterschool activities were the same, usually both getting home around 5:30 and 6:30 PM and then hunkering down into their studies, then trying to have a social life with their friends and each other after all the necessary ongoings had been taken care first.

It was finally Friday, Ty had woken up at 7:30 AM as he typically did, well before Alex's alarm went off. He never could understand why Alex never changed his alarm to an early time. He unburied himself from the blankets and Alex's side, nudging him gently in the neck with his muzzle to get him out of bed. Today was a shorter day at school because of the Homecoming festivities. Ty and Alex had talked with Terry about attending both school's celebrations. Tyler was excited about that because he would get the chance to hang out with some of his old friends at Wyatt after they attended their own.

Alex rolled over and grumbled, "puppy let me sleep, we don't have to do anything but go to school this morning, remember?"

"I guess I did forget, creature of habit."

"Let's just lay here a little bit longer, 'kay?"

Alex pulled Tyler back onto his chest and they laid back down for a while, "this is really nice, we haven't had any "us" time for a while"

Ty sighed, "yeah......"

Alex's alarm went off at 7:55AM and the two canids finally crawled out of bed getting themselves ready for school. After quickly dressing and collecting their school gear, they padded down the street for the last day of school for the week. Classes today were really relaxed and there was more focus what was going to be happening in the early afternoon through the evening.

Lunch time came and the boys were hungry since they slept in instead of heading to school earlier. Find their food, they made their way to their usual lunch time group of Marco, Eric, Aaron, Peter, Gillian, Maria, and a few others that Alex had pulled into the fold from his classes, Tike, a small weightless Basset hound, Andrew, a chunky but hyperactive otter, Melissa, a human female of black decent, Conner, a human of Russian decent, currently a foreign exchange student, and Elliot, a snow fox, rather large for his breed. The banter was fast paced, and Ty had trouble keeping up from time to time. Everyone was putting their opinions as to who was going to win tonight's game. Tyler never saw himself as a sports guy until Marco conned him into joining the team, ever since he got enthusiastic about it, it was almost like being a part of the hunt at times.

Lunch ended and everyone went to their classes to finish the rest of their school day, there was only another hour and a half left. When school finally let out Alex and Ty rushed to get home to drop of their stuff. The students were allowed to come to the park in their street clothes, except for the football team, the cheerleaders, and the band, but the band members were allowed to just where their P.E shirts for their one and only performance.

Tyler and Alex got to the park and sat down with their friends.

"Hey Ty, I know we were going to head to Wyatt later, we don't have to stay here long, I just need to play with the band at half time, and then we can head out if you want."

Tyler nodded with a smile, "we can stay for a bit, I'm not in a hurry, just want to make sure that I don't miss the chance to see a few friends by the time we get to Wyatt." Alex smirked and gave him an agreeable nod.

The boys sat there in the grass with their group for what seemed like almost an hour before the game actually started. After it finally did start, everyone's attention was focused on the game. Near North was a good team, but their rival tonight was equally strong. First quarter nobody had landed a touchdown, and people were joking that both teams were out for blood. The second quarter came, and Near North was behind 1 point from a successful field goal, and finally half-time. "I guess I'm up!" Alex exclaimed, Tyler nodded and watched the dog run across the field to join the school band for a few numbers. Roughly 20 minutes later and the third quarter was starting. Alex ran over to the group and sought out Tyler.

"Uh, hey, they need my help to bring the band equipment back to school. Some of the guys that help bring it had to leave."

Tyler waved his paw at the dog in a shooing motion, "no worries, I'll be here when you get back."

The dog ran back to the band group and within minutes, Ty could see them lugging the equipment down the street, shortly after, out of view from where he sat.

About twenty minutes had gone by, and Aaron was motioning to get Tyler's attention. "Hey, was going to ask you, he seemed pretty rushed to take off and get back here, are you guys pretty close? Like I can also see how he acts around you in Spanish too."

The inside of Tyler's ears turned pink and hot from being called out like that.

"Well, I- uh......heheh, was really hoping I....... is it that obvious?"

Aaron gave Tyler a confused look, "Did I say something wrong? I just meant like... you guys seem like really close friends."

Tyler took in a deep breathe feeling a little more relaxed. No one at school knew about him and Alex, and they wanted to keep it that way for a while. Bullying was disciplined in school, but they just didn't want to add that to the mix of everything going on.

"We are, yeah...... but more than anything right now, he's just trying to respect my time, we were going to head over to my old school to visit with my friends there at their Homecoming too."

"Ahhhhhh okay" the husky nodded, "that makes sense" giving Tyler a slightly playful smirk. "I know you both have been incredibly busy too, but I've also been meaning to ask if we could maybe hang out some time, I mean, outside of school and the art oasis that is. I'm always trying to make friends and you both seem pretty cool"

Tyler tossed a soft smile to Aaron, "sure! That'd be cool", the Husky smiled and nodded.

