The lupine sat in his seat, near the back of the class. His eyes looked glazed, and his appearance one of pure fatigue. He tried desperately to stay awake, his eyelids feeling heavier than lead weights. The world around him seemed to be awake while he was asleep. But he wasn’t asleep, nor was he awake. He was just there.

‘C’mon Shaul, get with it!’ The lupine thought to himself.

Shaul looked up at the teacher, thinking he heard his name being called. The teacher looked at him, sternly. He knew he was asked something but didn’t know what. The class turned to him as he flipped through the pages of his book, looking for the right page. The Siamese next to him whispered the answer.

“Five x times pi.” Shaul said.

“Very good, Shaul. Now, try to stay with us.” The teacher replied.

“Thanks, Shieta.” Shaul whispered to the Siamese.

The bell rang and Shaul rushed to his next class. He slumped into his chair and took out his physics book. It was only the second class of the day and he was already burnt out. Shieta sat down in the desk next to him. She had every class with him and was a good friend of his. She looked at him, with a worried look on her face, and tapped him on the shoulder. Shaul lifted his head and looked at her before returning to his previous position of trying to sleep before class started.

“Shaul, get up.” Shieta said to him.

Shaul looked up, tiredness in his eyes. “Yeah?”

“What’s with you? You fall asleep in every class and you missed the party yesterday.”

“Party? What party?”

“The one Will threw. After you guys won your game.”

“Oh, that one. I had work to do.” Shaul said, yawning.

“Yeah, that one. I was hoping you would’ve shown up.”

Shaul cocked an ear. “Really?”

“Yes, really. What’s with you? You’ve been out of it lately.”

“I’ve just had a shitload of work.”

Shieta smiled, teasingly. “You know what they say about all work and no play…”

Shaul just shook his head. “Not now, I’m too tired.”

Shieta frowned. “Wow, you usually try to jump on me when I do that.”

Shaul didn’t hear; he was already asleep. Shieta let out a sigh and got out her book and turned to a clear page in her binder. The teacher, Mr. Lawrence, walked into class a few minutes late. He started the class quickly, beginning to review last night’s homework. Shaul slept through the entire review without Mr. Lawrence noticing. He woke up in time to get his results from last weeks test back, only to find out he was better off sleeping. He failed, and badly at that.

“How the fuck did I fail… I studied for three hours for the past week.” Shaul mumbled to himself before yelling out, “DAMNIT!”

Everyone turned and stared at Shaul for that. He was blushing bright red, which could be seen in his ears. Mr. Lawrence walked over to Shaul and stood him up before giving him a stern lecture about profanity and not studying. Then he sent Shaul to the principal’s office.

‘Just fucking wonderful; I made a total dumbass out of myself in front of the entire class and now I’m in trouble…’ Shaul thought.

The secretary told Shaul to take a seat outside the door. There was another person inside Mr. Peter’s, the principal, office. He was yelling at him, obviously furious over something. The words ‘expulsion’ and ‘felony’ could be heard outside the door. Shaul knew he was in for it if Mr. Peters stayed pissed.

Finally the poor kid was sent back to his class. The jaguar looked like he had become a snow leopard when he finally left the office. He was shivering and had the thousand-yard stare when he left. Hesitantly, Shaul went in after he was called.

The office was a nice one. It was furnished with cabinets and shelves stocked with expensive looking books that had gold and silver gilding on them. There was a large oak desk with papers a laptop, and a lamp on it. Sitting behind it was a fierce looking lion, Mr. Peters.

“Hello, Shaul.” Mr. Peters said, no apparent emotion in his voice.

“Hello, Mr. Peters.” Shaul replied.

“Shaul, I’d like to talk with you.”

“Was it about me swearing in class?”

“That’s part of it.”

“What’s the other part?” Shaul asked, his head in his hands.

“You’re overall self. Lately you’ve been tired, stressed out, poor test grades, and a horrible attitude.”

“I’ve just been tired.”

“How much sleep do you get on average?”

“Not enough.”

“How many hours, Shaul.”

