Part 3: Funky Friday

It was a sunny day in the park; Mills was wearing her favorite white sundress, and was walking along the path by the pond.  She had sort of forgotten exactly where she was headed, but knew if she kept following the path she would find the right place.  Rounding some decorative hedges, she saw a figure in slacks and a short sleeved, button-down shirt, seated on a picnic blanket laid out by the pond.  There!  That was the spot!  Millie started to run, her flip-flops making things difficult.  The figure in front of her stood and turned; the wolf was tall and fit, his well-groomed gray fur rippling in a gentle breeze.  Though she couldn’t clearly make out his face, Mills knew exactly who this was.

“Connor!”

The wolf spread his arms. “Mills!”

The dragon girl jumped into the air and was quickly enveloped in a warm, fuzzy embrace.  

This is so nice, she thought as she felt a paw stroke her head.

“Mills…”

I could stay here forever.

“Miiiiiills...”

Just me and my—

“Mills!”

Millie started awake, arms clenched around one of her large bear stuffies, her mother gently stroking her head.

“Mills, honey, you need to get up or you’ll be late for school.”

The smaller dragon looked about blearily.  She actually felt like she was going to cry.  

“Ok, Mom,” she finally replied, “I’ll be up in a second.”

“Make it a fast second, ok?”

Mills nodded, trying to choke down the frog in her throat that was threatening to become a sob.  She felt stupid, and for some reason that made her want to cry more.  She quickly dragged herself out of bed and flung her pajamas away, hoping the distraction of changing would help her keep composure.  

“It’s just a stupid dream,” she muttered sourly to herself as she stepped into a fresh pair of flower-patterned panties and white socks. 

“I don’t even know what he looks like.”  She pulled on a clean undershirt and her school blouse, roughly pressing buttons through their eyelets.

“I don’t even know when I’ll get to talk to him next,” she scowled as she noticed her blouse was mis-buttoned, growling as she made the needed adjustments. 

“It’s my fault for not trying harder to use the computer for school.”  She stepped into her plaid skirt.

“Heck, he’ll probably be mad at me, or won’t talk to me next time I…” she sniffed, wiping what she convinced herself was sleep out of her eyes with the back of a paw.  

“Stop it,” she berated herself in the full-length mirror hanging from her closet door, “Stop crying like a little kid!  Mom is gonna start asking questions if you don’t get a grip.”

Mills scowled one last time before grabbing her backpack and storming out of the house.  She didn’t even realize she had barged past her mom until she reached the car door and it refused to open.  After waiting a few moments she heard the car unlock, the handle finally gave under her paw and she flopped into the passenger seat.

“You forgot breakfast,” Mrs Ferrier said, offering her daughter a fist-sized blueberry muffin.

“Thanks,” Mills took the offering sullenly and began picking off bits of the fluffy muffin-top.

“Sweety,” Mrs Ferrier said as she pulled out of the driveway, “is everything ok? You’re looking really cloudy this morning.”

“I’m ok, Mom. Just had…a bad dream is all.”

“Oh, I’m sorry honey!  That’s such a rotten way to start a Friday.”

“Does that ever happen to you? Bad dreams that ruin your day?”

“Mhm, though when I was your age it happened more often.  Sometimes it was scary monsters that I could barely remember, but other times it was different.  Back when grandpa was still in the Army, because he had to be up early for PT — like gym class for soldiers — he would wake me up and take me to school.  But whenever his unit was deployed, I would sometimes dream that he was waking me up and we were going through our normal morning routine; I could even smell his uniform and boot polish.  But then sometimes he would vanish and I’d run through the house looking for him until I woke up, other times your grandma would just coax me awake, like I did with you this morning.  Either way, the first few times it happened I cried the whole way to school.  But even when I didn’t cry, I felt awful most of the day.”

“Could you ever make it go away faster?”

“Sometimes.  Talking about it usually helped more than keeping it to myself.  Grandma wasn’t always a good listener, though; I think she was worried about grandpa and was dealing with that in her own way.  So most of the time I would share with friends I trusted, like Auntie Rhodes.”

Millie nodded, remembering both women at the funeral; grandma was quiet, aloof and sour-faced, while Auntie Rhodes had held Mills and talked with her when she started crying.

“Maybe you could talk to Sarah, or Jennie Beaumont?”  Mill’s mom suggested.

“Yeah, I think that could help.”

“And honey?” Mrs Ferrier pulled into the dropoff queue, “if it’s still bothering you when I come pick you up this afternoon, I’m here if you need to talk.”

Mills forced a smile, despite the ache she had been nursing in her chest.  “Thanks mom.  I love you!”

