Disclaimer: Zootopia and all related characters are owned by Disney. All other characters, product names, trademarks, and copyrights, belong to their respective owners.

…..

Judy hummed happily as she sat on the metro car, earbuds in, listening to her favorite Gazelle playlist. Judy was feeling great. Having shelved all the angry bunny rules, she and Nick had traded a few messages last night while he was watching a movie with her young siblings. He'd even sent her a selfie that showed him buried in another bunny pile. Once the movie was over and they'd texted their goodnights, Judy had curled up with her scented fox plushie and fallen immediately to sleep.

Today was supposed to be pretty warm, so Judy was decked out in one of her workout outfits, gray athletic shorts and a short sleeve pink t-shirt over a black sports bra. Judy had texted Toni yesterday afternoon about visiting with Aidan and Tyler, and Toni had invited her to go with them to their soccer game, and now she was headed out to Foxburg to meet up with the team.

According to Toni, the team had a dozen kits, most of them foxes, and the game today was at a soccer park on the north side of the city. Toni had also asked Judy to help chaperone the kits while they traveled. As team mom, Toni was always short parents that could go with the team since so many of them had to work. Judy quickly agreed, she hadn't done anything soccer since high school and was looking forward to a fun day outside with her new friends.

After getting off the Metro, Judy walked about six blocks to Sister Mary's. Going around back, she saw a group of ten and eleven-year-old kits and a few adults waiting on benches near a play area. The group of kits was made up of mostly foxes, but Judy saw a lynx kitten and an otter boar too. The kits all had on blue t-shirts and shorts with white numbers on the back and blue and white striped socks. Judy also noticed that the shirts all had a Foxburg Diner logo printed in small letters near the bottom hem.

"Miss Judy, Miss Judy, you came." Judy bent down with her arms open as she was rushed by a couple of young foxes. Aidan and Tyler jumped into a hug with the bunny, and then they all laughed as Judy tussled their head fur.

"I wouldn't miss seeing you two play for the world." Taking each of them by the paw, Judy walked over to the waiting group.

Toni gave Judy a big hug and then introduced her to two other parents and the team's Assistant Coach, a fox named Martin Blacktail, whose daughter was also a player on the team. They waited a few more minutes for the last two players to show up, a pair of weasels named Eric and Cooper.

Martin walked over to the group of adults and motioned with his phone, "Hey guys, I just spoke with Coach Mitchell, he said he's stuck at work and will have to meet us at the field a few minutes before the game starts."

Toni yelled out, "Alright, everyone, time to go. Does everyone have their Metro passes?" All the kits and parents nodded as they headed toward the Metro station.

Judy felt something soft touch her paw, "Hi, my name is Jeffrey, are you really a cop?"

Judy looked down at the young otter, "Hi Jeffery, my name is Miss Judy and yes, I am a cop. I've been a ZPD officer for a year now."

"That's so cool. Aidan said you're friends with Mr. Nick, he's really cool too."

Judy smiled at Jeffrey, "Yeah, you're right, Mr. Nick is pretty cool."

Reaching the Metro stop a little early, Coach Blacktail gathered all the kits around, "Alright everyone, we're getting ready to ride the train, so we need to go over the rules again."

All the kits groaned.

Judy stood in the back of the group with the other adults and let her ears swivel toward the coach so she could hear what she had to watch out for as a chaperone.

"Come on everyone, listen up. Once we're on the train, stay in your seats, no running around and no yelling or throwing anything. And you all remember that there will be prey mammals on the train too, so keep your claws in and no showing your teeth." Pausing and waving toward a few of the kits, he added, "Everyone, show me how you keep your teeth hidden."

All the kits jutted their chins out and pursed their lips so the adults could see their toothless faces.

"Good job." Looking at Toni, "What else?"

All the kits turned to look at Toni as she replied, "Some prey mammals can be nervous around predators, so it's important that none of you kits growl, howl, bark, gekker, or scream." Turning to Rory and giving the girl a look, "And no hissing or yowling."

With a pouty look, the lynx thumped the fox next to her, "That wasn't my fault, you need to tell Devin not to sit on my tail."

"Cooper pushed me."

