A balance of the good and the bad. So much for completely lighthearted.
Nyte Kat
Chance shot a sideways look at Jake while he looked for a parking space. It had been pure torture, making the youth wait until closer to sunset to leave, but it was worth it to see the barely suppressed look of awe at the lights and the sounds. Finally, he found a spot. "Looks a lot bigger this year." Chance grinned. "I haven't been since before the academy."
Jake was silent, but his eyes were darting back and forth as they approached the ticket booth. It was almost sensory overload. The air was perfumed with the smell of hot dogs and french fries and other things he couldn't pick out. His ears struggled to separate joyous screaming from laughter and loud conversation and from the shouting of barkers, trying to draw gullible victims in to play their games. Then there was the blur of lights on rides as they twisted and spun, and the different colors strung up between booths and tents.
"Jake!"
A voice broke through the noise and both tabby and ginger furred teen turned. Chance fought the urge to grin outright. Jake's sketch was dead on. He pegged the short, pudgy kitten for Jason. Suri had pulled her long dreadlocks into a very thick band behind her head. She was taller than Jake. That much was obvious from a distance. Chance looked down at Jake, smirking as he unconsciously smoothed his hair and straightened his hooded sweatshirt.
"H-hey, Suri." Jake grinned stupidly at her before acknowledging his friend. "Jason." He nodded. "When did you..."
"JASON!"
Chance and all three kits looked in the direction of a thin, black furred she-kat with long raven hair.
"DON'T GO ON THE RIDES WITHOUT YOUR INHALER! YOU HEAR ME?"
Jason groaned and hid his face into his paws. "Yeah, Mom!"
"ALRIGHT. I'M TAKING YOUR SISTER OVER TO THE KITTEN RIDES!"
Chance noticed an equally mortified couple standing with the she-kat, who was holding a young kitten's paw tightly. "Those your parents, too?" Chance asked Suri.
She gave Chance a critical look and then looked at Jake, waiting for an introduction before responding.
"Oh." Jake winced. "Um, this is my brother, Chance."
"Okay." Suri smiled. "Yeah. Those are my parents and Jason's nutcase for a mom."
"Cool." Chance gave Jake an almost evil grin before pulling a wad of bills out of his pocket. "Don't blow it all on games just to show off your aim."
Jake looked down at the money shoved into his left paw. "Where're you going?" His voice reflected his nervousness.
"Just... ah... you know... gonna get to know your friends' parents and stuff." He started to walk away before turning back to Jason and Suri. "For the record, he's never been to the fair so... make sure he has a good time."
Before Jake could protest, Jason was already pulling him towards the rides. "You've seriously never been to the fair before?"
"Uh..." Jake shot Chance one last look before giving himself up to fate.
Chance quickly caught up to the small group of parents. Suri's parents gave him an assessing look as he approached. "Hey." He said, hardly breathless, and extending his paw. "Chance Furlong, Jake's older brother."
"Oh. That young fellow that Suri and Jason were looking for?" The tom, a panther looking kat with a deep, thick voice, purred politely.
"Yes, sir." Chance replied, feeling immediately like this was a figure of authority. "You're Suri's father?"
"I am." He took Chance's paw firmly. "Kojo Tier. And this is my wife, Sekai."
Chance winced. "It might take me a few tries to get those right."
Sekai laughed, an infectious sound, and clearly one of the qualities her husband found attractive, for he smiled broadly at her. "Trust me, Chance, you said?"
He nodded.
"You would not be the first to mess up our names." She smiled and then gestured towards the black furred she-kat. "This is young Jason's mother. Ofelia."
Ofelia smiled brightly at Chance and extended her paw. "Ofelia Felino. And this is my daughter Lucy. I suppose you've already met Jason."
"Yeah." Chance smiled.
"Jason speaks very highly of Jake. He tells me that Jake was an Enforcer." Ofelia spoke with disbelief.
"He was." Chance confirmed. "Actually, we both were."
"How does one so young become an Enforcer?" Kojo asked, clearly interested.
"It's a long story." Chance said.
"One we have plenty of time for." Sekai pointed out.
Chance shrugged. He'd wanted to become familiar with the parents of the kits Jake was becoming friends with. This was the best way to start.
"Alright." Jason and Suri grinned at each other as they sat several paper plates loaded with goodies on them in front of Jake.
"Holy crap." Jake whispered.
