FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hello everyone! After reading and re-reading this story, I thought that it could have been better. This is loosely based on actual events and I thought it could have been more 'real' so I decided to revise it! I've made a change in the entire plot I think you all will like. I have also changed the main character's name from Dontae, to the more traditional Donte.

I am also going back to revise several other of my stories including my all time favotire story (which is not posed here yet) 'Rafello the Raven Son of Jack, the Wolf'. Expect to see it on yiffstar within the next 2 weeks, you won't be disappointed by my revisions!

Enjoy!

========================

The Real Folk Blues: High School Dys

Revised Edition! Version 2.0

by Blue Wolf

(Revised 5-10-05)

========================

Chapter 1: Freshmen Orientation

I ~ Day one

It was the first day of High School freshman orientation. A day where young furs meet friends they haven't seen a long time since school let out. A day where you get to meet enemies from rival middle schools. A day where you get to tour your new school. It is a transition from childhood to being a teenager.

High School! That wonderful place that is the true beginning of the social behavior. Here, a person tries to make an image for him or herself or get rid of an old one. Popularity is the key, but education is that door.

High School! That horrible place where one is bombarded by orders and strict rules and the threat of not graduating. To not graduate or get kicked out of school could mean death for some young furs. These orders and rules are the pure fibers of that door.

On one side of the door is a carefree childhood: laughter and play. On the other side of that door is maturity: the real world where things are earned and fought for.

Here in these mere 4 years of high school, one rarely realizes that the rules of wild apply to everyday life. You fight or die and you die for what you fight for. It is a killer instinct and those who lack it will parish, become a name on a list of people 'academically discharged' or dropped out, or non-graduating.

In High School you have to 'be' somebody. Be that foot ball player, be that valedictorian, be that student who fought against racism , be the one who will be forever known as 'The Greatest Musician', be anything else but an name on a list or a 'seat filler' in class.

This is the story of a Wolf's journey through this 4 - year door, this 4-year battle, this 4-year struggle to Supremacy, Popularity, and Academic Achievement. This wolf's journey will be tough but it the complications of real furs lives. High School is that introduction, that doorway to the real world where things are earned and fought for. The fight is hard, but all furs must go through it.

It is uplifting. It is depressing. It is love . It is hate. It is the teacher and the student. It is the solutions and the problems of everyone. This story is The Real Folk Blues.

* * *

Donte walked into to the huge 3 - story, deep orange painted, cafeteria and took a seat at one of the round tables near the door. There was barely enough room to walk around. Three of his friends were already sitting there, all of them girls. It was the first day of a week-long ninth grade summer orientation at the prestigious Franklin Technical High School, the best in the city, academically. They were the only four furs who were accepted from their middle school and they knew each other since they were in the 3rd grade.

The 14 year old wolf sat next to his cousin, Bari. The group began to talk about how cool it was to finally be in high school and what the did during the early part of the summer, until a middle aged palomino horse stood in front of the cafeteria and demanded everyone's attention.

He announced himself as Principal Dr. Henri and then proceeded to give a lengthy speech congratulating all 850 of the new freshmen class, the largest in the history of Franklin Tech. Principal Henri's speech got a bit dry. Donte squirmed in his seat. His tail would wave side to side and hit Bari on her leg in a rhythm of a song she hated. He did this purposely to get a reaction from her. She was half dozed when she felt his tail tapping the horrible melody on her leg. She grabbed it hard and yanked it, making Donte yelp loudly in the quiet auditorium but he had a wide grin on his muzzle.

Dr. Henri loved to used his gargantuan vocabulary whenever he could. Bari counted the word 'expeditiously' at least 5 times in his speech, and several other words of 10 or more letters, frequently. It got quite boring and after about an hour, he finally wrapped it up and he split the room into several groups for a tour of the school. Each group was guided by one upperclassman on the orientation committee.

