Utter silence surrounded the two pandas, sitting inside the car. Nova's father was visibly upset, crossing arms while Nova showed off opposite feelings, staring at his feet, demoralized.

“Why didn't you say anything?”

“I'm sorry.”

“... I need a cigarette.” He bursted out of the car, “Do you want me to bring you something to eat?”

“Actually this time I'd like to take a walk…” Nova replied joining him.

“Alright.”

They were walking around the school building, looking for a place to sit and rest for a while. His father opened a small box that contained several cigarettes.

“Mom told you to stop smoking…” Nova said, glancing at him with one already inside his mouth.

“Isabelle tells me a lot of things. Marvin don't do that, Marvin don't do this, Marvin please stop. Right now I need to relax because I messed up…” He replied, pulling out the lighter.

He stopped and placed his paws around that small flame, trying to keeping it alive.

“Of course it had to be running out of fuel…” Marvin sighed, disappointed.

Nova wandered around the place while his father was fighting against his lighter. Lured by the voices of students he tried to get as close as possible until he met another gate.

“You don't need to feel guilty.” Marvin said, patting the head of the smaller panda shoved between the columns, “I'll bring you to the public school.”

“WATCH OUT!”

A young female voice shouted towards the two pandas but her warning came later than the danger itself.

“NOVA! HEY! LOOK AT ME!” Marvin visibly worried, pulled his phone out and called for help.

“It's ok, put it down I'll help him!”

------------

“It was just a ball.”

“It's embarrassing that someone as big got knocked out.”

“Trust me that hit was strong, I'm surprised that the guy endured it pretty good.”

“What do you mean you won't do anything about it?!”

“He stuffed his head through. It's not my business.”

“Please don't argue, I'm giving him first aid.”

“He looks alright, I mean… he's a panda if you hurt his face he turns into a black bear.”

“That's not funny.”

“Oh come on it was a good one.”

“Guys the panda's waking up! Come!”

Everything was still blurry as he slowly recovered consciousness bombarded by countless voices that were talking at each other. Nova mumbled some grunts of pain as he touched his head.

“You ok? I bandaged your forehead just to be sure but you can remove it if you want.”

He raised his body from the bench they placed him and glanced around, surrounded by several animals.

“Where am I?”

The closest one, a swan with long feathers, helped him stand, “You're in the gym area, we brought you here after the ball got you…”

“The princess looks fine, it must've been the work of his beauty sleep.” A beaver giggled, sitting on his legs.

“Natalie I told you to go easy on him…” The bird scolded, moving her away.

A lady fox walked through the crowd, stopped in front of the panda and kneeled down, “Please forgive me! I'm ashamed of myself. The thing I've done to you is horrible, ask me everything you want and I'll do it!”

Nova raised an eyebrow, confused for the fifth time. It must've been normal to feel like that in such weird environment, “I-I'm alright! Please stand up… I feel bad for you.”

“Oh my god I'm making you feel worse?! I can't apologize properly, I'm sorry I'm sorry!”

She kept bowing relentlessly until the swan stopped her for good, “Fan! Stop it! He said he forgives you, right?”

“Uh… yeah! Please no more.”

“You guys are so nice I don't deserve it…”

She fell on her knees, tears falling down her snout.

“You guys are making such a mess. It's over. He's alright. Resume the game already!” The beaver commented, annoyed.

“We can't continue unless Mrs. Peacock says otherwise…” The bird explained, looking at the panda, “Your father seemed pretty mad, I bet they are quarreling inside. You should go to him and calm him down…”

“I'll bring him there!” the fox proposed, “I must apologize somehow!”

“Sure… thanks for your help.”

The fox was quite smaller compared to the panda and she couldn't wrap him around her shoulders but she refused to let him walk by himself, forcing him to take at least her paw.

“Hey… uh… you don't have to…” He said, blushing.

“No, no, no I help you. What's wrong with your face? Do you have a fever or something?!”

“No! I'm just… disoriented, yeah. I don't know what's going on anymore.”

“You're an outsider from what I heard, that must be the reason. In here things work a bit different and I can't tell you much about it, when I enrolled here last year I felt like you.”

She walked him through the entire area. They were playing basketball and his sudden appearance froze everything. He quickly explored the surroundings, seeing every kind of animal waiting for him to go away. There was a crocodile sitting on the roof of a small locker room with an owl next to him. Nothing weird that made them stood out, the crocodile was the one holding his murder weapon.

If he ignored the fact that everyone in the area was staring at him then yes, nothing wrong.

Fan stopped in front of the stairs, finally freeing Nova's paw.

“They're inside.”

Nova didn't need a confirmation because, unfortunately, Marvin's shouts were reaching him through the blurred glass, followed by the screams of a woman. They weren't having a friendly conversation and the thought of stepping in intimidated him, but he couldn't refuse like Fan. He was the source of that mess.

