Chapter 12: A Long Season

A couple of weeks had passed and, to tell the truth, everything had gone normally and even with some tranquility.

It was another normal day of school. Dixie left her house and was heading towards Kong Kollege. She hadn't fared badly in her first few weeks as a student, in fact, homework and classes wise, she had been doing well.

She was walking calmly a short distance from Kong Kollege. When suddenly, a known voice called to her and she turned to look, adopting an expression of strangeness when she saw a certain orangutan kid.

"Hello, Dixie," Jemky suddenly appeared, wearing sunglasses and resting one hand against a tree.

"And what are you doing around here?" Dixie watched suspiciously, and put herself in position to fight if necessary.

"Hey, relax, I don't want to fight," Jemky replied with a few small laughs, walking next to her. "Why are you so alone around here? Do you want me to accompany you to school?" he said with apparent kindness.

"No. Do you need anything?" Dixie asked wryly.

"Well, I was just coming to see a... pretty girl," he said, lowering his glasses and looking up. Then, he took out a bouquet of flowers and held it out to Dixie. "I mean, you, Dixie. I brought these beautiful flowers for a beautiful monkey girl."

"Ugh, is it serious?!" Dixie replied, looking at him strangely. "And also, what do you bring those glasses for?"

"They're for you to see with a different style than who you'll have at your feet, baby," he added, winking at her. "Do you know something, Dixie? When I first saw you... I couldn't stop thinking about you," he said in a sweet tone as they continued walking. "Seriously, you are the most beautiful and precious girl I have ever seen."

Apparently, that orangutan boy showed some interest in Dixie. In fact, on a few occasions during those weeks, he had been trying to interact with her, but Dixie wasn't going to take it seriously, since he was one of those bad kids.

"Oh, and wait, I brought you other gifts," Jemky added, forcibly handing her the flowers and taking a box of candies out of his backpack. "I have these sweets for you to sweeten your little heart. And look also at what I brought you."

Jemky took out another smaller box from his backpack and showed it to Dixie, as they walked and she looked at him strangely. Inside the box, there was a pair of bright necklaces that had a rather fine appearance.

"These jewels are also for you," he said, handing her the box. "When I stea- I mean, when I bought them, I thought only you could make them look pretty," Jemky continued, gently grabbing her hair. "Look at you, you are a beautiful girl, I also see that you are strong and know how to fight very well. I haven't seen another girl who is as cute as you, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, thank you, but I have to go!" interrupted Dixie, giving him all the things back, almost throwing them.

Dixie tried to ignore him and kept walking at a faster pace, but immediately, Jemky stood in her head-on.

"Hey, not so fast, girl. What do you think if we hang out someday? Something... like a date, huh?" Jemky continued, winking at her again.

"And what makes you think I'll accept it?" Dixie replied, crossing her arms.

"A pretty girl like you deserves someone as handsome as me," he said with some pride. "You shouldn't be alone, or you could fall in love with a braggart; there are a lot of bad boys."

"Like you, for example," Dixie countered with a shrug.

"Me a bad boy? No, no, I'd do anything to have your heart, baby," he added, taking one of Dixie's hairs delicately. "We'd look great together."

"Ugh, of course not, if you're bad!" Dixie replied before continuing to walk. "Besides, just look at how you treat Diddy; you're a bully braggart!"

"Uhh... Well, but you know?" Jemky said with a forced smile. "Just because of you I would stop being like that and become the ape of your dreams," he said, wrapping an arm around Dixie's shoulders. "Well, what were we up to? Oh, yes, don't you think we should hang out, pretty girl?"

Dixie, losing patience, pulled him by the locks he had on his head.

"Get your hands off or you'll see!" exclaimed Dixie in a threatening tone that immediately frightened him.

"Hey, okay, okay, Dixie!" replied Jemky, smiling fearfully as Dixie held him tightly by the locks. "I just wanted to ask if you… would lend me the mathematics homework, that's all," he said with a look of supplication.

Dixie let him go and made a confused gesture at such a request.

"Is it serious? That homework is about planned exercises, and Mrs. Wrinkly said that no homework could be repeated."

"Please, just let me copy it this time... I just didn't do it," he continued pleading with a forced smile. "I promise you that our date will be the best you will have."

"I didn't even say yes to you about hanging out. And do your own homework, orange boy!"

Dixie pushed him out of the way and moved on, completely ignoring him. But in the face of that, Jemky didn't seem to want to give up.

"So, if I don't present the homework, no one will present it!" Jemky exclaimed, and proceeded to try to snatch Dixie's backpack to try to get her homework out.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?! It's not my fault you didn't do it!" Dixie exclaimed as she struggled with him to protect her backpack.

