Clueless S2Ch2 Love to Run, Run to Love Part1

Story by Ellard on SoFurry

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#28 of Clueless

Chris goofs off for 4 thousand words and then the plot happens... I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT. Also it's in third person narrative SORRY it's gonna stay this way for this arc.

Thanks so much for reading! Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! I'll try my best to keep up a schedule >.<

Thanks to Arafor for helping with the editing ^^


It was fourth period, AP history, 5 minutes before the bell for lunch would sound off its sweet sweet ring of freedom. The room was lively with a mix of confused discussions and unrelated chatter now that the class' lecture was good and done. As usual Chris' desk was pressed up against Jayce's so they could share answers and discuss the assignment together, but also as usual, it was mostly the Iguana doing the work while Chris goofed off. And why not? The Wolf was finding the content of this current lesson particularly baffling, so he'd rather relax on his phone now and sort through it later. Plus, Mr. Irving was always either on his phone or on the computer doing things anyway, wasn't like he cared. Supposedly he was fact checking for upcoming lessons, but everyone knew he was busy trying to fish for dates on Tindur...

Chris' snickering finally got to Jayce's head, who addressed the Wolf with a serious expression. "Chris, you really ought to work together with me on this instead of frittering your time away on Tweeter. If you cram this all in the last minute you're going to fail spectacularly on the next test," Jayce lectured, sounding perfectly like the extra dork exemplary student that he was.

It wasn't anything new. Jayce was always one to get on Chris' grill for goofing off in AP world history. But a little wasted time wasn't anything to gripe over; the class was a joke.

Chris just pouted playfully at Jayce's little comment, "But Jaaaaaayce, this chapter is stupid and doesn't make any sense. How could there be a slave trade and colonialism if there's literally thousands of different species of anthros who all look wildly different within a single ethnic group? People's culture and ethnicity are completely indistinguishable based off of looks! Plus, what does this 'inhumane' word even mean? What the heck is a 'humane' supposed to be?"

Jayce blinked a few times and scrunched his brows in contemplation. With a raised finger the Iguana opened up his mouth as if to state the answer, but closed it. It was undoubtedly a good argument. Any history lessons that involved ethnic groups really didn't seem to make any sense... "Just go with, we don't have to thoroughly understand it, just memorize it for the test."

"Ehh, only five minutes left, I'll just do it later..." Chris said with an offhanded shrug, continuing his unabashed cellphone use.

"And yet bafflingly, you always complain how I always score higher than you on tests," Jayce muttered eyes back on his homework.

Oh there he went again, acting all superior like just because he was good at test-taking, typical! "Hey, I got a draw with you on a test that one time!" Chris protested defensively.

The snark in Jayce's voice was so pointed, that you'd think he was a female lead singer in an all-male metal band, "Ha! That's merely because the test was all multiple choice and so easy nearly half the class got a perfect score! If any of the questions were difficult I undoubtedly would have scored higher. 'Draw', heh, draw my butt."

Clearly, Jayce was trying to start a 'dis off', which was a sort of tradition for the pair, all in good fun. Chris certainly had the edge in these because he didn't talk like a homeschooled shut-in, "Draw your butt? Okay, give me a pencil and I'll draw a straight line. BOOM!" Gangster paws, all up in his FACE.

Jayce recoiled, and his cheeks quickly reddenedEven though Iguanas have scales and shouldn't be able to blush, but let's just ignore that little detail. "Haha, very funny," was all he could manage, which was of course an admission of defeat.

"Burn victim taaaaaalk~" the Wolf trilled, which was of course Chris-speak for 'Victory is mine, hehehehehe'.

"Fine, you win this round..." Jayce grumbled diffidently. With that, the Iguana knew he was outmatched and quietly resumed scrutinizing the confusing textbook material, leaving Chris to use his phone undisturbed. And it was a good thing too, because Chris just found an A1 sauce GOLD post, causing him to snicker under his breath.

Jayce began leering at his Wolf friend, visibly annoyed, "What are you chortling about now?"

Chis was going to make a comment on how 'chortle' was a stupid word, but the Tweet was just too golden. He had to put a paw to his mouth to suppress his laughter before explaining, "Did you know that more adults have died from eating Laundry detergent pods than children have?"

You could practically see Jayce's hope in humanityfurmanity wither away as he banged his head against his desk (he tended to do that a lot), "Again, I ask, why was I born in this century...?"

It's not like Chris was *trying* to make Jayce lose his faith in the world, but it was so easy thanks to stupid fads on the Internet. Chris gave another gander to his phone, hoping to find another hilarious post except wowee that image was definitely NSFW. A comically exaggerated frown stretched from ear to ear, Chris covered his phone screen with a paw and his eyes darted across the room, "Uhhh, maybe you're right that I shouldn't be on Tweeter at school; half of my feed is spicy pictures of gay models,"

"Why does that not surprise me?" Jayce said all muffled, muzzle still pressed against his desk.

