By: Fire_of_1584
"Bye, Mom!" Aaron shouted as he hopped out of the car and headed towards the playground.
"Have a good day, sweetie!" the black bear called out. "Be safe!"
Aaron turned and waved, noting that she hadn't seemed so worried since when he had started Kindergarten two years earlier. He wasn't sure what danger he could be in at an elementary school, but he didn't want to disobey his mother, either. "I will!" he promised.
A minute later he was walking by the swings, looking for his best friend. He quickly spotted him in a group of small animals by the slides and ran over. "Hey, Conrad. What are you guys playing?" he asked the rhino calf.
The group turned to him, surprise on their faces. "Hey, Aaron," Conrad responded unenthusiastically. "Um… we were just about to start a game of tag."
"Sounds fun!" Aaron grinned at the other mammals; an elk, a camel, a pig, and a mountain goat. None of them smiled back, and most of them stared at their feet. Aaron stopped smiling.
"I, uh, think we were just going to play the five of us," Conrad explained lamely.
Aaron paused. "But we always play together, Conrad." The rhino sighed, but didn't say anything else. "Well, maybe he can play together after lunch?" he offered.
"Yeah, maybe," Conrad replied, but didn't sound very convincing.
"Okay," Aaron said softly, turning and walking away with his ears flat against his head.
Aaron sat alone on the swing, trying not to notice the group of mammals now laughing and having fun chasing each other around the playground. Finally the bell rung for class to begin, and he got off the swing and trudged inside.
Aaron sat at his desk in the second row with a very confused look on his face. At the front of the class was a deer, writing "Mr. Porter" on the whiteboard. Aaron waited for the deer to turn around, then raised his hand.
"Yes… Aaron?" Mr. Porter said, checking a piece of paper in his hand.
"What happened to Ms. Ursa? She isn't sick, is she?" Aaron loved his usual teacher. She was very nice and good at explaining things, and it probably helped that she was also a bear, although polar bears grew much taller than black bears.
Mr. Porter smiled, causing Aaron's frown to disappear. "Ms. Ursa is just fine. The school is just testing a new system that would allow substitute teachers like myself to get more experience. And… perhaps also make more students comfortable."
Aaron's head tilted to the side. That last bit didn't make much sense. Were some of the other students scared because Ms. Ursa was so tall?
"She'll be back though, right?" Kate, a giraffe to Aaron's right asked.
Mr. Porter hesitated. "I'm sure she'll be back very soon. Now, everyone please take out your math homework from Friday, please."
Aaron gobbled up his beetle patty and berry salad as quickly as he could and rushed out to the playground. He checked the swings, then the slides, and finally found Conrad at the courts around the foursquare area. He was with a different group of mammals this time. A moose was holding a ball and explaining the game to Conrad, Kate, and a hippo.
"Hey, guys!" Aaron said cheerfully, "mind if I join you?" The three kids turned to Conrad expectantly.
"We were actually hoping to play without rotations, so that we could learn the game faster. Sorry," he added.
Aaron frowned. What was going on? Did he do something wrong? Did Conrad not like him anymore? "Bu-but what if one of you gets tired? Or maybe I could just watch?"
The moose glared at him and stepped forward menacingly, causing Aaron to jumped back. "Why don't you go play with the other preds?" he said in an annoyed voice.
Aaron could feel his lower lip start to quiver. "W-what?!"
Pointing over to the corner of the playground where a couple wolves, a badger, and a lynx were sitting in the dirt, the moose yelled "Go away!"
Aaron looked over to Conrad, hoping his best friend would come to his defense. Instead the rhino turned towards to other two players and ignored him. Tears started to flow, and Aaron ran towards the corner before anyone could see him crying. He sat next to the others and sniffled as he wiped his eyes.
"You too, huh?" the female lynx muttered. Aaron just whimpered and nodded his head. "My name's Helen," she offered. "That's Jake and Becky," she pointed to the wolves, "and this is Pete," referring to the badger.
"I'm Aaron," he whispered. He didn't really feel like playing anymore, and by the dejected expressions on the others' faces, neither did they.
"Dad, what's a 'pred'?" Aaron finally asked while stirring his bugloaf around his plate, not eating much of his normally favorite food.
