It was a muggy night in the city. At this time, more reasonable folk would be in bed. However, desperation and reasonability are often mutually exclusive. This is especially true for a hungry carnivore. A male panther sat on the ground next to a dumpster in the middle of an alleyway. The somewhat garbage-scented alley was filled with insufferably stagnant air.
The panther's ears swiveled around as he hoped to pick up the sound of approaching footsteps, the sound of prey. His stomach growled. He hadn't had meat in such a long time, and that tofu imitation crap wasn't doing it for him. He needed real meat. And not just some corpse off the black market. He wants the kind where the blood is still warm and they try to fight back.
His ears twitched as he heard footsteps. At last! He glanced around the dumpster at his prey. His jaw dropped when he saw his next kill. A rabbit! An absolutely massive rabbit! The tallest he's ever seen. Nearly his height at the very least. Wandering the streets alone, his eyes completely focused on his cell phone. No witnesses, night time, completely distracted prey, the perfect kill! Drool dripped out of the panther's mouth as he imagined himself masticating upon the flesh of this extra-large lapine.
The rabbit was young, probably in his twenties, and roughly in the hundred seventy to hundred eighty centimeters range in terms of height, which made him absolutely colossal for his species. His body looked lean and was mostly grey with a cream color running from his face downwards. He was dressed bizarrely, though. He was wearing a black overcoat despite it being summer, a grey tank top, black boots, and dark blue jeans. The most mysterious thing about him was that he wore black gloves. He looked absolutely ridiculous. Not that it mattered. An herbivore's fashion choices don't affect the quality of their meat.
The panther got into position and prepared to pounce on the unsuspecting herbivore. Suddenly, his target stopped moving and started sniffing the air. The feline reflexively hid behind the dumpster again. However, he felt absurd as he realized that rabbits don't have a sense of smell sensitive enough to sniff him out.
The predator peeked around the dumpster to see the rabbit still standing there, sniffing the air. Suddenly, the rabbit stopped and made a cocky smirk. "You can come out now, kitty." He turned his head towards the panther. "I won't bite. Promise."
The panther's fur bristled as he felt goosebumps all over his body. How did he know? Could he smell him after all? He was detected, that's what's important. He must act now or possibly lose his prey. The panther crawled out from behind the dumpster on all fours and positioned himself to pounce. The lapine chuckled "You sure look hungry. What's for dinner, pussycat?"
The feline let out a roar as he jumped at the rabbit, who just stood there with a grin on his face. The panther reached out his arms with claws extended, but before his hands could tear into his quarry's flesh, the rabbit dodged. Unable to change direction in midair, the panther landed face-first on the pavement of the road.
The panther flipped onto his back and watched in annoyance as the lapine proceeded to very loudly laugh at his pain. "Ahahahaha! You dumb bastard! Y-you should see your face! Hahahaha!"
The enraged feline got back on his feet. Not wanting to pounce again, he instead decided to strangle the little prick, so he lunged at him with arms outstretched. The rabbit smirked. Before the panther could lay a finger on his prey he suddenly felt someone grab both of his arms and prevent him from advancing.
The panther gazed in disbelief to see the arrogant rabbit was the one holding his arms, grinning the entire time. The panther tried to wrench his arms away from the bizarrely strong herbivore, but no matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't escape the vise-like grip of the rabbit.
The lapine laughed at him again and pulled on the feline's arms. Suddenly, the panther could no longer feel the ground under his feet and watched helplessly as he flew through the air.
CRUNCH!
The panther yelped in pain as he smashed into a wall, the dust from the broken bricks crumbling onto him. He rolled onto the ground and pushed himself up. His pained back protested, but he still had to get back on his feet. The panther didn't know why this guy was so strong, but he needed to be punished.
The panther rushed the rabbit again, this time swinging his claws rapidly. The lapine dodged, but after a while, it was clear he was having trouble keeping up. Finally, the panther could feel the tip of his claws drag along something.
A shallow cut appeared on the rabbit's left cheek, and a tiny drop of blood dripped down his face. "Ah!" The rabbit kicked the panther in the chest, knocking him to the ground. The young lapine touched the scratch with his hand and wiped the blood onto his glove. He chuckled as he shot the panther a malicious grin.