Chris was right about to stash away his phone, but his thumb automatically kept on scrolling down, and oh boy was it worth it, "No way! This is too good to be true!" Chris exclaimed with wide eyes.

Jayce scoffed, and shifted his muzzle so it lay flat against his desk, with nothing is his mind but a desire for sweet sweet revenge, "What, did Linklin Park's singer get resurrected from the dead?"

_ _

FUCK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

_ _

"Too soon, you insensitive prick!" Chris threw his pencil case at Jayce square between the eyes, causing the Iguana to jerk uncomfortably, giving a sharp 'hey!' in protest. Chris felt no remorse, none! If anything the Wolf had let him off too easy with that. "Don't you ever take his name in vain again!"

"But I didn't even say his-"

"-Low blows against childhood heroes like that don't count for dis-offs! And, for your information, I'm excited because Carly Jae Repsen just released a new single! It's called 'Jump to the Feeling', and it's probably totally lit, and you can bet your scaly flat butt I'm going to listen to it the moment class ends." Mentally putting aside Jayce's evil asshole comment, Chris' tail began wagging intensely at the prospect of hearing a new song from his homegirl Carly Jae. He could practically hear the heavenly vibrato in her voice already.

The fear on Jayce's muzzle spoke of coming calamity, "No, Chris! Her sweet lyrics and innocence are too much for your easily influenced sense of reality! You know what happened last time when you tranced out to her song 'I really really really really enjoy you'."

"Oh please, I didn't trance out that bad!" Chris countered, stuffing all his scattered things randomly into his backpack, readying himself for the moment the bell rang.

Jayce was beginning to panic. You could tell because the frequency of unnecessarily pretentious words was dropping. "Yes you did! You got so hyper and out of it that you started improve-dancing, which was-"

"-Krumping."

"Whatever! Your krumping was so bad that Felicia Davidson recorded it on her phone, and then uploaded it to cringe GIFs on Imgur, which made the front page!" Jayce state sternly as if that wasn't totally awesome and impressive to get internet famous like that. "And who knows what sort of Pandora's Box you'll open with a song called 'Jump to the feeling'?! Don't fall to the Dark side Chris, even if Force Lightning is ridiculously over-powered! "

There he went quoting old Star Warz games again... "First of all, never pronounce 'GIF' that way, second of all, it'll be fine, so stop being such a worrywart." Things now in his backpack, Chris zeroed in on the clock, watching the second clock with intense concentration as Jayce began once again lamenting his choice in a best friend. Excitement slowly building, Chris had to practically force himself from jumping up and down in his seat.

Countdown: 5 seconds.

"Guess I'm taking the long route to the cafeteria today..." Jayce moaned with a hand covering his forehead.

4...

3...

2...

1...

*ringgggggggggg* and out went Chris into the hallway, first one among the furs eager to get some cafeteria grub.

Walking down the green and white tiled hallway with headphones in his ears, Chris pulled up the song file on Spatify as other students began flooding out of their classrooms. He cranked the sound up to high and let the music take him. A few intro beats built up his suspense, and then Carly's saccharin voice echoed through his ears. This song was going to be one of his favorites: that was for sure. Reality beginning to shift into some sort of elaborate music video! Oooohhh everything seemed to sparkly and magnificent! Was this what doing cocaine felt like?

I had a dream, or was it real? We crossed the line and it was on We crossed the line, it was on this time

Chris began krumping randomly toward the cafeteria, arms and legs swinging this way and that to the song's rhythm. The Wolf was completely oblivious to the perplexed looks he was accruing from students and teachers alike. When the song reached its chorus Chris began winking, finger-gunning and doing all sorts of other goofy gestures to the passing students, who mostly just laughed went along with it.

I've been denying how I feel,

you've been denying what you want You want from me, talk to me baby

In his euphoria, Chris even went so far as to give passing high fives to a group of those nerdy anime kids who ran with their arms behind their backs. Which was a big nono in Highschool land for anyone on a jocky sports team (IE, not tennis, lacrosse or golf).

I want some satisfaction, take me to the stars, just say

ohhhhh oh oh oh ohhhh

Krumping it up into the main school atrium, Chris spotted three cheerleaders by the front doors, who were chatting in a circle about their boyfriends. Scott's vixen girlfriend Katie, Ashely Roggencamp (total sweetie Cow), Stephanie Gensheimer (Short red Tigress), who was like so totally not so supposed to be Katie's BFF anymore, but there she was anyway.

Ah, I wanna cut through the clouds, break the ceiling I wanna dance on the roof, you and me alone

Upon hearing the line about clouds and breaking the glass ceiling a crazy idea popped into Chris's head; the perfect thrill that could match his pumping adrenaline. He ran up and asked the trio to 'MAKE ME SOAR' with giddily shaking arms. Confused as they were (especially Katie), the trio opted to go along with it, and began tossing him upwards.

