"I'm saying this cause I'm worried. We've been on the case for only two days before it was dropped without a satisfying reason. Orders from the higher chain told us off. I could tell not many officers are happy right now and there's a lot of rumours spreading, dangerous ones."
"I won't leave my friends. I know you are worried, but I can't just pack and leave. I don't want to sign for another academy. Not gonna happen."
"I understand, but I couldn't really keep this away from your mother. She will try to contact you and make your mind about it. Do you still have the suitcase?"
"...yeah, I do."
"Then you should be fine, at least until I can snoop in some details from the archive. The science department was working on identifying the bite marks from the... well, whatever was left. What I could get my hands on is that it belonged to a rather tall and powerful predator. Something around two meters at best. So we can narrow the suspect list to very few, but I don't really have the info about the students currently at Cherryton. The school's website has been off ever since the accident."
"I can get a list from the office or access the network from the inside. It should be simple."
"Simple if no one sees you. Which means only during night, and that is out of question."
"Fine, anything else?"
"...Durham, why would you insist so much on staying? I understand you have friends, but I wasn't expecting this much resistance from you."
"I... found someone."
A momentary pause followed these words. The coyote heard the breathing coming from the other side of the line picking up on a sharp intake for a second.
Durham's father, who was currently at the Police station, had called his son minutes earlier to warn him about the precarious situation the school was put into. For whatever reason the investigation about the murder of Tem had been dropped. This caused several raises of eyebrows back at the station, many officers were seriously unhappy with the event and the idea of leaving a possible predator inside a school get away with it. His father, along close friends of his, were not letting this one go and decided to keep working on the case under secrecy.
Durham was far from pleased that hearing the Chief of the station had been the one to declare the case closed. A feeling that his father shared and sparked a huge amount of distrust in other officers.
"S-Someone? You mean... a soulmate?" Not exactly how Durham would've liked to describe, but truth nonetheless.
"Yeah, I... I like her a lot. I can just abandon her! I would never forgive myself."
"I see... but I don't think that she would be in immediate danger despite-
"She's a zebra."
Another paused followed, Durham would've bet his entire student 'career' that his dad was in shocked silence.
"Son, are you sure about her?"
"I love her. I'm sure."
"Oh... wow, I... am happy that you've found someone, and I understand why you're so adamant about not leaving. Well, in that case... I think you need to carry the thing we talked about."
Durham, despite being on the phone, made a face at the proposal
"Do I have to? I rather not have that thing with me while I'm walking around."
"If you want to protect you, your friends and your girl, you have to. It's the only way since we are dealing with a large and strong animal apparently. Don't take risks when you have tools to prevent it."
"Right, I will do that then, also... why you send me two? What's the other one for?"
Another pause. Durham was starting to hate these hesitations coming from his father.
"You decide what to do with it. Until soon, take care Durham."
"Yeah, you too Akagi."
A chuckle was the last thing the coyote heard before the line went dead. He closed the call and turned off the screen. His eyes wandered across the empty dorm. All his roommates were currently away to different classes, but since Durham was on a free period he decided to go back to the dorm to catch up on some homework. His roommates being all away at the same time was a really rare occasion, one which he decided to use on his favor.
Not wasting any time he moved the blankets and pulled the bed out, revealing a secret storage underneath. Plainly visible inside the small perpendicular space was a rather aged suitcase. The coyote pulled it out carefully, the item had some weight to it despite it's size. Durham slowly worked the lock combination, his mind took some time to remember the correct numbers. With a satisfying click he opened the case to reveal the content inside.
"Fuck me. Nine millimetres? I was expecting something less up to date."
Durham carefully removed the gun from the customized holster. The dark material shined under the light, reminding Durham of the first time he held a gun. His father introduced guns to him under heavy supervision, saying the sooner he understood the power this item possessed the more he would respect it. His father also said that a gun was never to be his first choice during any situation of danger, yet it was better have it than regret it. Now those words were going to haunt him during the rest of his stay at this academy.
