Hey guys, whats´s up?

This has been in the making for a while, I hope it was somewhat worth it.

Tell me what you think, I´m curious.

Beastars – Into the Spotlight 2.0

Chapter 1 – Big shoes to fill

"So…why are you in my office again?" he asked me with a little sigh.

The old Siberian Tiger raised one of his eyebrows a little as I didn't respond with anything and just handed him the piece of paper the gym teacher gave me.

I knew this would mean trouble again, not just here but at home as well, but at this point there wasn't anything I could do about it anymore.

I said nothing while I waited for the old man to finish reading. He didn't seem to be in a rush right now, even though there probably was a whole lot of other stuff he had to deal with. This was his last year as the principal of this school as he told us in his welcoming speech on the first day. Not that I really cared about that, I didn't like anything about this school anyway.

He seemed to have finished reading as his gaze went back towards me again.

"Well…it makes sense to me that you've chosen to join the sports-club…" he started off rather unexpectedly, apparently examining me from top to bottom. "…but you can´t be part of a team without respecting the others and taking them seriously."

"It's not my fault they can´t keep up with me…" I muttered lowly, shaking my head a little bit, "…and it's not my fault I have to join a club!"

"You don't have to join a club if you really don't want to."

He now mentioned what I already knew, "…but it might be a great way to make new friends if you just tried a little harder."

I already wasn't enjoying this conversation.

"Yeah whatever…"

It was just my parents who wanted me to join a club after all. They've been talking about it ever since my first year of Highschool started here two weeks ago. They told me about that too, being able to make new friends in a club and so on. It's not like I didn't want to make new friends, but in the sports-club that seemed just as impossible as it did in my classes or my dorm.

"They won't start treating you with respect if you don't treat them with respect either." He now went on with his lecture, "…and it's not very respectful to push over a teammate just because he accidentally made your team lose, Leon! Mistakes happen to all of us."

"I didn't push him over on purpose!" I repeated for him again as well. "The kangaroo was pushing me first, I just defended myself and pushed back! How would I know he would fall over his own tail?!"

This was just a freaking nightmare. I really didn't want that guy to fall over and hurt himself, but now it looked like I did that on purpose and nobody believed me.

"It's a well-known fact that kangaroos cannot walk backwards because of their tails." He told me with a little sigh, but also a tiny little smirk on his face.

"I didn't know that." I confessed, "I´m sorry, okay?"

The Siberian Tiger now started nodding slowly, still examining me for some reason.

"…I get the feeling you´re having a little bit of a hard time fitting in" he then mentioned, "Did you have trouble with other students before?"

I just shrugged my shoulders with an unbothered expression. He probably did have a point, but I didn't want this topic to continue longer than it needed to.

"…let me tell you a little story of a student we had here quite a few years ago. He was a wolf as well by the way…and although he was told to be a little awkward socially, he managed to unite the entire school together by the time he graduated."

I shrugged my shoulders with an uninterested little sigh, but that didn't seem to stop him either.

"He started out working behind the stage in the drama-club, setting up spotlights and taking care of the stage builds, keeping himself in the shadows as much as he could basically. But then this wolf girl joined the drama-club, an actress with great ambitions, and our drama-club president had this very bold idea of playing the piece of "Romeo and Juliet" with her in the female lead role…"

"Let me guess," I sighed, rolling my eyes. "The wolf guy was forced to play Romeo and it was a great success?"

"Yeah!" the principal affirmed, nodding excitedly, "And what a great success it was! They were the stars of the school and they got right back to work and played a total of four more different shows before they graduated."

"Volpone, The Odyssey, Servant of two masters and Hamlet" I listed for him, hoping he would spare me the rest of the story I already knew everything about.

He looked a little dumbfounded right now, not having expected me to know any of that pretty obviously.

"…he's my dad," I clarified to make this quick. "And Juliet is my mom. Can I leave now?"

He examined me for another really long moment, seemingly still not able to believe what he just heard. I was well used to that reaction.

"Damn it's been 16 years ago already?" he chuckled, shaking his head in slight disbelief.

It took him a little moment to comprehend what he just heard. I just shrugged my shoulders.

"…and now their son is sitting here…trying his hardest to waste what is probably a huge amount of potential? I'm not sure I'm seeing right."

"Excuse me…what?"

He now straightened his pose a little bit before he continued.

"Your father was a real gentleman. A hero, a fantastic actor and most importantly of all, he always remained humble about it, even to this day. I've seen him in a TV-interview lately, talking about one of the new movies he stars in. I still enjoy seeing him act out different roles, I still think back to those old days of greatness when the drama-club actually performed in the city-theaters because of him. That hasn't happened again ever since."

