(A/N) It's finally here!
Whew, I took a long time again, but it's finished now. Nothing really new to report, just more mental health trouble like before. I like to think my overall state of mind has improved a lot, but I feel that sometimes more than other times.
Also, since a few reviewers have mentioned Gideon Grey, rest assured that he will come back into the story...eventually. XD
Happy New Year everyone! (though the first several days have looked suspiciously like 2020...)
The summer went by slowly and more or less uneventfully, but for Judy it was exactly what she needed. The last year had been so fraught with stress for her that a long break from all of that was a huge relief.
She hadn't talked to Nick at all since that one time back in the winter, and she didn't even know what to think about him anymore. She had heard through some other bunnies at school that he had attacked and bitten a fellow student, but she hadn't bothered to go and ask Nick himself whether or not it was true. After all, what did it matter now? They weren't best friends anymore, and if what he really wanted was to be a jerk to all the prey animals, there wasn't much she could do about it. Besides, after everything that happened, she didn't want to think about Nick right now. She would rather just pretend he'd never existed; that would make it easier not to feel upset over losing him as a friend.
Throughout the summer, she spent a lot of time with her other friend, Sharla. Of all her friends, she was the only one Judy saw regularly anymore; Samantha had finally stopped talking to her altogether and her sister June seemed to have followed suit, Clara hadn't been seen in months and Judy was vaguely aware that she might have moved again, and Mark was starting to retreat back into himself more with every day that passed.
It felt in a way like everything they had been moving towards just suddenly disappeared. Thinking back to the days before Nick had met Trevor and Vanessa, when their friend group was growing and everyone was starting to get more comfortable with each other, it didn't feel right that it would end the way it had. There was so much more that could have happened, so many more memories they could have made together, but…now that wouldn't happen. As much as Judy wanted to believe they would eventually all get back together and everything would be like it was, that was feeling more impossible with every month that went by. At this point, she feared she had missed her window of opportunity.
The only link Judy still had to Nick was through Mallory and Brendan's friendship, and it warmed Judy's heart to know that at least that hadn't changed. The two kits were now about the age Nick and Judy were when they met…just another reminder of how much time had passed.
"So…any idea how Nick is doing?" Judy had asked.
"Well, he's in his room a lot, and me and Brendan usually play outside," Mallory replied. "But have you seen Brendan in a while? He's a little taller than me now! He says he's going to be a lot bigger than me when we grow up, because foxes are bigger than bunnies, and I said…"
It didn't seem like a very fruitful approach. Nick clearly wasn't up for socializing right now, and that was probably for the best.
"Well, maybe he's just upset with himself for what he did," Sharla suggested one day, as the two were walking around the farm together.
"You mean what we think he did," Judy corrected. "We didn't see it happen; it could have just been some rumor that someone made up…"
"Yeah…or maybe you just don't want to accept that he really has changed," Sharla replied.
"Maybe…" Judy said.
Judy really was thankful for Sharla, especially during a time like this when she seemed to have no other friends to call on when she needed support. Even her siblings were busy; Chloe was preparing for high school in the fall and was nervous as ever, and Peter was getting ready for his senior year. Sure, she had plenty of other siblings, but she had never felt as close with any of the rest of them as she did with those two. Out of two hundred and seventy five siblings, they had been there for her time and time again over the last several years.
Finally, the long wait came to an end on the first day of seventh grade, when Judy woke up to the sound of an alarm clock and she and several of her students rolled out of bed to get ready.
"Why did we have to have that stupid alarm?" James moaned.
"Because you're a lazy vegetable," Judy said without even looking at him.
Several of the other bunnies in the room laughed, and Judy managed a smile as she packed up her backpack and got ready to leave the room.
"If he's a vegetable, does that mean we can eat him?" another one of her brothers asked.
"Oh, shut up, Carl!" James retorted angrily. "Are you aspiring to be a carnivore now or something?"
"Well, logically I don't have to be, since you're in fact a vegetable," Carl replied, smiling and trying desperately to hold back a laugh.
