Animala High Chapter 1: The New Student I ran from my house with my backpack lagging behind me. I was late. Again. Why must school start so early in the morning? Some of us need our sleep! I had no time to sit at home and eat breakfast, so I brought my peanut butter toast along with me and ate it as I ran. I was so focused on getting to school that I wasn't looking where I was going, so I bumped right into Static, who was in no hurry to get to class, considering he was late every day anyway.
After we both got back up, he looked at my toast and gasped, "Peanut! You're eating peanut butter toast?! That's cannibalism!" he laughed and walked away.
I glared at him, but I still got back to running. There was no time to waste. When I finally got to school, I found my BFFFFF (I don't know what that means), Rosie, standing by the door. "Hiya, Peanut!" she greeted me, "You're just in time! First period is starting!"
"Oh good," I replied, "I figured I'd be late. I overslept. But who could possibly wake up at 6:30? Why can't school start at, like 2 in the afternoon?"
"But that's when it ends."
"Exactly!"
We both laughed and ran to our class. "Okay everyone," Ms. Pelly, the English teacher, said, "I'll hand back your reports now." she started handing papers to everyone in class. When I got mine, I noticed there were red marks over all the "likes" I had used. Ms. Pelly was usually really nice, but all English teachers hate the word, "like". Of course, if Rosie and I couldn't say it, we'd probably go mute.
However, Candi didn't get hers. Instead, Ms. Pelly called her to her desk, where she showed her a paper. I'm usually not nosy, but I couldn't help but read what it said on the back of the paper, since everyone else seemed to be reading it too. It said:
Ms. Pelly is as fat as a hippopotamus! (And she smells like one, too.)
Several kids, including me and Rosie, laughed.
"I didn't write that!" Candi insisted. But still Ms. Pelly didn't believe her. It was strange for Ms. Pelly to not believe someone, but that always happens to Candi. Something mean about Ms. Pelly would always be written on the back of Candi's homework, but Candi insisted she didn't write it. While Ms. Pelly didn't know the truth, we all did. Candi didn't write it.
It was her sister, Penny.
Penny is eight years old, so she doesn't go to our school, but she's an amazing prankster. Everyone thinks she's so sweet and innocent and cute as anything, so she doesn't get in trouble for her pranks. Candi does. It's all part of her plan. After the incident, Ms. Pelly told us all that she had some exciting news. "A new student will be joining our school." she said happily, "She just moved here from a far-off village. Let's all try to be nice and make friends with her!"
"Oh, goody!" Rosie shouted, "A new student!"
"I know!" Merry agreed, "Another totally awesome person to hang out with!"
"But remember what the teacher said," Kiki pointed out, "We should try to be nice to her."
"Of course!" I said.
Pecan just glared right ahead. "All I can say is she'd better not mess with me," she said in a threatening voice, "Because I have standards."
Pecan is one of the meanest girls in school. She is pretty much thinking up new ways to insult and threaten animals, leading a lot of animals to be scared of her. But her bark is worse than her bite, and she does more verbal abuse than physical.
Suddenly a knock was heard at the door. At least, if you can call it a knock. It was the quietest knock I'd ever heard. "Come in!" Ms. Pelly called.
The door opened. Slowly. But it did open. Soon enough a red-and-white squirrel walked in. She was wearing a rally shirt. I didn't know many people who thought rally shirts were the height of fashion. But I guessed this girl was one of the people who did. She wasn't looking at us, though. In fact, she was looking at her feet. And I'm pretty sure she was trembling.
"Welcome!" Ms. Pelly greeted, "Go on, tell the class your name."
There was an awkward silence as the squirrel sort of looked at us. "Um," she finally muttered, "M-my name is...um...P-Poppy..." she immediately looked at her feet again.
"Please take your seat. There's an empty desk over there." Ms. Pelly pointed to a desk in the corner. I had never seen anybody use that desk. So I guessed Poppy was the first. She walked over to the desk and sat down. She still barely looked up. I could tell she was nervous.
