Chapter 3: First day and comfort
The alarm clock ticked over to 6:30 and Chance and Jake's room was brought to life with a loud alarm.
"WHA!" Chance woke up in such shock that he fell out of his bed, flat on his face.
Jake sat up in is bed and rubbed his eyes while letting out a yawn. He looked over to see Chance lying face first on the floor. "I give the dismount a 7, but the landing a perfect 10" he joked holding up all 10 of his digits
Chance lifted up his hand and gave Jake a thumbs up, "Glad to know I impress" he stated calmly. He looked up at Jake and gave a huge toothy smile, "You know what today is right?"
Jake stood up from his bed and helped Chance to his feet. "First day at DWMA!" He couldn't hide the excitement in his voice.
When Chance was on his feet he gripped Jake's hand tightly, "Yup! Let's show em' what a radical team like us can do!"
Chance and Jake are running up the staircase leading to the DWMA's front doors. Ding-Dong-Ding-Dong sounded the schools first bell. "Damn it Chance! I told you to hurry in the shower!" Jake said through his rapid breathing.
"Sorry, I like my showers!" Chance jested in response
The two plowed through the entrance and found the halls almost empty aside from a few students still trying to find their classrooms. "Alright we're in … room 203. Let's hurry up!" Chance said, clearly excited. He and Jake ran up the first flight of stairs they saw.
"Let's see..." Jake said as he and Chance walked down the hall, "There!" Jake pointed out the door to their room down the hall. He and Chance walked up to the door and both froze in place. "A bit nervous?" Jake questioned.
"Yeah" Chance chuckled in reply, "Aren't you?"
"Just a bit." Was all Jake said
Chance turned to face Jake "You'll be fine bud, come on.." he smiled at Jake "...we don't wanna be late on our first day do we?" Jake smiled back at Chance and nodded. With that Chance opened the door. He and Jake walked into the classroom to find fewer students in there than they thought would be, at most there were maybe 30 others. They were all talking amongst themselves, only a few actually turned to see Chance and Jake. Chance had caught a few giggles when he looked around and found a couple girls staring at him. He blushed slightly and turned away.
"Ah, found the classroom did we?"
Jake and Chance turned to see the man who asked them the question. He was tall with purple skin and black dread-locks.
"Uh, yeah! Are you our teacher, Sid-sensei?" Jake questioned.
"Yes I am. I'm guessing you two are Jacob Clawson and Chance Furlong?"
"Yes sensei. How could you tell?" Chance asked
"Aside from being the only other kats in my class besides Callie-Chan and Felina-Chan, your also one of the only other partner pairings on my list." Sid answered
Chance took a quick look around the classroom to find the two kats in question. He found them sitting next to each other toward the front of the classroom in the middle section. The two were chatting casually, it was obvious that they were friends. Callie was a short-furred cat with very light brown fur and blonde hair. Felina had the opposite, she was long-furred and had a darker brown fur with black hair. She also had a single streak of white in that dark hair. Chance couldn't deny it, both of them were cute.
"Wait, they actually tell you who is partnered up?" Jake questioned.
"Yes, when you attended orientation you confirmed whether or not you had a partner. We make sure to put pairs together in the same class, for obvious reasons. Other than you two we have Callie and Felina as a pair, Josiah and Marsha, and Gregory and Davis. If you two want you can take either the seats by Callie and Felina or up in the corner by Gregory and Davis. I like to keep the partnerships near each other and Josiah and Marsha have yet to show up."
"Alright, where do you wanna sit Jake?" Chance asked turning his attention back to Jake and Sid, he already knew where he wanted to sit and hoped Jake would wanna sit there too.
"You can just say you wanna sit next to Callie you know?" Jake gently elbowed Chance, he had caught Chance eying them
"I...uh...um"
"Alright, then take your seats you two" Sid chimed in. Chance and Jake turned to him and nodded. They turned back to the sets of seats and walked toward them. Chance quickly stepped into the isle and made his way to the seat he claimed, which would be in between Callie and Jake.
"Hi! I'm Chance!" Chance extended his paw to Callie. Callie turned over to him and looked at his face for a second. He was grinning his now trademark toothy grin.
"Hehe, Callie, nice to meet you," She greeted, shaking Chance's paw
"And I'm Felina!" Felina chimed in extending her paw out to Chance.
Chance took it in kind as well, "This is my partner, Jake." Chance introduced Jake, moving aside so Callie and Felina could see him
Jake's shoulders tensed up slightly, "Uh, hi!" was all he could muster as he extended his paw out.
