"...And for his involvement in the Groundhog Operation, Cory Nelson was awarded several medals, like the Purple Heart..." Butan spoke while looking at his classmates, occasionally pointing behind him.
Today was the long awaited day of the presentation. and Butan and Woofer were already on the middle of theirs.
The teacher was besides the projector used to show the slides on the black board, Woofer was awkwardly standing besides Butan and waiting for her turn to speak.
"..For those reasons, Cory Nelson is internationally known as a great figure and the pride of dog kind." Butan seemed to finish his part. He looked away from the crowd and then looked straight at Woofer, hinting at her to talk
"Oh, It's my turn now?" She was startled.
"W-What was I supposed to say again..?" She gave a awkward laugh while scratching her hair, she apparently blanked out of nervousness. Their classmates laughed a little looking at this.
Butan shook his head and gave her a paper, apparently already expecting this to happen. She quickly grabbed it and gave him a thumbs up, hurriedly reading it.
The teacher, watching this, smiled and shook his head.
After Woofer said her part, Butan hurriedly concluded the presentation not wanting to embarrass himself any further. The teacher smiled and clapped a bit while some of their classmates laughed.
"Sigh..." Butan sat down on his seat, with Woofer sitting right behind him.
"Did I screw it up...? I forgot everything on the middle of it, what if Mr Yao reproves us." Woofer was worrying for no reason again.
"Don't worry about it, you did good enough. At worst we will get a few points off for this."
"I did good....?" Woofer looked at him with dumbfounded eyes.
"Yeah?" Why was she looking at him liking this?
"Haha!" She leaned forward and suddenly hugged him.
"This was the first time you ever complimented me!" She had a really happy expression.
"Don't make me regret it woman, get off me, I'm going to scratch your face. Purrr." Butan tried pushing her face away with his paws. She laughed at his "threat" and released him. Butan fixed his messy uniform.
"I'm not complimenting you ever again."
"Butan, Woofer, pay attention." The mouse, Mr Yao, looked at them. Their presentation wasn't the last one and other groups were doing theirs.
""Yes teacher.""
The rest of their school day went on as normal. Each group talked about a prominent figure in the war, ranging from normal troops who accomplished a great feat, to brilliant generals and war leaders.
Some groups were noticeable more prepared than others, with great research on the life of the person they were assigned to. Others were very obviously done in a hurry, their presentation was short and filled with meaningless words to make it longer.
One even "accidentally" put on the wrong image on the slide, a funny joke image, and the class who previously had almost no interest on this whole thing burst into laughter. The teacher sighed helplessly.
The next presentations were pretty normal, and class time was soon over. Everyone started hurriedly packing their things, wanting to get home as soon as possible.
"I will grade your performances and give the result tomorrow. You are all dismissed." The students bolted for the door as soon he finished speaking. Thing got messy as they all ran, bird people flying and some even running on all fours. Mr Yao shook his head and looked away.
Butan calmly finished packing his things on his backpack, walking to the exit after nearly everyone had already left. Doing this was routine for him, he would get stomped to death if he didn't wait for them all to leave.
"Ah!"
He turned his head, seeing the shark girl drop her pencil while trying to store it and hurriedly trying to pick it up again. But as she crouched down to get it, her notebook somehow fell down. She groaned in frustration.
He stared deadpanned at her, before turning around to leave again.
"W-Wait!!" Right as he left the room, he felt someone holding his backpack with such force he was almost lifted off the ground.
"What now?" Butan looked at Woofer, who clearly finished packing in a hurry as her backpack was still half open, visible annoyance on his eyes.
'What does this brutish woman want?'
"Are you somehow still worried about the presentation? Listen, I already told you-"
"No,no,no its not that." She interrupted him and shook her head.
"Then what the hell do you want..?" Butan raised one of his eyebrows, his tail moving around erratically.
"Nothing.... I just wanted to know if..." Woofer started fidgeting and looked away from him.
"..If?"
She seemed to have resolved herself to something, and looked at him straight in the eye before speaking.
"Are we...Still friends?"
".....What?" Butan had a dumbfounded face,not understanding the question.
"No like, I was just wondering if we could still meet each other now that the whole presentation thing is over..." Her voice went quieter the more she spoke, becoming barely audible by the end.
As Butan heard her, he was about to speak out and refuse, but he stopped right before opening his mouth. He stood still for a long while, looking at her and seemingly thinking.
"....Fine." Butan himself didn't understand why he agreed.
"Really?" She seemed overjoyed.
"Knowing you, I thought you would refuse on the spot..." She said with some relief on her tone.
"I was going to do just that, but I noticed I have pretty much no friends on this class. I need at least one friend so I don't look weird, even if its you." Butan said, half convincing himself of it.
"Yay!"
"But at least tell me when you are coming over this time."
They chatted a little bit more about it, before Woofer realized she had to go home no matter what and left while waving to him. Butan sighed in apparent relief.
"Sup, Butan. Who was that just now." A voice suddenly called out to him.
"Oh Caner. Its you" The owner of the voice was a white cat, slightly taller than him. He was looking at the back of the leaving Woofer as he walked towards him.
Caner was a old friend of his since middle school. They got put on separate classrooms but still talked with each other from time to time.
"That was Woofer, don't mind that idiot. She is... a friend I guess." Butan spoke as the both went to the exit
"Huh, you, having a female friend?" Caner seemed pretty surprised, looking at him like he was an exotic animal.
"What's so weird about that?" Butan looked at him.
"Dude, honestly....This entire time.... I thought you were gay." Caner looked at him seriously.
"...."
Butan stared at him for a good ten seconds before clawing at his face. A laugh could be heard across the school halls.