Well, here I go. Despite all my pleading and wheedling, we've still gone ahead and done it. We're moving, hooray! And lest I forget to mention, today is my first day at my new school.

For that, all I have is two words: oh, joy.

Note the sarcasm.

Look, I don't get what's so hard about this. I had the perfect setup back home- friends who actually respected me for who I was, not a common occurrence; a great school, the works. But nooo, Mom and Dad just had to blow it. You have everything all lined up perfectly, then it just comes crashing down on you. Hard.

Look, Dad. I love you, but sometimes, you try a little too hard. Yes, you heard me correctly. If you know anything about me, it's that I, Judith Elizabeth Wilde, never, never, never give up on anything. Never. But this is the one time in my life where I am. Bottom line is, before Mom had her 'accident,' we were hauling in money left and right, not an easy task for a predator tailor living in the slums euphemistically called "Happytown."

Oh, just a note. In this part of the city, a "drive-through" is not a place where you get cheap, greasy food. It's nothing that positive. It's a weekly occurrence, not on one side of the law or the other. That's what you get for living here- the so-called police do nothing to stop them.

But what's "them?"

Oh, just the shootings. There's a hole in my left ear for a reason, you know. At least I'll get to get away from those. And no, I don't mean a drive-by shooting. Oh, no. These are worse. Much worse. Try an entire gang with tommycat guns and assault rifles. Then send them down the busiest street in town at high noon.

Unluckily for my mom, noon's when she goes her lunch break at the bank. Normally, she stays a little late at the bank to avoid trouble, but that day was different- Dad's shop was having an up month, one of the first in years where we were in the green, and Dad decided that that was cause to celebrate, and he decided to treat Mom out to lunch that day, so she was walking down Pride Street towards Tony's, where she was going to meet Dad.

The one good thing- good thing, hah!- about the shootings was that they were always along the same road, Pawedway, and at the same time, noon. Well, it just so happened that this was the day that the gangsters decided to change their route.

Mom was completely unprepared for what happened- no warning, no time to get inside to safety. She was comparatively lucky, most of the mammals who were caught in the crossfire died. She survived, but as she cowered in an alleyway, shielding her face with her paws, a bullet came flying down the alley and hit her in her wrists- in through the right, out through the left. If that piece of lead had been any higher, it would have hit her in the head and have severed her ulnar arteries. It missed those, but hit the tendons instead.

It wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't a predator family. Maybe we could've gotten insurance, maybe that insurance would've paid for the surgery, but nope, not a chance in the world of that happening. That accident cost us our livelihood, our hopes and dreams, and thousands upon thousands of zoolars. Way too many zoolars…

Well, since the insurance company wouldn't bite, the debt collectors did. Hard. And so, without a say in the matter, here we go…

First steps into this new adventure, and…

"Hey, I didn't know rabbits came with whiskers! You look like a cat, idiot. Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!"

Of course, there are always the idiots. Yes, I have whiskers; had them implanted to "blend in," per se, as hybrids, though rare in Zootopia, are not unheard of. With these, I look like a hybrid, rather than an adoptee rabbit. Of course, foxes are almost unheard of here in Podunk, where as it's the opposite in the city.

Well, not Podunk, that's in Deerbrooke County, but you know what I mean.

"Hey, cat, are you deaf, or just plain too stupid to realize I'm talking to you?"

I was about to turn around and give whatever mammal it was a piece of my mind when I heard another voice pipe up.

"It's you who's stupid, buster. Can't you see she's ignoring you? She probably thinks that talking to you would lower her IQ. Now, buzz off, and leave us be."

"Or what, huh?"

"Or you'll be Patchy the Pirate from here on out. Go on, try me. I promise, you won't like it one bit."

I turned around, expecting my benefactor to be another rabbit. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was a fox. He looked about my age, too. I wonder what he's doing out here in the sticks. I wonder what I'm doing out in the sticks. "You alright? That guy's a prick."

"Uh…"

"Cat got your tongue? My name's Nick Hopps, what's yours?"

"Judith Wilde. Can't say I was expecting to encounter another fox out here. The only ones I know, besides my parents, are the Greys."

"I can say I was expecting to find other bunnies-"

"Rabbits, please. Calling us bunnies makes us seem all cute and fluffy and defenseless."

"Aren't you though?"

"Take a look at my feet. You tell me whether we're really cute and defenseless."

"Good point. But as I was saying, what are you doing with foxes for parents?"

"My mom had to give me up, or so that's what I was told. Not enough money. I could ask the same about you…"

"My mom found me swaddled in an alley. She was broke, but she couldn't leave me there."

"You know, our stories are really similar…"

"I was just thinking that myself."

"Kids! We're here! Get off."

"Guess I'll talk to you later then, Nick."

"Bye, Judy- do you mind if I call you that?"

"No, and you know what, I like it. Bye, Nick."

"Bye, Judy."

"See you after school. I'm looking forward to it."

"You know what, Judy? Me too."