Notes from Emmy:
Hope everyone has had a good weekend. Let us see what these girls get up to this week.
A special thanks to LunaWolf, my always faithful beta, as well as my nephew Basil for the awesome book cover. You can find his details in the synopsis of this story. He does great work for affordable rates and I've always had nothing but the best experiences working with him.
As always, thank you for reading.
Emmy

 

 

 

It was nice out. Above the girls as they walked, birds chirped as a cool breeze blew in from the northwest, kicking up the smell of freshly cut grass and blooming flowers. Spring was finally here, and as everything woke up from the long and cold Winter, the weather matched the beauty of rebirth.

 

Walking side by side, both girls appeared to be polar opposites from each other. Maerel at barely five foot counting the tips of her ears, her light chestnut brown hair hanging down to her shoulder blades with a pink ponytail holder that matched her pink sleeveless top and denim shorts, a grey backpack slung over one shoulder, bland and rather unimpressive in her opinion, and Pearla, tall, at five five, maybe five six not counting her ears, her red hair with gold streaks tied into an elegant braid that hung to the middle of her back, her rebellious clothing, black fur-tight jeans, grey spaghetti strapped shirt with the picture of some rock album cover and matching leather jacket, her perfect chest, perfect fur, and perfect tiger muscles, everything Maerel wasn't.

 

In fact, the only thing the shorter fox had in her opinion that was even noteworthy was her fur and her tail. Most kids their age didn't seem to hold much stalk in how their fur looked, but Maerel was rather obsessive. Yeah, she got picked on for being the whitest, "Snowiest" girl in their school, but it was something she was proud of. Most girls had to get special die to bleach their fur to even half the brightness as her fur, but Maerel was all natural, both a blessing and a point of conflict. There had been a few boys who wanted to know if all her fur was as white as the fur not covered by clothing, and even two who had tried to get a peak without being invited, sexual preferences aside, but  still. She was proud of her rarity of fur color.

 

Even Pearla, as a white tiger, didn't have as bright of a coat as Maerel. It didn't stop the attraction the fox had for her classmate, an attraction that had been scribbled in her diary many times, though she wouldn't ever confess to it if questioned.

 

"How's your tail?" Pearla asked as they took a left down a sidewalk that led off toward the school's administration buildings. They hadn't said much since leaving the locker room, something that hadn't helped the very shy fox's confidence issues.

 

"It's throbbing," Maerel admitted. It was the product of herculean effort that kept her paw from reaching back to massage said appendage, an effort honed by hiding the pain caused by an abusive father and a mother who blamed the girl for nearly everything wrong with their family.

 

"I'd bet. I thought I heard it break when you landed. Can you move it?"

 

Maerel stopped long enough to lift her tail, though the effort hurt like hell. "Yeah, just hurts a lot."

 

"At least it's not broken." Suddenly, the tiger stopped and turned around to face her, barely giving her enough time to arrest her own momentum before they collided. "Listen, Maerel. "I'm sorry for the way we've all treated you. I know it probably doesn't mean much, but I'm sorry all the same."

 

Maerel's heart quickened and suddenly she was finding it difficult to breathe. Someone was apologizing to her, the weird girl who doodled her classes away and only did what was asked of her and nothing more? This had to be a joke, a setup for more picking, more pain.

 

"Are you alright? Do we need to go to the nurse's office after all?"

 

Maerel forced air into her lungs, which decided now of all times to seize up on her. "No no, I'm alright. I'm... I'll be alright." Trying to keep her paws from shaking too much, Maerel flicked some invisible dust from her shirt and pushed those confusing feelings down to be dealt with at another time. Instead, she looked at the tiger's face directly and swallowed against the feelings of rising panic. "But, I mean, why are you, apologizing? You've never done anything to me."

 

The tiger blinked at her, an unreadable expression quickly flashing across her face as she seemed to be looking for the right words to say. :I might not have done anything to you, but I stood by and let those bitches fuck with you. That's bad enough."

