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Sophomore year

Oh, that annoying sound of the alarm when you first wake up. Well, it wouldn't have been so annoying if it wasn't so early and dark...well, it was February 2nd, so daylight savings made it pretty dark. Anyhow, I have never been so excited to start school. Fresh start, new image, new people. I couldn't have been more excited! That excitement was accompanied with fear. I was gonna be the new kid. Would everyone wanna beat me up? Would there be people wondering who in the hell I was? More importantly, are there any cute guys at my new school that would be gay or maybe think I'm cute?! Okay, so I love to drool over cute guys, but what do you expect? I've never been in an actual relationship. My family didn't know I was gay, I was barely coming out of the closet at my old school and as soon as I came out, I decided to leave.

I rose out of my bed and went to the mirror just to check out anything that seemed off. Odd routine, but it was normal for me. I looked at myself and concluded that I had a build. This was actually the first time I look at my body, usually I'm looking for any kinks in my fur to brush out, or to see if there was anything I'd never noticed before. I stared at my body in the mirror and I grinned, I was in a way shocked to see I had some kind of figure. Well, maybe playing baseball at Pine High School helped. Still, working out with the team really did give me some sculpt. I flexed my arms and saw a little bit of biceps popping. My shoulders were very wide and I shoulders to see if there was anything there. My back rippled and I felt a bit of a blush. I noticed I also had some leg muscle and flexed my calves and thighs and saw that they too were well formed. The only areas I needed work on were my abs, obliques and pecs and I'd be all around buff. I wasn't too muscular from my other parts, but there was some form in there, so I felt proud. My tall stature helped me too. I was 6', the tallest in my family, and I weighed about 223 pounds. Kind of big, but I was okay with that. I really started to notice my coat, too. It was sleek and a glossy black. It was intense looking, but as I stroked my paw through it, I felt it as smooth as silk. I'm really glad I used conditioner often, otherwise my fur would've been a tangled mess. My whole body was covered in black fur, with the exception of white fur on my underbelly and splotched on my left eye. My eyes were icy blue, clear as crystal. I was really happy with my genes. I grabbed my clothes, showered and towelled off and headed for school.

Before I left the house, I saw a note from mom. "Gonna be out with friends, Axel. Don't stay out too late. Leave the door unlocked because I'm not driving." I read it and crumpled it up in anger and disgust. She meant that she was gonna drink and asked me to leave the door unlocked because she'd have no other way to get in and end up sleeping outside.

'Well, that ruined my breakfast.' I bitterly thought as I walked past the kitchen and grabbed my lunch from the fridge. I walked out the door and opened my gate, only to see my best friend, Joey, walking by.

"Joey!" I screamed as I went to hug my best friend since third grade. Joey and I have had a good amount of times and he was one of the few friends I first told I was bi when I was coming out of the closet. He hugged me back and smiled bittersweetly.

"Ax, looks like I'm not gonna see you at school anymore." He said with his ears folding back. Joey was a red fox with a huge fluffy tail and honey colored eyes. He used to be bigger than me, that is until my growth spurt back in eigth grade. He also started running, so he became a lot thinner than I had

"Joey, you know that's not true," I reassured him "we're practically neighbors. We live on the same block. I promise we'll still hang out. Plus, I just got the plasma in my room so that means we could play games in my room!" His tail started swaying back and forth as he grinned slyly.

"That's true! And since you offered, I'm gonna go to your house first!"

"Consider it an invitation! Hey, well I don't wanna be late on my first day, so I should get going."

"It's barely 6:47, why are you going to school so early?" He asked puzzingly. Truth is, I didn't know why. I guess I was so excited, and I also wanted to walk around the school and get a feel for it. Plus, I wanted to check out the choir room and see how that looked.

"I have to register for my classes! I'll see you later! Text me!" I said as I walked away and waved goodbye at him. As I walked to Autumn Hills High School, I kept running into friends from Pines. The schools were in opposite directions of each other and I lived in the middle of both schools, so I was dead center of all the groups heading over to Pines. Some friends cried, some hugged me and wished me luck on my first day. One person in particular made me want to go back to Pines, and that was Omar, the wolf.

