I cheerfully sang to myself while walking up the steps to school, knowing I would see Victor again. I barely thought of the other students looking at me like I did the first day, I didn’t care what anyone thought. The only person on my mind was Victor!

Suddenly, my mood changed when I saw the girls from the bathroom yesterday. The leader was wearing poorly done makeup over the scratch mark I had left on her face. When they saw me, my stomach dropped as they all made rude gestures toward me.

“We’ll take care of you after school, kitty!” One of them shouted, red with anger.

The leader smiled and slid her finger across her throat, saying, “We’re gonna have fun with you, sweetheart.”

I quickly turned the corner and ran to English class. Again, I was the first one there and waited for the rest of the students to file in; I must’ve looked like a super nerd.

When Victor walked in, he waved and smiled at me. Before he sat down, I asked, “Can I talk to you about something.” with a tremble in my voice.

He saw that I was frightened and said, “Of course. What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“Not yet.” I gulped, “There are just these girls, and they’re super mean and I think they want to kill me.”

“What?!”

“Well-”

“Alright, class, settle down now.” The teacher interrupted.

“I’ll tell you after class, okay?” I whispered desperately to him. he nodded in agreement.

I started to bite my nails as the end of the class drew near. Every minute felt like an hour. I could barely take it. After the excruciating wait was over, I turned around to face Victor and said, “I can explain!” in a panic.

“Calm down, Ivy,” he said while putting his finger over his lips.

I looked around and saw the other students staring at us. I covered my mouth embarrassed, “Sorry… I can explain everything.” I said in a quieter voice.

“Here, let’s go somewhere a little more private.” He said while grabbing his bag and walking towards the door. I instinctively grabbed and buried my face into his arm, “Hey! What the heck do you think-”

“Please protect me.” I interrupted.

He sighed and we walked out of the class and found a nice quiet, low-traffic place in the hallway, “Now,” he started, “what’s this all about? You can let go now.”

I pouted and let go of his strong arm, “I don’t wanna die!” I started to cry.

“Who’s gonna kill you?” he calmly asked.

“Some girl I scritched up in the bathroom!”

“Scritched up?”

“Yeah! They were holding me down and I couldn’t get out and so I scratched her face and ran away!” I tried to catch my breath in between words.

“Alright, alright, don’t worry. I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”

I let out a breath of relief and realized what I did, “I’m super sorry for grabbing you like that, I was just scared and I needed someone to hold onto.” I blushed.

“Don’t worry, I understand. Now I’ll walk you to your next classes okay?”

“Oh, thank you so much! That means so much to me.” I hugged him, and he petted my head, which made me blush and make my heart go crazy.

For the rest of the day, Victor walked me through school to each one of my classes, I saw a lot of jealous and unfriendly looks as we walked together which didn’t make me feel as nauseous as I thought it would. At one point, we passed by the girls. Their once-angry faces were now confused and disgusted. As we passed by them I couldn’t help but stick my tongue out at them.

After school, I walked to the parking lot with Victor and sat in my car, “I can’t thank you enough.” I bashfully started, “Thank you for protecting me and pretending to be my friend.”

“Pretending? I thought we really were friends,” he replied with disappointment

“Wait really? I didn’t know you liked me that much!” I said with joy.

“Well, I kinda thought this was a date.”

“Say what-now?!” I turned bright pink.

“Well, isn’t that why you invited me on a hike? I thought it’d be like a date.” He lovingly replied.

“You’re telling me you like me like that?!” I hid my face in my hands and started to wiggle my butt in my seat like a puppy wagging its tail.

“Well, I don’t know. Isn’t that what dates are for?” He smirked.

I blushed and looked into his eyes lovingly, “I-I guess so.” I shook my head to get out of my trance, “So! Uh, are you ready to go to the forest?” I chuckled.

“Ready!” He promptly replied.

We arrived at the forest at twilight and started our journey down the public hiking trail, “This brings back so many memories!” I hugged myself as we walked down the trail.

“I take it you haven’t been hiking in a while?” he questioned.

“No, I haven’t. Not for a long time!” I chuckled while continuing to hug myself and close my eyes.

“Oh, what a shame. If I were you I’d be going on a hike every day. Why’d you stop?”

“Oh, well… It’s a sensitive subject, but I can tell you if you want.” I awkwardly replied.

