Though she felt like she might be being a little over-dramatic, Kara Pedshark found her six years of college to get her master's degree in chemical engineering to be the longest of her life. She had fallen quite deeply in love with Larry Wilde-Hopps, and to leave the squirrel behind in Zootopia and go to the prestigious college in Pawprintsteen in the northwest was one of the toughest decisions she made for her future.

The honey-and-white ferret and the gray squirrel corresponded by texts nearly constantly, and Muzzletime between two and three times a week. Despite this, the inability to be physically close to each other bothered both of them. Larry noticed he was starting to get more selfies from Kara, even without asking for them. Also, they were getting more and more risque. Larry started having to make sure he only checked his phone in private. Kara figured out that Larry particularly liked it when she'd pose while nibbling on the ends of the pink stems of her glasses. Kara enjoyed tantalizing Larry as much as he enjoyed being tantalized; he made her feel very attractive and desirable when, while she was growing up, she always thought of herself as rather plain.

Larry wasn't alone in finding Kara attractive, however. As he had predicted before they parted, she caught the eye of several mustelids during her college term. Unbeknownst to her, however, the confidence and focus she had developed within herself made others a bit nervous to actually approach her. Kara kept her focus on her classes, as she was a bit of a perfectionist, and tried to keep her grade point average paramount in her life. She also didn't get too close to any females in college, because she didn't want to let it slip that she was still in a relationship with a squirrel. She knew that would only lead to teasing.

Kara tried to make it down to Zootopia whenever she was on break. She knew that Larry's career had gotten started, so he couldn't fit a visit to Pawprintsteen into his schedule. Between her visits, their textual and vocal conversations over the phone were often filled with emotional reassurances of their love. If anyone had actually overheard or saw any of these, their tolerance for sappy romantic prose might have been tested. So when Kara finally made it back to Larry, their interactions were decidedly more physical. Though Kara knew the mixture of her geekiness and sensuality was Larry's favorite and she could often lead him by the tail to do whatever she wanted, she also quickly found out that a riled-up squirrel was a force to be reckoned with.

The ferret's ears felt hot when she got the news that Larry won his first race; she had been visiting him and left only a couple of days before that. She wondered if it was just some sort of fluke, but a definite pattern started to emerge the more times she would go to visit. She supposed it was just a rather pleasant "chemical reaction" that only she could offer him. She kind of liked that.

Larry had an incredibly powerful guilty conscience drilled into him from growing up with Judy and Nick Wilde-Hopps. Between Judy's emotional coercion, and Nick's perceptive powers, Larry could never get away with anything. Thus, he easily broke and admitted to Kara how he had rather accidentally started "dating" a squirrel from his pit crew before breaking it off, and the incident where he was harassed by a tabloid reporter. Kara found it very heartwarming how much Larry valued his devotion to her, and promised within herself that she would do her best to be worthy of that devotion.

She was tested, however, her fourth year of college. There was a very handsome, charming, and self-assured pine marten in a few of her classes by the name of Albert Parker. He was friendly with her, never rude, shared her major, and was very conversational. Also, she did admit his brown fur coloring with the copper chest fur was attractive.

Kara found herself doing something she never thought she'd do: attend a party just to see what would happen. She was offered a drink by Albert, which she refused, as she knew she was a lightweight. He accepted the rejection gracefully, and went to go talk with his buddies.

"Hey, um, hello?" A meek voice came behind her. She turned to see another ferret, a more traditionally-colored one. "I'm Sherri Ferry. We have a couple classes together? C-couldn't help but notice Albert was talking to you?"

"Yeah," Kara gave a small smile. "He seems really nice."

"Sure, 'seems'," Sherri said, her eyes not meeting Kara's. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of Albert yet. He makes a bet to get with the most unavailable-seeming mustelid every year. H-he hasn't lost yet."

"What?" Kara seemed unconvinced. "That seems like an almost comically base thing to do at such a prestigious college as this."

