As summertime sadly came to its close, mammals all around the city were trying to get at least a few more days of fun in the sun before fall made its debut this year. The same went for Nick, Judy, and some of their friends. Before the three months of fallen leaves and pumpkin spice started in a few measly days, they all thought it would be a nice idea to get together to hang out at one of the fox and rabbit's favorite parks.

With everybody together and having fun, the afternoon proved to be a splendid one. That was, however, until the start of the water balloon. It was whenever one of those was suggested that things shifted into a little more of a competitive manner. Especially with this particular one, where whoever the last mammal to not get hit with a water balloon is declared the winner.

From the moment they started the activity, Judy was pretty much a machine when it came to aiming the water balloons directly at her designated targets. The only remaining mammals left in this battle were Nick, Judy, Jack, and Skye.

And since their companions teamed up together, it was only Nick and Jack walking around the some of the undisturbed portions of this park, which lead to other trails that they weren't heading down this afternoon. There was no need to explore further out that direction, as they were certain that they wouldn't have been hiding out that far in the distance.

The two of them to remain on the defense as much as they possibly could, ready to strike with the water balloons they held onto when least expected. Jack timorously looked to his side to ensure that the coast was clear, letting out a sigh of relief to know that there was no one in sight.

"Nobody seems to be hiding down this part of the park," he said, his tone of voice an indication of nervousness.

"Don't tell me this is stressing you out," Nick said to his friend with a shake of his head. "This is supposed to be fun."

"Judy's like a sniper with those water balloons," remarked the buck. "What if she's waiting behind a tree or something for us?"

"It is what it is, Jack," replied the fox to his left. "If our reflexes are speedy enough, we'll be able to dodge whatever comes towards us. I think you're taking this a little too seriously."

"This park's become a battlefield," remarked the striped rabbit, confirming what his friend had just said to him. "You sure it's not too late to wave a white flag and just surrender?"

"Okay, that's being a little bit melodramatic," Nick responded. "Like I said, just try to have a little bit of fun." He walked ahead a little bit and made a turn to the right. "Come on. Let's go this way."

Jack followed the fox as the two of them went in that direction, which they hadn't went in before. They both walked through the trees that grew sporadically across this portion of the land, the occasional fallen branch making an unwanted cracking noise underneath them as they crept along.

"Did you see the way Judy managed to toss that water balloon towards Clawhauser without him even seein' her?" Jack asked.

This reminder from him did get a good chuckle out of Nick. The cheetah had no clue what happened when that occurred a couple moments back. "Yeah, Carrots is pretty good with her aim."

"That's right, you two," called out a certain cheery-sounding voice, belonging to none other than Judy.

The gray bunny, however was not within their vision. They could hear her as if she were close, but they could not her at the moment. It was very well possible she was behind a tree or something, just like Jack prognosticated not even a moment ago.

The two turned themselves around to the left, remaining both slow in movement but also careful. Just when they made completely turned around did they see Judy right in plain view, smirking slyly back at them with a fuchsia-colored water balloon in her paw.

Jack jumped and shielded his face with both of his quivering paws upon seeing her not too far away from him. "Alright," he said admittedly. "You got me."

"No need to worry. I'll be fair with you two," Judy responded. "I'll give you exactly twenty seconds to run."

"That's a reasonable amount of time," Jack responded before turning around and sprinting away.

Nick followed the buck's steps not even a second later as they both eluded the grinning bunny. The fox and his friend both went back the exact way that they came, pretty certain Judy was sneakily behind them somewhere, camouflaged as best as possible to avoid being spotted.

Splash!

Surely enough, that was exactly the case for them. Just as his pace was slowing down a little bit, Nick ended up getting splashed from behind by a water balloon that was dealt by the doe. The icy-cold water sent a bit of shock to him, and he let out a small gasp under his breath.

"I've been hit!" the tod cried out as he jokingly hit his knees to the ground and clutched onto his chest with bravado. "You're gonna have to finish this on your own. Avenge me!"

"A bit melodramatic?" Jack responded when he paused for a quick moment.

Nick smirked as he got back up and followed the striped rabbit, this time not as speedily since he was already out of the water balloon fight. Jack cut to the right, away from where the fox was going, and hid behind a tree that shaded him and kept him cool from the beating summer sun. It was there that he believed he could break for a moment without being sighted.

He cocked his head around the corner and didn't see any signs of the gray rabbit. "Whew!" he said to himself as he wiped his forehead, leaning his back against the tree.

Just as he was no longer anticipating anything, he suddenly felt an unforeseen splash of chilling water the top of his head, just by his long ears. As the water dripped down his face, he looked up to see a certain white and fluffy tail swishing directly above him.

"Skye?" he said in surprise. "You were hiding up there?"

The vixen had been sitting on the thicker, sturdier branch that was up above his head. She squirmed a bit on the branch before she jumped back down to the ground again, dusting herself off as she looked over at the buck. "Yep," she simply replied with a smile.

Jack was a bit dumbfounded in that instant that he didn't even bother to see what was above him a couple seconds ago. "Wouldn't have thought you would have been hiding there," he admitted.

"Judy said that it'd be best to find a spot that nobody would suspect," Skye explained. "I first was just gonna go where she was, but then I thought, 'Y'know, maybe that tree would make for a pretty sneaky hiding spot.'"

"That it did," Jack laughed.

Skye handed him one of the other water balloons she had been holding over to him. "Here," she said to him.

The striped lagomorph took the balloon and simply threw behind him, the water inside of it striking the ground. "Let's just call a truce here," he said.

"Sounds like a good idea," the vixen agreed. "If anybody asks, though, we both sneaked up on one another."

"Let's go with that. I'm sure Judy was already declared the winner of it all anyhow."

Skye giggle under her breath. "Yeah," she admitted. "She really knows a thing or two about this kind of thing, though. Probably took part in a good number of these when she was growing up."

With that, the two walked back to where everybody else in the park was, paws entwined and smiling merrily.

Meanwhile, completely out of sight, Nick's friend Finnick was hiding out on the far left side of the path, preparing for the right moment to launch what he had been holding onto. They were wrong when they individually assumed that he hadn't been seen because he lost early on; the fennec fox, in reality, was just waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Needless to say, neither Jack nor Skye were ready when two water balloons, one red and one green, came soaring towards them.

Author's Note: Hey there! Haven't done one of these little stories in awhile, so I decided it was about time to start writing up some note of them. With summertime going to be over pretty soon, I thought it would be a good idea to get a couple stories that are fitting for this season written out.

Anywho, let me know what your thoughts were on this chapter. I know this one didn't have much to it, but I hope it was still enjoyable. As always, your feedback, whether good or bad, is gladly appreciated.

'Til next time, everybody! :)