Donte was in a group with his 3 friends. Their tour guide was a senior, a 5 foot 3" tiger with a Franklin Tech football jersey with his name, Todd, on the back. He said to his group of about 40 freshmen that the school was infested by millions, maybe billions of roaches and rats and advised then to never leave their stuff open or unguarded. He also told the group about how some of the meaner seniors play senior pranks on the new freshmen every year and other mean things senior would do throughout the year. This made Donte a little nervous. Todd seemed to like being around the new students as their guide. He always had a friendly smile on his muzzle and appeared 'knowledgeable' about the school, in Donte's eyes.

Franklin Tech was a 8 - story tall monster of a high school built in 1903 by some exalted architect. It was one of the many 'doorways' to maturity. The floor and walls of the hallways were made of marble. The walls were oftentimes cracked and broken or repaired with cheap cement, but in some places there was just a hole in the wall. Disrespectful furs threw garbage into the holes in the walls years ago which helped the population of mice and roaches explode. These roaches were large, fat, and bold: immune to all kinds of poisons due to years of failed extermination efforts. They were called 'Franklin Roaches' because they were unique to Franklin Tech and VERY much populous.

There were two sets of elevators, which the students were not permitted to use. They were old and could stop between floors at anytime. The rooms were on a grand scale and most of which could fit 45 furs comfortably. Each classroom had a ceiling of at least 14 feet and in most rooms the windows had beautiful stone arches coved with cheap beige shades that were old and torn in come places. The rest of the school was pretty much the same as everything else at Franklin Tech: out of date, used up, and falling apart.

After the tour was a short lunch period at around 11am. All of the groups met up at the cafeteria. Every middle school had their own table or area. Unfortunately, Taft Middle School, the school Donte was from, was the smallest. The wolf looked around and noticed that many of the other furs had on their old school uniform or tee shirt. The rather generous group next to the single, not even filled, Taft table was Cranbrook Academy, the best private middle school in the entire state. There had to be at least 200 of them. Most of them had on their burgundy Cranbrook tee-shirt on. Despite the size of the group, they only took up about two-thirds of the right half of the right side of the cafeteria.

On the other side of the little Taft table was the infamous Span Middle School section. Spain was on the ghetto side of the city, the East side. They were one of the very few middle schools in the city to have a nationally recognized marching band. About 70 of the 100 furs in that section got into Franklin Tech on a band recommendation instead of taking the placement test like most of everyone else.

Donte talked a little with the furs at his table. Alexis, the vixen on his left, was in concert band with him. Dontae was first chair and she was second in the trumpet section. Bari, the wolf on his right, was Donte's cousin. They were really close since they lived right next door to each other all of their life. Keisha, the panthress across from Dontae, was Taft's valedictorian. She hung out with Dontae and Bari for years. The three girls at Donte's table were all dime pieces, the sexiest of the sexiest. Dontae rarely compared himself to the other guys. To him, his somewhat muscular build, deep brown eyes, and powerful five-foot-seven-inch frame was just ho-hum. He hung out with the finest of all of girls at his middle school, but considered them 'out of his league' and so he never even attempted to go out with them, he was simply their best friend.

They talked about how run down the school was and how unsanitary it had to be to have so many roaches and rats. Through the tour neither of them even saw one but they doubt Todd would have lied to them. They three females at Donte's table chit chatted about how fine Todd was. His perfect orange an black stripes, brown eyes, blond headfur, mid-sized muscular build. After a long while of them talking about their Perfect Tiger God, Donte just kind of zoned out. It's what he always did when the girls talked about a guy they liked at school. He would just clear his mind then think of something else, but this time he kept on thinking about Todd for some reason. It was a sort of envy mixed with hatred feeling Donte had for the orange and black God that was worshiped by the three girls. Envy, because, in his eyes, he would never look as good as Todd. Hatred, because for some reason he could not get that image of him out of his head. It taunted him as if the very thought of Todd just screamed 'LOOK AT ME!!'. Donte shook out of it and said, "Look, lets just stop talking about your precious Todd for just five minutes, please!" As soon as he said that the group's attention was on fur moving his way through the crowd.

