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Mark wasn't waiting for him when he got home, so Arden decided to spend the free time researching topics for his essay. His fist thought was to just go with Wilde; the author's brilliance was severely underestimated during his lifetime; perhaps with greater appreciation for his work then, he would have written more for everyone to appreciate. He found Wilde's Wikipedia page in his bookmarks and read through it again. Satisfied, he was about to open up his word processor and start writing, when another entry stuck out at him: Alan Turing.

He wasn't expecting much when he clicked on it, but the content grabbed him more than Wilde did. Arden learned that Alan Turing was a cryptographer during the Second World War; his work in the field played a pivotal role in turning the tide of war. He was greatly respected by his peers until his homosexual tendencies were discovered. Back then, just as in Wilde's time, homosexuality was illegal. Turing was given a choice between prison and undergoing a hormone treatment. Being deathly afraid of the former, he opted for the hormones. Drastic changes soon gripped Turing. He grew breasts and suffered from daily migraines and violent mood swings. The agency he worked for deemed him unstable and revoked his security clearance, preventing Turing from continuing his research.

Reading the article made Arden realize that perhaps his life wasn't as difficult or trying as he first thought it was. He bookmarked the link and powered off the computer. Just as the DwemerCorp logo faded from the monitor, his cellphone vibrated.

Arden opened it up and read the text message:

'on my way, sry, hd some stuff to do.'

The sender of said text-message showed up at his door five minutes later.

"Sorry I'm late, I-" Mark began.

"-Had some stuff to do, I know." Arden chuckled. He let the wolf inside and shut the door.

"So how was the gay alliance thing?" Mark dropped his backpack off in Arden's room and the boys headed downstairs to get snacks.

"It was awesome, actually. I never knew there were so many gay kids in our school."

"How many were there?"

"I counted twelve. Thirteen if you count me."

"What about me?" Mark put a straw into his juice box and sipped it tentatively

"Well, you're not part of the club yet."

"I'm gonna come to the meetings!" He sounded hurt, but Arden took it as a sign that he might be able to use this as leverage.

"I'll hold you to that." The otter smiled and took a sip out of Mark juice box. "Speaking of, when are you gonna come?"

"Well, I can't next Wednesday." Mark chewed his lip thoughtfully.

"How about the Wednesday after?" Arden offered.

"Maybe."

Arden saw that this was all he was going to get out of his wolf for now, so he settled for it. "So, how about that homework?" He walked out of the kitchen with Mark behind him.

"Well, I actually did most of mine already, but we can still read together."

"Sounds good." Arden sat down on his bed and grabbed his copy of Earnest.

They read for several hours and actually ended up finishing the entire play.

"Now, we definitely have to see the movie," Arden said, closing the book and putting it on his shelf next to his collection of Redwall novels.

"Yeah, but we'll already know the ending, so it won't be as fun."

"It'll be fun if you're there."

Mark sat down next to the otter and hugged him. "I'm sorry I've been so distant the past few days."

Arden got his hopes up for just a split second, hoping to hear an actual explanation.

"School combined with practice is just overwhelming."

He tried not to show disappointment in the wolf's cookie-cutter answer; although his ears did droop a bit, Mark didn't seem to notice. "It's okay." Arden hugged him back. "At least we'll have the weekends together."

"Yeah." Something about his voice just didn't seem right. In fact, Mark's behavior reminded him of another point in time - he wasn't sure when or where - but he distinctly remembered seeing his wolf like this.

Arden wanted badly to ask Mark what was really on his mind but decided against it. In their brief time together, they had yet to have a fight; he wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. Granted, fights would be inevitable, but they would come later.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow," he said. "I'm setting three alarms this time; one of them is bound to wake me up."

That got a small chuckle out of Mark. "Okay, I'll see you then." They kissed and Mark walked out of the room.

Arden chose to take the time he had left before bed to start writing his essay on Turing. He powered up his computer and started working.

It was a quarter past three when he finally powered off his computer. Something clicked in the middle of the writing process and he just couldn't find it in him to stop before finishing. The essay turned out to be lengthy and, as Arden saw it, very deep and provocative. It argued that had homosexuality not been a problem, Turing might have taken the field of Cryptography and computer engineering to a much higher level than he had already done. Mankind's progress depends on letting each individual live up to their fullest potential, something Turing - as well as many other great artists, authors and scientists - was never given a chance to do.

Satisfied with his work, Arden shut off the lights and went to bed.

He stood at a podium in front of thousands of people.

"Please join me in welcoming Mr. Arden Halinen!" The presenter announced, passing the mic over to him.

