Hey everyone. I won't say much about this chapter except that for those of you who don't know, I've been accepted into the Army National Guard (feels crazy to me too, especially after writing a whole character arc around my rejection from the army years ago). Unfortunately, since I'm headed off to basic training my writing and publication will be pretty limited, so this will probably be my last chapter for quite a while. With that in mind, I decided to make it one of my more important chapters, at least that I can publish right now without messing up sequence. So with no further ado, I give you all the answer to the question: why DOES Taelia have so much trouble trusting and dating Nick Wilde? Obviously there is a spoiler alert for Something Stinks, so DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU. (sorry; just wanted to make sure everyone read that)
Mrs. Kwon: "Hmm. Your hair is different and you're agonizing over the same color clothing. What's his name?"
Trini: "What's whose name? Oh… Mom, no, I just like that sweater."
Mrs. Kwon: "Right. Trini, when you were seven, and you told me that your friend, Lady Belvedere, the invisible purple unicorn, ate all our Girl Scout cookies, do you think I believed you back then too?"
Trini: "Maybe?"
Saban's Go Go Power Rangers Vol 4
Since time immemorial, most animals had borne an instinctive sense of being watched. Watching could mean a hunter or a rival. Watching meant the chance of needing to fight or flee at any moment. Even in modern society when one seldom had to fear an attack, it was considered the root of the all-but-universal horror of public speaking. Perhaps that was why, on more afternoons than a certain fox kit wished to count, she had been all but paralyzed by that ancient worry.
"Taelia, breathe," hissed Dorinda, tapping her on the paw with a hoof. The white-tail, who had recently moved across town, smirked at her friend's anxiety.
"Is he looking?" Taelia asked, her mind scrambling among different thoughts. She'd never really considered herself attractive until the other day when she happened to see Travis Renald looking abruptly away from her in PE. Looking abruptly away meant he'd been looking at her and didn't want to get caught. Looking and not wanting to get caught meant that maybe, just maybe, he knew she'd been looking his way too.
Dorinda glanced carelessly over her shoulder. "He's talking to his friends. Seriously, why don't you just talk to him? Say something about his shirt or something. Get going already."
"Yes, get going already," called a sultry, sarcastic voice from across a couple of empty seats.
Taelia cringed. Vanya Zarra, sitting with the gymnastics crowd, must have overheard the conversation.
Dorinda, meanwhile, just rolled her eyes. "This isn't about you, Vanya. Bother someone else."
The arctic kit chuckled. "Just trying to save her from disappointment," she answered cavalierly. She looked straight at Taelia then, eye to piercing eye. "Believe me, it never helps to get your hopes too high."
Taelia looked away, shrinking a little. Dorinda just rolled her eyes.
"Says the one most likely to get to the Olympics," she answered, deliberately injecting a breezy tone in her voice to let Vanya know how appreciated her advice wasn't. Then she poked Taelia. "Hey, high school's all about trying things. If you think he's interested, go for it. You only go around once."
That feeling came back, and Taelia bit her lip before whipping around to see. This time she caught a glimpse – just a glimpse – of Travis watching her. Was he smiling? She hoped he was smiling.
By the time she was getting ready for her last class of the day – social studies, one of her favorites – the butterflies in Taelia's stomach were going in a new direction. Maybe she should talk to Travis. What was the worst that could happen?
'He might think it's hilarious and make fun of you to his friends,' her inner introvert pointed out, calling up images of the last time she told a guy she liked him.
'That was in fourth grade!' she countered in defense as she rummaged for some perfume. Reaching puberty had brought on a number of changes in her body, and while body odor was hardly the worst, it was still an easy one to forget and tended to spike when she was nervous. Then again, she reflected as her sort-of friend Lillian Grey shut the locker next to her, skunks had to worry about odor from the time they were babies.
She finished her supply run, shut the locker, and turned to head off to her-
"Hey."
"AH!"
Her books flew out of her paws, one drawing a yelp of anger and protest as it landed on someone's foot.
"Sorry. Sorry," came the verbal scramble of a certain tod as he knelt to retrieve her books.
Taelia couldn't form an answer as her brain scrambled. Travis Renald… was standing… in front… of her. Was she dreaming? She would have pinched herself, but he was handing her back her books.
"I didn't mean to scare you," he offered, his voice dropping just a little. "I just… wanted to say hi."
Finally, her brain managed to reconnect with her mouth. "Oh. Um, hi back," she offered uncertainly, the last word taking on the sort of raised pitch that made it sound more like a question. 'Hi back?' she thought to herself in annoyance. Now she felt like crawling into her locker and shutting the door.
He coughed into a fist. "Listen, I've been thinking for a while now, maybe we should get to know each other. Are you doing anything this afternoon?"
'He's asking me out?' Her brain turned over this almost unthinkable turn of events. 'Is he really asking me out?!"
