Hello readers! Before you will start reading this whole thing i would like to say something.
Firstly, thank you in the first place for taking your time and checking this first chapter.
This is my first serious fic(i usually write lots of stupid stories that i never publish), and my first attempt to write in English, so if you have any critic, advice and so on, please leave it in your review. I would rather have 200 meaningful critics than a forced good comment. I know that i'm not a good writer, so leaving an angry comment without any constructive criticism will be rather useless.
Secondly, i would like to thank the author of "Boys Like You", she took her time to write a very early draft of my story, giving me the courage to publish it online.
That said, enjoy(if you can) my story!
"After summer has passed I finally managed to escape from Bunnyburrow, seriously I can't stand helping my mother dealing with my other brothers and sisters, not because I hate them, mind you, but 277 are a bit too much…not counting we had to cook for EVERY SINGLE ONE of them" Judy explained, stopping herself a bit between the little story to take a bite of the carrots salad.
"All of them?! How can your mother even manage to do it all alone?" Benjamin asked to Judy with his mouth open in disbelief
"I seriously don't know, maybe she's some sort of cooking alien monster" Judy and Ben laughed, she then pointed her fork at Ben "You know, it's good to see someone that's not a little bunny that hoops frantically all around" She casted a smile and while Ben did the same Judy turned her head to the left and faced the buffalo that was listening silently, eating his meal "Same for you Bogo, I know you missed me and Ben"
Bogo slowly raised his head from the plate "I surely missed a cheetah sprinkling me with donut crumbs and an over-emotional bunny" he said sarcastically, earning an angry look from both of them, he quickly took it back and put up a subtle smirk on his face "Okay okay, I was just joking! I'm happy to see both of you again, I must say summer hasn't been great for me either. Helping my father with all those crates at the warehouse was boring, stressing, tedious and have I said boring?"
"What about the student's council though, will you accept Lionheart's request again? You're also the captain of the football team and a senior this year, don't you think it'll be too much work?" Clawhauser asked, and then chomped a whole donut.
Bogo waved his paw as a "Nah" and said with a smugly tone "I do have plenty of time for that, and everyone knows Lionheart would be hopeless without me"
"Oh such accusations!" a big lion in collar and tie said behind the buffalo with a fake indignant tone "The only thing you did last year was scaring Bellwether!" Lionheart blinked at Bogo
"Wasn't that your first job last year?" Bogo and Lionheart laughed, sharing a bropaw
Meanwhile Bogo and Lionheart talked about this and that, Judy took a moment to think. She couldn't still believe it was her last year at the Zootopia High School, 3 years passed quickly, maybe too quickly for her. Judy's parents were scared of sending her in the heart of Zootopia despite the fact she had always been with her head over the shoulders, but in the end Judy managed to convince them and sent her to relative of her mom. She was the first bunny to enter in the school, infact both teachers and classmates were skeptical about her possibilities of succeeding without heavy problems, however she managed to surpass everyone and get the valedictorian title every year, her grades were outstanding, both in sports and written tests. Plus, Judy managed to find some good friends quickly, like Bogo and Ben.
The two friend's laugh brought her back to reality.
The lion quickly returned to his composed self "I can't stay further, you know, the first day has been tedious for me. The headmaster is already breaking my head with things to do, half day into the school and me and Bellwether are filled to the brim with paper and extra-school things…" his telephone rang "anyway, I came here to tell you that the headmaster said he wants to meet you and me after the classes are finished" he quickly walked past them, waving his paw as he picked up the call.
"I've never seen him in such an…informal light, he'd always been the "composed and well-rounded" student for me" Clawhauser said by pointing a fork in Lionheart's direction
Bogo did a subtle smile and a quick laugh "Trust me, he's not that type of person but he says that "good public appearance is the key to success in life", or something like that. He might become a good politician someday" Ben nodded in approval.
"Returning to time and school matters…" Clawhauser quickly took a glance at Judy "What about you Judy? I hope you're not skipping the valedictorian train this time sweetheart"
"Come on Ben, the fact I've been valedictorian for 3 years in a row doesn't mean I will be able to achieve it this year too" She blushed heavily and her nose started to twitch a bit
Bogo added himself to the conversation as he finished his plate of straw, adjusting himself on the chair and putting his paws behind the head "That's what you said last year too, let's just admit it, you're the best student this school has ever seen"
"Guys come on! Everyone can accomplish that title! Just hard work and perseverance" Now her nose was twitching heavily and she felt her cheeks burning as if someone put a fire on them, not because of the compliment itself, but because Bogo did it, he was known for his stubbornness and restraining from good comments.