I wanna jump to the feeling, oh yeah I wanna jump to the feeling, oh yeah

By the third throw the throwing rhythm had been built up enough to throw the short Wolf up in the air so high that he was able to tap the ceiling that was 10 feet above the ground.

I wanna play where you play with the angels I wanna wake up with you all in tangles, oh I wanna jump to the feeling, oh yeah I wanna jump to the feeling, oh yeah

"WOOO" he shouted as the three girls caught him after his epic ceiling touch of glory, and set him down safely on the floor. He continued flailing his arms and legs this way and that down his path of destruction. Ashly made a comment on how cute Chris was when Katie just rolled her eyes and went back to complaining about her boyfriend's 'vanilla tastes'.

Cancel your reservations, no more hesitations this is on I can't make it stop, give me all you got

It wasn't long before Chris found an empty swath of floor in the atrium. The Wolf smoothly dropped down to the ground in a 'turtle freeze pose', shouting out "Bboy Chris in the house!" He gave his best attempt at 'windmilling', which he had been practicing from all those Breakdancing videos. He got some sort of a rhythm going... but instead of his spinning upturned legs making a windmill like effect, it actually looked something more akin to him having fireants in his pants and he was desperately trying to shake them off without using his arms. This was completely lost on Chris who just beamed as he jumped back onto his hindpaws and loudly proclaimed 'JUMP TO THE FEELING!'. And he was back on the move, receiving multiple comments like 'That just happened.' from passing randos in the hallway.

I want it all or nothing, no more in between, now give your Everything to me, let's get real baby

Head wobbly, yet undeterred, Chris began to spinny spin dance his way to the Promised Land (Cafeteria). It wasn't long before new targets were sighted before long: Scott, Rob, Marty and Toru, idly chatting as they ambled down to the Cafeteria Land. TIME TO MAKE THOSE B0IZ WORK!

A chemical reaction, take me in your arms and make me

ohhhhh oh oh oh ohhhh

"CHRIS BALL!" Chris shouted as he ran up to Scott and jumped up on his shoulders like a tiny pup eager for a piggy back ride.

Ah, I wanna cut through the clouds, break the ceiling

I wanna dance on the roof, you and me alone

After a moment's surprise, Scott and Marty laughed and agreed to play, even though Rob seemed reluctant and Toru clearly had no idea what the heck 'Chris Ball' was. Scott shouldered Chris over some open hallway space, and three varsity jocks spread out a few paces from each other in a line with Toru observing on the sideline. Chris ran up to Scott and jumped, wrapping his arms around his legs in a cannonball pose. Scott grabbed him and effortlessly threw him on over to Marty like the flawless athlete that he was.

I wanna jump to the feeling, oh yeah I wanna jump to the feeling, oh yeah

The bulky Bull caught Chris with no sweat and a low giggle. "Upsy Daisy!" he said as he threw Chris over to Rob, who lost his focus as a certain muscular Rottweiler passed by and threaded his fingers around the Panther's tail and flicked it upward playfully.

I wanna play where you play with the angels I wanna wake up with you all in tangles, oh

_ _

Chris crashed into the distracted Panther's chest, bringing them both down onto the ground, with minor bruises and a pronounced 'OOF' from Rob. Chris laughed he messed up the beleaguered Panther's headhair playfully right as the song reached the line "All in tangles oh~". Chris didn't have time to see Rob freak out about his ruined hairdo as he continued his 'clown dancing' (as Scott put it) down to the cafeteria, causing several amused smirks and laughs from his friends.

Now in front of the poster-ridden double glass doors to the cafeteria, Chris was shaking his fists like maracas and did a little twirl. In the midst of the twirl he noticed someone beautiful and inspiring just a little ways back from where he was. ...The cafeteria could wait.

Take me to emotion, I want to go all the way Show me devotion and take me all the way Take me to emotion, I want to go all the way

It was a familiar brown Rat with an ankle brace pleasantly chatting to an equally familiar tall Chinese Water Dragon Lizard by the lockers a few paces before the Cafeteria entrance. For a moment Chris' dancing stopped entirely.

Show me devotion and take me all the way

(all the way, all the way, all the way) Take me, take me, take me all the way

Intense warm tingly feelings welled up all inside of Chris, as if he had just been feed ambrosia by Raptor Jesus himself. He couldn't help it, the song, the lyrics, Lach! Fuzzy, cute, fluffy Rat with that adorable pink nose! He needed to hug him, HE JUST HAD SO MANY FEELINGS!

ohhhhh oh oh oh ohhhh

Chris' tail began wagging nearly hard enough to become a propeller. He made a beeline (a _dancing_beeline) for the Rat, his moves now more reminiscent of alien Ballet rather than his usual krumping style. This garnered and equal mix of amused giggles and weirded out stares from the many furs in the hallway. Chris didn't notice though; he was just so happy to see Lach~

!!Spotted!!

