Nick was in the middle of math class as the professor was going on about an algebra lesson but he wasn't paying attention instead his thoughts dwelled to Judy as they would be meeting up after school to go that spray paint store where the bottle came from. After they told their principals what they found yesterday afternoon they looked so relief and happy but also advised them to be careful.
When class got over, he and Finnick who had been sitting next to him started heading to lunch. But as they were in the cafeteria line, Finnick noticed the taller fox was still looking love-struck like he did in class. When they had sat at their usual table with Gideon and Ben, Finnick said.
"Well, I know what to get you for Clawsmas this year."
"Oh, yeah? What?" Nick started eating from his bug-filled soup.
"Condoms."
Nick gagged on the soup and was coughing violently that Ben quickly got up to pat his back hard.
Gideon exclaimed, "What in the heck, Fin?! Why in the world would you give him that as a present?!"
The fennec pointed as Nick finally stopped coughing, "Isn't it obvious? Him and Hopps are finally moving on in their relationship, at this rate he's going to need some protection to keep her from getting pregnant…"
Nick was staring at his friend in bewilderment.
Fin shrugged, "Just saying."
Nick scowled, "Okay, one, Judy would never go for that. Two, we're in the middle of our schooling. And three, you are nuts!"
"Hey, I'm calling it as I see it. You're swooning all over the place right now, that it wouldn't surprise me if you landed in-"
"Annnd I now officially lost my appetite." Nick shoved his tray away from him.
Gideon stated, "That's why you don't discuss sex at a lunch table."
Ben gave a, "Hm-mm!"
"Ugh! Not Finnick too!" Judy's ears went red after Nick told her about his pal giving him 'the talk' as they walked down the street.
"Too?" his brow furrowed.
She sighed, "Shortly, after you made the truce, it got Fru so excited that she thought we would get married and have kits that were boxes or funnies as she said.
"Did she now…?" he smirked, feeling much better about this now.
Judy was still blushing, "Not that I think having sex is a bad thing, but I prefer to wait until marriage so that it's with the right mammal."
He smiled at that, "Very wise."
"Of course…" she glanced at him in a loving way, "I would like to see if you're that right mammal…"
He stopped in shock as she looked back in concern.
Shoot… maybe that was bit much… But I couldn't help it, it just came right out. All day all I could think about was him… Remembering how in class she was doodling hearts in her notebook and was writing the initials: JH + NW in them.
Nick had gotten out of his shock and was giving a devilishly grin, "Dang, Carrots. Looks like I'm going to have to accept Finnick's Clawsmas present after all."
Her face went bright red along with her ears.
He chuckled and moved on while leaving her stunned until she got out of it and caught up to him as he stopped in front of the store where the spray bottle came from.
Getting back to the business at hand, Judy put aside Nick's suggestive comment for the moment and opened the door. They went straight to the counter where a female zebra with a purple dye job in the white portion of her mane and wore one outlandish earring was reading a magazine not noticing them until Judy called out.
"Um, hi."
The zebra looked and said in a bored tone, "Yeah, what can I do for you?"
Judy took out the bottle and just as Nick guessed correctly there were no prints on it so they were force to come here to see if the store had records of who brought it. She asked, "Can you tell us if anyone bought this can?"
The zebra eyed the can and stated, "A lot of animals buy our spray paint."
Nick frowned, "Well can you tell us if you remember who bought this brand of spray paint?"
"I couldn't." and she went back to her magazine.
Judy politely said, "Excuse me, but don't you have a record of purchases you made for the last few months?"
"No." she affirmed while keeping her face in the magazine.
The duo exchanged looks before going out.
"Well, that was pointless." said Nick.
"Dead end. We're back where we started."
"Whoever this vandal is, they did a great job covering their tracks. Buying spray paint from a store that doesn't keep record of its purchases so even if the bottle was found they don't have to worry about someone finding the buyer."
Judy muttered, "Genius. Absolute genius…"
"And aggravating. I hate it when someone's smarter than me…" he slowly gave a smirk to the bunny.
She smirked back, "Well, someone's got to keep you in line so you don't get into too much trouble…"
"If you want to go steady, Carrots, all you have to do is say so."
"Hmmm… Not yet."
"Why? What are you waiting for?"
But Judy just started humming and hopped away leaving him speechless before he chased after her. "Carrots! You get back here and tell me!"
He chased her all the way back to the academies, where she quickly got to the All-Girls' entrance and gave him a quick wink before going in.
He had a confused look on his face before he shook his head in amusement.
Whatever you're up to Carrots, it better be good…
It was the next day as Judy was sitting in class with the rest of her friends, it was the one class they had together. English. Their professor was usually an elderly female armadillo but today a sturdy male tiger in a pressed suit walked in instead. He walked pass some girls whose breath been taken away by the sight of him. Even Judy felt a slight attraction and noticed Fru, Giselle, and even Dawn-even though she tried to hide it but was failing-were staring at him adoringly.
Once he was in front of the room the tiger made a bow, "Good afternoon, ladies. My name is Mr. Stripe and I will be substituting for Mrs. Hardshell for the rest of the week as Mrs. Hardshell is currently ill but she gave me her study plans of what you were going to learn next which is Shakesbeare's Romeo and Juliet."
That got the girls excited.
"And I figure the best way to understand Shakesbeare's famous play if we act out some scenes while doing them outside."
Dawn raised her hoof.
"Yes, Miss Bellwether is it? The Headmistress's daughter?"
Dawn slightly blushed before replying, "Yes, I am, and I was just wondering why you think going outside helps us understand Shakesbeare." she nervously chuckled, "Not that I am questioning your methods, I'm sure you have your reasons and… I'll stop talking now." she felt like crawling under her desk while Judy gave a sympathy look.