"These are deep fried chocolate cookies." Jason grinned. "And they are amazing."
"This," Suri pushed another plate forward. It was completely covered by some sort of deep fried item heavily dusted with powdered sugar. "Is a funnel cake."
"And then we have a few other random deep fried things like candy bars and cream-cakes." Jason was beaming. "So which one do want to try first?"
Jake was trying to decide between the cookies and the funnel cake when he heard a familiar voice. He raised his head and looked passed Jason and Suri, spotting a perfect dirty blond ponytail.
"What?" Jason looked over his shoulder and sighed. "Aw, is that Miranda?"
Jake saw that she was walking around with her parents, looking longingly at the other kits. "Hang on." He got up and darted over to her.
"What is he doing?" Suri watched him with wide amber eyes.
"He's going to ask her to hang out with us." Jason groaned. "Great."
"Perhaps he feels bad for her." Suri contemplated.
"Maybe." Jason groaned.
"Hey." Jake lightly grabbed Miranda by the arm.
She spun around and glared at him. "What do you want?"
"I... uh... well... I'm here with Suri and Jason and I thought... maybe you'd like to... you know... hang out with us." Jake shoved one paw into his pocket while his cast covered arm hung loosely at his side.
"I can't just run off and leave my parents, they..."
"Miranda, you go right ahead and have fun with your friends." Her mother said brightly.
Miranda frowned. "But..."
"Actually, Mrs. Steele," Jake put on his most polite expression as he searched the area. He spotted Chance easily. "My brother Chance, Suri's parents and Jason's mom are all over there!" He pointed.
"How delightful!" Miranda's mother grinned. "I'd especially love to talk to your brother."
Jake winced. "Yeah." He grabbed Miranda's arm.
"What are you doing?" She hissed.
"Look," Jake sighed, pausing before he was within earshot of his own friends. "I figured, maybe next time, we might do better on our projects if, you know, we could spend five minutes in each other's company without wanting to kill someone. Besides, I've never been to the fair before. I need corrupting."
Miranda blinked and then laughed. "What kind of loser's never been to the fair before?"
Suri and Jason rolled their eyes at each other as Jake returned with Miranda.
"Miranda." They both said quietly.
"Be nice." Jake hissed.
"Okay, Jake." Suri decided to be the better she-kat. "You still haven't decided which one you're going to try first."
Miranda eyed the plates of goodies. "Oh," she breathed. "You have to eat the cookies. Those are a legend."
"This is turning into PTA night." Ofelia joked when she saw Connie and Frederick Steele approaching.
Chance gave her a curious look.
"Ofelia!" Connie gushed loudly.
"Hey Mrs. Steele!" Lucy shouted loudly, pulling herself from her mother's grasp to hug the light blond haired she-kat.
"I thought you looked familiar." Chance smirked at Frederick. He remembered Steele's parents from graduation of basic before the academy. "Chance Furlong." He held out his paws.
"Ah!" Frederick chuckled. "The one that drove Johnathon mad."
Chance winced. "Yes sir."
"You don't have to sir me." He grinned. "I work for a living."
"Tell me, Chance." Connie interrupted. "Does Jake complain about Miranda as much as she complains about him?"
Chance laughed. "Well, they don't exactly see eye to eye from my understanding."
"Interesting." She murred. "Because, when he saw us, he practically dragged her away from us to be with him and his friends."
Chance narrowed his eyes at her. "That is weird. But then, from the way I hear it, they were both really upset about the grade they got on that English project. Maybe they have common ground now."
Connie tilted her head. "That is a possibility to consider."
"Jake and Jason should sit on the sides." Suri said as they boarded one of the cars on the Whirl-y-Gig. "That way, when it smushes everyone to one side, we don't have the weight of two boys on us."
Miranda snorted and looked at Jake. "I think he's the skinniest one of all. We might crush him."
Jake glared at her. "Hey. I went toe to toe with Lonnie. And besides." He waved his broken arm in the air.
"He did." Jason defended. "And I don't want to squish Suri. She'll hit me."
Miranda laughed loudly and then slapped a paw over her mouth, embarrassed that she was having fun with the kits she otherwise despised.
"Either way," Suri chuckled. "We better sit down because the ride operator looks like he is getting impatient."
