"Summer's finally coming!" Malice said with glee as she and the rest of her closest friends sat around the Wesley family living room, her tail flopping up and down against the armrest, as she couldn't fully wag it while sitting there.
And she was happy for it. True, as a Siberian Husky, cold weather didn't really bother her all that much. She and Sarah had a lot of fun in the snow, and they loved it, but as an Animalian there was the added knowledge of things that before she was uplifted that she barely would have noticed. These things included the importance of school and so on, but would also relate to summer vacation, which was coming up, and THAT was what Malice was truly excited for. Simon would graduate from the police academy and would get his assignment with either Lyre or Animalia and they would get out from school and wouldn't have to focus on solving for Y or X or whatever other odd algebra problem there could be. And Malice was happy for that.
"Just remember that it's not here yet," Sarah reminded her, "And May Fourth is ONLY when this year's Seniors graduate. WE are Sophomores and go until the eighteenth of May."
Malice gave a low whine at that. She knew summer was coming and wanted to celebrate that, but she did have to accept the rules that related to schooling and so on. Some schools did get out earlier than others and for some odd reason Seniors always seemed to graduate before Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshmen finished their school years, but that didn't put them all together. In this, the graduating Senior class at WSA and Lyre High would graduate on the first Friday in May, but everyone else had to keep going until closer to the middle of the month. Malice didn't think that was fair.
"But it is getting closer," Travis commented, "It'll be here before anyone knows it."
"Which will mean a lot of the plans for vacations and all that sort of fun," Roger commented as he wrapped an arm around the back of Jessica's shoulder and pulled her into a hug and nuzzled at her nose, and happily smiled when Jessica nuzzled him back.
"Like who covers what in Africa?" Jessica wondered, thinking on the two new colonies that being founded/established.
"Some of THAT may be fairly easy," Abby commented, "Seeing as the Mr. and Miss Farmhand competition is still going on. Their next events will be with plowing and so on before school gets out... and then there are the following steps taken that will relate to once the summer arrives. That will keep me and Samson busy as judges/referees for the competition while Sarah and Malice are competing..."
The disappointed whine then came in stereo from both Sarah and Malice.
"It IS a fulltime job," Abby commented to remind them of what they signed up for, "and the events for the competition are there to function with the year and the weather, which farming and ranching are always at the mercy of."
"The long winter weather didn't hurt too bad... did it?" Sophie wondered.
"Nothing beyond the usual," Abby commented, "though it will mean that you, Roger, Roland, and Jessica will need to pick up the slack with regards to Zeruza and Maelewano."
Sophie nodded, "Right... though... I'd think the biggest thing for us will be the conversion."
There were nods that followed, and Sophie thought she could see Malice and Sarah try to wag their tails on the couch. And there was plenty of excitement that went along with that. For most of them, that related to the natural friendliness that many Animalians had, made all the stronger that Sophie, Sarah, Jessica, and Abby had grown up together as small click of close friends. Picking up Malice, Samson, Roger, Simon, Travis, and Roland as part of Animalia made that all the stronger. The fact that Sophie and Roland would be becoming an extinct species, Pterodactylus made it all the more exciting.
"So when to you plan to do it?" Jessica asked to Sophie, "I know you said your parents okayed the transformation by summer vacation... but do you have a date planned? Or... are you going by ear as it were?"
"It's more by ear than anything else, as there is also the plan with regard to letting JC join Dinotopia as well," Sophie answered, "So, a lot of mine and Roland's conversion will have to wait to see on how Rex's project in working with the formula for JC is coming along. Right now, if all goes according to plan, I'd have my wings by the twentieth of May."
"What do you think you'll look like?" Roger wondered.
"That is entirely speculative as prior to everything that went on with Heather and so on no one knew for sure what dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and other extinct animals looked like besides their bones," Sophie answered, "Except maybe for a few mammoths they found frozen in glaciers or things like that."
"So... you won't know for sure until after the conversion?" Sarah asked.
"Pretty much," Sophie answered and took Roland's hand, "which will make it a bit of an adventure, though that should also make it fairly fun in and of itself..."
The others there then nodded for a moment. There was a lot that went into Project Mesozoic and Project Cenozoic that was highly speculative with regards to the Animalian's appearance. If Horizon wanted to make a version of the Animalia Virus based on a dog or horse or rabbit from a breed or species that was still living they could still rationalize what it would look like based on Animalians that were living that matched the species or on the animal itself if it hadn't been uplifted yet which was something that did count for animals that had a large number of "breeds" but still counted as a singular species, such as cats, dogs, and horses. Now, at present, there was only one species of Pterodactylus that was identified, Pterodactylus Antiquus, but it also had the distinction of being among the first, if not the first pterosaur found, which often meant that the name got passed down to a large number of different pterosaurs that today weren't considered as part of the genus Pterodactylus.
It was something that Sophie had found lead to extensive scientific debate on the animal species and was actually something she was glad she didn't have to debate on. She'd learned a lot on its biology and what it likely ate and how it likely lived, but she didn't think she'd ever be able to tell the difference between two different species based on minute details in the skeleton. In this, if Rex Ramos liked that sort of work, he could have it. What Sophie wanted was to fly and to be a bit "different" from the bird and bat Animalians. And now she could count the days till her conversion.
"So... we're looking at late May if we're to take Sophie's conversion into account," Sarah slowly and counting down her paws, "along with the Mr. and Miss Farmhand competition and the last weeks of school for those of us who aren't Seniors."
"There's also Jeremy and Heather's wedding," Roland spoke up.
"Huh?" Travis tiled his head and raised one ear, which on a Dalmatian looked rather cute in the way that the ear was still floppy and hung down but the part closest to his skull did raise up slightly.
They'd all heard that Heather had had an interest in Jeremy, and some of the rumors sorta made the case that the two deserved each other, though those were also rather judgmental and had certain negative points that were best unsaid. Especially as they all knew that Heather had been trying to make up for her mistakes and had largely been successful in doing so. However, beyond the knowledge that Heather was "reforming herself" and that she liked Jeremy, most of Animalia Ambassadoria didn't know much about their courtship/marriage.
"Yeah, she asked me to be a bridesmaid for her," Sophie answered, "and has kept the wedding after my conversion..."
"Amazing after all that's happened with her," Samson said slowly...
"That she'd turn it around?" Sophie finished for him and squeezed Roland's hand, "Yes. She has made a remarkable turn around."
"That wouldn't mean you can't go on the trips to cover the new African colonies?" Abby asked slowly, "Would it?"
"That might all depend on when the plan to go is," Sophie said as she glanced to Roland, "and I think that with the right planning EVERYONE could go so long as we keep to a schedule that has all our responsibilities in mind."
"And for the moment, we do have some time for that," Roland commented.
From there they then got into a lot of the standard preparations for travel and particularly into travel to places like Africa. This included remembering that they'd need plenty of bug spray to repel things like mosquitos, as they had heard of new Black Mamba Animalian essentially recovering from an infection caused by mosquitoes on an African vacation that he'd been on. There was also some mention of remembering appropriate clothing, particularly in New Zerzura as while Egypt had essentially agreed to allow an Animalian colony, they'd also made sure that the colony would also generally abide by Egyptian Law and Islamic custom. Which would mean some of the stiles that were popular in Animalia wouldn't be appropriate in Egypt, though thankfully Egypt seemed more stable and moderate than other places in the Middle East.
And in that, while summer vacation had arrived, yet, it wasn't too far away and for the moment, Animalia Ambassadoria did have a loose plan for it.