Even after all this time that has passed since then, this still seemed to be a big deal to him. He seemed a lot more energetic than earlier.

"He's never been talking about it much" I said with another shrug of my shoulders.

"Seems like he's still quite grounded. Even after all these years and the success he's had. …do you still live here in town?"

I nodded. "Our house is just on the outskirts of the city in the suburbs."

"Easy commute then" he mentioned the obvious with a little nod.

This literally was the only positive aspect I could find about this school so far. It just took me about 35 minutes to get home. I didn't have to spend the nights in my dorm if I didn't want to, even though my parents told me to try and bond with my dorm-mates as much as possible.

"Anyway" he concluded finally, "If I would have just half the expectations I´ve had of your father back then, my expectations of you would still be pretty high. I know that you´re capable of more."

I just nodded with a little sigh, still hoping to get this over with soon.

"…I want you to properly apologize to your mate from the sports club, and if you won´t get along with them at all, I really encourage you to apply for the drama club."

"I'm not my dad," I told him dryly but respectful. "I'm not sure I'm wired for that."

Now it was him who just shrugged his shoulders. "You can never know what awaits you. It's not too late to switch yet. You'd probably enjoy it if you try."

I nodded slowly, trying to force a respectful little smirk, he seemed to be content with that.

"It's not the end of the world what you´ve done," he concluded, "I just hope I don't see you here again anytime soon."

I nodded understandingly.

With that he pointed towards the door to his office with his arm and nodded one last time, signalizing me to leave his room now. "That's all."

I gladly got off the chair I was sitting on and went towards the door. This was not as bad as I thought it would be in the end.

When I reached out for the door-handle though, he stopped me once again after all.

"The drama club is still rehearsing for another hour or so" he mentioned, "Why don't you just join them and take a look?"

He now had that almost over-exaggerated excitement on his face once again, and as I didn't want to risk insulting him in any way and getting into even more trouble, I just nodded with a forced little smirk.

"Taking a look never hurt anybody," he advised me once more.

"Yeah…" I said, just before pulling the door shut, "…maybe."

I had no intention of actually doing that, but at least it got me out of this situation. In my head I was already on my way home towards my bed, my computer and the internet.

I took a quick look at my phone and a little sigh escaped my lips. 4:15PM.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. It was by far too early to go home, I would be asked questions if I arrived there way before dinnertime.

I slowly went down the hallway, trying to waste as much time as possible, but I soon realized that this was just a droplet on a hot stone. I took a look at the time again after what easily felt like ten minutes, only to find out that just two and a half minutes had actually passed.

For a short moment I considered if I should maybe go back to sports-club practice, but then I figured they wouldn't let me join anymore anyway. And I didn't want to deal with that apology-bullshit either. I hadn't pushed him over on purpose.

"Oh fuck my life" I muttered, heading towards the exit of this building.

"Taking a quick look couldn´t hurt, right?"

POV Sanu

"Okay everyone" I announced with a little sigh, "Back to your positions, we´re gonna try it one more time. Lucy, please try to speak a little bit lower this time so we can understand Adler as well."

"Ugh fine," she complained in slight annoyance.

The lion who played the grim reaper got back onto his position as well and she began with her lines again.

"…I don't get it, why is the flame chasing after us?"

"You were supposed to be dead three days ago" Kenji explained, still by far too less powerful, "Water, wind, …"

"Fire" I helped him remember.

"…Fire; every dead soul in the universe! …is trying to kill you!"

I took another deep breath as this still wasn't really improving.

"So…you're saying there are others o-out…out there…shit."

The maned wolf girl now threw her script onto the floor in great frustration, obviously being quite fed up with today´s rehearsal session in the meanwhile. It was kinda understandable with the progress we were making, but she still over-exaggerated quite a bit once again.

I had seen great potential in her during the audition for the roles, she had a lot of energy and quite a striking appearance with her tall slim statue, her red fur and the long brown mane she always had hanging over one side of her face, but sadly I also had to find out rather quickly that she could be very temperamental.

The young lion I had selected to play Adler had potential as well, but he just wasn't giving his voice the force it needed. He was more concerned about looking pretty and heroic on stage than actually playing his role to its full potential.

She now tried her last line once more, but she got stuck on almost the exact same word once again.

"Oh this is some bullshit!" she complained loudly, while the rest of the club silently shook their heads about that latest outburst of hers.

