Waking up was just about as fusing as going to bed, but Kiko mao do it without making an absolute fool of herself. Though, she seemed stunned enough that the woman she had slept with led her on Kiko’s shoulder.

  “Chichichichu?” she asked. It was just absurd enough to pull Kiko out of the worry and give her a look of abject fusion. “I like that look, it suits you~” the woman replied, chug aing out of bed.

  “Kizi, stop flirting with everything that has a pulse and e get breakfast!” Asha excimed, her stern motherly voice setting the young Kitsune scurrying for the door, and having Kiko standing and looking for breakfast as well. “Kiko, you should get dressed ao the mess hall. We house you here as long as you , but you should i with your peers. Nothing breeds peteter than filial bonds” Asha tinued, before herding the rest of the foxes into a bund guiding them out the door. She did it well, with a practiced grace that made Kiko somewhat in awe.

  “So, did you know my father? A-and...Queenie?” Kiko asked, pulling on her uniform slowly.

  “Most people knew your father, Kiko. Be prepared for that. The man was a hurrie of vibrand activity. He seemed made of panache, skill, and dad jokes. As for Queenie, well...those two had a fun little retionship with each other” Asha had such a lovely voice, such a gentle, warm, and supp tone. Like Kiko could go on for days about the most useless of crap, and Asha would always be there, listening to it all.

  “S….so. Is there ahat Queenie might have disliked? Someone evident enough that she didn’t o be named for Queeo uand who was being referenced?” Kiko asked again, not very fident, but probing all the same as she fihe uniform and stood up.

  Hearing this question, Asha would step up and take Kiko’s hands, looking into her eyes. “Yes. Yes there is. But that is not my pce to say, young id. That is for Queeo say, and her alone”

  “id?” Kiko asked. “I get the whole fox thing because Kitsu...what’s a id?” Kiko was never good at school, always busy with other stuff, like the people in the school. So her education was, g.

  “It’s a term referring to all Dog-type Quasi-humans. Lupines, Inu, Kitsuhey are all ids. It is good to know who you are reted to. It lead to something to talk to, if nothing else” Asha was really going hard with this mother thing, being a font of useful knowledge not just generally, but life-wise as well.

  “Ok” Kiko replied simply, not wanting to try her luck with anything more than that and screw up royally. Her head was already stuffed. Asha nodded gently and headed off to deal with the rest of the skulk, allowing Kiko to leave, ao the mess hall. Getting there was easy, her uniform and wide-eyed look marked her as a new recruit, and she got an escort in short order.

  Her ideal breakfast, was a mad one. Her brain cooked up a funny little thing as she headed to get the food. Sausages and beans and eggs and hashbrowns and more hashbrowns and ohh my god why do you have so many hashbrolease stop your pte ’t handle anymore hashbrowns and well done you have officially split the pte in half from the sheer weight of hashbrowns, you mad woman. Unfortunately, Breakfast wasn’t quite as amazing as all that, but it was still big and satisfying, and nobody called her a mad woman for the amount of hashbrowns she had. Albeit, they were a much less han she had inally pnned for.

  Setting down in front of a woman with a simir uniform to Kiko’s own, she decided to start trying that socializing thing, and stabbed one of her Hashbrowns, holding it up.

  “You know, Hashbroretty light. How many do you think it would take to break a pte?” Kiko asked. It was an attempt to open a versation in a way weird enough to engage. Or put off, but that would also teach her something about the person. Still, what she wasn’t expeg, was the woman to break down the specifics of how much a hashbrown weighed over how much a standard ceramic pte could hold. After ay, she finished with some big formu that detailed exactly how many hash browns, would break a pte.

  “Well…now I know” Kiko said, before breaking into a fit of giggles.

  “S….s-orry, about that. I just like, reading” she replied, burying her fa the table and nibbling on her food.

  “It’s fine, dear. I liked it, it makes you look really smart. You could easily get into any of the smart pces like that” Kiko would nod proudly, and then bite most of a sausage off her fork to reinforce the excmation. Though, became the living embodiment of the phrase ‘bite off more than you chew’ as she had to awkwardly chipmunk to get it swallowed. After that awkward moment, Kiko would storm on ahead. fidence could sure up any misstep in the world! “So, I’m Kiko. Looking for a friend to hang around with and generally linger near so it looks like I know what I am doing. Additionally someohat I hide behind if they start asking questions that need a smart person to answer. Do you want, to be that person?” Kiko asked. It was a humorous request, but the woman smiled in a much different way to getting the joke.

  “I would like that, yes” she replied, in a more solemn mahan Kiko was expeg. Still, these people were strange people, so she would just brush it off as weird and carry on.

  “Excellent! I’m Kiko” she’d stick her hand over the table and give her the biggest smile possible. Which, possibly made her seem desperate or insane, but her new friend didn’t seem to worry. Nor did the worry that Kiko had introduced herself twice...

  “Melinda” her new friend replied, reag out to shake Kiko’s hand. It was excellent, and glorious, and the first friend she had here at SIR!

  Breakfast was finished ufully, and she took her friend by the hand to saunder off in...the wrong direelinda seemed to know where she was goier, and dragged Kiko in the corre dire.

  “So. M……” Kiko stalled for a moment, and cursed. She’d fotten the woman’s name already!

  ‘Melinda’

  “Melinda” she spoke, and then frowned for a moment. That wasn’t her voice. That was, a different voi her head. Maybe. She could, have just heard it wrong. “Where….um, exactly are we going?” She’d ask. There arently a map of where she was going, and a schedule. But between the card games and the kissing games and the weird day in general, she totally fot about it.

  “You fot your schedule, didn’t you?” Melinda asked, a soft smile on her face.

  “Y...ea. This pce is turning out to be more like school than I expected. It’s got me in a daze, like I am doomed to finish that st year whatever happens” she replied, scratg her head.

  “It is a sore than just a bative arm of ODD, SIR endeavours to educate you so you take up positions as a tutor if you o, or if this whole physical rawr thing doesn’t pan out for you” Melinda expined. It was good, short, and more tha from Queenie.

  “Whole physical rawr thing?” Kiko mimicked, sn softly with ughter.

  “Indeed. Whole, physical. Rawr thing” and with that, Melinda was silent and pushed oually reag the rge ‘Room of Physical Prowess’ which was basically just a posh name for the gym. But she knew Queenie didn’t like being called the boss of the gym, so giving it a fshy name suited the woman's desire for pretentiousness. Several other people, iical uniforms were milling about, but nothing started as she walked in, so she was clearly not the st one. A few looked in her dire, but said little.

  Wanting to get involved, Kiko walked up to the group and listeo them chatter about how exg it was being here, and how they really wao impress the Overseer of Physical Prowess because she sounded like a very iing woman to know. The way that was said made their iions clear, and if Queenie heard it, well…the rea from the Demon Woman would be rather amusing to say the least. Kiko wouldn’t put it past that woman to have them here and now if she heard that they wao get with her. Melinda had phased into the crowd, and Kiko couldn’t quite remember how she looked, s to find her retty useless. It was a little weird that Kiko couldn't remember how she looked. Her mind wasn't that much of a sieve, after all...

  Still, pining would do nothing. So instead, she just milled over to the ging rooms and got intym uniform, which passed the time well enough for Queeo have arrived by the time she was done. Seeing that woman made her flush a deep red. They had dohat. Right here. Seeing her really threw off Kiko’s head...