Springtime Circumstances Chapter 57 - A promise is a promise, a zootopia fanfic

Hey guys, how are you ? Sorry for the long waiting times. Germany is a goddamn sauna right now and work is quite a bitch as well sometimes.

Hope this still makes your day a little.

I REALLY MUST RECOMMEND TO READ THIS STORY ON AO3, BECAUSE THEY LET ME POST PICTURES AND LINKS AND I HAVE A WONDERFUL FRIEND WHO DRAWS ARTWORK FOR THIS STORY. I POSTED THIS STORY ON AO3 AS WELL AND THE ARTWORK IS PLACED RIGHT IN BETWEEN THE CHAPTERS. ITS REALLY WORTH A TRY ;)

Big thanks to MrShurukan for correcting it once again.

Hope you enjoy ;)

Zootopia – Springtime Circumstances

Chapter 57 – A promise is a promise (Normal POV)

Today was Wednesday. Finally. Lily Otterton had impatiently been waiting for this day to come, because on Wednesdays they always had music lessons with Mr. Flinch. And she liked both of those aspects. This time she was anticipating for it even more, because she had told her friends and classmates about her meeting with Rico Capaldi at the bakery of course. She had told them about everything he said back then, but nobody really believed her, sadly. They just laughed at her and told her to stop daydreaming. That downed her spirit quite a lot, and it drove her mad that nobody considered her word to be true.

Lily wanted to prove them wrong so much already. She really hated herself for not asking him about a selfie back then. She just had been a little too shy, or maybe she just forgot about it when she met him on Saturday morning, and the lack of that evidence annoyed her ever since. They just kept teasing her with it, although she hasn't even mentioned it since Monday anymore.

"And you honestly believe Rico Capaldi will come to the music lesson today" the annoying badger a row behind her asked teasingly. He just wouldn´t stop annoying her with it.

"He promised he would come" she told him once again, still having a tiny bit of hope left in her heart.

"Haha! She still believes that´s true" he told his bank-neighbour with a mean laugh, "In reality she just had been dreaming of meeting him!"

The others behind her just dumbly started laughing about it as well once more, but Lily decided to ignore them from now on. She had told them before that she wasn´t making that up, but they wouldn´t believe her anyways until she proved it somehow. Not even her close friend and bank-neighbour Ava believed her. It just seemed too unreal apparently.

Lily just hoped he would keep his promise and shut them up once and for all. Or at least that Christian would show them the video Rico was talking about, in which he was singing and playing guitar with him. She had told them about that as well of course. She wanted to see that so badly.

The first two lessons she and her class had to go through today felt like an eternity and were terribly boring. It felt like the time went by even more slowly than usual, because she hated math and history lessons in the first place.

But she got through it somehow, and those 15 minutes of breaktime that followed she would be able to survive as well.

"Hey dumbasses!" her classmate Billy laughed when he came to annoy her with his friends yet once again, just when she was casually talking to Ava in the cafeteria, "Still think your crush will come to our music lesson today?" he snickered.

The badger just wouldn´t stop annoying them with this. He was a well-known bully in this school. The most hated kid in the whole sixth grade.

They all started stupidly laughing at her again, and that was not a nice feeling.

Her friend Ava didn´t really know what to do either. She didn´t really believe her all that herself, if she was totally honest, although she really wished for it to be true with all her heart. It just seemed too unreal for her as well. But there was no doubt that the little red vixen was madly in love with Rico and his debut single. He was her biggest idol ever since she saw that video for the first time. And he was a fox on top of that. As far as she was concerned about boys at her age, nobody could ever reach his greatness in her opinion. She still worked hard at home and tried to learn the chords to Pyro Heart on her guitar, so she could record a cover of it and maybe get noticed by him one day. She would give everything to meet him once.

But she was a little scared of getting bullied as well if she supported Lily with her hopes. That just would be too good to be true, and something that good has never happened to her before.

"Just look at her! Such a loser!" the badger laughed out continuously.

"Leave me alone! You´ll see who the losers are!" Lily just replied bitterly.

It was no use. The bully just wanted her to fight back.

"And Ava, do you think your big foxy hero will come here today and sing a little song for you?" he continued teasing her now.

"Haha" she just sighed ironically, "You´re so funny…"

"Bet you´re dreaming of him every night little vixen, aren´t you?" he asked with a dirty grin, and all the other little gangsters started laughing at them once again.

"Just go away you assholes!" Ava yelled at them a little louder, because they annoyed her with this since quite a while as well, "What´s the matter with you?"

"Hey, hey!" a friendly, well-known female voice interrupted them suddenly, "Watch your language, please!"

"I´m sorry Miss Veltri" she apologized to the white vixen who happened to be one of their teachers as well, "They´re just so annoying!"

Lily was so excited to finally see the white vixen again, even more since everything Rico had told her about her and their new music teacher Christian. But the situation right now was not ideal to ask her about that, sadly.

"Billy" Sarah told him with a little sigh, "I just had a talk with your parents last week, and that was far from being the first time. Why don't you and your friends take care of your own business instead of provoking others?"

"My parents can´t tell me anything!" he retorted, "And you can´t tell me anything either…"

"What reason do you have to annoy your classmates in the first place?" she wanted to know, "What have they done to you?"

"We didn´t do anything" Lily pointed out, "They just keep annoying us!"

"Just look at them!" Billy snorted, "They really believe they will meet Rico Capaldi someday…just freaking laughable!"

Sarah couldn´t hide a tiny little grin when she heard that, although she really didn´t want to spoil the big surprise later. Since Lily knew about it already, she winked her shortly to build her up a little bit, then she turned towards the well-known bully once again.

"You know what" she asked him with an amused little smirk, "I bet you got some childhood crushes as well, but you would be just too shy to admit it. You just don't have the guts, Billy. Don´t blame the girls for having them" she told him while raising an eyebrow.

"Pah…" he retorted while crossing his arms in a meant to be cool looking pose.

Sarah just smiled down on him in amusement. Then she ignored the little troublemaker and turned towards the girls again.

"This is going to be your best school day ever" she whispered very lowly, "And it´s not just the music lesson" she added with another little wink.

