Chapter 1: Junior Year


The beginning of the school year ran the same way each time in the Hopps household. Wake up at 5:00 am, get dressed, eat breakfast and drop off each of Judy's 175 younger siblings at their middle schools and day-cares. While the older 100 move onto their daily highschool lives. It may sound too hectic but to Judy, it was an occasional routine, something she's used all 16 years of her life. Even so, each day can bring unexpected possibilities, so how does Judy prepare, well by waking up at 4:00 am ready to start the day of course! Yes, waking up before the entire burrow may sound stupid, impractical even, but when you live with 278 bunnies in one household things get chaotic fast. Especially when the majority of them are females who all need to use the bathroom at once.

Judy walked out of the shower, fur damp and blueberry scented due to her favorite shampoo. She opened the bathroom door, allowing the clouds of steam to escape with her. Quietly, she crept down the deserted hallway she shared with her seven littermates. Throughout the entire house, only Judy and her siblings had been the largest litter, it was uncommon between burrows to have an eight sized litter, but with enough rabbits, it happened frequently.

After a few more carefully placed steps, Judy finally reached her bedroom door. Silently, she turned the handle, and hastily entered her room. Sighing, Judy looked around, eyes jumping to the piles of papers on her desk, posters laid across her walls, and lastly, her peach-colored phone vibrating on her bed. Judy walked over to pick it up, confused as to who could be texting her so early in the day. Opening her messages she noticed there were a few unread texts sent to her by Sharla, her best friend since elementary.

Morning Judy, yes I know you're already awake Wanting to start the school year before most of us...again XD

Judy rolled her eyes at Sharla's obvious sarcasm and set down her phone. She strolled over to her closet, thoughts racing over the various choices of clothing she could pick. Judy almost decided on wearing her favorite pair of jean shorts again, the ones lined with stitched in carrots. But happily trashed the thought due to the idea of her male classmates cat-calling her yet again to be a terrible start to the school year. Instead, she opted towards wearing a tight pale pink t-shirt, with black stripes moving across it. Unfortunately, it only stopped at her waist, but that was nothing a pair of high-waisted leggings couldn't fix. The problem was that she let her sister, Julie, borrow them last week. So Judy left the serenity of her bedroom and ventured back outside into the hallway. Julie's room had been placed on the far end of the hallway so Judy had to act quickly so as to not wake anybody up.

Finally reaching her sister's door, she stealthily went inside, surprised to see the light on her desk turned on with her beside it.

"Good morning Judy," Julie said with a cool expression.

"W-What are you doing up?" Judy asked, surprised.

"Seriously," she laughed, "you think I'll just sleep in again and let the rest of our siblings snatch up mom's famous pancakes while I get stuck with a pity salad."

"But I thought you loved my pity salads," Judy gasped.

"Yeah but not every day for the entire summer!" she whined.

"Well, I wouldn't have to make you pity salads if you didn't stay up till 10:00 talking with Connerr," Judy teased. Her sister's face immediately flushed, turning a dark shade of red.

"How do you know about that!" Julie demanded.

"The walls are thin, anyway do you still have my pair of leggings that I let you borrow, I was thinking about wearing them." Judy continued, passing on from the subject.

"Oh I lost them," Julie said absentmindedly, focusing on a piece of loose thread on her sweater.

"What! How?" Judy questioned.

"I put them in the washing machine and they never came out," she replied coolly.

"What's that supposed to mean," Judy said infuriated.

"It means that I put them in and they never came out," Julie repeated, "they just poof, disappeared."

"Leggings don't just disappear without an explanation Jules!" Judy wailed.

"Sure there's an explanation, they disappeared, but don't worry I have a simple fix," Julie beamed shuffling through her drawers.

"Oh, really what?" Judy scoffed. "This," Julie said while pulling out a pair of pitch-black jeans. To say they were revealing was an understatement. The jeans were covered with various rips and lined with a material Judy knew would only make her legs look even more tantalizing than her pair of jean shorts.

"Julie I can't wear that!" Judy squealed, averting her eyes.

"Why not! You'd look so good in them," she wailed, "and do you want to wear some pair of shorts and risk having the entire Junior class get the chance of staring at your exposed legs?" Julie stared knowingly at Judy, and she knew in the end that her sister was right. The jeans covered up more as opposed to any pair of shorts that Judy owned.

"Ugh fine," Judy begrudgingly grabbed the jeans, "but you owe me."

