Other Fan Fiction ❯ Perhaps, Maybe, Possibly... ❯ Chapter 1
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
Perhaps, Maybe, Possibly...
Being the new student is never easy. Especially when you become public enemy number one for reasons unknown to you and your secret crush has a very contrary split personality.
Chapter 01: An Encounter with Prince Charming
It was another normal day for me when something unusual happened. As they say, adventure strikes when you least expect it and by the time you realize what's going on, if your reflexes are as slow as mine, it's already over. I was left with only a small clue, Acme, but to understand the significance of that word, you must know my story from the start.
My name is Bani Bunny and yes, I do have a relation with Buster Bunny, who is my cousin. My fur is mostly white, though my eyes are the same dark color as my cousin's and my hair matches the shade of blue of his fur. Unlike Buster who lives in a land of vast green fields and tall buildings, my home city has only tall buildings and wide highways with very narrow sidewalks. I grew up as a city rabbit so I find my cousin's underground home to be both odd and cozy, but strange none the less. That aside, let's go back to the main event that changed my life...
xoxox xox xoxox
It's Sunday evening and I'm in my room located on the seventh floor of an apartment building at Highway City. With little commerce, even less apartments and no actual houses, this is mostly a place for cars to drive by on their way to somewhere else. It is a milestone, never a destination. While the car fumes invade the air through my open window, to the sound of the anger of those trapped in a traffic jam outside, I clean my closet.
I wish I had something better to do on a Sunday evening, but I have been procrastinating to clean my closet for far too long, living only off the clothes I keep in my dresser just to avoid the cluttered closet. Then again, everything about my room is cluttered. It's small, because the apartment is small, possessing only two bedrooms, a bathroom and another room that's a mix between kitchen, dinning room and living room. My father manages a gas station near by, refueling the many cars, trucks and vehicles that drive by. There's a small convenience store attached to it that my mother tends to. I get stuck helping out at times too, but I am mostly a full time student.
The walls of my room are decorated with posters of various teen magazine celebrities of different species to cover the dull white walls and provide eye candy. As a shy and distracted daydreamer I stare at them a lot, but right now I'm staring at my closet door. Taking a deep breath, I open the door, big mistake. I am greeted by an avalanche of random items that quickly buries me and fills my room, leaking into the narrow hallway by my open door and defying all the laws of physics because all of that somehow came from my tiny closet. The closet was stuffed in such a way that the impulse of the clutter being suddenly released sends various items flying.
Unfortunately, one of those flying objects is my souvenir anvil from last year's anvil exhibition. It is somehow thrown out the window with a sickening crash that can only make me assume it hit something, or someone, hard. I should be hiding, but instead I rush out of the apartment and to the elevator. I make it to the first floor and step into the narrow sidewalk to see a white limousine with a hole on top. I shyly step forward, not realizing how stupid I am to accept the guilt, though I could have gotten away with remaining undiscovered. "I'm so sorry!"
As I apologize I see that the one who's limo I damaged and received a hit to the head from the anvil, is a human boy around my age. He seems utterly confused and disoriented, but soon returns my anvil, "is this yours, miss?" That's odd, he sounds almost happy?
"Yes, I'm really, really sorry, it was an accident!" I continue to apologize profoundly while I feel my face heat up, I must admit he's handsome. "I'll pay for the damages... somehow." I know I probably can't afford it, even if I ask for an advance in my allowance.
"It's okay, why don't you come to dinner with me?" His offer left me in shock. Maybe that hit to the head was harder than I thought.
"Um... okay..." I had never ridden on a limousine before, nor had I been in the presence of such a handsome young man. I shifted uncomfortably all the way while he tried to make conversation.
"What's your name?" He asked looking a bit unsure, yet somehow excited.
"Bani, my name is Bani bunny and yours?" I shifted in the plush seat of the limo and stared at my feet.
"I am..." A sudden pain seemed to invade him as he held his head. "I am..." He closed his eyes tightly and tried to push the pain away.
"Its okay, if it hurts you don't need to talk," I tried to comfort him though I felt helpless to do so.
He shook his head as if trying to clear it. "Why don't you tell me more about yourself? What do you like?"
"The usual, music, movies, videogames, I especially like RPGs and racing games, and sci-fi movies. For music, I like rock best, people say they never would have guessed and..." I fall silent, I may be mostly shy, but when people ask me a direct question that I easily know the answer to, I tend to ramble.
"Perfume?" He inquires ending my silence.
"Oh yes, I love perfume, I collect them," I pause suddenly feeling even more self conscious, "is the scent too strong?"
"Not at all, it's really nice," our conversation continues in such a way until the traffic jam finally moves and we make it to a restaurant in the outskirts of Highway City.
The restaurant is a fancy place where everyone seems to know the human who invited me there and refer to him as sir despite being in his teens. They find us a nice table and he encourages me to order anything I want saying it's his treat, for which I feel kind of guilty. "I hit you with an anvil, why are you being so nice to me?" The anvil in question I had since put away making it vanish behind my back, don't ask me how I can do this, I just can.
"That was an accident, besides, you're... really cute," he actually blushed as he said this, which made my face turn scarlet.
"Thank you," I managed to whisper, hiding shyly behind the menu. I ended up having the most delicious plate of carrot lasagna I have ever tasted with carrot cheesecake for dessert and carrot lemonade to drink, all of this is with chocolate syrup sprayed on each thing, because I love chocolate covered carrot based foods.
I mostly talked about myself during dinner, since my 'date' if I can even dare to think of him as such, seemed to get a headache whenever he tried to talk about himself. In the end, he took me home and we talked some more on the way.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the guts to ask for his number or email and apparently he was too distracted by his headache to ask for mine, if he even really wanted it. As he left, he rolled down the window of his limo and tried to speak to me one last time, but the headache attacked him again and all he could say was, "Acme," before the driver went away, presumably to take him home.
That night I couldn't stop thinking about him and I did an online search for the word 'Acme' which seemed so familiar that I was certain I had heard it before. I was right, I had in fact heard that word before, Acme Looneyversity was where my cousin Buster went to school. Was the human boy a classmate of his? If my cousin knew him or not didn't matter, Acme was my only clue and I simply had to see him again. Hopefully his headache would be out of the way by then and I will be able to learn more about him. Tomorrow I'll transfer to Acme!
xoxox xox xoxox
Chapter 02: The Road to Change
It's so early that I'm falling asleep on my feet. Last night I talked to my parents when they arrived late from their seven day work week. I insisted that I wanted to transfer to Acme Looneyversity and I had already spoken to my aunt, who said she would be all too happy to have me over. My parents didn't present much of an argument and provided that I behaved well at my cousin's house, they let me go. I took a taxi when it was still dark and arrived at Buster's home just as he was getting ready for school.
When I was led into the underground house, shyly following my aunt as she called, "Buster, come help Bani with her luggage!" It all finally sunk in that I was in a new place where I didn't know anyone except my cousin. We were close as kids when my family used to live in the suburbs of Acme City, but have spoken little since then.
Buster showed me to my room, immediately treating me as a sister who had been a part of his life the whole time. "You can unpack later, you should probably head to school extra early today to take care of your transfer papers."
Then I realized that it was a bit too early to be going to school and immediately apologized, "sorry about that. They made you get up early so you could show me the way to school early, right?"
"Not really," Buster smiled, "the boys' basketball team has a field trip today so I had to be there extra early anyway to get everyone organized and make sure we don't miss the bus, I'm the captain after all."
I smiled back trying to be as carefree as he is, "that's good."
"Let's go have some carrot pancakes before we go, mom made a big breakfast today." After spending the night doing online research, printing transfer papers to fill and then riding on a taxi cab, the thought of a good meal was only second to the thought of a soft pillow.
I knew there was no time to sleep so I ate some delicious carrot pancakes, my aunt remembered my love of chocolate and gave me some syrup to put on them. Afterwards, I quickly got ready for my first day as a student in Acme Looneyversity. I rushed to shower and change, grabbed my bag with my previously packed transfer papers and my notebooks and school supplies from my old school, then rushed to meet Buster outside of the rabbit hole.
"Still getting used to the ladder?" Buster teased as he extended his hand to help me out.
"Yeah," I admitted, "I'm used to having an elevator," and living several stories above ground. "This place is different, it's a well known big city, but it has a lot of open spaces too, trees and stuff." Admittedly I've never been one to care for nature, it feels a bit awkward not to be surrounded by traffic signs, but if I am to stay here for who knows how long in crazy pursuit of a crush, I'll have to get used to not having a sign pointing me in the right direction all the time. This means I'll actually have to develop a sense of direction of my own, since the ability to read no longer guarantees that I'll be able to get to the right place. "It's kind of quiet too."
"We're early today, but tomorrow you should see people leaving their houses and gathering at the bus stop to catch the second bus." Though I'm sure such an atmosphere might be relatively noisy for Buster, I'm sure it'll still be quiet for me.
This place, it doesn't have the scent of burning rubber or processed fuel. It lacks the sound of loud horns and the words of frustration of the morning, midday and evening rush hours, which seem to last all day and night in Highway City. It's so quiet it might be peaceful, but for a city rabbit it's almost eerie.
Buster must have noticed my discomfort as we got into the nearly empty bus, but he doesn't seem to know what it's about. "Don't worry, Acme Looneyversity is a great place. I'm sure you'll get used to it and make friends in no time. I won't be able to stay today, the basketball team will leave pretty early, sorry about that."
"It's okay; you don't have to worry about me." I don't want to be a drag on my cousin or make him feel like he's stuck with me.
"So, what made you want to transfer? Was it academics or wanting a change of scene?" Buster seemed to have been curious about this all along.
I couldn't very well tell him that I transferred because I had a crush on some handsome, rich, charming young man I just met. Maybe that wasn't my reason after all anyway; maybe it was my lack of friends back home as most people around Highway City were older. I was home schooled in a sense, but not in my own home, rather a lady from our apartment building acted as the teacher for all the students in our city, who were very few. Maybe seeing what kind of people exist in other cities was the push I needed. "A change of scene mostly, but I'll make the best of it academically since I'm already here and all." This reminds me that I'll probably have a hard time keeping up with a more full and active curriculum, my past teacher was rather lenient and gave mostly open book tests.
"Really? Don't you miss your friends?" Buster curiously asked.
"Not really, most people were..." Snobs who spent class putting on makeup and troublemakers who cut class more often than not. "Not my type of crowd. There aren't a lot of people my age in Highway City, it's just a cluster of roads and shortcuts leading to every other place," as if the city itself wants to provide an escape route away from it. "There are just gas stations, convenience stores and the few other commercial places are on the outskirts, but they're not really hang outs."
"If that's the case, it's no wonder you wanted a change of scene," Buster laughs, "I can't imagine not having a place to hang out. You'll love it here."
"I have high hopes," so what if my silly chase doesn't lead me to my prince? Either way, I think this is all for the best.
The bus stops and we exit it. The Acme Looneyversity building stands tall and proud though it is devoid of the crowds of students I imagine must gather in front of it later. Buster shows me to the faculty office so I can turn in my paperwork. "I'll come by a little later. I need to sort some things out for the basketball team trip."
"Sure, thanks Buster, see you later." Feeling both nervous and excited, I enter the faculty office, which is already buzzing with activity. Teachers are talking and drinking coffee, with some already absorbed in their lesson notes.
"Ah, le aroma is quite lovely, mademoiselle, you are a new student, yes?" One of the teachers sees me wondering around and speaks to me. Good thing he did because I had been invaded by shyness and probably would have just continued to stand around until someone asked me why I was here.
"Yes, sir, um... thank you," I hand my papers, which I had printed from the Acme Looneyversity website and filled up last night. They must have gotten my application in the system and were informed of it when they logged in at work. Now they just needed to collect the actual paper-paper work with a few signatures, which I just handed to the skunk professor.
Though skunks are supposed to smell bad, that's not the case right now, maybe it's true that skunks only smell bad upon feeling strong emotions. Either way I love perfume and can rarely smell any scents beyond what I'm wearing, since I wear plenty, but I still see scents when they are present.
"You are all set, mademoiselle," I am brought back to attention when the skunk hands me a paper with my class schedule. This entire transfer process was much shorter and hassle free than I imagined. Or at least I thought so until he gave me the bad news. "Unfortunately, since your previous school was not on the same curriculum as ours," I'm sure that's a nice way to say I'm way behind academically, "you must pass a few exams to make sure you are ready. If you pass, you can continue in your current grade." He didn't even have to say that if I didn't, I would be bumped down or even booted, my expression told him that I knew the consequences of failure and he added, "do not worry young mademoiselle, you may be tutored by other students during study hall and you may even come to the classroom after class to be tutored by the teachers." He must have seen my still present worry because he offered, "I can tutor you myself if you wish, I am in classroom 107 after the last period." He holds out his hand in a friendly gesture probably in hopes of reassuring me. "Professor Pepe Le Pew, at your service, mademoiselle...?"
I take his hand formally "Bani Bunny, nice to meet you..." He places a kiss on my hand in some odd greeting out of a fancy movie and I can't help it but to be reminded of my celebrity crush, Johnny Pew.
xoxox xox xoxox
Chapter 03: Public Enemy Number One
I left the faculty office with my schedule on hand. I have tests to worry about, but I'll try to stay positive. I'll ask to borrow Buster's books until I get my own and hopefully he took good notes in class because I don't want Professor Le Pew to think I'm not making an effort to get the material by showing up to be tutored empty handed.
Right at the end of the hall I saw Buster and he noticed me. We met half way and I showed him my schedule. We discussed the classes and the way each professor taught as we walked. Following Buster's pace, I was led back to the front of the Looneyversity, after a short stop at his locker to retrieve the notes I would borrow. Our destination was now more active than before with students hanging around and sitting on the steps talking in couples or little groups.
A bus waited at the bottom of the steps with a few boys already inside, among them a green duck, a purple tasmanian, a pig and several others. "If you get lost, just ask anyone, people here are pretty friendly, except Max and his crew," Buster's warning had little meaning to me since I didn't know who this Max was. "Watch out for Elmyra too, she's friendly, but sometimes too friendly," I'm not sure what he means by that. "I wish I could show you around, but the bus is leaving soon."
"It's okay," I insist, though I don't quite feel okay and would love to have the familiarity of at least one person I know, who also knows his way around here. Unfortunately, there are no traffic signs to guide me down the endless halls of Acme Looneyversity, but at least the classrooms are numbered so I should be fine. "I'll be okay, don't worry, enjoy your trip."
"Enjoy your first day as the new student," Buster gave me a hug, just like when we were little kids. As always, he's far more social and confident than I am. I returned the gesture and watched him get on the bus.