"Well, he's got a full scholarship and all," Sherri shrugged. "Guess he doesn't care what he's doing too much. Anyway, he likes 'morphing' himself to try to be whatever he thinks the girl wants. If he gets you, I guarantee he'll break up with you before the end of the year. He's done it three times before, after all."

"I'll admit he does seem a bit... 'perfect' for me," Kara said, worry taking root in her, "but why would you care to tell me? I haven't really been that friendly to anyone in college..."

"I uh," Sherri looked alarmed, her ears hot. "W-well, I'm kind of, uh... ah-attracted to females, so... I know you're not! B-but... you're cute and all, s-so, I just didn't want you to get hurt..." Sherri fidgeted and fumbled with her paws while she tripped over her words.

Kara gave a small smile. "Well, Sherri, you might have saved me from a huge mistake. Will you accept a friendly hug?"

"O-oh, will I ever!" Sherri giggled, hugging her quickly. Kara gratefully hugged the shy ferret; she guessed it couldn't have been easy for Sherri to admit what she did with those sort of feelings in her heart.

One of Albert's mink friends elbowed him in the ribs and jerked his head over to the two hugging ferrets. "Looks like you're barking up the wrong tree this time, Parker."

"What? Impossible," Albert narrowed one eye. "I could have sworn I almost had her. Maybe that's why she was playing so hard to get."

"Ha ha, you lose!" A stoat shoved him in a friendly manner.

"Eh, just have to find an even harder mark next year," Albert smirked. "Three out of four isn't bad."

Kara sat alone in her bed that night, feeling a bit ashamed. She had almost let a mercurial mustelid attract her when all he was after was a notch on his belt. She kept wanting to text Larry about her mistake, but she kept deleting the things she started typing. Larry must have been using his phone at the time and noticed the ellipses indicating her typing, and eventually he made the first text.

[Everything okay, Ferrety?]

It will be now, she thought to herself. She redoubled the resolution in her heart to only have her nearsighted eyes on her squirrel, someone who had cared for her through all sorts of situations, both good and bad. Kara got very close to telling him the truth, but she decided to text him another, more common truth.

[Yeah. I love you, Larry.]

[Love you too, cutie! Can't wait to see you again!]

[You can't, huh? Then just hold on a second.] Kara made sure her nightshirt was drooping off one of her shoulders and put on her best coy look as she prepared to take a selfie while nibbling on her glasses once again.

After Kara's schooling, she was able to get a job as a chemical engineer rather easily in Zootopia, to her immense relief. She had to tour the various power plants in Zootopia, making sure everything was copacetic. Her schedule was pretty busy, but she got to see Larry far more often, to her delight.

The poor gray squirrel was still quite easy for his loved ones to read, and that did not exclude Kara. The honey-and-white ferret had been quite sure that for a year or two after she got back from college that he was trying to build up the courage to pop the question. Sometimes she just wanted to bend over and grab him by the cheeks and say "marry me, you fool!" She knew, though, that he must be planning something extremely corny and romantic for her, and she couldn't wait to see whatever it was.

"Heard you took home another trophy," Kara said in a flirty voice when they got together one evening, both in a Sahara Square motel due to their schedules. "You know what that'll get you tonight..."

"Ooh," Larry grew a big grin. "My racing career is just all sorts of rewarding." The two laughed, but then Larry looked a bit introspective. "You know, it isn't fair, is it Kara? You went to school for six years and you're doing something super important for Zootopia's energy situation and no one even knows your name." Kara blinked. "Whereas I, nearly just out of high school, got a sponsorship with a detergent company, and after a few years I got a bunch of screaming fans and have had the spotlight on me and... y'know. I'm not doing anything important."

Kara came over to him and hugged him. "I don't care about any of that stuff. I only need one fan. And he's got a big... bushy... tail." Kara slowly stroked over his tail.

"You really like that thing, huh?" Larry chuckled.

"Mmhm..." Kara cooed happily.

Zootopia had at least one other inter-species couple rather similar to Larry and Kara. Just like them, one was in the public eye, and one was not. One performed a service for Zootopia's continued health, and one just performed for fans.