FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Hey guys, can we take just one or two minutes of your time?" Arden was the first one to make it to the small group. "A student was beaten up a few days ago for being gay; we're just trying to spread awareness."

"Just ignore them, Ab," the puma mumbled, taking his girlfriend's paw and pulling her in the other direction.

"Hang on, John." Abby yanked her paw from John's grasp. "I want to hear this. Who got beat up?"

"Danny Fellis." Sam came over to stand beside Arden. "He was on his way to meet me when some kids pulled him into an alley and beat him up; he's in the hospital now."

"Oh my God, that's awful!" Abby's friend exclaimed. "Poor Danny! Can we visit him?"

"I'm sure he'd appreciate it," Arden said.

"So... are you guys, like, protesting or something?" The third girl, a tall, curvy, raccoon asked.

Arden couldn't tell whether she really cared, or if she just wanted to say something for the sake of being noticed. "Yeah; the principal refused to acknowledge the attack, claiming that he didn't want to needlessly worry students."

John took hold of Abby's paw again. "That's... great. We've got to make the bus home, though."

"Actually, I think we're gonna stay." Abby pulled her paw back with a quick 'don't you dare' glance in the puma's direction. "This looks like fun."

"Yeah, and we could do our peace and human rights project on this." The other two girls joined her.

"Fine." John smiled at Abby, but his eyes were cold. "I'll see you tonight, then." He gave them one last look and walked off towards the buses.

"So, what do we do now?" Abby padded over to the crate Fresto brought and examined its contents.

"Pick a sign and follow our lead," Fresto said. "We want to spread awareness of what happened among the students and teachers."

With this new addition to their group, they continued onward.

More students began to emerge from the school. Some approached on their own, asking what happened and even offering to spread the information about the attack around; others, however, purposely kept as much distance between Arden's group and themselves as possible.

Arden spent all of his free time scanning the crowd for Mark. This was his chance to see how the wolf would react in a public situation. Try as he might, however, he didn't see the wolf anywhere.

"I haven't seen him either," Sam said from behind, as if reading his friend's thoughts.

"Do you think he's avoiding me?" Arden wasn't sure if he truly wanted to know the answer.

"He could be." Sam paused to hand a pamphlet to Cody, who approached meekly and then left as soon as he'd gotten it. "But don't be paranoid about it. He could very well have stayed after class, or gone straight to the soccer field through the back door."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Why do you want him here?" Fresto's question came out of nowhere, but it was perfectly valid. "I mean, you know how he'd react; why bring things out into the open?"

"I don't know." Arden lowered his eyes. The last thing he wanted to do was to fight with Mark over something like this. "I guess I just keep hoping that he will change his mind... maybe even pick up a sign and join me."

"Hope is good; just don't let it dominate your life and blind you to the facts." Fresto was right; there were some things that just weren't going to happen... not for a while, at least; or ever.

He didn't want Mark marching in rallies with him; he just wanted him to be open. Not telling everyone he was gay but not hiding it, either.

The hockey team came next - all big jocks that didn't look the least bit interested in the protest... or so Arden thought.

"What're you guys protesting?" It was Rich Prowers; Arden knew him as the captain of the hockey team, but not much else. He'd transferred to Elton just a year ago, but his prowess and a certain thirst for victory got him the unanimous vote for team captain.

Abby was the first one to speak up. "A friend of ours was beaten up Friday for being gay."

Arden was surprised at just how seriously she seemed to be taking the issue.

"The principal chose to ignore the issue on the basis of not wanting to raise alarm; we're just spreading the word."

"Rich, let's get the fuck outta here." One of the leopard's buddies stepped in and patted his shoulder. "I'm sure your pops wouldn't approve you hanging with the queer squad over here."

"Which one?" Rich turned to face the bobcat slowly, his voice soft but with a very audible and dangerous edge to it.

"Huh?"

"I have two dads, Jeremy; two gay dads. I'm pretty sure they'll be okay with this." His voice remained level, but Arden saw his claws extend slightly.

Others must have seen it as well because a small crowd slowly gathered around the two and encircled them.

"Woah, dude! I ain't know you had two dads." Jeremy backed up several paces.

"Is that a problem?" Rich took a step forward.

"Nah, nah, dude... it's cool!" Arden could tell that it was far from cool, but it was clear that Jeremy wasn't about to pick a fight with someone who was obviously much stronger and quicker.

"Good." Rich retracted his claws and turned back to Arden. "So, can I join you guys?"

"Uhh... sure." Arden wasn't sure whether to be relieved or afraid at this point. "Just... just pick out a sign."

Rich went to pick out a sign, came back and surveyed his teammates with an impatient glare. "So, what are you guys standing around for? Either help out or get the fuck out of my sight," he barked.