"A bit shy are we?" Callie questioned as she shook his paw
Jake blushed slightly, "Oh Callie don't tease the guy!" Felina interjected as she took his paw in her hand.
"It's a little hard not to be shy with someone as cute as Callie here" Chance cut-in
"And your bold, hehe. Sorry but your not my type Chance" Callie coolly stated
Chance's expression changed to a comically saddened one, "Shot down in two seconds staring Chance Furlong" He said
"Better luck on the next one bud." Jake said, putting his paw on Chances shoulder. "Yes YES YES!" Jake screamed in his head. He felt bad about being excited that Chance got shot down, but he couldn't help it.
"Alright take your seats students!" Sid bellowed. Everyone sat in their seats and Sid began with the introductory information akin to the first days of school. Jake wore a grin on his face for the entirety of the introduction, even though it was almost a repeat of the material covered at orientation. The four talked quietly and maintained a conversation for most of the introduction. After the ice had been broken Jake had even actively joined in.
"As far as dormitories, you're all familiar with the new situations where students may live in an apartment regardless of year..." Bing-Bong-Bing-Bong chimed the school bell. "Oh, lost track of time I suppose. Alright everyone take your lunch break and be back in an hour." Sid finished
Chance and Jake rose from their seats. "You two wanna come have lunch with us?" Chance questioned Callie and Felina.
"Yeah, it'd be nice to have some friends to eat lunch with on our first day!" Jake chimed in
"Oho a bit less shy are we? Sorry, I have to go back to the dorm and get some things." Callie answered, "But maybe Felina could go with you two?"
"Sure!" Felina quickly answered. "Unlike some space cases I remember everything I need for the day!" She said sticking her tongue out at Callie. Callie responded with a chuckle and walked off waving back at the group. The trio took this as a cue to head to the cafeteria and promptly did so. The three walked down the hall and talked until they had come across a restroom.
"Hold up a sec will ya?" Chance asked. Felina looked up at Chance confused until he pointed toward the restroom with his thumb. Chance went into the restroom and Jake and Felina were waiting outside with an awkward silence.
"So..." Jake muttered
"So how long have you liked Chance?" Felina suddenly questioned Jake.
Jake froze, mouth agape. He shook himself from the sudden stupor, and looked around to make sure no-one had heard "What? Don't be..."
"You hide it kinda well but I have an excellent gay-dar so don't try to fool me." she responded cooly.
"...How did I let that slip?" Jake questioned while rubbing the back of his head as he blushed.
"Oh, little things. The fact that you seem to hang on his every word. Your always happy around him. That all-to-cheerful grin when Callie shot him down..." Felina listed
Jake got an embarrassed sweat drop down his cheek, "You saw that hunh, hehe. Alright you have to promise not a word to him or anyone!"Felina nodded rapidly, she was clearly interested. "Usually I wouldn't talk about this to someone I just met, or anyone for that matter." Jake sighed, "Ever since I met him I guess, so about two weeks ago."
Felina's jaw fell open, "TWO WEEKS? You two seem to get along so well I coulda sworn you were life-long friends!"
Jake smiled. Chance came out of the restroom. "What about life-long friends."
Jake jumped at Chance's sudden interjection. "Oh uh well Felina was just, uh.."
"I was asking when you two met, when Jake told me two weeks I was really surprised. You two act like childhood friends!" Felina said to Jake's aid.
Chance smiled his trademark toothy grin and put his paw on Jake's shoulder, "Yup, it's only been a couple weeks but Jake is my best bud by far!"
Jake smiled, and Felina even smiled warmly. The three continued to the schools cafeteria with contented looks.
Chance, Jake and Felina were each carrying their respective lunches. Chance had a loaded tray and Felina and Jake were each carrying a bin-to box. They walked around the cafeteria floor for a bit trying to find a place to sit when they heard a familiar voice.
"Chance-kun, Jake-kun!"
Chance and Jake spun around to see Maka's familiar face. She was smiling and waving at them. Along side her sat quite a few people, including Crona.
"You know them?" Felina questioned.
Chance and Jake were waving back to Maka as the trio walked over toward the larger group. "Well we know Maka, the girl who shouted to us, and Crona, the pink haired girl. But the guy sitting next to her with white hair and all the others are new"
Maka's group stood up as Chance and company got to their table. "Hi Senpai!" Jake greeted
Maka smiled and held her hand out toward her group, "These are my friends," She turned back toward her group, "and these are the two new friends Crona and I met yesterday. The tall tom's Chance-kun and the cinnamon tom is Jake-kun!"
