"Dad! Mom! We need to leave some time today!" I called standing at the front door towards the kitchen. I was nervous, excited, anxious, I don't know. After years of dreaming about it, I was finally going to begin my training at the Police Academy. I had been looking forward to this my whole life. I somehow don't think my parents shared the same sentiment because they were taking their very sweet time to get going.
"Oh Judy, you've always been so impatient, we are leaving soon, you're father has just got to take care of some business with your elder siblings before we drive to the academy. On taking care of the farm and your other siblings while we are gone" my mother said coming out of the kitchen. "It'll only take a minute more and then we will be on our way." She looked me over. "I'm so proud of you, you know? We both are. We know you have been working towards this for a good while. I'll admit it wasn't what we really had in mind for you, but you've always been so headstrong, so motivated, we knew we had little chance of changing your mind." She looked a little nervous herself. "However, we want you to know that you have us to talk to whenever you need us. We are always going to be there for you."
I replied "I know Mom. I know."
At that moment, my dad came down the hall. "Alright," he said, "y'all ready? Let's hit the road."
I grabbed my bags and we stepped out onto the front porch of our house. It was a quaint place, if rather large. It would have to be considering the size of my family. More siblings than I can count. Good thing too, our family runs one of the largest farms in the Burrows. As soon as we were old enough to walk, we helped out on that farm.
Though it's good exercise, it's also really pretty boring, enough so that early on I knew this was not what I wanted to spend my life doing. I was a big fan of movies growing up, and I knew I wanted my life to be exciting like that. Police films caught me the most. Exciting chases, serving out justice to assholes. I wanted to live like that. Speaking assholes…
"HEY! GET AWAY FROM OUR MAILBOX" I yelled as two young foxes started swinging baseball bats at it. They ran away laughing their heads off. "Those stupid foxes, I should go teach them a lesson!" I exclaimed in anger.
My father grabbed my shoulder "Judy, it's not worth bothering with, it's just a mailbox."
"Just a mailbox?" I shot back, "They keep pulling stunts like this every week! Slashing the truck tires, tampering with the water system, spray painting the supply shed? Why do you let the Greys walk over us like that? If you would just put your foot down, we might be able to get some peace!"
The Greys were a large family of Foxes that lived on the other side of the Burrows. They ran a farm of their own, and as long as I can remember they had been harassing us. My parents had given up trying to stop them since the local cops were too lazy to try to put a stop to their actions. And thus my parents just started lying down and letting them pull all sorts of stunts. My anger at the Greys and my frustration with my parents was a large part I think of why I wanted to join the force. I was tired of living with the injustice they inflicted on us week after week. I for the most part had just learned to grudgingly live with it, but perhaps with the excitement of what today meant I took it more personally this time.
"All the pranks those kids do are rarely that big of a deal. There is no point getting mad about every small thing that happens." my mom said calmingly. "Let's just pretend we didn't see anything and head on our way, you don't want to let them ruin today for you do you?"
She was right. I wasn't going to let the Greys ruin today for me. I was finally getting out of this place. I was finally going to be an officer. And I was finally going to move to Sunshine City. I knew I had months to go before I graduated from the academy, but at the same time, I just couldn't wait.