The customized holster was designed for his backside apparently, which would provide easy access and better concealment than a leg or hip holster. There was another gun underneath the first one he sacked, which also had a few extra clips of ammunition.
"Gez, the hell I need this much? Is he expecting me to be a terrible shooter or what?" The coyote wondered aloud, looking confused at the implications of the extra ammunition. He learned to shoot with his father and gathered few years of practice under his belt. His mother never knew of this of course, both of them would describe their outgoings as simply 'father and son activities.' Durham was assured he has decent aim according to his father.
Durham removed his shirt and slowly accommodated the holster around his chest and back. The belts around him felt a bit weird, he tested the safety with a satisfying click then placed the gun back into the holster, the extra weight felt very noticeable and rather awkward. Once the shirt was back he decided to test his outline on a nearby mirror. It was hard to tell if there was any extra volume from all the angles he tried. Feeling satisfied with the concealment tests Durham went back to his bunker, closed the suitcase and placed it back inside the storage, the bed and blankets were soon back into place.
"Hi Durham!"
The coyote nearly jumped all the way to the roof. He turned around to meet Jack standing at the door, looking confused at his strange reaction.
"Gez, can't you knock or something?" Durham asked crossly. The Labrador smiled sheepishly in response.
"Sorry, I had to pass by to get a book I forgot. What were you doing?"
"Eh, if you really want to know, I was about to leave for next class. Feeling bored in here all by myself."
Lying to Jack never felt so awful as it did in this particular moment. Durham wished he could trust Jack as much the Labrador trusted Legosi.
Speaking of lies, Durham was wondering what Ellen had been hiding from him. Her attitude towards him has been mostly positive, which he was thankful considering the amount of times he got beaten up decreased significantly. Yet, every time he asked about other club members the zebra just pretended to ignore his questions and look elsewhere. He wasn't sure what was up with that.
"If you say so. Say, how are you doing with Ellen? I haven't heard about her in awhile." Jack asked as he kept searching into his bunker for the missing book. "You asked her out already?"
"Eh, not really?" Durham replied unsure. He was surprised that Jack expected him to go to that step so quickly. "I mean. Summer Festival perhaps. Also my birthday is around that time. We might get somewhere after all."
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about your birthday! Will you want to spend the day with your family?" The canine asked expectantly, looking relieved that he finally found the missing book. "I know you haven't seen them for quite some time."
"That's... not a bad idea. I guess I would if it wasn't for Ellen. I really wanna be with her instead. I just don't have much in mind on what to do that specific day. Any suggestions?"
"Well, you could try the movies or some amusement park. Not that there's any in the town right now. You could try asking Els about what Ellen likes to do on her free time though. I really don't have much to offer."
"That's alright, thanks Jack. Hey, huh, about Shiira..."
Jack's smile faded for a moment, Durham couldn't help but feel guilty for Jack's struggles on his feelings towards the cheetah. The coyote wished he knew a way to work it out, but Tao wasn't really a bad guy despite being awfully silly at times. He just hoped that Shiira wasn't really serious about her current relationship.
Speaking of her, the cheetah had been on overwork ever since Louis incident and was starting to show signs of stress at each mess up the other members kept making. She tried her best to keep everyone in line but the absence of Louis caused few members to go lax in their respective tasks. Shiira was scary but she didn't have the same intimidating imposition that Louis often caused. Not to mention that Louis actually has enough authority to kick whoever it pleased from the club.
Legosi suffered the unfortunate fate of replacing one of the actors from the play. Bill would be the one playing Adler and the gray wolf was the only one who fitted in regards to physical appearance to replace the character Bill was acting as previously. Legosi had, for the first time Durham could actually remember, looked absolutely nervous. The impassive look was now mostly replaced by anxiety and the coyote could understand his concerns. Legosi was always working at backstage, being the one responsible to illuminate every performance. One that was used working in the shadows now would be the one under the spotlight. It was a scary sudden change, no matter who you were.