"Did not, the train moved and you fell over."

"Nuh-uh, you elbowed him when you were talking with Jeffery."

Judy stifled a laugh as the adults shushed the kits.

"Okay everybody, watch out for each other's tails when you're sitting down and if you have any problems, ask one of the adults for help."

Once everyone was seated on the railcar, Judy leaned over toward her friend, "Toni, what was with all the behavior rules for the kits on the platform? I'm prey, and claws, fangs and growling don't bother me."

Toni chuckled, "Given who your boyfriend is, I'm pretty sure I don't have to worry about you. Although, it might be a good idea to go over the rules for how a lovesick couple is supposed to act in front of a bunch of kits, hmmm."

Judy let her ears drop down before Toni could see her blushing, "You're so mean, we weren't that bad."

"You mean, nothing that a bucket of cold water couldn't have fixed."

"Toni…"

"Sorry Judy, you're too easy." Gesturing with her paw to the rest of the car, "To answer your question, look around and you can see the looks a few of the other passengers are giving us, fear, disgust, sometimes even pity. Ignoring the problem only puts the kits at risk for abuse, so we tackle it head-on, acknowledge it, and teach the kits how to appear less predatory. So far it's helped a little to keep the more sensitive prey mammals from getting overly nervous around us."

Judy put her paw on her friend's arm, "I'm so sorry, no one should have to grow up hiding what they are just because of another mammal's attitude."

"It's okay, attitudes were getting better before Bellwether threw a wrench into everything with her Nighthowler attacks, since then, we've just had to start over and hope for the best." Pausing for a moment, Toni smiled, "Speaking of claws, fangs, and growling, how used to them are you, or maybe I should be asking, how used to them do you want to be?"

Flipping her ears over her eyes, Judy laughed, "Toni, stop…"

"Too easy."

…..

Judy and Toni chatted like schoolgirls on a field trip. It was so nice to have a friend to talk to. Ever since Judy had left Bunnyburrow, she'd missed girl-time with her littermate, Janae. Yes, they texted a bunch, but it wasn't the same. Same with Fru Fru, she enjoyed their get-togethers, but they traveled in different social circles and sometimes Judy just wanted to hang out.

"Miss Judy, have you ever played soccer?"

Judy turned around in her seat and saw Rory, the team's goalie, waving at her. Judy nodded, "Yeah, I played striker on my high school team."

"Sweet, can I ask you a couple of questions?" Rory pointed to the empty seat next to her.

"Toni, I'm going to sit with Rory for a few minutes."

Rory peppered Judy with questions about offensive strategy, moves she might see and technique. Judy was glad to help since a couple of her brothers had been goalies and within minutes, they were immersed in soccer talk.

Toni was reading an article on her phone when she heard an "Uh-oh," from behind her and then saw Aidan's soccer ball roll toward the medium-mammal seating section. The ball rolled down the aisle, stopping as it hit the leg of an old white-tailed deer buck. Aidan went to retrieve the ball, but the buck picked it up a few seconds before Aidan was able to get there.

"I'm sorry, mister. May I please have my ball back?"

Toni was a little miffed that Aidan had let his ball slip out of his paws but happy that he was being polite and respectful in the way he was apologizing.

"Get away from me you little mongrel and thank your lucky stars I don't have you thrown off this train for roughhousing."

Aidan glanced back at his mom and then tried again. "Sir, I said I'm sorry, the ball slipped out of my paws. I didn't mean for it to bother you."

"It's my ball now, go away."

Toni shook her head in frustration. How could anyone, no matter how speciest, treat a kit so poorly? As Toni got up, she saw Judy looking directly at the old buck with a concerned face. Toni caught her eye and shrugged and then made her way over to her son.

"Good morning, sir, I'm sorry my son disturbed you with his ball. We are headed to a game, and we would appreciate it if you would please return his ball."

Judy was standing up listening to the conversation. Nick had been giving her a hard time about her tendency to jump into situations too quickly, so this time she was hanging back a little to give Toni a chance to help Aidan.

Standing up, the buck made a poking gesture toward Toni while holding the ball in his other hoof. "You disgusting pelts how dare you talk to me, both of you get out of my sight, now."

