This Project is Un-bear-able (Connor)

[Grady Mitchellson]

Science class has been pretty awesome lately. Meaning the class had been sections of the Planet Earth series so Grady was able to just sit and keep to himself. That was how he preferred class. He had it down to a science. He always sat in the middle of the seat and to one side. He figured the middle made him neither a nerd or a rebel. And sitting on one end or the other meant he wasn't in the teachers direct line of sight and he always wasn't surrounded by other students. As long as he looked up now and then and doodled in his notebook so it looked like he was taking notes, most of the teachers wouldn't call on him. 

But, today he wasn't so lucky. The teacher started right off the bat by announcing that today they were going to start working on a group project. Each pair of students was to research an animal that they thought their fellow students had probably never heard of before. Then they were going to have to stand in front of the class and teach them. The student pair who had the animal that had been least heard of before was going to get 10 extra credit points on their next test. Grady was already sighing heavily about the project when the teacher started calling out the assigned pairs. 

"...Conner Anderson and Grady Mitchellson..." Grady looked around for his new partner while shoving his book bag on the floor to make room for Conner. 

"So...uh..." he said once Conner had sat down, coughing before purposely lowering his voice. "Know any weird animals?" 

[Connor Anderson]

Connor had always liked science class. It was something he did well in, which made him happy. He liked getting good grades, and so far the semester seemed to have been going well. Okay, maybe his attention had wandered a little when they’d been walking about plants and photosynthesis, but now they were on to more fun topics like animals, his attention was a little more focused on what was being taught, rather than doodling in his book.

He didn’t mind group projects, so when it was announced that they would be working in pairs he sat up a little more in his seat to listen. Odd animals... he didn’t have a huge knowledge of odd. Already he was trying to think of what he could bring to a group, though his thought train was thoroughly derailed when the groups were assigned.

Connor didn’t really know Grady. The other boy was usually pretty quiet, but that was okay. Maybe he was just a little shy. Nothing wrong with that. After relocating his partner, Connor gathered his things and went to meet him. His books were dropped on the tabletop, and his bag was abandoned on the floor. “Hi Grady,” he greeted. As for the question, he shook his head. “Not really. I mean, I know animals, but nothing weird. Everyone knows what a horse is, and a dog and a cat.” Those were what he had at home, so he was most familiar with them. “What about you?” He wanted to do well, but if they were stalling out on finding an animal... they could be in trouble.

[Grady Mitchellson]

Grady, like most of the student population, did not like group projects. He hated having to interact with the other students so much. Even more so when the group project was one of those that involved some sort of presentation. Because then he had to stand up in front of the whole class as well. Though most of the student population was okay with his identity, Grady knew that the world was not perfect. There were still plenty of snickers and stares. And even when there wasn't, Grady felt uncomfortable enough on his own.

At least he'd been paired with Connor. True Grady was shy and didn't have many friends, but that didn't mean he was completely oblivious to the other students. He watched them. A lot. Especially the guys. Looking for clues on how to look, how to act, how to pass. And also because...well guys were nice looking.

So he knew Connor was a good guy who wouldn't spend the entire time asking him weird questions or being awkward. At least that much was okay about this project.

He took of his glasses and started polishing the lenses on his shirt while he tried to push aside his dread of this assignment and actually think of a stupid animal. Like Conner, he didn't exactly have much experience with unusual animals. And right now the only remotely weird animals he could think of were "cute" animals. He didn't want to suggest something that wouldn't be man-ly.

"Uh...not really." Grady said, putting back on his glasses. "Maybe we should look one up?" He reached into his bag to pull out his laptop. It wasn't exactly fancy, one of his older brothers had given him their old laptop, but it would be more help than the two of them trying to think of something more unusual than a dog.

"Uh...how about some kinda lizard or something?" Grady asked as he opened up the laptop.

