Chillin' Out: FUC Academy, #17

1

Charlie didn’t have an issue with authority. Her problem was with having all aspects of her life micromanaged, like being told what to do, where to be, what to eat, and when to go to sleep.

Which happened to be all the damned time since the Furry United Coalition agents brought her to this… place.

Charlie, come on. It’s just a physical. Dr. Nolan Manners’ voice was muffled as he called to her from above ground. She was safely hidden below ground but could tell the FUC doc searched fairly close by. If he kept looking, he might find her.

But he also might not, and then she could actually sleep and get a good night’s rest for once.

Charlie curled up a little tighter, enjoying the darkness of her burrow, happy to let Dr. Manners suffer a little bit after all the needles he’d stuck her with. The smell of cool, dry earth all around her made her sleepy. God, did she have trouble sleeping in that sterile school.

It’s not invasive. It’s the same check-up we give all of you, just to check and make sure you’re doing all right.

Not that they ever told her what that meant.

Take her temperature. Check her weight. Flash a light into her eyes and give her some pills to swallow that they insisted were vitamins.

She’d stopped swallowing them after realizing no one would check the inside of her mouth to be sure they were gone.

Screw them. Screw this whole place. Charlie was so done with it all.

She’d leave if she wasn’t such a damned coward.

Little rodents weren’t exactly known for surviving out in the wild. They were food for the bigger things.

But the wild wasn’t the only scary place. Many bigger things lived inside the Furry United Coalition Newbie Academy, too.

Please come out, Charlie. I don’t want to call out the other agents to help me find you, but I’d rather have them help me find you before one of the snakes out here does.

She didn’t hear anything else he said. Charlie’s burrow suddenly felt uncomfortably tight. No longer safe. No longer her Fortress of Solitude.

The burrow hid her from those above-ground, but anything that burrowed—like snakes—could find her. And since her burrow lacked a door, they’d have no problem getting in.

Snakes. Why did he have to mention snakes? Anything but snakes…

She shivered, suddenly cold.

He had to mean snake shifters, right? Other students. People who wouldn’t want to eat a wild rodent. Not when the cafeteria had so many less-messy options.

But shifters sometimes did eat other shifters. That was one of the first things she’d learned after waking up in this godforsaken place.

No. Nooooooo. No. No.

They were in the Canadian Rockies. What kind of snakes lived there? She wanted to believe there were only garter snakes, that anything more dangerous would stay away from the campus… but she was suddenly unsure.

Shit.

Even if there were only stupid little garter snakes, the type that couldn’t take her out, the idea that her beautiful burrow could be soiled and invaded made it seem less appealing.

Not nearly so bad as being in bed, sharing a room with the fish girl, but…

Goddamn it.

Charlie uncurled herself and headed for the exit.

No way was she going to let the doctor win, though. She peered out, taking a quick peek to make sure the coast was clear and—

"Gotcha."

Charlie shrieked, issuing many small, squeaking noises as the hand clamped down hard around the nape of her neck, yanking her out of her burrow even as she tried to push back in, kicking up dirt with her tiny claws while even trying to bite the bastard that held on to her.

"Easy. Easy."

The voice didn’t belong to Dr. Manners, which made the situation a thousand times worse. Someone else had found her. Someone had snuck up on her, someone with a smell she didn’t recognize. The strangeness of it all upset her, driving her to do whatever she could to get the fuck away, and pronto.

Panic overwhelmed her, blinding and gripping. She continued to kick and shriek, thrashing around in her captor’s hand, trying to force him to let go as dizziness overtook her.

The memories pulled at her. She’d been here before. She’d done this before. Another hand had grabbed her and wouldn’t let go.

She couldn’t make out his words as he spoke to the others in the lab. Her fear, and the throbbing pain in her neck that had resulted from twisting and thrashing against the hand on her nape, made it impossible to focus on the words being said.

He was taking her to the cage. To the creature with the terrible eyes and that flicking tongue…

Charlie, listen to my voice. You are all right.

Who said that? The snake didn’t talk. It always just stared at her, sometimes hissing, ready to swallow her whole.

Breathe, Charlie. You can do it. You know who I am. You’re safe. Come on now.

Someone stroked her.

In the cage?

No. Charlie blinked, and she was back at the school. The hand on her nape was gone, and she lay on her side, little heart slamming around so hard she feared she may be having a heart attack.

Charlie didn’t know how old she was, but she was pretty damn sure she was too young for that sort of thing.