"I know it's hard to stay focused" I tried to calm her down, "Just please let us try it once again."

"No! I'm done for today!" she said, not looking like I could possibly convince her of trying it again, "This bullshit piece annoys me enough as it is already!"

"Come on, Lucy" one of the drama-club dancers told her, "We're all in this together, we can't do it without you!"

It was a nice effort, but the maned wolfess was already on her way. With a highly lifted nose and a diva-esc sway in her hips she walked towards the exit, vigorously opened the door to the hallway and left us behind her.

"…well" I sighed, as this wasn't the first time she´s lost her patience already, "I guess we get back to rehearsing the scenes that doesn't involve her."

They all let their heads down in great demotivation. This really started to get old in the meanwhile.

"Why can't we play another piece?" Kibi the black panther now asked rather plainly, "Didn't they perform that last year already? What are those pictures in the hallway showing scenes from other shows than ´Grim Reaper´ after all?"

That question really had me a bit stomped for a moment. I got an immediate flashback every time I got reminded about those old days. This was so long ago, I couldn't even remember all the details about it.

All I knew was that some of the actors still did this as their main job till this day, some of them more successful than others, but other than that, these were just some pretty vague memories of those glory days of our drama-club.

There was just one answer to that question, really, but telling them the raw and honest truth about it wasn't that easy in my situation, sadly.

"Adler always is a safe bet" I told them, "It's difficult enough for a school drama club and since we´re in a rather new and inexperienced group this year, that's what we´re doing."

God knew I would want to perform anything else but this piece at least once before I retired, but I simply just didn't have the right students and motivation to work with ever since.

"Some of those pictures looked really awesome" the red panda girl from the art department commented carefully, "I wished we could do Romeo and Juliet one day…"

"Well" I sighed, "Maybe if we can make this performance a success…we could work something out."

I said that with not too much hope in my heart of course, I really wasn't sure if that could ever work out with them.

Just as I said that, the door to the hallway suddenly opened again. We all had expected Lucy to maybe have reconsidered her decision of leaving the rehearsals early, but it actually was a young grey wolf peeking through the door frame.

I turned my attention towards him as he seemed a little lost, and since we were taking a breather right now anyway, I saw no harm in giving him a little bit of my time.

I had never seen him here before, not in the auditions and not for anything else, but he must be here for a reason since he went all the way to this building. And somehow, something about him seemed oddly familiar.

He was tall, even for a wolf, he had a strong, almost athletic build for his age and he also looked like he could leave quite an impression on stage. And he was a canine on top of that. I almost felt like I was struck by lightning right now.

"Can I help you?"

POV Leon

All of this was so awkward, I already wished I hadn't come here after all. That maned wolf girl had almost hit me in the face with the door when she suddenly came rushing out of this room. She just walked off angrily, not even attempting to say sorry or checking if I was alright. I had stopped the door with my hands just before it hit me in the face, but I found her behavior rather rude nevertheless.

For a short moment I had even considered yelling something after her, but she didn´t seem like she would have cared for that either.

I decided to wait for another moment before entering the room as I figured something must have happened and it had a reason why she was storming out like that, but then when I noticed it was rather quiet in there right now,I went for it after all.

Then I immediately regretted that decision because all their eyes were on me now. My intention was to just silently sneak in and watch them for a little while, but now I was the center of attention all over sudden.

"Can I help you?" the old pelican asked me in a friendly way.

"N-no, I just wanted to take a look. Sports-club wasn't for me and-"

"Yeah, sure," he immediately told me, "…I mean, rehearsals are almost over for today, but you´re welcome to join us and watch if you want."

The pelican came a few steps closer now, for some reason examining me from top to bottom as well.

"Uh…yeah…" I told him, "…thank you."

It seemed like they all were taking a little break right now anyway, they all were sitting on the floor in a circle.

"Are you more interested in being on the stage or do you rather want to be backstage?"

"I…uh…" I stuttered, "I don't know…backstage I guess…"

I just shrugged my shoulders as they all kept staring at me. "…I guess I really just wanted to take a look first of all."

He nodded understandingly, still somewhat focused on me though. He seemed to be thinking about something that had to do with me, scratching the underside of his beak a little bit, I still just wanted to get out of this situation though.

"…we could use some help in the art department" one of the drama club members now threw in. She was a red panda girl, I believed I even had seen her in one of the hallways before.

The pelican heard what she said, but he didn't seem too convinced about that suggestion. Instead, he suddenly walked a few steps away from me and picked something up that was just lying there on the floor. It was a little stack of paper that somebody had hastily stapled together, and he reached it over to me when he came back.