Ben shushed her, and continued "But you managed not only to get the best grades on every subject, but you're also doing extra-school sports…"
"…and you helped other students with their homework problems too" Bogo pointed out, interrupting the cheetah
Judy made an embarrassed smile "Maybe I'm just talented…" Clawhauser raised an eyebrow, she tried to cut the conversation quickly "But this year will be the toughest, being a Senior is not gonna be easy I suppose, but we'll work it out!" the 3 of them exchanged a nice friendly smile
Some minutes later, after more small talks and funny summer stories (that involved Clawhauser trying to tell how he managed to eat 5 donuts in one chomp, which made Judy question herself if Ben had an addiction to them), the cafeteria's doors opened, and lots of voices followed a very good-looking gazelle.
Clawhauser dropped the donut he was about to bite, his eyes blinked very fast "O-M-Goodness! Gazelle is here! I'm SO excited!" he tried to polish his fur with his paws "Do you think I look good? Is my T-shirt okay?"
Judy knew how much he admired Gazelle, she was used to this kind of reaction. After that quick inspection Judy giggled for his reaction "Calm down Ben, you look just fine"
"I hope so, it's not like she will come here anyway…" He said turning himself to see where she was headed "…OR NOT! SHE'S COMING HERE!" he started to breathe fast, very fast, Judy looked at him with a bit of disappointment and put her paws before her to say "keep calm", and after a big breath, he recomposed himself, right before Gazelle approached Judy's table.
"Hey darling, it's nice to see you again!" She said waving a paw.
"Hey, same for me, do you still have problems with those nasty equations?" Judy blinked at her with a playful smile
"Not anymore, I don't know what my father would have done if I had brought another bad math grade last year, he probably wouldn't let me participate to the musical club, you literally saved me, well, see you around" Gazelle got close to Judy and whispered "If you need anything you got my number" and then swiftly left throwing a kiss to Judy.
When she turned herself to continue the discussion with their two friends, Clawhauser dropped a donut for the second time in 10 minutes. Bogo just had both of his eyebrows raised.
She shrugged, giving them a quizzical look "What?"
"Judy…" the cheetah started, he stared at her, his eyes were pretty close to popping out Why have you NEVER TOLD ME YOU KNEW GAZELLE?" he screamed so hard some students turned. The gray bunny wanted to shrink and become so tiny no one could've noticed her running away from the cafeteria
"I just helped her with her math homeworks for a semester…" she whispered so quietly even Clawhauser blocked himself to get what she said
Suddenly, he became serious, tucked one more donut from his bag and pointed it at Judy "I, Benjamin Clawhauser, in charge of my powers, I condemn you to do invite Gazelle to one of our usual Pizza Sundays!"
Judy restrained from laughing out loud and tried to stay at the cheetah's joke, putting a paw on her forehead and collapsing with a part of her body into the table "Oh such an obnoxious task I have to endure! But I can't disobey at the judgement of Sir Benjamin "Donut Killer" Clawhauser"
"Why did you throw me in Ben?" Bogo said flatly
"Because we all know there's a certain gazelle you like…" Ben singsonged, his tone was so honeyed Judy was sure she felt sugar in her mouth
"That's. Not. True" the buffalo hissed giving the playful cheetah a killer look
The other giggled and kept on with teasing his friend, he grabbed the phone from the pocket and started tapping frantically "Oh is that so? Do we want to check on my telephone just for proof? I'm sure you have no problem if…you know…" he turned the telephone towards his friends, Judy didn't see a lot, just a chat with some big hearts here and there "…I could send this to chat her, you said it isn't true, didn't you?" now the cheetah casted a smirk
Bogo pointed a finger at Ben "Don't you dare doing it!" he muttered while gnashing his teeth
The inquisitive cheetah kept his relentless attack "Then you do not deny it, do you?"
The buffalo sighed and crossed his arms "Ugh, I admit I like her A BIT" Clawhauser raised an eyebrow and the other reworded quickly "Okay Okay! Fine, I might have a crush on her"
"Ha! You said it! Now, are you sure you don't want to come with us Sunday? Your…" he put a paw infront of his mouth to try not to laugh "…Beautiful Tulip", but after he said it, a laugh just sprout from his mouth and tears sprinkled from the cheetah's eyes. Judy giggled a bit but decided not to make fun of his friend
Bogo slapped his paw on the face "Oh god. Why me?"
