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After a while, Monday mornings all start to blend together. You're at school, you're there, but you're not really there. Left your mind and most of your consciousness back at home underneath warm blankets; I know that I've fallen asleep on the bus ride in at least twice this semester alone. You just kind of... go along your usual routine, body on autopilot and your head a dim haze. There's a lot of comfort in routine, sure, but one consequence is that everything starts to feel the same.

Until something - or someone, in my case - comes along and messes that all up. That cheetah wasn't really familiar to me, but as a general rule I hardly ever strayed outside my circle of friends; again, comfort in routine and in sameness, for lack of a better word. Whether he was a new student (which I couldn't help but waving off; it was the middle of the semester, after all) or just one of the three-thousand something other students that had always been here, I couldn't tell.

I don't know what it was about him, though. I just got a glimpse of him through the crowds while making my way up the stairs to one of the school's many side doors, and even then, there wasn't anything that really set him apart from everyone else. In fact, he actually looked like he was putting effort into blending in, like he was nervous about something. Quick flash of gold fur, black tear tracks, amber-orange eyes - and I lost him, but for whatever reason he remained on my mind. It felt like I hadn't really woken up this morning until then.

So far, today had been the usual Monday: jerked awake by my alarm at six AM sharp, rolled around in bed for about eight minutes and thought about lying to Mom about being sick or something just so I could sleep in, but... that same sense of routine won out. Stumbled out of bed and got my clothes on; brushed down the most rebellious sections of my fur, threw together something that might be able to be called a lunch... and then lurched my way out the door to the bus stop. The ride was quiet, the air cool and wet, and the lights inside the building once we arrived positively too damn bright for sleepy eyes.

In high school, groups of friends tend to claim one particular location in the building to hang out during lunch, and always gravitate towards that area in the mornings. Today my friend Tyler was the only one sitting in our spot, backpack at his side and muzzle pointed down towards his phone in his lap. His sharp ears perked up as I made my way over, and then, he looked up and gave a tired smile.

"Hey, Matt. How was your weekend?"

Awake for hardly an hour and already it was a great relief to drop my own bag from my shoulders. The lockers along the wall rattled in response to me settling my weight back against them, to then slide down to the floor. "Can't complain. Saw a movie on Saturday, was pretty good... God, I just - wanna climb back into bed, y'know?"

"Hell yeah." The jackal gave voice to a cavernous yawn, his phone screen in his lap dimming to black. We'd known each other since early middle school, on a cold November day when I couldn't find any of my other friends in the cafeteria, so I just picked an open seat and sat in it... and he locked eyes with me and struck up a conversation. It had been about a movie back then, too, I think. "What'd you see?"

For a quick moment, that cheetah flashed across my mind again. It took a few seconds for my mouth to find an answer. "Oh - uh, gosh, it was... the animated one, I forget what it was called..."

"Maybe you should go back to bed. I think the theatre department has a mattress somewhere." Tyler rubbed at his eyes with the back of his paw, and then stretched his arms up over his head. His backpack started to lean away from him and tip over, but he didn't make any move to catch it. "I heard that one was good, though. Might go see it with the girlfriend sometime. Speaking of which, two questions - is... is that too much? Can your brain handle that much thinking right now?"

"Ty."

"Okay. When would you be open for me n' her to come over and hang out again? She really wants to get to know you better."

"Probably this weekend. You spend almost as much time around me as my own mother, man; you should know I don't really ever have plans." Again, a bit of a restricted circle of friends, and everyone tended to congregate at my house anyway. Mom's okay with it 'cause usually they bring over a lot of food. "But - I'll let you know. You know how me and Mom both don't really like unannounced visits."

A steady exhalation of breath. "Yeah, that makes sense. Don't worry, though - I'd never wanna overstay my visit, unlike some people, so you can be sure."

I'd told Tyler all about what had happened with my ex. We'd been together for about a year, and ever since breaking up with her around the middle of last semester... well, I'd had a remarkably peaceful few months. It had been a bit rough at times, but after talking out with Tyler here and some of my other friends, we'd all figured that it was just the best thing to do. No big deal, really: this was high school. Nobody really expects the romantic relationships you make here to last too long.

"Speaking of... how're you two doing? I mean, you haven't really - mentioned her, so..."

"That's exactly it." I raised my head and leaned back against the lockers, the painted metal palpably cold even through the material of my shirt and jacket. Class would be starting soon; you could usually tell by how the halls became even thicker with people, and how those people tended to start shifting away from their usual self-assigned locations towards whichever classrooms they had to go to. I hated the thought of being late, so I always just waited here right outside my first class of the day. "We haven't spoken much. I mean, she texted me one time to ask if she could come over to pick up - I don't know, something she'd left, or something. I said okay only because me and Mom were both there at the time. You know we had to change the garage door codes.

