(A/N) I'm back! Once again, I took way too long to post this, because I had a bit of writer's block with this story and spent most of the last few weeks working on other stories. Thankfully, I got back to this in the last few days and I'm really pleased with how it turned out!
Also, IT'S DECEMBER! 2020 IS ALMOST OVER!
I'm so glad everyone liked the Nick POV in the last chapter, but it's back to Judy's POV for this chapter! And Zephyr's "favorite" character: Samantha! XD
Ok, I'm shutting up now.
The more the semester went on, the more frustrated Judy became. At first, she was willing to give Nick the benefit of the doubt and assume he just didn't know how to talk to her after their fight, but as the months went on it became clear to her that the fox might really be changing for good. At the beginning, she had only seen him join in Trevor and Vanessa's behavior peripherally, never seeming to care much about it himself, but before long she started hearing that Nick was treating his prey peers no better than the other two foxes.
It started when James came complaining to her about how Nick had 'attacked' and 'threatened' him in the halls, and Judy was all set to throw that out the window as more of James's nonsense, but unfortunately it didn't stop there. Before long, Samantha started reporting more incidents of Nick's behavior to Judy, apparently having decided it was her solemn duty to follow the foxes around the school and keep tabs on everything they did.
"—and then Nick tripped this other bunny with his tail which I know for a fact was intentional," Samantha recounted one November day as she walked next to Judy through the halls. "And after she fell on the floor and dropped all her stuff, he bends down all smug and tells her she needs to watch where she's going if she wants to, you know, not get devoured by predators."
Judy was already banging her head with her fists when they reached the lockers; she didn't doubt that what Samantha said was true, and she definitely didn't approve of Nick's behavior, but she was so very tired of hearing the other bunny going on about it. Her opinion of Samantha still wasn't very high, as she had never really apologized for the way she'd acted earlier, nor had her opinion on predators changed much—if at all—from before. But, ever since Nick started acting as 'predatory' as his friends, she had taken it upon herself to constantly bombard Judy with news of all of his exploits.
"Oh, and of course now you're rolling your eyes at me," Samantha said bitterly. "But you know everything I said is true. You know Nick Wilde is a jerk who thinks every prey exists solely for him to torture for his own amusement, and until you open your eyes to the truth you're never going to stop being blinded by your own—"
"Samantha!" Judy exploded, unable to take it any longer. "I'm not denying any of what you said, and I'm not friends with Nick anymore, so why do you keep wasting my time with all this?!"
Samantha scoffed, looking offended.
"Not surprising, since literally everything in existence offends her these days…" Judy thought.
"I'm just trying to let you know so you don't go running back to him!" Samantha said, her voice becoming slightly whinier. "I know you have a history with that fox and as your friend, I'm trying to make sure you stay away from dangerous predators who only want to—"
"Look, Sam," Judy interrupted, her patience gone, "we can argue about this all day, but the truth is I don't care what you think about predators. You're convinced all of them are bad and they all secretly want to go back to the Stone Age and eat us, and I think that's completely insane. I don't approve of any of what Nick and his friends do, and I don't need you to convince me of what I already know to be true. So please, for the love of carrots, stop wasting my time!"
With that, Judy stormed off and slammed the locker door behind her, not bothering to look back and see how Samantha would react. She was worried she might have been too harsh, but lately her patience was growing thinner and thinner with every passing day. She was mad at Nick for leaving her for two jerks, she was mad at Trevor and Vanessa for terrorizing the school and involving Nick in their antics, she was mad at Samantha for blaming it all on 'predators' as a whole, and most of all she was mad at herself for letting all of this happen.
"If I had just seen how much you were hurting, Nick…" she thought. "Maybe then I wouldn't have lost you. Maybe I would have been able to help you, and we might still be friends…"
"No!" she told herself indignantly. "You are not going to start crying right here in the middle of junior high! You have a whole day of school to get through; you can cry when you get home!"
