And here we have chapter 3, Woot! Woot!

And thank you so much to Siberwoman for leaving a comment! :D:D Though I have to say that I really didn't intend for Sylvia and Johnny to become romantically involved, but it's still a fresh story, so we'll see where it goes.

But, I make no promises that it'll become a romance, so just keep that in mind, okay? :)

I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

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Zzzt! Zzzt!

Sylvia stirred within the nest she made out of her blankets on her bed at the vibrating message alert that was coming from her cell phone, poking her head out as she refused to open her eyes at first and began feeling around to find her bedside table that she always left her phone on every night, but she let out a groaned when she she accidentally over shot it and knock her phone off the table top and onto the carpet of her room.

Zzzt! Zzzt!

Sighing in tired annoyance, Sylvia finally forced her amber eyes open and slumped over the edge of her bed before she grabbed her phone and flipped it over to see who it was that was texting her.

Mom: Sylvia.
You didn't call me when you got home last night...

Oh great...Sylvia would sometimes forgot to contact Miriam when they were apart, which always ruffled her mothers fur as it made her worry about her daughter when, and Sylvia would quote, 'There's no reason you shouldn't be able to contact me when you literally have an object in your hand that takes less then five seconds to let me know where you are!'

But if she didn't get an earful for her slip last night, that means her mother probably fell asleep before Sylvia even started home. Which she figured was still a good thing considering how long she's probably been staying up at the hospital.

So sitting up in her bed, Sylvia texted her back.

Sorry, lost track of time.
Crazy day like you wouldn't believe, so I was super tired when I got back.

She watched and waited silently as the little bubble that showed her mother was typing a reply appear on the screen.

Mom: It's alright, at least you're safe.
Are you coming over today?

Sylvia's ears flattened a bit...she didn't have any intention to go back to the hospital if she could help it, and with her second job, she hoped that it would be a good long while before she had the free time to go back there again...

Probably not, I promised a friend to help them volunteer at the theater that's down the road last night. Overslept. I'll need to go right over and do some work before I start my shift at the cafe.
I'm gonna be pretty busy for a while.

After she sent it, she stared at her answer. Why did she throw in that she was helping a friend? She didn't like to lie to her mother, but after thinking about it, it was probably better then telling her that she took on work without pay just to keep her mind off dad and out of the hospital.

There was a long pause before the bubble popped back up...

Mom: Okay...then just remember to give me a call or text when you make it back home from now on, alright? I love you honey.

Sylvia deflated as she could practically feel the disappointment her mother no doubt felt after reading her text. But there was really nothing she could do about it now except just reply back...

I will.
Love you too, mom.

Shutting down her phone, Sylvia just sat there for a few moments before a big yawn suddenly escaped from her; And stretched out the kinks in her back and shoulders before she looked over and checked the clock. She really did over sleep, and if she wanted a shower and make herself something for breakfast, then she needed to hustle.

So with the plan in mind, she hopped out of bed and began to get ready for the day.

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By the time Sylvia finally arrived to the theater, she once again walked through the doors that lead to the stage as that was still the only way she knew of to get in. And as she quietly strolled down the aisle, she listened as Buster Moon spoke to his eight contestants while they all intently listened to his every word as lined in a row.

Almost as if they saw the little koala as a drill Sargent in the army.

But that's certainly what he acted like as he told them something about the stage being a battlefield a their song being their weapon. Sylvia took a seat in one of the chairs right in front of the stage as she waited for Buster to notice that she was there.

The other animals took immediate notice of her as they were facing the auditorium, but none of them made any move to announce her presence as Buster and Ms. Crawly walked down their line handing out sheets of paper that supposedly contained choice songs to better fit their act as well as costume idea's before a a porcupine dressed in skinny jeans under a plaid red skirt and a black shirt with white stripes that had a couple quills stuck in the front of it suddenly ran out on stage from the back.

Bringing up the total number of contestants up to nine.

"Ah, finally talked some sense into that boyfriend of yours..." Buster said, obviously pleased to see her there.

"Lance is an artist." She replied with a roll of her bright blue eyes. "But I don't expect you to understand that."

"You're right, I don't understand that at all." he said as he handed her a sheet of paper.

At that, Sylvia couldn't help but let out an amused snort at the bemused, wide eyed look of surprise the porcupine gave him, finally getting Buster to realized that she was sitting there waiting to be sent to work.

"Oh you're here!" The koala stated in delight. "Everyone, please gather around before we go any further, I have someone I want to introduce you to."

Upon his announcement, the other animals huddled up and once again stood at attention. Well...most of them did, a few of the others just continued to looked over the lists Buster had given them.

"Okay Sylvia, these are my chosen few for the show. " the koala bear began with a proud grin. "First up is Rosita and Gunter."

A pair of pigs took a step forward.

"Hello, it's so nice to meet you." the lady pig, dressed in pink button up shirt and blue capri jeans said warmly.

"Oh ja, so very nice to meet you!" said her partner, who was wearing a bright, sparkly gold jumpsuit that almost made Sylvia go a bit cross eyed, agreed as he did an little enthusiastic jig.

"Over there is Ash." Buster continued as the porcupine gave a short "what's up?" and nod of her head as she looked down at the paper she was holding with an annoyed expression.

"This guy down here is Mike," the theater director said, gesturing down to a small white mouse dressed in a red pinstripe suit with a matching fedora who only grunted with an obvious disinterest he made no attempt to hide.

"And here we have Johnny," Buster said as Sylvia met with the big brown eyes of a tall, young gorilla who gave her a small grin and a polite wave. "Don't be too intimidated by his size, he's really a nice kid."