“I love you too, sweetie…I hope your day ends better than it started!”  The car pulled up to the front of the school, and Mills stepped out, waving to her mom before rushing off to join her classmates.

If you had asked Millie what happened at school that Friday morning, she wouldn’t have been able to say.  Everything was done in a haze — lessons were learned, questions were answered, complete homework was exchanged for new assignments.  Even walking through the line at lunch was a robotic, dreamlike affair.  She only snapped out of it when a tap on her shoulder caused Mills to jump.  Turning, she was greeted by the smiling face of Jennie Beaumont, one of her best friends.  The rabbit-girl beckoned for Mills and led her to a corner table with Sarah, a chickadee classmate and Millie’s other best friend.  The trio sat in silence for a bit, focused on their food.

“Hey,” Jennie finally piped up, “you seemed really bummed out all morning.  Is everything ok?”

“Kinda, sorta not really.”  Mills admitted, poking absently at the untouched food on her plate.

“Is it about the site Liz was talking about last week?” Sarah chimed in, “did you get in trouble?”

“No, nothing like that…”

Jennie looked especially concerned. “So what’s up?”

“Well, there’s something I didn’t mention when I told you the other day…someone figured out I was too young while I was on there—”

“I thought you said you didn’t get in trouble!”

“I didn’t!  He said he wasn’t gonna say anyth—“

“Wait, he!?”  Jennie exclaimed, “You met a—”

“Not so loud!” Mills glanced nervously at Liz and her posse eating nearby; fortunately they were engrossed in their own conversation, drowned out by the background noise of all the other chatting students.  “You can’t tell anyone…I don’t want them finding out.” She nodded toward Lizzie’s table,  “And I don’t want it to get back to Mom and Dad somehow either.”

Sarah nodded.  “Do you know how old he is?”

“…30ish?”

“That’s more than twice as old as you!” Jennie hissed.

“Thank you, Ms. Beaumont, I can math.”

“Sorry.  Ok, but…nothing bad happened, right?”

“No, he was actually super nice.  We talked about TV shows for like three hours.”

“Wow…that does sound nice, I guess.”

“…But?”

“But he’s a guy you met online.  On an adults-only website.  Are you sure that’s safe?”

“I think so…maybe.  But that isn’t why I’ve been mopey.”

“Then why?”

“Well, last night I had a dream that we were on a picnic together over at Glen Road Park.  I don’t know what he looks like, other than he’s a wolf, so the details are pretty hazy.  The last thing I remember was him giving me a big hug…then mom woke me up.”

Jennie somehow looked more shocked than before.  “Millie, do you have a crush on him?”

“Ugh, I don’t know…I guess?  I know it’s dumb, but in the dream I just remember feeling warm and safe in his arms,” Millie’s wistful tone was abruptly punctuated by a giggle, “then I woke up, and realized it was just Sir Growlsalot.”  The trio laughed, which made Mills feel slightly less grumpy.  But the mood quickly sobered again.

“Mills,” Jennie said, “I don’t want to sound like a stuffy grownup, but I think you need to be really careful.  This is a guy who’s way older than you, you’ve only talked to once, and you’ve never seen his face.”

“Yeah,” Sarah added, “he could just be a catfish.”

“But,” Mills replied, confused, “I just said he’s a wolf…”

Jennie rolled her eyes.  “No, ‘catfish’ is what you call someone pretending to be someone else online.”

“Yeah,” Sarah continued, “my brother was talking about a highschooler here who met a cute girl on Fuzzbook, and they started getting serious…only the first time they met in person, it turned out the ‘girl’ was some creepy old guy.  I think the police ended up arresting him.”

“The highschooler?”  Mills was suddenly panicking.

“No, no,” Sarah explained, “the creepy dude.  Grownups can get in a lot of trouble for hurting kids.  It’s just…sometimes they don’t get caught.”

“Oh…” Mills was about to say more, but she was cut off as the bell rang for the end of lunch.

Afternoons always felt like they flew by, but for a student with a lot on her mind, Mills didn’t notice it.  Fortunately Liz didn’t join her during free period, which gave her more time to think.  Her friends had given her good advice, she knew that — it was all stuff she had heard her parents say in other circumstances.  The only problem was their advice hadn’t been about a super-nice wolf who didn’t act creepy and treated her more like an adult than anyone besides her parents.  She couldn’t shake that feeling, even when she tried to self-talk as her conscience.

