Be Awestruck

Seat Belts Everyone

Dustin rested his elbow on Valerie's shoulder picking out a piece of breakfast broccoli from his teeth with his finger nail. Valerie gagged in disgust but Dustin continued to look the other way, ignoring her reaction. It was her brother's first day of school, technically his very first even though it was freshman year for him. While it was Sophomore for Valerie she felt nervous for her brother. A chill rose down her back playing a scene in her mind of a bushy tale accidentally poking out of his blue jeans.

Her brother had been homeschooled all his life until he was able to control switching back and fourth from his human form to his tanuki or "raccoon" form as Valerie would call Dustin for a tease. Every morning she would be the one to wake up at 6:00 just to catch a bus that arrived at 7:05. While Dustin would purposely snore just so she could here it from the other room. Now it was his turn, but things couldn't be more of a disaster.

It took 30 minutes to wake up Dustin so he had 35 minutes to get ready. He forgot to turn into his human form when putting on school clothes, leaving him to wonder for 5 minutes why his shirt won't fit like he though it would. Not only that but Dustin didn't even have his bags packed when he got downstairs 5 minutes later while Valerie was stressing her head off to find the her science notebook. Dustin spent 10 minutes in front of a mirror trying to perfect his hair, while Valerie spent 10 min making breakfast for the two of them. Breakfast took 4 minutes to eat and the rest of their time was spent helping Dustin find his "Special Pencil", claiming it was an OMGE(OH MY GOD EMERGENCY). Exhausted and out the door while waiting for the school bus Valerie prayed that the next 280 days would not be like the first.

" Thanks for helping me find my pencil." He turned to her and smiled. Valerie rolled her eyes grinning back.

"I'm not helping you next time you lose something like that." She puffed, she was annoyed by the fact that they wasted a ton of time looking for a damn pencil.

"Suuure pipsqueaks." He smirked

"Stop calling me that, dumpster diver." She whined.

"Mickey Mouse."

"Money animal."

"Normie."

"Tom Nook" She scoffed. He looked at her for a minute and chuckled.

"I like that game y'know." He laughed.
Valerie rolled her eyes opening her mouth to say some thing but was interrupted by the rumbling of the bus.
"4 minutes late." She mumbled.

"After you." Dustin bowed chivalrously gesturing her to walk in first. She bowed back and was about to say "No, after you dear brother." But the bus driver staring down at them signaled her to move her ass into the bus. He followed right after her, making his way to the back of the bus slowly looking at what looked like a group of sleep deprived and depressed teenagers. He frowned Is this the crowd of people I am to sit with and become friends with.
He stuck close to Valerie taking the seat beside her trying to search her face to find out what she thought about school.

He leaned in, "So Valerie,"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have a boyfriend yet?"
Valerie almost choked on those words letting out a few coughs. She shook her head.

"Girlfriend?" He asked leaning in closer.

"Now your just being dad." She scowled. Valerie was heterosexual so she didn't think much of a question like that. Dustin laid back into his seat.

"Is it hard?" He asked

"What?" Valerie replied

"To get a boyfriend?"

"Do you want one?" She asked, Dustin shrugged causing Valerie to let out a small chuckle.

"Are you gay?" She asked

"What does that mean?"

"It means your lucky that your in the same class as my BFF Merideth." She said. She turned her head around facing the window. Would her brother even survive a day of high school? Probably not, so she needed to keep an eye on him.