I survived Irma! Thanks for those who wished me well. Now that school has calmed down from the recovery, here are some announcements for my main stories.
For October, I plan to get the next chapter to Assassin's Creed Zootopia out. For November, the next chapter to Spirit of War. Hopefully I can stick to that schedule, but I will get those two chapters out. It's been a while since their last updates.
Hey look we've come through! Hey look we've come through!
Judy stood in front of the large door that led to Bogo's office. She reached for the knob for small mammals before suddenly stopping. Once again, her confidence slowly disappeared. In a moment of hesitation, she stepped back from the door and started walking away. Just before turning the corner, Judy halted and looked back. Chastising herself for letting fear take control, she marched right back.
With her confidence renewed, Judy reached for the doorknob and quietly entered the office. Instead of seeing the professor, she saw a female antelope secretary, wearing glasses, sitting at a reception desk. It was when Judy closed the door that finally got the antelope's attention. The secretary looked around for the mammal that just entered but didn't see anyone.
"Excuse me? Down here."
The antelope looked over the desk and saw Judy standing before her. "Yes?"
"Is Professor Bogo in? I'd like to see him if it's possible."
The antelope returned to the computer and began typing. "He isn't holding office hours right now. Do you have an appointment?"
Judy shook her head. The rabbit knew about his hours, but she couldn't wait until then. Her matter needed to be addressed immediately. "No, I don't."
The secretary turned to give Judy a serious look. "Professor Bogo doesn't see anyone outside of office hours without an appointment."
"I…uh…" Judy's nervousness rose as her confidence waned.
"Something I can help you with?" The antelope asked.
"No, I…I really need to talk to Professor Bogo. It's urgent."
The secretary sighed as she picked up the office phone. "He gets very annoyed when I disturb him. What is your name?"
"Hopps."
She dialed and waited a few seconds. "Excuse me, Professor Bogo. There's a Miss Hopps here to see you. She doesn't have an appointment, but she says it's very urgent…I don't know." The secretary lowered the speaker. "Does he know you?"
"Sort of." Judy slightly shrugged. "Sort of."
The antelope raised her eyebrow at the answer. "Sort of?"
"I'm in his first year Contract Law class."
She raised the speaker back up. "She's a student in Contract I…Yes, yes she said it was urgent…Yes, Hopps." She lowered the speaker again. "How do you spell it?"
"H. O. P. P. S."
The secretary repeated the letters to Bogo. "Yes…very good." She then hung up the phone. "If you care to wait, he'll fit you in between his schedule of appointments."
Judy nodded eagerly. "Thank you so much. Um, do you know how long will that be?"
"Honestly, that depends on his appointments." The antelope said before resuming her work.
With the meeting scheduled, Judy paced over to a chair and sat down. While patience was not her virtue, the wait time did allow her to prepare her case before Bogo. The irony of which did not escape her. She looked at the clock up on the wall and saw the time to be three in the afternoon. The bunny hoped Bogo would meet with her soon. This was too important to her.
Fortunately, the disagreement during lunch ended before Mr. Big could intervene, but it left a sour taste among the bunnies. Being the leader, Nick gave Judy until the end of the week to sort out the issue with Bogo before Contracts will be drawn at random. The meeting ended afterward, and no one spoke on the ride back to campus because of the tension.
Judy's gaze remained fixed on the clock as the seconds ticked on. She was briefly distracted by the various mammals coming in for their appointments. The clock nearly struck five when a female pig exited Bogo's office. Currently, Judy and a male water buffalo were in the waiting room as the secretary continued to type.
"Thank you very much, Bogo," The pig said before closing the door and turning to the antelope. "Goodbye, Mrs. Nyala."
At that moment, the desk phone rang, and Nyala answered. "Yes?...Mr. Bhens is here, and Miss Hopps is still waiting." Nyala looked over to the water buffalo. "Mr. Bhens, your appointment is at five?"
He nodded.
The antelope quickly checked the time. "It's one minute to five…Very well." She hung up the phone and turned her attention to Judy. "You may go in now, Miss Hopps."
"Thank you!" Judy hopped off from her chair and made her way to the door. The bunny slowly entered the room and saw how huge the office was.
The left side had shelves full of books. No doubt from the various courses he teaches. On her right, a long table occupied the space which she assumed was for meetings for students or faculty. Around the room were frames of Bogo's career and academic achievements. Finally, she turned her head forward to see the Cape Buffalo sitting at a large desk. He was currently wearing his reading glasses with numerous books and papers in front of him. Two large chairs sat before the desk that included steps for small mammals.
Judy closed the door and nervously moved forward.
The sound of the door brought Bogo's attention to the bunny. He set down his pen and removed his reading glasses. "What is so urgent, Miss Hopps, that you are unable to make an appointment beforehand?"
Judy took the cue and approached one of the chairs. She climbed up the steps and sat down facing the professor. "You must know why I'm here."
"It has not crossed my mind." He quickly replied.
Judy took a deep breath and started talking. "One of the reasons I came to this law school is to study with you."
"Yes."
His quick response derailed her train of thought for a moment. "There is no doubt that you have one of the greatest legal minds—"
"Will you get to the point?" His tone started to become slightly irritated.
"I know my skull is full of mush—" Her gaze started to wander.
"Will you get to the point?!" Bogo tried not to raise his voice, but he didn't appreciate the inconvenience she placed on him.
Her nose twitched madly as she brought her focus back on him. "I think you're being unfair."
"Miss Hopps, will you stop dancing around the issue?"
She took a deep breath to calm down, before finally getting to the heart of the visit, mostly. "I have to have a true Sowcratic dialogue with you."
