Judy arrived to the office a couple minutes early. She liked being punctual, sure, but really, she just liked the few minutes to herself in her office before Nick showed up. That, and she loved striking up a conversation with Clawhauser on the way into work. "Hey Benji!" she'd great the rather large cheetah. He was always so happy to see his friend every morning, bright and early.
"Hey! Did you see the new episode of Dancing with the Pop stars? Gazelle guess stared and it was absolutely amazing!" Office Clawhauser continued to boast about the episode and comment on all of her "flawless" dancing.
Judy giggled. She liked Clawhauser because he loved to talk, which meant she really didn't have to. She mostly just nodded along, interjecting here and there. Soon enough, they said their goodbyes, and Judy headed towards her office to start filing away some paperwork. Within the hour, Nick strolled in, sharing his usual greeting with the rabbit, before doing some filing of his own.
Judy eyed her fox friend curiously. Normally he was very talkative in the morning. He would have said something sarcastic by now, or made a joke about how fox's aren't typically the morning type. Judy was puzzled. He was clearly in a good mood; big smile plastered on his face, tail swishing from side to side, some favorite tune being hummed out way to loud.
What had gotten into him?
Judy would have asked him about it, but decided to just let it go. Besides, if something was up, the fox would surely tell her. So, instead she opted to go with, "Our daily meeting starts in about five minutes Nick, we should probably get going."
"Ah, yes we should!" he responded in kind. "Come on, fluff, we don't got all day."
And this too, was really weird. The fox wasn't a huge fan of these early morning meetings. In fact, he usually made them late, dragging on about how it's the same thing everyday and they should just have weekly or monthly meetings. But, the one time Nick had skipped a meeting, The Chief had torn him a new one, and Nick hasn't missed one since.
As the two entered into the conference room, they could see that most everyone had arrived already. They were missing a few more officers, other than Clawhauser who was stuck manning the front desk, and Chief Bogo of course. Nick went ahead and walked over to their seats at the front of the room, while Judy stopped to conversate with a few of her fellow teammates.
Nick seemed happy for the distraction though.
When The Chief finally emerged from his office, the crowd of officers scattered around the room, before sitting in their "unassigned" assigned seats. Judy hopped up on the edge of her chair. Being a small bunny, a pillow sat atop her chair so that she could see above her desk. As she got ready to sit down, the room had quieted and Nick looked deep in concentration. Judy wondered what that was about as she plopped down in her chair.
Just as Chief Bogo had begun to address the crowd, a loud fart noise emitted from Judy's chair. The young bunny blushed a deep red as the whole room went silent again, before erupting into loud laughter. Judy seemed to go wide-eyed as comments were made and jokes were thrown her way. She tried to explain that it in fact wasn't her, but no one seemed to be listening. She cast a pleading glance towards Nick, who seemed to be high fiving the officer next to him, a gigantic smile on his face.
Judy felt a wave of anger wash over her, replacing the embarrassment she had felt. She quickly hopped off her pillow and held it up to reveal a whoopee cushion placed strategically under it. Her ears flopped down in anger, nose twitching, her blush deepening, and her glare fixed on her suspect as she roared "NICK!" At the top of her lungs.
"Unbelievable is what you are!" Judy yelled down the hall.
"Oh, come on Carrots! How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?"
"Until you're blue in the face, and even then, I'm still not going to accept it!" she raged.
"But it was just a harmless joke!"
Judy tried her hardest not to flick him off then and there.
"Come on, please forgive me?" he asked, with bright green doe eyes.
But Judy saw right through his act. "You owe me!"
"Aww, what's wrong? A little trouble in paradise?" Clawhauser asked as the pair passed by the front desk.
"Yeah, Nick is being a horrible friend!" Judy complained.
"She's overreacting! All I did was slip a whoopee cushion under her seat!" Nick reasoned.
Clawhauser couldn't contain his laughter, reaching down to give Nick a high five. "Oh man, classic dude!" but Judy wasn't amused.
"Seriously, you two Benjamin?!" she asked in disbelief.
He only shrugged. "Come on Jude, it was just a harmless prank."