Jeremy and his friends milled around, not knowing what to do. Their masculinity was at stake, but so was being on Rich's good side. Had this been anybody else on the team, they would have jeered at him and left; Rich was not one to be jeered at. A couple of them turned slowly and walked off while others went over and got signs. They stood towards the back of the group, making every effort not to be noticed.

With jocks added to their group roster, the demonstration began to get a lot more notice.

Students stopped by more willingly, and soon they were almost out of pamphlets.

A few more members of the gay club got involved. In just under an hour, they had an all-out rally.

"Wow, this is going way better than I envisioned," Sam whispered to Arden. "I was sort of expecting the three of us to be either completely ignored, or have stuff thrown at us."

Arden had envisioned the same thing; he didn't say anything before because Sam seemed reluctant enough without having his fears voiced aloud. "I guess Fresto was right." He smiled. "We're living in a different time than the one we're all so afraid of."

"Yeah." Fresto walked up behind them. "My first demonstration senior year was a disaster. It was after me and J- my ex broke up." Arden noticed the slight pause but chose not to draw attention to it. "There were only three of us, and kids started pelting us with pencils and stuff; that's how I got this." He traced a claw along a long, thin scar that ran from his ear to the tip of his jaw. "Metal rulers are very painful when used correctly."

"I think my parents were there." Rich spoke up. "I remember them telling me something about that."

"Wait; Tim and Alex?!" Fresto's surprise was almost comical.

Rich nodded.

"My God, I haven't heard anything from them in years. I had no idea they were back in the area!"

"Yeah, we've lived in California for a while; Tim got a job at St. Matthias, so we moved here."

"That's fantastic! Listen," Fresto pulled up a scrap of paper, "let me give you my number. Have them call me; I would love to meet and catch up." He scribbled down his cell and handed it to Rich. "They've certainly raised a fine son."

"They'll be happy to hear that!" The leopard smiled.

"Uhh, guys... I'd hate to break up the reunion plans," Sam nodded towards the school entrance, "but the principal's coming."

Mr. Foreman was, indeed, coming - very slowly and deliberately. His maintained eye contact with the group as he lumbered through the crowd. "Mr. Fresto." He passed by Arden and Sam and approahed the fox directly.

"Yes, sir?" Fresto put on a look of mock-innocence and faced the bear.

"I'm assuming this was all your idea." He gestured his paw to the proceedings.

"It was all of ours." Sam spoke up from behind.

The bear turned slowly around to face the otter. "All of yours?"

"Yes." Arden took his turn to speak in the fox's defense. "We felt that your treatment of the issue was unfair; had this been a hate crime against any other minority, the whole school would have been up in arms."

"Well, there were certainly worse ways you could have handled it," Foreman said, scratching the back of his neck thoughtfully. He looked over the crowd one more time; Arden followed his gaze. In the hour that they've been out there, they managed to gather a substantial amount of supporters.

"Alright; I will issue an official report to be given out to the students. I just didn't think the issue was as hot as it is." This was met with hearty cheering and applause. "Although I don't even know if it's necessary anymore."

"Thank you, sir." Fresto offered his paw.

The bear shook it "You're very welcome. But next time... submit things to me in writing instead of starting a protest."

"Words that aren't spoken are seldom heard." Fresto winked.

"Touché." Foreman turned around and lumbered slowly back to the school.

"That also went better than I expected," Sam said with an audible sigh of relief.

"Yeah; I guess it did." After giving Sam a brief hug, Arden proceeded to clean up. There were surprisingly few pamphlets on the ground; once those were thrown out and the signs were put away, it was as if there'd never been a protest to begin with.

By the time they were finished, the crowd had thinned out to its original members, as well as Rich and Abby. Rich was busy chatting with Fresto about his parents, and Abby was on her phone.

"I'm waiting for a ride," she explained, typing a quick text and snapping her phone shut.

Arden nodded and turned to Sam. "So, Mark didn't show up at all, huh?"

"No. I guess he-"

"Mark... you mean the cute soccer guy?" Abby, who was in the middle of another text lifted her head. "He was here; way in the back, though. Just kinda glanced around and left. I guess he's not interested in the whole 'Gay Rights' thing."

"Guess not." Arden sighed.

Sam put a paw on his friend's shoulder. "Look, Arden... maybe he really was in a hurry."

"So, you were lying to me?" Arden wasn't angry; he knew why Sam had done it.

"I... I just didn't want you to get upset. You know how these things go."

"Yeah; I know. Next time, though, just tell me; I can handle it."

Hearing this, Abby almost dropped her phone. "Why, is Mark like gay or something?"

Arden was very tempted to just tell Abby everything; but was it his secret to reveal? No; it would make him just as bad as Katelyn.

"I don't know," he lied. "He said something about activism work for his civics class; I just thought he'd be interested."

"Oh, gotcha." She appeared convinced and left the subject alone.

