Donnie's first day was…interesting to say the least. The day started with getting dressed…or…as dressed a Donnie got. He'd woken her up very early and Eliza noticed two things, one-that he had stolen Darwin's top again, and two he seemed to be ignoring protests from the currently irate chimpanzee.

"What's going on?" She asked groggily as she rubbed her eyes struggling to wake up fully. She chanced a look at the clock; four in the morning.

"Eliza, tell this monstrous little thief that he can't just take what he likes from anything."

"I can take whatever I want! Strongest survives and you are weaker than Debbie let alone me!"

"BOYS!" Eliza screamed, the two stopped—what would seem to others—shrieking and howling respectfully. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that she loved them both. "Now, what is the problem?"

Darwin snarled at the human boy. "He stole my shirt, again! Eliza, you promised that it was only once that he'd do that to me. Yet now it is two days in a row that I've been expected to go around uncovered, as if I were some kind of—"

"Animal?" Donnie smirked, and then switched from hippo to bunny. "I needed it" He scowled at Darwin, switching to cheetah. "If you want it back" Tiger "Just try and take it". This caused yet another argument as Eliza smacked herself in the head.

"I forgot to go shopping!" Darwin, can he please wear your shirt until I go to the mall?" She begged the higher mammal. He scowled at her, but stopped fighting with Donnie. "Now" She murmured to herself "What shoes are you going to wear"

"Handled" He said in giraffe

"Donnie, those red shoes you like haven't fit you since you were four"

"Who said anything about those" She blinked a bit, unfortunately, he was waking up and gaining energy. His last phrase had started in bunny, and then gone to howler monkey, before ending in cricket.

"One at a time Donnie, please?" Her brother scowled at her before simply going to a handstand. Eliza put on her glasses as he was now far away enough to be blurry. "Oh no" She whimpered. Darwin looked entirely too satisfied. Donnie didn't see a problem with the shoes he had picked of course, and to be kind—he had picked the pair she never wore. When Eliza had first gone to the states to finish her schooling, Debbie had been sure she'd go to college parties and need proper clothing. Her sister—no doubt with good intentions—had sent her a few 'hip' clothes, a party dress, and two pairs of shoes, silver strappy stilettos she had no more use for and dark blue low healed booties. Donnie was currently wearing the booties. Eliza sighed deeply. "Donnie, you can't really wear those to school"

"I'M GOING TO SCHOOL" He shrieked at her in bobcat. She threw up her hands.

"I never said no, I said you need different shoes!" At 6:04, the two were still arguing over what shoes to wear. As it turned out, Debbie had gotten the sizes wrong and so the two she'd sent were the only ones to fit Donnie. Darwin had been kind enough to make breakfast—coffee and eggs for Eliza, fruit salad for himself, and he'd even gone outside and caught a few bugs for Donnie's cereal. Eliza found herself sighing an awful lot that morning; she also decided that she could miss a day of college without it killing her and resolved to spend the day at Donnie's school.

Eliza had taken some precautions and when they got to the school building security almost didn't let her in due to the sheer number of bags. When she went to the principal she'd opened them up to reveal a series of darts and blowguns. While Donnie examined his schedule and went to explore the school she explained what they were for. The red ones were high level and it took about three of them before he calmed down—twelve if he was angry instead of just excitable. The green ones were low level and four of them were equal to one red one. When the principal got worried about the 'humanness' of using that much on a child Eliza had to calm him down enough to explain that since they'd used so much on Donnie he had developed a sort of immunity. She even signed a liability paper after assuring him that it would be easier to down a rampaging bull elephant before you managed to hurt Donnie. The principal took her word and promised to hand the equipment to security, a consoler, and the school nurse. Eliza got the necessary visitors' pass to follow after her brother and went to find him before first bell. As school started, Eliza stayed a 'safe' distance away in the halls to see how he'd react with the other students. It went about as well as she expected. Donnie, unaccustomed to standing, was in a half crouched position, his knuckles hovering inches above the floor. The students that looked at him had one of two reactions—either to snicker at him (Eliza wasn't sure if it was for his clothing choice or his walking) or to look at him, start to snicker, gain realization in their eyes, and scramble away. Either way, it wasn't good. Throughout the day, she had to serve as his translator and/or explain some of his actions. The only class he made it through without the teacher and/or students traumatized was pre-algebra. Math was the same in every country and his teacher was so impressed she pulled Eliza to the side to talk about the calculus and physics courses the college offered some of the high school students. Lunch wasn't that bad. Donnie was surprised that he grabbed them their own table and Eliza didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise.

When school got out (Donnie's homework was something he could complete in less than ten minutes) Eliza dragged him to the mall. They left with a slew of animal themed wife-beaters, some sweaters, sneakers, combat boots, and a brown leather trice patched trench coat that couldn't have been in style since the 80s that had been sitting in the thrift store when Donnie fell in love with it and wouldn't be parted with long enough to scan the tag.