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.