When the ride was over, all four staggered off, slightly dizzy and definitely bruised from sliding into each other. Jake's ears were ringing from Jason's girly screaming when the ride increased speed, and his right arm thrummed with pain after getting smacked around. And, strangely, Suri and Miranda were giggling to each other about the way they kept getting smashed together.
"Okay." Jake sucked in a breath. "Now what?"
Jason looked at Suri and she looked at Miranda. Simultaneously they turned to Jake and grinned. "Fun House."
"Wait!" Jason stopped them all. "We need a giant Slush and cotton candy first."
"Alright," Sekai looked at her cell phone and then at Chance, who'd offered to carry Lucy when she'd become too sleepy to walk. "I have not received a call from security yet." She joked. "But it is getting very late."
"And cold." Connie agreed, pulling her jacket closer.
Sekai quickly dialed the number to her daughter's cell. "Suri," she purred. "Where are you?"
Chance's trained ears easily picked out the impish giggling, quickly followed by a tired whine that sounded a lot like Jake. Following the sound, he spotted the group of teens near one of the picnic areas. Jake was laying flat on his back on one of the benches while Suri and Miranda took turns tormenting him with very large, brightly colored stuffed monkeys.
On the other side of the table was Jason, his head buried in his arms.
"But the monkeys commend you for your victorious victory." Miranda said in a funny voice while Suri made animal growling sounds.
"St-op.." Jake whined again, though it was a strain through the laughing.
"You kits have fun?" Chance finally asked, clearing his throat loudly. Jason's head shot up and then he groaned and clutched it.
"A blast." Miranda slid off the table. "Hey Mama."
"You two look like you wore the boys out." Connie tried to assess what had taken place.
"The boys wore themselves out." Suri grinned. "Jason challenged Jake to a deep fried cookie eating contest."
"First one to puke lost." Miranda added.
"Lovely." Ofelia added. "And who won?"
"Jake, surprisingly." Suri supplied. "He is also no longer allowed to play that game with the stacked bottles because he upset the host." She held up her bright orange monkey.
"I wasn't cheating!" Jake defended. "You okay, Jason?"
"Yeah." Jason pushed himself up from the table.
Chance sat down Lucy, smiling a little when she ran over to her brother. "Did you win me anything?" She asked innocently.
"Not for lack of trying." Jason scratched her between the ears. "See you at school Monday."
Chance watched, one by one, as Suri left with her family and Miranda left with hers until it was just him and Jake. "So that's Miranda?" He pulled himself onto the table. "You like her or just trying to make nice?"
"Just trying to make nice." Jake said quietly.
Chance gave Jake a critical look. "The things we do to impress the ladies. They're gone now, so if you're gonna hurl, do it before we leave."
"Thank God," Jake moaned, quickly pushing himself up.
Chance sat the bottle of pink liquid on the table next to Jake's bed and dropped down next to the young tom. "Seriously, did you have fun?"
Jake gratefully reached for the bottle and tried to twist the cap off with one paw. "Yeah." He handed it to Chance waited for him to open it before he took a swig of it, screwing his face up at the overbearing minty flavor. "And, at the same time, I don't ever want to see another deep fried anything."
Chance chuckled. "Yeah, that's the beauty of the whole once a year thing. Your friend Jason is probably moaning about it too." He took the bottle back from Jake and held onto it for a moment. "So you give any thought to what you want to do next weekend?"
Jake blinked tiredly at him. "For what?"
"Your birthday. You made such a big deal about being almost fourteen." Chance sat the bottle down near the lamp. "Suri's parents and Jason's mom all gave the okay for them to come over. I figure, once we get the Swat Kats off the ground, there really won't be a way for you to have your friends over. You could invite Miranda too, if you wanted to."
Jake yawned loudly. "What would we do?"
"I could order a pizza, get a cake. You know, birthday party food? You could watch some movies." Chance suggested.
"Slumber party," Jake smirked.
"Sure." Chance said. "Jason could stay the night."
"Aw." Jake pouted. "You're no fun."
"Are you kidding?" Chance teased. "I wrote the book on fun. There's just an age limit. And that's 21 and up."
Jake snorted. "Okay... so.. as long as the girls are at least 21, they can spend the night."
Chance stared at Jake. "There ya go. Except... you're not invited to those parties."
"So not cool..." Jake mumbled, exhausted from the cool night air and excessive rides and junk food.
"Nope." Chance agreed. "Not cool at all." He stood up. "Good night."
