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"Mom, I'm home!" Arden walked in and slammed the front door.

There was no response. He went into the kitchen, half-expecting to see his mother cooking dinner; the kitchen was empty.

Just as worry was beginning to set in, his cell phone rang.

The otter answered immediately when he saw the familiar number flash up on the caller ID. "Mom, where are you?"

"I'm just picking up Mikey, dear." Her usual chipper voice had a sad tinge to it. "We'll be home soon."

"Is everything okay, Mom?" The worry started edging its way back. Mikey always rode the bus home. Something had to have gone wrong.

"We'll talk once we get home. Bye, dear." She hung up before he could ask any more questions.

Arden flipped the phone shut and tossed it idly from one paw to the other. He wanted to call back, but decided against it; whatever it was, it could wait a half-hour. With worry slowing time to a crawl, he padded up the stairs.

He heard the front door open just as he was finishing up the last of his homework.

Dropping his pencil in mid-sentence, Arden hurried downstairs.

He saw Mikey first; one of the otter's eyes was swollen and some dried blood still clung to the fur around his nose. "Mikey, what happened?" Arden ran over and hugged his brother.

Mrs. Halinen came in and shut the door. "He got into a fight." She didn't sound nearly as angry as Arden had expected her to.

"That's not like you, dude; what happened?" Mikey was usually the peaceful sort; seeing him bruised and bloodied was almost surreal.

"Rob Collins started making fun of you in class." Anger was clearly evident in his voice. "I told him to shut up, but he wouldn't stop, so I decked him one for ya." He winked with his good eye.

"Wait... Collins... Andy Collins' brother?" The realization made Arden wish he'd given Andy a few bruises of his own.

"Yeah. Anyway, I need an icepack." Mikey padded into the kitchen, and Arden followed him. Rather than wrap the ice in something first, the otter plopped it directly onto his swollen eye.

"Oh, give it here." Mrs. Halinen snatched the icepack from him and wrapped it in paper towels. She turned her attention to Arden. "So, Andy's been making trouble at your school too, then?"

Arden nodded. "Yeah. We mostly ignore it, though."

Mrs. Halinen held the compress gently against Mikey's eye. "And that's exactly what you should be doing, Michael."

The otter squirmed and dropped the icepack on the floor. "Mom! You know I hate my full name!"

Mrs. Halinen grabbed another icepack from the freezer. "And you know how I hate it when you get into trouble at school. Next time, just ignore them. I'm sure the only reason they even said anything is because they hoped to get you riled up."

"It worked." Mikey threw the icepack into the garbage and stomped off to his room without another word.

"You're not gonna ground him, are you, Mom?" Arden asked after his brother had left.

"No, hon." Mrs. Halinen pulled a large fish out of the refrigerator. "I'd feel guilty about grounding him; I would have done the same thing in his place... Just don't tell him I said that."

"I won't, Mom." Arden grabbed a juice out of the fridge and headed upstairs.

Mikey was lying in bed, tossing a lacrosse ball up into the air and catching it.

Arden knocked on the doorframe to announce himself. "Can I come in?"

"Sure." His brother continued to toss the ball, staring blankly up at the ceiling. "Let me guess... I'm grounded, right?"

"No, Mom's not going to ground you."

Mikey caught the ball one last time and propped himself up on his elbows. "Well, that's a good start."

"Listen, Mikey-" Arden began.

"I know, I know." Mikey rolled his eyes. "I shouldn't have done anything. Two wrongs don't make a right... Trust me, a thirty minute ride with Mom exhausted all the advice you could possibly be trying to give me."

"Actually, I just wanted to say thanks." He smiled at the confused look his brother gave him.

"For what?"

"For standing up for me." Arden took a seat on the bed next to his brother. "It must have taken a lot of guts, and I really appreciate it."

"Like I said before, Arden." Mikey's muzzle broke into a crooked grin. "We're brothers. It's my job to care."

After a momentary embrace, Arden returned to his room. He finished up the homework he was working on and decided to call Mark. Even a short conversation with the wolf always made him feel better about his day.

"Hey, hon." Mark answered the phone almost immediately. He certainly didn't seem overloaded with homework; Arden decided not to press.

"Hey, how was your day?" He was wasting time while trying to come up with a good way to approach things.

"Not bad, just finishing up some homework. Physics is going to kill me. How about you?"

He couldn't think of any other way to tackle the situation other than head on, so that's what he did. "Listen, Mark... You remember Fresto talking about the gay alliance thing?" He waited another moment before continuing. "I'm thinking of joining."

"Cool." He was expecting silence, but Mark replied pretty quickly; he didn't seem put off or nervous. The wolf did fall silent afterwards, however. He spoke again after a few seconds passed. "I don't think I'll be able to join, though."

'I wonder what his excuse is gonna be.' Arden's inner voice matched his own thoughts for once.

"I've got practice every day after school. But I'll skip a couple of them to come with you, if you want." He sounded so hopeful that Arden immediately believed the wolf's sincerity.

"That would be awesome!" He didn't expect such warm acceptance from Mark, especially after the wolf's reluctance to come out at school. "Well, I'll let you know how it goes Wednesday and then we'll see."