It looked a bit like the scripts my dad had lying around at home from time to time. It didn't have as many staging instructions after each line, but it looked somewhat similar nevertheless.

Somebody had marked all their lines with a green marker, they all had the name Lucy in front of them.

The club members looked equally confused at me when the pelican suddenly called out a name that was not new to me.

"Kenji…" he called out to the lion from my class, who was sitting just two seats apart from me because we were sitting in alphabetical order in the classrooms. We already had established that we weren't the best of friends, and now I had to learn that he apparently had a lead role in the drama-club performance. His name was in the script as well.

"…let's try that scene one more time."

"What?" he asked with an annoyed little sigh. "With this guy? Really?"

I didn't like where this was going already, the pelican totally ignored it though.

He now turned to me once again quickly. "What's your name?"

"Leon…" I muttered lowly, watching as the lion was getting up from the floor with a slightly devilish grin.

"Leon is gonna read out Lucy´s part for now" he announced, turning towards me once more, "…no need to be shy, nobody starts out perfect."

That asshole of a lion now just raised an eyebrow at me, still with that stupid grin on his face.

"Oh yeah?" I thought to myself, "…still feeling so clever?"

This guy really annoyed me. Always being the first one to raise his hand when the teacher asks a question, always the one knowing everything. He now probably thought I wouldn't be able to keep up with him, but I wouldn't be pulling back without trying. I just didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

I took another look at the lines quickly, reading them one by one.

"Just start here" the old pelican pointed out for me, "Where it says: ´I don't get it…´"

I nodded shortly, taking another look around the room. I still felt a little uncomfortable, but now that I had a mission, it wasn't that bad anymore.

"I don't get it!" I began, leaving a short pause, almost feeling like my dad a little when he was rehearsing for his roles in the living room sometimes, "…why is the flame chasing after us?"

Kenji already stuttered a little bit now, not having expected me to actually do it.

"Y-You were supposed to be dead three days ago" he said, in my opinion sounding way less powerful and prominent already. He took another nervous look at his script, then he continued, "Water, wind, fire; every dead soul in the universe is trying to kill you!"

I luckily found my next line just in time. It said "(fearful)" in brackets next to it, so I lowered my voice a little.

"So…you´re saying there are others out there coming for me?"

He again needed a moment to get everything in order.

"Uh…that´s right!" he stuttered, becoming even more nervous now, "That´s what it means to def- defy your fate!"

"Alright!" The drama-club president interrupted us at this point, seemingly somewhat content with what we performed. "Try it again, Kenji raise your voice a little bit!"

He now stared at me even more dumbfounded as he turned out to be the one getting told to change something about the way he performed.

I began again, pretty much getting it right once again, Kenji tried to put a bit more power into his voice now but that made him even more nervous and it sounded even more unappealing. Almost a little aggressive even.

I was content with my situation already. I brought my point across to him and didn't have to prove myself anymore. It seemed like my father´s habits and talents had rubbed off on me a little bit after all.

They all kept staring at us in slight confusion, seemingly a little shocked I brought him out of his confidence just like that.

"Come on" I told him with a little smirk, "…you can't just say those lines as if you´re ashamed of them."

He didn't receive those words the way I hoped he would, sadly. Even though I hadn't meant it all that malicious, it seemed like I had hit a very sore spot and came across very provoking.

"Oh you think you´re so smart, rich kid?" he asked aggressively, "Just because daddy is a famous actor?!"

Now this was something that really pissed me off on the other hand. He had annoyed me with this before, this seemed to be his top argument for everything. I really wished he had never found out about that. I hated him for telling everyone about it already.

"This has nothing to do with my father" I told him loudly, "What the hell is your problem? I was trying to be helpful. Get over yourself."

"You're trying to mock me you asshole" he yelled, pushing me a little bit now.

It almost sounded like he was crying at this point, I didn't want the situation to escalate that much.

"Dude, calm down okay, I didn't mean it-"

At that very moment he punched me in the face already.

POV Sanu

This escalated quicker than any of us could react. After all these years of teaching students in this club, herbivores as well as carnivores, there still wasn't anything I could do about it when two large predators started a fight with each other.

We all just stared in shock when the lion out of the blue took a swing at the grey wolf and hit him right on the nose with it.

Leon stumbled backwards a few feet, holding his long snout that had started bleeding slightly but after he had found his stand again, he started growling a little bit.

"I'm not my father!" he yelled at him, quickly stepping closer towards the lion again, "What have I ever done to you?"