“I don’t know. Around three or four.”

“I see. Feeling stressed lately?”

“Yeah…”

“About..?”

“Nothing. Just stressed.”

“Anything in particular?”

“Not really.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok. You can go back to class now. I’d like to talk with you later though.”

“Yes, Mr. Peters.”

Shaul left Mr. Peters office just in time to go to his next class, French. Shieta was leaning against the doorframe, smiling as she saw him walk down the hall to the door. Shaul just shook his head and walked past her to his desk. Shieta sighed and went to her desk behind Shaul’s.

“Have a nice talk?” Shieta asked.

“Oh yes, it was just dandy.” Shaul replied, extremely sarcastically.

“Good to know.”

“Some days I feel like I should just shoot myself.”

“Don’t even think about it.” Shieta said, worriedly.

“Why not?”

Shieta smiled, teasingly resting a finger on Shaul’s nose after he turned around to face her. “It’s not fun masturbating to the thought of a dead person.”

Shaul doubled back. “What?!”

Shieta laughed and leaned back in her chair.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Ya never know…” she said and winked.

Shaul shook his head and lied his head down on the desk. The teacher walked in a minute late and started getting into the lesson. She began with going over the homework, which everyone handed in. Shaul, for once, had it and handed it to Janusz, the St. Bernard who sat in front of him, smiling.

“Wow, you actually did it for once, man.” Janusz said.

“Yeah. A miracle ain’t it?” Shaul replied.

Janusz chuckled and handed in the papers.

Shaul coasted through the class until it was over. He answered the questions he was asked and tried his best not to be noticed. Shieta usually attracted most of the attention when Madame Didea looked in his direction. Shaul leaned back and gave Shieta a quick thumbs up whenever she did that. The bell rang and Shaul got up and waited for Shieta at the door. He walked with her to the cafeteria for lunch.

The two got their food, burgers, fries, and Arizona Iced Tea. They paid and sat down at a table. Shaul ate quickly and waited for Shieta to finish before taking their plates to the trash. He went back, got his bag, and offered to walk with Shieta outside. The two went out to the yard between the cafeteria and the school. They sat in their normal spot under the large oak tree by the garden. Shaul rested against the tree and Shieta rested her head in Shaul’s lap, facing him. He stroked her short hair until she purred deeply. The moment was disturbed by rough voice.

“You two going out yet or what?” Janusz said.

“Not last time I checked.” Shaul said.

Shieta gave Shaul a playful punch to the stomach and nuzzled his chest. “Well, hopefully that’ll change, lover.”

“Hey now! What’ve you two been up to!” Janusz said, snickering.

“Nothing. She’s just kidding around.” Shaul said, smiling and shaking his head.

“Oh you know better than that. Why else you think he’s been so tired lately. I keep him up all night.” Shieta said, grinning.

“Oh yes, she ties me up to the bed spread-eagle and teases me…” Shaul said, rolling his eyes.

“You don’t seem to mind.” Shieta said, giggling.

“Ok, you two are getting to into this joke. I’ll see you two in chemistry class.” Janusz said.

“See you later.” Shaul and Shieta said.

Janusz left in a hurry after a few friends of his, laughing all the way. Shieta nuzzled against Shaul who in turn stroked her cheek, smoothing out the soft ruffled fur. Shieta murred happily and closed her eyes, smiling. Shaul just leaned back and sighed.

“Why can’t I just do this all day…” He muttered to himself.

“Because all good things must come to an end.” Shieta replied, purring contently.

“Why?”

The bell rung.

“That’s why.”

The two got up and reluctantly walked to their next class, chemistry. By the time they had gotten to their lockers, gotten their books, and walked into the class the bell had rung and both were late by a few minutes. They crept in and sat down next to each other, trying not to be noticed by their teacher, Mrs. Yang, who was busy writing down an equation involving enthalpy and calorimetry.

“You two are late, Shaul, Shieta.” Mrs. Yang said, still writing the equation.

“Her locker jammed and I helped her get it open.” Shaul said.