"Aha. Okay, then. Gotcha. Well, you've shown me yours; I guess it's only fair that I show you mine." The rabbit raised his hands and pulled off his black gloves. The panther sat up, but recoiled and gasped in shock as he saw the "rabbit's" hands. At the tip of every finger was a long, sharp, menacing claw. The strange creature wiggled his fingers, showing them off to the frightened panther. Next, he removed his coat, revealing a long tail that didn't belong on a rabbit and lean yet unnaturally muscular arms.
The panther stood up, ready to attack, but this time the rabbit charged first. The feline tried to dodge, but he wasn't nearly fast enough and found himself with three bleeding cuts on his own face as the creature's claws dug into his skin. He hissed in pain as his attempts to dodge continued to fail and his face started to look more and more like a cutting board.
Finally, the unidentifiable beast shoved the panther over to the nearest wall, grabbed him by the shirt, and started pounding him into the wall again and again. The creature was relentless in repeatedly bashing his opponent. If one were to count, he probably smashed him into the wall at least twelve times. The feline went limp, his limbs too injured to even move them. The rabbit released his shirt and the panther fell to the ground, rolling onto his back.
The rabbit stomped on his chest, causing him to grunt in pain. The strange beast leaned over him with a grin on his face. "I should knock out those teeth of yours. Maybe it'll keep you from trying to eat someone else."
The panther trembled in fear as he looked up at the strange creature. "W-what the hell are you?!"
The creature chuckled. "I'm half-rabbit, half-"
He was suddenly interrupted by some kind of heavy metal song playing out of something in his coat which was on the ground. He sighed and took his foot off the panther, walking over to his coat. He put it back on and reached into his pocket, pulling out a cell phone in a black case with a red claw mark painted on it.
He walked back over to the incapacitated feline and shoved his boot in the unfortunate beast's mouth. The panther gagged as his tongue was assailed by a buffet of all the filth the city streets had to offer. The rabbit-like creature pointed at him. "If you bite me, I'm gonna knock out your teeth for real." He held the phone to his head. "Hey, Mom."
The panther groaned in pain and disgust. The rabbit glared at him, pressed a finger to his lips, then pulled the finger across his neck menacingly before turning his attention back to his call.
"Who? Oh, that was just some drunk crawlin' around in an alleyway." The rabbit chuckled. "Yeah, I know right?" He gave the panther a condescending smirk. "Some people just don't know how to control themselves, huh?"
He took his eyes off the panther. "Uh-huh. Yeah, Dad already told me... Wait, what?" Suddenly, the rabbit looked incredibly nervous. "A g-gift?"
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a wallet, examining the contents and gulping before mouthing several curse words. Just then, he looked down at the panther and a spark of inspiration flickered in his eyes. He grinned maliciously and the panther's eyes widened when he realized what the rabbit was going to do and started vigorously shaking his head.
"Just a minute, Mom. I gotta put you on hold."
He pressed a button on the phone and shoved it in his pocket before removing his boot from the panther's mouth. He grabbed the injured carnivore and flipped him on his belly before shoving his hand in the would-be predator's back pocket. The panther desperately squirmed. "Dude, come on! I need that money!"
The rabbit blew a raspberry. "Well, you should have thought about that before you tried to eat me."
He pulled out the panther's wallet and opened it. As he started to remove the money from the wallet the rabbit-like creature looked more and more disgusted with each bill he pulled out. He waved the wad of cash in the panther's face aggressively. "You had this much money and you didn't just buy meat at the black market?!"
The panther shook his head and whined. "I-I have to spend it on other things."
The rabbit snarled and pressed his foot down on the panther's head before pulling the phone out again.
"Yeah, of course I have a gift. It's his birthday; I wouldn't forget." He flipped through the wad of bills with a smirk. "Oh, yeah. I got him something realnice. Yeah, I'll be there soon as I can, Mom. Yup, love you too. Bye!"
The rabbit pressed a button and shoved the phone back in his pocket.
The panther growled. "You better give me that money back! Or I'll-"
"What?" The creature smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Tell the cops you got robbed by a wolf-rabbit hybrid after he beat the living shit out of you for trying to eat him? Yeah, have fun with that, pal."
The rabbit walked over to the dumpster in the alleyway and opened the lid. The panther's eyes widened and he desperately tried to crawl away. However, he was too slow and the rabbit grabbed him by the ankle and started dragging him. The feline tried to dig his claws into the ground, but this just caused them to get very quickly filed down by the concrete. "Wait! C-Come on! Don't do this!"