But Sylvia was far from intimidated by Johnny, in fact, it was quiet the opposite. And as Buster went to introduce a group that consisted of a trio of frogs and some overall wearing camel named Pete, she found that there was something about the gorilla that seemed a little...familiar.

She couldn't put her finger on it, but she felt like she'd seen him somewhere before...

Johnny had noticed her stare, and shifted nervously as it seemed she was trying to see right through him; But thankfully, Sylvia was soon broken from her thoughts when Buster suddenly clapped a paw on her shoulder with a familiarity that made the young vixen very uncomfortable with as this was only the second time they had met.

"Guys, this is Sylvia," Buster introduced cheerfully. "And starting today, she'll be a new addition to our little family."

"Hey wait, I thought you were done castin' for the show!" Mike stated, almost angrily as Sylvia scooted Busters paw off of her. " What, we got us another moody teenager to compete with now?"

"Oh Sylvia's not in the show, Mike." Buster quickly explained. " She's a volunteer that's going to be helping us around the theater."

" a 'volunteer'? Pff, nobody works for free!" Mike laughed as he shot Sylvia a suspicious look. "What's the catch, fluffy?"

"Well, I don't see how it's any business of yours." Sylvia began, her ears flattening in annoyance at the big mouth this little animal had on him. "But if you really must know, I guess you could say it would benefit in keeping me out of the house for a while and give my 'moody' teenage mind something to focus on."

"And don't you ever call me 'fluffy' again!"

She then sent a hard poke to his chest to emphasize how serious she was.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! " Mike snapped, smoothing out the front his red jacket. " Watch the threads, fluffy! "

Sylvia clenched her teeth at the disregarding jab from the pint sized little jerk, but before she could give any sort of retort, Buster stepped in between them with a nervous laugh.

"Ho-kay, time out for a second! Why don't we all just take a step back?" the koala suggested. " Mike, Sylvia's really just here to help us take care of the theater and Sylvia, the only thing I ask is that you please, please refrain yourself from maiming my contestants, alright?"

"No promises on cheese breath, here..." Sylvia grumbled but still she backed off and moved herself over until she was standing beside Ms. Crawly while Buster lead everyone backstage to where the practice rooms were.

"So I'm supposed to sweep the stage first, right?" the silver fox asked the Ms. Crawly as she was handing out beverages to the contestants while they started breaking off to go rehearse. "Where's a broom?"

"The cleaning supplies are a bit further backstage, dear, the first closet to the left." Ms. Crawly told her with that ever friendly smile as she gave a nod down the way. "But be careful with the door, it can be rather temperamental."

Ms. Crawly then shuffled away to make sure that their contestants were all set and had everything they needed to start their first day as Sylvia went off to find the broom closet. It didn't take but a few seconds to find it, but just as Ms. Crawly said, it was pretty difficult to get open.

She jiggled the door knob a few times, but that didn't seem to be the problem, it was more like the frame was too small for the door and someone still forced it shut anyway.

And letting out an annoyed huff, she grabbed the handle with both paws and put her left foot on the frame and pulled. She waited for some hint to tell her that it was going to give soon so she could ease up and try to get it open from there with a few yanks, but she cried out in surprise when it swung wide open and sent her falling back to the floor with a bunch of items tumbling out as they were finally free from being stuffed in a cramped broom closet.

But just as she braced herself for all the items to come toppling down on top of her, she felt a large hand grab her tail and drag her out of the way as everything clattered to the wood floor.

And looking back, she saw that it was Johnny who had come to her little rescue after starting over a little earlier to see if she needed some help when he noticed her struggling with the door.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice thick with a cockney accent.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She told him as she suddenly noticed that he still had her tail in his hand before she fixed him with slight frown. "You know, just a friendly little FYI, it's considered incredibly rude to hold a fox by the tail this long without permission..."

"Oh, 'scuse me!" he apologized as he quickly released her while Sylvia just gave it a quick flick to the side to settle the fur back down to it's normal place.

But the moment his apology replayed in her head, her eyes widened as she looked him up and down, realizing that he was wearing a very familiar black leather jacket and a green shirt with a big, fading lighting blot design in the middle.

"Now I know who you are!" She stated loudly, making him jump a little in alarm.

"Y..you do?" he asked rather nervously.

"Yeah, you're the jerk who almost ran me over with a skate board last night!" she told him.

"That was you?!" he exclaimed in amused surprise. "Wow, what're the odds of that?"

But he lost his smile as he looked down to see Sylvia glaring up at him with a less than pleased expression as her arms were crossed tightly over her chest and her bushy black and white tail thumped on the floor.

"Er, I really am sorry 'bout that..." He said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck a bit. "I'm usually a lot more careful, but I was just so excited at bein' in the show."

Sylvia just peered up at him for a while longer until she finally let out a sigh and crouched down to the still scattered cleaning supplies she was almost buried under.

"Fine, I guess." she said as she picked out a broom up from the pile. "Just try and be more careful next time."

The young gorilla nodded, but when he tried to apologize again, another voice beat him to the punch.

"Johnny, if you're ready, we can start on your piano lessons." Ms. Crawly called down from up the stairs.

"Comin' Ms. Crawly!" He called back before he offered Sylvia another small grin as he started back. "Well, guess I'll see ya 'round, then."

Sylvia watched him go until he disappeared upstairs before she brought her attention back to her own work moving the cleaning supplies back into the closet. Making a mental note not to close the door again until after she was getting ready to leave.

But just when she was about to walking out on stage to start sweeping, the lights suddenly cut out...

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Aaaand that's a wrap! Great job people! :D:D:D

If you guys happen to see any spelling or grammar errors, please don't be afraid to tell me so I can make a note to fix them up. I want my stories to be easy to read for you :3