{"sf1_id":2265407,"sf2_id":"eq52OPXe","title":"Paper Wings, Chapter Seven","author":"SomaticDream","words":5741,"posted_at":"2025-06-29T11:17:47.000Z","tags":["Angst","F/M","Femdom","Highschool","Human","Kissing","Punk","Rat","Shark","Story Progression","Story Series","Teenagers"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2265407-paper-wings-chapter-seven","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/eq52OPXe","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/2b/07/2b07bb79-d82f-44e4-b751-62dad539078f","description":"Life is tough for a high-school student. On the outside, Benjamin Finch is a smart, quiet kid who enters his senior year just wanting to avoid the bullies and escape the system alive--on the inside, he's a free spirit, wishing that things could be different, dreaming of the day that he can live a life of real adventure. When he inadvertently saves a punk rat from expulsion, she takes him on a path of rebellion and self-destruction, putting him up against skaters, goths, drug dealers, and all the administrative bureaucracy that Saint Carver High School has to offer.  \n  \nAs the mayhem grows, and Ben finds the adventure he'd always wanted, the bullies start to fight back, and the system resists. Every risk has a consequence.  \n  \nSome birds were never meant to fly.  \n  \nChapter Seven: Some Real Acid in Your Voice  \n  \nSummary: Doin' the Dew.","content":"Ben did not go back to class.\n\nOn the way to AP Lit, he started to imagine how everyone would stare at him as soon as he opened the door. He pictured to himself how they would stop and pause, how the room would fall unnaturally silent, how the conversations would only slowly bubble back to what they were before, with maybe a bit of tension still left in the air. He knew that no one in that room would ever treat him the same.\n\nAs his shoes squeaked across the linoleum tiles, Ben remembered what Lynn had told him, shortly after their escape.\n\n_This shit'll stay on you like a tattoo, man._\n\n_You ready to be a criminal the rest of your life?_\n\nBen took a breath, realizing he was already standing at the door to class. He looked down at the handle, peeked through the plexiglass window, saw Hannah still sitting in her chair, felt a surge of very indescribable emotion, and he turned and walked away.\n\nHe wandered the halls, trying to control his thoughts. He went to his locker for no particular reason. He read over the student project posters in the science wing. He exited the main building and did a circuit around the football fields and went back inside. Feeling a little bold, he took a stroll through the hallway next to the gym, taking a glance at Hannah's locker and the curtains of plastic still hanging over the construction site.\n\nJust like Rosalin said—\n\nBen grimaced.\n\nJust like _Lynn's mom_ had said, a few of the laminated wooden panels had been visibly peeled from the foundation, sticking up like a raw hangnail among the smoothness of the floor. The construction workers had abandoned further work on the concrete in order to realign an entire section of the gym. Far in the back, a few workers were dismantling the pullout bleachers in order to clear the space. No one looked happy.\n\nDespite all his stress, Ben smirked as he walked away.\n\nEventually, the bell rang, and he went to third period orchestra, and he pretended to practice some background music for a play the drama class was hosting next week, and the bell rang again, and he went and got his lunch, and all the while he was still dissecting every little thing that happened in the vice principal's office.\n\nBen frowned as he walked up the hill toward the portable classrooms, where Lynn had asked him to meet.\n\n_Lynn's mom is the vice principal of the school. I wish I saw it coming, but, man, that is definitely some shit. The apple has fallen very far from the tree._\n\n_Not that I'm much better._\n\nHe paused outside the gap between a chain link fence and the back of a portable, which led to the little hollow Lynn had taken him to before. He could hear voices through the weeds and trash. For a moment, Ben felt very weird going to sit down with a group for lunch. He had been eating in the library for such a long time that he'd almost forgotten what it was like to. . . .\n\nYou know.\n\nHave friends.