The creature used his second arm to get a better grip. The panther shouted as he felt a mighty tug on his leg and his body lifting off the ground. He found himself face-planting right in the garbage, accidentally filling his mouth with putrid, discarded ramen from a cup. The impact caused the lid to come down and close on him, trapping him in the dumpster with a variety of nauseating smells.
The garbage covered panther screamed through his teeth in frustration at the unbelievable audacity of that brat. He resolved to bite the little bastard's fingers off one by one, devouring his whole body as slowly as possible. He was sore all over from the serious beating that freak gave him, so he moved somewhat slowly as he tried to lift the lid off of the dumpster.
Unfortunately for the panther he somehow managed to get tossed in this dumpster at the time it was at its most vile. So he found himself having to crawl through dirty diapers, freshly discarded tampons, and used condoms to make his escape.
Finally, he managed to crawl out, falling out of the dumpster and landing his back on the concrete. He forced himself to his feet and looked around for that abomination, yet, he didn't spot him anywhere and couldn't hear his footsteps. He got away. The panther fell to both knees and held his head as he screamed at the very top of his lungs. Screaming in immeasurable frustration and hatred until his vocal cords could no longer handle the strain.
Hoarse, sore, tired, starving, and furious from being covered in feces, menstrual blood, and another man's day-old love juice as well as being robbed, the excitement was too much for the feline, and he lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, the rabbit traversed town carrying the wallet of the cat that made a fool of himself earlier. As he walked he spotted an ATM. He scratched his chin in contemplation before approaching and removing the panther's debit card from the wallet. Looking through the wallet he spotted the foolish feline's ID card and smirked. "Born November twenty-third, huh?"
He inserted the card and the machine asked for the panther's PIN. Lee pressed one, then one again, then two, then three. "Bingo!" The ATM displayed the option to withdraw. When it asked for the desired amount he decided to go with the maximum of fifty-thousand yen. The machine whirred as it dispensed yet another wad of cash at the panther's expense. The chimera cackled as he pulled out his own wallet and shoved the money inside it.
"And thatis why you nevermake your bank PIN your birthday." He shoved his wallet into his back pocket. He noticed that a pier was across the street from his current position and decided to try out his pitching skills. So he removed every single gift card he could get from the panther's wallet before using it as a stand-in for a baseball.
"Hiiii-yah!" He tossed it with all his strength. He watched it go very, very far. It went so far that his sensitive rabbit ears could only just barely make out the sound of the wallet splashing as it fell into the water.
"Damn. Maybe I actually shouldtry baseball."
Years Earlier
"It's time to wake up, Lee."
A gray furred rabbit's eyes fluttered open. The very first thing he saw in the morning was his mother's beautiful, smiling face. The light from the sun came in through the window and bounced off of his mother's snowy white fur, giving her a radiant glow.
"It's the first day of school, sweetie. Your father is making pancakes."
Lee yawned and sat up in his bed, stretching out his limbs. His mother left the room to allow her child to get dressed and start his day. The rabbit jumped out of bed and the very first thing he saw was himself in a full-sized mirror that was attached to his closet door.
The rabbit was unusually tall for his species. Although, it wasn't quite accurate to describe lapines as "his species". He had the blood of a grey wolf flowing through his veins. His fluffy wolf tail, extraordinary height, and clawed hands gave away his mixed heritage. His fur was mostly grey, however, his face and belly were a cream color. An exact mirror of his father's fur.
He had a lean physique with well-defined muscles for his age. He had the strength of a wolf and the speed of a rabbit. To his parents, he was a miracle of nature. To most of society, he was an abomination.
Still, the chimeric creature saw himself as more lapine than lupine, so he opted to identify as a rabbit. Additionally, despite having the traits of a predatory species, he considered himself an herbivore. He had no interest in eating meat. The very idea of eating another person was appalling to him. Besides, he lacked fangs, so clearly he wasn't designed to eat it.
He also didn't feel the urge to hunt. Just the urge to fight. But that particular urge was very powerful. When someone crossed him, he could feel his blood demand that he violently beat them to a pulp. Was this his nature telling him to assert his dominance and be an alpha? Or is he just a violent psychopath? He didn't know for sure. All he did know is that it's a habit that got him into trouble and made him a frequent target of his father's "I'm not angry, just disappointed" face. An absolutely soul-crushing expression that made the rabbit incredibly depressed for days.