"Hi!" "Yo!" "Hello!" they all greeted. Maka smiled , "the one next to me is Soul, he's my partner."
"Yo!" Soul, a boy with white hair wearing a small headband greeted
"The loud-mouth, blue haired one is Black Star and the girl next to him with long black hair is his partner Tsubaki. And the one dressed in black with short hair is Kid and his partners Liz and Patty are in the hats."
"YO!" greeted Black Star. "Hello." said Tsubaki. "Hi." Kidd, Liz and Patty said in unison.
"Hi everyone! Maka's already introduced me and Jake, but this other kat with us in Felina." Chance replied to the greetings. Felina simply smiled and waved hello.
"Why don't you three eat with us we have plenty of room at the table!" Soul chimed in
"Sure!" the trio of kats replied. The three sat down and soon started having conversations. They all found that they could talk to each other at least somewhat easily, even Jake could with a little prompting from Chance. It wasn't long before they were all laughing and smiling at Chance's jokes with Jake's observations thrown in.
"Oh yeah, I have a question. You guys have had Sid-sensei as a teacher before right?" Jake asked. Maka promptly nodded."Alright, why is his skin purple?"
"Yeah I was wondering that too" Felina added
Maka began to giggle.
"What's that about?" Chance asked
"You guys are gonna die at this answer" Liz responded causing Patty to break into laughter
"Well you see Sid-sensei is a zombie more or less" Tsubaki replied
Jake froze up and his expression turned to a semi-frightened one. "D-d-did you s-say zombie?"
"Yup, thanks to Stein-sensei." Soul added
"Oh great, very first day and I found out my teacher's a zombie. As if I wasn't nervous enough." Jake sighed. The group again began laughing. Jake shot Chance a funny angry look, only to make Chance laugh harder. "ARE YOU TELLING ME IT DOESN'T BOTHER YOU!?" Jake yelled at his best-friend.
"Not at..." The bell rang and cut off Chance's answer. "Guess we better get back to class. It was fun getting to meet you guys. We'll have to do it again!"
Maka's group nodded their approval, "Definitely! You kats are pretty cool so feel free to join us whenever you want." Soul cooly stated
Chance and Jake nodded their mutual agreement and Felina responded with a smile.
The three walked back to class and continued to joke and talk., even as they entered the the classroom, causing Sid to smile at his students
The rest of the class day passed with more introductory material. The final bell rang. "Alright students, that's it for today. I realize today wasn't exactly eventful but tomorrow we will actually get into the heart of the course!" Sid said as he began to pack away his stuff. Jake and Chance gathered their things and waved goodbye to Callie and Felina as they left the room.
"So where you still wanting to run by you're old place?" Jake questioned.
"Yeah, I left some boxes and a few miscellaneous things over there that I'll prolly need." Chance responded.
The two proceeded to leave through DWMA's front entrance and walk down the stairs. As soon as they separated from the crowd of students, the duo headed for the outskirts of Death City where Chance had left his car. "So where is this car of yours?" Jake questioned
"It's in the parking lot that DWMA made for students last year, they said that people were complaining about some kid with a motorcycle." Chance replied
"Ah, what kind of car is it?" Jake pried
Chance smiled, "1985 F-150, it's old but I've kept it in amazing shape" Chance boasted "Guess I shoulda called it a truck hunh?"
Jake smiled, Chance seemed to have recovered from the previous night. Maybe he'd try to get his to talk about it on the ride to Chance's old house.
"Here she is!" Chance exclaimed. Chance darted forward toward a maroon smiled, his friend really did like cars. It had a simple design, a two-maybe-three person cab and a truck bed, there were no back seats. Chance promptly unlocked his side of the vehicle and hit the unlock button at the side. Jake climbed in to the passenger side of the cab. Both buckled their seat-belts and Chance put the key into the ignition. "You ready to hear my baby purr?" Chance asked. Jake shot Chance a questioning look, and Chance turned the ignition in response. The engine roared to life, quite literally and Jake's eyes widened. "Suped up the old V8 engine in this thing to get more horses out of her." Chance was still smiling as he pulled out of the parking lot. Chance started down the road that lead away from Death City to the East.
There was nothing but the sound of the engine for a few minutes. Jake decided it was time to ask Chance about the previous night. Jake opened his mouth to speak but Chance started talking before him, "So Felina really seemed to be into you dude." Chance smiled and jabbed his friend in the side.
