Author's Note: No real need to say anything here other than to follow and favorite if you enjoy. Also don't hesitate to review.

***DISCLAIMER: I own no part of Zootopia***

Chapter 7: Don't Test Me

"Hey Luke"

"Yeah?" Luke said with his mouth stuffed with a bagel. He hadn't had anything substantial since he arrived in Zootopia so he grabbed a big breakfast on the way to the ZPD.

"You got cream cheese on your muzzle" Nick pointed to a spot on himself to show where Luke should check.

"Thanks", Luke said as he wiped it away with a napkin. "I could come up with a joke about what just happened but it would be way too cheesy." Luke said with that same toothy grin of his as he waited for the expected follow up.

"Oh lord." Judy rolled her eyes as the car stopped at a red light.

"Have mercy on our souls. We have a pun-master in our presence" Nick said as he looked back at Luke from the passenger's seat with a grin. Although this was the usual reaction toward one of Luke's puns, Luke definitely felt that the response was certainly more in jest than the response of some of his peers at school. As the car parked in the lot at the ZPD, the newly formed trio walked into the ZPD all together. They passed the front desk to see that Clawhauser was nowhere to be found.

"That's weird, Clawhauser is always here to greet us in the morning", Judy said.

"I have an idea as to where he is." Nick said as he picked up a note on the desk and read it out loud; "'I've gone on a doughnut run. Be back at 7:00 AM- Officer Clawhauser." The group chuckled as Nick put the note back down on the desk. The three walked to Nick and Judy's office space but were interrupted as they heard a voice behind them.

"Wilde! Hopps!"

The three turned around to see a large tiger running after them.

"How you doing Fangmeyer?" Nick asked.

"Fine but I don't know if you guys will be. Chief Bogo wants to see you in his office." Fangmeyer replied.

"Oh he does? We'll be right there. Thanks Fangmeyer!" Judy said as they changed their course for Chief Bogo's office.

"Why does he want to see us?" Judy asked Nick as she widened her eyes with anxiety.

"Beats me Carrots but we'll find out soon enough", Nick said calmly in order to ease Judy's anxiety. But the truth was that he was as nervous as Judy. It wasn't often that Bogo called animals into his office but when he did the news was almost never good.

The three sat down outside his office while they waited. Judy nervously tapped her foot on the linoleum floor while Nick tapped his claws along the wooden arm of the chair. Luke sat while staring into space before breaking the unnerving silence.

"Should I be nervous?"

"No! Of course not! He's not your boss", Judy assured him.

"Well Carrots, talking with Bogo isn't exactly all sunshine and rainbows. More like lightning and torrential downpours. He's an intimidating fella", Nick responded.

"Thanks Nick, you're always a help." Judy said with a death-glare.

"Alright it can't be that-", Luke was interrupted by the door of Chief Bogo's office swinging open. Luke gazed up at the massive cape buffalo's stone-cold expression and immediately saw what Nick meant.

"Wilde, Hopps. Who is this?" Bogo gestured to Luke who remained seated.

Judy spoke up, "This is Luke Barrett. We're his guardians because he's alone in Zootopia. He was with his family on a trip but then-".

"They got in a car crash. Luke here was the only survivor. He had no family nor relatives so we took him into our household." Nick quickly interjected while Judy had a mixture of both confusion and anger on her face. Nick looked over at Luke and noticed tears streaming down his face. Nick walked over and pulled Luke in a tight embrace while quietly whispering to him:

"Nice job kid."

As they pulled away from each other, Luke wiped away his tears and gave a couple sniffles for good measure. Chief Bogo was at a loss for words. Spending most of his time in a building full of strong-built cops, he wasn't used to animals showing their emotions like this.

"I- uh- I'm sorry." Bogo stammered, "Wilde, Hopps. I need you in my office please. Luke if you could just wait out there that would be great. This won't be too long."

"O-okay" Luke said shakily as he added one more sniff.

Bogo was quick to usher the two officers into the room, wanting to get away from the cloud of emotion brewing in the lobby as fast as possible. Nick and Judy sat down as Bogo began to speak.

"I called you in to let you know that shorter shifts for you two are to be expected for the next couple weeks." Bogo informed them.

"Sir, is this a punishment for something?" Judy asked.

"No, no. Many of our cases are stalled. Forensics is backed up due to a limited number of staff. Since you two submitted your most recent case well behind others it is likely that you will not have much to work on around here besides reports and to go on patrol. I still want you two to show up every day but you're going to have half shifts until further notice." Bogo stated. Nick opened his mouth to speak but Bogo knew exactly what he was going to say.

"No Wilde, there is no reduction in pay seeing as this is not your fault. Any further questions?"

"No sir." Judy said punctually.

"Excellent. Dismissed!" Bogo stated as Nick and Judy quickly left his office.

Luke hopped up from the chair as Nick and Judy strode out of Bogo's office. Nick ran over to Luke and used his paw to ruff up the fur on Luke's head.

"Kid, where did you learn to cry on queue like that?" Nick said in astonishment.

"I taught myself how to a couple years back. It's come to be very useful in school when a teacher gets mad at me because nothing makes them feel more guilty than realizing that they've made a kid cry." Luke said with a smirk.

"That was some grade-A hustling right there Luke. I've never seen Bogo look so flustered before. That was awesome!" Nick said as he patted Luke on the back.

"Nick, don't encourage him! I just got rid of you as a con-mammal and we do not need another one that I have to fix. I do not want Luke to become your literal 'partner in crime'" Judy pouted.

