So, I've seen a bunch of humanized penguin fanfiction around, and I enjoy reading them, especially the ones where they're teenagers. Most of those ones though are about them going to high school, which is cool and all. But when I think of humanizing zoo animals into teenagers, the first thing that comes to mind is that they're foster kids, so I'm writing about it.
Young Private hugged his backpack closer to his chest in an attempt to calm his nerves. He felt incredibly homesick and wanted nothing more than to go back home to England and continue living with his Uncle Nigel. He wanted life to go back to normal, but it couldn't, and he understood that, he just didn't like it.
Private's parent's had died when he was just a kid, so his Uncle Nigel had to raise him in their place. To be able to raise him, Nigel had needed to take a break from the top secret spy work that he did. He hadn't gone on any missions in years, but instead spent his time telling Private about all of his adventures.
Nigel worked for a spy agency called C.E.N.T.R.A.L, he was one of their best agents. Recently one of their biggest enemies had been located in America, and they wanted Nigel to be part of the team to find him. The mission would probably take a while, as the man they were searching for had evaded capture many times before. It would be too dangerous for Nigel to take Private with him during the mission, so he had to find some other place for the boy to stay.
"Private, are you doin' alright there lad?" Uncle Nigel asked the ten year old boy, who had barely said a word the whole trip to America. They were now currently just waiting for the social worker to come get Private, and Nigel could tell that the boy was terrified. Private faked a smile.
"I'll be fine, Uncle Nigel." Private said. His uncle though was no fool, he could tell that the boy was not happy with the situation.
"Private, if you're really not ready for this we can arrange something else." Uncle Nigel began. Private interrupted him.
"No, it's fine, really." Private assured him, though he still felt unsure about the whole situation. He had lived with his Uncle Nigel practically his whole life. It would take some time to get used to not living with him. It would also take some getting used to living in America, which seemed like such a strange country to Private. And he still wasn't so sure about his new living arrangements.
His uncle was able to find somewhere for Private to stay for an undetermined amount of time, but that somewhere was in a foster home. A foster home! He wasn't supposed to live in a foster home, those were for orphans and kids who didn't have people to take care of them. True, Private was an orphan, but he most certainly already had a home.
Besides, foster kids had a tendency of getting adopted, especially the young cute ones, which was precisely what Private was. He didn't want to get adopted though. And even if he wasn't, he might be stuck living in one of those terrible foster homes that he always heard about, and he really didn't want that. His Uncle Nigel had assured him many times that neither of those would happen, but still Private's doubts lingered.
Nigel could tell that Private was still feeling nervous about this whole thing, and decided to cheer up the boy.
"I'm sure you have nothing to worry about my boy. Everything will go swimmingly." Uncle Nigel said cheerfully.
"But suppose I don't get along with any of the other kids?" Private asked timidly. This was another concern of his, that he wouldn't make any friends. He had been homeschooled while living with his Uncle Nigel, and they lived in a fairly solitary place, so Private rarely had any interaction with other children. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to make friends. His uncle apparently thought otherwise, as he laughed at the suggestion.
"You not get along with the other children?" Uncle Nigel laughed. "Private, you are the friendliest child I've ever met. You will be living in a house full of other children, I'm sure you'll get along with at least one of them."
Private smiled. When his uncle put it like that, he didn't feel as worried as he had a second before. The boy's smile and peaceful feeling fled quickly when a man who must have been the social worker came through the door, and the man was huge! Private didn't think he had ever seen anyone so tall and muscular. The man was bald, but did have facial hair. He also wore sunglasses. All in all, he looked just like one of the bad guys in his uncle's stories. The man came up to Uncle Nigel and they shook hands.
"Good day, you must be the social worker." Uncle Nigel said cheerfully.
"Call me Officer X." The man said. He leered down at Private, who shrank under his gaze. "This must be Percival." Private winced at the name. He was very rarely called by his actual name, that it always came as a shock to him when he heard it. And the fact that this man, who was practically a stranger, a very scary looking stranger, knew his name didn't sit well with Private.
"Yes, now Private, if you should need anything, know that you can call anytime." Uncle Nigel said to his nephew as he handed him a cellphone. Private took the phone and looked at his uncle with sad eyes.
"Do you have to go now?" Private asked quietly.
"I'm afraid so, lad." Uncle Nigel ruffled the boy's hair. Private sniffled and embraced his uncle tightly.
"I love you, Uncle Nigel." Private cried. Nigel held the boy tightly.
"I love you too, Private." He said quietly. He ended the embrace and left for his car. He waved at young Private one more time before he left. Private watched the car until it was out of sight, and would have stood there looking at the road for longer if it weren't for Officer X.
"Alright, enough with the sensitivities." Officer X said sharply. "It's time we go too." The man began walking toward his own car and Private had little choice but to follow. Officer X suddenly stopped so abruptly in his tracks that Private walked straight into him. He looked around the large man to try to see why he had stopped. From what he could tell, Officer X was just glaring furiously at something across the street, but there was nothing but people walking over there.
"Ricardo!" Officer X yelled loudly, startling Private, and he wasn't the only one. On the other side of the street one of the people, a teenager, looked alarmed. When the teenager saw Officer X he turned tail and ran in the opposite direction. Officer X said a few choice words under his breath, words of which Private pretended that he hadn't heard.
