"Ugh, I still can't believe that I got us both suspended. No, scratch that, not even suspended, really. More like expelled, if I'm being completely honest with myself. Oh, sweet Karma, I'm sorry, Nick. I didn't mean it, I mean, I just...I…" she trailed off, at a complete loss for words.

"What do we do now?"

'Well, here's the thing, Judy- it's okay, and it always has been, and always will be," I said, my tail wrapping around the part of her legs that were dangling off the side of my bed. We had been up here for about half an hour now, and as soon as I had passed the threshold, I had burst right into tears. God, foxes are so emotional, and living with a rabbit doesn't help anything.

"Sappy fox. Gah, Nick, you're nuts."

"You know you love me," I said, and I hoped desperately that Judy could tell that I was yanking her chain. Yes. it looked like I was making her smirk, but there was something else in her look, too...

"You're insufferable," she snapped back. "But answer me, darn it, and quit stalling- what are we going to do about this, huh?"

"Good question, Judy, and while we've been sitting here, I think that I may have gotten an Idea."

"Did I just sense a capital 'I' in Idea, Nick? As we both know, those never turn out well," she said, pulling out her carrot pen. "If that Idea is to topple the school, I'd be more than glad to help. While the principal was ranting at us, I was recording everything in secret. Well, almost everything. I had to pretend that I was paying attention to Mister McKenna's rant while fumbling in my pocket, so I didn't get everything, but I did get most of it…"

"Play it, Judy, I want to hear. Pleeeaaaseeee?"

"Silly fox. Yes, I'll play it," she said, and Mister McKenna's tinny voice came out of the pen's speaker.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't our troublemakers. Well, Leodore, since you don't have tenure, and you've just wound up the entire school, it looks to me like this is the last time we'll be needing your services. Good day, good bye, you're fired!"

It was then that I noticed the almost dare-I-say it- sly grin on her face. Sweet Celestials, that bunny is more fox than I am, and I'm the actual fox!

"Okay, then, Judy, what are we going to do about this? I suppose that if we were to bring this rather incriminating, shall we say, evidence in front of the school board, then we might get some support…"

"That's a great idea, Judy, except for the fact that both the superintendent and the principal sit that board, they're never, never, never going to listen to a violet-eyed fox that acts more like a bunny and an emerald-eyed rabbit that acts more like a fox. Stereotypes are nasty, and the school board is a group of the most bigoted mammals you've ever met."

"I take it that you've had run-ins with them before, then?"

"Well, you have no clue how much of a fight Mom had to put up to even get me admitted to this school. 'But he's a fox,' they'd said. 'He could just go savage at any minute and eat us,' they said, as if they'd forgotten that that so-called 'savage' instinct is long gone. Besides,' my mom had said, 'hadn't they led Gideon go to school, and he was a known bully,'" I said, pointing to the three thin scars on my cheek. When I was in second grade, my class put on a play about the issue of stereotypes, only it wasn't quite about how to break them down, but did we really know any better?

"No, I can't say we did, because the whole thing was about the world being divided into two: meek prey, and vicious predator. Me, I thought it was great at the time, because although I wasn't the mammal who wrote it, I was just happy that I got a part. I was a bit torn up about the whole thing, though, because I had to be the 'vicious predator,' which meant that I had to attack the lead, who was Sharla. I knew it just was another reinforcement of the stereotypes, except I wasn't quite old enough to think like that quite yet. I just knew in my gut that this whole thing didn't feel quite right, but again, I was just happy to be included for once.

Well, everything went well until the end of the play. The directors thought it would be smart for us to tell the audience what we wanted to be when we grew up, and I already knew what that was going to be. In fact, I can remember the exact thing I said. I was the last one up, and everyone had already gone (Well, except for Gideon, he never did anything with us back then.), and I told the world that I was going to be a police officer. Oh, I was so proud of myself, and I knew I could do it. Well, Gideon was there, watching the play, but he didn't say anything like I was expecting him to."

My paw went to the scratches on my cheek without realizing, and I heard Judy take in a sharp breath next to me. "Yeah, Judy, you guessed right. I take it you noticed these, then," I said, spreading my fingers apart to show the three thin lines over my cheek.

"Yes, Nick, I did," she said. "Was that Gideon?"

"Yes, yes, it was. I caught him picking on Sharla and her brother Gareth right after we had finished the play. He had both of them behind a tree, threatening them and trying to take their festival tickets- this was right during our annual Carrot Days festival- and I told him to knock it off. One fox to another, that was exactly what he shouldn't be doing, because then how were were foxes ever going to be seen as more than just crooks?

"He told me, and I quote, 'What in the world makes you think I care?' Then he shoved me in the dirt, spat in my face, then scratched me and smashed my glasses. I tried to push him off, but he was so heavy, and I just couldn't push him off. I had to fight back for who knows how long until someone noticed and came to pull him off of me. By that time, I had this set of scars on my face, plus two broken arms, a broken snout...You name it, chances are, I had it.

