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Rating forecast: G conditions expected for the day with a slight chance of morning PG. High 4. Chance of continuity 80%.

• - - - - CONTINUE - - - - -

A summer sun sits in the sky, casting its strong light onto a forested wilderness. Trees and tall grass waver under the strength of an unseen breeze. The wind weaves through two figures overlooking the expanse of woodland from their hilltop vantage.

"Race you to the bottom."

"You're on!" the wolf replied; accepting the challenge and taking after the husky down the hill.

The sounds of freshly trampled grass and laughter could be heard as the pair ran towards the pond at the hill's base. Both hopped over logs and narrowly dodged trees in their paths as the race entered a densely wooded area surrounding the pond. The wolf lost sight of the husky in the underbrush, but continued forward with great determination. His pace slowed upon spotting a figure at the pond's edge.

"I was wondering when you'd get here," the husky noted, turning to regard the wolf.

"Aw Hunter," his friend panted, "you never let me win just once do you?"

"If I let you win Ryan, it wouldn't be a fair race."

"Well okay. You're tops on long distance runs, but not when it comes to sprints," he quipped, taking a seat under the shade of a nearby tree.

"It's only a matter of time buddy," the husky replied, taking a moment to lie on the ground.

Ryan's position against the tree allowed him to scan the landscape and expanse of water to pass the time; while Hunter's upward view locked his sights to what was above. The relative peace of the wilderness broken solely by their soft pants as they unwound from the race. With nothing to see in a cloudless sky and bright sun through the treetops, the husky's view drifted to Ryan. Hunter's jade green eyes met with the wolf's ice blue pair. The husky couldn't help but notice how serene Ryan looked with the pattern of tree branches criss-crossing his reclining form, when compared to how he acted mere moments ago.

"Hey Ryan," Hunter started as he moved to have a seat with his friend. "There's something I want to tell you."

The wolf noted the uncertain look upon the husky's visage, but didn't say anything to interrupt.

"Actually, I think it'd be better if I showed you."

Hunter took his friend's paws into his own and looked up once again to regard Ryan's countenance. Setting his reservations aside and taking advantage of a burst of confidence, Hunter closed his eyes and leaned into the wolf.

As the space between them rapidly shrank, an inexplicable brightness overtook the husky's obscured sight, and he brought his arm up to block the light. Upon bringing his arm down, Hunter's reality shifted to his room where the husky noted a familiar hardness resting against his midsection.

He smiled briefly as he stretched and casually let a paw brush over the bump under the covers. Hunter was ready to start his special morning routine, but one glance at his alarm clock made him do a double take. Realization set in as the neon numbers hit him with the intensity of a firetruck blitzing to the scene of an inferno.

"6:25 AM? Crud, I'm going to be late!"

Fortunately for the husky, this situation had been well-prepared for seeing as this happened a few times over the previous semester. However with under five minutes left on the clock, this was the closest he got to actually missing the bus. The husky ran through his morning routine, minus attending to other pressing duties.

". . . have to show responsibility Hunter, you're a high school student now," he muttered under his breath while bouncing around the room trying to get his pants on.

". . . responsibility for when you get your own. . . "

Hunter paused to think about the reward, but another glance at the clock indicated he had less than three to get to the stop. With a dash through the kitchen for a snack and slam of the front door, the husky was outside with some time to spare. The bus was a bit late so Hunter had the opportunity to check off his mental list of things to do, trying to reassure himself nothing critical was forgotten in the rush.

"Welcome back all!" Mr. Gideon announced. "We'll be starting anew this semester and you know what that means. . . a new schedule! Now you'll still have my class first with this being your official homeroom and first period. I happen to know how stimulating physics is in the morning. . . "

The platypus' words were met with a flurry groans from the class, at which the instructor laughed, "Now now, it's not all that bad. It's either me in the morning or me at the end of the day. Personally, I'd want to get this class over with as soon as possible; no reason to dread your last class all day long."

His remark brought forth what he wanted to hear and continued, "Good to hear the change in attitude. Okay! First week has been compressed into first period, so everything you'll need to know will happen now. Unfortunately that means I won't be teaching today, but be prepared for tomorrow."

The class perked up a bit at this development and put their materials aside as they attempted to enjoy a relaxing period on new procedures.

"Time for a surprise," the instructor stated after going over the policies and changes. "Over the break your grades have been calculated and class positions established. We have, in our presence, the number one student. Though our 'western wrangler' won't brag about his accomplishment, I'll do it for him. Our top student and your competitor to unseat is. . . Hunter Roderick."

Hunter looked up from the table and spun slightly on his stool before looking to everyone in the room. Seeing all eyes on him caused the husky to laugh nervously and he waved to this classmates. A light applause caused Hunter to smile and utter "Thanks" under his sheepish smile.

"To give everyone a good start," he continued, "on catching up to Hunter, we're going to play a quiz game for extra credit. And yes, though quiz and game are together it's going to be fun, I promise."