Lily was just so unbelievably relieved about hearing it right now. She felt so happy that she would have liked to hug her teacher in that moment - but she just was able to keep her composure for now. Ava couldn´t close her mouth again either after she heard it. That made her forget all the other trouble for a moment.

Sarah now went onto her way again and left the children alone during their break-time. She still had quite a lot of coordination to do for today, and she had to get her friends into the classroom somehow without everybody noticing them.

She went into the teacher´s room and immediately closed the door behind her. Rico was already here and giving autographs to the other teachers, being in a fantastic mood apparently. Christian was here as well and gave her a quick kiss when she joined him. He noticeably was quite excited as well, and so were all the other colleagues.

POV Sarah

"Hey Sarah" one of my colleagues, an old armadillo with big glasses, always dressed in a fancy smoking, yet mostly with a really friendly attitude, asked me, "Why have you never told us about this?"

"I didn´t know about this before" I chuckled, "Rico really just was and still is a roommate of mine…"

"True, actually" Rico agreed with a little chuckle, "And she probably would never have found out if those two police officer didn´t ask for our help…"

"Officers Hopps and Wilde?" the armadillo asked with great interest.

"The one and only…"

"Really? Is that why they´re in the music video as well?" another colleague of mine wanted to know.

"Yes" Rico confirmed with a little smile, "It was their idea, actually."

"So, you know them quite well, personally" she directed the question at Sarah and Rico at the same time.

"Those two are the most-lovely people I have ever met in my live" Rico chuckled, "But they should be here any minute anyways, so you can convince yourself…"

"Wait" one of the other teachers asked, "Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps will be here today as well?"

"You mean the two police officers who played volleyball with the trigger to a forty-pound bomb?" Sarah asked, "Yes, live and in stereo."

POV Nick

Our mood was fantastic. The sun was shining, Judy and I were on paid vacation and we just were about to get to know one of Sarah´s school classes. Judy wore a beautiful purple dress today, which I especially liked because it matched her eyes so well, and I decided to go for something casual too. I just had some blue shorts, a white shirt and my black aviators with me.

Luckily, there was a free parking spot behind the building, it was surrounded by a hedge, and none of the classroom windows really pointed at it, because our new Car was pretty much the only one of its kind in the entire city. It was easy to get spotted and even easier to be heard.

While Judy turned off the engine, I quickly called Sarah to let us in.

Half a minute later she opened the back-door for us and led us through a shallow corridor into the teacher´s room. Rico was here already as it turned out, and he certainly was not alone.

"There we go" he greeted us with a big happy smile, "Thank you so much for this!"

All the teachers just stared in pure fascination when Judy and I hugged the black and grey Rock-Star quickly. Then I turned towards the other white fox with a chummy smile, offering to shake my paw.

"Christian!" I greeted him, "Nice to meet you!"

"N-Nice to meet you t-too, officer Wilde!" he stuttered shyly.

"Oh, Sarah told me just the nicest things about you" I chuckled, "I believe you´ve earned the right to just call me Mr. Wilde…"

"Nick!" Judy giggled while offering him her paw as well. Then she shook her head about it with an amused grin.

"Just don't listen to that nonsense" she chuckled, "I´m Judy!" she introduced herself, "Nice to meet you!"

"N-nice to meet you!"

"She´s right" I told him with a big grin, waving it off for myself now, "There is no need for titles or last names, please call me Nick!" offered, "The same goes for all of you as well, naturally!"

"O-okay" he stuttered with a nervous smile.

"Nah, I´m not so sure about that, actually" Sarah chuckled, "I haven´t told you the nicest things yet, Nicky…"

"Oh? He´s a springs-enthusiast too?" I asked ironically.

She just grinned at him while he shrugged his shoulders.

"Sounds like one hell of a plan if you ask me" Rico grinned, "We really should do that again in the near future!"

"I totally agree with you" Judy chuckled.

"…But this time I join Judy´s team for playing volleyball" Rico announced while pointing at her, "She´s better than you, Nick."

The other teachers around couldn´t hide their amusement while listening to our childish bickering. But they were getting more comfortable around us slowly but surely.

"Nah, you should stick with me" he laughed, "The bunny just got lucky there once or twice…"

"Maybe I´ll let him win one day" Judy waved it off with an ironic little smile.

During the little chit-chat that followed, Judy and I were shaking paws with everybody in the room.

"Oh…Rico…" Christian asked him suddenly, "Did you bring your own guitar? I totally forgot to ask you about that…"

"No" Rico told him while shaking his head with a little chuckle, "I wouldn´t even have made it here if I left the house with a guitar on my back. I assumed you have a few guitars here…since this is a music class…"

"Well…we do…but nothing too professional…you know, kids often are not as careful as they should be…"

"That´s totally fine" he waved it off, "…as long as it got six strings..."

He nodded confidently.

"And probably not all of them are in tune right now…"

"Do I really look like I´ve never tuned a guitar before?" Rico chuckled in amusement.

The other teachers still stared at us with great interest.

"Oh, Rico, by the way…" Sarah asked him now, "Do you remember the otter girl you met in the bakery last Saturday?"

"Yeah, of course I remember her!" he affirmed, "That´s why I´m here today. But she didn´t tell me her name, sadly."

"Her name is Lily" she told him.

"Is she here today?"

"Yeah, she´s here and impatiently waiting for this to happen" she grinned, "But what I wanted to tell you originally, is that she got bullied by some of her class-mates because they didn´t believe her when she told them about it…"

"Aww…" Judy said, "That´s not nice. Rico, you gotta do something about that!"

He nodded understandingly.

"Oh, and her friend Ava is playing the guitar as well" Christian added, "You´re just her idol ever since. She´s a red vixen, sitting right beside her in the first row."

"Awwww!" Judy giggled again, "Ricooo! She probably has the biggest crush on you! You really gotta to do something! Pleeaaase!"

"Well, if you say so…" he smiled with a little shrug of his shoulders.

"Well, she would probably kick your butt if you don't" I explained with a dry little chuckle.

"Not just probably" Judy affirmed.

"Alright, alright! I´ll think of something! I promise!" Rico told us with a little smile.

"Oh, but what about you, Judy?" Sarah reminded her, "You are everybody´s hero too!"
"Especially in Lily´s class" Christian added, "…they have been talking about nothing but you two for the last two days!"