It occurred to her that answering would probably make her look a little less like a total ditz than she'd she'd already given him reason to think. "Uh, my parents would wonder where I was if I missed the bus, but we could sit together at lunch tomorrow."
"Great!"
The warning bell for last period rang, making them both jump a little.
"Here, I'll walk you to your class," he offered,
"You don't have to," she countered, heading in the direction of her social studies room.
He fell into step anyway. "I'm going that way myself, so why not?"
She didn't really see why not herself if that was the case, and as it happened her mind was quickly arrested by another matter: Vanya, headed in their direction but not yet having seen them.
"Wait'll Vanya sees us," she uttered under her breath.
"Hm?" he asked.
Seeing Vanya pause to talk with someone, Taelia hastily whispered a quick explanation of the gymnast's earlier disparagement. Travis got a smug look on his face.
"Then let's make sure she sees us," he answered brightly, slipping an arm around her waist. "Follow my lead – and sway your hips a little. She'll hate that."
They strode up to Vanya, Taelia trying to adopt the sashay she usually saw in more confident girls without it obviously being an effort. She was trying to think how to announce their presence to the arctic vixen when Vanya caught sight of them and stopped, recognizing the faces atop this seemingly very cozy couple.
"Hey, Vanya!" Travis called a little louder than the hall really required. He steered Taelia around so she passed closest to their selected observer, and slipped his encircling paw a little down past her waist as he did. "Good luck at practice!"
Taelia smiled and leaned her upper half into Travis, though the unaccustomed contact lower down made her stomach dance in a different kind of way. She was still trying to sort out whether Travis meant to touch her that low on the hip, and simultaneously enjoying the obvious shock they'd given Vanya, when she realized they were passing her classroom.
"Shoot. Gotta run. See you, Travis!" she called out, ducking in the door.
She had almost forgotten she sat next to Dorinda in Social Studies, but from the triumphant smile on her friend's face it was clear the doe had heard her parting words. Hardly had the teacher turned his back to begin the lesson than Dorinda tapped her desk to get Taelia's attention and flashed a quick thumbs up. 'You go, girl,' she mouthed.
That evening around the dinner table, it didn't take long for Mom and Dad to figure out something was up. It only took slightly longer for them to get the story about Travis.
"Oooh," Richard piped up smugly. "Now it's my turn to tease you about your dates."
Taelia grimaced. Okay, so maybe she went a tad overboard the first time her brother picked up an unofficial sort-of girlfriend. It was fun back then, but now that the roles were reversed, she started to feel a little less keen about it.
Dad came to the rescue. "Hold it, son," he laughed. "So Taelia, tell us about him."
Taelia thought back on what she knew of Travis, which actually was pretty scant. She knew he always dressed nicely, and he was well-liked as foxes went; often picked early on for teams in PE, and of course devilishly handsome.
"Well, he sounds nice," Mom approved. "When can we meet him?"
Ears suddenly flicking back, Taelia gulped. "Um, I didn't really ask him about that."
"Got something to hide?" asked Richard, grinning like a crocodile.
Mom cleared her throat, eyeing her son warningly before she looked back to Taelia. "Well, I'd like the chance to get to know him a bit. Why don't you invite him home for dinner… what night do you have that meeting, Dear?" she asked, looking to her husband.
"Meeting would be Wednesday," he replied.
"Thursday, then?" Mom concluded, earning a nod from Dad.
Taelia wasn't sure why she was so nervous about such an introduction, though she had found herself nervous about a lot of things lately that didn't usually bother her. "Sure, I'll ask him," she agreed.
"I'll have a few questions for him," Richard smirked.
Mom and Dad both gave him The Look this time.
"Kidding," he defended, raising his paws. "Don't get your tails in a knot. I'll be on my best behavior."
Taelia winced a little. "Why doesn't that make me feel better?" she asked.
As it turned out, sitting with Travis the next day at lunch meant sitting with his friends, so Taelia decided to bring Dorinda along, just to have one familiar face at the table. It was just as well, for Travis' friends were a rather noisy bunch, of whom Travis seemed to be ringleader with a female lynx – whose fur was mostly dyed a curious red shade – as a sort of deputy.
At first Taelia found herself the center of attention, fielding questions about what shows she watched and what she liked to do. As she didn't watch much TV for her age, and her singing in the church youth choir drew little interest (save for a few laughs, quickly squelched by Travis and the lynx), the topic soon turned to other matters which she found hard to track. It was about fifteen minutes before she remembered to ask Travis if he'd come to dinner, and this time his friends took notice.
"Aww," cooed the lynx in a tone which might or might not have been teasing. "That's so 1985."
"Yeah, coat and tie time," joked a koala between bites of eucalyptus casserole. "Better dig out your cummerbund, Trav."
Travis cleared his throat. "Okay, enough wisecracks, guys."
