"Elaina, will you go to homecoming with me?" The young buck asked dramatically, holding out a ridiculously large bouquet of flowers.
"Yes, yes!" His girlfriend cried, actually cried, like it was a marriage proposal or an ivy college acceptance letter.
Judy frowned as she chomped down on her sliced carrots, pretending she wasn't completely perturbed by it all. While she wasn't a cynical mammal, she definitely didn't see why all these couples had to make a giant show of asking each other to this weekend's homecoming dance. Yes, they were happy together, but did they have to parade it in everyone's faces?
The cafeteria erupted into applause as the third homecoming proposal of the week ended with a wet, sloppy kiss. As Judy watched, she felt an odd churning in the pit of her stomach, and she nearly bit down on her own tongue when she tried (and missed) to take another bite of her carrots.
So what if no one had asked her to the dance yet, right? Not everyone got asked. Well, except for all her siblings…and cousins….even the weird ram who sat in the back of her math class and shouted out offensive jokes had a homecoming date. And he was terrible.
So what did that say about her?
Finding herself no longer hungry, Judy frowned and crumpled up her paper lunch bag, making sure to drop it in the recycling bin as she left the cafeteria quickly.
You don't need to go to homecoming, she assured herself as she maneuvered through the crowded hall. She was too focused on studying and becoming a police officer. Why should she waste time with poofy dresses and dancing in some sweaty gym when she could be memorizing the constitutional amendments? Or practicing reading suspects their rights?
And yet, as her gaze flitted to all the couples walking paw-in-paw, crooning over each other, posting selfies of kissing each other, cuddling in the hallways together…
She had never really thought about relationships and love and all that — when her sisters were drooling over the cute rabbit down the block, she'd been busy thinking about cop cars and trials and investigations. But high school had proven to be difficult. Everyone seemed obsessed with who was with who and she was frankly sick of it.
And yet, deep, deep, down…she couldn't help but feel like she was missing out. Like going to the dance with someone…maybe…possibly…could be fun.
"Oh, Judy," she sighed under her breath, stopping at her locker and fiddling with the lock, "don't be such a dumb bunny."
"Hiya, Fluff!" A voice greeted suddenly. She looked up to see Nick smirking at her as he fell back and leaned on the locker beside her. "How's it hangin'?"
Judy groaned. She was already having a less-than-perfect day, the last thing she needed was Nick, the absolute most frustratingly annoying mammal in the world, nagging her. "Go away."
Nick placed a paw over his heart as she opened her locker door. "So harsh for such a small bunny! You're breaking my heart, sweetheart."
The bunny rolled her eyes. "What do you want Nick?"
"Just making conversation," He shrugged, examining the claws of his left paw, "You looked upset."
"I'm fine."
"Your ears are droopy, and I'm pretty sure I saw you throw away an entire bag of carrots."
She removed her Chemistry textbook from her bag and set it in her locker. "What, are you stalking me now?"
He snorted. "You wish, Fluff. I just happened to be in the cafeteria the same time you were."
"Convenient. I guess you saw Jackson and Elaina then?"
"I think it was kinda hard not to. The guy literally stood up on a table, in front of the entire room, and shouted for everyone to be quiet. Still not as bad as Sam last week, when he pulled out that speaker and started playing 'What Makes You Beautiful,' but it was pretty close. Either way, he wasn't subtle, like, at all."
Judy gave a huff of a laugh and shook her head. "I guess not."
She could feel Nick's eyes examining her, but she kept her gaze on the contents of her locker, not really searching for anything. It didn't help that the fox was being incredibly distracting. She could feel the end of Nick's tail flicking against her leg, smell the stupid firewood smoke musk he always wore, and sense the weird charge in the air. He was so much different than her, she'd heard all about his adventures in delinquency from all her friends. And yet, whenever they were together, it felt like the shaking force between two opposite magnets, a force trying to be controlled, to be stopped from coming together.
"So, you into that kinda thing?" Nick asked.
She jumped a little, paranoid for a moment that Nick could read her thoughts. "W-what?"
"Homecoming," he smirked, "not drugs or something, if that's what you're thinking."
"That wasn't what I was thinking!" Judy insisted, finally turning her head to look at him. Her gaze met his playful emerald one, and she found herself slightly entranced.
Frustrating, she kept repeating her in head, Annoying, unbearable, cocky, snarky —
Admittedly attractive.
"I don't know," Judy continued in response to his question, "I haven't really thought about it."
He raised an eyebrow. "Really."
"Really," she lied.
"So no one's asked you yet?"
She considered lying again, but by the way he was grinning at her, she was pretty sure he'd caught onto the last lie already. "Nope," she admitted, before quickly adding, "but it's fine! I didn't really want to go anyway, it looked really…cheesy."
