The Acquired

By the time I got home, my Dad had left for work. It was around 7:30 AM then.

I was dragging my feet towards the couch, I felt so tired for some odd reason.

I guess It's payback for the four hours of sleep I got last night.

I let out a sigh and plopped myself down onto the couch, I snatched the TV remote from the table right next to the couch.

I flipped through the channels, trying to find something interesting to watch. The only things that really interested me was Spiderman, and AVATAR.

I had already watched AVATAR so I flipped to the channel which Spiderman was on. I continued to watch it until I fell asleep.

I struggled to my feet, feeling a bit drowsy from my nap. I glanced down at my watch. It read 7:56 AM.

I slowly walked to the bathroom, and I examined myself in the mirror.

My dirty blonde hair was sticking in every direction possible, looking like I had just woken up from twelve hours of sleep.

My shirt was ruffled, proving that I had fallen asleep in my clothes.

I dragged myself to my bedroom and quickly changed out of the clothes I was wearing.

I had decided to wear my red t-shirt with black designs on it, I put on a pair of baggy brown shorts. My socks were a pale blue color, and was a little bit too big for me.

While walking towards the bathroom, I slipped. The floor was all slippery. Down I went, my back to the floor. My body was sprawled there, on the floor, in an awkward position. I struggled to my feet and went around the small puddle of water.

I trudged into the bathroom and grabbed the comb off of the counter and ripped it through my hair. I threw it back onto the counter with a clatter and stormed out of the room.

I raced towards the door, I quickly slipped on my sneakers and yanked open the door. Out I raced, onto the street, I was planning to go visit Cassie.

The next time I glanced down at my watch, it read 8:03 AM. The barn door was hard to open, because I hadn't had an experience with barn-door openings.

Cassie was about to open a cage, pieces of meat was stacked neatly in her palm.

Silently and swiftly, I crept up behind Cassie. Slowly, I raised my hand and put it on her shoulder.

Cassie dropped the food that she had cupped in her hand, clearly startled.

I instantly went down to pick up the food, I said quickly to Cassie, "I'm sorry, Cassie, I never meant to scare you that badly."

Cassie had been rapidly picking up the fox's food when she dropped them again, I looked up and noticed she was staring at me.

"Oh my god…" Cassie whispered, "Is that really you, Eliza? I'm not dreaming am I?"

I laughed, "No, your not dreaming, but we better hurry up and pick all of this up." Cassie simply nodded.

Once all of the pieces of meat had been picked up, we had about an even amount in both of hands. Cassie dumped the rest of the meat into my hands.

"What'd you do that for?" I asked as she did so.

"I want you to feed him," Cassie replied, motioning towards the cage I had seen her about to open, "My dad found him on the side of the road, my mom guessed that he had been hit by a car."

I said nothing, but I couldn't help but nod. Slowly I went to the cage door and shifted the meat onto one of my palms. With my free hand, I opened the cage door.

A black nose appeared, and out stepped a somewhat small red fox. His nose kept on twitching as the scent of meat drafted towards him. He limped towards me, his hind leg was twisted in the opposite direction it was supposed to be in.

I slowly pushed my other hand in, the one grasping the meat. The fox limped as quickly as it could up to my open hand and ate right out of my palm.

I glanced over my shoulder, and I realized that Cassie was no longer there. I guess that she had went to go feed the animals in the other section of the barn.

My palm felt ticklish. I choked back a laugh. My gaze flew back to the fox. He was licking my palm, licking away the blood that still clung to my skin from the meat.

I withdrew my hand but then had second thoughts. Slowly and carefully, I thrust my hand back in. The fox stepped back with difficulty, but lowered it's head to allow me to pet it.

I had began to pet it, but then I let my hand gently rest on it's head, the fox looked about ready to fall asleep when I closed the cage.

I heard Cassie's footsteps as she entered the area I was in.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking," Cassie said softly, walking up to me, "I want to know all of the morphs you acquired when you moved away."

I was not surprised or shocked at all, I had known this question would come eventually. I took a deep breath and began to list the animals I acquired, "A ferret, a police dog, a fly, a gerbil, my cat, a robin, an eagle, an electric eel, a giraffe, an African elephant, an African lion, an alligator, an artic wolf, a badger, a barn owl, a bearded dragon, a Bengal tiger, a bighorn sheep, a brown pelican, a chameleon, a cheetah, a chimpanzee, a cougar, a dingo, a desert iguana, a dolphin, a dragonfly, a flamingo, a giant anteater, a giant panda, a giant tortoise, a starling, a grasshopper, a gray wolf, a great horned owl, a green anole lizard, a green tree frog, a green water snake, a ground squirrel, a guinea pig, a hippopotamus, a horse, a jackrabbit, a jaguar, a kangaroo, a koala, a leopard, a mountain goat, a swan, an octopus, an orca whale, a pig, a polar bear, a praying mantis, a puffin, a raccoon, a raven, a red squirrel, a red-eyed tree frog, a ring-tailed lemur, a rooster, a rough green snake, a Shetland pony, a snowshoe hare, a toad, a walrus, a wild turkey, and a zebra…"

I heard Cassie whistle, "Wow. That's a lot. Did you acquire any here?"

"Yeah," I said, and I motioned towards the red fox, "him."

"Hm… okay," Cassie nodded, before I noticed she looked confused.

"What is it, Cassie?" I asked.

"I forgot who your cat is," she confessed.

I laughed, "His name is Shadow. He's a Siamese cat. But I don't know if I'd count Shadow as a he - because he's been cut."

"Oh," Cassie said.

"Hey, are the others up now?" I asked hopefully.

"I think so, why don't we go to their houses and if they're not there, look for them?" Cassie suggested.

"That's a splendid idea!" I said happily.

"Then let's go!" she said, smiling. I smiled as well.