"Yeah, Carrots" I agreed, "Don't think you get away that easily either…"

Rico now turned towards Judy and me once again, "I heard you two are giving a sport-lesson afterwards?" he asked in excitement.

"Yeah" Judy affirmed, "This will be fun, are you joining us for that as well?"

"Oh for sure!" he smiled, "Don't wanna miss that!"

"The break is over in five minutes by the way" Christian told us, "We should get moving now!"

"Yeah, I´m ready" Rico chuckled, "Let´s do it!"

POV Lily Otterton

When we came back from the morning break, our music and sport´s teacher Christian opened the classroom for us, just like always, and everybody got towards their table slowly. I´ve been excited when Miss Veltri winked us earlier, but I still wasn´t entirely sure somehow. Maybe she just wanted to build us up and give us some hope, but it wasn´t actually true anyways. Teachers often tent to do something like that.

Christian got behind his desk with an enthusiastic little smile, but that was quite usual I would say. Then he looked at me suddenly, because he noticed that I was waiting for something to happen, and my stupid classmates started laughing again when they noticed. They had been watching me this whole time, they just wanted to see me get humiliated.

But then Christian winked me very shortly. I was a hundred percent sure now. He knew about it too, so Sarah had not been making this up. It filled me with so much excitement already. Everything had changed all over sudden. I couldn't hide a tiny little smile anymore, and the dumb guys behind me became strangely quiet all over sudden.

"Hey guys" Christian greeted us first of all, "Good morning!"

"Good morning Mr. Flinch!" the whole class replied loudly.

"Today we do it a little bit differently" he announced proudly, "Because today I might learn quite a few things about music as well…" he explained, "Today I´m not your teacher for once."

Great confusion went through the class, as he simply walked towards that one empty table in the first row that nobody wanted to sit at, pulled back the chair and took a seat right next to Ava. She was quite excited about this, naturally. She often had told me about how cute she found him, and now he was sitting right beside her.

"But…" one of the guys behind us asked the obvious question, "Who is going to teach us now?"

"He´s actually a roommate of your very lovely teacher Miss Veltri" Christian told him with a little smirk "And I´m pretty sure you all have heard of him before…"

I was so endlessly happy right now.

"He´s a fantastic musician and a really nice guy on top of that, so please be friendly to him as well" Christian advised us, "Have fun."

I turned around slowly to look at my totally dumbfounded classmates for a moment. I was right this whole time, and now I finally had proof of it.

The door opened slowly and everybody stared in awe at the black and grey fox who came in with a happy little smile. It was just like when I met him in the bakery last Saturday, only that he appeared to be in a fantastic mood this time.

"Oh, thanks very for the nice words, Christian" he told him with a little chuckle, "You´re such a sycophant!"

A few of my classmates giggled excitedly about that comment, but most of them simply couldn´t quite believe it. Ava couldn´t help but release a surprised but happy little gasp as she realized that it really was him.

"Didn´t I tell you?" I asked her proudly. Rico actually noticed it while walking up to the teacher´s desk.

"Hey Lily" he greeted me with a little wink, "So nice to see you!"

I never felt this cool before in my entire life. He really greeted me by my name in front of the entire class. Ava even covered her mouth now because she was so excited. Her whole body had started shaking a little bit. Nobody behind me said a single word, they didn´t even make a noise.

"You really came!" I whispered happily.

"Yeah of courseHHey

I came" he smiled, "I promised you that I would give a music lesson in your class, didn't I?"

I nodded with a big happy smile. He carefully took a seat on the teacher´s desk in the meanwhile and looked at the class that was lowly whispering to each other´s bank-neighbour excitedly. Rico just remained smiling in amusement for another moment.

"This is not real" Billy suddenly stated loudly, "That´s not Rico Capaldi, that´s just some fox pained with fur-colours! I´ve seen that all on TV before…"

I just couldn´t believe that he still didn´t believe it. He was standing right in front of him. It seemed like he just couldn´t accept that he was wrong once in his life.

"It is him!" I nearly yelled out.

"Why would someone like him come to our school?" he asked dogmatically, "That´s bullshit."

Rico himself wasn´t really angry about it though, he rather just smiled as he heard that.

"Because he´s really nice!" I clarified.

"That´s just a big fake" he told me coldly, "That poor guy is going to embarrass himself pretty soon, you´ll see…"

Even our teacher was a little dumbfounded about what Billy just said. But he really seemed to be convinced about his statement. No wonder, he always had to mark the biggest clown at school. Rico still didn´t say anything about it and calmly listened in great amusement.

"If you really think he´s a fake, it must be a pretty good one though…" Christian told him while turning around towards the second row.

"I only believe it when he proves himself."

"Fair enough" Rico chuckled with his unbelievable smooth and lovely voice.

"Do you guys know that video where Nick Wilde is in the Bar with the grey colours in his fur…?" Rico asked us unexpectedly, and nearly the whole class nodded to that question.

"Yeah, that´s what I´ve seen as well…" he said jokingly, "…and now that´s exactly what they´ve done with me as well!" he chuckled.

"Really?" someone in the third row asked.

"Yeah…and I´ve never played on a guitar before either…" he chuckled, "…but Christian told me it wouldn´t be too hard…"

Some of my classmates grinned or giggled a little more about that, but most of them still weren´t quite so sure if it really was him though.

"That stupid badger, doesn´t know what he´s talking about" I thought to myself, "…as if that wasn´t obvious already."

Rico stood up from the desk now and went on his way towards the instruments. Pretty soon it became obvious that he was searching for a guitar.

"The second one from the left sounds the best in my opinion" Christian told him. Rico trusted his advice without further ado, adjusted it´s strip a little and hung it around his neck carefully. Now it looked even more like in the music video. He pulled each of the strings with his claws quickly, adjusted some of the tuners very quickly and then he took another look at the class again.

"I´m going to show you a few chords now and you tell me where you know them from, okay?" he asked, "Maybe Christian can help you with it as well…"

He began playing, and it immediately was clear what it was.

"Hihihi! He´s playing it!" Ava screeched excitedly, "It´s really happening!" she whispered while rattling my shoulders a little.

But before Rico started singing, he stopped shortly.

"Have you heard that before?" he asked the little vixen besides me, because she was so excited that everybody had noticed it.