\n\nOnce again, he imagined walking toward the group, and the conversation trickling to a stop, and everyone staring at him like he didn't really belong. It had happened before. A long time ago, Hannah had tricked him into sitting down with her friends during lunch, only for the rest of the group to make fun of him as he sat by himself and barely talked. He had fallen for that four separate times before he realized no one wanted him there.\n\nRight now, Ben heard a few more voices behind the weeds.\n\nOne of them was Lynn.\n\nHe felt a spike of anxiety and immediately turned and walked away, heading down the hill before anyone could notice he was there, telling himself that he was just avoiding Lynn because her mom wouldn't like them being together anymore, and they all should try to lay low after the incident on Friday. In the end, he really just wanted the safety of being alone.\n\nAt the bottom of the hill, his phone vibrated with a text.\n\n_Lynn: u coming?_\n\n“God fucking damnit,\" Ben said, out loud.\n\nHe turned and walked back up the hill and hoped no one had noticed him being a spaz. He tucked his lunch tray close to his chest and shimmied through the gap behind the portables. The weeds rustled beneath his sneakers. When he turned the corner into the little hollow between the buildings, he saw that Lynn, Brittney, and Dakota were all sitting around the ring of cinderblocks. They watched his entrance.\n\nHe paused, feeling afraid.\n\n“Yo!\" Lynn said, lighting up. “There he is!\"\n\nBrittney flipped her black bang from her eye, giving him a cutesy peace sign in greeting. Dakota blinked at him, nodded, made a devil horn in his hands, and began to rock out to some imaginary music. He looked really, really high.\n\n_Go over there. Sit down. Talk to them._\n\n_Don't be fucking weird._\n\n“'Sup?\" Ben said, strolling over. He noticed that there was a single unused cinderblock sitting right next to Lynn, close to the middle of the group. He wondered if it had been reserved for him. “How's it goin'?\"\n\n“You tell me, homie,\" Lynn replied. “What's up?\"\n\nHe sat down on the block and began to pick at his lunch, just to be doing something. “Not much, chucklefuck.\"\n\n“Just borkin' the chortles?\" the rat asked.\n\n“Just courtin' the snorts,\" Ben confirmed.\n\n“Just giggin' the sniggers?\"\n\n“Just girthin' the mirth, baby.\"\n\nThere was a pause.\n\n“What the fuck does that mean?\" Brittney asked.\n\nBen and Lynn both broke into snickers, glancing at each other in conspiracy. She slapped his lunch tray, and he kicked her in the shin.\n\n“Ooooo,\" the chubby hyena said, adjusting her particularly wide ass on the cinderblock. “I have inside jokes with people. Ooooo, look at me, I hang out with the _normals_. Look at me, I'm Lynn, and I'm so cool.\"\n\n“Don't be jealous, bitch,\" Lynn replied.\n\nBrittney held up two furry fingers and stuck her tongue between them, aggressively wagging the ball of her piercing.\n\n“Anyway,\" Lynn said, turning to Ben. “Dude, so, how's it feel gettin' rolled?\"\n\n“Rolled?\" he asked.\n\n“Rolled by the cops, man. Rolled the fuck over. Heavy tread, you know?\"\n\n“Oh, yeah,\" Ben said, shrugging, as if the meeting with Lynn's mom hadn't utterly terrified him. “I, uh—you know—I barfed in the trash. So that was cool of me.\"\n\nThe rat blew a raspberry. “Nah, man. Look, that was a righteous barf. That was a barf against the system. That barf has gunked the gears of the oppressive machine. Here on after, that barf'll be referred to as Freedom Sauce.\"\n\n“Right on, man,\" Dakota said, strumming an air guitar.\n\nBen shrugged, looking back toward his lunch. He wondered, briefly, if vomit could be considered an admission of guilt.\n\n“You alright?\" Brittney asked, giving him the side eye below her bangs.\n\n“Yeah, yeah,\" he said, munching a fry. “I'm alright.\"\n\nThere was a pause.\n\n“You sure, dude?\" Lynn asked. “That was some nasty shit.\"\n\nBen had not at all considered the idea that Lynn and her friends would be concerned for him. In fact, he had assumed they would all try to shut him up before he talked, because he was the newbie of the group and also the weakest link and, of course, most of them had jokingly referred to him as a narc just because he was awkward and shy, so why would they be nice about his feelings?\n\nIt took him a moment to speak.