Bogo stood from his seat, appearing to loom over Judy. "You're off to a very poor start." He then proceeded to the bookshelves.
"But how can I have a dialogue with you if you won't call on me?"
He stopped and turned to her with an eyebrow raised.
"My name's Hopps. Hopps. Don't you recognize me from your Contracts class?"
He resumed his walk to the shelves and retrieved a book. "Miss Hopps, I teach hundreds of students every day. Thousands every year. Over a million since I began teaching here. You are not the first bunny to have taken my class. I cannot be expected to recognize everyone."
"I sit in the front row in the center. You looked at me yesterday morning when I had my paw up before calling on someone else."
He paused after opening the book and fixed his eyes at Judy. After a few agonizing seconds, the recognition finally came to him. "Ah yes. Now I remember."
An overwhelming joy flooded Judy from his response. She felt so hopeful that she unintentionally started pleading. "Yes! Please, I realize that I was unprepared, but I didn't know we were starting on our first case! I'm not normally like this. I had trouble moving to Zootopia, so I didn't have myself organized. And my new alarm clock didn't go off," Judy continued to grow more emotional until she realized she was on the verge of tears and stopped before embarrassing herself further. "Please give me another chance, Professor Bogo! Don't never call on me again!"
The Cape Buffalo closed the book, "Miss Hopps, what was the first thing I said about my class on the first day?"
Judy thought for a moment until she remembered, "N-never to assume anything with you."
"And yet, here you are assuming I would never call on you again because of your mistake."
Judy was stunned. She had not expected the response from him, and it greatly confused her, "But, why did you ignore me when I raised my paw?"
"One is to keep students ready to answer my questions,"
Judy conceded that fair point.
"And two, it is to remind you that you are no longer in high school or college. You are in a professional school. A law school where there is no room for error. It is my obligation to prepare my students to exist in an extremely competitive world where there is also no room for error. Good day, Miss Hopps." Bogo returned to his desk with the book.
"But Professor Bogo,"
"Miss Hopps," He set the book and looked her in the eyes. "Can you imagine a lawyer who goes into court unprepared and after losing the case, goes crawling to the judge's chambers to beg for forgiveness? To ask the judge for another chance? Good day, Miss Hopps."
His response didn't help Judy's emotional state as she tried to form a response. "I…"
"Good day!" His tone and stern look sent a clear message to Judy. He put his reading glasses on and resumed his work.
Defeated, Judy removed herself from the chair and quietly walked to the door. She glanced back at Bogo, who stared back with annoyance from not hearing her leave. Judy promptly exited, accidentally stumbling over the next visitor's briefcase on the way out. After apologizing profusely, the sullen bunny picked up her backpack and left the office.
Judy paid seldom attention to her surroundings while riding back to her down. Merely to avoid crashing and being trampled as she mumbled over the week's events. The sun had set when she finally arrived at her dorm. Judy dragged her feet up to her room as everything else passed by in a blur. She didn't know how much time had passed, but she suddenly found herself standing in front of the door to her room. Eager to locker herself away for the night, a familiar voice halted her step into sanctuary.
"Hey, Carrots!"
Judy turned to see Nick smiling and standing a few feet away.
"How was the meeting with Bogo? Did he say anything?"
Judy had a strong desire to tell him about the meeting. To pour out her emotions to him and hope to find some comfort. But she couldn't. Instead, Judy forced a smile and a response, "It went great! I'll tell you all about it later!"
With cheetah-like speed, Judy disappeared into the room and locked the door, leaving a confused and concerned Nick outside.
Judy tossed her bag next to the desk, emptied her pockets onto the nightstand, and fell face first on the bed without changing clothes. She let out a deep sigh as the day's turmoil finally overcame her. The bunny pulled the blanket over her entirely, wanting to get away from the world. But her wish went ungranted when her phone rang.
Groaning, she crawled over and reached for her phone to see who was calling her. Much to her ire, it was her parents. Judy sat up and took a few deep breaths to compose herself before putting on a smile and hit answer.
"Mom! Dad!"
"Hi, sweetheart!"
"Hey, Jude the Dude!"
The parents' cheerful mood instantly went away from seeing the look on their daughter's face.
"Honey, is everything alright?" Stu asked worryingly.
Yeah! Why do you ask?" Judy tried to maintain her façade, but her parents' reactions showed that it failed.
Bonnie listed off the telltale signs. "Your ears are drooping, you sound terrible, but more importantly, your room is dark,"
She gave up that front and moved on to the next diversion. "I…had a rough day today, and I just got back to my room. It's not easy studying for six courses, and the group is still settling on the courses to outline."
"I bet," Stu said. "The law changes over the years, and new precedents are set. Things were much different when your mother and I were growing up."
"But that just means you have more tools that will help your work with us and your clients," Bonnie said.
Her parents' surprisingly encouraging words brought a smile to her face. "Thank you, both. I needed that."
"You put so much time and money into this, Honey," Bonnie said. "We do want to see you succeed. You're our child, and we love you."
"That's right Jude," Stu said. "You've always been a tryer, so we know you can do it. Get some rest now. We know you need it."
"I love you both too. Good night,"
Judy ended the call and tossed the phone on the nightstand before collapsing on the bed and curling up under the blanket. She hated lying to her parents, but she couldn't let them know of her current struggles. She didn't need their lecture about her decision to attend law school in Zootopia. Knowledge of Bogo's class the next morning erased what little comfort she got from the phone conversation. Judy finally fell asleep amid her mental struggles and forgoing her nightly routine.
At least Bogo isn't treating Judy like a token bunny. Only thing I can spoil is that things will get better for Judy. The questions are when and how
