\n I woke up the next morning and sat up slowly. Ow ow ow. That shouldn't hurt... Not that bad at least. Ow. I groaned. I put my hand to my snout and felt it. Not too bad actually. That stopped hurting. I felt my eye. One had swollen a fair bit, the other was fine. I stood and grabbed my glasses and put them on. I looked around and grabbed my phone, turning it on. I walked into the bathroom and relieved myself. I still had a burning sensation from my bladder infection a few years back. I've been very good at not letting that happen again. Which meant, I needed to drink a lot more water than most people. I sighed and turned the water in the shower on hot. I stripped and stepped into the shower.

\n I went upstairs and smelled the coffee pot brewing. Dad's up then. I was in my clothes and ready for everything that today was going to bring. He was cooking bacon and eggs on the stove. I loved Thursday mornings. I woke up to Dad making breakfast and I got to talk with him for a little bit before we both left for the day.

\n "Morning son."

\n "Morning Dad." I rubbed my eyes, still a little sleepy.

\n "Sleep well?"

\n "Yeah, pretty good."

\n "Any good dreams?" He added more bacon to the pan. My family has a certain way of making eggs that most would find disgusting, because it's so easy to do wrong. We add the eggs, add cheese to it, and then some mustard and smother the whole thing with jalapenos and Tabasco sauce. Sophie's only started to like it, which is good because otherwise she only gets cold cereal for breakfast.

\n "Well... there was one..." My hormones surged a little thinking about it, and my tail wagged. Dad turned around and saw the glossy look in my eyes. He laughed.

\n "I remember those dreams. What species?" I smiled. We'd play this game of comparing girls and were very open about the whole subject.

\n "Human." He paused.

\n "Anyone I know?" I've brought a few human and fur girls over before, just dates, but it hasn't been for a while now. I took a sip of my coffee and sat down.

\n "Haley Arnold." I said quickly. Dad paused.

\n "Oh." He continued making breakfast as I sat with my favorite wake-up pill. Sophie came down after a bit and Mom joined her. Sophie was jumping around, very hyper. Normally I wouldn't be in the mood for it, I'd be grumpy and irritable, but last night made something click. She started to poke me. I sighed. This was her favorite game. See how long she could get away with poking me. I turned and chased her out of the kitchen and upstairs into her bedroom. She tried closing the door, but I forced my way in. She squealed with delight. I slipped on her clothes and she bolted down the stairs just as fast as she was up them.

\n I pounced after her and grabbed her on the way down the stairs. She shrieked and was hitting me with her fists as I picked her up and started spinning her around. We were both laughing for a while, until one fist hit my snout.

\n "Ow!" I dropped her and put my paw to my mouth. She looked shocked, and upset. "Sophie! What was that?" I snarled. Her eyes watered up and I knew what was going to come next. But I was too mad, and in a fair amount of pain to care.

\n "I'm sorry." She meekly said. "I was just playing."

\n "Yeah? Well that really hurt!" I knew I shouldn't have snapped like I did then. She burst out crying and mom came into the living room. Sophie ran over to her and started crying into her stomach.

\n "What'd you do?" Mom asked me.

\n "I dropped her cause she punched me in the mouth." Mom looked down at her.

\n "Well you shouldn't have been so rough."

\n "I didn't know that was going to happen." I said defensively. Mom wasn't buying that though.

\n "Brent, I want you to apologize to your sister." I groaned. "I mean it."

\n "I'm sorry Sophie." She sniffled and looked back to Mom's stomach.

\n "I'm sorry too..." She said defeated. Mom walked back into the kitchen muttering something under her breath.

\n "Hey, how bout, after school today, we take you to get some ice cream?" She perked up at that and her tears were suddenly gone.

\n "Okay!" Her tail wagged furiously.

\n "Let's go eat though." I pushed her through the doorway.

\n  

\n I drove to school that morning with my favorite oldies band, Muse playing. I was happy with my car. It was a 2012 Dodge Doomsday, named mocking the old myth that the world was going to end. It was blue with a black top and white detailing. I worked hard keeping it in working condition. It still had problems, like the windows didn't like to roll up all the time, and it was by no means the fastest car of its time, but it drove so that was good enough for me.

\n I turned into the lot for students and walked into the Southside doors. I went upstairs to my locker, where Jake was waiting for me.

\n "Brent." He said with a nod, not looking up from his game. He had an addiction to old JRPGs that was insatiable. I opened the locker and grabbed my binders for my first couple of classes. "Ready for the abuse of Mr. Roberts?"

\n "Let's just get it over with..." I sighed. We walked through, and I had half a mind to start barking at the dinky little Freshman who weren't getting out of our way. The halls aren't for standing around morons... I growled lightly and Jake just patted me on the back.