Mills, she would start, you’ve talked to this guy once…Mom and Dad always say you should be careful around strangers, especially if you meet them online.  I mean, he could still be a super sneaky creep who just, you know, is willing to apologize when he says something mean, or doesn’t want to get you in trouble just because you were curious about a website for adults…

The young dragon sighed; this wasn’t really working.  Deep down she knew if Connor ended up saying or doing anything that made her uncomfortable, she could just quit FurHub and find some Guardians fan club site that was more age appropriate.  The problem was, she didn’t want to do that…FurHub was quickly changing from the place to talk about Guardians with grownups into the place to hang out with her new favorite grownup.

These thoughts were still plaguing Mills as she got into the car with her mom.

“Well, you’re looking a little better than this morning, at least.”

“Yeah, I got to talk with Sarah and Jennie…it was good.”

“I’m glad to hear it!  You still seem a bit glum, though…do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.  School was just a lot.  TGIF, right?”

“I’ll say.  Clients at work were…also a lot.  But I’ve got news that might cheer us both up.”

“What’s up?”

“You know that raffle at dad’s work?  He called me on my lunch break and said he won a pair of tickets to the Thunder-squirrels game tonight, and he wanted to make it a date!”

“Really?  Awesome!”  Mills felt like she could bounce all over the car, and it was taking every ounce of self-control to give a reasonably enthusiastic response.

“Now I need to ask: are your grades ok?”

“Yup, mostly Bs, a couple of As, and that C in Mr Herschel’s class.”

Mrs Ferrier sighed, “That man needs to be teaching the high schoolers, not you middle schoolers…or else retire; he’s old enough.  And you haven’t gotten into any trouble, I take it?”

“Nope, though not for lack of Liz trying.  Fortunately she just got a Fuzzbook account this week and that gets her distracted enough that I can catch a break now and then.”

“Sounds like you’ve held up your end of the bargain, then.  We’ll talk tonight over dinner so we’re all on the same page, and Dad made sure you have everything you would need for tonight.”

“Okie-doke,” Mills started dancing in her seat, “gonna have a par-tay!”

“You earned it, sweetie.  Oh, and that reminds me; did you still need the computer for research?”

“Nah, it wasn’t a big deal…I’ve been making do with my phone and the school computers.”

“Alright, glad it wasn’t a major assignment; I was surprised when you mentioned it, since classes end in a couple of weeks anyway.”

“N-nope, just busy work…you know, keep us from revolting so close to summer break.”

“Well, you only have to put up with two more weeks.” Mrs Ferrier continued, pulling into the driveway.  “Now let’s go see what your dad has cooked up.”

“Oh boy,” Mills sighed, stepping out of the car, “gotta love dad’s experiments…it’s either delicious or it’s charcoal.”

“At least the house hasn’t burned down,” Mrs. Ferrier chuckled.

Stepping into the house, Mills was relieved to be greeted by the pleasant aromas of garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, and all the other staples of an Asian stir fry.  Definitely one thing it was hard for her dad to mess up.

Mr Ferrier was already in the dining room to meet his wife and daughter.  “Welcome, ladies! Please have a seat,” he gestured to the table with a flourish.  “Would you like rice or noodles with tonight’s entree?”

“Noodles, please!”  Mills replied, grinning at her dad’s antics.

“Rice for me, if you don’t mind.”

“Perfect! Coming right up!”

Mr. Ferrier stepped back into the kitchen, returning in a moment with three steaming plates filled with meat, veggies, and each diner’s carb of choice.

“Greg, you need to stop outdoing yourself,” Mrs Ferrier commented between bites, smiling, “I might get used to it.”

“Can you blame me for wanting to treat my two favorite women in the world?”  Millie’s dad gave a giant, toothy grin of his own.  “At least the shop closes early on Fridays, or else I wouldn't have the time to get groceries and cook.”

“And at least we live close to the stadium, or we’d have to rush dinner.”  Martha put down her fork.  “Now Mills, because this is date night you don’t have to follow all our normal house rules while we’re out, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have some expectations for your behavior.”

“Ok, what‘s up?”

“First, we’d like you to stay in the house.  If you ever want to go anywhere, we need to talk about it in advance.  Second, no guests without clearing them with us first.  If you want to have friends over, you need to get our permission.”

“And for tonight,” Greg cut in, “the answer is ‘no guests.’”

“Got it,” Mills nodded, “anything else?”

“Just one more thing,” her mom continued, “please don’t break anything, and if you make a mess, clean it up right away.”

“Can do!”

“Since you did so well last week,” Greg added, “I got you some treats in the freezer and the snack drawer in the pantry.  There are also some sodas in the fridge.  Feel free to have as many as you’d like.”

“Thanks, Dad!”  Mills said, grinning, “and thanks, Mom!”

“You’re welcome, sweetie.  Now let’s finish dinner so we don’t miss the first pitch.”

