Chapter 4, Down the Rabbit Burrow: I walked over to the campus police. The buck smiled and waved at us.
"Thinking about transferring over to campus police duty?" The deer asked.
I laughed a little at that. "No, we just wanted to know how did you get campus police duty?" I asked.
"We trained for it. It's just our training is different from yours." Answered the wolf.
"Yeah, we went to Zootopia Police Academy, but we didn't do any of the districts. Recruits at the academy like to joke that campus police training is Zootopia police training on easy mode." The deer said.
"It is not easy. We still have to fight a large criminal, and even though we don't run any districts we have to complete an obstacle course with every element." The rabbit said.
"We have one obstacle course, but we have to complete it dry, wet, during a sandstorm, and during a snowstorm." The bear said.
"Unlike you guys, you just had to run through a sandstorm. We had to run through it with stuff that was in our way. I died so many times." The rabbit laughed.
"I personally thought running through a sandstorm was fun," Aiden said.
"Honestly, I think I would take going through an obstacle course in the snow rather than climbing a wall of ice," I said.
"The ice wasn't that bad," Aiden said.
"You have claws and paws Aiden," I said.
"It's not as easy as it sounds. When they blow snow on that course it can get really slippery, especially if you have hooves. I lost my antlers during that part," He laughed a little at that. I could see why having to do districts would be unnecessary for campus police. Their only posts were on college grounds. One obstacle course would be enough training. They probably had to master every element just in case the college they were assigned to was in one of those districts.
"Good thing you enrolled in fall." The wolf said.
"It still hurt like crazy though." The deer replied. "Sorry, I'm Stagg." He said to us.
"Bouncer." The jackrabbit said.
"Grayson." The wolf said.
"Grizzly." The bear said.
By how the names sounded I assumed that they were introducing themselves by their last names. "Broncco." I said.
"Cackle," Aiden said.
"Nice meeting you both." The deer smiled.
"Do you happen to know any of the students here?" I asked.
"Well, Bouncer here knows Jacqueline," Stagg said.
"I do! We're cousins! She moved back to Bunnyburrow to finish the rest of the semester online after some disagreement, I use that term loosely. With her now ex-boyfriend. I personally don't like the dude. He has a whacked-out conspiracy that campus police are out to hurt predator students,"
"What's the name of her ex?" Asked Aiden.
"His name is Antonio something, I forgot his last name. He's a coyote," Bouncer answered.
"Did she tell you anything about leaving with a jackal?" I asked.
"Deborah? She said that she was going to stay temporarily, I think it had something to do with studying plants. I hope she's okay. Her brother doesn't like predators. I told her that she could have Deborah stay with my family for a bit if John ever comes back." Bouncer said. There had to be a reason why Deborah is missing, but Jacqueline is not.
"Thank you so much," I said.
"Anytime!" Bouncer replied. I got into the passenger seat while Aiden got into the driver's side.
"Are you going to talk about what's bothering you now?" I asked.
"I was just shocked hearing about Deborah, her family, the weight loss pills, and it's just unbelievable the way Nessa treats her," Aiden said.
"If they were friends since they were little like Nessa said, maybe she felt like she was stuck in the friendship. Plus she's living on a big campus and the mammal she only knows is Nessa. My sister was the same way with her ex-fiance. She felt alone in the big city and was scared to leave him because she hardly knew anyone." I said.
"I know. It's just one of those things that's hard to take in." He starts the car.
"Deborah likes you," I said. I thought I should at least bring up his mood. Aiden was surprised. "Really?"
"That's all I'm going to tell you what was in her diary. But she really does." I said.
Aiden smiled at that as he drove to the train station. I paid for two tickets to Bunnyburrow at the window. I sat next to Aiden who was sitting on one of the benches. A train that was heading to Foal Farms was leaving the station. My mind drifted back to when I was a foal. I was holding my mom's hoof as we walked through the apple festival. Foal Farms had an apple festival every fall. That was when the apples were in peak harvest. My mother would buy me a caramel apple, we should share an apple cinnamon funnel cake. Those funnel cakes were huge. She would put me on rides except for bumper cars I had cried one time after that ride, she never made me do it again. We would then play games, she never let me bob for apples though. I never understood why until I got older. That game is pretty unsanitary when you think about it. The train to Bunnyburrow pulled up in front of us, we got up and entered the train.
"I had never been outside of Zootopia before," Aiden said.
"The country isn't that bad. It's really quiet, and it's beautiful at night. You can actually see stars." I said.
"You can see stars in Zootopia," Aiden said.
"But you can't see a sky full of them. I can take you to see it sometime if you want." I said.
"I was curious to see what Foal Farms looked like,"
"Is eighty percent horses, fifteen percent other prey, and five percent predators. There's also a lot of apple orchards." I said.
"Are apples the only thing that grows there?"
"No, other stuff grows there as well. It's mainly apples however, you could say carrots come second."
"Not surprised," Aiden said. I playfully nudged him with my hoof and he nudged me back.
I watched the scenery from the window as it went from urban to rural. I looked back at the time when I took the train to Zootopia to meet my then-fiance. It was such a rush, riding on the train and seeing Zootopia for the first time. It was so new, it felt magical I must admit.
I later thought about my time in high school. I was a freshman. There was a beautiful dappled palomino who was a senior. I still remember her name, Dotty. I secretly called her Spotty Dotty. She was a teaching assistant for my class. I had given her my phone number we sometimes talked to each other. I had given her a container full of sugar cubes. It was a pink ceramic container with white polka dots. When I heard there was a prom coming up I thought she was going to take me. She went with an Appaloosa that was in her class. You could say that was a buck in the face. I don't know how long I cried about it at home. My mother was cruel about it too.
"She's a mare! You're still a colt! Why would she want anything to do with you!?" My mother had yelled. She wasn't wrong. Why would a senior girl date a freshman boy? She didn't have to be mean about it though.
Dotty had thought I was more mature than any freshman she had tutored. In fact, she was quite surprised when she learned that I was one. I don't think about Dotty as much anymore. I'm sure she had gotten married and had a family of her own by now. Maybe to that Appaloosa. The train slowed to a stop as it arrived in Bunnyburrow. Aiden and I got off the train. There was a bunny picking flowers.
"She's so adorable," Aiden said.
"We cannot call rabbits cute!" I said.
"I said adorable,"
"That's still another word for cute,"
"Do you think she knows Jacqueline?" Aiden asked.
"Probably not the Jacqueline we're looking for," I said.
"Then we just have to ask,"
"We can't just approach a little girl,"
"We're cops. Relax," Aiden walked to the girl and knelt at her level.
"Those a pretty flowers," He said.
"Thank you. I'm picking them for Debbie," She said.
"Who is Debbie?" Aiden asked.
"This jackal who used to stay with us. I'm picking them for her in case she comes back,"
"Do you know Jacqueline?" Aiden asked.
"She's one of my big sisters. She said that Debbie was visiting for a bit." Answered the bunny.
"That's great because my friend and I here are looking for Debbie and we wanted to talk to your sister, could you take us to her?" Aiden asked.
"I can!" The little girl began to walk down a path. I could not believe it. Aiden gave me a smile. "Didn't I tell you?" He said.
"That was good, I admit it," I said.