It was a fairly normal Monday morning at Mrs. Clawson's Kindergarten class. "Alright class, simmer down." Mrs. Clawson said to her class. "Now, we have a new student today. He's a horse, say hello George." She said as she presented a horse colt. He just nervously waved a hoof. "His family is new to the country. So guess who's going to show him around?" Mrs. Clawson said she shot a look at Pandora.
Pandora's eyes shifted before she grabbed a book, trying to hide her face. "Oh look, there hopping on pop. I know what Uncle Finnick said when I tried that... mom put out a swear jar after that incident."
"You're not fooling anyone kiddo. Just let George sit down with you and Joshua. Go on, they're right there." Mrs. Clawson as she guided George to Pandora and Joshua's table.
"Oh... good, so... what country are you from?" Pandora said, attempting to make conversation with the young horse. He didn't say anything, he just began drawing. "Ah you're... you're an artist. I'm pretty good at art. Watch this." Pandora said as she quickly made a finger paint recreation of the Meowna Lisa. George said nothing and just glared in annoyance.
This went on with Pandora trying to get George to talk to her, throughout recess, lunch break, and through naptime. By the end of the day, George was breathing in aggravation. Clearly annoyed with the hybrid's prodding questions, but for whatever reason, this strange mammal was not taking silence as answer enough that he wanted to be left alone.
By the time school was its last half-hour. George was exhausted, thanks in no small part to Pandora's pestering. "I mean, I'm sorry if I'm being annoying. It's just that you haven't said a word all-"
"ZAMKNIJ SIE!" George angrily brayed... in Polish, and lunged at Pandora.
"WHOA!" Mrs. Clawson said as she restrained the foal. "We do not attack people!" She said as she tried to keep George from hurting anyone else.
"Mrs. Clawson... do you know which country he's from?" Pandora asked, quickly recovering from the shock of George.
"I think it was Poland... there are a lot of countries that end with land on that continent. Weirdly, I can only remember the ones that don't- STOP SQUIRMING!" Mrs. Clawson said as George struggled in her paws.
"So... from what I can see. He doesn't speak, or otherwise, understand English! That's why he's been quiet! And he's so irritable! Mrs. Clawson, can I use your smartphone please?" Pandora asked.
"Only because I like encouraging good manners!" Mrs. Clawson said Pandora wasted no time in getting Mrs. Clawson's phone.
"Okay, I managed to get a program that can repeat anything I say into Polish," Pandora said as she used the program to apologize to George. Eventually, he calmed down and heard her out.
"What exactly did you say to him?" Mrs. Clawson said.
"I apologized for bothering him all day, and offered to teach him English," Pandora explained.
"That's... a bit much for a five-year-old isn't it?" Mrs. Clawson asked.
"Well of course it is! But how hard could it really be?" Pandora said.
Later that night, Pandora was on the computer. And pulling on her ears in frustration. "Come on... why am I not getting any of this?!" Pandora muttered to herself.
"Pandora, dinner's ready and... and what is this?" Judy asked as she looked over her daughter's shoulder. "Why are you on Dingolingo . com, and why are you trying to learn Polish?" Judy asked, looking bewildered.
"It's a long story. But there's a new kid in my class... and he can ONLY speak Polish as far as I can tell. So... I offered to teach him some English. But learning a new language is proving to be A LOT harder than I thought it would be for me." Pandora said.
"Well... that's very thoughtful of you. But wouldn't he be learning English on his own anyway?" Judy asked.
"That... that never occurred to me, but I promised him that I would do this! I had pestered him all day and... well to make a long story short. He temporally went insane and had to be put into time out. So I owe him for that." Pandora said, Judy just looked bewildered.
"How... how much have you actually learned?" Judy asked.
"Enough to ask where the bathroom is, order something off of a menu, ask where the train or bus station is, and some rather... crude insults, but not enough to have a coherent and intelligent conversation with someone in the language," Pandora said.
"Well... dinner is ready," Judy said.
"I could use a break anyway." Pandora relented as she got down from the chair.
The following Monday, Pandora sat down with Joshua Otterton, followed by George joining them. "H-Hello, is a good morning? Yes?" George said, with butchered English grammar.
"Since when did you speak our language?" Asked Joshua, Pandora just looked flabbergasted.
"I can speak English... only real trouble I have, is writing in language," George said.
"Is that why we haven't seen you since last Monday? We all thought that you moved away after what happened with you and Pandora." Joshua said.
"Mother and Father were very upset with me over incident. I was merely silent for entire day. Because I was shy... and I lashed at pestering... what is species anyway?" George said, seemingly ignoring that Pandora's eye had been twitching the entire time he had been talking.
"I... am... A HYBRID." Pandora said through gritted teeth.
"But hybrid of what?" George asked obliviously.
"Her daddy and mommy are a fox and a bunny," Joshua said.
"Really? That sounds interesting! Please tell me more!" George asked.
"Just excuse me for a moment," Pandora said as she walked away from the table. This followed by her screaming into a pillow.
"What is wrong? Was it something I said?" George asked.
"Oh... I think she spent the last week learning your language and wanted to teach YOU our language." Joshua explained.
"And there is much I do not know! I would very much appreciate... how you say? 'Turtling'?" George asked.
"I think that's something you do in a video game," Joshua said.
"You might... you might be thinking of 'tutelage'. It means that you get personal teaching from someone. In this instance... it would probably be me. How much English DO you actually know?" Pandora said after she had finished screaming into the pillow.
"Enough to get by... I believe at least. There are many words I do not yet understand. For example... what is 'booze' and how does it relate to ghosts?" George asked.
"It's a spirit..." Pandora said and started laughing.
"And how is question funny?" George asked.
"Because you didn't mean to be funny!" Pandora chuckled.
"So... will you be teaching me?-"
"Yes! I will! I spent all of last week learning Polish! So you're going to learn some English... and buddy. When I'm done with you, oh you're going to thank me!" Pandora said with a crazed look on her face.
"Wspanialy! When shall we start?" George said, blissfully unaware that Pandora was going to make the attempt to make the foals life a wide-awake nightmare... which as the days passed proved to be fruitless on Pandora's part. As George took to the study's Pandora forced on him like a duck to water. Completely oblivious that Pandora wanted to break him, and get a proper apology out of him.
"George, I want you to say that you're sorry for your behavior on your first day," Pandora said flatly one day.
"Excuse me?" George said, his English having improved since his tutoring had started.
"We all assumed that you couldn't speak English. THAT was why I even offered to teach you in the first place. But instead of just saying something like, 'please leave me alone', or something else that day. I wouldn't have wasted a whole week learning Polish, just to teach you English!" Pandora said in concealed irritation.
"Then why keep your promise AFTER you learned that I spoke both?" George asked.
"My parents always made a point of keeping promises! So here I am... teaching you a language you already know the basics of anyway! Now I'm spending every spare moment NOT with Mrs. Samuel's robotics lessons. Teaching you-"
"Pandora... przepraszam... I am sorry for my behavior. If there is any way to make amends. You need only say." George said earnestly.
"Oh... well apology excepted. Now, you want to do something that's actually fun?" Pandora said in relief.
"Oh absolutely, I don't even know when I'll use some of these words anyway! I mean most of these I don't even know in Polish!" George said.
After this turn of events, George became friends with Joshua and Pandora.