"Hah, tell me that again when some hot senior gives you their number," Julie laughed as she watched her embarrassed sister rush out of the room and down the hallway back into her own.

Judy closed her door with a satisfying click and threw the scandalous pair of clothing on her bed, fully ignoring them. Rather she focused on her computer, where her newly written essay for the Zootopia Police Academy stayed. The document taunted her, you'll never be a cop, do something you'd be good at, your just a carrot farming dumb bunny. She's heard her handful of insults and diminishing statements by the worst of those around her. But she never let them push her down because one day someone was going to prove them wrong. And that someone would be Judy Hopps.

Around half an hour later of editing and rewriting her piece, Judy settled that it was the perfect time to start getting ready. She shut her computer and stuffed it into her backpack lazily placed beside her desk. After that, she collected the rest of her papers and forced as much as she could into her binder until it could barely close.

With that out of the way, Judy could finally start getting dressed. Of course, she wanted to save this for last, especially with that pair of jeans tormenting her from where they sat. Glancing at the clock Judy gasped, realizing that it was 6:30, if she didn't get ready soon she'd be late to school. As late as a bunny could be for school that is.

Judy rushed, throwing on her shirt and bra, and lastly grabbing the pair of jeans. She swiftly threw her backpack onto her shoulder and ran out the door, dodging her siblings in the process. Judy needed to get out of the house as fast as possible before someone commented on her outfit, more specifically her parents. They'd probably think she's trying to impress some new buck at school or whatever. But, Judy didn't need her parents breathing down her neck yet again on finding a boyfriend anytime soon. Besides, she was covered on that part. But it's not like she'd tell her family that, especially not her parents.

Heading upstairs, Judy grabbed an apple lying on the dining room table and promptly headed out the front door, saying a quick goodbye to her mother in the process. She began the descent on the path towards school, humming to herself along the way. Around her sat the broad willow trees, lining themselves along the pathway. The grass, smooth and dew-like, most likely from the late summer showers. The sky was brightly filled with large puffy clouds, soft like a sheep's fur. Of course, it was considered rude to even make such a statement, so it was rarely ever said.

With a skip in her step, Judy allowed everything around her to blur away as she melted into the feeling of her favorite song, some new hit single written by one of her favorite singers. The peacefulness of the moment slipped away when she felt her phone buzz in her hand. Stopping her playlist, Judy went to read whatever message had been sent to her.

Hey, have you reached school yet?

The message had been sent to her by Sharla, but Judy was slightly ignoring that rather freaking out at the reason how she wasn't at school yet. It was 7:00 but her orientation started at 7:15, if she was late for that then she'd make a bad impression on her teachers! She was a small distance away from the school, she could make it if she ran.

Soon Judy could see the overbearing brick walls of Willowbrook High. The front of it was already paved with various students, buzzing to start the new school year. Glancing around, Judy finally found the black tufts of fur belonging to her favorite sheep.

"Sharla!" Judy screamed waving towards her friend. The ewe briefly turned around, her face beaming when she placed eyes on the doe.

"Judy! I thought you weren't going to show up for a second...what am I talking about of course you would, who'd heard of Judy Hopps skipping the first day of school," Sharla laughed, mimicking the wave towards her.

"Oh please, I can be rebellious once in a while," Judy smirked, standing next to her friend.

"With what you're wearing I might just believe that," Sharla exclaimed, eyeing Judy up and down. She immediately flushed, wrapping her arms around her body self-consciously.

"Ok, this," Judy said, gesturing to her outfit, "was not my idea, Julie "lost" my favorite pair of leggings so I had to settle for these jeans."

"Sure you did," Sharla giggled. Judy merely ignored her amused friend, instead, she turned her attention to the front of the school steps where an attendant sat with various papers, handing them out to students. It must be the class lists! Judy thought. She removed herself from Sharla's side, whereas the ewe had begun a lengthy conversation with an unsuspecting classmate who unfortunately got sucked into her vortex of positivity.

Walking over to the attendee's table she politely asked for her name and room number and quietly waited while they searched for her papers. She stood wordlessly, already thinking about which class she'd gotten into. Hopefully the same one as Sharla she wished.

Judy had been so deep into her thoughts that she hadn't noticed the larger figure appear next to her and ask the same question.

