CAUTION: This story contains implied sexual activity between minors, violence, and profanity. Reader discretion is advised.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Assam Chai
by IndigoNeko
Chapter 15
Tuesday, July 12th, 2016
It was a little before nine in the morning when Raenne’s black SUV slowed in front of one of the cookie-cutter houses in the middle of the Aspen Glen neighborhood. “Here we are. Forty-eight Chestnut Street,” the tigress said, looking at the two-story house with tan-painted siding and brown trim. A burgundy Ford Escort sat in the driveway. Both the house and car were in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint, plus some clear-coat in the case of the latter.
Raenne turned into the driveway and parked behind the old red sedan. Alex played with hir baby siblings, who were strapped in their car seats to either side of hir, as they waited in the driveway. It was about a minute later that Alex exclaimed “There he is,” pointing as the front door swung open.
Raenne pressed the button to lower her window as a young beaver in a loose t-shirt and baggy jeans stepped out of the house, carrying a skateboard and a backpack. He slung the backpack over one shoulder as he walked towards the car. Raenne waved at him, pointing to the passenger side. He nodded and walked around the front of the SUV. Upon realizing that the back seat was fully occupied, he pulled open the front passenger door. “Hey Alex. Hey Mrs., uhhh, Alex’s mom,” he said awkwardly, putting his backpack in the footwell and standing his skateboard up against the center console.
“Call me Raenne,” the tigress suggested as he climbed into the front seat, sliding his wide tail through the gap between the backrest and the seat. She waited until he buckled his seat belt before carefully backing out of the driveway and heading back towards the north side of Aspen Glen.
“What’s up?” Alex asked as they drove past the tract housing in that part of the neighborhood.
“Not much. I’ve been mind-numbingly bored the past month. Steve’s out of town and Jerome’s been ignoring my texts,” the beaver said, sighing with frustration.
“Why didn’t you post in the group chat that we used at the beginning of summer?” Alex asked. “I’d have responded if you had.”
“Didn’t think of it, to be honest,” the beaver admitted. “Jerome’s been my best bud for, uh, shit, three years? Oops. Sorry, Mrs. Rain.”
“No worries,” Raenne replied, waving one paw. “I understand a slip now and then. But if Alex starts swearing from hanging around you, we’re going to have a talk.”
“Uhh... yes, ma’am,” the beaver said, his tiny ears going flat against his head. “Anyway, yeah. Jerome’s been a flake ever since that festival where he was, uhhh, doing stuff with Brandy.”
The awkward ‘uhhh’ before he’d said ‘stuff’ made it obvious there was more to the story. Raenne glanced at him. If she had to guess, he’d probably caught Jerome and Brandy (whoever they were) having sex. They passed the last of the tract housing, going straight past the turn that went out towards Main street, continuing north.
“If you’re bored, you could take up Karate,” Alex suggested. “We’ve got a dojo three miles outside of town, up the East Canyon Road.”
“Karate?” Jason asked, sounding a bit confused by that. “You mean, like, Kung Fu and stuff?”
“…Yeah,” Alex confirmed.
“Huh. I, uh, didn’t think we had anything like that here in Winter Creek,” the beaver said. Then went quiet as he realized they weren’t turning towards Main street. “Uhhh, why are we going through the north side of the Glen?” Jason asked.
“We live up this way,” her daughter replied. “Why?”
“Oh. Umm... I thought it was all like, uh, vacation homes and stuff,” Jason explained. “Most of ‘em are empty. We don’t even go trick-or-treating up here; it’s a waste of time.”
“Yeah. It kinda sucks; there’s no kids who live anywhere near our house,” Alex agreed. “We’re on the far north side, at the end of the road.”
“Literally at the end,” Raenne added. “The road stops a hundred feet past our house; it’s the last one on the right, second house from the end.”
“Huh,” Jason said, going silent and staring out the windows at the expensive homes.
The tigress knew exactly what he was thinking, and answered his unasked question: “We’re not super rich; we don’t have multiple houses or anything. But we’re decently well off,” she said, noticing a white Toyota Camry parked along the street. She only noticed it because the house it was nearest to was one of the empty ‘vacation homes’ that Jason had mentioned. The license plate was from Pennsylvania. She frowned, making a note of it, and continued a few houses past it before pulling into her driveway, parking behind a pair of beat-up pickups loaded with ladders.
“Looks like the construction crew’s already here,” she said, turning the car off. The twins would be fine in the back seat with the front window down; it was barely seventy degrees. Alex quickly unbuckled hir seatbelt and climbed past Nick’s car seat, then pushed the door open and hopped out. Raenne and Jason followed suit, a little more sedately. Wondering where Alex was rushing off to, she looked around, spotting hir at the mail box near the end of the driveway... then she remembered Alex mentioning something about mail from school yesterday. “Did your letter arrive?” she yelled.
“No,” Alex yelled back, sounding a bit crestfallen, then jogged back up the driveway. Raenne closed the door, then waited for Jason to close the front passenger side before locking the car, more out of habit than any need for security.
“What’s with all the construction?” Jason asked as he walked around the front of the SUV, jutting his chin in the direction of the various construction workers who were putting together scaffolding along the side of the house.
“Uhhh...” Raenne stalled, caught off guard. She should have known he would ask, but didn’t really want to explain.
“Can you keep a secret?” Alex asked, coming up behind them.
“Yeah,” Jason said, as if it were obvious. “I didn’t tell anyone about the festival, did I?”
“You kinda just did,” Raenne pointed out. “When you were talking about Jerome.”