Thinking that only made her want to cry more, as she remembered it was Nick who had first taught her not to 'let them see' when she was upset. But she remained strong and powered through, reminding herself that she still had a few friends, and she was still working towards her goal of one day being a police officer. This wasn't the end of everything, but she couldn't let herself give up. She was Judy Hopps, and she never gave up.
Just as Judy was about to reach her class, she saw Nick around the corner talking to some other bunnies, and she instinctively jumped back to hide behind the corner. Her eyes and ears focused, she carefully observed what was happening, her heart pounding as she was both desperate to see what Nick would do, and terrified of witnessing what she didn't want to accept.
"—and I know you took it, so give it back right now!" one of the bunnies was saying.
Nick laughed smugly, a response that fit the stories Samantha had been telling Judy, but one that startled her to hear nonetheless.
"Maybe I did take it," Nick said. "What are you going to do about it if I did, bunnies? You don't wanna mess with a predator."
Judy could hardly believe her own ears, but she couldn't deny what she was hearing either. She didn't want to think that Nick had really changed this much, but here he was, taunting helpless prey mammals just like Gideon had back when they first met. Judy wanted to cry, but once again she held back her tears. She definitely didn't want Nick to know how upset she was.
"Y-you wouldn't eat us, r-right?" one of the rabbits asked, backing away from Nick slowly.
Nick shrugged.
"Dunno," he said. "If you stick around, maybe you'll find out."
He emphasized this point with a low snarl, which sent all of the bunnies running off in different directions. Judy immediately got to her feet and started heading back the way she'd come in order to avoid raising suspicion, waiting until the sounds of Nick's laughter stopped before turning back to head towards her next class.
Nick was not there anymore; he had presumably gone on to his next class, but Judy was just glad that she didn't have to see him. As she continued down the hall, she tried to stop herself from thinking about what she had seen, but the images would not leave her mind. No matter how much she might try to deny it, it was clear that Nick was no longer the kind, empathetic fox she had met years ago, and that was what hurt the most. She detested Trevor and Vanessa equally, but at least she didn't have a history with them. With Nick, not only had the school gained another bully, but Judy had lost a friend.
On the first weekend of December, Bunnyburrow was hit by a torrent of snow, and all of Judy's younger siblings were eager to go outside and play. Of course, it took quite a while because Bonnie had to make sure all of them put their coats on, but while she was getting the littler kits ready, Judy was outside walking across the snow-covered farm with Peter. She hadn't seen much of him lately, and with her emotions in the state they were, she was relieved at the opportunity to spend time with him.
"So…Chloe tells me you've been having a hard time at school this year," Peter said, once they were out of earshot of the house. "Anything you want to talk about?"
"I…it's…about Nick," Judy explained.
"Ah, I thought it might have something to do with him," Peter said. "Have you talked to him at all since getting back to school?"
"No," Judy admitted. "But I've seen him and his new friends around, and Sam has told me stuff about them, and…he's completely changed, Peter! He's such a jerk now, always going around and treating prey like we're lesser and trying to scare them all the time…"
"Really?" Peter said, sounding surprised. "But isn't he the one who stood up for you back when—"
"Yes!" Judy cried, clenching her eyes shut to hold back the tears. "But just a few weeks ago I saw him taunting this group of bunnies in the hall; apparently he took something from them and then acted like he was going to eat them if they didn't go away. And Sam said that he—"
"Isn't this Sam the bunny you were mad at before?" Peter asked. "I'm sorry; I'm really confused."
"Well, I'm still mad at Samantha," Judy clarified, "but that doesn't mean what she said wasn't true. From what I saw Nick doing, it wouldn't surprise me at all. I just…I don't know if there's any way I can fix this now. I think I lost my chance when I didn't see why he was hurting so much and now…I…"
This time, she didn't hold back. She stopped walking and sat down on the snowy ground, crying into her paws. She didn't even care that Peter would see; everything felt hopeless anyway now that Nick wasn't her best friend anymore. As she cried, she felt Peter's arm around her and realized he was sitting down next to her, trying to comfort her. She leaned over onto his shoulder, feeling as if it was almost too much effort to hold her own head up. She just wanted to wake up from all of this, to go back to before Nick ever met Trevor and Vanessa and help him become comfortable with himself so that he would never feel the need to leave.
