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singminibang · 7 years

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When it Started

Author: Twilightprince102 (tumblr: @twilightprince102)

Artist: stevetwisp (tumblr: @stevetwisp)

Summary: Jude and Meena’s friendship is complicated; that is known to many. Jude may try to help their friend with their stage fright, but there are times when the jaguar can get too overprotective of their friend. Yes, Jude supports Meena throughout her life when hardships come, but the elephant doesn’t know anything about her friend’s life! But there was a time when this friendship was normal; a time when there were no mysteries, no harm done, no stage fright and when the friendship seemed like any other. So what happened? When did everything change? How did the hardships begin? The only way to know is to go back to when it started.

(Additional notes: Jude is my OC, and they are a jaguar who goes by they/them pronouns; prequel to the ongoing fic Some Moral Support.)

The school day had once again begun for everyone at Catselar Elementary school. Whether they eagerly woke up to their alarm clocks or tried to act sick, the students all made their way to school for the day. It didn’t matter if they came by bus, car, bike or foot; animals of all shapes and sizes arrived for another day of learning, whether they wanted to or not! And for the young calf Meena, she couldn’t be any happier! Because another day at school meant another day with her best friend Jude! School was already fun for her, but “Jude makes it even funner!” as she would say. She scarfed down her breakfast, grabbed her backpack and raced out the door to her bus stop after saying her daily goodbyes and love you’s to her family.

Meena hummed a happy tune as she waited for her bus while other students looked at her with a skeptic expression. But as a cool gust of spring air swept by, they shrugged it off and went back to waiting, thinking that she was only in a good mood that day. But to Meena, it felt like it was going to be the perfect day! Usually every day at recess, the two always sat together while they ate their lunch. They would talk about events that have happened recently-such as a surprise trip to a waterpark-while they ate. Afterwards they would play together, have their laughs, and on occasion Meena would sing or hum a song. Whenever she did, the jaguar always listened to her and applauded, complimenting her voice. Then on cue, the recess bell would ring and they would go back inside for the day.

But yesterday as Jude listened to their friend hum a song, an idea popped into their head, and the cub thought aloud. “Maybe I could sing you a song.” The jaguar mumbled, unintentionally interrupting Meena’s humming. She turned her head to face her whiskered friend, having to do a double take at her friend’s offer.

“What was that?” She spoke up while her face began to morph into a wide smile, hoping that she heard her friend correctly. The jaguar then realized what they had done, realizing that they had accidentally thought out loud. They broke themself out of their thoughts, visibly embarrassed at their slip up. Jude turned to face Meena, shifting in their brown shorts and yellow shirt, repeating what they thought out loud a moment ago.

“U-uh, maybe I could sing you a song? I mean, almost every day you sing a song while we’re here so maybe I could, sing for you? Sometime?” The cub said slowly. Meena gasped loudly and Jude could see her eyes light up like fireworks. Jude let out a small yelp when Meena grabbed their paws and brought them close to her body.

“That would be amazing!” Meena yelled. She leaped off of the bench they sat on, letting her sneakers scuff the courtyard pavement. Her yellow and orange striped dress waved in the wind as she stood up excitedly. Ever since the two met when they were toddlers, Meena could never recall a time when Jude sang openly around her. She had always imagined that it was simply a case of them being shy, but Meena was never brave enough to ask why to her friend’s face. Every time she tried, she feared that it would make them uncomfortable and she backed out. But now all of that fear had been washed away and she confronted Jude head on. “Can you do it now?”

“U-um, now?” Jude asked while their mouth shifted into an uncomfortable smile.

“Yes!” Jude did not expect their friend’s eager reaction, despite knowing each other for over four years. They began to chuckle out of fear, hoping that Meena was simply joking or that the school bell would ring and save them from being in the spotlight. When Meena did not back down, nor did the bell ring, the cub shut themself up. They looked at another group of children playing Four-Square across the playground as they pulled their legs up to their chest. “I’m not sure if you would like my singing. My voice sounds like garbage next to yours.”

