Smoker in the Closet
Chapter 1
Six A.M., far too early, far far too early to start my day. What happened to waking up at noon and doing anything I wanted all day long? Oh that's right, high school...
My names Trent Richards, I'm five feet, ten inches tall and I weigh roughly 220 pounds, a little chubby but it could be worse. I'm an average raccoon, aside from the rings on my tail are dyed blue. My head fur is a normal black that reaches down past my eyes. Just like my headfur my paws and my mask are black, while the rest of my body is covered in an ashy grey colored fur.
As my alarm goes off for the second time I realize it's time to get in the shower.
After I'm cleaned properly I make a quick breakfast of toast and jelly and I'm off to meet Devin at the bus stop. Devin's my best friend, an otter, no different from any other otter except for the three metal rings in his face, one in the left side of his lower lip and two in his left eyebrow. My parents weren't so quick to let me get piercings, I had to beg and beg for months to just dye my tail, and even then they feared what everybody else at church would think of them.
"Hey there smurfy" said Devin with a silly grin across his muzzle as he pushed his long straight hair out of his face.
"How's it going metal head?" I always love rebutting with smart comments.
"Pretty shitty actually, Lisa broke up with me through a damn text last night, she said something about me not being "mature enough for a HIGHSCHOOL relationship". He put extra emphasis on "high school".
Lisa was a slender otter, an average girl in most ways, except she had "developed" sooner than some other girls in our grade, most of us being 14 or 15 had only just begun puberty but she had already grown into her womanly figure, which drove Devin to date her for the 4 months he had been.
"Shitty deal man, tell yah what, after school wanna go smoke a bowl in the woods?" Did I forget to mention I like to smoke pot? Because I do, a lot.
"Thanks man, that sounds awesome" Devin rarely turned down a free high.
We chatted for a little while longer, more kids showed up waiting for the bus, until it finally came to bring us to our first day of high school, oh joy.
Me and Devin sat together, mostly in silence. I could tell he was nervous about going to the big building too, even though his older brother Chris would be there to keep an eye out for us. He couldn't watch us all the time.
As the bus reached the parking lot we observed the flood of fur, feathers, and scales getting off their buses and walking into the school. They all looked so....old. Half of the kids didn't even look like kids anymore.
When the bus came to a halt Devin and I stood up and exited the bus, and looked at the building. The menacing structure stood just as still as us, the only motion I paid any attention to was the flickering street light above the sign that read "Riverbank Public High School".
"Do you two need some help?" I looked to my left to see a tiger standing next to me and Devin, his hair long with streeks of bright green and the rest is just blonde. He's wearing a tight electric blue hoodie with plain jeans on. His foot paws are bare for some reason and his backpack is beaten and worn.
"Oh hi, we're fine. Just a little nervous." I responded for the both of us, Devin was looking in a different direction now. He was quivering and had a look of fear on his face. I looked in the same direction and instantly knew what was happening. Lisa had been walking in our direction and she was staring daggers at Devin, each second adding more and more to the intensity to her stare.
"Who's that bitch?" asked the clueless tiger. Devin just responded with "an ex" as he moved to the inside of the building to go see his brother. Me and the nameless tiger were standing outside of the school alone now.
"So what's your name?" I asked a simple question to kill the awkwardness.
"My name is Jake Eddison, like the scientist" He responded so cheerfully and proud, with the hugest grin on his face, with an extended paw.
I took the paw in mine and shook. "My names Trent Richards, nice to meet you". I had a bit of a smirk, I just made a new friend before school even started.
"Richards? Never heard that name around here before."
"Well I am a freshmen..." I thought he already knew.
"A freshy! Stick with me buddy, I can show you around this place. I'll teach you the do's and don'ts, all that junk." He puffed out his chest out and pointed at himself with his thumb, was he trying to show off? Jake took me on a complete tour of the school, explained all the different clicks to me, and showed me a few spots where kids smoked, he must have assumed I smoked. We ended up in the freshmen hallway of the maze of a school.
"Which lockers yours?" Jake asked me, I told him the number and we ended up at the locker, and he helped me figure out opening it.
BING BONG
"What was that noise?" I asked after jumping out of my skin and into the ceiling.
"That, my friend, was the warning bell, we've got 2 minutes to get to first hour."