_ _

Jasmine's gaze shifted to the incoming tornado of dance. She stood up from leaning against Lach's unadorned locker. "Oh hey Lach, it's your favorite Wolf," said the beanie-wearing Lizard, with just a hint of mischief. "He certainly looks like he's having fun."

Lach turned in Chris' direction and gave a perplexed smile, who was now waving his arms like noodles. "Hey Chris, what're you listening-ACK!" the Rat ejaculated as Chris suddenly put Lach into an incredibly tight hug. The Rat was just so fluffy and warm!

Warm, warm, woarm, w0 arm... mmm...

Luckily Jasmine was there to come the rescue. Her eyes popped wide open in the recognition that that the death hug had to be part of another one of Chris' Carly-Jae induced trances. She quickly removed the headphones from Chris' ears, lest Lach's ribcage get broken.

The change in Chris' demeanor was immediate, as if a switch had just turned off in his head.

...What was I just doing?

Reality began to sink back into Chris; his surroundings began to make sense again, causing the Wolf to blush as he realized that he had nearly squeezed the soul out of poor Lach. "I'm sorry Lach! I was totally trancing out!" Chris exclaimed, backing off with fingers to his mouth. Shoot, maybe he should have listened to Jayce's advice. (Allegedly) making a fool out of himself with dancing was all well and good, but hugging Lach until he broke like a twig was definitely not Kosher.

"I'm okay!" Lach proclaimed with a shaky thumbs up from his now jackknifed pose. "It's no big. Happens to the best of us," he said through a few wheezes. He gave a reassuring flick of his wrist, even though he was doubled over with his paws on his knees.

Jasmine let out an amused laughed, putting a scaly hand on Chris' shoulder, which was totally flaunting her tall privilege. "Same, whenever I'm high on wee... music, I totally get all huggy too, totally happens, just try not to get all 'Invasion of the Body Squeezers' on Lach next time, K?"

"Hey, JJ..." Chris greeted the tall Lizard coyly. "Yeah... I'll be more careful not to trance out around Lach next time!". The implications of that comment were definitely not lost on Jasmine; it wasn't exactly a secret that the reason Chris was extra huggy with Lach was because had a thing for the Rat.

Jasmine flashed a grin before helping support the recovering Rat back up into a normal standing posture. Straightening her brown wig's bangs, she hefted up and slung her backpack onto her shoulder. "That's a good boy. I'll just leave you two alone then, need to catch up with Angie to work on the lyrics for our next song. If we leave her alone the lyrics'll probably turn into something like 'Fireballz, anarchy, riots, get woke, down with capitalist corporations' or something like that. Catch you both at band practice tonight."

"See ya, JJ!" Chris chirped with a humored wave of his paw, as Lach echoed his own farewell. Chris really admired that girl's chill spunk. No judge-yness at all even when he was trancing out something fierce. Maybe it was lesbian magic? If only Jayce could be as cool as his older sister...

Lach let out a few more harrumphs and coughs, the state of his lungs returning to normal. Chris couldn't help but feel bad. "So... Enjoying the New 'Carly-Jae' song?" Lach asked Chris, that dreamy look in his eyes ever present.

Chris began rubbing the backside of his head, tongue sticking out slightly. "How did you know?"

A faint smile to a tiny chuckle, "It wasn't very hard based on the way you were dancing. Half the students in the hallways were looking at you like you were completely off your rocker. If that doesn't spell 'Chris is listening to Carly-Jae' then I don't know what does."

Chris flashed a slightly embarrassed grin, "Sorry I just can't help it! Her lyrics are just so adorable and innocent and it's just so good that we have a sweetie like Carly Jae making happy Pop music in a year when all the other artists are going down the emo depression bandwagon. Dancing to that song was totally worth it... until I almost crushed you. Again, I'm really sorry about that!"

"Oh it's no sweat, Chris! Really, it didn't even hurt all that much! I was just surprised is all!" Lach insisted self-effacingly, waving both paws in denial. He was clearly trying to downplay the whole thing, even though the whole thing was totally Chris' fault. The Rat had always been like that; never wanting to put on a show about his troubles or discomforts.

"Well if you say so, still I'm really sorry!" Chris instinctively knew this to be a good time to change the topic; if he apologized any more Lach would just continue to counter by insisting it wasn't a big deal (he'd just have to do something nice for the Rat later to make up for it). Luckily, there was something peculiar about Lach's appearance today that needed addressing. "So Lach, why are you still wearing that ankle brace at school? You said your ankle was basically healed at band practice."