Omar was not only sexy as hell with his ripped body and huge muscles, he was a pretty laidback guy and really fun to be around, especially one on one. He was one of the few who took it pretty hard that I was leaving. He kept trying to convince me to stay and that I had a calling in baseball and I could really help out the team when he left. He was a senior and was in varsity since his freshman year, I was barely starting varsity, and barely started to play overall since freshman year. I had no idea how to throw, catch, pitch, anything having to do with baseball. I was a singer, not a sports guy. That is, until my gym teacher saw how well I tossed baseballs and how good I was at batting and catching flyballs and all that, but I didn't really figure I was actually good at it. He convinced me to do JV for a year and, if I liked it, he'd put me in varsity. Well, suffice to say, Omar was pretty mad at me, especially because he was my mentor in baseball. He took me under his wing and taught me everything I know and he even told me that I had surpassed his expectations and that he'd planned to go harder on me, which he did, but I was still able to keep up. Soon enough, I was almost as good as he was, the baseball teams captain himself. He was really proud of me and ever since the summer, he and I became close friends.

I saw Omar walk right past me and I sighed in disappointment and a bit of anger. Next thing I knew, I had a huge paw bearing on my shoulder and I felt his force turn me around. He was staring at me dead in the eye with his honey colored eyes, his maw so close to mine. I didn't feel any kind of tension in the air, this is normally how close we'd get if there was something he needed to tell me, whether it was him just messing around and playing with me, or if he really needed some advice. He looked at me and a grin formed on his muzzle and he just chuckled. "Do me proud at Autumn Hills baseball team, 'k, kid?" He said in a cheerful tone. He extended his other paw and I reached in with a happy grin.

"Sure thing, Omar." And with that, he walked away. I had a feeling that that wasn't going to be the last time I'd hear or see him.

---

After the incident with Omar, I continued to walk over to school. I walked up to the face of the school and felt intimidated by it's huge presence. The front of the school looked old and stood tall and proud. I felt a sense of spirit in the cracks and old font letters that needed repainting. I walked in the office and I was immediately greeted by a female rabbit with a very nice presence.

"Hello there, sweetie. Can I help you?" Said the rabbit cheerfully.

"Hi, I'm Axel Jason Lovell? The new transfer from Pine."

"Oh yes! Good timing, your counselor just got here! Please, sit in her office. If you wouldn't mind, do you think you could send this files to her, as well? She left them out here. She's a bit scatterbrained, but still very sweet."

"Sure thing." I said with a smile. I walked over to the counselors office and before I entered, I could make out a couple of words she was muttering about in her office.

"I know I had those documents! Where on Earth are they?!" She grumbled as she rummaged through her cabinets. I knocked softly and she scattered quickly through tons of papers and cleared her throat. "Come in!" She said pleasingly and welcomingly. This made me laugh. 'She sounds like a riot!' I thought in my head. I opened the door carefully as to not knock over any papers. I popped my head in first and smiled and walked in. "Why, hello there! You must be Axel! I'm so glad to meet you, your other counselor has said so much about you. Please take a seat! Oh, just shuffle that stack to the ground!You have my papers! Thank you so much, those are your records." I looked at them and I saw my transcript and a picture and my records. "I'm Mrs. Roland, pleased to meet you!" She said as she fixed her hair and cleaned her glasses. She was a beautiful doe with trimmed antlers and a soft look in her eyes that could melt butter. She was scatterbrained, it seemed. "So, Axel. I've spoken with you through email, but I wanted to make sure I knew what classes you'd prefer. So far, you have 2 open slots. You're fine with your required classes, but you still have one class that you need so you could be ahead so that you don't have to worry about those. I went ahead and added varsity baseball, even though you didn't ask for it. I figured you'd want to. Also, I put you in photography, since you did first semester at Pines and you need at least a year."

"Oh, well I wanted to ask you about that. You see, I really want to do choir." I said meekly. I didn't like to argue or fight or deny help from any elder, especially teachers.

