Demonic Regime

Chapter 16: Red Fur

Home school was boring. I still didn't want to go back to a normal school, but I was tired of being on the computer. I glanced at my mom as she cleaned jam off my sister's muzzle.

"Do you need help, Rudy?"

"No." I sighed. "How much do I have to do?"

"A lesson a day," she replied. "So, once you get it done, let me know, and we can go over what you missed together."

I sunk into my seat. "If I do more, do I have to do it tomorrow?"

"Rudy, they're not little lessons. It's a full day of schoolwork."

I ignored her and clicked the answers. I wasn't going to tell her; I had moved on to the lesson for tomorrow. My mom went to put Sasha to bed.

"When does Drake get home?"

"Soon, so you better hurry up, or you won't be able to play with him."

The doorbell rang. I climbed onto my chair to try and see who it was here. I hope it was Uncle Andreas. We could play a game before Drake got here.

My mom went to answer it.

"Hi, I'm Ginny from Lewis."

I slipped off the chair and crawled across the room.

Folding her arms, my mom was eyeing the woman. I knew that look. She did it when she was mad.

"I'm sorry to come over without permission, but my son has something he'd like to say."

I perked up a little as Case shuffled out from behind his mom. He was crying and in human form.

"I did something bad." He tugged on the bottom of his shirt. "I didn't mean to. The other kids kept saying they didn't want to be around me. The third graders said I had to, or they'd make me go to the human school, too." Case wiped his eyes. "I didn't mean to make him feel bad. If Rudy has to go to a human school, I'll go to. I just want him to be my friend."

My mother's arms had fallen to the side. "Rudy, someone here's to see you."

I shuffled to my mom. She put her arm around me.

Case cleared his eyes and smiled. "Hi."

"Hi."

"Are you going to come back?"

I shook my head.

"Why? I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't play with you that day. I will, now. If you come back to school, I'll play with you every day. I don't care what the third-graders say. We can't have recess with them anymore. We don't go outside at the same time anymore. The alpha had them change it."

"I don't like school. The other kids are mean to me."

He frowned. "Why? Then we can't play."

I glanced at my mom.

She smiled. "Ginny, would you like to come in and have a cup of coffee? The boys can play, and we can talk about arranging some play dates for the boys."

"Really?" I jumped up and down. "I can have people over like Drake. Could I go to Case's house, too? Drake goes to his friends, and Case is my friend."

"We'll see." She smoothed out my hair. "Why don't you show Case to the playroom?"

I snatched his hand and pulled him inside. "Come on, come on."

He hurried after me.

Leading him down the hall, I opened the door and threw my arms in the air. "This is it. What do you want to play? We have a ton of stuff. Oh, I know." I raced to the toy box to find my robots.