First Day at My New Furry School
DISCLAIMER: ** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Any names mentioned that are related to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. **
________
Tristyn woke early the next morning and got himself all ready for an event both exciting and terrifying. First day at a new school full of animal morphs and I'm human. The thought kept running through his head. Even before he had been in Saskatoon, he had done home schooling the whole time (save for the few courses he wanted to do that were available only at the local school, hence how he met all his old friends). Public school would be something new especially because of the animal-morphs. But Tristyn wasn't too worried for two good reasons; One, his brothers Leo and T.K. were going to the same school as him; and Two, he would get to see Michael again. The mere mention of the name Michael sent Tristyn smiling as he remembered the fun day (Minus the getting clawed in the face) he enjoyed with the shark morph. Michael was fun to be around, and Tristyn was happy that they were able to become friends.
The sound of Leo's voice brought Tristyn out of his thoughts. He looked to see his Orca-morph brother smiling down at him. "You all ready?" he asked, to which Tristyn answered with his own smile and a nod. Whatever had been bothering Leo yesterday he had apparently gotten over by the time Tristyn had come to him with a desperate plea to help him find a cell phone. They had had fun looking around, and since then Leo hadn't been irritable or tense, something Tristyn was happy about. Leo was a better person to be around when he was in a good mood. Although in the chaos if the day, Tristyn had forgotten to ask Leo the questions he had wanted to ask. But that could wait until later
T.K., Tristyn's other younger orca-morph brother, came swinging down the stairs, his backpack flying behind him. "Come on slowpokes! Let's go!" he spoke before rushing through the doorway, grabbing Tristyn and yanking him along.
"T.K. come on. We don't have to be there for at least a half hour. We can take it easy and walk." Leo said in commanding tone.
"Aww Leo, come on. I wanted to show Tris around the school myself instead of those stupid welcoming committees." whined T.K.
The older orca was adamant, "We will walk."
Letting out a sigh of defeat, T.K released Tristyn with a grumble, leaving the human to rub his now sore arm. Tristyn mouthed a 'thank you' to Leo which was received with a wink. The school wasn't too far, six blocks at most, but the entire way was full of T.K. telling Tristyn all the things the school had to offer. "We have so many great clubs and groups for afterschool activities, I'm sure you'll find something you'll like Tristyn." Leo threw in some things to, "We have a lot of different sports teams as well. You're bound to find something you''ll like." Tristyn nodded and agreed, but he didn't know if he could manage getting a group so easily. Maybe in a couple of weeks, then he would see where he was at.
When the school came into view, Tristyn mouth fell open. The place was huge, split into two campuses and was completely covered by animal-morphs of all types. His heart sank slightly. It didn't seem that there was any other humans at this school. But that's not going to stop me thought Tristyn. He remembered what he and T.K. had talked about yesterday. He wasn't go to show his fear. As the trio approached the crowd of students, Tristyn suddenly felt very self conscious as the eyes of the others fell on him. He began to doubt his choice of clothing, his hairstyle, everything. A prod from T.K. brought him out from his thoughts. His brother leaned over and whispered, "Relax, you're fine. They're curious, that's all."
His words helped and Tristyn began to walk with my back a little straighter. This is me, I have nothing to be ashamed of. he told himself.
The stares became more apparent when he entered the building, but Tristyn brushed them off. He was thankful for his brothers' calming presence, he doubted he would have made it this far with out them. When he reached the administrators office, he was greeted by a fluffy female poodle (Which he had to stifle a laugh when he saw. She looked completely ridiculous) in a woman's business jacket and skirt, with big glasses perched on her thin nose. She looked over her glasses at Tristyn, looking at him like she was looking for some flaw to point out. Apparently she didn't find anything for she asked me in a gruff voice, "What can I help you with sir?"
Tristyn's voice wavered, but only for a moment. "My name is Tristyn-" The poodle cut me off, "I know who you are," she said snidely, "I want to know why you're wasting my time. You're not even on the right campus. You take your classes on the North Campus. This is the South Campus. I suggest you make your way over there, unless you want to be late on you're first day." And with that she turned around like Tristyn was never there.
He turned to face his brothers, who looked as dumbstruck as he did.