"Hi, Nick Wilde, I already know who my teachers are. I just need the room numbers as well please," A smooth, and a familiar voice answered, causing Judy's ears to perk up. She indiscreetly looked to her left, confirming her suspicions. The figure beside her was none other than Nick Wilde, aka her worst nightmare.

He just seemingly showed up out of nowhere at the end of Freshman year, already making an impression on everyone that following summer. Judy had seen him around town a few times during his grand "debut" but never once did she consider walking up and actually talking to him. In her own personal opinion, Judy found foxes to be suspicious, if she just avoided them then she'd be fine.

There was a small handful of foxes in the Burrows but it wasn't like she hated all of them. In fact, she got along rather nicely with a few of the females. Especially a foreign exchange student from the arctic, Neve, an arctic fox. Unfortunately, just because she got along with Neve didn't mean she'd get along with the other vixens, specifically Xena.

Xena thought she was some big hot-shot just because she was a Marble fox, please if anything her fur made her look like a grey fox going through a gothic phase. Of course, Judy would never say to her face, that was just rude. Although there had been times where she'd slip and let out all of her frustration with Sharla, who coincidentally agreed.

Besides that, Judy still didn't trust foxes, which is surprising of her, since Judy always tried to be as inclusive as she could. Foxes just tick her off, in a bad way. But Nick...he made her feel wrong for all the worst reasons, even him being here sent shivers across her body. Him and his stupid smirk, and aviator glasses, and a tail that looked so fluffy you'd - Ok she's getting ahead of herself. Judy silently moved ever so slightly away from the canine and started fumbling with the straps on her backpack instead. Unfortunately, the tod, with his impeccable predator instincts, noticed right away in her change of demeanor.

"Surprised to see me Carrots?" Nick smiled slyly, stepping closer to the doe. Ugh that stupid nickname, the fox had begun calling her that the day they shared the same class in Sophmore year. Every day was an endless list of annoying nicknames, and somehow he kept coming up with new ones that Judy could barely remember them all.

Swiftly ignoring him, Judy simply stared forward, eyes locked on the papers on top of the desk. Just wishing for the attendants to hurry up already. And as someone was answering her prayers a kind old owl handed her numbers and information. Judy quickly thanked her and started looking over her various classes. Debate, Advanced Calculus, English, P.E, Forensics, and Theater.

Wait what?

Judy read over her classes once more, thinking that she had mistakenly read something incorrectly the first time. But no, right there on the page in big bold letters read Theater. Her stomach filled with dread, Theater? Since when had Judy signed up for theater? All throughout her school years, Judy strived to keep an excellent impression, all the while maintaining her life in the background when the spotlight only made her want to run away in fear. Sure she was in Debate and always joined the Student Council, but when participating Judy always found the perfect way to do the most while keeping a low profile. Yet here she was with Theater as one of her registered classes.

Judy felt her ears droop slightly and all she could do was frown at the page. She decided that she could figure out something later since she was nearing the start of class. Judy folded the paper as small as she could and stuffed it into her jean pocket. She started to walk away when a voice shout out from behind her,

"See you in Mrs. Hathorne's class Fluff." Judy knew it was Nick since she so easily recognized the sound of his voice - not that she liked hearing it or anything. She turned around to glare at the fox while keeping a calm stance.

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

"Oh? You didn't know?" Nick grinned, "We're in the same class this year, again."

"What!" Judy screamed, then promptly walked up to the fox and snatched the paper from his hand. Her eyes ran over it, scanning each word crazily. While doing so she noticed that not only had he been registered in Mrs. Hathorne's class, just like Judy, but he had been assigned in every single one of her classes as well. Debate, Advanced Calculus, English, P.E, Forensics, Theater, they were all there!

"H-How, w-why?" Judy stuttered staring dumbfoundedly at the page. Nick shrugged in response and grabbed the paper away from her stricken face.

"Maybe it's fate that we were meant to be together." Nick laughed walking away from the frozen doe. Judy quickly regained her composure and rushed after him.

"Wait just a second," Judy yelled infuriated.

"What," Nick said turning around, "can't stand the sight of me leaving?" Judy's eyes bulged at his statement and she blushed slightly,

"W-What n-no, shut up! Do you have any idea how much harder this will make everything? She exclaimed walking up to him.

"What exactly is everything?" He smirked moving his face dangerously close to her own. Judy's ears shot up at the sudden movement and moved a great distance away from him, her heart racing.

"Stupid fox you know what I mean!" Judy hissed, keeping her voice low.