"Oh...uh..well.." Jake stammered, surprised that Chance had cut him off right then. "I don't think she's my type." Was his response
"Oho Jakey boy has a type does he? So what's your perfect one hunh?" Chance pried with a mischievous grin on his face
"Well …..." Jake looked over to Chance and then turned back with a slight smirk "I like 'em tall and blonde furred, but not really light blonde, more yellow like. They have to be funny and they gotta have a great smile. And I LOVE hazel eyes." Jake had described Chance for the most part, he left out the part about him liking muscle. Besides, Chance never said "perfect girl". Jake suddenly got nervous, what if Chance realized Jake was talking about him, what would happen? What would Chance do? What would...
"Damn, sounds pretty sexy to me dude. I don't know personally I like brown or blonde furred ones." Chance responded.
Jake sent a silent prayer of thanks that Chance was at least somewhat dense. "Wait he said he liked brown fur, glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel?" Jake thought to himself
"Here we are." Chance said upon arrival at the house. Jake refocused himself and looked out on the standard suburb style house. He hadn't even noticed the suburb they had driven into, overall it looked nice though, aside from the similar houses left and right. He and Chance promptly got out of the vehicle after Chance parked it in the driveway. Chance sorted through his keys when they got to the door. He finally picked a small one and opened up the lock on the door.
The duo didn't find much upon entering the home, it was mostly empty aside from the couch against the far wall and the entertainment center. Jake looked up at Chance, his gaze was focused at the kitchen entance. "Chance, you alright?" Jake asked
Chance shook his head and snapped back to reality. "Yeah, I'm fine bud. Come on, the stuff I'm looking for should be in my room." Chance guided Jake to the back of the house to the last door on the left. Chance's old room was still somewhat "intact," he had a desk and a bed frame in there still but other than that there were just small items lying around. A stapler here, some books stacked in the corner, etc. Chance walked into the room and went straight to his closet, which he promptly opened and pulled out his guitar. "There's my girl!" He exclaimed
"Oh yeah you did say you played, you'll have to play me something sometime!" Jake winked at Chance, who smiled back.
Chance set the guitar by the door and started to rummage through the things that were left over. Jake did the same, he asked what stuff Chance would still need and what could go away. As Jake was going through Chance's stuff he came across a bible in a nice leather binding.
"Oh, I didn't know you were the religious type." Jake commented as he turned to Chance while holding up the bible.
Chance turned to Jake and smiled, "Oh that's where that went!" Chance took the bible from Jake's hands with a smile. "I'm not extremely religious but I do enjoy my faith." Chance said fondly
"So what religion are you?"
"I'm Methodist."
"Ah, ok"
"Do you have a religion?" Chance questioned
"Well, I do believe in God and have been to a Universalist Unitarian church before, it's been forever since I've gone though."
"Universalist Unitarian?"
"Haha you want me to explain?"
"Sure, just let me go pee first."
Jake chuckled as Chance left the room, Chance's openness on things like that was something strange to him,in a funny way of course. Jake continued to rummage through a new pile of Chances stuff, finding things that made him laugh. While he was going through the new pile of stuff he found a magazine. It was a Hustlekat magazine. "Goddamn it, I don't have a single shot in heaven do I?" Jake said hanging his head. When Jake heard the toilet flush he hurriedly stuffed the magazine away and waited for Chance to re-enter the room. But Chance didn't, the bathroom was just down the hall so he should have come back in just a couple seconds. Jake got up from his sitting position and walked to the door. He looked down the hall and saw that it was empty. He walked down the hall to the living room where he found Chance standing, facing away from him.
"There ya are bud what did ya come in here fo..." Jake said as he walked up to Chance. He stopped mid-sentence when he got to Chance's side and found him crying. "Chance, what's wrong?" Jake questioned, Jake moved his attention to what Chance was holding in his hand, it was a photo frame with a seemingly recent photo. In it was Chance looking almost the same as he does now, and a she-kat that came up to his shoulders. She had the same fur-tone as Chance and they both had hazel eyes...it was his mother.
Sniff "Sorry Jake, I found this picture lying on the floor and I just..I just.." sniff, Chance wiped his eyes, Jake was now standing in front of him, "You must think I'm such a pu..." Chance was cut off by a sudden hug from Jake.
"It's OK Chance, let it out." Jake said in a very soft tone. Chance's eyes welled up again, no matter how hard he tried now he couldn't hold back the tears, the dam had broken. Chance was crying full force now, the room was filled with his sobs and moans. Chance was thankful that Jake was just a bit shorter than he was, Jake's shoulder came up just high enough for Chance to bury his face into. Jake's shoulder was soaking wet with tears almost instantly.