Another ten minutes had gone by as Ty and Aaron conversed before Alex made his appearance, he was panting heavy.

"Sorry guys, it took way longer than expected, had to run back here"

Tyler locked at him with a sly grin, "sorry, but we're not running to the bus, so I guess we're going to get there later than we thought. It's fine, their stuff doesn't start for a while yet anyways."

Alex nervously rubbed the back of his neck in an embarrassing manor. "Y-yeah, that's fine, but we should get heading over there anyway, it going to take like any hour to get there this time of day."

Ty slowly got up and stood next to Alex, then leaned over to extend his paw to give Aaron a friendly handshake. Aaron reached back and returned the gesture, after their brief goodbyes, Alex and Tyler started to make their way out of the park then Tyler stopped ad turned around.

"Hey Aaron.... you wanna come?!"

Aaron looked over to the wolf slightly embarrassed, "Uh-heh.... nah, that's okay, maybe another time" replying back.

Ty and Alex smiled, then turned around, continuing their way.

"What was that about?" asked Alex.

"Oh, we were just getting to know each other better, and was asking if we could hang out more, he's looking for some good friends"

Alex nodded, "he does seem like a good guy, plus he's a lot of fun in class. I can see him being part of the squad", giving Tyler a wink and a thumbs up doing so.

After the snail-paced train ride, and the rush hour traffic on Addison, Ty and Alex made their way onto down past the Wyatt Tech main building, over to the football field. Ty scoped around to see if he could find Terry or any other of his friend he hung out with. There were a few classmates that Ty had spotted, but in all honesty, he hoped they didn't spot him. They weren't really trouble, but Tyler had barely tolerated them more than anything. The further down the they walked, they final spotted the little Shepherd. Not trying to draw to much attention to themselves, Tyler quietly waved while walking closer. It wasn't until Tyler and Alex were right on top of him.

"Hey! You guys showed up!"

"Well yeah" Tyler replied.

The little dog giggled, "I mean I knew you were, just thought you'd be here later".

Tyler scoffed, "well, if I had a cell phone, I could have called you, but I don't, so...." Tyler razzed Terry, letting the little dog grumble, giving him a hint of embarrassment.

Alex and Ty had finally sat down next to Terry. They sat quietly watching the surrounding environment, there was a lot going on. Cheerleaders from one of the all-female private schools nearby serving as the cheerleaders for Wyatt tonight, were going over routines, and giving random cheers. The football team had already played, so they were running around field showing their team spirit. There was a small area further down the field that had a couple of food trucks and mini games, and there was a pretty long line for both. Way at the far end of the field, they could see some of the faculty dumping wood on to the pit that would end up being the bonfire later after dark.

Alex finally looked over at Terry, who was lost in thought, "So Terry, glad this week is finally over?"

"Oh yeah, I'm very much looking toward getting away for the weekend."

"Things okay at home?" Alex asked.

"Oh, yeah.... just been a heavy week. A certain somebody has been trying to hassle me of the campus lately. I'm not sure why now suddenly, but anyway, yeah... it'll be nice to not have to think about that for a few days."

Tyler didn't know for sure what that meant but he had a pretty good idea who it could be. If it really was Tony, and he did get his paws on Terry, he would feel incredibly guilty that his best friend got hurt because of him.

"Uh... hey Terry, this certain "someone" isn't Tony, is it?

Terry not wanting to worry the wolf, knowing that it was in fact Tony, decided to withhold the truth to try to calm him down. "Uh... nah, it's not him, just another classmate who seems to like to give me a hard time every now and then, but don't worry, I really can handle myself if it comes down to it."

Ty rubbed his chin with narrow eyes pointed toward Terry, "okay... if you say so, but I mean what I said that day when you told Kehoe, I will level him if he touches one strand of fur on your head."

Terry nervously giggled, scratching his neck, looking for a way to change the subject. "Oh, hey guys, wanna head over to the trampoline, or head over toward the pit?"

Alex and Tyler shrug, getting up and follow Terry. Ty suggests Terry take the lead as they were just along for the ride. Every one of the small attractions had large groups of people, either spectating, or waiting to be next. Ty didn't really feel like participating, he just wanted to be social and hang out with his friends, maybe get to see a few old ones along the way. He really wanted to be able to have a chill evening and get a minute to breathe before the next hectic week came.

Terry ended up pulling Alex and Ty all over the field, chatting up people, playing a game here or there, watching some street dance acts, and watching some cheers. Dusk finally broke into evening and some of the faculty had announced the fire was going to be starting soon. A lot of people ignored the announcement, and some people didn't. The groups that wanted to hang out by the fire casually made their way down the field, including Ty, Terry, and Alex. As they got closer to the pit, Ty noticed another familiar face as he fell into the group walking.

"D-wolf my man! You're here?!" came from the beefy Doberman. Tyler smiled as Nolan approached him to shake his paw, extending his own as they grew closer.

"Heh, yeah, I've actually been looking forward to this for a few weeks now, well, ever since Terry told me that previous students could attend if they wanted.