"Oh, I assure you Carrots I haven't the faintest clue" Nick smiled, waving his arms and walking away yet again. Judy stood, glaring at the fox as he walked into the building. Ugh, he makes everything so much more aggravating. And now she had to deal with him for the rest of the year!? Perfect, just perfect.


Judy followed after her trudging classmates into the building, slowly navigating her way towards her classroom. 401, 402, aaand there it was 403. When she walked in Judy noticed that she was surprisingly later than she'd expected. Because when she entered the room it had already been filled with her peers, almost all of the seats had been filled with one of her classmates.

"Ah, Judy it's great to see you! How was your summer?" Mrs. Hathorne proclaimed from the front of the classroom.

"Oh it was...fine" Judy replied, exchanging a hug with the buffalo.

"Really! Did you do anything exciting?" she said with a joyous expression, returning the hug.

"Nothing big," Judy said passively. Her last summer hadn't exactly been all that eventful. She slept in, stayed up, all the normal things a sleep-deprived teenager would do. But she also enjoyed it with her family, friends, and somebody else… Judy exchanged one more kind glance with her teacher and then proceeded to look around the room to look over the various faces of her classmates.

There was Bobby Catmull, her friend since childhood. Neve, which was a pleasant surprise. A few faces she didn't recognize, some she did. Xena was there, of course, because why not ruin her junior year before it even starts. And of course, Nick. Ugh, he was just sitting there doing nothing yet he looked as if he'd throw her entire life into chaos.

Judy mustered up all her courage to ignore his earthly presence but she just couldn't take her eyes off him! Unfortunately, Judy had been staring for far too long in her opinion and her eyes locked with his. None of them moved, they just stared at each other. Judy knew that if anyone in the classroom had been looking at them they'd know, they'd know the very secret Judy had been trying to hide. The one she'd been hiding from her parents, her siblings, her friends, and everyone in this god dang school. Judy wanted to look away but she couldn't, she lost herself in those vibrant green eyes.

That was until a very excited sheep tackled into Judy's side causing them both to fall onto the floor.

"Judy!" Sharla squealed quite loudly.

"Sharla you're squishing my lungs," Judy mumbled quietly from underneath her.

"Oh sorry!" She quickly replied as she got off the ground and helped up her fallen friend. Judy dusted herself off and then proceeded to hug her friend.

"Wait, are you in this class too?" Judy asked.

"Yep," Sharla smiled.

"Oh my god, that's great!" Judy screamed and hugged her again.

"Yeah I tried calling out your name to tell you about three times but you didn't even look at me," Sharla said questioningly.

"O-oh I…was in a daze or something, distracted you-know," Judy said, trying to change the subject as fast as possible.

"Ok then," Sharla shrugged it off and then moved on to find her seat. Judy followed in pursuit hoping to snatch up a good seat for the rest of the year. However, much to her demise, the last good seat was between two people she did not want to be placed by, Xena the stuck-up fox, and Nick the love of her life.

Wait - no, the problem in her life.

Judy uncomfortably sat in her spot between the vixen and tod, shifting slightly in her seat. She wanted nothing more to do with the two foxes so Judy focused immensely towards the front of the classroom where her teacher was talking about the different schedules. As long as she ignored him for the rest of the day, and hopefully the rest of the year, she'd be fine.


Judy was not fine, in fact, there was a positively 0% chance she could be fine with Nick beside her in,

Every. Singel. Class.

But of course, she'd just have to deal with it because that's who she is, Judy the go-with-the-flow kind of girl. She was in her third class of the day, the one right before her lunch break, advanced calculus. The class was meant for the smartest students in the entire school, but there was a surprisingly large amount of mammals in her class.

Bunnies are good at multiplyi - I mean math.

Judy enjoyed her math classes usually but at the moment she felt like banging her head against the desk repeatedly. Her teacher, Mr. Franklin, was droning on about the process of figuring out the area underneath a curve and Judy couldn't care less. She'd already learned everything she needed to know about mathematics. It was, after all, a requirement on her application to the Zootopia College for Forensics. If she wanted to excel at the top of her class in ZPA she'd have to take 4 years of college with a master's degree to get it. Unfortunately, this made her future math classes long periods of brain dead staring at her teacher while not even listening. Ugh, Judy would do anything to get out of this class.