 

The language wasn't anything new to Maerel. Alcoholic sperm donors tended to make one immune to most vulgarities by an early age, but the fox still blushed from the tiger's words.

 

"What... Your blushing, don't like my language?" Pearla scoughed indignantly.

 

"No," Maerel giggled against her will. "It's just no one has ever been so, I don't know, sincere towards me." They staired at each other for a long moment. Maerel, afraid to say anything else that might sound stupid, and Pearla who still had that strange expression on her face, like she didn't know what to think of the weird little snowy twerp before her.

 

"You're one strange pup Maerel, you know that?" Pearla finally said as she reached up and gave her braid a tug.

 

"I get that a lot actually," The fox replied.

 

"Yeah, well, I'm still sorry," Pearla said once more as she turned around and started walking again.

 

"Thank you, but you really shouldn't be," Maerel replied as she started following the taller girl once more.

 

"They say some pretty messed up shit about me Maerel, you know that?" Pearla said offhandedly as they walked passed one of the prefab admin buildings that served as the nerve center of the school grounds. Some say I'm affiliated with a gang or two, other's say I'm a wild party girl who does drugs, randomly sleeps with which ever guy will have me, and so on. Does that bother you?"

 

Maerel kepped up her pace, her shorter legs working double time to keep up with the taller tiger's longer stride. She could tell that this was a test to see how she responded. Her anxiety began flaring up once more, sweat beginning to ruffle the fur of her lower back as she could just feel the weight of the tiger's question. She thought about  what to say. On one hand, she really didn't want to get caught up in some teenage drama that ended with her in jail and began with her hanging out with the wrong crowd. But Pearla had been nice to her so far, even apologized to her for the behavior of their classmates. She couldn't be that bad, could she? And even if the rumors were true about her, what did that change? She had still been nice to her and even invited the shorter girl to ditch class with her. Well okay, maybe ditching class wasn't the most responsible course of action she could have taken, but still. With panic making her blood run cold and burn at the same time, she realized in an instant the right thing to do.

 

"No. It doesn't bother me," Maerel said at last, her mouth now drier than paper in the middle of the desert.

 

As they neared the employee parking lot with all the vehicles that the school's staff owned or leased, they came upon a picknick bench set off to one side of the sidewalk, which was shielded from the sun above by a pine that was just beginning to regrow it's canopy of leaves. Pearla moved to sit on one side of the bench, Maerel following suit and sitting across from her.

 

"What if I told you it was all true, then what?" Pearla asked as she settled into place, her long tail swinging lazily behind her as she folded her arms on the table.

 

"Are you trying to scare me?" Maerel asked.

 

"What if I am?"

 

"Then I'd say you're messed up in the head like the rest of them."

 

Pearla blinked once, twice, then tilted her head back and laughed loud and hard. Her laughter tickled something in Maerel. She couldn't say what it was, but something in side of her seemed to tingle with the sound of Pearla's boisterus amusement.

 

"You know, if you talked back to all the rest of those two-faced little bitches like you just did to me, I don't think you'd have to worry about being screwed with again," Pearla managed to get out before giving into her laughter once more.

 

Blushing again, Maerel looked out toward the parking lot, unable to believe what she had just said.  "I doubt that, they'd just throw me around some more for getting smart with them."

 

Pearla stopped laughing at that and gave the fox another one of those strange looks. "You know what? Your probably right about that, sadly. But still, what if what they say about me is true?"

 

Maerel unconciously reached back with one paw to stroke her tail, which was slightly swollen and tender near the base. It was definitely bruised, that was for sure. Chewing her lip only for a moment, she replied. "Honestly, I don't care. If it is true, just keep me out of it. And if it isn't then well..."

 

"Well?" The tiger asked as she leaned forward, one paw drumming her claws rhythmically on the weather-worn surface of the table.

 

"If it's not true, then nothing. I don't care either way. You've been nice to me, apologized for things that you didn't have to apologize for, and, well, I don't care. People just, say things that aren't true, and other people believe it like it was the gospel or something."

