A Lesson In Failure... and a bit of lightheartedness...

Ms. Klim turned the lights on and walked to the front of the classroom. The last of her students had just given their mid-term presentation and there were just a few more moments before the bell rang. "You all put in a great deal of effort. I will add the grades for this into the grades for your mid term exams, which we will begin preparing for tomorrow. Make sure you have all of your notes." The bell shrilled loudly in the middle of her speaking. "See you guys tomorrow. Jake, Miranda.." She smiled, though it looked more painful than anything. "Stay."

Jake exhaled loudly as he struggled to get his notebook back into his bag with one paw. "I told you the Power Point was a bad idea," Miranda hissed at him. Jake clenched his jaw shut tightly, holding in any vicious comment he could make regarding her poster-board display. Ms. Klim looked back and forth between the two of them. "Alright," she sighed. "What went wrong?"

They both blinked at the teacher and then spoke simultaneously.

"He's unreasonable!" Miranda exclaimed.

"She's unreasonable!" Jake huffed at precisely the same time and then glared at her.

Ms. Klim chuckled. "The point was for the two of you to learn to work together. Instead, I get two separate reports on the same topic. That isn't teamwork and it isn't what I wanted. I can't give you full credit for this."

Jake closed his eyes and bit back the groan that was about to come out.

"What do you mean by not full credit?" Miranda sounded as if she'd been run through with a sword, her voice weak and her eyes wide with shock.

"I don't need to read the actual reports to know that you both have written something exceptional. So you'll get the appropriate grade for that, however you failed to meet the criteria that I specifically laid out for the two of you. Therefore your presentation gets an 'F'." Ms. Klim spoke with finality.

"An 'F'?" Miranda felt her heart flutter in her chest. Her brown eyes glittered with tears and she turned to glare at Jake. "This is all your fault," she hissed before storming out of the classroom.

Ms. Klim fixed Jake with an expectant look as he stood stock still, a strange expression on his face. "Jake, are you alright?"

He shook his head, feeling somewhat woozy. His mouth hung open slightly and he was focused on a spot on the floor.

"Jake," Ms. Klim spoke a little louder. "What's wrong?"

He looked up slowly, his expression akin to someone who'd just been forcefully slapped. "I've never failed anything."

She gave the young tom a sympathetic look. "Do you need to sit down for a moment? I can write a note for your next class."

Jake nodded dumbly, sinking back down into his desk, a sick feeling in his stomach. He stood back up just as the students for the next class began to filter in.

Miranda looked bravely back at her reflection in the mirror, hoping she looked more together than she felt. Sniffling one last time, she forcefully held her head up high and left the girl's bathroom only to find Jake Clawson leaning against the wall across from the entrance, looking somewhat pale despite his dark fur.

"What do you want?" Her voice was a bit shaky.

"Here." He held out a pass. "I asked Ms. Klim to write you one too, since I figured you'd be late for your next class."

"What do you care?" Miranda ignored the slip of paper. "You're a college graduate."

Jake looked away, a sheepish look on his face. "I just threw up in front of Ms. Klim's second period class."

Miranda's eyes widened.

"I've never failed anything... ever. Well, except the Enforcers but I knew that wasn't my fault from the start." Jake was still holding out the pass. "You're... you're parents aren't going to... you know... kill you or anything, are they?"

Miranda snorted, shooting him a teary look. "No." Then she chuckled. "If anything, my mother will probably lecture me on how it's good to fail something every now and then."

Jake looked confused. "How's that?"

"I'm not sure. She's a therapist. Half the things she tells me make no sense." Miranda wiped her eyes again. "So you really just..."

"Yep." Jake sighed.

Miranda took the pass so that he could stop holding out his arm. "That officially makes you more of a dork than I am."

"Right." Jake sighed. "Just... don't go telling everyone."

Miranda laughed. "Trust me. I won't have to. Whether you knew anyone in her second period or not, it'll make it's way back to you by lunch."

Jake groaned. "Awesome."

"Jake!" Jason squeezed through a couple of other students, his exotic friend Suri in tow. "I heard you blew chunks in Ms. Klim's class. I figured you would've gone home early or something."

Jake's eyes widened and he looked at Suri. "It wasn't like that."

She rolled her eyes. "Jason can't tease you. He'd be a hypocrite."

Jason blanched, though it was impossible to see beneath his black fur.