I noticed the green duck casually swinging his arm around Buster's shoulders on the bus and punching his arm playfully as if wanting to coax a secret out of him by way of teasing, but their conversation was lost to me. As I glanced back at the Looneyversity stairs, I saw a pink rabbit who had seemingly stopped cold in the middle of them storm back up. I'm not sure what her problem was, but it was none of my business anyway, or so I thought.
The bell rang and I made my way to my first class among the crowds of students. I was almost late, but made it just on time to go inside the classroom with the last small cluster of students that made their way inside. I showed the teacher my schedule and was pointed towards an available seat.
At first I thought I was saved from having to introduce myself, until the yellow canary announced my presence and made me go up to the front of the classroom again. Apparently Professor Bird was only giving me a chance to drop off my bag at my seat because he intended to make me stand in front of the class for a good while, answering basic questions. "Tell the class your name, where you're from and your dreams for the future!"
I twitched listening to the dreaded request spoken in the most cheerful voice I had heard as of yet. It makes me wonder if Mr. Bird had some happy seeds this morning for breakfast or if he's always this cheerful. "Um... My name is Bani," I noticed the pink rabbit from before glaring at me from her seat. "I come from Highway city and in the future I... I... um..." I haven't thought about the future at all.
"Yes, don't be shy?" Mr. bird encouraged.
"I'm still figuring that out?" I nearly squeaked unsure. This prompted Mr. Bird to give a speech about the future, hopes and dreams and what not, all while he had not even dismissed me to my seat and I didn't know how to sneak back to it. Needless to say, it was mortifying.
After I finally managed to sit down and class continued, I thought everything was fine. That was until I got up at the end of class and realized the pink rabbit girl kept glaring at me, what's her problem? The rest of my day wasn't much better; Professor Sam assigned me an essay, fifty pages, due tomorrow. I knew I should expect the worse according to Buster's warning, but fifty pages for the next day is ridiculous. He said it was to help me catch up with class since I was new, I think Buster's right about him not liking rabbits.
To top it all up I had a series of bad things happen to me, such as doors being 'accidentally' thrown in my face along with a good among of 'unintentional' pushing and shoving in the hallways with the pink rabbit suspiciously near by. I also noticed that as the day went by, more girls were glaring at me including a blond duck and a purple skunk among others. Buster only told me to watch out for Max and his crew, but the entire female population of the school can't be his crew! That kind of harem comedy only happens in anime and this is a cartoon... well a cartoon fanfic, but you get the point!
On the subject of Max, whose identity is still a mystery to me, I overheard some students talking about him. Apparently he was absent for a few days during which he left the city. Because of that, he missed the try outs last week that would determine who from the basketball club would form the official team to go on the trip Buster went on. They said they were expecting some guy named Hampton to miss out, but with Max not present to take the test, he was left out of the team. Apparently he didn't realize the try outs were over until he came to school today and was angry to have missed a chance to compete with Buster.
Other than that, Buster seems to be well liked, but I have not revealed my relation to him, since I would feel like I'm using him if I do. I just can't figure out what makes everyone, the girls especially, hate me. I sigh and head over to classroom 107 to meet Mr. Le Pew for my after school tutoring. I'm already exhausted and it's only Monday!
xoxox xox xoxox
Chapter 04: Out of Place
My Tuesday started off with a bowl of Carrot Crunchies with chocolate syrup and the promise of torture haunting my insecurities. I know I must sound like a quitter, being ready to thrown in the towel so soon, but maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Buster is still not back, since the boys will be staying over in a neighboring city for a few days to play basketball with another school.
I'm taking the second bus today, since there is no reason to be at school extra early. As I wait at the bus stop, I feel the angry looks of other students, who still seem to hate me for no reason. The bus arrives and the students rush in almost trampling me in the process. I manage to get on the bus at last, but all the seats are somehow taken. It's not that the bus is full to capacity, but rather people and their bags are somehow taking up all the space and I feel that it's on purpose.
"You need to sit down," the bus driver, a gruff sounding muscular white dog growls impatiently. "I have a bus route to cover and all passengers need to be seated."
"There's no room," the pink rabbit called out from her position stretched out on one of the seats. If she and her friends were sitting, instead of laying on the seats, there would be plenty of room.
"She needs to like catch the next bus," a blond duck adds.
"If there's no room you can take the next ride, off you go." Loosing his patience and blaming the delay solely on me, the bus driver pushed me out towards the door. I trip getting off the bus and land face first on the ground outside as the bus drives away.
I get up and dust myself off; I'm beginning to hate Acme City. It looks like such a friendly place, yet it's anything but. I don't want to think this way, but what if Buster lied to me? He said everyone was friendly, and no one is. Was he lying about Max too? I am yet to run into him, but if all of this is a lie, then maybe the one Buster told me was mean is the only nice one. Furthermore, I haven't seen my crush anywhere and I don't think a silly instant crush is worth all this anyway, I wouldn't even go through all this trouble for Johnny Pew!
As I walk to school instead of waiting for the third bus, which will arrive too late anyway, I can think of nothing more than how much I regret coming here.
I finally arrive at Acme Looneyversity and as I guessed, I'm late. I run down the halls towards my first class and spot a puma janitor up ahead transporting a pile of props on a cart, an anvil on the very top of the pile. I dash to the side to dodge the janitor and his cart, but find myself bumping into a different obstacle. Another student had been running in the opposite direction, but the cart was blocking my view and I didn't see him. He tried to dodge the obstacle as he ran down the hall in the same way I did, which put us in a collision course.
As we bumped into each other and were thrown aside, the janitor expressed his disapproval and fought to balance the props on the cart, which he unintentionally nudged with the startle of our collision. The anvil on top of the pile of props fell down and landed on the other student's head.
"I'm sorry!" I apologized still in a daze, then I realized something. It was him! The human boy I had been chasing!
I ignore the janitor as he scolds us while taking back the anvil and placing it among the props in the cart. He demands a hall pass which neither of us produces and swiftly pushes us to the principal's office, abandoning the cart in the middle of the hallway.
My reflexes are rather slow so I just get pushed along. As for the mystery boy who said 'Acme,' he's still a bit dazed from the anvil hit to the head and doesn't quite come to until we're both at the Principal's office with a gray rabbit having a short conversation with the puma janitor. "Thanks Pete, I'll take it from here."
The janitor exists the office, leaving us with the principal whose name plate on the desk reads 'Bugs Bunny'. "Max Montana, after cutting class for several days last week you came back to hang out in the roof, attending only a few of your classes and today you're not only late, but also causing calamities in the hallway."
I stare at the confused looking human boy who seems to be, understandably, suffering from a terrible headache. He's Max, that's my mystery man? Now I know Buster was lying and it breaks my heart to think my dear cousin, who seemed so nice and trust worthy, would do this to me. Shifting uncomfortably under my stare he voices a barely audible, "I'm sorry; I'll try to behave better from now on."
Mr. Bunny's jaw drops, the bottom literally hitting the desk as his eyes grow to ten times their size and shrink again to their normal size. He picks up his stretched jaw and pushes it up, adjusting it in place. "Yes, well, you do that." He then picks up a slip of paper and writes in it, handing it to Max. "Here's a pass, go to the nurses' office."
"I'm not really injured or anything, sir," Max protests.
Mr. Bunny shakes his head, "listen Max, you have to take care of your health. You may be young, but you're obviously sick." I'm not sure why he's so adamant on that conclusion.
"Yes, sir, I'll go now," Max accepts the slip of paper and gives me one final shy look before delighting my pupils with a charming smile as if remembering something that gave him confidence. Without another word, he promptly leaves the office.
The principal sighs as he shakes his head in worry, "poor kid," he mutters under his breath. Honestly, Max's hit to the head didn't seem that bad, I think he'll be fine. Maybe he's an anvil jinx or something, but I still don't understand why the principal thinks Max is so terribly ill. Maybe there's something I don't know, I hope Mr. Bunny is just overreacting and Max is alright. "Now then miss..."
"Bani Bunny," I quietly reply.
"No relation," the principal chuckles. "This is your second day here, isn't it?" The principal clicks on something on the computer, probably my record. "A transfer from Highway City, previously in independent studies..."
"Sorry I was late, I um..." I didn't think it was a good idea to tell the principal about the bus incident, complaining to the principal felt cowardly. Instead, I just trail into an uncomfortable silence.
"You got lost?" Mr. Bunny offers, "it happens to everyone, it's tough being the new kid so I'll let it slip." He writes something on a piece of paper and hands it to me. It appears to be a note excusing me for my lateness. "There, just tell your teacher you were taking care of some official transfer business at my office; try not to be late in the future."
I'm glad the principal decided to let me off the hook, "thank you, sir," I reply formally and scurry out of the office. When my lunch break arrives, I intend to search the school upside down until I find Max.
xoxox xox xoxox
Chapter 05: The Great Anvil Enigma
Lunch time couldn't have come soon enough. It's not that I'm particularly hungry, but rather, I have a mission. From what I heard this morning at the principal's office, Max likes to hang out on the roof. It seemed like a good place to start my search, so I'm making my way up there right away, if I can find my way there that is.
In my search I turn a corner and almost run into a purple skunk who glares at me. "Sorry... excuse me, but could you tell me how to get to the roof."
The purple skunk has a 'the nerve!' expression on her face, as if one's sworn enemy just asked their eternal rival for help. Then her look changes to one of mischief which quickly dissolves into false friendliness. Every alarm in my head is screaming that I shouldn't take directions from her, but I stupidly follow as she said, "Le stairs are this way."
"Thank you," I shift in place as I eye the seemingly perfectly safe and normal stairs. They are narrow stairs, hidden behind a door that makes it look like there's nothing behind it but a utility closet.
"You are quite welcome," I sense some sarcasm in the purple skunk girl's voice as well as eagerness for... vengeance? Since she's not moving I step inside the staircase and predictably the door shuts behind me followed by the sound of items being piled in front of it.
I sigh and go up the stairs; I'm trapped so this is all I can do. Out of the dim staircase past another small door, I am greeted by the bright mid-day sun on the campus rooftop. At least I am where I wanted to be. A few feet away, facing away from me, I see Max and another male student, a tall fox boy. It seems they have not noticed me yet as they continue their conversation.
"I don't get it Max, why did you go to the nurse's office if you knew Elmyra was there? I thought you were avoiding her for some reason you won't tell me," the fox boy spoke in curious confusion.
"I told you that's none of your business," Max growled in a tone I never would imagine he would use, he seemed so much nicer. "I know Elmyra is the nurses' assistant on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but that's not the point. The thing is I don't remember going to the nurses' office. I was running down the hall and Pete was in the way hauling some cart full of props. I tried to run past him and bumped into something, I couldn't even see what or who it was before I felt a sharp pain in my head. The next thing I know I'm standing at the nurse's office holding a slip of paper excusing me from my morning classes so I can get a basic medical examination. I left as soon as I came to. I don't remember receiving the paper, which was signed by the principal. I don't remember seeing the principal that morning or walking to the nurse's office."
"That's weird," the fox boy observed, "you've been acting weird lately," he added thoughtfully. "Yesterday you were acting weird too, you kept looking over your shoulder, but there was no one there."
Max seemed to be disturbed at the reminder. "It feels like there is someone there, not really behind me, just there, in my head." He frowned in disapproval and shook his head. "Don't ask stupid questions!" He snapped, as if he didn't want to show any weakness. He looked over his shoulder, except this time there was someone there, me, and he wasn't happy to see me. "Hey, rabbit!" He stood up, followed by his fox associate. "Who said you could come here? The roof is off limits for anyone who's not invited and I didn't invite you." I was left frozen and speechless. Is he really the same boy from before, or some kind of evil twin? "I haven't seen you around school, you're new aren't you? Well rabbit, it's time you learn the rules; you're not allowed up here!" He yells into my face looking especially frustrated and enraged." I don't move, I can't react, I'm in petrified shock. "Didn't you hear me, rabbit? I told you to get lost!"
I panic and acting on instinctual self defense, I pull out an anvil from behind my back and hit Max on the head with it. The anvil remained on his head and slid off a few seconds after as he stumbled away from me.
"You'll regret that!" I became the fox's target, he looks like he's ready to pulverize me.
"Stop!" Max suddenly interferes pushing the stunned fox away. "It's okay," he hugs me, he's so soothing now, but before he was so different. How is it possible for someone to change so quickly? Does he have a split personality or something? Wait, the anvil, could an anvil to the head be the cause of all this? Is that what changes him?
The fox boy's head has since been replaced by a giant eyeball while his lower jaw is detached laying by his feet. It looks like he was so shocked he got stuck in the expression.
A pink canary girl flies by and stares, her eyes at eight times their size with her beak stretched open beyond all logical proportions. As soon as she manages to regain her normal form she flies off, diving below and, I assume, into the school. I don't know her, but I sense more trouble on its way.
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Chapter 06: A Different Person
Max's expression turned pained. He kept one arm around my shoulders and held his head with the other hand. Maybe I hit him harder than I thought. "Max?" I finally spoke in a barely audible voice.
"I... I'm..." He seemed to be unsure of what to say; almost as if there was something he wanted to voice that he couldn't. "I'm sorry for being mean to you now, I wasn't myself, I mean I..." his headache worsened as if he was having a terrible battle with himself.
"I'm stuck!" The fox boy panicked. He had picked up his lower jaw but was unable to reattach it because his head was a giant eyeball. "Max, what do I do? I'm stuck like this and you're hugging a rabbit, the world's gone crazy!"
"It's okay, Ken, I'm sure you won't be stuck forever." Max tried to encourage the fox, but only seemed to worry him more.
"Why are you being so nice, it's not like you. Do you have a fever or something?" Ken's giant eye reflected concern.
"No, that's not... I mean..." Max stumbled over his words for a moment then tried to take a firm tone. "I order you to go see the nurse right now!" However, the fox refused to move, thus Max decided to go with him.
The three of us made our way down the dim narrow stairs. The door was stuck, blocked from the outside. Ken rammed into the door until he knocked it down, causing the many items on the other side to go rocketing in every direction in the hallway.
One of the props piled against the door was a box containing a portable hole. The hole popped out of its container and skidded across the hall, landing in the path of small gray mouse, who seemed far too young to be in the school. The small mouse fell through with a cloud of dust going up from what I assume must be the basement where he landed. This event was immediately followed by a series of loud sneezes that shook the foundation of the entire building.
Max, Ken and I hurried away before we got into trouble, with me being made to tag along by Max taking my hand and running. If I wasn't in such a daze I would go back to help the poor little mouse.
We finally make it to the nurses office where Max peeks in with caution and lets out a breath of relief with a barely audible, "she's not here."
