Guardian Blue - Season 1

Episode 8 - Senior

The loud whistle blow signaled the end of the game. Stu had to fairly scream in his mic to get his voice heard over the crowd as cheering and foot thumping roared from the hillside. Judy looked up at Nick, still nearly nose to nose from how he'd fallen over on her, and he suddenly looked away, ears back with an obvious blush hidden under red fur. He got up and helped the bunny to her feet as they listened to the doe's father.

"I would never have believed an ending like that if I hadn't just seen it, everyone! The bunnies win by force, oh my goodness! That was just unfathomable!" Judy held up a paw, waving to the cheering crowd. She had thought she might win at the onset but half way through the match she didn't think it was even possible.  Yet she had won, and certainly not by any slack from her partner. That was one of the most difficult contests she'd ever been through. She turned to Nick who was smiling at her, panting heavily.

"That… was a very good game of Munch, Nick." She punched his arm. "I guess we better go face the crowd," she laughed. Nick looked worried.

"Do we have to? I didn't consider that part," he whined.

"Oh no, you played the game, you get the fans," she chuckled.

"I lost the game, you get the fans," Nick stated resolutely as he crossed his arms while the doe began to walk off.

"Yeah, maybe if you got creamed, but you were a force of nature; come on." The fox sighed and followed. Judy expected to have a lot of congratulations and fist bumps and other platitudes for her victory but she had not expected a line to form with the insistence that she sign things. Shirts, phones, hats, all kinds of things. Nick was asked to sign them too. He seemed especially flustered at the requests to touch his tail, generally by kits, which he politely refused.  He stated that it was a right to be earned on the field. It took almost forty minutes before the crowd started to really peter out. After a while longer only family and closer friends were left milling about, having refreshments. Judy noticed that Gideon was packing up his portable booth. She and Nick wandered over to him.

"Hey, how'd it go? Was it worth the drive over?" asked Judy.

"Yeah, Jude, I completely sold out after the match ended. I hadn't expected to move that much product and I brought half what I made today. The shop's gonna close early today if I don't git back there and hit the ovens." He slammed the back doors of the truck. "This was a great idea and that was an awesome match, Jude. I never saw you play back in school but that was outside any definition, what I saw there. Mammals gonna be talkin' about that for years." Judy laughed at that, secretly glad that while Bunnyburrow was buzzing about her game she would be in Zootopia where no one cared about it. It felt good to win, but she hated being in the spotlight.

"Judy! Judy, come over here!" Her mother was calling to her. Judy happily moved over to Bonnie.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked, having fully caught her breath and feeling genuinely content.  

"So, I was a tiny bit concerned about how... public your affection has been.  I'm okay with that... stuff, I guess your dad too, but..."  Judy found herself barely registering her mother's words as she looked over to Nick and her jaw slowly went slack. Gideon was counting out cash. Into Nick's outstretched paw. A cut. That darn cunning vulpine was pulling a cut off of poor, gentle Gideon! As she watched this in horror, her mother continued to speak.  "... was laying on you and it honestly looked for a second like he might have kissed you; not everyone is going to be kind about it..."  Nick knew her well enough to know she would not want him to do something like this, and get her family involved - get her family's friends involved; was he really that deeply locked into old habits?  Nick was on his vacation and what? Hustling everybody? Charlie, now Gideon, who else was he going to skim off of? He didn't have to do this.