GETTING PHYSICAL.
The next day, Minerva gave Ron a ride to the Looniversity. The mink got a good job in a modeling agency in the city, so had to move to a little apartment while she could get a better place, bigger and located near town. The place was fine enough for her and Ronald, at least for the moment, and were quite comfortable living together.
"Thanks for the ride, Minkie. See you for dinner?" Ronald asked while walking out of the car.
"Sure, Ronnie. But I might be a little late today, so take a snack while I arrive, okay?" Minerva replied.
"Fine. I'll do the laundry today. See you later." Ronald said, and gave Minerva a little kiss on the cheek. Minerva gave Ron a playful nuggie, and then drove away. Ron waved good-bye, and turned to enter the school. To his surprise, Hillary was waiting him at the door.
"Nice scene. I should have brought my camera." Hill said in a mocking tone. Ronald smirked.
"Hey, I don't care if you don't like me at all, Hillary, but I'll really appreciate if you don't make fun of my relationship with Minerva, okay?" Ron said in a severe tone. Hillary shrugged.
"Well, you are right, that's not my business. But I think you'll have to give some explanations to your new fans." Hillary said while rolling her eyes. Before Ronald could ask her what she was talking about, he was surrounded by all the guys who were driven crazy by the mink the previous day.
"Hey, man, you know if she is dating someone?"
"Give us details, quick!"
"Frazzagrrlmunchglup…Dizzy wants date!"
"How could you get a dadgum place with that dadgum hot chick?"
"Hey, hey, calm down, okay!" Ronald motioned everyone. When they cooled down a little, Ronald started explaining. "Look, Minerva's family had been friend to mine since she was on diapers. My mom used to baby-sit her, and, when I was born, Minerva baby-sat me as well. We played together, she took me to the movies, I bathed with her…"
"YOU BATHED WITH HER?" All the males exclaimed. Behind them, Hillary sighed.
"When she was 8 years old, okay?" Ron replied, a little upset. "Look, Minerva is almost seven years older than me, and, because of all we had done together, I don't see her in a romantic way, but like a sister. I really care about her, so I'm asking you to respect my friend. Would you like me to make flirty comments about your sisters, or cousins?" Ronald ended, crossing his arms.
The last sentence actually had a major effect on some of the guys. Fowlmouth had a little sister (too young to be at the Looniversity yet), and both Vinnie and Hamton had many female cousins. The rest of the toons started calming a little as well.
"Well… sorry, Ronald. I think we all got a little over-excited about meeting someone who is living with such a beautiful girl. I guess you are right, and we should not make you uncomfortable with those comments." Vinnie said while rubbing his neck. The other guys nodded, and apologized as well. Ronald smiled to them in reply, and everybody went inside the school. Surprisingly, Hillary walked aside Ronald.
"Funny. I thought guys like you didn't respect women." Hillary said.
"Hey, just like I said, Minerva is like a sister to me. If anyone offends her, I'll be the first one to punch the guy." Ronald replied. After a moment, he chuckled.
"What's so funny, Shere Khan?" Hillary raised an eyebrow to him.
"Well, the way you are acting towards me. Yesterday, you wanted to rip my head away from my body, and now we are walking together in the corridor and having a more or less civilized chat." Ronald answered. Hillary smirked.
"Hey, just because I recognize you aren't so much of a jerk as I thought you were doesn't mean I like being with you. And I'm walking your side because we both have the same class, remember?" Hillary pointed. Both toons kept silence all the way to their first class.
Some time later, Hillary was on the girls' lockers room, changing to her gym uniform to attend the P.E. class. Mary, Babs, Fifi, Elmyra and Shirley were there as well; as the other girls already told the hyena, Elmyra usually could hold her usual "pet-crushing" impulses during the class, so there was no danger on being around her.
"And how is the P.E. class here, by the way?" Hillary asked Fifi. The skunkette ended putting her shirt on, and answered the hyena.
"Oh, is tres magnifique! Miss Lola is a great zeacher. She is in charge of zhe female zeams here in zhe Loo, so many of zhe classes are aczually zraining sessions for the games." Fifi said.
"Actually, we only have two female teams on the school. In most sports, we compete along with the boys, like in baseball and soccer. I, Fifi and Shirley are also reserves on the football team, as well as the cheerleaders." Babs joined the conversation. Hillary smiled; she liked the idea about competing alongside the guys.
"Hey, not bad. And the "just females" teams, what sports are they?" Hillary asked.
"Well, we have a basketball team, since that's Lola's favorite sport. We, like, had been in the finals the last three years, and won the title a couple of years ago. We also have a boxing team, or some junk, but neither Elmyra nor me compete on that one." Shirley said. Hillary lifted her ears at the last part.