But it was too late now, and Judy knew that. She wished there was some way to tell her past self how to fix this, as it all felt so obvious and simple now, but she had lost her chance. Maybe there was some way to bring Nick back from this, but the damage had been done and that scar would always be there.
"I'm really sorry, Judy," Peter said, after several minutes had passed. "He always seemed like such a nice kit to me; I don't know what happened. Do you think there's any way you could talk him out of this? I don't really understand how this all started, but maybe if you could find out what it is that's making him act like this…"
"But I don't understand it!" Judy cried. "It's like, because he's a predator he apparently decided he enjoys scaring prey mammals and taunting them, because that's what he thinks it is to be himself! But I don't have any idea why he would think that! Maybe it's just a predator thing and I'll never understand why…"
"I can't say that makes sense to me either," Peter admitted, "but if he was really such a close friend, I think you should at least try to talk to him again and see what happens. As for the predator stuff, you should probably ask Chloe about that. I'm sure she'll know."
Judy chuckled, wiping away her tears.
"Thanks, Peter," she said. "I think…I think I will talk to him again before the semester's over."
"I'm glad to hear that," Peter replied. "I hope it goes well. I know it's easy for friendships to fall apart when you don't understand each other. Maybe if you talk it out with him, it will make more sense and you'll both be able to work through it."
Judy nodded, though she didn't feel very confident that talking would actually work. As much as she wanted to hope for the best and be the optimist she had always been, she had a bad feeling that this was going to be the official end of her friendship with Nick. If he refused to understand why his actions were harmful and was unwilling to change for the better, then Judy knew there was nothing more she could do about it.
Deep in her heart, Judy was afraid that she would have to let Nick go. And the thought was almost too much for the young doe to bear.
"Hey, maybe we should go back to the house and get you warmed up," Peter suggested. "Maybe you just need some time to yourself, while our younger siblings are all playing out in the yard."
He stood up and held out his paw, which Judy took as she got to her feet. She nodded, and he started back towards the house. They walked at a slow pace across the wintry landscape, which under different circumstances would have all looked quite pretty. But now, everything just seemed cold, bleak, and lifeless. It was as if all the warmth and happiness had gone from the world, and there was nothing that could make it better.
Judy was grateful for her brother, though. She had always looked up to him, and though they hadn't spent as much time together over the last few years, he was still always there for her when she needed him. That was more than she could say for certain friends…
Just then, as Judy was starting to feel a little better, she and Peter passed by a familiar area close to the edge of the farm, one that looked exactly the same as she remembered it.
"Judy…" Nick's voice rang out inside Judy's head, so much younger and more innocent sounding than it was now, "can you promise me you won't tell anyone else about this? I…don't know how your parents would feel if they knew I almost bit you."
"No, we don't have to tell anyone," Judy replied, her own tone just as young and naïve as the fox kit's. "But…it does kind of feel like we've done something important, doesn't it?"
"I guess you're right," Nick agreed. "We did what our ancestors couldn't do."
"Judy, what's wrong?" Peter asked, waving his paws in front of her face. "You're just…staring. Did you see something?"
Judy shut her eyes again and sniffed, wiping away the tears as soon as they started to form. She had already cried out here today, and she didn't want to fall apart like an overly emotional bunny again. But seeing this place—the place where she and Nick had performed the Trust Ritual two years ago—she couldn't hold back the emotions. The memories rushed back to her so vividly that they hurt, thinking about how they felt about each other back then and how there was no sign that their friendship would ever end. She had trusted him so much then that she had allowed his fangs to almost touch her throat, but now?