Judy was the first one out of the room and felt mildly regretful for not staying to see how the interaction played out, but she didn't want to waste time today. Last year, her first day of school had been an awful ordeal, and she was hoping not to go through something like that again this year.
When she reached the kitchen, she grabbed a few carrot flavored bagels and started towards the door.
"I think Chloe and Peter are out on the front porch, if you want to see them before you leave today," Bonnie said from the kitchen, where she was trying hard to fix breakfast for a bunch of Judy's younger siblings.
"Really?" Judy replied. "Thanks! I was hoping to see them before school anyway."
With the smallest bit of renewed hope, she headed outside to see Chloe and Peter sitting right where she'd expected to see them, both talking and laughing. They looked up when they saw Judy, and both smiled warmly.
"Good morning, Judy," Peter said. "How did that new alarm work?"
"Perfectly," Judy laughed. "It's gonna drive James crazy all year."
"Excellent!" Chloe said, smiling deviously.
She fist-bumped Judy, who sat down beside them while Peter chuckled and shook his head.
"You two does are a couple of troublemakers," he remarked.
"Yes, we are," Chloe agreed. "So…Judy, are you ready for your first day?"
"I don't know…" Judy admitted. "Last year didn't go very well. I guess I'm just worried about what'll happen this time. Though I guess it can't really get much worse, can it?"
She laughed bitterly, and Chloe patted her on the shoulder.
"Maybe not, but it doesn't have to be all bad, right?" she said. "You still have Sharla, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do," Judy replied. "And she's been my friend for the longest. I'm kinda bummed that you're going to another school now, though. I should have taken advantage of having you close by more often."
"Hey, you can still call me up if you ever need me to come teach someone a lesson," Chloe said. "Though if I'm in history class, it might have to wait."
Peter chuckled.
"I wouldn't count on enjoying that class as much as you think you will," he said. "It's not like we learned stuff about predators every day. And we didn't do long essays on the details of them eating prey, either."
"Is that what you wanted to read about?" Judy laughed nervously, giving Chloe a look between confused and concerned.
Chloe smiled like she was trying to hold in a laugh.
"Maybe," she said.
"You're definitely a unique one, Chloe," Judy replied.
On the bus ride, Judy sat next to Sharla and didn't talk most of the way to school. Sharla seemed more talkative, but then again she often got that way when she was nervous.
"So…do you think you're gonna see Nick at all this year?" she said. "Oh no, what if you're in the same class together? That would be awkward! What if I'm in class with him? Oh, Judy, do you think he really did bite that bunny? Because I don't do so well with getting hurt and I'd be really freaked out if he tried to—"
"Sharla!" Judy screamed, the name coming out a bit louder than she'd intended.
Sharla stared at her with a look of frozen shock, and then giggled nervously.
"Sorry," she said. "I'm just kinda nervous about this year. I don't know why; we've already had one year of junior high, so it can't be too much worse, right? Unless…oh no, you don't think Nick and those other two foxes are gonna start some little gang and go around biting all the prey mammals, do you?"
"That sounds like a conspiracy theory," Judy replied. "Are you sure you haven't been hanging around some of my older brothers lately?"
"Yeah…that did sound a little out there, didn't it?" Sharla agreed. "But still…predators are scary enough on their own, but if the three of them start working together…wait, what if Gideon Grey comes back? Have you seen him in a while? What ever happened to—?"
"Sharla, honestly," Judy interrupted, "I'd love to hear all of your thoughts about what's going to happen this year, but do you think you could spread them out a little? It's only the first day; maybe we should wait a little until we actually have an idea of what's going to happen."
"I just don't know how I'm going to make it…" Sharla moaned, putting her hooves over her eyes.
Judy sighed and pulled her friend into a hug.
"You're going to be fine," she assured her. "If anyone should be worried, it's me. I don't think Nick likes me much anymore, and his friends definitely don't care for me."
Sharla nodded, still shaking a little.
"Ok, I guess you're right," she agreed. "But I'm still gonna be on my guard, and you should too! You never know what those sly foxes might get up to if we aren't paying attention!"
