Slappy sighed. She obviously wasn't going to get to sleep anytime soon. There was just too much change happening to her.

~Just give him a chance,~ she thought to herself. ~He obviously misses his mom.~ She sighed again. ~Think about how you would have felt.~

Her mind floated to a memory of when she had left the house. She could see herself, a rebellious eighteen-year-old squirrel. She was hugging her mother.

Her mother looked just like she had always remembered her; young and pretty. Lilac kissed Slappy's forehead. "You be careful out there, okay? I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

Slappy rolled her eyes. "This is what I get for being the oldest!"

Her father then came up to hug her. "Now, you don't do anything you would be ashamed to tell us, okay?"

"If I did, then I wouldn't tell you," laughed Slappy.

Then her twelve-year-old brother Acorn came to tell her goodbye. "I'm glad you're leaving. The tree's gonna be a whole lot quieter with you gone."

"Shut up, Acorn, I'm gonna slug you," said Slappy.

Ten-year-old Samuel then walked over to her. "Yeah, well, when you're gone, Acorn'll be in charge, and that's scary!" he cried.

"Shut up!" said Acorn.

Then Slappy's seven-year-old sister Valerie and her four-year-old brother Pine hugged her. "I'm gonna miss you, Slappy," said Valerie.

"Why do you have to go Slappy?" asked Pine.

"Cause I'm eighteen. When you're eighteen you'll leave Mom and Dad too."

Pine's eyes began to fill with tears.

"Don't cry," said Acorn. "That's the way things are. We can't stay with Mom and Dad forever."

Lilac approached Slappy with baby Daffodil. "Say goodbye to your little sister," she said.

Slappy patted Daffodil's head. "Bye, baby sis," she whispered.

Slappy sat up in bed. "I'm never gonna get ta sleep at this rate," she muttered. "It's so hard to realize that all of them are dead!" She closed her eyes.


That morning, when Skippy got up, he jumped out of bed and cried, "Man, I'm hungry! I wonder what's for breakfast?"

He ran downstairs and into the kitchen. Slappy was already there. "I was wondering if you'd ever come down," she said.

"What's for breakfast?" asked Skippy.

"Poison," said Slappy, with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

That was the first time that Skippy really noticed Slappy's eyes. Her eyes looked just like his mom's!

"It's not really poison, is it?"

"You are so gullible!" she said. "It's nothin special. Just cold cereal."

"What kind of orphanage is this?" asked Skippy.

"You'd b better watch yer mouth."

"It's a hard knock life for us, it's a hard knock life for us…" Skippy started to sing.

"C'mon," muttered Slappy. "Today I'm takin ya ta school."

Skippy looked surprised. "School? But I'm a squirrel!"

"Human influence, remember? The law sez that all children, human or not, hafta go ta school. Now lets go!"

"But I'm not even done eating yet-hey!"


Skippy was wondering if Slappy had ever taken care of a child before. It seemed like she had, since she knew exactly what to do to get him enrolled in school. She brought a ton of documents, which she had only received yesterday. And all of them needed to be shown. How did she know all of this?

The secretary seemed to want a ton of papers just to prove that Skippy and Slappy were who they said they were. "Immunization record?" she asked.

"He doesn't have one," said Slappy.

"He hasn't had his shots?"

"He's a squirrel! I haven't had any, either!"

"Well, I'm afraid that I can't enroll him until he's had his shots," said the secretary in a formal like manner.

"But we're SQUIRRELS! We don't get sick! And even if we did, human's couldn't catch our diseases!"

"I'm sorry, Miss Squirrel, but it's the law."

Skippy could tell that Slappy was about to lose her temper. "Come on, Aunt Slappy, we'd better go get my shots," he said, grabbing her by the arm.

Even though Skippy was dragging her out of the school, Slappy still was yelling.

"Immunization? Fer a squirrel? What the hell has this government come to? It's bad enough that squirrels even hafta come ta these damn schools, but now they hafta get SHOTS?"

"Aunt Slappy, this is a school! Shut up!"

They were now outside of the school. "I guess I lost my temper, didn't I? Well, I guess we'd better get ya these damn-I mean dang-shots. I could get in trouble with the law if I didn't."

"You're probably in trouble right now," said Skippy with a chuckle.