x Life at its Will x

As I packed my sturdy cardboard boxes, I knew it was going to be a tough and exciting day. Today was a different day. It was moving day for my father and me. We were moving to Auria, a hardworking city 13 hours away from Moothé.

My name is Mae and in human years, I am a 13 year old cat who’s in 7^th grade. If you’re curious how old I am in cat years, I’m 2 years old! I’m a high honors student who is very creative in their free time artwork, and very well in debates. Speaking of debates, I haven’t done a public debate in like 3 years because due to my lack of social time. I am moving from my 12^th home, in Moothé to Auria. It’s hard for my family to be glued to one home because everyone at all of my schools has bullied me before and my father’s lack of jobs. It always comes back to haunt us both. But, I have a great school that I’m going to, and it’s Auria’s most famous school since 100 years ago! The school is ‘Moussé Academy’. It runs from 6^th grade to 12^th grade. The academy’s famous for their very smart students, artwork, and winnings in all sports. But, it may be surprising but the most famous out of the academy are the clubs. ‘Drama Club’, ‘Book Club, ‘Newspaper Club, ‘Student Council’, you get it. Last year, Moussé Academy opened up a new club, and I think it’s a brand new type of club, but I’m not sure. It’s called ‘Debate Club’ and it’s getting pretty good ratings. I might want to join it because as you know, I’m very good at debating, and oh my god, I just love debating! All the facts you have to put in to make your case, it’s so detailed! But this could be a good or bad opportunity for me because I really want to be a lawyer.

“Hey dad, do we really have to move away from Moothé to Auria?” I argued with my father about it, 24/7. I really didn’t want to move even though I didn’t have any friends to hang out with. I’d always been to myself for about 9 years now and I liked it, a bit.

“Oh come on my swiss cheese! Auria is going to be a big opportunity for both of us and you know it. Auria has amazing jobs and you get a wonderful education!” My father’s lying. He always says that ‘this place’ will be ‘better’. Then there are those horrifying cheese nicknames that I can never stand.

I yelled at him, “Will you just stop with those nicknames? I’m a 13 year old cat, not some cheap kitten! I’m not a mouse either! Besides, I can’t even eat any kinds of cheese; i-i-it isn’t good for my diet!” Hey, I may have your everyday ‘school-girl’ personalities; kind, caring, shy, smart, but just watch out because I have a bad tone when I’m very angry at somebody.

“Okay Mae. Just, please, calm down that tone of yours. You know it scares the heck out of me,” my dad whispered in a frightened tone. He was always scarred by my yelling tone.

All of a sudden, my mind had gone blank as an empty sheet of snowflake white paper. I saw my father’s face, scared to death. He looked at me and thought about what had happened and how I was the only living part of the family excluding him. We came closer to each other, needing some comfort. An icy waterfall came down from our sparkling, colorful eyes and we gave each other a hug as cozy as a warm blanket. The colossal white moving van came shortly after our little moment. We loaded everything inside tirelessly for 2 hours.

“Oh shoot,” my dad had shocked me with surprise, “our plane leaves in about 2 hours! We have got to get going.” I had just finished loading the last box, which was heavy as a brick, onto the van. As we bolted to our rooms to get ready, the van left fast as a bullet. We left for our plane with about an hour until it took off. My father and I learned about Auria is that it’s a very complicated city, but it has excellent job and education choices. Auria also has, what everyone seems to say, super tasty delicacies that it’ll make your mouth drool, great restaurants with great ratings, and wonderful hotels to stay at.

Out of a fallen dream of wonders, I had woken up in a hotel anonymously knowing why I was in here. In one of the poofy and comfy beds, I was snug as a bug. I saw my father wasn’t there, but his items were here. I looked at the nightstand beside me.

“If you wake up, I went to the store. I’ll be back,” a note on the nightstand read.

