Thursday,

After the morning class, Jack went straight to the law school library. He caught sight of the study group members along the way but paid them no heed. And it appeared to him that they shared the sentiment. Jack quickly pushed aside the incoming thoughts of regret from his actions and focused on the two impending tasks.

In the library, Jack brought out a sheet of paper listing six cases for the written reports. In order to be fair to the other law students, he planned to write down the facts and do the analysis later so as not to hoard the books for himself. He quickly found the first case and got to work.

As Jack went to put back another book, his eyes caught sight of a familiar mammal sitting alone at a table nearby. The rabbit immediately stopped his search and approached the individual.

"Hey, McKinely!" Fortunately, it was the first floor, so he didn't have to whisper.

The wolf looked up from his material and saw the buck approaching. With a book in one paw and a pen in his mouth, McKinley waved once with a free paw.

Jack hopped onto a chair so he could communicate better. "What are you going here? If I remember, you had Natalie doing the research. Didn't she do a report for you the other night?"

McKinley shook his head and removed the pen from his mouth. "Give me a little credit. I may delegate my work, but I'm not lazy."

"Fair." Jack stood for an awkward moment before sitting down. "Hey, do you have a minute?"

McKinley gave him a deadpanned look. "Would I be here if I had a minute?"

Jack gave an awkward chuckle. "I guess not."

The wolf was about to tell the rabbit to leave when an idea came to mind. "Speaking of delegation, how would you like to earn some cash?"

Jack said nothing, but his expression showed interest, which McKinley saw as a sign to continue. The wolf slid forward a piece of paper.

"It's simple. Look up those cases and summarize them in about one or two pages. I'll give one hundred bucks for the task."

Jack put on a cheesy smile. "Make it 1200, and you got yourself a deal!"

McKinley laughed as he retrieved the paper. "Good one!"

With the subtle attempt a failure, Jack decided to cut to the chase. "Listen, about that 1200 dollars…"

The wolf put up his paw and shook his head. "Please. I don't want to hear it."

Jack suspected what McKinely assumed but still objected. "You don't even know what I'm going to say!"

The wolf shot him a serious look. "Yes, I do." McKinley set his book and pen down. "I've seen that look before. I don't have the money! Could you please give me a little extra time to raise it? Am I wrong?"

"But it's the truth! I don't have the money!"

"You have until Monday."

Jack took a deep breath to calm down. "Listen. We can make a deal here! I'll give part of it to you now and the rest in installments. A little bit every month. What do you say?"

McKinley gave an incredulous look. "Installments?" The wolf scoffed. "We don't work that way at the Montem Society."

Jack tried extremely hard not to appear or sound desperate. "Look, I'm telling you now. I won't be able to raise the money in time."

The wolf put on a smile. "You will."

With the conversation going nowhere, Jack stood and turned to leave. But not before asking a pestering question since he incurred the debt.

"What happens if I can't?"

McKinley gave the rabbit another serious look. "Jack, you know the house rules. The check gets cashed. What happens afterwards is your problem." He saw Jack's nose twitch and put up a paw. "Hey, just relax. You have a little too much integrity to let a check bounce. Right?"

Jack nervously swallowed. "Right."

The smile returned. "See Jack. We like you, and we know that you will not let us down. You're just not that kind of mammal." McKinley then raised the paper again. "Are you sure you don't want a hundred bucks?"

Jack said nothing as he took his leave.

"Drop by anytime! There's a game every night!"

Not wanting to be in the same building as the wolf any longer, Jack finished gathering the case facts and wasted no time leaving the library. Out of spite, he sat far from the building and began the first of the many written reports.

An hour went by when a voice called out to him.

"Aren't you a classic picture?"

Jack broke from his work and saw Natalie standing before him. She was smiling at the display.

"A 1L with his nose to the grindstone. I see that Professor Bogo hasn't lost an iota of his touch."

Jack snorted. "Tell it like a sledgehammer. By the way, thanks a lot for telling Judy about my bad luck the other night."

Natalie's ears drooped. "I'm sorry. I'm only trying to help a friend of hers."

He waved a dismissive paw. "Anyways, it's not that important right now." The buck went back to work, but Natalie refused to leave.

"Jack, I can get your check back for you."