"Aw, c'mon. I thought you bunnies ate that stuff up."
She raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Like, every bunny in school has a date, is what I mean."
Judy nearly flinched at the familiar sting of jealously and loneliness. "Well, I guess no one wants to go with me," she said dryly, grabbing her History and English textbooks. She turned her back towards Nick as she shut her locker door and turned to walk away from him.
She expected him to mock her, to laugh and say something like, "Obviously, Fluff," or, "Who would, Carrots?" Something snarky, anything.
Instead—
"Well, you know, we could go together."
He said it quickly, conversationally, and without a hint of hesitation. The question slid out and hung in the air, causing Judy to freeze in her tracks, back still turned.
Go together? As in a date? As in, Nicholas Wilde liked her?
She hated herself for blushing and even worse, smiling.
"Are you…asking me out?" She asked slowly, turning to look at him with a disbelieving smile. "Like, on a date?"
He rolled his eyes. "Keep it in your pants, Fluff. I'm simply taking pity on a lowly bunny like yourself. I figured someone so adorable shouldn't be left alone on homecoming night."
Judy snorted. "How noble of you."
"Just doing my part," he assured her, walking closer to her, paws resting in the pockets of his faded jeans.
She folded her arms over her chest, pressing the books she held over her fluttering heart. "Do you even own a tux, Wilde?"
He shrugged. "Do you even own a dress, Hopps?"
She blushed harder. "Touché…"
"So? Do I have a yes?" Nick asked, voice tinged with just a hint of eagerness.
Going to homecoming with Nick. Dancing with Nick. Taking selfies with Nick. Holding paws with Nick. Kissing Nick?
She felt her toes curl and her ears grow hot at the last thought. She was probably getting ahead of herself, but if she was going to be honest, the idea was a little more than merely intriguing…
"I suppose," she said casually, shrugging her shoulders with an indifference that didn't convey the way her insides were flipping right now. "If you promise to be a gentlefox."
"I'll see what I can do," Nick said wryly, giving her a playful nudge.
"Then I guess it's a date," Judy smiled, mouth sweetening on the last word. A date. Her tongue flitted across the word and she couldn't help but beam at him.
"Yeah…" Nick hesitated, scratched at the underside of his muzzle. "I know this isn't some grand promposal like our buddy Jackson back there, but —""
"It's better," Judy finished for him. And it was true. Standing in some random hallway, leaning up against the washed-out blue lockers, breathing in his musk, feeling his tail swish against her legs, leaning slightly closer, tingling with that magnetic charge —
It was far more exciting than showboat flowers or a One Purrection song in some dingy cafeteria.
They held a mutual smile for a moment before Nick pulled back with a cough, seemingly collecting himself.
"So…see ya' Saturday night then?" Nick asked, starting to back away with a hopeful smile. Cheese and crackers, he looked adorable when he really smiled.
Judy nodded eagerly, not meaning to seem so excited. "Y-yeah!" She insisted, brushing her ears down with a paw, "see you then!"
Nick kept backing away, gaze still on hers, "You won't ditch and screw me over, right?"
"No!" Judy insisted sincerely, "I would never screw you!"
He fought back a laugh, "What was that, darlin'?"
She rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant."
"So does that mean screwing is completely off the table? Because if you wanted—"
Judy gave him a look.
He grinned toothily. "Right. Sorry." In the process of exiting, he backed right into a trash can and nearly fell backwards into it, saved only by his quick reflexes.
Judy burst into giggles, causing Nick's ears to fly straight up as he threw her an embarrassed smile. "Pretend you didn't see that, sweetheart."
Judy shrugged, fighting back laughter as her shoulders shook. "See what?"
He winked at her, and her heart skipped a beat. "Good bunny. I gotta reputation to keep up, ya' know? Can't have people knowing I'm tripping over trash cans because of a cute lil' bunny."
The bell for the end of the lunch period rang, and Judy shook her head. "See you Saturday, dumb fox."
Nick gave her one last wave before he slunk off, disappearing into the sea of students that rushed into the hall.
Dumb fox, Judy thought with a smile as she hurried to her history class, humming one of Gazelle's pop hits under her breath. He was an idiot sometimes, really, and yet she still was humming love songs and already planning out an itinerary for homecoming night.
So what did that say about her?
She took a seat in her classroom, set out her black, blue, and red pens in their proper order, opened her notebook to a fresh page.
It said that she was, possibly, probably, potentially crushing on a fox. On Nick Wilde, delinquent, smug, rebellious. That maybe, she just might have room for romance in her dreams. Room for a place to fall, for heather-gray t-shirts and frayed flannel, for firewood musk and soft red fur, for snarky jokes and playful banter.
So she took a breath, steadied herself, and let the magnetic electricity grow.