Lach's injury was just the shittiest happenstance... a torn ankle ligament from a casual run over summer break. It was practically a crime that Lach got injured at all, much less a bad enough of an injury to last for three months. What sort of cosmic deity would think it a good idea to do that to Lach when he inspires so many with his running? Freshman Year he made the varsity Cross Country team. Sophomore year he broke the 15 minute 5k at states. Junior year he topped even that and broke a mother-flipping state record. Who knew what he could have accomplished if he were able to run uninterrupted this year?

Lach's eye contact faltered for a split second. "Uh, yeah... I guess it's mostly healed. I suppose I'm just... wearing it just in case, now..." Lach muttered with a suspicious lack of enthusiasm. His leg was basically healed, that was great news! Why wasn't he more excited about it?

"That's amazing news!" Chris was so elated he nearly shouted, his tail now wagging. "So you're definitely doing the October 5k? Three week should be more than enough time, yeah? I just can't wait for it 'cause I've been looking forward to that since the start of the school year!"

Even though Chris knew perfectly well what the October 5k was, for some reason he felt the need to recap the details of it in his mind...

The October 5k was something of a Grovedale High tradition. There was a local state park, Docking Hills, that had a course that was almost perfectly 5 kilometers. The GDH cross country team would run the course as a team in late October, usually a week or two before States. Even though Chris was track instead of Cross Country, lots of Track and Field members participated in the October 5k, since Coach Nelson was the same for both track and Cross Country. Despite football clashing with Cross Country for most of the first semester, Chris always found a way to make it to the October 5k. After all, it was the fall event that Chris looked forward to the most, even more than even Halloween. Chris always jumped in to track one the Football season ended, and the October 5k was the first chance to run with the team again.

"Well, about that..." Lach muttered meekly, rubbing down on his right cheek with his right index finger.

Chris was so excited by the prospect of running with Lach again that he didn't even register the hesitating way Lach was speaking, "I'm really stoked to be running with you again. It's practically a catastrophe that you had to miss the first month of Cross country! But since you've been out of practice for a while, maybe I'll actually be able to keep up this time! For a while, anyway!"

A sudden look of distress crossed Lach's eyes. He sighed heavily, "Chris, I'm just pretending to still have an injured ankle. Because... I'm not doing Cross Country or Track and Field this year."

...huh?

"WHAT?!" Chris practically roared. Lach's statement was all kinds of wrong and disturbing. What the heck did he mean, he wasn't doing Cross Country or track? Lach not running was like a butterfly that never flew, or a guitar with cello strings, or a toothbrush that was used to clean grime off of a car. Chris couldn't help but stare at Lach with a confused and unaccepting look.

"Chris, it's really not that big of a-"

"If your leg is basically healed why aren't you joining this year? And why would you try to hide that?!"

"Shh, not so loud!" Lach stated, eyes shifting nervously to the flow of students in the hallway. This was something of a secret, apparently.

Chris lowered his voice but kept the emotion in his tone raw and unfiltered. "Lach, you're a freaking legend! How could you not run? You broke a state record, won more medals that I can count, and you even became the most popular kid in school! Literally, according to the Popularity rankings."

Lach cringed. "Chris, you know those things don't matter to me..."

"Okay, but your running is an inspiration! People look up to you! I look up to you! It's the whole reason I met you and we became friends. So why the heck aren't you joining?!"

Lach gritted his teeth, and met Chris' eyes with a tortured look, "Reasons like those are exactly why I can't join again. Don't you see?"

Chris' face dropped. "...What?"

Lach looked down to the side and then inhaled a large lungful of air. When he readdressed Chris, he looked if he was to say something that he'd been dreading for years, "Cross Country, Track... they're not just about the running. The competitiveness, the expectations, the attention, the numbers, the scouting for college, the scholarships... it's all so much. And when you reach the top the pressure of those things are magnified tenfold." The sound that came out of Lach's throat was somewhere between a sigh and a groan. "One slipup and you could ruin your rhythm for the season. One injury and your career might be ruined. It's like this whole time I've been running on thin ice and only now fell through. The eyes, the pressure, the pity... what even was I in their eyes?"

Chris just couldn't keep up. What he was saying was just so innately _backwards._The Wolf's deep blue eyes were pools of disbelief, hurt and sympathy.

Lach's shoulders began to sag deeply. "I've fallen and now I don't think I can answer to those expectations any more, now that I've been out of practice for three months. I'd just be a disappointment, unable to beat my past self. It's best to just leave my legacy as it was, and let people think my leg is just broken and that there's nothing to be done about it. I just, I don't... I can't go back to all of that."

"Lach..." Chris said weakly.

Lach smiled at Chris. It wasn't his real smile though. It was dull, muddled, an imitation with none of the magic of the original. "It's not all bad though... Now that I'm out of the limelight from that stupid record I broke, things are finally starting to settle back down... Plus, I have more time to focus on our music now. Things'll be just fine."