A somewhat antediluvian wolf took the center of the cafeteria and demanded everyone's attention with the sound of his whistle. It took a little while but everyone got quiet. He was very muscular and had on a tight white shirt with the schools emblem on the top left side and pair of dark green shorts. His fur was a dark grey and he seemed miserly. He announced himself as Coach Raymond Wyn, head coach for the school. He talked briefly about school policies and procedures. They were pretty basic, as in, the same stuff from middle school and common sense, but it was a little different. If a fur were to have three strikes against him or her, they would get C.S.T (Concentrated Study Time). It was basically a 3 hour Saturday detention. If you failed to go to C.S.T. then you got suspended for three days. "3 hours or 3 days" Coach Wyn said. He then split everyone up again into the same groups.

This time, Todd guided the group to a large classroom on the 4th floor. They all sat down at a desk facing a chalkboard and an old female Manx everyone a worksheet. When everyone sat down with worksheet in hand, she stood in front of the class. She introduced herself: Ms. Gates. She had black and grey stripes, glasses, a granny dress on, and she was 'rotund'. She almost immediately started yelling at two wolves that were talking when she introduced herself. Ms. Gates gave them a page long list of classroom rules and made them write a 4 page paper on classroom behavior, due tomorrow since ninth grade orientation was a week long event. She wrote down their names and continued with what she was saying.

Ms. Gates was one of the 5 ninth grade English teachers. She only taught advance placement (A.P) English, and was extremely strict. The worksheet was about study habits, the Blooms Taxonomy and 'the steps to success'. Ms. Gates did a poll of the class to see how many hours a day each of them studied each week. No one studied for more than 2 hours. "In order to be successful here in Franklin Tech," Ms. Gates yelled, "You must study for at least 12 hours each work week and on Saturday and Sunday you must study for an additional 8 hours. During this week, myself and several other AP instructors will teach you how to do this." Just then the bell rang. The young furs had been in that classroom for an hour and a half. Everyone rushed to get up. "Oh no you did not! Everyone sit down! When I call your name and check you off the list, then you can leave." Ms. Gates said. That took a whole 5 minutes.

Todd guided the group down to the next class. It was in a forum on the 3rd floor. He said that there was a forum on every floor except for on the first and eighth. They all walked in and took a seat. The walls were white and had an orange ceiling. The forum was quite large. The seats were stadium style and there was a movie projector connected to a laptop in the front row. Other groups came in and sat with Donte's group. The seats filled up very quickly.

When everyone had calmed down, three furs walked in. A middle aged, kind of pudgy, fox; a coyote with a bushy beard and thick glasses; and a young female rottweiler who must have been an upper class man. The coyote introduced everyone. His name was Mr. Rambo, the Fox's name was Mr. Jones, and the female upperclassmen's name was Kate. Mr. Jones was head of the science department and Mr. Rambo was head of the math department and they both taught senior and sophomore Ap classes. The rottweiler was part of the orientation committee. She passed everyone a yellow folder and two worksheets, while Mr. Jones and Mr. Rambo set up for a Power Point presentation.

Donte, Bari, Alexis, and Keisha were thinking about how hard it was going to be at this school. "What if all the teachers are like Ms. Gates?" Bari said. "Well there goes my 4.0." Keisha said with a laugh. Todd, who was sitting next to her on the last seat of the row, started laughing too. "Don't worry, there are only a hand full of teachers like her. The rest are pretty much cool." he said. Todd was staring straight into Donte's eyes. Donte looked around to see if he was trying to see past him, but there was no one else, so he just looked down and checked his blue shirt to see if it was buttoned up wrong. It wasn't. It was alright. "What is he looking at?" Donte thought to himself with a puzzled look. Todd then looked away.