Mr. Gideon had set up the teams with buzzers and established the rules for the game. The questions were prepared as review material from first semester, but the game remained open book and notes.

"First question," he began. "What is the rate of acceleration due gravity on Earth?"

*buzz* "Thirty-two feet per second!"

"Wrong"

"What?" the student who buzzed asked, "Oh, SI units"

"Not exactly"

*buzz* "Nine and eight hundredths meters per second."

"Incorrect"

"How? Isn't it in meters per second? I thought it was in--"

*buzz*

"Hunter! If you answer the question correctly, you get the points; otherwise I'll retire the question."

"Nine point eight meters per second per second," Hunter replied coolly, in contrast to others yelling out their answers.

"Correct! Points to Hunter's team," the instructor announced. "I wasn't keen on SI units, so you could have answered the question with thirty-two feet per second per second. Refer to your notes as to why there's the 'extra' per second. Moving on. . . name Newton's Laws of Motion, extra points for examples. . . "

The game continued for the remainder of the period with papers flying for the students referring to notes and the book. The final score put Hunter's team in second place; which wasn't bad considering the husky was working from memory while his teammates tried to answer what he couldn't recall.

"Hey, good game in there," Ryan congratulated as he and Hunter walked out of the class.

"Yeah I guess," the husky sighed.

"What's up? Mr. Top of the Class won't settle for anything less than first place?" Ryan asked while comparing schedules.

"Ah no, that's not it at all," Hunter replied, shaking his head. "I don't like being the center of attention for anything, I'm rather humble if you'd like to believe me."

A quick glance in the wolf's direction was returned with a smug grin.

"Okay don't believe me, yet I wasn't the one who told you I was number one. I mean I knew from the report card, but I wasn't bragging about it."

"Whatever you say dude." Ryan returned the husky's schedule. "See you in chemistry."

Hunter was left in the hall holding the paper against his chest as Ryan sulked off to his next class. Hunter felt a pang of regret for not trying to reassure the wolf that he wasn't trying to be show-offy, but Ryan probably wouldn't believe him then either.

"I guess there are still some trust issues to work out," he sighed. "Then again just friends, what more can I expect?"

The remainder of two other classes flew by as Hunter brooded about the conversation he had in the hallway. Soon enough, it was time to meet up with Ryan again in chemistry. The wolf sat at a table separate from Hunter, but the husky assumed there was comfort sitting in the same seat as last semester.

"I'm sure everyone has had sufficient time to get acclimated to being back in school; therefore we'll begin right away with a lesson on solutions," the mouse announced, "Today's lesson includes a demo. Won't that be fun?"

Everyone expected the rhetorical comment and only a few gave a slight nod before the lecture began.

"I will be dissolving salt into water until the solute no longer breaks up in the solvent, thereby creating a saturated solution. You'll see the process on the overhead."

She set a beaker of water on the overhead, and turned it on to transmit the shadow of the beaker's contents to the screen. The instructor then stirred the water after adding some salt and waited for it to dissolve before adding more and stirring again. Occasionally, the stir rod would hit the side of the beaker creating the 'clink' of glass on glass.

"That's no way to stir," a tiger mumbled under his breath.

He said it softly to avoid being heard by the instructor, but loud enough for Hunter and Ryan to catch with some effort.

"You've got to stir it in the middle, can't keep hitting the glass," the tiger continued under his mumbling tone. ". . . doing it all wrong. . . gotta stir it like a powdered drink. . . I could do a better stir than that."

"If you don't like the way she stirs," Ryan started as he turned to face the Bengal tiger, "then why don't you do it?"

"That's an excellent idea," she added. "Malcolm, thanks for volunteering to be my assistant. Now, if you'd come up and stir for me. . . "

Some members of the class giggled as Malcolm grudgingly got up from his seat to help. Hunter looked over to Ryan and smiled.

"You know that wasn't the best way to handle the situation," the husky lectured as the pair left the class for the mid-day break.

"Well, it was one way to get him to stop the stirring critique," Ryan mentioned.

"I saw Ms. Faulkner glance at Malcolm from time to time. I'm sure she would have said something eventually."

"Not fast enough for my quick witted smart remarks," the wolf laughed.

"That attitude is bound to get you in trouble."

"Versus being passive and letting the world trample all over you?"

"More like being passive-aggressive. You see, how I roll is to let the small stuff slip by and save the 'aggressive' moments for when there is a threat to others or if you'll get hurt without enough aggression."

"Pish-posh. Like we're ever going to get into that predicament. You've got to take charge when the time is right and deal with the fallout later. Now that's how I roll. Hasn't steered me wrong so far. . . what's the worst that could happen?"

Hunter shrugged his shoulders in response, gaining the 'I thought so' look from the wolf.

• - - - - PAUSE - - - - -

Yes, cliché-like. This section was a bit short, but it's one day split in two.

Not exactly an extended cliffhanger as the final component for this prequel is a week's time away. Consider this a pit stop: eat, drink, be cheery.