Chapter 16, friends are chosen family

Oscar went back to class and was able to pay better attention. After school Oscar decided not to go home immediately, instead going in a different direction. He wanted to go to Roscoe's house. Oscar was a bit nervous as he finally stood in front of the door, pressing the doorbell and nervously waiting.

The door went open slightly, one eye peeking through, then the door was closed.

'Roscoe, I'm not here to be mad at you, I just came to make sure you are okay.' Oscar said loudly so Roscoe would hear it from behind the door. The door opened slightly again, then Roscoe was visible.

'What do you want.' Roscoe said.

'Can't we just talk, I missed the friend group, and I miss you man.' Oscar said.

Roscoe gave the sign to come in, the pups going upstairs to his room.

'I don't understand why you would come here, did you not here the full story?' Roscoe said, surprised by Oscar's visit.

'What I know is that you were involved in the whole situation, but the teacher said you were sad about the whole thing. Things may have been different, but I still care about you.' Oscar said. 'The day it happened Riley came to me, and showed me how stupid I was for closing myself off from this friend group, I'm back.'

'I'm really sorry about all of this, I didn't listen to Riley and she was right. I made a wrong choice.' Roscoe said, staring at the floor.

'Hey bud, it's okay, I know that you've been struggling. You didn't know what was going on as far as I know.' Oscar said.

'I knew they would talk to Zuma, I thought it was going okay, but then he send me that message. I immediately knew Jack and Bear were hiding things from me. I found out too late, and then I was to stupid not to run away and immediately telling someone what happened.' Roscoe said.

'Hey mate, listen to me. Be proud of yourself for telling someone anyway, when they told you they'd hurt you if you told anyone. And you still told Chase, which saved Zuma's life. Yeah you made a wrong choice, but you did grab the courage to do something after you knew you made a mistake.' Oscar said.

'It doesn't feel okay.' Roscoe said.

'I know Zuma, I know what his entire team stands for. When he gets better, you should talk to him.' Oscar said.

'Yeah, I will I guess.' Roscoe said.

'Okay, should we distract ourselves and do something else now?' Oscar said.

'Okay.' Roscoe said, trying to contain his smile.

One week later

Everyone was in the lookout lobby laying on the ground, the floor the only thing that was able to cool them off from the hot weather. Then Ryder came in.

'Guess what pups, Zuma is probably coming home tomorrow.' Ryder announced. All pups quickly came of the ground in excitement.

'Can't wait.' Rocky said.

'I think while we are waiting for that moment, we should have a little chat about this whole situation. The situation we got into is one we didn't like and don't want to be in again. Whilst at the hospital I got in contact with a friend of mine and she gave me a lot of tips. With Zuma we noticed odd behavior, we all did. I should've started to investigate earlier, that's my mistake. If you see odd behavior from someone, wether that is one of us, or just someone you know. Share this with someone or most importantly, share your concerns with the person / dog itself. Show them you care, and see what you can do to help. For us, this situation is now over, but for Zuma himself, this event can be one he will remember for a long time. Be there for him, show him how we as a team are. He needs that right now.' Ryder explained. The pups agreeing and discussing ways to help their friend.

Chapter 17, return

Zuma felt a bit nervous as he sat behind Ryder on his quad. He was excited to meet his friends, but didn't know how they had reacted to the whole deal. 'The pups are inside.' Ryder said, carefully helping Zuma off the quad, as a lot of placed still hurt and his back right paw was still in a brace. Inside Zuma couldn't hold his smile as his friend greeted him with so much happiness Zuma needed, calming down the nerves he had. After hugging and talking to his friends, the pups distracted themselves and played games that didn't include running. At night Skye, Marshall and Chase were called to a mission. Zuma, Rocky and Rubble watching the sun set into the water. Zuma feeling safe for the first time in a long time.

"You take a cover over every single secret, so afraid if someone saw them they would leave. But somebody, somebody, somebody sees you. Somebody, somebody will never leave you."

A view days later Zuma, joined by Rocky, went to the cave. Reuniting with Riley and Oscar, having fun times. Oscar and Riley sharing the funny and weird school moments, Zuma joking about the hospital food.

Smiles everywhere as everything seemed to slowely go back to normal. Zuma went back to school, always joined by at least one of his friends and healing very well from the injuries. Only one thing was stuck on Zuma's mind. Roscoe had not returned to school yet, and it was now long after his week long suspension. Oscar had told Zuma about the conversation he and Roscoe had, and so Zuma and Riley went to his house.

Roscoe opened the door, unable to speak as he saw the two dogs.

'Ehh, come in.' He said. The dogs all going upstairs to his room. It was silent for a few moments, before Roscoe started talking.

'I know sorry isn't enough, but I don't know what else to give you.' Roscoe said, staring at the floor.

'You don't have to give anything else, I forgave you a long time ago.' Zuma said.

Roscoe was surprised. 'Why.' He asked.

'I know you longer than this school year. A lot changed for all of us, you had to redo grade 1, our friend group fell apart. It caused chaos. And besides, you understand it was a wrong move. Why should I keep being annoying about it.' Zuma said.

Roscoe just gave a little smile, not knowing what to react.

'Really sorry about how I acted towards you Riley, I was messed up.' Roscoe said.

'You were.' Riley said. Zuma giving her the what are you doing look. 'But I should apologize myself. I was being a boiled egg myself. We all made bad choices in this scenario, we just have to learn from it and make sure we don't do it again.' Riley said, everyone smiling, it was a good answer, and it was the truth.

'So, want to do something fun?' Zuma asked.

'Always!' Roscoe said.

'Let's go! Enough deep conversations for the rest of my life.' Riley joked.

"You are not hidden, there has never been a moment you were forgotten. You are not hopeless, though you have been broken your innocence stolen. I hear you whisper underneath your breath. I hear your sos your sos.

I will send out an army to find you in the middle of the darkest night it's true, I will rescue you.

There is no distance, that cannot be covered over and over. You're not defenseless. I'll be your shelter, I'll be your armor.

I will send out an army to find you in the middle of the darkest night it's true, i will rescue you. I will never stop marching to reach you in the middle of the hardest fight its true, I will rescue you.

And with that, this story comes to an end. It's been a long road but i couldn't be happier with the outcome. first off all, thanks for reading this story and I hope it has learned you something. Secondly, I want to ask if you guys would like to see a sequel to this project, I would be interested in writing that if you guys are interested. I want to thank BoulderWolf for the support during the writing of this project, wouldn't have finished it without all the support. The songs I used in this project are called

God only knows. Artist: For king and Country

Rescue: Lauren Daigle

Thank you for following along with this project, have a great day.