Not a songfic, but I listened to a song that inspired this chapter, and I listened to it the whole way while writing this. It's called The Underdog, by Spoon. It put me in a good mood writing this chapter and I'm sure it'll do the same for you guys :D
Chapter 44
The day after Fox's intervention was Saturday. His parents approved of his idea to give Krystal comforting advice, but not to intervene too much. But today was different, Fox woke up differently. He regrets nothing about getting his memory back, nothing about the advice he gave Krystal, and nothing about his feelings for Krystal.
But Fox woke up without a care in the world.
He felt like he wouldn't mind if Krystal and he didn't get together again, he would be alright with it. He wouldn't mind if another girl came along that he liked, he wouldn't mind anything today. "I feel great today." He told his parents as he walked out of his room rolling up the sleeves on his casual plaid shirt. "Your advice help your conscience maybe?" His mother asked him with curiosity.
"You know, I really don't know. Today I just feel more chilled out than I ever have. I mean, if she doesn't wanna get together in the future, that's okay. That's how relaxed I feel today." James' eyes widened under his shades, considering how high esteem Fox held this situation just the other day, and he just said that. "Wow, that's incredible son. I wonder what it was that made you feel this relaxed all of a sudden?" Fox just shrugged his shoulders, he knew about as much of this as his parents did. "I just…man I don't know but I just feel so great right now!" He nearly shouted it because his emotions on this new feeling was great.
"I'm gonna go shoot some hoops outside, mind if I get the guys over to shoot some hoops maybe?" His parents just nodded, of course they didn't mind, they loved Fox's friends as if they were three more sons. Fox rolled his sleeves up to just above his elbows with a white t shirt as an undershirt and grabbed the basketball. He dribbled it in place just a little bit, then quickly spun around and shot the ball and bounced it perfectly off the backboard into the net. He picked it up and spun it on his finger, then repeated the motion and had the same results. 'Man I definitely shoulda gone out for the team this year' He thought to himself.
There were few things Fox enjoyed more than a pickup game of driveway basketball with his friends. He shot another three pointer and swished it perfectly within the blink of an eye. "I've never seen you so focused on something before." He heard his mom from the garage. "Yeah, I dunno, I just feel laid back and focused on anything I wanna focus on today, if that actually makes sense." His mom laughed a small bit at his supposed joke.
Fox shot it one more time and it was one more perfect swish. The ball hit the post and quickly went flying straight at Vixy and she flinched preparing for the impact. "What's the matter mom?" She opened her eyes back and saw that as fast as she flinched, her son reached out and grabbed the ball before it hit her.
"Wow, I didn't think I'd get that. I just don't know what it is but man I feel so good today!" Fox was nearly yelling again because of all the vigor he was feeling. "Well honey I'm so glad that you feel good. It's just been so long since I've seen you this happy." She gave her son a hug and went back inside with James.
"Hey man, how do you guys feel about hitting the city up today?" "Man that sounds awesome! You sure sound uppity today you know?" The bird said back to his vulpine friend. "Maybe we can take our hover boards down to the skate park and ride around, maybe ride around the city on em and do whatever, probably hit up the café." Falco could only nod his head as his friend kept going.
"Man that sounds like a day well spent. I'll let everyone else know and we can meet at the mall then go from there." Fox's smile kept growing as he thought about this day, and this relaxation that was coursing through his mind and body. "We're headed out to do some boarding, see you guys later!" He yelled as he grabbed his board and ran out of the house.
"It's been a long time since we've seen this side of our son." James said as he grabbed his wife's paw and smiled.
He met up with the guys at the mall about twenty minutes later. "You know it's cool that these guys are real considerate and catching onto this kinda stuff." Slippy said as he placed his board in a locker designed for hover boards at the mall entrance. "I guess we can get some lunch real quick, walk around and do whatever." Fox had on a black leather jacket with his plaid shirt and undershirt beneath it. He had on some black jeans and black and white converse to match. They walked into a sunglasses store first and checked out all the cool shades.
"These look like your dad's, Fox." Bill said as he held up a pair. "Yeah they do, I know he really likes his sunglasses." Fox put them on and took a picture of himself and sent it to his dad.
'Guess who I am?' was what he typed in the message.
"It's been a long time since I've seen him so happy, but this shade I've never seen." James said to himself as he laughed and showed his wife the message and picture and she laughed along with him.
