The first day of school always had its potential for new issues and surprises. Some were bigger than others. As Abby and Samson made their way to their first period class after the assembly to start the day, Abby quietly remembered over the biggest things that had happened in that category since Animalia started. There was her first day of high school at Lyre High as a Freshman, and the semi-nervous feelings about her not being accepted after having become a Quarter Horse Animalian over the prior summer in the initial outbreak. But her friends, Sarah, Sophie, and Jessica DID accept her and openly so. In fact, after Sarah's dog was uplifted, Sarah soon joined Animalia to be with her "sister" and Jessica willingly became an Animalian later as well.
Her Sophomore year had more of a mixed start. WSA had been constructed to provide Animalians with more comfort and room for maneuver, particularly the larger Animalians that were bigger than humans. The school's facilities could still handle human sized students, as animals smaller than humans or of comparable size to humans were often about the same size as humans after being uplifted, which was a good thing as there were a fair number of smaller Animalians that came to WSA at the start of that school year too. However, Heather's attack on Sophie and Roland at Lyre High and then storming toward WSA when that failed had revealed many of the problems that the establishment of WSA created that Abby had to admit she hadn't payed attention to at first. She didn't realize how fragile the peace and acceptance that Animalia Ambassadoria had tried to promote was, or how quickly people would turn after the actions of one angry person. It was only after the debate in Roland's hospital room with Sophie that Abby saw that.
And now at the start of her Junior year, Abby saw a new start in the sense that WSA would now function in a way to get around the major issues that had been there in relation to WSA's creation. As she and Samson made their way across the tiled floor, they could see some human students working the specialized chairs that were at WSA to help enable Animalians of all sizes to use them. Some were simply playing at raising and lowering the seats or spinning them, which raised a chuckle from Samson, but it was all harmless. From what Abby remembered, the seats and tables had all been tested during WSA's construction, and not even the largest Animalians, at the time, could have broken them. In that sense, the school was now moving toward what Sophie had argued should be Animalia's main purpose, working and living together, Human and Animalian.
"You okay, Abby?" Samson asked, noting a slight twitch in Abby's ears as they settled at one table and sat down.
"I suppose so..." Abby sighed, "It would have been nice if Sophie could be here to see this..."
Samson nodded. The plan to officially open Dinotopia Aquatica wasn't a bad one, but the scheduling had seemed a bit rushed to him. The result had been sending Sophie and Roland out alone in the hopes that they'd make it back in time for the first day of school. Instead a freak storm came out of nowhere and they were trapped in Florida for the time being. But, remaining optimistic, Samson was pretty sure that the storm wouldn't last forever and that Sophie and Roland would return.
"I'm sure she will when the storm is over," Samson patted Abby's right shoulder.
Abby nodded as a soft voice came up from her left, making her turn to see a young woman there. Abby vaguely remembered her as Danica. The girl had been fairly interested in various sports, but had no pets and thus never got caught in the original outbreak and had never seemed to have a stated interest in joining Animalia. Though, Abby also thought she'd seen a couple of supportive comments on Animalia Ambassadoria videos.
"Is this seat taken?" Danica asked, resting her hand on the back of the seat that was to Abby's left.
"No, it's free," Abby answered. Privately she'd hoped that would be Sophie's seat, since they shared the first period science class according to the schedules they'd gotten over the summer, but with Sophie presently caught in a storm, it'd be silly to save a seat for someone who wasn't there.
"A lot of things here are big," Danica commented off hand as she got into the seat and looked around.
"A lot of things here were purpose built for Animalians and particularly for the larger Animalians," Abby explained, "You wouldn't believe how uncomfortable some things at Lyre High were for me my Freshman year..."
"But they also had a whole bunch of construction/manufacturing people work out the facilities here," Samson added, "which means the tables and chairs are all adjustable so that smaller Animalians and Humans can work at the same desks as larger Animalians."
Danica nodded and moved to pull on the lever underneath the seat to raise it up. WSA had to have made a lot of effort with regard to its infrastructure in order to accomplish that, and that was impressive. However, as she pulled on the lever, Danica was surprised to find the chair going down rather then up.
"The lever that is the furthest forward is the one that raises the chair," Abby directed.
"Thanks," Danica gave a chuckle, "What do you think will be the lesson of the day?"
"With it being the start of a new year and having many new students... I'm not sure there will actually be all that much today," Abby commented as she noted a late student rushing through the door just before the teacher could shut it. The late student was human, which Abby generally expected. Since WSA didn't have any Human students in its first year, many of them wouldn't be entirely familiar with the school's layout. It might take some time for everyone to figure out where they were to go.
