Hello there, readers! This here is a special little side-project of mine! Basically, it is a spin-off mini-series based on my story Found! It takes place in the near future, and explores an adorably fun idea I had, of Lily becoming a hall monitor in school. This IS canonical to my story, and no, it does not mean that I've stopped writing Found. This is just adding more to the overall story. I really hope that you enjoy it as much as I certainly do!
Hall Monitors (Chapter 1)
by
Elite Shade
"Mr. and Mrs. Bell-Hunter," said Principal Capreol. The female reindeer regarded the couple seated before her in her office while adjusting her glasses. She was wearing a light blue skirtsuit, and carried herself with a friendly demeanor. "I'm so happy that you two could stop by."
"Well, when it's regarding one of our lambs, we like to be as involved as possible," Dawn said. She was wearing a lavender skirt with a matching blouse. Vernon was dressed in a blazer over his polo shirt and jeans, per his mate's insistence. He was looking a little uncomfortable, as Dawn could tell, since he was gently squeezing her hoof in his much larger paw.
"And that is absolutely wonderful! Alice, Trevor, and Lily have all been delights to have!" Mrs. Capreol said, sounding genuinely enthusiastic.
"But?" Vernon queried, the Hunter intuition striking again.
"... Well... the reason I called is... it has to do with Lily," the Principal gently said.
"Has someone been pickin' on her?" Vernon said with a frown. Now it was Dawn's turn to squeeze his paw, but in reassurance.
"Puppy love, she would have told us right away if that happened," Dawn said, reaching up to stroke her mate's neck ruff.
"We do not tolerate bullying here at West Savannah Middle School, Mr. BellHunter," Mrs. Capreol said, meaning it. "No... the matter at hoof... has to do with Lily and her... hall monitor duties..."
"Oh, but I thought that Lily was doing wonderfully as a hall monitor?" Dawn said, now feeling a sense of worry.
"She is exemplary... but... she seems to be taking her duties a bit... seriously..." said Mrs. Capreol, looking uncomfortable, as though she were struggling to find the right words.
"What do y'all mean exactly?" Vernon asked, feeling a little defensive about his pups... but also having a sneaking suspicion about where this was going.
"I think it would be best if I showed you. You see, our AV club has been following and filming our hall monitors around, making an episodic documentary, for their club project. And they've been uploading the episodes to the school's website," Mrs. Capreol said, her hoof fingers click-clacking on her keyboard. She then turned the ultra-thin monitor around on its swivel to face the couple, showing a video on the school's website, titled Monitors. With a click of her mouse, the video took a second to load, and then started to play.
A theme song similar to "Bad Mams" started to play, along with what was clearly a parody set of lyrics, sung by kids.
Bad cubs, bad cubs, whatchu gunna do, whatchu gunna do when they come for you?
"Monitors is filmed on location with the boys and girls of rule enforcement. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in the principal's office," said a surprisingly deep voice.
The video then opened following Lily, dressed in a pink t-shirt with a bedazzled butterfly on the front, and white shorts. She was sporting her orange hall monitor sash and laminated I.D. badge, hanging from her neck on a lanyard, which confirmed her status as a hall monitor. And of course, she was wearing the pair of aviator sunglasses that her Uncle Yuri got her, much to Vernon's annoyance. In the video, the camera, remaining oddly steady, followed her as she walked through the halls. Lily Bell-Hunter, Age 12, appeared in white at the bottom left corner of the screen, and then faded away.
"Things're quiet right now," she said in her father's drawl, having firmly picked it up and kept it, "but we'll be seein' some excitement before long. Ever since the PTA banned sugary snacks and drinks and o' course, candy, we've seen a major increase in smugglin' and dealin'. Yuppers, before, we mainly just had to deal with kids speedin' in the halls, the occasional backpack theft, and the minor stuff like that, and even then it was all few and far between. But now, kids're gettin' ahold of all sorts of sweets and sellin' 'em fer a markup, which o' course gets 'em all riled up and hyperactive. Y'all can do the math there."
The camera cut to a shot of the halls as kids of various species were walking from one classroom to another. The hallways had been posted with No Running signs, had white painted walking "lanes" for the students to walk safely, including bright and colorful stop signs at where the halls intersect.
"The administration thought up all these lanes and such, in an effort to promote safety. Personally, I like 'em, but some kids... like that one up there... I think we got us a live one."
