A/N: Avery actually goes to school with Elunatee today. Commas have also skyrocketed in value and must be allocated with greater precision.

Chapter 5: Performance, Opportunity, Equality

Elunatee POV:

I wake up seeing Avery already awake, sitting on a chair looking at me. Avery says, "About time, you've gotten up." She proceeds to act as if nothing has happened the entire night. "What's expected of me today?"

I respond with, "You are going to go to school with me today. Please, wear a collar for public appearance." She lets me put the collar without spikes around her and passes me the remote. I've decided it's time to put on some clothing. I grab a shirt from a drawer. This one shows a deer squished beneath a lion. I also put on some generic blue pants. We head downstairs for breakfast.

Three rabbits on the table. I set a bowl of carrots underneath the table and tell Avery to eat. My parents give me one I bite it's head off first then move on to eating the rest of the body. Avery finishes eating and proceeds to sit in my lap. She can imagine what happened to those rabbits, I whisper to her, "This won't happen to you it'll be okay." I ask my parents, "Can I have money to buy her some clothing?"

"Certainly not, clothing on pets is optional. I don't think she needs any right now", said Mother.

Clothing for her, was more for my sake than hers, it seems like we will need to get money on our own. I put everything we would need for school in my backpack. I walk with Avery to school. I finally have a pet that's willing to follow me to school.

On the way to school she notes, "Almost everyone has a pet. Their clothing is indeed diverse so are their facial expressions. I can see fear in some of them others display joy." We arrive at school and nothing else catches her eye. I notice she doesn't mind being naked.

Math class was rather fun today. She was willing to get the exercises for me. I could sit back and wait for the papers to come to me, unlike the other days. The only student that went up to get papers was Foxfire since he killed his pet earlier. She sits beside me and we completed all the exercises of the class in record time. No homework from Math Class for me today.

In Social Studies, class she's given a computer right beside me. I see her first course of action was to open MuzzleTime to see if she could get into contact with her family. She's disappointed that she couldn't. She opens the browser searches for Zootopia and couldn't really find the results she was looking for. She says, "All these applications don't work like the way they do back home. My family is probably still searching for me."

"I promised, I would get you back home. I'm sorry that you still can't contact your family. Could you perhaps search for ways to make money? I really don't want to look at you naked." She searches for ways to make money. I scour the internet for something to write about. She finds a website for the Pet Talent Show. They want participants for tomorrow. It'll be the weekend so we can attend. It's nearby, prizes include up to two hundred for the winner. A strange twenty dollars just for the pet eating the food offered there. It's also targeted to our age group. Sixty to hundred and nineteen moons old. I decide to do more research on the event. It turns out there's a rather high mortality rate for pets that compete there. I decide to ask, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Absolutely, how hard can the event be? There's guaranteed twenty dollars just for eating food anyway."

I have a bad feeling about this. I give her a few terms and conditions to try to get her to reconsider the idea. "I will let you compete, you will only participate in the events I deem safe. You WILL eat whatever's offered to you if it won't kill you or I will shock you until you are dead. Do you still want to compete?" She agrees to the terms. I tell her, "We will go tomorrow." I hand in a paper describing the history of pet shows for the class.

Lunch: I did bring some carrots for her. I apologize that they're no longer fresh. I was served cooked meat. Screams are heard from the kitchen. I trust her enough, to let her go to the washroom unattended.

Avery POV:

I heard screams from the kitchen I'm still not used to all this. I leave the cafeteria to go to the washroom. I vomit into the sink, a bit shaken. I look in the mirror, my grey fur has lost some of it's luster. I exit the bathroom and see a fox heading towards me. His attire was rather different, he wore a shirt depicting clouds with a lightning bolt down the middle. It for once, didn't contain any images of animal abuse. He must be very nice, I decide that I want to feel his tail. He pays me no mind. I wait until he passes me, then I move to grab his tail. I say, "It's so soft and fluffy."

The fox sees an opportunity, "Look, why don't we go somewhere private?" I follow him, he leads me outside of the school. We sit underneath a tree relaxing watching the sky. I spend the entire time cuddling his tail. The bell rings, I realize I must have lost track of time. "My name's Foxfire, we can do this again later." I sprint back into the school. I decide to go to our next class and wait for Elunatee to show up. I cry out in pain as I feel electricity coursing through my body. I see Elunatee he doesn't look happy at all.

We sit down in the class next to each other. He whispers, "I trusted you. Where did you go?"