\n\n“I, uh—\" He swallowed. “Yeah, no, I'm . . . alright. I was just—you know—uh, McNamara said she'd be checking my alibi. I told her I was at the library.\"\n\nLynn waved a hand. “She's a fuckin' liar. She'd need a warrant for that shit, and there's no way she goes up to a judge and gets her bacon-ass buddies involved. She'd be drawing attention to her own extortion racket, and she sure as shit is not gonna fuck with her bottom line.\"\n\nDakota snickered off to the side, still bobbing his head to an imaginary song. Ben watched him with a little bit of discomfort.\n\n_What kind of kid takes drugs at school? Is it weed? Like, acid, or something?_\n\n_Is he gonna freak out on me?_\n\nHis feelings must have shown on his face, because Lynn wrapped a pink hand around the edge of his shoulder. Her voice softened considerably. “You're fine, man. Mrs. Oinkerton was trying to bluff you out. When cops don't have shit for proof, they go hard, because they can't meet the arrest quota without gettin' you to spill.\"\n\nBen tried to remember everything he'd learned from watching _Cops_. “I guess.\"\n\n“Think of it this way—if she had any proof, you'd already be in cuffs.\"\n\nThe thought of being dragged out of school and shoved into the back of a cop car did not reassure Ben at all. When he glanced over at Brittney, the look she was giving Lynn told him the hyena was not very happy, either. For a moment, the silence between them was filled by the sound of Dakota, who was beatboxing beneath his breath.\n\n“Well,\" Lynn said, still gripping Ben's shoulder. “Sorry my mom rolled on you, man. I knew she'd try some shit like this.\"\n\n“You knew?\" Ben asked.\n\n“I swear to God, dude, she does this all the time. Nails me right under her thumb.\" The rat motioned a hand between them. “I'd bet my left tit you got called in 'cause she knew you and I were hangin' out. She had no other reason.\"\n\nBrittney took a sip of her milkshake, holding up her pinky finger like a little girl playing teatime. Her look suggested she'd heard this all before.\n\nBen frowned. “How would she even _know_ you and I were hanging out?\"\n\n“Our teacher,\" Lynn replied. “The badger dude. What's his name?\"\n\n“Mr. Peterson?\"\n\n“Yeah, that's it. Him. The fatwad little cunt sucking down coffee like it's shit from the principal's ass. Fuck him and his Golgi bodies.\"\n\nBen blew a whistle.\n\n“Fuckin' A, dude,\" Lynn continued, “I bet you he was told to spy on me. He's not the first teacher to narc like that.\"\n\n“You're assuming a lot from your mom,\" Ben said.\n\n“Am I?\" She poked him in the hip, pink nose twitching. “How did she act in her office, man? She tried to worm right inside you, didn't she?\"\n\nBen thought back to his time in the elder Solcaster's office. Rosalin had started off with a smile, expressing her sympathies, trying to connect with him like he might expect any other school guidance counselor to try and do. But she had kept going, and she had kept asking questions, and every time Ben had put up resistance, she had always dodged away from the point without actually giving it up, always digging deeper and deeper, right up until he was yelling what he actually thought.\n\n_What was even the point of asking about my mom? She was supposed to interrogate me about a break-in at the school. There was even a cop right there in the room, expecting her to be professional. Maybe it was some special technique that principals use to put their students at ease, but honestly . . . it didn't feel that way._\n\n_That was really weird, actually._\n\n_What the fuck._\n\nBen sat on his cinderblock and stared at the loose piles of trash on the gravel floor, feeling a moment of disquiet.\n\n“Told you,\" Lynn said. “That's my mom, right there. She's a psycho bitch.\"\n\n“Lynn,\" Brittney said.\n\n“She's a total control freak!\"\n\n“Lynn,\" Brittney said again, as if warning her.\n\n“She's a cunt! She's such a cunt that she has cunts in her cunt. She probably has cunts between her fingers, like a weird monster blob that sprouts cunts and sucks up dicks.\" The rat spat into the weeds. “That stupid cunt!\"\n\n“Lynn!\" Brittney snapped her padded fingers, like she was shushing a dog. “Bad girl!\"\n\n“Fuck you!\" the rat shouted back.\n\n“Breathe it out, bitch! Right now!