“Nah,” Jason countered. “You don’t know exactly what happened at the festival, and I’m not saying.”
Raenne had to give the young badger points for being bold at least.
“Mom, can I tell him?” Alex asked.
“If he promises to keep it a secret, sure,” Raenne said with a shrug. It wasn’t like it really mattered; police reports were a matter of public record. She just didn’t want Alex being the subject of even more rumors at school. Life was hard enough being a hermaphrodite, and likely the youngest kid in school as well.
“Well? You promise?” her daughter asked as shi walked up the driveway towards the stairs that led up to the side porch.
“Yeah, sure,” Jason said, still watching the construction workers.
“Cool. I’ll tell you while we hike up to Mr. Dowdy’s place. I’ve gotta go get my board and pads first, though,” Alex said, jogging up the stairs.
“I’ve got to talk with the foreman,” Raenne called, walking over to the man with a white hard-hat and a clipboard. “You two be careful! Helmets and pads at all times!”
“Okay, mom!” her daughter yelled back, disappearing into the house.
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Jason’s eyes went wide as he saw the dent in the side door and the splintered doorframe. “What the hell? Did someone kick in your door?”
“Yep,” Alex confirmed, jogging up the stairs to his left. “Be back in a sec.”
Jason looked around. That was the only obvious sign of any kind of damage that he noticed offhand. The rest of Alex’s house was really nice. The front room was absolutely massive; a combination living room, dining room, and kitchen. The front wall that overlooked the driveway was made of enormous sheets of glass that went from the floor all the way to the center of the arched ceiling high overhead.
“Holy shit, Alex. You got some fancy digs,” he called out, walking across the living room towards the kitchen, checking everything out. He really liked the kitchen, with its brushed steel appliances. He’d gotten so sick of eating microwaved food all summer that he’d started watching Food Network to try to learn how to cook over the past week, and damn if Alex’s kitchen didn’t look just like the fancy ones in the shows he’d been watching.
After a moment, he turned back around, walking towards the stairs. There was a hallway that continued towards the back of the house, just past the stairs, and he glanced down it. Then he froze. The left wall had a string of bullet holes that snaked up towards the ceiling and back down the wall again. The opposite wall had a few more. The fur on the back of his neck stood on end. “What the fuck,” he muttered, then he yelled. “Alex!?”
The tigress came pelting back down the stairs with a longboard and duffel bag in hand. “What’s wrong?” shi asked, staring at him from the middle landing.
“Did someone shoot up your house?” he asked, not quite believing what he was seeing, pointing with his skateboard down the hallway.
“Yeah,” the young tigress said, padding down the stairs towards him. “That’s why we’ve got construction guys working on the house. They’ve gotta repair the roof and siding first, in case it rains.”
Jason whistled through his long front teeth. “Okaaay…” he murmured, staring back down the hallway for a moment before turning to look back at the tigress. “What the fuck.”
“You promise not to tell anyone?” Alex asked again.
“Uhhh, yeah? I mean, if it’s not illegal or some shit,” Jason said, walking down the hall a bit to check out all the bullet holes. There had to be, like, fifty of ‘em.
“Okay, then. C’mon. I gotta put on my pads,” the tigress beckoned, turning and walking towards the living room.
The beaver shook his head, then turned and followed. The tigress flopped onto the overstuffed leather chair in the living room area and unzipped hir duffel bag, pulling out a set of knee pads. Shi wrapped them around hir knees, over the capris shi was wearing. He unslung his backpack and sat down on the leather sofa to do the same. “So, what happened? Someone kicked in your front door and started shooting?”
“Pretty much,” Alex started explaining while putting on hir pads. “My grandparents and my uncle, Ivan, were part of the Russian mafia. Mom pissed Ivan off by burning down one of their drug labs, before I was born, and she’s been hiding from them since. Last year they found out where we live and my grandparents had their bodyguards kidnap me back in January. The FBI found me and took me back home. Then Ivan showed up on July 4th, while I was on vacation. He broke in and shot up my room upstairs. Mom shot him while he was going down the hallway there.”
Jason stared at the tigress, unaware that his jaw was hanging open. That was one hell of a story. He blinked a few times, suddenly remembering something he’d seen on the news half a year ago. “Wait, that AMBER alert back in January... that was you?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Alex said, pulling out a set of elbow pads and wrist guards next.
“So why wasn’t this on the news too?” he asked, gesturing towards the hallway.
“I dunno,” Alex said with a slight shrug. “I was on the news after my grandparents were shot, and when I got attacked by a feral cougar last year,” the tigress added, holding up hir forearms, showing several long, jagged scars. “Maybe they got bored of us?” Shi shrugged again, more emphatically.
He couldn’t help but let out a short, panicked laugh at that. “You’re fuckin’ crazy.”
“Language,” Alex chastised.
He let out a genuine laugh at that. Shi was telling him not to swear, when hir house was literally full of bullet holes? Absolutely crazy. He let out a sigh and dug into his backpack to get his pads out. The thought that he should be worried about hanging out with Alex somehow never occurred to him.
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After confirming with the foreman that the white Toyota down the street didn’t belong to any of his crew, Raenne started down the street. There were small curbs at the edge of the street, but no actual sidewalk... at least not on this road. The sidewalk didn’t start until they got much closer to the road that led out of Aspen Glen and on to Main Street. It was strange to see homes that were easily in the multi-million-dollar range on a street without sidewalks. Then again, the only people that they regularly saw out here were lawncare and maintenance teams. She had yet to see anyone who actually ‘walked’ around the neighborhood, except her daughter.