“I though the janitor fixed it.” Mrs. Yang said, finishing up the equation.

“Apparently not, since it’s still jamming.” Shaul replied.

“Next time I’m going to have you two get a pass from Mr. Peters.”

Shaul swallowed. “Yes, ma’am.”

Janusz leaned over and handed a few sheets to Shaul. “This was the lab we had to do. I figured you’d be too tired with the reports and other things you had to do so I typed it all up for you.”

Shaul looked up and mouthed a silent prayer to his guardian. “I owe you, man.”

Janusz shook his head. “Forget about it. I know how you feel so…”

The rest of the class was spent on preparing for the midterms that were coming up in less than two weeks. It was a fairly straightforward review, covering most of the major topics that were going to be on the test. Janusz helped Shaul out whenever he was stumped, Shieta taking notes, the airheads chatting away about some random thing, Mrs. Yang going around and helping various people. It was another average day so far in the life of Shaul Trekome.

It was the last class of the day, health and fitness class. At least, today it was. Fitness class alternated with Tech and CADD class. This gave the students a break from physical activities to work on computer skills and vice versa. Shaul got changed, looking at the others in the locker room. For some reason, everyone else seemed bigger and tougher than Shaul, despite him being one of the best athletes in the class. He finished tying his foot wrappings and went into the gym.

Shaul had digitigrade feet as compared to others who had plantigrade. Those with plantigrade feet usually had more control and agility when they ran, but lacked speed. This was usually Shaul’s downfall when he played sports, lack of control when he was running.

Shieta stepped out of the women’s locker room and went over to join Shaul and Blair, another one of Shaul’s good friends. Shieta was dressed in short, tight fitting jeans and a tight black t-shirt that showed off her good-sized bust. Most of the guys eyed Shieta, who just smiled and walked past them. Shaul grinned and put his arm around her; Blair just chuckled softly to himself and leaned against the wall behind him.

“I take it you like this look.” Shieta said, smiling broadly.

“It’s… different.” Shaul said, grinning.

“What the fuck? What happened to baggy shorts and a shirt two sizes bigger than you?” Blair said, still chuckling.

“I just wanted to see if this would make a few heads raise.” Shieta said.

“Among other things.” Blair replied, snickering.

Shieta giggled while Shaul idly scratched up and down her back.

The gym teacher, Mr. Learner, walked out of his office and yawned, revealing a row of sharp pointed teeth. He was a lion, a big one at that, and one of the strongest people in the school. He seemed like the stereotypical gym teacher, gruff and like an Army drill sergeant. In reality, he was actually pretty smart, well mannered, and nicer than any other teacher in the school (not including substitutes). The class quieted as he walked to the center of the room.

“Ok, today we’re going outside to play some football. You know the basic drill for stretching and warm ups so I’m going to let you do that on your own.” Said Mr. Learner. “Please don’t slack off on that ‘cause I’ve already had one person pull their calf muscle and believe me when I say it hurts when you do that.”

Mr. Learner motioned with his hand for everyone to begin warm ups and the class got into two rows of twelve with one leader up in front. Shaul, Shieta, and Blair were in the back row stretching out more than the others. They usually did the best in the class, even if they didn’t try to. When the class finished they jogged outside to the field, Shaul and Blair racing each other out sprinting faster than Mr. Learner even. Shieta took it easy and jogged with everyone else, idly chatting with a few of the girls.

Blair beat Shaul, as usual, and the two rested and waited for the others to join them. Mr. Learner placed the two on separate teams to even things up and spread the others out randomly. Shieta was placed on Shaul’s team along with a few others that worked well with him. Blair had luck of having the few that he hated placed on his team; something that usually led to his downfall since he usually didn’t do too well with people he didn’t like. The two teams went over put on their belts, which had red or yellow ribbons, or flags, attached by Velcro. After the teams got their belts on, the game began.