Both were struggling to get Dixie's homework, until Jemky managed to get it out. Dixie lunged at him to retrieve it, but then he made a sudden turn and cornered her against a tree with one hand, while with the other he held the homework.

"Well, make up your mind, Dixie," Jemky said with a fixed gaze. "Either you lend the homework to me, or it will be destroyed and you won't present it."

Dixie nearly pushed him away with a single kick... when suddenly, someone else appeared and gave Jemky a strong push that knocked him to the ground.

"Huh! And what do you think, idiot dwarf?" Jemky exclaimed as he got up.

"Leave her alone!" Diddy appeared on the defensive.

"Oh, are you going to defend your little friend, you stupid monkey?" Jemky said in a mocking tone.

"From hateful and bullies orangutans like you, yes!" Diddy replied firmly and this time with a defiant attitude.

"You've become very tall, haven't you?!" exclaimed Jemky before hitting Diddy on the head… But this time, Diddy didn't show any fear, and gave him back another continuous slap.

Dixie, seeing how the scene was going, jumped into action and gave Jemky more hits to get him away and help Diddy. Diddy grabbed Dixie's hand and then ran away with her.

"Let's go, Dixie!"

Both were running at speed towards Kong Kollege, trying to make Jemky lose sight of them.

Finally, they made it to the school, both exhausted from the escape but at least safe for the time being. They were going to get to the main courtyard to have more security, but suddenly...

"Catch them!"

His four bully classmates appeared, including Jemky, who with quick movements, caught them both, even Dixie was grabbed by the hair so that she couldn't perform any attack with it. The four snatched their backpacks from both as they struggled to avoid it. When the four kids got them, they pushed the two to the ground and grabbed them by the limbs. They proceeded to rummage through the backpacks until they found what were apparently the math homeworks they wanted so much from the two, and which had long been their favorite evil action towards Diddy.

"No one is going to present any stupid homework here!" Jemky decreed, holding both sheets and, without letting any more time pass, began to break them into pieces.

Diddy and Dixie got up from the ground as best they could and were shocked to see their homework all destroyed, while the bully children laughed at them in an evil way. Diddy took the pieces of paper that were on the ground and was about to release all his fury towards the group.

"Stupid cursed apes, faces of-"

"Wait a minute!" interrupted Dixie as she examined the pieces of paper as well. "This is not the homework; they are just a few loose notes to study," she said before laughing with a gesture of victory. Then, she reached into her backpack, took out another sheet of paper, and showed them to the bullies' face. "Here is the homework! Fools!"

"Say what?!" exclaimed the quartet, bewildered by the confusion.

"You're stupid, be more observant," Dixie mocked.

"But mine was the homework," Diddy said frustrated, showing the pieces of paper that, in short, were from his homework.

"Wait," Dixie replied as she reached for something else in her backpack, and then pulled out another sheet of written math exercises. "Here it is, I had done another emergency homework. Take it, just write your name on it."

Dixie handed the other sheet to Diddy. She carried another one because she wanted to make sure of any circumstance with the four bad kids.

"Is it serious? Thank you!" Diddy exclaimed, marveling at such a 'miracle'. "Hey, how did you make another one?"

"You told me that these idiots liked to destroy schoolworks," Dixie replied.

"Huh! But this doesn't stay that way!" exclaimed Jemky, about to attack with the group.

"Wait, here comes Wrinkly!" Rocky interrupted.

But unfortunately for the four of them, and fortunately for Diddy and Dixie, Wrinkly arrived later greeting them as usual to her students.

"Hello, children!" Wrinkly said with joy.

"Hello, Mrs. Wrinkly!" both groups said in unison as if nothing happened, but at the same time, throwing withering glances at each other indirectly.

"Hey, why are there so many pieces of paper lying on the floor?" Wrinkly asked them, watching them strangely.

"Oh, we were playing challenges with our friends Diddy and Dixie," Rocky said with a forced smile. "And we needed pieces of paper, but they fell off."

"Oh, okay, children, be careful," Wrinkly replied before retiring. "Now pick all that up and then come to class."

The class was about to start and everyone headed to the classroom. Jemky, Melenky, Rocky and Mandrew watched Diddy and Dixie angrily, while this pair only laughed at them and mocked how badly their move had turned out; now the four of them would be punished or sanctioned for not submitting their homeworks.

Diddy was grateful to Dixie for saving him from being unable to submit the homework he had done; he remembered this gesture over and over again as they walked towards the classroom. He had a little more confidence in Dixie and no longer feared so much for his four bully classmates.