"That´s pyro heart…" she said very shyly.

He came a little closer and stopped right in front of us now with a friendly little smile.

"Wow, dude" Billy now snickered behind us, "You played like four different chords. Half our class can play those, we even have practiced that song before."

"You´re getting on very thin ice right now, Billy" Christian told him with a little chuckle. He wasn't too annoyed by the badger either, apparently.

Rico still just smiled about it. He still kept his cool like the badger hadn´t said anything at all. Billy didn´t at all take away his confidence with talking about him like that.

"I just don't believe him until he proves it with his voice" the fat ugly bully told him while crossing his arms, "That song still is on top of the charts, I bet he wouldn´t even consider visiting this stupid high school!"

"Oh, really?" Rico asked him in amusement, "So you´re hard to impress, aren't you?"

"Bless you for trying, dude…you´re not fooling me with that rubbish talk…"

"Alright, what´s the bet?" Rico asked him now, still with all the confidence in the world.

"If the freaking Rico Capaldi really is at our shitty school, I´m gonna…I don't know…"

"…you´re gonna pay a little more respect to your teachers and classmates?" Rico finished the sentence for him.

"Yeah!" he chuckled, "Alright, no problem!"

Billy was still laughing so much, it sounded like he still wasn´t believing it at all.

"Fine by me" Rico told him contentedly, "So tell me, what do you think of this?"

Now he took his guitar into his hands once again and played the same chords from earlier, but the much more complicated arpeggios which not even Ava managed to do yet, and started singing alongside with it now.

"I´ve been dancin, with the devil on my shoulders

Till the morning breaks

And get nervous, every time he pulls me closer that I'll sink to deep…"

Ava nearly got a heart-attack at this point. His voice sounded so unbelievable beautiful and overall it almost sounded better than in the music video. The whole class stared at him in pure awe now.

Christian just smiled in amusement when Rico arrived at Ava´s table and looked her right in the eyes while singing. She had tears of joy in her eyes now. I´ve never seen her this happy before.

There was no doubt about it anymore.

Hey played the song all the way until the end, and for the last line he went into the second row just next to where Billy was sitting.

"…and when the whole words hurt

You light the dark

Pyro Heart."

He pulled the last few strings on the guitar, and after a short little silence, a big applause broke lose in the entire class.

POV Rico

While I was playing, I noticed Nick and Judy sneaking into the classroom quickly, using the second entrance at the back of the room. This room was quite a lot bigger than I had anticipated it. It wasn´t square either, it was shaped like an oval and had a really high ceiling. It really was a dedicated music room, and I thought that was really cool. I didn´t have something like that back when I was in high-school.

Nick and Judy took a seat in the very last row while I was singing, and since the whole class was focussed on me, they didn´t notice the two heroic police officers at all.

The young badger boy didn´t know what to say anymore now. He just stared at me with big eyes, while the rest of the class started cheering and applauding for my performance.

I just smiled at him one more time, gave him a little wink and went back to my teacher´s desk once again.

"Okay, guys…" I told them with a little chuckle, "Now that that´s settled, may I ask you a question?"

They naturally nodded excitedly.

"Do you like Christian as a teacher? Because I´ve gotten to know him as a very nice guy just a few days ago…"

The answer I got was pretty clear. Most of them nodded or otherwise affirmed my question.

"…he does not sing quite as well as you though…" Lily giggled boldly, "But he´s cute…"

I couldn´t help but grin at him a little because of that statement of her, neither could Christian.

"Well…" I chuckled, "But I guarantee you that he´s a lot better at sports than I am."

"Depends on what you call sport, sweetheart" a familiar female voice chuckled suddenly. Sarah had sneaked into the room as well, somehow without me noticing it, and now dirtily grinned at me, "I´ve seen you doing other things than music as well you know…"

I didn´t really know what to say to that for a moment, and that was enough to make Christian burst out into a short little laughter.

I just shook my head with an ironic little smile. Slowly but surely some of the pupils in the class had understood the pun and began laughing about it as well.

"I´m not quite sure what you´re talking about here, Miss Veltri" I told her ironically.

"You know" Christian chuckled, "I believe playing the guitar is considered a sport as well…I´m pretty sure that´s what she meant…"

"Yeah, you´re right" I agreed, "I´m sure that´s what she´s talking about..."

Sarah was standing beside the door this whole time, but now she went on her way towards one of the other free tables between the pupils.

"By the way, guys: Do you like Sarah as a teacher too? She always tells me how much fun it is to work here…"

"Now don't say anything wrong!" Sarah warned her students with a little giggle, because they all started laughing about it happily, "I just told him them the nicest things about you…"

POV Nick

This was just awesome. Rico really had the fun of his life here. Soon later he asked the kids if they wanted to hear a new song he had written recently, and they all agreed with it of course. I wanted to hear that so badly as well. Judy and I were just as excited as the kids we were sitting behind.

"Alright!" he announced, "I´m gonna play a song for you now that I´ve never shown to anybody else before. I promise, not even my mom knows about this one yet…" he told us, "…not even Sarah heard it yet!"

"What about Nick and Judy?" Sarah asked him.

He just shook his head with a little smile, "No, not even they got to hear it…" he said, while put the guitar down onto the teacher´s desk carefully and went over to the other instruments this room was equipped with.

"Alright, here we go…" he announced, while he adjusted the seat of the electric piano a little bit and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt. Then he began playing some beautiful accords.

(Lewis Capaldi – Someone you loved /My fav. song of 2019! Goddamn I´m in love with it!)

"I´m going under and this time I fear there´s no one

To save me

This all or nothing really got a way of driving me crazy

I need somebody to heal

Somebody to know

Somebody to have

Somebody to hold

It´s easy to say

But it´s never the same

I guess I kinda liked the way you numbed the pain…"

His voice really could shatter an entire moon just with the feeling it delivered. He just needed a few piano chords and his voice and it seemed to slow down the whole world. I was pretty sure that this song would be his next big hit single.

This song easily had as much heart and soul as the first one. Good thing that we discovered his brilliant talent finally.