"No way! No offense, but you girls don't look exactly like boxers to me." Hillary said. Babs responded by spin-changing into a Muhammad Ali's impersonation.
"What do you mean, girl? I'm the best, the number one, and the most handsome! Float like butterfly, sting like a bee!" Babs said while making some shadow-boxing in front of the hyena. The girls chuckled, and Babs went back to her wacky normality. Mary then directed to Hillary.
"Actually, we are the state champions, Hillary. Maybe you can enter as well. From what I had seen, it seems you really like to hit people, so this can be a good way to do it without getting detentions." Mary said to the hyena while placing a hand on her shoulder. "And I can finally get a sparring about my weight. Fifi and Babs usually spare with each other, and I have to do it with Lola… and boy, is really hard to hit that lady!" Hillary laughed softly, and nodded.
"Okay, I'm in. I'll talk with the teacher after class to register." Hillary said. The girls then walked out of the room and into the gym. They usually had their class on the inside, while the boys had the P.E. class either on the track or in the football's field.
Meanwhile, Arnold, dressed with a tight red T-shirt and cap, was arranging his class on a line in front of him. The pitbull graduated from the Looniversity a couple of years ago, and now was the teacher of many of his former classmates, which always make him smile, especially since having the chance to make his former boss, Monty, to sweat and suffer a little. Over the years, the dog had managed to loss a little of his heavy European accent, but still conserved his tone and attitude.
"Okay, weakling toons, let's see vhat I have to vork on this year. Hmmm… same puny collection, as usual." Arnold said while walking in front of the students. He stopped in front of Ronald, and frowned.
"And vhat's up with the girlish hairdo, you fragile and weak feline?" Arnold almost yelled on Ron's face. "Unless you can prove me you're not as useless as you seem, that hair is gonna leave, understood?" Arnold made a pause, and stood in front of Ronald, crossing his arms. Ron gave a deep breath, and then…
RRRROOOOOOAAAAARRRR!
The roaring was so powerful it made Arnold jump one step back, and all the other students to jump on their places. After recovering, Arnold smiled.
"Vood. Maybe I can do something useful with you after all." Arnold said. Then, he took a whistle out of his body's pocket, and sounded it. "Okay, anemic creatures, as you know, we have a game against Perfecto Prep in a month. I'll do my best to prepare you wimps for it, and I expect all of you to perform at your 100."
"Well, not me. I'm not in the team, remember, mutt?" Max said with a smug look. Arnold approached him, and lifted him from his collar.
"It is Mister Mutt for you, puny brat! You are no longer my boss, remember? And even if you are not in the team, you have to exercise to pass the class, got it?" Arnold growled to Max. The millionaire boy gulped and nodded. Then, Arnold released him, and whistled again.
"All of you, to the track, and give me 5 laps. After that, we'll have a little game of dodgeball to test your reflexes." Arnold motioned the class to run, and they obeyed. Max stayed on the back position, along with Marcus, and whispered something to his bodyguard; the brat had failed the previous day with his revenge against Wally and Hillary, but decided to perform another plan on the wolf during the class.
Meanwhile, the girls were having a basketball game as part of the class. The Amazing Three were one team, and Hillary was on the other one alongside Mary and Elmyra. Lola was running outside the playing field, motioning the girls and giving instructions to both teams all the time. The game was perfectly matched; Babs and Fifi were extremely fast, and Shirley could use her levitation skills to perform awesome moves, while the other team concentrated mostly on the defense and resistance. Hillary wasn't a good basketball player, but she was quite good guessing her rivals and teammates' movements, allowing her to give a good play without getting on Mary and Elmyra's way; the hyena considered she had to give a good performance to impress Lola, and be allowed to join the boxing team, so she gave her best on the game.
Outside, right after the last student finished the final lap, Arnold divided the group. He usually placed the new students as the targets on the first class of the year, so Skippy, Wally, Marcus, and Ronald were chosen as the other students' objectives. To give them a little help, Arnold decided to place Buster as their teammate, since the rabbit was quite good with this particular game. Sylvester Junior was glad to be on the attacking side, since he had a bad experience last year as the target. The rest of the students placed in front of the targets, holding the big red balls.
"Okay, you know the rules. Once one of you is hit, he most leave the field until one of his teammates can catch a ball on mid-air. First team that runs out of playing members, loses." Arnold said, and, without any further ceremony, sounded his whistle.
