"Wh-what in the?!" Judy jolted out of bed at the sound of the ear piercing alarm, instantly pulling her ears down in an attempt to mute its continuous holler. She gritted her teeth as the pitch of the alarm was quite literally painful. Having the fantastic hearing abilities of a bunny wasn't exactly advantageous in this scenario.
"What's going on?!" Bellwether jumped up with a shriek, searching chaotically over her desk for her glasses.
Despite the way the rabbit held down her ears it was no use, she was just as immune to the alarm as if they were uncovered. After releasing them, Judy picked up a distinct click sound overhead, followed by a harsh downpour of water coming from the ceiling sprinklers. Judy grunted and, in annoyance and a rush of blood pumping adrenaline, leapt forth to grab Bellwether's arm. "It's a fire, let's move!" she shouted, pulling the sheep towards the door and returning her paws over her ears as they bolted out of the room— only to find other mammals of all sizes in the hallway yelping and rushing to the nearest staircase with them.
The jet streams of icy cold water followed them along, even greeting them down the stairwell, soaking every girl scrambling to escape the dormitory building. Where was the fire coming from? A large armadillo slipped and tumbled over a fallen squirrel, a domino-effect which elicited a mad stampede. The unorganized scramble may have been prevented perhaps if a fire alarm drill was mentioned in the earlier hall meeting, but there was no use entertaining 'what ifs.' Being considerably agile and small, Judy managed to slip between large mammals and leap over the fallen casualties. Although the steps along the four-story flight of stairs were dripping and her skull was pounding with the sound of screams, she didn't let herself fall, gripping onto the rails and pushing herself up whenever her footing was off.
Breathless, she reached the lobby ground mostly unhindered despite a rapidly beating heart and shivering exterior. It seemed to the soaking wet bunny that the worst part of the building escape was over.
Until she skated across the lobby floor uncontrollably.
As suds of bubbly foam formed beneath her feet, she realized the lobby floor was coated in ropes of dish soap.
Judy yelped when she collided onto the floor near the unmanned front desk, wincing at the impact against her side. That was going to leave a bruise. Smoothly she recovered and pushed herself onto her feet, knees wobbling slightly as she kept her balance on the slippery surface.
Resounding shrieks behind her signaled the approach of the stampede of girls to the lobby. Judy held onto the front desk counter when her ears perked up, and turned rapidly with a raised paw. "Stop running! You'll slip, the floor's covered in…!" But her warning was no use, the alarm overshadowed her call as the other girls slipped and slid about the lobby haphazardly, some gripping onto lobby furniture while the lesser fortunate collapsed.
Bravely, the bunny skillfully skated over the slick floors and lent a helping paw to all the fallen mammals she could, including a half-asleep hippo, panicked lion, and wildly confused mice. Her altruistic tendencies always took over in emergencies like these. The mammals she managed to help thanked her repeatedly, and with some assisted coordination, Judy helped them to the main exit of the building with the rest of the occupants.
It was clear at this point that this wasn't a typical fire drill but instead some kind of deliberate act.
Despite the lack of a threat of an actual fire, the blaring sirens were enough to encourage the residents to disband out of the building. Even without any helpful resistance against the floor several determined girls, Judy included, pushed the double glass doors of the main exit and finally barged outside.
An unexpected crowd was there to greet them all.
A fraternity.
"You've alllll been pranked, Alpha Preda style!" A large lion bellowed with paws on either side of his mouth before erupting in laughter, triggering a wave of laughs from the large group of male predators, large and small. Each wore matching maroon sweaters, watching the slew of girls panting, soaked, and struggling, all apparently for their personal amusement. Some were even recording the ordeal live on their phones for Furbook or Instagrowl.
It didn't take long for all of the residents to make it outside, only for them to catch onto the reason for their struggle as they witnessed the group of fraternity guys laughing their heads off. All the dorm girls including the resident assistants were dripping and covered in bubbles from the waist down, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Fuckin' good one aye, Wilde!" a polar bear praised, patting the familiar fox on the back, followed by a weasel who pounded his paw. An on looking hyena, arms crossed and leaning against a tree, chuckled to himself at the event unfolding.
"...and that, fellas," The red fox grinned wickedly, dangling a bottle of dish soap in one paw and a lighter in the other, "…is the fastest way to get a girl wet."
He smirked as his group hollered in response, the girls looking on incredulously.
"This fox got jokes!" A smaller fennec fox laughed with paws on his stomach, bent over and wiping a tear from his eye in his amusement.
A furious cheetah almost pounced at the crowd of filming frat guys, and would've definitely attacked if it weren't for her friends holding her back and calming her down with words of reason. Some of the girls stood like a deer in headlights in their embarrassment and shock, which influenced flustered resident assistants to bring the stunned girls back in. The majority returned inside as the alarms and sprinklers automatically shut off, bracing themselves for another journey across the soap trap. Judy however was in the minority, standing still as she concluded that the so-called friendly fox from before had played her for a fool. A familiar anger boiled in her, burning her face and tips of her ears.