"There's no way I would ever trust that fox to do that now," she thought. "I don't know that I would trust him with anything anymore…"
"It's…nothing," Judy said.
She took a deep breath and wiped the last of the tears away, and then turned to continue back towards the burrow. Peter still looked worried, but he followed beside her anyway. As much as Judy wanted to tell him why she was upset, just to have someone to talk to about it, she wasn't sure how he would react to knowing Nick had almost bitten her, especially now knowing how much of a jerk he had become.
Before too long, they arrived back at the burrow and passed by the huge group of bunnies playing outside in the snow. Back inside, it was pretty quiet since most of Judy's siblings were out, which was fine by her. She needed some time to herself anyway.
"Are you sure you're gonna be ok?" Peter asked as they came back inside.
"I…I think so," Judy replied.
"Well, if you need anything else, you can come talk to me anytime," Peter said. "And you can also talk to Chloe; I'm sure she'd love to help you out too."
"Chloe…" Judy said, more to herself than to Peter. "You're right! I should go tell Chloe!"
With that, she ran off down the hall to the bedrooms, leaving Peter standing there with a confused look on his face.
"—and then all of the bunnies went running in every direction, and he was just standing there and laughing," Judy explained.
"Wow, you're right; he is kind of a jerk now, isn't he?" Chloe agreed.
They were sitting on Chloe's bed, and Judy had just finished telling her older sister everything about how Nick had changed since the semester began.
"So…what do you think I should do?" Judy asked. "I mean, you always seem to know a lot more about predators than I do."
Chloe laughed.
"Yeah, that's true, but I'm not really sure you can do much about this," she said. "I mean, you can talk to him and try to figure out why he's acting the way he is, but until you do that there's probably no way to get him to act any different. Has he, like, gotten in fights with anyone, or does he just growl at them?"
"He growls at them and says threatening stuff," Judy explained. "Like, implying he might eat them if they don't do what he says."
"Huh…" Chloe said thoughtfully. "Well, unfortunately I don't really know any preds personally, so I don't know why exactly he'd do that, but my guess is he's probably still trying to be 'predatory' and he's likely been trying to hold it down for so long that it's just all bubbling over the surface now. I really think you should talk to him, because it sounds like the only way he's going to change is if he realizes he doesn't have to be hostile to everyone in order to be true to himself."
"I…guess?" Judy replied. "I just still don't understand why predators think they need to be intimidating. Why can't they just be nice to everyone?"
"Nah, that wouldn't be as much fun," Chloe said jokingly. "Seriously, though, since the preds don't eat us anymore, they need some kind of an outlet to be able to act like predators or else they probably just feel really constrained. And it's not like this town is designed particularly well for predators… Hey, maybe that's why all the foxes you've met eventually turn into jerks!"
"Well…maybe," Judy said. "But I still don't know how me talking to Nick is going to change anything, if he really feels like he has to do this to be himself."
Chloe shrugged.
"Who knows?" she said. "But you'll never know if you don't try it, and that's something you've never had an issue with doing in the past. If he doesn't change, at least you'll know you've tried your best, and then you don't need to worry about it anymore."
"I guess you're right," Judy sighed.
"Of course I am!" Chloe laughed. "Alright, so did that help you feel better?"
"I…I think so," Judy answered. "At least a little bit. I'm really glad you're here, Chloe."
"Aw, thanks, Judy," Chloe replied, pulling her younger sister into a hug. "You and Mallory are my favorite sisters. Please don't ever change or I'll have to disown you."
"You're so weird, Chloe," Judy giggled.
"Good to know I haven't changed," Chloe said.
For the next few weeks, Judy kept planning to talk to Nick every day at school, but she continuously avoided doing so and told herself she'd do it later. She didn't see much of him anyway, and even Samantha's constant updates on his and his friends' exploits had ceased since the last argument they'd had. It almost felt like their friendship had just faded, and there was no reason to talk to Nick or try to reason with him anymore. After all, he never came to talk to her anymore, and she didn't want to risk going near his friends again in any case.