"Stay right there." Officer X told Private sternly before he dashed after the fleeing teenager. Private stood by the car, waiting and wondering what the heck was going on. Why had Officer X left him alone like this? And who was that kid who had run off?
It was a few minutes later that Private could see Officer X storming back to the car, and he was dragging the teenager, who was furiously putting up a fight, behind him. Both of them looked seething angry with the other.
"Get in the car!" Officer X barked at Private, who quickly complied to the orders. The man looked angry enough, and Private really didn't want to do anything to make him turn his anger toward him. Private scrambled into the back seat of the car. A moment later Officer X threw the teenager into the seat beside him and quickly closed and locked the doors before he could attempt to escape.
Officer X got into the front seat and began driving. He looked absolutely furious and began lecturing the teenager. Ricardo, Private figured that was the boy's name, wasn't listening to a word that was being said to him. He just glared out the window and grumbled under his breath.
Private scooted as far as he could away from the angry teenager. He felt a little guilty about it, but his first instinct was to stay away from Ricardo, who looked like a stereotypical bad-boy type. He was Hispanic with black hair which was styled into a type of mohawk. His eyes were blue and had a type of crazy, angry, wild look in them. He wore a leather jacket and ripped jeans. But most unsettling of all to Private was a terrible looking scar that ran across the left side of his face. All in all, he looked like the type of kid that Private would stay away from if he saw them on the street.
The entire car ride was tense and somewhat awkward for Private. He didn't say a word the whole time, because neither Officer X nor Ricardo looked in the mood for talking to him. So he instead looked out the window to watch the large city go by as they drove. Private hadn't been in many large cities, and New York City was a really large city. It amazed him just how tall all of the buildings were and how many people were walking around.
Finally, after what felt like forever, though Private knew it hadn't been that long at all, they stopped in front of a large and run down looking house. Officer X unlocked the doors, allowing Private and Ricardo to leave the vehicle. Officer X quickly grabbed Ricardo's arm to keep him from running off again, though it looking like running was the farthest thing from the teenagers mind, and went up to the door of the building. Private was close behind.
With his free hand Officer X knocked quite harshly on the door. The door was opened by a brown haired, hazel eyed teenage girl. She opened her mouth to greet them, but was quickly pushed to the side by Officer X who let himself in and made his way down the hall, dragging Ricardo behind him.
"Well, he's as pleasant as ever." The girl said coldly, clearly unhappy with Officer X. She shook her head and turned her attention to Private, who had begun to cling tightly to his backpack, his nerves getting the best of him again.
"Hey, you must be the new kid, right?" She asked. Private nodded timidly.
"Figures. Officer X was supposed to take you to Alice, but no, he has to try to get 'the runaway' in trouble first." The girl sighed in irritation. "Oh well, I guess I'll have to take you to see Alice myself." The girl smiled and held out her hand to Private, who took it. The girl led him to a room at the end of the hallway that Officer X had gone down.
The room was an office of sorts, and sitting behind a desk was a grumpy looking woman who looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but there. Officer X was in the room too, along with Ricardo. Officer X was telling the woman about how Ricardo had run off again, and ignoring the teenagers grunts of protest. The brown haired girl cleared her throat to get their attention.
"Alice, this is the new kid that Officer X was supposed to bring over today." The girl said.
"I did bring him over." Officer X objected. The woman, Alice, ignored him and, looking somewhat relieved at having been interrupted, turned to the girl.
"New kid, huh?" Alice asked dully. "Yeah, I guess I remember something about that. Alright then, kid, what's your name?" Private opened his mouth to answer, but Officer X beat him to it.
"His name is Percival." Officer X supplied. Alice glared irritably at the man.
"I wasn't asking you." Alice said. "Look, if I'm going to have to knew these kids' names, I'm only gonna learn one name per kid. So it might as well be the name that they would actually answer to." Alice turned back to Private. "Now, what's your name?"
"Uh, Private." The boy answered nervously.
"Okay, so, Marlene, why don't you show Private around or something?" Alice suggested, though she sounded like she couldn't care less what they did. The teenage girl nodded her head.
"Now that you have that business done with, will you please do something about this one?" Officer X said angrily as he gestured to RIcardo.
"Do something about what? He hasn't done anything, have you?" She looked at Ricardo somewhat suspiciously. He smirked and shook his head. "There, see? Nothing." Alice said to Officer X, who looked furious.
"Nothing? I just caught that kid trying to run away...again!" Officer X shouted. Alice put a hand to the bridge of her nose.
"He wasn't running away, he was going for a walk." Alice said. "I knew exactly what he was doing. And why would he try to run away without taking anything with him? The kid can't survive one hour without eating something." Officer X looked ready to argue, and Alice noticed it.
"So I guess since he's not leaving anytime soon, you kids are free to go." Alice said. Officer X looked outraged.
"Him too?" He asked, pointing to Ricardo, who was already leaving the room, chuckling darkly. "Alice, when are you going to stop being so easy on that little delinquent?"
"They'll be at this for hours." Marlene said to Private. "Come on, let's go introduce you to the others."
So, yup, there's the first chapter, and I should have more up soon. Now that I've gotten it started, it shouldn't be too long to continue, especially if I get any reviews *hint, hint*.