Today was the day. I was finally going to leave this place. For the last week, Mr. And Mrs. Hopps have been working out the details with Mrs. Otterton and getting all the paperwork signed. While they did that, I had been getting my things together and been trying to mentally prepare myself for the fact that I was moving in with bunnies. Had it been any other species it wouldn't be that important, but the fact that bunnies have always been natural born enemies to foxes I could only assume that the family might have some issues with the idea. However, after meeting Stuart, and soon there after his wife Bonnie, and seeing how open minded they were being about the situation, I felt confident and hopeful that the rest of the family would feel the same way. I couldn't know for sure , but I had a good feeling about the whole thing.
When I was finished packing, I headed down to Mrs. Otterton's office to meet up with my new parents. Stuart was standing there with Bonnie in the doorway talking with Mrs. Otterton until they noticed walk up to the office. Once there, Mrs. Otterton pulled us all in to finish signing the last of the paperwork.
"Congratulations Nicholas, you are now officially a member of the Hopps family." Mrs. Otterton said with a smile on her face. It was actually pretty hard to say goodbye to her. She was pretty much the closest thing I had to a mother, and leaving her after all this time was actually getting me pretty emotional. I did my best to hold in my tears as I hugged her and said my goodbyes. And now was the time to finally head out, to see my new home, to meet my new family. I was getting so excited that I was shaking a little bit as I left the orphanage. I hoped into Stu-I mean, 'dad's' little blue truck and sat between him and Bon- 'mom'. It's going to take some time getting use to calling them that. I thought to myself. We all got into the truck and although it was kinda cramped, it was also comforting sitting sitting next to my new parents.
We drove for several hours, passing by many large buildings and through the city's many biomes, till we eventually left the city and entered the country side. This had been my first time out of the zootopia, and passing by all the mountains, hills and farmlands was absolutely fantastic to me. With all that time driving, I got to think more about my new family and many questions started popping into my head. Would they like me? Did they know I was a fox? Did it matter to them? All these questions I was asking myself in my head must have shown on my face, because Bonnie spoke up.
"You nervous?" She said in a kind voice. I glanced over at her, then to Stuart, then back to the road ahead again.
"Terrified."
Both of them chuckled. "Well don't be. I'm sure everyone is going to love you." Bonnie's words did calm my nerves a bit, but I did feel I needed to ask the ultimate question.
"Do they know I'm a fox?" I asked. She looked over to Stuart, wondering herself if he had let them. Sensing the silence he looked over at us real quick then back at the road,guessing it was his turn to answer.
"Well, I let the older kids know. I had a feeling the little one wouldn't understand all that well unless they saw for themselves. The older ones could understand better at the very least." From the way he had said that, I became pretty clear that some of them where obviously not happy with arrangement, but at least they "understood" it. And that is why I was terrified.
Bonnie spoke up again. "I know this all must be new to you, moving in with a family of bunnies, but our family has a strong connection with one another and always has each others backs. And now you are part of that family, so no matter what we will be there for you." It started to make sense how she was able to look after so many children and still be sain. She had so much comfort come from her words that I bet she could calm down a raging bull in a China shop. I still don't understand why bulls hate china so much. Must be because it's hard to make fine art with hooves. The random thought popped into my head for a quick second before I came back to reality. I smiled at Bonnie, feeling a bit better about meeting everyone. And I guess time passed quicker during our talk, because it looked at though we were already pulling up to what I could only guess was the Family farm. Although it seemed less like a farm and more like a small village.
There where several structures around one large house, all of which looking like little apartment complexes, aside from what was obviously a barn. It was an incredible sight to say the least. I guess with such a large family it would only make sense that all didn't stay in one building. When pulled up next to the barn, we got out of the car and started heading over to the main house, passing by some bunnies along the way. And boy did that feel...ackward. The bunnies we had passed had stopped what they were doing and just stared at me with emotionless faces. Their eyes made me want to shrink into myself with how uncomfortable it was. I couldn't help but stay close behind Bonnie and Stuart trying to act invisible.