Blair had the kickoff and punted it to the other end of the field into Shaul’s arms, who ran down the field as fast as he could with Mark clearing a path for him and Shieta to his side. Blair dove under Mark and lunged at Shaul, tearing a flag off of him. Mr. Learner blew the whistle and motioned first down for Shaul’s team. Shaul called a huddle and gave the play, then clapped his hands. His team got ready and sprinted out when he called hut.

Shaul tossed the ball back to Dave, who sprinted back ten yards while Mark and Jacob blocked any who tried to get Dave. Shaul and Shieta sprinted out to the sides and forward, then turned and waited for Dave who threw it to Shaul. Shaul caught the ball and turned around, just in time to see Blair dive at him. Shaul spun around and pushed Blair away from him and his flags, then ran forward towards the end zone. Four others went after Shaul, who easily dodged them and scored a touchdown for his team.

This happened with Blair’s team as well, though not as successfully. The two teams went back and forth, scoring point after point on each other, missing an occasional few. Finally, the class was over and the score tied. Everyone walked back in to change and wash off some of the dirt and sweat they had on them.

Shaul walked to his bus, which was always ten or twenty minutes late, Shieta next to him talking about random things. Shaul puts his arm around her waist and walked past the VoTech building, past the few that scorned him and the other Magnet students, to his bus. Shieta gave one the finger after she heard a lewd remark about her looks, Shaul snarling at the Chattan after Shieta repeating the comment.

Shieta got on her base and waved goodbye to Shaul from the window before the bus pulled out. Shaul stood there, waiting for the bus that was infamously late, surrounded by others who hated his town and all who were in it for the simple reason that the town had a bad reputation. This reputation was that there were no Chattans living in it, which for the most part was true, and that all people residing in the town he was in hated all Chattans, which was extremely untrue seeing that Blair was a Chattan.

Roxanne, one of the people on Shaul’s bus, stood next to Shaul. A member of a neighboring town yelled out a racist remark against Lupines, causing a slight incident with Roxanne and him. This was a regular everyday occurrence; someone would piss Roxanne off and she’d end up punching them out. After a year of this, the staff who had bus duty that day would always be on the lookout for the slightest hint of a fight starting, so Roxanne rarely got past more than three or four hits.

“Man, why the hell do those Rahway kids always gotta piss us off?” Roxanne said on the way back to the local high school.

“Because they’re a bunch of assholes.” Shaul replied.

“Still, they should know by now not to piss me off ‘cause I’m gonna end up beating the shit outa them.”

“If you can get more than three hits on them.” Shaul said, smirking.

Roxanne grinned. “Yeah, but they’re good hits.”

Shaul laughed. “Good point.”

“Hey, how come you never join in? You’d do awesome as a fighter.”

Shaul shrugged. “I don’t see the point. Just ignore them, it pisses them off even more.”

“Yeah, but it feels so much better slamming my fist into their ugly little faces.”

“Maybe. I’ll just stick to my methods and you can stick to yours.”

Roxanne shrugged. “Ok, you don’t know what you’re missing though.”

The bus ride should have taken only ten minutes but the driver managed to drag it out into at least a full twenty. He had a natural talent for doing things like that, annoying people. His driving was madness; it was like he was in the movie Speed. Everyone knew him by the name of ‘Allen Psychocop’ because he used to be a police officer. Every time someone would get on the bus, he would give them the look that pierced through you as if they were trying to see some sort of lie you were hiding. The only thing he ever saw from most of the people he gave the look to was the middle finger.

Finally, the bus pulled up to the local high school, Arthur L. Johnson regional high school, or ALJ for short. Shaul snarled when he got off the bus and looked at the old crumbling building. It was a two story building, large glass windows showing the inside of every dimly lit and stingy looking room. The large awning that covered the front doors and extended to the sidewalk was dirty and needed a good cleaning. There was a clock that hung from the center of the building’s front that hasn’t worked for at least a decade. The entire school was old and needed serious work, if only the townspeople didn’t decide to cut school funding yearly it might happen.

“Hey, Shaul!” a voice called from by the dirty glass doors.

“Hey, Ed.” Shaul replied, not too cheerfully.