The buck looked up in confusion. "What?"

The doe leaned onto the nearest chair. "It's simple. No more tutoring and helping with their papers until-"

"Why?"

The question left Natalie exasperated. "Why not? Because I know the mammals you are dealing with. If you're going to play with them, you're going to come down to their level. And then you'll lose sight of your own. I've seen it happen to some of the residents."

Jack gave a soft smile. "I understand that, and I appreciate your opinion."

Natalie mimicked his expression and had her suspicions. "But you're not going to accept it."

He shook his head. "No, it's my problem. I need to handle it my way."

The doe huffed and straightened up. "Has anyone ever told you that you're really capable of being obnoxious?"

His smile never wavered. "Lately, everyone."

Natalie's expression became resigned. She had run out of ideas on how to help Jack. IF the buck truly wanted to die on that hill, she wouldn't stand in the way. "Well, good luck then."

Jack felt terrible for turning down the help, but he couldn't, in good conscience, allow anyone else to be involved. They could also suffer like him. "Yeah, and thank you for the offer. I mean it."

Natalie quietly left Jack to his work, and the striped rabbit worked to bury the feelings of remorse again. It would be another thirty minutes before another mammal interrupted the buck.

"Jack!"

He looked up to see a golden horse approaching him. The rabbit wondered what the stranger wanted.

"Can I help you?"

The horse stopped at the table. "You don't remember me, do you? It's Colton. Judy and your group helped me study for the midterms."

His eyes widened, and his ears perked as the recognition came to him within seconds. "Oh, now I remember! I heard you passed your exams, especially Contracts I. Congratulations!"

"Thank you." The horse cut to the chase. "I had to miss the last Contracts class for personal reasons, so I missed out on the cases." Colton tapped his head with a hoof. "Photographic memory is no good if I don't read anything. I texted Judy for the cases, but she hasn't responded. And I saw you, so I was hoping you could help me. I only need the case titles, and my photographic memory will take care of the rest."

Jack didn't want to tell Colton that he was too worried and focused on the extra assignments to have paid attention to the day's topics. But with photographic memory, the horse may figure out which cases were already covered. "Sure." Jack brought out the Contracts book and opened to the current chapter.

"Thank you," Colton moved the book closer and looked at the names. He flipped through the pages and did the same for any case titles that appeared. Finally, after a minute, Colton pushed the book back to Jack. "I got it. Thank you. See you around."

"See you."

The horse went on his way, and Jack prayed to the heavens that he wouldn't be further interrupted. Sadly, that wasn't to be the case. Not even five minutes went by.

"Jack Savage!"

The buck resisted the urge to groan as he wondered who else was interrupting him. The voice was high-pitched, so his distracted mind thought it was Fru Fru. Only when he looked up, it wasn't a female arctic shrew, but a gray squirrel.

Jack let out a sigh. "Apologies if I come off rude, but please make it quick. I have a lot of work to do. And how do you even know who I am?"

The squirrel smiled. "A mutual acquaintance of ours gave me your name."

The rabbit was in no mood for games, but he remained composed. "Who?"

"Mr. McKinley."

The name caused Jack to have another 'Deer in the headlight' expression. "W-what does he want?"

The squirrel strolled forward until he stood on Jack's open book. "I'm here to ensure there are no further troubles with you in raising the money. McKinley thought you could use some encouragement after your last conversation."

It took a moment for the striped rabbit to form a coherent sentence. "But I-I thought it was my problem after the check gets cashed."

"Oh, it still is, but that doesn't mean we don't want the money. To paraphrase Hams Gruber,"

'You owe 20 dollars, you can disappear. But when you owe 1200 dollars, we will find you.'

We take money seriously at the Montem Society. I wanted to make sure that you understand."

The implications threatened to cause a full meltdown. "C-crystal."

"Good," The squirrel hopped off his book and strolled to the table's edge. He didn't look back when giving some parting words. "Do try not to let that check bounce."

The squirrel then disappeared into the crowd, leaving a terrified Jack behind.

The buck collapsed onto the table as he felt his whole world closing in around him. Jack slowly raised his head, and the first thing he saw was his phone. On instinct, his paw reached forward and grabbed the object. With his brain on auto-pilot, the rabbit dialed a number and then put the phone to his ear.