The tigress walked up to the car and peered inside. A plastic water bottle sat in the console, condensate beading on the inside of the container, and an empty bag of beef jerky sat on the passenger seat. Not wanting to leave any fingerprints, Raenne took off her flannel overshirt and used it to try the driver’s side handle. The door opened easily. The faint smell of weed wafted out, and she wrinkled her nose.
Using a claw, she pressed the button on the inside of the driver’s side door to unlock the rest of the car doors, then pulled the trunk release. She glanced around to make sure she hadn’t missed anything obvious and then shut the door to go check the trunk. A pair of overstuffed plastic Walmart bags lay in the trunk, both full of new clothing, some with the tags still attached. She used the edge of her hand to shut it, then walked around the passenger side and pulled the front door open with her flannel shirt, same as she’d done for the driver’s side.
Figuring that the glove box would have the owner’s registration, she used a claw to open it. The panel fell open with a thump, revealing six thick stacks of twenty dollar bills, plus some paperwork, car manual, tire pressure gauge, and a screwdriver. Her eyebrows went up. She knew exactly what those bundles were: drug money. Straps of exactly one hundred $20 bills each. $12,000 in total. She knew, without a doubt, that they were Ivan’s... and that he’d stolen this car.
The tigress stood back up, looking around. She’d done a lot of research on home security systems before picking the one she’d settled on, and knew what sort of cameras all the major companies offered. She looked around, trying to spot any of them. The only house with any cameras besides hers was another three houses down the street. Far enough away not to worry. She bent back over and held open her flannel shirt, dumping the bundles of money into it before folding her shirt over them. Then she took out the paperwork and glanced over it.
The car was registered to an ‘Anthony Shaffer’ of Darby, Pennsylvania. That was probably somewhere close to Philadelphia. She sighed, and put the paperwork back in the glove box, then stood up and shut the passenger side door. She’d call the local police to report the abandoned car, then go do a load of laundry at the local laundromat... including her flannel shirt.
__________________________________________________
Alex panted with exertion as shi crested the steep hill and shi paused at the top, looking across the asphalt service road in front of them. Shi readjusted the grip on hir longboard. Old Mr. Dowdy’s home was straight up gone. A backhoe and an industrial-sized garbage bin, bigger than Aengus’s truck had been, sat at the far end of the road where it turned to chunky gravel.
The young tigress walked across the service road to where the old badger’s front steps had been. The faint smell of smoke still permeated the area, despite it being nearly a month since the fire that had claimed his home. A square ditch had been dug around the lot, perhaps forty feet on a side, with a wooden frame set in it. Inside the frame, the ground had been covered with crushed gravel, with metal rebar laid in a grid over it. A huge pile of neatly stacked 2x4s, hundreds of them, sat to one side.
“What’s... this?” Jason asked, still gasping for breath as he walked up.
“This was where Mr. Dowdy’s home was. It burned down last month. I bet all that’s left of it is in that trash bin over there,” shi explained.
“That explains... the smell,” he said between breaths, wrinkling his nose at the acrid scent of smoke that lingered in the air.
“Looks like he’s definitely planning on re-building, at least,” Alex said, pointing at the stack of lumber.
“When are they... pouring the... foundation?” the beaver asked, still panting.
Alex shrugged. Shi had no idea.
“Is this the road... you were talking about? It doesn’t look that steep,” he said, sounding skeptical. At least he sounded like he was finally getting his wind back.
“Yep,” shi confirmed. “It’s not that steep, but it’s long. By the time you reach the bottom you’ll be going plenty fast. Trust me,” shi said, setting the edge of hir longboard on the ground and letting it fall over. Shi caught it with the toe of hir shoe before it could start rolling.
“God, I hope so. There’s not a single good hill anywhere in this damn town, I swear. It’s like they bulldozed the entire valley flat as a pancake,” he muttered, setting down his own board.
Alex frowned. “It’s uphill all the way from Main street to my place, and we just finished hiking uphill for a solid ten minutes. Trust me, we’re on a hill. It’s about a mile down to East Canyon Road, then another mile back to town.”
“Oh, trust me, I know,” Jason agreed, bobbing his head. “My thighs are gonna be killing me tomorrow. You wanna lead?”
“Sure,” shi said with a shrug. Shi stepped onto hir board and kicked off a few times, building speed, then started coasting as they headed downhill. Alex kept both ears angled back, both to hear Jason behind hir and to keep the wind noise down.
Jason followed on his own shorter skateboard, about twenty feet behind hir, though the distance grew a bit as they picked up speed. After about half a minute, Alex started carving to keep from going any faster; they were probably going a solid thirty miles an hour or so, which felt insane on a skateboard. Hitting a rock at this speed would send hir sliding across the asphalt. They were coming up on a bend in the road, and Alex leaned to follow the curve.
A cement truck appeared, perhaps two hundred feet down the road. It was travelling towards them, going straight up the middle of the road just like they were. “Truck!” Alex yelled, leaning as hard as shi dared to the right, trying to reach the inside of the curve. The truck’s horn started blaring as they raced towards it.
The longboard suddenly slipped out from under hir, and Alex fell face first towards the asphalt, holding out hir hands to catch hir fall. Shi hit the ground and started rolling, totally out of control. The squeal of massive brakes and the truck’s horn grew louder, until it was all shi could hear.
Alex threw out hir arms and legs to slow the roll, finally coming to a stop, crouched on the asphalt. The truck was barely ten feet away, and shi threw hirself to the side, barely managing to avoid getting hit. The truck continued to slow for another twenty feet before finally coming to a full stop.