 

"Kind of like how they talk about you when they think you can't hear?”

 

Now that was a loaded question. "Well, yeah. Kind of like that, except you got one thing wrong there. They say things regardless if they think I can hear or not."

 

The tiger didn't say anything for a long minute after that, just kept drumming her claws on the table. Maerel glanced at the other girl. Pearla may have looked at ease, but Maerel could tell something was bothering her. Had  it been something she had said?

 

"Man, you've had it rough here, haven't you?" The tiger finally said as she looked Maerel dead in the eye.

 

Maerel tried not to look away from those amethyst orbs, those slitted pupils that seemed to bore right through all she was and peer deep into her soul. Why was she so nervous around this girl? She shouldn't be this wound up, crush or no crush, but there it was. She was held captive by those eyes, and as the seconds ticked on, Maerel found that she was exhilarated by this strange new friendship.

 

"So you really don't care what they say about me?" Pearla asked softly, her voice almost husky from the weight of the question.

 

Maybe she's alone too? Maerel thought to herself, but then doubted that thought a moment later. She had seen Pearla hanging out with other kids, seen her accepted into the fold of teenage politics like she was borne into it.

 

"No, I really don't," Maerel said, her eyes still focused on Pearla's.

 

"Thank you."

 

"For what?" Now she was the one being thanked? What the hell was going on today? Did she hit her head in the locker room and was now laying on the ground bleeding out from a traumatic head injury?

 

"For accepting me when you don't even know me. It might seem like a small thing to you, but trust me when I say it's rare."

 

"Then, your welcome?"

 

"Has anyone ever told you that you have really pretty eyes?"

 

The question caught Maerel completely off guard, and she looked away as she tried to fight back the blush that was screaming through her white fur. That was one down side to her fur that she took so much pride in, it made hiding facial expressions next to impossible.

 

"I'm sorry, it's just... They are so blue, kind of like seeing the sky reflect off of ice glaciers."

 

Maerel could feel the blush creeping down her neck now, but the smile still came to her lips as she muttered out a thanks. From deep in her belly though, the butterflies began unfolding their wings and flapping madly in a vain attempt to find freedom.

 

"Seriously, let me see them again. They are so pretty."

 

Maerel looked up, still blushing from the praise no one had ever given to her, much less for anything to do with her looks, and tried to look Pearla in the eye again. "You, really think so?"

 

"Maerel, you'll find that I don't ever lie, ever."

 

"I like your eyes too," Maerel found herself saying. "Those really aren't contacts, are they?"

 

"Nope. Did you hear that from the asshole club?"

 

"No actually, it's just I've never seen eyes so... Purple." Silence, then both girls started laughing. Finally though, as the laughter died down, Maerel let out a long sigh.

 

"What's up?" Pearla asked.

 

"Nothing, I just, well. I never thought I'd be ditching class to hang out with a gang banging goth girl who does drugs and parties hard."

 

There was a flicker of emotion on Pearla's face for an instant, but Maerel had seen it and suddenly felt horrible. Here Pearla was, trying to be nice to her, to actually talk to her, and Maerel had just thrown those rumors in her face for no reason. Idiot, she thought to herself. You stupid idiot!

 

"Pearla, I'm sorry. I was just trying to make a joke," Maerel said, her gaze now downcast.

 

"No, it's fine," the tiger replied.

 

"No, that wasn't nice of me. I'm really sorry."

 

"It's okay. I promise," Pearla said as she removed her leather backpack and tossed it on the table. Reaching into one of her jacket pockets, she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, and with practiced ease, she retrieved a smoke from the cardboard packaging and sparked it to life. Maerel wasn't one to smoke. Hell she had never tried it. The things her father smoked were nasty things, things that made the whole house stink of nicotine, but the smell currently wafting downwind wasn't unpleasant. Quite the contrary, it almost smelled fruity.