[Connor Anderson]

Connor wasn’t the type to harass or make fun of someone for being different. His mother had spent a lot of time with him and his brother growing up teaching them tolerance, and to embrace differences. He didn’t want to upset anyone with his comments, and tended to simply befriend as many people as possible. He’d gotten comments himself, usually centered about being an animal loving hippie when people knew he was vegetarian. Most of the time he let the comments wash off his back, but that didn’t mean they didn’t suck to hear.

So no, he wasn’t going to harass Grady. Shy or not, he didn’t see any reason to push the other boy around.

“Yeah, maybe that’s a good idea.” While Grady pulled out his laptop, Connor pulled out his phone and brought up Google. Weird animals... weird animals... oh!

“Oh! What about those... uh. They’re like foxes, but they have HUGE ears. They’re seriously cute.” Yes, Connor was a boy, and he liked cute things. Sue him. Typing in ‘huge eared fox’ into the search engine, he pulled up the results to show Grady. “Fennec foxes!” Yes, he was excited over something that cute. “... But yeah, we could totally do a lizard. There’s tons of them to pick from.” Granted, everyone was probably searching Google or something for ‘weird animals.’ ... This was going to be hard.

[Grady Mitchellson]

Grady was busy pulling up pictures of deep sea, disgusting looking fish. Maybe if he found the grossest looking animal, no one else would know it because it was gross. And it would definitely be very un-feminine of him, right?

He was about to show Connor pictures of blobfish when his new partner start freaking out over these big eared foxes. Grady had to admit (quietly to himself) that they were adorable. He found himself briefly wondering if he could keep one as a pet in Hammel dorms. But he was sure they didn't fit into the pet policy.

"Yeah...those are...cool," Grady agreed. He couldn't bring himself to say the word 'cute'. How could this guy? Grady wasn't sure he could pull off doing a video about cute little foxes. Surely people would talk. And he didn't want to throw Connor under the bus by saying he'd been forced to do a project on the cute...adorable...fluffy little. Awh man. Why did they have to be so cute?

"Well I guess if you want to..." Grady said, trying to sound like it was the last thing int he world he'd want to do, but having a hard time keeping the slight smile off of his face. Maybe fennec foxes were ferocious?

[Connor Anderson]

Connor had always been a sucker for animals. He loved his family's horses, and had always been the first to volunteer to do anything with the barn kittens. Heck, he'd even become a dedicated vegetarian after befriending a neighbour's cows. A project on weird animals should have been a cinch, but weird apparently also meant... kind of creepy.

But the fennec foxes were very cute. On the other hand though, Grady didn't seem very excited about them. And foxes were common enough that maybe a new breed wouldn't be enough to win the little friendly competition. Hmm.

Keeping his partner in mind, he shrugged and threw another search into his phone, this time under weird fish. "We can keep looking," he offered. Surely everyone was looking up land animals. Maybe looking for an aquatic animal would give them an edge.

Like... heeey. Pulling up a picture of an Axolotl, he tried again. "Look at this. It's an..." How in the heck did you even say that? "Axe... Olottle? It's not totally creepy, and it's really different." Tilting his head so that his black bangs spilled across his forehead, he smiled at Grady. "Unless you found something really different?" Chances were, all the guys would be going for the gross or creepy factor, while the girls would probably go for cute. These little guys were good middle ground. Only if Grady liked them, though.

[Grady Mitchellson]

Grady was glad that Connor seemed to be picking up on his wish to have a tougher looking creature without him having to actually vocalize it. It was so hard to explain how he was feeling most of the time. Even harder when he worried constantly about those feelings not being the "right" feelings. Did other guys even think about their feelings? He didn't know. And he wasn't about to ask.

He leaned over to look at the picture Connor pulled up. At least it wasn't something cute and furry. Grady couldn't help but smile a little at the creature. It looked like some sort of Pokemon.

"I think that little guy is pretty...okay," Grady agreed, with more truthfulness in his voice this time. "Unless we find something better." Though he was already pulling up more about Axolotls on his computer. The only problem was going to be learning how to pronounce the dang thing.