Okay, so much for hanging back.

Judy came up, squeezed herself next to Aidan and put an arm around his shoulder, "Is there a problem here?"

"No, this is between the foxes and me, so hop along rabbit before you get hurt."

"These are my good friends, so if you have something to say to them, I think I'd like to hear it too."

Leaning in close to Judy he spoke slowly, "Unless you're a fox and you want a piece of this, scram cutie."

That was the wrong thing to say, especially the cutie part. "Well, as a matter of fact, today I am a fox. A long-eared, big-footed, Vulpes-Lapine…."

Suddenly the buck's attention turned to Judy's paw, which was holding something shiny in his face.

"…with a badge."

Judy put on her 'Make my day' smile, the one that made her co-workers cringe because it usually preceded significant property damage and a lot of paperwork.

"Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD. You've been asked nicely twice to return my friend's soccer ball. Unless you'd like me to arrest you for threatening a mammal, petty theft, and violating three different ZTA ordinances, return the ball, sit down, and leave my friends alone."

The buck's glare cycled between Judy and her badge. "But you're prey, and they're…"

Judy silenced the buck by grabbing a pair of cuffs from her pocket and waving them in front of his nose. "I suggest you choose your next words…carefully."

The old mammal's eyes went wide at seeing the metal restraints and his attitude quickly changed, "I'm very sorry, Officer. How about we forget any of this happened." Handing the ball back to Aidan, he backed away, "You kits have a good game."

Then in a blur of motion, the speciest buck was through the gangway connection and into the next car.

Judy shook her head. "Unbelievable, some mammals." She turned to Aidan and then paused as he was staring at her, wide-eyed with his mouth open. "Aidan, are you alright?"

Aidan smiled and then yelled out, "That was totally WICKED!" Hugging Judy, who was now laughing at the tod, "Did you see that guy take off, you're the most awesomest fox ever." And then glancing at his mother, he added in a lower tone, "I mean besides my mom and dad."

Toni rolled her eyes and rubbed Aidan's head fur. "Go and get back in your seat, we'll be at our stop in about ten minutes."

Aidan bounced back to his seat with the biggest grin on his face.

Tyler leaned over to Aidan, "You know she's not a real fox, right?"

Aidan gave his brother a dirty look and was about to say something when Jason, an arctic fox sitting in the seat behind him, showed Aidan his phone. Aidan took the phone and looked at the results of a Zoogle search on the small screen. With a smug look on his face, Aidan passed the phone over to his brother.

Tyler read the article and looked up at Judy in wonder, "Wow, she is a fox. Who would have thought that there was such a thing as a Silver Fox Rabbit."

…..

"We're here, everyone out." Janae opened the door of the farm truck she had checked out and waited for everyone else to get out too." Scotty, Steven, Spencer, Sasha, Susan, Sunni and… Walking to the other side of the truck, she stood with her paws on her hips looking at the fox still in the front seat.

"Ahem."

Sighing loudly, Nick pouted, "Do I have to? I could stay here and watch the truck."

Janae's foot started tapping rapidly on the ground. "We had a deal. Besides, you need something nice to wear for dinner tonight."

Nick shook his head, clothes shopping, the bane of every male. "Okay, but no flannel and I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to plaid."

Janae rolled her eyes and pulled open the door so she could see for herself that Nick got out. "Come on, the kits are waiting."

Nick shuffled toward the old-school department store as if he were headed to his own funeral. Janae gave up on trying to drag the fox to his doom all by herself, a quick whistle and she had six kits doing it for her instead.

As soon as the kits hit the store, they headed to a play area filled with climbing tubes and a slide that ended in a large area filled with colored plastic balls.

With the kits properly distracted, Janae was able to maneuver Nick around the small male mammal section of the store and help him pick out a couple of nice shirts. After about a half an hour, three years in guy time, Nick and Janae were at the checkout counter with three shirts and a blueberry print tie.

Nick had worried, or as Janae suspected, hoped, that not being rabbit shaped Nick might not be able to find anything that would fit. Much to Janae's joy and Nick's chagrin, the store carried a selection of clothes for mammals that weren't rabbits. There wasn't a huge variety to choose from, but with a minimal amount of moaning and complaining from a certain fox, Janae was able to improve on Nick's selection of hideous Pawaiian shirts.