I got up from the bed and tripped over something that was as hard as a rock. I screamed, but not too loudly, in pain. I looked at my leg, which had a large bright red scratch from the unknown item. The bad thing is that my fur is almost as black as a black hole and the cut was bright like fire on a clear night, so the cut is very noticeable.                                                                         

 I looked at what I had just tripped on. It was a backpack, and assuming from it being hard it must be full of school items. I was curious to wonder what was inside it. I wondered my hypothesis, not knowing that what I thought was correct. Inside were school supplies. Pen, pencils, flash drive, headphones, calculator, index cards, binders, notebook paper, dividers, pencil case, and shaded rosy-red erasers. I also saw a lunch bag, which wasn’t full of anything, seeing the note that my father had gone to the store to get some food.

The next morning, I was getting ready for a new day, a brand new school day at the all famous Moussé Academy. I wondered if it would be different like those others times. It always came back to me. I was always bullied. As you know, those are one of the reasons why I move a lot. I hate being bullied though, but of course people who get bullied hate it too but I thought everyone was their own individual! I think we should accept that we’re all different. Dad had to drive me to school because apparently the school bus doesn’t pick up anyone at a hotel. Well, thank god we’re getting into our new home in a day or two because I don’t really like to be seen with my father around school grounds. I walked into the academy thinking that the first day couldn’t get worse. It usually did get worse. It always does get worse, I’ll admit it.

I got to my locker, 634, putting my backpack, dress jacket, lunch, and my ELA, Social Studies, and Math binders and folders away neat as Cinderella’s mice. I grabbed my Science folder and binder, along with my school supplies inside my faded blue midnight sky pencil case and a cold water bottle. Anonymously, I walked to science class, not knowing anyone there. They all turned and stared at me and started a little chuckle under their heavy and silent breath. I sat down to the chair in the back, wide-eyed of my surroundings, wanting to cry under my frozen soul. I knew it was going to happen again. It’s already happening. I wanted to get out of there. It was the same all the time, all of the bullying, all of the moving, all of everything in life! I was done. I picked up my things and asked my science teacher, Mr. Livéou, if I could go to bathroom. He accepted, nodding his head toward the door. I left with my supplies and went to try some place inside the school where nobody could find me for the rest of the period, or even worse, the rest of the day. I searched and searched and then found the hallway where all of the clubs were always held. I found the Debate Club room and I hid in there for the rest of 1^st period. After sitting tirelessly in the Debate Club classroom, the bell for 2^nd period rang. I was glad the lockers for my grade were only a minute away; otherwise I’d be late for class. I got my Math binder, folder, school supplies, and my water bottle and went to Math class for just attendance, then when the math teacher wasn’t looking, I left silently to go back to the same place, the Debate Club classroom, but there were teachers in there. Was it a meeting? I’d better not interrupt. It’d be rude. I saw people walking across the hall, all laughing at me. I cried under my fur. It was super poofy, like a cloud, you really couldn’t see my tears, but my tears would make my fur more knotty and stale. 3^rd period bell rang.

“Lunch time,” I thought. I saw everyone grabbing their lunch bags or bringing a water bottle to the café. I sat down at a table with girls like me. I didn’t want to be the only one sitting at a table. The other furries looked at me. They laughed underneath their fluffy as a cloud fur and started gossiping. Man, I didn’t fit in at all. Maybe that’s why I haven’t had friends for so long. The school day went on and I never said a word. I didn’t stay for class. I was glad we didn’t have homework though. Finally, I got to go home after tireless hours of staying inside a locked up prison cell. I was too scared to talk or even cry. I couldn’t talk at all. I was a broken doll inside.

“How was your first day?” my father happily asked. I didn’t want to tell him. I was too afraid. He looked at me as if I was giving him the silent treatment. I knew he didn’t look happy. I went to my still comfy bed inside the warm hotel room and went to bed, and never looked forward to dinner. The next day, while my father was out looking for job opportunities, I got different clothes, different name, different hairstyles, different hair-dye, different everything. I didn’t want to be picked on anymore. I was done with it. When I went to school, I named myself Tovray Vali, looking all popular girl-ish. People loved me and kept asking me questions where I was from, but I kept quiet, scared of wondering if they’ll find my true identity. I’ll truly be made fun at. I was depressed but happy. I sat with the same girls as yesterday and they enjoyed staring at me, but not in a negative way. Over the next few weeks, I’d been going to school as a different furry, but I’d have the same things, and surprisingly nobody had suspected it. I stopped hiding my identity for a while but all the bullying came back again. I dealt with it for about 5-7 weeks, and I cried my brains out during those painful weeks. All of a sudden, these two furries in my grade named Autumn and Dria found out about me getting bullied and were devastated by it. They never found bullying funny at all. Soon a week after, they found out about me not coming to school anymore, even though they weren’t in any of my classes. They were right; I wasn’t coming to school anymore. I decided to tell my father that I was being bullied for about 10 weeks now. He told me that he’ll get someone to homeschool me, but we weren’t moving.