Judy rolled her eyes, but smiled.
"Sure thing; I'll keep that in mind, Sharla," she said.
Finally they arrived at school, and Judy and Sharla got off the bus and walked inside together. It was a strange feeling, being back here again. Last year when she had first seen it, she had felt so hopeful about the time to come, about Nick and their friendship…but now here she was a year later and nothing had turned out at all like she'd hoped.
Unlike the elementary school, this building wasn't filled with good memories for Judy. This was a place that only reminded her of the stress and anxiety that had made up most of sixth grade. This was a place that reminded her of the last conversation she'd had with Nick, the place where Samantha had bombarded her with rumors about him, the place where most of her friends had eventually moved on from her and disappeared.
"We're back," Judy sighed heavily. "Guess I'll see you later? That is, hoping we get the same lunch period again."
"Well, I hope we do," Sharla said nervously. "I don't have anyone else to sit with anymore, either. You know, we're not really that, um…liked anymore."
"Pfft, I don't care about that," Judy replied. "Though I am sorry I dragged you down with me. I guess everyone just thinks we're still friends with Nick and thus somehow associated with his little group?"
"Yeah…" Sharla said. "Either that or they just hate us for ever being friends with a predator to begin with. But I really wouldn't want anyone else to be my friend over you, Judy."
Judy smiled.
"Thanks, Sharla," she said. "I really didn't think it would ever lead to this, though. Don't you remember when Nick stood up for Mark and everyone loved him? I guess I just hoped that mammals' opinions on predators were actually starting to change, but it doesn't seem like we really made any progress at all."
"That's not your fault, Judy," Sharla said. "Nick was the one who decided to run off with those jerks, even when you tried to stop him. I doubt there's anything we could have done anyway."
"Maybe not…" Judy agreed. "Anyway, I guess we'd better get to class. See you later, Sharla."
"See you," Sharla repeated.
The first day was so uneventful it was almost painful. Thankfully, Judy and Sharla did have the same lunch period and could talk in the cafeteria, but they shared no other classes together and neither did Judy and Nick. In fact, Judy didn't even see Nick anywhere all day, nor did she see Trevor or Vanessa. She was pretty sure they were still going to the same school, but they clearly weren't part of each other's lives anymore.
She did hear through Mallory that she and Brendan were still friends, so that meant the Wildes hadn't moved or anything. After a week or so, Judy thought she caught a glimpse of Nick in the hallway, though she wasn't sure if it was him and not one of the other foxes. Neither of them had made any efforts to reconnect, and it was starting to seem doubtful that they ever would.
Finally, about a month after school started back, Judy had said goodbye to Sharla and was just getting ready to leave school when she saw something out of the corner of her eye, over by the trees at the edge of the parking lot. A fox was sitting under a tree by himself, looking over some books and papers he had. A closer look revealed it was indeed Nick Wilde, though why he was sitting over there by himself she had no idea. Last year, she'd hardly ever seen him without Trevor and Vanessa around.
She was just about to shrug it off and continue towards the bus, but at the last moment she stopped. She sighed heavily and looked back over her shoulder at Nick, who was so focused on whatever he was doing that he didn't appear to have noticed her. Judy knew she wasn't going to be able to forget about this, and if she didn't at least try to satisfy her curiosity, she would likely spend weeks wondering about it. So, she turned away from the bus and started over to the trees, her heart pounding as she did so.
"I haven't talked to Nick in so long!" she remembered. "Will he be mad at me for coming to talk to him? Is this even a good idea? Maybe I should just go back anyway and—"
"Judy?" Nick said, briefly looking up from his books. "What are you doing over here?"
"I…" Judy started.
She was frozen. She wasn't sure if it was some kind of rabbit instinct that happened when making eye contact with foxes, or if she was just nervous because of how their last meeting had gone. Either way, as she stood there, she found herself wondering what she was doing over here. What was she going to say? They hadn't been friends for a long time now, so what excuse could she have?
"I was just…wondering…what you're doing over here," she answered nervously. "I've never seen you over here reading before. I guess I was just curious."