He aggressively pushed him a few steps backwards, the lion looked somewhat scared all over sudden.

"It's not my fault you sound like a little kitten when you speak!"

"Guys stop!" I yelled, trying to split them apart from the distance, but it was no use.

For that comment from the wolf Kenji tried to hit him in the face again, but this time Leon blocked it with his arms, pushed him away, ducked down while turning around his own axis and used one of his legs to swipe the lion right off his feet and make him land onto the floor very uncomfortably. I had been aware that the wolf had a quite powerful statue for his age, but I hadn't expected him to be this capable when it came to physical conflict as well.

The fight had come to an end with that pretty obviously. Kenji didn't even try to get up anymore, luckily. The wolf still angrily shook his head a little bit.

He took a few steps of distance from him now, then he looked towards me with a shameful expression.

"Sorry" he muttered, obviously regretting having provoked a fight like that.

The entire club was staring at them, predictably, and so was I.

I was glad nobody got seriously injured and Leon had himself under control again, at the same time, I was rather fascinated by this as well.

I had a feeling right from the start that the two of them didn't get along with each other very well, the way Kenji asked if I was serious had been a bit of a clue already, but that actually helped me discover a whole lot about the wolf´s potential on stage.

My first initial feeling had not let me down, what he displayed looked powerful and promising. It almost triggered somewhat of a déjà vu for me even. I wanted him in the actor´s team and I wanted him to play with Lucy, this could work if I played my cards right.

But first of all, I had to resolve this situation and do my duties as a teacher.

"Are you alright?" I asked Kenji, walking up towards him as he was still lying on the floor with his hands over his face.

It seemed like he was crying a little, his breathing was heavy and unsteady. I guessed he was just a little shocked though, he didn't look seriously injured.

I helped him sit up on the floor, it didn't seem to cause any issues.

Then I went over to the wolf who had joined the club just about ten minutes ago.

"I'm alright" he told me, still seeming a little angry about it though.

"Good" I sighed, displaying slight relief. Then I took a look around the room, searching for the attention of all the other students as well.

"Although you should never lose your temper like that" I began, "…and although he just showed up here, not having rehearsed a single minute with us before…"

I turned towards the lion with that, "He's got a point."

They all stared at me now dumbfoundedly. That seemed to be quite a statement for them, but in reality, it was just as clear as the light of day.

"W-what?"

"You have to own those lines when you're on stage. Nobody is going to believe you when you're saying them as if you´re ashamed of them."

I left that standing in the room for another moment.

"…that´s a very important thing to know, and apparently Leon has heard that before."

The wolf nodded slowly, not wanting to make too big of a deal about it though.

"I want you two to say sorry to each other" I now announced, "And I want you two to get along, as you´ll be working with each other for quite a while."

"What?!" they both asked in disbelief and almost in perfect unison.

"I…" Leon stuttered, "I'd better go, I don't want to cause any more trouble. I´m sorry about that."

I almost couldn't believe what I´ve just heard.

"You're talented" I told him just as dryly as it was obvious, "…are you sure you want to throw away a chance like that?"

The rest of the club just stared with big eyes when I said that. I knew they all had to go through an auditioning process to get selected to play a role here, and it seemed a little unfair. I wanted him as an actor just like that, but with a performance like that he would have gotten a lead role from me without a second thought anyway. They all had witnessed how easy that just had been for him.

He still seemed very hesitant about it though. His father being an actor seemed to give him quite a bit of anxiety about it. I figured that probably was a reason why he showed up here as well, because his parents wanted him to. Apparently, I wasn't alone thinking like that.

"What is the matter with your father?" Hazel the gazelle wanted to know, apparently not being too afraid of the wolf, contrary to most other herbivores from the club.

He was a little hesitant about answering that question, it seemed like he really didn't like talking about it here.

"There is nothing wrong with him," he sighed, "I just don't like bragging with his name."

It almost struck me like lightning all of a sudden. I just realized how long ago that actually had been and why he probably looked so familiar. From what I remembered he had a really similar statue to him, and since he had a kid with her just before he graduated, it could really be possible.

This prospect just got me so excited it literally had me speechless right now.

"…what's his name?" Hazel continued asking, "I watch a lot of movies and series, maybe I´ve heard of him before."

"L-Legoshi" I said in pure fascination, not at all able to keep it in and unfortunately loud enough so everybody heard it.

They all stared with big eyes and open mouths now, Leon just nodded with a little sigh. They've all heard of him of course, he still was very successful in film and TV to this day, but I wasn't even sure if any of them knew he started out here at this school, right here in this rehearsal room.

