(A/N) Wow. It's been two weeks since I posted the last chapter. I guess I owe you all an explanation, huh?
I had a lot of stuff going on in the last two weeks. For most of the first week I was stressed about trying to recover some files from my sister's phone which had been dead for a year, and thankfully that all worked out fine. For the last week, I've been having weird moods off and on and haven't been able to get in the right mindset for writing this story. I apologize for that, because I was planning on writing and posting this chapter a week ago after the phone disaster sorted itself out, but then I got lazy and just kept putting it off...and here we are.
Because this chapter was written in kind of a rush (because I wanted to update before another week passed) I apologize if it's not the best. I usually wait a little while after I finish a chapter to see how I feel about it, but this one I just proofread one time before uploading. I didn't find any problems, but that doesn't mean for sure that there aren't any.
Also, because one reviewer asked about Nick and Judy's age difference: Nick is about six months older than Judy in this AU, but they are in the same grade.
Alright, I had better stop before I try to turn this author's note into its own story. Enjoy the chapter!
Judy awoke early the next morning, feeling strangely excited. She hadn't felt this good in quite some time, and she wasn't entirely sure what made her feel this way now. It wasn't Christmas, or her birthday, or anything obviously exciting, so what was it?
Judy didn't bother trying to figure that out; instead, she jumped out of bed and quickly got dressed, eager to enter the day with her renewed confidence.
"Judy, could you be a little quieter…?" moaned one of her brothers, who was still trying to sleep.
"Oh, come on, James!" Judy protested. "It's already morning! Are you just going to sleep all day?"
"It's not even 7:00 yet," James pointed out.
"Well, I want to get an early start today!" Judy shot back. "Is there a problem with that?"
"If you have to wake up the entire burrow, then yeah," James said.
Judy rolled her eyes and left the room, before their argument woke any of her other siblings. Since there were so many children in the Hopps family, each bedroom was filled with bunk beds and housed about twenty or more bunnies. Naturally, the rooms were pretty crowded, which meant one loud argument could wake everyone up.
As Judy happily skipped through the hall leading to the kitchen, however, her ears picked up another argument. Intrigued, she stopped and turned her ears toward the sound.
"—horrible, and now I'm just sick of that place!" said a voice Judy recognized as one of her older brothers.
"I understand that, Peter," Judy's mother, Bonnie, said, "but what I'm more concerned about is the fact that you went off on everyone like—"
"They wouldn't listen!" Peter interrupted. "They kept insisting that their kits were all sweet, innocent bunnies that would never hurt anyone, even though Judy saw—"
"Judy was there?" Bonnie inquired.
"Um…yeah," Peter replied. "I thought Dad told you. I'm not really sure why she wanted to come along, but Dad said it was ok, so he dropped her off with me."
"What exactly does Mom mean about Peter 'going off' on everyone?" Judy wondered. "Not surprising Dad didn't think to tell Mom about me going with him, though; he forgets everything."
Judy's older brother, Peter, had been in the Junior Ranger Scouts when he was younger, and he'd liked it so much that he often went back to help the adults supervise the little ones. He was only fourteen, though, so one of their parents always had to drive him. Last night, when he'd mentioned something about a fox joining the troop, Judy had immediately begged to come along. She didn't know for sure that it was Nick, but she was hopeful. She hadn't seen him since the incident with Gideon Grey, and she still felt bad about being so afraid of him. She didn't really have a plan for what she would say to Nick if he turned out to be there, but she figured she'd think of that later.
And, considering what had happened with Gideon Grey not long ago, Judy knew her parents might be hesitant about letting her go if they knew she was planning to meet a fox there. Luckily for Judy, her father didn't bother to ask why she wanted to come along with Peter in the first place, and as she suspected, her mother wasn't informed either. Since Bonnie was dealing with all the rest of her kits, she apparently hadn't noticed Judy's absence. Though, Judy suspected she would have noticed had they been gone too much longer, because Bonnie was much more observant than Stu.
"You knew there would be a fox there, and you still brought her along?" Bonnie pressed. "After what happened at the festival?"
"This kit wasn't anything like Gideon Grey," Peter argued.
"But you didn't know that when you agreed to let her come," Bonnie continued.
"Look, he was just a normal kit who wanted to join the troop, ok?!" Peter replied. "He wasn't going to hurt anyone, and actually it's a good thing Judy was there because she ran outside after him and helped take the muzzle off."
"Well, it sounds like there's quite a lot that I wasn't told," Bonnie remarked. "When do you think your sister was planning to tell me? When were you planning to tell—"
"You know she's listening, right?" said another voice. "She's been sitting there in the hallway for a while now."
The voice belonged to Chloe, one of Judy's older sisters. Apparently she had just entered the room and noticed her younger sister eavesdropping on the argument.