The attacking team started the furious rain of balls against the targets, who quickly tried to dodge the projectiles. Skippy was the first one eliminated, receiving not one, but three balls on his face at the same time. Groggily, he walked out of the fire range, but had to return a second later, because Buster caught a ball with his ears, and threw it back against the attacker, Plucky, who received it right on his beak, so the duck had to move out of the way for the moment. Skippy returned to his position, and, this time, hide behind Ronald, since it seemed the squirrel's face was like a magnet for the balls.
While everyone was concentrated on the game, Max moved apart from his group, and took a red bomb out from his body's pocket; it looked exactly like the balls, so nobody noticed when he ran to the front of his group, and, after making a silent signal to Marcus, threw it against the wolf. Marcus quickly pushed Wally in front of his group, placing him in a perfect position to receive the attack.
However, just a few inches away from Wally's face, the bomb was caught by Ronald, who did it with his jaws. Then, he chose a target, and spitted the explosive towards Max, who couldn't avoid it.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
Everybody paused to see the blackened guy dizzily walking out of the playing field. Arnold removed his shades to give him a better look, and then directed to Ronald.
"As I said, maybe you aren't so useless." Arnold smiled. Ronald smiled back to him, and the game continued.
At the end of the class, the boys walked into the gym so they could go into their lockers' room and bath for next period. They entered just in time to see Babs doing a little victory dance because of her last scoring; Buster couldn't help but whistle at Babs, since he always loved to see his girlfriend on her uniform. Lola shook her head, and smiled.
"Nice one, Babs, but maybe you shouldn't dance. After all, you only tied the game." Lola directed to the young rabbit. Babs shrugged.
"I know, but at least we didn't lose, right?" Babs replied, matter of factly. Lola checked her watch, and had to give Babs the reason, since it was time to end the class, so the game ended in a tie.
"Ok, girls, time to shower. See all of you tomorrow, okay?" Lola said to the girls. They nodded, and approached they had some free time to chat with the boys. Calamity and Buster immediately walked towards their girls, and gave them a warm kiss, while Plucky and Fowlmouth were trying to make a move on Shirley, who just zapped both guys. Marcus and Monty entered the showers without talking to anyone, to avoid an encounter with Elmyra, and prepare their next stunt. On the meantime, Hillary and Mary approached Lola, and told her about Hill's intentions of joining the boxing team.
"Sure, Hillary. We have a training session each couple of days, starting tomorrow. You can join us then; the class is right here, at four o' clock, right after I end installing the equipment." Lola said. Hillary smiled to the rabbit, and then rubbed her chin.
"Thanks, Teach. If I'm not abusing, I want to ask for another favor. As you maybe noticed, I'm not really good at playing basketball, so I would like to join the football team instead, not as a reserve, but as a core player." Hillary said. Lola and Mary looked at each other, and then the bunny replied.
"Well, if you like that sport better, I don't see why not. After all, they do almost all their training during the regular class' hours, so the schedule doesn't clash with our boxing class. However, you have to ask Arnold if he want to accept you on the team, because he's in charge of it, not me." Lola explained. Hillary sighed, and nodded; she hoped Arnold wasn't a major jerk, so she could enter the team. Lola motioned Arnold to approach, and talked to him, explaining Hillary's intentions about joining the football team. The dog wasn't pleased.
"You, training with us? I don't think so, girl. I admit the puny ladies are vood athletes, and had done a better job than my boys in some sports, but don't think you can handle my training on a revular basis." Arnold pointed. Hillary was about to say something very unlady-like, when Ron approached them.
"Excuse me, Coach, but I think she can do it well on the team. Yesterday I saw her fighting, and she almost broke my paw when we hand-shook, so I guess Hillary can stand the training perfectly." Ron explained Arnold. The dog rubbed his chin, thinking about Ronald's words, while Hillary glared at him; she didn't wanted to owe any favors to this guy, but he just told Arnold the truth, and the girl really wanted to enter the team, so she hold her anger for the moment.
"Well… let me check this. May I, girl?" Arnold leaned next to Hillary, and moved his paw next to her shoulder. The hyena nodded, and Arnold started touching her shoulders and arms. After a few seconds, he had a very amused expression.
"Strong arms… vood shoulders… and you seem to have a strong neck as well. One last thing, girl. Shake it." Arnold offered his paw to Hillary. The girl smiled, and shook it, with a very tight grip. Arnold returned the grip with one of his own, and a very strong one, but the girl resisted it well, and even increased hers. After a few seconds, they released each other.
"Not bad. I actually felt that. Fine, lady, you are on the team. See you on tomorrow's class. Don't be late." Arnold said in a good tone. Hillary nodded, and Mary gave her a high-four. Lola nodded to Arnold and Ron, who smiled in reply. By this moment, almost all the students were already in the showers, so Lola motioned Ronald and the girls to do the same. Hillary didn't say a thing to Ron, but gave him a good natured smirk before entering the lockers' room.