"What, really!?" Hazel asked, now very excited after he had confirmed what I said. "He´s one of my favorite actors ever! I've seen his latest movie too, he´s-"

"Yeah, thank you…" Leon interrupted her while raising a hand, "I'm still not him though."

Leon now went towards Kenji and offered him a hand to help him up. There still was a little bit of blood dripping from his nose, but that didn't seem to be his biggest issue right now.

The lion even reached out for his hand, accepting his peace-offering as it seemed like.

The wolf pulled him back up onto his feet and nodded with a very neutral smirk.

"I'm sorry I called you a kitten."

Kenji nodded slowly. "…sorry for punching you."

Leon appeared to have accepted his apology as well and now nodded towards me once again, then he turned towards the exit and went on his way. "Sorry for the trouble. Best of luck."

"Wait!" I yelled after him, "Leon, are you not interested in-"

But before I could finish my sentence, he had already closed the door behind him. For a moment I thought about chasing after him, but then I decided to just wait it out for now. I had a feeling he would come back on his own sooner or later. I figured Legoshi wouldn't have wanted him to go to this school for no reason.

"How did you know it was Legoshi?" Hazel now asked me in slight confusion, and it seemed like she wasn´t the only one interested in that answer.

"Well…" I sighed, taking a seat on the floor next to them, "Believe it or not, his acting-career started right here in this room, and it was pretty much 17 years ago."

POV Leon

When I went down the hallway, I for some weird reason didn't feel the need to rush home anymore. I took a look at some of the pictures that were hanging on the walls here and there, reading some of the captions and the years they were taken at.

The ones from the most recent years were almost exclusively "The grim reaper", but on one of the walls there were bigger- and a lot more pictures of stage-builds very differently. They were the ones my parents had been talking about ever since, and it didn't take long for me to find them both in almost all of those pictures. They looked a lot younger than they did right now, obviously, but it was undoubtedly them. I also rather quickly found my dad´s friends Aoba and Kai amongst the drama-club members from back then, and I found it fascinating how much younger they all looked.

Then I suddenly heard footsteps coming closer towards me. They came to a halt right beside me and whoever it was had stopped to look at those pictures as well.

I turned towards her and recognized the maned wolf girl who had almost run me down earlier. She seemed to have calmed down a little bit by now, as she was now silent- and peacefully stood beside and looked at the pictures with me.

"I wish we could do something as cool as them" she stated lowly, "Every year they want us to play the same boring piece."

"Why did you rush out earlier?"

She just raised an eyebrow to that question, apparently being slightly offended about me asking it that bluntly.

"I´m sorry I almost broke your nose earlier, okay?" she said in a slightly overactive way, "I´m glad you didn´t have to be hospitalized after that!"

At first, I thought about replying something equally dumb and prude to that bullshit, but then she suddenly folded her hands before her face.

"Shit…" she whispered, "…you are bleeding!"

I just realized it myself, but she was right. I was bleeding. I had almost forgotten about that punch from Kenji.

"I'm gonna survive it" I muttered, "Just a sorry would have been nice."

"Sorry bout that," she said lowly.

I nodded.

"Are you Lucy?" I then asked her.

"Yeah, how do you know that?" she wondered.

"The pelican just made me read out your lines" I explained with a shrug, "…he asked me to join the club as an actor."

"He did what?!" she almost yelled out now, the loudness of her voice making my ears ring a little bit.

"Yeah, whatever" I said, "Unclench a little bit. I´m not gonna join anyway, okay?"

"Sanu wanted you to join just from reading out my lines?" she asked, still in pure disbelief about it.

I just shrugged my shoulders again, focusing on another picture on the wall.

It was one with the caption "Volpone and Moska", and it showed my dad and his friend Aoba side by side hanging on a crossbar on the stage, shirtless and doing pull-ups as it looked like.

The girl beside me still tried to process the information she just received, but I didn't feel like extending our conversation a whole lot further. It felt like everything I said could make her lose her shit once again, and I had enough trouble for one day already.

"I can't believe this guy really started out in this drama club" she then changed the topic rather unexpectedly, pointing at my dad in the picture I was just looking at, "He's like legit famous now."

I couldn´t hide a little smirk about that comment, even though I´ve heard that about a thousand times before.

"Should be one more reason not to quit rehearsals, right?" I asked dryly.

"You are talking" she sighed sarcastically.

"What?" I asked with a confused little chuckle.

"You're not even trying it!" she said, "Stop talking to me like you know anything about acting!"