\"\n\nLynn glared at her, folded her arms, closed her eyes, and took an exaggeratedly deep breath, blowing it out below the edge of her buckteeth. She paused. She took a few more breaths. After that, she sighed.\n\n“You've been getting like that,\" Brittney said. “Come on.\"\n\n“Right, yeah, okay. Thanks or whatever.\"\n\n“What I'm here for, bitch.\"\n\n“Eat me, slut.\"\n\nBrittney flashed the peace sign and took a deep pull from her milkshake.\n\nLynn opened her eyes, rubbing her hands through her whiskers and back out across the tufts of fur, like she was trying to scrub everything away. With a sigh, she shrugged out a pack of _Camel_ menthols and stuck one between her buckteeth. A _Hippo_ lighter clicked open like a switchblade.\n\nBen scooted back on the cinderblock.\n\nLynn paused.\n\n“Sorry,\" he said. “Just, you know . . . it smells.\" He gestured at his hoodie. “Don't wanna get it on my clothes. My dad'll sniff it right away.\"\n\nLynn blinked at him, the cigarette still hinged between her rodent teeth. She stood up from the cinderblock, scooted between everyone's legs, and only lit her cig when she was standing close to the hollow's entrance. When the wind picked up through the chain-link fence, she blew the smoke off to the side. “Better?\"\n\nBen felt guilty for saying anything. “Yeah, sorry.\"\n\nLynn shrugged, taking another drag and watching the soccer fields below. For a few moments, the little hollow between the portables was silent, except for Dakota trying to mumble rap _Day n' Nite_ to himself. Brittney nudged Ben's leg with her knee. When he looked at her, the hyena was glancing between him and Lynn with a surprised look on her face. Her eyes asked a silent question.\n\nBen opened his palms, confused.\n\nBrittney flicked her head toward Lynn, who had her back turned to both of them. There was another silent question.\n\nBen glanced at Lynn, shrugging.\n\nBrittney furrowed her brow.\n\nBen glanced between the two girls, even more confused.\n\nBrittney rolled her eyes, batted the black bang from her face, leaned across her cinderblock, and gave him a hard, withering stare.\n\nBen blushed, opened his mouth, looked at Lynn, and said nothing.\n\nBrittney leaned back and pointed at Lynn again.\n\nBen shook his head.\n\nBrittney got mad and kicked him in the shin.\n\nBen waved his hands in a supplicating gesture.\n\nBrittney gave a silent growl.\n\nBen blinked at her, helpless and afraid.\n\n“Anyway,\" Lynn said.\n\nThe punk rat turned around, taking another drag from her menthol. Ben and Brittney both composed themselves.\n\n“So,\" Lynn continued, “I was thinking we really ramp this shit up.\"\n\n“What?\" Brittney asked, aloud. “You serious, bitch?\"\n\n“Oh, fo' shizzle, my nizzle.\"\n\nBrittney took a sharp breath, rolling her eyes. Dakota picked up a crumpled can from the weeds while still bobbing to a song.\n\n“Look,\" Lynn said, blowing smoke from her nostrils. “Friday was a bust. We had one chance to get in there and dump the citric acid and fuck up the concrete lay, and we blew it, and now it's all hard, and now we can't piss in their concrete cum paste until they do another pour.\" She took a drag. “So we gotta do something else.\"\n\nBen looked down at his shoes, feeling guilty.\n\n_It's my fault._\n\n_I got them to open Hannah's locker._\n\n_Shit._\n\n“No,\" Brittney said. “We gotta lay low, 'cause we almost got fucked and we could really easily get fucked again if we ignore,\" she waved her milkshake in a circle, “you know, the actual _police officer_ sniffing down our necks.\"\n\n“McNamara won't do shit,\" Lynn replied.\n\n“Bitch, we stumbled on her fucking _drug operation_. You said the drop was, like, thousands of dollars. She's doing some real, actual, serious shit.\"\n\nLynn frowned. “I thought we were, too.\"\n\nBrittney threw up her hands, glancing away. “Yeah, well.\"\n\n“Well, what?\"\n\n“Well,\" Brittney said, “I don't know.\"\n\nLynn's frown increased. “You don't know what?\"\n\n“I don't know if this is a good idea anymore.\"\n\nLynn snorted out smoke. “I told you—\"\n\n“Look,\" Brittney said, like she was trying to heed something off, “we can just cool it for a week or two, maybe three, see how things look, and take it from there. Okay? Let's just . . . see how things look?\"\n\n“Oh, what,\" Lynn said, “you get rolled just the once, and you're already done?