Teenagers

Chapter 21 - Public Perception

Alright, so expect another chapter in a few days. I don't personally do this normally, since I assumed that not everyone has the time to read two to three chapters in one week, but I am just making up some time here. I was mainly focusing on a few other projects all the while.

But hey, the next chapter is finally here for you to read, so I hope you enjoy!

~KF

October 24, 2016

5th Period

The following Monday, Foxy Michaels and Chica Candance were in their worst class of the day: Mrs. Buryn's English class, the notorious tenth grade teacher who was claimed to be 'one of the most annoying teacher's in the city'. It was not uncommon for certain teachers to be called 'the worst in the school', yet the fact that was she was perceived to be in the 'worst of the city' category proved that not only did one assumed that something must have been really wrong, but it also had other teachers wondering, since as many bad teachers there might have been for the students of Lakewood, it was rather rare for one of them to be that infamous. Their only possible defense towards Mrs. Buryn was that her students were simply exaggerating, then again, to the students, of course it never made sense to them. Everything was said for a reason.

At the moment, nothing out of the ordinary occurred in spite a few of the teenagers being irritated with her being slightly annoyed with a student for supposedly 'asking too many questions about the bell ringer'. Some were annoyed with her, but it never got to the point to where Mrs. Buyrn would completely rub them the wrong way. Nonetheless, they were always expecting the unexpected when it came to her.

It was no surprise that Foxy and Chica sat next to each other in that period. They, as well as the rest of the students in the room each had a laptop on their desks. The teacher decided that now was the perfect time for everyone to learn about plagiarism, ignoring the possibility that it was something her students already had knowledge of. Nevertheless, she was instructed to go through it, anyway.

"How many sources do we need to cite again?"

"At least three." The hen answered Chica, subsequently rotating to help another student. Candance, while eyeing her teacher the entire time, chose to send a quick text to one of her friends on her mobile phone. Yes, there were policies in certain classrooms regarding to texting in class, yet clearly animals like Chica cared less. After all, she knew exactly how to get away with it. Besides, supposed emergencies came and she needed to quickly text her parents?

"So, how are we gonna split this up?" A red, male chameleon called Julian suddenly asked. "Should I do the typing?"

"I'll do it, since you seem to look stuff up way faster than I do, unless you wanna find me browsing about random stuff." Foxy volunteered. "Maybe Chica can search up the pictures and such.

"So I guess that leaves me to search up a video or something, since we all have to contribute to this Power Point somehow." A brown canine named Charles concluded. "Let's just get this over with so that we won't fail. You all already know how I hate projects."

The following several minutes for the most part were filled with the pressing of keys on the keyboard and students quietly communicating with each other, with the occasional laughs of course. It was not as if the entire class would be in total silence during work. Most modern teenagers would consider it rather boring, so there had to be a little fun and humor involved...

...Or simply discuss what happened prior to entering Mrs. Buryn's room for the day. Chica, being the natural gossip girl that she was, desired to talk to Foxy of what went on between him and Kevin Davis as of late.

"So, let's finish where we left off. We were so busy talking about other things over the weekend, we forgot to continue on what happened with you on Thursday afternoon on the bus." She began leaning closer, her voice barely being above a whisper. "So someone wanted to spread a rumor about Kevin and Val dating?"

Even though the question literally had nothing to do with the other two boys in the group, they naturally chose to shift their eyes in Chica's direction in a hurry. As stated, her voice was barely above a whisper, yet since they were only a few inches from her due to the placement of the desks, it led to the common reaction of other surrounding classmates listening in on the conversation.

Foxy Michaels, however, chose to keep his eyes on the computer screen as he typed away. In comparison to Chica though, on a scale of one to ten, his voice level was somewhere in the middle. "Not lying. You know that it ticked me off when I heard that, and it wouldn't have made sense if he was lying. It was all apparently some joke to the person that was behind it, bFut apparently he has no idea that he's literally involving a certain innocent vixen that would clearly have no desire to be part of the narrative..."

"...Would clearly?" His wording made her wonder. "...You haven't told her, yet?"

"Of course not." Michaels was now typing at a somewhat faster pace. "I didn't want to tell her immediately because I had to process all of it in, then I guess I sorta forgot about it... Maybe I should wait until I reunite with Kevin on the bus this afternoon so that I can ask. We barely said a word to each other this morning, after all."

"Who's Kevin?" Julian's curiosity took full control of his thoughts.

"The dude Val ran into that evening." Charles answered him. "I was right there at the time. She looked... rather embarrassed to say the least..."

"I would feel the same way." Chica turned. "How would you feel if you just randomly bump into somebody to have him spill water all over himself? What if he was wearing a bright colored shirt or a suit and was drinking something like orange juice? Or maybe he could have been eating a hotdog with mustard on it. Do you realize how hard it is to remove mustard stains?"

"But that's beside the point." Foxy wanted everyone to get back on topic. "He then told me that if either of us hear anything, we need to let each other know. The man said that 'he's the one person that was to not be messed with', so my gut tells me that he's willing to call someone out in front of everybody any day."

"Ooh..." Chica blinked. "Bonnie was right. He sounds rather tough."