"Night, Chance..." Jake said, yawning again and then curling up beneath the heavy comforter and sheets.
"And then when you screamed when the clown jumped out from behind that mirror..." Miranda laughed, turned around in her desk so she could talk about the fair with Jake.
Ms. Klim paused before starting her class, surprised to see the two talking animatedly, Jake wildly gesticulating with the arm in a cast. She cleared her throat loudly. "It sounds like several of you enjoyed the fair this weekend. It is time, however, to review what we've learned in the first half of the semester. Thursday and Friday are mid-term exams, and I want all of you to be prepared." She shot one more suspicious look in Jake and Miranda's direction before instructing the class to open their Literature books.
First period went by faster than usual, and then Jake found himself in science class, where, like all his other classes, they were preparing for exams. He looked curiously at the board where Mr. Teele had drawn out the entire Periodic Table, except, all the boxes were empty.
"Alright," Mr. Teele addressed his students, pushing his glasses up his nose. "In preparation for our exams, I've decided to spring a little pop quiz on all of you." There was a unified groan throughout the room. "You will all find a similar drawing on your desks. I would like you to fill in the boxes with the appropriate element. Then, after the time for the quiz has elapsed, I will ask one of you to fill in the blanks on the board." He picked up his stopwatch. "You may begin... now."
Jake stared blankly at the empty squares for a moment and then closed his eyes, attempting to pull the answers up from his memory. Remembering which abbreviations represented which elements was one thing. Remembering the exact layout was something completely different. Was it a trick question? Did he really just want to make sure all of the elements had been learned? No. Jake shook his head. He asked that the boxes be filled in with the "appropriate elements." He felt his stomach knot up the way it had when Ms. Klim told him he'd failed, and he sucked in a deep breath. Five minutes elapsed before he even started to write anything down and he found himself beginning to panic. "You have to learn how to fail gracefully." He swallowed the lump in his throat when he remembered his conversation with Rita just a few days ago. "Fuck," he mouthed. "Here goes nothing." Quickly he began filling in the empty boxes, reminding himself that the elements were divided into categories, color coated on the actual chart: Alkali Metals, Alkali Earth Metals, Transition Metals, Other Metals, Metalloids, Other Non Metals, Halogens, Noble Gases and Rare Earth Metals. He adjusted his pencil in his left paw and then shifted the paper, struggling to get it right with still half a chart to fill in when the timer went off.
"Pencils down!" Mr. Teele said sharply.
"Crud," Jake hissed softly, dropping his pencil and letting his shoulders sink.
"Pass your tests to the front." The teacher instructed and walked along the rows to pick up the papers, inspecting them as he collected them. His eyes flickered over Jake for a brief moment, surprise evident. Finally he reached the opposite end of the room. "Mr. Clawson," he smiled.
Jake's heart sank when he realized that he wasn't being graded on the quiz. His was the one on the board. "If you would so kindly fill in the correct answers on the board."
Jake stared at the taunting, blank squares, closed his eyes, sucked in a deep breath and stood up. Instead of approaching the board, however, he left the classroom. Once out in the hall, Jake collapsed into a sitting position on the floor, his back against the lockers as he tried to sort out why this was a problem. It wasn't long before he looked up to find Mr. Teele crouched in front of him.
"Jake," he said quietly. "Are you alright?"
The teen looked up with wide green eyes and shook his head.
"Can you tell me what's wrong?" Mr. Teele remembered the conversation he'd had with the boy's guardian and hoped that this wasn't the breakdown he'd seen coming. When he saw tears glistening in Jake's eyes, he sighed. "Talk to me."
"I can't do it." His voice came out hushed and the words hurried. "I mean, name the elements sure, but in all the right places, in the right order in fifteen minutes." Tears streamed down his cheeks. "I already got one 'F' and the she-kat from kitten services said if my GPA dropped they'd be all over Chance like it was his fault and then I end up in some foster home with kats I don't know." Before he knew it, he was hyperventilating.
"Hey," Mr. Teele struggled to get Jake to focus on him. "Look at me."
Jake shook his head and buried his face in his knees.
The large teacher stood up and poked his head into the classroom, asking one of the students to grab Jake's things and then went to get a teacher from another class to watch his for a moment.
Chance was angry at first when Mrs. Jenkins, the school secretary, called him. When she said that Jake had some sort of anxiety attack, however, he found himself rushing to the school, worried. Anxiety and Jake were two things he just didn't put together. Then he spotted Mr. Teele in the office when he came through the doors. "What happened?"
