Chapter Three: The Fish Who Cried Shark

"I'm home Momma!" shouted young Nick as he entered the apartment. He put down his school bag on the couch as his mother came out of the kitchen.

"Nick sweetie!" Vivian said as she hugged her son. "How was your day at school?"

"Okay." he replied as his mother was sniffing him.

SNIFF! SNIFF! "When did you get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?!"

"I shared my sandwich with Stacy. She's poorer than us! I lied to Ben about a Sam and Ella outbreak so he'd share one of his sandwiches and before you get mad, he had two more!"

"It's salmonella and you shouldn't trick your friends!" SNIFF! SNIFF! "Waiiit a minute! Is this 'Stacy' the person I smell all over you?!"

Nick's ears turned beet red. "W-Well, it's not what you think!"

"Really? Because I not only smell her on your chest and shoulders, but on your lips. Aww! My little guy has a girlfriend!"

"It's a ruse!" said Nick. "Stacy told me a secret about her that I promised I wouldn't tell anyone and she cried, so I hugged her but Ben and Flash spotted me! They wanted to know why we were hugging. I had to think fast so I lied and said we were a couple."

Vivian was upset. "Nick! You lied to your friends again?! You can't keep doing that!"

"I had to keep my promise! They saw me hugging Stacy in private. They wouldn't have believed anything otherwise and we keep getting teased about it!"

"So telling them you're actually a couple is better?"

"Yeah! Then they're satisfied and lay off of us."

Vivian set her son on her lap. "Nick, have you ever heard the story of the fish that cried shark?"

"...No?"

"Once upon a time, deep under the ocean, there was a school of fish that all lived in a coral neighborhood. There was one fish whose name was...Nick!"

"Hey! That's my name!"

"That's right!"

"I should sue."

"Tee-Hee! You be quiet! Anyway, this fish was very mischievous. He'd swim around the coral reef screaming 'Shark! Shark! Everyone hide!' So of course, everyone would hide from the oncoming shark. But there wasn't a shark to be seen. The little fish would laugh and laugh and say 'Fooled you!' to the other fish. He'd do this over and over again. Obviously, the other fish around the coral reef were very, very upset."

"Is this gonna wrap up soon?" Nick asked.

"Be patient. Anyway, one day a REAL shark came up on Nick the fish! The little swam as fast as he could screaming 'Shark! Shark! Help!' But no one came to his rescue because they didn't believe him. Eventually, the shark caught up to the fish and gobbled little Nick up. So what's the lesson you should learn here?"

"Ummmm...don't rely on your neighbors to help you?"

"The lesson is, that if you constantly lie, it'll come back to bite you. In this case, literally. Understand?"

"I understand momma. But both times I was doing it to help a friend!"

"...Did you kiss the girl on the lips?"

"Yeah. But it was a disaster at first. I almost gobbled her up on the first attempt. But then we got it to work."

"Your first kiss. Think about that. It was your first kiss and you don't even love her."

"Well...I love her like a sister. Kinda. Like I said, I only lied to protect her! It was for a greater good!"

"Yes, but not this morning when you were trying to lie your way out of going to school."

"I was still right! Miss Damwood is a bad teacher! I proved it today!" Nick then fetched out his paper. "Look! My score doesn't match my grade!"

Vivian took the paper from his son's paws. "Let me see that...an 82! That's very good!"

"Look at the grade!"

"...C plus?! That's odd. My aunt was a teacher. Anything in the 80's should be a B. It should be at least a B minus. Maybe she grades differently?"

"She sure does. Ben got an 86 and still got a C Plus. Stacy got a 68 and got a C!"

"That's an 18 point difference!"

"She put no marks or a score on her son Chucky's paper and gave him an A! I argued with her and she said that if I wanted a higher score, she'd drop Stacy's score to a D minus!"

Vivian couldn't believe it. "Are you sure?"

"Call Ben and ask him!"

"There's no need. We're going over to his mother's house for dinner."

"Cool! Mrs. Clawhauser always cooks big meals."

Vivian smiled. "Why do you think I made close friends with her? Don't worry Nick. I'll talk to your teacher personally after school tomorrow. You're right. This is VERY suspicious. You deserved a B minus at least. Now, I have to go to the post office in an hour. Do you want to write your letter to Santa Paws?"

"Sure! I saw him at the mall, but we could only talk to him if we took a picture and I couldn't afford it. Oh! I almost forgot! Our class is going to donate to a toy drive. I'm supposed to bring a toy or $10."

