The duo of boys rounded a corner, coming upon a numbered auditorium, a bunch of chairs spread out from a couple of feet in front of a podium.

Will drags Oakley with no struggle from the other to a seat near the middle. They might be escaping the cusp of the most unstable part of their lives at the moment, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need to be able to hear the professor.

Will would prefer that he at least hear all of the class orientations before he starts sitting in the back. Oakley seemed to agree as he plopped down next to him and set a couple of books down on the desks, putting away a couple unrelated to the specific class topic.

Class begins in quick succession to when they sat down, the teacher appearing from a corner of the room, walking over to the podium with a piece of paper, lite in its contents from what Will could see.

Probably like that, since today is the first day. The teacher is going over things for the class, expectations, and rules. Briefly mentioning transfer students to the other students who are just coming back for the next grade, likely having heard this before.

To his mire, the teacher points him and Oakley out as some of the transfers, and now he regrets his seating choice.

Eyes from every corner of the room look at both of them in their seats in the middle of the room.

Some pointed questions, rhetorical, but directed at them like they can’t just come up and ask them directly. “Is he the one who was in the hospital?” One student whispered, but it fostered something louder inside him.

“Did you notice his limp?” His stomach rolled itself in balls, one after another, at the question, whether it was innocent or not, it put him off kilter to almost be identified, for something he had never asked to happen.

The same insensitive whispers, cut off and refocused by the teacher.

“There will be time for Q&A after class. For now, please remain respectful.” The man commanded, the whispers ceased, and class continued. The gazes didn’t stop completely, but for the most part, they turned to the front again. Will’s abdomen didn’t fully uncoil, but it loosened as Oakley’s eyes found him in spurts during the class, likely noticing his original distress and watching him for it now and again.

The feeling returns whenever a break happens in class, a choking and nauseous feeling that comes over him whenever he feels someone look at him.

He doesn’t want to answer questions; he doesn’t want to talk about what they had to deal with, with anyone other than themselves.

William wants to tell the teacher he would sooner eat his pencil and suffer the taste of graphite in his mouth. Then be reminded yet again of that fucked up school, and fucked up headmaster. He has no doubt Oakley feels the same.

Keeping up his smiley mask whenever someone talked to him, he couldn’t bother to remember what they talked about or when they started the conversation with assumptions.

Eventually, the class ends, and he shuffles back to Oakley, half-rushing out of the class and dragging Oakley along before any more personal questions can be asked of the taller boy. His father’s last name led to more insensitive questions as soon as the lunch bell rang.

As politely as he could, Will flashed his usual canined smile and excused them from the classroom, walking through the halls until they were back in the main hall, waiting outside the cafeteria.

Guarded and almost putting out an intimidating aura, Oakley let his face read scary so people would leave them alone until Eveline and Noah showed up around the cafeteria, peaking into it, he didn’t see them there already, so they waited.

Not really intending to be rude or anything, just wanting to be left alone, and not interrogated, their little group was tight-knit, and they hadn’t interacted with other people without any pretense in a while, so–again–excuse them if they were isolating themselves on purpose.

Regular people, who aren’t complacent about murder or bullies, and they’re our age, no, no way, they must be unicorns.

That’s how Will would assume his pack–and him–think of the students. Even if is doesn’t make much logical sense. Coming up behind Oakley, Noah jumped on his shoulders, startling the tall oak tree.

“We’re back, grumps, y’know you’re broadcasting ‘leave me alone’ vibes, right?” She chimed, her smile coming back as she poked Oakley’s face from where she attached herself to his back.

Waving her fingers away from his face, the boy in question sighed once he heard her speak. “Yeah…, they kept asking personal questions we didn’t want to answer.” He supplied, huffing in annoyance.

Will stared at his leg as he fidgeted with his hands, the limb constantly reminding him of its grievances as it fosters a dull fire that slowly grows with use in his knee and ankle, his shin panging with use.

Catching his stare, Eveline opened her mouth in an O shape. “Oh, I see. Well, on the bright side, now that it’s lunch time, we can get that tour from Archie.” She moved to change the topic, opening the lunch hall doors with both hands. Oakley and Will welcome the deflection, as they follow behind the girls.

“I’m hungry, do we have to get the tour now?” Noah whined, her ears falling flat against her head. Chuckling, Eveline spoke,

”Lunch is more than 30 minutes in this school, so we have plenty of time to get a tour after we eat.” She placated, smirking to herself.

