“That damn bird is turning everyone against my son.” Marvin said, munching his thumb, “Don't let her get through you. It's going to be alright.”

“Yeah…”

“If I win instead they will simply leave, because I was at fault when the young panda was trespassing inside a private space where it wasn't meant for him.”

Her words completely controlled and charmed the crowd that turned furious towards the young guy.

“The challenge is easy, panda. I don't want to be mean, Fan already hurt you good.”

Dianne took a golden medal out of a shelf, handed it over to a bird. He flew all the way to the top, dropping it on the highest platform of the course.

“You have to get that medal in… ten minutes. If you manage to do it on time I will consider your request and discuss the matter with the other professors and the headmistress.”

Nova looked up, intimidated by that huge tower, he knew she wasn't going easy.

“LET'S BEGIN!” She shouted after an assistant brought her the remote to turn on a big screen that depicted the time limit.

“JUNGLE…”

She began.

“MADNESS!”

Everyone finished her sentence and she started the challenge.

Nova stood there, silent, while all around him cheers, growls and shouts of all kinds were unleashing. He wanted to leave, now he was sure of it.

“Son what are you doing?! Climb!”

Marvin's motivation worsened his desire to start but no matter what he said he had to try.

Nova touched the closest platform that wiggled on contact. He firmly grasped it, trying to climbing it but his body wasn't really elastic. His leg couldn't raise high enough to get over it.

People were laughing at his pitiful attempt, making him a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

“I'VE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE OK?!” His white face went red as he attempted to jump on the platform instead of climbing it slowly.

It slipped away from him and he landed face first into the ground.

“8 MINUTES LEFT ON THE SCREEN!” Dianne reminded the crowd, mostly to humiliate the panda.

Nova turned around, still on the ground, staring the ceiling with a defeated expression.

“You can do this! Don't give up.”

His chill attitude and patience towards his father was now long gone and his feelings rushed out.

“Shut up! You've done enough for today.”

Marvin backed away, caught off guard by that remark.

“Can't you see that she tricked us? How am I supposed to do this?! I'm not the athletic type. She wanted to teach you a lesson and I'm paying for you. Didn't you hear what the headmistress said? I did. I've been always doing what you want from the first moment you told us to move into the city. I-I'm trying to accepting it but it's not easy for me you know! I'm tired and you keep going after what you want. Sometimes I feel like you don't care at all about me. I don't care about which school I'll go and you don't either! The only thing you care about is that this school is closer to your damn workplace! I can walk myself to school, if that's your big problem!”

The panda curled into a ball, tears dropping down his face, “I can't take this anymore…”

The school went quiet. No one was talking, only the noise of the timer that kept going no matter what they were doing.

Marvin approached his son and sat next to him, “Hey…”

Nova sobbed harder as he went closer.

“Don't cry…” He said, swiping the dust from his face with a handkerchief.

“...I'm sorry I-I didn't mean to say what I said.”

“I know. I know everything, but it hurts more when you say it.”

The older panda placed his paw on his son's hair and gently patted them.

“I know I didn't make the best choices… I just wanted to give you and mom a better life. We weren't living on the best conditions inside that apartment, we deserved a real house to call home. I'm sorry I couldn't protect your life, but please don't say that I don't care about you. I-I really love you, you and your mom are, like, the best things in my life. Me working all day, killing myself to earn money I don't care as long as you two are happy. I know my son perfectly and… this place, this school… this is where you belong. If there is a place where you can shine and find yourself this is the one. I'm sorry if it seemed like I took advantage of that accident. I saw you depressed, stuck, you weren't able to move on and inside a public school where nobody cares about you... well… I knew you weren't going to make it alone. I can only be your father and you needed a different type of support. You have potential, you can do everything you put your mind to. You just need to believe in yourself and I wanted to give you that little push. I'm sorry.”

“Dad…”

“I'm proud of you. I will always be proud of you. No matter the situation.”

“... thank you.”

“We can end it here. I messed up enough for today.”

“No, no… let me try again. I-I wanna do it! For you.”

Nova hinted a smile as he took the handkerchief from Marvin's paw. He cleaned himself and slowly stood up again.

The crowd, completely focused on the panda, reacted with a huge round of applause for him, the speech touched them.

“YOU CAN DO IT!”

“GO GET THE GOLD!”

“THAT WAS AMAZING DUDE!”

Various voice shouted louder than the others, making only the strongest ones to go through the mess.

“HEY IDIOT! REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN PULL THE PLATFORMS TOWARDS YOU, THEY'RE ELASTIC!”

A familiar voice suggested him from the crowd. He recognized the beaver's voice but he couldn't find her among the seats, too many animals.

“You know it wasn't necessary to call him an idiot Natalie…” The fox crossed her arms.

The swan smirked, “Natalie actually wanted to help him out though.”

“I don't know what are you talking about.” She blushed, pretending the opposite, “I'm just trying to make the challenge a bit more interesting.”

Nova blushed, not expecting such support from everyone. Her advice was helpful because he didn't know it was possible. The chains looked sturdy and fixed that only swinging them around could've been possible.

The panda grabbed it again and dragged it down. Now it was close enough for him to get up the platform.

“FIVE MINUTES LEFT.”

Nova climbed only the first one and he was having trouble balancing on it. He was scared to lose control over it and fall down again.