The camera turned to an ocelot boy with a green backpack, who was jogging up ahead. He swerved briefly into the oncoming lane, when he turned to see a hall monitor right behind him, barely missing a distracted rhino boy who almost bowled him over head on. Lily pulled out her radio.
"Dispatch, this is unit Z0013. I have a possible 10-32 on my paws, be advised, over." Lily released the button, and a staticky, mumbled voice could be heard speaking out of it. Lily then picked up her pace while hitting another button on the side of the radio. A light at the bottom started to flash blue and yellow lights and let out a siren, an idea that members of the PTA had found to be adorable when it had been proposed by the hall monitors' rep at a meeting. The ocelot boy jumped and stepped over to the right, standing out of the way of the foot-traffic. Lily cautiously approached.
"See how he's twitching like that? Could be he's just nervous, or maybe just legitimately itchy. However, it could mean that he's been snacking on something sweet and it's got him all energetic," Lily said quietly into the camera before coming up alongside the ocelot boy, who was twitchy and looking around.
"Afternoon, sir, do you know why I pulled you over?" Lily asked, staring straight at him with her large reflective aviator lenses.
The boy gulped and looked away. "N-no, Miss monitor," he said, a little meekly.
"You were swerving all over the hall there and I clocked you up to a jog where the posted speed limit is at a walk."
"Uh... s-sorry about that, I'm j-just gunna be a little late," he said, licking his lips.
"Uh-huh," Lily said, unimpressed; she took a step closer. "I'm gunna need to see your school I.D. and registration," she said, holding her hand out. The boy gulped again and pulled off his lanyard and handed his I.D. to the hall monitor. Lily looked it over and read his name.
"Well, Mr. Jeremy Crepus, before I radio dispatch to check to see if you have any priors or anything like that, is there anything you'd like to tell me? Because I suspect that you might be under the influence of sugar." Lily said this as calmly and casually as she could. The ocelot boy gulped again, and quickly snatched his I.D. from Lily's hands and pushed her to the ground before sprinting off.
Lily had fallen with a grunt, but was right back on her feet, giving chase. She hit the siren button on her radio and once more lights were flashing. "Dispatch, this is unit Z0013, I am in pursuit of a suspect northbound in hall eleven, woah! Make that eastbound down hall twelve. Backup requested. Suspect's name is Jeremy Crepus, he is a male ocelot with a green backpack, I repeat, a green backpack."
While other children and a couple of teachers in the hall leapt to the side to stay out of the way of Lily pursuing her fleeing suspect, the boy known as Jeremy hung a sharp right and almost went skidding. Lily was not deterred, however, keeping pace with the smaller mammal. Soon, her friend Paul, a panther who was also a hall monitor, was in pursuit.
"I go to the bathroom for a minute, and you start a chase without me? Nice way to treat your partner!" he said, keeping up with Lily.
"Sorry, Paul, it just kinda happened." They were coming to the end of the hall, which would have split off to the left or the right, Lily and Paul right behind the fleeing suspect, before said suspect came to a skidding halt. Blocking his path on either side were pairs of hall monitors, with Lily and Paul now standing behind him. On the left side was a giraffe girl and warthog boy. On the right, a white vixen and an elephant girl.
"Jeremy Crepus, you are under arrest," Lily said, stepping forward.
The ocelot whimpered and clutched his backpack to himself. The screen went black, and there was a very familiar Don-Don sound effect as the picture came back into focus. The camera was focused on Jeremy, sitting alone in a small room at a desk. Just outside the clear glass door were Paul and Lily, who were currently talking with an older coyote boy, who was wearing a full charcoal suit with a red tie. All about them there was a general murmur as other hall monitors went about, looking through file cabinets and their backpacks, some escorting apparently arrested students.
"So what do we got?" the boy asked, the name Orwell Yipper, age 14, appearing under him in white before disappearing. "And I can't stay for long, my mom's picking me up soon to take me and my brothers to get a family portrait photo taken."
"Well, we picked him up for running in the halls, pushing a hall monitor, resisting arrest, and we got a teacher's permission to check his backpack," Paul explained. "Plus, he's got priors. Mostly petty stuff like speeding demerits and a few counts of possession."
"Find anything?" Orwell asked.
"Three kilos of gummy spiders and a pack of gum... wild cherry flavor," Lily said. "No way was he just walkin' 'round with all that ta snack on himself."
"So he's dealing, eh?" Orwell said while looking through the door at the boy, who sat there fidgeting.