“But that does not mean it’s bad! I’m sure it will be amazing, so come on, sing!” Meena grabbed the jaguar’s paws once again and brought them close to her, shaking in excitement. Before Jude could denounce their skills again, the school bell rang, signalling for all the children to come back inside. Taking the chance of escape, Jude grabbed their lunchbox and spun around Meena to march towards the door. Upset but not losing hope, Meena walked with Jude back to the doors, having to jog to catch back up to them. The cub glanced at their friend and began to regret their actions when they saw the sadness on her face. Jude had rarely ever seen their friend openly upset, so seeing her sad from something they had done made their regret sting even more. So making a last minute decision, Jude tapped their partner on the shoulder to grab their attention.

“I’ll sing tomorrow at recess if you wear your favorite dress.” they whispered into her giant, outstretched ears. Hearing those words instantly restored Meena’s mood. With the biggest, toothiest grin she could possibly wear, the calf nodded and shook their smaller paw to confirm their deal. Then the two separated to sit in their separate desks and mentally prepare themselves for the next day.

So there Meena was that next day; sitting on the bus seat with her multi-colored, polkadot dress. She dangled her legs off the edge as she sat in solitude, barely containing herself from bouncing off the walls of the bus. She had only worn her favorite dress on special days, such as birthdays, holidays or when her friends were joining her for a day at the street fair. But that day was just as important as-no, more important than those days! She wanted recess to come as soon as possible so she could hear her best friend sing! Her only hope was that Jude didn’t get sick the night before or have something more important to do at recess.

As the bus rolled into Jude’s stop, Meena stood on her creaking seat and stared out the window to try and see her friend, in hope that they would see her (and her dress) and wave back at her. But for a reason unknown to her, the jaguar wasn’t there. She kept her hopes up and stared at the school bus door, expecting to see her friend hop on first since she couldn’t see them out the window. ‘Maybe they are as excited as me and can’t wait to sing!’ the calf thought. When all the other kids walked on and the bus pulled away, Meena looked out the window once again to try and spot Jude running after the bus. They did have a tendency to oversleep sometimes, and when they did, their father would have to drive them in during one of the morning classes. But once again, there was no sign of Jude.

Meena stepped away from the window, visibly upset by Jude’s disappearance. While other students stole a glance at her then brushed her off, she felt as if her worries became true and they did get sick. Meena wondered if that was the case or if they were too scared to sing to her. ‘No.’ She shook away her suspicions, focusing on the rest of the day that was ahead of her. ‘No, they’re just late again, they’ll be here by lunch time! Even if they’re sick today! I’ll see Jude again on Monday when they’re better, and I can hear them sing then!’ She forced her good mood back into her mind and jumped back down into their seat, causing something inside it to let out an ear-piercing SNAP!

She looked down at the seat in slight shock from the accident she had made. Realizing that she felt a new, strange dip in the seat, the calf panicked and stepped off onto the floor to look at her seat at every angle to see what broke. After a few moments, Meena had also noticed that the rest of the bus had gone silent after the accident. She peeked out into the hall of the bus to find that nearly all the other students were looking over their seats to find the source of the noise. When they all saw the young elephant instead, the students began to snicker. Meena normally liked having the attention on her, but that was only when it was in a positive way. Her outstretched ears folded inwards as she crept backwards to the unbroken part of her seat. She could hear the three baboon bullies four seats ahead of her snicker and laugh at how she was able to snap the seat with her weight alone. Meena sank into the corner of her seat, trying to ignore the trio.

The bullies had been friends since meeting each other in first grade; their first shared encounter was made throwing insults at each other. The reason they started to fight was unknown, but what is was that the three were all forced in a group together for a project. All three of the baboons screamed at each other for the entirety of the class period, much to the dismay of everyone else around them. By the end when they were out of breath but still brimming with insults, the three walked out with a newfound respect for each other. Since then, they have bonded over taunting those they thought would break down, and even four years later they still keep up their antics of verbal torture. Nobody could stop them even if they tried-and many students and adults alike had. Many have said that the trio are “just jealous of the people they taunt” and “have it rough back at home so are mean to cope.” But in truth, they were simply having fun together the best way they knew how.

