Reaching for the Stars

Chapter 09: A Pretty Rad Lad

(Revised 04/08/2022)

"Okay everyone, be sure to finish the essays next week. I'll review each one of them."

Taking the words as a cue that the class was finished, Max packed his books into his bag and stood up. The materials today had been quite boring, but the essays were definitely interesting.

Or, as interesting as essays could be.

He walked away, glad that there were no more crowds of people cornering and giving him questions. It had stopped since... when was it? Probably since the midterms a month ago. He didn't have any problems with those who only wanted some photos or signatures, but those who wanted to 'be his friend' by seeking too much attention? Yuck.

Now that they were gone, he was free to hang around after classes. When he had no schedules right after them, though. Liked it or not, he was still an important upperclassman in the football club even in his fourth year. Usually, fourth-year students were starting to be excluded from club activities in semester seven and were fully excluded in semester eight because of their thesis. Maybe because he was the captain and he technically was still semester five, he was still invited quite often. He didn't really mind that, though.

By now, he guessed everyone in the class already knew that while he was nice and easy-going with everyone, he had his circle of friends. Aside from the obvious football team members, he was close to Tom, Martin, and several others. He hoped they took that as a cue that he wasn't interested in "being with the cool guys". And he was not, thank you. He didn't care if that elk over there was the mayor's son or that serval over there was a rich businessman's daughter; he was looking for friends, not steps for the social ladder.

He looked at Tom. The grey wolf was on the other side of the row. Usually, they would sit quite close to each other, but Tom came a bit late, and no one wanted to sit right in front of the professor's desk. The wolf looked... fine, maybe. He didn't really look tired or happy. How was his encounter with Kevin last Thursday like? Max wanted to ask him on Friday before he went to a match, but their class was dismissed, and they didn't meet at all on the weekend.

Did Kevin do something to him?

Max walked to the wolf, then leant on the table next to him. "Hey, Tom."

Tom reached for his laptop and closed it. "Oh, hey, Max."

"Where's Martin?"

"Overslept, probably." Tom took his bag and put the laptop in.

Max leant forward. "So, how did the night go?"

"What night?"

"You know, that night with Kevin."

"Yeah, well, it was just a usual night." Tom shrugged and drank from his water bottle.

"Tom, really, what happened?" He leant closer, grinning a bit. "Did you two, er, what was it, shag? I didn't smell him on you, not that I know how he smells anyway."

"Max, the heck!" Tom shoved him, making Max laugh. The wolf then stood up and waved at his friends. He took his jacket from the hanger, then walked out of the classroom.

Max, still laughing, followed him to the hallway.

"We didn't do anything, Max, really."

"What did you do then?" he asked, putting his hand in his hoodie pocket.

"We just went to the pub and had a few pints." Tom said, putting his jacket on. "Well, he beer and I only soda, though. After that, we went home."

"Ohh, interesting." Max's tail wagged.