"Now the day bleeds

Into nightfall

And you´re not here

To get me through it all

I let my guard down

And then you pulled the rug

I was getting kind of used to being someone you loved…"

It went on, and I was immediately in love with it. Judy climbed onto my lap carefully and cuddled with me, and I rarely had felt this cosy and happy before

When Rico was done with playing his new song, there was another moment of silence as everyone in the classroom was utterly amazed by his performance. We were so staggered right now.

HERE WOULD BE SOME ARTWORK ON AO3, JUST SAYING ;)

"Wow" Christian commented with a little chuckle, "Guess we´ll be hearing that one on the radio too someday…"

"Yeah?" Rico asked while getting off the piano seat, "You think that one has potential? Because they asked me to make a title song for some new romantic movie they´re producing…" he explained.

"That was freaking fantastic!" somebody stated excitedly, and the whole class began cheering for him again. God I was so proud of him at that moment.

"That was so beautiful" the little vixen in the first row cried out suddenly. She seemed to be totally overwhelmed by her feelings.

"Well thank you milady" Rico told her with a little smile, "…but I didn't want to make you cry…"

"I´m your biggest fan ever!" she told him without any shame in front of the whole class, "Thank you so much for coming here today! I´m so happy!"

Without a hint of hesitation, Rico went up the little girl and opened his arms to hug her carefully. Now that made her cry with joy even more, but it really was a heart-warming moment.

"Aww" Judy whispered very lowly while she put a paw onto her heart. The class was still too fascinated to notice us though.

"Can I ask you a question please, Mr. Capaldi?" another student wanted to know a moment later, after he had released the little vixen again.

"Yeah, of course you can!" he replied with a friendly smile.

"How many instruments can you actually play?"

"I mostly just play guitar" he began thinking loudly, "But I also play a bit of piano, bass, drums and a colleague at work is teaching me some trumpet from time to time…"

He explained it like it wasn´t a big deal at all.

"What do you work as?" somebody else wanted to know.

"I´m really a composer…" he explained, "I work with an entire orchestra to produce movie-scores and soundtracks…"

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah, it´s a very cool job most of the time."

Now a lot more pupils seemed to have questions they wanted to ask him.

"How old are you?" the next one wanted to know.

"I´m 28" Rico answered.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Lily, the otter girl in the first row wanted to know with a little giggle.

"I do" he told her with a little smile.

"Aww" the little vixen said lowly, really a little bummed about that as it seemed.

"I know, I know, I´m sorry…" Rico smiled at her, "…but I´m in good paws, don´t worry! She´s very lovely and very nice to me."

"Oh, little Rico" Sarah chuckled with a little grin, "I think you´re breaking so many hearts right now…"

"Yeah…I know…" he sighed once more, "And I do feel very sorry for that…but there are so many great guys out there, I´m pretty sure they will all find one someday!"

"Oh, like Sarah and Christian?" Lily asked him boldly and with a happy little giggle. She must be the one Rico met at the bakery he was talking about.

Rico just grinned widely when she asked that. Then he winked her shortly and the whole class started laughing and smiling about it excitedly.

"Interesting what your pupils are talking about, isn´t it, guys?" Rico asked them.

"Very interesting" Christian agreed with a little smile, not at all mad about it apparently, "I guess I have to correct some grades later…"

"Nonono" Lily said quickly, "I didn´t say anything! I´m sorry!"

"Don´t worry about it" Rico told with a little smirk at Christian, "I´ve heard schools out for you after your sport-lesson and that Christian doesn´t have much to say today anymore anyway…"

"Are we having sport-lessons with you today too?" Ava asked excitedly.

"Not as your teacher" he chuckled, "But I brought two friends of mine who are really good at it…"

Lily already seems to know about it once again, because she folded her paws in front of her mouth in excitement. "Oh my god, are you serious?" she asked. Rico just winked her with a little grin.

"What is it, Lily?" one of her classmates asked her excitedly. Suddenly, they all believed her and were excited to hear more.

"Officer Hopps and Wilde will be here today!" she told them in excitement. Another gasp of awe went through the rows when she said that.

"Really?" somebody else asked in disbelief, "No way!"

"Oh, this is the best school day ever" Ava whispered in total joy.

"Isn´t it?" Lily asked her proudly, "Told you it would be cool!"

"There are so many things I want to ask them!" Ava said excitedly, and she surely was not the only one in the class.

"Was it actually really you who called them during the live-interview on Saturday?" one of the little bunnies asked, "I mean after the fight in the central park…"

"Yeah" Rico chuckled, "I did that. It was Sarah´s idea by the way!" he ironically shifted the blame while pointing at her.

"That was so funny" Christian chuckled, "I couldn´t quite believe it either…"

"So you really know them?" somebody else wanted to know, "I always thought that music-video was green-screen and you never met them in person…"

"You really have never told them about it?" Rico asked Sarah, regarding to that last question.

"Do you really think they would have believed me?" she asked back with a big grin at her class.

"So…you all know them personally?" one of the little bunny boys summed it up.

Rico just nodded with a little smile.

"How good do you know them?" Lily wanted to know.

"Pretty good I would say, they are very lovely…" Rico answered, "Would you guys be excited to get to know them as well?"

"Yes! That would be soo cool!" one of the little sheep girls told him with excitement, "There is so much I want to ask them! That fight was so awesome…and…and Judy must be so nice…my mom told me about it…"

"Oh, and about the SMA show!" the little vixen in the front row added.

Judy almost giggled a little because of hearing that, predictably. But the class was not to be stopped anymore.

"And about that video at the gala! He got hit with tranquilizer darts and didn´t pass out because of it!" the little wolf in the row right in front of us added.

"What about the music video of ´Pyro Heart´ that Judy directed?" Rico asked them with an amused smile.

"Oh, and about that new super-car they have!"

Rico just smiled at me and Judy right now. The little Tiger who asked that last question was sitting just in the row in front of us as well.

"Alright, guys! I have a little surprise for you" Rico told them with an excited little smile, "…why don't you turn around for a second? Because now is your chance to get to know them."

Pretty much the whole class turned around after he said it, and now they all stared at us in pure disbelief and awe.

"Oh my god!" one of them yelled out in surprise, just before she covered her mouth with her paws, "Have they been listening for this whole time?"

I just winked her with a little smile, and it seemed like she was just about to pass out.

"Aww" Judy chuckled excitedly, "Christian, your class is so lovely!"

"Aren´t they?" Sarah asked with an excited chuckle.