"It's a test, man," piped up Brock, a donkey across and two seats over. "Gotta get the parents' approval before you oomph!" his remark was cut off as the lynx, taking Travis' cue, rammed her elbow into his side just under the ribs.
Taelia warmed, and not exactly in a romantic way. "It's nothing like that," she defended, though she now wondered what it might do for her chances with Travis if he did, somehow, displease her parents – or Richard, for that matter. "They just want to meet you, that's all."
"I think it's a good idea," Dorinda chimed in, trying to sound cheery despite a slight sternness that had arisen in her manner. "If you really care about someone, you take what's happening with them seriously."
Travis cast an uncertain look around before smiling confidently at the deer. "I think so too," he agreed. "And I'd be glad to come over, Taelia. What time should I be there?"
Thursday night, Taelia waited near the door for what seemed like an hour until Travis arrived, wondering; wondering if her family would like him, wondering if her brother would say or do something to embarrass her, and wondering if Travis would take seriously that remark his friend had made about a coat and tie.
At long last the doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" she cried, rushing to it.
She never did figure out where Richard came from as he appeared seemingly by magic, but her momentum gave her the edge and she knocked him aside. Pausing a moment to smirk triumphantly (and resist the urge to stick out her tongue), she opened the door.
"Hey," she greeted. There stood Travis, not overdressed as she had feared but wearing a nicely pressed polo shirt and with his paws clasped behind his back. The bright green shirt was accented by a bit of folded yellow cloth poking out of the one breast pocket on his shirt, and he gave off a scent of cologne, fresh laundry, and…
"Ohh, you brought flowers!" she exclaimed.
A slight look of disappointment came over him at having his surprise spoiled. "Yeah," he admitted, pulling out two bouquets. "One for you, and one to warm up your mom."
She took the one he extended to her and smelled them appreciatively. "Thanks. I love lilies."
A tisking sound came from the space just behind her. "No tuxedo? Minus ten points already."
Her backward kick missed, and Richard just chuckled.
"Sorry," she offered, biting her tongue. "This tick behind me is my brother, Richard."
"Charmed," Travis replied, apparently unbothered by Richard's teasing. "And the rest of the family?"
Nudging Richard aside with an elbow and a poisonous glare, Taelia brought Travis inside and led him to the kitchen where Dad was tossing a salad and Mom was checking the chicken.
"Mom, Dad, this is Travis," she introduced brightly. "Travis, this is my mom and dad."
Both parents broke off what they were doing, Mom reaching over to wipe her paws on a rag. "So, this is the infamous bandit who stole our little girl's heart?" asked Dad with a crooked grin. Then he stuck out a paw. "It's good to meet you, Travis."
"Likewise," Travis answered, shaking Dad's paw and then the one Mom extended as well. "Mrs. Fangaster, these are for you."
"Oh, how sweet," she beamed, taking them appreciatively.
With dinner still in progress, conversation was fairly limited. Nevertheless, polite inquiries and answers went back and forth, and soon the Fangasters knew quite a bit more about Travis. His dad was a lawyer, and his mom was an ethics professor in college; adjunct, but working towards a full-time position. He enjoyed sports, particularly soccer and baseball, averaged B+ but was working to get into the A bracket, and intended to pursue law like his dad. They also learned, simply by the way he spoke, that he knew well how to present himself. His demeanor was charming, his etiquette flawless, and his responses quick and confident… mostly, anyway.
"Do you go to church?" asked Dad.
Travis hesitated. "Every Easter and Christmas," he offered, as if he suspected this would be considered a weak answer.
Taelia's parents looked at one another dubiously, but said nothing. Travis made some effort to save the line of conversation by adding that it was a very classical church with stained glass windows and a three hundred year old organ, then ventured to ask if it was "a dealbreaker" that he didn't go more often.
Dad hesitated a moment and glanced at his wife before answering, "No, not at all." He quickly changed the subject, but Taelia hadn't missed the look that passed between her parents. Something was up.
Whatever was on Mom's and Dad's minds stayed there through to the end of supper. Richard quickly changed his demeanor towards Travis when he found out they rooted for the same pawball team, leaving Taelia to stew in uncertainty about what was going on between her parents. They took church and God seriously, but they'd never restricted her from hanging around mammals who didn't. Heck, Dorinda and her family were some of the best mammals she or her parents could name, and from what all she could remember she'd never heard any of them say a word about religion.
As Mom and Dad cleaned up - roping Richard into helping so as to give Taelia and Travis some breathing room after all that talk about sports - the young pair stole a few minutes alone in the living room. With some reluctance, Taelia told Travis what was on her mind.
"Do you think they'll say we can't date because of it?" he asked anxiously.
She shook her head. "I don't know." It made her nervous just to admit it. She had always known that not all couples were perfect fits, comma and even those that were like her parents didn't always click perfectly right off the bat. Still, she hadn't expected someone who seemed so ideal in every other way to lose her parents' approval over one detail.