"C'mon Carrots. Just because I'm not a con-mammal anymore doesn't mean I don't enjoy practicing my skills from time to time. It's important that Luke knows how to be quick on his paws and to use messy situations to his advantage. Within reason of course." Nick replied.

"I just don't understand why we directly lied to our boss like that about Luke. Wait not 'we', you! I was telling the truth about Luke!" Judy said angrily.

"Exactly Carrots! We can't just be spreading the truth about Luke like its nothing! Sure, we accepted Luke and would do anything to protect him", Nick looked over at Luke who had a small smile in response to what he just heard. "Not everyone would be so accepting though Carrots! People would also be terrified if they found out that a different species was entering into the world of Zootopia from a place of primitive mammals. We do not want a massive investigation of this!"

"I guess you're right." Judy admitted. "Nice hustle Luke", she smiled.

The remainder of the shift seemed to drag for the three of them. Nick and Judy procrastinated on their reports while Luke sat in a swivel chair, spinning 100 times. After finishing this brainless activity, Luke was informed by Nick that the ZPD has a gym. Without hesitation, Luke headed over to it, borrowing a pair of gym clothes from Nick. Luke ran a couple miles on the treadmill as well as took an interest in the sparring ring for the officers. He sparred with a couple wolves and managed to win against one before seeing stars after receiving a blow from the second who was significantly larger than him. After he regained consciousness, he received some pats of the back and applause from observing officers, as it was quite impressive that he managed to knockout one let alone make it pretty far with the second.

After showering and changing, Luke returned to Nick and Judy's office as the clock read 1:00 PM, the time Nick and Judy said their shift would end. As they walked out of the ZPD, Nick started up a conversation to get themselves awake again after a boring shift.

"So, Luke, heard you knocked out officer Wolford in the sparring arena. That's quite a feat."

"Yeah, I did", Luke said, "I took martial arts for 8 years but I stopped when a couple years ago. I still have some moves though."

"Sounds like it!" Judy exclaimed. "Wolford was on a 5 match unbeaten streak in the sparring arena. He was getting a tad bit boastful but this should show him not to get too proud of himself."

"So Luke, are you excited to go shopping for clothes?" Nick said with a very strained smile.

"Yeah… can't wait" Luke said with a hint of agony in his voice as Judy parked in the lot of "Abercrombie and Finch".

By the time Luke had finished shopping, he had such a great number of outfits that he wasn't sure he'd be able to fit them all in his dresser. He wasn't complaining though, Nick and Judy had been gracious enough to buy the clothes for him. He thanked them once again as the three of them hopped in the car.

"So it's about 2:30 Luke", Judy said, "I think we should head over to the school to take your placement test."

"Alright that sounds good." Luke said as they drove off.

A short while later, they arrived in front of a large, metal gate with a sign mounted on top that read "Zootopia Academy for Education: Every mammal striving for excellence." The building was very large. Luke was taken aback by its size, as he was accustomed to the smaller school setting. The three entered the main office, with Nick going to speak to the secretary.

"Hello, I'm here to bring Luke Barrett to his academic placement test", Nick told the secretary. She was a middle-aged otter who had slick brown fur.

"Oh yes!" She said, "Please follow me!"

They followed the otter to the end of a hallway where there was the open door to a classroom. A male hippo was sitting at a desk inside the classroom, which Luke could only assume to be the proctor.

"You nervous?" Judy asked.

"Little bit." Luke replied.

"Don't be." Nick assured him, "The purpose of these placement tests is to assess where you stand at an intellectual level so you can be sorted into classes based on what will challenge you. No matter where you end up, it's for the best."

"Thanks, wish me luck", Luke said as he walked into the room.

"Good luck!" Nick and Judy called after Luke as the door closed behind him.

"And now we wait" said Nick as he and Judy sat down

"How'd it go?" Judy asked as Luke walked out of the classroom.

"I personally didn't find it that hard. I was a little thrown off by questions about Zootopian history but I think I did alright. I know I nailed the math, science, and language sections." Luke replied.

"That's good!" She replied. "We should get our result within the hour and we'll see where you'll be placed."

Two hours had passed and there was no sign of the exam results. Luke started to get anxious.

"Shouldn't the results have come out an hour ago?" Luke asked worriedly. "What could be taking them so long?"

"It probably won't be that much longer", Nick tried to assure Luke but he was also anxious. Such long delays, based on his experiences, were never promising.

The door of the classroom finally opened as the hippo gestured for them to come in. They all sat down as the hippo began to speak.

"I'm sorry for the delay, but there is quite a reason behind it. I'll just put it right out there. Luke, you cannot be placed."

"Did I really do that badly?" Luke asked in shock. He didn't know what to even think anymore. He prided himself on being an academic student but he felt as if this was invalidated. He opened his mouth to speak again but the proctor noticed his distressed look and quickly butted in.

"No, it's the exact opposite in fact. You couldn't be placed because you out-tested the exam."

"I don't understand", Nick spoke for everyone when he said this.

"I mean he scored almost perfect on the exam besides a some errors in the history section. Everything else in math and science was flawless. We had content from all of the top level classes that we offer. The fact that he almost scored perfect on the placement test means that these classes won't challenge him. Sure he could still attend but I don't see what good it'll do other than to give the school more money given that he knows almost all the material. There would really be no point for him just to attend school for history class so maybe you could just teach him a bit on your own time." The proctor stated.

"Alright then, there's not much more to discuss then. Is there?" Judy asked as she looked at Luke and Nick. They both shook their heads. With that, the three of them walked out of the room in silence. Their minds still overwhelmed with disbelief.