They still kept staring at us with big eyes and happy expressions.

I thought I would just join Rico at the teacher´s desk for now and went on my way slowly. The pupils still were too speechless to say anything right now.

"By the way" I told him to fill the time, "Rico, that new song is bloody awesome! Wasn´t it, guys?"

Now that seemed to have taken their shyness a little. They all loudly supported what I said.

"Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!"

"When are you going to record that?" Judy wanted to know. She was on her way towards the teacher´s desk as well now, and they all stared at her with gleaming eyes as well. She gave everybody little smiles on her way and her magic worked just as well on them as it did on me every single day.

"I´m not quite sure" Rico answered with an amused chuckle, "Probably tomorrow, if Ben finds time for it…"

POV Lily Otterton

I was just so in love. With Rico for coming, with Christian for making all this possible and with this whole day in general. I really was in the same room as Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. And they were just so nice to us as well.

Nick had joined Rico at the teacher´s desk in the meanwhile, Judy had stopped besides Sarah for a moment and was just casually talking to her.

Judy was just such a beautiful and inspiring woman to me. My parents had told me so much about her already. My mom knew her even before he became famous for solving the night-howlers case, but she never met her again ever since. I thought she was just the coolest girl I had ever seen.

"Hey Rico" she asked him now with a little giggle, "Who had told you to stop playing music for us by the way? I really enjoyed that…"

He just shrugged his shoulders with a little smile, "Haven´t you heard enough of it yet?" he asked back in amusement.

"There could never be enough of your music, buddy" Nick chuckled, "I could listen to it all day long."

"Oh, but there never could be enough videos of you guys beating up the bad-guys either…just to be fair…"

"Isn´t that what your sports-lesson will be about anyway?" Sarah asked with a little chuckle.

"Wow!" one if my classmates said excitedly, "Really?"

Rico now raised one of his paws quickly. "I don't want to be the bad-guy then!" he said ironically.

"Oh Rico" Judy grinned, "I think you´re the worst of them all!"

"O-officer Hopps?" another classmate of me shyly, who was a bunny for himself, asked her shyly, "Can we ask you some questions as well, please?"

"Yeah, of course you can ask us!" she affirmed with a welcoming smile.

"Is it really true that you really are from Bunnyburrow?" he wanted to know, "B-because I have an uncle who lives there and we visit him on vacation sometimes…"

"Yeah, my whole family lives there" she told him with a happy smile, "But I´m not sure if I´m familiar with everyone who lives there, because there surely live a lot of bunnies…"

"Oh, this is so cool!" he said nevertheless, "I always love visiting that place!"

"I love it too" Judy told him, "I´m already going on Nick´s nerves to visit them in the near future…" she chuckled. "But he´s still afraid of getting overrun by all my siblings…"

"Yeah, yeah…" Nick sighed with a little smile while we all were laughing about it.

I just loved this so much. They were so down to earth about their fame.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" another student wanted to know from her, "Is that part of the police training?"

"Parts of it, yeah. But quite a lot of it came from my personal work-out…"
"I´ve heard people saying that you actually are stronger than officer Wilde" somebody else asked her, "Is that really true?"

Nick couldn't help but grin a little at that question.

"Well, I wouldn´t say I am physically stronger" she chuckled, "…but…"

"…but she would totally destroy me in a fight" Nick got to the point with a big smile, "I´m pretty sure that´s what he meant…"

"One thing I can tell you for sure" Rico chuckled, "It´s not a clever idea to mess with any of them…"

"Can you teach us how to fight as well?" Billy wanted to know.

Now I really wanted to know what would happen. I guessed that Nick and Judy must have noticed how much of a nuisance that badger was.

"Well…" Nick smiled at him, "…depends what you would use those skills for in the end…because if you just use them to annoy or bully your classmates, that would be quite a waste."

That shut him up for dead right now. Nick and Judy had obviously been listening to the whole conversation earlier. Probably Sarah had even told them about him. I was so happy about it in any case. He just deserved it. Nick just gave him one more little wink and then let it be like that.

"O-officer Wilde?" Ava now asked him shyly.

"Yeah?" he asked with a friendly smile.

"Can I ask…how did you do that with the tranquilizer darts?"

"You mean not becoming unconscious from them?"

"Yes."

"I´m immune to those now as it turned out. When I got poisoned with the night-howler´s serum in the ZPD briefing-room, Judy had to hit me with seven of those darts in order to calm me down from my rage. Now something in my blood has changed and it doesn´t affect me anymore…"

"Wow, that is soo cool!"

"That´s like a secret superpower!" somebody else told him excitedly, "Well…only that it´s not secret anymore…"

That was just as funny as it was obvious. Not even Nick could hide a little smile about it.

"Yeah, it´s not a secret anymore, is it?" he chuckled.

"You think we could get as cool as you one day too?"

"Oh, of course you can!" Nick told her, "The coolest thing you can do in my opinion is treat people nicely. You don't need any special skill for being an awesome person."
"Yeah" Judy agreed, "That really is the most important thing."

"That´s the reason why they all are here today by the way" Christian told us, "Because they just are really nice and friendly! That´s really what brings you the furthest in life."

To support what she said, Rico pointed at me with a little smile. "It was because of Lily, mainly. She simply was friendly to me…"

I felt so incredibly honoured when he said that. Now I suddenly wasn´t the biggest loser in the class anymore. Now I was one of the cool guys.

The time was just flying by since Rico was here. He, Nick and Judy told us a lot of funny stories, made selfies with us, answered all our questions, and in the end it wasn´t really that much of a music lesson anymore. But it was awesome nevertheless, and the day didn´t even end there. For the first time in quite a while, I was excited for the sport-lessons we had on Wednesdays. There was just another stupid break of half an hour in-between, which felt like an eternity again, but eventually that time went past as well.

POV Ava

I just couldn't stop staring at them. When we entered the sports-hall after the lunch-break, Nick, Judy, Rico and Christian where already waiting for us. Except for Rico, they all wore sporty outfits when they waited for us in the hall, and they built a parkour-course for us as it turned out. We never changed our clothing for the sport lessons quicker before. This time, not a single one of my classmates complained about the warm-up Christian always did. Nick and Judy even joined in on it and did the same things as everybody else. It just was so awesome that they did the same stuff normal people like us did.