"I don't think so, Sarge," Lily said while crossing her arms as Orwell and Paul both rolled their eyes. "See, the gummies weren't divided and bagged separetely. I'm thinkin' that he was smugglin' 'em somewhere on school grounds so that they could be cut and distributed."
"We have been picking up a lot more dealers with gummy spiders lately," Paul offered. Orwell considered this and nodded.
"Has he asked for his Mock-Trial Attorney?"
"Not yet, Sarge," Lily said, leaning forward on a desk, "but we did inform him of his rights."
"Alright, see what you can get outta him," he said, before something started to buzz. He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen, frowning. "Well, my mom's here, so I gotta go and wait for her to sign me out at the front desk." With that he left. Lily smiled at Paul and the two nodded. They entered the room.
"Hey there, Jeremy," Paul said, in his usual friendly manner, "sorry to keep you waiting. We were just looking over your record. It makes for quite the interesting read."
"I-it does?" Jeremy asked, rocking back a little in his seat.
"Sure does," Lily chimed in, hands on her hips. "It's interestin' 'cause it was mostly just the petty stuff. Speeding, sippin' sodas, that sorta stuff. But then, cut to today, when you get caught with three kilos of gummies. The good stuff too, all Rustle brand. That's a REALLY expensive buncha candy you had on ya. Kinda a big leap from some small-time possession charges."
"I-I really like gummies... a-and I g-got $20 from my grandma for my birthday that I've b-been saving," Jeremy said, his whiskers twitching and tail swishing.
"Really? Knowing that you've got priors, you still decide to bring it to school all at once?" Paul interjected with a shake of his head. "Nah, I'm not buying it. I'm betting that you're bringing in all those gummies to hand off to someone for distribution, probably some other dealers."
"N-no! You got it all wrong! I-it's... uhm... all m-mine," he said, his voice becoming more and more meek as Lily stared hard at him with her aviators on again.
"You got to face facts, Jeremy," Paul said, putting a comforting paw on the shorter, nervous feline's shoulder, "you've been caught. And so far, you're on the hook for it all."
"That's right. Three kilos of gummy spiders? That's definitely possession with intent, couple that with the pushing of a hall monitor, and all yer priors, and yer lookin' at some serious in school suspension. OH! And can't forget the gum."
Lily then pulled up a chair and sat down next to Jeremy, smiling sweetly as she pulled off her sunglasses, making him shrink back, stuck between the two hall monitors.
"But... if you cooperate, you can avoid all of that, and maybe get it bumped down to some after school service," Paul said, paw still on Jeremy's shoulder.
"I-I'm notta tattletail!" Jeremy said in a voice he clearly wanted to sound defiant, but came out as a squeak.
"Y'all ever been to actual ISS, Jeremy?" Lily asked, leaning in, her smile still cheery, but her voice deadly serious. "Oh wait, naw, just some referrals and notes home and some time out in the hall. Well, let me tell ya. The kids who go to ISS have an established hierarchy. And Gummers... they're at the bottom of that peckin' order."
Paul nodded. "You've probably heard about how the kids in ISS don't take too kindly to those who bring gum to school. I mean, not very many kids do. That stuff is so easy to get stuck in fur and is a nightmare to get out."
"And while y'all will be in ISS dealin' with the kids there, and trust me, they WILL find out that yer a Gummer, all yer so-called 'friends', will be out and about, not carin' one bit about ya. They'll just find themselves a new smuggler to bring their product in." Jeremy frowned as he looked down at his paws, wringing them.
"... I want it in writing..." was all he said, and Paul quickly got up and left the room, coming back with the forms they had worked out between the student government and the faculty.
The camera went dark, and once more, there was the Don-Don. It faded back again to Paul and Lily and five other hall monitors were standing around the door to the shop class. Lily was making hand signals... that the others there seemed kinda lost about. Paul snickered quietly and leaned in.
"We sent a team out around to the windows outside, and another to sneak in through the bathroom window. We go in heavy, and take them all down by the book," he said, while Lily excitedly nodded. She then took a deep breath and counted to five. Using the faculty key that they had been given, she silently unlocked the door, and inside they could all hear shuffling and snickering. Lily held up her hand and made a fist. As one, they all charged in.
"W.S.H.M., FREEZE!" she roared as they all charged through, the camera apparently following behind. Inside was the mostly empty shop classroom, where several pre-teens were working at a table with candy. Some, like the ferret boys and the white wolf girl, put their paws up. A beaver girl and a squirrel boy made a run for the windows in the back, only to be cut off by the hall monitors there quickly climbing through. A javelina boy came bursting out of the bathroom.