\"\n\n“Lynn—\"\n\n“Hey, yeah. You know what? Let's all give up! Right now! I mean, wow, who could've guessed that being a rebel might be _slightly difficult_? Who knew there would be literally any risk involved? Not me! I'm just a weekend warrior, apparently! I only want to be a punk when it's _easy!_\"\n\nBrittney let her black bang fall across her eye. The other eye remained locked on Lynn, watching with silent disapproval.\n\n“Fine,\" Lynn said. “You know what? You're right, Brittney. You're always right.\"\n\n“You're doing it again.\"\n\n“No, hey. You're right. We'll wait it out. Like you said.\"\n\n“Lynn.\"\n\nThe rat waved a dismissive hand and turned her back on the group, blowing smoke toward the soccer fields. Ben glanced between the two girls.\n\n“Don't be a petty bitch,\" Brittney said.\n\nLynn raised her head, blew a sigh toward the midday clouds, lowered her gaze all the way down to the weeds and gravel, and pinched the top of her snout, trying a few times to control her breathing. In the silence, Ben noticed that Dakota was sprinkling nuggets of weed onto his dented soda can.\n\n“Uh,\" Ben said, feeling very awkward. “I'm . . . sorry for all this. Doing this. To you guys. I really didn't expect McNamara to be—you know.\"\n\n“Oh, no,\" Brittney said, reaching over to pat his leg. Her voice was almost immediately kind. “You're fine.\"\n\n“Yeah, no,\" Lynn added, also turning around quickly. “No worries, homie. This ain't on you.\"\n\nThere was something in their voices, something a little too eager to be patient and understanding, that reminded Ben far too much of how other people had spoken to him after his mom got leukemia, where everyone seemed to treat him like a piece of glass that would shatter at the slightest touch. He felt a sinking in his gut.\n\n_They were listening on the other side of Rosalin's door._\n\n_They heard about my mom._\n\n_Shit._\n\nHe opened his mouth to speak, but there was a flick of a lighter beside him. When he looked over, Dakota was attempting to smoke weed out of the crushed soda can, using the carefully dented center as a bowl, as well as a few cut open holes to suck the smoke into the can. When he dipped the _Bic_ lighter, he burned more metal than flower, but it did seem to work.\n\nBen scooted away from the smoke. It reeked of skunk.\n\n“You guys need to chill out, man,\" the other human said, handing out the smoking crater of his soda can. “Talkin' about shit like it's the end of the world. I say, man, I'm telling you guys, just forget _that_ shit, and pass _this_ shit.\"\n\n“I'm good,\" Brittney said.\n\nLynn raised her own cigarette, shrugging.\n\nDakota held the can over to Ben. “Take a hit, Mr. Narc Man.\"\n\nBen raised a brow. “You're gonna give yourself Alzheimer's that way.\"\n\nDakota snickered, his eyes as red as the pimples on his chin. “Listen to his kid, man. Talks like such a stiff. 'Oh, you'll give yourself All-Timers' or some shit. Like, man, I'm an All-Timer already.\"\n\n“You sure are,\" Lynn replied.\n\n“It means,\" Ben said, cutting in, “that aluminum is neurotoxic, and that can is made of aluminum, and you're just burning all the metal and paint right through the blood-brain barrier, and now it's accumulating like—you know, like mercury in fish, and you'll probably be shitting in diapers by the time you're seventy.\" He waved a hand. “So, yeah. No thanks. If you had a real pipe, maybe.\"\n\nThere was a silence in the hollow. Ben looked around, noted the way all three kids were staring at him, and realized he may have spoken too much.\n\n_I hate myself._\n\n_I hate myself._\n\n_I hate myself._\n\n“Oooo,\" Brittney said. “Look at you, Mr. Chem Wizard.\"\n\n“Dude,\" Dakota said, “are you, like, Jimmy Neutron? Like, counting toothpicks on the floor?\"\n\n“That's _Rain Man_,\" Ben corrected.\n\n“Dude, look at this kid!\"\n\n_I want to die._\n\n_Stop it._\n\n_Stop talking._\n\n_You always fuck this up, you stupid moron._\n\n“Shut the fuck up,\" Lynn said, snapping her fingers at Brittney and Dakota. “Both of you.\"\n\nBrittney held up her paws. Dakota took another fat rip from his soda can, visibly burning some of the _Mountain Dew_ logo.\n\n“Hey, Ben,\" Lynn continued. “Since you're an AP geek, you wanna see the stuff?\"\n\n“The stuff?\" he asked, warily.\n\n“The citric acid, man.