"Alright, listen up, guys!" Nick told us while we all did a few push-ups to get warmed up, "I want you all to have fun today! You can do any stage of the course you like, or you just skip them. That's totally up to you. I don't want to see anybody laughing at anybody else, that´s the only rule. Whoever laughs at somebody for whatever it is, they a special challenge from me afterwards, and we all get to watch them doing it. Alright?"

"Oh yeah?" Rico panted, struggling with the push-ups as well in the meanwhile, just like the rest of us, "And what does a Nick Wilde-challenge look like?"

"That´s gonna be exhausting, trust me…" Nick chuckled, still doing push-ups at the same pace as earlier. The rest of us was heavily panting and laying on the floor by now, "…you´ll have to do what Judy does to me in training every day."

Considering what he was able to do, I doubt that that was an over-exaggeration from him. Judy just giggled a little about it, still doing push-ups with him as well.

"Oh, come on, Nicky! That´s not too much of a challenge, is it?"

Even Rico had surrendered on the warm-up in the meanwhile, and now only Christian was still with them. I´ve never actually seen him run out of breath, but that slowly but surely brought him to his limit as well.

"Oh wow" he panted a little while later, "I think we´re warmed-up now!"

It was funny to see him struggling as well for once.

"Okay" Judy agreed, "I guess you´re right. So… Nick?" she asked him then, "What are we doing today?"

The cute red fox with the blue shorts and white muscle-shirt now got off the floor as well and went on his way to the start-line of the parkour, which has been marked with two orange cones. I just couldn´t get my eyes off the toned muscles under his beautiful red fur. Somehow, I really wished that he would take his shirt off right now. I wanted to see the big scar on his back which everybody had been talking about…and some other things as well. In person it looked even better than on my notebook. I had looked it up on the internet when my parents weren't at home once, and it repeatedly was kind of getting me excited ever since. I couldn´t stop thinking about it anymore. Luckily, I wasn't the only one staring.

"Alright" Nick announced, "So…Christian just showed me this once…and…well… I´m going to try my best now…I guess"

Then he began and walked up to the first obstacle of the course. There stood a few pull-up bars in a row and the challenge was to swing from the first one to the next one without touching the ground with your feet. Those pull-up bars were in a height of over two meters, and there was a little box you could step on in order to be able to reach it. But he just did a very high jump and calmly grabbed the bar with one of his paws in mid-air. He pulled himself up with ease and reached out for the next one. It looked too easy, nearly.

When he had reached the last bar, he catapulted himself highly into the air suddenly, did a back-flip and landed perfectly on the next wooden crate that stood behind the obstacle. He got down from it and immediately accelerated to jump onto the trampoline which sent him flying on one of the very high boxes once again. From there he took the rope-swing that hung from the ceiling and passed that next obstacle with ease as well. It didn´t look impossible to do, but his performance surely was impressive. The course had a few different routes with different difficulties so everybody had a chance of passing it, but to him even the hard stunts seemed more like a warm-up than a challenge. When he arrived at the finish-line just a few moments later, he still looked quite relaxed actually. Just like on TV, he wasn´t even out of breath after all that action. Just how was he doing that?

It really looked like a lot of fun when he did it though. I even considered trying that as well without the need of Christian motivating me to.

We all were clapping for Nick in total excitement, while he just pointed at the course with a motivating grin.

"That really is fun" he chuckled then, "You guys have to try that as well!" he told us.

But the most of us still hesitated for another moment after that performance of him. I guessed mostly because we didn´t want to shame ourselves.

"Well, it looks awfully easy when you do it…" Rico chuckled, when he voluntarily began walking towards the start-line for himself.

"Give me a guitar and we´ll end up with the same result…" Nick grinned back at him.

Rico just nodded with a little smile, then he began trying his best on the parkour as well.

I still couldn´t stop myself from staring at Nick right now. This was just so fascinating from every angle.

My parents had been talking about this before. They said I would be pretty interested in boys once I would be in the right age for it, and that time has come as it looked like. All this was just so interesting all over sudden. Just a few days ago, when my parents both weren´t at home, I finally found an uncensored version of the SMA show online and right on watched it a few times in a row because it was so exciting. I´ve seen my dad naked on accident once, when I went into the bathroom without knocking, but I was by far younger back then. I pretty much just covered my eyes and screamingly ran out of the bathroom. Now I knew exactly what a naked male fox looked like. I´ve done quite a bit of research since I saw that SMA video. And now he was standing right here in front of us, just like that. Good thing he didn´t know that I knew what he looked like naked as well, I would sink into the ground of shame if he should find out about it. This exciting feeling has just been coming up again, and now I really hoped that nobody would notice it. My lower regions felt a little tingly once again.

Rico did not too bad on the parkour either, but he certainly lacked a lot of body strength when comparing him to Nick. It still looked like he had quite a lot of fun doing it though.

Then Judy also motivated us to have a go as well, slowly but surely, one after one, my classmates formed a line behind the starting point of the parkour and went for it as well.

But Lily and I found the two foxes much more exciting than the parkour stuff. Now I just noticed that Rico had prepared a little setup of an electric guitar, some sort of pedal setup and a fender-amp here in the sports-hall and was just searching for a power-outlet on the wall. Christian knew where they were hidden and helped him quickly. Lily and I checked out if we could help him as well, just because we wanted to be friendly of course.

"Oh hey, guys" Rico greeted happily, when he noticed us standing nearby.

"Hi" Lily greeted back happily.

"So…I guess you were equally surprised on Saturday when Nick and Judy suddenly arrived totally fine and saved the day once again?" Rico asked Lily with a little wink.

"Yeah!" she answered, "I was so happy when I saw it! I never imagined for this to be a giant prank!"

"I think Nick really owes us something for shocking us like that, doesn´t he?" he asked with another little smile. I just noticed that Nick had joined us as well in the meanwhile.

"Yeah!" Lily agreed boldly, "Would be only fair for that shock he gave us…"

"Guess you´re right" Nick chuckled in amusement, "That really was a little rude from us, wasn´t it?"

Rico had plugged everything into his amp by now and tested the stings of the electric guitar quickly.

"You play electric guitar too?" I asked him excitedly, just because I wanted to get to that topic again.