With dinner finished and dishes done, Millie rushed to her room to get a head start on homework for the weekend.  She was also trying to figure out how best to ask if she could use the computer, kicking herself yet again for not taking the opportunity that had been presented on the ride home.  Now that she confirmed that she didn’t need the Internet for school, that excuse was right out.  She could ask for it to play games, but there were so few video games on the computer compared to her Switch, she worried that would look too suspicious.

Fortunately, fate decided to give her another chance anyway.

“Mills, honey,” Mr. Ferrier peeked around the open door, “Oops, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt your studying.  Mom and I are headed out.  I went ahead and turned on the computer…I remember mom saying you had a paper or something due next week, and you can always play those games of yours if you like.”

“Ok, thanks Dad!”

“Make sure you take some ‘you time’ tonight…and stay out of trouble.”

“I will,” she replied as her dad’s head disappeared, calling out, “have fun at the game!”

The young dragon sat motionless as she waited for the telltale slam of the door, then peeked around the corner, watching the headlights illuminate the window blinds as her parents pulled away.  Once she was certain the car was gone, she raced to the kitchen.  Opening the fridge, she found a crate of tiny soda cans with a sticky note reading “MINI-POPS FOR MINI MILLS.”  Grabbing a couple cans, she moved to the freezer to discover a pint of her favorite mint-chocolate ice cream.  She checked the pantry and found a couple bags of chips, but decided to forego the savory so soon after dinner — her cravings were for sweets.  Then she carried her prizes back across the house to the office where, as her dad promised, the computer was running and awaiting her command.

And there was only one thing she wanted to do.

She hopped on the web browser, switching to a private window (a trick she figured out on her phone during the week) and logging into FurHub.  The seconds it took for the forum to load felt like hours — like an eternity.  And every moment filled the dragon cub with dread.  What if Connor wasn’t on?  What if he didn’t want to talk?  What if he was mad it took so long for her to message him?  And then there were the comments her friends had made that morning — what if he was just acting?  What if he was pretending like she tried to?  What if he wasn’t even the person he said? Maybe he wasn’t a wolf? Maybe he was a different age?  Maybe he was a she?  With all these worries spinning through her head, Mills almost didn’t notice the page had finished loading.  Going to the direct messaging chat, she selected Connor’s username and started typing.

AzureDrake266 hey u there?
A roomies r out 2nite
A hav a gud week?

Seconds ticked by.  No response.  Mills cracked open a soda and had a spoonful of ice cream.  And another.  By the fifth she had given herself a brain freeze, forcing her to slow her treat consumption.  Still nothing.  She tried to be reasonable, but with the deluge of anxiety that had preceded this recent foray onto FurHub, she couldn’t manage to keep a level head.  She was certain now; he wasn’t going to talk to her, and their evening of camaraderie the previous weekend had just been a fluke.

“Fine!  If he doesn’t want anything to do with me, then I—“

TheWaffleHowler ohey Mills!
T long time no see!
T my week was fine…super long
T u?

Mills couldn’t tell if the sound she made was a laugh or a sob; her eyes were so full of crud that she was having trouble reading Connor’s messages.  Taking a minute to rub them and generally compose herself, she responded.

A same!
A vacation cant come soon enough
T I hear that
T u took my advice seriously huh?
T havent seen u all week
A only 1 PC
A my roomies hog it
A if u know what I mean ;P
T gotcha
A I was worried u wouldnt b on
A or would b mad I couldnt hang out this week
T nah
T I figured u were either busy or were on the DL
T but im here now
T nuthin 2 do
T cept talk 2 u
A aw…sure u dont have friends 2 hav drinks w/ or sumthin?
T thats 2morrow nite
T Fri is me nite
T and u nite
T if u wanna
A yes plz!
T oh hang on a sec
A k brb

Noticing her pint was starting to melt and wanting to avoid a sticky keyboard, Mills rushed the ice cream back to the freezer and retrieved a bag of chips instead.  When she returned there was an image file waiting on the dm chat:

T WaffleHowlMug.jpg
A wuzzat?
T thought u might like 2 put a face 2 the name…

Heart racing, Mills clicked the link.  The image that appeared was a selfie of a gray-furred wolf in his early 30s wearing jeans and a printed t-shirt.  Though it was hard to tell from the picture, his physique looked somewhere in between fit and a dad bod but leaning more toward the former.  He had a reserved smile, but the sparkle in his blue-green eyes betrayed more mirth than the rest of his expression.  Overall Mills thought he was actually super cute.