As Meena arrived at her first class, she once again searched for Jude while practically racing in to find them. After taking deep breaths to recover, Meena’s mood dropped once again when they were still nowhere to be found. As the class continued, she expected to see her friend walk in like they usually do on their late days and try to catch up with the daily worksheet. But with each minute she wasted looking at the door, the elephant wasn’t able to finish her schoolwork in time for the bell. For the majority of the hour, she kept looking back at the door, waiting for her best friend to walk in. It was the same process for the second class period as well: Search for Jude, get distracted, search more, ignore the classwork, move on to the next class.

In the third class period, she repeated the same process, thinking that it would yield different results. As she looked for the eighth time that period, she could hear the familiar snickering of the baboon bullies from a couple desks down. Meena tried to ignore them, knowing that listening to what they say would only be a waste of time. ‘They only make fun of you because they’re jealous of you darling.’ Her grandmother once said. ‘Simply just ignore them sweetie; they have no weight behind their words.’ But to her dismay, her hearing was too excellent to block out any noise, no matter how quiet. And thus, she could hear every word they said about her.

“Hehe, look at her! Fat princess thinks her knight is going to come for her!” The first baboon spoke loud and proud. Meena winced.

“Haha, she’s a fatso! Did you hear that snap this morning?! I bet she could break a roof with her body alone if she tried!” The second whispered. Meena’s ears folded inwards.

“Huehue, that dress is so ugly! All that color makes me wanna puke! I think it needs some mud to balance the barf!” The third said as if it was a normal conversation for them (which in actuality it really was). Meena sulked in her seat; her mood taking a complete nosedive.

Meena stayed in her seat and focused on the work for the rest of day; attempting to block out the insults thrown by the three baboons. The calf tried to cover her face from the three using her giant ears as a double with an attempt to block out the insults. The baboons harassed people on a daily basis, and Meena was their latest target. For the rest of the day, they would make fun of Meena at every opportunity. Meena knew that if Jude were here, they would stand up for her and try to get them to stop, but today her friend was gone doing who knows what. All she could do was sit down and take the blows as they all came.

As the recess bell rang, Meena grabbed her lunch box and trudged out the door to reach her usual bench. The three baboons from class were still making fun of her, so she power walked out of there as fast as she could. She could feel the stinging in her eyes, noticing that she was on the verge of tears. The calf tried to suck them back into their eyes before she could cry; she didn’t want to cry now, it would just give the bullies more reasons to throw insults at her. The day had gone completely opposite of what she had expected. The baboons, the seat, Jude; things weren’t going her way at all that day. She couldn’t wait to go back home to her family.

That was what she thought until she spotted Jude sitting on their usual lunch bench!

Her mood skyrocketed from rock bottom and the little elephant began to squeal, making a mad dash to her best friend. Her favorite dress flapped violently in the wind while she made sprinted and, that combined with the squealing, caused many of the other students to look her way. Some were confused to why she was so happy while others laughed at the noise she made, along with when she was completely out of breath when she made it to the bench. But that didn’t matter to the young calf at all! ‘They’re here! I can hear Jude sing now!’ After taking deep breaths to recover from the sprint, Meena stood up straight and faced Jude with an ear-wide smile.

“Hi Jude!” She practically yelled to her friend, making them jump from surprise.

“Ah, h-hey Meena.”

“So how do you like my dress?” the elephant twirled around in her favorite tea-length dress to show it off to the jaguar, not able to contain herself to do it once more. She giggled as she planted her feet on the ground to prevent herself from doing it a third time. She was just so excited that her best friend was here to see her dress, and even more excited to hear them sing! All of the terrible things that had happened earlier that day had completely slipped her mind! She opened her eyes, recovering from her happy high, and took a look at their friend to see their smile.

But Meena didn’t see a smile.

She thought that Jude would be ecstatic to see the dress, but instead it seemed that they were on the verge of tears. Meena tried to get close to the cub to see what was wrong, but when Jude noticed her approach, they turned away in a panic. Her yellow and black-spotted friend tried to hide their tears in their legs, pulling their knees as close to their body as possible. Meena immediately assumed to be what she thought was the worst: Jude was too scared to sing and didn’t like the dress. But as Meena looked closer at her friend, she noticed several disturbing clues that stuck out to her like a sore thumb.