Soon enough we got to the main house and walked inside. The look of the house outside was well enough. It was clean and looked freshly painted. The inside, however, it was magnificent. The interior design was amazing and everything looked nice and fancy. On top of that, the place was huge. I stared at the place in awe. Bonnie finally got my attention when she spoke. "Well, what do you think of the place Nicky?" Obviously amused by my reaction.
"I feel like I was adopted by Mr. Warbucks." I said still looking around the place. This had gotten a chuckle from Bonnie and a hearty laugh from Stuart.
"Well there's no need to go singing about how great it is Annie." Stuart said wiping away a tear. I couldn't help but smile back at him. It felt so great to finally have someone that understood my sense of humor. We all walk down the hall a little way till we reached the kitchen. Again, I wanted to stare in awe at how amazing it was, but my attention immediately got pulled to Stuart when he walked over to a little box on the wall. He picked up a little microphone attached to it then pushed the big button on the box and a second later I heard a small echo coming from outside as he spoke. "Attention everyone. There will be a family meeting in dining hall. I repeat, there will be a family meeting in the dining hall. Please head there as soon as possible. Thank you."
Well...that wasn't intimidating in the slightest. I thought to myself. Stuart put back the microphone and looked back over to me. "Ok. That was pretty cool." Was all I could say.
He gave a small chuckle as he led me out of the kitchen and into the dining hall. The hall slowly started to fill many bunnies of varying sizes. All the smaller bunnies shuffling to the the front of us and the bigger ones stayed near the back. Soon enough the entire room was filled to the brim with bunnies all looking our direction. When Bonnie and Stuart where convinced that everyone was there, they finally spoke up.
Stuart started, "So I'm guessing you are wondering why we called this family meeting this evening. Some of you also may have noticed we have a fox with us. Well everyone, I would like you all to meet Nicholas. As of today he is going to be a part of our family."
Bonnie continued, "which means from now on, he will be living with us. So we want you all to think of him as your brother."
The whole room filled with whispers. I couldn't hear what anyone was actually saying but I could only imagine it was about me being a fox. They probably already didn't trust me. I could just see the hateful comments coming any sec-
"OH MY GOD! THAT'S SO COOL!"
Or that could happen... the female voice that came from the crowd caught me way off guard. I took a look around to see where it came from when suddenly I saw a bunny bouncing with excitement. And apparently it was contagious too, cause everyone around her slowly started to grow smiles on their faces. Bonnie smiled and laughed at her reaction before speaking. "Well Judy, sense you seem so excited about this new development, how about you do the honors of showing him to his room." Before I could even absorb what was said, the little bunny was already in front of us with a big, bright smile on her face. "You all may go back to what you were doing. Judy his room #210 in building 4, same as yours."
"Got it." She replied happily. I slowly watched as all the bunnies started leaving the hall to go about there day. When I turned back to the bunny in front of me, I was presented with a paw eager to be shaken. "Judy Hopps, pleased to meet you and welcome to the family."
I reached out and hesitantly shook her paw. "Uh...Nick...Hopps I guess now. And thanks." I said with a small smile.
"This is going to be so cool having a fox in the family." She said in a happy voice. "Come on, let's get you to your room."
So maybe this won't be so bad.
AN: So you may be wondering where I have been the last couple of weeks and why I haven't been posting new chapters. Well, simply put without going into to much detail, I have had a rough couple of weeks and didn't have any motivation to write. nothing could have been done about it just needed some time to get my head on straight. But now I'm back and hopefully I will be able to post weekly again.
With that out of the way, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I read your comments and got your opinions on the story and what I've decided to do is stick with Nick's pov and if needed for the story I will briefly jump to Judy's pov for a chapter. look forward to more in the future and i'll see you next time.(I already did my seeing joke before the repost, ill do it again later. haha)