“NOVA! NOVA! NOVA!”

The crowd started a mass cheer that energized the panda to give it his all.

Nova grasped the chain around his paws and used it to drag is body up. He pushed himself in and out, turning the platform into some sort of swing. He continued until the next platform was within his reach, grabbing it again with his paw he lowered it and moved to the next one.

It was extremely tiring for someone who never practiced before, he wasn't even halfway there.

“FOUR MINUTES LEFT"

He really wanted to win now, he made up his mind but it was too late. There wasn't enough time for him to climb the entire tower, not at the speed he was going. He needed to climb eight more platforms and he was standing on the second one, breathless.

“It doesn't matter son!” Marvin shouted, placing his paws around his mouth, “Go where you can! Don't force yourself!”

Nova smiled down at his father, waving his paw to agree with what he said. He almost fell down for doing that. He hugged the chain, terrified to lose his progress.

The crowd was absorbed the entire time, led by the empathy they developed for that little panda. They awed in suspense whenever he was close to fall and cheered when he successfully climbed another step towards his victory.

“ONE MINUTE LEFT.”

Nova checked again. He did half of the challenge. He wasn't going to make it. He smiled, looking at all the animals who glanced away. They saw defeat in his eyes and they didn't like it.

“It's ok. Now I know. I have a reason for coming back next summer so… everyone. Wait for me, ok?”

Silence returned once again, until the bouncing of a ball broke it.

They all moved their heads towards the source, Nova included. It was that crocodile he saw before, still holding the ball from when he interrupted their game.

He stood up from his seat, grabbed the ball and jumped. He spun around, hitting the ball mid air with its tail. The impact generated by that attack was extremely powerful.

The ball flew way over him, hitting the platform that contained the medal. The platform swirled strong enough that the medal fell down, landing on the platform next to the panda.

Nova blinked, surprised of what just occurred, questioning the validity of said action.

“Take the gold panda.” The crocodile commented, going back to his place.

“... 30 SECONDS LEFT.”

This time Dianne sounded shaken up in her reminder. It meant that what he did was possible. It was weird in his eyes but maybe there was a reasoning behind it that he couldn't understand.

The panda, now exhausted, pushed through his limits and climbed the sixth platform that now contained the medal.

The timer said twenty seconds left. He did it, kinda. He just needed to grab it.

…

Nova froze in place. His past was still holding him back. His old life that he loved so much, taking that medal meant a new beginning, another story and mostly cutting away what he's done in the past. He hesitated, unsure of what he wanted.

In that moment his phone vibrated again.

There wasn't time to check on it. It was a reminder that nothing was going to change. His friends were still there, his life was just taking another weird road but that didn't mean abandoning his old life and most important the memories he made with them.

Screams, growls and howls spread from every direction when Nova grasped the medal in his paw and showed it to everyone.

“Does it mean I won?” The panda genuinely asked, unsure of what will happen now.

The owl that was next to the crocodile flew towards him and helped him get off there.

“Thanks…”

“Don't mention it. Prepare for the worst…” He said, returning to his friend.

The timer stopped with ten seconds left. Dianne hurried there, visibly upset, shouting at the two pandas, “This challenge won’t be considered. You were meant to get up there and get the medal. Getting help from a student uninvolved in the matter is against the rules. I will not give you what you requested me because you cheated.”

Marvin stepped in between and started to argue again with the teacher. Nova, too tired to say something, sat on the ground and rested. Whatever the outcome was going to be he didn’t mind anymore.

The crocodile jumped down the spectator seats, walked past Nova and reached the two that instantly stopped what they were doing by the threatening aura the animal released.

“The contestants are allowed to do everything they want in order to satisfy the winning condition. Extra rules must be discussed before the challenge starts.”

He said, glaring dead in the eyes of his teacher.

“This is what a Jungle Madness is all about.”

Dianne stepped backwards, intimidated by his figure, even if he didn’t sound aggressive towards her.

“You are not allowed to interfere with my work as teacher!”

“Enough.”

The headmistress walked through the mess along with the other teachers and the gorilla. Marvin was now the one who walked backwards, scared to see her reaction.

“This entire situation is an anomaly. The outsider wasn’t supposed to take part in a Jungle Madness and worse, to win it. We have witnessed the entire developing and I cannot confirm what Dianne proposed you. This Jungle Madness is over. All the students must resume their daily activities, the ones who were working here please take a break and go back inside. I need to solve this matter at once and it will be a private one.”

Yvonne, with professionality, waited until the gym fully emptied.

“Rox, even if you’re a guardian, this order includes you too.”

“My class is running short of one student. Remember that.” He said, walking away.

“As I was saying… this matter will be discussed among the teachers and we will decide a course of action. There is no guarantee that we will enroll your student but I must say that what happened today intrigued me. I’d like to have your address and number, Marvin. In the next days you will receive a letter with our final judgement.”

The older panda cautiously walked towards the headmistress, who stared back at him with an annoyed expression carefully hidden behind her professional attitude.

Nova took a deep breath and laid on the dirt, picked his phone and checked the notification he wasn’t able to see before.

“So? How did it go?”

“... you have no idea.”

“I’m getting curios now! Come on. Don’t spare me any detail.”

“Trust me, it’s better if I just call you.”

“Awesome. I’ll be waiting then.”

“Tomorrow, Cody. Tomorrow.”