"Oh, it does that all the time? How convenient." I looked at my schedule and luckily enough the locker was next to my first class of the day. "It looks like my room is right here." Jake looked at me.
"What lunch do you got Trent?" I looked over my schedule that indicated lunch B, whatever that meant. "Cool, we got the same lunch, want to go out to lunch with me, we can grab some burrito's and a monster, if you want?"
"That'd be awesome, thanks Jake. I'll see you then I guess..."
"Later freshy" Jake ran down the hall in a rush to his class, then I turned into the doorway to my first class. I had English first hour. The teacher wasn't there for the first day of school, so we were all allowed to just sit there and make a name tag to help the real teacher put names to faces. The next few classes were spent just meeting all of our new teachers, I had third hour with Devin, Geometry. The teacher was a bloated old squirrel, he seemed kind enough. He explained in his syllabus that as long as we do our work and paid attention when necessary we could talk and do as we pleased.
"So who was that tiger this morning?" Devin asked trying to occupy our time.
"Some cool guy, he showed me around the school and helped me with some stuff after you left. He offered to bring me out to lunch with him today too. His name is Jake."
"Doesn't that strike you as a little odd?" Devin had only the slightest hint of worry in his eyes.
"I don't think he's a bad guy, he seems nice."
"Don't you think he's being a little too friendly?"
"What do you mean Devin, I think he'll be a real awesome friend, anyways have you talked to Lisa at all?" I changed the subject all too soon, not realizing I mentioned the girl that broke Devin's heart.
*sigh*".... I had first hour with her, I tried asking about why she ended it and then she said that if I had to ask then I shouldn't know...I give up on her, if I wanted my head fucked with I'd go to a midnight music festival tripping on acid." Even though what Devin said was comical he had no joking in his face. He missed her.
"Hmm, I know what to do. Meet me in your tree house at 4:00, bring your ipod." I knew exactly how to get him out of this slump. Before Devin could even ask the bell rang and I bolted for my next class knowing Devin had lunch this period. I checked my schedule again, and this hour I had choir, kind of lame I know but I like music. It's good for my head. I walked into the large room and there was at least forty kids in the room, choir being a class for any grade, there was anyone from freshmen to seniors in the room.
"TRENT!!" I looked around but saw no one looking in my direction, and then I was suddenly tackled to the ground by a flash of orange and green. Next thing I knew I was being straddled by Jake. "Hey there Trent, you have choir this hour too? That's awesome!" The grin on Jakes face was bigger than earlier, he's full of smiles. I noticed most of the class was staring in this direction and I started to blush, what a great first impression on everyone.
"Yeah, I like to sing sometimes, so I figured why not." I pushed Jake up and then he helped me get up. "What section do you sing? I sing tenor."
"I've been singing as a tenor in this choir for 3 years now. It's the high light of my day." The class proceeded with the director, Mrs.Fisher, a tall Dalmatian with short black hair testing all the new freshmen's voices. She did the testing in front of the whole class, one at a time. My nerves were getting the best of me while she went down her list checking everyone.
"Alright, can I get Mr. Trent Richards next please?" The guillotine was dropped. I standed up from my seat and walked over to the front of the piano like everyone else had done before me. She asked me to just sing until I couldn't get any higher, and until I couldn't get any lower. As she began playing the scale I froze, stage fright took me in its teeth and began shredding me to pieces.
"PPPSSSTT!" I looked back to Jake and he was smiling at me and he just gave me a simple thumbs up. Just like that I felt better, I began singing the scale, and just as soon as it started my torture was over.
"You did really good Trent, I like your sound."
"Thanks Jake, I almost died up there, thanks for the encouragement." I offered a half smile, still having nerves. "When do we get out for lunch, I'm starving."
"We should hear the bell in about thirty seconds, then we can go to my car and party hard!" Jake shouted the last half of his phrase, gathering more stares from other students. Luckily the bell pinged and we were all free for a half hour for lunch. Jake led me out to the parking lot to an old beat up truck, it was green and covered on the inside with sharpie drawings on the seats, walls, ceiling. Even his rear view mirror had some scribbles on it.
"I keep a box of sharpies in here at all times, for when people get bored." Jake must've noticed me staring. Jake turned the key over and the old engine roared louder than any other car in the parking lot. "Wanna draw something? Let my truck be your canvas." Jake started driving out of the parking lot and towards the nearest Taco Bell.