He laid a paw on hers. "I don't know if I could take not being allowed to be with you," he told her, looking her in the eyes, "no matter who said no."
Her eyes widened a little as she realized he was hinting at going behind her parents' backs. A part of her recoiled. She couldn't do something that sneaky when her own family was involved.. could she?
"O-kay," Dad announced, coming in as he made a dusting motion with his paws. "We sent Richard to his room and ordered him to listen to his music, so we should have a good chance to sit here and chat."
Someone less acquainted with the Fangaster family might have thought it naive of the father to just assume his son would follow such an order, but Taelia noticed her parents stationed themselves in two of the living room's armchairs. With Mom's practically on the line between the kitchen and living room, and Dad's commanding a good view of the hall to which the other doorway opened, they were well guarded from eavesdropping. Unfortunately it also had the effect of making Taelia and Travis feel pretty boxed in.
'Please don't say no,' thought Taelia earnestly. 'Please please please please don't say no."
Dad steepled his fingertips out in front of himself as if he were about to fold his hands, then spread them. "The short version," he said, "is that if you two want to date, that's OK with us."
Taelia cheered inside.
"However," added Mom, "we do want you to understand a couple of things."
Dad fixed his eyes on Taelia. "You're at a stage of life where you're going to be making more decisions for yourself, and you know your mother and I have worked hard to teach you the best values and the best way to live to prepare you for that. So we will be watching this relationship, and if it looks like it's doing harm you can be sure we'll step in."
Then he looked at Travis. "And we've already told Taelia this a number of times," he added, "but I want you to hear me say that if something doesn't seem right she knows she can and should come tell us anything at a moment's notice. So make sure you treat her right."
Travis looked just a little uneasy. "Is there some kind of list of rules I need to know about?" he asked.
Dad nodded and handed him a small index card folded in half. "I suggest you keep that in your wallet," he advised.
Although Taelia tried to catch a peek at the list, Travis only had the card open for a moment before he closed it and tucked it into his shirt pocket. "Uh, yeah," he replied, looking a little nervous. "I can do that."
Dad flashed a smile somewhere between reassuring and triumphant, like a chess player who wants to be sporting as he announces his checkmate. "Good. Then I hope you two have fun. Do you need a lift home?"
Travis shook his head. "No, I came on my minibike."
Taelia cast questioning looks at her parents as they politely saw Travis out. When she caught his eye she tried to mouth a question, but if he read her lips his only answer was a reassuring smile.
"Come again soon, Travis," Mom invited cheerfully as they saw him off at the door.
He seemed to have recovered his good spirits. "I will."
After the door had shut, Taelia started pressing for answers. "What was in that card?" she all but demanded, paws on her hips.
Dad shrugged. "Just a few ground rules every young reynard should know; especially ones looking to date my daughter."
"Like what?" pressed Taelia.
"Having you home on time, not taking you to wild parties, showing proper… respect; that kind of thing."
Something in her father's tone clued her in to a deeper meaning behind the use of the word 'respect.' Her face flushed deep crimson underneath her fur.
"DAD!"
After an embarrassment like that, Taelia was a little concerned that Travis might want to call the whole thing off. To her relief, he met her the next day at her locker with more flowers and considerable satisfaction that Thursday night had gone smoothly. The conversation that followed gave Taelia a perfect chance to ask something.
"So just what was in the list Dad gave you?" she wanted to know. She had been too taken aback to ask her parents for any more details, but now she worried just what had been written. Didn't they trust Travis at all?
"Oh, basic stuff," he said, scratching the back of his neck. Then, as if sensing her discomfort, he asked what kinds of things she liked to do, and the conversation quickly shifted to future plans.
For the next several weeks, things could hardly have been better. Sometimes they would play tennis at the courts in the park. Travis mentioned once or twice that he had a tennis court in his backyard, but one of the rules Taelia's parents had set down was that she wouldn't go to his house. Dates at her house were allowed, however, as long as at least one of her parents was there, so they spent a couple of evenings in her backyard looking at stars and planets through a telescope. They double-dated with Dorinda and her boyfriend once or twice until the guys got to arguing too much about sports. Biking dates, picking each other as partners on field trips, and a few dates at movies or restaurants also followed. It was all quite new to her, and as someone whose movie nights always came free by way of the library, and who hardly ever ate out, it was all pretty staggering. She offered several times to pay for part of a date, but Travis, ever the gentleman, always insisted on paying the whole.
Then one night he took her out to a nearby park with a spot overlooking most of the town. She had never been up here before, but the place had a wide gravel parking area and he was able to pull them practically right up to the guardrail. The moon was full, and its soft pale light as well as that of the stars answered beautifully to the scattered golden dots of the homes and businesses below.
