Prey

Alone

I didn't sleep last night. The embarrassment of the day before was unbearable. I sat up and walked to the bathroom with my towel. I got in the shower, scrubbing the shame and misery off of my fur, but the scars never came off. I looked at the fixed towel rack and shower curtain, perfect, just the way my parents wanted them to be, wanted me to be, but that didn't happen. I ate breakfast and walked out the door without saying a word.

The bus was dark. The darkness hid me well from the view of other people. I knew deep down that this wasn't the way I wanted to be, I wanted to be free. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the "anti-furry-alliance". They made t shirts with my name crossed out in bright red ink. They are the reason I am the most discriminated person in the school, the reason I hide away. One of them noticies me and they all crowd around me. One throws a book at me while the others laugh, I fall to the floor. They all start kicking me, taking turns calling me rude names, hurting me. I just lay there on the floor, crying, hoping someone would help me. I hear a voice tell them to stop, I look up in shock. The girl's name was Amanda, the biggest bully in the school. I scrambled to my feet and ran, ran from my problems, my fears, myself.

The band teacher started class with a lecture about how discrimination is a bad thing. Telling us that, "No matter a person's race, sexuality, human status, or socioeconomic status, were all the same.". The rest of class was awkward. Everyone was staring at me, making faces, throwing things at me. The band teacher then told me to play the f-concert scale for the class, of course this brought stupid comments like "did you mean the furry-concert scale" or "why him? Why not one of the HUMANS?". I asked if she could choose one of the other students in her classroom but she said no, so I played. She was astonished by my amazing work at playing the xylophone, but it wasn't that hard. The rest of class we worked on our christmas music, rudolph the red nosed reindeer sparked some issues but the teacher immediately shut them down. I started to like the new band teacher.

In history we were watching the news. The segment came on about the Midwest FurFest bombing and the entire class laughed at the idea of me wearing what they called "a fagsuit". The teacher did absolutely nothing to help me and told me to leave the class for causing a disruption on a serious topic. The principal came to the classroom and took me to his office. He then proceeded to tell me that I was making students feel uncomfortable and disturbing the peace within our school. He gave me a two day in school suspension for disruption of a learning environment. I shrugged it off and walked out the door. There stood Amanda, short and cute, but ferocious and evil. She told me that it wasn't my fault that I was blamed for disrupting the class then told me that she accepted who I was. In my state of complete mental shutdown, she told me not to tell anyone about this conversation then walked away, her hair flowing behind her as she walked away. I headed for my next class, stunned by what just happened.

Spanish was completely fine. No one called me rude names or made jokes about me. We were given a project where we had to describe ourselves in spanish using hand pictures we drew. Everyone had completely normal hands, but mine were paws. The spanish teacher told me that she had never seen a picture more unique than mine and gave me an automatic A on the assignment. The class startled by what I drew, I wasn't afraid to show who I was that day in spanish class.

Lunch wasn't so bad today. I quickly ate my food then ran to the bathroom with my drawing notebook and art supplies. I drew as people spread rumors about what I was doing in the bathroom. Some thought I was having sex with another furry in there. Others thought I was doing drugs. I walked out of the bathroom to see the principal standing there. I stared at him in confusion as he told me to come with him to his office. I explained that the bathroom was the only place I felt safe to draw and be who I am. I showed him my drawings and he told me to ask a teacher next time if I could use their classroom.

Lit comp was ok. We just read the entire class period instead of doing any work. I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho as the rest of the class read books like The Maze Runner or The Hunger Games. I liked the idea of reading books that make me think instead of reading for mental pleasure. At the end of the class we signed a class contract that basically told us to respect each other and respect the teacher. I knew this wasn't going to last for very long.

My mom picked me up from school and asked how my day was. I bottled up all of my emotions and told her it was good. She asked what I wanted for dinner but I didn't care. She asked my sister and she said tacos. I wasn't hungry when it came time for dinner, so I went to bed early. My mom asked me if I was ok, all I could say was, "yes".