His parents looked at each other. "Well," his dad began, "'Pred' is short for 'predator'. That's what we are."
"And lynxes and wolves and badgers are preds, too?" Aaron asked.
His father nodded. "Thousands of years ago, some mammals ate other mammals for food." Aaron's eyes grew wide. His mother put her paw on her husband's and gave him a stern look. "Of course we don't anymore!" he quickly added, "but that's what makes some mammals 'predators' and other mammals 'prey'. Predators usually have sharper teeth and eat food with bugs in them, and prey animals only eat plants."
Aaron's mother turned to him. "Why do you ask, Aaron? Did… something happen at school?"
Aaron put down his fork and covered his eyes to hide the tears that were coming again. "Conrad doesn't want to play with me anymore." His small body shook as he tried to keep from sobbing. "And a moose told me to leave them alone and play with the other pred kids."
He heard a chair move as his mother came over and wrapped her arms around him. "There, there," she whispered. "It'll be okay. Hopefully this will just be a temporary thing and then everything will be back to normal, okay?" Aaron squeezed her as tight as he could. "C'mon, let's have some raspberry pie and then I'll go over your homework with you, okay?" She pulled back and wiped away Aaron's tears.
A small smile appeared on his face. "Okay. Thanks, Mom."
The next day, Aaron asked to be dropped off at school early. He waited by the parking lot, hoping that he could talk to Conrad before he got in a group with everyone else. When Conrad arrived, Aaron heard the rhino in the driver's seat warn "Remember what I told you," before glancing in his direction and driving off.
"Conrad! I know why you don't want to play with me anymore!" Aaron ran up to the rhino, who took a step back and held up his hooves defensively. "You're scared because predators used to attack prey animals, but we haven't done that for thousands of years! So you don't need to worry about me hurting you!" He grinned, certain that he had cleared everything up.
But Conrad just frowned. "It hasn't been thousands of years," he said. "My dad said predators are hurting prey mammals again. Yesterday a wolf went crazy and attacked a family of deer. They say predators are going 'savage' and acting like their ancestors did, hunting prey and trying to eat them."
Aaron's heart sank. "But I would never do that! I wouldn't go savage!"
"My dad said they don't know why it's happening. But it could happen to any predator." Conrad sighed. "That's why I can't play with you anymore."
Aaron didn't know what to say, and could only watch as his former best friend walked away to play with the other prey animals.
Aaron was no longer surprised to see Mr. Porter in class. It had been four days since he started subbing for Ms. Ursa, and after what his dad and Conrad had told him, he wasn't sure she would be coming back to teach them. The thought made him sad, but he was sad a lot lately. His family was too, although his mom tried really hard to put on a smile when he looked at her.
He walked to his desk and was surprised to find his name tag wasn't there.
"Students, we are going to try new seating arrangements today," Mr. Porter began. "I wanted to try moving the aisle from the edge of the class to directly in front of my desk, so that I can move back and forth quicker." He pointed at the isle which now separated a single row of desks from the others. "And I shuffled everyone so that you can meet new people and make new friends."
Aaron trudged over to the now isolated row and found his desk there. The aisle seemed much wider than a deer would need to walk through. And as the rest of the students found their new seats, he noticed that all the kids in his row had sharp teeth and claws. Helen's new seat was right behind his.
"What a surprise, I'm in the pred row," she snickered sarcastically in Aaron's ear. He hadn't liked her at first, but she was alright as he got to know her better. She tried to laugh at everything, which surprised him, as he couldn't find much to laugh at anymore.
After his talk with Conrad, Aaron started listening in on the news. He had to be careful about it, because his parents would immediately turn it off if they knew he was nearby. There had been another predator attack almost every other day, and they still didn't know what was causing it. They kept quoting a rabbit police officer who had apparently figured out that predators were going savage.
The next week there was another change to the classroom. Aaron's desk was gone.