But despite all of this reasoning, she still couldn't bring herself to admit defeat and give up on him just yet. She made a promise to herself that she would talk to Nick again before the end of the semester, and she intended to keep that promise. Yet, as the days continued to fly by, she worried that she was running out of time. She would have to talk to him soon if she wanted to keep her promise.
Finally, on the very last day of the fall semester, Judy decided she wasn't going to wait any longer. One way or another, she was going to put this to rest, and in order to do that she would have to face her fears and approach Nick.
Thankfully, in the weeks leading up to this day, she had asked around and figured out where some of Nick's classes were. She didn't want to talk to him during lunch, because she knew she'd have to deal with Trevor and Vanessa that way, but now she had a plan to catch Nick on his way out of class, before the rest of his gang met up with him.
Immediately upon hearing the bell ring in math class, Judy jumped up from her seat and ran out into the hall, stuffing her books in her backpack before running as fast as she could down the halls. The class Nick was supposed to be just leaving was halfway across the building, so she wasn't wasting any time. She ran past several other students, weaving through the crowd and doing her best to avoid bumping into anyone.
Judy breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Nick at the end of the next hall, and then started to panic as she realized what she was about to do.
"This is crazy!" she thought. "He's a jerk now! I can't just go up and talk to him like we're still best friends or something; he'll probably threaten to eat me! I'm sure he wouldn't actually eat me, but that doesn't mean he won't try to scare me, and since he knows me pretty well I'm sure it'll be—"
"Hey," Nick said, very close to Judy's ear.
"Aah!" Judy exclaimed, jumping away in fright.
"Yikes, no need to scream," Nick said. "What are you doing over here anyway? I never see you in this hall, so I'm guessing you came here to talk to me, correct?"
"I…um…well—" Judy started.
"Look, Judy, I have a few minutes before I need to get to class," Nick replied. "If you have something to say, tell me."
"What's with you pretending to be nice all of a sudden, huh?" Judy challenged. "How come you're still being friendly to me, but you're a jerk to everyone else? Are you trying to hide? Do you really think I somehow wouldn't find out what you're doing? How dumb do you think I—"
"Whoa, slow down," Nick said, holding up his paws. "No, I didn't expect that you wouldn't find out. I assume you're referring to me using my predator attributes to intimidate prey animals?"
"N—well, actually, yes," Judy answered, surprised at how casually he had confessed to it. "I don't know why you're acting like it's no big deal or something; do you even know how that feels to a prey mammal like me? Is this some kind of a joke to you?"
"But I wasn't doing it to you!" Nick replied defensively. "In case you didn't notice, I haven't involved you in any of this, and I told Trevor and Vanessa to leave you alone too. If they've been bothering you without me knowing, then I'll tell them to—"
"This isn't about me!" Judy exploded. "I honestly couldn't care less if you want to follow me around school and scare me all the time; I can deal with that! But you're just going around and acting like you own the place, forcing everyone out of your way because they're terrified that you'll eat them if they don't! And that doesn't bother you at all?! What's happened to you?!"
Nick sighed, his casual attitude only serving to intensify Judy's internal rage.
"For your information, all the preys I've done that too have made some kind of rude comments about predators," he said. "I don't know about Trevor and Vanessa; I try to stay out of what they do. But I don't go around harassing mammals who don't deserve it. I'm just not going to stay silent when I hear half of the students here complaining about me for my species. If they think all predators are cruel savages who just want to eat everyone, then that's what they'll get. Well, I mean, obviously I'm not going to actually eat anyone, but I'm pretty sure you're smart enough to figure that one out on your own."