The nurse's office is the stereotypical white room with a mounted plastic skeleton, first aid supplies and a couple of small beds separated by white curtains. One of the curtains is pushed aside to reveal a red haired human girl and the pink canary I saw flying above the roof. The girl's eyes traveled to Max's hand still grasping my own, she looks like she's about to cry as she pushes past us and dashes away down the hall. The pink canary gives us a nasty glare before she decides to chase after her distressed friend.
At this point Max lets go of my hand and dons a guilty and worried expression as if he's in the middle of a mess that he doesn't know how to sort out.
Before Max can say anything, the head nurse, an elderly human lady, arrives. She glances around as if looking for her helper whom she left in charge of the office in her absence and instead takes notice of Ken's state. "Oh my, you got stuck, didn't you?"
Ken nods his giant eyeball of a head and holds up his disembodied jaw, which the nurse takes. "Don't worry about me," he interrupts, speaking normally despite lacking a mouth. "Just take care of Max, he's going insane."
"I'm not insane," Max protests.
"It's true, he was being nice to that rabbit girl, he even hugged her and held her hand and everything!" Ken dramatized, making my face turn a bright shade of red. "Here I thought he was secretly in love with Elmyra," he added in a lower voice. I realize that Elmyra must have been that red haired human girl.
"Is that so? Well, I'm glad you've made a new friend, Max," the granny-like nurse lady smiled kindly and held a magnifying glass and a mirror in front of Ken's face. The difference was that the magnifying glass was backwards, it made things appear to be smaller. She altered the distance between the glass and Ken's face moving it side by side. The visual illusion of having two smaller eyes caused Ken to instinctively follow it to regain his normal face, sans his lower jaw, which was then attached back into place. "Here you go," the nurse gave Ken a lollipop.
Ken unwrapped the sugary treat and put it in his mouth as he glanced at Max wearily. "My face can't take this, call me when you're back to normal, man," with that said, Ken left the nurse's office.
"Were you two only here to keep your friend company or does anything hurt?" The elderly nurse kindly asked. Max shifted uncomfortably as if he had something that he was embarrassed to ask about. "Come now, don't be shy," another silent pause followed until she laughed fondly. "You really are acting a little peculiarly, but I think it's a good change. I knew that I would eventually see the day when Max Montana became friends with a rabbit."
The nurse's words seemed to strike something in Max as his headache returned with such a force that his face contorted in pain. The excruciating expression was not missed by the nurse, who immediately ushered him to one of the bed while fetching a stethoscope. "Bani, you should go," Max insisted, ignoring the nurse who kept telling him to breathe deeply and not speak.
"I'm staying with you," I insisted firmly.
"No, please, go," his eyes were full of guilt and a particular kind of fear, the fear of hurting someone dear. "Please trust me, go, I'll see you later."
The bell suddenly rang, signaling the end of the lunch hour. "You should be heading to class," the nurse gently prompted. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of him here. Off you go now, you don't want to be late."
I have no choice but to leave. As I make it out the door I hear Max's voice from the nurse's office. He sounds both disoriented and angry as he questions the nurse in regards to how he got there. It's as if he's a whole different person who doesn't remember the happenings of his other self. Still too confused to deal with anything else at the moment, I rush away towards my classroom.
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Chapter 07: Not All is Fair in Love
Throughout my afternoon classes on this eventful Tuesday, I could heavily feel the tension in the air. It seems the hatred of the school's female population had increased considerably. I should be heading to classroom 107 for some tutoring from Mr. Le Pew, but I have more important things to do. Still, I doubt I could come up with a believable excuse not to show and I do need to be tutored. I drag myself over to room 107 and with my most sincerely hopeless expression I ask, "can I be excused?"
"We, mademoiselle, if you are busy today, you may be excused." Professor Le Pew cheerily agrees as he fluffs up a bouquet of wilted roses. "You only live once and must make the best of it, love is in the air!" I think he was looking for an excuse to bail out on the tutoring today; it looks like he might have a date. "Here are some useful notes for you; you can study them at home. Now if you'll excuse me, mademoiselle Penelope awaits," he picks up the bouquet and starts to walk out of the class room.
I walk along too, with no reason to stay behind, as I stuff the notes in my bag. A few passerbys outside of the classroom in the hall turn pale and run away while others faint. Then I notice it, a semi-transparent smoky stream coming from Mr. Le Pew's tail. As an avid collector and user of perfume, I can barely smell anything past my own scent. I guess that if Mr. Le Pew's er... natural odor, is acting up, he must be pretty excited about meeting Penelope.
As I watch Mr. Le Pew disappear down the hall with the semi-transparent smoke of his scent slowly dissipating into the atmosphere, I realize something. Love will not come if one does not actively seek it and what's more, all is fair in love and war, which includes anvils, right? Right! If Max has a split personality, then I'll just have to make sure the one I like becomes the dominant personality!
With such determination in mind, I head out to find Max and actually find him with surprising ease. He has chosen to rest for the rest of the day and fell asleep at the nurse's office. I greet the elderly nurse quietly and go sit by his bed behind the white curtains, watching him sleep.
I hear someone else entering the nurse's office, but I cannot see the person from my angle, and they cannot see me. A female voice than speaks. "Sorry I can't help you clean the infirmary today after school; the tennis club is having an... emergency meeting."
I peek out discretely from behind the white curtains and see her, Elmyra, the girl who ran away from the nurse's office before. She seems to still be in distress, though she's fighting to hide it. "Oh, that's alright, you help out a lot as it is, go to your tennis practice with your friends." After the nurse sent Elmyra away my thoughts shifted back to the boy sleeping on the bed, then the nurse spoke again, this time making her way to stand beside me and looking at Max. "Let's let him rest a bit longer. It's been quite a day for me, I could use an afternoon snack, I'll be back in a little while."
"Okay," I nod, glad that she's leaving so I can carry out my plans. As soon as the nurse is gone I consider the idea of hitting Max on the head with an anvil and doing so whenever it looks like he's going to turn mean. Yet something is stopping me, the image of the sad Elmyra keeps resurfacing in my mind and I can't help it but to feel bad for her. Acting almost automatically I leave the nurse's office and go search for her. I don't even notice as I leave, that Max has begun to wake up.
I see Elmyra down the hall; the school is mostly empty since classes have ended for the day. There are still students around, but they're mostly outside practicing various sports, or just hanging out. "Wait!" I call out to her before I even know what I'm going to say. "I'm... Max... he..."
She gives me a sad look, "it's okay bunny," then she pats me on the head as one would do to a dear pet. "If Maxy likes you best there's nothing I can do about it. He always has a temper and yells, but I thought he liked me deep down."
"You... put up with all that?" I ask in disbelief.
Elmyra nods, "I love my Maxy just the way he is, he doesn't need to change for me, I just want him to be happy."
I'm invaded by a strong guilt. I don't like the real Max, I like the nice and charming Max that exists only when he has received a hard blow on the head. "I won't get in your way," I finally voice. To further establish my point I take an anvil from thin air and toss it over my shoulder as if throwing it away while declaring, "I won't be needing this anymore." The sound of the anvil colliding with something echoes in the empty halls as I turn around to realize my mistake. I had accidentally hit Max on the head with an anvil again; I didn't even see him approaching down the hall behind me. "Oh no! I'm sorry, that was an accident!" Elmyra and I rush towards him.
Max rubs his aching head and returns my anvil, "this is yours, Bani." He smiles sheepishly almost as if he's glad I hit him on the head.
"Max?" Elmyra looks into his eyes, gently taking his chin to cause him to look at her. "You're not Max," she concludes to my astonishment. "This is Max's face, but the look in your eyes... Who are you?"
I watch the scene play out unsure of what to say or do. As Elmyra releases her hand from his face, Max looks away and confesses. "You're right, I'm not Max, but this is Max's body and he's still here."
For a moment my eyes grow to three times their size, but I stop myself before the expression can get too wild and my face snaps back to normal. I wouldn't want to get stuck that way. "There are two of you in there?" I inquire unsure. Two people in one body? How did that happen? I have a feeling that everything is about to be revealed.
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Chapter 08: Accidental Wish
My name is Bani Bunny, cousin of Buster Bunny and my life has taken all sorts of twists and turn in the course of three days. It all began on Sunday evening when I met a young man who seemed too good to be true, he took me out to dinner after I accidentally hit him with an anvil and we parted ways with his identity unknown to me, save for one clue, Acme.
My research led me to my cousin's alma mater, Acme Looneyversity, where I was enrolled by the next day. That Monday proved to be difficult as I, for reasons that are still a mystery to me, became public enemy number one. Things became even more complex on Tuesday when the ordeal continued and I finally ran into that boy again.
I discovered that his name is Max Montana and he's actually pretty mean. To top it all up, I stumbled into his 'turf' when he was in a particularly bad mood. Another anvil to the head and he was Mr. Nice Guy again. One thing let to another and the realization hit me, or at least that's what I thought, that Max had a split personality.
Later, Tuesday after school I became determined to use my discovery to my advantage and anvil Max on the head as many times as necessary to force the version of him I liked to surface. However, the image of a distressed Elmyra filled me with guilt and following her led to another discovery. Max apparently doesn't have a split personality; the other personality is actually someone else entirely, who is somehow inhabiting Max's body alongside the original soul.
So here I am in a nearly deserted hallway after school, waiting to listen to the explanation of the Max who isn't Max. Whoever he is, takes a deep breath and begins his explanation. "The truth is that I live far from here, I've never even been to Acme for real. Back home, my grandfather owns an antique shop. There was this lamp that he kept in storage and refused to put out for sale. I asked him about it and he explained that it had a mischievous genie that would misinterpret people's wishes and cause trouble. Even with that warning I was still curious and when grandpa was busy, I snuck into the storage and rubbed the lamp. A genie did come out and offered to grant me only one wish, claiming that he wasn't as powerful as other genies who granted three, but that I should make the best out of that one wish. I tried to keep it simple and asked for what any teenage boy would ask for." He paused and quoted himself, "I wish I was rich, handsome, noticed by other people and that I could meet and nice and cute girl." He blushed at the last part, which made me blush as well. "I don't know what happened, it felt as if I fell asleep and was dreaming. Then a sharp pain to the head made me wake up and I was different. I was a human boy in a limousine and soon after I met Bani."
The boy continued speaking through Max, "I thought the changes and my meeting her were all part of my granted wish so I tried to play along, not realizing what was going on. I tried to tell you my name," he looked at me, "my real name, but I couldn't. It's as if this body recognizes only Max as its true identity. After we parted ways I felt as if I was again falling asleep and had dreams about being a rich boy named Max Montana. Then I came to a realization, the wish didn't change me, I had somehow possessed Max. My consciousness is only in control, when Max is forcibly knocked out and these pains in my, his, head are his attempts to regain consciousness, even if he can't remember anything that happened while I was in control. I think he somehow senses my presence, but doesn't know what it is. I know it'll only cause trouble if I continue like this, but I'm stuck and don't know how to return to my own body."
While Elmyra and I remain in shocked silence, a small voice suddenly remarks, "so that's what happened." I didn't even notice the small pink canary flying near by and eavesdropping on the conversation. "If it's a problem with possession, maybe Shirley can help, she is a psychic."
"Good idea, Sweetie!" Elmyra agrees immediately and drags the possessed Max and me away.
We arrive at what appears to be a tennis club meeting, but the girls aren't really practicing right now. They almost look as if they're plotting and there's a foreboding atmosphere all around. The pink rabbit, the blond duck and purple skunk are all here.
Before the glares of the girls disintegrate me, Elmyra speaks up, "Max is possessed, he needs to be exercised!"
"You mean like exorcised?" The blond duck, who I assume is Shirley, steps forward, still giving me a distrustful sideway glance. She places her white feathered hand on Max's forehead and concentrates. "Interesting, I do feel two spirits within this body, one is the original and the other is quite different."
The assessment is followed by a repeat of the genie story, which clarifies the situation for the other girls.
Surrounded by psychic energy, Shirley begins to glow until she pulls out the semi-transparent ghost of a raccoon. Visibly exhausted, she takes a deep breath, "there, you're free to return to your own body."
"Thanks! Sorry I caused so much trouble," the ghost looks at me, "Bani..." he begins to fade away and stops what he was saying before, instead voicing "I have to go back, goodbye."
"Goodbye..." there is nothing more I can think of saying as the raccoon ghost fades away entirely, hopefully safely returning to his original body.
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Chapter 09: New Beginnings
Max is left in a daze for a few more seconds, but suddenly snaps alert and examines his surroundings. "You're back!" Elmyra gives him a bone crushing hug, truly happy to have him back to normal.
"Back from where? Let me go!" Max manages to struggle out of her vice-grip with noticeable difficulty. He pauses as if trying to sense the presence that is no longer with him and seems relieved to have seemingly gotten over what I assume he must think of as random paranoia. "I'm going home." With that announcement spoken, he exits the gym, leaving us girls as the only current inhabitants of the indoor sports court, which is currently set up with a tennis net in the middle, albeit it is also equipped with basketball hoops on each end.
"Care to explain what this is about and why she's here?" The pink rabbit points at me, clearly not happy to see me.
"Aw, let's give her a chance; she doesn't seem to be so bad!" Elmyra suggests.
This prompts me to ask the question that's been in my mind for some time. "Why do you hate me so much anyway? What did I ever do to you?"
"You were hugging Buster," the pink rabbit accuses.
"Actually, he was hugging me and what does it matter anyway? He's my cousin, he was just being nice!" I argue in return, which leaves all the girls in shock.
"Your cousin..." the pink rabbit faintly voices.
Then the purple skunk tries to put all the pieces together clearly. "You and Buster hugged because you're family and Max was acting all flirty with you because he was possessed by a confused raccoon who had been tricked."
"Then all of this wasn't you trying to steal someone else's boyfriend." The pink rabbit realized. "Wow, and we were all so mean to you. I even ignored all of Buster's calls and text messages this entire time." Embarrassed, the pink rabbit further explained, "I'm Babs, Buster's girlfriend, or I was until I assumed he was cheating on me and started ignoring him and being mean to his family. I'm really sorry, I wouldn't blame you if you tell Buster about everything when he comes back."
I consider the possibility of revealing the whole truth to Buster to get back at Babs, but ultimately decide against it. Babs does seem to be sorry for what she did and if I tell on her and make them argue, I'll be causing trouble for Buster too. I really don't want to get caught in the middle of a family versus relationship drama right out of an episode of Thirteen-Something. "I won't tell him." Just as I speak my empty stomach growls and I shift uncomfortably, "I um... skipped lunch..."
"Then let me buy you a treat!" Babs offers, followed by the agreements and apologies of the other girls.
We exchange official introductions, though I already knew some of their names as I had overheard them. Babs Bunny, no relation, is the pink rabbit and Buster's girlfriend. The blond duck is Shirley the Loon, a psychic. The pink canary is Sweetie Bird and the purple skunk is Fifi La Fume.
