He showered and got dressed, and headed downstairs to find his mother there, eating a bowl of dark cereal, which was interesting as she didn't usually like the sweet chocolate type cereals Mikey had. He grabbed a breakfast bar and headed out the door to school, in a bit of a hurry.
He had a strange walk to school that morning to put it mildly. It seemed as if everyone had let their pet dogs out to run free. They were everywhere. The people Jon did see were playing happily with them. When he hurried passed a man walking his Dalmatian, he spotted for a moment, as it normally was not an unusual sight. Except this man wasn’t exactly “walking” his dog. Rather they were walking together and there was no leash on the dog.
Jon hurried toward his first class, entered and took his usual seat. He looked around distractedly, out the window. He'd certainly rather be out there than in here. The class suddenly quieted as a poodle entered the room and went to the front of the class. He frowned. What was this about.
She barked, and suddenly the class quieted down. "Bark."
The whole class repeated. "Bark."
"Grrr...." The poodle said. And the class repeated....except Jon, who looked bewildered.
The poodle seemed to notice Jon wasn't participating and approached him, giving him a disapproving look. As she did, the entire class turned and looked at him. He felt the eyes of all upon him and turned a bit red. "Umm...Grrr?"
She seemed satisfied, and returned to the front of the class. The rest of the period was spent practicing. Jon let himself focus on the repetition, afraid of his new teacher drawing everyone's attention to him. The class went on. It seemed the entire class was just about learning the words "bark" and "Grrr."
He needed to find Karyn as soon as possible.