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And many of the events that went on through the first day did relate to that sort of thing, particularly as Human students got a real introduction to WSA that went beyond visiting in the front lobby area around the Wooly Mammoth skeleton, the lunchroom or the gym. It made for a lot of Human students asking for directions from Animalian students, though that didn't always help.
"Hey wait up...!" a male student called after JC and Pauline after one class ended.
The two Microraptor Dinotopians paused and shuffled out of the doorway and looked to the student as he came forward with his schedule in hand. He didn't notice that they were also holding their schedules as well. The human student figured that since these two were Animalians, they had to know the layout of the school.
"Yes?" JC asked as the male student came up and looked to him and Pauline.
"This won't take long, right?" Pauline asked, "JC and I have a class to get to..."
"I was just looking for the library, I have a free hour," the male student spoke and was then puzzled by both JC and Pauline giving a sort of chirp and tilting their heads, not realizing that the two Dinotopians were just as new to WSA as he was.
JC actually liked the idea of school. Sophie often talked to him about her school day when he was an African Grey Parrot sometimes they'd even work through various puzzles together while Sophie did her homework. To JC it was an interesting concept that now he got to experience first hand. But, since pets weren't allowed in school, he'd often been left at home since he was uplifted into a Microraptor in the summer, he'd never been at WSA before. In this, he tended to be just as lost as many of the Human students, particularly as much of his schedule was drawn up to overlap with Sophie and Roland as much as possible, since JC and Pauline knew the two Pterodactylus Dinotopians the best, and Sophie and Roland had been there for covering the introduction to WSA between their Freshman and Sophomore years in high school. JC remembered Sophie talking favorably about it.
"I..." JC began while Pauline gave a nervous, "Uh..." They were only saved when a new voice cut in.
"I can help," came Malice's voice along with the sound of Malice's toes clicking on the floor.
The three turned to see Malice approach with a small smile and her ears up and tail wagging, slightly.
"So... JC, Pauline, where do you two need to go?" Malice asked.
"I have Sociology," JC read from his schedule. "I have Home Ec," Pauline read from hers.
Malice nodded, "Okay, JC, you'll want to go to the end of this hall and the classroom should be the last door on the left. Pauline, you'll want to go up to the next floor and go to the other end of the hall... and the first door on the right."
The two Microraptors nodded then moved off, waving to Malice and each other as they did so. That left Malice with the male teen, who looked a bit frustrated by somethings, which probably made some sense. There was a lot of issues with Human students getting turned around. Some Animalians did too, particularly with the extensions that were added to fully handle the expanded class size as WSA and the Lyre School District reintegrated, but so far, it seemed as though the teachers were largely letting that slide, since it was the first day of school. As everyone got used to it, those sorts of things would get better.
"So... I thought I heard you say something about the library?" Malice asked to the male teen.
"Yeah, I have a free hour," the teen answered, "and since they won't let anyone leave the campus without a note for a doctor's appointment or something special... I suppose it'd be best to head there. Nothing much is going on today..."
"Well, it IS the first day," Malice chuckled, "come on. I'll take you there. This is my free period too."
"Don't you Animalians use your free periods to get it on in the showers," the male teen asked, though privately he wasn't opposed to the unisex showers that Animalia supported at both WSA and other places like the Claw Coliseum.
Malice chuckled. She'd heard the groans during the assembly on how WSA's Sexual Education courses weren't "how to" courses, and that was a bit funny, but it was also something where the basic Animalian and Human cultural norms were different.
"Those of us with bond-mates might," Malice commented, wondering how long it would take Sarah and Travis or Abby and Samson to sign their names on the bricks again, "and technically... if you have a girlfriend and it's fully consensual, you could be free to get it on in the showers too."
The male teen slowly followed after Malice as the female Husky Animalian walked along. He could see that happening, but then he'd also grown up in way that made a lot of the rather open and forwardness with the way Animalians often treated things like sex to be rather difficult. The fact that he'd never been able to get a real girlfriend didn't help either. A lot of his goals for High School had been to get Lyre High to a championship game in some sport, pretty much as he'd told Sophie Albers the previous school year. But since most of Lyre's athletes either got converted by accident in the initial outbreak or converted later to gain an Animalian's muscles and the fact that all the Animalians were in one part of Nevada at the time, that plan wasn't going to happen. He wasn't someone that really hated Animalia, but he did recognize some of the consequences that came with it. It'd take time for Animalians to be fully accepted beyond Lyre/Animalia and their respective colonies, and it would only be then when pretty much every school would have Animalians in their athletic programs that Lyre/Animalia would get that shot, and the male teen knew that by that time... he'd have graduated.