The rabbit opened his closet and looked through his clothing. He had a massive variety of clothes that he used to express himself as a person. Yet he rarely got to wear it since every school had a uniform policy. Apparently, high school was no different.
He started putting the uniform on and immediately felt uncomfortable. There was no tail hole since he needed to keep his hidden. Despite his parents being proud of their hybrid child, they understood his desire to hide his mixed heritage, as it made him a target for bullying and they had good reason to oblige when their son had a lengthy history of violence when it came to other students that picked on him. They made special arrangements with the teachers at this new school to not disclose the rabbit's wolf genes and to allow him to wear gloves to hide his claws. All he had to do was tell people he had a "skin condition" that made it necessary to keep his hands covered.
He finished putting on his uniform and shut the door to look in the mirror. Staring back at him was a very displeased looking rabbit in a stupid looking outfit. He hated it already. Although, according to his father, when he gets to school he can just wear the shirt and suspenders if he wants. Not that he wants to be wearing suspenders.
Fully dressed in his stuffy green uniform, he went downstairs. Every single step on this cheap, rickety staircase was squeaking so loud you'd think a mouse couple was having noisy sex under the stairs. If Lee ever became the Beastar, he'd buy his parents a new house. Not that his chances of getting such a position were high considering his mixed blood. Maybe he can find another way to get power and influence.
He walked into the kitchen to see his father flipping pancakes with a smile and a wagging tail. Lee knew the grey wolf was excited to send his son off to Cherryton, the same school he once attended years ago. Perhaps the chimera should just be happy that he's made his father such a proud parent.
The wolf looked over his shoulder at his chimeric son. "Morning, Lee! I'm almost done here, so would you mind setting the table and getting the syrup?"
Lee nodded his head and opened the cabinet where the plates were kept.
Lee's father was an incredibly intimidating man to strangers. The reasons were twofold. One, he was very tall and had a claw mark scar over his right eye, indicating that he's gotten into fights. Two, he was a legend. Legosi the grey wolf, the man who, at seventeen, stormed the fortress of the notorious black market gang, the Shishigumi, just to rescue his girlfriend.
At eighteen, he defeated even more mobsters so he could capture the chimeric crime lord, Melon, just to have the right to marry said girlfriend.
Lee found these legends to be absolutely baffling. His father was the nicest, friendliest, pushover he knew. Lee never saw his dad get into a fight. He didn't even argue with his wife, he just did her bidding with a wagging tail. There was only one time, a few years ago, he had seen the wolf's aggression first hand. But Lee didn't like thinking about that event. Regardless, it still wasn't quite the Legosi of legend, just a father furious at his child. Lee would like to meet that version of Legosi one day.
After Lee finished setting the plates down, his father walked over to the table with a skillet in hand and started dishing out breakfast with a spatula. "Thanks, Dad."
Legosi smiled. "You're welcome."
Haru came walking in and sat in the chair next to her husband's usual spot. "Looks good!"
Lee grabbed the bottle of syrup. "Ah!" Haru exclaimed with a finger in the air. "Don't get any on your new uniform!"
Lee chuckled. "I've never been a messy eater, Mom, relax."
Legosi took his seat at the table and the small family of three started digging into their food. Delicious as usual. Both of Lee's parents were pretty good cooks. Although, his mother was slightly slower since she needed to use step-stools and ladders to reach all the kitchen appliances.
Legosi looked up from his breakfast at Lee. "Thinking about joining any clubs when you get there? If so, Drama Club is pretty fun. I really liked doing the lighting."
Haru swallowed a bite of pancake. "Sure, but does the Gardening Club even have members? It'd be really sad if nobody joined."
Lee shrugged. "Do they have a boxing club?"
Both of his parents scowled at him. Haru rolled her eyes. "I think you've had enough fighting for one lifetime, young man. And they didn't have one when we went to school, so I doubt it."
Lee pouted. This school sounds boring already.
Lee arrived at Cherryton Academy early in the morning so he wouldn't be seen getting dropped off by his carnivore and herbivore parents.
Legosi gave his son a tight hug. "I'm gonna miss you. Make sure you text us some time, okay?"
Legosi released his son and allowed Haru to hug him next. "Take care of yourself, Lee."
