Walk A Mile In Your Shoes
Chapter 2: Human Meet Ham-Ham
As Yoshi's class was escorted to the cabins by the cabin leaders, another class was exiting the cabins. Two weeks ago, the third graders in Laura's school spent two weeks here in this outdoor school. Now that their time at the camp was done, the third graders were going to ride in the buses that brought the fifth graders here. One of the third graders who were coming home today was a little blond girl named Cindy. She had long blond hair that was tied up into a pony tail. She wore an all red dress and large thick brown glasses. Freckles decorated her sweet face which made her look younger than she really was. Many of the adults see her as cute but some of the other kids often picked on her for it. Cindy didn't care about what the other boys thought, she liked looking cute.
As her teacher, Mr. Summers, was organizing all the students, Cindy went ahead and walked up the path to the buses. As she followed the trail, her sharp eyes saw small furry creatures. Cindy was interested so she walked over to the small rodents. She got down on her knees to examine the rodents. All five of the rodents were unconscious but Cindy could tell that they were still alive.
"Why these are hamsters." said Cindy as she got a close look at them. "Oh and they're so cute, I got to take them home with me." Cindy reached into her blue back pack and pulled out an empty Tupper Ware container. It had holes in the lid because Cindy liked to keep live creatures in it. Cindy gently placed the little hamsters into the container, closed it up and carefully placed it into the back pack. It was then that she noticed a small statue on the ground right in front of her. It was hard to see what the statue looked like because some leaves had blown on it. Cindy was about to reach out and touch it when someone shouted out, "Cindy, what are you doing out here?" Cindy jumped to her feet and she saw her teacher, Mr. Summers. Mr. Summers was a large man with a big muscles. He had short brown hair and brown eyes. His large size and huge physique made him intimidating to Cindy.
"I was tired of waiting so I decided to go ahead of everyone." said Cindy trying to explain herself to her teacher.
"Cindy, you know better than to wonder off by yourself." said Mr. Summers.
"Yes sir." said Cindy as she followed Mr. Summers to the buses. The students all got onto the buses and they were sent home
"Uh, what happened?" groaned Laura as she woke up. As she opened her eyes, she noticed that everything was pitch black. She couldn't see a thing through all the darkness.
"Hey, is everyone here?" said Laura.
"Ya, I'm here." said Travis.
"So am I." said Kana.
"I'm a little shaky but otherwise okay." said Kylie.
"I don't feel so good." said June.
"Where are we?" asked Kylie.
"Judging by the vibrations and the sounds of a motor, I think we are in a car or some other moving vehicle." said Travis. They all realized that Travis was right. They could hear and feel themselves speeding along a road and what was also odd was they heard multiple voices as if they were in a crowded room. The voices seemed louder than normal as if their hearing was some how stronger. Their ears picked up the sound of Cindy's voice: "Hey Jane, you should see these hamsters I found in the forest.
"Hamsters? Let me see them." said a little girl's voice. Laura and the others were blinded by light as the back pack they were in was opened. Cindy pulled out the Tupper Ware container she had in her back pack and showed her friend, Jane, the hamsters inside the clear container.
"Oh, they're so cute." said Jane. Laura and the others were surprised to see a girl with long brown hair and freckles staring at them. What was even weirder was that they were looking at her through a clear Tupper Ware container. As Laura's eyes and the eyes of her friends adjusted to the light, they saw clearly why they were small enough to fit in a Tupper Ware container: they had turned into hamsters.
Laura had changed into a brown hamster who was completely brown, just like her hair color and she even had miniature hair clips on her head. Kana was also brown but her front was completely white in an oval shape on her chest and belly and a white circle on her face. She also wore hamster size glasses. June had turned into a hamster that was covered completely in yellow fur that was more lighter in color than Mara's. Kylie changed into a hamster completely covered in orange fur. She also still had her pig tails. Travis had turned into a gray hamsters with black tiger stripes located in the same position as Sandy and Stan's brown tiger stripes.
All of the human screamed in horror as they realized the truth. They began to rub their heads furiously repeating "Kushi-Kushi" as they did so. Once they managed to com down, they all sat down thinking about their situation.
"Oh man, what happened to us?" said June.
"How did we become hamsters?" said Travis.
"This is got to be a dream." said Kana.
"I doubt it." said Laura.
"But how can it not be?" asked Kylie. "Humans don't just turn into hamsters, Laura."
"But it all feels so real." protested Laura. Cindy and Jane were watching Laura and the others.
"Are you guys feeling restless?" said Cindy affectionately to former humans. "Don't worry, you cute little hamsters, I can give you all a new home with me."
"We're not hamsters." shouted June. "We are humans and let us out." But what June didn't know was that the Ham-Ham language could not be understood by humans. Even though June was shouting at the top of her little lungs, Cindy and every other human on the bus did not hear June.