"Don't you have a bond-mate though?" he asked Malice, remembering her from the various Animalia Ambassadoria episodes, "I've seen you pretty tight with a Wolf Animalian."
"Simon, yeah, Simon is a Wolf Animalian, and he is my bond-mate," Malice nodded, "but he was also a Senior when Sarah and I were Freshmen. So he graduated went off to the Nevada State Police Academy system last year, and right now, the Lyre PD and Animalia PD have him in an extended training program to keep him mentally sharp until he's old enough to officially get his badge."
And Malice was happy for Simon's achievements in that regard. The difference in their grade levels had made her a bit lonely, as WSA's shower arrangements were at least in partially to make things more comfortable for Animalians with bond-mates, but since Simon graduated before WSA was established, Malice wouldn't get to enjoy it. This year wouldn't be so bad, though. For while Simon still wasn't a student at WSA, the training programs he was in did mean that he'd still be close at hand and thus meant that the two of them could find time for some fun in private.
"So... you just hang out in the library?" the male teen asked.
"Yeah... either to read, look at some of the Animalia Ambassadoria videos on the internet, see where we did well and so on... or work on homework," Malice answered, "that sort of thing."
"I don't think there's going to be any homework today," the male teen commented.
"Well, it IS the first day," Malice reminded him.
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The Animalia Ambassadoria crew did get to come together again at lunch. Often times a lot of their schedules had some variation to them. Abby and Samson had more of a science, math, and economics level in relation to a lot of their base plans to potentially even expand the Brown Farm once they graduated from college in the future. Malice's had been geared more at the social sciences thanks to her repeated statements of interest in police work, and so on. And while WSA kept physical education as a course for all grades, there were many of those classes, which often meant that they didn't have all of them together in the same class period. Lunch was about the only time where they could all be together.
And WSA's cafeteria had many of the same structural and design elements to make things comfortable for Animalians of all sizes, and thus for Humans to. In fact as Sarah and Travis went through the lunch line and then moved to join the rest of their group for lunch, they were able to see many people sitting together and having some fun. Sure there were a few individual clicks, but for the most part there were plenty of Humans and Animalians mingling and talking as they ate lunch together. It was something that Sophie would have liked to see, but with the Storm from Nowhere, she couldn't at the moment.
"So... things are looking pretty good," Sarah commented as she sat down to Malice's left and Travis sitting to Sarah's left, "Hectic maybe with many people needing directions, but that's probably just first day jitters and that now that WSA and Lyre are a unified school district again... everyone's getting used to things they aren't familiar with."
"That'll probably pass in time," Samson commented.
"But how long?" Pauline gave a sigh, "Neither JC nor I really know the layout of this school either. The only human... err... former human that we could say we know that knows this building is Sophie."
Though for Pauline, that was more in the knowledge of Sophie after she became a Dinotopian. Between her and JC, the only one who had memories of the Human Sophie was JC. And for JC, those memories were at least part of the reason why he saw Sophie as more of a maternal figure to him than anything else. The mention of Sophie's name, though, did lead to a few heavy sighs, particularly as everyone knew she couldn't get back to Lyre/Animalia in time for the first day of school thanks to the storm that hit Florida before her flight could leave.
"So... what do you guys think she's up to?" Travis asked slowly, referring to Sophie, "all the news reports say the storm that hit Florida has been steady... She can't be flying in it, right?"
"Some feathers can do okay in wet weather," Pauline commented, "Neither JC nor I have had any "wild" experience as to say whether or not a wild African Grey Parrot could or would fly when its raining."
"The reports on thunder and lightning with the storm would have me thinking that there wouldn't be any flying at all," Roger commented, "but I'm sure she's okay."
"I'd think she's probably enjoying Roland," Malice commented with a happy wag of her tail, earning a few gasps of surprise from the others, "I mean come on... they love each other. They're alone and can't go anywhere. What else IS there for them to do?"
There were some nods to that. As all of them knew how important Roland was to Sophie, and to varying degrees they'd seen that almost as soon as Sophie met Roland at the Valentines Dance during their Freshman year. Roland joined Animalia Ambassadoria shortly after, and they were rather friendly. After Heather's attack at the start of the previous school year, they'd seen that the two were growing closer and more attached that went beyond being "just friends." Roland had fought to protect Sophie and Sophie tried to stay as close to him as possible while he healed. In that, they knew that something real was forming between them. JC could also see it, as he had plenty of memories Sophie talking to him in great detail on how Roland had been attracted to her and so on.