Judy was caught off guard by his response, as well as by how calm he'd remained during this entire confrontation. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and tried to work out a good reply. She had no way of knowing for sure whether or not what he said was true, since she didn't know most of the mammals he had supposedly scared, and in any case he was probably more likely to hear and remember derogatory comments made about foxes or predators in general than she was. But Nick's actions still seemed harsh, even if they were directed towards mammals that Judy would also like to give a piece of her mind to.
"I don't know what they said to you or about you," Judy said. "But from what I saw, it looked like you were just scaring them for fun, not trying to tell them off for being mean to you. So excuse me if I don't quite understand."
"What's the difference?" Nick replied. "If I'm going to pay someone back for being annoying anyway, why does it matter to you if I enjoy it? That doesn't change the outcome, does it?"
"But…I just…I don't understand how you can enjoy scaring them like that," Judy explained. "I…I mean, you see how they look when they're terrified of what you might do to them, and that doesn't bother you at all?"
"Well, I never said it didn't bother me; I just said that I enjoyed it," Nick answered. "Look, I don't think a prey mammal is going to understand anyway. I know you always tried to treat me well and you never hated me for my species, but you don't seem to think that predator attributes can be celebrated and embraced like prey ones can. Maybe that's because you were taught to think that fangs and sharp claws are always a bad thing, something to fear, but I'm tired of hating myself. I'm sorry if that's offensive to you."
With that, he turned and walked away, lightly brushing Judy with his tail as he did so. She wanted to object, to run after him and beg him not to leave, but she didn't know what she would say. The conversation had left her feeling even more confused than she was before, and suddenly the prospect of being friends with Nick again really was starting to look impossible.
The rest of the day, Judy was barely able to pay attention enough to get through class. She stayed mostly quiet at lunch and didn't say much to the others, and though Sharla seemed to notice something was up, none of them asked her. That was fine by her, as she didn't feel like talking about what happened. Honestly, she still had trouble believing it really did happen. She kept replaying the conversation in her head, as if hoping to find something that would tell her how to solve all of this, but she was unsuccessful. It seemed that Nick was determined to continue acting predatory, and there was nothing she could do to change that.
At the very least, the one thing that gave her the tiniest bit of hope was seeing how he had still treated her the same as always, never once using his predator traits to intimidate her in any way, even when he was frustrated and argued with her. It might not change much, but at least it showed Judy that she still meant something to Nick, even if he had grown to be a completely different mammal from her.
Finally, at the end of the day, Judy was heading outside when she heard a loud noise from behind her. Looking back, she saw her friend Sharla had fallen over in the middle of the hall and dropped some books. Judy rushed over to help her, kneeling down to retrieve some of the books.
"Oh, Judy!" Sharla said, suddenly noticing her friend. "Thanks for helping. I couldn't fit everything in my backpack, and I want to study up on some of this before spring."
"It's no problem," Judy replied. "Here, I'll help you carry some of them out to the bus."
"Really?" Sharla said. "Thanks!"
The line had already mostly gone outside, so Judy and Sharla were some of the last students to leave the building. They both walked together towards the bus, silent for a few seconds until Sharla looked over at Judy.
"Hey, did you ever talk to…you know who?" she asked nervously.
Judy sighed heavily.
"Yes," she answered. "I'll tell you all about it on the bus."
Sharla's expression changed from curiosity to one of genuine concern as they approached and boarded the bus. As Judy looked back at the junior high school one last time, she was disheartened at how much time had passed since she and Nick were friends. She had held out hopes that this would be the year when she and Nick would make up and be friends again, but here she was—a whole semester later—and she was no closer to that goal than she was at the beginning of summer.
Judy wasn't ready to give up just yet, but she was out of ideas. There was nothing left to do now except wait for spring to see what happened.
(A/N) WHY CAN'T YOU JUST GET ALONG?!
Oh well, despite how badly things are going, I've really enjoyed writing these last several chapters. The vague idea I had in my mind for this story is finally starting to take shape and I'm looking forward to seeing what future chapters look like.
Alright, that's all for now!