Elmyra, the red haired human girl happily exclaims, "I'm so glad we're all friends!" And traps us in a bone crushing group hug, Buster was right, she is dangerously friendly.
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Wednesday came and Buster and the basketball team returned. He believed that Babs had lost her cell phone, which she located just that morning and was glad she wasn't purposely ignoring him. He was also happy that I had already become friends with the girls, he never knew of the events that transpired in his absence.
As for Max, his mood seems to have improved after his personal space stopped being invaded by someone else's soul. This meaning he doesn't yell at people unless they provoke him in some way, such as crossing his path in the hallways which are there for everyone to transit anyway. In such cases he has a snide remark to throw out, but seems to have developed an unconscious fear of anvils, so waiving one around is enough to make him conveniently remember he had somewhere else he needed to be. As for his fox lackey, if the boss doesn't feel like picking a fight, then he won't pick a fight either. Overall, Max is tolerable once you learn how to deal with him, but definitely not someone I would get a crush on, though I do think Max and Elmyra are cute together.
The week kept passing by as I adapted to Acme Looneyversity, now with the support of my new friends. A new student enrolled on Thursday, but I wasn't paying attention to the introduction, secretly reading a magazine with an article about Johnny Pew.
When Friday rolled by, it was time for my tests to see if I could stay in my current grade. I wasn't the only one taking the tests; the other transfer student was taking them too. We were the only two students in the near empty classroom as Professor Pussycat handed us our papers. I feel kind of sorry for the other student who barely got time to settle in when they decided they might as well have him take the test on the same day as me. Either way, I was too focused on the peril at hand to notice him much.
When the test is finally over, the other student and I hand in our papers full of multiple choice bubbles. Mr. Pussycat runs the papers through the corrector machine which reveals that, albeit neither of us got particularly shining scores, we both passed. "Congratulations to you both!" Mr. Pussycat commends, spitting with his accent as he talks.
Thankful that it's over, we both head out of the classroom. It is the after school hour and we had to stay in for this. "That's a relief," I comment letting out a breath.
"Yeah, I'm glad it's over," the other student agrees and I realize that he's a raccoon. Why does he look familiar? I remember seeing his paper when the teacher inserted it in the machine; the name on it was Conrad Raccoon, but I was more focused on the uncertainty of my own test paper being scored next and didn't think too much of it.
"Bani!" I hear a familiar voice and see Buster, Babs, Shirley, Plucky and Fifi walking towards me down the hall and lift my hand to wave at them.
As I look back at Conrad for a moment he bids me goodbye for the day. "Your friends are here, I guess I'll see you around."
"Yeah, see you," as he leaves the realization hits me now that my brain is no longer plagued by the stress of the test. He looks just like the ghost that came out of Max, except for the part about not being a ghost.
"Hey Bani, you look like you saw a ghost!" Buster jokes, not knowing how right he is.
I laugh and pretend like nothing's going on, even if the girls follow the raccoon boy with their eyes and give me knowing looks. "It's just a post-test reaction, but I passed!"
We go off to celebrate at the local ice-cream shop and have a good time. The weekend is officially here and I know I'll have fun. Then when Monday comes, I might run into that mysterious new transfer student, Conrad, and find out if he is who I think he is. Perhaps, maybe, possibly...
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Unlike the previous chapters, this one is told by a narrator in third person.
Chapter 10: Special Episode
It had been a couple of weeks since Bani Bunny and Conrad Raccoon transferred to Acme Looneyversity. Bani was a bit shy and didn't want her previous mistakes on getting a crush too fast to be repeated, thus despite knowing who Conrad was, nothing had progressed between them beyond hanging out with their group of friends, which wasn't even all that often since by an odd twist of fate, Conrad had been dragged into Max's collection of lackeys. It all started when Conrad accidentally bumped into Max in the hall, who promptly yelled at him, "watch where you're going!"
"Oops, sorry Max, I didn't mean to run into you..." not wanting to make enemies, especially with the boy he had accidentally possessed and so soon after his transfer, Conrad gave Max some green gum, "it's green like money, your favorite kind of gum, right? Good to stick into people's lockers so they can't open them when they really need to get their homework out."
Max was taken by surprise by how well the new student knew him. It came with having lived in the back of his mind for a few days, though the time was short, hearing Max's thoughts for three days gave Conrad a clear picture about how the mischievous millionaire's mind worked. "You know what? You're pretty observant," Max concluded, being able to come up with no other explanation for the raccoon's accuracy on his tastes. Glad to have a new lackey that understood him, Max surprisingly threw his arm around his new minion and began to share his plans to cause trouble. "Welcome to the group, for today I was planning..." Thus Conrad ended up becoming the optimistic trouble maker with a tendency to ignore warnings.
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Despite it all, Conrad did want to ask Bani out, but didn't think of himself as cool enough to be liked, after all, girls liked rich guys who could shower them in presents, didn't they? But Bani wasn't really like that... Even so, Conrad was unsure, since she had not done much to show interest, having ended up with an awkward feeling after the whole situation was resolved. That brings us to our current scene, with Conrad asking his favorite teacher, Sylvester Pussycat, for advice at the classroom after school. "So you see Mr. Pussycat, there's this girl I like but don't know how to ask her out and it'll probably be a while before I can save enough to by an impressive present."
"You don't need presents," Mr. Pussycat replied spitting all over the place as he spoke.
Conrad pulled out a blue umbrella from his backpack and covered himself with it. A close up on a tag attached to the umbrella's handle read 'outdoors only'.
"You have to give chase!" Mr. Pussycat insisted, "that's how it is in love and war." As he stressed the last word, he spotted Tweety Bird flying down the hall outside the open door of the classroom and chased after him emphasizing, "it's all about the chase!"
Tweety pulled out a large mallet from behind his back and hit Sylvester with it, flattening him like a pancake. "Just make sure the one you're chasing doesn't carry big heavy items." Tweety flew away with Sylvester popping back to normal size and chasing after him.
Conrad paused to think for a moment as an imagination cloud appeared over his head depicting Bani handling various large heavy items such as anvils and the like. He shrugged as the imagination cloud disappeared, "what could possibly go wrong?" Lightning suddenly hit the umbrella Conrad was holding, frying him to an ashy black.
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Meanwhile, Bani was walking down the hall when she crossed paths with her favorite teacher, Pepe Le Pew, who seemed quite cheerful and greeted her with a sing-song tone. "Smile young mademoiselle, for it is a beautiful day and amour is in the air!" The skunk paused, taking in the rabbit's scent, which surrounded her in a semi-transparent brown smoke. His own green-purple fumes didn't seem to affect her as she was encased in her own scent. "By the way, I notice you like perfumes, what is this lovely scent you wear today."
"It's chocolate perfume," Bani pulled a large bottle from her backpack.
"May I try it? You know I like to stay up to date on what my students like," Pepe seemed to be getting an idea.
"Sure," Bani handed the bottle to Mr. Le Pew.
The skunk proceeded to cover every inch of his body in perfume and handed the empty bottle back to his rabbit student, "merci beaucoup!"
"You're welcome?" Bani put the empty bottle back in her backpack and went on her way.
Pepe continued in the opposite direction, now surrounded by a semi-transparent brown smoke. He turned the corner and saw Penelope heading out of a classroom, walking towards the faculty office. He walked towards her confidently, "good afternoon mademoiselle Penelope."
Penelope detected the scent of chocolate and was suddenly strongly attracted to Pepe. Her heart pounded loudly, its silhouette appearing on her chest. She tackled Pepe and showered him with kisses.
Feeling overwhelmed, Pepe attempted to break free of Penelope's tight embrace, "mademoiselle, control yourself!" Pepe ran away in a panic with Penelope chasing after him in a calm yet speedy pace.
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Bani had since remembered that the tennis club was meeting after school that day and hurried to the court. Unknown to her, she was being secretly followed by Conrad, who hid behind a tennis ball machine. Bani began to look for her tennis racket in her backpack, throwing things over her shoulder as she dug around. She tossed an anvil backwards, which landed behind the tennis ball machine on Conrad's head, causing yellow stars to spin around his head. He stumbled out from behind the machine dizzy from the hit. Bani tossed a portable hole over her shoulder which landed near a bench right on Conrad's dizzy path. He fell in and landed in the basement below with a loud crash.
Bani finally found her tennis racket and tossed her open backpack on the bench, then ran off to take her position on the court next to Fifi, opposite to Babs and Shirley. Conrad peeked out of the portable hole and tried to climb out, but a bowling ball rolled out of Bani's backpack on the bench and landed on his head with more stars appearing from the hit. Conrad lost his grip on the edge of the hole and fell back into the basement with another loud crash.
By the time Conrad made it out of the basement and was back at the indoors sports court, the girls were focused on their tennis match. He hid behind a tennis ball, disappearing completely behind its small size. He reached out with one hand and gave the small ball a push. The tennis ball rolled closer to the limits of the court with Conrad still invisible behind it. He peeked out and gently lifted the painted line on the sports court, crawling under it. A small bump a fraction of the size of Conrad moved along the painted lines of the court. The sneaky raccoon ran into one of the poles holding up the net on each side of the court with yellow stars jumping out of the tiny bump under the painted line. He passed to hiding behind the thin pole and again under the painted line on the other side.
Conrad made his way closer to Bani, unsure of what he was supposed to do; he only knew he should chase her. Then suddenly, Elmyra entered the gym. Sweetie, who was perched on one of the poles holding up the net to get a better view of the game to keep score, spotted Elmyra, who was carrying a tray full of cookies and announced, "cookie alert!"
"I baked these during home economics and thought I should share with my fluffy little friends," Elmyra explained, which caused the girls to abandon their game and rush over to get some cookies. They stepped on the court line as they ran, under which Conrad was.
Battered, Conrad crawled out from under the line and left the tennis court, realizing that girls were deadlier than he thought. Perhaps he was not ready for this, maybe he should just let things flow naturally, then everything will possibly work out on its own...
End?
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Profiles
Name: Bani Bunny
Gender: female
Species: anthropomorphic rabbit
Appearance: A white rabbit with light blue hair in a ponytail, pink nose and inner ears and dark eyes. She wears an indigo blue skirt and a sky blue tshirt with a yellow exclamation sing on it.
Likes: perfume, chocolate, sci-fi movies, RPG and racing videogames
Dislikes: homework, food without chocolate syrup
Relatives: Buster Bunny (cousin), unnamed mother and father who work at a convenience store gas station at Highway City
Closest Friends: Buster Bunny, Babs Bunny, Fifi La Fume, Shirley the Loon, Elmyra Duff
Romantic interest: Conrad Raccoon, Johnny Pew (celebrity platonic crush)
Favorite Teacher: Pepe Le Pew
Best Subject: Cartoon Props (handling anvils, portable holes and the like), Smellology (related to scents)
Worse Subject: Wild Takes (exaggerated expressions, she tends to fall short)
Extracurricular Activities: tennis club
Toon Talents: Advanced Mallet Space (can easily store and retrieve large items from small spaces and pull just about anything from behind her back at will), Nose-eye coordination (the ability to both smell and see scents)
Character Type: The innocent background character who ends up causing accidental trouble or triggering chain reactions without realizing it. Her appearances often include the use of cartoon props and she is sometimes unaware of the damage caused.
Most Common Scenarios: Searching for something and causing an avalanche of random items to pop out of a small space, which bury the unsuspecting victims. Tossing away an anvil or dropping a portable hole which causes trouble for bystanders, often without her noticing.
xoxox xox xoxox
Name: Conrad Raccoon
Gender: male
Species: anthropomorphic raccoon
Appearance: A gray raccoon with white over his mouth and the bottom of his face, chest and tummy. He has a black mask shape over his blue eyes and black rings on his long gray fluffy tail. Wears a sleeveless black hoody. Like with many of the TT characters, the use of pants is reserved for rare special occasions.
Likes: being optimistic, detective movies, platformer video games
Dislikes: bad luck, tests
Relatives: Con Raccoon (grandfather) unknown to Conrad, his grandfather is in reality the legendary Don Con, a famous burglar that stole many priceless artifacts and was never caught. He has since retired and lives peacefully, but still keeps a nearly endless supply of stolen goods in secret storages in the large basements under his shop. Most of the antiques he sells are items 'long since thought lost' that no one seems to realize are the many things he stole and accumulated during his youth. He lives at an unnamed 'far away city'. He raised Conrad, as the whereabouts of his parents are unknown.
Closest Friends: Max Montana, Kentarii Fox
Romantic Interest: Bani Bunny
Favorite Teacher: Sylvester Pussycat
Best Subject: Sneaky Tactics (hiding in impossibly small places, under painted lines, under people's shadows, etc.), Hard Knocks (he has an unfortunate natural talent for this)
Worse Subject: Outwitting (avoiding traps and heeding warnings isn't his strong point)
Extracurricular Activities: pretending to be a 'bad boy' by hanging out with Max and his gang at the Looneyversity rooftop.
Toon Talent: Hiding and sneaking (he can hide completely behind anything regardless of size and has even mastered the advanced ability to hide behind moving shadows), hard knocks (the ability to take hits)
Character Type: An unfortunate optimist with potential to be featured on a few of his own little episodes in which he ends up suffering from bad luck, usually due to ignoring warnings.
Most Common Scenarios: Being accidentally hit by heavy objects while hiding. Ignoring a warning and suffering the consequences.
xoxox xox xoxox
Name: Kentarri "Ken" Fox
Gender: male
Species: kitsune (alien anthropomorphic fox)
Appearance: A tall brown fox with a black nose and white in his inner ears, over his mouth and the tip of his tail. Usually wears blue jeans and black boots.
Likes: violent movies, food, fighting videogames
Dislikes: tests, girls
Relatives: none known
Closest Friends: Max Montana, Conrad Raccoon
Romantic Interest: no one, he thinks girls have cooties, (ironically he'll grow up to be rather flirty, but that is a story of another fandom)
Favorite Teacher: none
Best Subject: Cartoon Fights
Worse Subject: Wild Takes (exaggerated expressions, he tends to get stuck)
Extracurricular Activities: Playing sidekick for Max Montana
Toon Talent: ninja aura (the ability to adapt to any fighting style, from megaton punches to gift wrapped bombs, to kitchen sink tossing and beyond)
Character Type: A background character who plays the part of the antagonist's sidekick. He inexplicably shifts from smart to stupid and back again as needed to make the scenes work out.
Most Common Scenario: Making a smart comment, doing something stupid, saying something stupid, then surprisingly outwitting the situation.
xoxox xox xoxox
Disclaimer, I don't own Tiny Toons or Bubsy. The quote "what could possibly go wrong?" is a reference to Bubsy. Bani and Conrad are my original characters. Kentarii is also an original character, he appears in a few of my Atomic Betty stories when he's older.