Unfortunately for her, the desk she just sat down in was right next to Pecan.
"So Poppy," she asked, "You new here?"
"Y-yes," Poppy said, a bit startled, "My family just moved here from a faraway village called Treehut. We-"
"Well, then, why don't you go back there?" Pecan laughed her usually snobby girl laugh. Poppy's gaze turned to the corner. We all glared at Pecan. She was not making a good first impression. But then again, when did she ever do that?
We could only hope that Poppy would come out of her shell someday. This is my first attempt at a real fanfic (I had a couple of others, but they died), so please don't be critical. Thanks! I'm hoping to write the next chapter soon.
Animala High Chapter 2: The Rumors Start English class had just let out, and we had our usual five-minute break between first and second period.
Rosie and I were chatting. We were so lucky to both be in all the same classes together! "Hey," Rosie brought up, "Did you hear? Poppy has second period math too! Not to mention fifth period history!"
"Well," I replied, "I'm happy about history, but why must she have to take math?!"
"She can't not take it."
"I know, but what will she do about the teacher?! You know, Ms. Phyllis? The EVIL Ms. Phyllis?!"
"Oh, right!" Soon Rosie and I both looked equally angry. Thinking about Ms. Phyllis always makes us angry.
Ms. Phyllis is the math teacher at our school. She's actually Ms. Pelly's older sister by two years. Everyone, I repeat, EVERYONE, hates her. And they have a right to. She's mean, strict, and most of all, UNFAIR! She insults every student, constantly announces how much she hates kids (Why did she become a teacher, then?!), gives out way too much homework (And extra homework for kids she really hates!), hands out detentions for EVERYTHING, and sometimes for no reason at all! Plus, she's dating Mr. Pete, the history teacher, who I think would be way better for Ms. Pelly. Why must Ms. Phyllis be so mean?!
"Poppy seems really sensitive," I continued, "So I hate to think of how badly she'll be hurt by Ms. Phyllis."
"Me too." Rosie sighed, and then the bell rang. We walked to class. When we sat down at our table, along with Mint and Bob, we soon heard the nasty screech of Ms. Phyllis' voice. "Everyone take out your homework!" she shouted, "And it better be perfect!"
Everyone took out their math homework pages (except for Poppy, since it was her first day). The homework was insane! It took me three hours to do! Especially since we hadn't even gotten to that chapter in class yet! So of course, nobody had it perfect.
"Homework?" Bob said, startled, "What homework?"
"The homework that was assigned yesterday." Mint replied.
"Ohhh, that. I think I accidentally ate that."
"I'd better see perfect assignments from now on!" Ms. Phyllis announced. She took out a rolled-up newspaper and walked around the classroom, hitting everyone over the head with it. When she got to Bob she hit him extra hard, since he hadn't even done the homework. Then she got to Poppy. "Where's your homework?" she asked.
"Um, I'm new here..." Poppy answered.
"I don't need your life story."
"No, I mean...I'm new here, so...I didn't get the homework."
"That's no excuse!" Ms. Phyllis hit Poppy with the newspaper so hard she fell right out of her chair.
Everyone stared in shock at her, except Pecan, who just laughed. She doesn't like Ms. Phyllis (which was no surprise, since nobody likes Ms. Phyllis, and Pecan doesn't like anybody), but she thinks it's funny to see people get hurt.
Poppy slowly stood up, trembling. She must have been hit really hard, because she had a huge red mark on her cheek.
"Now then, you'd better not use a lame excuse like that again!" Ms. Phyllis shouted again.
"But...I..." Poppy barely got out. She was rubbing her cheek.
"Do you want to be hit harder?"
Poppy shook some more. Then she put her hands up to her eyes. She was crying, making little sniffly and whimpery noises.
Sally looked at her. "Poppy?" she was concerned.