After a few rings, the mammal on the side answered. "Hello?"

Jack did his best to put on a cheerful facade. "Hi, Dad. How are you?"

"Son! I'm surprised that you called. Is everything alright?"

"Everything is fine. It's going great." He debated on whether or not to bring the topic up. "Well, there is one problem, but don't worry! I'm handling it. Nothing serious." Jack couldn't do it. He didn't want to face the shame and anger from his parents.

He could hear the confusion in his dad's voice. "Are you sure, son? Is there anything your mom and I can do?"

The turmoil began tearing at him on the inside. "I'm sure. Just a lot of work has piled on. You know me, Dad. I'll come through."

His father could tell something was wrong by the tone of his voice, but Jack was an adult now, so he had to respect his wishes. "Alright then, son. If you do need anything, just let your mom and I know."

"Thank you." His voice started to break. "Tell mom I said hi."

"Will do. I love you."

After a moment of hesitation, Jack answered. "I love you too."

His dad ended the call, and Jack brought his phone to where he stared at the screen. Were it not for the noise of mammals in the background, one could have heard the striped rabbit sniffling. A tear fell onto the phone screen that displayed a picture of him and his family.

While initially reluctant to solve Jack's money problem, the remaining group members realized the mammals he owed money could come after them because of their association to Jack and regardless of their innocence. Not wanting to deal with that possibility, they made the difficult decision to raise the 1,200 dollars for Jack, regardless of his refusal. If the striped rabbit was going to be in debt, they would make sure he was indebted to them.

Nick and Judy entered Finnick's Tavern a few hours before the start of their shift on a mission. When they found the fennec, he was standing on a ladder behind the bar and fixing one of the ceiling televisions.

Nick wasted no time with the introductions. "Hey, buddy!"

Finnick poked his head out from behind the monitor. When seeing Nick and Judy, the small mammal gave a nod and a "Sup." before resume fixing the television.

Nick nudged Judy, who rolled her eyes before taking the lead.

"Finnick, could you pay us an advance?"

The two heard a loud thud from behind the monitor. "Ow!" The fennec climbed down a few steps to glare at his employees while rubbing his head. "What are you nuts?!"

Nick jumped in before his boss could tear them a new one. "Alright, how about a loan?"

While not as outrageous, Finnick shook his head before resuming his work. "What do you even need the money for?"

Judy took over. "To help out one of our friends. Nick and I already have some saved up, so we only need a little extra."

Finnick continued to work and appeared not to hear her.

Judy continued to plead like a lawyer. "Finnick, we promise to pay you back. You can withhold our tips as a start. It might take us until the end of the spring semester, but you'll get the money back. That's a promise."

The fennec still said nothing until he pointed to the bar. "Can one of you grab the remote and turn on the tv?"

Nick put a paw to stay Judy's objection and grabbed the remote. He looked at the monitor and pressed the power button. "Nothing."

Finnick growled from behind the monitor. "Stupid piece of junk! HD my tail!"

Nick rolled his eyes and set the remote down. "Buddy, just get someone to come here and fix it."

"Yeah, and do you know how much they charge?! And that's if they show up!"

Judy brought the topic back around. "Finnick, please! Nick and I have never asked for more money since we started working here, so you know we're good with the cash."

Finnick let out a grunt and climbed down a few steps again. "Fine. How much do you need?"

"Eight hundred dollars," Nick said bluntly.

Finnick whipped his head to his longtime friend and pointed a screwdriver in his direction. "You pulling my tail, Wilde?!"

He nonchalantly answered. "Actually, we need twelve hundred, but Carrots and I managed to scrape together four hundred."

Finnick wanted to throw the tool at his friend. "And is that supposed to make things better?!"

Judy tried to placate her boss. "Or whatever amount you can give. Match our amount maybe?"

Finnick's demeanor softened. "Look, I may own the place, but that doesn't mean it's a gold mine." He pointed at the broken television. "Why do you think I'm trying to fix it myself? Maybe I can give one hundred dollars at most."

With Finnick out as an option, Nick and Judy decided to drop the matter.

"Alright," Judy said, frustrated at running into a dead end. "Thank you anyways."