\"\n\nBefore he could even reply, Lynn was already digging through the weeds and pulling out her backpack. She tossed it at his feet. Feeling like a detective opening crime scene evidence, Ben unzipped Lynn's backpack and went digging around inside, quickly discovering a pile of sagging pouches. When he pulled one out, he was greeted by the sight of an MRE-looking baggie, flat and rectangular, with the picture of a sliced orange on the front. In bright orange letters, it said: PURE VITAMIN C POWDER.\n\nBen stared at the baggie.\n\n“Good shit, right?\" Lynn asked. “You don't know how many different pharmacies I had to go to, just to avoid leaving a trail. Felt like I was making meth.\"\n\n“. . . I thought you said you were getting citric acid?\"\n\n“Uh, yeah, dumbass, there it is.\"\n\n“This is Vitamin C.\"\n\n“Yeah? So?\"\n\nBen read the back of the package, just to make sure he wasn't seeing things. He felt a stab of realization. “This. . . .\"\n\n“What's your problem, dickweed?\"\n\n“This isn't citric acid.\"\n\nLynn blinked. “What?\"\n\n“Vitamin C is not citric acid,\" Ben said.\n\n“But—\" She flicked her cigarette, realized it was down to the filter, and tossed it over her shoulder. “But there's an orange on the cover!\"\n\nBen looked at her with a mix of humor and disappointment. “You're thinking of ascorbic acid. Citric acid is, like, part of the Kreb's cycle. It makes ATP.\"\n\n“What's the fuckin' difference?\"\n\n“A lot, actually.\"\n\n“It's all the same shit, isn't it? I wanted oranges! Citrus! Citric fucking—\" She yanked the baggie from his hand. “Are you borking my tail, man?\"\n\n“It literally says it right here.\"\n\nHe pointed at the nutrition label on the back. Lynn flipped it over. Every time she read the words _ascorbic acid 5000%DV_, her ears fell a little further. Off to the side, Brittney cupped both hands against her snout, making a muffled cooing sound.\n\n“Did you even read the package?\" Ben asked.\n\nLynn stared down at the weeds and gravel, grinding her bucktooth against her lip.\n\nAll at once, Ben started to laugh.\n\n“Shut up,\" the rat said.\n\nBen tried to stop laughing, worrying that his voice would echo across the rest of the portables, but he took another look at the orange baggie clutched in Lynn's hand, as well as the embarrassment stamped across her face, and he ended up laughing even harder.\n\n“Keep laughing,\" Lynn said, whiskers peeling back. “I dare you.\"\n\nBen closed his mouth, sealing it with the back knuckle of his fist. He looked up at Lynn. He couldn't stop his lips from twitching. Off to the side, Brittney was glancing between the two, her hyena snout spread in a toothy grin.\n\nLynn raised a challenging brow. “Sing for me, little bird.\"\n\nBen made a grinding noise in his throat. His face was very red. “We learned about citric acid in class. The first week of class, actually.\"\n\nLynn blew a raspberry. “Class, my ass.\"\n\n“Your ass doesn't know cell respiration.\"\n\n“I'll respirate _your_ cells, motherfucker.\"\n\n“You know, I'm starting to hear some real acid in your voice.\"\n\nLynn tried to sock him in the balls, but Ben knew her tricks by now, and managed to dodge off the back of his cinderblock. She settled on punching his shoulder. “Whatever.\"\n\n“Yeah, whatever,\" Ben said. “Who cares, right?\"\n\n“Not me!\"\n\n“It's not like you spent weeks smuggling this shit into school.\"\n\n“Nope! No, sir!\"\n\nBrittney snatched the baggie from Ben's hand. “Imagine if McNamara caught you with this.\"\n\nLynn made a groaning noise to the sky.\n\n“Instant expulsion,\" Ben said.\n\n“Twenty five to life,\" Brittney said.\n\nDakota cleared his throat, doing a gravelly impersonation of McNamara. “Uh, excuse me, citizen, but is this cocaine in your personal domicile?\"\n\n“Oh, no, officer,\" Brittney replied, doing a whiny impersonation of Lynn. “I just have scurvy! Call me pirate of the seas, bitch!\"\n\nLynn raised a middle finger to the group, wheeling it around like a machine gun turret.\n\nBen cupped a hand to his mouth. “Hey, kid! Psst! Look, man, I got the stuff. I got them Flintstone gummies. Pure cut, man. I got the real _hard shit_.\"\n\n“Shut the fuck up!\"\n\nLynn rushed for him. This time, she came in fast, bounding over the cinderblocks, grabbing him by the waist, taking Ben so completely by surprise that he was on his back before he even realized what was happening. When he looked up, Lynn was leaning her hands on his shoulders, pinning him hard to the weeds. Her legs straddled his hips.