Looking up from the small stack, Nick smiled and said, "Hey Janae, you should come to the city sometime and take Judy out shopping. If there was ever a bunny in need of a wardrobe intervention, it's Judy."

Janae laughed, "Believe me, I've tried. Judy is worse than you are. Although, I think half your moaning is just for show. Something about being a male in a clothing store."

"I can neither confirm nor deny your theory, you know, guy-code and all."

As Nick was chuckling, he noticed that Janae suddenly went silent. Nick looked up and saw a tall brown furred rabbit with the longest ears he'd ever seen on any rabbit coming toward them. Looking back at Janae, he saw her eyes go wide, and her nose start to twitch rapidly as she focused on the buck positioning himself behind the counter.

Nick was about to greet the sales clerk when the buck said in a quiet voice, "Hi Janae."

Nick turned as another, equally soft voice, replied, "Hi Dalton."

Nick looked back at the buck and then at Janae and then back to the buck and was about to say something when Janae spoke up.

"I didn't know you were back in town."

"Yeah, I moved back to help my mom and dad."

Nick smirked as Janae's nose started to twitch even faster, "So, you're back for a while?"

Nick had to lean in to hear Dalton's whisper of a reply, "Yeah."

"What about Lena?"

"We broke up when I went to college. How about you?"

"I'm not seeing anyone either."

"Oh…"

Nick started to smile as the conversation died and the silence dragged on. Finally, Nick interrupted the quiet as he grabbed the shirt on top of the stack and gently asked, "Hi Dalton, I'm Nick, a friend of Janae's sister Judy. Janae was trying to help me pick out a couple of shirts and I was wondering if you had one of these in purple, I didn't see one on the shelf. Would you mind checking in the back to see if you guys have one?"

"Sure."

As Dalton left, Janae's eyes carefully followed the buck as he made his way to the back room.

Nick chuckled, "What happened to not talking with boys ever again?"

Breaking out of her trance, Janae replied, "What?"

"What are you waiting for? Ask him out."

"What, no. I can't do that."

"Why not, you're drooling just looking at him."

"What?" Janae wiped at her mouth with her paw and then checked her shirt. "I am not."

"Why don't you ask him out, I'll go watch the kits if you need some alone time to do it."

Janae looked over toward the backroom door and sighed, "I can't."

"Why not?"

"Nick, he's a hare, and hares and rabbits don't date."

Nick huffed, "Oh come on, don't tell me there's a law against you two going out. I mean, Zootopia doesn't allow interspecies couples to become mates, but no one there knows or cares about the differences between rabbits and hares. Heck, I thought he was rabbit when I first saw him, and if I can't tell the difference, no one else can either. Seriously, you both have long ears and cotton ball tails, trust me, no one in the city would care."

Janae looked at Nick and sadly said, "Well, they care here. It's not against the law, it's just not done. My dad would freak, and some of the old-timers in town would lose their minds. If it weren't for all the grief we'd get, I would've asked him out in high school. He's really, really cute."

Nick motioned to the backroom door as Dalton came out, and whispered, "Anyone who'd give you guys a hard time for going out is an idiot."

Dalton set a purple shirt down on the stack, "Here you go, this is the last one we have."

"Thanks, Dalton." Quickly looking between Janae and Dalton, Nick cleared his throat, "Hey, Dalton, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you for another favor. I'm working for the sheriff's department, and one of the things we're supposed to do is interview some store employees about, um, fire safety. Would you mind if I bought you lunch in a few days and picked your brain about the safety procedures here?"

The now confused buck started to ask 'why him' when Nick continued.

"I don't know if you noticed or not, but I hurt my arm pretty bad, I can barely move it, you know lots and lots of pain, so if you don't mind, I'd like to invite Janae too so she can help me take notes and stuff, if that's alright."

"Really? I mean, sure I'd like to help, and it's okay if Janae's there to help you since your arm hurts that much."

Janae's eyes went wide and she started to protest as Nick continued. "Would you mind giving your phone number to Janae, my arm hurts too much for me to even use my phone."

"Sure."