"Well…it's really not that interesting," Nick replied. "I'm just…trying to figure all of this out. Apparently my grades have been going downhill lately. Terribly surprising, huh?"
"I…don't understand," Judy said. "Your grades aren't doing well? I always thought you were one of the smartest mammals I knew."
"Thanks, you're really inspiring a lot of confidence right now," Nick laughed bitterly.
"No, wait, I didn't mean it that way!" Judy said quickly. "I just…I don't know, I just meant I never expected to see you…struggling…with stuff like that. Do you think there's…anything…I could do to help?"
Nick looked up at her and frowned, perplexed.
"You want to help?" he repeated, as if he didn't really believe it. "You haven't even spoken to me in almost a year. Sorry if I don't jump back to being your best friend right away, but I'm confused about why you chose now to come talk to me again."
"I…don't know; I just…" Judy started, flustered. "I didn't know what to say, alright? And…and what you said the last time we talked…I didn't know what to say to you! And you're always with those other two foxes, who are even—"
"I'm not friends with them anymore," Nick said flatly.
"Oh… R-really?" Judy asked. "How come?"
Nick shrugged.
"Turns out other predators make me bend to their will just like prey do," he said. "I didn't want to spend every second tormenting prey mammals anymore than I did hiding my fangs."
"Oh…o-ok," Judy said, unsure how exactly to respond to that. "So…you're sure you don't want me to help you with that? I've never had a lot of trouble with schoolwork, so I could probably help…"
"Gotta find some way to let me know how smart you are, don't you?" Nick replied.
Judy folded her arms.
"You mean like how you and your friends used to go out of your way to be 'predatory' and scare everyone?" she said.
"Fair enough," Nick sighed. "Look…if you really want to help, I could honestly use it. I just don't want to make it awkward for us after…you know, everything."
"I know…" Judy agreed. "I just thought…I don't know, maybe we could try again? I know I wasn't as good a friend to you as I should have been, and I'm sorry… I just want to find a way to make up for that. If you want to snarl and show off your fangs and…be scary and all that all the time, I don't mind. I get that we're different, so I won't try to make you act like a bunny."
She closed her eyes, too afraid to face Nick. At least now she knew she had done everything she could; there was no way to go back and change the past, so all she could hope was that he would give her another chance.
After a long pause, Nick finally stood up and walked over to Judy, who opened her eyes.
"Yikes…he's already quite a bit taller than me…" she thought, heart rate increasing a little. "Really makes him look like more of a predator than he used to…"
"Thanks," he said. "I, uh…don't think I'm going to need to growl at you all the time, but…thanks for the reassurance. Maybe…we could talk after school again tomorrow? If you wanted to help, we could get together on the weekends or something…unless you're busy then."
"N-no, that works fine for me!" Judy replied, her voice coming out as more of a shriek than she'd intended. "Sharla's the only one I still really talk to, so I don't have much going on either. That sounds really good!"
"Ok, then…" Nick said. "See you tomorrow, then, I guess. We'd better get to the bus before it leaves."
"Oh, right!" Judy said. "Come on!"
One October morning, a few weeks later, Nick got up early, getting out of bed and cramming as many books and papers as he could into his backpack. He made no effort to organize them; he could just dig through it later and find whatever he needed. Once he was done, he hurried out of his room and found his parents talking in the kitchen.
"Ready early?" his dad laughed. "Haven't seen you up this early on Saturday in a long time!"
"Yeah…I don't want to keep Judy waiting," Nick answered.
"So, how did this all come up, again?" his mom asked curiously. "Every time I used to bring up Judy, you'd just say you didn't see her much anymore."
"It's…well, a lot of stuff happened," Nick said vaguely. "But Judy happened to see me the other day and we talked some about school, and she offered to study with me, I guess."
"Hmm…" his mom said thoughtfully. "Well, if you're all ready, let's go out to the car."