Being the new student is never easy. Especially when you become public enemy number one for reasons unknown to you and your secret crush has a very contrary split personality.
Chapter 01: An Encounter with Prince Charming
It was another normal day for me when something unusual happened. As they say, adventure strikes when you least expect it and by the time you realize what's going on, if your reflexes are as slow as mine, it's already over. I was left with only a small clue, Acme, but to understand the significance of that word, you must know my story from the start.
My name is Bani Bunny and yes, I do have a relation with Buster Bunny, who is my cousin. My fur is mostly white, though my eyes are the same dark color as my cousin's and my hair matches the shade of blue of his fur. Unlike Buster who lives in a land of vast green fields and tall buildings, my home city has only tall buildings and wide highways with very narrow sidewalks. I grew up as a city rabbit so I find my cousin's underground home to be both odd and cozy, but strange none the less. That aside, let's go back to the main event that changed my life...
xoxox xox xoxox
It's Sunday evening and I'm in my room located on the seventh floor of an apartment building at Highway City. With little commerce, even less apartments and no actual houses, this is mostly a place for cars to drive by on their way to somewhere else. It is a milestone, never a destination. While the car fumes invade the air through my open window, to the sound of the anger of those trapped in a traffic jam outside, I clean my closet.
I wish I had something better to do on a Sunday evening, but I have been procrastinating to clean my closet for far too long, living only off the clothes I keep in my dresser just to avoid the cluttered closet. Then again, everything about my room is cluttered. It's small, because the apartment is small, possessing only two bedrooms, a bathroom and another room that's a mix between kitchen, dinning room and living room. My father manages a gas station near by, refueling the many cars, trucks and vehicles that drive by. There's a small convenience store attached to it that my mother tends to. I get stuck helping out at times too, but I am mostly a full time student.
The walls of my room are decorated with posters of various teen magazine celebrities of different species to cover the dull white walls and provide eye candy. As a shy and distracted daydreamer I stare at them a lot, but right now I'm staring at my closet door. Taking a deep breath, I open the door, big mistake. I am greeted by an avalanche of random items that quickly buries me and fills my room, leaking into the narrow hallway by my open door and defying all the laws of physics because all of that somehow came from my tiny closet. The closet was stuffed in such a way that the impulse of the clutter being suddenly released sends various items flying.
Unfortunately, one of those flying objects is my souvenir anvil from last year's anvil exhibition. It is somehow thrown out the window with a sickening crash that can only make me assume it hit something, or someone, hard. I should be hiding, but instead I rush out of the apartment and to the elevator. I make it to the first floor and step into the narrow sidewalk to see a white limousine with a hole on top. I shyly step forward, not realizing how stupid I am to accept the guilt, though I could have gotten away with remaining undiscovered. "I'm so sorry!"
As I apologize I see that the one who's limo I damaged and received a hit to the head from the anvil, is a human boy around my age. He seems utterly confused and disoriented, but soon returns my anvil, "is this yours, miss?" That's odd, he sounds almost happy?
"Yes, I'm really, really sorry, it was an accident!" I continue to apologize profoundly while I feel my face heat up, I must admit he's handsome. "I'll pay for the damages... somehow." I know I probably can't afford it, even if I ask for an advance in my allowance.
"It's okay, why don't you come to dinner with me?" His offer left me in shock. Maybe that hit to the head was harder than I thought.
"Um... okay..." I had never ridden on a limousine before, nor had I been in the presence of such a handsome young man. I shifted uncomfortably all the way while he tried to make conversation.
"What's your name?" He asked looking a bit unsure, yet somehow excited.
"Bani, my name is Bani bunny and yours?" I shifted in the plush seat of the limo and stared at my feet.
"I am..." A sudden pain seemed to invade him as he held his head. "I am..." He closed his eyes tightly and tried to push the pain away.
"Its okay, if it hurts you don't need to talk," I tried to comfort him though I felt helpless to do so.
He shook his head as if trying to clear it. "Why don't you tell me more about yourself? What do you like?"
"The usual, music, movies, videogames, I especially like RPGs and racing games, and sci-fi movies. For music, I like rock best, people say they never would have guessed and..." I fall silent, I may be mostly shy, but when people ask me a direct question that I easily know the answer to, I tend to ramble.
"Perfume?" He inquires ending my silence.
"Oh yes, I love perfume, I collect them," I pause suddenly feeling even more self conscious, "is the scent too strong?"
"Not at all, it's really nice," our conversation continues in such a way until the traffic jam finally moves and we make it to a restaurant in the outskirts of Highway City.
The restaurant is a fancy place where everyone seems to know the human who invited me there and refer to him as sir despite being in his teens. They find us a nice table and he encourages me to order anything I want saying it's his treat, for which I feel kind of guilty. "I hit you with an anvil, why are you being so nice to me?" The anvil in question I had since put away making it vanish behind my back, don't ask me how I can do this, I just can.
"That was an accident, besides, you're... really cute," he actually blushed as he said this, which made my face turn scarlet.
"Thank you," I managed to whisper, hiding shyly behind the menu. I ended up having the most delicious plate of carrot lasagna I have ever tasted with carrot cheesecake for dessert and carrot lemonade to drink, all of this is with chocolate syrup sprayed on each thing, because I love chocolate covered carrot based foods.
I mostly talked about myself during dinner, since my 'date' if I can even dare to think of him as such, seemed to get a headache whenever he tried to talk about himself. In the end, he took me home and we talked some more on the way.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the guts to ask for his number or email and apparently he was too distracted by his headache to ask for mine, if he even really wanted it. As he left, he rolled down the window of his limo and tried to speak to me one last time, but the headache attacked him again and all he could say was, "Acme," before the driver went away, presumably to take him home.
That night I couldn't stop thinking about him and I did an online search for the word 'Acme' which seemed so familiar that I was certain I had heard it before. I was right, I had in fact heard that word before, Acme Looneyversity was where my cousin Buster went to school. Was the human boy a classmate of his? If my cousin knew him or not didn't matter, Acme was my only clue and I simply had to see him again. Hopefully his headache would be out of the way by then and I will be able to learn more about him. Tomorrow I'll transfer to Acme!
xoxox xox xoxox
Chapter 02: The Road to Change
It's so early that I'm falling asleep on my feet. Last night I talked to my parents when they arrived late from their seven day work week. I insisted that I wanted to transfer to Acme Looneyversity and I had already spoken to my aunt, who said she would be all too happy to have me over. My parents didn't present much of an argument and provided that I behaved well at my cousin's house, they let me go. I took a taxi when it was still dark and arrived at Buster's home just as he was getting ready for school.
When I was led into the underground house, shyly following my aunt as she called, "Buster, come help Bani with her luggage!" It all finally sunk in that I was in a new place where I didn't know anyone except my cousin. We were close as kids when my family used to live in the suburbs of Acme City, but have spoken little since then.
Buster showed me to my room, immediately treating me as a sister who had been a part of his life the whole time. "You can unpack later, you should probably head to school extra early today to take care of your transfer papers."
Then I realized that it was a bit too early to be going to school and immediately apologized, "sorry about that. They made you get up early so you could show me the way to school early, right?"
"Not really," Buster smiled, "the boys' basketball team has a field trip today so I had to be there extra early anyway to get everyone organized and make sure we don't miss the bus, I'm the captain after all."
I smiled back trying to be as carefree as he is, "that's good."
"Let's go have some carrot pancakes before we go, mom made a big breakfast today." After spending the night doing online research, printing transfer papers to fill and then riding on a taxi cab, the thought of a good meal was only second to the thought of a soft pillow.
I knew there was no time to sleep so I ate some delicious carrot pancakes, my aunt remembered my love of chocolate and gave me some syrup to put on them. Afterwards, I quickly got ready for my first day as a student in Acme Looneyversity. I rushed to shower and change, grabbed my bag with my previously packed transfer papers and my notebooks and school supplies from my old school, then rushed to meet Buster outside of the rabbit hole.
"Still getting used to the ladder?" Buster teased as he extended his hand to help me out.
"Yeah," I admitted, "I'm used to having an elevator," and living several stories above ground. "This place is different, it's a well known big city, but it has a lot of open spaces too, trees and stuff." Admittedly I've never been one to care for nature, it feels a bit awkward not to be surrounded by traffic signs, but if I am to stay here for who knows how long in crazy pursuit of a crush, I'll have to get used to not having a sign pointing me in the right direction all the time. This means I'll actually have to develop a sense of direction of my own, since the ability to read no longer guarantees that I'll be able to get to the right place. "It's kind of quiet too."
"We're early today, but tomorrow you should see people leaving their houses and gathering at the bus stop to catch the second bus." Though I'm sure such an atmosphere might be relatively noisy for Buster, I'm sure it'll still be quiet for me.
This place, it doesn't have the scent of burning rubber or processed fuel. It lacks the sound of loud horns and the words of frustration of the morning, midday and evening rush hours, which seem to last all day and night in Highway City. It's so quiet it might be peaceful, but for a city rabbit it's almost eerie.
Buster must have noticed my discomfort as we got into the nearly empty bus, but he doesn't seem to know what it's about. "Don't worry, Acme Looneyversity is a great place. I'm sure you'll get used to it and make friends in no time. I won't be able to stay today, the basketball team will leave pretty early, sorry about that."
"It's okay; you don't have to worry about me." I don't want to be a drag on my cousin or make him feel like he's stuck with me.
"So, what made you want to transfer? Was it academics or wanting a change of scene?" Buster seemed to have been curious about this all along.
I couldn't very well tell him that I transferred because I had a crush on some handsome, rich, charming young man I just met. Maybe that wasn't my reason after all anyway; maybe it was my lack of friends back home as most people around Highway City were older. I was home schooled in a sense, but not in my own home, rather a lady from our apartment building acted as the teacher for all the students in our city, who were very few. Maybe seeing what kind of people exist in other cities was the push I needed. "A change of scene mostly, but I'll make the best of it academically since I'm already here and all." This reminds me that I'll probably have a hard time keeping up with a more full and active curriculum, my past teacher was rather lenient and gave mostly open book tests.
"Really? Don't you miss your friends?" Buster curiously asked.
"Not really, most people were..." Snobs who spent class putting on makeup and troublemakers who cut class more often than not. "Not my type of crowd. There aren't a lot of people my age in Highway City, it's just a cluster of roads and shortcuts leading to every other place," as if the city itself wants to provide an escape route away from it. "There are just gas stations, convenience stores and the few other commercial places are on the outskirts, but they're not really hang outs."
"If that's the case, it's no wonder you wanted a change of scene," Buster laughs, "I can't imagine not having a place to hang out. You'll love it here."
"I have high hopes," so what if my silly chase doesn't lead me to my prince? Either way, I think this is all for the best.
The bus stops and we exit it. The Acme Looneyversity building stands tall and proud though it is devoid of the crowds of students I imagine must gather in front of it later. Buster shows me to the faculty office so I can turn in my paperwork. "I'll come by a little later. I need to sort some things out for the basketball team trip."
"Sure, thanks Buster, see you later." Feeling both nervous and excited, I enter the faculty office, which is already buzzing with activity. Teachers are talking and drinking coffee, with some already absorbed in their lesson notes.
"Ah, le aroma is quite lovely, mademoiselle, you are a new student, yes?" One of the teachers sees me wondering around and speaks to me. Good thing he did because I had been invaded by shyness and probably would have just continued to stand around until someone asked me why I was here.
"Yes, sir, um... thank you," I hand my papers, which I had printed from the Acme Looneyversity website and filled up last night. They must have gotten my application in the system and were informed of it when they logged in at work. Now they just needed to collect the actual paper-paper work with a few signatures, which I just handed to the skunk professor.
Though skunks are supposed to smell bad, that's not the case right now, maybe it's true that skunks only smell bad upon feeling strong emotions. Either way I love perfume and can rarely smell any scents beyond what I'm wearing, since I wear plenty, but I still see scents when they are present.
"You are all set, mademoiselle," I am brought back to attention when the skunk hands me a paper with my class schedule. This entire transfer process was much shorter and hassle free than I imagined. Or at least I thought so until he gave me the bad news. "Unfortunately, since your previous school was not on the same curriculum as ours," I'm sure that's a nice way to say I'm way behind academically, "you must pass a few exams to make sure you are ready. If you pass, you can continue in your current grade." He didn't even have to say that if I didn't, I would be bumped down or even booted, my expression told him that I knew the consequences of failure and he added, "do not worry young mademoiselle, you may be tutored by other students during study hall and you may even come to the classroom after class to be tutored by the teachers." He must have seen my still present worry because he offered, "I can tutor you myself if you wish, I am in classroom 107 after the last period." He holds out his hand in a friendly gesture probably in hopes of reassuring me. "Professor Pepe Le Pew, at your service, mademoiselle...?"
I take his hand formally "Bani Bunny, nice to meet you..." He places a kiss on my hand in some odd greeting out of a fancy movie and I can't help it but to be reminded of my celebrity crush, Johnny Pew.
xoxox xox xoxox
Chapter 03: Public Enemy Number One
I left the faculty office with my schedule on hand. I have tests to worry about, but I'll try to stay positive. I'll ask to borrow Buster's books until I get my own and hopefully he took good notes in class because I don't want Professor Le Pew to think I'm not making an effort to get the material by showing up to be tutored empty handed.
Right at the end of the hall I saw Buster and he noticed me. We met half way and I showed him my schedule. We discussed the classes and the way each professor taught as we walked. Following Buster's pace, I was led back to the front of the Looneyversity, after a short stop at his locker to retrieve the notes I would borrow. Our destination was now more active than before with students hanging around and sitting on the steps talking in couples or little groups.
A bus waited at the bottom of the steps with a few boys already inside, among them a green duck, a purple tasmanian, a pig and several others. "If you get lost, just ask anyone, people here are pretty friendly, except Max and his crew," Buster's warning had little meaning to me since I didn't know who this Max was. "Watch out for Elmyra too, she's friendly, but sometimes too friendly," I'm not sure what he means by that. "I wish I could show you around, but the bus is leaving soon."
"It's okay," I insist, though I don't quite feel okay and would love to have the familiarity of at least one person I know, who also knows his way around here. Unfortunately, there are no traffic signs to guide me down the endless halls of Acme Looneyversity, but at least the classrooms are numbered so I should be fine. "I'll be okay, don't worry, enjoy your trip."
"Enjoy your first day as the new student," Buster gave me a hug, just like when we were little kids. As always, he's far more social and confident than I am. I returned the gesture and watched him get on the bus.