“How’s Fagnet? I mean Magnet.” The lupine replied.

“Better than this dump.” Replied Shaul, smiling slyly.

Ed took two steps forward before Roxanne stepped next to Shaul.

“Don’t even think about it, punk.” Roxanne said, cracking her knuckles. She had a reputation of being a good fighter.

Ed snarled and backed away. “You’re lucky you have this bitch watching your back. I’ll get you in practice tomorrow.”

“Good luck, I’ll be waiting.” Shaul said, growling menacingly.

“Ignore him, he’s a asshole.” Roxanne said, patting Shaul’s shoulder.

Shaul chuckled. “This coming from you?”

“Hey, I’m learning.”

“I noticed. Hey, there’s my ride. See you around.”

“Later, Shaul.”

A black car pulled up. It was a new model, made by Infinite, and was driven by a motherly looking woman who had a bright cheery smile. Shaul sighed softly and walked into the car, tailwaving bye to Roxanne.

“How was your day, habibay?” the woman asked.

“Pretty good, mom. How was yours?” Shaul replied.

“Tiring. Lots of paperwork to do.”

Most of the ride was spent talking about random things, none of which had to do with Shaul’s schoolwork since he avoided the subject as much as possible. Mrs. Trekome was always a little suspicious about how he was doing in school because of this, Shaul just didn’t like talking about it.

Shaul went up to his room and dropped his book bag onto his bed. His room was fairly small, but it was nice. There were posters of various bands on the walls as well as a few bandanas of a wolf looking out at the door, a flag with Earth’s symbol, and a few pictures of Shieta, either alone or with him. A carpet with Middle Eastern designs covered his floor. There was a desk in the corner of his room, on it an old laptop with various papers around it.

Shaul grabbed his bag and slid it off his bag, dropping it gently onto the ground. He lay down on his bed, sighing and closing his eyes, relaxing for a few minutes before leaning over his bed and opening his bookbag to grab his books. He flipped through his assignment pad and grabbed his physics book, grumbling to himself. Shaul hated physics, and being tired didn’t help. He opened to the page the problems were on and took out his binder, then began on his homework.

Six o’clock, dinnertime, and Shaul had barely finished his homework. Shaul slumped in his chair, sighing softly as his mom brought out dinner; rice with green beans cooked with meat slices in an Armenian sauce. The old family traditions have lasted over the centuries and were still strong, for the most part. Mr. Trekome sat down at the head of the table, smiling faintly, looking at the food in front of him.

“Anthony, did you tell Shaul the good news?” Mrs. Trekome said.

“I was hoping to wait until after dinner, Mary.” Mr. Trekome replied.

“Why don’t you tell him now, Anthony?” Mrs. Trekome said.

“Might as well. Shaul, I’m getting a new job.” Mr. Trekome said.

“That’s good, dad. Where at?” Shaul asked.

“At Paine, Webber, and Co.” Anthony said.

“I thought you said the pay was lousy there.”

“Not anymore. I got my certification with using the new software and they offered me more money now.”

“Cool, does that mean I can finally replace my laptop?”

“We’ll see. How are your grades doing?”

“They’re doing ok.”

“How did you test come out?”

“I did ok. If the teacher decides to curve it I can get a 90.” Shaul lied.

“Good.”

The rest of the dinner was spent talking about the news. The fighting on A’Blam was slowly escalating. The Loupians and Chattans were always fighting over something, usually it was over territory but somehow it seemed different this time. Shaul finished his meal and went to his room to rest before browsing the Internet for some random thing or other. Oddly enough, most of his time spent online was not used for looking at porno. Rather, he actually looked at recent events and things that had some quality in them. Of course, he did go and look at smut every now and then and masturbate. He just didn’t do it as much as others did, or claimed to at least.