"Need any help getting ready for the dinner shift?" Nick asked.

A smile appeared on the fennec. "That would be much appreciated."

Later that evening,

In her room, Skye sat at her desk, trying to get work done and distract herself from the recent troubles with Jack. It had worked so far, but the striped rabbit remained on her mind. Despite his behavior, Skye couldn't find it in herself to be angry at him for too long. This led her to wonder why she ever cared so much for Jack.

After the study meeting ended, Skye checked her bank accounts and, not to her surprise, did not find enough money to cover much of the debt. But she will wait to hear from the others before breaking the news, as any amount would help. The vixen wondered how the others were fairing in their fundraising attempts.

Her mind went to Clawhauser proposing a bake sale, only to be shot down when Nick raised the fact they would need to spend money to make it, and, according to Natalie, they only had till Monday when the checks were cashed. Skye and the others could only comfort the sullen cheetah after the rejection of sweets.

Her phone running shook Skye from her work. The vixen picked up the device and saw Fru Fru on the caller ID. Curious and hopeful, she answered.

"Hello?"

"Skye. Could you please come out to the front entrance? It's important."

Wondering what Fru Fru wanted at this hour, the vixen agreed. "Sure."

Skye put on long pants and went to meet with the Arctic shrew. Outside, Skye found Fru Fru and Troy sitting on a nearby bench and approached them.

"Fru Fru!"

The two predators turned and saw the vixen sitting down next to them.

Fru Fru smiled. "Thank you for coming out here."

"You're welcome. It must be important for you to be still on campus at this hour."

"It is. I had to make a quick stop at my home first." Fru Fru took a deep breath before continuing. "You'll probably see Jack since your room is closer to his."

Skye said nothing, waiting for the shrew to continue her explanation.

Fru Fru snapped her fingers, and with one paw, Troy reached into his suit and pulled out an envelope. The polar bear offered it to Skye.

Skye became curious as she accepted the item. "What is that?"

"Give this to Jack." Fru Fru said. "Make sure he takes it, and don't tell him it came from me."

Curiosity became too much for the vixen, so she opened the envelope, only for her eyes to go wide and her jaw to drop at the sight of numerous bills inside. "Fru! All this money!" Skye carefully counted the amount, and her ears pinned back when getting the total: $1200

The shrew nodded. "Yeah, now Jack can buy back that check."

Realizing her friend was sacrificing some of her savings to help, Skye clutched the envelope to her chest. "Fru, you're terrific." Her demeanor showed reluctance. "But you saw him. He won't take the money."

Fru Fru only offered a smile. "You're going to be a great lawyer one day. Plead your case."

The vixen chuckled at the remark. "You know he will ask where it came from eventually."

The shrew nodded. "You let me worry about that. You worry about getting the money to him."

Skye nodded but still had one question on her mind. "Why didn't you write a cashier's check or money order?"

"Jack might tear it up. I couldn't risk it. Yes, I know the risk of carrying this much cash, but it's a risk I took."

The vixen promptly stored the envelope in her shirt. "I understand. Can I tell the others? I may need backup when trying to give Jack the envelope."

"Like I said, do what you have to do." Fru Fru snapped her fingers again, and Troy stood from the bench. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See ya."

Skye watched Fru Fru and Troy disappear into the evening while she still clutched her body to protect the money. The vixen looked around to check that no one else was around before scurrying to her room. Once there, Skye texted Judy to meet her after the rabbit got off work. She would explain what had transpired then.

Hours later,

When Skye broke the news, Fru Fru later confirmed it. Judy immediately jumped in to help, feeling that having females confront Jack would make it less likely for him to get physical. Nick agreed and covered the rest of Judy's shift so she could help out Skye. Clawhauser volunteered to stay nearby should Jack give Judy and Skye the slip.

The doe and the vixen loitered in the halls, waiting for Jack to return from the library. Skye wore a coat and wrapped her arms around herself, guarding the envelope.

"How did it go with Colton?" Skye asked, wondering about the aid to Jack's school problems.

"He came through. Colton's working on getting the facts at this moment. He should deliver them by tomorrow," The doe sighed heavily. "This might be another long weekend of work."

"You can say that again," The vixen checked her phone and noted the time. "He has to come back at some point. The library isn't open 24/7."