Poppy just kept crying. Pretty soon everyone in class was staring at her. She ran out of the room. It was lunchtime, and I was sitting down with the members of what Rosie, our president, calls "The Super-Awesome Fun-Tastic Total Epicness Club". There's Rosie, me (I'm the vice prez!), Goldie, Bluebear, Bunnie, and Stitches. We held our meetings every day at lunch, after school, and noon on Saturdays and Sundays. Kiki, Cheri, and June were our backup members in case someone could not come. If more than three people or the president could not come, we just didn't have our meetings.
"I call this meeting of The Super-Awesome Fun-Tastic Total Epicness Club," Rosie announced, "To order!"
I noticed Goldie was looking at a table over in the corner, so I looked too. There was Poppy, sitting all alone at the corner table. She was looking sadly at her lunch, which was an old bologna sandwich and a dried carrot. Heck, I wouldn't eat that. No wonder she was so sad. Not to mention she had been picked on by Pecan and Ms. Phyllis. She must feel awful.
That was when Freya, the notorious gossip girl, stood in the middle of the cafeteria. "Everyone," she announced, "Have you heard? Ruby is an evil alien from outer space! She has disguised herself as a normal bunny and took Pippy and Dotty as her false sisters!"
Half the cafeteria gasped. The other half rolled their eyes. Freya's gossip was almost never true, and whether it was or wasn't, it was always humiliating.
"No!" Ruby shouted in defense, "It's not true! I'm not an alien! I'm just albino! Really!"
Her twin sisters, Pippy and Dotty, nodded in agreement.
"Okay then," Freya said, "But when aliens from Ruby's home planet come here and destroy your town...well, don't say I didn't warn you."
After lunch was history, with Mr. Pete. Poppy had that class too. I liked Mr. Pete. He was usually friendly and inviting. However, when we walked into class today, we saw Mr. Pete looking rather nervous. He was looking around as if he were trying to hide something. "Welcome, class," he said, his voice shaking a bit, "Today we will be continuing our unit on the history of Animala. Open your textbooks to page 286."
Everyone did that. Mr. Pete started talking, but I wasn't listening. I just kept thinking about Poppy...I had never met anyone who had it that bad. She was sitting in the corner again, not talking to anyone. She had gone to the nurse and gotten an ice pack for her newspaper mark. Also, Rosie had just told me that Ms. Phyllis gave her detention.
"Peanut, could you please tell us how Great King Animala handled the constant fighting?"
It was Mr. Pete's voice. Oh no! I hadn't been paying attention! "Uh..." I muttered, "Smiley face?"
A few kids laughed. Mr. Pete just looked confused. "No, I'm sorry, 'Smiley face' is incorrect. Merry, how about you?"
"He issued the peace treaty and got everyone to sign it!" Merry answered happily.
"That is correct!"
I still thought something seemed different about Mr. Pete. He seemed...insecure?
The rest of the day was somewhat uneventful. I walked up my street, and passed several houses, including the house of Kaitlin. Kaitlin's a grown cat, and, besides Ms. Phyllis, is one of the meanest grown animals I've ever met. She does not seem fair to kids, even though she pretends to be polite sometimes. Her husband has never been seen by anyone since her daughter, Katie, was born. Rumor has it she killed him, but I know he just left. Katie is five years old and rather needy. However, she is very mean to Katie. She does not care at all about her needs, and doesn't let her go to kindergarten because she thinks she's stupid and annoying. I disagree with that. Besides, judging by some kids at my school, stupid and annoying never stopped anyone from going to school.
I walked home. My mother was waiting for me with some peanut butter cookies. My parents were divorced when I was three, and I'm pretty sure my dad left to join the army. After I ate my cookies, I heard a loud noise, so I ran outside. I found Kaitlin running outside, looking very angry. She was dragging Katie, who was crying heavily, by the paw, and walked off the street.
I didn't see them for the rest of the day. Sorry this story is weaker than the others! I'll try to make Chapter 4 better.