"Hey, Dixie," Diddy spoke to her as they made their way to their desks.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking if we could go to the ruins of DK Island this afternoon," Diddy proposed, cheerfully.

"The ruins? Sounds interesting!" she replied, looking excited. "It's ok. Can we go with Tiny, Kiddy and Chunky?"

"Of course," Diddy replied, smiling.

"Okay, then we'll meet later."

The two went to sit into their respective positions, and the class began as usual.

The days, or rather, several months, continued in the same way. Dixie, along with her now short family, returned to stabilize a little and find that tranquility they needed and, although on many occasions they were depressed or nostalgic for their old lives, the other kongs always managed to get a smile and cheer them up on certain days. The Kong family loved spending time with everyone gathered, and they never forgot the new four ones as well, who they already considered as other members of the family. They usually threw parties, went surfing, to the beach, or even a simple meeting. Chunky, Kiddy, Dixie and Tiny felt very comfortable on DK Island; the rest of the kongs treated them so well and offered some help when they needed it.

They all continued their normal lives: Donkey often dated Candy, spent time with Diddy or also took care of the banana reserve, Funky worked on his new inventions, Swanky with his game companies, Lanky with his jokes and his meals, Wrinkly with her classes, and Cranky with his stories of "his times" and with one or another of his experiments.

Life for Diddy had also taken a positive turn. Although he always had his friends from the island, he had no one on DK Island his age to play, tell secrets or share tastes. His closest friend to that was always Donkey, who more than his uncle, was like an older brother, but even so, Donkey's mentality was already in adult ape affairs. A long time ago, Diddy had friends at school, but they moved later, and the bad classmates he had now arrived, who were once his friends, but turned out to be bullies. And not to mention the rest of his classmates; they didn't even want to hang out with him. But with the arrival of Dixie and company, his days improved; he always went out to play with the four of them, they went for a walk or they just met to talk; Diddy found in them again that kind of positive friendship with whom to have fun.

But at the same time, something curious happened to him: while Diddy had become close friends with Tiny, Kiddy and Chunky and enjoyed hanging out with them, there was a special closeness with... Dixie. It was very clear that Diddy felt something beyond friendship; he enjoyed spending time with her very much and had a special confidence in her. On the other hand, Dixie showed the same affection towards Diddy. They had become very good friends even though deep down they were feeling something else... But at the same time, the two were too shy in that realm to admit it. Donkey, on certain occasions, encouraged Diddy to tell his feelings to Dixie and, at the same time, Chunky, Tiny and Kiddy did the same with Dixie, so much so that even when they were in a group, they left the two of them alone on purpose, but the two never dared to say what they felt for fear of not being reciprocated or ruining the friendship. In addition, they still wanted to continue getting to know each other better before thinking about taking a loving step.

On the other hand, the quartet of bully children at school had stopped bothering them so much, rather because Dixie had given them a few lessons, since she used to stop their attacks, to the point where they no longer wanted to fight. Although Diddy didn't usually face the four of them well, there was a little reason why he armed himself with the strength to do so... and yes, it was on the occasions when Jemky would approach to gallant to Dixie; apparently, that orangutan boy was quite interested in her, and several times he tried to propose dates or give her gifts. It was inevitable for Diddy to become furious when Jemky tried to have such approaches towards her. Even so, he intervened because more than that, Dixie was also bothered by Jemky's attitude and, likewise, she rejected him directly and could even give him his comeuppance if he continued with the insistence.

Diddy and Dixie came to tolerate that bully quartet of school a little, but never quite got along. Even so, having each other, they no longer had any fear of being near their hateful classmates; generally, between the two they defended themselves against them. Diddy, for his part, never told the truth of those four bullies to Donkey, and Dixie, for her part, also kept that a secret even though she felt it would be right for Diddy to tell it. On several occasions, Dixie suggested to Diddy that he report them, but he never wanted to, so Dixie just tried to understand and also wait for the end of school to come so they two wouldn't have to see those four bully children anymore.

Anyway, Diddy and Dixie had become inseparable friends: they often walked together, and what they liked to do most was go to play and explore the island or just sit down to talk. On rare occasions, they argued and got angry for small reasons like any friendship, but they always knew how to reconcile. From time to time, almost something happened, or one of them plucked up the courage to say what they felt to each other... but they never succeeded; they also didn't want their friendship to be spoiled in case it was an unrequited feeling. Anyway, they had formed a special friendship, which both felt comfortable having.

It was a long quiet season; even King K. Rool hadn't bothered them again.

A/N: This is the end of the introductory part of the fanfic :) And then... several things will come.