Chad

Prelude

It was noon, and the 2 brothers were talking loudly. Rhon the Rhinoceros and his brother Zero were arguing over who would have the last slice of pizza. Rhon said, as the bigger of the 2, that he needed more for energy. Zero pointed out that if he were ever to catch up to Rhon, that the bigger brother would have to lay off the extra portions. Their arguments never go anywhere for they are both stubborn. But they are so thick-skinned that neither of them get offended either.

"Get over here. Now." Mom did not sound happy. I hurried up on my paws and ran into the living room. She was pointing at a broken lampshade, and looked up at me with a look. Oh boy, was I in trouble.

"It wasn't me, Ma!" She swept her eyes over to my younger sister, curled up in an orange ball of fur. My mom touched her on the shoulder, and Nani looked up at her. Mom could tell from the look Nani had that it was, indeed, her fault.

"What were you doing?" My mom scolded her. Nani just looked at me with her eyes, and started to defend herself, "Chad said the floor was lava! I was jumping on the couch to stay alive."

Mother just chuckled to herself and swept up the mess, "between the two of you, I don't know what I'm gonna do." I knew she said that because Dad was always busy with work. He was always flying to human cities and doing business stuff there. He always talked of taking me to 'learn the family trade' but keeps saying he's going to wait until I'm older. I'm already 11, so I don't see what's the big deal. I'm old enough to have sleepovers at my friend's house, so sleeping in a hotel doesn't seem that scary.

My friend is Nick, and I've known him since I was 6. We went to kindergarten together. He's also a fox, but we have friends who are cats, dogs, even tigers. I've never met a human before (because my dad won't take me) but I hear they are very similar to us. We grow up a little faster, so I would already be a teenager in their years. They also stand on 2 legs, but they don't have fur. They borrow fur from sheep (who grow fur really fast) and make it into clothes. It's a funny tradition, and sometimes other species try out these clothes too. The sheep make lots of money, especially if they knit the clothes too. Maybe Mom will let me try out clothes sometime.

'Ding' went the dinner bell, and I scurried over to the table. Today is salmon and rice. I love seafood, as it's the only type of meat we can eat. We are learning in school how the predators used to eat prey, back when nobody walked on 2 feet (although my teacher said humans did back then, but she said human studies come later in the year). Now that prey and predator have 'evolved' we aren't supposed to eat each other. Most sea life isn't evolved, so it's still natural to hunt them. Dolphins did evolve, and they really run the fishing business. It makes sense because it's their home, and they know it best. At least that's what my pa says, and he knows all about the business stuff. It's very hard to fish without the permission from dolphins. They are extremely smart and know how to balance the ocean's population. The humans started listening to the dolphins after they almost hunted whales into extinction. We learn about the ocean in science class, and learn about the predator and prey in history class.

Dinner was good and I talked to Mom and Nani about my studies. Nani listened in wonder, and I think Mom was pretending to be interested. She already knew what I told her, but it's fun to tell her anyway. Nani had a lot of questions, and most the time Mom had to answer her because I didn't know enough.  Today was Friday so tomorrow we get off of school! I think I'm going to go to Nick's house.

Right after eating I get sleepy, so I went into my room that I share with my sister. The walls on her side are coloured pink and my side is blue. My favourite colour is baby blue, and I stare at the glow stars stuck to the ceiling until I fall asleep. It doesn't take me a long time to fall asleep. Sometimes I'll daydream before falling asleep and continue that dream when I do go to sleep. Today I dreamt about the ocean, and when I fell asleep my dream turned into me making large business decisions at a meeting with dolphins. I don't know how they sat in chairs, but dreams are funny like that.