“Aw, man!” Vera cried, “I can’t believe this!”
The rest of the girls in the locker-room ignored their team mate. The wolf was known to cause drama over every little thing and her peers had grown all too used to the sound of her voice.
“This really sucks!” she continued. “My stupid little sister must have taken my bag and left me hers! My uniform’s right here in my locker, but I can’t practice in her smelly old sneakers! I mean, just look at these things!”
Vera held up the shoe in question. It was badly torn along the seams and looked as if a less civilized canine had been chewing on it. When no one looked up, she turned her attention to the coach.
“Ms. Farley, you don’t really expect me to put these things on, let alone practice in them, do you?”
The coach, an overweight porcupine, bristled in agitation. The Volleyball team had suffered a crushing defeat to Hawthorn just the day before and she had more to worry about than the she-wolf’s footwear. If Vera wanted to mope around over something so ridiculous, she could just as well do it alone on the side lines!

Vera was not happy. She’d forced herself to put on the retched things, but the shoes were in no condition to support her needs. She wondered why her sister even kept them around. Besides being ugly to look at, they weren’t even comfortable in that well worn kind of way. They hurt her paws and Vera found herself unable to perform up to the coach’s high standards.
She was sitting alone in the grass when Stanley, a rather nerdy looking fellow, joined her. She recognized him from her chemistry class. She’d never admit it, but she liked his self-assured style and knowledgeable perspective a lot more than most gave him credit for. He was a geek and high school society dictated that she, as a cheerleader, should look down on him, but she couldn’t help smiling as he approached.
“I saw you sitting alone and thought I’d make sure you were all right.”
What he really meant, of course, was that this was the only time he’d get the chance to speak with her, alone, without the other girl’s interfering…
“…I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” he said, taking a seat beside her.
She shot him a glance that would curdle milk, but he stayed put.
“My paws hurt…” she whispered, not wanting to draw attention. “My sister took my gym bag and I got stuck with hers. These shoes are killing me!”
“Well, I’ll soon fix that!”
Stan lifted her left paw onto his lap and tugged the laces loose.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
“Cheering you up…” he said, sliding the shoe from her paw. She watched wordlessly as he removed the tattered sneaker from her other foot as well.
With both of her stockinged paws now on his lap, Vera wasn’t sure how to feel or what to say. She really liked Stan and he wouldn’t hurt her, but the other girls; they’d never let her live it down!
He began softly teasing her paws, tickling between her toes and down her soles, the socks doing little to protect her feet. She was very ticklish and it wasn’t long before she was rolling in hysterics. She loved every minute of it; so much so, in fact, that she scarcely noticed the rest of her team had stopped practicing and were now standing around, staring at the snooty wolf as she howled with laughter!

A story I wrote as part of a collaboration with my friend  CaseyDecker