Animala High Chapter 4: The Lost Kitten I had stayed awake until about 2 in the morning wondering what would happen to Katie. Poppy too. I felt really bad for both of them. So I was so sleepy that I slept right through my alarm. I was supposed to get up at 6:30, but I didn't wake up until five minutes before school started! I tried to be really fast, but I still still sluggish. I hadn't even gotten six hours of sleep! I put on my beatnik shirt, grabbed my backpack and breakfast, and ran out the door, but I knew I was still late.
"Hey, Peanut," Static laughed, "Watch those rocks. Hope you have a nice trip."
I wanted to punch him in the stomach, but now was not the time. I ran to school, and got there with about 3 seconds to spare. I rushed to English class and sat at my usual desk next to my BFFFFF (I still don't know what that means), Rosie. Thankfully, I remembered my homework. We were working on prepositions. I still don't get how prepositional phrases work.
"I brought you an apple." Sally said sweetly as she put a very shiny apple on Ms. Pelly's desk.
"Why, thank you, Sally." Ms. Pelly said back. Sally would probably be her favorite, if Ms. Pelly hadn't vowed to never pick favorites.
"I brought you an apple too." Bob said. However, he put an apple core on the desk.
"Um, Bob," Ms. Pelly said confused, "This is only an apple core..."
"I know."
"So where's the rest of it?"
"I got hungry...and then I..."
Ms. Pelly just sent Bob back to his desk.
I handed my homework in. Ms. Pelly looked at our sheets, graded them, and handed them back. As usual, Candi didn't get hers. Ms. Pelly beckoned (that was in our vocab last week) her to her desk, where she showed her the paper. This time, it said:
Ms. Pelly has a head full of oatmeal! (And it leaks out her ears.)
"I didn't write that!!" Candi shouted, "I swear, it was Penny again! She must have done it while I was brushing my teeth. We had oatmeal for breakfast." she sighed and went back to her desk. During math, our table was whispering about Ms. Phyllis.
"Ms. Phyllis is the worst teacher ever!" I said.
"She always hits me so hard because I'm always eating my homework instead of doing it." Bob said, rubbing his head.
"Plus, she hands out detentions left and right!" Mint complained.
"Just be glad she's isn't lunchroom monitor." I suggested.
"Yeah, then the whole school would probably get detentions every day." Rosie laughed.
What we didn't notice was that Ms. Phyllis was right behind us. "What are you kids talking about?!" she demanded.
"Oh, nothing." Mint lied. Ms. Phyllis hit us all anyway. Bob ate his homework again, so he was hit hard.
I looked at Poppy, who was sitting alone, looking sad as she read her book. I noticed that she had bandages across her face. Of course, I knew that was because she had been in detention with Ms. Phyllis yesterday. I'd been in detention with her before, and I knew for a fact that all she does is hit you really hard in the face. And she must have given Poppy detention again, because I saw her bury her face into her book. She was probably crying again.
I couldn't believe how mean Ms. Phyllis was. But the worst thing about her was that whenever the principal walked in, she acted like such a nice teacher so she wouldn't get fired. I had a good mind to show that principal how bad a teacher she really was. At lunch, I was eating with The Super-Awesome Fun-Tastic Total Epincess Club outside, since it was such a nice day, until we heard crying coming from behind us. We looked to see...Katie? What was she doing here? Had she wandered off?
Then it dawned on me. The other day, when Kaitlin took Katie away suddenly...
She must have left her here!
"Katie?!" I said in disbelief.
Katie wiped her eyes. "M...M...Mommy..." she whimpered, then immediately started crying again. "Why did you leave me?! Waaaaah!!!"
I patted her on the head. "I think I can get you back home to your mommy, but I may have to speak with the police. Until then, you may have to hang around here. Here, have some of my lunch. I promise it's not that stuff they try to pass off as food from the cafeteria." I gave her half of my peanut butter sandwich. I had already eaten the other half. She ate it quickly. She must have been hungry.
I just hoped to myself she would be able to go home soon.
