Third Chapter Up. Hope you guys like.
Jake wasn't sure exactly why his stomach was so knotted up. "What have you got to be nervous about?" He thought. Still, he felt positively sick with nerves. The same anxiety he felt in Commander Feral's office was making an encore performance and he hadn't even gotten out of the car yet.
"Nervous?" Chance asked with a teasing smirk as he waited for Jake to get out.
"What?" Jake asked, his voice squeaking a little.
"You know, first day of high school and all..." Chance prodded. He was quickly learning that living with Jake was far different from simply working with him and hanging out during free time. The kit was as shut off as they came.
Jake gave Chance a perplexed look before grabbing his bag from between his feet and getting out of the car, shutting the door loudly.
Chance winced as his "have a good day" was effectively cut off.
Jake gripped the straps of his backpack as he looked down the long hallway and swallowed back the thick feeling in his throat. "Suck it up, Clawson." He told himself. "An Enforcer wouldn't be scared of a bunch of high school students." Still, as he watched his apparent peers talking loudly, pushing each other around, giggling, and tossing a football, he felt overwhelmed with the realization that he didn't really understand how a teenager was supposed to behave. Jake unconsciously took a step backwards, bumping into something. Slowly, he turned to find himself staring at a thin, but well built graying tom with a military style haircut.
"Sorry..." Jake looked sheepish. "I was just... ah..."
"You're new here?" The tom asked.
"Yeah. How did you know?" Jake couldn't help the surprise.
"Call it a gift." The tom smirked. "You can call me Mr. Thompkins. I'm the freshmen principal."
"Oh." Jake said. "Great," he thought.
"First day, then? Need any help finding your classes?" Mr. Thompkins asked kindly.
"No. I... I think I got it." Jake hoped he didn't look or sound as nervous as he felt.
"Alright. Stay out of trouble." The principal joked as he walked off.
"Right." Jake sighed, looking passed the authority figure to the double doors leading back outside. The first bell shrilled loudly, causing him to jump. "You can do this," he told himself. "It's just school. You're a college graduate and a trained Enforcer. This is cake."
"You must be Jacob." A thin, very short elderly she-kat with light brown fur and a tight bun of gray hair on the back of her head smiled at Jake. She had hauntingly blue eyes and a wide smile.
"Jake," He corrected more on instinct than any real problem with being called 'Jacob'.
"Wonderful! There is already a Jacob in this class. I was hoping you wouldn't mind going by that." She chirped happily. "I have a seat already assigned to you, but I'd like you to wait until everyone is seated so that I can introduce you."
"Um..." Jake felt a wave of panic crash over him. What did she intend to tell them about the new kit? That he was a failed Enforcer? That he already had a college degree and had just barely began to hit puberty? "You can skip the introductions."
"Nonsense!" She laughed. Jake struggled to remember what her name was. Then he caught her teacher's badge. "Klim," it read.
"Mrs. Klim, I..."
"Ms," she corrected.
"Ms. Klim," Jake cleared his throat. "I really think that it's in my best interest to keep how I ended up here a bit of a secret."
"Oh, but it's such an impressive tale!" Ms. Klim gushed moments before the final bell for the start of the period buzzed throughout the school. Jake frantically searched the desks for a vacant one before his English teacher had the chance to gut him in front of the whole class.
"Good morning, students!" She smiled brightly. "I'd like you all to welcome our newest student! This is Jake Clawson. He comes to us from the Enforcers, having been discharged as a Lieutenant, as well as a recipient of a masters degree in physics from our own Megakat City University. He did all that, however, without attending high school. Which he is now here to do. I expect you all to be welcoming of Mr. Clawson. You can take that seat in the second row over there." She finished by pointing at an empty desk near a she-kat with a contemptuous look in her eyes.
"How old are you?" She whispered when he sat down. "You look like you're ten."
"Thirteen," Jake whispered back as he pulled out his books and prepared to at least look like he had an interest in the class.
She made a snorting sound and then recognition lit up her brown eyes. "You're the boy they were talking about on the news."
Jake winced. "Yeah."
She gave him a knowing, almost cynical smile.
Jake shuddered and once again reminded himself that this was going to be easy. By the end of the period, he'd found himself constantly looking out the window instead of at the teacher. It was a struggle just to remain focused when he felt like he was watching someone teach preschoolers their alphabet. "Advanced my tail," he muttered when the bell finally rang and he could put his unnecessary book and notebook back into his book bag.
"So what happened?"
Jake paused in his rush to get out of the classroom and looked back at the she-kat that recognized him from the news story. "What happened with what?" He already knew what she wanted to know.
"Why were you discharged?" She sidled up next to him and walked beside him. "Was it because of all the heat coming down on the Enforcers for allowing a minor in active duty?"
Jake paused. He hadn't considered that as part of the equation. It was certainly something to think about. "No." He replied. "My partner and I got discharged for disobeying an order given by a superior officer."
"Enforcers disregard orders all the time." She snorted. "Kind of funny that they discharged you for something like that on the coattails of a pretty incriminating news story."
Jake fought to keep the shock off his face. "What's your name?"