Durham, much to the absolute confusion of Louis, visited the deer occasionally. His recovery was speeding up fairly well, but it would still take a couple more weeks until he was proper to set both feet on the ground. His talks with the deer had been short, Louis wasn't very keen on talking with him despite the coyote being one of the very few that would check on his whereabouts.
Surprisingly Juno had been the other one to attend to where Louis was staying on recovery. In one occasion both her and Durham met when checking on the deer. The coyote couldn't help but be in awe at how much of a good heart the girl has. She cared despite the deer's poor attitude, even if he insulted her the other day. Louis always looked away whenever Juno tried to talk with him. Durham was almost assured that the deer was embarrassed by her presence and probably regretted his mistreat of her.
The memory of Juno gave Durham an interesting idea.
"Say, Jack. How often you talk with Juno?" He asked while accompanying his roommate outside. The Labrador blinked at the sudden change of subject, his mind raced to find a satisfactory response.
"Huh, not much. I mean, Juno is a really nice girl, I actually enjoy talking with her. She's just... I don't know. Too positive."
Durham stumbled for a second, his eyes widening at the absurd of what he just heard.
"What?! Jack, are you for real?You?! Of all people that I known, you're the one I never expected to hear that kind of excuse." The coyote accused with a smile, the notion of Jack finding someone else to be too chipper for his likening was just too ironic. The labrador shrugged.
"I can't help it, she is really nice. I just don't see her that way you might think. I guess being friends with Legosi for so long made me appreciate people that are far different from me."
The coyote had no answer for that at all. Jack spoke honest and truthful words and there was no rebuttal to it.
"If you say so. I just worry about that girl. She's so naive at times, but still wishes to help whenever she can. Sometimes I wonder why she tries so hard. Is she still looking for Legosi wherever she goes?" Jack laughed heartily at that.
"Yep, Legosi has grown an habit of hiding each time he sees her around. Honestly I wished he would stop doing that. I get he's afraid of a relationship perhaps, but the way he's going at it is going to give Juno the wrong idea. I don't want to see her hurt about it either." The labrador sighed heavily. "If only Legosi would understand how difficult is to find someone like that. Honestly Juno complements his personality very well. He's quiet and mostly to himself, always thinking about something. Juno is very communicative and always looking outwards to others, she doesn't mind sharing her mindset. She's joyful while Legosi is rather gloomy. Just don't tell him I said that. I worry about him a ton, I always imagined that a girl in his life would help him lift a smile more often, but he avoids her like she's some disease. Not gonna lie, I am a bit disappointed."
"Say, Jack... " Started Durham slowly. "You don't think he might not be into girls?"
Jack's mouth twitched for a moment, it looked like the idea wasn't very in the realm of possibilities for him.
"No, I've known him for years. I'm pretty sure I would've noticed any sign. He's constantly in a room full of dudes, you know that. He never displayed anything different from the usual. I just... don't know what's going on." Jack sounded rather upset he couldn't figure his friend out. If something bothered Jack was the event of being unable to help his best friend. Durham glanced wearily at some students passing by before resuming their conversation. Eavesdropping was a common thing in the campus.
"So we can work with other two theories. Either he's awfully shy about it or..."
"Or what?"
"He might be interested on an Herbivore."
Jack actually stopped walking this time. Turning around to face the coyote with a rather agitated expression.
"W-what?! But... Legosi wouldn't dare to ri-
Durham raised an eyebrow. The other canine clearly had stopped himself from saying something very revealing, Durham was starting to think Jack might know way more about Legosi than he was letting on. Jack frowned, looking upset with himself before addressing his roommate again.
"Look, it might be possible, I just don't think Legosi would dare to risk an Herbivore's safety for the sake of a feeling."
"Are you calling me irresponsible then? I'm a Carnivore and I'm in love with an Herbivore after all." Durham quipped, not liking Jack's excuse one bit.