The tigress straightened up and calmly brushed hirself off. Hir pulse thundered in hir ears, a rhythmic backdrop to the whisper of hir dead grandmother’s voice, singing in the back of hir mind. Shi didn’t see Jason, and quickly jogged around behind the cement truck to the driver’s side. Jason had come to a stop about ten feet in front of the truck, still standing on his skateboard somehow.
A pneumatic hiss came from the front of the truck and the driver’s door flew open. A burly grizzly bear in jeans and a yellow vest climbed out, swearing like a sailor. He hit the asphalt with bent knees. “Goddamn kids!” he yelled, squatting to look under the truck. After realizing he didn’t have a dead kid under his tires he sat back on his haunches and let out a sigh of relief.
“Sorry!” Alex yelled, walking toward them. “My board flipped when I tried to veer back towards the inside curve.”
The bear turned to look back at hir. “Christ on a crutch, kid. I swear to God, I thought I’d hit you.”
“What the fuck, Alex,” Jason said. “You were right in front of him. I’ve never seen anyone move so fast in my life. You were like The Flash or some shit.”
Alex finally reached the grizzly bear. He’d bent forward and was rubbing the back of his hands against his eyes. “Sorry,” shi said, resting a paw on his shoulder.
The burly bear turned to look at hir, tears in his eyes. “Kid, if I weren’t so relieved right now, I’d kill you. Don’t ever do that again.”
“No, sir,” Alex said. Then shi looked over at Jason. “Did you see where my board went?”
“Off the side of the road there,” the beaver said, pointing. “Before we go anywhere else, tigger, I’m teaching you how to powerslide. ‘Cause you’re gonna die if I don’t.”
__________________________________________________
After Jason and Alex had done a couple of loops, going down the service road and back into town, then cutting through the woods back to Alex’s place and hiking back up to the service road, both of them were getting pretty tired. The last time they reached Alex’s house, they decided to skate back down to Jason’s place. He insisted on checking both their boards, the wheels, and the ‘trucks’, which Alex learned was the name for the metal brackets under the board that held the axles.
Satisfied that both their boards were in good condition, Jason turned on his game console and television to play one of his skating video games. Alex watched for a bit before remembering that shi still needed to call the school, and pulled out hir phone. It didn’t take long to find the school’s public number, and shi called it, wondering if anyone would even answer in the middle of summer vacation. Surprisingly, the call connected before the phone rang a second time.
“Scott Carpenter Middle School. How can I help you?” a pleasant mezzo-soprano voice asked.
“Hi, uh, this is Alexandrea Andreyev. I was supposed to receive some paperwork on Monday, and it still hasn’t arrived.”
“Ah, yes, I remember you. A-N-D-R-E-Y... there you are. What kind of paperwork were you expecting?” the woman asked.
“Uh, it was the pre-season practice schedules and some forms that we need to fill out,” Alex explained. “For cheerleading.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll reach out to Coach Dillon and let him know. Anything else?”
“No, ma’am. Thank you,” shi replied.
“Okay. Have a great summer vacation!”
“Thanks, you too,” Alex replied, clicking the call button. Then shi blinked, realizing what shi’d just said, and felt hir ears flush with embarrassment. The secretary obviously wasn’t on vacation.
The beaver sitting on the floor paused his game and slooowly turned his head to look at hir. He stared at hir with his small black eyes for a solid three seconds, and shi felt hir ears go flat against hir head. “Cheerleading?” he asked in disbelief. “You? Really?”
__________________________________________________
Raenne unlocked the gate to the Owen family’s private shooting range, then the lockbox next to it with the warning flag. She hung the flag on the gatepost and let Alex, Ginnie, and Hank through the gate before closing and re-locking the padlock behind her.
“...so, yeah, the hospital finally got back to us and let us know the egg I laid didn’t have a chick in it. Well, duh; of course it didn’t. I’m not the Virgin Mary...” Ginnie continued as the four of them headed up the path towards the canyon with the actual range. Raenne wasn’t quite sure how they’d gotten onto the topic. The young bird flitted from topic to topic almost at random now that she felt comfortable around Alex. She’d been pretty quiet before.
“So what do they do with it?” Alex asked, curious. “Does someone eat it? Like a giant omelette?”
“I asked that too,” the thrush replied. “Apparently they cremate it.”
“That’s a waste... Wait, was that there last time?” the younger tigress asked, pointing at the pile of 2x4s and plywood a few hundred feet ahead of them.
“Uhhh, no. That wasn’t there before,” Raenne said. As they got closer, she could see the ground had been cleared and covered with gravel near the lumber pile. “Looks like Mr. Owen’s putting up some buildings. Storage sheds, maybe?” she mused as they continued walking.
“Temporary ones, at best,” Hank said. “He’d have poured a foundation if they were intended for long-term use.”
Raenne suddenly remembered something she’d mentioned in passing to the old panther, about wanting to teach Alex urban assault drills with Airsoft guns. She narrowed her eyes... There was enough lumber here to put up at least five or six small buildings if they didn’t bother putting roofs over them. Roofs and siding could be added later, too, if he wanted to make them last longer. She didn’t say anything though; she’d wait for Dafydd to confirm it first.
Eventually they reached the actual range itself with the mechanical target runners, and set out the various boxes of guns and ammo that they’d bought for the day. She listened to Ginnie and Alex with one ear while she put up the targets.
“Wait, that’s not the MP5,” Ginnie said as Alex pulled open the black gun case.