A you’re so handsome!
A ^///^
T aw thnx
A um
A can I share something?
A im kinda embarrassed
T whats up?
A so last night
A I kinda had a dream about you
T oh?
T good dream I hope?
A yeah
A we were having a picnic in a park I like
A but you look different from what I imagined
T different good?
A yeah
A since I didnt know your face it was kinda blurry XD
T glad to know im the better looking one then
A lol
A your fur was also a little different color
A and you were more…muscular?
T lol you prefer buff guys?
A ah no!
A that’s not what I meant >///<
A Im sorry!
T lol its ok
T just teasing ya
T maybe if I had kept better care of myself back in college
T but im working on it…better than I used to be
A well u still look like u give good hugs
A dream u gave me a big hug right before I woke up
T aw thats so sweet!
T if you’d like I will give you internet hugs
T *hugs*
A ^//////////////////^
A oh hang on

Mills pulled out her phone and snapped a few shots of herself in various cute poses.  Looking through the shots, she selected one with a high angle with her smiling and making a peace sign; the angle highlighted her short stature, but she never liked how she looked in low-angle shots and the selfies taken straight-on looked boring.  She also thought her attempt at an anime-style pose might appeal to Connor’s tastes in media.  Wrangling the picture through her email, she finally got it ready to upload; she also took the opportunity to transfer Connor’s pic to her phone and delete the download off the PC…she didn’t wanna lose the image, but also wanted to assure there was no evidence left behind.  By the time she was ready to upload, Mills realized she had made Connor wait for at least 10 minutes.

T ???
T u ok?
A yeah sry
A tech issues
A IMG_4467.jpg
T omg you’re so cute!
A aaaaah >///<
A thnx XD
T u look gr8 in that uniform
T vry anime

Shocked, Mills realized she hadn’t changed since she got home.  In all the rush, even her parents hadn’t noticed that she was still in the white blouse and plaid skirt.  At least I didn’t spill dinner or ice cream on it.  Quickly she returned to the chat.

A lol I cant believe I didnt change XP
A everyone was in a hurry 2nite
T no worries
T its a good look
T …wait
T is that the Bloomingdale Academy crest?
T on the front?
A …yeah?
T no way!
T that’s where I went to school!
T is Mr Herschel still there?
A yea
A hes impossible
T u HAV him?
T oh nooooooo!
A ROFL!
T he was miserable in sr high
T what r u, 8th?
A finishing 7th
A and yeah
A mom said he shouldnt teach middle
T no
T he should not teach
T period
T whoever switched him from high to mid should be sacked
A or given a swirly XP
T lol
T ok this is too real
T u wanna know something else?
A ?
T I still live here
T south end of the city
T Riverside area
A no way!
A that’s all the way across town but still…
A I thought you’d live on the other side of the country or something
T nope
T Traviston local
T born and bred

Millie’s jaw was on the floor.  She and Connor lived in the same city…he used to attend her school!  Somehow this felt like more of a dream than the one last night.  She even pinched herself to be sure.  Nope, very awake.  Very much awake.  Talking to a guy she met online.  And told him about her picnic dream.  And who actually lives in the same town.  A ping from the chat caught her attention.

T u there?
A yeah
A its just
A now I wanna talk about school
A and all kinds of stuff
A but i dont know how these chats work
A im afraid someone in charge will see them
A and we get in trouble
T I don’t think mods have access to dms
T but admins, the owners, might
T and if anyone else noticed the patterns I did and got suspicious…
T they might be able to dig into who you’ve interacted with
T maybe…im not quite sure how that works
T but if being here makes you nervous
T would u prefer texting?
A I dunno…
A maybe?
A that seems more dangerous tho
T I mean, no harm in two friends texting each other, right?
T here
T I’ll give you my number
T if you wanna talk more, shoot me a txt
A ok

The next message was the promised phone number.  Mills sat nibbling on chips and sipping her mini-sodas, trying to process her thoughts and emotions.  He called her a friend!  He had just given her his number, so maybe they could talk more often!  She felt pretty sure Connor wasn’t a ‘catfish;’ wild coincidences they may be, but there was no other way for him to know some of the stuff he did unless he was real.  But giving him a direct line of communication with her felt…strange.  The cautious part of her said it was bad, dangerous.  The rest of her didn’t have such a negative reaction, but it still felt like she was about to cross a line.  Once she did, there was no going back.

Part of being a grownup is learning to be smart and make your own rules.

Her dad’s words from last weekend echoed in her mind.  Her parents trusted her to make decisions…but did she?  Mills tipped her soda back and found it drained, setting the empty container down with a sigh.

“I can be smart,” she finally said, “I can make my own rules.”

She looked down at her phone, and started typing…