"I'm sorry I lost track of time. I ended up making a friend. I didn't mean to worry you."

He replies, "You've seen what can happen to prey, I don't want to lose you." I realize he was just worried about me. I notice that this class teaches people how to read and write. Our reading material or topics don't interest me at all. The entire class seems to reinforce the idea that prey are not equals. The books we can choose from during free reading time leave much to be desired.

Next class is Pet Training. The audacity of this school training prey as if they were pets! I suppose I will see what Elunatee has planned for me today. I guess I should play along. I can always express my complaints in private. I took note of various equipment available to use in the room. It seems like it's mostly free form. Pets are either seen doing exercise or degrading tasks. I am getting annoyed Elunatee still hasn't done anything. We just sit here doing nothing. Speaking of doing nothing, the fox I met earlier today is also doing nothing. It seems like he doesn't have a pet and is required to sit and watch others interact with theirs.

I told Elunatee to set up an obstacle course. THIS was the most pathetic obstacle course I've ever tried. It was way too easy and way too short. I sit down on the bench next to him tapping the floor repeatedly with my feet trying to communicate my displeasure. Do I have to tell him to do EVERYTHING, is he capable of thinking on his own?

Finally, he seems to get the hint. He gets up moves various equipment around in the room. He ends up constructing a rather well done obstacle course. He also brings out a timer and a whip. He says, "There, are you happy?" I detect frustration in his voice. I begin the obstacle course. I end up missing a jump. He shocks me with the collar and tells me to start again. I start from the beginning. I miss the jump again. This time, he whips me once and tells me to start again. This time I finally gotten past that part. He's not satisfied with how long I've taken. I had to start over yet again. I finish the class tired and in pain from all the shocks and lashes. The teacher congratulates Elunatee for training me well. We return home.

His parents are ecstatic that he finally has a well-trained 'pet'. They leave us alone and we go to his room. We sit on the bed. He takes off my collar. He rubs my back where he whipped me in the last class. He says "I'm sorry about what I did last class, please forgive me." What am I supposed to say next? I don't know. I don't say anything and just think about the events of that class. I am left with a question that I don't know the answer to. Did I have fun?

I blush as I realize what my answer would be. I say, "You WHIPPED me in class today. Now, be a good kitty and clean the tool of your punishment. Go, clean the spiked collar, it's still stained with blood." He takes the spiked collar and leaves the room. He comes back with a shiny spiked collar. He seems to know what I want next. He sits on the bed beside me. He hands me the spiked collar and bends his head down, so I can put it on him. I tell him. "Bring me the other collar."

I put the non-spiked collar on him. I say "I will shock you for each time you whipped me. I think, it was over twenty." I press the remote on the lowest setting for thirty seconds. He takes the shock without complaint, just whimpering while it was happening. I'm also annoyed that he shocked me at lunch. I've a rather stupid idea, that just might work. I tell him to put the spiked collar on me. That's what he does, I feel some slight pain as the spikes dig into my flesh. I hold on to the remote to his collar. He holds the remote to mine. In this moment, we are more equal than we've ever been before. "We will eat dinner this way, you will not take the collar off. It's time to show them a new way."

He says, "What are you crazy? My parents will kick us out for sure!"

"I am not worried about that at all. I don't think they would care all that much. It's still a huge improvement over your previous situation of me, ignoring you." I've decided to stop cowering behind the norms today. There's a pet talent show tomorrow, I'm sure we can get enough money to survive even if they kick us out. It's time for dinner. We go to the dining table. His parents look at us strangely but say nothing. I make a bold request "I would like one spiked collar and one collar without spikes as well as two remotes."

His mother says, "This is hilarious, of course bunny you can take two collars and a remote from downstairs."

His father says, "Finally, I understand how my son got you to behave. Equality, that's what you wanted isn't it?"

We're able to drop the act. We now have four collars and four remotes in our possession. We proceed to eat dinner without incident. I witness yet another animal being devoured alive. After dinner, we return to the room. I take off his collar, he takes off mine. I tell him to wash the collar that I wore. We spent rest of the day in each other's embrace. No longer needing to act as if we were owner and pet. We are now equals. Tomorrow's goal is to win the talent show. He really wants me to wear clothing.

We sleep in the same fashion as the night before. His scent becomes comforting.

A/N: I've got a few ideas of what events the pet talent show will have. Also, trying to keep character personalities consistent/believable.