Just then Judy felt her phone buzz in her jean pocket. Thank goodness she put it on vibrate underwise she'd be in trouble with her otherwise perfect permanent record. She discreetly pulled it out and opened up her notifications underneath her desk, out of Mr. Franklin's view. Judy assumed the unknown buzz was because of her mother or some random notification from the news app, why did she even keep that around anymore? She opened up her messages and saw that it was a text sent underneath a hidden contact. Someone she's hidden for a reason.

Bathroom, 5 minutes…?

Is he serious right now! Although, Judy would prefer to be there with him as opposed to this class with everyone else. if anybody caught them she'd be humiliated, utterly embarrassed. But it's a chance she has to take.

"Mr. Franklin, can I go to the bathroom?" Her classmates all turned to stare at her and she felt as if the fur on her entire body pricked up.

"Just grab a pass and leave," He exclaimed from behind his computer non-heartedly.

"Ok, thank you," Judy whispered silently as she hastily left her seat. She promptly ran up towards the front of the classroom and snatched up a pass from the small pile on his desk. After that Judy swiftly left the room without another word. As she exited into the hallway she wasn't even a couple of meters away until her ears perked up from hearing some noise from the classroom.

"Hey, Mr. Franklin I think I left some leftover food in my locker, if I don't hurry they might get um...spoiled."

"Jeez Wilde hurry up and go before you end up stinking up the entire school!" Mr. Franklin shouted. Judy could feel her heart quicken and butterflies formed in her stomach, all of which only made her accelerate her pace. She dashed down the hall and swerved the second a corner moved its way up to her.

She could feel herself skipping between each jog and Judy felt the smallest smile moved onto her lips. A few seconds later she entered the unisex bathroom underneath the staircases. It was meant for everyone, smelled like wet lettuce, and was always empty. Which made it the perfect meeting spot for her and a certain junior, whose name shall not be mentioned.

Not this very second at least.

Judy quickly looked in both directions to make sure there had been no loitering classmates of hers wandering around. Thankfully, they had all been stuck in class right now and Judy was glad not to be in their shoes. She stealthily opened the door, prepared not to see anyone, but much to her surprise a russet-colored figure quickly pulled her in before she had the chance to say something. Alarmed at the sudden movement Judy let out a silent meep and felt herself about to punch the mammal in front of her. Whoever they were must have obviously heard her and quickly let their paws off of her before this turned into something unfortunate.

"Carrots calm down, it's me!" Judy silently opened her eyes, immediately recognizing the voice, and stared at the fox in front of her. Nick Wilde and his hopeful green eyes stared back. They both stared at each other, not saying a word, and Judy could feel the smile on her face get bigger. That was until the moment had been completely ruined by Judy's extreme change in expressions.

"Nick you crazy fox! I would have punched you," she yelled. Judy then proceeded to prove her point by lightly punching him in the arm for good measure. Nick then rubbed his arm slightly as if she had actually hurt him. He laughed and looked back at her.

"Carrots," he began, "who else would be meeting you in this garbage smelling bathroom for a quick make-out session?" Her face flushed and she quickly dropped her ears to hide the very fact.

"T-This isn't a make-out session you egotistic canine!" Judy protested.

"Really? Then why did you make such a big deal out of it when I texted you in class 5 minutes ago?" He stared knowingly as if he could read her better than anyone in this godforsaken school.

"I did not make a big deal about it!" She screamed. "I just wanted to leave the class quickly, it was boring."

"Well if that was the case I would've texted you every 5 minutes of this day alone," Nick smirked, moving closer to her. Judy interjected by putting her hands against his chest.

"Wait, this is the last time," she said pushing them both away from the wall.

"Yet you said that the last time. Oh, and the one before that, how many times have we done this?" He said following her in tow.

"628 since the first one 2 years ago but who's counting," Judy laughed as she swung herself onto the sink counter to look him in the face.

"Obviously someone is," Nick smiled as he rolled his eyes. Judy playfully smiled back and pulled his face closer to hers. To the point where their lips were mere inches away from each other. Nick then placed his hands on her hips and stared her right in the eyes. Judy stared back, daringly.

"You know you love me Wilde," she whispered confidently. Nick smirked and quirked his eyebrow in thought.

"Do I know that," he whispered back into her ears, sending a shiver down her spine. "Yes, yes I do."

And then he kissed her almost immediately as he said it. Judy melted into the kiss, her hands tangled against his fur. And it was perfect, everything was perfect.

That was, until two weeks later.

To be continued…