I waited a little while and one of them responded. It was Lucy. "Hey, Brian" She said. "Sorry that the folks chased you and your family out. What's up?"

I immediately replied, "Just want to see how you, Jeremy and Max were doing."

"They're kinda upset. I'm more angered by the people. For chasing a cute innocent animal out of town." She replied.

"I know. Anyway, my parents are supposedly are taking me somewhere. A state that they think I'll love." I replied.

She started guessing a few states. Some having a wild population of deer. The last guess stunned me. She had mentioned a state that I wanted to move to. Were my parents really gonna move us up there? Or where we going a bit more up north. I put my phone down and leaned over to Lexi. She was listening to her music, not paying attention. I got to thinking about how it was gonna be living in our new state. But I had some negative thoughts too.

I remembered my dad's advice. "Remember, always stay positive. Clear the negative!"

Chapter 7

It was getting dark, I looked at my phone. five-o-four. I looked out the window and looked at the trees, even watching a few cars pass. That's when my dad slammed on the breaks, he nearly bumped into the car in front of us. "Oh, great!" he said. "A traffic jam." Lexi tapped on my shoulder. "You wanna play a game of Spyro, or a game of Monopoly on the go?" I nodded. "If it'll keep my mind off the bad things."

Lexi smiled. "Don't worry. The new state we're moving to is gonna be cool. A lot of people are gonna like you. Maybe you'll even find yourself a doe... Mm." She leaned over. I blushed. "Lexi, not in front of mom and dad!"

I looked out the window, we were still in the traffic jam. I let out a sigh. Lexi rubbed my back as she handed me my stuffed animal. I hugged it as tight as I could. "So, what do you wanna play, or watch. We could play Monopoly grab and go, Spyro dawn of the dragon or trilogy. We could play War, or..."

I stopped her before she could go any further. "Let's just play a bit of Spyro" I said. "By the way where did you put our Nintendo Switches at?"

"Mine and yours are in my backpack." Lexi said, pulling it out. She handed me mine as I opened it. "It's dead!" I said, sliding it back to her. She picked it up and stuffed it back in her backpack. After all the traffic shenanigans we finally began moving fully. I sat back and pulled out my phone putting on a bit of music. Dad pulled into a salad place. "Why don't you guys stay here while I get the salads."

Before he left Lexi stopped him. "Do you mind if I plug in the switch up here." Dad nodded as he grabbed the switch and plugged it into the port. He left inside. It was just me, Lexi, and my mom. I looked out the window and noticed a man dressed in camouflage. I gasped then ducked, Did he see me? I kept my ears down, and slowly peeked back up, he was gone. I let out a sigh of relief. I reached in my backpack and pulled out my cards. "Lexi, can you shuffle?" I asked, handing her the deck of cards. She nodded and did so. Lexi looked down and noticed a portion of my tail was peeking out in between my legs. "Are you sitting on your tail?" she asked. I looked down and blushed. "It's only to prevent any bugs from messing with me." I quickly called out.

Once Lexi was done shuffling, and passed out the cards, she began messing with my shoulder. "How many spots do you have?" She began to count touching each one, including the very tiny ones. Their were seven on each shoulder left and right, and down. "Seven times four... You have a total of 28 spots."

I nodded. "Yeah. They must be fading cause I'm a teenager." She giggled as she picked up her deck of cards. I didn't really like playing War with her cause she always seemed to cheat, placing two aces in her deck or sometimes even three. As she was about to put down her first card, dad opened my door and handed me my salad and water. I opened it and began eating. Lexi picked up the deck of cards and shoved it back in the box, and slid it in her backpack. Dad handed me her salad, I passed it to her.

He walked back to his side. I chowed down head first, licking and munching on the berries. I opened my water and took small sips. Then went back to finishing my salad. I placed the box in a empty plastic bag my dad had up front. I wasn't usually the first one done, but tonight I was. Lexi placed her on top of my box. Dad and Mom saved a bit of there's. She looked in the overhead mirror "You guys have a nice good meal?"

"Yes, mom." Me and Lexi replied. Dad started up the car and drove off. I stayed up with Lexi as we played a bit of Spyro, and eventually fell asleep. I felt a hand touch me. I opened my eyes just a little bit and saw Lexi, she looked different. She looked like a deer too. She had light brown and beige fur. A long and black nose. Was I really this tired? Or was I already dreaming? I glanced at her arm, which was touching my arm. It was all covered in fur. Of course I didn't wanna fully open my eyes, so I scoffed and went back to sleeping.