"Honey, I'm sorry, but the only spot that you'd have room for is Chambers, and I hate to burst your bubble, but you have to audition for that. Also, the record doesn't show that you did choir even since freshman year." She said matter of factly. My ears lowered and I felt defeated. I was looking forward to doing choir. I didn't even know what the difference was in Chambers, it was still choir, wasn't it?

"Okay then. So I have baseball, and photography and everything else are just prerequisites?"

"Correct! I'll print out your schedule. Be back in a sec." She lept from her chair and walked out of the room to get my schedule from the front. I just sat there with a disgruntled look on my face. I started thinking. 'She said I'd have to audition. What are the chances of me actually getting in. Eh, it wouldn't hurt to try.' I thought. That was the plan, during lunch, I'd go and audition for choir, Chambers in specific. What was so special about 'Chambers?' What was it? Those were questions that were running through my head at the moment. I decided not to share that with Mrs. Roland, so she wouldn't know my motives or suspect that I'd be up to something. She came back and handed me a slip with a list of classes and room numbers. "Now, before school's over, I want you to come back and tell me how everything went! I love hearing from my students! Okay, have fun and you're now officially an Autumn Hills Panther!" She said excitedly.

I walked out and did a practice run to see how long each class was apart from each other so I wouldn't be the last one in the classroom and divert all attention to me. There was one thing I realized about the campus. It was huge and had a college feel to it. There were at least four two-storied buildings, two sets of bungalows, one big gym, one small gym, a swimming pool, and a huge baseball field and football field and track field that ran around it. I was amazed at the size of the school. It was so much more bigger than Pines and had a more mature vibe than Pines as well. The bell rang and I headed on over to my first class, Biology. I walked in first and gave the teacher my slip and she welcomed me to the class and sat me down at an empty chair. She was even nice enough to lend me her notebook so I could copy the notes she'd given her class the first semester, so that I wouldn't feel left out. Second was World History and I loved being in that classroom. The aura, the feel, the whole thing felt so welcoming. The teacher was also a female, a badger, and she was very much into school spirit, she wore Autumn Hills Orange and Black proudly. My third period was Spanish and the spanish teacher, a raccoon, seemed nice, but he seemed a little too old for the job. He should retire soon before he croaks at school. It was lunch time and I decided to take advantage of the situation.

I looked for the choir room and found it and heard singing. 'Oh man, why am I doing this? There are people in there and I'll be disturbing their class.' I thought. I paced back and forth and just grabbed the door. 'Oh well, better now than never.' I slowly opened the door and it creaked so loudly that I thought I would've died right then and there. I saw eyes all over me and I heard a couple of murmurs from different kids. An elder looking badger poked her head out and looked at me puzzingly.

"Can I help you?" She said in a curious, and yet inviting tone.

"Um...yes, I-I'd like to...to..."

"Are you auditioning for choir?!" She said excitedly.

"Y-yes." I stuttered as my face flushed. So many people were staring at me. I wasn't used to this much attention. I knew I should've just waited.

"Oh! Oh this is very exciting! Come in, come in! I'm Mrs. Walters, the choir teacher! You picked a good time to join us. We were just talking about auditions. Come to the front and tell us your name, voice part, grade and when you started singing, or if this is your first time, why you'd like to be in choir."

I nervously shuffled to the front of the classroom and I tried my best not to look at anyone, but everywhere I turned, a pair of eyes was staring right at me. "Hi. I'm Axel, I'm a sophomore. I'm a tenor, I think. It's been a while. I started singing since third grade." Some more muttering occured as I finished my barely audible introduction.

"OH!" Mrs. Walters shouted in excitement. "This is exciting! Now, what choir would you be looking forward to audition for? This is Concert, our intermediate choir. We have our beginners the last period and we have Chambers the next period, but Chambers is for advanced singers. Mainly, people go through Concert to get into Chambers."

"I, um..I actually wanted to audition for Chambers." Everyone started muttering even louder and my face flushed in embarrassment.