Mr. Teele shook his head. "I sprung an impossible test on them and he had a complete meltdown."
"What do you mean 'impossible'?" Chance forced his temper down.
"I mean, I wasn't expecting anyone to get it right. And it wasn't even going to be graded. I just wanted to see what was being retained. I had planned to have Jake be the one to fill in the correct answers on the board. I mean, this is his forte, I figured he'd knock it out without even thinking and it's like he just froze up. He walked right out of my class, sat down in the hall way and fell apart."
Chance furrowed his brow. That didn't sound like Jake at all. "I don't understand."
"He was crying and going on about having already failed something and that kitten services were going to put him in a foster home. It just didn't make any sense." Mr. Teele looked just as frazzled and confused as Chance felt.
"Where is he?" Chance sucked in a breath.
"He's with the nurse," Mrs. Jenkins said, motioning for him to follow.
Chance paused in the slightly open doorway to look at Jake, sitting on the cot with his back rigid against the wall, knees pulled up and arms wrapped around them, his black, fraying cast glaringly obvious, and he was shaking. He was breathing in short, quick breaths, hiccuping every now and then. Chance felt a surge of guilt. He'd arranged to have this kind of pressure put on Jake, trying to light a fire under him. He knocked softly on the doorway, just enough to get the teen's attention. "Can I come in?"
Jake gave a jerky nod, not bothering to follow Chance with his eyes.
"Wanna tell me what happened?" Chance asked, reaching an arm around the quivering young tom.
"I dunno." Jake shuddered. "I just... my whole brain went blank and I tried to tell myself it was a trick question, that it didn't matter if I got all the answers right, that it wasn't that big of a deal. Then he tells me to put the correct answers on the board and I remembered you said he was grading me on participation, and the 'F' Mrs. Klim gave me... I just... I freaked. I completely freaked out."
Chance felt Jake lean into him. "Jake, how long has it been since you had a basic science class?"
Jake weakly shook his head. "Four, five years."
"Do you honestly think your teacher expects you to remember this stuff 100 percent?" Chance tilted his head to get a better look at Jake.
"Why else would he throw out quizzes on it." Jake looked up with watery eyes.
"It wasn't being graded." Chance explained. "I already talked to Mr. Teele."
"Then why do it?" Jake sucked in a shaky breath.
"To see what you've learned." Chance replied. "You're worried about what Susan said? About her putting you in the system..." He sighed. "That's my fault. I told her that I didn't think you were taking this seriously and what she was telling you was the extreme of what would happen. And unless you completely fail a class and risk being held back, she won't get involved."
Jake's eyes widened and he shoved Chance away. "So I just... I just had a panic attack for absolutely no reason?"
Chance shook his head. "I wouldn't call that 'no reason'. And I'm sorry it put so much stress on you."
"God, Chance..." Jake dropped his head. "I'm not used to this. I'm not used to not knowing the answers and then these teachers, they deliberately set me up to not know the answers. And I've got your mom in my head telling me I need to learn how to screw up right."
"She right." Chance nodded his head. "Like when you were learning Jujitsu, they taught you how to take a hit so that you could keep fighting back."
"Rita said kind of the same thing... just different." Jake sucked in a deep breath. "You really had her scare me just so I'd listen to you?"
"I just wanted you to know how serious of a situation we're in. I didn't think she'd tell you anything that would lead to you having a crisis over it." Chance heaved a sigh. "I'm really sorry."
Jake quickly wiped his eyes again. "It's okay."
"You sure?" Chance gave Jake a firm one-armed hug.
"Yeah." Jake offered a weak smile.
"Can you make it through the rest of the day?" Chance asked, looking at the time, and not wanting to ruin his attendance anymore for the semester than it was.
"Yeah." Jake nodded. "I think I'll be okay."
"Good." Chance stood up. "Don't forget to ask your friends about this Saturday."
Jake nodded. "Hey Chance..."
Chance paused on his way out.
"Thanks. For, you know, just dropping whatever you were doing. No one else would've done that." Jake bit the inside of his cheek after he said it and blinked back the onslaught of tears that threatened once again.
"That's what family does, Jake. You don't ever have to thank me for that." Chance offered a reassuring smile before he left.
A little blue in the gray. A little sweet with the sour.
Nyte Kat
