⌚ New Experiences

4. A New Uniform

Spanky was one of the lucky ones. He had a room to himself, and his own bathroom too. That wasn't true for all students. But he had enough money from his family that he could afford to live in Melville House, a high-tech living space near the centre of town, for students who could pay for a little extra luxury. He didn't really care that much for his privilege; although he'd never really thought about how it would feel not to have every luxury at his disposal. Right now, he was glad to have a private bathroom simply because it would be easier to show Master what he looked like.

Spanky looked at himself in the mirror, raised his phone to take a picture, and then lowered it again. He'd finally seen what should have been obvious minutes before. He was wearing clothes he'd never seen before, and they looked really new.

He was in a one-piece outfit, like a kind of boiler suit but it stopped above his knees. The fabric looked like denim from a distance, but when he rubbed his paw on the front he found it was just rough cotton, with the pattern of the weave plainly visible. In the centre of his chest was a picture of a spaceship, like an astronaut's mission badge. Well, not exactly like one, because they were usually round and this one was square. And it didn't have any words round the edge, but it did have a spaceship and a star. That was close enough, he was sure, so he decided right away that it was his mission badge. Every time he wore these clothes, he could pretend it was a space suit, and he was a big brave astronaut. The first fox walking on the moon, so brave, and everybody would want to see him now.

He would have thought more about how famous he must be, to be an astronaut. But then his phone gave a little bleep, and he knew Master would be talking to him. Master would be so proud of him, being an astronaut and all.

«𝖣𝗂𝖽 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗍𝖺𝗄𝖾 𝖺 𝗉𝗂𝖼𝗍𝗎𝗋𝖾?» Master asked. «𝖣𝗈 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝗇𝖾𝗐 𝗈𝗎𝗍𝖿𝗂𝗍?»

'𝖸𝖾𝗌, 𝗂𝗍'𝗌 𝗀𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗍!' Spanky typed back quickly, and then stopped a second to think. Of course, the space suit had to be a present. It had been wrapped up around the blocks, that was why the package had been so much bigger than the toy inside. He must have been so excited, he put the new clothes on and didn't even think about it.

He took a picture of himself in the mirror now, and sent it to Master. He was so proud of being an astronaut. That would mean he could play space whenever he wanted. He'd never been so happy with a present before.

𝖳𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗄 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗄 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗄 𝗒𝗈𝗎! 𝖨𝗍𝗌 𝖺𝗐𝖾𝗌𝗈𝗆𝖾!

«𝖸𝗈𝗎 𝗅𝗈𝗈𝗄 𝗌𝗈 𝖼𝗎𝗍𝖾 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍. 𝖲𝗈 𝗁𝗈𝗐 𝗈𝗅𝖽 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝗒𝗈𝗎?»

'𝟤𝟤'  Spanky tapped on his phone and answered without thinking. Then he looked up at himself, and realised what was wrong with this picture. Or... not necessarily wrong, just different. He was dressed like a cub, there was no way it could be anything else. Shortalls, and a striped T-shirt in baby blue and white. And he'd just spent half an hour playing with blocks. He couldn't believe it had taken him so long to realise.

'𝖸𝗈𝗎 𝗆𝖺𝖽𝖾 𝗆𝖾 𝖺𝖼𝗍 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾 𝖺 𝖼𝗎𝖻?' he asked. He wanted to know if there was a way to say it that didn't sound weird, but he couldn't think of one.

«𝖸𝗈𝗎'𝗋𝖾 𝖾𝗇𝗃𝗈𝗒𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗂𝗍?»

Spanky started typing a response without thinking again. It was a weird thing to do, he'd never expected anything like this. And he was sure that Master would have him doing things that cubs shouldn't even think about. But as soon as he actually thought about the question, he realised that he was actually enjoying it. He'd had a lot of fun trying to spell Master's name with those blocks, even though it was something he should normally have been able to do in a minute. Maybe it didn't matter that this was weird, as long as he was having fun.