“Great, they don’t rush starving students, I think I love it here,” Noah spoke sarcastically, exaggerating the last bit.

With a snort, Will walked after her to the buffet table, grabbing a tray and serving himself, feeling second-hand embarrassment at the large plate Oakley had.

“Are we allowed to overfill?” He was worried they’d get in trouble. Oakley’s gruff shrug definitely didn’t help.

“Don’t worry about it, the school has a large budget for lunch, with how many new mixes are enrolling, they added to the budget for lunch, it’s great.” A familiar kind voice spoke from a table nearby, almost startling the pack.

“Sorry, I walked away so fast. I’m part of the student board, and we have meetings before class starts. I was almost late.” The bird gave a small laugh.

“It’s okay, is the offer for a tour still valid?” Eveline spoke for them, the rest of them sitting down at an adjacent empty table from where Archie was.

“Sure, I hope you don’t mind if Jake joins us.” He gestures to the large boy next to him, with short, tousled black hair and brown eyes. The black bear’s small ears turned to address them.

“Hi,” Jake spoke directly; he felt like someone who didn’t use filler words.

The boy waved nicely, betraying his sort of menacing appearance with the soft gesture. The two seemed to ignore all of the muttering around them as they spoke to the group like regular people.

“I’m sorry about them, it’s just everyone is surprised about what happened, and you’re the only people in our school to transfer from Hawthorne's.

Our school is a little different from what you might be used to. There are a lot more mixes, people aren’t so prejudiced, sure, we have our own issues, but we aren’t so biased negatively toward other mixes or wolf-dogs.

Just to get the elephant in the room out.” Archie reasoned, his eyebrows knitting together as he animatedly explained why everyone is being so weird.

“I can tell them to back off later, if you’d like.” He added, Will nodded faster than he would have liked at the offer.

Eating together, then throwing away the leftovers in a familiar trash bin, the group, plus Archie and Jake, went on their tour, using the last of their time before the bell rang to show them around.

Using their map, they were acquainted with more class areas, a snack and lounge area around the club rooms, the gymnasium(they didn’t go all the way to it, since it’s large and far away), the bathrooms, classes they’ve been to already, and the student board room.

Thankful for the tour lest he get lost when on his own, Will thanked them with a smile, more genuine than the past couple he’s put on. When they come to teachers’ lounges and staff rooms, they begin to hear different voices, but in a similar fashion to before, the same topic.

“I heard the investors found out, and pulled out,” One voice spoke, quiet, not quite gossiping but adding to an already festering conversation, “The smaller investors cut their losses and pulled out when the larger ones stopped funding.” It finished. “They didn’t want to be associated with murder?” one pondered. “Seems like it.” Another confirmed.

The circumstances that led to their rugpull of a school being shutdown, weren’t entirely unknown to them. What with Oakley’s father ranting about it every time he came home, going on and on about it while he disciplined his son so far out of reason that he was exhausted when he came to school.

It wasn’t unknown to them, but even the mention of the busybody murderer’s funding in education deals going awry was upsetting. Anything that had to do with the man was a sore subject.

Will is only slightly happy that while he was in the hospital, his friends were protected, and for the most part kept anonymous as they testified against Oakley and Noah’s fathers.

The vast majority of him wishes they had ever had to in the first place, or that he had been there with them; his loyalty knows no bounds, even when he knows that if he really thought about it, he couldn’t have done anything back then, even if it was different.

Will hates that while he was in the hospital, his friends had to deal with everything, and he’s surprised they don’t resent him for it; he got to be away from it. He knows it isn’t like that, though; the hospital wasn’t any better than what they told him the whole case was like.

It hurt, whether it was physical or emotional. The way Eveline and Oakley rushed the tour on when they heard the conversation. With forced smiles, they encouraged Archie and Jake to move on to the next location.

Pulling Will from his thoughts and Noah from whatever she was staring at, as they continued on with the school day. It dragged for what felt like forever, and by the end of it, his leg was blooming in the same fire that grows from his bones grinding against each other achingly as he walked.

Tuckered out and begging to lie down in his bed, Will is surprised by how much they missed of the last grade before they had to continue from where they left off.

The suspension worked for the trauma, but it was less than helpful when they missed multiple lessons by the time they had to start the next grade. It’s a start, catching up, and maybe making more friends.