With a downwards motion of my hands I tried to make her speak a little bit lower once again. I didn't understand why she continued talking to me with that volume.

"Maybe I do" I told her dryly, "For example I know that you don't have to yell all the time. You´re standing right besides me, I can hear you just fine."

"Oh yeah" she asked angrily, "Can you hear that as well? Fuck y-"

Her voice now quickly died down as the door to the rehearsal room suddenly opened behind us. It seemed like their session was over for today and they were on their way home as well now.

I found it a little weird to be standing around here with her like that after everything that just had happened, but now it was too late to change that anyway. I had missed the adequate moment to have left.

She now acted like she hasn't even noticed me before, pretending like she wanted to get on her way now anyway. She attempted to follow them after they all had passed us, but then she got stopped by another voice once again. It was the old pelican who was leading the drama-club, and he appeared to be wanting another word with her.

"Lucy" he called her out.

She turned around with a slightly annoyed gaze and waited for him to come a little closer towards us.

"I'm sorry I left again" she immediately apologized, "I'll try to focus better next time."

"I would highly appreciate that" he told her with a surprisingly contented nod, considering how chaotic this club seemed to be at the moment, "We all have little flaws, but we can still deliver a good show if we give it our all."

"Yes sir" she agreed.

Then he turned towards me with a little smile.

"Leon, good to see you´re still here…" he said, "…could I somehow convince you of joining me for a short talk in my office, please?"

I could literally feel Lucy staring at me in that moment, I didn't even have to look at her.

That question coming up from him was just too predictable though, but it was my fault being in that situation right now, I could easily have prevented it if I had left this hallway in time.

Although I had been kinda dead set against joining this club before, now that I had gotten to know this short tempered and also kinda cocky maned wolf girl, I was somewhat curious now how she would react. And now that I considered once again, I also found one more obvious benefit to it: My parents would finally shut up about it.

"I guess after all this trouble I have caused…" I sighed with a little nod.

"Is he gonna replace me in the actors team?" Lucy straight up asked him now, apparently really being a little afraid of that still.

His gaze now went from her to me and then back to her again in slight surprise. Then he calmly shook his head. "Don't worry, you´ve been amongst the most capable actors in the auditions, I´m not just gonna kick you off the stage" he assured her, "…you just have to work on keeping your emotions in check, okay?"

She nodded slowly.

"Come" he now told me, putting one of his hands on my shoulders, "I promise this won't take too long."

I flashed her one last little smirk, then I followed the pelican down the hallway. I somewhat enjoyed that dumb look on her face.

POV Sanu

"I guess you've spotted him already?" I asked him with a curious little smile.

"Sorry?"

"Your father" I clarified, "…since he's all over the hallway basically."

"Oh…" he said with a little nod, "…yeah."

"I have to admit" I chuckled, "I was a little shocked it took me that long to realize. But also, it had been over sixteen years in the meanwhile."

He just shrugged his shoulders about it again, obviously not being able to relate to all those precious memories I had about this. How could he relate, he hadn't even been born yet.

"I guess you're somewhat familiar with the story?" I asked him nevertheless, assuming his parents must have told him about it at some point.

"Yes," he said dryly, "All of it."

"I wanted to do Romeo and Juliet" I began explaining, "Juno was gonna be Juliet, and we-"

"-needed another wolf to play Romeo" he finished the sentence for me. "You also played Volpone, The Odyssey, The servant of two masters and Hamlet."

"Well…" I chuckled, "It seems like you know well about the history of our club."

"Yes."

"But did you also know that Legoshi was the Beastar this city so badly needed? That he managed to make even the herbivores like him? That he was the most selfless, grounded and also honest person I`ve ever met? Or that he had a fight with a criminal clan right on our stage while we were performing the premiere of one of our shows?"

Some of that seemed to be new to him, as he now didn´t interrupt me here anymore. He still looked at me like he was wondering why I told him all this though.

"…he also had a rivalry with another carnivore from the club, quite similar to what Kenji and you displayed today…"

"Ah."

"…his name was Bill, and they started out hating each other. Your dad found him annoying because he was loud and cocky; he was annoyed by your dad because he was always holding back so much. Until Legoshi performed the role of Romeo so well that he got the next lead role as well, although I had promised it to Bill. The tiger turned absolutely crazy about it, tried to take revenge on your dad, but everything just backfired at him. Legoshi had enough of it eventually and shut him up for good."

"What did he do?" he faked his interest in my story. I continued nevertheless.