Nolan smirked "right on, right on! Well buddy I'm glad you made it! How they treating you over at the new place?"

"Can't complain really, it's just a very different school, not like in a bad way or anything, it's just different, but its good man."

The big Dobie gave him a friendly slug to his arm and a thumbs up, continuing their way over to the bonfire.

It had been a few hours since the four males had been sitting down by the fire chatting, and cracking jokes. Tyler missed this kind of bonding time, since it was so few and far between since he had gotten the chance to do anything like this, not to mention getting the chance to hang out with a few close friends he had no idea he would be able to see next. Sadly, it was starting to get late though, and since most of the school were minors, the school was going to be shutting down the event at 9 PM. Tyler got up casually while Alex and Terry were pre-occupied with the fire and a few others that had joined the chat. He carefully motioned over to Nolan to come and follow him. The big dog got up and followed as requested, walking behind Ty until they stopped next to the outhouses.

"Uh hey man, what's up" Nolan questioned.

Ty exhaled deeply collecting his thoughts with a slightly worried expression on his face.

"Well, a couple things actually if you got a minute."

The Doberman nodded, "Yeah, of course I got some time for ya, what's up?"

So... uh... well, its Terry... He told me that he has been running into a quote, certain somebody, unquote. I asked him if it was Tony, and he said it wasn't...... Man, I don't know, I just... I feel like he was just telling me that so I wouldn't worry, but I know he's got it out for him."

Nolan gives a slow nod thinking about the situation, "so you think Tony is really gonna try something? I mean, can't really say I know the guy, but don't know if he'd really be that stupid."

Ty's ears flattened as he exhausted a heavy sigh. "Yeah.... maybe not, I-I'd just feel really bad if it was him and he really did do something to him, besides, I made Terry a promise that if he'd try anything, I'd tear him apart."

Nolan's ears perked, "but you're not here to keep an eye on him anymore, are ya bud?"

Tyler replied with a now pained look on his muzzle, "no, I'm not...... that's kinda why I wanted to talk with you. I know this is your last year here, but I was kinda hoping that we were buds enough, that I could ask you to keep an eye out for me?"

Nolan placed his big gruff paw on Tyler's shoulder and gave it a slight shake, then slouched down to eye level giving him a quick wink. "We're totally buds enough for me ta do that for ya D-wolf. Terry's a good guy.... wouldn't want ta see something bad happen to him. Hopefully its nothing, but if it is, I got you."

Tyler sighed, feeling a thousand times better knowing Nolan would do this for him. "I could almost hug you, you know that right?"

Nolan smirked, "what? I'm not good enough for the real thing? C'mere man, I got you!" The big Doberman pulled him in for a bro hug and a fist bump.

"So, uh what else was on yer mind bud?"

Tyler was nervous, but he pressed himself to have the courage to asked anyways. "So, I uh was gonna ask you, you know, I wanted to be able to keep in touch with you, cuz of Terry, but also because you have been a good friend to me, I know this is your last year here. I regard you very much and don't wanna lose contact after you graduate......would it be cool if we could exchange contacts?"

Nolan smirked again, "you tryin' ta get my digits man? Didn't know you were like that."

Tyler's ears turned pink with embarrassment

"Hahaha nah man, I'm only kidding with ya. Yeah man you're a cool dude, it'd be cool ta keep tabs on ya.... See where this big ball takes us in the future yeah?"

Tyler smiled, "y-yeah exactly, I really do want to be able to stay in touch with those I hold close to me, especially after graduation."

"Wow bud, that's pretty deep, but yer good peops! I get man I get it!"

Nolan gave Ty another bro hug and a quick fist bump, they casually exchanged their contact information. After the exchange, they made their way back to the pit and sat back down by Terry and Alex for a little bit longer until the faculty made the announcement that the event would be wrapping up soon.

"So, uh you guys wanna head out before it gets too crowded?" came from the Doberman. The others nodded in agreement, slowly getting up, and started walking away from the pit. The four males made their way off the field and down the sidewalk past the parking lot, then the school until the got to the corner where they would need to get on a bus to go back to the train.

Nolan addressed the group," well guys, been a great evening yeah?"

The Shepherd nodded, "sure has!", Tyler and Alex followed suit nodding in agreement. The bus was about a block away, the four of them could see the headlights bouncing up and down as the bus made its way closer.

"Well guys, this is where I take my leave, but y'all get home safe 'kay? Terry, I'll see you Monday, Alex... was nice meeting ya man, and D-wolf? Take care man, I'll see you around." Nolan gave Tyler one more fist bump and another quick wink, as he turned and walked back down the street where they had just come from.

Alex looked at Tyler with a curious gaze, "do I need to be worried?"

"Nah, nothing at all, I'll explain later, let's head home."

Ty, Alex, and Terry boarded the bus, and a few stop lights later, dropping them off at the train station, where they would finally make their way home.