 

"Most of that stuff isn't true, the things they say about me I mean," Pearla said as she breathed in a lung full of silver-blue smoke and released it back into the air.

 

"I..."

 

"No, really Maerel. It's okay. I live in an upscale neighborhood, most of the time. With my grandparrents. Really nice house actually. Got a pool and game room and everything. Other times though, I have to go stay with my parents. They, well they don't live as well off."

 

Maerel wanted to say something, but what could she say?

 

"See, my mother, she's a hard worker, right? She busts her ass off to make ends meet so she can hang on to that crappy ass trailer my Dad's all attached to and all, but my dad? He's. Well he's got problems, let's just say that." She took another drag from her smoke and let it out. "I'd rather just stay with my grandparents, but my parents are always on about wanting to raise their kid right, something my mother could probably do on her own if it wasn't for my Dad wasting every penny on, stuff. So my living arrangements vary from time to time. Because of that, I got this bad reputation in school, so to keep from getting fucked with, no offence to you, I let them say what they want about me. It keeps the assholes away, and I only have to get physical maybe once or twice a year now, because no one wants to piss off the girl who might put a hit out on you or something."

 

"But I thought you have friends? I've seen you in class with..."

 

"With a bunch of two-faced bitches who would cut my throat figuratively and maybe even literally if given the chance? None of them are really my friends. Just a bunch of wannabe losers who only hang around me because being the bad girl is supposed to be something awesome and shit." Pearla spat out the last as though admitting that much was a physical strain on her.

 

"God, I'm."

 

"Please don't say you’re sorry Maerel or we are going to have a hard time being friends."

 

"I'm sorr… I mean. Okay." God, this was a nightmare of a social situation to navigate. Maerel wasn't used to talking to people like this, didn't understand why Pearla was telling her all this to begin with. Awkward was an understatement.

 

"No, no, I'm sorry Maerel. You're not like them, I shouldn't be snapping at you. You didn't know any of this," Pearla said a few puffs later, and as she dropped the smoldering remains of the cigarette to the grass, she kicked at it with a paw.

 

"Okay, so what about the rest of it?" Maerel asked, trying to find something else to talk about to get them back on safer territory.

 

"Like what?"

 

"So you're not a gang banger. What about the drugs, and." Maerel gulped. "the guys?"

 

"Sweetheart, the only drug I do from time to time is weed, good old Mari Jane, and despite what DARE tells us, I'll swear by its benefits until the day I die."

 

"Okay, and the guys?"

 

"Aren't you the inquisitive one?" Pearla asked as she tilted her head to one side until an audible crack could be heard. "No, it's okay. Honey, I don't know if this will bother you, but since I've told you this much, I doubt it's going to make your opinion of me any worse." Suddenly, those amethyst eyes were fixated on something off to one side out of Maerel's sight. "I'm, actually... Well, I like girls." The last was said so quietly that Maerel barely caught it.

 

"Oh..." Maerel said outside of her head, but inside, her inner cheerleader, a school activity that she once wanted to try out for, suddenly woke up and began cheering emphatically. This was news to her, she wouldn't have ever pegged Pearla to be gay before, but now that she thought about it, why not? There wasn't any one set of looks or something that meant being gay was an utter stereotype. Just look at yourself in the mirror for that confirmation, Maerel, she thought to herself.

 

"So, still sure you wanna be friends with me?" Pearla asked, a note of bitterness in her voice.

 

"What, of course I do," Maerel rushed to answer. "Why wouldn't I wanna be friends with you?"

 

"Hmm? Well let's see here," Pearla started as she held up a paw and began counting down her claws. "I'm not the hot shot gang banging asshole you thought I was, I'm not from the right side of the tracks, I smoke weed, ditch class whenever I feel like it, and what was the last thing? Oh yeah, I'm gayer than a two-dollar bill at a pride parade. I think that sums it up nicely, don't you?"

 

She's serious about all that, isn't she? Maerel asked herself.