"He didn't lie." He shook his head in agreement. "Before the first bus stop, he told me that he recently went through a break up. This is probably what provoked that guy to joke around in the first place, since apparently, quite a few people know that some junior named Kevin existed in their grade level."

"Ugh..." said Chica, in response to picturing the entire conversation in her head. "...Let's just focus on getting this done before we fail..."

"Oh, yeah." Charles snapped his finger all of a sudden. "That Halloween event is coming up soon. You guys coming, right?"

Soon after the class was sent to the cafeteria, it was once again time for the third lunch shift to have their turn, which meant that Kevin, Steven, and Ryan were to meet up again. Believe it or not, Kevin actually shared the same lunch shift with Foxy and Val on even days, yet of course, he never took the time to notice. Even if he did, he most likely perceived them as simply his fellow school mates that he would not have met anywhere else in the school. Boy, did he thought wrong...

Ryan Norrison was just so happening to speak with Kevin again, yet he was simply planning on asking him a few questions of what he had planned for the weekend. However, just as he entered the cafeteria, he spotted a male dolphin being the center of a rather large crowd in comparison to the rest of the students in the area.

Now, Ryan of all people was not the type to 'snoop into everyone else's business' as one might have thought. He was known to be friendly with everyone, getting along with his classmates, and even some of the staff, and simply being himself, all while receiving decent grades from his classes. Basically, he was the 'it' factor and often called a 'role model' by teachers on how future students should behave. However, he could not have helped but wonder on what the dolphin was discussing with everyone in the group. Said dolphin was familiar with him, after all, and he was well aware of his reputation thanks to a few of his friends, and him receiving that much attention from people sort of made him wonder.

Wanting to know personally on what was going on, he chose to listen for himself.

-/-

Five minutes passing, and Kevin and Steven were conversing each other upon the latter waiting for the former to walk out with a tray in hand. Steven was rather making Kevin laugh a little about some meme he stumbled on online, which the rabbit understood on why some found it hilarious. However, he would have continued laughing had it not been for Ryan Norrision completely killing upon the tap on the shoulder.

"...Man, you look worried..." He and his black rabbit friend noticed. "What's wrong?"

"Jacob lied to you. He's spreading it and people are telling each other about it."

"..." Inside an out, Kevin seemed to be completely frozen.

"...Uh,... dude?" Steven raised an eyebrow.

Gradually, Kevin shifted his head to Jacob, who was apparently the dolphin Ryan was concerned about. He observed him laughing his head off with the dozen of classmates surrounding him. Suddenly, the facial look completely changed from astonishment to infuriation in matter of a simple second. Inside his mind was in an even worse state as a million insults were shifting across from left to right, and even the other way around.

"Oh crap..." Steven had known Kevin for quite a while at the time, and he could very well see what move his friend was about to make.

Next thing he and Norrision knew, Davis immediately stormed his way over, shoving students out of the way while not caring if some sophomore name Gabriella almost ended up hitting a trash can with her black high heel.

Jacob the dolphin's complete obliviousness of Kevin making his over did not go away until it was too little, too late. With the volume of nearby students surrounding him completely plummeting, he turned in their direction to see an enraged, greenish rabbit standing a few inches away with arms tied up.

"You know what, you're not good at lying, first of all." He started. "Judging from last week, I thought that you would have the common sense to know that we share the same lunch shift on odd days, but something tells me that the bell never rang for you so that you could save your own butt. Coward."

Locked on eyes, mouth opened, yet with his neck leaning back was more than enough to describe the feeling of Jacob Hirks at that moment.

"Now, you listen to me right now." His glare became sharper than ever. "I will not have this school year, so don't you go around, having the nerve to not only talk about me literally right behind my back, but also spreading false rumors about me and another student, knowing that I had to control myself to not falsely accuse you of anything on Thursday."

"You'll pay for what you did to Kevin Davis, Jacob Hirks!"

All four anthropomorphic's, including Ryan and Steven, all turned in the direction a female student's voice came from, yet they were unable to find the person who shouted from the other side of the cafeteria. Later thinking that it did not matter, all eyes returned to where they were staring at once before. Unfortunately for Jacob, that meant being face-to-face with his victim.

"This is why I did not want to come to the homecoming dance." He elaborated. "Please do us all a favor and just stop. As much as you want to joke around, don't go around telling people twisted information. We don't even talk to each other in Algebra, so why talk about me in this way? If you're fond of me, fine. I don't care. But since you're clearly obsessed with me, I rather not have my name being thrown around like that. Okay? ...Okay? I'm waiting..."

Judging by the last chapter, Kevin basically gave Jacob a serious warning indirectly last chapter, yet he foolishly went on with it, whether he meant to joke around with him in the beginning or not.

Anyway, I hope this chapter was definitely worth it in spite of the long wait. Notice on how my writing style's evolving? My biggest aspect when it comes to fanfiction is my writing style, so several weeks ago, I came across this awesome Smash fic a while ago and I realized that me and the author basically shared the same writing style, and that was when I realized that it was the potential that I could reach. Soooo, what do you think?

Question:

1. Do you guys see confrontations like this all the time at your high school? (Obviously whether you are going to one, or if you've already attended it.)

I encourage everyone to review!