"Well..." Tristyn said, "I guess I should head over to the North Campus then... I assume that this means we won't be having any classes together?"
Leo nodded, disappointment written all over his face. T.K. took it really hard though. "This bites. I was hoping we'd have classes, and I could introduce you to my friends and we could all hang out."
Tristyn patted his brother's shoulder. "It's alright," he said, "I can always meet them after school or something."
That seemed to appease T.K. but only a little, "Yeah.. I guess... but it still sucks."
Leo put his arm around T.K.'s shoulders, "Come on, its not that bad." He looked to Tristyn, "You better head over. Classes start soon, and you should try not to be late."
"Kay then," Tristyn sighed, "I'll see you guys after school." He waved slowly, as he walked down the hallways.
Tristyn managed to find his way through the maze of people, people who kept looking at him weird. You'd think they'd never seen a human before the way they were acting. He payed them no attention, instead focusing on his current goal; Make it to the North Campus before the bells rang.
The doors opened, letting him outside. He followed the sidewalk to the next set of buildings up the way. Clouds started coming the mountains and the sea, turning the sky grey and the air cold. '_Great... just what I need' _he thought. He drew his jacket closer as he walked, trying to keep out the cold.
When he reached the north campus, there was a group of morphs standing outside the the doors, watching him. He threw a quick glance in their direction. There was two leopards, a rhino, a bear, a tiger and a horse. They all looked like heavy gym users, their bodies trim and sporting highly visible muscle. The horse especially; he looked like he was built like a stone wall almost. Even from the distance he was from them, Tristyn could feel the presence of snobby arrogance and over inflated ego they gave off. But what caught his eye and scared him the most was that the horse was looking straight at him, his brown eyes focused intensely on Tristyn.
He quickened his pace, hurrying to the doors. He wanted to leave the sight of the horse. Something about the look the horse gave Tristyn... just didn't feel right. It was if the horse was sizing him up like a coyote on a fat rabbit. He could feel the horse's eyes on his back as he went. He heard a few laughs go up behind him as he opened the entrance doors, and risked a quick look backwards. The entire group was looking at Tristyn now, then looked at the horse, who was still staring, and began to snicker and poke the horse as they teased him. Tristyn didn't waste any more time and calmly entered the school, though his heart was beating very fast.
Dodging past others in the hallways, Tristyn managed to find the campus' administration office. There, a black furred vixen was the secretary, dressed in nearly the same outfit as the poodle from the south campus, but her personality was anything but similar to the rude secretary. The moment she caught sight of Tristyn she stood up, and with a warm smile waved him over.
Unsure if she was pointing to him, Tristyn did a quick look around before pointing at himself. The vixen put her paw to her mouth and did what looked like a giggle before she nodded. Suddenly feeling a bit brighter, Tristyn walked up to the vixen secretary and put his hand out. Shaking it firmly, she said, "Hello! and welcome. You must be Tristyn Carver. I'm Ms. June, the secretary on this campus. Welcome to our school!"
Tristyn Carver? ... oh... right... my name changed when I was adopted" Tristyn gave a near unperceptive sigh. Another thing for him to get used to.
Ms. June picked up on his sigh though, and her smile dropped slightly. "I realize that this must be very different for you, to adjust to something like this. If you ever need to talk, we do have a resident school councilor who would be more than willing to speak with you."
Tristyn paused for a moment. Is she recommending me to a shrink? he thought, but he pushed that thought out of his head. She was doing what any person would do. He gave a slight nod to the vixen. "While I appreciate the offer, I think I'll be fine. Just gotta give it a couple weeks to get used to it. But I'll keep that in mind."
Ms. June seemed to except that, but then she face-palmed(pawed?) her face. "I almost forgot." she said, then began digging through the drawers and cabinets, tail swishing behind her as she searched. Tristyn couldn't help but stare at the tail as it moved back and forth. It was mesmerizing. The tail paused in its movements, bringing Tristyn out of his trance, to which he realized that she was looking at him. He blushed and began to stutter an apology, but she just gave a small laugh and said, "Don't worry about it. I get it all the time. Here take these." and she handed Tristyn a computer tablet with a charger and a school map.