"You can have them as pets," Grady said, more to himself than his partner. "Huh...I wonder if the pet store in town has them."

[Connor Anderson]

Connor could vouch for the fact that boys did indeed have feelings. Some were more apt at showing them than others, but they all had them. Connor wasn't often shy about letting others see how he was feeling, but he knew his brother liked to mask them, usually with humor or light insults. His father was much the same, not quick to show much in the way of emotion. No one fit into a particular mold, and Connor liked that about people. Maybe that was just his mother's influence, but he didn't really care. He was okay with who he was, just like he was okay with whoever or whatever anyone else wanted to be.

"He's neat. I like the little... tentacle things by his head." They really were sort of alien looking. At the news that you could have them as pets he adopted a look of surprise. Peeking around at Grady's screen, he grinned. "How cool would it be to have one of those guys as a pet?" He liked furry things, normally, but these guys were super cool.

"When's this due again? Do we have time to see if the pet store has them after school? 'Cause if they do, maybe they know a lot about them!" The internet could only be so trusted, after all. Getting firsthand information rather than reading up things that may or may not be true on something like Wikipedia could mean the difference between a pass or a fail.

[Grady Mitchellson]

Grady was still trying to figure out what kind of man he wanted to be. Right now, it was any kind of man that got read as man, which mean in his head that he needed to be as macho as possible, even if that's not how his older brothers acted. Or how he really wanted to be in the long run.

"Do you...have a pet?" Grady asked. He'd been wanting to get a pet for his dorm for a while now, so he was curious what others had in the dorms. He'd never had a pet of his own before, so he wanted to make sure he made a good, well-informed decision.

"Um..." Grady said, looking up to the board. "A week. So I guess so. I've never been to the pet store. Are they...uh...nice there?" He tried no to show his anxiety over the thought of going some place he didn't know. To see people he didn't know. It was something he wanted to overcome, but right now he usually hid from.

[Connor Anderson]

Connor had long since known how he wanted to be as he got older. He'd watched his brother enough to know he didn't want to be like him. Curtis was, at times, an outrageous flirt, and had a remarkably big ego. Connor didn't want to be that way. He also knew he didn't want to be a lot like his father. He loved his father and brother both, but his father was often stern and emotionally distant. He'd always had his heart on his sleeve, so to speak, but he was also okay with being that way.

Grady's question made Connor smile. "Yeah, I do." He never could pass up an opportunity to show off Sona. Flicking out of the internet browser on his phone, he instead pulled up his photos. After flipping through a few less than flattering pictures of Sona rolling and snorting, he finally found one of him running along the fenceline of his pasture and offered it to Grady. "His name's Sona. I board him at Montadale." Sadly, Connor would be of no use for dorm pet information. It would be difficult to smuggle the Thoroughbred in.

"I don't know," Connor admitted. "I've never been there, but I'm sure they are." Once his phone was back, he started looking up their hours. "We'd have lots of time." Tilting his head sideways, he thought for a moment. "I could call them later, at lunch, and see if they know anything about them, or have them?" It would be a bust of a trip otherwise.

[Grady Mitchellson]

Grady smiled for a moment at his luck in being paired with a fellow pet-lover. But it went away quickly. Not because Grady was unhappy, but because he always worried he looked more like a girl when he was grinning.

He leaned over to get a better look at Sona and was surprised to see that Sona was a horse. "Wow," he said, impressed. He'd never even seen a horse up close, let alone ridden one. He'd never pictured a young guy owning one as a pet. Not that he was judging, but he liked the idea that Connor was into horses (something Grady had always thought was more for girls). It was always nice to meet people who reminded him not to believe in gender stereotypes.

"That'd be cool! I mean...if you wanna. I kinda wanted to go there. At some point," Grady said, trying not to sound to overly excited about A) going to the pet store and B) going to the pet store with a nice guy who'd help him feel less anxious about new people/places. "I've been thinking of getting a...uh...pet for my dorm." Now he really was going to have to look up the rules on what he could have.