Jude was wearing brown shorts and a yellow shirt: the exact same clothes they had worn the day before. Normally her friend had a wide variety of colorful clothes to wear, so why did they not change? ‘Maybe Jude was more focused on the song they were going to sing?' She searched more, spotting a strange spot on both the jaguar’s fur and shirt that was a different color from the rest. It was faint, but looking close enough Meena found a white stain on Jude’s shirt sleeve. The other half that was on Jude’s fur stood out more, as it seemed rough and messy. When Meena sat on the bench next to her friend, she could smell an unknown yet sweet aroma coming from them. To the elephant it smelled like fruit juice, but ‘I don’t know any juice that smells like that.' Meena lifted her lunchbox onto her lap, seeing if Jude would do the same. But then Meena realized, looking around, that Jude didn’t bring a lunch box today! But using her expert hearing, the calf heard a low growl come from Jude’s stomach, along with a whimper short after. ‘Did they eat at all since yesterday?’ Something was definitely wrong and Meena knew it, but she didn’t know what it was.

Hearing more snickering with her excellent ears, she found the baboon bullies looking at the two friends, laughing at Meena’s run and Jude’s clothes. An idea hit her when she saw them: what if they did all of this to Jude? ‘They beat Jude up and stole their lunch at the bus stop, and Jude had to walk here because that was why they missed the bus!' Her anger flared at the trio; picking on her best friend of all people? They were already too mean to the students here; this was going too far! But as she was standing up to confront the three, a thought came to her.

‘But wait... why did Jude’s dad not drive them in during classes then? Wouldn’t they ask him to since they missed the bus?’ Meena sat back down on the bench. ‘Jude didn’t come in during class, but they were already out here during recess. Don’t they have to go to the office first?' Meena thought hard to wrap her head around this mystery, trying to think of a reason why Jude was so late, had no lunch, looked the way they did and was so upset even after seeing her. Most times, if the two friends saw each other, they would both get a giant smile on both of their faces. After trying to think of a reason until her brain hurt, Meena decided that the best way to know what was happening was to simply ask.

Meena reached out and gently placed their paw on her friend’s shoulder, trying to see if they could face her. But when she did so, the jaguar flinched on contact, spinning around to prepare as if they expected some sort of attack. Meena reeled back from shock, and when Jude realized that they had made their friend scared as well, they turned away once again and pulled their legs as close to their chest as possible. Meena was almost certain then that it was the bullies that did this! ‘The bullies beat them up at the bus stop, and that’s why Jude is so scared! That does it, when recess ends I’ll tell a teacher and those three will finally get it!’ But since Jude was still scared next to her, Meena tried to calm her friend down by holding their paw. She looked Jude in the eyes and saw that tears were rolling down their cheeks. With her hearing, she also noticed that Jude’s breath was incredibly shaky; they sounded as if they were scared for their life! But after getting a solid look at them, they found the most horrifying fact out of everything.

Jude had no whiskers. Every single one of the long hairs on Jude’s face was gone, leaving nothing but the imprints of where they used to be. There was no doubt about it; somebody pulled out every single one of Jude’s whiskers the day before. Meena gasped in horror for her friend while unwillingly imagining the pain that they went through. All of the rage that directed at the bullies shifted into remorse for her friend. There was no logical way that the whiskers weren’t connected to Jude’s behavior that day. ‘Was all of this still the bullies?’ Meena questioned. ‘They’ve called other kids names but they’ve never really hurt someone. Especially not like this.’

“Jude, w-what happened to you? Who did this to you?” Meena tried to pry, shifting her entire body to face her friend. She absolutely had to know who did this to them, but their current state mattered the most out of everything in that moment. The fur underneath Jude’s eyes became slick from the salty tears; they weren’t able to get a single word in through their rapid breaths and silent sobs. Meena let go of their paws, letting Jude cover their face and wipe away the tears. While bringing their paw back down, Meena’s friend felt at the whisker imprints left on their face, wondering if everything was only a dream and the whiskers were already back. But when they felt nothing, they pushed their head back into their legs to cower. It was then that Meena realized the truth of the situation.

