High School Fur - A gay furry coming of age story

Chapter 3

Once Josh is changed we head outside onto the grass field, the cold air creating goose skin on my legs and arms, Mr Crawlow the coach is a black bear, his thick set frame and menacing stare are enough to silence the group with one look, I follow the others lead and stand on one of the white lines outlining the football pitch painted onto the grass.

We all stand there as still as can be all neatly in a row without a single person out of line, it was almost like a military line up, and no one was making a sound either, the only sound was the slight whistle of the breeze as it passed my ears.

There was more than just our tutor there too, I recognised Jackson and some of the people he was hanging around with at lunch, but most of others I hadn't seen before, everyone was mixed along the line, but we were separated from the girls who were nowhere in sight.

"where's the girls?" I whisper to Josh who looks around to make sure Mr Crawlow isn't looking, "separated" he says with a hissed "shhh" as his eyes look to Mr Crawlow, perhaps he was the one teacher no one wanted to get on the wrong side of, he certainly had a look about him.

Mr Crawlow then stretches his paws out ahead on him gesturing for the line to create a gap in the middle, "those on my right, you will be doing the training cones I've set out, those on my left you will be playing a match and we will switch over after 20 minutes".

I'd not played football all summer, in fact after I got kicked from Brookdale's football team I'd not played at all, being back in a kit made me realise just how much I had missed it, I realised I was on his left so I'd be playing first.

Those on the right were motioning to run the course Crawlow had set up for them, his paw hovered over a stopwatch at the first person set off then he set his attention back to the remaining students on the line.

"Eric, you pick team A, Jackson team b, and you'll be wearing the bibs" Crawlow pointed to a large pile of fluorescent over-shirts to denote the difference in teams since we all wore the same blue top and white shorts.

Jackson and Eric stood in front of the line now facing us, Eric's eyes looked up and down the line fixating on me for a moment as he burst out a laugh, "coach shouldn't Sam be playing for the girls team, its not fair to let gays play with the boys surely"

The class giggle to themselves, some of them looking over, I feel the blood rush to my fists as I clench them together, 'you bastard' I say in my head, the glare from Mr Crawlow stops me from vocalising it though.

"Eric just pick your team" he growls "fine, but im not having the gay on my team, no way, Shaun" he says pointing to another athletic fur who moves forward from the line to join Eric, they do a fist bump as Shaun nears

I feel my eyes sting and my throat close up, but I wont let them see it, I grit my teeth and try and think of anything else, why did I ever think this would be any better, this was just the same, more of the same old shit

I was going to be the last person standing on this line, humiliated and made to feel worthless, No-one had even seen me play, the decision made purely on my sexuality, Eric and Shaun laughed to themselves and I knew it was a joke about me, it had to be.

I wondered if I could fake an injury and somehow skip sports for the year, perhaps I could forge a letter from my dad, heck it didn't work at Broookdale, they phoned him up and then I got a 2 day suspension for forging a letter from my parents

Josh nudges me, his lips mouthing the words 'you ok' I simply nod, another lie, I was as far from ok as I could get right now.

It was Jacksons turn to pick, his eyes looking up and down the line much like Eric's, I bit my lip as I waited for some bullshit to leave his maw just like Eric's, I jolted when I heard Crawlows voice though "come on Jackson we haven't got all day" his voice booming and loud.