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Stories by: Mirri |
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Stories by: Mirri |
Chapter Nigh
After having waved goodbye to Kesonam, Mirri
proceeds towards her own are of the school for the first lesson. Off in Mirri’s wing,
it is another day of AP Physics. The concept of space rather bores Mirri, which shows by
the way she keeps herself occupied, watching little flames bounce from claw to claw with
undivided attention. Her mind often wanders back to the time when Kesonam and her were
staff fighting, and of course their little love episode too. Without thinking, she lets
out an enlengthed sigh of joy, which is dually noted by the rest of the class. It is hard
not to notice the emotion behind that particular type of sigh, some of the girls giggle
while most of the males just roll their eyes. Mirri takes no real notice of them, much too
occupied with her own little dream world. The teacher seems not to notice, or care. It
will more likely be Mirri’s grade that is affected rather than the teacher’s
spirit, ”And then if we add a negative charge to the ion coils here--”
An unexpectedly loud knock on the door wakes
up most of the class with a gasp and the teacher turns to the door, correcting the tiny
glasses on his muzzle, ”Come.”
The door is pushed open to reveal the school
principal, resulting in a silent and simultaneous *gulp* from most of the males in the
class, each one sitting stiff on the edge of their seats. It seems like everyone of them
thinks he has come to drag them away for an interrogation.
First the formal greetings of course, just to
draw out the pain, ”Good morning Mr. Ubishan”, the principal smiles and then
lets his chilly gaze fall to the classroom for a few silent moments...
”I have a new student for you, his name
is..”, the principal takes a moment to look at the reference card and finishes,
”..Boogwa, Boogwa Shadowlin.” The small, timid figure of a fox appears in the
doorway as the principal steps aside.
The class exhales in a moan of relief.
Mr. Ubishan takes the card and examines it
for a while before nodding to the principal, who quickly disappears back to the confines
of the school hall.
”So, transferred from Gwydion Middle
School, hmm?” he addresses the small fox boy, ”Well, take a seat and I’ll
fill you in later. We’re working on the physics of repulsors right now.”
From Mirri’s first impression, the fox
does not look like much of anything. Clearly a nerd, unlike herself, he is different on
many levels. He wears a pair of glasses way bigger than his eyes, a somewhat neutral blue
T-shirt with a 3D illustration on it, Khaki shorts and slippers. His strangely dark
colorings actually make him look more like a skunk instead of a fox. In his arms he
clutches his backpack, which seems a little too big for someone his size. The timid fox
has to walk all the way through the classroom to the back row for a free seat, while the
many, silent eyes stare at him constantly. Once he has taken his seat in the classroom he
looks around quickly, stressed and afraid. Mirri can imagine why, his whole attitude just
cries out for someone to bully him. She can sense his fear and before she knows it, the
feeling manages to sneak into her heart. The tigress turns and sends a friendly smile one
row back at him, but he just gazes back with those huge, round eyes, magnified by the big
glasses, as if she had just told him she wants to be the first to humiliate him.
From what Mirri’s sensitive ears can
pick up, the other classmates are commenting about him and discussing their future plans
for him.
He was not half wrong. Mirri definitely wants
to meet him before the others have a chance.
The intercom system beeps and the students
are out of their chairs and out the door, while the teacher tries to convince them that
they have homework to do, ”Tomorrow we will go through pages 250-342 and I expect you
to have read it and made notes of everything important so you can be active in the
discussion of why commercial in-planet freighters use hoverpads instead of ordinary
rockets for propulsion.”
Just as Mirri suspected, the new kid is not
going anywhere. It is much safer in here in your seat than out in the hall with all those
strangers. The tigress turns her attention to him and unwittingly produces a frightened
whine from the fox, ”Cool it. I’m not gonna hurt you or anything. Hi, I’m Mirri. What’d you say your name was again?”
Those two huge eyes stare back at her in
slight distrust and surprise, ”Boogwa.”