"Is there a song you really like?" he asked me in return.

"Any?"

"Any" he affirmed with a little smile.

"Can you…can you play something from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers?" I asked shyly, "I´m trying to learn ´snow´ at the moment…but it´s like...so hard…"

"Oh, that´s a good choice" Nick agreed with my suggestion, "I´d like to hear that as well, please" he supported my idea.

Rico just nodded with a little smile and got the strap of the guitar around his neck.

"Oh my god" I whispered towards Lily, "If he plays that right now...I…"

Just with another little wink he started playing exactly what I´ve been practicing at home in the last two weeks, only that it just sounded just perfectly when he played it. I was just focussed on his beautiful paws playing the strings and tried to memorize his technique as closely as possible. I never saw anybody who controlled a guitar as well as he did.

I was so in love right now. I just couldn´t help but shiver in excitement. Not only did he play that very beautiful melody on the guitar and somehow created a beat with his feet pedals, he also knew the lyrics and began singing to it with his breath-taking voice. I really hoped that nobody noticed that my eyes were watering slowly, but I just couldn´t help myself.

Very quickly Lily and I weren´t the only ones standing near him anymore. I Just noticed that Miss Veltri had joined us with the parallel-class in the meanwhile, which had a sport-lesson too but in the other, smaller part of the sports-hall, but now couldn´t hide their curiosity anymore. I was fine with that though. It just wouldn't be fair if only us were allowed to spend time with them.

"Look" Lily suddenly pointed out for me with a little giggle.

She pointed at Sarah and Christian, who just joined us near Rico as well and now began dancing with each other to his music slowly. I´ve rarely witnessed something as cool as that from any teacher before. We all started clapping and cheering for them in excitement, but they both just smiled happily about it.

Now I noticed that he was nearly done with the song, but since he didn´t want to bring down the mood for us just now, he smoothly changed to some different, somewhat more powerful chords, and I immediately recognized that song as well. He played "Boulevard of broken Dreams" by Green Day now, and I was not the only one who really liked it. Our teacher Sarah threw some kisses at him when she noticed his change of music and he winked her shortly. I never knew that my teacher liked Green Day as well, but why would I know something like that in the first place? I thought it was awesome nevertheless.

I wasn´t quite sure if that sports-lesson turned out as planned originally, but it was not like any of us disliked it. Now Judy had joined us here as well, gently grabbed Nick´s paw with hers and began dancing with him as well. I just couldn´t believe my eyes anymore. This was everything I ever dreamed for.

It was so much fun watching them and listening to Mr. Capaldi´s amazing music.

Lily suddenly rattled my shoulders with a motivating little smile. I hesitated for a little second. I was pretty sure I knew what she was trying to tell me. She wanted to join them dancing in a pair with me. Since the both of us were and still are in the same dance-club for over three years already, we both weren´t actually that bad at it for ourselves, but we agreed on never showing or telling it to any of our classmates, in order not to get laughed at. Now it felt just right though. I rarely met anybody who was that nice to us, and because Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps were nice to us, nobody could judge us for it anyways. I blindly trusted her, and faster than I could look we were in between them and began moving to the music just like our teachers and the two biggest heroes of the city. And it just was fine like that. I didn´t care about anybody who stared at us, their opinions just didn´t matter anymore. That was such a nice feeling. I was so happy we did this, and It all worked out much better than I anticipated. None of them really were professional dancers in the first place, so Lily and I easily could keep up with them, and Christian looked rather impressed by our dancing even. He probably wasn´t expecting this, comparing it to our usual sport-grades.

Soon later, we all suddenly switched our dancing partners, and now I was dancing with Christian and Lily was dancing with none other than the Nick Wilde. Even our teachers were cool with it. This was without a doubt the best day of my life.

Soon later we switched again and I was dancing paw in paw with Judy now. This was just so much fun. Her beautiful purple eyes and that little smile just lifted my mood even more.

Some of my other classmates really looked a little jealous all over sudden, and although Nick and Judy probably wouldn´t have minded about it anyway, they were too shy to join us. I didn´t complain though, because therefore Lily and I had all the fun for ourselves. After the next switch of dancing-partners I was dancing with Nick for myself. It just kept getting more and more exciting. He was so enthusiastic and powerful, jet so incredibly smooth and gentle that I didn´t really want to let go of him anymore.

I still was with Nick when Rico was done with his second song as well, and this time he stopped playing for a moment and let the strings fade out very slowly.

"Yeah!" Nick yelled excitedly, "That was awesome!"

I just remained smiling at him in pure happiness. I took a quick look over to Lily, and she was just as happy as I about it.

Now the whole sports-hall was filled with excited clapping and cheering. Since the parallel-class had noticed who our guests were today, the hype was unstoppable. It took quite a while until it all calmed down a little.

"Wow" Christian now chuckled, "Now I know what I got to do more in my sports lessons! Lily, Ava, you´re both getting an A for that, that´s for sure! I really wasn´t expecting that from the both of you! You are talented!"

"That´s what I´m talking about!" Nick told us contentedly, "Great job you two!"

"This was so much fun!" Judy agreed, "I could to this all day long!"

I was just so in love with the world right now. This made it up for all the bad days in school I had before. I still couldn´t quite believe my luck. Not only did I meet all of my biggest Idols in person today, I also got to chat and even dance with them as well. This could be the longest school day of my life, and I wouldn´t care a damn about it. I just had so much fun.

"Mr. Capaldi" someone from the parallel-class asked him, "Could you play Pyro Heart for us, please?"

A lot of people agreed with him right away quite noticeably.

"Hmm…" Rico began thinking, looking down at the electric guitar hanging from his neck, "What about a rock-version of that?" he asked him then, "Would that be an alternative?"
There wasn´t even a need to wait for our answer. The answer was obvious.

"Oh Lily" I told her, when she joined me besides Nick and Judy once again, "I love you so much for this! I´m sorry I ever doubted you!"

She simply hugged me with a happy little smirk, and just a moment later Rico began playing on his guitar once again. My life was complete now.

I just grabbed her paws and began dancing with her once again. I had to enjoy the good things while they were lasting, so we had to make every minute count. This was the best day of my life.

Sorry it took so long, hope you still enjoyed it a little ;)

~furr