He sighed and put in a CD into the boom box that rested on a shelf in his open closet. He hit the play button and the sounds of Tool began filling the room, and through his walls into his parent’s room next to his. He heard the resounding banging of his father hitting the wall telling him to decrease the volume while he watched his TV. Shaul turned down the volume and lay back on his bed, sighing heavily. He had gotten backstage passes to the Tool concert, which was in two months. His friend knew the drummer from the band and was able to get four backstage passes, two of which went to Shaul. Luck seemed to be his strong suit with everything but his grades lately, and he was beginning to wear it threadbare.

The phone rang. Shaul never answered it since it was rarely for him. Mrs. Trekome picked it up; her voice could be heard from the office, then called for Shaul saying it was for him. Shaul got up and paused the song, then picked up the phone.

“Hello?” Shaul said into the phone.

“Hey, it’s Shieta.” The voice on the other end said.

“Hey, Shieta. What’s up?”

“Nadda, wanted to know if you were doing anything right now.

“Just listening to a few CD’s and thinking.”

“What happened to all the work you’ve had to do?”

“I finished it tonight.”

“Really… Does that mean you aren’t doing anything this weekend?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Do you know how to play pool?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Wanna hang out with a few friends of mine?”

“Sure, I don't have anything else to do.”

“Great, we’ll pick you up at around 5:00 on Saturday.”

“Ok, see you later.”

“Later.” Shieta said, and hung up.

Shaul unpaused the song, letting it finish before changing the music to Moby. The CD was halfway through before Shaul fell asleep, sprawled out on his bed, still in his jeans and t-shirt. His dad knocked on the door and woke him up. Shaul walked over and opened the door to find a very angry father, holding an email from Mr. Peters about his ‘poor attitude and grades’. The next half hour would be spent on a conversation that Shaul had heard many times over whenever he slipped up with something. Afterwards, Shaul went online and vented his anger in chatrooms, flaming various people over their idiocy and lack of thought. Usually, he never had anyone question him with his arguments and was known as someone who was good at arguing, the few that did offer some opposition usually ended up siding with him and backing him up. It was quite fun for Shaul, to go around and find fault with others, then broaden on it. He knew he had his own faults and readily admitted them, accepting that he wasn’t perfect. This dumbfounded many who tried to insult him, and usually ended up working to his advantage because he always was able to keep himself in check.

Shaul finished up a post on a message board about how dumb some people were because they asked questions about something that was obvious to everyone about some random thing or another. Despite being harsh, he was right about his argument. When he was wrong, he usually waited for someone to catch on that he was incorrect and admitted it. He wouldn’t have to worry about that happening this time. He clicked the ‘post reply’ button and went take a shower and then off to see how much time he could kill before sleep crept over him. He never slept easily, he had some signs of being an insomniac, but when he slept he would be in a deep sleep that wasn’t easily awaken by most things.

Shaul stepped out of his shower and dried himself off with a large soft towel. It was a new one; the towels in his house were fairly old but were remarkably clean. Mrs. Trekome made it a point to keep things neat and clean in her house. Mr. Trekome was waiting to use the shower, sitting down with his pajamas folded next to him. Shaul walked out wearing a pair of shorts and a sleeveless shirt, his coat still slightly damp and cool in the night air that filled the house. Mr. Trekome walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him; Shaul went to his room and shut the door.

Shaul turned off the lights, except for the lamp on his desk, and began drawing a random sketch of a Loupian warrior in full battle armor wielding a longsword and fighting a Chattan, who had on light armor and holding a naginata. It looked to be a fair battle between the two, neither side winning or losing, just dueling in a never ceasing battle. Shaul finished his drawing and turned off the lamp, then curled up in bed, the sheets over him and sighed.

Slowly, his eyes closed, peaceful images flashing through his mind. He thought of Shieta, and sighed softly, finally relaxing. He let go of the world around him, letting everything fall away from him. For a brief moment he saw himself playing lacrosse against another team, his side winning by a few points. Then the image was replaced by on of him sitting in front of a fire, Shieta sleeping next to him, her head resting on his shoulder. He turned onto his belly and slowly drifted off to sleep…

This is one of my normal days in my life. Characters are based on real people from my life. The conversations are ones that have taken place, and the events have happened.