Pointing to the tablet, the vixen said, "This is a School supplied device that students are allowed to use both inside and outside school. Please take good care of it." Gesturing to the map she said, "This map will help you to find your way around the first few days."
Tristyn thanked Ms. June for the items, just as the bell rang. He was about to walk away, when he realized something. "Ms. June?" he asked.
"Yes dear." she said.
"I don't know what classes I have," he admitted, scratching his head in embarrassment.
"Oh that's right," the vixen said, "You just check your tablet. It'll tell you."
"Thank you," he said and smiled at Ms. June.
"Your welcome Tristyn. Now go, hurry to your first class." She shooed him off.
He wandered through the halls, various other students rushing past on their way to their classes. He looked to his tablet, a clicked the button on the side to turn it on. The screen turned on, before displaying 'Please put thumb on screen inside the designated area' and showed a little box shape in the middle of the screen. "_Weird" _thought Tristyn, but he did as the screen asked.
When he put his thumb on the screen, it lit up, and a small beam of light scanned his thumb print. After it did its scan, he removed his thumb, and the screen changed so that it read, 'Please state you full name'.
"Tristyn Falklen Carver" he gave in a clear voice. The device played it back to him and asked to confirm, to which he did.
"Welcome Tristyn F. Carver" it read for a few seconds before it brought him to the main screen. It had everything a tablet was expected to have. The time and date, calendar, etc. But it had this one app that read 'School Schedule' that Tristyn tapped when he saw it. The screen changed, revealing several columns filled with names of classes. One of the boxes, located under Monday, was flashing red. He pressed it, causing it to enlarge. The box read 'Current Class: Political History - Teacher Mr. Jack Wybern'. There was another word in bold print that caught his eye. " LATE". Checking the map Ms. June had given him, Tristyn groaned when the map showed the room was on the other side of the building.
"Just my luck," he muttered, making his way through the empty halls to the his class.
__________
"Glad to see you could make it Mr. Carver. I was beginning to worry you wouldn't show," said the middle aged alligator that greeted Tristyn when he entered the room.
Go figure the door would be at the front, thought Tristyn, as he brought himself to smile midst the stares of his class mates."I'm sorry Mr. Wybern. I had difficulty finding my way here."
"Excuses mean little in this room Mr. Carver. I expect you to be on time in the future." said Mr. Wybern as he scratched his brown-green scales. He turned to face the room. "Class" he started, "We have a new student. This is Tristyn Carver, and he'll be joining us in our future classes. I expect you will treat him just as any other classmate."
The room broke into a buzzing as the students began whispering among themselves. Wybern tolerated this for a few moments before hushing the students. "Mr. Carver, you can take a seat at the desk by the window." He pointed to a desk at the back of the room.
Tristyn nodded and made his way over, the gaze of the others following his every move. When he sat he realized that the position of the desk meant he was the furthest from the door. Great... as if that wasn't bad enough, the others couldn't stop staring at him. He ignored them, and instead turned his head to look out the window. Seeing the south campus, he sighed and wished that he had managed to get in a class with his brothers. At least he'd have them around for support if they were in the same building.
Mr. Wybern coughed, bringing Tristyn's and everyone else's attention to the front. "Eyes up here people. Now then, let's continue on with our previous discussion on the Byzantine Empire."
__________
Class passed quickly, much to Tristyn's delight. It had been so boring for him save for when the teacher called on him to answer questions. He had already gone over the subject so he was able to answer all of them, leaving Mr. Wybern smiling and the rest of the students in awe. Tristyn couldn't help but smile himself. He always had a thing for history, so learning and remembering it was easy.
As the students gathered their things to leave, Mr. Wybern called above the clamor, "Mr. Carver, could you stay in the room for a few minutes please?"
Nodding, Tristyn made his way to the teacher's desk. When the last of the class had left and they were alone, the gator spoke. "It appears that you are already well acquainted with this information Mr. Carver." he said scratching his scales.
"Yes Mr. Wybern. I took this class when I was home schooled, though I never finished before I came here." said Tristyn.
"When you stopped, where were you at," Wybern asked.
"I believe I was on the French Revolution," Tristyn said, wondering where this was going.
That sent his teacher into a small laughing fit.
"Whats so funny," he asked.
