Chapter 2: Attack of the Pack Rats

The next day was a quite Wednesday and the toonsters were feeling a little bored from trying to catch up on what Mr. Elmer Fudd is saying. But what can you actually get from someone like Elmer Fudd?

"Did you get the notes down, Calamity?" asked Furrball barely awake.

"Yeah, I got it." read Calamity's sign as he yawned. "No worries. Everything's in here."

"Great. Everything's going well, a few periods left. What could possibly happen?"

As soon as he said that, a small sound came along in the hallway. It sounded like a crash, actually it sounded like...TSSSSHHHHHHHHHH! The sound scared the heck out of the toonsters, and to make things a lot worse, the fire bell got alarmed and the overhead fire sprinklers began to fizz off! Everyone had to put their work under their desks to keep safe and they ran off to see what went wrong (with the teacher's permission of course.)

It turns out there was a mess made in the cafeteria: tables were turned over, food and drinks were spilt everywhere, and walls had been splattered with zucchini. (It's a good thing that I'm not a fan of zucchini and if I was...)

"Get back to the story, Rocket!"

Oh! Sorry, Cosette. Ahem.

Then, they heard a rattling under one of the tables. They turned it over with all the strength they can muster and found their friend Clay, sitting and shaking with fear.

"Are vous okay, Clay?" asked Fifi helping him up.

"Sure," he said. "If you can be calm after being robbed."

"You got robbed?" asked Babs. "By who?"

"Pack rats."

"Pack rats?" asked Plucky. "Are they more vicious than mice?"

"Well, not really. They're harmless, except they like to steal a couple of things. For me, it's worse."

"What do vous mean?" asked Cosette.

"Check out the storage room." The toonsters went to the back and heard ruffling noises. The sound was getting so loud that they peeked in to see what was going on. But as they did that, the door came crashing down and a huge crowd of pack rats were getting away with most of the cafeteria goods!

"Oh, man!" read Calamity's sign. "What a bunch of fowl Neotoma cinereas!"

"Like, a bunch of what?" asked Shirley the Loon.

"I think he means pack rats." answered Hamton.

"Oh." said Buster. "Then we got no time to lose, we gotta get those fowl Neontomahawk cinehernias!"

Calamity rolled his eyes with his sign reading, "Huh. It's close enough."

The toonsters all tried to catch the pack rats, but they were getting all over the place. Some had caused a spill when bumping into Pete the Puma Janitor, some were screwing up the tables and chairs in the teachers' lounge, and even the auditorium is a wreck! No matter what they tried, the pack rats seemed to get the best of them and proved to be a lot smarter.

Once the rats were gone, the toonsters all looked at the Looniversity: it looked more like a disaster area with all the

papers flying around, a wet mess in the halls, and food splattering on the lockers!

Not standing it any longer, Sylvester screamed out as oud as he could, "FURRBALL! GET OVER HERE!"

Furrball nervously walked to his mentor. "Y-yes, sir?"

"JUST LOOK AT THIS PLACE!"

"I know. I know. It's a disaster area."

"It's more than a disaster area, it's a...well, yeah. Anyway, I don't know what to say, except that I'm ashamed of you!"

"Why?"

Sylvester looked at his student sternly as if he just said something very dumb. "Don't ask me stupid questions, you already know what I'm talking about. Ever since your test on trying to catch a mouse, you only caught a cold. Every test regarding this subject, you flunked! You acted like you didn't even care if you are a cat, and cats eat mice and birds! Instead, you just let them go free and not do anything about it. Do you know what that makes you? A LOST CAUSE!"

"Now wait just a meenute!" said Fifi from behind Furrball. "Vous can't just call heem a lost cause just because he doesn't act like a real cat. He's got a family now and friends including moi. He wants to change heez ways because of zat!"

"Well, that still doesn't matter, because he's still a cat and he's going against his own principles. He shouldn't change because of the good happening to him, and this incident

is the last straw! Furrball, you're going to be expelled from ACME Looniversity!" Right away, Sylvester had lighted up a string of firecrackers in the middle of the gathering. Each Looney Tune and Tiny Toon were arguing why Furrball should stay or leave the Looniversity.

Furrball tried to cover his ears to blot out the noise, but it was no use. Finally, when he couldn't stand it any longer, he got to the middle of the crowd and shouted as loud as he could.

"I AM GOING!" All the arguing had stopped and every toon was stunned into silence as they slowly turned and looked at Furrball.

"What did you say, Furrball?" asked Little Beeper's sign.

"I said I AM GOING."

"Wait." said Shirley. "Like, you really want to leave ACME Loo or some junk?"

"Hmph. Ya got that right, Shirl."

"But I don't understand." said Babs. "I thought you wanted to stay even though this had to happen."

"I did, but look how much trouble I caused for you guys. Sylvester's right, I am a lost cause. Because of my reformation as a predator, I brought the worst thing that can happen in this school. If I'm going to expelled because of this, fine! It was my fault anyway, and ACME Looniversity should be better off without me."

"But Furrball" said Sylvester, but his little blue pupil just shook his head. He doesn't want go back to the way he was as a cat who wanted to eat Sweety Bird and Little Sneezer before meeting his long lost family and changing all of that.

Furrball grabbed his bookbag and said to his mentor, "I'll meet you up tomorrow to sign up my confirmation of expulsion from ACME Looniversity." He soon walked down the hallway, everyone who knew him just stared at him as he passed them. Finally, when he was at the door, he said to Sylvester,

"Just for once, I wish you could've been proud." With that, he slammed the door, breaking the glass, forming the word "LOST CAUSE."

It was obvious that every toon that had seen what had happened felt sorry for Furrball. Even his friends knew that he felt it: FAILURE. Calamity and Cosette both felt upset over the loss, but Fifi, Fifi took it the worst. She was silently sobbing as she saw her lover going out the door. She turned away from the group and went to the girls' restroom to start taking her emotions over the sink. After 5 whole minutes, she would dry her eyes, but when she tries to wash her tears out, she failed to wash the pain in her heart. Soon, her sadness matched perfectly with the water on her face. Fifi's friends soon arrived and did their best to comfort her.

As Furrball was walking down the steps from the Looniversity, he began to have feelings of rage and sorrow. He was furious because of being called a lost cause and failing his mentor, but he was sad because of getting expelled tomorrow, he was going to say goodbye to his friends including Fifi. Those feelings soon mixed with his tears as he continued walking back home.

Out of one corner of the Looniversity building, the black alley cat whom Furrball met earlier was talking on his walkie-talkie. "Did you guys hear that, he's going to be expelled tomorrow."

The orange alleycat responded in the cafeteria, "Yeah, heh, heh, heh. The plan is going along splendidly!"

The white alleycat agreed in the teachers' lounge. "How much more do we have to do, boss?"

The "boss" was looking at his T.V., watching what happened and said, "I'll let the Pack Rat Ring loose a little bit more. And when tomorrow is up, Furrball will be out of ACME Looniversity...

permanently! Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh!"

INTERMISSION