fluff in class

# A Class Too Lovely to Skip I used to think skipping class was a perfectly reasonable idea. A quiet afternoon at home, a little extra sleep, perhaps some games before dinner. Nobody would miss me for a day, right? Then I got seated next to *her*. My fluffy fox-girl classmate was a walking temptation to forget everything outside the classroom. Her orange ears, tipped with black fur, perked up whenever something caught her attention. Her enormous bushy tail, with its snowy-white tip, swayed lazily behind her chair, occasionally brushing against my desk. And that smile of hers? Utterly unfair. "Hey, hey! Did you get what the teacher just explained?" she whispered, leaning toward me with bright, curious eyes. "Can you explain it to me later? Pleeeease?" How was I supposed to concentrate when she looked at me like that? She was cheerful, a little mischievous, and surprisingly attentive whenever she wanted to be. Sometimes she'd share her snacks with me. Sometimes she'd doodle little foxes in the corner of her notebook. And sometimes, when she thought nobody was watching, she'd try to curl her enormous tail around her chair without knocking over someone's pencil case. Naturally, I started looking forward to school. Not because of the lessons, obviously. The lessons were important, sure, and I did intend to pass my exams. But mornings became something else entirely when I knew she'd be sitting beside me, greeting me with that familiar grin. Every now and then, I'd glance at the clock and consider heading home early. Then she'd turn toward me. "You're coming tomorrow too, right?" Her ears perked up expectantly. Her fluffy tail swished behind her, and she smiled as though my answer genuinely mattered to her. "...Of course." And just like that, another perfectly good plan to skip class went straight out the window. Maybe tomorrow I'd finally manage to leave early. But tomorrow, she'd probably save me a seat. She'd probably ask me to study with her. She might even bring an extra snack to share. *Sigh.* Who could possibly abandon a classroom when their favorite fluffy classmate was waiting there? Certainly not me. **The hardest part of attending a school full of adorable fantasy students isn't passing the exams. It's finding a good enough reason to stay home when someone makes every school day worth looking forward to.**