The drive to the Hopps' farm wasn't very long; Nick had forgotten that he and Judy lived so close to each other. All the way there, he tried to calm his nerves, but he couldn't stop worrying about what might happen. It had been so long since he'd regularly spent time with Judy, and he just wanted everything to go well. Preferably, he also wanted to improve his grades, but that was being pushed to the back of his mind right now.
Luckily, they arrived soon enough, and after saying goodbye to his mother, Nick ran up to the door, where he found Judy waiting for him. His heart sped up when he saw her, suddenly feeling even more nervous. He really didn't want this to go badly, and their history was so shaky that he felt like any little thing might cause the chance of a new friendship to collapse entirely.
"H-hi, Judy," he said.
"What was that?!" he thought. "Why am I stuttering like that? This is going to be harder than I thought…"
"Hi, Nick," Judy replied; her tone was relaxed, but not overly enthusiastic either. "So, I can't clear out enough of my crazy siblings to use my room, and I, uh…didn't exactly want a bunch of them to know you were coming, so…is it fine if we go out to the shed? There's a…sort of makeshift bedroom above it; I think my grandpa or my dad had it put there as a place to stay if the weather was too bad to walk back to the burrow. It's not the best place, but…it's out of the way so James or any of my other crazy siblings won't annoy us."
"Um…sure," Nick said. "How far away is it? I think I remember seeing something like that before…"
"Follow me," Judy said, stepping down from the porch. "It's a bit of a walk, which is why the 'in case the weather is bad' room got added in. Hopefully Chloe's not hanging out there. Sometimes she goes there to hide her secret stash of blueberries or whatever else she doesn't want anyone to know about. I bet if she ever found that essay Peter wrote she'd probably take it there…"
"What…?" Nick laughed, confused. "Why would she want to look at her brother's homework?"
Judy laughed too.
"Long story," she said. "You don't want to know."
Nick smiled, starting to relax as Judy led the way across the farm, to the shed. So far, things were going well. He was sure she was going to bring up past events at some point, but at least for now, it was almost as if none of that had happened, as if nothing had changed.
And yet, everything was different now. Nick had grown into a different mammal since he was best friends with Judy, and he was sure she had grown a lot too. They had been through a lot together back when they were friends, but in the last year or so they had faced everything separately. Nick didn't know if Judy had gone through anything like what he had experienced recently, but he got the feeling everything hadn't been simple and easy for her. After all, she'd said something before about not really talking to anyone other than Sharla, which made it sound like a lot of her other friends had moved on too. He didn't want to ask where Samantha went, but something told him he was probably indirectly responsible for that friendship falling apart.
They arrived at the shed, a good distance away from the house in a solitary area. It definitely looked old and wasn't the nicest building, but it also looked pretty sturdy. Judy inserted a key, turned it, and opened the door to step inside, leading Nick towards some stairs off to the side. It was dark, but enough light made it in through the door cracks that it wasn't hard to see. Plus, Nick's eyes were better designed for seeing in the dark anyway.
"I usually do my homework here too, at least in the last few years," Judy admitted. "Thankfully most of my annoying siblings are too lazy to walk all the way over here, so they don't bother me. But just to be sure, I keep one of the keys with me. Chloe has one, I think Peter has one, and…Dad probably has the last one? There might be more keys, but none of my younger siblings have them. Oh! I think my older brother Jeff might have one too. He used to come out here and play his guitar…but he's off working at our uncle's farm right now."
At the top of the stairs, Judy opened another door and flipped a light switch, revealing a very small room with a dusty bed in the back, by a small window. There were a few piles of boxes on either side, but there wasn't much room for anything else. It was all very dusty, and the walls and ceiling looked kind of incomplete…which probably explained why it was colder in here than it would have been in a normal house. It was a good thing Nick had come wearing his coat.
"Ok, we can sit either on the floor or on the bed," Judy said. "Not much difference, really; the mattress on that bed feels like a pile of bricks."
Nick laughed.
"Well, in that case, I guess the floor is fine," he said.
"Excellent," Judy replied, taking a seat on the floor and leaning against the bed, and then pulling some books from her own backpack. "I'm guessing you brought your school stuff too?"
