Once Doesn't Mean Always (Straight Furry Story)

3: Conditional Enrolment

Smoke

Later that day

I wait outside my maths room with my classmates, lesson 4 is about to start and our teacher isn't in the room yet to let everyone in. Just as the siren for the start of the lesson sounds, the door opens and everyone rushes in. I sit at an empty table at the back of the room, a couple kids look back at me and whisper stuff between themselves, and I honestly can't care any less about what they say.

I just look out a nearby window, I hear our teacher introduce himself as Mrs Parkins then welcome us and tell us what we would be learning about. I hear her take a break

"Smoke Greypaw?" the white and black cat calls out, I turn my attention to her as I stand up and sling my bag around my back "can you go with Tiana here and go to see Mr Sarem in Administration?" she says, holding out a note with a Thylacine girl standing next to her.  I get up and grab the note from the feline's paw as I leave with the Thylacine, all the other kids go 'ooo'  until Mrs Parkins calms them down 

"no, he's not in trouble" I hear as I walk outside with the girl.

While we walk, the Thylacine girl decides to speak to me

"hi, I'm Tiana" she says as she keeps pace with me, she has a Thylacine's natural colour with brown hear that has the end of the right side of her fringe dyed blue, her eyes, a bright green and 3 earrings each pierce both her ears in a line. I remain quiet for a while, as does she for a moment or 2.

"How's your first day going?" she asks,  

"school is school, doesn't matter what day it is, it's all the same" I reply and she lowers her smile a little.

"Just in here" Tiana says, I open a door and let Tiana in first "thank you" she says as she walks through, and I follow. we walk into a small reception room where a light blue and black husky sits behind the reception desk. The receptionist looks up from her computer screen and smiles "hello, who are you here to see?" she asks as I hand her the note.

The receptionist reads the note and nods

"yep, Mr Sarem's office is just through the door, first room on the left" she says, pointing to a door that stands next to the desk before turning to Tiana

"thank you, you can go to class now" she says, making Tiana nod

"see ya around, Smoke" she says before leaving the building. I just follow the directions I was previously given until I reach Mr Sarem's office.

Mr Sarem

I sit in my office, going through paperwork and files before I hear a knock on my door. I look up from the chores before responding

"come in"I am shocked to see a grey and white wolf walk in, his long, messy grey hair sports a blond and  a brown stroke sticking out from the hair that covers his right eye, a silver stud shines frm his left ear and a black leather jacket covers his school uniform. I smile a little and lean back on my chair

"glad you came, Smoke" I say, he simply sits down and sighs

"there wasn't much else I could do to get out of this, so let's just get this over with" he says with a lack of excitement.

I stop smiling and begin to get serious 

"the reason I called you up here isn't just to check up on how you're doing, it's also to discuss the conditions of your enrolment here at Softhide, the ones your caretaker had agreed with" Smoke leans forward and rolls his eyes 

"I already know I'm not allowed to wear my jacket for long, and I already know that all my teachers know this, what didn't Sandra tell me that's so important?" he asks sounding a little demanding.

"I'll put it to you straight, we all know you're not in the best situation, we all know what you went through and we all want to help in any way we ca-"

"I'll believe you when you actually live through it" Smoke says, cutting me off. I sigh a little "look, I'm just saying that we understand, we had a lot of kids here since this school was open, we been through ones that had these problems and ones that had none, you are just the first who has all these problems at once" I say. I pull a thick file out of a nearby tray and put it on the desk in front of me and Smoke "this is full of copies of your records throughout your education from the two previous schools" I say, opening the folder "12 reports of taking part in fights, 3 reports of you starting fights, grades ranging from E to low Cs, and finally, the report about you hospitalising a boy and beating him almost half to death" I say as I empty out the contents, report by report.

Smoke leans forward and reads a couple report's covers before looking to me. Before he says anything, I cut in and added

"but, we understand that this isn't entirely your fault, that's why we accepted you, you actually have someone trying to raise you right, you don't suffer the abuse you took when you were younger and finally, as par our agreement, you will be undergoing therapy every second Sunday starting from this one coming up" I finish. Still reading some of the reports, Smoke notices something

"what is it you're not telling me?" he asks, surprising me a little

"well" I begin "I know your trying not to but if you start any form of trouble here, more specifically, any repeats of these particular 'incidents', you will be expelled and sent off to a Juvenile detention centre until you're eighteen, this is your last chance at having a normal teen's life" I say, feeling a little sad for him, but keeping my firm composure.

Smoke puts the report he was reading back on the desk and leans back in his chair

"I understand, sir" he says, barely changing his tone. From then on, I ask him questions about how he was going at home and school, as well as what he liked about the school so far and stuff like that, of course, there is little response and the young wolf remains very isolated, quiet and unenthusiastic. this goes on till only another few minutes.

"Well, sorry, didn't notice the time, you better get back to class, 10 minutes of work is better than none" I say as I shift back to a smile. Smoke gets up and slings his bag across his back before he surprisingly lets out some words I would of never expected him to say 

"thank you, sir" my face shows slight shock before shaping into a smile 

"well, got the kindness sorted, now just for that smile" I chuckle a little before Smoke opens the door to leave. I quickly add

"it's no problem, Smoke, if there's any problems, you can come to me, I'm here to help you, mate" I say, Smoke gives a nod and walks out the door, closing it behind him.

You will be just fine; I know things will look up for you soon, buddy I think to myself.