"Well, we'd better go grab something to eat before practice;" Sam tapped him on the shoulder. "You coming, Ar?"

"Yeah, let's go."

He bid Fresto, Rich and Abby goodbye and walked off with Sam.

Being reminded of practice also reminded him of Barken; he was pretty rude to him, and Barken did not take kindly to rudeness.

"Barken's gonna chew my head off." Arden voiced his thoughts aloud.

"Why? Did you tell him off?"

"Not as badly as I could have." He really could have said far worse things than he did. "But he'll still be pissed. I'll just tell him you got violently ill or something."

"Why not just tell him the truth?"

Arden looked at his friend for any hint of sarcasm, but there was none.

"I mean... we just stood out in front of the entire school and told the truth. Why not tell Barken?"

"Okay." Sam was right. They risked getting kicked off the team; but compared to the other risks they'd taken, this one was pretty trivial.

The boys had a quick meal of sandwiches and water and headed off to practice.

They arrived a couple minutes before everyone else and decided to take the time to talk to the coach.

"You better have a very good explanation for what you did, Halinen." Barken kept his voice low to prevent the conversation from escalating into a booming echo by the structure of the swimming pool.

"Like I told you last time..." Friday's resolve returned to him. "Sam needed me, and I went to stand by him."

"My boyfriend got beat up." Sam didn't sound as sure as his friend, but recalling the night's events gave him a certain strength that even Arden didn't have. "Arden came to get me from the movie theatre and brought me to the hospital. If you're going to kick anyone of the team, it should be me."

For the first time in Arden's memory, Barken's features softened. "I won't kick either of you off." His voice remained low, but the anger and bite were gone from it. "You did a good thing, Arden. Standing by the ones you love in tough situations takes guts; I respect that. You too, Sam." He smiled. "Go ahead and get changed. Just because I respect you, doesn't mean I'll be taking it easy on you."

The boys nodded and went to the locker room.

"Wow, I still can't believe what just happened." Sam was the first one to shatter their collective daze. When they just started swimming, they believed that Barken had a soft side; but as the years went on, that soft side had never come out. Barken was so strict, tough and relentless that the notion of him having a soft side became a sort of joke among those who knew him.

"Do you think we'll ever see this side of him again?" Arden asked.

"Doubt it." Sam pulled the tag off his new jammer and began putting it on. "But it's nice to know it exists."

"Yeah, I guess it is."

They finished changing and headed out to the pool deck.

"Fardin, Halinen!" The familiar bark was back. "Whatever you have to do in there besides change can wait 'til after practice!" The familiar Barken was also back.

Mr. Halinen picked them up after practice. "So, I hear you boys had quite a busy day." He shifted clumsily into the passenger seat, so Arden could drive.

"Who'd you hear that form?" Arden was planning to tell his father the story himself; he wondered just who'd beaten him to it.

"The principal."

Arden had just shifted into drive and started easing on the gas; hearing this caused him to floor the pedal and almost crash into the car in front. He hit the brakes just in time and sat there, recovering from his near-death experience.

"I guess I should've phrased that better, huh?" Mr. Halinen giggled.

"Probably." The giggle turned to laughter pretty quickly. The laughter was more out of relief than humor, but it lightened the mood nonetheless.

"So, anyway." Mr. Halinen continued his story as they pulled out of the parking lot. "Your principal sent out an email, telling about the incident with Danny. He mentioned a group of brave young students who inspired him to do so; he didn't mention names, but it didn't take me long to guess them."

Arden and Sam told him the entire story, as well as their conversation with Barken.

"Barken smiled?!" Mr. Halinen sounded as amazed as they had been when it happened. "Well, now I've heard everything. Especially after that time when you broke your paw and he made you get a waterproof cast so you could continue swimming."

Arden remembered that incident very well. He broke his paw skiing that year; instead of giving him time off, Barken made him continue going to practice. That was the first year he qualified for Nationals.

They dropped Sam off at the hospital to visit Danny.

Arden rolled down his window and called after him. "Want us to come back and pick you up in an hour or two?"

"No, thanks; my dad said he would come get me."

Mr. Fardin took the news of his son's sexuality surprisingly well. He wasn't completely okay with it, but he accepted it. It was most likely due, in large part, to the fact that Mr. Fardin had fought tooth and claw to keep his son after the divorce. Arden didn't mention that to Sam, of course.

He wanted to call Mark as soon as he got home, but decided against it. He really had nothing to say to the wolf that couldn't wait until morning. He focused on his homework, instead. There wasn't much of it, but he took his time.

Mikey came in a few hours later. "Mom and dad are out." He was holding a copy of Rebel Command 2, still in its shrink-wrap. "How about some co-op?"

"Sounds like a plan." Arden put his homework away and headed downstairs with his brother.