"What?No! No, no, no. I don't mean it that way Durham! Sorry. I... it's hard to explain, but..."
"You don't have to if you can't. Something tells me you know something no one else should?" The coyote guessed. His eyes narrowing at the other canine, daring him to try talking his way out of it. Jack visibly winced.
"Yeah, I do. I promised Legosi I wouldn't ever talk about it again or to anyone. It happened so long ago though. I expected him to have overcome that by this time."
Durham's only response was a silent nod. Their resumed their walking immediately, reaching the main hallway where each would move towards their own respective classes.
"I guess I see you later then. Hopefully we can get some free time before evening. I kinda wanna talk with the girls again." Durham said thoughtfully, imagining what kind of questions he needed to direct towards Els to get something right in his attempts to provide Ellen with a good time. Jack laughed.
"Yeah, sure. Keep going like that and you might take Collot's spot as the ladies man."
"Ha! Fat chance I would!" Was Durham's last reply before turning around to enter his Biology class. What he did not expect was nearly shoving his muzzle into Ellen's chest.
"Ahgn! Ellen! What the...?" Durham asked while quickly jumping back to avoid the collision. She regarded him with surprise, as if she wasn't expecting to see him right there. "I almost ran into you! Why you're standing at the door?"
"Oh, I was just talking with Els. We've been discussing some late details about the second part of the play this weekend. Will you be coming to watch?" She asked eagerly. He dared not to say otherwise to that adorable face of hers.
"Of course. Why would I miss the chance of seeing you and Bill holding hands?" He replied with a smirk. Ellen rolled her eyes at his response.
"Why I'm not surprised? Why can't you just admit you're jealous?" Durham's snort made her frown. "And what's so funny?"
"Me?Jealous? Please, that poor tiger will need CPR once you're done dragging him around the stage. He may look tough but, I wouldn't be surprised if he's sweating buckets about having to perform as the main character."
Ellen shook her head while following him back to their seats for class to start. There was a few Herbivores nearby that were giving Durham weary looks while glowering at Ellen aswell. The coyote voice this event to the zebra.
"Don't mind them. They're just upset I no longer share the same spot as they do. Like I care, they never say anything even remotely interesting."
"Oh, doesn't that mean you see me as interesting?" The coyote immediately asked. Ellen smiled sideways.
"Well, you're not dull as a brick wall, so that's something I guess."
"Ouch, my feelings Stripes."
"What feelings? I beat you so many times I was starting to think you were immune or something."
"That's cause you punch like a girl."
Now that punch he received hurt a lot. He winced as he grabbed his shoulder that felt like it was on fire.
"Fuck, sorry. You didn't have to exaggerate, it's just a joke Ellen."
Ellen regarded him with a bit of apprehension, certainly he deserved the punch but she had to admit she did overdue for no real good reason. She watched as the coyote struggled to move the afflicted arm to grab his pen. Guilt immediately burned in her chest, she tried to assure herself it was justified, but seeing Durham hurting wasn't even remotely close to what she could dignify as proper.
She placed a hand over his, grabbing gently while looking at him with the best apologetic face she could think of.
"You're right. I should be such a poor sports like that. Fuck, I need to get out of this place. Being stuck in the campus is driving me crazy."
"Sounds like an issue alright. Why don't you go out?"
"Bah! These dumb rules about Herbivores going out late at night due this or that. Like it makes any difference." She complained quietly, the teacher had been looking their way more than once.
Durham immediately saw an opportunity in this, he would've chastised her for deeming those safety measures foolish, Tem had been murdered during night time after all. Yet, he saw the opening for what he wanted to accomplish and took it without any doubt.
"Say, why we don't go out someday?" He suggested while trying to mask his nervousness. Ellen regarded him with an even stare.
"You can't be serious. Someone would know if I went out. I don't need to get into problems with school administration."
"Well, I may have an idea to go around that. Just wait until we're done with this second part of the play. I'm sure it will go just fine anyway."