Edited to fix typos and add/remove some lines
JC stared at some blank paper, he had been staring at the sheets for an hour, but he couldn't get any inspiration, he glanced at his computer, the email inbox was flooded with fan-mail, he had recently sent off the finished 6th volume to the manga publishers, he sighed and glanced at the previous 5 volumes and pulled out the 1st, staring at the cover
'three chapters per volume, and I cannot think of any more, writer's block is much more of a pain then I realised'
he sighed again, looking up as there was a knock on the door
"come in" Kawa entered with an envelope addressed to him
"afternoon JC" she said in her cheery voice "how's the manga going?"
"I've hit a dead-end" JC said, looking at the blank paper "i have many story elements I want to do, but none are ready for the story yet" he laid his head on the desk "I'm in a slump"
"well, summer holidays are coming up, so you get get a break and come back with fresh ideas" Kawa said, glancing down a bit "oh, yeah, this letter arrived for you" she passed it to him, JC looked it over "it arrived around lunch"
JC opened the envelope and pulled out the letter inside,
"lets see "dear JC, we 'blah blah blah' Beetron series 'yaddah yaddah' invite you to the annual Anime and Manga Convention, being held..." hm? it's in our city" JC said, handing Kawa the letter
"quite it coincidence" she said, reading it "looks like you're able to meet your fans and do all that, and according to this, it takes place during the summer holidays in a month"
JC looked at her, then back at the letter, seeing an email to respond too, he stared blankly, thinking about everything that he would be doing there,
"thinking of going?" Kawa asked him, JC turned to the laptop and opened the email program,
"yeah, it would be an interesting opportunity" he replied, sending the email to the company, he paused, glancing at the stack of pages that made up the rough copy of the most recent volume, he turned back to the email and added a line, asking if it was OK to sell and autograph the day 1 releases,
"thinking of tying your recent release to the convention?"
"yeah, I hope I get approved"
"well, let me know what happens either way, you know where to find me" Kawa patted JC's shoulder and left, he smiled gently, going back to his various notes for ideas.
A couple of weeks passed, since then, JC had gotten back a reply, saying that he'd be able to sell his most recent volume there, he had contacted the publishers to have the release on that day, and to send 3 boxes for the weekend, even Juno had stopped in to speak with him on a few occasions, she seemed a lot more open since Louis disappeared before the festival, JC didn't mention Louis at all during the meet-ups, not wanting her to take it the wrong way,
"you've changed a bit since I first met you" JC looked up at her when she said this
"really? How so?" he asked
"well, you seem to be a bit more open to everyone, and less…...erm…..cold…?" JC raised an eyebrow,
"you think I'm cold?" Juno tripped over her words a bit, trying to backtrack what she was saying "well, I guess your kinda right" she stared at him
"what? Why do you think that?"
"ever since you said that your ideal mate should be another wolf, well….it kind of….broke me, inside, but since the festival, I've felt that your right" he looked at her "your beautiful, and I know that you'll make any male wolf happy, just by being with them" he glanced out the window silently "even Legoshi, if it doesn't work out with the rabbit"
"i-i guess" Juno said, standing from the chair JC offered her when she arrived "i should be going now, I need to get things ready for the summer" she turned and headed to the door
"thanks for your company Juno" JC said, not looking at her as she left, she glanced back at him silently before leaving, JC sighed
'she deserves someone better then me'
he remembered back to what Haru said to him before, which seemed to have happened a long while ago
"that's not true JC" he turned to face Haru, who looked up at him "any girl you'd want to be with would be lucky to be loved by a unique creature like you, because of who you are"
"I'm just happy that you think I'm special" he muttered, glancing at the blank notes, he had opened that notepad a week ago and all that it had added to it, was dust, he sighed and stood "maybe I need a new perspective" he went to the open door, looking up at the main building, remembering a pool on the roof, he grabbed his satchel case and headed up, finding the guys from 701 up there, hanging out
"yo JC" Durham called to him, alerting the others to his presence "what are you doing up here"
"yeah, you hardly ever leave your cabin nowadays" Miguno added, JC approached and sat with them,
"been trying, and failing, to start the next volume of Beetron" he explained "I've been going over many plot points, from the obscure to the cliché, but nothing jumps out at me"
"writers block is awful" Voss said,
"yeah, especially when it comes to assignments" Collot added "anyway, we were up here discussing what our plans for the summer holidays are"
"yeah, but mostly its just all of us returning to our families" Jack explained, JC silently frowned gently
"you OK JC?" Legoshi asked "don't you have a family to go home too?" the other guys looked at JC silently as he inhaled and sighed
"my real parents disappeared when I was 6, only leaving me with this" he explained, taking his hat of, he stared down at it, running a thumb over the belt that ran around it "and, because I was too young to fend for myself, I was put into foster care, a baboon couple took me in, taught me many things, along with" he paused, then looked at Jack "everything you found out, as if it was ongoing" Jack looked a bit concerned now "telling me that everyone would either fear or hate me because of it, growing up I believed it, being taken out of one school and into another every year, making sure I don't find out the truth, but the year before I came here, I did a little digging, found out about my kind, seeing the truth, but, to keep up the ruse, I kept quiet, until I was transferred here, telling me that it was part of an exchange program, or something like that" he sighed and looked at everyone "if they try to take me out at the end of this year, I wont go, this is the first place in my life where I've felt like I'm home"
The guys stared back at him, glancing at each other silently
"i never thought that your upbringing was like that" Voss said, approaching him "why didn't you tell any of us?"
