It all started in the 1st grade. Five best friends were out wandering the woods. Despite their parents repeated warnings not to go in they did anyways. The smallest, a brunette, clutched the shorter blonde's hand. She had never been this far from home. Everyone stopped when the tallest blonde her a noise.
"Guys, did you hear that?"
"What was it? Do you think it was bear? What if it wants to eat us?" The short brunette practically burst into tears at the thought.
"Don't worry Rachie. I told daddy that I'd protect you." Rachie's twin brother, Noah, comforted.
They sound rang out again but this time everyone heard it. It was a whimper. Someone must've beeen hurt. Like the superheroes the 6-year-olds thought they were, they went to help. Instead of a human they found puppies.
"San, look." The taller blonde, Brittany, pointed toward a large dead dog a few feet away. "It must have been their mother."
"She probably died protecting them. But from what?" Quinn quieried.
"Well we can't just leave them here. They'll die and then all their mother's work would have been for nothing." Santana had always had a fierce connection to her mom and knew her mom would've died protecting her.
"Well, they're only four puppies. I guess since Noah and I live together we can share one." Rachel shrugged even though she really wanted her own.
"Wait! There's one more." Hidden the bush next to the dead wolf was an all white runt. "This one was meant to be Rachel's. Look at how small and cute it is, just like her." Quinn beamed as she handed her closest friend her puppy.
The rest of them just picked up any random puppy since they all looked the same. On the walk home they talked about how they were going to get them in their house and how they were going to feed them. They were on six they really couldn't ask their parents on the off-chance that their parent wouldn't let them keep the puppies. Soon the best friends sepereated to go home.
As the Berrys' reached their home they prayed that their dads weren't home. Sadly that prayer was denied seeing as one of them was home.
"How was your day, kiddos?" Their darker-skinned dad, Leroy, asked from the kitchen.
"Fine, Daddy!" Rachel called back. "We're just going to head upstairs to clean up beofre dinner."
"Okay, take off your shoes before going upsatirs." The twins barely heard him as they ran to Noah's room.
Which was filthy. Everyone made sure to tell him that everytime they set foot in his room. His socks looked like they were trying to escape and Rachel swore she saw something run under his bed.
"Noah you can not keep a pet in this room! Do you know how bad this will be for its health? The scent alone is probably burning its highly sensitive nose." The shorter jew ranted out. "Before we do anything we need to clean this room so it's in living condition."
It took two hours and four garbage bags for them to finish cleaning. They found a dead fish, a live snake, four moldy pizza boxes, and a flute with a condom on it. The two fell onto Noah's new bedspread in exhaustion.
"Hey, Rach?" Noah panted out.
"Yeah, Noah?" Rachel gasped back.
"Where are the puppies?"
The twins stared at each other for a second before hopping up to find them. They were so small, especially Rachel's, they could be anywhere. Their scouring was cut short by a high-pitched squeal downstairs. The children ran downstairs to find their puppies nuzzling their father.
"Noah, Rachel care to explain?" They only sighed in defeat they were so close.
"You see we were out in the woods." Leroy raised an eyebrow but said nothing. "And Brittany heard a noise that sounded like someone was hurt so we followed it. Then we found these wolf pups. Their mom died trying to protect them! You see how small they are, they would've died out there all alone!" Rachel yelled passionately.
"Rachie calm down." Her slightly older brother whispered.
The younger girl nodded while trying to hold back her tears. In the few hours that she's had it she had became more attached to it than anything else. Even her Barbra Streisand collection. Leroy was silent for a moment as he watched the puppies run to their humans. He had never seen them so happy about anything. The old man sighed, he couldn't take away his childrens' happiness.
"While I do not condone lying or you ignoring my rule to stay out of the woods we'll see what Dad says when he gets home." He spoke softly watching them beam so wide it looked like their cheeks hurt.
Of course when Hiram got home he couldn't deny how cute the pups were or how happy his kids were. So he gave in pretty quickly. But it was up to the kids to bath, feed, play, walk, and house-break them. Plus they would have to earn the money by keeping their rooms clean, keeping up in school, and doing chores. The twins could only hope that their friends had an easy time with their parents too.
While it wasn't easy for all of them to convince their parents that night the five best friends went to sleep with wolf pups next to them. If only they knew what kind of wolves. If only they knew these were dire wolves and that their bond together was permanent.