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gradual halt as Dingo showed his face. Stares were given, and a couple of cutting, girlish grins broke out. About a dozen dogs lines the walls of the room as well as in front of the glowing furnace.
"Who's this guy?" some dog from the rear of the room called out.
"This is my friend, Dingo," Tiffany said, exuding calm confidence. "I invited him to come hang out with us." Dingo was eternally grateful that this explaination seemed to be enough, and all eyes were not on him for more than about ten seconds.
Tiffany reclaimed her place near the furnace where some of her friends already sat, Naomi and Sheba included. Suddenly reluctant to leave her side - despite recognizing Saba sitting on the left wall with her own friends who he vaguely recalled - Dingo followed the pretty malamute and took a stiff seat by her side. He glanced back to his sister, and she gave him a broad smile and wink. He swallowed the lump in his throat and attempted to focus on the conversation in front of him.
"Hi," the silver husky adjacent to them said, eyes locked onto Dingo's. He shifted slightly, unsure of himself for just a second.
"Hi," he parroted.
"Dingo, these are my good friends, Naomi and Sheba," Tiffany said, gesturing with a nod of the head to the respective dogs. She gave a hard stare towards Naomi as she continued, "They're really quite harmless, though you may have trouble getting them to shut up sometimes."
"Who, me?" Naomi asked innocently.
"Who else is she staring at?" Sheba retorted.
"Anyway," Tiffany said. "it's always the three of us over here. Why don't you introduce yourself a little more?" She sat back, smiling expectantly at him. He wondered what he could say to make himself seem a little more interesting, but the most action-packed thing he'd dealt with all day was probably the cat-garbage-alert.
He blinked. "Well... you probably know my brother, Kodi..." he began dully.
"Yeah, he's on the mail team," Naomi said quickly. "How about you? Are you on any sled team...?"
"Uh, not really..." Dingo replied. He wasn't really much of anything, now that he thought about it. "I sort of keep to myself, I guess." Apparently this wasn't a good occupation, as Sheba and Naomi both gave him looks like he was an alien.
"How about hobbies?" Sheba offered. Before he could respond, Naomi butt in again;
"Don't you have any friends besides your brothers and sisters?"
Dingo hung his head low. "Yes, actually, I do," he grumbled, feeling defeated already.
"Naomi," Tiffany growled, irritated with her friend, but making it sound commonplace. "Play -nice- for once, won't you?" The husky shrugged and rolled her eyes, oblivious to her fault. "Sorry about that," Tiffany sighed, looking at Dingo. "They're just used to the shallow, x-times-champion sort of dog..."
"I get it," Dingo said. He thought of, but didn't finish his sentence: I'm just not important enough to be here.
"Wasn't your father some kind of wolf?" Naomi blurted.
Dingo's eyes shot up to meet hers. In his head, a thousand thoughts whirred around, slamming into each other so that they churned, but refused to come out coherently. For the first time that night, anger shot across his face. Bristling, he stood up.
"I don't know what you wanted me here for," he snapped, looking at Tiffany - whose jaw had dropped - then around to the other two. "But I don't have to take this!" He turned on his heel and began to storm towards the door. Halfway there, Saba had noticed her brother leaving. She called out to him, confused.
"Dingo? What's wrong? Why--"
"I'm going home," he growled, not bothering to look at her. He barged open the wooden doors, didn't flinch as the wind suddenly whipped at his face, stronger than before. The same gales slammed the doors shut once more, leaving the dogs inside dumbstruck.
"Great going," Tiffany snarled to the other two dogs who lay by her, her irritance elevated to anger. "Real sensitive." She sprang up from her place, and trotted across the room, everyone watching in silence. She nudged the door open and followed Dingo's trail determinedly.
+++
Back at home, Dingo trudged around to the back of the house where his dog-door was. Jaw clenched tight, the scene from back in the boiler room replayed in his head. Naomi's words stung him deeply. His father was not "some wolf"... he was a dog of Nome like anyone else, and after that, he was a hero! He'd heard the story, alright; heard it dozens of times. Balto's quest into the wilderness to rescue the lost team and relay the medicine back to Nome - it was a favorite of his as a pup. As an adult, he'd always viewed it as a testimony of a noble bloodline, wolf be damned. It was shocking and insulting to him to think that the other dogs - of his generation, no less - could still look down on his heritage like that. Throw some big bad wolf blood in the mix, and what else mattered to anyone?...
Just as Dingo was a stride off from being able to slink inside, to the safety of the fortress of his masters' house, he realized he'd been followed. He jerked his head in her direction, glaring bitterly.
"What do you want from me?" he said, emotion welling in his chest.
Tiffany approached him slowly, her body language uncharacteristic. Her tail drooped. There was no warm, welcoming smile on her face. She just looked at him solemnly with watering brown eyes.
"Dingo," she sighed. "I'm sorry about them, okay? I didn't mean for you to be treated so - thoughtlessly --"
"No," he said shortly. "I guess you didn't, but you thought it'd be amusing to make me squirm, huh?" He let out a huff. "I don't care what you or your friends think of me, okay? Just leave me alone." He had already pushed his nose into the door, lifting the flap, poised to hop inside, when she interrupted him urgently.
"It's not like that at all!" she cried. "I didn't set out to upset you. And I'm sor-- ashamed of what Naomi said; it was completely thoughtless and rude. I know. But maybe the reason I invited you along tonight was because I really thought I liked you!"
He froze, re-evaluating his thoughts on this girl. He wasn't sure what to think of her the other day; this evening made him even less sure. He knew now her friends weren't worth his time, but maybe this dog in particular was an exception... after all, they were alone now, and she couldn't just be saying this for appearances...
"You thought you did?" he murmured. He looked her in the eye, a slight spark of hope lying there, though his frown didn't budge.
"Yes..." Tiffany sighed. A gentle smile twitched across her face. "and I think I still may, if you can forgive me..."
He was silent.
"I mean it," she urged.
"I don't know," Dingo said warily. He knew the 'popular' crowd really just weren't his type. Tiffany may be different, but... was she worth putting up with the rest of them, he wondered?
"Listen," she said. "Why don't you and I spend some time together, get to know each other. I'll make sure those other two - ahem - fleabags mind their own business. We don't need to have them breathing down our necks, anyway." She stood there, hopefully, awaiting his answer - whether he would accept or decline her second offer of friendship.
Well... why not? "I suppose that'd be alright," he agreed, finally allowing a smile to inch across his muzzle for the first time in ages that day. The next thing she did caught him completely off guard however, as she practically danced over to him and planted a firm, loving kiss on his cheek. Paralyzed, he stared at her, wide-eyed.
"Good," she giggled, tail wagging. "Because I really do happen to like you, you know."
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