\n\n_Oh, God._\n\n“Keep talking,\" she said, her face hovering close above. “I dare you.\"\n\n_MISSION ALERT_\n\n_MISSION ALERT_\n\n_MISSION ALERT_\n\nFor a long moment, Ben was completely overwhelmed with the green in her eyes and the weight in her ass and the fur on her wrists and also the general knowledge that he was now in very, very close proximity to a real breathing girl. All he could do for several seconds was dumbly open his mouth.\n\n“Come on,\" Lynn said.\n\n“Uh.\"\n\nShe leaned in closer. Her weight pressed on his chest. “Do it.\"\n\nHe blushed very hard.\n\n“Sing for me.\"\n\nBen glanced out to the side, realizing that Brittney and Dakota were also looking surprised. “Uh, look, I'm . . . sorry if I—\"\n\nLynn shot down, kissing him hard on the mouth. The contact lasted several seconds. Her lips were soft, and her fur tickled his nose, and she mashed her snout from side to side, trying to find the right angle, and just when Ben was cognizant of the fact that he should probably kiss her back, she gave up on the human-style kiss entirely and opened her mouth and bit his face sideways and suddenly there was her _tongue_ and it was battering his face and hot and wet and sliding and—\n\nShe pulled back. Ben blinked several times. He was incredibly aware of the lingering heat on his lips, as well as the feeling of someone else's spit in his mouth.\n\n“Shut you up,\" Lynn said. “Bitch.\"\n\nDistantly, a bell echoed across the school, signaling the end of lunch.\n\nThe rat gave him two playful slaps to the cheek, quickly unsaddling his waist. He could only watch, dizzily, as Lynn sauntered over to Brittney, her tail coiling like a rope around the leg of her jeans. She opened out her arms.\n\n“Hugs?\"\n\nBrittney recovered herself, giving a warm smile. “Hugs!\"\n\nThe punk and the goth embraced each other. Ben thought he heard whispering between them, but it was too faint to catch. After some back pats, the two disentangled and Lynn scooped up her backpack and began making her way out of the little hollow between the portables.\n\nBen continued to lie on the floor, stunned and blushing.\n\n“Yo, Ben!\" Lynn yelled, already out of sight. “We're in the same class!\"\n\nBen rose to an elbow. Dakota was munching through his lunch, unconcerned about the bell. On a nearby cinderblock, Brittney gave Ben another silent look.\n\n“You better fuckin' walk me there!\" Lynn shouted.\n\nBen scrambled to his feet and grabbed his backpack and nearly tripped on a hard tangle of weeds as he tried to run out of the hollow. Brittney held out a hand to stop him.\n\n“You might wanna tuck that in,\" she said, pointing.\n\nBen looked down. He was pitching out his jeans with one of the hardest erections he'd ever had in his life. With a breathless stutter, he mashed his hands and bent his waist and stretched out his legs and generally acted like someone dying of electrical shock until, finally, he had successfully beaten himself down into an unnoticeable angle.\n\n“Thanks,\" he said.\n\n“Sure thing,\" Brittney said, adjusting her heavy cleavage. “Dumbass.\"\n\nBen flipped her off as he ran from the portables.\n\n“Toodles!\" Brittney called.\n\nWhen he emerged back onto open ground, he saw Lynn strolling down the asphalt hill towards the main school building, her backpack held loosely in hand. Ben jogged up to her side and matched her pace. Now, they were walking together.\n\nThings were silent. Other kids streamed passed them, heading off to class.\n\n_Oh, God._\n\n_What do I say?_\n\n_Do I say anything to her?_\n\n“That was pretty good,\" Lynn said, giving him a side-eye smirk.\n\nBen blinked.\n\n_The kiss?_\n\n_I gave a good kiss?_\n\nShe waved a pink hand. “Dude, I can't believe—I was sneaking in vitamins for weeks. Imagine if McNamara had actually caught me.\"\n\n_Oh, right._\n\n_The citric acid._\n\n_Yeah, right, of course._\n\n“Yeah,\" Ben said. “That was, uh—that was pretty good.\"\n\nLynn punched him in the shoulder. “Some real _acid_ in my voice, huh? I just got that.\"\n\nHe shrugged.\n\n“Pretty good joke for the Chortling Chode.\"\n\n“Haha, yeah.