"Sounds good."

They talked for a little bit longer while Arden doodled absentmindedly on a sheet of paper before wishing each other goodnight and hanging up.

With his homework done for the day, the otter decided to give reading The Rogue Crew another shot. It seemed like every time he started with the book, something happened to interrupt his progress, making him forget all about what he'd read. He plopped down onto his bed and leafed back to chapter one.

This time, he managed to make it almost halfway though before dozing off.

He stood on the shore of a vast ocean. Water stretched as far as the eye could see and disappeared over the horizon.

"Tenshun!" a sharp voice barked.

He realized that he was in a lineup. They were all otters like himself, standing stiffly at attention before a gruff-looking captain.

"You were all paw-picked to join the Rogue Crew!" he barked. "While you all meet the qualifications; one of you will not be allowed on board."

He walked over to Arden and placed his paw on the otter's shoulder. "I'm sorry, s_on, but queers are not allowed on the crew."_

Out of the corner of his eye, Arden saw Mark. The wolf padded over to him and gently took his paw. "Let's go, hon, it's not worth it."

Arden was about to follow when he heard himself speak. "I'm not gay!" He wanted to fight it, but his voice refused to obey. "I'm not gay, and I've never seen this wolf in my life!"

Mark looked at him with a mixture of sadness and surprise on his face.

The captain surveyed him. "Hm. I guess I'll take you at your word, recruit. But if I so much as see you eyeing any of the men, I will personally throw you overboard."

"Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!" He had absolutely no control over his body now. He ran aboard to join the other otters.

As the ship pushed off, he stood at the stern, watching the tiny shape on the beach grow smaller and smaller. He wished he could cry; he wished he could jump overboard... but he just stood there... watching.

Arden's eyes snapped open as he lay on his back trying to stabilize his breathing.

'It was all a dream.' He kept repeating the words until his heart rate subsided.

He remembered his promise to never abandon Mark and fully intended to keep it.

The clock read 5:30; rather than sleep the extra half-hour, he decided to get up and shower.

He didn't scrub or shampoo; he just stood in the bathtub, letting the water run over him; his mind was elsewhere.

'I promised myself that I would never abandon him, but what if it isn't up to me?' That thought alone scared him more than Donnah Heeley did. The dream felt so real... he knew then, that he'd truly glimpsed what it would feel like to leave Mark forever.

Arden emerged from the shower, shaking -- not from the cold, but from the sheer feeling of helplessness that now permeated his entire being. He realized that, no matter how much he loved his wolf, there may come a time when he would be helpless to prevent their separation..

He was so happy to see Mark that he almost knocked the wolf over in an attempt to hug him while running.

"Whoa! I'm happy to see you too, hon!" Mark gave him a quick a kiss.

Arden didn't respond; he just held on to the wolf, wishing he never had to let go. Mark's presense filled him with hope. They were still together. Nothing could change that.

After a few blissful minutes, reality reared its ugly head and he pulled away.

Mark didn't question him any further about his sudden wave of emotions, and Arden didn't pursue the subject; he tried to push the dream to the back of his mind, deciding to deal with it when (and if) the time came.

He sat through Calculus completely oblivious to Florin's ranting. After he showed her up the day before, the squirrel didn't seem too keen on putting him on the spot again. His mind wandered, but he kept it firmly away from the night's dream.

In History, he sat together with Sam and Mark; Fresto spent the lesson discussing Franco-Germanic relations and ended with a reminder about the EMYGA meeting.

"Now, as I told some of my students yesterday..." He looked at the clock to make sure he had enough time. "...these meetings are completely anonymous; nobody will know you attend them, and anything you say will be held in confidentiality."

There were a few snickers, and a couple of 'fags' thrown around, but otherwise the class remained quiet.

Biology was a bit more involved than last time - if only a bit. The teacher, a large polar bear, seemed to have no clue what he was even doing in a classroom. He would refer constantly to the textbook and mispronounce a good portion of the terms. The information he did actually claim to know was usually wrong. Arden made a mental note to not pay attention to anything Mr. Buxton said; he chose, instead, to use his textbook.

Mark joined him for lunch again. They only had five minutes to eat, so neither was particularly keen on talking.

As they got up to leave, a voice called behind them. "Yo, otter-boy, we need to talk."

Mark was about to say something, but Arden put a paw on his shoulder. "I can take care of this. I'll see you in class."

"I-" Mark looked him right in the eyes. His gaze lasted a few moments before he looked away with a sigh. "Alright."

Arden watched the wolf leave and then approached Andy. "What?" He tried to sound as annoyed as possible to move things along.

"Tell your brother to stop pickin' on Rob," Andy growled. He had his fists balled, but he would never have enough spine to throw the first punch -- Arden knew that.

"Tell Rob to stop being a homophobic asshole." He matched the weasel's menacing tone.

"Homos like you deserve to be picked on."

"Well then, I have no control over Mikey." Arden folded his paws and stared Andy down. "Besides, if he's gonna act tough he should probably hit the gym or something; he punches like a little bitch."