"$10 hunh? Money's kinda tight."

"Plus tax."

Vivian leered at her son suspiciously. "I thought you said a toy or $10?"

"The ummm...toy has to be a $10 value so we're supposed to buy it."

"I see. Alright then. Now you go write your letter. I'll call Alice and have a talk about your teacher."

Nick dropped down off the couch and ran to his room. "Thanks mom!" As he went into his room, he sat at his desk and got a pen and paper out to write.

Dear Santa, you may have heard some rumors about me that are lies. Lies and slander. That elf on the shelf has some personal vendetta against me! I have been a very good pup this year. I'm always helping my friends and standing up for them. I'll admit that I may fib on occasion, but it's always for the better cause. Like when my butt-ugly grandma comes over. I always lie and tell her she looks very lovely so she feels better about herself.

Anyway, I hope this year, you can stretch out your wallet a bit more. Comic books and some action figures are nice, but what I REALLY want this year is a Super Nine-Ten-Doe with a copy of Street Ferret II, I love this game and play it at the arcade with my friends when we can afford to. It has brought us closer together. It even helped me with my relationship with my girlfriend...of sorts. So please, please, PLEASE! Get me this game! My parents can't afford to buy it for me.

If you can't do that, then I'd really like a little brother and sister. Also, can you please give my friend Stacy a home? She's currently homeless and even poorer than me. If you can't afford it, I'll give up my game for her. She's a good mouse and deserves better.

Sincerely, Nicholas Wilde.

P.S. What kind of cookies do you like? My buddy Ben is an expert on cookies and can get you the best ones. Just name it.

Nick put the letter in an envelope and set the address to "Santa Paws 0001 North Pole". He then handed the letter to his mother. "It's ready momma!"

"Okay dear." Vivian replied. "I'll drop you off at the Clawhauser's while I mail this off."

Two hours later, Nick and his mother were at the Clawhauser's home and eating at the kitchen table. Dinner was piled high with fish, vegetables and a large cake for dessert.

Alice found out about the grades and was rather upset. "Do you want me to go with you tomorrow Vivian? Y'know, I used to be a female pro wrestler before I married Roger. I could give her a mean suplex!"

"I don't think that will help Alice." Vivian replied. "I'm just going to have a nice, polite talk with her and find out what's going on."

"She doesn't deserve 'polite'. I had Benny show me some of his other school work from the past few weeks. She gave him a B on an English test that he got a score of 100 on. One hundred! That's a perfect A+ score and she gave him a B!"

"You know what? You should present those papers and any others you have to the principal. This has to stop!"

Alice smiled. "A tag team hunh? I like the sound of that!"

Nick smiled at Alice. "This is really good fish Mrs. Clawhauser!"

Alice smiled back. "Well thank you dear."

Vivian cocked an eyebrow at Nick. "Nicky, isn't there something you need to tell your friend?"

Nick looked very nervous. "None that I can think of."

"Niiiick!"

Nick swallowed. His chunk of fish and talked to Ben. "Ben...I kinda lied about the Sam and Ella in your peanut butter sandwich."

Ben had a look of surprise and hurt. "What?"

"Stacy's been coming to school with no lunch money and no lunch and I can't just her her starve, so I gave her half of my sandwich and lied to you so I can take one of yours."

Ben then looked angry at Nick. "You lied to me?! How could you?! You should have asked!"

"If I asked you to share a sandwich because Stacy was hungry, would you?"

"No, but you should have asked anyway!"

Alice was upset with Ben. "Benny! I give you more than enough food. Even an extra sandwich for the bullies."

Upset at Ben, Nick snitched to his mother. "Ben hasn't been bullied in six months. His lunch almost crushed me this morning when he had me hold it!"

Alice was shocked. "Ben! You have no right to be mad at Nick lying to you for helping a starving friend when you've been lying to me! I've been making you three sandwiches a day!"

"I didn't lie!" Ben said. "I just never told you the truth. It never came up."

"That's the same thing! From now on, you're only getting two sandwiches!...And cookies...and your milk...and one doughnut and that's it!"

Ben growled in anger and hopped off his chair. "Some friend you are Nick! I'm gonna watch TV by myself! Just for that, you might not get a goodbye hug!" Ben then stormed off into the living room.

Nick was a bit surprised. "Wow! He must be really mad. I'm done with my dinner mom. May I be excused?"

"Sure thing honey." Vivian replied.