Fox picked up a pair of black Aviator brand sunglasses and tried them on. "Dude, those are perfect for you" The salesperson, only a few years older than Fox, spoke up. They must have been perfect, Fox has never met this salesperson before.
"Well, don't you guys have to say that as part of your job and all?" Fox said with a grin and laugh. The fox a few years older than him laughed along, "Yeah sure whatever." He sarcastically said in a joking manner. "Not kidding though dude, I suggest it, you got a thumbs up from me." Fox looked at the price tag and they weren't expensive for the brand. "I'll take 'em" He told the salesperson with a big smile.
"Dude we're indoors, can't you give it a rest with those shades?" Slippy asked as a joke to his friend. "Nah." He simply replied, completely relaxed and nonchalant with a huge grin, as he kept strutting through the mall.
Eventually he put them on top of his head and they rested there until they left. They grabbed their boards and walked outside, loaded them up and rode off to the park. They went to the park not far from the mall, it was a regular park that was a long stretch of grass with concrete walkways and sidewalks along it for people to walk, and on the other side was a more skate-themed park like people usually go to.
Fox had his shades on as he slowed down and hopped off his board and caught it on his way down. In doing so he caught the attention of a few girls standing out by one of their cars, he bobbed his head upwards as a way of saying 'What's up?' nonchalantly in his carefree attitude he's had all day.
He couldn't hear it, but he could tell from the shape of their mouths what they said, "Ooh". 'Looks like it's not just on the inside' he thought to himself as he turned around and smiled to himself.
"So what do you wanna do now guys? Hit up the big open spot, walk over there and go on the ramps? Half pipes?" Bill asked everyone, eager to get started. "No worries man, we got all day." Fox said as he strutted towards the half pipes.
"Man what's gotten into him? Today he just seems so… so… cool." Slippy said in wonders of how this Fox came around. "I dunno man, but I can certainly get used to this Fox." Falco said as he tapped Slippy on the shoulder with his own board and followed their strutting friend.
"Dude check this out!" Fox yelled from the top of the half pipe. He was standing on his left hand while keeping his feet rooted on his board and his right hand holding the board in place. He jumped off and flipped over, landing both feet on the board, perfectly sticking the landing. "Dang dude, that was awesome!" Slippy said from his seated position on the bench next to the half pipe. "Yeah? Man I'm just feeling it today, in everything!" Again yelling nearly with all this vigor he was feeling.
The guys just laughed and continued their boarding for a good while. "We gotta get the group together again soon. Feels like it's been forever." Fox said to his friends.
The guys had been boarding at the park for even longer than they thought, it was 9 at night already. "Well hey guys, the night's still young and the café's having a special on drinks, and they're showing a movie!" They all nodded at the same time. "The night's still young alright!" They all said in unison, and boarded down to the café and ordered Fortuna Mists for half price and a pizza for half price as well. It was one of their favorite movies to watch too.
The movie was over at 11:15 and they all headed home. To his surprise, Fox's parents were still up, awaiting his return he supposed. They were sitting on the couch together watching a movie of their own and looked at him and began smiling when they saw his own smile.
He just gathered his breath a few times trying to find something to say, and they just kept smiling at how happy he was. Finally he settled on something, smiling while saying it and headed for bed,
"Man, this day."
So yeah, Fox is some kinda cool guy now :D I got the idea from a scene in the movie 17 Again. Really like the movie and I really liked the scene so I decided to make a chapter based off it. The sunglasses was a personal touch just because I really like Aviator sunglasses and I think they're cool. I'll take this time to explain, this mood shift where Fox is relaxed and is nonchalant about everything isn't on a whim. Basically everything has been reset to the beginning of the story. Fox finds Krystal attractive and all, but isn't committing all his time and energy to her trying to get her to like him, so basically they're friends again and nothing more. I feel like I jumped the gun a bit in the story how they started falling in lurve kinda fast, and it didn't allow for the 'just friends' phase or whatever. I just felt like tying him down to her super fast just burned up a lot of potential. So that's what the memory loss thing was at first, then I arced the story again, on down the road I didn't like that idea so I kinda erased everything again here. So if you guys kinda wanted them to get back together in this chapter or were expecting it, you gotta wait a while longer. Don't know what's happpeninng next but hopefully you guys'll like it, Ciao :D