“If you’re comfortable and want to tell me, then go ahead.”

“So, it’s a long story. But to make it short I had a really good friend who I always went on hikes with, and one day her parents told us she was missing and had told them she was going on a hike by herself.” I tried to keep my tears from falling, “And since that day, no one has seen her. A lot of people speculated and collectively agreed that she had committed suicide.”

“I’m so sorry that happened.” I could tell he was uncomfortable with the subject.

“I believed that for a while. I don’t buy it anymore though. I know she’s out here somewhere. I can hear her talk to me every once in a while.”

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“You two must’ve been super close.”

“We were, and that’s why I’m out here to search for her.”

“Hold on a second. I thought we were just going on a hike.” He gave me a confused stare.

“We are!” I happily shouted, “And we’re also here to find her. I know if I were the one who went missing, Vallory would be the first one to look for me.”

“So, why are you taking me with you?”

“Uhm, well, I was scared to go alone.”

“I understand. I’ll help you, but we can’t stay out here all night, okay? You have to tell me if you want to do things like that so we can prepare.”

“Wait, so you’re really gonna help?”

“Well, we’re already out here and I love the forest so I don’t mind helping. This is why I gave you my number, so you could tell me if things were going to change. I would’ve been more prepared if I had already known.”

“I’m sorry.” I was humiliated, “I-I just was nervous to text you or tell you before because I thought you’d think I was crazy.”

“It’s okay. You’re lucky I’m always up for adventure! Now, let’s get a move on before the sun sets.”

We ran down the hiking trail together. My eyes glowed with excitement as we raced through the dense woods and started our search for Vallory.

“So,” he panted, “Where did she usually hike to?”

“Most of the time we took this trail, it loops back to the parking lot, but sometimes we were a little rebellious and went off the trail to find treasure.”

“I would imagine it would be hard to get lost if she took the trail.”

“You’d be correct! If we veer off the trail a little up ahead past the big oak tree, there’s a river where we always looked for gold.”

“Well, there might be some clues up there.”

As we were about to walk off the trail, I felt a sharp pain in my heart. I knew what I was doing might be dangerous, but I knew it was the only way to find Vallory. We came across the river and rested on some flat-topped rocks.

“So, how do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful,” he replied, taking in the scenery.

“I’m happy you like it.” I smiled.

We listened to the pleasant rumble of the river and watched the sun gently fall below the treeline. The sky blended into deep shades of blue and indigo, and it started to slowly fill with bright white specks that sparkled and shined over us as we sat together, slowly moving closer. I started to shiver from the cold night. Victor took note of this and wrapped me in his big warm arms.

“What did we come here to do?” I yawned while my eyes struggled to stay open.

“Beats me.”

“I think we should stay like this for a while.” I chuckled into his jacket sleeve.

“Mhm.”

Shortly after our little talk, I drifted to sleep in his arms. I had dreams of chasing butterflies and birds. I dreamt of walking down the river and pouncing on fish that would swim by. I woke up multiple times in the night just to reposition myself in his arms and to hold him tighter.

I felt a ray of sunshine gently warming up my face. As I started to wake, I heard birds singing and the voices of the trees as the wind blew through their leaves. I opened my eyes and saw the pale blue sky through the branches of the trees and the squirrels running from limb to limb.

Suddenly, after the morning drowsiness wore off, I started to panic, “Wait a second, did I sleep here all night?!” I looked around and noticed something even more disturbing, “Hold on! This isn’t where we fell asleep!”

I looked at Victor, and my jaw dropped. For a moment, I thought it was just my imagination, but I stared and confirmed my eyes weren’t deceiving me. On top of his head were two floppy bunny ears. I didn’t know how to feel. Was this scary? Disturbing? Funny? or just plain adorable?

I tried to contain my giggles, but they seeped out, and he started to wake up.

“What are you laughing about?” He groggily asked and let out a yawn.

“You!” My giggles became louder, “You look ridiculous! But also super cute!”

“What do you mean? Everyone looks like this when they’re sleeping.” He rubbed his eyes, “Even you. I watched you fall asleep on me and drool on me.”

“I- what! That’s so embarrassing, I’m sorry!”

“It’s cool. I do it- What happened to you?!”