"Yikes."

"Yeah. When she did come over, once we got back upstairs to my room... she tried to pin me to the wall, tried to make out and get to - you know."

"Normally I'd say 'hot', but..."

"Yup. Told her to get whatever it was she'd come over for and then leave - so she did, thank God. Mom asked how I was doing afterwards. Now that we're not together anymore, she-" -I couldn't help but try to stifle a chuckle- "-isn't afraid to show just how much she doesn't like her. It's good reassurance."

Tyler remained silent for a moment. When I looked over at him next, he, too, had his head resting back against the lockers, muzzle pointed up at an angle and eyes closed. Then, he suddenly opened his eyes and grinned at me. "Still think I've got you beat in the _crazy ex_department, though."

"Oh, my God." That had been around two years ago. "I told you she showed up at my house looking for you, right?"

"Dude, I don't know how she even got your address. God knows I didn't give it to her. Apparently she spent that entire Saturday, six AM to six PM, trying to track me down..." He feigned a dramatic shiver, going so far as to bristle his tail out. "Speaking of, Matt - if you ever need somewhere to hide, from your mother or your ex or a hitman or whatever..." Tyler thumped his chest with a fist, giving me the same glimmering smoulder that I'm sure he usually reserved for flirting. "Police would be a different story. I'd have to say it depends on the situation."

"Ha ha." I rolled my eyes. "You do still owe me for that time you stole from Wal-Mart."

All through the halls, the first bell rang, a long and high drone that blanketed all other noise and conversations for a second and a half. Tyler stood up beside me and hoisted his bag back onto his shoulders, with me soon to follow. "It was a squeeze-pack of Nutella! No bigger than one of those little ketchup things you get at fast food restaurants. I'd forgotten I'd picked it up! I felt so bad about it that I didn't even use it."

"Which was a waste, by the way. I could have turned you in, though. Dangerous felon. Might as well be a murderer, right?" Since I hadn't quite gathered my balance after fiddling with my heavy backpack, Tyler's fist bumping into my shoulder knocked me over a step and a half, almost into a slim otter slipping past. When I'd regained my footing, the jackal had a bright grin on. "Ow. Hey, I'll see you at lunch, alright? Cafeteria's having the mac and today, yeah?"

"You fuckin' bet it is."

"Alright, cool. Save me your bread. I didn't quite get around to making a lunch this morning."

Right as I turned to make my way into my class right here, though, someone else bumped into me and half-forced me into the middle of the hallway, so I tried to weave my way through the crowd going every direction possible - and then someone came face-to-face with amber eyes in a speckled muzzle, black lines extending down from the corners of those eyes to the cheetah's mouth. For some reason, my breath caught in my throat, and I couldn't figure out how to say "excuse me"-

"Hey," the cheetah said, his voice quiet but still audible underneath everything else. My ears perked to hear him better. "I'm - sorry, I'm new here, but, um... do you think you could show me to my class, please? I don't know where anything is..."

In his paws he held a somewhat-crumpled piece of paper, pale purple. That was the kind that the school printed out the students' schedules on; he'd pierced his claws through the corners in multiple places, and now watched my face with lowered whiskers and ears. His long tail flicked nervously around behind him.

My answer came as a natural reaction rather than a conscious decision: "Oh, yeah, sure. What do you have?"

"Uh..." He looked down at his schedule. "Calculus. With - with Mr. Thompson."

"Oh! I have him third period. Okay, here, you'll want to..." I stepped up beside him and rested a paw on his shoulder to guide him, and - and there felt soft, warm fur through the fabric of his shirt, warm enough that the feeling remained on my fingerpads for a few seconds afterwards. "...to go down this hall here, take a left, and it'll be the... one, two... third door on your right. Should be the last one before the exit there. Okay?"

"Okay!" Those amber eyes lit up, and for a second, all anxiousness faded from his muzzle. IT almost made my tail wag. "Thank you. Um..." ...and the cheetah looked as if he were considering saying something else, but then abruptly slid off between the crowds. I watched him as he went, little round ears and spotted head just barely visible between everyone else until he turned the corner... and then I remained for a moment longer before heading back to my class.

Not much of a class, really: first period on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I was an aide for one of my German teacher's lower-level classes, grading papers and such. It was something to do, and never really got too difficult - though tedious could be another matter entirely. Today, though, for about twenty minutes at the start of the period, I just could steer my mind away from that cheetah for longer than a few moments.

There was just something about him...