Mr. Jones told everyone to write their name on their folders and worksheets and to bring it with them everyday during the orientation. Mr. Rambo talked about the different math and science classes at the school and how to try out for Ap classes as a ninth grader.

On the worksheets were 40 math problems. The new furs were provided calculators and instructed to do the first half. They were problems similar to the ones on the entrance exam to get into Franklin Tech. Donte, Bari, Alexis, and Keisha kind of struggled through the test, much like the other furs. It was 10 minutes to one-o-clock, almost time to go, when they all finished. Kate went around the forum collecting the worksheets. When she reached Donte's row, she whispered something into Todd's ear which made him laugh a bit. He stood up and started helping her collect the worksheets.

When they were all collected, Todd and Kate handed them to Mr. Rambo. He reminded everyone to bring their yellow folder everyday during orientation. He then dismissed everyone. He fingered through the papers and handed them back to Kate and told her to sort them alphabetically. Donte and the girls left out the room, down the stairs and to the parking lot where Bari's mother was waiting for them.

Outside the sky was gray, the clouds hung low to the Earth. The car was filled with cigarette smoke. The four of them got in, Bari in the front, the rest in the back. Bari's mother dropped off Alexis and Keisha off first. The lived only a few blocks from Dontae and Bari. It was a long ride home, about 20 miles. Franklin Tech was near the downtown area and all four of them lived on the far edge of town.

II ~ Donate and Bari: Two worlds split

They lived right next door to each other all of their lives. Bari and Donte were like best friends but lately they got a bit distant. Today was first time they had done anything together in about two months or so. They lived next door to each other but were worlds apart.

At the age of eight, they both were in elementary school, just beginning to know who their true selves were, just beginning to know what life was . . .

Bari was into rap music. Her favorite rapper was a wolf named Double D. He was always draped in gold and diamonds and he always had at least two hoes; one on his left and another on his right. He was a true gangster. Before he made his first record deal, he sold weed in Bari's neighborhood. Bari's mother was one of his best costumers. He would be on the corner of 7mile and Penway or parked in front of someone's house selling weed out of his car. He always had his mob of flunkeys around him, catering to his every whim. His rhymes varied from fast paced to almost no rapping at all in a single he called "silence" which was basically just 5 minutes of him saying one word, "Silence" and a lot of half naked women dancing all around him. Bari admired him at age eight.

Donte, on the other hand, was into the arts. In his spare time he would draw and sketch. His favorite artist was a Fox named Marius. He did a show that came on at 6am on Saturdays that taught furs how to paint and draw. Dontae would get up every Saturday at the crack of dawn with his pencil and paper and sit in front of the tv. He would do everything Marius did, but by then end of the show, it would look nothing like his. So Donte tried his hand at sculpture, with no luck. His best effort turned out to be an ashtray. He had almost given up on his search for expression at age eight. It wasn't until middle school when he found his calling: music.

Bari and Donte, despite their differences, were cousins and best friends. They hung out everyday either on the block with Adrian and Pete, or riding their bikes all though the neighborhood. They roamed for miles and miles on end on their bikes in the summer. From sun-up to sunset. Their tails would wave in the air like flags and their fur would fly in the wind. It was as free as two 8-year-olds could get. Bari's mother, Sara, had an old car she didn't drive much anymore. She would give them driving lessons on the weekends. She was Donte's favorite aunt. She let them do anything they wanted when they came to visit. Simply put, Bari and Dontae were very close.

But time moves on and interests grow and change. Bari became a thug through middle school, started smoking weed and would hang out until early in the morning with her boyfriend who was 10 years older than her and a smalltime drug dealer named Lewis. She was always high and so was her mother. Donte, on the other hand, joined concert band in the 6th grade and learned to play the trumpet. This is where he met Alexis, a fellow novice trumpet player. By the time Donte was in the 8th grade, he won first chair over 8 other trumpet players. Alexis was a close second chair. Music had become Donte's life. The streets had become Bari's. Every since Bari got caught smoking a joint, Donte saw little and little of her until this orientation. Bari was a smart girl and so was Donte. They both got accepted easily.