Janae pulled out her phone and exchanged numbers with Dalton.

Nick needed all his willpower to keep his face neutral as the two mammals stared at their phones as if they held the secret to universal happiness. Nick was going to slowly ease back and let Janae and Dalton reconnect when he heard some loud kit voices behind him.

"Mr. Nick, Mr. Nick, we found you some jammies."

Nick turned around and saw Sunni holding a package as she and her female littermates bounced in excitement. "Uh, thanks Sunni, but I already have some shorts for sleeping."

Sasha pointed at the package, "These are nicer to look at for when we have to wake you up early in the morning."

Laughing, Nick asked, "Wouldn't it be easier if you just waited outside my room for me to get up on my own?"

A chorus of giggles followed by, "No," "Nope," and "Uh-uh," answered his question.

Nick took a closer look at what the girls had picked out. Shaking his head, he handed the package to Janae who was still leaning in toward Dalton. Looking at the package, she laughed too, and then added the carrot print pajamas to Nick's clothing pile.

"Good job girls, I'm sure Mr. Nick will like wearing them very much."

As Nick paid, Janae smiled and said goodbye to Dalton and then heard Nick tell Dalton that Janae would be calling him soon to set up the lunch meeting. A small part of Janae wanted to punch the fox for what he'd done, but a larger, much happier part of her had decided that no one could possibly object to her helping Nick interview Dalton over lunch, and that same happy part was now inventorying her closet for the outfit that would best show off her tail.

…..

The group of young predators stood and watched as coach Blacktail checked the map of the soccer park. "Okay everyone, our game is on field #8 in about ninety minutes. Let's head over to the practice area for some warmups."

While the kits led the way to the practice area, Coach Blacktail stayed in the back of the group to talk with Judy. "I overheard on the train that you played varsity soccer for your high school, is that right?"

"Yeah, I played striker or center forward all four years."

Coach Blacktail lowered his voice as he leaned closer to Judy. "I, uh, never played soccer when I was little. I volunteered to help the team out, but it's Coach Mitchell that knows all the drills. I was wondering if maybe you could help me run the warmups and practice drills before the game."

With a huge smile on her face, Judy bounced with excitement, "Wow, I'd love to help. Tell me quick who plays which position and any of the drills you can remember that the kits have done before."

Judy was entirely in her element. She set up offensive and defensive drills and rotated the team through them. She also had a couple of the parents run goalie drills with Rory. The parents were in awe as Judy hopped from group to group adjusting the drills, giving out pointers and even having the midfielders swap positions to take advantage of one of the players being left-handed.

About twenty minutes before game time, Judy called everyone in from the warm-up drills and then the team headed over to the field for the final pre-game prep. The kits were pumped, they'd never practiced that well before and were looking forward to applying a few of the simple techniques that Miss Judy had shown them.

Judy caught up to Toni and Coach Blacktail as they reached the field. "Hey, guys. The team is ready to go. Is Coach Mitchell here yet?"

Toni looked worried, "No, Martin was just talking with him, he's still stuck at work and has to miss the game. We were just trying to figure out what to do."

Martin rubbed his forehead, "Toni's right, we're playing the first-place team from last season and they're undefeated so far this year." Looking between the two females, Martin sighed, "If I'm coaching today's game, I need help, a lot of help."

Toni grimaced, "I'd like to, but I've never played soccer, theater was my thing in school."

Both the foxes turned to Judy with a hopeful look, as Martin started to ask, "Ah, Judy…"

"I'd be more than happy to help, I've coached my siblings' teams a few times before, so this shouldn't be a problem."

With obvious relief, Martin hollered, "Yes!" and then smiled broadly, "Thank you so much. You're the most awesomest fox ever."

Toni and Martin laughed while Judy rolled her eyes, "Come on, let's get these guys organized."

…..

"Yay."

The kits piled into the bakery and spread out along the display cases filled with tarts, biscuits, pies, bread, and other assorted goods.

"Alright everybody, just a small treat. Mom's going to have lunch ready in a couple of hours."

"Awwww, no fair."

"Yeah, no fair." Added the big red kit behind Janae.

A quick motion with her elbow quieted the fox.