I noticed the green duck casually swinging his arm around Buster's shoulders on the bus and punching his arm playfully as if wanting to coax a secret out of him by way of teasing, but their conversation was lost to me. As I glanced back at the Looneyversity stairs, I saw a pink rabbit who had seemingly stopped cold in the middle of them storm back up. I'm not sure what her problem was, but it was none of my business anyway, or so I thought.
The bell rang and I made my way to my first class among the crowds of students. I was almost late, but made it just on time to go inside the classroom with the last small cluster of students that made their way inside. I showed the teacher my schedule and was pointed towards an available seat.
At first I thought I was saved from having to introduce myself, until the yellow canary announced my presence and made me go up to the front of the classroom again. Apparently Professor Bird was only giving me a chance to drop off my bag at my seat because he intended to make me stand in front of the class for a good while, answering basic questions. "Tell the class your name, where you're from and your dreams for the future!"
I twitched listening to the dreaded request spoken in the most cheerful voice I had heard as of yet. It makes me wonder if Mr. Bird had some happy seeds this morning for breakfast or if he's always this cheerful. "Um... My name is Bani," I noticed the pink rabbit from before glaring at me from her seat. "I come from Highway city and in the future I... I... um..." I haven't thought about the future at all.
"Yes, don't be shy?" Mr. bird encouraged.
"I'm still figuring that out?" I nearly squeaked unsure. This prompted Mr. Bird to give a speech about the future, hopes and dreams and what not, all while he had not even dismissed me to my seat and I didn't know how to sneak back to it. Needless to say, it was mortifying.
After I finally managed to sit down and class continued, I thought everything was fine. That was until I got up at the end of class and realized the pink rabbit girl kept glaring at me, what's her problem? The rest of my day wasn't much better; Professor Sam assigned me an essay, fifty pages, due tomorrow. I knew I should expect the worse according to Buster's warning, but fifty pages for the next day is ridiculous. He said it was to help me catch up with class since I was new, I think Buster's right about him not liking rabbits.
To top it all up I had a series of bad things happen to me, such as doors being 'accidentally' thrown in my face along with a good among of 'unintentional' pushing and shoving in the hallways with the pink rabbit suspiciously near by. I also noticed that as the day went by, more girls were glaring at me including a blond duck and a purple skunk among others. Buster only told me to watch out for Max and his crew, but the entire female population of the school can't be his crew! That kind of harem comedy only happens in anime and this is a cartoon... well a cartoon fanfic, but you get the point!
On the subject of Max, whose identity is still a mystery to me, I overheard some students talking about him. Apparently he was absent for a few days during which he left the city. Because of that, he missed the try outs last week that would determine who from the basketball club would form the official team to go on the trip Buster went on. They said they were expecting some guy named Hampton to miss out, but with Max not present to take the test, he was left out of the team. Apparently he didn't realize the try outs were over until he came to school today and was angry to have missed a chance to compete with Buster.
Other than that, Buster seems to be well liked, but I have not revealed my relation to him, since I would feel like I'm using him if I do. I just can't figure out what makes everyone, the girls especially, hate me. I sigh and head over to classroom 107 to meet Mr. Le Pew for my after school tutoring. I'm already exhausted and it's only Monday!
xoxox xox xoxox
Chapter 04: Out of Place
My Tuesday started off with a bowl of Carrot Crunchies with chocolate syrup and the promise of torture haunting my insecurities. I know I must sound like a quitter, being ready to thrown in the towel so soon, but maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Buster is still not back, since the boys will be staying over in a neighboring city for a few days to play basketball with another school.
I'm taking the second bus today, since there is no reason to be at school extra early. As I wait at the bus stop, I feel the angry looks of other students, who still seem to hate me for no reason. The bus arrives and the students rush in almost trampling me in the process. I manage to get on the bus at last, but all the seats are somehow taken. It's not that the bus is full to capacity, but rather people and their bags are somehow taking up all the space and I feel that it's on purpose.
"You need to sit down," the bus driver, a gruff sounding muscular white dog growls impatiently. "I have a bus route to cover and all passengers need to be seated."
"There's no room," the pink rabbit called out from her position stretched out on one of the seats. If she and her friends were sitting, instead of laying on the seats, there would be plenty of room.
"She needs to like catch the next bus," a blond duck adds.
"If there's no room you can take the next ride, off you go." Loosing his patience and blaming the delay solely on me, the bus driver pushed me out towards the door. I trip getting off the bus and land face first on the ground outside as the bus drives away.
I get up and dust myself off; I'm beginning to hate Acme City. It looks like such a friendly place, yet it's anything but. I don't want to think this way, but what if Buster lied to me? He said everyone was friendly, and no one is. Was he lying about Max too? I am yet to run into him, but if all of this is a lie, then maybe the one Buster told me was mean is the only nice one. Furthermore, I haven't seen my crush anywhere and I don't think a silly instant crush is worth all this anyway, I wouldn't even go through all this trouble for Johnny Pew!
As I walk to school instead of waiting for the third bus, which will arrive too late anyway, I can think of nothing more than how much I regret coming here.
I finally arrive at Acme Looneyversity and as I guessed, I'm late. I run down the halls towards my first class and spot a puma janitor up ahead transporting a pile of props on a cart, an anvil on the very top of the pile. I dash to the side to dodge the janitor and his cart, but find myself bumping into a different obstacle. Another student had been running in the opposite direction, but the cart was blocking my view and I didn't see him. He tried to dodge the obstacle as he ran down the hall in the same way I did, which put us in a collision course.
As we bumped into each other and were thrown aside, the janitor expressed his disapproval and fought to balance the props on the cart, which he unintentionally nudged with the startle of our collision. The anvil on top of the pile of props fell down and landed on the other student's head.
"I'm sorry!" I apologized still in a daze, then I realized something. It was him! The human boy I had been chasing!
I ignore the janitor as he scolds us while taking back the anvil and placing it among the props in the cart. He demands a hall pass which neither of us produces and swiftly pushes us to the principal's office, abandoning the cart in the middle of the hallway.
My reflexes are rather slow so I just get pushed along. As for the mystery boy who said 'Acme,' he's still a bit dazed from the anvil hit to the head and doesn't quite come to until we're both at the Principal's office with a gray rabbit having a short conversation with the puma janitor. "Thanks Pete, I'll take it from here."
The janitor exists the office, leaving us with the principal whose name plate on the desk reads 'Bugs Bunny'. "Max Montana, after cutting class for several days last week you came back to hang out in the roof, attending only a few of your classes and today you're not only late, but also causing calamities in the hallway."
I stare at the confused looking human boy who seems to be, understandably, suffering from a terrible headache. He's Max, that's my mystery man? Now I know Buster was lying and it breaks my heart to think my dear cousin, who seemed so nice and trust worthy, would do this to me. Shifting uncomfortably under my stare he voices a barely audible, "I'm sorry; I'll try to behave better from now on."
Mr. Bunny's jaw drops, the bottom literally hitting the desk as his eyes grow to ten times their size and shrink again to their normal size. He picks up his stretched jaw and pushes it up, adjusting it in place. "Yes, well, you do that." He then picks up a slip of paper and writes in it, handing it to Max. "Here's a pass, go to the nurses' office."
"I'm not really injured or anything, sir," Max protests.
Mr. Bunny shakes his head, "listen Max, you have to take care of your health. You may be young, but you're obviously sick." I'm not sure why he's so adamant on that conclusion.
"Yes, sir, I'll go now," Max accepts the slip of paper and gives me one final shy look before delighting my pupils with a charming smile as if remembering something that gave him confidence. Without another word, he promptly leaves the office.
The principal sighs as he shakes his head in worry, "poor kid," he mutters under his breath. Honestly, Max's hit to the head didn't seem that bad, I think he'll be fine. Maybe he's an anvil jinx or something, but I still don't understand why the principal thinks Max is so terribly ill. Maybe there's something I don't know, I hope Mr. Bunny is just overreacting and Max is alright. "Now then miss..."
"Bani Bunny," I quietly reply.
"No relation," the principal chuckles. "This is your second day here, isn't it?" The principal clicks on something on the computer, probably my record. "A transfer from Highway City, previously in independent studies..."
"Sorry I was late, I um..." I didn't think it was a good idea to tell the principal about the bus incident, complaining to the principal felt cowardly. Instead, I just trail into an uncomfortable silence.
"You got lost?" Mr. Bunny offers, "it happens to everyone, it's tough being the new kid so I'll let it slip." He writes something on a piece of paper and hands it to me. It appears to be a note excusing me for my lateness. "There, just tell your teacher you were taking care of some official transfer business at my office; try not to be late in the future."
I'm glad the principal decided to let me off the hook, "thank you, sir," I reply formally and scurry out of the office. When my lunch break arrives, I intend to search the school upside down until I find Max.
xoxox xox xoxox
Chapter 05: The Great Anvil Enigma
Lunch time couldn't have come soon enough. It's not that I'm particularly hungry, but rather, I have a mission. From what I heard this morning at the principal's office, Max likes to hang out on the roof. It seemed like a good place to start my search, so I'm making my way up there right away, if I can find my way there that is.
In my search I turn a corner and almost run into a purple skunk who glares at me. "Sorry... excuse me, but could you tell me how to get to the roof."
The purple skunk has a 'the nerve!' expression on her face, as if one's sworn enemy just asked their eternal rival for help. Then her look changes to one of mischief which quickly dissolves into false friendliness. Every alarm in my head is screaming that I shouldn't take directions from her, but I stupidly follow as she said, "Le stairs are this way."
"Thank you," I shift in place as I eye the seemingly perfectly safe and normal stairs. They are narrow stairs, hidden behind a door that makes it look like there's nothing behind it but a utility closet.
"You are quite welcome," I sense some sarcasm in the purple skunk girl's voice as well as eagerness for... vengeance? Since she's not moving I step inside the staircase and predictably the door shuts behind me followed by the sound of items being piled in front of it.
I sigh and go up the stairs; I'm trapped so this is all I can do. Out of the dim staircase past another small door, I am greeted by the bright mid-day sun on the campus rooftop. At least I am where I wanted to be. A few feet away, facing away from me, I see Max and another male student, a tall fox boy. It seems they have not noticed me yet as they continue their conversation.
"I don't get it Max, why did you go to the nurse's office if you knew Elmyra was there? I thought you were avoiding her for some reason you won't tell me," the fox boy spoke in curious confusion.
"I told you that's none of your business," Max growled in a tone I never would imagine he would use, he seemed so much nicer. "I know Elmyra is the nurses' assistant on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but that's not the point. The thing is I don't remember going to the nurses' office. I was running down the hall and Pete was in the way hauling some cart full of props. I tried to run past him and bumped into something, I couldn't even see what or who it was before I felt a sharp pain in my head. The next thing I know I'm standing at the nurse's office holding a slip of paper excusing me from my morning classes so I can get a basic medical examination. I left as soon as I came to. I don't remember receiving the paper, which was signed by the principal. I don't remember seeing the principal that morning or walking to the nurse's office."
"That's weird," the fox boy observed, "you've been acting weird lately," he added thoughtfully. "Yesterday you were acting weird too, you kept looking over your shoulder, but there was no one there."
Max seemed to be disturbed at the reminder. "It feels like there is someone there, not really behind me, just there, in my head." He frowned in disapproval and shook his head. "Don't ask stupid questions!" He snapped, as if he didn't want to show any weakness. He looked over his shoulder, except this time there was someone there, me, and he wasn't happy to see me. "Hey, rabbit!" He stood up, followed by his fox associate. "Who said you could come here? The roof is off limits for anyone who's not invited and I didn't invite you." I was left frozen and speechless. Is he really the same boy from before, or some kind of evil twin? "I haven't seen you around school, you're new aren't you? Well rabbit, it's time you learn the rules; you're not allowed up here!" He yells into my face looking especially frustrated and enraged." I don't move, I can't react, I'm in petrified shock. "Didn't you hear me, rabbit? I told you to get lost!"
I panic and acting on instinctual self defense, I pull out an anvil from behind my back and hit Max on the head with it. The anvil remained on his head and slid off a few seconds after as he stumbled away from me.
"You'll regret that!" I became the fox's target, he looks like he's ready to pulverize me.
"Stop!" Max suddenly interferes pushing the stunned fox away. "It's okay," he hugs me, he's so soothing now, but before he was so different. How is it possible for someone to change so quickly? Does he have a split personality or something? Wait, the anvil, could an anvil to the head be the cause of all this? Is that what changes him?
The fox boy's head has since been replaced by a giant eyeball while his lower jaw is detached laying by his feet. It looks like he was so shocked he got stuck in the expression.
A pink canary girl flies by and stares, her eyes at eight times their size with her beak stretched open beyond all logical proportions. As soon as she manages to regain her normal form she flies off, diving below and, I assume, into the school. I don't know her, but I sense more trouble on its way.
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Chapter 06: A Different Person
Max's expression turned pained. He kept one arm around my shoulders and held his head with the other hand. Maybe I hit him harder than I thought. "Max?" I finally spoke in a barely audible voice.
"I... I'm..." He seemed to be unsure of what to say; almost as if there was something he wanted to voice that he couldn't. "I'm sorry for being mean to you now, I wasn't myself, I mean I..." his headache worsened as if he was having a terrible battle with himself.
"I'm stuck!" The fox boy panicked. He had picked up his lower jaw but was unable to reattach it because his head was a giant eyeball. "Max, what do I do? I'm stuck like this and you're hugging a rabbit, the world's gone crazy!"
"It's okay, Ken, I'm sure you won't be stuck forever." Max tried to encourage the fox, but only seemed to worry him more.
"Why are you being so nice, it's not like you. Do you have a fever or something?" Ken's giant eye reflected concern.
"No, that's not... I mean..." Max stumbled over his words for a moment then tried to take a firm tone. "I order you to go see the nurse right now!" However, the fox refused to move, thus Max decided to go with him.
The three of us made our way down the dim narrow stairs. The door was stuck, blocked from the outside. Ken rammed into the door until he knocked it down, causing the many items on the other side to go rocketing in every direction in the hallway.
One of the props piled against the door was a box containing a portable hole. The hole popped out of its container and skidded across the hall, landing in the path of small gray mouse, who seemed far too young to be in the school. The small mouse fell through with a cloud of dust going up from what I assume must be the basement where he landed. This event was immediately followed by a series of loud sneezes that shook the foundation of the entire building.
Max, Ken and I hurried away before we got into trouble, with me being made to tag along by Max taking my hand and running. If I wasn't in such a daze I would go back to help the poor little mouse.
We finally make it to the nurses office where Max peeks in with caution and lets out a breath of relief with a barely audible, "she's not here."
