"Seasons" - Chapter 1
The first chapter of my not very well written attempt at a psuedo-coming of age/romance novel, starring a panther named Casey, and his rather awkward attempts at social contact. More to come, probably! Also, the series is a bit iffy, but it's all ages(for now, anyway.)
Autumn
1
It was on a brisk Thursday morning that Casey, like most mornings, didn't want to be where he was at the moment. The stocky 16-year old black panther just wanted time to be alone and listen to his music, which was rendered near-impossible due to the various classmates socializing rather loudly on the bus. He turned the volume up on his phone, with 45 Grave now blaring into his ears. Casey sighed to himself, muttering something along the lines of "That's better" under his breath. He was in the midst of a particularly deep point in his personal life, with the overwhelming busyness of high school, the move from his hometown two months ago to the fact that his longtime girlfriend, Amber, broke up with him when he confessed to her that he had been having sexual fantasies about some of his male classmates. All these problems were swirling around in Casey's head when he felt a firm paw clamp down on his shoulder and shake him out of his haze. "Hello? Case? Dude, you even listening to me?" Casey turned from the lightly frosted bus window and was suddenly face to face of Shannon McCaffrey, one of the people he'd made something that could be called a friendship with in his first two months at school. The border collie was easily identified by the messy layer of hair covering his eyes, the shock of brown over the left half of his face and the goofy grin that was seemingly plastered onto his muzzle.
"What's up man? You didn't even say hi to me at the bus stop!"
"Nothing, Shannon. I'm fine, ok?"
"You sure, man? You seemed real nervous and stuff."
"Shannon! Shannon, I assure you, buddy, I'm ok," Casey nearly shouted. Casey tried to smile and moved Shannon's paw off his shoulder.
Shannon looked from side to side and then back at Casey. "Alright, man. If you change your mind and wanna talk, try and look for me at lunch or sumthin' okay?" The border collie then got up, and moved next to a striped hyena in an Infest hoodie, who Shannon was soon chatting enthusiastically with.
Casey couldn't fathom in the slightest how he stayed that optimistic all the time. He would see him talking to himself in the hallway at school or see him laughing with friends at lunch or fiddling with the tip of his tail between his fingers during class, perfectly content with not a worry plaguing his mind. How he did it, nobody knew. Shannon himself probably didn't even know.
The bus pulled up alongside the high school, still covered by the nighttime shadows, with the morning sun still rising behind it. Casey pushed his way off the bus behind Shannon, his tall, lanky form almost completely blocking his view of the school. "Yet another shit day begins," thought Casey as he followed the rest of the students into the school.