"So... your matriarch was part of Marcy's first punishment?" Steve Herrons asked to Chrissy as they managed to walk toward the doors of the consolidated school the two of them attended.
It wasn't necessarily the most attractive of buildings, though it was more modern than many of the older schools that had been in the area. Before everything that had seen Chrissy become an Elephant Animalian, she'd shown him the old school buildings in Desert Flats. They were small and made of rough red-looking brick and build as a sort of cube with the only options for ventilation being the glass windows, which Steve had been sure would get stuck at certain times of the year when he saw them. He also remembered telling Chrissy back then that those buildings must have been hot at the end of the summer. The consolidated school was newer and had some curves to it that were softer. He wasn't sure what the materials were, but with their white color and more solid surfacing, he figured the new school wouldn't hold as much heat as the older school that Chrissy and Marcy had likely attended in Desert Flats before their respective districts all got consolidated. The windows were also larger looked to be more capable of opening without getting stuck.
"I wouldn't say MY matriarch," Chrissy answered, "as I'm still managing at home and Nzinga lives in Animalia. She... or her husband... just give me a ride here in the mornings, to Animalia for my shift at the Meat Market to pay off the property damage, and then back again."
Chrissy didn't say anything more, as there were some points of fact that could well potentially change things in the future. For as an African Elephant Animalian, there were going to be limited places she could live and function. Spaces made for Humans were generally too small and a lot had had to be done just to assure that she could still physically attend the school here without breaking things because of her larger size. The only places that were big enough for her were either in Animalia or in the colony cities for the Dinotopians. The only college that might really be able to handle her was UNLV, which she had applied to and got accepted in, but it hadn't been her first choice. Now, though, she didn't have too many choices and didn't want to make Steve feel like he'd have to give up on his choices.
"But she was still part of the first punishment?" Steve asked.
"Yeah," Chrissy answered, "and they'll supposedly will want to do the second punishment in a day or two. The whole drive up your desire on something you can't have sort of thing."
"They won't make me convert for this, will they?" Steve wondered as the moved up the steps to head into the building. He then held the doors open for Chrissy as she ducked to head in.
"No... from what I understand," Chrissy spoke, "or at least from what Nzinga told me is that the second punishment normally involves giving an immensely powerful aphrodisiac and then making it impossible to alleviate the resulting... drive. I wouldn't think that any of Marcy's punishments would have you convert."
Steve breathed a sigh of relief and then opened the inside door for Chrissy as well. She ducked through that doorway and then patted him on the shoulder before heading off to her locker. Steve then had to go in a different direction. He had a class or two with Chrissy, but that didn't mean their lockers were next to each other. He made his way to his own. The lockers weren't much, but they did do their job and could hold everything that was needed. He'd just hung his jacket up on one of the hooks when a thunderous set of footsteps came up toward him. He collected his things and had what he needed for his first two classes before the owner of those steps arrived, and he could also tell that the person approaching wasn't alone.
"Hey, George," Steve said slowly, "what are you and the gang up to now?"
He turned to see a small group of other male seniors at the school. Not all of them were necessarily close friends, but none of them were bad terms with Steve, either. It was sort of a case where they all knew each other. And their "leader," George Stairs, was a fairly decent friend of Steve's. Once Chrissy was able to attend classes, this group took note and also noted Steve's relationship with her. In some ways, it reminded Steve a bit on the proverbial crushes that he and many of his friends had had with the girls on the original Animalia Ambassadoria cast. They knew that even the two that were single dosed Animalians were older than they were and "taken," but it didn't remove the sort of hormonal crush existed.
"Oh... not much," George answered with a broad grin, "just trying to see on what YOU'RE up to."
Steve rolled his eyes as they made their way toward a nearby flight of stairs to get to the second floor where their first period class was. This was part of where that old "crush" aspect of things came into play, but one that wasn't much a crush as it was a deeper idea, and some of that was the idea to convert. None of them were the sort that Horizon often did most of their business with so far as Humans becoming Animalians, which were often the elder looking for a new start, those that were severely injured or ill and were using the conversion as a "cure all." The only group that often became Animalians that didn't fall into those categories were the "furries" that generally had the attraction to an anthropomorphic animal. None of his friends or this group fell into that category, or at least Steve knew that George didn't. Yet, they'd all seemed to show interest in converting after Chrissy returned to school, and since the Spring semester started, these sorts of talks became almost a daily thing.
"I don't know why you keep asking me," Steve said flatly, "I thought I gave my answer."
"Yeah... but many of them were old ones... ones that were there BEFORE Chrissy became an Animalian," George told him, "It's pretty easy to play pretend, knowing that nothing will ever come of it."
"Yeah... don't they have rules that you have to be an Animalian to be with her now?" one of the others asked.
"Not necessarily," Steven answered, "their edict has more to do with breeding. But love and romance is okay... and for the moment, I don't think Chrissy and I are far enough along to actually make any final decision in that regard."
"I've seen how she's been looking at you in the classes we have with her," a second member of the group said to him, "she's got it for you... I bet that if you don't propose after graduation, she will."
"And if that's the case and she's sure it'd work out," Steve answered, "I can make my final decision then. Right now... it's too early. I don't know if it would work out... You know... if I'm actually WORTHY of her. She'd be hurt if all I was seeing her for was her new bust and hip measurements. And NO, I don't know what they are."
"You might be worthy of her, Steve," George commented, "my dad says that a happy marriage is generally born out of concern for the partner and their feelings. The fact that you're worried about being worthy of Chrissy would be indicative of that... I think."
"Maybe, but it's still a big step," Steve answered, "and at the same time... when that decision is made... it should be MY decision. If you want to become an Animalian to win a mate, that's up to you. Though, also keep in mind that Chrissy tells me that Animalians don't just decide someone is their bond-mate at the drop of a hate. With pairings between an uplifted Animalian and a Human converted to being an Animalian, there is often a rather strong emotional bond that forms BEFORE the couple as Animalians become a couple."
"Does she know how it all works?" one of the others asked.
"Not really," Steve answered, "most of it is what she's picked up from the Elephant Animalian that's been helping her with regard to transport between here and her home in Desert Flats."
Steve decided not to add in the travel time to Animalia and the Meat Market as part of her community service to work off the costs for the property damage done. George was about to answer, but by this point they reached the doorway to their first period class and knew that the teacher in that class was a bit more old fashioned in terms on allowing non-school related conversations being held. The others followed Steve in. Though, while he hoped that some of this would mark the end of these sorts of questions, he also knew that some of that pressure was probably going to be there until either he reached a final decision on becoming an Animalian and what kind of Animalian to be.