"If I..if I would've sniff just come home sooner...if I didn't go to hang out with Trevor maybe she'd..she'd still be.." Chance stammered out through his sobs
"You can't blame yourself for it Chance, it's not your fault. There's no way anyone could have done anything." It just dawned on Jake, "Where is his dad? They are divorced aren't they?" He questioned in his mind. He would ask at another time, right now all that mattered was Chance.
"But sniff ...but"
"Hey," Jake softly lifted Chance's head from his shoulder and turned it to face him, he gave Chance a warm smile, "I bet she's looking down on from heaven with a smile, I don't care if it's cliché, it's true." Chance's eyes welled up up even more and he resumed crying into Jake's shoulder. The two stood there in semi-silence, aside from the sounds of Chance crying, for what seemed like an hour. Chance's sobs came to a slow stop and soon so followed his tears. Chance wiped his eyes into Jake's still soaked shoulder and lifted his head. He smiled at Jake softly, his eyes were extremely red from all of the crying. "You ok now Chan..., whoa!"
Chance literally pulled Jake into a big hug, "Thank you Jake, no-one has ever helped me... no, no-one has ever comforted me with this." Chance tightened the hug to the point that he was holding Jake tight but not like the bear-hug he had put him in weeks ago, "Thank you"
Jake smiled softly and returned the hug. Chance had let him go after a few seconds and Jake placed his paw on Chance's broad shoulder, "Come on let's get your stuff. Then when we get home how about we get something out for dinner? My treat!" Chance smiled and nodded. Jake didn't need Chance to speak to understand his gratitude, he was practically emanating it. The rest of the time they were at Chance's old home Chance was smiling.
Just before the two headed out the door Jake picked up the picture Chance had been looking at when he was crying, "We're taking this with us too! We'll put it up near the doorway so you can say hi to her every time you come home."
Chance nodded, "I'd like that" he replied
The two got into the truck and drove back in silence, but it was by no means awkward.
Chance and Jake walked into the door carrying two bags from a local burger joint. "Well I don't know if this is an improvement from pizza but it's a change at least." Jake joked
They walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch, Chance promptly turned on the TV. The two ate and Chance profusely laughed as his favorite show Scardy Kat was on, Jake didn't find the attraction but still didn't mind watching it since Chance liked the show.
"So...I've been meaning to ask.." Jake said while taking a big drink from his soda, "Ahh ... this Trevor guy, do you still talk to him?"
"Hunh? Oh, no, me and Trevor weren't friends."
"Hunh?"
"I would just go and hang out with him sometimes, he may of thought of me as a friend but I sure as hell didn't see him that way."
"May I ask why?"
Chance set his burger down and muted the TV, "Well, let's just say this belly I've got isn't just because of how much I eat now. In fact, it used to be a lot bigger when I was in elementary and middle school."
"You where.."
"Yeah, I was the fat kid. So you can guess what everybody else did. And Trevor was one of the biggest bullies I had."
"What made that change?"
"Well, in high school my nuts finally dropped.." The phrase caught Jake off guard and made him do a spit take, "and I finally grew into my body. I shot up a couple feet, the hormones kicked in and I began working out and within a year I was about what you see now. I've grown a bit taller since then and my guns.." Chance said while flexing his arms in a show-off fashion "..have gotten bigger, but that's about it. Anyway when Trevor tried picking on me again I punched him straight in the nose."
Jake felt like he should gasp but didn't, he also felt that maybe he should ask about his dad, "Nah that can wait for a while" was his decision in his mind
"The principle got me in his office of course, but instead of scolding me..he patted me on the back and said "good job son!" But yeah I never really had many actual friends, I had one, Gary, but he's long gone in Germany and I haven't talked to him for months now."
"Oh.." was about the only befitting response Jake could come up with
"You know, I think I realize why my mom's death shook me up the way it did. I mean it has been almost a month now, most people would've gotten over it at least a little. But for me, I was losing one of the only things I cared about in this world."
Jake felt that he should comfort Chance, but Chance showed no sign of needing it. Maybe he was just comfortable talking about this to Jake.
"But now.." Chance gave Jake his signature toothy grin, "I've got a TON of things to care about; DWMA, all of the new friends I'm making, actual friends...and ..." Chance looked Jake straight in the eye and his expression softened, "you, Jake."
Jake's mouth hung open for a few seconds and then he smiled warmly at Chance who returned the smile in kind. That is, until Jake lunged at Chance and put him in a head lock, "C'mere you big lug!" Jake then gave Chance a noogie.
"Hey knock it off! You're being cliché again! Hahahaha!"
"Hahaha" they both laughed in unison, wearing big smiles on their faces