From a series of cue cards, Arden read a lengthy presentation on the formation of matter and presented his theory on capturing this process and replicating it in a lab. His pride swelled when everybody stood up to give him a standing ovation.

"You did wonderful, hon!" Mark ran up and embraced him. They shared a kiss. The crowd went silent.

A voice came from the crowd. "Wait! Nobody told us he was a queer!"

More angry shouts followed.

Something flew out of the audience and hit him squarely in the forehead; it was a soccer ball.

The otter awoke in cold sweat again. Why were these dreams so real?

He'd heard about lucid dreaming before, but up until that night, he'd never experienced them.

His alarm clock read 4:00am.

Deciding that it was far too early to get up, he tried to roll over and get some sleep, but the memories of the dream kept coming back; they burned themselves in his mind until he couldn't even close his eyes without thinking about them.

He stopped trying to fall asleep at around five and went to take another shower.

The water helped soothe him again and make some of the thoughts recede into the background.

He didn't feel a hundred percent better when he emerged, but it was a start.

By the time Mark showed up, he was already on the porch, reading over his Turing essay again.

"You look terrible!" The wolf ran over and embraced him. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Yeah, I spent all night working on that scholarship essay." That was only a half-lie. "Mind if we drop by Coffeebean? I think I need something to keep me awake."

"Sure." They kissed and headed off down the street.

"So, this essay thing..." Mark took a few seconds to find his words before continuing. "Will it be publicized?"

"I don't know, maybe." Arden hadn't really thought about it. Did it really even matter? He voiced his thoughts aloud.

"No... no." Mark clearly wanted to say much more but chose not to. Arden, in turn, chose not to prod him.

The boys reached the Coffeebean in silence; Arden bought his drink, and they went to school.

"See you in History," Mark said as they reached Arden's calculus class.

"Yeah." He nodded.

If before, he simply zoned out in Calc, that day he was on another planet. He had a lot to think about and there was no better place to do it than in a class he didn't give two nuts about.

Would the essay be publicized? Would it matter if it was? He hated questions he couldn't answer. The only way to actually answer them was to wait and see how things unfold. For what it was worth, he liked math for that reason; all the questions had concrete, derivable answers. They didn't vary depending on the day of the week or the individual's mood.

History went about the same as usual. He sat next to Mark and actually paid attention without much effort on his part.

He stayed after class to show Fresto the essay.

"This is incredible!" The fox stapled the pages together. "I really wasn't expecting much from anyone on a topic like this. You really nailed it, I think."

"Thanks." Arden felt a bit better about himself. At least someone was appreciating his work.

"I'll send it off for you, if you want." Fresto offered. "I was going to edit it, but, from what I can see, it really doesn't need it. I will give it another glance-over before sending it, of course."

"Thanks!" Arden said. "That would be great." He parted with his essay and made it to Biology just before the late bell.

They were assigned a group project, and he was (very fortunately) paired up with Sam.

"Well, I guess this is our excuse to hang out, eh?" Sam said as they were leaving the class.

"Yeah." Arden felt the guilt return; he'd promised to hang out with Sam more, but things just seemed to fall in his way to prevent that from happening.

"And practice starts Monday."

"Oh, don't remind me." Between his evening practice and Mark's afternoon one, they would have absolutely no availability to spend time together. There were weekends, sure, but once the meets started, those would be very limited as well.

He sat with Mark and Sam at lunch, but their conversation was limited to commenting on the quality of the food. In trying to promote a healthy lifestyle, the Board of Ed. limited the food selection to organic and whole-wheat products, effectively eliminating all the decent stuff from the menu.

English was a similar affair to the previous days; lots of energetic banter from Eggurd and not much else. They took a quiz on Earnest, which both Arden and Mark passed with flying colors; a lot of other students seemed a lot less sure of themselves. Clearly Wilde's wit and interesting writing style were not incentive enough for them to read.

They handed in their papers early, and Eggurd let them go twenty minutes before class was due to let out.

"How about a smoothie?" Arden asked as they were walking out the door.

"Can't. We're doing drills and those are best done on an empty stomach."

"Okay." He wasn't frustrated with the constant 'no'-themed answers, but they were beginning to form a pattern. The problem was, however, that all of Mark's excuses were valid; Arden knew something was wrong, but he could never pin the wolf down by pointing out the weakness in his reasoning.

They talked for a little while longer. It turned out that Mark had gotten a lot of the same college pamphlets as he did; they arranged to hang out on Saturday and leaf through them.

"And maybe you can sleep over, too." Mark offered. "I'll have to clear it with my dad, but I'm sure he'll be alright with it."

"Sounds awesome!" Maybe some closeness was really all that was missing from their relationship.