* * *

III ~ Day Two

The four furs met up at the same lunch table as the other day. So did the other 896 furs that made up the new freshmen class. Principal Henri made a short announcement then he dismissed them to their groups. Todd came and collected his group of about 40 furs and took them back to Ms. Gates class.

Ms. Gates told them to take out their yellow folder and she passed out several sheets of blank white paper. She wrote a few sentences on the board. "What are your thoughts about high school? What are your expectations? Your goals? What do you expect to get on your first report card here at Franklin Tech? Write a 3 page composition on this topic. Due in an hour!!!" everyone gasped when she finished writing it. "And I want everyone to come up in front of the class and read it out loud. I'll be going in alphabetical order. We obviously won't get done today so we will be doing this all week." Ms. Gates said. Donte sighed. His last name was Tie so he had a while. Donte, Alexis, Bari, and Keisha all sat in the back. Todd sat next to Donte.

At the end of the hour, she collected the papers and told everyone they would have more time tomorrow since no one had over a 2 pages. Then for the remaining hour, Ms. Gates told everyone to take out the materials from yesterday and she went over them again. When she talked, she demanded silence.

They went to Mr. Rambo and Mr. Jones' forum next. For those two hours, the class got back their results from the mini test they took yesterday. Everyone passed it with at least a 85%. Mr. Rambo then taught a short math lesson to refresh their memory. Soon after, he told everyone to do the second half of the booklet. Near the end of the two hours, Mr. Jones passed out another booklet except this one had 40 science problems and questions.

"I want everyone to take this home and LOOK over it. Tomorrow I will go over it with you. I've included a few . . . challenging physics problems. Me, along with the two seniors here, Todd and Kate, will teach you how to do them easily. My senior physics class don't believe I can teach this to freshmen. Hmm, we'll show them!" the exited Mr. Jones said as the bell rang.

Todd then guided the group back to the cafeteria on the second floor. Dontae and the girls sat back at the same table. Today they had on their middle school tee shirts. It was blue and white with a bulldog on the front with the Taft Middle School emblem. The room was alive with the chatter of the new, young, eager students.

Todd, along with all the other seniors on the orientation committee, went to the front of the large room where each one of them stood in front of a table. They set up a few banners, a large poster with pictures on it, and put out a few papers on each table. Principal Henri took the microphone and announced, in his own long winded words, that everyone should try to join an organization or club today. He introduced each of the tables behind him: the By Any Means necessary (BAMN) club, Japanese Anime club, DECA, marching band, pomerettes, majorettes, flag corps, cheerleaders, ROTC, chess club, GO club, MOP, football team, baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, and many other clubs. Todd represented the football team. He was the captain.

After Principal Henri introduced each club or organization everyone got up and looked around at each booth. Donte and Alexis went over to the marching band booth. The board on the table had pictures of the band marching during the 4th of July parade from last year.

"Hi, my name is Troy Jones, the trombone section leader. Are you interested in joining the marching band today?" The short, skinny, yet, somewhat buff tiger said with a smile.

"Yeah!" Dontae said as he shook Troy's outreached paw.

Troy then said a few facts about the marching band, like the fact that they were started only 4 years ago and that he and several other furs were the first to join the marching band. They only won a few awards but performed at several performances.

"Just to warn you, there are no easy section leaders! You freshmen will be worked hard, but that's only because we want only the best. What was your chair's in middle school?" Troy asked.

"I was first chair trumpet player." Dontae said.

"I was second chair trumpet." Alexis said.

"We didn't have a marching band though." Dontae added.

"Well, you two should fit in well. But don't forget, don't join marching band to be individuals. You wouldn't last a day in practice if you think like an individual." Troy said. Dontae and Alexis shook their head. Troy passed them each a pen. They signed up and were about to walk away.