As they sat admiring the view, Taelia felt Travis' paw reaching for hers and readily slipped her own paw into it. She started a little, though, at some indefinable cue in how he gripped it; whether he did it too hard or too awkwardly, she didn't know. She looked at him questioningly, though, and asked if something was wrong.
"Kinda," he confessed. "There's… well, something I've been meaning to ask you."
"Like what?" she asked.
He seemed to be pointedly not meeting her gaze. "Would you mind if I kissed you?" he asked.
Every fiber of Taelia's nervous system jumped up at the question, like soldiers sleeping in a barracks when the drill sergeant's "Ten-HUT!" booms out.
"Kiss me?" she echoed, a little uncertainly.
"That's what I'm asking," he replied. "Sorry if I'm not very good at this, but we've been dating quite a while and I really like you."
Taelia squirmed on the inside. She had never kissed a boy before, and hadn't really thought much about it would be like on the spot.
'Gotta be a first time,' some little nudge in the back of her mind answered back.
"I… yeah," she said nervously. "That would be nice."
Never in a thousand years would she forget the next moment; Travis leaning in, his paws taking a gentle hold of her waist, his face drawing near… and then contact; lips touching hers, gliding over, caressing. She opened her mouth to allow a better fit, and was a little startled at the sensation of his tongue gliding across her teeth and gums. This was happening. This was real. She could feel his paw encircling her waist, then both paws stroking her sides, then her stomach, then her ribs. Oh, did she feel alive!
Suddenly, a slight tug at her waist jolted her out of the moment. Her brain, which had begun to sink into sleepy euphoria, lit like a Christmas tree. With an impulse and strength that took both of them off guard, she shoved him back so hard his spine slammed into the interior panel of the door.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing where he'd hit the protruding handle. "Taelia, what the-?!"
Taelia's mind was half-blank for a moment. It had all happened so suddenly she hardly knew it was happening, but one thing she knew for certain: he had pushed up the hem of her shirt and begun to brush his paws against her bare fur.
For a moment, her emotions and instincts warred with one another. Part of her bristled at the unaccustomed contact, but at the same time she felt… she didn't know what to think, but it was somewhere on the fine line between guilt and regret. Why had she shoved him like that?
He looked puzzled, his ears leaning slightly back. "Something wrong?"
"Yeah, sort of," she confessed, pushing his paw a little further away. Then she hesitated, realizing how awkward things had suddenly become. She took a quick breath. "Travis, I like you a lot, but I'm not like that."
"Not like that?" he echoed, confused. Then a look of realization came over his face. "You mean you're… you like…"
"No, no, absolutely not." She shook her head, her already unsettled mind whirling to avoid that misunderstanding. "It's just that… you were taking off…"
His expression dropped into one of stunned dismay. "Wait, no. It… it wasn't like that," he stammered. "I wasn't going to take anything off. I just thought it would be nicer that way, you know?"
She was ready to bite back, figuratively at least, but the look on his face stopped her.
"Other kids do it all the time," he offered by way of further amends.
His effort backfired. "I don't care what other kids do," she snapped, casting about in her brain. She was pretty sure afterward that she had said she wasn't that kind of girl, several things about what she believed, and that her parents would freak out. What she remembered for sure, and for the rest of her life, was saying, "I like kissing and hugging, but when your paws start to do stuff like that, I just can't. If that's a problem, then take me home right now."
For the longest moment, he was quiet; a silence she would later wish she had given more weight. Then he shook his head and smiled. "That's okay," he said confidently. "Totally fine. I just thought you'd like a little… more, I guess."
Taelia's chest tightened. The truth was, a part of her had liked it. It made her think about love scenes in movies, or the way her parents cuddled – however modestly – on evenings when everything was calm in the house. However, another part of her brain – maybe the same part that felt uneasy being stared at even by him – told her to pull back no matter how exciting the prospect might be. A line from a book she had read as a little kit came to mind, about her body being her territory and no one else's, and suddenly it felt a hundred times more important. So too did things her mother had said, usually after reading her bedtime stories, about finding the right fox 'someday, but not for a long time yet.'
"I'm sorry," she answered, and really was a bit sorry, "but I can't do 'more' yet."
"And that's fine," he promised, taking her paws in his and looking her in the eyes. "I shouldn't have just jumped in like that. Forgive me?"
She smiled, glad she was dating a tod who understood. "Yeah. And thanks… for understanding, I mean."
"Well, yeah," he replied. "What else would I do?"
The initial shock of impropriety soon faded, but the other signals lasted for days afterward. Every time she saw or even thought about Travis, she got a kind of high. He thought she was attractive; beautiful, even. It was so potent she was half-surprised not to find herself literally glowing.
This state of distraction made it all the more surprising when, just a couple of days later, Dorinda's boyfriend, Brad Buckner, pulled her aside after P.E.
"I need to talk with you at lunch," he told her in an urgent tone. "Don't tell anyone. Just meet me at the vending machines."