"Really?" Jake smirked.

"Okay," Jason glared at Suri. "For the sake of making you feel better, last year..." He paused and closed his eyes, clearly mortified. "There was this school-wide spelling contest. I got so nervous, because, I mean, everyone in the school was watching."

"He peed his pants." Suri finished, donning an evil grin.

Jake chuckled. "That's way worse. But I still feel like an idiot."

"Hey puke boy!" Someone shouted as the trio walked through the food court.

"Thanks!" Jake said loudly, giving a thumbs up in the direction of the shouting. "See?"

"Alright," Jason sighed. "Change of subject. Are you going to the fair this weekend?"

Jake made a face. "I dunno. Chance mentioned it but something could come up."

"Are you grounded?" Jason asked.

Jake looked surprised. "For what?"

"For beating up Lonnie. Duh. You got suspended for two days." He reminded his friend and then pointed at the broken arm. "That looks suspicious by the way. What happened? And don't say you fell down the stairs."
Jake winced. "No. I'm not grounded. And double 'no' on falling down the stairs." He pointed down at his shoes. "These suck for running in the rain. I ate pavement in a parking garage yesterday."

Jason looked disbelieving. "How'd you get suspended and not get grounded? My parents would have hung me. And they're divorced so I would have gotten hung twice."

Suri chuckled. "Lonnie started it, right?"

Jake nodded.

"Self defense. My parents would have fought Mrs. Catsby on the suspension." She shook her head.

"Your parents are ninjas." Jason teased.

Jake gave her a funny look. "Ninjas?"

"They teach Kung Fu." Suri explained.

"Ah." Jake nodded, adding one more facet of her awesomeness to his list. "So.. are you guys going to the fair?"

"As if we would miss out on funnel cakes and The Hurler." Suri scoffed. "Well, you could do without The Hurler." She teased.

"For the record." Jake pouted. "I was a gunner in the Enforcers. I do not get motion sick."

"What if we tacked a copy of your English grade up in front of you while you were on the ride?" Jason asked with a grin.

"Laugh it up." Jake glared.

Jake was surprised to find a different car waiting for him when he got out of detention. He gave Rita a suspicious and somewhat worried look as he got into the passenger side of her car. "What happened?"

"What do you mean?" Rita asked innocently.

"Where's Chance? And why aren't you at work?" Jake waited anxiously for her response.

"Oh. Chance asked me if I'd mind taking you to get some clothes for school. He really doesn't like shopping. If there's an emergency at the clinic, I've got my cell. I'm not the only doctor there and it is my clinic." Rita explained.

"Oh." Jake let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "New clothes?"

Rita looked down at Jake's shoes and then at the frayed edges of his jeans, up to the holes in the knees and then his baggy t-shirt. "Yep. How was school?"

Jake shrugged. "I'm right-pawed so I'm pretty sure any notes I took today won't make any sense to me later. And gym was exceptionally boring today."

"I bet. Chance said you had a big project due today. How'd that go?" Rita asked, genuinely interested.

Jake winced. "Not so great."

Rita looked surprised. "What happened?"

"Um... well..." He squeezed his eyes shut. "I flunked it."

"You?" Rita choked out.

"Well... it was a group project, sort of. I was working on it with this she-kat in my class. So we both flunked it." Jake wiped his free paw on his pants leg.

"I have to say, I'm surprised." Rita shot Jake a look. "I bet that was hard for you."

Jake shook his head. "You have no idea." He proceeded to explain what had happened when he'd been told his grade for the project was an 'F'.

"What about your partner? How'd she take it?" Rita asked, patting his leg sympathetically.

Jake frowned. "Well..." He smirked. "At least I didn't hide in the bathroom and cry about it."

"You have to learn how to fail gracefully." Rita sighed. "It's like losing a game. You have to experience losing before you really appreciate winning."
Jake gaped at her. "Whatever happened to winning being everything?"

"Whoever taught you that is a sore loser." Rita replied as she turned into the mall parking lot.

Jake looked at her thoughtfully. "Did Chance ever fail anything?"

Rita laughed. "Are you kidding? Not everyone can get through school without opening a book. He always did well in Math and History, but English..." She shook her head. "As long as he did his best, I was happy. And that still applies. I really hated it when he told me what happened with the Enforcers, but you two did your best. That's what matters, that you really put forth the effort and tried."