As Ben wiped off the tears "Come on! I was joking! You know I wouldn't seriously have done that, if there's a thing I value is trust, and I know that's a thing you care about"
Bogo adjusted his jacket and said with a serious tone "Good words will not stop me from paying your back!"
Judy patted on Bogo's shoulder "Oh come on, your secret is in good hands!" she then gave the cheetah a puzzled look "Small question, when this whole crush thing started?"
The questioned mammal raised a finger, probably to cut the discussion out, but Ben was faster "Late summer, Bogo had to share a couple lunches and dinners with Gazelle's family, probably some business stuff from his father and hers. Long story short, he realized she is very interesting, and couldn't stop thinking about her"
Bogo lowered his head "Well yeah, that's kinda the whole thing, sorry if I didn't tell you before Judy but between the whole crush, the part-time job and helping my father I've been quite busy and I forgot"
She replied with a comprehensive smile "It's okay, you know I don't get mad for such things, and I'm sure you'll work your way 'till you'll be able to tell her your feelings" Bogo casted a little smile.
The bell rang, signaling the end of the launch break, "We should head back to the class ASAP. You know how picky the history teacher is" Judy pointed out, Ben and Bogo nodded.
3 hours of lessons later the bell rang again, this time to declare the end of the lessons. Judy put her head on the desk, those 3 hours were the most boring thing she had to endure in recent weeks
"Hey Judy, those lessons were boring as hell" Clawhauser approached her from behind, putting one paw on her shoulder
She raised the head, her face had a tired and annoyed face "At the moment I'm seriously thinking of going back to cooking with my mother"
Ben giggled and helped her putting everything into the backpack "By the way…Nick Wilde is in our class again" pointing out at a fox talking with a weasel and another fox
"I couldn't care less to be honest, the less I see him the happier I am" Judy said flatly, turning his head with a disgusted look
Judy was forgiving, maybe a bit too much, in her life she truly hated few mammals.
Nick Wilde was one of them.
For some reason he liked to tease Judy, always ready to point out her efforts were useless, that she will eventually end up like a carrot farmer and so on, while he always managed to pass the year always with the minimum grades.
But aside from teasing her, his attitude bothered and annoyed her the most, always with that smirk and his way of talking like he was one step ahead of everyone.
The cheetah rolled his eyes and sighed "Yeah you're right" but he quickly returned to his happy self and offered "you know what, wanna come with me in the bar in front of the school?"
"I just need to exit from this class and do something else, so yeah, I'd love to!" She answered joyfully, but then looked around and asked "What about Bogo?"
Clawhauser pointed in the direction of the football field "Oh he went with the football team, you know, he's the captain now so he needs to see new recruits and stuff, plus Grizzoli, Fangmeyer and McHorn were super happy to meet him again"
"I'm glad he's enjoying his time with his friends, but too bad for him! He'll lose our good Ice-cream & gossip time" Judy said with a fake solemn voice, earning a giggle from the cheetah
"I have to meet some students and give back some books they gave me for the summer, so I'll meet you at the exit in 30 mins, see ya later" He said and exited quickly from the class, Judy waved a paw back at him and exited.
The corridor was filled to the brim with all kinds of students. As she made her way towards the exit a lot of mammals greeted her joyfully, some of them asked if she could help them with homeworks for the first semester.
After 15 minutes of taking requests of students asking for help in the first semester, she arrived to her locket and opened it, stuffing her new books in it, along with a photo of her parents and one with Bogo and Ben. Then quickly looked at the notebook where she wrote all the helping requests. She already had 10 of them on the first school day, mostly from students whom had to do some extra tests due to their bad grades last year. Judy was scared and amused at the same time, because she didn't want to arrive at a point where she had to say no to someone.
As she put the notepad in it and her trusty Carrot Pen in the pocket and started walking towards the exit, she realized that on the other paw the fact that a lot of students found her lessons helpful filled her with joy and accomplishment. Judy had always been ready to help everyone and never said no to a request. It didn't matter if it took 30 minutes or the whole afternoon, sometimes she had to study at night or to quit their friend's invites for a pizza or so, but it was all worth her time.
"You can do it Judy! The only thing you have to fear is fear itself" She repeated in her mind.
Her stream of thoughts was abruptly interrupted as she hit something and almost fell to the ground, she quickly regained her balance.