Wybern calmed down enough to regain his more serious expression, though his smile still remained. "My dear boy," he said, "We don't start on the French Revolution until April."
This made Tristyn confused, "But it's the middle of November..."
The gator's grin grew bigger, "Looks like you have a free class until Spring then Mr. Carver."
Tristyn thought about it. "I don't know... If its alright with you Mr. Wybern, I'd rather stay and continue with the rest of the class."
Wybern looked at Tristyn curiously, his grin never leaving his face. "Its an odd request, but I'll allow it. But I must say Mr. Carver, not many students would give up a chance for a free period, even if was temporary."
Now it was Tristyn's turn to grin, "Not many students have an as interesting teacher as I do, Mr. Wybern. Besides, I don't want the others to think I'm getting some special treatment because I'm... you know... human." He paused before adding, "And could you please call me Tristyn. Mr. Carver makes me feel old." That earned another laugh from the alligator.
Wybern stood up and shook Tristyn's hand. "You are a most curious person Tristyn, human or not. I look forward to our future classes together."
"As do I," Tristyn said before saying a goodbye and walking out of the room towards his next class.
_________
The next two periods went similarly to the first one. Students stared at Tristyn for a few minutes before the teacher got them to stop, then proceeded with the lesson. They didn't go as fast as the first one, but they still went at a good pace, though that did little to quell the rising boredom in Tristyn. So he was quite relieved when the bell rang, dismissing him from the cruel torture of Shakespeare and Descartes.
Next was a spare which Tristyn used to locate his school locker. Ms. June was able to help him with that, providing a locker map with his circled, allowing him to located his with ease. He put his books and binders into it, doing his best to organize it.
Someone came up to the locker beside his, and opening it said, "You must be new here. That locker has been empty since the beginning of school."
"Yeah, just got here today," Tristyn said.
The other guy shut his locker and said, "Well then, allow me to personally welcome you to-" Tristyn shut his locker and turned to meet a very familiar face.
"Michael!" Tristyn said, eyes wide as he looked at the shark morph from yesterday.
"Tristyn?! What are you doing here?!" asked Michael, equally shocked.
"I'm here for the same reason you are. I'm being forced by the government to come to this place." he said, earning a slight grin from Michael.
"I didn't know you would be here" Michael said as they moved to a nearby window to talk.
"Yeah, well I didn't expect to meet you right away." Glancing over to the lockers, he said, "It looks like we're neighbors."
"I guess we are." Michael grinned, "I'm really glad we wound up going to the same school. Now we can hang out and get to know each.other more."
Tristyn smiled as well. "I look forward to that." But then he became concerned for Michael as his expression suddenly hardened, and his eyes were staring coldly at something behind Tristyn. "Boris" he said in a voice that sent shivers down Tristyn's spine.
Tristyn hesitated before turning around. Staring at him, was the big horse from outside, surrounded by a few of his groupies still exuding the same arrogance they had before. Tristyn's heart began to beat faster. He was terrified by their presence. Michael then did something unexpected; he stepped in front of Tristyn, as though he was his protector.
"What do you want Boris?" Michael asked, his voice not hiding the fact he was angry.
The horse, Boris, spoke in an unnaturally smooth yet hostile tone, "Nothing that you should be concerned about shark bait. I'm here to talk to the newbie here." Dropping his hostility Boris spoke to Tristyn next, "Hey there. How bout you come over and hang with us, instead of being stuck with this chump. We are unique people who would like t-"
Tristyn didn't even give it a second thought. "Are you freaking insane?!" he shouted, startling the horse and his friends. Tristyn brushed past Michael so he stood between them and the horse's group. "You walk right up, insult my friend, then just blatantly ask me if I want to hang around with you people. Do you have any idea how bad you look right now?!" He threw his hands in the air in frustration, "The only thing your group is unique at is being complete and utter arseholes."
The horse's face looked stunned for a moment, before turning to rage as he swung a heavy arm, pinning Tristyn to the wall. Michael immediately moved to help but was held back by two of Boris' goons.
Neck being crushed by the beefy arm of the horse, Tristyn had no choice but to listen as the sneering horse put his head down and hissed, "Look small-fry, I don't care who you are, but you better listen. Me and my boys," he gestured to the others, "We run this school, so if you want to keep your pathetic human self intact, you are going to do everything I say and show some respect!"