Mirri keeps smiling, a family trick,
”Boogwa. Nice ta meetcha. So how come you’re in here with all of us? No offense,
but you don’t look quite as.. old.”
The fox nods a bit, ”I’m just
smart.”
Mirri grins, ”And confident. I like
that. So you’re telling me you’re so smart they made you skip a couple
classes?”
Another nod.
”Coolness. I’ve never met anyone
this smart before. Honored.”, she bows and smiles still. Boogwa gazes back at her,
still very reluctant to say or do anything, but Mirri can tell she is breaking through his
defenses, ”I’m just an ordinary tigress. Well, sorta. I’m at the same magic
level now as only the oldest students here. How ‘bout you, you’re taking magic
too?”
Boogwa nods, ”Only because I have
to.”
Mirri grins and leans a bit closer,
”Aww, what’s wrong with that? I like magic!”
The fox shakes his head, ”Not me.”
She cants her head at him, ”Why not? Too
hard for you?” She winks and tosses a palm-sized ball of flames from behind her back,
over the head and onto his table in front of her. The fox yelps and jumps out of his
chair, startled.
”Oh, sorry about that Boogwa. It
can’t hurt you, don’t worry. C’mon, sit down again.”
Boogwa shakes his head and clutches his
backpack even harder.
”C’mon, don’t be such a sissy.
It’s just an illusion.” She lets her extended hand flare up briefly in a bright
light to show him that it does not harm her, ”See?”
The black fox just keeps still.
Mirri sighs, ”Alright suit yourself. Oh
by the way, do you have any experience with bullies?”
Boogwa frowns a bit, ”What do you
mean?”
”I mean, do you know how to defend
yourself when they grab you and drag you off to the fountain or restroom or
wherever?”
Boogwa shakes his head plainly.
”I thought as much. Well, if you
don’t value your dignity or anything, just cry for help as loud as you can. Sometimes
a nearby fur will take pity on you and help you out.” She winks and grabs her
backpack as she leaves the classroom, ”Take care Boogwa.”
Mirri finds her locker in the hall and
exchanges books and notepads with it, getting ready for her next class. Beside her, the
class’ biggest clique of females stands giggling over something. She shuts her locker
and finds them all staring at her, ”What?”
”Nothing Mirri.” One of the
especially decorated ones replies. Another giggle goes through the group, ”Yeah,
nothing.”
Mirri rolls her eyes, ”You wanna tell me
what it’s about this time, or just run away giggling your heads off as usual?”
They consult each other with a look before
the leader speaks, ”Okay Mirri. Come to the gym in the north wing after class.
You’ll see.” And then they run away giggling their heads off.
Mirri murmurs something and almost rams right
into Boogwa as she turns, ”Ah! What are you doing?”
”I apologize. But I do not know the
whereabouts of my class. I am supposedly going to exercise Basic Magic.”
Mirri nods, ”Alright you can come with
me. It’s on the way to my class.”
Boogwa follows and has to take a few more
steps then her to keep beside her the whole time, ”So. Um. What class are you
attending now?”
Mirri grins to herself, *that* was an attempt
to make conversation when you have nothing to talk about, if she ever saw one, ”IM.
Intermediate Magic. It’s sorta your own choice in what order you want to learn the
magic, you just have to learn certain things in a certain time span and then there’s
a big test about everything in the end that you have to pass. Right now I’m working
on a project with time magic, trying to make myself move faster. I have an advantage over
the others since my mom is a natural at fire magic, I can already do what they demand of
you in Pyrokinesis at this level with my brain tied behind my back.”
Boogwa frowns at her, but smiles as she
laughs at her own joke, ”Cool..” Somehow, he did not make it sound as if this is
a word he uses very often.
”How about you? Do you take all your
classes except magic at advanced level?”
Boogwa shakes his head, ”Not as of this
time. They wish to initiate me at Intermediate in all subjects and observe my performance.
But I estimate they will find my effort much too adept for Intermediate and soon enough
advance me to the highest level of teaching in all my strong subjects.”
