Bruce
and Danny Chapter 5

By:
BeatleNumber9

            It was Danny's first day of school
today, kindergarten to be exact. I remember him being really excited, even
after we had to break it to him that he wouldn't be going to the same school as
his friends Angie, Owen, and Tyson. It was ridiculous that Anthro kids and
human kids couldn't go to school together, but that's how it was and there was
nothing else we could do but enroll Danny in a human school.

            Before I left him at the bus stop, I
made sure to tell him something important,

            “Danny," I said, “make sure you…uh,
don't mention you're adopted to anyone…at least not yet."

            “How come?" He asked.

            “Well…Some of the other kids might
treat you differently if they know you look different from your parents." I
told him, looking back at him through the rearview mirror.

            He just kind of stared at me with a
confused look on his face.

            “We'll just cross that bridge when
we get to it." I said.

            “What bridge?" He asked.

            “It's just an expression buddy," I
laughed a little, “now go have a fun first day." I said, smiling at him, and
gesturing to the bus stop in front of us.

            He hopped out of the car, grabbing
his backpack.

            “Love you, son." I said.

            “Love you too!" He said, before
running over to the bus stop.

            I sat in the car and watched him,
waiting for the bus to pick him up. As I waited I saw a few more kids show up
and wait for the bus. I sighed, thinking about what I'd told Danny. Em had told
me that I was just delaying the inevitable by making Danny take the bus, we
were going to have to show up at the school in person eventually, so might as
well just drop him off ourselves. I argued that it's better to let him have a
few days where he's seen as a normal kid, than start off the first day getting teased.
Call me pessimistic, but I knew it would be coming and we needed to prepare
Danny for it.

            Before too long the school bus drove
up, and Danny got on it with all the other kids.

            “Have fun, buddy." I said, watching
the bus drive off, before heading off to work.

            The bus ride to school was pretty
uneventful. I didn't talk to any of the other kids on the bus much, I was still
kind of shy back then. I probably would have just fallen asleep in my seat if I
hadn't been so excited to get to school.

            Eventually we got there, and were
ushered off to the gym, where they gave each of us our assigned classroom and
directed us there.

            We met our teacher, Mrs. Ramos when
we entered the classroom. She was nice, greeting each of us as we walked in.

            A minute after I sat down another
boy sat next to me.

            “Hi." He said to me.

            “Um, hi?" I said nervously.

            “I like your shirt." He said,
pointing at my Pinky and the Brain
t-shirt.

            “Thanks." I said. “You like Pinky and the Brain too?"

            “Yeah!" He said.

            Once we were all seated Mrs. Ramos
started class the usual way teachers start the first day of school; by having
us introduce ourselves to everyone, along with something interesting about
ourselves. One by one, the other kids stood up and introduced themselves, I
learned that the boy sitting next to me's name was Josh. Then it came to be my
turn, I stood up.

            “Hi," I said nervously, “I'm Danny,
and…" I stopped and tried to think of something interesting about myself, but
there was only one thing I could think of. “and, I'm adopted." I couldn't help
it, I knew dad said not to mention it, but technically I wasn't telling them
that my parents weren't human, like me.

            “What's that?" One girl asked.

            “Ah, that's very interesting Danny, 'Adopted' means that Danny didn't have
parents at one point, so two people chose him to take care of as their child."
Mrs. Ramos explained simply for them.

            After everyone had introduced
themselves Mrs. Ramos started teaching us some basic spelling. Before I knew
it, it was time for lunch and recess. I spent most of the time playing with
Josh, and some other kids that he knew from his neighborhood.

            We learned more about each other
while we played around on the jungle gym.

            “Do you have a N64?" Josh asked me.

            “No, but I have a PlayStation." I
said.

            “Cool! Maybe we could play at each
other's houses?" He said. “I've never played anything on PlayStation?"

            “That'd be cool!" I said.

            “Did you just move here?" Josh asked,
hanging from the monkey bars. “Cause you don't know anyone here."

            “No, I just live a little far away
from school, that's why I rode the bus." I explained.

            “Where do you live?" He asked.

            “Over there." I said, pointing in
the direction I thought my house was probably in.

            We played around and talked more on
the swings, before recess was over. Overall the first day of school for me was
great, even if I'd been a little shy going in, I still didn't understand what
dad was so worried about.

            I looked at the clock on my desk, it
was about time to go pick Danny up.

            “Hey, Bruce." I heard a familiar
voice greet.

            I turned to see my buddy, and
coworker, Howard.

            “Hey Howard, how're things?" I
asked.

            “Aw, I just wanted to check in with
you before I leave for the week." He said.

            “Where you off to?"

            “Eh, they're sending me up to Austin
to cover some boring government crap, the usual." He said. “How 'bout you?"

            “Eh, I was just finishing up my
newest column, and figuring out what I might write for the next one. It's
Danny's first day of school today, so I'll probably just go with that."

            “Ah, how do you think it went?" He
asked.

            “Well, he wasn't as nervous about it
as I was."

            “Aw, it probably went fine." He reassured
me. “Danny's a good kid."

            “Yeah, it probably did." I agreed.
“I'm just worried more about…"

            “His teacher getting intimidated
when they see Danny's got a badass looking guy like you for a dad?" Howard
finished for me.

            I laughed.

            “I guess that's one way of looking
at it." I said.

            “Don't worry about it, alright?" He
said. “At the worst, kids will be a little intimidated, then they'll get used
to it. In the end you and your wife are parents like everyone else there.

            “I hope so." I said, grabbing my
keys. “Anyway, good luck in Austin."

            “Thanks, tell Danny I said 'hi'." He
said.

            I finally saw the bus pull up, Danny
came out shortly, carrying his backpack by one strap over his shoulder. He
excitedly ran over to the car when he saw it. He opened the back door, threw
his backpack in and climbed inside.

            “So, how was it?" I asked, starting
the car up.

            “It was fun!" Danny said. “My
teacher's really nice."

            “You make any friends?" I asked.

            “Yeah, especially this one kid,
Josh!" He explained. “He likes Pinky and the Brain, like me!" He said, pointing
to his shirt.

            “That's great, kiddo!" I said.

            “Uh, I did tell them I was adopted,
though…" He admitted.

            “Aw, Danny, we talked about that." I
said, with a hint of disappointment in my voice.

            “But I didn't say that you and mom
looked different than me, just that I was adopted." He added.

            “Ah, well, I guess that's okay." I
said.

            “Why do you not want me to talk
about you and mom?" He asked. “Are you afraid that the other kids won't like
you?"

            “Eh, that's part of it." I admitted.
“I'm more worried that you might get… teased at school."

            “Why would that happen?" He asked.

            “Because you're human and we're
not." I put plainly.

            “That's dumb." He said.

            “Yeah, it is buddy." I said. “And
maybe I'm wrong, maybe that won't happen. I hope it won't, but hey papa bear
can't help being worried about his cub." I said playfully, looking back at him
in the rearview mirror. “Ah, would you look at that, we're home." I said,
parking the car in front of the house.

            Once we got inside Danny immediately
started telling Emma about his first day, about his new friend Josh, and how
excited he was that he was going to be going to school there now. It was nice
seeing him so excited for this. Maybe I was wrong, maybe knowing we're his
parents wouldn't change the school's treatment of Danny. We'd just have to wait
and see.