Sadie-Lake Chalmers
July 31, 2020 4:19 AM
Don't say jackelbunny by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Antlers were a prominent theme of the holidays. Rudolph’s image was everywhere, after all. However, they had kept putting Sadie in mind of a certain jackelbunny (and she absolutely needed to not call them that in front of Professor Marsh). Sadie always liked it when Professor Marsh introduced them to shy animals. She wasn’t sure she was much better at getting them to come out of their shells than most people, but at least she was able to relate. She had called hers Jack-Jack, which had really not been wildly original to start with and which she had remembered too late was a reference that was likely to be lost on most people, which probably made it seem even more pathetic. Still, that potentially made her Violet, who was a character she’d always related to. When Incredibles 2 had come out, she hadn’t even minded their #FamilyCostume for Hallowe’en…Jack-Jack was cute, and she was pretty sure he trusted her, which was nice. He never seemed to mind if she couldn’t think of much to say. Of course, she was meant to be teaching him to talk, so potentially her grades were going to suffer from her silence, but at least she felt comfortable with him. She’d tried to tell him plenty of times that his name was Jack-Jack, and she always told him it was nice to see him.
She guessed maybe that was part of why she was going to find Professor Marsh right now? She wasn’t sure which was more likely to be the right request - to ask if she could spend more time with Jack-Jack to give him extra practise, or to tell the teacher the truth which was that she just kind of liked hanging out with her jackelbunny (don’t call him that). He was definitely easier than people.
She knocked on her teacher’s door, trying not to jump when he opened it (because, duh, what had she been expecting to happen?). She suspected the cause of her visit might be kind of obvious given that she was twisting a little bunny enrichment toy, comprising of several little wooden carrots and balls on a string - apparently it was fun to chew things if you were a bunny, and she hoped jackelbunnies - don’t say it in front of the teacher - were the same. It was decorated with a little Christmas bow on the top.
“Hi sir- um Professor Marsh?” she asked nervously. “Am I allowed to see Jack-Jack outside of class time?” she asked. They’d had to submit various reports on their animals, and she was pretty sure that, if Professor Marsh had bothered learning all the humans’ names, he was going to have learnt all the animals’ too. A wave of doubt spread over her, as she tried to remember the length of the project. “We do have the jackelbunnies-” darnit - “I mean, jackelhops,” she corrected herself, without any apparent awareness that she’d made a further mistake, “this term too right?”
13
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Don't say jackelbunny
1480
1
5