"Wait, stop! I have to give you your music!!!" Troy yelled. Dontae and Alexis turned around. Troy went through a small black file cabinet next to him and reached into a folder marked "Trumpet" on the side. He gave them each 5 sheets of music.

"You two have to commit this music to memory by next Monday. That's when summer band practice start. These are 5 intermediate marches. If you need to borrow an instrument, wait until after the orientation and follow me to the band department on the first floor, Ok?" troy said. The two freshmen shook their head and took the music. They took a look at it. It was 10 times as hard as anything they got in middle school. Donte sighed.

The two decided to split up and meet some of the other freshmen and to sign up for a few other clubs.

Donte walked around the room and met three furs he knew from his neighborhood. They joined the basketball team and were looked at joining the baseball team. Two of the three were twins and they shared a variation of Donte's name: Dontae and Santae, but on the block where they lived they were known as little Tae and big Tae since one twin was slightly less muscular than the other. They always played basketball and their father was a baseball coach at the YMCA. The other fur was Tony, a tall, stringy, lanky, coyote. He always hung out with the twins playing basketball. Donte talked with them for a while. They forced him to go over an join the football squad.

The four furs walked over to the football booth. Todd was talking to some of the freshmen and passing out forms for them to sign when he got a glance at the shy Donte being pushed towards the booth by three other furs.

"Come on guys! I'm not tough enough to play football!" Donte pleaded.

"Come on! What are ya? Chicken? Just take the papers home and think about it tonight. I'm signing up!" Tony urged.

"That's because you've been playing football since you were 6, Tony! I have no training!" Dontae yelled. Todd immediately stopped what he was doing and stared at Donte's direction. Tony and the twins pushed Donte through the crowd to the front of the line. Donte took control of himself and stood up straight when he reached the booth. Todd reached out his paw.

"Your Donte, right?" Todd said with a grin. Donte could see his beautiful white teeth.

"Uh, yeah." Donte said shaking a bit. Tony and the twins stood back out of the crowd, but kept an eye on him.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, Donte."

"But I've never had any football training."

"I can teach you . . . privately." Todd said quietly. "I'm the team captain you know."

Donte kinda looked down at the papers on the table. "I don't know. I just joined marching band and they start practice next week. I don't know if I could handle both. . ."

"Well, it is kind of hard to balance both. I was in marching band for a little while. I still have my trumpet at home. Maybe we can jam together sometime?" Todd said with a friendly smile. He had his elbows on the table and looked straight into Donate's eyes. He then wrote his number down a sheet of paper and passed it to him. "Call me if you need help anything. I'll be more than happy to."

Donte took his number and walked off. "What was that all about?" he thought to himself. It didn't even cross his mind that Todd was gay. Donte lived a somewhat sheltered life and the topic of homosexuality was never talked about in his household. He just walked around the cafeteria thinking he just made a really nice friend, not just a senior, but captain of the football squad.

Alexis, Bari, and Keisha joined back up with Donte a few moments later. Keisha joined BAMN2, a canine kind pride club. Bari joined ROTC, the miliary-like training association.

After the last bell rang, Troy made an announcement to all of the future band members telling them to follow him to the band room if they needed to borrow a school instrument. Alexis and Dontae followed him downstairs to the huge band department. It took up half of the first floor by itself. Troy led them to the main band room.

There was a female black wolf that looked about 47 years old holding a pair of drum sticks. She stood up with an almost evil grin on her muzzle. He was strong built and thick, like she was in the military for some years. She twirled the drum sticks in her hand at a fast rate making quick stops as if she was playing a snare drum cage.

"Hello everyone!" She said to the group of about 60 freshmen. She then turned to Troy and whispered, "Look's like a huge turnout this year, eh? How many do you think will survive band camp this year?" she whispered in his ear.

Troy laughed a bit. "I would say about 20, maybe 25 of them." The black wolf and the tiger laughed.