“Nope. This is the MP-X,” Alex said, lifting the SMG out of the case. “It’s made by Sig Sauer, rather than H&K. It only came out last year. It’s got picatinny rails along the top so you can put an actual scope and a red dot on it, like this one has.”
“What’s a red dot?” Ginne asked, looking it over.
“It’s a different type of sight. It’s got a small laser that reflects off a curved glass lens. Somehow the dot is always where the bullet’s gonna hit. It’s way faster, cause you don’t need to line up the front and back sights. Just position the red dot on the target and pull the trigger,” Alex said, pressing the button atop the red dot to turn it on, then handed the gun over to the bird.
“Is this heavier than the MP5?” Ginnie asked. “It feels heavier.”
“Only a little bit...”
Raenne finished hanging up the targets and moved the target carriers out to 15 yards. Then she turned and cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “So, today I wanted to teach you all about some pretty common issues that crop up when shooting handguns. Specifically trigger jerk issues like flinching or recoil anticipation, and grip issues like improper finger placement, milking, and heeling. Then I’ll teach you how to fix those issues in case you ever find yourself accidentally doing them...”
It didn’t take more than ten minutes to explain all the major potential problems and how to address them by using dry fire practice. Then she had them put their eye and ear protection on before telling them to get out their pistols and go through at least two magazines each for practice. Hank had a problem with recoil anticipation, which was the primary reason she’d decided to talk about it today. She let the girls switch to the MPX while she helped Hank, making sure he was relaxed and slowly squeezing the trigger each time. She did her best to remain patient with him, but as she watched his pistol’s barrel dip time after time, she eventually gave up and resorted to loading magazines with mixed live and dummy rounds.
About a half hour later, Hank finally managed to work the issue out. She was pretty relieved, having worried that it would take a few sessions. She suspected that he’d developed the recoil anticipation from using her pistol, before he’d purchased the one he was using now. The 9mm parabellum was way punchier than the .380 ACP, and Hank was a pretty small guy, about a foot shorter than she was... but that was the norm for most birds.
By the time she was satisfied and told him to call it a day, Alex and Ginnie had finished shooting and were sitting on a wooden bench, talking loudly so as to hear each other through their ear protection. She turned to them, gesturing for them to take out their ear plugs. She waited for a moment before asking “Did you all get bored?”
“No,” Alex said, shaking hir head. “We ran out of ammo.”
Raenne blinked at that, knowing they’d brought over half a case of ammo with them. The tigress looked over at the floor near the stall they’d been shooting from. The ground was literally covered in brass. She sighed, realizing she’d forgotten to set a limit on how much they could shoot. “I am not going to sweep up all your brass this time; you can do that yourselves. I don’t want to see a single piece of loose brass on this floor,” she said, gesturing at the mess, then at the broom next to the trash bin in the corner. “Get that broom and pan over there and get to work.”
__________________________________________________
Alex shivered as shi lay on the sofa in the dojo office, tapping away at hir phone, texting with Ginnie. It was almost half an hour since shi had gotten out of the shower and hir fur still wasn’t fully dry. Shi couldn’t wait for the house repairs to be finished; shi desperately missed the fur dryer in hir bathroom. Hopefully the new dryer would be as good as the old one.
Ginnie eventually wrapped up their conversation about Mr. Donnehue (the choir and math teacher at SCMS), saying that she’d text Alex later, since she needed to take a bath as well. Alex was starting to get the feeling that Ginnie had a crush on the older blue jay and didn’t even realize it.
Alex had been in Mr. Donnehue’s math class the previous school year, and would have him for choir class this coming school year. Ginnie said he was an excellent choir teacher, so Alex was looking forward to it... both because he was a good teacher and because Ginnie was going to be in choir as well. Not that Alex had ever sung before, except a few times watching musicals like ‘Frozen’ with Elizabeth, hir best friend when shi had lived in Oregon.
Alex glanced over at the twins. They were still sound asleep in their playpen, thoroughly exhausted from playing with hir earlier. Shi turned back to hir phone. Thinking about Lizzy reminded hir that they hadn’t spoken in a while... several weeks, actually. A month? Two? Shoot. Shi sighed and pulled up the little stoat’s contact, then hit the call button.
Alex waited as the phone rang... and rang... and rang again. The call connected just before going to voicemail. The sound of laughter filled the background, and a moment later Elizabeth said “Lexi? What’s up?”
“Hey Lizzy. I was just thinking about you and realized we hadn’t talked in a while. How’s it going?” Alex asked.
“Good! Chris and I were just playing Uno,” the stoat said.
“Oh, Chris is there too? Put it on speakerphone so I can say ‘hi’.”
A few moments passed and then Alex could hear the rustle of fabric and paper in the background. “Hey Chris! How’s it going?”
“Hey Alex,” the water opossum replied. “It’s going good. I’m just cleaning up right now; our room’s a mess. Oh, were you gonna be coming over sometime this summer?”
“I... hadn’t thought about it, actually. Summer’s halfway over now, and I’ve been super busy. Mom’s got a bunch of students at the dojo now and I’ve been giving one-on-one lessons. Plus I’ve got my own lessons, and cheerleading camp starts the first of August...”
“I’ll take that as a ‘no’, then,” Chris replied.
“Aww,” Lizzy said, sounding disappointed, but not heartbroken. That was good, Alex thought to hirself. “Wait, did you say cheerleading?” the half-stoat asked.
“Yeah,” shi confirmed. “Ravi’s on the cheerleading team and he convinced me to join as well.”
“Ravi?” Chris asked. “Who’s that?”
“Lizzy, you didn’t tell her about Ravi and Aruna?” Alex asked.