"Hall Monitors!" he cried, suddenly seeing his cohorts with their paws up, and put his own hooves up. Behind him, entering from the bathroom, was the warthog boy from earlier, the arctic vixen, and a ram boy. The footage cut to a few minutes later as a pair of teachers, a skunk male and a serval female, with bemused expressions on their faces, started to lead the guilty parties down to the principal's office. Other hall monitors were bagging the evidence and taking pictures.
"This here's an assembly line," Lily explained to the camera after it swept back to her and Paul, at the long wooden table the delinquents had been using. Lily pointed out to different bags of candy. "Shop class is an elective that doesn't start 'til next period, so they had the run of the place 'til Mr. Chuck returned to get ready fer his class."
"As y'all can see, they were cutting the high quality candy with the cheaper stuff, to make it go further, and bagging it separately. In the wooden tubs back near the bathroom, there's a bunch of different kinds, including purrshey bars, sweetdarts, giggly taffy, happy rangers, dorks, snip-snaps, milk studs, the list just goes on; and it was all hidden in a false bottom. Some of it even appears to be hoarded Samhain candy, probably bought the day after at a major discount, only ta be re-packaged and re-sold here for much more than they're worth."
"They're all gunna be getting at least two weeks worth of In School Suspension, easily. They even had a list of all their dealers, which other hall monitors are rounding up and pulling out of class," Paul explained, his tail swishing in excitement.
"Yup," Lily said, the camera panning back over to her just as she put her aviators back on and folded her arms, "that's just the way the cookie crumbles." The screen faded to black and rolled the credits, but shuffling and milling about could still be heard.
"Uh," Paul's voice said, "Lily? We didn't find any cookies here."
"I know... but I thought it sounded cool..." Lily said, sounding disappointed.
"It was! I mean... I was just saying."
Vernon sat there with his mouth wide open. He turned to look at his mate, to see that she had both hooves over her muzzle, apparently struggling to keep from laughing.
"Lambchop?"
Dawn snorted and started giggling. "Sweet sawgrass, that is just so cute! And, it has some surprisingly good production value," the ewe exclaimed while Vernon sighed and rolled his eyes, a small smirk forming at the corners of his muzzle.
"Agreed, Mrs. BellHunter," Mrs. Capreol said, letting out a chuckle that she then suppressed. "But, you see, that's what I'm talking about. In the past three months since she started... in her words 'walking the beat', Lily's caught over sixty of her fellow students acting out... and two teachers for parking violations... which we then had to officially report to the police."
"I don't understand, though," Dawn said, after getting herself back under control; "she seems to be doing a good job."
Vernon frowned... but nodded. "Has she been breakin' any rules?" he asked.
"Not at all, she's actually quite the stickler for them. There's just a little concern that maybe she's been watching some police shows that might be influencing her," the principal gently said.
"Uhm... not exactly..." Vernon said, rubbing the back of his head. "See... my Pa, and my brothers... and my sister-in-law... and a couple of family friends, all happen ta be in law enforcement and... well... I kinda saw a few different influences when watchin' that there video."
Dawn nodded. "That was absolutely a great Trent impression when Lily was questioning that boy."
"And the hallway chase was easily Wade all the way," Vernon said, smiling, but also feeling the ball of worry in his stomach return, as he briefly thought of Lily actually growing up to become a cop as well. The very thought made his chest tighten up with fear.
"I... see..." the principal said, unsure of how to continue. It was then that the door to her office opened, and in trudged three rhino boys, all looking sullen. In behind them marched Lily, carrying a cooler.
"Got three more fer ya, Chief," Lily said. Behind her was a remote-controlled platform on wheels with a camera on it, being operated by a shrew boy. Which to Dawn explained how the camera was kept so steady in the video. "Caught the Stampederson brothers at it again with the sellin' of sodas." Lily set the cooler down on the principal's desk and opened it, revealing several cans of soda in ice, all with crude price-stickers attached to them. Lily then noticed the other two mammals in the room, and her eyes went wide with excitement.
"Hi Mommy! Hi Daddy!" she said before running over and hugging both of her parents. While returning their daughter's hug, the three rhino boys started snickering. Lily whipped around to face them, her face contorting into a terrifying Glare. The boys were instantly silenced, looking down again. Lily then smiled and resumed hugging her parents.
"And apparently my Ma's been influencin' her too," Vernon mumbled.
There you have it! Please consider leaving a review or comment! And thank you for reading!