“What happened to me?! You’re the one with the bunny ears!”

“What are you talking about?” He placed his hands on top of his head, “Oh, that’s what you’re talking about.” he stroked his hand down the length of his cute, droopy, bunny ears.

“I-Is there something wrong with meow?!” I covered my mouth with both hands, “W-why did I just meow?!”

“You got a little something on your head. And behind you.”

“Behind me?” I quickly turned around, “W-where?”

“Uh-um, it’s on your butt.” He said, flustered.

“Why are you staring at my butt!” I reached my hands behind my back and felt something soft and fluffy brush up against them, “What the heck is that!?” I kept turning around to see what was brushing against my hands, “Get it off! Get it off!”

“Simmer down; it’s your tail.”

“My what-now?” I stopped suddenly.

“You have a tail, and it’s super cute.”

“I have a tail? So that means… Turn around right now!”

“No ma'am!” he stood firm, “Plus, we shouldn’t be fooling around right now. We should be getting to school. I don’t think we’re in the same place where we fell asleep.”

“Well, no problem. I’ll just use my phone to-” I patted myself down; I was wearing different clothes.

“You forgot your phone, didn’t you?”

“Did not!” I defended myself, “I remembered. it’s just that… I’m not wearing my clothes.” I lifted the hem of the dress that was on me, “What is this?”

It was a long, brown, checkered dress. It had loose, white sleeves that covered my hands partially. And a thin, pink bow with a cat-shaped bell that hung around my neck. I felt the top of my head where two fluffy brown cat ears with bows that matched my dress sat.

“Well, I guess it’s the comfiest dress I’ve worn. And look at you,” I gestured toward Victor, “you look so formal and handsome.” I giggled.

He wore a matching brown checkered suit and matched me with a pink bowtie around his neck.

“Did you do this?”

“Yes, I prepared us matching clothes, dressed you up, and dragged you into the forest without waking you up.” I said sarcastically.

“This is serious. I’m really trying to figure this out.”

“I’m sorry. I’m just trying to cope with what’s going on right now. I don’t know what’s happening, and I’m scared.” I hugged him and felt my cat ears tickle his nose, “Please protect me.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do either. I've never been in this situation before.” He sighed.

“Mom’s probably worried sick about me right now.” I let out a few tears that stained the white of his collar, “And this means someone saw us naked!” I began to sob louder.

“It’s okay. let’s just try to figure out how to get out of here.” He attempted to calm me.

“Okay, where do we go?”

He gestured behind me. It was a natural-looking path that was lined with beautiful flowers of every color.

“I guess that could work.” I replied.

We walked down the path of the flowers, and I admired each one of them, giving each one a quick sniff until Victor told me to hurry up. Funny enough, being lost in the middle of the woods with no obvious way to get home was less stressful than going to school. I caught up with Victor and walked next to him, admiring the beautiful scenery. The sky was barely visible because the branches and leaves of the trees covered it up. The gentle wind chilled my tail every time it passed. It wasn’t a shocking chill, but more of a good-feeling chill; like a fan that oscillates in your direction on a warm summer’s evening.

While Victor was in front of me, I couldn’t help but catch a glimpse of his fluffy, round tail. I let out a soft moan from how adorable it was and tried to pet it. Unfortunately, he noticed me trying to sneak up on him and gave me a lecture on reasons why I shouldn’t touch his tail, but I didn’t listen

After a long trip down the windy trail, we heard an angelic voice up ahead. As we came around the final bend of the trail we saw where the voice had been coming from. It was a beautiful woman who wore long, white robes, that were stitched together with gold. She had long, beautiful, blonde hair that almost touched the ground as she was sitting on a natural-looking throne.

She looked at us and smiled, “I’ll be right with you, newcomers. There’s only one ahead of you.” She turned back to a little girl who had bear ears and was holding a teddy bear, “Now, now. Why are you visiting again?”

“I missed you!”

“But your mother misses you too. She was so worried about you.”

“But she’s mean! I want you to be my mommy now.” The little girl protested while she played with the hem of her nightgown.

“Oh! You darling thing! Fine. You can stay for as long as you want. I can’t stop you. I only advise you to return home as soon as possible. You can go play now.”

The little girl gave a joyful scream and ran into the dense woods.

“Next.” She called out to us, “What brings you two here?”