...Like hell they will!

Chris was hit by sudden righteous outrage. But he wasn't angry at Lach, he was angry_for_ Lach. "But you love running! You can't let those things get you down! I'm sure you'd be able to get back into shape and be just as inspiring as you were before!"

The Rat gave incredibly sour look. "Chris... I don't think that's going to happen." Was this really the same Lach that lifted the Wolf's spirits to soaring so many years ago?

Chris' glare sharpened enough to cut. "But what about what you said to that reporter? 'When you do what you love you make the impossible happen'? I've always believed in that! I've done so many things I never thought I'd be able to do because of that! And you've done the impossible before, so I know you can get back to as good as you were!"

Lach shook his head, dejected. "Those words were from a me who was reaching his peak..." His tone was rueful, defeated. "At that time it happened to be true for me, but... I don't think it's the case for me anymore."

Chris' paws jumped onto Lach's shoulders and he stared deep into those dreamy eyes, "No, those words are still true! I know they are! And I'll prove it to you! "

"...How?" Lach muttered weakly, clearly stressed from the amount of confrontation on an uncomfortable topic.

Chris backed up. He put one paw on his hip and the index finger of his other pointed straight at Lach's chest, as if to point right at his soul. "By taking first place in the October 5k!"

"...What?" Lach blinked several times before furrowing his brows dubiously. It was as if he were trying to solve some complicated calculus problem in his head before he realized the logistics of Chris' statement. "But on track you do long jumping and the hundred meter dash. There's no way you'd be able to beat the distance runners, especially not Angus. Not to mention you haven't been conditioning with the Cross Country runners since you're doing football..."

"AHA!" Chris exclaimed, as if he had just caught the Lach in some devious trap. "Sounds impossible doesn't it? Sounds impossible."

Lach let out the breath he was holding in, amused. "I see what you're getting at..." Lach muttered, his voice full of curious understanding.

"So let's make a deal on it!" Chris proclaimed with his most confident smile, bumping Lach in the chest with his fisted paw. "My optimism versus your pessimism. Light side versus Dark side. The impossible versus reality. And the stakes: you rejoining Cross Country and Track!"

Lach's head tossed back; he was clearly blown away by Chris' statement. "Wow, that was really cool! You sounded like the main character from a comic book!". Clearly the Rat wasn't expecting such a strong statement from 'lit awesome sauce' boy.

"Hehe, so what do you say? You'll agree to it won't you? How could you resist, when I make these cute puppy eyes at you!" Chris protruded his head forward and batted his eyelashes at Lach, any semblance of badassery replaced by his usual feminine goofery.

"You always did have impressively hypnotic eyes..." the Rat said wispily, before a serious expression retook his muzzle. His eyes dropped briefly, pensive, considering... He gave his answer, "Fine, if you can beat all the other kids for the October 5k... I'll stop pretending my ankle hasn't healed and rejoin Track and Cross Country."

"Yes!" Chris exclaimed, jumping up into the air and pumping his fist and a kick of his knees.

When Chris landed back down Lach's eyes turned a shade darker. "But in turn, if you don't win, you have to promise to keep my secret, never give me flack for quitting, and to never try to get me to join again. Okay?" Lach extended out his paw, and it hovered there dauntingly.

Chris' confidence wavered briefly. Of course there'd be a flip side. If he couldn't pull off this thing... No, it had to be this way because it wouldn't be as powerful if it weren't a one-time deal. There was only one way to answer: rising to the challenge. "Deal!" Chris stated firmly, reaching out and shaking Lach's paw.

Lach nodded, seriously. "Alright then, well, I'll see you later then, I figure I've got less than two minutes to make it Chem class now. Good luck, I suppose. I'll see you tonight at band practice," the Rat said with one of his famous two finger salutes.

"I'm gonna make a believer out of you, Lach. I swear it!" Chris declared as he watched Lach departed for class, the Rat's tail not swishing in the slightest. Chris then placed his fists to his hips and let out a contemplative "Hmmm". The Wolf certainly had a lot to think about.

As he made his way to the cafeteria, Chris' usually pizzazz was replaced by serious contemplation. Was the pressure of being the best really that rough? Chris had never been quite as high on the totem pole as Lach had, but it was still hard to imagine the Rat who ran so beautifully in front of so many others would ever want to give that up. Even if Lach was incredibly quiet and contemplative for an athlete, it just wasn't like him to be in a funk like this, not about something he loved as much as running.

In fact, since the Rat stopped running, his smiles just hadn't been the same. If Lach's normal smiles had been gold then now they were bronze. If his goofy smiles he had after finishing a run had been diamonds, then his smiles now were lead. Maybe there was another reason, something was clearly cutting him deep, but it wasn't Chris' job to pry. The deal was struck, and he just needed to give Lach that push to get back in. Lach had helped him before, and now it was Chris's time to help the Rat he cared for dearly.