"So... what do we do?" Jessica asked nervously.
"If something like that has happened, I don't think there is anything we can do," Abby commented, "we're here and she's stuck in a storm as it were."
"And if they love each other, that really shouldn't be a problem, right?" Samson asked, sounding a bit hesitant.
"I say we give her a party," Malice commented, "Show that we support her love!"
"We could give her a cake of sorts..." JC commented, "Something that she could eat and take as a sign that we support her and Roland."
That earned a couple of face palms, but even Sarah had to admit that some of it made some amount of sense. A part of her wanted to scold her sister making the implication that Sophie would decide to have sex because there was "nothing else to do" while waiting out the storm, but then a part of her also remembered that just because Sophie and Roland were only single dosed Animalians, that didn't mean that the desires wouldn't be there. After all, Travis had desired her physically back when he only a single dosed Animalian, but had been a bit shy with regard to acting on it at first, and likely because of the fact that Sarah was a double doser. In that, while Sophie and Roland were only single dosers, they could have many of the same desires as a double dosed Animalian, and as such could act on them.
"Just make sure her parents don't see it," Abby gave a sigh, "Roland's parents too..."
"Why?" Pauline asked, "It's pretty obvious that they are in love with each other."
"That doesn't mean their Human parents will want to know their children are having sex," Abby sighed, "and revealing it... if it's true... probably won't be taken well."
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The discussion at lunch sat in the back of Jessica's mind for the rest of the day. And by the end of the day it was something she really couldn't ignore, as her last period was Sex Education. It wasn't a "how to" course and was heavily designed to provide education on safe sex and being responsible for it. This would relate to things regarding reproductive health and so on, and it was a general requirement at WSA. In theory, Jessica had had the class the previous year when WSA first opened, but because she transferred back to Lyre after Heather's attack and Lyre didn't have a similar course, it meant that Jessica had to retake the class.
And Jessica wasn't the only upper classman in the class, though they were all Humans. The only Animalians outside of Roger that Jessica expected to be taking the class with were Sophie and Roland. But Sophie and Roland weren't there. They were in Florida because of the storm and thus were missing the first day of school, which then made the discussion at lunch that Sophie might be having sex was not only startling but difficult for Jessica. And thus it stuck in her mind.
"Do you really think that Sophie would..." Jessica whispered to Roger the class had handled the periods introductions and the base rules and so on. For the moment the teacher was going through some of the standard procedures in getting things organized for that period for the semester. It left the students free to talk, so long as they weren't disruptive. "I mean..."
"I suppose it is possible," Roger whispered back, "They do love each other... and I'll admit... that when I look at you... I see the most beautiful person in the world... and the one I'd want to be with... more than anything."
Jessica smiled at that. She did desire to be with Roger in every possible way, too. She also knew that being vaccinated removed any possibility of them double dosing each other if they acted on those desires. And the part of her that really wanted to be with Roger in every way was also happy for some of Shyra's tips on courtship and all that, and she figured that Roger liked some of that as well. In this, Jessica knew full well that the desires were there and that since Sophie and Roland did seem to love each other, it wouldn't be impossible to have something like that happen.
But a part of Jessica's thinking, and partially why she went back to Lyre with Roger was not to rush into anything. It was true that she desired him and he desired her. And being able share a bed during the colony tour at Vilcabamba, even though all they could do was cuddle was a good thing. But sex would be going beyond cuddling... way beyond cuddling. That was what raised worries on whether or not there was any rushing into anything. For, Sophie seemed to be strongest in certain respects... philosophical thought being one of them. In this, when Jessica reached her decision that being a single doser wasn't so much of a bad thing, she actually found herself looking "up" to Sophie in many respects.
However, if Sophie was willing to act on her desires and her love for Roland, that also raised questions for Jessica with regard to Roger. She didn't want to rush into anything and felt a bit... puzzled at the prospect that Sophie might have acted on her desires.
"And I want to be with you too," Jessica admitted, "in EVERY possible way... but..."
"But?" Roger wondered.
"I don't want to rush into anything," Jessica answered, "You know... it's okay being a single doser... and it's not like I have to rush into being an adult."
"And that's fine," Roger assured her, "and with Sophie... if she and Roland took their relationship to the next level... that is THEIR decision. You don't have to base yours on what they do."
Jessica did manage a small smile at that.