Taelia frowned. "What's going on?"
"Just meet me. Please."
As strange as it was, Taelia knew Brad was a good guy and not someone to put his worries on other people. If he was asking for help, which it seemed like he was, it must be serious.
She found him there at the appointed time, looking as nervous as a bank robber in a confession booth. Or like she figured that would look, at least.
"What's going on?" she asked, frowning.
He dropped to one knee to talk with her directly. "You need to dump Travis," he told her. "Now."
If he had grown a third antler, she couldn't have been more surprised. "What? Why would I dump him? He's the best boyfriend I could want."
"He's dangerous," Brad insisted. "I overheard him and Brock talking in the locker room when they didn't know I was there. Brock was making fun of him because he hadn't 'done it' with you yet."
Taelia snorted indignantly at the news, but quickly rebounded to her boyfriend's defense. "Well, Brock can think what he wants to think," she answered. "Travis said he gets I'm not that kind of vixen."
"Then why did he say he was working on it?" Brad countered.
That pulled her up short. "What?"
"Travis said he was working on it. Then Brock and some other guy laughed at him, and Brock gave him something; some kind of small bottle. He told him to give you some, and in a few minutes you wouldn't be able to resist him."
Taelia's head spun at the accusation. 'Travis wouldn't do that,' she thought to herself. There must be a mistake, or . . .
"I know you and Travis argued a lot," she said, "but I can't believe you'd make up something like this."
Brad looked stunned. "Wait, you think I'm lying?"
"Well, I know this can't be true," she retorted.
"Look," he argued. "I'm telling you exactly what happened. You need to watch out for him."
"I think what I need to do is stay away from you," she snapped, turning around and making a beeline for Travis's table.
Taelia diligently avoided Brad for the rest of the day, and made it a point to think as little about his crazy story as possible. She almost missed it completely when Travis mentioned a party that weekend and asked if her parents would let her come.
"Oh, and tell them it's chaperoned. They'll want to know that."
"Huh? Oh, yeah." She nodded absently. "I'd be glad to come."
Travis tilted his head, puzzled. "Did I do or say something wrong?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No, not you. Someone… it's not important."
"Cool," he replied. "Then I guess I'll pick you up at seven for the party."
The party, which had a dozen or more teenage mammals in attendance, was at Brock's house. The place had a large living room running most of the length of the ground floor, with a small kitchen paralleling it and a sitting room at the end of both. A large back porch hosted a hot tub, making Taelia wish she had brought a bathing suit, and Brock's college-age brother who, despite being designated as the chaperone, was thoroughly engrossed in managing the grill and keeping up with a constant demand for food. The sitting room hosted an action movie on a big screen TV, but most of the real action was in the living room, where all the furniture had been moved aside to make room for dancing. This was where Taelia found herself, with Travis trying to teach her a dance she'd never done before which involved a lot of arm raising and hip jerking.
"I don't know how you guys do this," she admitted after hastily dodging another dancer and then staggering to keep her paws under her.
Travis, who had just caught her, flashed a reassuring grin. "Relax! You're doing great!" he called over the music.
As the dancing grew more energetic, both foxes danced faster. Then on one of the turns he must have misjudged the distance, because his hip hit hers with what nearly amounted to a full-on jab.
"Ouch!" she yelped, half-stumbling away as her paw shot to the struck spot.
"Whoa. You okay?" he asked.
She frowned a little. It wasn't so much the force of the impact as how focused the hit had been. "Yeah, I'm fine," she answered. "When did you get so… bony?"
This last word came out in more of a murmur as a trace of Brad's warning flashed back into her mind.
A small bottle.
"What was that?" he asked, confused.
She shook her head, trying to shake off her paranoia. "Nothing!" she answered nervously. "Um, I just need to… sit down for a bit. Can you grab some drinks? I'm really thirsty."
A look of relief washed over him. "Sure," he replied.
They passed through the kitchen and she veered into the sitting room, but she couldn't resist a glance towards his pocket where he had hit so hard. Her heart jumped to her throat as she caught a glimpse of a shape in his pocket; a small bottle.
'Dear God, this can't be real!' she thought to herself, her heart racing. If Brad had been right, and if Travis had really brought whatever stuff his classmate had given him, she was in trouble. More than trouble; she was in danger.
Panic sizzling in her brain, she slipped into the sitting room and stole a glimpse back as soon as she was sure he'd no longer be watching her. He filled two cups of punch, then slipped out the bottle and poured its contents into one of the cups.
'Oh no oh no oh no…' her brain rattled like a semi-automatic. Without thinking, she knocked on the bathroom door, scarcely waited long enough to let someone answer, and heeding the silence, darted inside and locked the door behind her.
She hadn't known she was panting, but now she leaned on the door like a hunted animal. This was bad. This was worse than anything she had ever imagined, and her brain was scarcely coherent enough to form the word 'Run!'