\n "Calm down man."

\n "They should learn to move their asses." I mumbled loud enough so only he could hear me. I heard a few girls shout in surprise and even more laughing hysterically. I looked over and saw a Rhino plowing his way through the Freshman. I recognized him. His name was Bruce and he was a football player. I think he was the strong safety, but in the panic and confusion of him plowing his way through, I saw an opening and took it, barrelling after him, keeping in the wake of people who spread out. Jake was right behind me. I remembered how a few years ago, he's use my tail to guide me places. It was a joke but people always called him gay because of it.

\n We got to class barely on time and Mr. Roberts had a power point queued up titled "The Ethics of Furs." He glared at me as he started talking. Mr. Roberts was doing this intentionally to toy with me. The Ethics of Furs had so little to do with Economics, but I didn't let him see the hatred on my face. I would never let him have that.

\n  

\n I walked out of that class as fast as I could. Then I heard a voice call. "Mr. Phillips?" I turned and saw Mr. Roberts at the door. "Can I see you for a moment?" I nodded. He walked me into his classroom. "Now then," he sat down comfortably in his chair. "What happened to your face?"

\n "Nothing." I looked away, trying to show the side that wasn't injured. He grabbed an apple he brought from home.

\n "Really?" He took a bite. "I've heard differently." I sighed quietly.

\n "Well you heard wrong. It was an accident."

\n "An accident or nothing?"

\n "Both."

\n "You surely don't expect me to believe that..." He took another bite and gave me a look. "Does your father ever harm you?"

\n "No." I said, a tad defensively.

\n "Are you sure, because I've heard foxes are cruel parents."

\n "You've heard wrong."

\n "Certainly you don't mean that I am uneducated."

\n "I never said that!"

\n "So now you're calling me a liar?" He was ruthless and tactical.

\n "No. I mean that you're wrong in this instance."

\n "Then you mean that you're better than me, because you can't be wrong?"

\n "No!" I was on the verge of shouting.

\n "Then what is it?"

\n "What do you want from me?" I cried out, slamming my fists on his desk.

\n "Did your father beat you?"

\n "No!"

\n "Then who did?"

\n "One of you-" I stopped myself short. I was about to say 'your people.'

\n "I see." He took another bite from his apple. "You're free to go." I turned and left quickly for my next class.

\n "He really did that?" Jake whispered to me in Physics.

\n "Yeah. He's smarter than he looks." I looked at the textbook for any sign of damage as we filled out the form to check out the book. I've always hated the first week of school it's all just pointless busy work and nonsense. I scribbled down what little damage the book had taken in the three years the school had owned it. The district has been trying to put more money into the schools after getting out of the second Great Depression. You would think that people would have learned not to make the same mistakes again, but no. It's aggravating sometimes.

\n  

\n We walked out of class and went our separate ways I stuck a pair of headphones on and walked to the library for my off period. I had been lucky enough to get one this year. Mostly I spent it taking power naps or doing the homework for my AP classes. I got a buzz on my phone and looked down at it as I placed my bag down at a table.

\n 1 New Text Message From: Jake
\n Oh Damn! Hot redhead in my class, sitting next to me! :D

\n I sighed and shook my head. He was always a bit of a womanizer but this last year, something just kinda clicked and it's gone into a bit of overdrive. Like with Lunch yesterday, normally he wouldn't have said something that stupid, but this summer he did something worse. He sat down next to a total stranger at the pool and started applying lotion to her back. He kinda forgot that furs don't really wear sun lotion... It just doesn't work. Plus, it's hard to get out of the fur. She started yelling at him and stood up, leaving the top of her bikini on the bench. He undid it while he was applying lotion to her. She pushed him into the pool and ran out, her top still on the bench. I left after that, not wanting to be seen with him and get banned from the pool like he was.

\n School went on pretty normally after that and before I knew it, the final bell rang and we all booked it out of the school, I strode along at my own pace and got to my locker where, yet again, was Jake.

\n "You up for doing anything?" He asked.

\n "I'm taking Sophie to get some ice cream. You wanna come?" Sophie and Jake got along really well, and I was kinda glad. I could hang out with the two people who I could kinda always count on, and they'd both be able to be ridiculous and random together.

\n "Sure, I got nothin' better to do anyways." He picked up his bag and we walked out of the school together. He hopped in the passenger and waited for me to start up the car. He plugged his mp3 into my radio and blasted some obscure techno music. We pulled out and went to pick up Soph'.

\n  

\n Hey everyone, just thought I'd let you know, my updating rate is probably going to be a little bit slower because I started school yesterday. (Guess which year?) Anyways... Hope you liked this little update. 
\n Kergiby away!