”Boogwa?”
”Yes?”
”Can you speak like a normal fur
too?”
”What are you referring to?”
Mirri does not know whether to laugh or cry,
”I’m ‘referring’ to the fact that highly educated scholars would
prob’ly understand what you’re saying, but that right here language like that
will only buy you a front row view of the toilet bowl, upside down.”
Boogwa swallows, ”So.. what action am I
supposed to rely on?”
The tigress points to a nearby door,
”First you’re gonna learn some basic magic in there, and then you’re gonna
wait right here till I come pick you up after class, alright?”
Boogwa nods, ”That sounds appreciative.
Have a grand time.”
”You too Boogwa. You too..” Mirri
moves further down the corridor and shakes her head. That guy will not survive a day
here...
Mirri pushes her way through the crowd
towards the place where she left her newfound fox friend. Just as she had feared he stands
encircled by five large furs, one of them from her physics class. He is still clutching
his backpack and looking up at the taller furs with that frightened expression Mirri knows
quite well already. One of the furs lifts his head and breaks out laughing, ”Yeah,
you’re damn right we have a demeanor of nearly antagonistic character!”
She takes a deep breath and hurries over to
the group, roughly shoving one of them in the back so she can get through, ”Excuse
me, he’s with me.” She grabs Boogwa’s wrist and yanks him out of the circle
before anyone really finds out what is happening and ducks into the crowd with him,
”You okay? Did they threaten you or anything?”
Boogwa scurries behind her as fast as he can
to keep up, ”They stated that they would lay their paws on me and treat me in must
unappreciative manners.”
Mirri nods as she deciphers his messages,
luckily for Boogwa she reads a lot. You have to be an almost literary genius just to
understand what he is saying, ”I see. Was this your last class?”
The fox nods, ”Quite so.”
She deems they have removed themselves
sufficiently from the offenders and pulls Boogwa to the side, ”Okay. Look, I have to
go to the gym for the rest of the day and wait for my friends to finish class. Are you
taking your bike home or something?”
Boogwa shakes his head, ”Not exactly. My
parents are coming to retrieve me.”
Mirri nods, ”Alright, just go to the
parking lot and wait for them. And try to stay out of sight, okay?”
The black fox nods, ”Alright.”
”Now get going. I’ll see you
tomorrow in physics.”
Boogwa turns and disappears out of sight
quickly as the crowd swallows him. Mirri exhales deeply and heads for the gym in the other
wing, idly wondering what she is about to find there.
The five girls stop giggling as Mirri sets
herself down beside them on the benches overlooking the gym hall, ”Well? You gonna
tell me what this is all about?”
Another of those annoying collective giggles.
Then one of them pulls herself together, ”This is were we come each afternoon. To
watch the males.” She points at the basketball court down below where things are
really heated now.
”I see..”, Mirri just glares at
them all as they dreamily keep gazing down at the players.
”Oooh, I’d give anything to have a
class with someone here. Why can’t just one of those strong, handsome males take
philosophy or something.” A longing sigh washes through the group.
Mirri looks down and agrees that some of the
males running around on the court are quite.. striking. She decides to keep quiet and
observe for the moment. Kesonam down on the court spots her and waves at her, she waves
back naturally. Tika is nowhere in sight, however. She seems to remember something about
him having soccer practice today instead. He probably already went home.
One of the girls points down, ”There he
is! Oooh..” She melts with a silly grin on her muzzle while the others giggle away.
Mirri tries to see who she is pointing at, ”What, the red wolf?”
The others roll their eyes in unison,
”Duh, Mirri! We’re talking about the two muscular ones down there.”
Mirri looks again and notices a horse and a
bull anthro, who are both quite massive from the looks of it, ”Oh, those two.”
She thinks for a bit, ”This is why you skip classes once in a while? To come down
here and watch those two bouncing around?” She takes the following deep sigh from
everyone as a big yes.