“No buts, Mae. We’re staying here, we’re not moving again. You’re getting a homeschool teacher,” he explained. I was okay with it. I didn’t really care what he did for this problem. I just didn’t want to be in the academy anymore. I was done being fun of extremely by people who I never even talked to or knew when it was like my first week being at that town or city! Later that day, Dria and Autumn went to my locker and found a little paper note taped on it.

“I am not here anymore. If you care that much for me, read below,” it read, “find me at 204 Tressmill Blvd.” After school, Dria and Autumn left for the hotel and wanted to have a talk with me.

“Hey are you there? Open up please! We want to talk to a girl named Mae please!” They exclaimed at the door. I had moved into my house already and I’ve actually been getting 8^th grade teaching, so I was a grade above for my learning. My home school teacher opened up the door in shock. Dria and Autumn saw me, then worried and explained, “Dude, we need you back at Moussé Academy! You’re missing all of your classes! You’ve been getting a 50 foot tall building of homework! I’m not even kidding; all of your classmates are even more shocked than we are.” I didn’t know how severe this home school thing was for the academy, but I forcefully had to decline their request on coming back, but little did I know that during the night, they changed my schedule and brought me to school the next day while I was still asleep. Apparently when I woke up in the Debate Club classroom, I was confused and shocked because the academy’s uniform was on me like it usually used to be.

“Wait, guys, what in the world did you do to me? What am I doing here? I’m supposed to be getting ready for my home school teacher! Oh man, she’ll be worried about me!” I screamed in fright with extreme terror, worrying about my home school teacher. I always wanted her to be my teacher. She was an excellent person to be taught from. For some reason, they shoved me uncontrollably to an unfamiliar looking classroom. It was a classroom that was one of their classes. I knew this wasn’t in my class, but then I looked at my schedule. It got changed by them, apparently. They told me the academy wasn’t so bad. I started to go to their classes from now on. The teachers were super nice and they actually taught excellent things, even things that my home school teacher didn’t tell me! The school day went on and I started to enjoy myself due to the subjects, the specials, and the Debate Club especially! At lunch, I sat the same table, but Dria and Autumn sat with me at the table as well. The people at the academy still are bullying me, but I don’t care at all. I don’t care what people say about me anymore because I’m just too busy into my school work and other things. I don’t have time for bullies to make fun of me.

Then, at the Debate Club meeting, I met all these other furries like me who wanted to be on the Debate Club, and meeting them was . I haven’t properly introduced myself to anyone in 9 years, so I’m really happy! Apparently a thing I’d learn about everyone is that they’d been bullied as well, like me, but they’ve learned to ignore it and not care. Besides, it was just an opinion. It’s not like its fact; you don’t have any information about me why you have the right to bully me and what for. Besides, your bullying about another person is like your personal taste on a food you hate. Actually, I used to have no confidence in meeting people like me and I thought everyone was against me. I was never included in anything, I never was talked to. That Debate Club is surely going to help me with having more social time. I go people that are like me and we even had a debate of some things that should or shouldn’t be allowed in Moussé Academy! Come on, the Debate Club did nothing to make all of this happen, the miracle workers here are Dria and Autumn. They did this for me and I’m actually pretty glad because I’d be spending my whole life here in Auria being home schooled and not having the time of my life at the academy. I thank them because I have been a shadow for about 9 years now and I’ve been more yip yap than I’ve ever been.