Yet where could she run? Travis would be in the sitting room right now, or any moment at least. If she tried to bail he'd have to know she was onto him. Who knew what he'd do then, or if any of the others would help her? She had to run. She had to hide. She had to . . .
'Window!' some tiny corner of her brain screamed. There was a window above the toilet. She'd have to climb on the tank to reach the sill, and there was no chance at reaching the lock, but-
A knock at the door behind her nearly made her scream. "Taelia?" came Travis' voice. "Are you in there?"
"Uh, yeah," she replied, sure her voice must be cracking like thin ice. "Be out in a second!" 'Out of this house and neighborhood,' she added to herself.
There was no time to question. Leaping up onto the toilet seat, she scrambled to the top of the tank on the way, hitting the handle more by luck than any thought of making her alibi more convincing with a flush. She grabbed the windowsill with one paw and shoved at the bottom of the window pane, stifling a scream of joy when it moved. Another shove, a frantic swing, and some desperate scrabbling brought the blessed coolness of night air.
The wind shot out of her like a cannon blast as her body slammed into the ground, and for long moments she lay there, gasping.
"Taelia? Taelia, are you okay?"
Terror forced her to her feet, and she ran. At first she tried to retrace the route Travis had driven when they came to the party. Yet all the back streets and side streets looked the same, and none looked at all like they had when they came while it was still light out. With no one out and about, she became agonizingly aware of just how quiet everything was, and how small she was. Part of her brain was still trying to somehow deny it all; to think that there must be some other way to read the evidence. She couldn't. Why had she ever come? Why hadn't she listened to Brad? How could she have been so stupid?!
For better or worse, self-deprecation couldn't last long as white-hot knives of sheer panic lanced through her being at every unexplained sound or approaching car. Then these gave way to weary, cold worry as one hour and then two found her still lost in the maze of unfamiliar streets. Travis had to have figured everything out by now. What would he do? She never could remember half the thoughts that flitted through her brain, and maybe it was a mercy she couldn't.
Eventually, however, the thought came over her that she had to get home somehow, and that if she didn't know how she had to ask someone for help. Maybe the party was over by now and none of the other kids would be on the streets. Either way, she had to take a chance. So when the next car came along, she was ready.
"Hey! she shouted, clambering onto the hood of a parked car and waving wildly as the headlights hit her. "Hey, help! Stop!"
The car came to a halt, and the driver rolled down her window. Taelia nearly fainted with relief when she saw the driver was a timber wolf, and a female at that. She had been afraid she might get someone from the party, but she was sure - or as sure as her weary mind could be - that none of the partygoers had been wolves.
"What in the world…?" the driver started to ask, but she broke off. Taelia's near collapse had given way to sobbing as, now that she dared to stop a moment, everything caught up to her at once.
"Get me home," she pleaded, dropping to her paws and knees. "Get me home."
For the rest of her life she had only vague memories of the drive. Though she later learned the driver's name was Laura Greyson, she could never remember an introduction and only hazily register endless questions she had no faculty to answer. Clearly she managed at some point to coherently give her address, because at long last the door opened in front of her own house. The gates of Heaven could not have looked more welcome, and with a burst of energy she ran for the door, the she-wolf behind her still asking what was going on.
"Sis!" exclaimed Richard, jumping out of his fur as she burst in the door. "What in the world-?"
"Is she okay?" asked the wolf for the hundredth time, sticking her head in the door. "I found her out wandering and she's barely said anything."
Richard, uncharacteristically concerned, looked to the strange female and back to his sister. "You found her… like this?" he asked, confused.
The she-wolf nodded. "And you are…?"
"Her brother," he answered a bit tersely, crossing to Taelia and picking her up by the shoulders. "Sis, what's going on?"
She barely had it in her to talk as she buried her face in his neck. "Travis." She managed.
He frowned in confusion, then looked at their visitor. "Did you see a tod around when you found her?"
"No, there was no one else around," came the answer.
Richard chewed his lip even as an uneasy feeling chewed at his stomach. Mechanically, he told her that their parents were out looking for Taelia and would be back soon. When Laura said she didn't need gas money for bringing Taelia home, Richard told her he'd take it from there and let her go.
There was no getting anything out of Taelia for a while; not until she'd had a glass of water and a good cry, at least, and by then her parents had returned. Then no one tried to get anything out of her for a few minutes, except to hug her and thank God a dozen times over that she was safe, and Richard's explanation of how she'd made it home.
"Then thank God for her too," said Mom of Laura. "But what happened at the party?"
Whether it was losing her composure for a while, or the water, or just giving her brain time to settle, or all three, Taelia managed to tell what had happened with only one or two stumbles and a bout of throwing up. When the story had all come out, the others' mouths were all agape in disbelief.
"I can't believe it," Dad said at last.
"You think she'd lie about this?" demanded Richard, bristling with rage.