"I'm so sorry for the constant changes!" Mr. Porter said cheerfully," but the school district just keeps coming up with fantastic ideas for improving the learning experience for all of our students. Since different animals have different learning styles, we will be dividing the class to try to better teach to those specific needs. Here are the names of the students which will be learning from Mr. Stevens," he gestured to an elephant waiting at the doorway looking in with a smile. Mr. Porter looked down at his clipboard and named the five predator students in the class, then stopped, putting down the clipboard. "Please go with Mr. Stevens to your new classroom."
Helen elbowed Aaron's side "What a coincidence!" She rolled her eyes and headed out the door. Aaron just sighed and followed her.
The new classroom had some students from the other second grade classes, as well as all the third grade classes, for a total of twenty-eight students. All of them were predators.
"Where's Pete?" Aaron whispered once they had all sat down.
Helen's ears lowered and she frowned, which was rare enough to alarm Aaron. "Pete's dad went savage a couple days ago," she said. "I don't know if his mom decided to have him stay home or if the school did."
Aaron sunk down in his chair. He remembered his mom saying that everything would be back to normal soon. He wondered how long "soon" could be.
The four predator kids sat down in their normal corner on the playground. Sometimes Helen managed to get them up and playing, but today was one of those mope-around days.
Suddenly a ball hit Helen the back of the head. "Ow!" she exclaimed and turned towards the courts. The moose calf who had told Aaron to go away was watching them and laughing. With a scowl on her face, Helen picked up the ball and pointedly marched over.
"Uh-oh," Aaron said. He knew Helen had a bit of a temper and didn't want to see her get in trouble.
"What's your problem?" he heard her shout. Most of the kids continued playing, but Helen had caught the attention of some of the students and even a couple teachers. Aaron took a few steps forward so he could hear the response and maybe step in if he had to.
"My problem?" the moose laughed before glaring back at her. "Is that monsters like YOU are still allowed here at school!" He stepped forward and shoved Helen roughly to the ground.
Helen crouched on all fours, hissed at the moose and pounced, tackling him to the ground. A loud trumpet filled the air, and Aaron felt the ground shake as Mr. Stevens sprinted toward the fight. Helen looked up to find the elephant towering over her and shrieked. She quickly stepped off the moose but didn't get any farther as Mr. Stevens put his trunk on her back and pressed her against the asphalt.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!" Helen cried.
Mr. Porter was next to the moose, helping him to his feet. "All students, hurry back to your classes!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. Students began to scamper back to the main entrance. He pointed to an adult moose teacher, "Call the ZPD!" he ordered.
Helen was bawling at this point, constantly apologizing and begging to be let go.
"Be gentle with her!" Mr. Porter urged the elephant.
"I am!" Mr. Stevens insisted.
Mr. Porter finally noticed Aaron standing there, paralyzed with shock. "Aaron, go to your class!"
With a start, Aaron turned around and ran for the entrance, stopping at the door to look back for a moment before heading inside.
"And someone call the girl's parents!" he heard just before the door closed.
Aaron was breathing heavily as he rushed into the classroom. The students were all up against the windows, peering out. "Let me through!" He was normally a soft-spoken bear, and the others seemed to recognize his desperation and gave him a spot where he could see the playground.
Helen was still being held down. The students watched in nervous silence for a few minutes until two police cars pulled up. A pair of rhinos exited the first vehicle, both carrying tranquilizers which caused the students in the predator classroom to gasp. The officers waited as a cape buffalo got out and walked towards the elephant and lynx kitten. He knelt down, exchanged some words with Mr. Stevens, then pulled the trunk away from Helen, who immediately darted several feet away and curled up into a tiny ball. Mr. Stevens backed away and the buffalo stayed kneeling, beckoning Helen to come to him. After a minute of coaxing, she finally walked over to him, getting scooped up and held safely close to his chest.
The classroom let out a collective sigh, and most of the students went to their desks to do schoolwork or chat with their neighbors about what had happened. Aaron continued watching as eventually Helen's parents arrived. Helen lept from the buffalo's arms to her mother's and they took her home. Then the cape buffalo turned to the elephant teacher and the kind, caring demeanor from earlier was suddenly gone. His voice boomed all the way to the classroom, although Aaron couldn't quite tell exactly what he was shouting. It was incredible that the shorter buffalo could cause the elephant to cower like that.