‘This… is much more than just the bullies. This is worse, much, much worse.’ Meena thought . ‘But whatever happened to them is too scary to talk about. They’re scared when I even try to reach out to them and they can’t stop crying. The bullies could never do something like this; this is much more than the other kids here at school

...The singing can wait for another day.’

Meena zipped open her lunch box and placed it on the bench, pushing it closer to Jude. The young cub lifted their head up from the legs, hesitantly staring at the food inside as if it was some sort of trick. Meena gestured the food to them, saying “It’s fine. I’m not hungry anyways.” Jude reached out a shaking paw for an apple, picking it up as if it was somebody’s most prized possession. They stared at it for a few moments; Meena could see Jude’s eyes start to water again. When her friend looked back up to her, she nodded and tried to give her friend the most comforting smile she could show.

“Jude, I don’t know what happened to you and I want to make sure that you’re okay. But if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. We can save the singing for another day.” She spoke as gently as possible, attempting to calm them down. “Just know that if you want to talk to me you can. You are my best friend Jude, and I’ll always be there for you. I promise.” Her friend looked down at the apple again, staring at it in awe as if it was a diamond. To Meena’s relief, Jude finally smiled again, sniffling as they put down the apple. She could see more tears start to fall, making the calf worry if they accidentally said something wrong. As she went to ask again, the jaguar leaped across the bench to her friend and pulled her in for a tight hug. Meena was caught off guard at first, but did the same once she realized that Jude needed a hug. Badly.

The two held each other tight for a long time. Within their friends arms, Jude finally let it all out. They cried, wailed and hiccuped right into their friend’s ears, but Meena didn’t care. Meena could feel snot and tears fall on the back of the rainbow-polkadot dress, but she didn’t care. She could see more students staring at the two; a couple of them even snickered at the sight, but Meena didn’t care. The dress didn’t matter to her, the bullies didn’t matter to her, nobody else at the elementary school mattered to her. In that moment only Jude mattered; best friends are supposed to take care of each other after all. The calf gently rubbed her friend’s back, copying what her father did whenever Meena was crying about something. “It’s okay, I’m here.” Her voice was soft, yet was still slightly shaky. As recess time passed, the cub began to quiet and calm down, much to the relief of their best friend. After many strange glances over to the two friends came and went and recess was close to ending, Jude had finally completely calmed down. The two pulled away and looked at each other and, with one final sniffle, Jude gave Meena what she wanted; a genuine smile.

“Go on, eat!” Meena spoke, back in her upbeat mood once more. Jude nodded and began to reach for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which was sliced in half by Meena's mother as it usually was. But both of the friends were caught off guard when the three baboons rushed by and swiped up the lunch box right from between them! On instinct, Meena yelled out a “Hey!” and she ran after the baboons with Jude right behind her, chasing the three around the playground. As they ran, the baboon bullies passed the bag of delectable goodies between them, turning the chase into a game of pickle. Meena and Jude ran back and forth between the three, trying to get the lunchbox back so Jude could eat. But with each pass and sharp turn to the next bully, Meena’s breathing got more and more intense. Eventually, her head became light and she collapsed into the mud. Her polka-dot dress became stained beyond belief. Jude rushed to their friend’s side to make sure that she was okay.

“Huehue, look at these two! The knight has come to save the hopeless, helpless princess!” The third bully mocked. The jaguar cub flashed a glare to the bully.

“Hahaha, look at Meena’s knight! Acting all tough but deep down, Jude is just one big, weak crybaby!” The second baboon insulted. Meena began to whimper from how messy her favorite dress was.

“Hehehe, look at the special snowflake! She thinks that she’s the most beautiful in the school, but she’s actually just a big, fat, crybaby loser!” The first yelled. Jude tried to comfort Meena the same way she did to them.

All three of them laughed and pointed at the young calf, repeatedly calling her names. “Fatty!” “Fatso!” “Special snowflake!” “Loser!” “Fat princess!” “Crybaby!” Meena sat up and tried to yell back at them, saying that they were “wrong! I’m not fat! I’m not!” The baboons didn’t care, they kept harassing her. Meena’s eyes stung and her vision became fuzzy. The young calf got on their hands and knees, letting the salty tears drop from her eyes down into the mud. She tried as hard as she could to block out the insults, but her ears wouldn’t allow it. Jude tried to help Meena up, but stopped as she began to openly sob.

