Lucy walks down the now empty hall. Her long purple twin braids bounce against her back. Lucy has light-purple eyes hidden behind large glasses on her pale face. She wears a light-pink button up with brown suspenders, a short dark blue skirt, pink and purple striped knee high socks, and brown boots. Lucy adjusts her brown book bag that hangs across her body. Walking past a window looking over the school yard, Lucy spots two high schoolers at the pond. She stops to watch them for a minute. Lucy can’t help but imagine herself in their place, making a smile stretch across her face. Suddenly a meow comes from her bag. Lucy quickly looks down at it. 

“ Okay okay, I’m going!” Lucy says smiling.

Walking to the end of the hall, Lucy pushes open a back door leading outside. Finding a spot on the wall to sit Lucy sighs and pulls off her bag. 

“ Alrighty, time to stretch your legs.” Lucy said, unbuttoning her bag. 

Suddenly a black cat hops out of the bag, landing on his feet, the black cat starts stretching. The cat is solid black except for his long white whiskers and bright yellow eyes. Lucy slumps down on the wall, smiling at Smoky as he flops onto his back. 

“ Man Smoke...they really need to have lunch early.” Lucy sighs.

Smoky meows in response. 

“ Why have lunch at one? We have to sit in class for five hours before getting to eat. Plus what if we don’t have breakfast?” Lucy rants. 

Smoky walks in front of Lucy and starts meowing while staring at her book bag. Lucy reaches for her bag, fishing around and pulls out a lunch box. Placing it next to her, she reaches in her bag again and grabs a tin of cat food. Pushing her bag to the side, Lucy pulls the pull tab. The cracking sound makes Smoky jump up and run around in circles meowing. 

“ Yes yes it’s lunch time for you too!”  Lucy giggles, placing the tin in front of Smoky. 

Smoky walks up and starts to chow down. Lucy giggles to herself, then opens her own lunch. She picks up her sandwich but as she goes to take a bite- 

“ Hey Lucy!” Ivy yells, from the other side of the yard.

Lucy quickly looks over, putting her lunch down. Two kids come from the other side of the building walking over to her. Smoky quickly jumps up and runs to hide in the bag again. Lucy grabs her book bag and helps Smoky hop in. Lucy then jumps up and stutters out. 

“ OH hey Ivy! W-what’s up?”

The two kids stand a few feet from her. Ivy is a cyclops with light-green skin. She has light-red, shortly cut hair that matches her red eye. Ivy has three fingers like most cyclops. Ivy has yet to hit her big growth spurt as she only stands at five foot eight. Ivy wears a light green shirt with burgundy pants. Her tennis shoes are a similar burgundy color. She wore a black and green backpack with a big red eye in the center. Next to Ivy is her friend Buck. Buck is a bipedal deer with almost fully grown antlers that are as long as the span of his shoulders. Buck's coat is light brown except for parts around his ears and tail that are cream-colored. His fur makes his dark orange eyes pop. He wears a flannel jacket with cotton around the hood and a green under shirt. His pants are a dark green with a brown belt. Ivy speaks up first. 

“ You DO have a cat!” she yells. 

Lucy starts to sweat and can only mumble incoherently in response. Buck piles on.

“ Your bag started moving in class. I thought it was a frog or something. But- A cat? Really?” 

Lucy fiddles with her fingers. 

“ Cat? No I-I don’t… I d-don’t even own a-a cat.” Lucy stutters. 

“ You don’t have a cat?” Ivy asks . 

“ Nope! In fact! I-I don’t have any pets!” Lucy smiles awkwardly, hoping they will go away. 

“ Hm…then why did you say you had a pet in class yesterday?” Ivy laughs, raising her eyebrow. 

Lucy freezes and mumbles, unable to come up with a response. Smoky puts his head into his paws at Lucy’s obvious lying. Buck walks past Lucy, grabbing her bag. Lucy flips around and sputters out 

“ H-hey! Don’t touch my stuff-” Lucy suddenly stops as Ivy puts a hand on her shoulder. 

“ Oh come on, if we’re wrong let us see what’s in your bag.” Ivy said smugly. 

Lucy starts to panic as Buck grabs her bag. Buck flips her book bag upside down then with a few shakes Smoky comes falling out. He lands on his paws, shaking. 

“ I knew it!” Buck spits out. 

“ Hey! Smoky! Are you okay!?” Lucy yells, dropping down to check on Smoky.

Lucy grabs him and pulls him onto her lap. Smoky meows, rubbing up against her. 