“Nu-uh. You said it was a secret,” the stoat said. “I haven’t told anyone.”
“Ah. Umm... Well, Ravi’s a bengal tiger who lives a few minutes away from me. I’m friends with him and his sister,” Alex explained. “He’s gonna be in eighth grade and she’s gonna be in fifth grade this year.”
“Ooooh,” Chris said. “Just friends?” she asked slyly, clearly suspecting something more.
“Ummm... Can you keep it a secret?” Alex asked.
“Of course,” the yapok replied, sounding affronted that it even needed to be asked.
“Okay,” Alex said. There probably wasn’t any harm telling Chris as well, seeing as they lived literally a thousand miles away. “I’ve been dating both of them for a few months. We’re a, uh, ‘polyfidelitous trio’.”
“I bet you all have kinky threesomes all the time, huh?” Chris asked, teasing.
“Ahem,” Alex coughed, blushing at that. Shi tried changing the topic. “So are you two still getting along well?”
“Oh-ho! You’re not getting off that easy. You totally have threesomes! I know it!” Chris crowed.
The tigress felt her ears flushing brilliant red. “I can neither confirm nor deny the details of any such operation-” she started, quoting the guy from Mission Impossible.
Both Chris and Lizzy burst out laughing at that. It took the two of them a while to finally stop cackling. “Seriously though, are you two doing okay? What about your parents?” Alex asked, remembering that both Julia and Alyssa were pregnant.
“Yeah, we’re still getting along great. Our moms are doing well. They both look like they’ve eaten volleyballs or something,” Lizzy said with a giggle.
Alex smirked, remembering how Mom had looked back in January. “When Mom was pregnant with the twins, she looked like she’d swallowed a whole watermelon.”
Lizzie giggled again. “What about you? How are you doing?”
“Well, I’m not pregnant yet,” Alex said, getting another laugh out of Lizzy and Chris. “Seriously though, uh, we’re currently staying at the office in Mom’s dojo cause the house is being repaired...” the tigress said, then started explaining everything that had happened over the past two weeks.
__________________________________________________
Wednesday, July 13th, 2016
John glanced out the front window, watching his youngest daughter do back-to-back handsprings across the lawn, under the supervision of her older sister, who was back from college for the summer. The brown bear looked back down at the desk in front of him, flipping through the stacks of forms until he’d reached the one he was looking for. He held up his cell phone and dialed the contact number near the top of the paper and waited. A moment later the call connected.
“Hello?” a young voice asked.
“Hi. This is Coach Dillon, with the Scott Carpenter Middle School cheerleading team. Is this Alexandrea?” he asked.
“Yeah. I prefer to go by Alex, though,” the girl replied.
The brown bear smiled. “Okay, Alex. The school called me yesterday saying you were asking about the packet I’d sent out last week. You still haven’t received it?” he asked.
“No, sir. Ravi got his on Monday, but I just checked the mailbox this morning and I still haven’t gotten it,” Alex replied.
“Okay. I’ll go ahead and drop another one off at the school. They should be able to mail it out today, so you’ll probably get it tomorrow or Friday, but it could be as late as Monday,” he explained.
“Okay. Thank you,” the girl replied.
“You’re welcome. Guess I’ll see you at camp on August first?” Dillon asked.
“Yep!”
“Okay. Enjoy the rest of your summer, Alex,” he said with a smile.
“Thanks! You too, coach!” the girl said, waiting a moment before hanging up.
John smiled to himself as he set his phone down and nudged the cursor to wake his sleeping computer. The kids seemed to get younger with every year that he’d been volunteering as a cheerleading coach, but Alex sounded even younger than most. Maybe he was just getting old. It was time to pass the torch onto the younger generation. He just needed to find a replacement. He’d been planning on it anyway, since his youngest would be graduating middle school this year. For a moment he considered volunteering with the high school, then shook his head. They already had a cheerleading coach and assistant coach who were well-known and well-liked, and after ten years of coaching, he definitely needed a break.
__________________________________________________
Ravi bowed from a kneeling position as Mr. Owen set the long, narrow box in front of him. “Thank you, sensei,” the young tiger said.
“Don’t thank me,” the panther countered. “You’re the one who earned it, with persistence and dedication. Now, do you have any experience with woodworking equipment?” Dafydd asked.
“Yes, sir. My dad’s got some tools in the garage,” he confirmed. His father never used them anymore, but he still owned them, and Ravi had learned to use them too.
“Good,” the panther said, nodding appreciatively. “I hope you were paying attention when I explained how a yari is put together because, like Alex, you’re going to need to construct your own.”
The young tiger swallowed nervously, then nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Mr. Owen wrapped up the class the same way he usually did, with a brief period of meditation and reciting the Kenjutsu dojo kun (which was very different from the Karate dojo kun). As they were standing up, the front door to the dojo slid open. That wasn’t terribly unusual; sometimes other karate students came in early.
The beaver was a student that he recognized, just not a karate student. Jason stood in the doorway, a scarred bike helmet dangling from one hand. Ravi eyed him while picking up his spear-head and haft, then standing up. He was wearing an old skater band shirt and baggy ripped jeans, as usual.
“Hey Jason,” Alex called as shi stood up and retrieved hir spear as well, then quickly walked towards the edge of the mat, stopping to bow towards the front of the dojo before stepping onto the polished wooden floor that surrounded the central mats. Ravi followed hir, a bit more sedately, wondering how Alex knew Jason. He bowed at the edge of the mat as well, then joined them near the front entrance.