"Right," Jake said, looking unconvinced.

"This won't be the first thing you do badly at in life." Rita told him. "Don't beat yourself up over it. Learn from it. That's the whole point."

"How'd that presentation go?" Chance asked the moment Jake was through the door. He received a perfect deer in the headlights look. "Bad?"

"Um... well... I thought it went well." Jake chuckled setting down the two bags he was carrying in his left paw so that he could get his backpack off his shoulders. "Ms. Klim... not so much..." When he looked back up, Chance was wearing an amused expression. "I heard. She called me."

"Oh." Jake looked away. "Oh," he repeated, looking a little dazed.

"Don't sweat it." Chance clapped him on the shoulder. "With all the arguing you and that Miranda girl did, I figured it was going to end badly for someone. Where's Ma?"
Jake rolled his eyes. "Getting the rest of the stuff she bought me. She really shouldn't own a credit card."

Chance sighed. "I told her you didn't need a whole new wardrobe. Just some new shoes and a couple of new pairs of jeans and stuff."

Jake chuckled. "She bought you some stuff too."

Chance groaned and went to help her bring in the rest of the shopping bags.

Rita didn't stick around much longer. Chance followed her out to her car and then closed up the shop as he came back in.

"So are we still going to the fair this weekend?" Jake asked, dutifully completing his homework, although a bit awkwardly as he struggled to find the best way to write so that it would be legible.

"I was thinking about it." Chance replied, preheating the oven for a pizza. "Why?"
Jake shrugged. "Just wondering."

Chance gave him a suspicious look. "Someone going to be there?"

"No," Jake laughed.

"What's her name?" Chance grinned broadly.

"What?" Jake choked.

"Come on. You haven't said anything about it until now. Which leads me to believe someone asked if you were going. So, who is she?" Chance dropped into a vacant chair at the kitchen table.

"It was just, you know, Jason said he and... um... that he was going."

Chance was still grinning. "Jason and who?"

"Did I say 'and'?" Jake looked up, unconsciously biting his lip.

"Yep." Chance could read the guilt all over the teen's face. "What's her name?"

"Su..." Jake started, pausing when it started to come out in a high pitched squeak. He cleared his throat. "Suri."

"Suri?" Chance gave Jake a weird look. "Interesting name."

"She's... uh... a leopard. I think Jason said her parents are from Africa or something." Jake explained.

"Ah." Chance gave Jake a critical look. "What's she look like?"
Jake shrugged. "She's cute, I guess." His attention on his homework.

"Uh huh." Chance casually pulled one of Jake's notebooks closer to him and flipped it open. He was well aware that Jake tended to sketch things when he was bored. "So, this, uh... Suri?"

"Yep." Jake kept his eyes on his homework.

"She... look anything like..." Chance paused, finding a pencil drawing of a she-kat with long dreads. "This?"

Jake's head snapped up and the flush that crept all the way up to his ears was easily spotted.

"And she's going to the fair?" Chance asked.

"With Jason." Jake added, quickly looking back down.

"Right. With Jason." Chance chuckled. "I don't know. You still haven't even touched your room."

Jake glared at Chance. "That wasn't even part of the deal until yesterday."

Chance shrugged and got back up. "I mean... there's a Scaredy Kat marathon on Saturday."

Jake's ears drooped. "Right."

"Clean your room and then we'll talk." Chance bargained, setting the notebook back down in front of Jake, the drawing of Suri facing up.

Chance yawned tiredly as he walked from his room to Jake's. Opening the door, he braced himself to have to navigate his way around piles of dirty laundry to get to the bed to shake the teen awake. What he found instead stunned him. All of the clothes were picked up, the closet door was actually closed and the dresser and bedside table were completely clear of all the junk that had previously occupied it. "This is serious," he mumbled, shaking himself out of his surprise. "Jake," Chance reached for the foot that was sticking out from under the blankets and gave it a firm tug.

"Hm?" Jake responded, his face buried deeply into his pillows, jerking his foot back beneath the sheets.

"Time for school." Chance said, looking around the room, still reeling at the difference from the night before.

Jake turned his head to glare at Chance. "So..." He rubbed his eyes with the back of his paw. "How awesome are these funnel cakes I keep hearing about?"
Chance shrugged. "I guess you'll just have to find out for yourself."

A short one. The next couple of ones are going to be a little less angsty. Gotta have good with the bad.

NK