"Miranda Steele." She replied.
This time, Jake couldn't keep his expression neutral. "Any relation to Lieutenant John Steele?"
"He's my brother." Miranda confirmed. "And that's Lt. Commander now."
Jake clenched his jaw shut tightly while he processed this new information. Finally, he leveled her with an icy glare. "I don't suppose your little theories on why I'm here have anything to do with his loose lips, would it?"
Her eyes widened and she huffed, tossing a loose strand of dirty blond hair back over her shoulder. "John did say you and your 'partner' were jealous of him."
"I think you've got that confused." Jake sneered.
"Whatever." Miranda rolled her eyes and turned on her heel.
"What a bitch," Jake mumbled before hurrying to find his next class.
Jake got the same treatment throughout the rest of his classes, although his science teacher, Mr. Teele, treated him more of like a god and put him on a pedestal the moment he entered the classroom. He was required to take gym, which was aligned with his lunch period. Jake skipped the uninviting meal of pale hot dogs in wrinkly buns with soggy fries, settling on just an apple and a bottle of juice while he slipped outside to sketch out a few ideas for the jet he and Chance were going to build out of scrap. Once again, he reminded himself that, once his friend saw the plans, he'd be on board.
Gym was a life saver, or perhaps a mind saver, for the teen. There was a simplicity in physical activity that he enjoyed. It wasn't about learning anything new, unless you didn't understand the importance of daily exercise. Which, as Jake looked around, he wondered if some of his fellow students weren't missing out on the point of this whole gym thing. Required Freshmen course or not, they certainly needed it.
Jake's last class of the day was another required course for his grade level: Freshmen Composition. A writing class, teaching the basics of writing essays and reports. Jake felt weary already. He'd written several theses between his alternative education and college. Not only was this boring and unnecessary, in his opinion, it was downright stupid.
Chance had been anxious all day. But he'd been busy enough to keep distracted. The little out of the way garage actually got quite a few calls for tows. Apparently they were cheaper than the more local places in the city. He'd had his work cut out for him right up until time to wash the grease off his paws and go pick Jake up from school. "Wait til I tell him about our big customer!" Chance said to himself as he started his car and prepared himself for school zone traffic.
He'd had a bit of a wait, but Chance recalled Jake's last class of the day being on the other end of the school. As students spilled out of the school, the tabby allowed himself to feel a bit nostalgic as he compared the kits now to when he was in high school. Finally, he saw Jake's reddish brown head, only moments before it disappeared under a backwards cap.
"How'd it go?" Chance asked, a little excited.
Jake glared at him for a moment before putting his seat belt on. "Rule number one," he grumbled. "Don't talk about school."
Chance returned the glare. "I'm serious."
"Me too." Jake replied. "What we really need to talk about is how double screwed you got because of me."
Chance's glare turned to look of confusion. "Come again?"
"Lt. Commander Douchebag Steele's baby sister is in one of my classes."
"He got promoted?" Chance's eyes widened. "That snake!"
"Yeah well, mini-Steele pointed out to me that it's quite a coincidence that we got booted for disobeying an order just a day after it gets leaked to the news that their letting a kitten shoot down criminals." Jake sighed. "So, good ol' dad probably bribed Feral to take us down that way I'd get booted before an investigation could be made. You just happened to get caught in the fall out."
"Son of a bitch." Chance whispered.
"So... yeah..." Jake looked out the window. "Sorry for costing you your job."
"Whoa, hey." Chance looked up sharply. Jake's tone went from pissed off to self-deprecating in milliseconds. "You're not blaming yourself for this. If your dad wasn't such a bastard, you wouldn't have been in that position anyway. And if Feral's going to let someone with a big wallet push him around, I don't want to be apart of his Enforcers anyway. So just... quit with the beating yourself up already."
Jake's shoulders sagged a little more and he remained looking out the window.
"So guess whose car I towed in today?" Chance changed the subject.
"I dunno. Who?" Jake played along, all the while still staring out at traffic.
"The beautiful Deputy Mayor."
Jake's ears flicked forward with interest and he looked at Chance out of the corner of his eyes. "Oh yeah?"
"Uh huh." Chance grinned. "Her water pump went out on her. I gotta tell ya, Jake. I thought she was pretty from a distance. But up close and personal... damn."
Jake chuckled halfheartedly.
"High point of my day." Chance went on.
"I bet." Jake replied softly.
"Come on already!" Chance slammed his paws against the steering wheel. "I'm not just pretending to be interested, Jake. Really. How was school?"
Jake turned his head just enough to give Chance the most hateful look he could muster. "I already told you, I'm not talking about it."
"That bad?" Chance's ears flattened against his head.
Jake closed his eyes and inhaled a calming breath. "It was fine, Chance. Boring, stupid, and monotonous, but fine. There. Happy?"
Chance gave Jake a concerned look. "For now. Got any homework?"
"Nothing that won't take me five minutes to do." Jake brushed it off as they pulled into the salvage yard. "I got something else I wanna do first." His eyes drifted from the garage to the piles of scrap.
You know the drill.
Nyte Kat