A few minutes later, Max and Marcus exited the boys' room. Since they had no fur or feathers to dry up, and were the first ones to enter, they finished before anyone else, so they were out of the danger's zone. A couple of seconds later, there was a lot of screaming coming from both rooms, and all the toons exited; luckily, the girls who weren't ready yet could spin-change into regular clothes before doing it. A moment later, a mountain of foam was clearly seen coming out from the rooms. Max and Marcus laughed loudly; after entering the boys' room, they placed a few Acme Soap Bombs on the drain, and, since both rooms' drain was connected, the foam flooded them the same. Everybody but Elmyra (who was now giggling and playing with the soap's bubbles) glared at the pair of human toons.
"You just couldn't resist, right, Monty?" Buster asked. Max shrugged, and smiled evilly.
"What's the problem, rabbit? You needed an extra bath anyway. Besides, this prank was for the stinking wolf. The rest of you are a bonus." Max said, and directed to Wally. "As I had heard, you have janitorial duties in the school. Let's see if you can clean this before your next class… or before next week!" Monty chuckled, and placed himself behind Marcus, in case anyone decided to attack him in reply.
Hamton approached the foam, checking the scene. Max had a point. Usually, every time there was a mess of this kind, Dizzy ate the dirt in a moment, and solved the problem; however, the little devil disliked soap a lot, so he wouldn't even approach the foam, leaving the problem to Wally and Pete to clean it. Hamton sighed, and took a shovel out from his body's pocket.
"Don't worry, Wally. I like cleaning, so I'll be more than glad to help you with this." Hamton said to the wolf. Wally smiled to the pig, and directed through the foam.
"Thanks, Hamton, but I can handle this. Just stay out of the way, and open the gym's door." The wolf said before entering the boys' room. Everybody shrugged, and moved away from the doors. Beeper opened the door as Wally asked, and immediately moved next to his friends. A few seconds later, a powerful wind came out from the boys' room, throwing all the foam out of it, through the gym, and finally making it exit it, leaving in the form of a cloud of bubbles. A moment later, Wally entered the ladies' room, and repeated the operation. As a result, he didn't just clean the rooms, but the rest of the gym as well. Wally exited the ladies' room, smiling, but panting.
"Are you okay, Wally?" Sly Junior asked the wolf. He nodded, but kept panting.
"Yes… just a little tired. I ran out of breath for a moment." Wally said. Calamity and Furrball ran each side of the wolf, and helped him to walk out of the gym. Meanwhile, Monty was red with anger.
"Stupid "Red Riding Hood"'s cliché! I hate it! Don't think you are out of the hook, wolf! You are still on my black's list!" Max yelled at the wolf. Mary, totally fed with his attitude, moved in front of Max, scowling and crossing her arms on her chest..
"Wanna join the boxing team, Monty? We can use another punching bag!" Mary hissed to him. Max gulped, and motioned Marcus to protect him. The moment Marcus was next to him, Babs gently pushed Mary out the way, and spin-changed into a karate-fighter outfit.
"Allow me handle this problem, Melody-San." Babs directed to Mary in a quiet tone, and then respectfully vowed in front of Max and Marcus. "To give a lesson to both of you, dishonorable fiends, I must use a forbidden technique, feared among martial artists around the world, known as The Chinese Trouser." Max and Marcus, confused, looked at each other.
"Uh… how that technique works?" Marcus asked. Babs gave them a wicked smile, and, in a sudden, jumped behind both humans, introducing her paws in the back of the boys' pants. A second later, she found an elastic material, and pulled it out with all her strength.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
Everybody laughed at the boys' expression while they screamed in pain. Babs released them, and they fell to the ground, adopting a fetal position while grabbing their "private" parts. Babs changed back to normal, and walked next to Buster.
"Ok guys, let's go. I have to stop at the closer bathroom to wash my paws." Babs said, leading the rest of the students out of the gym. Buster gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and walked aside her. A moment later, only Elmyra was in the gym, looking dumbfounded at the fallen guys.
"Oh, poor Monty wonty and Marcky warky. Don't worry, boys. Nurse Elmyra is here, and I'll heal you with a nice hug of mine." Elmyra giggled, and leaned to give the boys her dreadful anaconda-like hug. They couldn't decide if it was worse than Babs' technique or not.
The rest of the day ran smoothly, without further incidents. Hillary exited her last class, "Mayhem" (taught by Taz), with a pondering expression. She stopped next Wally, who was also exiting his Math class; the wolf seemed to be a lot better now, and was talking with someone on his cell phone. Since the classes were over, and he was on the corridor, it was allowed by the school.