\"\n\nThey kept walking. The river of students was starting to grow thick. Pretty soon, they would reach the main building, and they would enter the atrium, and the noise in there would be so loud and echoing and chaotic that they'd lose the chance to talk about the kiss at all. After that, they would be in class, surrounded by other people and already moving on from the moment.\n\nBen panicked.\n\n“Hey, uh,\" he said.\n\nLynn glanced up at him, her pink ears shining through with sunlight.\n\nHe panicked again.\n\n“Hannah invited me on a date,\" Ben said, blurting it out.\n\nLynn blinked, seemed to process this information, and blinked a few more times, cocking her head. “What?\"\n\n“Yeah, no,\" he said. “It was weird. She wants to, like, meet up after school. In the quad.\"\n\n“Right. Okay?\"\n\n“It's kinda creepy, the more I think about it.\"\n\n“And?\"\n\n“And what?\"\n\nLynn slowed her pace, glancing around at the stream of kids, as if making sure no one was listening. “And what did you say?\"\n\nBen followed her gaze. “Well, I mean. . . .\"\n\nThe rat looked up at him.\n\n“Yes?\" Ben said, hesitating. “I—I said yes. It was—you know—McNamara got in the way, but I said yes. I was gonna meet her.\"\n\n“You said yes?\"\n\n“Well, yeah. Of course I did.\"\n\nLynn raised a brow. “Of course you did?\"\n\nHe looked at her. She kept looking at him. All at once, Ben realized what he was saying.\n\n“Wait—\" he began.\n\nLynn stopped walking completely, planting herself in the middle of the concrete walkway before the main building. Streams of students passed around her. People were annoyed they were blocking the path. “What do you mean, of course you said yes?\"\n\n“I didn't mean it like that.\"\n\nLynn watched him in silence.\n\n“The plan!\" Ben blurted out, loudly. He glanced at the other students and lowered his voice. “_Our_ plan. To get back at her. I told you that I wanted to, like, play a spy. I wanted to get in with her, figure out her dirty secrets. So, yeah, I said yes.\"\n\n“Get in with her?\" Lynn repeated. “You mean, get inside her?\"\n\n“No!\"\n\n“That's what you said.\"\n\n“That's not at all what I said!\"\n\nShe continued to look up at him, seeming to stand very tall for someone who was half a foot below his height. Ben was desperately trying to think of something to say when she started cracking up into a snicker.\n\n“I'm fucking with you, dude,\" Lynn said, smirking. “Don't bust a nut.\"\n\nBen let out a deflating sigh.\n\n“Sure, sure,\" Lynn continued, sounding cheerful. “I remember. Kinda surprised she's already making a move.\"\n\n“Me too, actually.\"\n\n“You think she knows about her locker?\"\n\n“Oh, yeah,\" Ben said. “She pretty much said so. Apparently, McNamara was really mad about it.\"\n\nLynn raised a brow. “Dude, she's just gonna beat you up. You go to the quad after school, with no one else around, and she'll make you bite the curb.\"\n\n“Seems like a strong possibility.\"\n\n“You still gonna go?\"\n\n“Yeah,\" he said. “I'm not running from a fight.\"\n\n“She'll kick your ass, man.\"\n\n“Then I'll get my ass kicked. First time for everything.\"\n\nLynn nodded, quirking her whiskers. “You want some back up?\"\n\n“If you want to.\"\n\n“Oh, I love it when you talk to other girls, little bird. Really butters my clam.\"\n\n“Fuck off.\"\n\nShe gave a winning smile. “Hell yeah, dude. I'm in. Let's escalate this shit. Brittney may want to back off, but, hey, you and me?\" She slapped his chest with the back of her hand. “We're ride or die. We're not gonna back down. Isn't that right?\"\n\n“To the end, baby,\" Ben said.\n\nShe grinned at him. Ben felt an urge to glance away, to avoid eye contact, to make himself safe again, like he always did whenever he felt too vulnerable, but he stopped himself, and he smiled back at her, and, even if the whole experience was awkward and painfully exposing, it felt pretty good to finally take the chance. Lynn smiled at his smile and socked him in the arm.\n\n“By the way,\" she said. “You still got my spit on your face.\"\n\nHe furiously wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his sweater. Lynn chuckled, stepped around him, and went for the double doors. Ben chased after her, laughing to himself.\n\nThey entered the main atrium together, slithering through the crowd like a shark into water.","series":{"name":"Paper Wings","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2260865-paper-wings-chapter-six.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/elWWVgj1-paper-wings-chapter-eight.json"}}