 

"No, that doesn't sum it all up, not at all."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"Well first, thanks for being honest with me. I don't care about what side of the track you are or aren’t from, I don't care about all the people who just use you for protection as that's obvious why they hang around you, and your family situation is no worse than mine. Really, trust me on that one," She said as Pearla began to open her mouth to ask questions. "And besides, if I judged you for being lesbian, wouldn't that make me a bit of a hypocrite?"

 

"What, you mean you're?"

 

"Pearla, I won't lie to you either, okay?" That got Pearla to stop in her tracks immediately.

 

"I just thought you, I mean..."

 

"What?"

 

"Nothing, don't worry about it," Pearla said as she began fidgeting with a strap on her bag.

 

"No, seriously, what did you mean?"

 

Silence.

 

"Come on Pearla, what were you going to say?" Finally the tiger answered so quietly that Maerel strained to hear.

 

"I thought you had a boyfriend outside of school or something." Christ, she was blushing now, Pearla was blushing.

 

"Really? Oh god, no, eeewww. Why did you think that?:

 

"Because I saw the marks on your neck and thought they were hickeys or something.”

 

Maerel blanched, her facial fur going even whiter than it's natural complexion.

 

"Oh no," Maerel whispered. This wasn't good, not good at all, how did she get out of this one?

 

"Maerel?"

 

She thought she had hidden the marks this morning, how could she have been so... Suddenly, it hit her, the locker room... She must have seen them in the locker room.

 

"Maerel? Hey, are you alright?"

 

Suddenly, Maerel grabbed both of the tiger's paws in both of hers and staired her in the eye. "Pearla, you have to promise me, you won't talk about those marks, not with anyone! Okay?"

 

"Maerel, What..."

 

"Please Pearla, promise me!"

 

"Okay okay, I promise, but can you please stop squeezing my paws,? It hurts."

 

Maerel let go instantly and sat back staring down at her paws. If Pearla didn't keep her word, Maerel was in deep shit, and she knew it.

 

"Maerel?"

 

"I'm, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I, I should go." Turning to get up and leave, Maerel's paw was grabbed suddenly.

 

"No wait, Are you alright Maerel?" Half sitting, half standing, Maerel turned her head to see Pearla stairing up at her, those beautiful amethyst orbs shining with concern and something else. Compassion?

 

"I..." She didn't know what to say. She had no words. Her first chance of making friends and she had gone crazy on her for drawing the wrong conclusions, and the worst part was, she couldn't tell her new friend anything, else who knew what would happen. Slowly, she sat and turned to face Pearla.

 

"I can't talk about it, so please, please don't ask me to, okay?"

 

Pearla continued to gaze into her eyes, purple staring into blue, but finally she nodded. "Okay, I won't ask you about it, and don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Is that why you're so afraid to change in the locker room though?"

 

"No," Maerel said without thinking. "I just don't like other girls staring at me and calling me names."

 

"Oh." Pearla said as she continued staring at the fox.

 

There was a long silence then, each girl caught up in their own thoughts and musings.  "I guess we should get back to class," Pearla said at length.

 

"Huh? Oh right."

 

"Unless, do you want to skip the rest of the day? I know of a really good burger shop down the street. My treat?"

 

Maerel thought about it for a minute. On one hand, the only classes left were history and math, both classes she despised. But on the other hand, she really didn't want to get in more trouble than necessary.

 

"We don't have to," Pearla added. "I'm just hungry and thought you'd like to get out of here for a while."

 

"No, I'll go," Maerel found herself saying. "Why not?"

 

"Are you sure? I mean."

 

"No, come on, let's go." Maerel stood up and grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder then turned expectantly toward Pearla.

 

"Well, okay then. But what's got you ready to go?"

 

"Life isn't life if you don't take chances every now and then..." Maerel said as the tiger stood and grabbed her own bag. "Maybe I just need to take more chances."

 

Pearla peered at the fox quizzically then nodded. "Maerel, my new friend, I think you're going to be alright."