“Hmm...” the gray wolf said to himself. He counted the seconds on his watch.
JJ laughed. “You really worry me sometimes, Dan.”
The gray wolf silenced him, almost monastically. “Nope, he's not getting away with it this time around. Damn it, it's his birthday, and he can't be here fifteen minutes into lunch?”
The boys were at a table, their lunch in front of them. Though they tried their best to scan the crowd for Axel, they couldn't find him. They always sat together, but every once a week, Axel always seemed to be drastically late to the group.
“Where do you think he goes anyway?” Dan pouted.
“I don't know, but he does have GYM before lunch...”
“So?”
JJ snorted. “So it isn't exactly a short walk to the cafeteria.”
JJ was right. The GYM was way at the other end of the school, and traffic was sure to abound many who dared be a second late out the double doors when the bell rang.
“His loss,” Dan shrugged. Beside him was a small cake he and JJ had bought at the local bakery. It wasn't anything too decorative, and Dan wouldn't have cared to buy one either, but it was JJ who had insisted on surprising their friend.
“Don't eat the cake,” JJ said.
“Why not?” Dan salivated. “He's not around, why should I give a rats ass if he doesn't want to eat something I bought? More for me.”
He smiled, licking his chops and removing the cake lid.
“Hey, is that for me?” said the familiar voice of the weasel-raccoon hybrid.
“Axel!” shouted Dan and JJ in unison.
“Hey guys,” Matt said, from the other end of the round table.
“Matt?” The boys questioned in unison “Axel?”
There was an odd silence for a moment or two as the boys sat down. No one knew quite what to say yet.
“Um...” Dan started, before mouthing to Axel, 'what's the dork doing here?'
To that, JJ kicked under the table.
“Ow!”
“Hey Matt. What brings you...here?” JJ began, ignoring Dan.
“I...well, I was...” Matt couldn't get the words out himself.
“It's alright you guys,” Axel said, “I invited him. Dan, don't be a douche.”
From the moment he said that, he wished he could have been looking to his eyes as to command his friend not to. He wasn't sure he could trust him yet with manners.
JJ shrugged, accepting it immediately. Dan however, kept his shifty eyes.
“Well...we thought you might like this chocolate cake—,”
“Oh! Did you get it from Jenko's Bakery? It has to have filling!” Matt said enthusiastically.
Dan was not pleased, a low growl escaping him.
“Manners,” Axel repeated.
“Hey Axel, happy birthday. Sixteen now, how do you feel?” Matt went on.
“It feels great. And thanks for the cake, guys, I love it.”
“I love cake filling; especially from Jenko's,” Matt tried to squeeze in uncomfortably.
Dan raised an eyebrow. “You sound very fake. Is that how you normally talk?”
“Manners!” Dan and JJ chimed in.
“Hey, I'm just telling it how it is.”
Once again, Matt was beginning to get the feeling that he was unwanted in the group. It made him question himself as to why he decided it was a great idea to listen to Axel when he asked him to meet his friends.
“Well...we should probably skip the happy birthday,” said Axel. “Besides, I don't like it when the cafeteria just jumps into—,”
At that moment, Dan jumped on top of his seat, and started to sing as loud as he could. “Happy Birthday, to YOU!”
The crowded cafeteria followed the chant, and secured that not a single soul in their lunch period would not know that this was Axel's special day. And when it was over, Axel couldn't help but smile, still a paw to his face unable to believe Dan would do such a thing.
“Alright, alright, alright,” Dan laughed. “It's time for CAKE!”
“The cake is a lie!” Matt stated gleefully.
It more or less dropped Dan's cheer to a low grumble. “My grandma was saying that when she was a little girl. It wasn't funny half a century ago, it's not funny now.”
“Dan!” once again the duo stated.
“What! I'm just saying he doesn't define in any way the term 'cool cat'”
His statement brought Matt's self-esteem down quite a notch. He seemed deflated. So much so, that it didn't look like he was interested in talking for the remainder of the lunch period.
“Sometimes you can be a real jerk,” JJ said.
“Yeah Dan,” Axel continued. “I guess I can sort of see why the serum turned you into a wolf.”
Dan grumbled, cutting the cake into sizable portions. He put a piece on his plate before offering to anyone else.
“Dan?” Axel started.
“What's up.”
“Look into my eyes for a sec.”
He did.
Axel was nervous about this. He told himself he would never try this to any of his friends. First of all, he didn't like the fact that he was overwriting someone's judgment, so it left only distaste when he would try it on someone he knew. But he pressed onwards.