But Mr. Stripe was smiling, "That's actually a very good question, Miss Bellwether."
"It is?" Dawn looked up in surprise.
"Yes. And I'll be sure to tell your mother you're very attentive in class."
"Well, thank you!" she smiled brightly and a few girls were scowling at her for receiving a compliment while her friends were happy for her.
"To answer your question, I believe the outdoors offers us freedom to express ourselves and since Romeo and Juliet express their love to each other it helps. Now if everyone will walk out in an orderly fashion…"
But the girls rushed out of there eager to get on with the lesson.
Once they were outside and gathered in a circle Mr. Stripe said, "Now, we need a Nurse, Lady Catulet, and a Juliet." he saw Dawn was sitting next to Judy and Fru-Fru, "How about you be Lady Catulet, Miss Bellwether, and your friends, Miss…"
"Big." smiled the shrew.
"Miss Big, can be the Nurse and Miss…"
"Hopps, sir." Judy beamed.
"Very good, Miss Hopps can be Juliet. Now you three can come in the circle and start doing the scene of Lady Catulet telling the Nurse and her daughter she has a suitor in Paris."
The trio got out their books and started.
Dawn said, "Nurse, where is my daughter?"
Fru spoke, "Now, by my maidenhead, where is this girl?"
Judy said, "How now! Who calls?"
Fru said, "Your mother."
Judy stated, "Madam, what is your will?"
They kept on reading until Fru said, "I might live to see thee married once."
Dawn declared, "Marry is the very theme I came to talk of. Tell me daughter Juliet, how stands your disposition to be married."
Judy replied, "It is an honor that I dream not of."
"Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you are made already mothers. The valiant Paris seeks you for his love."
Fru said, "Why he's a mammal of wax."
Dawn continued, "This night you shall behold him at our feast. Read o'er the volume of young Paris's face and find delight writ there. So shall you share all that he doth possess, by having him, making yourself no less."
Fru said the next line, "Nay, bigger females grow by males."
Dawn read, "Can you like of Paris's love?"
Judy responded, "I'll look to like."
"Excellent!" Mr. Stripe clapped and everyone followed. "Good job, ladies. Now we should move to another scene with the three leading lady roles and have another group take over."
There were groans and Amanda-a panther- said, "Does this mean we can't do the balcony scene?"
"Well, it would be quite hard to do it without a Romeo."
"You could be Romeo, Mr. Stripe!" Katilyn the otter spoke up.
The other girls agreed excitedly with her.
"Ladies, I am quite flattered but…"
"Please…?" beg the choir of girls.
He sighed humorously, "Very well. Miss Hopps, would you please help me out?"
Judy could feel herself going warm and timidly said, "Me?" then her voice grew, "I mean, of course, Mr. Stripe."
Nick was starting to doze off in his History class when he stared out the window to see that next door was Judy among her classmates as they sat in a circle with a handsome looking tiger talking to them. He furrowed at this and felt a twinge of fear as he could see the tiger talking to Carrots and it looked like she was swooning over him.
He quickly turned back to the professor that was a hippo and raised his paw.
"Yes, Mr. Wilde?"
"Sir, can I go to the bathroom?"
The hippo sighed, "You get fifteen minutes, if you're not back by then, its detention."
"Gotcha." and he rushed out of there unaware of Bogo and Lionheart exchanging smirks.
He held his paw out and set her up on the fountain's stone base so she would have some leverage for a balcony as he kneeled down to face her.
"What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun… O, it is my love! O that she knew she were!"
As he said this the girls sighed tenderly.
"O, Romeo, Romeo… Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Be but sworn my love and I'll no longer be a Catulet!"
"Shall I hear more?"
"'Tis but thy name that is my enemy. What's Mouseague? A rose by any other word would smell sweet. Without thy name, which is no part of thee, take all myself. What man art thou screened in night?"
"My name, dear saint is to myself because it is an enemy to thee."
"I know the sound. Art thou not Romeo and a Mouseague?"
"Neither if either thee dislike."
"The place is death. If any of my kinsmen find thee here."
"Thy kinsmen are no stop to me."
"They will murder thee."
"There no more peril in thine eye than twenty of their swords. The mask of night on my face, else would a blush bepaint my cheek for that which thou hast heard me speak tonight. Thou over head'st my true love passion which the dark night hath so discovered."
The girls sighed again and Judy couldn't blame them, Mr. Stripe was doing a great job impersonating Romeo, in fact, he hardly had to look at the book to say the lines! The bunny felt herself swooning over the words while a fox had been carefully watching over the wall and was feeling a growing knot in his stomach.
Judy and Mr. Stripe kept with the lines until they had reached the end with Judy saying, "Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say good night till it be morrow."
"Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast. Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest." he faced the girls, "And scene."
Once more they sighed.
"Thank you, Miss Hopps. You know, you make a wonderful Juliet."
Judy blushed, "Why thank you, sir…"
The knot in Nick's stomach grew and he knew he had to work fast to woo Carrots before she got distracted by this suave teacher. Remembering the time, he quickly went back to his class with a few minutes to spare, but once he got there, the professor scowled and stated.
"Detention, Mr. Wilde."
"What?! But I got back before the fifteen minutes were up!"
"That's not what the clock says."
He looked at the school clock and gapped seeing how it made it seemed he was late by five extra minutes! Then his eye caught a smirking Leodore and Bogo before going back to their books. Nick gnashed his teeth, Bogo being the tallest obviously reached for the clock and turned the hand forward while the professor wasn't looking.
No doubt this is their long-awaited revenge…
He sulked to his seat after the teacher gave his detention slip. This was just not his day.