Lee nodded. "I love you guys."
His parents waved at him as he walked to his dorms. Class didn't start for a while so he may as well check out where he'll be sleeping.
He walked across the green grass of the yard, looking at the grandiose buildings of the school. There were certainly a lot of them. Hopefully, he won't get lost.
He felt a tad uncomfortable as he entered the herbivore dorms. He remembered when he was in that meeting regarding his admission and how many of the school staff were furious about a half-wolf being classified as an herbivore and staying in their dorms. They were under the impression he would eat his roommates, which was absolutely ridiculous. Thankfully, the school had terminated its segregation policy a few years ago. Things would've been even more complicated if they hadn't.
He walked up the stairway to the sixth floor of the herbivore dorms where he would be staying. He entered the hallway and checked his phone where he wrote down the room number. "Room 617" he mumbled to himself. Soon enough he found the room with the exact number. He took a deep breath as he opened the door.
He was distressed to find that it's already very cramped looking. There were two doors on either side of the room, one probably being the restroom. The beds were holes in the wall with curtains for privacy. Lee's immediate first thought was how hard it was going to be to jack off around here.
Lee shrugged as he figured he may as well pick out a bed. The top bunk on the right side should do. He grabbed a marker out of his bag and wrote his name above the top bunk. His father did the same thing, but there was also a drawing of his face. Maybe if Lee's lucky, one of his roommates will be a decent artist.
Lee yawned. It was still way too early for class, so maybe he should just take a nap for a bit. The chimera pulled out his cellphone and set an alarm for twenty minutes before the first bell. He thought about just setting it to ten, but he didn't have the best sense of direction and expected himself to probably get lost. Lee climbed into bed. It wouldn't be a long nap, but it wouldn't hurt to have the extra energy.
He didn't bother getting under the blanket and just rested his head on the pillow. In a short amount of time, the rabbit drifted off to sleep.
It was morning at Cherryton. The students were only just arriving. A female white tiger played a video game on a handheld console as she sat in the back of her parent's car. She started to look agitated with the game from dying several times in a row.
Her name was Esther and she was a white tiger. While both of her parents were orange, she was born with a rare "defect". Her body was incapable of producing the chemical that gives tigers their orange fur. So instead, it was white like snow. She didn't like the word "defect". It made it sound like she was broken or something.
The tiger was frightfully muscular for a female. She spent most of her spare time in the gym. While she was athletic, she preferred lifting weights to most other exercises. She still had the usual shape of a female by having a thin waist and wide hips, but she was very tall and chiseled like a statue.
Her physique and immense strength intimidated most men away from attempting to court her. Not that it mattered. The white tiger was an open lesbian with a preference for curvy women.
There wasn't much about her that was feminine as far as her personality was concerned. Her father originally wanted a son, and while he was very happy with a daughter, he still raised her like a boy.
Bill endlessly praised and doted on her. Her masculine traits and rare fur color set her apart from most females. So he would often boast about how special she was and proclaim her superiority to other girls, much to her embarrassment.
Bill grinned as he pulled up to the school. "We're here."
The car stopped by the school and the family of three got out of the car. Her mother tightly hugged her. "Love you, hun."
Esther smiled. "I love you too, Mom."
As soon as she released her mother, Bill pulled her into an almost crushing hug. "I'm gonna miss you so much…" he said, clearly trying not to cry.
Esther chuckled. "I'll miss you too, Pops."
The two tiger parents loaded into their car and drove off. Esther took her bag and made her way to the feline carnivore dorms. She made her way to the third floor and to room three-hundred and six.
Inside, the room was pretty small. The beds were little more than holes in the wall with mattresses. Esther decided to claim the top bunk facing the window.
Not long after, she heard the sound of the doorknob turning.
Into the room came a skinny cheetah. The cheetah jumped when she saw Esther. "Woah! You're white!"
Esther scoffed and smirked. "Wow, really? Nobody told me."
The cheetah laughed nervously. "S-sorry. Just caught me off guard is all."
She bowed her head. "I'm Cecilia. But everyone calls me Ceci."
The white tiger bowed back. "Esther."
Ceci looked her up and down. "I've never seen a white tiger before."
Esther chuckled. "Believe me, that's a line I'm used to hearing."
