Ark: A Therian Story: Chapter Three

Instructions

Extra-long chapter today, woo-hoo! Chloe's first two classes were advisory and English. She was too excited to look at the rest of her schedule, so she walked to advisory and sat down in the last empty seat. Not everyone took notice of her. Some stared. A few openly giggled. She looked away, unsure why people would be making fun of her before they even met her. She was snapped out of her thoughts as her advisor, Mr. Tarreff, began to speak. "Good morning everyone, and welcome to Evren Mills High School. I'm Mr. Tarreff, your advisor, and this is Mrs. Ellen, my co-advisor. Today we'll be introducing ourselves. Why don't you start?" He pointed to a boy seated next to Chloe who was wearing a purple shirt and jeans. "Um. I'm Henry. My favorite color is green and I play hockey." He looked at her as if to say, 'what are you doing? Introduce yourself!' "Oh! Uh, I'm Chloe. I was homeschooled until I moved here, so I'm excited to meet new people. My favorite color is turquoise. Oh, and I do cross-country." They went around in a circle and then broke into groups to talk and meet new people. Chloe was with Henry and two girls named Ella and Cory. "Hi!" Chloe said enthusiastically. Cory gave her a side-eye. "Um, are you... a furry?" She asked distastefully. "No," Chloe said. She got the sense that this girl probably didn't want to hear about therians, so she just said, "I just like these accessories. But I don't, like, wear fursuits or anything." "Oh, ok," Cory said, and got back to talking with Ella. The other boy, Henry, had left to go talk to his friends. Chloe felt awkward, so she just counted the seconds as she sketched until advisory was over. English was fun because the teacher was nice, and nobody really noticed her. But what she was really looking forward to was next period-- lunch. Lord, was she hungry. And she had hot lunch from her favorite restaurant, so that was a bonus! When it came time to go to lunch, Chloe was just as hyped as she had been when she first got to school. She grabbed her food and picked a group of girls at random to talk to. "Hi!" She said, walking confidently up to a gaggle of freshman girls who seemed nice. "I'm Chloe, what are your guys' names?" The girls turned to look at her and stared for a moment. Then they burst out laughing. Chloe was knocked back a step. "What?" She asked, confused. "Um, we don't talk to furries," said one of the girls. "Go eat your kibble somewhere else!" Tears filled Chloe's eyes as she recognized the girls from advisory in the group. She felt the need to explain but could barely speak. "N-no, guys, I'm not a furry, I'm a Therian, they're different. I, I mean, you can't choose to be a Therian, you just are, and I just have dysphoria sometimes, s-so I wear these to help, but I also--" The girls continued laughing at her. One of them started barking at her. Cory from advisory laughed so hard she toppled over and landed on her knees. "Why-- why is that funny? I'm not a--" But nothing she said got through to them she started crying, tears running down her face, as she fumbled for a comeback. Then, suddenly, a voice sounded behind her. "Um, I don't know if y'all have noticed, but when someone says they aren't a furry, chances are they, y'know, AREN'T A FURRY. Not that I expected you to understand that with your tiny pea-brains and thick skulls." The girls recovered from their laughter and looked at the aggressor. Chloe turned and stared in shock. A tall, black-haired girl with porcelain colored skin and piercing green eyes was standing there smirking at the mean girls. More shockingly, she wore fluffy black ears and a pristine red tail. "You know," She continued, turning to look at Chloe, "speaking of pea-brains, how much do you wanna bet these numbskulls don't make it halfway through the year before they flunk out of high school? Think they'll get sent back to kindygarten?" She turned her focus back onto the girls. "You wanna see a big bad furry? Well, here you go." She drew herself up to her full height-- maybe six feet-- hissed, and screeched, "SUCK A LEMON, LITTLE MAN!" Then she snatched a cookie off of a girl's lunch, grabbed Chloe's arm, whirled around in the other direction and marched away. "Don't look back, kiddo," she whispered as she bit a chunk out of the cookie, and Chloe followed her without question.