Animala High Chapter 5: The Problem With Pete After lunch was history. I was so bored with learning about the history of Animala! Yeah, some random people found it, there was this king, there was this fight, then everyone signed something, and here we are! I get it! Oh well, at least our teacher was nice.
But today Mr. Pete wasn't here. Instead, he left Tortimer, of all people, to sub for him. Tortimer. Senile ol' Tortimer. He probably would have done OK as a sub if Mr. Pete had left a schedule. Or a list of our names. He couldn't remember any of that.
"Okay now," he said in his raspy old man's voice, "What are you guys studying?"
"We're studying the history of Animala." I said.
"And what did you say your name was?"
"Peanut."
"Right. So, Pecan..."
I had to tell him everything. And he kept calling me Pecan. UGH. Plus he kept forgetting everything I told him. And I didn't know everything he asked me. "Ask Merry! She's smart!!" I shouted. But nothing happened.
By the time I had told him everything, class was over. He told us to go. However, right before we all left, I heard him say, "Wait, what am I doing in this classroom?" When the final bell rang, I ran against the crowd to my locker, where I packed my books in my backpack and started to run out the door. But I guess Static and Pecan had bad days, or maybe they were just being mean for no reason, but they decided, right then and there, to trip some people.
I saw Pecan stick out her leg and trip Poppy. She fell hard on the ground. Pecan laughed and stepped on her a little as she walked out the door, waving her tail around. Poppy stayed on the ground, crying, until Sally came around to help her up. They walked out of the building together.
Then Static stuck out his leg and tripped me. But instead of falling to the ground, for some reason I went flying across the hall...smashing right into the door to the teachers' lounge.
I was horrified. Why? Because everyone knows kids aren't allowed in the teachers' lounge. From what I know, that's where the teachers go to have parties and eat pizza and play video games. They don't want kids to get in on the fun.
And I know snooping is wrong, but since my ear was right on the door, and since I heard voices, and since I really wanted to know what the voices were saying, and since I'm not allowed in there, and since I know I'm not crazy for hearing voices, I listened closely. And you will never believe what I heard:
"Why don't you ever call me?!"
"Well, you see, Phyllis-"
"Is there something you want to talk about?! Are you ignoring me for a reason?!"
"Actually, I-"
"Is this about what happened at the beach last summer?!"
"No, I know the dolphin was just being friendly."
"Then what is it?!"
"Well...you see...I've been thinking-"
"Oh, congratulations. You've actually been thinking. Should I call Ripley's?"
"No, I mean, we've been arguing a lot, and I think maybe it's best if we-"
"SHUT UP!!!"
"But-"
"SHUT UP!!! JUST SHUT UP!!!!!!!"
That's when I pulled my ear away. It was Mr. Pete and Ms. Phyllis! He wanted to break up with her! Now I know why he's been so nervous, and didn't come in today. Heck, who could blame him? I wouldn't want to be in a relationship with that fail of a pink pelican if I were him.
I knew the secret. There was no way I could keep it to myself. If I did, I probably would have exploded. So I told the first person that came to my mind - Rosie.
I walked over to her and whispered in her cat ear:
"Mr. Pete is trying to break up with Ms. Phyllis. Don't tell anyone."
I walked out of the school, knowing that I had just told the only person I could trust with a secret like that.
Great story ~ ! I love it! Keep up the good work ~
Signature-------------- | Kyla8 | CF | Check out mine and xBlossomx's unfinished AC Blog! | UK England | ACC+5. | http://kkcrossingadventures.yolasite.com/
Ugh, I definitely know how evil school can be--I'm already on summer break, but ever since I started my fanfic in April, it was like, three to four weeks between chapters. I'm writing the chapters of my story much more quickly now that I'm done with school, though. Keep up the good work! You have no idea how much I love your writing!
Signature-------------- Support the h.o.g.g.l.e. revolution. Bring ACC back to the glory days.
Posted: 5/26/2012 4:05pm Edited: 1 
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