"Ow, you and Judy, how do you guys do that. Do those ears double as radar dishes or something?"

"Nope, we're just both good at managing unruly kits."

"Miss Sharla, Miss Sharla."

Janae and Nick both waved as the ewe came around from the back, wiping her hooves off on her apron. "Hey, guys. Morning Janae. Hi Nick." Nodding at the coffeemaker, "Back for a second date? You know if this keeps up, Gideon's going to have to have one of those 'talks' with you."

"Don't worry, Mom. I promise to treat her right. "

Janae was confused, "Date? You two know each other?"

Both Sharla and Nick laughed.

Nick headed over to the coffeemaker and looked in the pot to see if it had anything in it. "I met Sharla and Gideon a couple of days ago when I was looking for some coffee before my shift."

Sharla added, "The date thing is an inside joke. A cup of coffee to Nick is more of a religious experience than a drink, so we were just having some fun."

Janae heard Nick cooing and looked over at him holding a cup in reverence between his paws.

"Oh, yes. There she is. Mmm. Come to papa."

Janae rolled her eyes, "Judy's right, you are a goof."

Nick glanced at Janae and then back at his cup, "Don't listen to her my love, she's just jealous. Not everyone has a relationship like ours."

Janae and Sharla chatted while the kits picked out their treats. Looking over at the content fox, Janae had Sharla add something extra to the order as a surprise for Nick.

…..

The score was 0-1, late in the second half. The other team had scored about ten minutes into the first half. Rory had been playing out of her mind. Judy had seen some impressive goalie play from rabbits before, but watching a feline keeper was something else. Rory couldn't jump as high as a bunny, but she made up for it in being able to twist in mid-air to block balls from going in the net. And her ability to always land on her feet gave her an edge in handling rebound shots.

Unfortunately, the other team's striker and midfielders had overwhelmed their defense and were able to make a quick pass in front of the net drawing Rory slightly out of position and then a back pass to her weak side where another player was able to kick the goal.

Judy made a couple of changes before the next kickoff. She moved Jeffrey from left midfielder to stopper. Jeffrey was the fastest kit on the team. Judy could see why making him a midfielder would seem like a no-brainer, except Jeffrey wasn't very good at catching a pass and the majority of the times his teammates fed him the ball, he miss handled it or couldn't settle it before an opposing player would take it away or pressure him toward the sideline.

What Judy did see was that besides Jeffery's speed, he was highly disruptive. He could get in between the other player's legs and snatch the ball from them, and his passes were great when he wasn't settling it from receiving a pass. He made the perfect stopper to support the fullbacks.

Judy also moved Tamara Blacktail, Tam to her teammates, from the stopper position to right midfielder. During practice, Tam had come across to Judy as a thinker, always calculating the angles and trying to look ahead a few moves. Tam was also a little taller than most of the other kits which made her look bigger and more intimidating. Judy figured Tam got pegged as a stopper to take advantage of those traits.

Unfortunately for whoever made that decision, Tam was all about offense, she liked to attack the ball, could pass and catch, dribble around almost anyone and always seemed to be in the right spot to catch a pass. She hadn't shot on goal much, but she was a master at feeding the ball to the striker and the other midfielders when they played up.

After Judy had made those changes and worked the right substitutions, the game became more of a battle of attrition. Judy did a good job of keeping her players fresh while the other team's coach relied too much on his top lines. The game ebbed and flowed with the activity pushing slowly into the other team's zone. Judy could tell the other team was getting tired. Their coach had given up on trying to score again, now all he was doing was trying to protect his one goal lead.

With about a minute left in the game, Aidan and Tam had one of the other team's fullbacks out of position and isolated in the corner to the right of their goalie. The kit was boxed in and tried to kick the ball to his goalie so the goalie could kick it out of the zone. Instead, the fullback slipped in a divot in the grass and kicked the ball toward his own goal. The goalie was slow to react to the errant ball. He wanted to kick it out to his teammates, but the ball came off his foot funny and ended up going out of play through their own goal line.

Judy fist pumped, corner kick for her team.