The nurse's office is the stereotypical white room with a mounted plastic skeleton, first aid supplies and a couple of small beds separated by white curtains. One of the curtains is pushed aside to reveal a red haired human girl and the pink canary I saw flying above the roof. The girl's eyes traveled to Max's hand still grasping my own, she looks like she's about to cry as she pushes past us and dashes away down the hall. The pink canary gives us a nasty glare before she decides to chase after her distressed friend.
At this point Max lets go of my hand and dons a guilty and worried expression as if he's in the middle of a mess that he doesn't know how to sort out.
Before Max can say anything, the head nurse, an elderly human lady, arrives. She glances around as if looking for her helper whom she left in charge of the office in her absence and instead takes notice of Ken's state. "Oh my, you got stuck, didn't you?"
Ken nods his giant eyeball of a head and holds up his disembodied jaw, which the nurse takes. "Don't worry about me," he interrupts, speaking normally despite lacking a mouth. "Just take care of Max, he's going insane."
"I'm not insane," Max protests.
"It's true, he was being nice to that rabbit girl, he even hugged her and held her hand and everything!" Ken dramatized, making my face turn a bright shade of red. "Here I thought he was secretly in love with Elmyra," he added in a lower voice. I realize that Elmyra must have been that red haired human girl.
"Is that so? Well, I'm glad you've made a new friend, Max," the granny-like nurse lady smiled kindly and held a magnifying glass and a mirror in front of Ken's face. The difference was that the magnifying glass was backwards, it made things appear to be smaller. She altered the distance between the glass and Ken's face moving it side by side. The visual illusion of having two smaller eyes caused Ken to instinctively follow it to regain his normal face, sans his lower jaw, which was then attached back into place. "Here you go," the nurse gave Ken a lollipop.
Ken unwrapped the sugary treat and put it in his mouth as he glanced at Max wearily. "My face can't take this, call me when you're back to normal, man," with that said, Ken left the nurse's office.
"Were you two only here to keep your friend company or does anything hurt?" The elderly nurse kindly asked. Max shifted uncomfortably as if he had something that he was embarrassed to ask about. "Come now, don't be shy," another silent pause followed until she laughed fondly. "You really are acting a little peculiarly, but I think it's a good change. I knew that I would eventually see the day when Max Montana became friends with a rabbit."
The nurse's words seemed to strike something in Max as his headache returned with such a force that his face contorted in pain. The excruciating expression was not missed by the nurse, who immediately ushered him to one of the bed while fetching a stethoscope. "Bani, you should go," Max insisted, ignoring the nurse who kept telling him to breathe deeply and not speak.
"I'm staying with you," I insisted firmly.
"No, please, go," his eyes were full of guilt and a particular kind of fear, the fear of hurting someone dear. "Please trust me, go, I'll see you later."
The bell suddenly rang, signaling the end of the lunch hour. "You should be heading to class," the nurse gently prompted. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of him here. Off you go now, you don't want to be late."
I have no choice but to leave. As I make it out the door I hear Max's voice from the nurse's office. He sounds both disoriented and angry as he questions the nurse in regards to how he got there. It's as if he's a whole different person who doesn't remember the happenings of his other self. Still too confused to deal with anything else at the moment, I rush away towards my classroom.
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Chapter 07: Not All is Fair in Love
Throughout my afternoon classes on this eventful Tuesday, I could heavily feel the tension in the air. It seems the hatred of the school's female population had increased considerably. I should be heading to classroom 107 for some tutoring from Mr. Le Pew, but I have more important things to do. Still, I doubt I could come up with a believable excuse not to show and I do need to be tutored. I drag myself over to room 107 and with my most sincerely hopeless expression I ask, "can I be excused?"
"We, mademoiselle, if you are busy today, you may be excused." Professor Le Pew cheerily agrees as he fluffs up a bouquet of wilted roses. "You only live once and must make the best of it, love is in the air!" I think he was looking for an excuse to bail out on the tutoring today; it looks like he might have a date. "Here are some useful notes for you; you can study them at home. Now if you'll excuse me, mademoiselle Penelope awaits," he picks up the bouquet and starts to walk out of the class room.
I walk along too, with no reason to stay behind, as I stuff the notes in my bag. A few passerbys outside of the classroom in the hall turn pale and run away while others faint. Then I notice it, a semi-transparent smoky stream coming from Mr. Le Pew's tail. As an avid collector and user of perfume, I can barely smell anything past my own scent. I guess that if Mr. Le Pew's er... natural odor, is acting up, he must be pretty excited about meeting Penelope.
As I watch Mr. Le Pew disappear down the hall with the semi-transparent smoke of his scent slowly dissipating into the atmosphere, I realize something. Love will not come if one does not actively seek it and what's more, all is fair in love and war, which includes anvils, right? Right! If Max has a split personality, then I'll just have to make sure the one I like becomes the dominant personality!
With such determination in mind, I head out to find Max and actually find him with surprising ease. He has chosen to rest for the rest of the day and fell asleep at the nurse's office. I greet the elderly nurse quietly and go sit by his bed behind the white curtains, watching him sleep.
I hear someone else entering the nurse's office, but I cannot see the person from my angle, and they cannot see me. A female voice than speaks. "Sorry I can't help you clean the infirmary today after school; the tennis club is having an... emergency meeting."
I peek out discretely from behind the white curtains and see her, Elmyra, the girl who ran away from the nurse's office before. She seems to still be in distress, though she's fighting to hide it. "Oh, that's alright, you help out a lot as it is, go to your tennis practice with your friends." After the nurse sent Elmyra away my thoughts shifted back to the boy sleeping on the bed, then the nurse spoke again, this time making her way to stand beside me and looking at Max. "Let's let him rest a bit longer. It's been quite a day for me, I could use an afternoon snack, I'll be back in a little while."
"Okay," I nod, glad that she's leaving so I can carry out my plans. As soon as the nurse is gone I consider the idea of hitting Max on the head with an anvil and doing so whenever it looks like he's going to turn mean. Yet something is stopping me, the image of the sad Elmyra keeps resurfacing in my mind and I can't help it but to feel bad for her. Acting almost automatically I leave the nurse's office and go search for her. I don't even notice as I leave, that Max has begun to wake up.
I see Elmyra down the hall; the school is mostly empty since classes have ended for the day. There are still students around, but they're mostly outside practicing various sports, or just hanging out. "Wait!" I call out to her before I even know what I'm going to say. "I'm... Max... he..."
She gives me a sad look, "it's okay bunny," then she pats me on the head as one would do to a dear pet. "If Maxy likes you best there's nothing I can do about it. He always has a temper and yells, but I thought he liked me deep down."
"You... put up with all that?" I ask in disbelief.
Elmyra nods, "I love my Maxy just the way he is, he doesn't need to change for me, I just want him to be happy."
I'm invaded by a strong guilt. I don't like the real Max, I like the nice and charming Max that exists only when he has received a hard blow on the head. "I won't get in your way," I finally voice. To further establish my point I take an anvil from thin air and toss it over my shoulder as if throwing it away while declaring, "I won't be needing this anymore." The sound of the anvil colliding with something echoes in the empty halls as I turn around to realize my mistake. I had accidentally hit Max on the head with an anvil again; I didn't even see him approaching down the hall behind me. "Oh no! I'm sorry, that was an accident!" Elmyra and I rush towards him.
Max rubs his aching head and returns my anvil, "this is yours, Bani." He smiles sheepishly almost as if he's glad I hit him on the head.
"Max?" Elmyra looks into his eyes, gently taking his chin to cause him to look at her. "You're not Max," she concludes to my astonishment. "This is Max's face, but the look in your eyes... Who are you?"
I watch the scene play out unsure of what to say or do. As Elmyra releases her hand from his face, Max looks away and confesses. "You're right, I'm not Max, but this is Max's body and he's still here."
For a moment my eyes grow to three times their size, but I stop myself before the expression can get too wild and my face snaps back to normal. I wouldn't want to get stuck that way. "There are two of you in there?" I inquire unsure. Two people in one body? How did that happen? I have a feeling that everything is about to be revealed.
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Chapter 08: Accidental Wish
My name is Bani Bunny, cousin of Buster Bunny and my life has taken all sorts of twists and turn in the course of three days. It all began on Sunday evening when I met a young man who seemed too good to be true, he took me out to dinner after I accidentally hit him with an anvil and we parted ways with his identity unknown to me, save for one clue, Acme.
My research led me to my cousin's alma mater, Acme Looneyversity, where I was enrolled by the next day. That Monday proved to be difficult as I, for reasons that are still a mystery to me, became public enemy number one. Things became even more complex on Tuesday when the ordeal continued and I finally ran into that boy again.
I discovered that his name is Max Montana and he's actually pretty mean. To top it all up, I stumbled into his 'turf' when he was in a particularly bad mood. Another anvil to the head and he was Mr. Nice Guy again. One thing let to another and the realization hit me, or at least that's what I thought, that Max had a split personality.
Later, Tuesday after school I became determined to use my discovery to my advantage and anvil Max on the head as many times as necessary to force the version of him I liked to surface. However, the image of a distressed Elmyra filled me with guilt and following her led to another discovery. Max apparently doesn't have a split personality; the other personality is actually someone else entirely, who is somehow inhabiting Max's body alongside the original soul.
So here I am in a nearly deserted hallway after school, waiting to listen to the explanation of the Max who isn't Max. Whoever he is, takes a deep breath and begins his explanation. "The truth is that I live far from here, I've never even been to Acme for real. Back home, my grandfather owns an antique shop. There was this lamp that he kept in storage and refused to put out for sale. I asked him about it and he explained that it had a mischievous genie that would misinterpret people's wishes and cause trouble. Even with that warning I was still curious and when grandpa was busy, I snuck into the storage and rubbed the lamp. A genie did come out and offered to grant me only one wish, claiming that he wasn't as powerful as other genies who granted three, but that I should make the best out of that one wish. I tried to keep it simple and asked for what any teenage boy would ask for." He paused and quoted himself, "I wish I was rich, handsome, noticed by other people and that I could meet and nice and cute girl." He blushed at the last part, which made me blush as well. "I don't know what happened, it felt as if I fell asleep and was dreaming. Then a sharp pain to the head made me wake up and I was different. I was a human boy in a limousine and soon after I met Bani."
The boy continued speaking through Max, "I thought the changes and my meeting her were all part of my granted wish so I tried to play along, not realizing what was going on. I tried to tell you my name," he looked at me, "my real name, but I couldn't. It's as if this body recognizes only Max as its true identity. After we parted ways I felt as if I was again falling asleep and had dreams about being a rich boy named Max Montana. Then I came to a realization, the wish didn't change me, I had somehow possessed Max. My consciousness is only in control, when Max is forcibly knocked out and these pains in my, his, head are his attempts to regain consciousness, even if he can't remember anything that happened while I was in control. I think he somehow senses my presence, but doesn't know what it is. I know it'll only cause trouble if I continue like this, but I'm stuck and don't know how to return to my own body."
While Elmyra and I remain in shocked silence, a small voice suddenly remarks, "so that's what happened." I didn't even notice the small pink canary flying near by and eavesdropping on the conversation. "If it's a problem with possession, maybe Shirley can help, she is a psychic."
"Good idea, Sweetie!" Elmyra agrees immediately and drags the possessed Max and me away.
We arrive at what appears to be a tennis club meeting, but the girls aren't really practicing right now. They almost look as if they're plotting and there's a foreboding atmosphere all around. The pink rabbit, the blond duck and purple skunk are all here.
Before the glares of the girls disintegrate me, Elmyra speaks up, "Max is possessed, he needs to be exercised!"
"You mean like exorcised?" The blond duck, who I assume is Shirley, steps forward, still giving me a distrustful sideway glance. She places her white feathered hand on Max's forehead and concentrates. "Interesting, I do feel two spirits within this body, one is the original and the other is quite different."
The assessment is followed by a repeat of the genie story, which clarifies the situation for the other girls.
Surrounded by psychic energy, Shirley begins to glow until she pulls out the semi-transparent ghost of a raccoon. Visibly exhausted, she takes a deep breath, "there, you're free to return to your own body."
"Thanks! Sorry I caused so much trouble," the ghost looks at me, "Bani..." he begins to fade away and stops what he was saying before, instead voicing "I have to go back, goodbye."
"Goodbye..." there is nothing more I can think of saying as the raccoon ghost fades away entirely, hopefully safely returning to his original body.
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Chapter 09: New Beginnings
Max is left in a daze for a few more seconds, but suddenly snaps alert and examines his surroundings. "You're back!" Elmyra gives him a bone crushing hug, truly happy to have him back to normal.
"Back from where? Let me go!" Max manages to struggle out of her vice-grip with noticeable difficulty. He pauses as if trying to sense the presence that is no longer with him and seems relieved to have seemingly gotten over what I assume he must think of as random paranoia. "I'm going home." With that announcement spoken, he exits the gym, leaving us girls as the only current inhabitants of the indoor sports court, which is currently set up with a tennis net in the middle, albeit it is also equipped with basketball hoops on each end.
"Care to explain what this is about and why she's here?" The pink rabbit points at me, clearly not happy to see me.
"Aw, let's give her a chance; she doesn't seem to be so bad!" Elmyra suggests.
This prompts me to ask the question that's been in my mind for some time. "Why do you hate me so much anyway? What did I ever do to you?"
"You were hugging Buster," the pink rabbit accuses.
"Actually, he was hugging me and what does it matter anyway? He's my cousin, he was just being nice!" I argue in return, which leaves all the girls in shock.
"Your cousin..." the pink rabbit faintly voices.
Then the purple skunk tries to put all the pieces together clearly. "You and Buster hugged because you're family and Max was acting all flirty with you because he was possessed by a confused raccoon who had been tricked."
"Then all of this wasn't you trying to steal someone else's boyfriend." The pink rabbit realized. "Wow, and we were all so mean to you. I even ignored all of Buster's calls and text messages this entire time." Embarrassed, the pink rabbit further explained, "I'm Babs, Buster's girlfriend, or I was until I assumed he was cheating on me and started ignoring him and being mean to his family. I'm really sorry, I wouldn't blame you if you tell Buster about everything when he comes back."
I consider the possibility of revealing the whole truth to Buster to get back at Babs, but ultimately decide against it. Babs does seem to be sorry for what she did and if I tell on her and make them argue, I'll be causing trouble for Buster too. I really don't want to get caught in the middle of a family versus relationship drama right out of an episode of Thirteen-Something. "I won't tell him." Just as I speak my empty stomach growls and I shift uncomfortably, "I um... skipped lunch..."
"Then let me buy you a treat!" Babs offers, followed by the agreements and apologies of the other girls.
We exchange official introductions, though I already knew some of their names as I had overheard them. Babs Bunny, no relation, is the pink rabbit and Buster's girlfriend. The blond duck is Shirley the Loon, a psychic. The pink canary is Sweetie Bird and the purple skunk is Fifi La Fume.