“Hoooly shit,” the beaver muttered under his breath, still looking around, checking out the weapons that hung on the wall. “Alex, this place is craaazy. It’s like something out of a Kung Fu movie, or an anime.”
“You watch anime?” the young tigress said, tilting hir head slightly.
“No way,” the beaver denied, a little too quickly, then turned back to the tigress. “I, uh... I’ve seen a few episodes on Cartoon Network, though,” he added, looking up at the tip of the spear that Alex was holding. “Is that thing for real?”
“Yeah,” Alex confirmed with a short nod. “Sharp as a razor. Ravi just earned his today.”
“Shiiit,” the kid whistled through his orange buck-teeth, so quietly Ravi barely heard it.
“So are you actually thinking of taking karate?” Alex asked.
The beaver reached up with one paw, scratching at one tiny ear. “I, uh, hadn’t planned on it. I was just gonna check the place out, but... I gotta say this is way, way cooler than I thought it would be. I was expecting, like, a McDojo or something.”
“A what?” the tigress asked, thoroughly confused.
“Like a hole-in-the-wall barely-disguised day-care so soccer moms can claim they’re teaching their kids ‘self-defense’,” the beaver said, throwing up air quotes.
“Oh, this isn’t a McDojo. It’s the real deal,” Ravi chimed in. “But just so you don’t get the wrong impression, the spears are for our Kenjutsu class, not the Karate class. And I don’t know if Owen-sensei is taking any more students.”
“You’re Ravi, right?” The beaver peered up at him. “Weren’t you in my English class last year?”
“Yeah. Seventh period, with Mrs. Petry,” Ravi confirmed. “You kept falling asleep in class.”
Alex shuddered slightly. “Ugh. I had her last year too. Third period, just before lunch. The only thing that kept me awake was being hungry. By the Goddess, I hope I don’t get her again for seventh grade.”
“No worries there,” Jason said. “I heard she retired. Didn’t tell anyone before the end of the school year, either. Just straight up left.”
“Thank the Goddess,” Alex said, letting out a sigh of relief. “Anyway, the Karate class is gonna start in like, under ten minutes. Give us a sec to put our spears away and I’ll show you to the office,” the tigress said, taking off the necklace shi was wearing and walking towards the stairs on the right side where Mr. Owen had set up the new weapon cabinets he’d made. Shi used the key on hir necklace to unlock it and they put their spears away. Ravi set the box with his spear head on the bottom shelf before Alex locked the cabinet up again, then followed Jason and Alex downstairs towards the lounge, office, and locker room.
Jason seemed equally impressed by the lounge, though Ravi had no idea why; it was just a bunch of couches and a few tables, plus a kitchen and a small dining area. Alex knocked on the office door before pushing it open. Raenne stood up and stepped outside the office, already dressed and ready for class, as Ravi expected.
The older tigress tilted her head when she saw who was with them, looking down at the beaver. “Jason?” she asked. “I... didn’t expect to see you here.”
The beaver shrugged. “Alex suggested it yesterday, so I figured I’d drop in. This is, uh, way nicer than I expected, actually.”
“Well, thank you,” Raenne said. “If you’re thinking about joining, classes are Monday through Saturday, seven to eight in the evening, and are ten dollars each, but capped at one hundred per month no matter how many classes you want to attend. The uniform is forty dollars and includes a white belt. Each new belt is ten dollars, once you’ve earned it. Private lessons are twenty-five dollars each. We’re registered with the International Shotokan Karate Federation, if you were wondering.”
The beaver looked a bit startled at that, but hid it quickly. “Well, I’d really like to, but, uhhh...” Jason paused for a moment, looking down at the floor. “I don’t exactly have any spare cash. I don’t have an allowance, ‘cause Mom doesn’t make that much as a waitress, so...”
Ravi suddenly realized why Jason only wore old band shirts and torn jeans; those were all he could afford at thrift stores and he probably didn’t have anything else to wear. He raised a hand, knowing at least one way that he could help the other kid out. “Sensei?”
“Yes, Ravi-san?” the tigress said, turning to look at him.
“I’ve been kinda wanting some extra time in the evenings and Dad said he’s willing to cover my lessons now, since I’ve stuck with it,” Ravi explained before getting to the point. “Jason could take over cleaning the dojo for me, if that’s okay.”
The tigress raised an eyebrow at that... and then Alex spoke up as well. “Mom, could I buy his uniform for him? I’ve got some money saved up from watching the twins, don’t I?”
“You do,” Raenne nodded. “Very well. If you want to sponsor him... Jason, would you be willing to come in before classes or stay after classes and clean the dojo in exchange for free lessons?”
The beaver looked up, quickly nodding. “Fuck yes!” he said, then froze, realizing what he’d said. “Sorry! I mean, uh, yes ma’am.”
“Very well, then... but there’s one catch,” the tigress said, staring down at him. “Absolutely no swearing, here or anywhere else. Especially the f-word. You’ll only get one more warning.”
The beaver swallowed visibly, then quickly nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Very well,” Raenne said. “Let me go grab a uniform and the paperwork for you. You’re about Alex’s size, so...”
__________________________________________________
While Raenne showed Jason where the cleaning supplies were, Alex pulled Ravi into the dojo office after they’d changed out of their karate uniforms. “Sorry about the mess,” shi apologized. “We’re staying here while they’re repairing the house.”
“Hey Ravi,” David said, waving at them from the computer chair as they entered. “Sorry about the smell. The twins needed their diapers changed.”
Alex sniffed, but all shi could smell was air freshener. That was better than dirty diapers, at least.