Judy sighed, defeated, and stepped into the room. Bonnie and Peter were both standing in the kitchen, while Chloe was already sitting down and eating cereal. Judy tried to prepare herself for the lecture that was sure to come as Bonnie walked towards her, looking rather displeased. Peter and Chloe both looked like they wanted to be somewhere else right now.
"Judy," Bonnie started, clearly trying to remain calm, "Why didn't you tell me what happened last night?"
"I-I didn't know what to say…" Judy replied vaguely, unable to think of a good excuse. "But Peter was right about Nick! He's really nice and I knew he wasn't going to hurt me…"
Bonnie sighed. She leaned over and put a paw on Judy's shoulder.
"I'm sure he wasn't," she said softly, "but you still should have told me. You know how your father is about foxes; if he knew you were going to meet one without telling us…"
"But Nick's the one who gave me the bandage when Gideon cut me!" Judy protested.
Bonnie raised her eyebrow. This was new information.
"You never said the other boy was a fox," she said questioningly.
"Well, that's because I thought Dad would be mad if he knew," Judy explained. "But Nick is really nice and we're friends now so please don't be mad!"
"I'm not mad that you made friends with a fox," Bonnie clarified, "but I am concerned that you tried to keep it from us. Do you have any idea how worried your father and I were when we saw that bandage on your cheek? You were barely gone for five minutes and you come back hurt like that?"
She took a deep breath as if to calm herself, and then continued.
"All I'm saying is that both your father and I worry about you a lot," she said. "So when I find out you're keeping secrets from us…"
"I'm sorry, Mom," Judy apologized; she was looking down at the floor, ashamed.
"It's alright, Judy," Bonnie said. "But you understand I'm going to have to tell your father, don't you?"
Judy nodded, but didn't say anything. She was nervous about what her father would think, especially since he had never been very fond of foxes, and she hoped it wouldn't affect her friendship with Nick. Of course, there was nothing to do now except wait, so Judy started towards the kitchen until she noticed Peter was leaving the room.
"What was it that he and Mom were arguing about?" she wondered. "Did something happen with the Scouts while Nick and I were outside?"
"Hey, wait up!" Judy said, running after him. "I need to ask you something!"
"Alright, I guess you can come outside with me then," Peter replied. "I really need to get some fresh air with all this madness that's going on."
He opened the door and stepped outside, Judy following behind him. She'd seen her brother upset before, but this seemed different somehow. It went deeper than just momentary anger; he looked rather shaken, and Judy wanted to know why.
"Ok, so what was Mom yelling at you about?" she asked.
"I lost my temper last night and made a big scene," Peter sighed. "I yelled at the kits about what they did to your friend, and from the way my throat hurts today I'm guessing I was screaming pretty loud. Then it got worse when their parents showed up and got all offended, saying I was being too harsh and their kits were all nice and sweet and it was 'completely inappropriate' for me to lecture them, so I just got the heck out of there."
"Oh, so that's why he was in such a hurry," Judy realized, recalling how her brother had acted a little standoffish when Stu came to pick them up last night. "I guess the other Scouts' parents must have called Mom to complain about Peter; that must be how she found out."
"So…you were mad about what they did, too?" Judy inquired.
"Of course I was!" Peter exclaimed. "Why would anyone think that was ok?! Look, we probably need to stop talking about it so I don't get angry again."
"But I thought…I thought you didn't like foxes either," Judy said. "You didn't sound very happy when you said a fox was joining the Scouts…"
"I was still thinking about what Gideon did to you, I guess," Peter replied. "But you said this other fox is the one who bandaged your cut?"
"Yep!" Judy nodded. "His name is Nick and he's so nice to me. And I want to be his friend because most of the other bunnies are scared of him, so they won't play with him. It makes me sad."
"Yeah, me too," Peter agreed. "Just be glad you weren't there to hear what the kits' parents had to say about the whole thing."
Judy, who had been looking at the ground as she walked, suddenly glanced up and noticed Stu walking back towards them. He was most likely coming back from farm work to eat breakfast, which meant he was going to be hearing some potentially shocking news from Bonnie in a few minutes.
"Hey, kits!" Stu exclaimed happily. "Jude, what are you doing up so early?"
"Um…it's kind of a long story," Judy replied vaguely. "I think Mom wants to tell you something…"
Stu looked noticeably confused, but didn't seem suspicious yet. Not that it meant anything, of course, because Judy knew his attitude could change completely if he found out that a fox was involved.
"Please, please don't tell me I can't see Nick anymore," she thought. "I know I have other friends, but that poor fox is all alone and I don't want him to be sad anymore…"
(A/N) What did you think of this one? It's a bit different than the first two chapters, and I'd like to know your thoughts. Thanks for reading!
And yes, I will try to post Chapter 4 before 2021...but no guarantees!