Chris arrived at the conclave of varsity jock lunch tables, he took his usual seat without any goofy pleasantries. He slouched at the table, resting against his right palm. He hadn't even thought to buy a lunch yet.

For the time being it was Marty, Toru, Jayce and Daren having light chat over their lunches. Apparently Scott was still flirting with lunch ladies in the lunch line, Rob was in the bathroom fixing his hair after Chris messed it up (oopsies), and Allie was off gathering gossip from other lunch tables, which, keeping Jayce's sanity in mind, was probably for the best.

Daren was mostly quiet, as Rob wasn't here yet. But after a short while Rottweiler looked up to Chris with a curious expression, "...so you, uh, do that a lot? The cannonball thing? It was uh... pretty dope."

Chris' response was half distracted from his own internal thoughts on Lach, "Huh? Oh, yeah. Sometimes I turn up really hard when I listen to music, and turn into sort of an adrenaline junkie. We sort of made up this game called 'Chris ball' where the guys throw me around. It's... fun..." Chris said unenthusiastically. Normally he loved detailing the rich history of 'Chris Ball'. But he couldn't help but thinking back to Lach and what he was going to do to win.

It was true that he was at a disadvantage because he wasn't in Cross Country, but he had always been an excellent runner and was decently conditioned from all those laps Coach made him do for showing up late to practice. Three weeks: that was the amount of time he had to beat all the others. Angus was clearly his top competition. Chris had discussed Cross Country stats with Lach enough to know that the Horse's timing tending to be close to 15:15 for a 5k, so Chris was going to have to aim for close to 15 minutes if he wanted to win. What even was his timing now? 16 minutes? 17? 18? Cutting that time any lower was going to be tough, unless he had a way to lower Angus' average time...? Nonono, bad thoughts! Sabotage would defeat the whole purpose of it! It had to be a fair fight! Ugh, wasn't anyone going to ask Chris why he was so lost in thought?!

"Chris, is something bothering you?" Jayce asked with perfect timing, sharp as ever. Chris fixed readjusted his posture as the Iguana added, "You didn't do something stupid while listening to that song, did you?"

Finally somebody asked! "No! Well, yes... but that's not the issue! It's about, Lach, actually. Can you believe he said he didn't want to do cross country or track this year?! Even though his leg..." Chris was going to mention that Lach was just pretending that his leg wasn't entirely healed... but he figured that detail was best left untouched for now. "...might be healed enough to rejoin now?"

"But he's a legend!" Marty said through a huge bite of a corndog, washing it down with a sip from one of those large ass cans of flavored ice tea (always 99 cents, even through economic depression, truly the heart of America).

"That's what I said!" Chris exclaimed before quickly recapping the situation and the deal he had made with Lach, trying his best to skirt around the leg injury part, and also to paraphrase Lach's logic for quitting that never quite clicked in Chris' mind.

Jayce and Marty listened intently (even if Marty never did stop stuffing his face), Toru seemed overwhelmed by all of Chris' praise for Lach. And Daren proved to be a surprisingly good listener. The Rottie even nodded his head and made eye contact the whole time. Chris let out pronounced huff, "So I need to train like Rock E4 or some shit if I'm going to win this." Speaking of Rock E4 (which he never actually saw, but knew about through random parodies of it), Chris realized that he needed a coach/training partner to PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT! That had to be the key! Movies were never misleading about stuff like that!

"Toru!" Chris all but shouted. The Akita jumped in his seat at the sudden call of his name, returning the Wolf's gaze diffidently. "You're on track! You guys'll do the October 5k right?" Toru nodded his head sheepishly. "So you'll train with me, right? I always do better when I have somebody to practice with! I gotta do this Rock E4 style!"

The objection in Toru's voice was immediate and panicked, "But we have football practice after school. When and where would we even be practicing?"

Chris cupped his chin and pondered the prospect for a moment, "Let's do morning on the track field since I can easily get permission from coach Nelson. I was thinking like an hour thirty a day, so maybe get there at like, Six AM?"

The words 'Six A.M.' caused such an unsavory response in Toru's face that you'd have thought Chris said 'college applications' or 'This test is 90% of your grade, good luck'. "Dude, I have trouble getting up at seven! Sorry Chris, we can run together on weekends, but otherwise I'm just going to let what happens, happens. It's not like I ever do well on it anyway..."

On second thought, perhaps Toru wasn't the most motivated individual to help him with a near impossible mission. "Oh, you're no fun. Fine, guess I'll need to ask around then..." Who was there he could ask? Well, there was Toru's twin brother Taro he could ask but... he was sort of a f*ckboi, so maybe a pass on that one. Oh, could ask his Track buddy Kelan if he'd be interested, even if they didn't hang out much, he did get along really well with the Hyena. But he didn't exactly seem like a morning person, so...