Trying to breathe, Tristyn rasped, still defiant, "I only show respect to those who deserve it. You don't deserve horse-shit!" And he spat at Boris.
Boris wiped the spit from his face before turning completely to rage. As Boris pulled back his fist, Tristyn simply closed his eyes, resigned to his fate. But the punch never came. He opened an eye to see Boris looking elsewhere... towards the quite fuming Mr. Wybern, who had forced Boris' goons to release Michael, and now both were giving Boris quite the death stare.
"Mr. Goring, what is the meaning of this!?" Wybern demanded in a very angry and authoritative voice."This school has a zero-tolerance for bullying as you are well aware! Now release Mr. Carver immediately!"
Boris snorted and unceremoniously dropped Tristyn onto the floor, where he began breathing heavily, trying regain the lost air into his lungs. Michael was at Tristyn's side immediately and, helping him up, led Tristyn over to where Mr. Wybern was standing. But something slipped from Tristyn's pockets. He cursed himself; it was his card deck that had fallen! Why the hell did I bring that to school? he asked himself. He quickly picked up his deck.
The moment Boris saw that deck, his eyes lit up. "So you're a card-fighter... that's interesting." he said before turning to Tristyn. "How about this; Instead of a physical fight, which you would un-doubtably lose," he drew something from his back pocket before showing it to the others, "Why don't we have a cardfight to settle this?"
Tristyn's eyes went wide. He wasn't expecting Boris to be a card-fighter. The card sleeve gleamed in the light, easily defining the lettering on them. Cardfight!! Vanguard. Tristyn grinned slightly; now he had a chance to get back a Boris
Michael started, "Are you that much of a dolt? Do you really expect Tristyn to just-"
"I accept," said Tristyn, receiving shocked stares from Michael and Mr. Wybern.
Boris smiled evilly, "Glad to see your not a total coward human." He turned to Mr. Wybern, "Can we use the Club room for this fight Coach?"
Coach?! Tristyn looked at Mr. Wybern, the gator scratching his scales still glaring at Boris. "As the Cardfight Club's coach, I agree to allow the use of the club for this cardfight. But any funny business will cause the direct cancellation of the match, understand? And I still expect you to visit me with the principal later Mr. Goring, regardless of the outcome." Gesturing for the others to follow him, Mr. Wybern led them down the hall.
As they walked Michael whispered to Tristyn, "What the hell are you thinking?! Boris is the Club's team captain! He's the best in the district."
Tristyn shook his head and looked right at Michael, "I'm not going to let myself or my friends to be pushed around by some pompous idiot. I don't care if he is the world champion. I will beat him and make him stop harassing you and anyone else!" Michael fell silent for the rest of the way, though Tristyn could have sworn he saw the faintest tinge of red in Michael's cheeks.
Mr. Wybern led the group to a door, and fumbling around with some keys, opened it, letting them inside. Tristyn took a quick look around. Promotional posters of various cards hung on the walls, and several tables were set up orderly in the room complete with chairs. Boris took a seat at the table in the center of the room and motioned for Tristyn to sit down. He did so, never taking his eyes off of the horse.
Pulling out a card mat the horse said, "Last chance to back down."
Tristyn removed his deck from his pocket and removing the starting card put it in the vanguard circle, put his deck on the appropriate space. "I'm not running."
"Glad to here it," Boris said, removing his starting card as well and placing it in his vanguard circle.
Drawing the beginning five cards, Tristyn looked over to Michael and Mr. Wybern and gave them a confident wink.
Boris drew his five cards and asked, "Ready?"
"More than ready," Tristyn said.
They moved to their hands to their cards on the mat.
I will win, for Michael's sake if nothing else.
Then came the cry, "Stand Up Vanguard!"
_________
*So the battle begins between the two adversaries. *
Who will win? And what punishment will the loser receive?
*Note: If you don't understand what Cardfight!! Vanguard is *
1: Check out http://cardfight.wikia.com/wiki/Standard_Fight_Ru... for information
2: Or for those who don't like reading, check out the anime online. They have an official channel on YouTube.