“They’re right.” Meena whispered, giving in to the harassment. “I am fat. I broke my bus seat this morning, I can barely run across the playground without getting tired, I am fat.” She cried as she accepted the bullies’ insults. “I knew all this time. I knew it but never did anything about it. I am fat.” Her own sobs began to drown out the rapid string of scream as she tried as hard as she could to get the insults out of her mind. She wailed at the “truth” she had realized that day, crying louder than she ever had been before.

Then another noise came into Meena’s earshot. A low growl. She wiped her eyes and looked around, trying to find the source. The calf assumed that it was Jude’s stomach again, but it sounded deeper in pitch and more fierce. When she saw the baboon bullies, Meena realized that they had dropped her lunch box, scattering its contents, and were walking slowly backwards. For the first time since arriving at this school, Meena saw that the three were actually afraid. They were never scared even if the three were threatened to be suspended by the principal. As for what they were afraid of, she turned her head again and found the source.

Jude.

Her friend was on all fours, leaning down in a hunting position to prepare to pounce. They bared their sharp fangs to pair the deep growl, causing the bullies to quiver in terror. As the cub crawled forwards, they flicked out their claws which-while still growing-still looked sharp enough to get the job done. Jude’s eyes were wide and filled with rage that was visible to any naked eye, and that rage was directed right at the bully trio. The quiet, respectable friend they knew had turned into a beast, dead set on making the trio pay for what they did to her friend.

“J-Jude?” Meena’s voice wavered; stricken with fear from seeing her best friend in such a frightening state. ‘This is a dream, right? This has to be a dream, Jude wouldn’t ever be like this!' Behind her, she could hear the three baboons start to sprint away from the monster that was the calf’s friend with all of the effort they could muster. But that wouldn’t do any good. Jude bent down farther, then just like a savage beast, it pounced towards Meena.

Meena sat up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. Still shaken by the sight of her friend, she looked around, trying to find Jude and stop them from hurting anyone else. That was when she realized she was sitting in her bed, back in her room in the present. The light of the setting moon shined through the window, helping her get a grasp on reality. The fully grown elephant took deep breaths to calm down, trying to remind and confirm to herself that all of that was only a dream. Meena jumped when she heard another low, snarling-like noise, making her fear spike once again, and she looked around frantically to try and find it. Peeking over the side of her bed, she saw Jude, sleeping on her spare mattress on the floor and snoring quite loudly. The elephant grabbed her phone and looked at the time: 3:27AM. Meena dropped her phone back onto her bedside table and reality came back to Meena quick.

‘That wasn’t a dream,’ she thought, ‘that actually happened. I was there, I actually wore that dress, the baboons really said all of those insults to us and Jude really did do… that.' Meena had dreamed of when it had all started. The day Jude became overprotective of their best friend, the day everyone around Meena began to drift away from her, and the day her hatred of the spotlight began. Ever since that day, Meena’s world had completely changed. Her friends, her family her life; all that changed starting on that day.

Now, Meena was back in the present. The events of yesterday afternoon flashed quickly through her mind. Grandpa’s birthday, the cake, Jude arriving out of nowhere, the flyer for the singing competition, Meena accepting it and all the practice that she did to prepare for it. Meena had agreed to let Jude stay the night here, since rehearsals were early the next morning and it had been a while since the two had met outside of their countless jobs. Meena looked down at her mystery of a friend, who was still unaware that she was watching them.

“Jude…” Meena whispered. “I have so many questions. What happened back then? Why did you do that to the bullies? What did you go through the night before, and why have you changed so much since then?” Jude snored for a response. The elephant sighed, fully aware that her friend wasn’t going to give such a concrete answer, asleep or awake. She crawled back under her blankets, trying to get a little more sleep to prepare for tomorrow’s auditions. As she laid down under her blankets and her eyelids once again became heavy, one last thought came to her mind.

‘Maybe while you’re here, I can finally get the answers to the questions I’ve been asking for so long.’

#sing 2016 #sing movie #sing fanfiction #sing fanart #sing mini bang 2017 #twilightprince102 #stevetwisp

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