"it never came up, and I never thought to tell anyone" JC explained "and anyway, my mind was clogged with Tem's murder"
"that would get anyone's mind off any dark past" Jack surmised "but I'm guessing you're going back to your foster parents for the holidays" he looked at them,
"no, I'm gonna see if I'm able to stay on campus the whole holidays" JC replied, not letting them on to the convention he was invited to "anyway, if they find out that I've been making a killing with my manga, they'd try to leech off me"
"shame that a few of us are going away during the holidays" Miguno stated
"and those who are staying will have a full schedule with their families" Collot added,
JC smiled at them as the conversation dissolved into what the others were planning on doing, he only half-listened to what they were saying, Jack handed him a soft-drink which he accepted, he stared at the opening after pulling the ring-pull, thinking about what had happened since he arrived.
JC approached the booth where he had been designated, a couple of staff unloading the boxes of manga he had ordered, having found out about the projected attendance numbers, he ordered 2 extra to be delivered the next day,
"thanks for the help guys" he said to them as they left him alone, he turned and looked over the booth, seeing cutouts of Beetron himself, Marcus the Grey wolf, Mina the Rabbit, and Kelsey the White Wolfess, he smiled gently as Zebra Mare approached him
"JC?" she asked, JC turning to look at her
"that's me"
"my name is Liyana, I'll be assisting you for the weekend" JC smiled and shook her hand
"a pleasure to meet you" he said "I'm guessing you'll be shadowing me to make sure I take breaks and the like"
"correct, and I'll also be reminding you of events you're scheduled for" JC eyed a Beetron pin attached to her lanyard
"I'm guessing your a Beetron fan?" he asked her, looking at the pin, she looked down and smiled
"well, my brother got me into this sort of thing years ago, but yeah, big fan" Liyana replied
"glad to have a fan assisting me" JC said, getting behind the booth table and pulling up the sign he was provided
"Beetron Vol.6 (unsigned) ¥800, Beetron Vol.6 (signed) ¥1,100, Signature on anything ¥300 each"
"glad I negotiated for these prices" JC explained "i don't want to cheat out my readers into paying an arm and a leg for this, pun fully intended"
"i see, your not like everyone else" Liyana said, looking out at the other booths "many of them want their fans to pay high prices for their works, but you, you want to be fair to your fans" this made JC smile
"lets just say, I'd like to everyone to be happy "he said, checking his watch "almost time, stand by for the rush"
After about 2 hours of the convention being active, JC's booth was approached by many fans, a few looking for autographs, nearly all of them looking to purchase a copy of the new volume, many of them also asking for an autograph to go with it, close to lunch, he was idly speaking with Liyana as another person approach, JC turned to them and stared, seeing who it was,
"j-Juno?" she looked as shocked as him
"j-JC, y-your the JC who creates these manga?" she asked
"yeah, I never realised that you were a fan"
"er…..i-I'm honestly not" JC stared at her "my younger brother is, and he asked me to get a copy of the new volume"
"i see" they looked over at a couple of brown coloured grey wolves, the youngest looked to be around 5 or 6 "whats his name?"
"Apollo" Juno replied, JC looked at her pulling money out as he grabbed a manga, opening it to the front page, he signed his name at the bottom of the front page, before writing something on the inner cover,
"To strong little Apollo, may the justice that Beetron fights for, live on in you"
he closed the cover and handed it to Juno, only taking enough for the manga alone, Juno looked a bit surprised at this
"b-but…." she couldn't say any more when she saw JC's gentle smile which she slowly returned "w-want to go grab lunch t-together?" she asked, he looked back at Liyana who nodded gently
"sure, I'll meet you over at the food court" he replied as Juno returned to her family and handed the manga to her brother, JC's heart melted when he saw Apollo's face light up at the message JC had left for him.
A short while, JC was brought a cup of fries with plenty of mustard along with a drink that he ordered over to where Juno was waiting for him,
"just fries?" she asked "i thought that you'd want to have a burger or something"
"not really keen on soy meats" JC admitted "not unless they've been seasoned with the artificial flavour of the meat they're meant to imitate"
"that's right, where you're from, our kind hasn't evolved like the rest of us, but you keep them there to protect them because of potential extinction from over consumption"
"right the first time Juno" JC said, eating a few fries, not noticing Juno studying him silently, when he did notice, she quickly started eating
'she seems a lot different here then she does at school, what if it's all an act, to prove that she's capable of being the next Beastar, but, maybe it's more like that she's able to relax and be herself outside of school, maybe because we expect so much from her'
"Juno?" she looked at him "forgive me for asking but….are you….trying to push yourself and prove to everyone that you can be a perfect Beastar candidate?" she looked shocked at such a question "forgive me, I'm just curious, you seem more relaxed now then you are at school" she calmed down and looked at her lunch,
"knowing that I'm a someone who can be a Beastar, honestly, it makes more focused to prove them right, so much so, I sometimes push some away" she sighed, her hand resting on the table, "it feels like I'm wearing a mask" JC stared at her before gently placing his hand on hers, she looked at him, surprised at this,
"then maybe remove the mask, allow everyone to see you for who you are, and not for what they expect of you, it'll be hard at first, believe me, I know what that is like all too well, made me push those who wanted to be my friends away" he looked her in the eye "don't make the same mistake I did without realising it too late" her expression slowly morphed into a smile
"thank you JC, you're a great friend" he returned her smile
"i try my best to me"
Summer soon ended with all the students returning to Cherryton, Jack and Legoshi coming to visit JC, bringing him some watermelon slices that they grabbed on the way, as they returned, Haru giving him a sweet hug when the 2 met back up in the gardening club, JC having done the basics for Haru's absence, he even got a hug from Juno when she returned, she made sure that the 2 of them were alone, Juno mentioning that it was a thank you for what he did at the convention, JC even muttering about not wanting it to be the last time they did this, but Juno not catching it, everything seemed to be returning to normal back at Cherryton for the second half of the year…..somewhat.