As soon as Ceci packed her bag away, the door opened again. A female black panther came in. She bowed. "Hey. I'm Lin." The two bowed back and shared their names. Esther smirked as she looked this girl up and down. Wide hips, larger-than-average chest, thin waist. Esther would give her a solid eight.
Shortly after, the door opened again. This time two girls came in. They were both lions. One girl was outstandingly gorgeous and was a light gold color, while her friend was darker colored and was mostly brown.
The two lions spotted their roommates. The darker lion grinned. "Hellooo~!" She bowed, sounding excited. "I'm Mila!"
The gold one smiled and bowed too. "Hikari. Mila-chan here is my best friend."
The girls all exchanged greetings yet again.
The door opened. A very plain looking cougar walked in. She looked surprised by Esther's appearance before adopting a smile. "Nice to meet you." She bowed. "I'm Donna."
The girls exchanged the last of their greetings before preparing for class and leaving.
Esther was on her way to her first class when she spotted a signboard with several pieces of paper on it. Seemed they were after-school clubs. She looked them over and spotted Drama Club. She had heard from her father that it was a lot of fun. She resolved to check it out after her classes ended.
Lee awoke to his phone beeping loudly.
Lee heard an unfamiliar voice. "Huh? Somebody already up there?"
The curious chimera canceled the alarm and stuck his head out of the hole in the wall. He immediately recoiled in surprise at the person before him. It was another rabbit. He was perfectly, vertically asymmetrical with the right half of his body being black and the left being white. He was taller than the average rabbit, somewhere in the mid-one-hundred-twenty centimeter range. Still significantly shorter than the one-hundred-seventy-eight centimeter chimera.
The most noteworthy thing about him, however, was his weight. He was extremely fat, very much on the heavier side of morbid obesity, with his gigantic gut sagging to his crotch and his neck was completely obscured by a thick layer of adipose. This was Lee's first time meeting an obese person since most herbivores didn't dare allow themselves to be so slow and appetizing for carnivores. Not that carnivores want to be slow either.
The corpulent bunny noticed the chimera staring at him and scowled. "The hell you looking at? You wanna say somethin' about my weight?!"
Lee panicked at having immediately offended what must be his roommate. He rapidly shook his head. "Nonono! I didn't mean to stare. I'm sorry." His ears pressed against his head in shame.
The fat rabbit's glare turned into a smile before he started chuckling. "Nah, man. I'm just messing with ya. I'm totally used to it, no big deal."
Lee hopped out of bed and the heavyset rabbit bowed. "I'm Oscar."
The chimera bowed back. "Lee."
The rabbit chuckled once again. "You're pretty tall, huh? Maybe this dorm is just for rabbits of unusual size."
Lee tilted his head. "Is this dorm lapine only?
Oscar shook his head. "That was just a joke. It's mostly carnivores that get separated by species. Our roommates are probably going to be more varied."
The door swung open and in came a zebra carrying a gym bag. Very much unlike Oscar, this zebra looked extremely fit. Probably the athletic type. He winced in surprise at the two oddly proportioned rabbits before him.
However, his attention drew more towards Oscar. His expression looked like… disgust? Lee cringed, hoping he was misinterpreting things.
The zebra didn't even bow. "I'm Alfred."
The chimera nodded. "Lee."
The hefty rabbit grinned. "Oscar."
As the zebra put his bag away, the door swung open again. This time the guy that came in was a rooster. Like Alfred, he also looked surprised by Lee and Oscar's size. He looked his new roommates up and down before giving a lax smile and bowing. "'Ey. Name's Eli."
They all exchanged introductions as the chicken put away his bag.
Once again the door swung open. This time the one to come in was a short angora goat carrying a laptop and wearing glasses. Again, he seemed surprised by the unusual body types the two lapines had. He bowed. "Hi. I'm uhh… Theo."
They exchanged greetings again.
After a while, the door opened once more. This time an anteater came in. Unlike everyone else, he didn't seem to care about Lee and Oscar's strange appearance and didn't even acknowledge their existence. Instead of introducing himself and bowing, he just put his bag away immediately.
The chimera decided to break the ice. "I'm Lee." The others responded with their own names. The anteater didn't seem that interested and simply grumbled his name. "Stanley."
Out of everyone, Lee was the tallest. However, Alfred came pretty close. Still, he hoped he could still make friends. Of course, he really needed to keep his lupine heritage a secret. Otherwise, they might not want to be sleeping in the same room as him.