The fading light of sunset made it hard to see at first, which was odd because, usually, her senses became sharper in the dark, but she made out Dr. Manners sitting above her, on his knees, looking down at her with a careful smile.

That’s it, you’re all right. His hand continued to pet her soft chinchilla body.

She didn’t like that. She twisted around, pulling herself onto all fours and glaring up at him.

Maybe it was difficult to tell when a chinchilla glared, because he didn’t look fazed.

Please don’t run, Charlie. None of us want to repeat what just happened. Will you please shift into your human form now?

I can give her my overcoat. A second voice, this one low and gravelly, spoke up, making her shiver.

She turned her gaze to the owner of the voice. A man stood there, someone she hadn’t noticed before but sure as hell noticed now.

The man was the one with the scent of a stranger that screamed at her to run away.

The one who had snuck up on her burrow with soft, silent feet and grabbed her with a powerful swiftness that left her breathless.

A fucking cat.

2

The cat stared at her with dark, blank eyes, as if he didn’t have a clue how fucked up his actions had been.

Charlie was pissed, and she wanted to let him know it, too.

So she transformed as quickly as she could.

Dr. Manners had seen her naked before—for a physical. She hadn’t been shy then, and she didn’t feel shy now, but that seemed to make no difference to Dr. Manners, as he politely turned away.

The cat, however, continued to stare at her with that same annoying, unfazed expression.

The moment she regained her human vocal cords, she snapped at him. "What the fuck is your issue? You don’t just grab someone out of their burrow like that!"

Nolan was calling, and you weren’t answering, he said, as though it were simple. As though her solitude, her peace away from everyone, meant nothing. It’s time to go inside.

And you get to decide that? Give me that! She snatched the offered overcoat, putting it on, making herself feel decent since the guy continued to lack any reaction to her nakedness.

No sign of attraction, nor even the civility to look away.

Not this robot.

I didn’t decide it. Nolan was the one calling you, he repeated.

And I was ignoring him. I’m not a prisoner here.

No, but you can’t take care of yourself either.

Whoa, huge stick up this guy’s ass, that was for sure.

Though, it was… nice? This was the first person she’d interacted with at FUCN’A who had the nerve to bite back at her. Everyone treated her—as well as all the others also rescued from that pit—with kid gloves.

Charlie was torn between enjoying the honesty and normalcy of having someone not give a shit and being annoyed by it.

Dr. Manners cleared his throat. Charlie, this is Sam. He’s coming onto the team to assist.

Assist with what?

With you, Sam said. And the rest of the patients. The school is short-staffed and not meant to be operating as a housing station for new shifters.

And too many people keep hooking up, am I right?

That got him hot under the collar. Charlie could tell by the sudden pursing of his lips and the way his dark eyes hardened.

She winked at him, knowing she was hitting more bulls’ eyes. Right? I’m right, aren’t I?

The point, Nolan cut in, is that Sam is here now, and he’ll aid with school security, namely focused on your group of refugees. If you or any of the other patients have questions or need assistance, he will be there for guidance as well.

Charlie smelled bullshit. No way was this guy just going to be acting like a guidance counselor for the poor, miserable souls who lived here now. And security? Yeah, right. He wasn’t there to make sure nothing outside got in. He was there to make sure people got to bed on time.

And didn’t escape.

Does this have anything to do with that fish boy who went crazy and tried to kidnap Cindy and Trisha?

She almost couldn’t blame fish-boy for wanting to fix himself, but if she’d been in Cindy’s or Trisha's position, she would have been beyond pissed.

Not everyone rescued by FUC was as lucky as Charlie.

Or so she was told.

She had big holes in her memory, but she was, apparently, a former human who’d been subjected to months of cruel experimentation and could now turn herself into an adorable creature that most people in the world would want to give a good snuggle.

It came with some downsides, like wanting to find the nearest sandbox and take her bath in it or making a proper burrow where she could hide away to enjoy some proper rest. She was always tired during the day, though able to sleep during the night and stay up when the sun was out. It was her preference because, though it made her internal clock all wonky, it at least meant she could keep the same hours as the people she knew.

Otherwise, she felt… mostly okay. She didn’t have some of the undesirable physical features that some of the others had, like Trisha’s giant horn sticking out of the middle of her forehead, or fish-boy’s huge sharp teeth that permanently spread his lips wide open, or Cindy’s occasional inability to