"Well, I don't want to put you down, Axel, but the chances are somewhat slim. You could still audition, however the process is a bit difficult. Do you have a song prepared?"

"What?" I thought as I became paralyzed in fear. I didn't think I'd have to sing in front of all these people! I was hoping it'd be small and more private.

"You know, an art song, or a pop tune or broadway?" She said. I know the word Art Song sounded familiar and then I thought about it. I DID know an Art Song, but I wondered if they had the music to it.

"Do you have 'None but the lonely heart' by Tchaikovsky?" I asked meekly. Her eyes widenend in surprise. I don't think she was ready for me to ask for an art song. She ran to her office and came back and gave it to the pianist and she looked at me and allowed me to take time to compose myself. She started playing and I started to sing. It was a beautiful German piece about how a man's love was lost and he sees her, but it's impossible to reach her because the distance of the ocean was too vast and he is in despair and anguish for her love.

"Well, I'd have to say one thing and one thing only..." She said in a serious tone. "Welcome to the Chambers." She said. As soon as I heard that, my soul just flew. The class applauded and I was overwhelmed in happiness and I just thanked her and thanked the accompanist. Mrs. Walters wrote me a pass for my counselor to add me into Chambers that same day.

---

"You made it into Chambers?!" Mrs. Roland said with disbelief and shock. I just grinned and she laughed in disbelief. "Wow! You are sure a determined little guy, aren't you? Well, I guess I won't deny you the right and priviledge of being in that group. I just hope you know that it's going to be a lot of work juggling two different things all at once." She told me concerningly.

"I can manage." I said confidently. She just smiled and typed in her computer and reprinted my schedule.

"I can tell you're gonna be a great kid, Axel. I know it." She said with a proud tone and she gave me my schedule. "I still wanna hear from you after school! I'll be waiting after baseball practice is over."

With that, I walked out of her office and sighed and grinned eagerly. As I started to walk, I felt like I'd crashed into a wall as I fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of me. "Oomph!" I grunted as I landed and tried to regain my air. I looked up and saw a staggering shadow loom over me. I saw an arm extend and I took the offer and lifted myself easily. Too easily, as if I didn't actually even lift myself. I let my paw go, but the grip was still pressed on my paw. I tried to make out who had pushed and helped me up and I realized I was looking at the persons jaw. I looked up to see a light brown wolf with green eyes looking at me with a serious face. I was immediately mesmerized by his emerald eyes and I started to look at his physique. It was huge. Every muscle bulged in his shirt, even though his shirt wasn't pressed on his skin too tight. His grip was still strong and I felt my paw become numb, but I was too focused on the beautiful creature standing before me. I saw a scar on his left eye and he still held that strong gaze in his eye that made me shiver. He was much taller than I was, around 6'5, and I could tell he was heavier than me, but in muscle. It felt like an eternity that we were in each other's grips, but it was probably about five or six seconds in which the incident occured. He stared into me and said not even a single word. I'd no idea what his intentions were, whether it had been malicious or gracious. He let go and spoke in the sweetest, softest and most delicate rumble.

"Watch where you're walking, your face was buried into your paper." He said softly as he handed me my schedule. I grabbed it from his paw slowly and tried to utter out a single word, maybe even a syllable, but all that came out was just air and a mumble or two. "You must be new. I've never seen you around here." I still didn't say anything, I just nodded my head, not even realizing what he just said. "Well, be careful." He said and started to walk away. Without even thinking, I just blurted out whatever I could say.

"I'm Axel!" I blurted and, in my head, slapped my forehead with such a stupid thing to have said. I could have at least thanked him for helping me up. This seemed to capture his attention. He slowly turned around and with the same intense gaze, he nodded and responded in the same beautiful, mesmerizing voice.

"Damian." He replied and walked away. The name replayed itself over and over in the same beautiful voice he'd been repeating with. I stood there like an idiot, frozen at the incident and filled with butterflies. Who was this guy? I must've looked idiotic! Those questions loomed in my head as I walked over to choir. The moment I walked in, I realized I was late.