Dad shook his head. "No. I just… well, that's not important. Honey, you get Taelia to bed. She's had enough excitement for one night. I'm going to call the police."
Taelia heard some argument later - apparently between the police and her father - which as she learned later was over their ability to act on 'hearsay' and her father saying they'd hear her say nothing in her present state unless they were going to do something. Under her mother's care, however, she fell asleep and didn't wake for several hours. It was almost one in the morning when she woke up, terribly thirsty and with an awful taste in her mouth from forgetting to brush her teeth. Her mother was in the reading chair at her desk, asleep but still standing by her, so to speak.
As she was going down the hall to the bathroom, Taelia heard a noise downstairs and went into a state of paralysis. With her body still as a statue, her mind flooded with the mental image of Travis trying to sneak in. She wanted to race back to her room and barricade the door, but her legs felt as weak as water. How she stayed standing she'd never know, but then a voice came up the stairs.
"Richard, put down the knife."
Now even her mind locked up. 'What?!'
Now came her brother's voice. "I'm going to teach that creep a lesson."
"You will do no such thing!" Sounds of scuffling came up the stairs, and her heart doubled its rate as she pictured her father and brother chasing or wrestling over one of Mom's kitchen knives.
"This is not going to help Taelia!" Dad pressed, his voice sounding as if it came through clenched teeth. For a moment the sounds of movement had stopped. Did one of them have the other pinned?
"This won't help Taelia," Dad said again. "Believe me, I want the same thing, but you know how it will end. Even if we stopped him tonight we would still end up going to prison branded as murderers. I won't have my son doing that; not when Taelia needs both of us here to help her through this."
Silence followed; agonizing silence. "What if he tries again?" pressed Richard.
"He'll be a fool to try it," Dad answered, "but if he does, we'll do what we must to stop him then. Here and now, though, we're helping Taelia. That's all."
After a moment came the thunk of the knife returning to the kitchen block. "Fine. But don't blame me if he goes home from school tomorrow beaten up."
"I won't blame you," Dad replied gravely. By his voice he hated what he was saying even more than his son did, though he knew it was useless frustration. "But the police will."
At the police station the next day, the responding officers could promise little since Taelia had no corroborating witnesses (except Laura, whose number they had neglected to get) or hard evidence to back up her claim. Even more to Taelia's worry and her family's chagrin, they said they couldn't tell any details about how they would investigate or what they would do until they had a more decisive case.
Taelia didn't go to school Monday, and when she did go back she had no contact with Travis. It was as if matching magnetic poles stood between them now; he would avoid her, or she would avoid him. Once he slipped her a note in class which she opened and blacked out, unread, with a marker before throwing it away. In PE she was always as far away as the playing field allowed, and into the girls' locker room as soon as chance allowed it.
The next Monday, word around school buzzed about Travis – or rather, the lack of him. Rumors flew like sparrows in the springtime that his family had been involved in an accident or his dad got transferred. No teacher, or classmate, or police officer could - or would - say for sure what had happened. Whatever the case, Travis didn't come to school that day, or the next, or the next. He was gone from the school… at least in body.
Not for Taelia, though. For the rest of high school and her first year of college, he lingered around. When she tried to be at ease with other tods, his paw encircled her waist. When a sudden movement startled her, his face hung in her vision just for an instant after she turned to look. When she walked the streets alone, his steps rustled in the bushes. When she couldn't sleep at night, he was the monster in her closet.
She would never forget her first boyfriend.
I want to make some comments about the process behind this story, but somehow after writing the end I can't bring myself to say as much as I would. I feel like I have to say something about the significance of religion in this story, because that was one aspect I struggled with a great deal. I didn't want this to feel like a story written strictly to Christians by a Christian, but at the same time I felt as though in her kithood Taelia's faith and the faith of her family would have been important to her, as they were to me and central to my experiences with sexual harassment; the same ones, ultimately, that led me to develop this story.
I also think I should acknowledge (since I suspect the open ending will annoy some of my readers) that I was very deliberate that Travis' disappearance be open-ended. In part his disappearance was inspired by some events in Loudon County's school district in 2021. I also left it on a question mark because in my own case – I concede, far less horrific than what happened to two young girls in Virginia – I found myself so plagued by unknowns. As I now know is normal in such cases, I've wondered to this very day about things I'll probably never know in this lifetime, and maybe not even in the next. I've made my peace with not knowing, but those who've read Something Stinks know that Taelia has not yet found it, much like many men and women you probably see and even talk with every day.
I will say that if you or anyone you know of gets into messes like this – ones that can plague your mind for years, decades, maybe the rest of your life – don't sit on your hands like I did. Run. Speak up. Get the proper authorities. God gave you defensive instincts for a reason.
P.S. Laura Greyson belongs to my friend Wildfire over on Animation Source. All other characters not tied to the original movie are mine.