"Yes. Aha. See you later. Don't worry, I'll bring the cheese. See you. Me too." Wally ended his conversation. Hillary noticed he had a very happy expression while talking.
"Hey, who is the lucky girl, pal?" Hillary smiled to Wally. Among wolves, both the males and the females have a similar worth inside a pack, and Hillary knew about it, so she wasn't hostile among Wally as she was with Ron. The wolf blushed slightly.
"I'm that obvious?" Wally rubbed his neck while smiling to the hyena. "She is a friend from my old school… actually, the only friend I made in there, unless you count a friend of her that kind of tolerates me. We still see each other at times. She likes cheese a lot, and we used to have lunch together, so I got a taste for it as well." Wally informed.
"Well, that explains why you eat more cheese than Speedy Gonzalez. See you later, Wally." Hillary waved bye to the wolf, whose did the same, and they walked away. None of them noticed Plucky and Skippy, who overheard the conversation.
"Mmm. A mysterious girlfriend, uh? I wonder if he is honest about it. Maybe she likes eating squirrel along with her cheese." Skippy said while rubbing his chin.
"Well, Skippy, tonight I might have some new information about this guy. Hamton and I are gonna keep an eye on the school, and see if anyone come to visit him." Plucky informed Skippy. The little rodent couldn't help Plucky with the surveillance stuff since Slappy would notice if he escaped home at night, so the duck had to do it himself. Hamton agreed to help him to keep an eye on Plucky, and serve as an objective watcher as well.
At the school's door, Shirley was doing her meditation's exercises. Almost all the students were already gone, so it was a quiet spot where she could concentrate peacefully.
"OhwhataloonIam…ohwhataloonIam…" Shirley chanted her mantra when she felt a troubled aura moving next to her. She opened her eyes, and saw Hillary rubbing her chin, and walking on deep concentration herself. Shirley left her lotus position, and directed to the hyena.
"Like, Hillary, are you okay? Your aura feels like if you had an inner conflict, or some junk." The loon said to Hillary. The hyena was so concentrated on her stuff, that she hadn't noticed the loony girl until she talked to her.
"Oh, hi, Shirley. I'm fine… is just that I have a weird idea on my head, and it doesn't leaves me." Hillary said. Shirley moved next to her, and talked in a "good-pal" tone.
"Welcome to the club. Anyway, jokes aside, if you have a problem, you can, like, tell it to me. I'll be more than glad to give you an advice, or, at least, hear you." Shirley pointed. Hillary sighed, and decided to trust the avian.
"Well… the thing comes like this. I have had a certain conception about lions all my life. I know nobody's perfect, but I always associated the lions with negative things…loud, vain, rude, egotistical, and so." Hillary was cut by Shirley.
"Are you describing a lion, or Plucky?" Shirley asked. Both girls chuckled. Hillary then continued with her explanation.
"Anyway, since I met Ronald, I hadn't seen him doing anything bad, disgusting, or, at least annoying… except licking Elmyra, but he did it to help me. The guy had only growled or glared at me when I do it first, and that's understandable. Because of that, he is making me having a lot of doubts about my ideas." Hillary ended with a sigh. Shirley rubbed her beak, and, after a few seconds, replied the hyena's explanation.
"Well, there are plenty of bad stereotypes surrounding hyenas as well, but you don't apply for most of them. Sure, you can be rough and not exactly the best model of conduct, but you are a nice girl most of the time, unless someone makes you anger, or some junk. I guess the same thing applies for Ronald. It wouldn't hurt if you make a truce with him, or some junk. After all, you two are going to be football teammates, and you can't concentrate on the other team's players if you are busy arguing with one of your own." Shirley pointed. Hillary nodded.
"I guess you are right. Had you seen him? We didn't have the last class together, and maybe I should talk to him right now." Hillary said. Shirley scratched her head.
"Well, I think he and Mary had Spanish with Professor Gonzalez. And I saw her walking towards the woods the East side of the school a moment ago. Maybe she knows where is him. Come on, I'm going with you." Shirley said while walking on the direction she saw Mary walking. Hillary nodded, and followed her.
A few minutes later, they saw Mary behind some bushes, sitting on a log located in a forest's clear space. Before they could say anything, the girls noticed something moving in the bushes at Mary's left, and, suddenly, a large roaring creature jumped from behind them, tackling Mary. The animal and the girl rolled over the ground in fierce combat, reaching the bushes at the other side of the clear.
Both Hillary and Shirley gasped. They recognized the attacker.