Judy started to wave her players into position for the corner kick when she heard the coach, a black woolen ram, on the other team start to scream at his players. He threw down his clipboard and stomped his hooves on the sidelines. When he let loose a few choice curse words, the referee pulled out a yellow card and headed over to talk to the belligerent coach.

Judy got an idea. While the ref was warning the other coach to calm down and documenting the yellow card, Judy pulled together Aidan, Tam, and Cooper. She yelled for Devin, one of the fullbacks on the field to run over for a substitution and notified the linesman that she was making three player substitutions.

As Judy led the kits over to the sideline, she quickly explained what her plan was. After the three kits nodded that they understood the play, they ran in to take their positions and let the players already on the field know what they were going to try and do.

Judy had picked Cooper, her best left fullback, for the corner kick. Since he took all the goal kicks when he was in, Cooper was the most accurate placekicker on the team and Judy hoped, fast enough to get back in position after the kick. Pulling one of her defenders up to take the corner kick was the riskiest part of her plan. If something went wrong after the kick, the other team would have a lightly defended field in front of them and a pretty easy shot on Rory.

The ref let the other coach make a couple of substitutions including the pudu fullback that had been tripped up. The coach started to berate the kit again but stopped when the ref pointed at him in warning. With a last look at the ram coach, the ref blew the whistle to let Cooper know he could kick the ball when he was ready.

Cooper kicked the ball high to the far side of the penalty area where Tam was waiting. She didn't have the right angle to take a shot on goal around all the defenders, but the other team didn't know that. As the defenders shifted her way, Tam used her extra height and her ability to jump, to chip pass the ball with her chest back to the front of the penalty area to where Tyler was waiting. The players moving toward Tam stopped and turned to Tyler. The goalie squared up as well waiting for Tyler to attempt a scoring kick when, instead of shooting the ball, Tyler passed it to Aidan who was running in from the top of the penalty area toward the goal. Aidan caught the ball from his brother and before the goalie could shift position to cover the angle, Aidan kicked it into the corner of the net.

Judy hopped straight up, whooping and hollering and when she landed, she did a double binky. All the kits were screaming as if they had just won the World Cup. Aidan was even trying to do a knee slide but failed due to the thick fur on his legs.

The other team's coach threw down his clipboard again and was about to lose it on his players when his assistant pulled him aside to keep him from getting a red card. What shocked Judy the most was that a few of the opposing team's parents started yelling at their kits for being out of position or being too slow. Fortunately, the rest of the parents looked pretty disgusted by the show of bad behavior, at least not all the adults on the other team were as crazed as their coach.

The ref blew the whistle to alert everyone to get back in position for the kickoff and the final thirty seconds of the game. The kickoff was passed to the other team's striker, a young pony who tried to break through, but only made it partway toward Rory before Jeffery came up and stole the ball, kicked it toward the opposing goal and did a forward flip as the ref blew the whistle three times, ending the game.

Judy's team did their appreciation chant and then lined up to shake hands with the kits from the other team. Judy was last in line after Martin. As Judy touched hands with each of the other kits, she said "Good job" or in a few cases remarked on a specific good play the kit made.

At the end of the line, she reached out to shake hands with the opposing coach, but all she got back was a dirty look.

"What kind of prey are you that you hang around with a bunch of filthy pelts? And to be coaching them, unbelievable."

Judy pulled her paw back and shook her head in disappointment, "What kind of coach yells at his team after they played a good game." Motioning to the pudu being consoled by his mom, "Especially a young buck that played his heart out and was tripped up by bad turf."

Walking away from the sputtering coach before he could reply, Judy went over to the upset pudu buck and knelt down, "Hi, I'm Miss Judy, and I wanted to let you know how well you played today."

Sniffling, the small buck replied with his face in his mother's chest. "I'm CJ, I cost my team the win, now they hate me. I messed up." The buck buried his head deeper into his mom's fur.

"Hey, do you know what I do for a living?"

"No."

"I'm a cop and my job is to defend the people of the city from trouble. Your job is sort of like mine, you're a defender on the field. Sometimes things happen to me and I mess up too, but I always keep trying until I get it right."

Sniffling, CJ asked, "Have you ever been yelled at by your coach?"

Judy looked CJ in the eye, "Yup. One time I drove a train car into an old rail station and blew everything up. I got yelled at a lot for doing that."