"You're gonna get yours one day, cock-lover." Andy snorted. He turned around and sulked away, muttering something under his breath.

Arden arrived at English in pretty high spirits; he was able to avoid a fight and piss Andy off at the same time. This day was turning out to be pretty good, after all.

"Well, since you're not in detention, I'm guessing things went okay." Mark pulled his backpack off the chair next to him, and Arden sat down.

"Yeah, he just wanted to talk."

"Andy, talk?" The wolf cocked an eyebrow "Well, now I've heard everything."

"I'll tell you about it later," Arden whispered just as Eggurd walked in.

The entire class was dedicated to Wilde and his works again. Over the course of the hour, Arden only grew to love the author more. Eggurd assigned them the first fifty pages of The Importance of Being Earnest and ended the class just as the bell rang.

Arden tossed his notebook and pens into his backpack and followed Mark outside. "So, we're reading after school, right?" he asked, slightly nervous at what the answer was going to be.

Mark nodded and smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, absolutely! I'll come by your place after practice."

Satisfied with the answer, Arden bid the wolf good-bye and went home.

Mark showed up, as promised, two hours later. The boys ordered pizza and spent the evening doing homework together.

Arden helped Mark with his Physics while Mark took a stab at the otter's Biology homework.

With the boring stuff out of the way, they moved on to Wilde.

"This is really fantastic!" Mark said when they finished their English assignment. "I had no idea that Wilde was such a witty guy!"

"There's a movie version of this, too." Arden was glad the wolf had enjoyed the play just as much as he had. "It has Dame Judi Dench in it."

"Movie night Saturday?" Mark packed up his stuff and hopped off the bed.

"You bet!" Arden gave him a hug and walked him to the door, happy to finally have spent the evening with his boyfriend.

He fell asleep pretty quickly after Mark left, looking forward to another fun school-day.

The next day went pretty much the same as the last one had -- boring Calculus, fun History, slapdash Biology, lunch with Mark and a discussion of Earnest in English.

"I'll see you after school." Mark brushed muzzles with Arden briefly before heading off to practice.

After the wolf disappeared from view, Arden headed back into the building.

It didn't take him long to find room 245. When he got there he found, to his surprise, over a dozen students milling around.

He recognized some of them. There was Cody Harris, a timid raccoon who sat behind him in several of his classes; Ronny Beele, one of the otters on his swim team; as well as several other kids he knew from around the school.

They all turned to look at him when he walked in. Some looked surprised to see him there, others looked happy, still others looked embarrassed to have been caught at the 'fag club' meeting.

He waved cheerily to them and took a seat.

Fresto walked in, carrying his usual faded briefcase briefcase. "Wow, we've got quite a crowd today! Why don't we move some chairs into a circle."

Everyone got up from their seats and formed a circle at the front of the room.

Satisfied, Fresto took a seat between Arden and Danny, a stalky cheetah from Buxton's Biology class.

They went around the circle and introduced themselves. Everyone but Arden spoke quietly, directing their attention anywhere but at their classmates. After the introductions were made, Fresto paired them up.

"If you can make just one friend this year with whom you can be perfectly open and honest, even about your sexuality, you will already have gone further than most people do in their lifetime."

Arden was paired up with Danny.

"Hi," Danny said in a barely audible whisper, paying a great deal of attention to his claws.

"Hey!" Arden smiled at him. Seeing that Danny had no plans on talking, he decided to speak first. "So, are you loving Biology this year?"

"Yeah." Danny chuckled. "Buxton sure seems to know what he's teaching about, huh?"

They talked some more about their classes; Arden found out that Danny was also planning to study biochemistry in college. The cheetah had already done a lot of college research and shared his top ten school picks with Arden. To the otter's delight, the schools he'd arbitrarily picked out at his last guidance meeting were all on the list.

Just as they'd finished discussing college choices, Fresto re-shuffled the groups.

This time, Arden was paired up with Cody; while the greeting was similar, the raccoon seemed to be unable to provide more than one-word answers to anything. In the end, Arden gave up and stared at the clock until Fresto called them back into the circle.

"That was fun, wasn't it?" He smiled, his bright eyes eagerly surveying the group. "Now, for an announcement."

He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a manila envelope. "This came in the mail today." He opened the envelope and read from a brightly-colored pamphlet.

"Robert Teller; for those of you that don't know, Robert Teller is a fairly well-known gay author. Anyway, he is doing a scholarship this year for homosexual students. The winner will receive fifty thousand dollars towards a college education. In order to enter, the student must write an essay about why homophobia is as bad for the straight population as it is for the gay; three thousand words."

He passed the pamphlet around.

When it got to Arden, he leafed through it and took down the information; only two others did the same.

The meeting ended with Fresto promising extra credit to anyone who wrote the essay. Even this generous offer, however, didn't spur anyone else into action.

The other students departed immediately, running off down the hall before anyone caught them near or around the 'fag room.' Arden shook paws with Danny and also left.

He looked around for Mark, but didn't see him anywhere. Nobody picked up when he called, so he headed home alone.