Nick walked into the living room to see a pouting Ben with his arms crossed, watching cartoons. Nick climbed onto the couch.

"Go away!" said Ben.

Nick noticed there were some tears on his cheeks. "Are you crying?!"

"No! Get lost!"

Nick sat a foot away. "I'm sorry Ben, but Stacy was starving and you had more than enough food."

"You shouldn't lie to your friends!"

"I know! I know! But you need to learn to share too!"

"Is there anything else you're lying to me about?"

"Well...one thing. I had to make a lie to keep a promise for Stacy."

"What promise?"

"It's...it's a secret. I wish I could tell you, but..."

Ben felt a little better. "You don't have to tell me! It's always important to keep a promise to a loved one."

"Oh brother. So...we okay?"

Ben still had his arms folded and was pouting. "Well..."

Nick had his arms stretched out. "Forgiveness hug?"

Ben squealed with delight. "Oooh! You know my one weakness!" He jumped over and gave Nick a big hug. "I'm sorry too Nick. I guess if Stacy's hungry I could share a little. I think I eat a bit too much."

"Really?" Nick replied sarcastically. "You? No way!" The two of them then laughed together.

A while later, Vivian and Nick left. Nick got another goodbye hug from Ben as he left and the Wilde's walked home.

"I'm gonna have a long talk with your teacher tomorrow." Vivian said to her son.

Nick was walking with his paw in his mother's. "Momma? Will people keep me down no matter how hard I work just because I'm a fox?"

"I'm not going to lie to you son. Yes, there are some people out there that won't see you as anything but shifty and untrustworthy. But we have to show that we're better than that. That's why it's so important for you not to lie to your friends. What brought this up?"

"...Finnick said that the prey will always keep us down. Just like my teacher."

Vivian was very upset. "I told you time and time again not to talk to that little punk!"

"It wasn't my fault momma! We walked around the corner and there he was! He's a bad boy momma. I had to stop Ben from betting on a cup game he was doing."

"You see? Foxes like him give the rest of us a bad name."

"But...there ARE other bad people like my teacher aren't there?"

"Yes honey. You just have to be better than them. They'll be times you'll have to work twice, maybe three times harder than them, but you'll prevail. I promise."

"Okay momma." The two of them walked home together. Paw in paw.

John Wilde worked late into the evening so Nick was sent to bed and tucked in by his mother. The poor fox cub was in tears. "But you promised!"

"I know dear..." his mother replied."..But I wasn't expecting them to keep him an extra few hours. I'm sorry, but I can't predict the future."

"This stinks! I miss him!"

"I know, but he told me it'll be over very soon. Now go to sleep." She kissed her upset son on the cheek.

"Grrrrr. It's not fair!"

"No growling! Good night. I love you sweetie." Vivian shut the door behind her and eventually, Nick drifted off to sleep. As he went deeper and deeper into his slumber, he started to dream.

There he was, young Nick Wilde dressed in a karategi with a black belt like his favorite fighter Meyu, ready to take all comers in a fighting tournament. He was in the middle of a large fighting ring. Nick's keen eyes could see Stacy Cheddar dressed in a Cub-Li outfit cheering on for him in the audience. "C'mon Nick! You can do it!"

First up was Flash the sloth decked in green and orange as the Brazilian monster Blankat.

"Flash is first?" said Nick. "This is going to be easy!" He did a jump kick at the sloth and fell right into his trap. As Blankat, Flash did his electric attack and zapped the poor fox. "AAAYAYAYAYAYAAHH!" screamed Nick as a few thousand volts went through him.

"You're...no...match...for...my..."

…...electricity!" said Flash.

Nick knew he could fight him hand to hand. "I gotta think of a new strategy...I know! I must use my inner chi!"

Nick pulled back his hands to create a fireball of chi to attack Flash with. He sent the fireball out. "Ha-MOO-ken!"

It was a direct hit. "...Ow!" yelled Flash. "No...fair."

"Oh yeah?!" said Nick. "Here's a few dozen more!" He sent wave after wave of fireballs at Flash. All the poor Sloth could do was block, but still, it was draining his health. Flash knew he had to stop this onslaught. He charged forward with his spinning body attack, but right as it reached Nick, he let out his uppercut. "Shooo-Meyu-ken!" The uppercut hit the sloth perfectly and Flash was out.

Up next was Ben. He was dressed as E-Hoppa all the way down to wearing a mawashi and face paint.