"Fucking assholes!" Pepper shouted, flipping off the crowd before heading back in behind others who also glared at the predators and murmured profanities under their breaths.
"C'mon, let's get back inside," A trembling Bellwether vulnerably murmured to the rabbit still eyeing down the fraternity, who didn't seem to pay her any mind. "…J-Judy?"
Judy's paws were balled into fists so strongly her knuckles probably whitened beneath grey fur, her face twisted in a grimace as she slowly stomped towards the familiar fox wearing the wide grin just ahead. Bellwether gasped and tried to stop her, but hesitated, and instead watched on nervously beside a few remaining girls.
The frat watched the small bunny make her way in soaked pajamas with an amused curiosity, including Nick himself, who sat on a nearby outdoor picnic table with his legs spread and paws stuffed in his jacket pockets.
Bushy tail shivering and all, Judy stood directly in front of him at eye level, some of his friends still recording. The furious bunny could care less.
"You," she hissed, eyes narrowed. She wanted to wipe that charmingly stupid look off of his face. With her fists.
"Yes, darling?" He answered mockingly, his eyes freely wandering over her wet body with the intention to piss her off further, but she ignored it.
"You- you liar!" She stomped on the grass beneath her feet, so hard that the bottle of soap on the ground beside Nick's feet tumbled over. "You used me to pull this… this stupid prank for your dumb fraternity? On innocent freshman girls? What is wrong with you?"
He gave a blasé shrug.
"I'll have you know that you broke code 24C of the ZU student handbook, the one that states it is punishable to pull a fire alarm if there is no true emergency," the anger in her made her voice sound much more powerful than she looked, a surging confidence that the listening predators around her didn't expect in such a small animal, nevertheless a bunny. "You're in huge trouble, slick."
The predators around her were either amused or admittedly dumbfounded by her dominance. A peculiar aura of authority not normally attributed to prey was prevalent in her, that was for sure. The fox looked slightly impressed, and presented a smug, calm smile. "Actually, I'll have to correct you there- code 24C only explicitly applies to students that live on campus. I don't."
Her mouth went agape for a moment as she gathered a proper rebuttal. "An exception to that is if the university student snuck in to commit the offense! Also, there wasn't a probable cause for pulling the alarm!"
A semblance of seriousness appeared over the fox's features as he lifted his gaze from her matted fur and soaked clothes, which clung against her chest and stomach, to meet her fiery eyes. His eyes narrowed slightly, but he wouldn't lose his cool. "That's right," He nodded, pushing himself onto his feet so that he stood tall over the bunny, probably a maneuver to intimidate her. She responded by stepping closer to him to show him she was going to stand her ground although the primitive remnants of her brain were commanding her to flee. "But technically, you let me in. As your welcomed guest." Then he intentionally paused, his voice taking on a condescending tone as he stroked his chin. "Oh, wait- not as a guest. You helped me sneak in, so you broke a rule too."
Judy was livid. Her nose twitched furiously, her foot tapping away beneath her.
"Also for pulling the alarm— I guess I must have tripped," he spoke in a sarcastic tone and shrugged, his tone feigning innocence similar to the one he used to earn her trust. "Probable cause: a cause that is probable. Tripping in a hallway is certainly probable," he winked, and his friends laughed, even rooting him on. "You can't touch me, Carrots."
She grunted out loud, rattling her brain for a rebuttal she couldn't find. "You… you tricked me!"
"It's called a hustle, sweetheart," the fox taunted before high-fiving a few guys, all of them chuckling and following his lead as he turned and left the scene. Judy watched the posse head off, her head now hanging low. Tears burned in her eyes, threatening release, but she refused to let them fall even if it killed her.
Bellwether slowly assumed to her side with a frown, bringing a hand onto Judy's shoulder. "Judy…"
"It's all my fault," the bunny huffed, trying her best not sniffle. Sniffling always brought on the waterworks.
"You're one of the bravest mammals I know, Judy."
The bunny brought her paws up to wipe her eyes fast, shaking her head. "He outsmarted me. Made us look ridiculous, even got his dumb gang to film it all." She whined, thankful her fur was wet enough to conceal any sign of her overpowering emotions.
The sheep sighed deeply. "From now on… let's just stay away from those jerks. We've got more important stuff to worry about. Remember, I've always got your back, girl." Bellwether consoled. "C'mon. Let's head back upstairs and clean ourselves up," she led her by the paw back inside. Judy nodded in defeat, but she knew that it was definitely not the last time she'd see that fox.
She would make sure of that.
