It's an uncomfortable shuffle through the eerily empty halls of the school, each step bringing with it a new minor grievance; the shifting of the pebble in his shoe, the strap of his backpack sitting too heavy on his shoulder, his bangs refusing to stay out of his eyes; the day's barely started and he's ready for it to be over.
There is a faint guilt in the back of Eli's heart. Petunia's death and the rocky shuffling of her assets, himself included, delayed his freshman admission to Vanish High by a solid month, a delay he knew was more than enough, but like any lazy teenager, he wishes it had been longer. It was hard enough readjusting to sunlight after a summer and a half indoors. Having to reestablish notation on his conditions with the medical staff was the cherry on the shit sundae.
So he continues to shuffle, thinking if he walks slow enough, second period will end without his involvement.
The empty halls provide ample opportunity to scout and assess what he's in for for the year. The deeper in he gets, the slower he goes, running his paws across the bricks in the wall to feel their texture, silently tap-counting the number of lockers he sees, peering into an unlocked janitor's closet, sneaking an eye through the windows in to the classrooms. He feels like a ghost in an empty, inattentive world, and that suits him just fine.
He finds another wall to absent-mindedly run his nails across. Paws out and eyes shut, he keeps walking, letting his nails trail across the many ridges and cracks in the bricks.
As he turns a corner, he feels a jolt directly in his center. His paw shoots to his chest on it's own, his fingers beginning to spasm wildly. He curls into a squat as every neuron fires off at once, sending a horrid shiver up his spine and back down through his stomach.
"Nnhhh...mmnnh...!" he grumbles quietly into the muffler of his hoodie, eyes snapping open to see the sudden change in wall texture. From rustic brick to cheaply applied acrylic, with a too smooth, too grippy texture to match.
Eli desperately scratches at everything he can to make the shivers go away, only finding salvation when his nails scratch the satisfying nylon exterior of his backpack straps. He scratches away, nearly hard enough to cut the fabric, relief washing over him like an ocean wave.
He stays there, squatted against the corner once the shivers are gone. He'd stare at his over-sensitive paws had he not shoved them deep into his pockets where they continue to wig out for another minute.
Still not a single soul to be seen. Bizarre for a school, he thinks, unable to parse whether it's a blessing or a curse. He wants to get introductions over with, to skip them entirely even moreso, maybe to be happened upon, for someone to just know. The thought of having to fill out another pile of forms, of having to feel a nurse's paws around his throat, of getting glares from adults who don't believe him, it twists in his stomach and forces him to fight off a dry heave.
There he sits until the universe decides for him.
"Hey!" laughs a grown, unknown voice.
Eli does not turn to look, still believing being still makes him invisible. It almost works until he feels a tap on his shoulder from above.
There stands a beady-eyed and bearded-up bat, tie pressed but sleeves rolled, looking down at him with a practiced smile, "D'you hop on the wrong bus there, sport? This is the big kids school!"
The bunny's brow furrows. Surely he isn't that short.
The bat ungraciously pulls Eli to his feet by his backpack, "What's your name, kiddo?"
His chipper tone is already starting to sting. Eli pulls a paw from his pocket and shapes a few letters that the bat does not see, the teacher's steely-yet-barren gaze locked firmly with his own eyes. When it's clear he missed it, Eli taps a finger to his neck before waving a finger in a 'no' motion.
"What's that, son?" the bat asks with a tilt of the head as if he was paying attention. Eli tries signing again to the clueless man to no avail.
Another tilt of the head drops the bun back to his squat as he slings off his bag and all but punches down to the contents inside. He pulls out a fresh notebook and even fresher pen and writes;
My name is Eli Crilly.
I know I am small but I assure you I am a student here. This is my first day.
As I'm sure is obvious, I can not talk.
Please inform me if you have anyone on staff that knows pawspeech.
Normally he wouldn't bother with the proper punctuation, but this year he wants to nip the association of mute and stupid in the bud.
The bat adjusts his glasses and squints at the paper for far longer than Eli is comfortable with a teacher doing, "Hmm...izzat so.." he mumbles in what sounds like disbelief.
Just as he closes up his bag, the bun finds his paw taken by the barely sapient brick wall of a man, "Nah, don't worry, squirt! We'll get this all sorted at the principal's office!"
Eli struggles to attribute the staff's stupidity to his own laziness. When they sit him down on a bench in the head office, he doesn't bother to try explaining further. If the bat didn't get it, no point in expending the effort. More time out of class anyway.
The infantilizing nicknames aren't helping his mood, nor is the PBJ they offered him to snack on while they rang up his dad, but there's nothing wrong with a free sandwich.
A bell rings too loud in his ear, causing him to flinch. The halls flood with students within seconds. He lets his eyes catch a few, just to gauge things; a blue cat dressed like a lawyer, a gray wolf straight out of the foreign exchange program, a yellow dog defying the dress code, a crow that looked like she just came from homeschooling, a tan mouse adorned in buttons he didn't know they made that big, all his age, all normal kids like him.
He hears the phone ring out to no answer for the third time. Dad's not picking up. Eli hopes he doesn't, lest he never hear the end of it.
He hears an assistant having a heated, nay passionate back and forth with one of the nurses, followed by a loud crash and the lament of a spilled biohazard box.
He hears bells ring and hurried footsteps to shutting doors.
Then he hears nothing. Even the clock is broken and refuses to tick.
Sandwich gone, he pulls his knees up to the bench and hugs around them, almost wanting to just let them ship him back off to the middle school across town. No fun to be found, but there was familiarity. No need to explain a million pertinent details to people who just didn't get it, no need to memorize new names, faces, numbers, no changes to what took so long to know.
No waking up to an alarm instead of her voice, no rushing to the day instead of maneuvering through dead silence, no navigating a minefield of harsh eyes and even harsher tones.
The whole world shrinks to the size of the bench. May the bell never ring again.
------
Just a quickie of Eli anxious on his first day of high school.
Keywords
male
1,247,469,
cub
297,000,
rabbit
144,917,
bat
38,348,
teen
35,849,
crossdressing
19,260,
school
9,478,
vampire bat
1,100,
high school
548,
autism
239,
autistic
237,
mute
186
Details
Published:
1 week, 1 day ago
20 Nov 2025 19:36 CET
Initial: cd9742d8d668d15d55bdb966de72ad50
Full Size: fee08da2382ffd0be8d426ff736aca13
Large: e3b28939af178c5035956c3b56818255
Small: 554b53edf54d46ab83241a5df877eaef
Stats
53 views
5 favorites
0 comments