"Children, please take your seats." Aaron jumped as a voice came from the door. It was Principal Grazer. The few remaining students at the window scampered to their desks and sat down.
"I'm very sorry you had to witness that," the sheep apologized in a deep voice. "Your parents are being contacted right now to take you home for the rest of the day."
Aaron was more worried about what had happened to Helen, and made note to ask her when he came back to class.
But Helen didn't come to school the next day.
Or the next.
Over the next two weeks, the numbers in Mr. Stevens classroom dwindled down to single digits, and finally, Aaron had had enough.
That evening after dinner, Aaron stepped into the kitchen as his mother was washing the dishes.
"Mama?" She turned with a look of mild surprise on her face; it had been some time since he had last called her that.
Aaron sniffled. "Do I have to go back to school tomorrow?"
His mother sighed. The question was not unexpected; she had discussed the options with her husband and they had already agreed on what the answer would be. "Of course not," she said with a forced smile. She hastily dried her hands and knelt to offer her son a hug, which he gratefully accepted. "Not if you don't feel comfortable there."
Aaron felt much happier once he no longer had to go to school. His parents still made him do worksheets for math and language and science, but he no longer felt like a prisoner who was being kept separate from the others for their safety. He missed his friends, but he knew that we wouldn't get to see them at school anyway. His parents still seemed stressed about the whole situation with the savage predators, but Aaron felt like a kid again, as if a great weight had been taken off his shoulders. And he still remembered what his mother had said about the fear being temporary and things going back to normal.
But as more and more days went by, Aaron began to accept the fact that this simply was to be the new "normal". Predator children would not go to schools where the prey children and teachers would fear them. Prey children would not be allowed to be friends with predator children. And predators would leave the house less and less to avoid the stares. It hurt, but Aaron slowly eased into this new life.
On one such evening he sat on the living room floor using his crayons with his coloring book, ignoring the television behind him. He heard a strange sound and looked up from his book to find his parents kissing. "Ew!" he blurted, twisting his face in disgust. His father heard this and laughed, picking him up and placing him between his parents so they could kiss him from both sides.
"Ew, stop!" Aaron exclaimed, but he was laughing now. "Why are you acting so weird?"
His mother pointed at the television. "That's why, dear." Aaron stared at the screen for a moment and saw a very small sheep wearing a prison outfit and handcuffs, glaring and adjusting her large glasses.
"I don't get it," he said after a moment. His parents laughed again.
"Well you see," his father began, followed by a long pause. "It's actually kind of complicated. But now we know all those predators weren't going savage; bad mammals were shooting them with something which made them act that way. Now those mammals are in prison, and they have an antidote to turn those predators to the way they were before."
The gears in Aaron's head started turning.
"I don't want to get my hopes up, but this could make everything go back to normal." Aaron's mother sighed contently. "The ways things used to be."
Aaron finally managed to put a few of his thoughts into words. "Does this mean I can see my friends again?"
His parents responded by squeezing him in a great big bear hug. "We hope so, dear."
"Have a good day at school!" Aaron's mother waved as he got out of the car.
He turned and waved back. "Thanks, Mom! I love you!"
"Love you, too, Aaron! I'll be back at 3:30 to pick you up!" And with that, she drove away.
Aaron turned around and looked around the playground. Technically, nothing had changed, but it felt strangely foreign after his month's absence. He smiled to himself as he noticed Ms. Ursa walking towards the front door. Then the smile faltered a bit when he saw Conrad walking towards him. Were they still friends? Aaron found himself suddenly very nervous. But then, so did Conrad.
"Hey," Conrad muttered, staring at the ground.
"Hey," Aaron responded awkwardly.
"We were about to start a game of tag, if you wanted to-"
"Yeah!" Aaron interrupted. He laughed and jumped forward to give the rhino a quick hug. He stepped back and grinned, happy to have his friend back. He scanned the playground. Things wouldn't go back to normal overnight, but they were definitely getting better. He looked over at the old corner he spent with the other predator students and was surprised to see Helen there, all alone with her ears down and her tail curled around her, looking very self-conscious. An idea popped into Aaron's mind.
"Conrad, would you like meet my friend?"
The rhino saw the direction Aaron was facing and smiled.
"Sure."