Ravi waved his paw. “No worries,” he said, following hir over to the sofa.
Alex flopped down on the middle of the couch. “I’ve been more or less living on this sofa for like a week now.”
“It doesn’t look like it,” Ravi said, sitting down next to hir. “Well, other than the pile of laundry in the corner. But that’s no worse than my room,” he amended with a smile.
Shi sighed with relief and leaned against him, taking his paw and twining their fingers together. “That was nice of you, by the way, offering Jason your job.”
The older boy shrugged. “It was the right thing to do. I thought he always dressed that way ‘cause it was his style, not because he didn’t have any money.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think about it either, until he mentioned it. But all he’s got in his room is an old CRT television and a PS2 with a few games,” Alex said, thinking about it. “And his mom’s car is ancient. Like, the paint is peeling and stuff.”
“You’ve been to his house?” Ravi asked, tensing slightly, turning to look at hir.
“Yeah, once. At the beginning of summer. He taught me how to skateboard,” shi explained. “We went skateboarding again yesterday. He was complaining about having been bored all summer, so I told him about the dojo.”
“Oh,” Ravi said, relaxing again. “How’d you meet him?”
“He rides the bus to school with me, along with, uh, Jerome Hammond, Brandy Whitehall, Cindy Kingsley, Steve O’Malley, and sometimes Jennifer Morton,” shi explained, ticking the names off with hir fingers. “Azalea used to as well, but she’s moved outside of town, closer to Prairie Flats.”
“Ah, okay. I think I know all of them except uh, Jennifer and Brandy? Yeah, I don’t know them. Do you do anything else with them?” he asked, curious.
“Well, umm, we’re all Wiccan, except for Jennifer and Azalea. We go to the local pagan festivals together. Like Lughnasadh. That’s coming up soon. On August first, actually,” shi said, leaning hir head against his shoulder.
“I don’t know anything about that, to be honest,” Ravi admitted. “I just know some basic stuff about the Hindu and Christian religions. And some of the old Indian legends.”
“It’s not complicated...” Alex started to say.
“You can tell me later,” Ravi said, waving his paw. “I’ve gotta get home. It’ll be dark soon,” he said, leaning over to nuzzle hir head, then giving hir a quick kiss.
“Okay,” Alex said, purring quietly. “I love you, Ravi.”
“I love you too, Alex,” he said, squeezing hir paw before standing up. “I’ll see you on Friday.”
Alex sighed, wishing he could stay longer. “Okay. Bye Ravi,” shi said, watching him walk across the room. “Give Aruna a hug and a nuzzle for me.”
“I will,” the boy said, waving over his shoulder.
“Be careful biking home, Ravi,” David said, waving to the young tiger as he left the office.
Alex rolled over and lay on hir back. The couch felt cold and lonely without Ravi sitting next to hir. Shi stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, listening to the twins rough-housing in their playpen. Then the office door opened, and Mom stepped in.
“Everything’s locked up for the evening,” she announced, walking over to where the twins were.
“Mama! Mama!” Nick cried, followed a moment later by Kate.
“Oooh, my babies. Were you two good for Daddy?” she asked, picking them up by the back of their onesies and holding them against her chest, carrying them over to the bed.
“Yes. They were perfect little angels,” David confirmed, turning around in his chair, standing up to head over to the bed. “Well, mostly...”
Alex sighed and rolled over onto hir side, facing the back of the sofa as shi listened to hir parents as they played with the twins for several minutes. Eventually shi rolled back over again. “I’m bored,” shi announced.
Mom and Dad went silent, looking at hir. “Well, what do you want to do?” Mom asked.
“I wanna watch a movie,” shi said, knowing full well that they didn’t even have a TV in the dojo.
“Alex, you know that we don’t-” Raenne started, then went quiet as David held his paw up.
“I know the screen’s a little small, but we can watch one on your laptop,” he said, pointing at hir backpack, sitting on the floor. “You did bring it, didn’t you?”
“Uhhh, yeah,” shi replied, frowning at him. Shi reached down into hir backpack and pulled it out, setting it on the coffee table in front of hir.
“Great,” he said, picking up Kate and handing him over to Alex. Shi held hir baby sister tight as she tried to squirm away, watching as Dad flipped the laptop lid open. He opened the browser and went to Netflix, quickly logging into the streaming website. A list of shows and movies appeared in short order.
“There we go. C’mon honey. We can all sit and watch something,” he said, turning to Raenne. “We’ll make it a family movie night.”
Mom snorted, but stood up, carrying Nick with her. “Move over, Alex,” she said, waiting until Alex moved to the middle, then sat down on the end of the sofa. She curled her legs, sitting tailor-style and set Nick down in her lap.
“Oh, The Adventures of Puss in Boots. That sounds like a good one,” Dad said, clicking one of the titles. “You haven’t watched this, have you Alex?”
“No,” shi muttered. It looked like a kids show, and shi hadn’t watched one of those in like a year... not since they’d moved to Colorado. Shi didn’t feel much like a kid anymore.
“Great.” Dad sat down on the other side of the sofa a moment later, then picked Kate up off Alex’s lap, setting the kitten down on his own.
Alex kept silent, not wanting to make a scene over Dad’s choice of TV shows. They hadn’t watched anything together in weeks, and it was comforting to sit together as a family. By the end of the first episode, Alex had to admit that it was actually pretty good... for a kid’s show. By the end of the second episode, shi had completely forgotten why shi didn’t want to watch it, having fallen into the story just as soundly as Nick and Kate had fallen asleep, curled up in their parent’s laps.