Nick couldn't help but laugh. "Ha-Ha! You're dressed in a diaper!"

Ben was angry. "It's a mawashi!"

"It's a diaper, diaper baby!"

Now Ben was furious. "You'll pay for that! Hundred paw slap!" Hundreds of paw slaps rained down on Nick. "Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!"

It did some damage on the fox before he finally was able to jump back. "Ow! That hurt!"

"Serves ya right for calling me a diaper baby!"

"Oh yeah?! Well have some fireballs! Ka...me...ha...me..."

"That's Dragonball!"

"Oh yeah. Sorry. Ha-MOO-Ken!"

Ben jumped over the attack. "Ha! You mis-"

"Hurricane kick!" Nick got in a powerful spinning kick that knocked Ben back a little. Ben retaliated with a flying head butt. "Ow!" Nick reared his arms back for another fireball. "You're done for Benny! You're health meter is too low!"

Ben was ready. "Another fireball?! HA! I'll just jump over it again!"

Nick shot out his ha-moo-ken and Ben went to jump over it, but he underestimated Nick. The fireball was a slow one so Ben jumped right into it instead. "NOO!" Ben was knocked to the ground and he lost. "You truly are the master of Street Ferret Nick. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go. My mawashi is riding up my tushy!"

The crowd cheered as Nick was named champion of Street Ferret. He raised his arms in victory and little Stacy ran out of the crowd. "Nick! You did it honey! You did it!"

Stacy leaped onto Nick and he grabbed her with his paws.

"You're so wonderful!" said Stacy. "Give me a kiss!"

"Eww! Cooties!"

"Please?" said Stacy with a blush on her face.

Nick finally gave in. "Well...okay!"

His lips met hers. Then, he slurped her up like spaghetti and swallowed her whole. "GULP!"

"AAAAH!" Nick yelled as he woke up from his dream.

His dad flung open the door to his room. "Nick son! Are you okay?!"

Nick saw his father and cried. "Daddy! I missed you!"

John climbed onto Nick's bed and gave him a big hug. "I missed you too my fellow furball. I heard you yell. Did you have a bad dream?"

"Not until the end. It was acutally pretty awesome. I was my favorite character in Street Ferret 2."

John put his arm around his son. "That's that game you like hunh?"

"Yes daddy. It's what I want for Christmas."

"Oh, you've made that VERY obvious. Especially taking ads from your game magazines and placing them in you mothers lady mags."

"Heh! Yeah. Well anyway, my friends were dressed as other characters and they were my opponents. I beat them and won the tournament. Then, Stacy came up and wanted a kiss."

"Is that the mouse your mother told me about?"

"Yea."

"Is she the one who's supposed to be your girlfriend?"

Nick felt nervous talking about Stacy to his father. "K-Kinda. We're faking it because she told me a secret I promised to keep. It's complicated."

"Well did you kiss her in this dream?"

"Yeah. Only I accidentally ate her!"

"Oh my. Is this something you're worried about?"

Nick ears blushed. "Well...it kinda happened today."

"What do you mean?"

"Like I said, we had to fake it so we had to kiss for realsies and...I accidentally sucked her halfway down my mouth."

"Oh dear."

"Yeah. We tried it again and I just let her lead and it went much better."

"So in your dream, you just gulped her down whole."

"Yeah."

"Sounds like you're scared to kiss her."

"No! I'm...I'm just scared that I'll hurt her! She's so cute and small! I-I mean small! She's small."

"So you care for this girl?"

"W-Well yeah, but I...I don't like-like her or anything. That's gross! She's just...she's poorer than me. She goes to lunch without any food! I...I want to protect her. That's all."

"So you want to be her knight in shining armor."

Nick laughed. "We're too poor for shining armor daddy. We can only afford rusty armor."

John laughed in return. "I guess you're right there! Still...I'm glad you're watching out for her."

John tussled the fur on top of Nick's head. "And if you two fall in love, that's fine too."

"Daddy! Eww! No way!"

John got up off the bed. "Well, I hope you get a good night's sleep."

"Daddy? How much longer do you have to do these night jobs?! I really miss you!"

"Almost done! Tomorrow is my last day there. You'll have me the whole weekend."

Nick cheered real loud. "YAAAY!"

"Shhh! Your mother's sleeping!"

"Sorry. Good night daddy. I love you."

John smiled back. "I love you two son."

Nick's father closed the door and the little fox tucked himself under the sheets and went back to sleep.