[Connor Anderson]

Connor grinned at Grady's reaction to the picture. He loved showing off his horse, and was always happy when others seemed to appreciate him. Yes, Sona could be the biggest pain in the butt some days, but he was also worth it. Nothing was a better feeling than when the gelding settled down and fly over the ground the way he was bred to. He may have been a failure at racing, but he had still amazing potential as a pleasure horse. Perhaps in a few years he'd be more settled and calm. Connor could hope, anyway. "Yeah. He's pretty cool, as far as pets go. Even if he doesn't fit in the dorms." That hadn't stopped him from trying to bring him into the living room when Sona was young. His mother had caught him before Sona had even made across the porch, and had promptly been sent back to the stable.

"Oh! We can go there anyway, then. I mean, it'd be perfect if they have any information on these... things, but if you wanna go anyway, we totally can! It'd be fun!" Growing up on a farm left very few animals he didn't like, and even just visiting with them was usually enough to put him in a good mood. "Pets are awesome. We had a couple of dogs and cats at home too, but mostly horses. Nothing really little. But if you want help, I can do that!" He liked Grady, and he wanted to make friends. Maybe this would help.

[Grady Mitchellson]

Grady let out a little giggle at the comment about fitting a horse into the dorm and immediately hated himself for doing so. To cover, he pulled off his glasses and became very interested in cleaning them. He hated it when some girl-ish sound would come out of his mouth. Maybe one day it wouldn't be a problem anymore.

"Really?" Grady asked, trying not to be too excited about the idea as he put back on his glasses. "I mean, that'd be cool. I've never really had a pet of my own, so I could use all the advice I can get about getting one." It was true that some of Grady's siblings had pets, but he'd never really had one all to himself. And the idea of adding on to his dorm room seemed like a good idea. Maybe it would help him when he was having down days or feeling lonely. It certainly couldn't hurt, right?

Grady didn't really have many friends. At least not close ones. Though that was mostly his own fault. He did his best to stick to the sidelines and not get close to anyone. If he wasn't close to anyone, they no one could push him away. But he was trying to come out of his shell. Sort of. And Connor seemed really nice. And accepting. So it would be okay to hang out with him, right? And maybe hanging with Connor would give him some "how to be a guy" tips too.

[Connor Anderson]

Connor didn't mind the giggle. God knew he made some rather unseemly noises from time to time, ranging from giggles to all out shrieks if Sona did something unexpected while he was on his back. It wasn't a big deal to him, but he didn't say anything about it either. He just waited for Grady to finish with his glasses.

"Yeah, really." Connor beamed. He adored animals of all shapes and forms, and helping someone with one was well within his capabilities. "Pets are awesome, so I can totally help if you want me to." He grinned and glanced at the teacher to make sure that they were busy before looking back at Grady. "We can do some looking at the pet store when we go to see if they have these guys, or know anything about them. Two birds with one stone that way!" Yes, he was excited, and it had less to do with the project. Maybe this way he could make friends with Grady. He seemed nice enough. And a lot calmer than John and Jake. Sure, JJ was fun, but also a little nuts from time to time.

[Grady Mitchellson]

"Awesome. Uh...here, let me get your number. Maybe we could this weekend?" Grady asked as he offered his phone to Connor to get the other boy's number. "Do you have a car? If not, that's cool." Grady didn't own a car of his own, but he could probably get one of his siblings to either give them a lift or let him borrow the car.

He really needed to get a look at the pet policy between now and then. And maybe look into what animals were good for first time pet owners. He hated the though of killing an animal and was pretty sure he'd never forgive himself if he killed his first pet because of poor car.

Grady was glad that Connor seemed just as excited about this as he was feeling. And Connor didn't look like the kind of kid to fake that.

He looked up to see the teacher was trying to get the class's attention and figured the rest of the pet talk would have to wait until after class. After all they did have a project they were supposed to be working on. "I'll text ya later," Grady added before returning his attention to the front of the class.

(((wrap for Grady)))