“ Are you kidding me? You brought your cat to school with you?” Buck asks. 

Lucy, pissed, jumps up and shouts into Buck’s face. 

“ You could have hurt him! What the hell is wrong with you!?” Lucy screams.

“ ME!? What the hell is wrong with you?! You’re the one who brought your cat to school!” Buck yells back.

“ You didn’t have to-” Lucy starts to yell back but is cut off by Ivy.

“ Lucy, that’s a horrible thing to do to your cat! Do you have any idea what could happen!?”. 

" That's not-'' Lucy is cut off by Ivy again. 

" He could have been hurt or even stolen! Let alone being jumbled around in that bag all day! Do you even care about your cat?" 

Lucy's face goes blank and she can barely talk 

" No..I- I was- I just-" She stuttered. 

" Can you really not survive eight hours without your cat? Think about how he must feel?" Buck adds.

Lucy looks down, sweating, not being able to say anything back. Lucy feels like there are rocks in her stomach. Lucy could never handle people very well. When talking to people, Lucy just wanted them to go away, wanted them to stop looking at her with their disappointed looks. Smoky looks up at Lucy, worried for her. The hair on the back of Smoky's neck starts to stand up. He gets in-between Lucy and Ivy, hissing. 

“ Hey Ivy, let’s just go tell the headmaster. He should deal with this,” Buck says, trying to calm Ivy down. Ivy scoffs.

“ Fine...Let’s go Lucy. You need to show the head-” Ivy starts to turn around. 

“ NO!” Lucy screams, interrupting her. Ivy stops and turns back to face Lucy, a look of shock on her face. 

“ No...I’m not going..!" Lucy continues.

" We didn’t do anything wrong. I was just eating my lunch. So just leave us alone!” 

The two kids stand in shock. They have never heard Lucy raise her voice. Lucy normally just caved and would go quietly. Lucy starts to tear up as her face turns red. Lucy could feel her heartbeat like a drum in her chest. Smoky walks up to Lucy rubbing up on her legs. Lucy looks down at Smoky, giving him a sweet smile. Suddenly Ivy grabs Smoky by his scruff.

“ Then I’ll take him to the office myself!” Ivy shouts, shoving Smoky into her backpack.

 

“ Wait! Maybe that’s-” Buck starts but Ivy yells back.

“ Let’s go! This is the right thing to do!”. 

Buck freezes for a moment not sure what to do. He shakes his head deciding to side with Ivy, running past Lucy to join her. The two kids start to walk away. Millions of thoughts come rushing through her head as Lucy stands there in shock. 

“Oh god they’re gonna take him…He’s not registered...They're gonna send him to the pound…” Lucy’s breathing starts to quicken 

“I don’t have the money to get him out…Will they put him down..?” Lucy starts to break into a cold sweat.

“ No! no…But what if he goes to someone else….Some nasty person... I…” Lucy’s eyes fill with more and more tears. 

“ I...can’t...I won’t!” Lucy runs forward screaming. 

“ Please! Don’t take him!!” Lucy reaches out her hand.

From Lucy’s hand there is a sudden bright flash. When the light fades, standing in between Lucy and the other two kids there is the silhouette of a panther. Its whole body is blue fading into pink, except its eyes and teeth which are bright white. Lucy stumbles back in shock. 

“ What..what just..” Lucy stutters as she falls to the ground. 

The panther growls as it begins to walk toward Ivy and Buck. Both kids freeze in fear. The panther looms closer. Out of fear, Ivy throws her backpack at the panther, then grabs Buck’s hand.

“ MOVE!” Ivy screams, pulling Buck’s arm.

The panther catches the backpack by its straps. A soft meow is heard from the backpack as Smoky is bounced around. The panther puts the backpack down softly on the ground, then jumps over the bag running after Ivy and Buck. Lucy freezes in place for a moment. She can’t understand what just happened. Another meow comes from the backpack snapping Lucy back to reality.

“ Smoky!” Lucy yells, running over to the backpack. 

She almost rips off the zipper in desperation. Lucy pulls Smoky out and puts him on the ground. Smoky tries to stand but then falls into Lucy’s lap. Lucy gasps, her eyes filling with tears once again. Lucy holds Smoky in her arms then he looks up to her. Smoky meows, reassuring her that he's okay. 

“ I’m... so glad you’re okay. I don’t know...I don’t...know...What I would do without you!” Lucy stutters, in-between sobs. 