Chapter 8

I woke up by the smell of nature, the birds chirping and squirrels chittering. I yawned and looked out the window and gazed at the beautiful mountain scenery, the sun was just peeking over the hills. I looked around and noticed we were stopped somewhere, I didn't know exactly where. "Welcome to Vermont." Lexi whispered. I turned around and looked at her smile. "That's we're at! The good old green mountain state." I was happy. This was my home, I knew I belonged here. I smiled and looked out the window, I saw a deer walk by, as it began eating the grass. It lifted it's head and let out a bleat. It was a doe.

It glanced at me for a second before running off. Did I scare it? I saw another deer, it was a fawn slowly stumbling it's way across the grass before stopping to eat. I wanted to get out, but I didn't wanna startle it. It was such a precious animal. The same doe from before walked back and bleated. The fawn walked away with it's mother following behind. "Wow." I whispered.

Once the coast was clear, I stepped out to stretch. I felt the air brush against my furry arms as I leaned my arms to the side. I watched as the sun rose over the hill. But it was all interrupted by the sound of leaves crunching.

Crunch... Crunch

The sound of dead leaves being stepped on. My ears shot up. I slowly laid on my stomach and looked around. The sound got louder.

Crunch... Crunch

I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know what it was. Was it a wolf? A hunter? I was sweating. A soccer ball rolled towards me. I screamed and charged away. I ducked behind a tree. I slowly poked my head out. A boy about my age maybe a year younger walked up and grabbed his ball, walking my way. I had no idea what to do. He obviously had to be armed. But he wasn't. "Hey!" he called. I turned around as he stood about a good two feet from me. I slowly backed up. "A deer." He said. "You hungry?" he reached in his pocket and pulled out a small bag of blueberries.

They had to be poisoned I thought. I ran away back to the car. Lexi, mom and dad were awake. "Brian, where did you go?" Mom asked. "To use the bathroom." I replied quickly. Dad yawned as he turned on the car. Letting a blast of heat hit us all. He pulled out and drove down the little hill we were on. We stopped at a medium suburban house. It was really nice. Painted white and sky blue. It had a nice grassy area, a yard were I was able to run around. But why were we stopped here. Dad got out as he talked with a guy. "Lexi, what's going on?" I wondered. "Dad's getting us a home." she replied.

I peeked my head out the window and watched dad as he shook his hand with the guy and handed him a check. He walked back. "Get your stuff." He said. Me and Lexi grabbed our backpacks and hoped out of the car. Dad pulled out a set of keys and opened the door letting us inside. The house was better on the inside. I could live here forever. "But what about the rest of our stuff?" I asked mom. "Your father called up a friend and is gonna be hauling over stuff here." she replied.

I nodded and continued to walk around, exploring the rest of the house. Three bedroom, two bath. A large backyard. I loved it. I heard a voice coming from the front. It sounded like a kid screaming. I ran out and saw a kid playing soccer with another kid. He was wearing a blue cap and had the Vermont state flag on it. He saw me. "Hey, you're that deer who ran away from me." I was afraid to talk. I didn't wanna scare them. I eventually got something out of me. "Yes I am! Now please don't hurt me!" I quickly called out. The teen laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not a hunter. I love deer. I'm Bobby."

He put his hand out. I slowly put mine out and shook it. "Nice to meet you. I'm Brian." Bobby snickered. "You're not scared by me?" I said confused. Bobby laughed. "No. Because I have a friend who is also a deer. I think you'll love her." he said, placing his ball down. "Ever played soccer?"

I shook my head. "I'm much more of a baseball, bowling, tennis, and Nascar kind of person." I said. "But you have played soccer?" Bobby said.

I nodded. "Yeah. But I never wasn't that good at it."

Bobby kicked the ball over to me. I kicked it, and watched it as it flew then rolled down the street. Bobby ran after it. He came running back and patted me on the shoulder. "That was a good kick. It almost rolled right in the next neighborhood all the way out there." He pointed.

I saw someone out of the corner of my eye, it looked like a man dressed in camo. I turned to look and was right. There a guy was walking holding a rifle, he walked up to us. "Hey, son!" the guy said to Bobby. "Hey, dad. This is our new neighbor, Brian."

His dad looked at me. I stared at him completely motionless. "Huh, and you're a deer." he said, examining my antlers. "Nice antlers. They're very sharp. Welcome to the neighborhood. I hope I don't scare ya, cause of the camo."

"No, not at all." I lied. His dad laughed as he walked off. I let out a sigh. "Bobby, does your family by chance hunt deer?"

"No. We love deer. We hunt all animals except deer." He laughed. "So, wanna meet your other next door neighbor?"

"Sure. I guess so." I said nervously, getting up.