Parallels

Chapter One: Flying Fox: Edited

As my fellow classmates and schoolmates all swarm around me, trying to stay as far away from me as possible, most of them looking at me like I'm diseased or something, my tail decides that the best place for it is right around the bases of my legs... as much as my life's changed in the last several years (and even the last few days), that's nothing new. I've always been a little bit of a coward (just like any other fox you'll ever meet; I'm not really an exception to the rule), and well...

I didn't ask for this life, but for flock's sake, it's the one I have. If I could've chosen the path that my life was going to take, I wouldn't have chosen this one. I don't want to be here right now, and well, having everyone be afraid of me right off the bat really isn't helping my anxiety in the slightest... and trying to convince myself that I'm going to be okay is taking all of my concentration...

So much of my concentration, even, that I don't notice that some tailhole's pinned my tail down until I find myself faceplanted on the tile, books spread all over, papers in a bomb crater explosion all around me... and my snout's dripping a little blood... this day just can't get any worse, can it?

Actually, you know what, it can, because there are people all over laughing at me... and I wish this was a dream, but if it is, it's more like a nightmare, and this one, well, as much as I have real nightmares, those are nightmares that I can wake up from. These, I can't. This is real life...

I was having a bad enough day already, I woke up late (as much as I'm a diurnal mammal, I'm still a fox, creatures of my species are night owls- not literally), I nearly gave myself a heart attack because I forgot, stupid fox that I am, that coffee was a bad idea and downed half a cup before my heart nearly pounding out of my chest snapped be back to my senses, and then, of course, then, I had to chase down the bus- and I mean run after it as fast as my legs could carry me. I'm not short- seventeen paws, four inches a paw- I think that makes me what humans call five-eight- but hauling tail after the bus wore me out. I caught the darn thing; thankfully, the driver saw me his mirrors... Yeah, let's just say that this sets the bar for awful first days... and I know that this life is the life I have now. My father was killed in action, my mother decided gunpowder and brass made a good breakfast not too long after...

So I'm basically an enormous emotional wreck... yeah, that's me... that's Theodore Aspen... and I really want to do better here, but if my tail gets stepped on just one more time, well... Let's just say that that wouldn't be good for any party involved, whether human or mammal, and, um, leave it at that. I'm really stressed and I don't want to snap... I know my claws are sharp... I need to calm down...

My tail hurts like hell right now, and although I really just want to be able to point a claw-tipped finger at that someone and blame them, say that it was all their fault, I can't...I'm stuck and I have nowhere to turn. Being the lover-not-a-fighter that I am, I tried getting an adult to help... and that didn't go over well... I've already gone down to the principal's already (and he smells like cigar smoke, fitting for a guy with the last name Marlboro), and he made it plenty clear to both me and my lupine best friend Alaina that Earth was humans first, that nobody cared what our problems were, suck it up, you damn pansies, this is Earth, nobody gives a shit about your feelings. His words, not mine. No help gotten there, just a target on my back now... so if I do anything, I'm the one with a snout and fur and tail, not the other way around- If I do anything, I'll... I know that I'd be the one in trouble. It comes with the territory, I suppose, but what can I do? No human's going to believe a fox, after all, so what does that say to any sane mammal?

I'm not the best person to ask (and yes, I'm a person too, by the way) because I'm not entirely sane, but what I do know is that I'm really going to need to keep my muzzle shut, because it's only third period on my first day, and I've already been sent down to the principal's office once already, more times than I'd ever been back at home on Terra. I've heard plenty about human culture, and the principal is supposed to be your pal, so I've been told. As for me, though, I haven't even been able to sniff out a single lick of luck.