The morning at Lyre High School started as it did on any other day. Even with all the nervousness of the election results and other distractions, life simply went on and the people of Lyre continued to show their support for their Animalian neighbors and friends, especially as Animalia and Lyre continued to integrate. By now, Samuel and Samson had both graduated from the program that Horizon Labs and Animalia had agreed on to help uplifted Animals catch up with humans with regard to their cognitive intelligence. Some might have figured that Samson would return to the Brown farm full time to fill his role as foreman, but his desire to be close to Abby remained firm. His appearance there on Abby's arm had also gotten some of the boys that had seen Abby as a sex object to back off when they saw that they couldn't compete with him.
In the meantime, the group that included Abby and her friends and their uplifted pets and one young boyfriend in Roger, continued to meet just outside the school or just inside the lobby before heading to their individual classes. That was something that seemed to go as clockwork, but had some surprise when the Wesley's dropped off Malice but not Sarah. This of course lead to plenty of questions as Malice came up toward the front doors.
"Is Sarah okay?" Sophie asked. Animalians seemed to be rather healthy, but she didn't know if their more human-like build would leave them vulnerable to disease or whether or not they only vulnerable to canine diseases. In fact there had been some discussion that Sarah and her parents had all received vaccinations for various canine diseases after they became Animalians.
"Yeah, she's okay," Malice answered with a knowing smile and a wag of her tail.
"And?" Jessica asked her.
"And she and her mate should be here shortly," Malice answered with her smile undiminished and her tail still wagging behind her.
Abby was about to speak when the sound of a car door closing and a male voice saying, "goodbye mom" was heard. All eyes then turned to see that Sarah had in fact arrived with a strong and athletic looking mature male Dalmatian Animalian. This made it fairly clear on what Sarah and Travis had been doing the night before, though not that there would be much complaint from the group on that. Malice had been actively looking for a mate but was yet to fully attract one and Abby was already a double dosed mare. She and Samson enjoyed each other's company as often as they could. They stood quietly as Sarah and Travis approached with tails wagging happily.
"Well... you look like you had a good night," Abby commented off hand as Sarah approached.
"I did," Sarah answered as she looked to Travis with a happy smile on her muzzle, "It wasn't how I pictured finding the male I want to marry... but I wouldn't give it up for anything."
"I know how you feel," Abby smiled and looked over to Samson.
"You look good, Travis," Samson said politely.
"Sarah thought so too," Travis said back, "and I feel good, too. Like I'm worthy of Sarah..."
"You were always worthy," Sarah answered and licked Travis's cheek.
"And to think you were nervous about talking to him," Malice gave a playful tease to her former owner and adopted sister.
"Okay, okay," Sarah answered, "no need for teasing."
Malice only gave a bit of a chuckle at that. Jessica smiled before congratulating Sarah on finding her mate. It left a part of her longing to get some time privately with Roger, but he'd so far seemed very willing to stand by her, and it wasn't like any of them could legally marry yet. Sarah, Malice, and Abby were all double dosed and physically mature, but as far as the law was concerned they still had to wait until they were eighteen to officially marry. In that Jessica felt okay with waiting, figuring it'd make for one hell of a wedding night... or potentially a wedding if their group ended up marrying their respective mates at the same time in the same church in four years.
"I'm sure there's no ill will," Sophie spoke up, "I mean we're all friends right?"
"Right," Sarah nodded, "and that's the best thing about all this... I have good friends and a wonderful a mate..."
She then looked over to Abby.
"And I feel the same way about Travis as you do about Samson," Sarah said to Abby.
Abby nodded and the group then made their way in to begin the new school day.