Elmyra, the red haired human girl happily exclaims, "I'm so glad we're all friends!" And traps us in a bone crushing group hug, Buster was right, she is dangerously friendly.
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Wednesday came and Buster and the basketball team returned. He believed that Babs had lost her cell phone, which she located just that morning and was glad she wasn't purposely ignoring him. He was also happy that I had already become friends with the girls, he never knew of the events that transpired in his absence.
As for Max, his mood seems to have improved after his personal space stopped being invaded by someone else's soul. This meaning he doesn't yell at people unless they provoke him in some way, such as crossing his path in the hallways which are there for everyone to transit anyway. In such cases he has a snide remark to throw out, but seems to have developed an unconscious fear of anvils, so waiving one around is enough to make him conveniently remember he had somewhere else he needed to be. As for his fox lackey, if the boss doesn't feel like picking a fight, then he won't pick a fight either. Overall, Max is tolerable once you learn how to deal with him, but definitely not someone I would get a crush on, though I do think Max and Elmyra are cute together.
The week kept passing by as I adapted to Acme Looneyversity, now with the support of my new friends. A new student enrolled on Thursday, but I wasn't paying attention to the introduction, secretly reading a magazine with an article about Johnny Pew.
When Friday rolled by, it was time for my tests to see if I could stay in my current grade. I wasn't the only one taking the tests; the other transfer student was taking them too. We were the only two students in the near empty classroom as Professor Pussycat handed us our papers. I feel kind of sorry for the other student who barely got time to settle in when they decided they might as well have him take the test on the same day as me. Either way, I was too focused on the peril at hand to notice him much.
When the test is finally over, the other student and I hand in our papers full of multiple choice bubbles. Mr. Pussycat runs the papers through the corrector machine which reveals that, albeit neither of us got particularly shining scores, we both passed. "Congratulations to you both!" Mr. Pussycat commends, spitting with his accent as he talks.
Thankful that it's over, we both head out of the classroom. It is the after school hour and we had to stay in for this. "That's a relief," I comment letting out a breath.
"Yeah, I'm glad it's over," the other student agrees and I realize that he's a raccoon. Why does he look familiar? I remember seeing his paper when the teacher inserted it in the machine; the name on it was Conrad Raccoon, but I was more focused on the uncertainty of my own test paper being scored next and didn't think too much of it.
"Bani!" I hear a familiar voice and see Buster, Babs, Shirley, Plucky and Fifi walking towards me down the hall and lift my hand to wave at them.
As I look back at Conrad for a moment he bids me goodbye for the day. "Your friends are here, I guess I'll see you around."
"Yeah, see you," as he leaves the realization hits me now that my brain is no longer plagued by the stress of the test. He looks just like the ghost that came out of Max, except for the part about not being a ghost.
"Hey Bani, you look like you saw a ghost!" Buster jokes, not knowing how right he is.
I laugh and pretend like nothing's going on, even if the girls follow the raccoon boy with their eyes and give me knowing looks. "It's just a post-test reaction, but I passed!"
We go off to celebrate at the local ice-cream shop and have a good time. The weekend is officially here and I know I'll have fun. Then when Monday comes, I might run into that mysterious new transfer student, Conrad, and find out if he is who I think he is. Perhaps, maybe, possibly...
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Unlike the previous chapters, this one is told by a narrator in third person.
Chapter 10: Special Episode
It had been a couple of weeks since Bani Bunny and Conrad Raccoon transferred to Acme Looneyversity. Bani was a bit shy and didn't want her previous mistakes on getting a crush too fast to be repeated, thus despite knowing who Conrad was, nothing had progressed between them beyond hanging out with their group of friends, which wasn't even all that often since by an odd twist of fate, Conrad had been dragged into Max's collection of lackeys. It all started when Conrad accidentally bumped into Max in the hall, who promptly yelled at him, "watch where you're going!"
"Oops, sorry Max, I didn't mean to run into you..." not wanting to make enemies, especially with the boy he had accidentally possessed and so soon after his transfer, Conrad gave Max some green gum, "it's green like money, your favorite kind of gum, right? Good to stick into people's lockers so they can't open them when they really need to get their homework out."
Max was taken by surprise by how well the new student knew him. It came with having lived in the back of his mind for a few days, though the time was short, hearing Max's thoughts for three days gave Conrad a clear picture about how the mischievous millionaire's mind worked. "You know what? You're pretty observant," Max concluded, being able to come up with no other explanation for the raccoon's accuracy on his tastes. Glad to have a new lackey that understood him, Max surprisingly threw his arm around his new minion and began to share his plans to cause trouble. "Welcome to the group, for today I was planning..." Thus Conrad ended up becoming the optimistic trouble maker with a tendency to ignore warnings.
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Despite it all, Conrad did want to ask Bani out, but didn't think of himself as cool enough to be liked, after all, girls liked rich guys who could shower them in presents, didn't they? But Bani wasn't really like that... Even so, Conrad was unsure, since she had not done much to show interest, having ended up with an awkward feeling after the whole situation was resolved. That brings us to our current scene, with Conrad asking his favorite teacher, Sylvester Pussycat, for advice at the classroom after school. "So you see Mr. Pussycat, there's this girl I like but don't know how to ask her out and it'll probably be a while before I can save enough to by an impressive present."
"You don't need presents," Mr. Pussycat replied spitting all over the place as he spoke.
Conrad pulled out a blue umbrella from his backpack and covered himself with it. A close up on a tag attached to the umbrella's handle read 'outdoors only'.
"You have to give chase!" Mr. Pussycat insisted, "that's how it is in love and war." As he stressed the last word, he spotted Tweety Bird flying down the hall outside the open door of the classroom and chased after him emphasizing, "it's all about the chase!"
Tweety pulled out a large mallet from behind his back and hit Sylvester with it, flattening him like a pancake. "Just make sure the one you're chasing doesn't carry big heavy items." Tweety flew away with Sylvester popping back to normal size and chasing after him.
Conrad paused to think for a moment as an imagination cloud appeared over his head depicting Bani handling various large heavy items such as anvils and the like. He shrugged as the imagination cloud disappeared, "what could possibly go wrong?" Lightning suddenly hit the umbrella Conrad was holding, frying him to an ashy black.
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Meanwhile, Bani was walking down the hall when she crossed paths with her favorite teacher, Pepe Le Pew, who seemed quite cheerful and greeted her with a sing-song tone. "Smile young mademoiselle, for it is a beautiful day and amour is in the air!" The skunk paused, taking in the rabbit's scent, which surrounded her in a semi-transparent brown smoke. His own green-purple fumes didn't seem to affect her as she was encased in her own scent. "By the way, I notice you like perfumes, what is this lovely scent you wear today."
"It's chocolate perfume," Bani pulled a large bottle from her backpack.
"May I try it? You know I like to stay up to date on what my students like," Pepe seemed to be getting an idea.
"Sure," Bani handed the bottle to Mr. Le Pew.
The skunk proceeded to cover every inch of his body in perfume and handed the empty bottle back to his rabbit student, "merci beaucoup!"
"You're welcome?" Bani put the empty bottle back in her backpack and went on her way.
Pepe continued in the opposite direction, now surrounded by a semi-transparent brown smoke. He turned the corner and saw Penelope heading out of a classroom, walking towards the faculty office. He walked towards her confidently, "good afternoon mademoiselle Penelope."
Penelope detected the scent of chocolate and was suddenly strongly attracted to Pepe. Her heart pounded loudly, its silhouette appearing on her chest. She tackled Pepe and showered him with kisses.
Feeling overwhelmed, Pepe attempted to break free of Penelope's tight embrace, "mademoiselle, control yourself!" Pepe ran away in a panic with Penelope chasing after him in a calm yet speedy pace.
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Bani had since remembered that the tennis club was meeting after school that day and hurried to the court. Unknown to her, she was being secretly followed by Conrad, who hid behind a tennis ball machine. Bani began to look for her tennis racket in her backpack, throwing things over her shoulder as she dug around. She tossed an anvil backwards, which landed behind the tennis ball machine on Conrad's head, causing yellow stars to spin around his head. He stumbled out from behind the machine dizzy from the hit. Bani tossed a portable hole over her shoulder which landed near a bench right on Conrad's dizzy path. He fell in and landed in the basement below with a loud crash.
Bani finally found her tennis racket and tossed her open backpack on the bench, then ran off to take her position on the court next to Fifi, opposite to Babs and Shirley. Conrad peeked out of the portable hole and tried to climb out, but a bowling ball rolled out of Bani's backpack on the bench and landed on his head with more stars appearing from the hit. Conrad lost his grip on the edge of the hole and fell back into the basement with another loud crash.
By the time Conrad made it out of the basement and was back at the indoors sports court, the girls were focused on their tennis match. He hid behind a tennis ball, disappearing completely behind its small size. He reached out with one hand and gave the small ball a push. The tennis ball rolled closer to the limits of the court with Conrad still invisible behind it. He peeked out and gently lifted the painted line on the sports court, crawling under it. A small bump a fraction of the size of Conrad moved along the painted lines of the court. The sneaky raccoon ran into one of the poles holding up the net on each side of the court with yellow stars jumping out of the tiny bump under the painted line. He passed to hiding behind the thin pole and again under the painted line on the other side.
Conrad made his way closer to Bani, unsure of what he was supposed to do; he only knew he should chase her. Then suddenly, Elmyra entered the gym. Sweetie, who was perched on one of the poles holding up the net to get a better view of the game to keep score, spotted Elmyra, who was carrying a tray full of cookies and announced, "cookie alert!"
"I baked these during home economics and thought I should share with my fluffy little friends," Elmyra explained, which caused the girls to abandon their game and rush over to get some cookies. They stepped on the court line as they ran, under which Conrad was.
Battered, Conrad crawled out from under the line and left the tennis court, realizing that girls were deadlier than he thought. Perhaps he was not ready for this, maybe he should just let things flow naturally, then everything will possibly work out on its own...
End?
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Profiles
Name: Bani Bunny
Gender: female
Species: anthropomorphic rabbit
Appearance: A white rabbit with light blue hair in a ponytail, pink nose and inner ears and dark eyes. She wears an indigo blue skirt and a sky blue tshirt with a yellow exclamation sing on it.
Likes: perfume, chocolate, sci-fi movies, RPG and racing videogames
Dislikes: homework, food without chocolate syrup
Relatives: Buster Bunny (cousin), unnamed mother and father who work at a convenience store gas station at Highway City
Closest Friends: Buster Bunny, Babs Bunny, Fifi La Fume, Shirley the Loon, Elmyra Duff
Romantic interest: Conrad Raccoon, Johnny Pew (celebrity platonic crush)
Favorite Teacher: Pepe Le Pew
Best Subject: Cartoon Props (handling anvils, portable holes and the like), Smellology (related to scents)
Worse Subject: Wild Takes (exaggerated expressions, she tends to fall short)
Extracurricular Activities: tennis club
Toon Talents: Advanced Mallet Space (can easily store and retrieve large items from small spaces and pull just about anything from behind her back at will), Nose-eye coordination (the ability to both smell and see scents)
Character Type: The innocent background character who ends up causing accidental trouble or triggering chain reactions without realizing it. Her appearances often include the use of cartoon props and she is sometimes unaware of the damage caused.
Most Common Scenarios: Searching for something and causing an avalanche of random items to pop out of a small space, which bury the unsuspecting victims. Tossing away an anvil or dropping a portable hole which causes trouble for bystanders, often without her noticing.
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Name: Conrad Raccoon
Gender: male
Species: anthropomorphic raccoon
Appearance: A gray raccoon with white over his mouth and the bottom of his face, chest and tummy. He has a black mask shape over his blue eyes and black rings on his long gray fluffy tail. Wears a sleeveless black hoody. Like with many of the TT characters, the use of pants is reserved for rare special occasions.
Likes: being optimistic, detective movies, platformer video games
Dislikes: bad luck, tests
Relatives: Con Raccoon (grandfather) unknown to Conrad, his grandfather is in reality the legendary Don Con, a famous burglar that stole many priceless artifacts and was never caught. He has since retired and lives peacefully, but still keeps a nearly endless supply of stolen goods in secret storages in the large basements under his shop. Most of the antiques he sells are items 'long since thought lost' that no one seems to realize are the many things he stole and accumulated during his youth. He lives at an unnamed 'far away city'. He raised Conrad, as the whereabouts of his parents are unknown.
Closest Friends: Max Montana, Kentarii Fox
Romantic Interest: Bani Bunny
Favorite Teacher: Sylvester Pussycat
Best Subject: Sneaky Tactics (hiding in impossibly small places, under painted lines, under people's shadows, etc.), Hard Knocks (he has an unfortunate natural talent for this)
Worse Subject: Outwitting (avoiding traps and heeding warnings isn't his strong point)
Extracurricular Activities: pretending to be a 'bad boy' by hanging out with Max and his gang at the Looneyversity rooftop.
Toon Talent: Hiding and sneaking (he can hide completely behind anything regardless of size and has even mastered the advanced ability to hide behind moving shadows), hard knocks (the ability to take hits)
Character Type: An unfortunate optimist with potential to be featured on a few of his own little episodes in which he ends up suffering from bad luck, usually due to ignoring warnings.
Most Common Scenarios: Being accidentally hit by heavy objects while hiding. Ignoring a warning and suffering the consequences.
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Name: Kentarri "Ken" Fox
Gender: male
Species: kitsune (alien anthropomorphic fox)
Appearance: A tall brown fox with a black nose and white in his inner ears, over his mouth and the tip of his tail. Usually wears blue jeans and black boots.
Likes: violent movies, food, fighting videogames
Dislikes: tests, girls
Relatives: none known
Closest Friends: Max Montana, Conrad Raccoon
Romantic Interest: no one, he thinks girls have cooties, (ironically he'll grow up to be rather flirty, but that is a story of another fandom)
Favorite Teacher: none
Best Subject: Cartoon Fights
Worse Subject: Wild Takes (exaggerated expressions, he tends to get stuck)
Extracurricular Activities: Playing sidekick for Max Montana
Toon Talent: ninja aura (the ability to adapt to any fighting style, from megaton punches to gift wrapped bombs, to kitchen sink tossing and beyond)
Character Type: A background character who plays the part of the antagonist's sidekick. He inexplicably shifts from smart to stupid and back again as needed to make the scenes work out.
Most Common Scenario: Making a smart comment, doing something stupid, saying something stupid, then surprisingly outwitting the situation.
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Disclaimer, I don't own Tiny Toons or Bubsy. The quote "what could possibly go wrong?" is a reference to Bubsy. Bani and Conrad are my original characters. Kentarii is also an original character, he appears in a few of my Atomic Betty stories when he's older.