“I want you to make-up to Matt, apologize, and be nice to him. Right now.”
It only took a hypnotic second. Dan blinked once, and then twice. He shrugged.
“OK.” He turned his attention to Matt. “Look buddy, I'm sorry about being...well, uninviting. It's just in my nature. I can't help it. It makes me a worse person. Hey, did you know that wolves are the most fucked in the workplace? No one wants to hire one, because it literally tells them a whole lot about their attitude to life! Haha, that's not fun, but whatever. Statistically speaking, you're more likely to be my boss and fuck me right in the asshole! Ow, how the days will turn, ha-ha. You're not so bad anyway. You want to know who can just suck a dick though? That guy over there.”
Dan pointed to another furry, sitting and eating all alone. He looked like a raccoon, but his fur pattern was off. He was a shade of red and orange, and the fur pattern on his face had streaks of red cascading down his eyes and made him appear to be crying. He had a red-orange tail with white fur pattern rings surrounding it.
“The new guy?” Matt questioned innocently.
“Yeah. That guy's a dick. Worse than a dick; an asshole. First of all, who dyes their fur that retarded color? If your gonna be a coon, don't go all freakish. No offense, Axel,” Dan smiled sheepishly. “Secondly, I think the little shit is racist. I have him next period, and boy does hell burn from the core of his fur. He surrounds himself around other humans in class and is alright, but completely ignores other furs who are trying to get his attention. I thought it was just something stupid with the others at first, but on the last class period of the day, we have a furry teacher. Guess who decides he hates the world and goes all lock-down, only giving shrugs to the teacher when asked a question? Ha, the class is mostly furs too. Here's what I've got to say; if you can't appreciate other furs, then you don't deserve to be one.” Dan simulated sucking a mini helium tank. “I think I might slip some helium into him the next time he's asleep in class. Anyway, my point is, you're a cut above the rest. I know, because you're here, and you decided to talk anyway, even after I was abusing dickish behavior too. Let's start over again. Hi, I'm Dan.”
Matt slowly extended a paw to shake his. “OK...I'm Matt.”
Axel felt like he had done the right thing. It was too bad he had to use his powers, but he had to do whatever was necessary.
“OK, now my turn,” JJ started. “First of all, what? Where did that even come from? I mean, it's really good that you apologized, but I just...never would've expected it.”
Dan shrugged.
“Alright, and secondly, stop slandering people, before I'll have to force you to apologize to that coon over there. No, and you got that wrong too. He's a red panda furry, look it up.”
“Like I care, doesn't change his dickish attitude.”
“Stop that,” JJ said. “Dan, I hang out with you because we've been friends forever, since before you were all furry. You need to find God in your heart fast, because the path you've been taking; it's not nice.”
Dan didn't say anything, nor did he seem to process what JJ had said.
“And look; see, he does have furry friends,” JJ said.
It was true. Three furs were now sitting right beside him, and they all seemed to be chatting well.
“Alright, well that was a bit of an unsettling derailment,” Axel laughed. “I think we just crashed and burned. Who's ready for cake?”
The four had a piece each, and bit into it. Axel, JJ, and Matt enjoyed it well enough. But Dan choked, and spit it out.
“Oh what the hell?!” he coughed.
Axel and Matt both seemed concerned, but JJ started to suppress laughter.
“I—I can't breath—ah—oh—ahhh...” Dan calmed, rubbing his muzzle. “I'm OK.”
“What's wrong?” Axel asked.
“I think this is the first time he's had cake as a furry,” JJ chortled. “Hey, it'd do well for research next time; canine's can't have cake, or chocolate, or any variation thereof.”
“Ah shut up,” Dan grumbled. “It still tasted kind of good.”
–--------------------------------------
The end of the school day had come to pass. A note had been going around the classroom the final period, talking about a huge party. It sounded really good. Most of the kids who went to the school were pretty well off, so it came to no surprise that there were lots of weekends involving big parties at different houses, and since parents were out at work most of the time, they were able to get away with a lot of very out there parties. Axel decided he wanted to take part in this one, and so did Dan.
“I don't know, guys. You know my parents,” JJ said. “Parties...well, they're not my thing either. But who knows, it could be fun.”
The boys split up. Being the type of person that he was, Axel asked Matt if he was willing to come with the three of them.
“Sure, I'll go,” he said willingly.
So the stage was set. The party was soon to start.
What kind of party were they going to?