A fox with a smirk stood infront of her. His fur was red, dark red around his paws and white in the muzzle. He wore a shabby white shirt with a loose dark-blue bowtie and worn grey pants with no shoes.
"Look where you're going fluff, getting stomped is surely a bad way to start the semester" Nick Wilde said with a giggle, bending his knees to face Judy.
"Sorry that I stumbled on your leg Wilde" She said with a plain tone, starting to walk rather quickly
He followed her with his usual jiggly walking
"Oh, come on fluff! Aren't you happy to see me?" Nick added to his usual smugly way of talking a bit of irony too
Judy stopped herself, turned towards the fox and said with an exasperated voice "Firstly, please do not call me fluff. Secondly, judging from last year's events, I wouldn't say I'm pleased to see you"
Nick raised an eyebrow and looked at his paws like wasn't paying attention to what the bunny said "But I did it for you! You'll eventually end up with your dreams crushed, at least I told you the truth, you should thank me instead of being mad at me for a whole year!"
She thumped her foot quickly, exasperation left her body as anger started to settle in "What do you know about truth if you're just a good for nothing student full of prejudices! My efforts will be rewarded…" she pointed a finger at the fox, his usual smirk changed to an annoyed expression "you will be without a work, friends and a reliable income" she added angrily
"No one has ever annoyed me in less than 10 minutes, I'd give you that" "But let's be real for a moment, you're a bunny, even in Zootopia you'll not be able to accomplish and great thing, your race wasn't designed for this"
Right when Judy was about to speak he shushed her and kept with his monologue "Do you see any other bunnies in this school? No, because they're smart enough to understand that's not the place they belong to. You forced your family to believe and sustain you just for your foolish dream of studying at the Zootopia High School, and even though you're getting phenomenal grades and so on, out there" he pointed out towards the exit "No one cares about you getting exceptional grades and such because you're a bunny"
Judy was flooded with anger and indignation, her twitching nose, thumping foot and lowered ears proven it, she was sure the fox spotted it too "You're just making assumption and teasing me because you're either jealous, deluded by your own life, so I couldn't care less about what you think, and most importantly, do not dare bring my parents into your useless, bigoted speech!"
"Then let me ask you a quick question" He looked Judy for a brief second with his piercing green eyes, his eyebrows wrinkled "What do you want to do after the school?"
Judy sat here for a second, she didn't have an answer, despite she was there from 4 years, she didn't find a suitable job she could like.
As she tried to find what to answer, Nick added "That's what I thought, you can't find a job you like, or that you can do. The reason is simple, you're a little dumb emotional bunny who doesn't know when to stop dreaming. Do yourself a favor and took the advice I suggested last year, just let this whole thing go and be real, go back to Bunnyburrow and be a carrot farmer" His tone went from annoyed to his usual smugly one quickly.
With a final giggle, Nick started to walk towards the exit "Now if you excuse me, I'll bid you ado! Got some important stuff to do. But look at the bright side though, if you become a farmer I'll buy the groceries from you everyday!"
Judy found herself frozen again in place, Nick's words pierced through her easily, hitting a pretty bad spot for her, but he was right for an extent…
"Don't let him mess with your head!" the little voice into her mind said. "But…he's right" Judy muttered.
She started to walk quickly to the exit, in that moment Judy only wanted to find Clawhauser and have a good time with him.
Ben was exactly out of the school near the entrance, as soon as he saw Judy he waved a paw to catch her attention "Hey Judy! Over here!" the bunny reached the cheetah, replying his shout only with a "Hey", he gave her a puzzled look "What happened? Something's wrong?"
Judy sighed "I'll explain on the way, I just want to exit from school right now" Ben nodded and followed her out of the building.
Author's Notes: Soo i put a lot of things in this first chapter.
I tried to make everyone as coherent as possible personality-wise. If you're leaving a detailed review i would like to know your thoughts on this matter.
I decided to settle the whole story at Judy's last year for some reasons, firstly because both Nick and Judy are already established, with their friends and so on, so i have more time to focus on their friendship development rather than using lots of chapters to then arrive at 10 chapters and both Judy and Nick barely talked. Furthermore, they can be way more independent, thus i can use more locations than only few places.
As for Judy not knowing which job she sould do, some people might argue that in the film she already knew she wanted to become a police officer at the age of 9. Please bear with me as i will explain why later in the chapters. Note that this doesn't mean she will do something else, nor that she will be a police officer. If you want to find out you need to wait for the next chapters :P
P.S:I'm looking for beta readers, if anyone's intrested please PM me