"Can you blame him for being there for practically the entire day? With that many cases?"

Skye said nothing as she and Judy continued to be on the lookout for the buck.

Finally, Judy caught sight of the striped rabbit coming down the hall, appearing to be in a hurry. She whispered loudly to the vixen so as not to alert him.

"Skye!"

The vixen turned to her friend and saw her motioning down the hall. She followed her paw and saw Jack.

The two looked at each other and nodded before hurrying after Jack. Expecting him to resist, the girls hoped to catch him in the doorway and then corner him in his room. While they wished for better circumstances, Jack left them no choice because of his recent behavior. The girls watched him approach his door and insert his keys. When he opened the door, Judy and Skye made their move.

Jack dragged himself into his room, reeling from the encounters earlier. The rabbit barely kept his composure after nearly breaking down in public. Jack spent half the time working on the written reports and wondering if McKinely would make good on his word and collect the money after the check bounced.

One thing was certain. Jack would not be able to leave campus in the near future.

As the buck went to close the door and lock, something suddenly stopped it and caused Jack to panic. His mind assumed that another associate of McKinely was coming to give the rabbit another reminder.

Why?! Please leave me alone! Haven't I suffered enough?!

His nose started to twitch madly as he slowly stepped back, and the door busted in. Jack would have squeaked were it not for the sight of Judy and Skye.

Jack dropped his stuff and clasped his chest as he hyperventilated and fell to his knees. "Oh, it's only you two."

Whatever negative feelings the girls had before their entrance was immediately replaced with concern and care.

"Jack?" Skye closed the gap and wrapped her arms around the buck. "What happened?"

The striped rabbit bit his lip and reciprocated the hug. Jack desperately wanted to tell his friends of the threats. Even after how he treated them, seeing them still care nearly brought him to tears again. He only needed to speak, and they'll come to the rescue. But once again, pride got in the way. It was his problem, so he needed to fix it himself.

"Just your normal mental breakdown from the workload." He chuckled weakly. "That's all."

While the girls knew Jack was lying, now was not the time to dwell on the matter. After another moment of hugs, Skye broke it and stood next to Judy.

"We have something for you," Judy said.

He stood and looked between the two. "What is it?"

Skye reached into her coat and revealed the envelope, offering it to Jack. "Take this."

The buck took the envelope and opened it. Like Skye, his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped at the sight of the money. The shocked rabbit looked to the girls for answers.

"Buy that bad check back," Skye said.

Jack continued to look between the money and the girls as his mind went in a whirl. The silence didn't bode well for Judy and Skye.

Judy gave a glare and crossed her arms. "Don't tell me you're not going to take it."

The answer caused Jack to flinch and stumble over his words. "I-I…uh…"

Skye mimicked Judy. "If you're worried about paying it back, worry about that later. Right now, your concern is getting that check back."

Jack said nothing as his mind was still recovering from the turmoil.

Judy decided to take the softer approach. "Come on, Jack. How else are you going to cover the check? Play another round of poker? Sell off your stuff?"

The striped rabbit weakly nodded and answered in a soft voice. "Y-yes."

All pretense of sympathy went out the window after hearing his answer. Were Jack not in such a terrible state, the girls would have tackled the rabbit to the ground and beat some sense into him. If he wanted to play hardball, then so would they.

Judy motioned between her and Skye. "Well, what about us, Jack? What do we get out of this?" She then pointed at and admonished him. "You like to gamble? Well, we gamble on you and the study group to work and help each other."

Skye added her punch. "And you're undermining us, and you losing means everyone else in the study group loses too."

Jack remained silent, but the girls could see him no longer debating the money. Skye approached Jack and calmly pushed the envelope into his chest, looking into his eyes.

"Take the money. Sort out this mess so we can all get back to work."

Jack's mind finally calmed down from the turmoil and the harsh words from his two friends. He looked at the money in his paws once more.

"Y-yeah…o-okay…"

Whether or not his words held meaning, Judy and Skye knew that this was the best they would get. The two could only hope that when Jack returned to the belly of the beast, he would make the right decision. If not…they refused to think about it.

Will Jack do the right thing? Or will his demons prevail?

Much thanks to the folks at ZAA for the feedback