"Yeah Jude! It was just a prank!" Nick teased.
But Judy was just not having it today. "Oh, you think you're so funny. Hey, let's all prank the cute innocent little bunny, she won't see it coming!" she mimicked.
"Come on, fluff, it's not like that!" Nick explained. "You've never pranked anyone before?"
"Sure I have!" Judy lied. She'd witnessed a lot of them from her siblings sure, but usually she was just the test subject. "But that doesn't mean it's appropriate for work!"
"You have to admit, that's the happiest I've ever seen Chief Bogo though." Nick added with a laugh.
"I really hate you, you know that?" Judy scolded.
"Do I know that? No, no I don't. Because you don't hate me. In fact, you love me." he said with a playful wink.
Judy rolled her eyes, fake gagging. "In your dreams!"
"So, you forgive me?" Nick asked hopefully, practically pleading.
But Judy wasn't going to let it go that easily. She smirked, a plan formulating. "Nuh uh, not so fast hot shot!" she said, an evil gleam in her eyes. "I'm tired of everyone thinking I'm just some meek little bunny everyone can push around. You, my friend, have just started a war."
Nick seemed to gulp at that, before playing it off with a laugh. "You? At war with me? Please!"
"Oh, not just you. No, I'm talking everyone. Including you Clawhauser!" she said, pointing her finger in his face, causing him to choke on his doughnut in surprise. "I'm coming after every single one of you!"
"And what, you think you're gonna win?" Nick teased. "Sweetheart, I've been doing this since I was a kid!"
"Well, incase you didn't know, I grew up with 275 other siblings, and we weren't all innocent little girls. I have plenty of brothers to know what I'm doing, when to do it, and how to execute it perfectly." she said, a paw on her hip as she stared at a wide eyed Nick.
"What? It's called a hustle, and you're about to learn from the best!"
"Well then, why don't you put your money where your mouth is!" Nick challenged. "I'll get everyone here in on it. The Zootopia Police Department against little ole Judy Hopps. Loser, meaning you, gets stuck with parking duty for the rest of the month!"
"Month?! Are you crazy!" Judy shouted, not meaning to sound so worried.
"Afraid you can't handle it?" Nick teased.
Judy glared at the predator staring down on her. "No! But, if you lose, you have to come in an hour early every day and file paperwork for a month!"
"And if I win?" Nick challenged.
"You get to drive the police cruiser for a month, assuming you don't kill us both, or get any traffic violations."
"And if you were to somehow miraculously win?" Clawhauser asked, earning a glare from Judy.
"Then I get to wear your sunglasses for a month." Judy answered, eyeing the shades that sat atop the fox's head.
Nick frowned. "No way am I letting you touch my precious baby!"
"Oh, but you aren't worried! Like you said, you've been doing this since you were a kid." Judy teased. "So this should be an easy win, right?"
Nick huffed in defeat, but nodded anyways. "Deal!" he said, shaking the rabbit's hand. "Prepare to go down!"
"You better hope Chief Bogo doesn't kill the both of us." she grumbled, mostly to herself.
"Hey, I know where you live! I can attack at a moments notice, inside or outside the office."
"Ooh, you are so on!"
"This is so exciting!" Clawhauser cheered. "I'm gonna send a message out to the department about this new prank war, it's gonna be amazing!"
"But keep it on the downlow!" Nick insisted. "Too much buzz, and Bogo will shut us down."
"Hmm, that would make you the automatic loser, wouldn't it Nick?" Judy teased.
"Wait, what? How?!"
"Well, because you started all of this! If Bogo ends the prank war, that would be an automatic forfeit for you! After all, I'm just a dumb bunny, right?"
Nick glared at his friend, seeing her in a whole new light. "You sneaky little…..alright Judy, but don't think that just because we're friends that I'm gonna go easy on you. The whoopee cushion had just been a warm up. Now, you must prepare for the storm that's coming ahead."
"I'm ready whenever you are!" Judy answered back.
"Then we start now!" Nick concluded. "May the best mammal win!"
A/n: Short and poorly edited, but hey, it's only the first chapter. Next one will be longer. Until then, let me know what you think :)