While he was still caught in his thoughts, an offer came to Chris from a most unexpected place: Daren. "Uh, maybe I uh... could help. If that's chill," the Rottweiler said, slightly above a mutter.

Chris found himself tilting his head, but then smiled at the Rottweiler, pleasantly surprised, "Oh, yeah that's cool. Do you run?" The Wolf's tail started wagging behind his back.

Daren shook his head, shyly. "Nah, not really... but I've always wanted to cut down on my gut... Ain't ever had a proper six pack. Uh, I dunno... is that okay?"

Well... him not being a runner was certainly not ideal, but he did go out of his way to ask. And as long as the big Rottie could cheer him on and record times it would still be pretty darn helpful. Plus, Daren was incredibly smart: he might figure out some life hax that Chris could use that he'd normally never think of. And with that cute shy way he asked, how could the Wolf say 'no'?

"No problem, big guy!" Chris said with a cheerful thumbs up. "Can you deal with waking up earlier? Toru looked like he was going to have a heart attack when I mentioned '6 AM'."

There was a bit of an unnatural pause before Daren's response, as if that little detail hadn't been quite processed yet. "I'll... do my best," The Rottie responded with a forced-looking smile; it was clearly an effort to mask his displeasure with the prospect of waking up early. Strange that he'd offer if he wasn't a morning person, but appreciated nonetheless.

Chris shot a double finger gun at Daren, with a bright smile. "Awesome, I'll see you on the track field at 6AM tomorrow then, Daren! With you helping me I'm sure I'll totally slay that 5k! This is extra perfect because there's actually a lot I wanted to talk to you about!" Daren smiled shyly at the last statement.

Of course what Chris really meant was lots and lots of overdue 'gay talk'. The Wolf never was one to talk about gay stuff during lunch, because it was always a little bit... awkward to bring it up around the other guys. Not that they weren't cool with it, but talking about 'the gay experience' around a bunch of straight guys was like trying to explain the appeal of your favorite trap song to your grandparents.

Speaking of avoiding conversation... he never really talked to Daren all that much, even in AP history. He felt a little bad that hadn't even thought to talk to Daren during class because he'd just been so used to doing his work and chatting with Jayce the whole time. He'd have to fix that.

"Aight, sounds good, 6 AM, tack field..." Daren confirmed, as he opened his second Tupperwhere container of eggs and barbeque sauce. Scott soon arrived at the table form the lunch line, and inevitably the conversation shifted its course back to Chris' 'clown dancing' and also 'lol Rob was so salty about you messing with his hair'. That was fine though; Chris didn't feel like recapping the situation again, anyway.

Now that good old Scott-y boy had brought his good vibes to the table, Chris began returning to his normal positive groove. Lach's slump was unfortunate, certainly, but that's what Chris was here for! To be the beacon of light to guide the Rat out of the depths of self-doubt. For Lach's sake, he'd train himself to no end, especially if it meant getting that smile of his back. Just imagine the look on Lach's face be when the Wolf inevitably took first place in the 5k. Chris felt himself smiling eagerly at the thought, motivation pulsating through his veins. But even with that, Chris found that he couldn't stop thinking about Daren. He was quite mysterious; offering to help like that out of the blue.

But there were other mysterious points about him too. For example: This was the fourth day they've been sitting together and he'd always bring the same thing for lunch: eggs and barbeque sauce. There were just so many questions! What was up with the eggs and A1? Did he actually do steroids like how Jayce 'hypothesized'? Were the rumors about him getting into fights at his previous school true? What was the *real* reason he and Rob started hanging out? Like you had to admit the whole situation with those two was just a little bit weird.

The excitement for tomorrow's run, steadily built as he thought about the endless possibilities of Daren's secret identity. Maybe he was actually a government agent planted in the school to spy on the shady underworkings of the corrupt student council! Wouldn't that be crazy? He'd have to add that one to his list of conspiracy theories he liked to ponder on.

And heck, maybe from talking to Daren he'd find out some dirt on Rob, OOOH like maybe he and Daren had 'experimented' together or something, wouldn't that be juicy? But of course that was unlikely. With all those stupid fucking gay jokes he made, Rob was probably the least likely person to be interested in something like that. But still... the idea of Daren on Rob was pretty hot, even if Chris was never a sucker for muscles like so many other gay guys were.

Chris began to feel like tomorrow morning couldn't come fast enough. Hardcore running training plus chatting with a mysterious buff Rottweiler, who was gay to boot. Heck, that sounded like a blast! The stakes were heavy, but heck, he might even have fun with the training! And wasn't that the best way to make the impossible happen?

_ Just hold on Lach, you'll be running again in no time!_