Chapter Text
September and the itchiness of velvet signaled to The Goober that his antlers had harden. The remedy in his back pocket, scratchy, rough bark. But there was always a curb, this year, his second pair of antlers, second shedding of velvet begun while he was at school. Last year started on a Saturday. This year begun on Tuesday; The Goober contemplated whether he should wait till the weekend but the boys at Trinity had done worse, much grosser acts. Classes had yet to start, he assured himself, feeling for the scaly bark, the texture soothing against his fingertips.
He watched as Jerry grimaced while he performed a ritual of white tail bucks. Dead velvet, bloody and stringy hung from branch to branch. He scraped fuzz off the bone of his antler. It tickled, to have bark drag and scratch; white oak painted color to his ivory. Holding the rectangular piece of bark with three fingers and the muscle that gave them possible thumbs, The Goober peeled some of the fuzz off. He flung it onto Jerry’s hair, hoping that maybe it would stop others from bothering him even if it cost him seeming queer for marking territory on a boy. He watched as Jerry swept it off his hair. The Goober peeled more of the velvet and stuffed it deep into Jerry’s scalp and shallowly into the other’s ear. Renault’s ears were softer than The Goober’s, having a mix of darkly colored wool and white wool cover over it.