”I wonder what it would be like to
really get their attention”, one of them dares herself to say, producing a loud
giggling from everyone else and a few red ears and cheeks. Mirri just groans.
Ten eyes turn to look at her critically,
”Now what Mirri?”
The tigress opens her arms, ”Why
don’t you just go find out instead of sit here and giggle?”
The ten eyes become much wider and a few jaws
drop too, ”What are you saying??”
Mirri smirks, ”I’m saying, why
don’t you find out if you’re so interested? Or are you afraid you’ll be
disappointed by their lack of intellect?”
The five furs look around at each other,
”But.. we can’t just do something like that. They’re in a completely
different wing and all of them have lots of girls hanging around them all the time.”
The leader squints her eyes at the tigress, ”Not even you could get them to look at
you twice.”
Mirri is not usually one to be drawn into
silly dares, but she smells a chance to trick all of them big time here, ”Oh yeah?
How much you wanna bet?”
The five females consult each other again,
”You’re saying you’ll go down there, force your way through the crowd and
just.. talk to them!?!”
Mirri nods, ”Sure, why not?”
The mere concept seems completely lost to the
others, “But they’ll just see you as another one of the crowd and tell you to go
back in the line.”
Mirri smiles superiorly, showing off one of
her fangs, ”So you’re saying you don’t wanna bet?”
Another conference, ”Sure. What?”
Mirri thinks, ”200 credits?”
”200!?!?”
The tigress grins, ”More? Okay, 350
then?”
The leader shakes her head, ”Nononono..
no little talk is worth that much.”
One of the girls laughs, ”Hah,
you’d have to at least kiss him at that price!” The rest of the group giggles,
but their smiles stiffen as Mirri has not changed her expression one bit.
”Alright. I’ll kiss one of the
handsome males while everyone else is looking for.. 500. That’s just 100 credits
each.” She ignores the blinking and staring eyes at her. The group whispers for a
long time before the leader speaks, ”So you’ll go kiss one of the furs down
there at random? What if they push you away?”
Mirri thinks, ”Well, if I fail I’ll
give each of you 100 credits I guess.”
They all stick their heads together one more
time, ”100 credits is a lot of money, but what are the chances she’ll find
someone who won’t refuse her?” The leader smiles and holds out her paw,
”Okay, you have yourself a bet, tigress. You go down there after their class and you
kiss any one of the popular furs.”
Mirri smiles and slaps paws with her,
”You got it.”
The intercom beeps and the whistle sounds
across the hall. Most of the sweaty males hurry into the shower room, but the popular ones
wait for the usual small crowd to gather around them and tell about how good they were
today. The six furs on the bench rise in union and move down to the court, Mirri in the
lead and the others waiting by the side of the court, whispering amongst themselves.
Mirri takes a deep breath, and sets course
for a certain lion and his small gathering. Kesonam stands with three of his friends and
one of their girlfriends, which Mirri deems must be sufficiently to be accepted as a
crowd. She waltzes right over to him, pushing the two furs in front of him out of the way,
”Don’t mind me boys..”
Kesonam sends her a strange, wondering glance
at just the right moment as she suddenly removes the guy he was talking to, ”Mirri,
what is going--” She slaps a paw over his muzzle and whispers, ”Sssh! Play along
and I will explain everything later. You have no idea how much it will cost you if you
refuse me now..” She presses her chest against his, grabs his head in both paws and
plants a big kiss right on the middle of his muzzle. *smack*
The quite convincing and dumbfounded
expression Kesonam offers the world as she moves away and turns to walk back to the
others, fits absolutely perfect into Mirri’s plan.
”I don’t believe it.” The
leader tries, probably the first one to realize that she actually did it, the others are
just gaping still.
Mirri shoves at her chest, teasingly,
”Believe it. Don’t forget to bring my prize tomorrow, K girls?” She turns
and walks up to grab her backpack by the benches before making her way to the parking lot,
hoping to catch a ride home with Kesonam as soon as someone snaps him back to reality
again...