'Are you trying to fool yourself with that or just practicing lying?'

As much as he hated his inner voice, Arden realized that it was absolutely right.

He walked home, nursing his cold coffee - something he'd completely forgotten to drink between being lost in his thoughts and trying to pay attention in class. Realizing that it was completely undrinkable, he tossed it into a conveniently-located garbage can and continued walking.

For lack of anything to do, he elected to spend the night reading; he picked up his copy of The Rogue Crew, bringing back with it the memory of his nightmare.

'It was just a dream.' The thought didn't comfort him in the least. Arden put the book back on the shelf and picked up Marlfox instead.

By the time nine rolled around, he was ready to go to sleep - not because he was tired, but because he just couldn't think of anything else to occupy himself with.

Whatever dreams he had that night, he didn't remember.

Friday was a blur. Everything Arden seemed to think about eventually led him to thinking about Mark and his upcoming visit; he didn't mind. In fact, he was happy to finally have something to look forward to.

Fresto got back to him about the essay. "I just sent it in; express mail."

"Did anyone else send one in?" Arden knew what the answer was going to be.

"Yes, one other student."

He was wrong. "Who?"

"I'm not allowed to share that information, Arden. I'm sorry." He really did look sorry, so Arden didn't press.

Before he knew it, the bell was ringing right above Eggurd's head, cutting short his English class and sending him home.

"Saturday." He confirmed with Mark as they were exiting the building.

"Yup!" The wolf smiled. "I'm really looking forward to it!"

"Oh, me too!" As far as he was concerned, they both were; no need to get suspicious of whether or not Mark meant what he said.

With the whole Friday to himself - Mark had some appointment or something - Arden decided to call Sam.

"Ah, so you do have my number." Sam answered the phone with mock-anger.

"Hey, dude." It was good to hear his friend's voice again; they didn't talk much in school once classed picked up. "Wanna hang out?"

"Yeah!" Sam sounded a little surprised, but mostly happy. "Why don't we go to Gino's or something?"

"Sounds good, I'll meet you there!" He snapped his phone shut and walked the short distance to the small pizza shop.

Sam was already there when he came in.

The hostess approached him. "Table for one?"

"No, I'm meeting a friend." He nodded to Sam.

"Oh, okay then. I'll be right over to take your order."

He walked over to the booth and slid in across from the other otter. "So, what have you been up to?" He picked up the menu that Sam had just put down.

"Driving school!" Sam smiled excitedly. "My dad just signed me up!"

"Oh man, I should get on that too."

"You can be in my class!" Sam's smile widened. "They've still got two spots unfilled."

"I'll talk to my dad."

They talked some more about driving school and the kind of car each of them wanted; Sam wanted something fast and sporty while Arden opted for an SUV to make carrying skis easier.

The waitress came over, interrupting their discussion. They chose to split a large anchovy pizza and got back to the conversation.

"You see, the problem with your car..." Sam leaned back in his seat. "...is you're not going to be carrying skis all year, but the terrible miles per gallon still stays."

"Yeah, and your slick sports car will have great miles per gallon, then?" Just like old times. He and Sam used to argue about all sorts of things back in the day; neither of them was really right, but it was fun to do.

"So, I was gonna ask." Sam changed the subject. "Have you found any scholarships yet? Our parents can afford full tuition, but my dad said he was gonna kill me if I didn't get at least something."

"Yeah, there's this gay alliance one I just sent in, actually," Arden said. "Apparently, I wasn't the only one, too."

"Woah, did they tell you who else did it?" Sam took a sip from the diet Coke the waitress had brought him.

"Nah. Fresto said he isn't allowed to reveal personal information or something like that."

"Mystery man, huh?" Sam smiled. "Or mystery woman!"

"I'm betting it was Danny," Arden said; it was the only option that made any sense. Out of all the kids in the alliance, Danny seemed to be the most gutsy.

"Danny Ellman? The guy from biology?" Sam leaned forward slightly. "Wow, goes to show you how good my gaydar is."

"If it makes you feel better, I didn't know either." Arden had lost his belief in 'gaydar' even before he discovered he was gay.

They finished their pizza, paid and went home.

"We should do pizza nights more often," Sam said as they stopped by Arden's house.

"Friday nights?" Arden really liked the idea.

"Sounds awesome!"

They embraced and parted; Arden walked towards his house, and Sam continued up the street.

Arden's spirits were really lifted by dinner with his best friend. Sometimes he forgot that there were others in his life besides Mark, and that the wolf wouldn't always be available for him to spend time with.

After a quick game of Rebel Command with Mikey (another person Arden's been neglecting), he headed up to his room and promptly fell asleep.