“Hello… excuse me.” He said, pushing the door open.

Marvin instantly went silent and hugged his son, “Oh Nova, thank god you're ok!”

“Dad it's alright but don't squeeze me too hard, nothing happened. I fainted for a few minutes, let's just leave…”

“You're fine, that's great but it doesn't delete what happened.”

A fancy peacock walked closer, her white dress covered in black dots matched her white body dyed in a shining orange, “The guy said it himself. We offered you help to get him back on his feet. What do you want now?”

“I don't know… would be nice to have him frequent this school in exchange.” Marvin proposed with a smug on his face.

“Are you kidding me? I should enroll a random guy my student hit when he was trespassing a private area”, she nodded, mocking him, “sounds fair.”

"Audition him then! I heard the headmistress talking about some sort of test! You owe that to him for what happened!”

The peacock rolled her eyes, annoyed “Will you get out of my sight if I do?”

“Yes! Just give him a chance!”

Nova sighed, exhausted by everything that happened so far. He didn't know how to feel. Whether he should still accept what his father is doing or eventually step up stopping this. He hinted a positive answer but the panda was reaching his limits.

“Perfect. Let me quickly check if there is a slot available for us…” The peacock swiftly opened her smartphone, tapping repeatedly on it, “You're lucky. Seems like we can do this right here and now!”

“...huh?”

Nova watched as she extended her small wing towards him, “Take it and say that you challenge me.”

“What…?”

“Just do it.”

Nova reluctantly grabbed her wing, “I-I challenge you.” He blushed, shaking it slowly up and down.

“You can let me go now.”

“AH! Sorry!”

“This is going to be fun.” She smirked under her beak, finishing her preparations.

“A Jungle Madness with high priority will soon begin in the northwest section of the school. Place of the challenge : Gym. Dianne Peacock will be in charge this time as judge and challenged. The challenger is… an OUTSIDER?!”

Someone through a speaker started to talk about something related to the panda but he didn't really follow what was going on, until the voice cracked in surprise at the end and the entire school shaken down at its core. It was the only signal he was able to grasp; what was happening was something out of the ordinary, for what their definition of ordinary could be.

“Please follow me back to the place where they were playing basketball. That's the place of your challenge.” She said, swapping her smartphone with a remote.

There wasn't a description to explain how lost he felt when he walked outside. The students that were there tripled in a few seconds and the numbers keep growing. They all gathered there as if a show was about to start, making him feel pressured.

“What's going on…?” Nova cried out.

“It would be too long to explain.” Dianne replied, clicking on the remote, “Just wait for the challenge, win it if you can and then maybe you'll get some answers.”

“Hey panda!” The fox ran at him, “I heard the speakers talking about you! Don't tell me you challenged her please I beg you!”

“I-I have no idea what are you talking about!”

“Ok, did she ask you to take her wing and say I challenge you?”

Nova slowly nodded, making the fox going insane.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE CHALLENGED A TEACHER!”

“CAN YOU STOP TELLING ME THINGS I CAN'T UNDERSTAND?!”

“BASICALLY SHE CAN DECIDE THE CHALLENGE IF YOU'RE THE ONE WHO ASKS HER!”

“... is it bad or?”

“OF COURSE IT IS. SHE HAS THE ADVANTAGE TO MAKE YOU DO EVERYTHING SHE WANTS AND-"

“FAN SHUT UP RIGHT NOW.” Dianne walked at her and slapped the fox with her feathers, “That's enough otherwise you'll end up helping him. You're forbidden to say more.”

“Well…” She patted his shoulder, “Try to do your best ok? I'll be watching you from my seat.”

“Thank you?” Nova, to prevent his mind from blowing up, accepted to go with the flow until the moment his facade definitely crumbled and wasn't going to come back.

The basketball area disappeared, the terrain morphed right in front of his eyes. The open area it was now became some sort of arena. All the students, teachers and whoever was inside the school filled every seat. The ceiling appeared, covering the sky and dropping down weird platforms. They were floating in the air thanks to a chain that balanced them out. It looked like a huge spiral staircase but extremely unstable to whatever will touch them.

“Dad…”

“Nova it's ok you can do this! It doesn't look that bad.”

“Attention everyone!” Dianne spoke through a microphone, allowing everyone to listen to her speech, “Today we have a special event! An outsider challenged me, a teacher! He got caught up into an accident in the middle of my substitution lesson and he requested me to offer him a chance to be enrolled here as official student. What do you all think? Does it sound fair?”

The audience replied with several, countless comments and all of them were negative. Nova felt their eyes on him. They wanted to hurt him if they had the chance.