I couldn't help but grin a little right now. "Let's say Bill's girlfriend had gotten a little tired of his behavior as well and showed the same interest in your father as many other girls did at the time."

"What?!" he chuckled in slight disbelief, "My dad was fooling around with another guy's girlfriend? No way."

I knew this would change things a bit. He couldn't ignore and act over a piece of information like that.

"Oh yeah?" I asked in amusement, "Maybe you should ask him about the pool on the roof someday."

He seemed a little speechless right now, and that was just what I wanted to reach.

"Anyway…" I continued, "…he was famous and popular at the school ever since he first stepped on the stage. The principal enjoyed the performance so much, he asked the Mayor of the city if the Cherryton drama-club was allowed to perform at the local city-theatre."

He nodded, clearly having heard about this part before.

"…what I'm trying to say is…" I told him, looking him right in the eyes, "…this place could potentially be a ticket to success later."

"I don't think I'm as good as my dad."

"But earlier it looked like you´ve been on a stage before" I commented in slight wonderment, "You showed no fear and no hesitation."

He couldn't deny I had a point about that.

"…I had some little side roles here and there. Sometimes my dad takes me to the set when they need background actors. Comes in handy when I need some cash."

I nodded understandingly. It was no wonder Legoshi didn't just let him live in luxury and gave him all the money he wanted, I guessed he wanted his son to be just as grounded as he had remained for all these years. It was important to learn the value of money, even for the kids of famous movie stars.

"That explains your confidence" I told him to pick up the topic once again, "I guess Kenji didn't expect that either."

He just shrugged his shoulders about that. That rivalry didn't seem to be all that important for him after all.

"Wanna know what happened between your dad and the tiger I mentioned?"

"They got suspended?"

"No" I shook my head, "Legoshi apologized to him and asked him to come back to the drama-club again. He never wanted to fight with him in the first place, he just didn't have a choice. But when Bill finally accepted his position and who he was, he apologized for his behavior as well and looked up to him just like all the others did."

"He never liked to brag about it" he mentioned with another shrug of his shoulders, "In public he´s just acting like any other guy. Sometimes we´re stuck in restaurants for minutes because everybody wants an autograph, but he's just too nice to say no."

"But that's the art about it, Leon" I told him, "Stay humble about yourself but show them what you got when the time and the place are right."

He shrugged his shoulders with a big sigh now.

"But when is that time? The entire school hates me. They all think I´m this asshole daddy-is-a-super-star rich-kid."

Now the shoe finally seemed to drop. I knew there was a reason for his hesitation. His life wasn't all that perfect either, he just had a hard time expressing that.

"Your dad wasn't very popular either before he went for Romeo and Juliet. But then he stepped out of the shadows, showed everybody who he was and what he had to offer, being shirtless for the death-scene, showing everyone the battle-scars on his back, kissing the most popular girl of the entire year…"

He still just stared at me with a mixture of indifference and hesitation.

"The time is right now and the place is right here" I told him with a big gesture of my hands, "And you convinced me of your potential without even auditioning properly."

POV Leon

"Here and now you say?"

I asked myself, seriously finding myself considering it in the meanwhile.

It wasn't so much about following the steps of my dad but about becoming more popular in general. I didn't like being excluded, I would just blatantly lie if I tried to convince anybody of that. I couldn't even get along with the guys from my dorm, just two nights was all it took and I started sleeping at home again.

Also, I kinda wanted to get closer to Lucy for some reason, there was something interesting about her, even if she was a bit of a spitfire.

I examined the pelican once again. I couldn't quite tell how much was true of the stuff he told me, I figured he had over-exaggerated quite a few facts about my dad a little. He was a lot of things, but I just couldn't imagine him screwing the girlfriend of another guy from his club.

He also wasn't involved in any clan-business, I was pretty sure he would have told me about that at some point. But the pictures in the hallway didn't lie. That was my dad and it matched everything they ever told me about their time at this school. It couldn´t all have been a fairytale.

"Okay" I told him with a little nod, "I'll…try to fit in."

I could tell he was somewhat excited about that decision of mine, he wasn't trying to hide it.

"Very well" he said contentedly, "Then I´ll see you Monday afternoon. Rehearsals start at 3PM."

I nodded understandingly, then I grabbed my backpack and got off the chair.

He stood up as well and opened the door for me.

"Thank you, sir."

"Enjoy your weekend, Leon." he said with a warm contented smirk, "Take it as the calm before the storm."

Big thanks to RedLiteAlexi who helped me with corrections and the general inspiration to do this.

There will be more if you all enjoy this as well.

Have a nice Christmas!

~furr