"Well, you all will get to know me VERY well soon. I am the band director, Ms. Allen. I'm sure Troy here passed out your music. You should all have 5 marches with you. Don't lose them because I'm collecting them on Monday whether you know them or not. If you don't know at least 3 of the marches perfectly then don't even waste my time by showing up. Just hand in your music to Troy here and be on your way." She then opened a large door by the entrance of the main band room. "If you need to borrow an instrument to practice on follow me."

They all went into the somewhat small room. It was where the instruments were kept. She went down the line and collected everyone's name and the instrument they took out. Alexis and Dontae took out a trumpet. The trumpet seemed to be the most popular instrument for the guys. Most of the girls took out a clarinet or a flute. Only about 3 people took out a tuba and 10 people took out a baritone horn. The second largest group was the saxophones.

"Now from what I see, I don't want you all to get too accustom to playing the instrument you chose. Most of you will be moved to a different instrument, or moved down to a more ragged instrument since most of these are used by upperclassmen. Now I'm going to ask everyone nicely to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE all week for at least 2 hours straight a day and bring these instruments back the way you got them or your parents will be paying for them. Now go practice!" Ms. Allen said after she passed out the instruments. She sat back in the main band room and practiced her snare drum cage.

Today, Bari's mother had to work late and they had to catch the bus home, but Donte had to pick up a letter for his father from his job downtown. His father had the flu and since Donte was already downtown for orientation, his father just told him to pick up it up for him. He had already called to tell his boss that his son was coming to pick it up.

Donte was about to leave when he decided to use the bathroom. He went to the one on the third floor. The halls were empty since everyone was told to leave immediately after. Donte put his instrument case down on the floor and took a piss in the urinal. He then heard the door open, which kind of startled him. The guy came to the stall directly next to Dontae.

"Hey Donte!" it was Todd. Donte finished pissing a shook his cock. Todd had finished pissing also. He reached over and kissed Dontae on the back of his neck. Dontae dodged quickly and pulled up his pants, tripped over his trumpet case.

"Whoa! What was that, man!" Dontae yelled.

"I I'm sorry man!" Todd said very much ashamed. "I'm never like this! I swear!" he pulled up his pants and ran out of the lavatory.

He left out the bathroom with his trumpet case in one paw and his yellow folder in the other. He left out the school and went to the bus stop. It came within 10 minutes. He picked up his father's check and went home. Donte was stunned by what happened. It was something so odd, his brain just kind of blocked it out. To Donte, it was only a daydream.

IV~ Days 3- 5

The rest fo the week went by pretty fast for the four furs from Taft Middle school. Alexis and Donte practiced the five marches for hours on end everyday when they got home from orientation. They had almost given up. The music was out of her range. There were notes and accents they both never even saw before. Donte learned the music the best he could. Alexis gave up.

"Ok, 'The Purple Carnival' by Harry Alfred, 'Rolling Thunder' by Henry Fillmore, and 'Barnum and Bailey's Favorite' by Karl King are the only three I know so far." Donte said to Alexis over the phone. "I don't know them perfectly and I can't hit most of the notes, but I'm familiar with them. You have to get going! We were supposed to be in marching band together! You know, like old times! Competing over chairs, playing at concerts, marching, the works."

Despite all of his pleading, she still said no and gave up. She gave him her music and went on.

Donte met Todd in the bathroom on the third floor the next day. Todd never even looked his way, in fact, he went out of his way to not look Donte in his beautiful crystal blue eyes. Donte noticed it, but he didn't say anything to him when he would lead them to their classes. It was very strange for Donte. Inside, he had to know if that really happened the other day but on the other hand, suppose it did really happen? What would Donte do? He hated that Perfect Tiger God that the three girls at his table adored so much.

It was Sunday night and Donte was told to be in the band room by nine am tomorrow with a clean white shirt and a pair of jeans on, the music known to the best of his ability, and ready for work. Band practice wouldn't let out until one pm everyday until school started. He went to sleep not expecting what hell he was to experience the next day.