Needless to say, though, Mom was furious beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Her only son, being beaten within an inch of his life, and for what? Carnival tickets? I did get them from him, though. They found them in my pocket in the hospital, a bill we're still trying to pay off.

I sighed. "Look, Judy, before earlier today, I hadn't caused a day of trouble in my life, and now how much do you want to bet that the school would love to have me expelled? Or better yet, expel me and force me to wear a shock collar. Yeah, that seems about right, I think. A bunny- sorry, rabbit causes trouble, and they don't have any problem with that, not really, but a fox? Oh, no, he has to go-"

"Great point, there, Nick," she said, effectively cutting off my rant, "but what are you going to do about it? Besides, aren't those abominations illegal?"

"If, Judy, by illegal, you mean quasi-required for all predators over sixteen, then yes." As soon as I said that, I could see the shock on her face, mixed with straight unbridled anger, ready to blow. I put my paws over my ears, knowing that, based on the scowl that was growing on her face, she was going to explode.

Oh, crap.

"Whaaaaaat?! Are you crazy? You can't be serious, can you? But then why aren't my parents wearing them?"

I answered her questions in the order they came: "Yes, Judy, I am crazy, yes, I am serious, and your parents don't have to wear them yet. That law isn't yet legal nationwide, but I had to do a project on them last year. I found out that Bunnyburrow, in particular, as well as Zootopia Proper, are pushing the law through Congress. So far, it's passed all levels of government and is just waiting for the Council's and the Mayor's joint approval. Seeing as there have been national protests about this whole thing, I don't know how willing Mayor Bellwether is to force the issue, but I think she might be ready to drag it out, seeing as the mammals of the city forced interspecies marriage through on her. A blow for a blow, as the expression goes. In that case, I have to wear one, Gideon does, and so do Jimmy Wolford, my parents, Mister Lionheart…. Reverse civil rights, if you will."

"We have to do something about this, Nick, and do it NOW! Come on, how did I not know that? I should have known that, I lived there for nearly fifteen years. How? Did? I? Not? Know? What is wrong with that city so that they feel like they can't reveal the whole truth? Maybe they believe that we'll riot. Come to think of it, we probably will! MOM!" she nearly shouted, hurting my already sensitive ears, and based on what I've heard about rabbit ears, I don't suppose hers fared much better. "Mo-om?!"

Mrs. Wilde came running, a panicked expression on her muzzle. "What? What is it, Judy? Are you hurt? Is everything okay? Is-?"

"Mom," Judy said, cutting her mother off, "Nick just told me that in Zootopia, predators are going to have to wear collars, and…," she trailed off, letting the sentence hang. "Is that true?"

"Yes, Judy," Mrs. Wilde sighed, "it is. They're supposed to suppress 'predatory instincts,' but that's just a crock of bull. No offense to bulls, that is. What they really do is shut down any emotion whatsoever- joy, sadness, anger, anything. They all get zapped out of you. Here's the worst part, though- most mammals can't stand the shocks, so the either go crazy and, well," she dragged her finger across her throat, "or ball up their emotions until it all explodes out of them, and then the collar shocks them so badly that they have a heart attack. They're nasty, I would know."

"How?" I asked, intrigued and interested to know more.

"Well, when John and I first met, it was at a predator rights rally about two decades ago. We were protesting how all predators were treated like scum, worth no more than their pelt. You wouldn't believe the trade in fur that there is in the undergrounds of Zootopia. Dead mammals, murdered mammals mostly, are often skinned for rugs. It's actually the city's biggest trade, fur. Disgusting, absolutely, but it needs to be known.

"Anyway, we went to this rally to protest the issue, and the police, all prey mammals, mind you, came in with tear gas and smoke grenades, plus some sound grenades, which are especially horrible on a canid's ears, then they rounded us all up and arrested us. We were shipped off to the penitentiary that's just outside of the Meadowlands, and we all got collars clipped around our necks. No trial, no sentencing, no anything. It was three years later when we finally got out, and there's another feature to those collars that's the worst of all, and that's scheduled shocks. Instead of clocks in prisons- predator-only, mind you, they set up the collars to shock the wearer at set times every day. If I were capable of absorbing all of that charge, I think that I would be able to power the city of Zootopia for about a year. I really don't want to talk about it, but I needed you mammals to know. It's you who can truly make a change."

"I swear," I said. "Do you swear the same, Judy? Abolish the collars? Even better, come join the force with me when we're old enough?"

"You have my promise," she said. It was just then that Mom came through the door, setting the hinges creaking.

"I hate to interrupt was seems to be a very deep conversation," she said, "but the school board sent a letter. They're subpoenaing you both to the next district court session."

"Oh," Judy and I said in unison. "That's not good."