"Of course!" Nick said jokingly. "Come on, you know we foxes are smarter than that!"
"Oh, really?" Judy said, giving him a suspicious look. "Then why is it you had to ask a bunny for help with your homework?"
"Well…yeah, good point," Nick conceded.
He flopped down on the floor next to her and both of them laughed. For a brief moment, Nick almost forgot again about everything that happened between them, and it was like they had always been best friends. Then the moment faded, and he proceeded to pull his own mess of schoolbooks and unfinished homework from his backpack. Judy looked at the messy pile and frowned.
"Do I need to give you a lesson on how to organize your backpack, too?" she asked.
"Hey, it's not that bad!" Nick replied. "Besides, I know where everything is. It's organized chaos. Maybe I should teach you how to sort your stuff."
"Cheese and crackers, no," Judy said, chuckling a little. "I think I'll stick with my way. Anyway…what's the first thing you want to go over?"
"Uh…" Nick started, searching quickly through his messy pile of books. "Well, how about we start with this?"
He held up a math textbook and Judy nodded, retrieving an identical one from her own stack.
"Well, if it's any consolation," she said, "I hate this course too. I had to get Peter to help me. Chloe offered to, but apparently she forgot everything about it as soon as she finished the class…"
And so they dove right into the books and Judy immediately got to work explaining the concepts to Nick. He found that, surprisingly, after hearing her explain them a few times, they actually started to make sense. It was almost like he was able to see the problems in a whole new light, one that made everything seem obvious in retrospect.
And they didn't stop with math. The two mammals spent hours going through subject after subject; Judy occasionally berated Nick for goofing off and not paying attention, but most of the time he paid attention and they got along well. Learning from her just felt so much more relaxed, so much less intimidating than sitting in the classroom with all the other kits and trying to remember what he'd learned when all he'd really done was sit and wait for the bell to ring.
After a while, Judy decided their time was up, and she packed her books back up.
"I think this went well," she said, smiling. "If you ever want to do this again, I'm sure I'll have plenty of time. Like I said, I don't really have anything else to do, unless Sharla comes over or my dad finds extra stuff for me to help out with on the farm."
"That would be great!" Nick agreed. "I guess…I'll tell you if I need any more help. But…thanks for doing this. I think it really helped."
"No problem!" Judy replied. "Well, we'd better get back, or my parents might start wondering where I am. You'd be surprised at how much my mom notices, even when she has over two hundred kits to watch."
Nick laughed.
"Yeah, my mom will probably be here to pick me up soon, so we probably should go back," he agreed.
He packed up his own books—by throwing them in his backpack in no particular order—and then followed Judy down the stairs and back out of the shed. They were mostly silent as they walked back to the burrow, and for some reason Nick found himself feeling…disappointed.
"I learned so much more than I thought I would…" he thought. "We didn't have any trouble getting along, even after all the stuff that happened. So why do I feel like this now…?"
Nick was in a mental daze when they got back to the burrow and he and Judy said their goodbyes. He was still feeling out of it when his mother arrived to pick him up, but he did his best to put on his casual face and look like nothing was wrong.
Even so, the whole way home and the rest of the day, he kept thinking about that morning. He thought about how easy it had been to learn—how much fun it had been, even—but mostly he thought about how much he liked spending time with Judy. She was so fun to be around, so kind and helpful but also able to joke and mess around with him… Had he never noticed that before?
As he lay in bed that night, he found himself wondering if he had just forgotten what Judy was like, or if she really had changed. But one thing was for certain.
Right now, what Nick wanted more than anything was to spend time with her. This time, he promised, he wasn't going to let this friendship slip away.
(A/N) AAAAAHHHHHH Nick is 13 and Judy's going to be 13 in a few months we're finally getting to the teenage years! :) I can hardly believe it's been a whole year since I started this story. I have grown so much in the past year and it's just crazy to think that I haven't even gotten to the parts of this story I used to fantasize about all the time...but we're getting closer!
See you all next time, which I hope won't be three weeks from now! XD