The meeting of these new herbivore roommates came to a close quickly though, as the bell started to ring. Time to go.
Classes went well enough. Lee was a fairly average student. Although, he already had a good amount of knowledge from getting tutored by his friend, Olivia, and her father, Jack.
Lee decided it would be worthwhile to join a club. After talking to some teachers in the faculty office, he learned that there was at least one person in the Gardening Club. His mother would be happy, but he was more so as he could join Drama Club without guilt.
When he went to the practice building he was in awe of it. It was a massive room with some very fancy equipment. The lights looked pretty expensive and pointed to an elevated stage with a medieval backdrop. A colorful place, to be sure.
Currently, the club was standing in a semi-circle in the middle of the room. Standing in front of the circle was an old, bespectacled pelican giving them instructions. That must be Sanu. Legosi had told Lee about him. Of course, Lee couldn't mention his father.
The most noteworthy person, however, was an elephant wearing round glasses and carrying an open notebook. At his size, he towered over the entire club.
As he approached the circle he recognized a couple of faces. Namely Stanley and Theo, who hadn't spotted him yet. Then, he heard giggling. He turned his head to see two very attractive female Dall sheep in the circle looking at him and whispering to each other with big grins on their faces. Weird. At first, they looked like identical twins, but one of them had big and wavy horns, while the other had smaller, somewhat curved ones.
The pelican's gaze turned from his clipboard to Lee. "Oh! Hello, there! I'm Sanu. I'm the club director here."
The chimera bowed. "I'm Lee."
The pelican smiled and motioned towards the circle. "Please stand over there."
Lee walked into the circle, standing between Theo and the smaller horned sheep twin. The pelican went over the different positions required to run a play and the variety of shows they'd be putting on. Lee was hoping to get an acting role. The role he was most interested in playing was the titular lead in Adler. He had heard from his father how brilliant Louis the red deer was in the role and the chimera was curious to see how he compared.
Lee's ears twitched as he heard the doors swing open. He turned to see who entered and his ears flattened against his head in fear as he saw who came in. A large, muscular, female, white feline with black stripes. Lee gulped, recognizing her immediately. Even without her distinctive mutation, he knew her face and demeanor all too well to mistake her.
The one-hundred and eighty-eight-centimeter tiger girl approached the circle, catching the attention of the pelican, who looked at her in shock. "Oh, my! Sorry for staring, miss. I've never seen a white tiger before."
The tiger gave a huge grin. "No big deal, Sanu-san. I get those looks a lot."
The pelican looked at her, puzzled. "I'm sorry, have we met before?"
The tiger chuckled. "Nope! You know my Pops, though!"
The pelican's eyes shifted around as the gears in his head started to turn. Finally, a look of realization came across his face. "Are you Bill-kun's daughter?"
The white tiger laughed. "Yup! Name's Esther."
Sanu smiled. "Bill-kun has a daughter... And she's a white tiger. Very interesting! How is he doing nowadays, anyway?"
As the two made small talk, Lee started to sweat. He was very familiar with this girl. Every time he had ever met Bill, he brought his daughter with him.
According to Lee's mother, when Bill's wife was pregnant, he wouldn't shut the hell up about how great his "son" was going to be. Somehow finding out her gender via ultrasound only made him happier and more excited. And when she was born with a rare genetic mutation that made her an unusual color, he put her on a pedestal so high she must've been in space. He would endlessly blather about how special his little girl was. Whenever Bill was around, so was Esther.
Lee had even gotten into sparring matches with her. But a winner was never declared because Lee's father would always find out and drag him away to chastise him for picking a fight with a female. Not that Lee paid her gender any mind. Bill basically raised her like a boy anyway. Legosi himself had even called her "female Bill" on a few occasions when talking about her.
It wasn't an inaccurate name. She was just as dense as her dad and had no idea Lee was pretending to not be half-wolf. If she mentioned his father, his cover would immediately be blown. He wondered if maybe he should just sneak out and join the Gardening Club instead.
He took a step back, trying to avoid the tiger's gaze. He has to get out of here. He can just find time to talk to her privately later and explain the situation. He continued to step back, just a teensy bit at a time. He just needed to reach the door.
He kept an eye on her, making sure she didn't look his way. But then… disaster. Eye contact.
The tiger grinned. "Hey, Lee-kun!"
He's doomed.