"Hey, can't you hear us?" shouted Laura but to no avail. "They can't hear us. What are we going to do?" The five of them just looked at each other in silence not knowing what to do or what to think.
They spent much of the ride home inside Cindy's back pack thus preventing them from seeing anything the whole way. Upon arriving at the school, Cindy walked home like she always does carrying her back pack as she walked. She decided to take the short cut through the park. As she walked, she decided to show Laura and the others the park. She pulled the Tupper Ware container out of the back pack to show the former humans the park.
"Hey, we're in the park." said Laura pointing out the obvious.
"Do you think she will lock us up in a cage and keep us as pets?" asked Travis.
"I don't want to be a house pet." said Kylie.
"Hey, what are those kids doing?" asked Kana. The kids that Kana had pointed out were three boys who were running towards Cindy and they rammed right into her. The Tupper Ware container fell out of Cindy's hands and it skidded into the trees.
"Hey, what do you got there, Cindy?" said a boy tauntingly as he picked up the Tupper Ware that contained Laura and the others. The boy opened the lid.
"Aw, what cute little hamsters." said the boy but he didn't sound like he meant it.
"Give them back." ordered Cindy desperately. She ran over to the Tupper Ware container and grabbed one end of it but the boy would not let go. The boy and Cindy continued to tug of war with the Tupper Ware causing Laura and the others to rock violently back and forth. The other two boys just watched the action cheering on the fight.
"Let go, I'm serious." said Cindy desperately as she fought with the boy. The boy deliberately let go of the Tupper Ware container causing Cindy to fall backwards and let go of the Tupper Ware causing Laura and the others to fly out into the air screaming. The former humans flew in an arch and came to a crash landing through a bush. The five ham-hams rolled and tumbled through the branches of the bush until they fell out of it and began to roll down a small hill on the other side of the bush. They all tumbled painfully through the grassy hill landing hard at the foot of the hill. They all just laid there waiting for the pain and dizziness to pass.
"Are you okay?" asked a voice nearby. Laura opened her eyes and got to her feet. "That was quite a nasty fall." Laura looked into the eyes of the one who was speaking to her and she gasped. Standing before her was Hamtaro. Laura stared wide eyed at the hamster before her. Kana also got a glimpse of Hamtaro and she too was stunned. June, Kylie, and Travis (who were also getting to their feet) was not as shocked to see Hamtaro since they didn't know him well.
"Hey Hamtaro, have you found the soccer ball yet?" asked another voice from far off.
"Not yet, Oxnard, but I found some more ham-hams here." yelled out Hamtaro. Oxnard came out from the bushes and said, "Wow, you weren't kidding." Now it was Kana's turn to stare wide eyed. Oxnard looked to the side and noticed a small white ball not far away.
"Hey Hamtaro, there's our soccer ball." said Oxnard.
"Oh yeah, good eye Oxy." said Hamtaro. He walked over to the ball repeating "Ticky-Ticky" as he walked. Hamtaro picked up the ball and said to Laura and her friends, "We were just playing a game of soccer, do you guys want to join us? We can fit in some more players."
"You bet." said Travis since everyone else was speechless and Travis couldn't pass up a chance to play a game of soccer.
"Great, just follow us." said Hamtaro. As Hamtaro and Oxnard led the baffled former humans to the soccer game, Hamtaro said, "By the way, my name is Hamtaro."
"And I'm Oxnard." said Oxnard.
"Well, I'm Laura." said Laura shyly.
"Laura?" said Hamtaro surprised. "That's funny, my human's name is Laura, too." Laura could not believe that she was having an actual conversation with her own hamster.
Travis, June, Kylie, Laura, and Kana all gasped at once when they saw the other Ham-Hams and their make shift soccer field.
"Hey Hamtaro, did you get the ball?" asked Pashmina.
"Ya, I have it right here and I also found some new friends." said Hamtaro. Heads were turning as all the Ham-Hams noticed the new visitors and decided to get a little closer to greet them. Laura couldn't believe how many hamsters there were. She immediately recognized Penelope and Pashmina. She also recognized Bijou as Maria's hamster. Another familiar face that she noticed was Stan and Sandy. She only seen these two a few times but she recognized them none the less even though she still didn't know how to tell the two apart. She was also surprised when she noticed Panda who she remembered was Mimi's hamster. Dexter, Howdy, Boss, Maxwell, Cappy, Neteru, and Mara where the only ones she had never seen before.
Without warning, Stan ran over to Laura and grabbed her paws.
"Hello gorgeous, where have you been all my life?" flirted Stan but before Stan could say anymore, a pink ribbon grabbed Stan by the tail like a whip and dragged Stan away from Laura. Sandy, who was the one who grabbed Stan with the ribbon, pulled Stan towards her as if he was a cow snagged by a lasso.
"Excuse my twin brother," said Sandy to Laura, "he likes to flirt a lot." Stan groaned. The former humans were not sure what they were going to do but one thing was certain: this was the strangest thing that has ever happened to them.