CJ rubbed his eyes and smiled, "No way, that's crazy."

"I know, that's what my partner said too. Look CJ, I can tell you're a hard worker and you don't give up. You played a good game, don't let a bad bounce or a random turf problem get you down. Okay?"

The buck pulled away from his mom and nodded.

Judy smiled, reached into her pocket and pulled out a small ZPD badge sticker, "I think everyone should know that you're a hard-working defender that sometimes makes mistakes, just like me." Reaching over, she stuck the sticker to CJ's uniform jersey.

"Thanks, Coach."

Judy looked at the boy's mom and then back to him, "Is it okay if I give you a hug?"

The boy nodded, and Judy gave him one of her patented healing hugs and whispered into his ear, "You did good, don't let your coach or anyone else tell you anything different."

Aidan came up as Judy stood.

Aidan nodded at CJ, "Hey, nice take away when I was attacking right before the half." Holding out his fist, Aidan smiled.

"Thanks, your goal was pretty sweet too." CJ fist bumped Aidan.

CJ's mom shook Judy's paw and thanked her for helping CJ. Rubbing Aidan's head fur, Judy left him and CJ to talk while she went to help the rest of the team pack up.

…..

Judy couldn't help but laugh at Rory and Tam as they batted paws in some sort of sing-song game. Aidan, Jeffrey, and Jason were strutting around like they were kings of the world, of course, their image of royalty was tarnished by whip cream and caramel sauce on their muzzles.

On the train ride back, Toni arranged for an impromptu ice cream celebration for the team. She sent a text/email blast for all the parents to meet the team at the diner for treats then to take their player home. When the team arrived, the diner was abuzz with excited parents. The team had lost their first three league games and were excited to have broken the losing streak by tying last season's first-place team. This tie game was a huge win in everyone's book.

Judy took another sip of her chocolate malt as Finn slipped into the chair next to her.

"So, I hear you're a fox now, huh."

Judy smirked at Finn, "Yup, sure am. And I'm all ready to start doing fox things."

Finn raised his eyebrow, "What fox things?"

Judy put a finger to her chin, "Oh let's see, things like, chase my tail, uh, howl at the moon, bury foot-covers in the yard, poke my head out the window of a moving car. You know, fox things like that."

Finn snorted, "You do any of those things, and I'll take your fox card away. Well, except for the car thing, that is sort of fun."

Fist pumping, she yelled, "And the fox secrets start coming out."

Finn laughed and then put his paw on Judy's arm, "Hey, thanks for what you did today. I haven't seen this many happy kits in here like, ever. And especially for what you did on the Metro. Toni filled me in, it does the kits good to see they don't have to put up with all the crap they get from other mammals."

"Finn, they're all great kits. You know, today was the most fun I've had playing or coaching soccer since I was a little kit. They were so excited and such great teammates to each other, I wish I could have been on a team like theirs when I was growing up."

"Well, before you get all emotional, which is NOT a fox thing, by the way, I have your meet with Thorn set up to happen in a few days. I'll text you the address and the exact time later."

"Thanks, Finn."

A moment later, the diner went quiet as all the kits from the team, followed by Coach Blacktail, approached Judy's table.

Aidan stood in front of the group and squared his shoulders. "Miss Judy, we all wanted to thank you for coaching us today. No way we would have tied those guys without your help."

Judy smiled, "Thank you guys, a few good practices, and next time you'll do even better."

"Well, that's the other part, we all talked about it, and we were wondering if you could be one of our coaches for the rest of the season."

"Wow, I don't know, I mean, is Coach Mitchell okay with that?"

Martin lifted his phone and yelled from the back of the group, "Oh, he can't wait to meet you. He said, if you're interested, he'd be excited to have you join the team."

"Really? Well, sometimes I have to work crazy hours, but yeah, as much as I can, I'd love to."

Judy was buried in a group hug as all the kits whooped and hollered and their parents clapped and cheered. Finn even got a misty-eyed look, that was until Judy leaned over, "Hey, remember it's only bunnies that get all emotional."

"Yeah, yeah, you tell anyone, and I'll bite your face off."