Lucy can’t stop herself from crying. Smoky shakes off the rough ride he was just a part of. Smoky puts a paw on Lucy's cheek. She looks down at him as Smoky rubs up against her cheek purring. 

“ Thanks Smoke….” Lucy said, scratching Smoky’s head.

 

A sudden scream rings out. The two of them get up and run to the other side of the building, Lucy freezes. A few of the students that were outside for lunch are hiding in an apple tree as the panther walks around the base of it.

 

Daisy sighs in relief. Daisy is a small girl with butterfly traits. She has large pink wings with yellow hearts on her back. Along with long curly antennae sticking out of her short purple hair. Her dark blue eyes with lighter blue for the whites stand out on her light purple skin. She wears a purple dress with yellow trim. She wears dress shoes with knee-high lavender socks with two strips of yellow with matching gloves. 

“ How...How long till the teachers come to help us..?” Daisy asks, looking over at Aurora.

 Aurora is also a small girl only a bit taller than Daisy. Aurora has a short yellow horn coming out of her forehead which is half-covered by her fluffy pink hair with light purple highlights. She has a short fluffy tail the same color. Her eyes are three bright colors: blue on top, pink in the middle, and hot pink on the bottom. All on top of her light-pink skin. She wears purple overalls with a large pocket on the front. She has a reddish-pink short-sleeve shirt underneath. Her sneakers are also a reddish-pink with light-blue socks. 

“ How are they gonna know we're out here..?” Aurora says sheepishly. 

Robby glares down at the panther. Robby is a humanoid cat. His fur is gray with dark-gray on his ears and tail and a lighter gray around his right eye. He wears a light blue baggy hoodie. His pants are a dark-blue covered in light blue spots. His untied shoes are a bright blue with bright orange laces. 

 “ Some kids were able to make it inside so they should be showing up soon” Robby says, rolling his eyes.

Buck holds onto his younger brother Georgy. Georgy is only a bit younger than Buck however Georgy is very soft-hearted and easily scared. Georgy has the same light-brown fur as Buck. He has cream colored spots under his light orange eyes with the same color on the top of his head and tail. His antlers are only half-grown and just starting to come out of his head.  He wears a green and red striped sweater with brown pants. 

“ Buck...what do we do if the teachers don’t come..?” Georgy whispers to Buck.

Buck, a little scared himself, puts on a big smile.

“ Don’t worry, they will!” Buck’s smile slightly falls with those last words. 

“ Georgy shut your trap! You talking like that isn't going to make the situation any better!” Robby yells, overhearing them. 

Georgy jumps due to Robby's aggressiveness then buries his face in his brother's coat, muttering apologies. Buck immediately turns defensive. 

“ Shut the hell up! Worry about yourself! Not us! We weren't talking to you!” Buck screams at Robby.

Robby is caught off-guard by Buck’s aggressiveness for a moment. Then, feeling even more frustrated, yells in response.

“ You tell that baby brother of yours to shut it!” Robby then smiles to himself. 

“ His whining is only gonna make that thing hungrier for deer meat!” Robby adds, taunting them. 

Georgy, even more freaked out, begins to shiver and shake. Buck, worried for his brother, completely ignores Robby and begins to try and comfort his brother. 

“ Robby, your yelling is only making things worse” Daisy shouts, furious with Robby’s behavior.

“ Oh shut it! You fly”. Robby quickly yells back.

“ F-fly..?” Daisy sputters out in shock.

 Aurora, scared of how grim the situation is becoming, holds on tighter to the tree branch. Her head hits an apple, causing it to fall. The panther sees it and starts to run forward, catching it in its mouth and crushing it. The kids all start to scream and panic. Ivy, also hiding in the tree, looks up to see Lucy standing in the distance.

“ Lucy! You made this thing! Now unmake it!” Ivy yells, panicked.

Lucy stumbles back unable to think of what to do. 

“ Please we're sorry! We shouldn’t have tried to take your cat! Please call it off!” Buck begs. 

Lucy’s breathing begins to speed up and sweat runs down her face. Lucy feels her legs begin to shake. She could hear more kids beginning to yell.

“ You did this?!” 

“ Call it off” 

“ Not funny!” 

“ You could’ve killed us!” 

Something in Lucy broke and she screams. She grabs Smoky and she runs for the forest just outside school grounds. The kids scream after her.

“ WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?”  

“ Please! Stop and help us!!” 

Tears now running down her face, Lucy runs as fast as she can. Stumbling into the woods and disappearing among the trees.