“Watch your language, kid,” Jared heard a deep voice behind them and turned to see Soren, with Jack walking up behind him with a pair of bagged lunches. Jared immediately felt nervous in the presence of the opossum, his head still swirling with all sorts of complicated feelings. But, remembering how brave Ricky had been in standing up for him helped to calm him down, and he was able to speak up.
“Mister Jack! I-I mean, Jack…” Jared shouted, looking up at the older opossum pleadingly. He took a deep breath, then he said, “It’s Ricky! He got in trouble for fighting, but it wasn’t his fault! Josh and the other guys were picking on me and he was just standing up for me!” The desperate situation made it easy for the camp's magic to play with his memories and feelings, instilling a deep worry for Ricky, as well as a sense of admiration for the handsome teenage raccoon...
Jack was a little unsure of whether he wanted to get involved in this. That kind of discipline was Alex’s business, and the badger knew what he was doing. On the other hand, something deep down made him feel… uncomfortable letting Ricky take the fall for something that wasn’t his fault, especially if that brat Josh was involved. Jackie and Rick hadn’t been best friends when they were human, but they were still friends, and friends help each other. Jack looked over at Soren and could tell from his face the big bear felt the same way.
“Let’s go,” Soren rumbled, beckoning Jared and Martin to follow him and Jack past Vince and into the cabin with Alex’s office in it.
==============
In Alex’s office, they could hear the badger patiently saying, “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to play a game of ‘he said, she said’. You were fighting, and we take that very seriously here. Unless you can give me a very good reason for tackling Josh, we might need to think about having you go home early…”
Jared gasped hearing that and rushed into Alex’s office without thinking. “You can’t! Please! It wasn’t Ricky’s fault!” he said frantically.
Alex was surprised to see Jared, but he kept quiet for a moment to hear what the tiger had to say. He saw Jack and Soren standing at the door of his office and looked at them curiously before waving them off with a nod.
“Ricky was fighting, but it was all Josh’s fault! He was calling me and Ricky names, and he brought his friends along to help in case Ricky tried to fight back! He wanted this to happen!” Jared said, even thought he was making a couple of assumptions there. However, Ricky was looking at Jared with his mouth open, deeply moved that Jared had come to help him like this...
Alex sighed when he heard that. He’s heard a few things about Josh starting trouble, but it always came down to his word against another campers without any real evidence, so having Jared back up Ricky’s story made him more inclined to believe him over Josh. However…
“Name-calling isn’t a good enough reason for fighting, Ricky,” Alex said sternly, making the raccoon look down at the floor. “But… I know how upset you must have been to have someone trashing your friends like that. Don’t let it happen again, and we’ll forget this ever happened.” He gave Josh a stern look as well. “And that goes for you, too. If I hear any more about you picking fights, you’ll be on mess hall rotation instead of having fun with your friends this whole weekend. Got it?”
Both Ricky and Josh nodded frantically, amazed that they’d managed to get off so easily. Jared, Ricky, Martin, and Josh walked out of Alex’s office together, and Ricky immediately spun around and pulled Jared into a tight, fuzzy hug. “Thank you so, so much, man! I owe you for this!” he said, pressing his furry cheeks into Jared’s shoulders. Jared cautiously returned the hug, patting his friend’s back reassuringly.
Josh saw the two boys hugging and looked like he was about to say something snide, but even he wasn’t so stupid as to push his luck right after getting off with a warning. “Whatever… just stay away from me,” he muttered before slinking off. At the same time, Jared was blushing bright red in his friend’s strong arms, not ever having realized that his raccoon friend had a lot more muscle than he’d given him credit for. Ricky certainly wasn’t tall or bulging with muscle, but the arms holding him were toned and hard… And his fur smelled so nice after the shower earlier… Even the name 'Ricky' just seemed so adorable, perfect for the friendly, chill, and handsome raccoon boy. Jared idly pressed his muzzle deeper into his friend’s fur, then snapped back to reality with a jolt.
“W-why the hell am I thinking about that!?” Jared thought to himself frantically as Ricky finally released him with a big grin on his face.
“Anyway, like I said I really owe you! Anything you want, I’ll do it! I mean it, Jared!” Ricky gushed as they headed toward the mess hall to get lunch before their afternoon activities started up, and Jared felt his face get hot thinking of all the ‘anythings’ he could ask Ricky to do with, for, and to him.
“I-it’s no big deal, Ricky…” Jared stammered. “I… I don’t want my best buddy getting kicked out of camp early, either. It would be really boring here without you…”
As they walked, they spotted Jack and Soren at one of the camp's many picnic tables enjoying their lunch out in the sun, away from the other counselors for a little private time. Jack and Jared locked eyes for a moment as they passed, and while Jared was still a little jealous of Soren he could tell that Jack was happy with the big bear at his side. Jack, on the other hand, knew that the little tiger had a big crush on him, but for the sake of professionalism knew he had to ignore it, no matter how cute he thought it was having the kiddo looking up to him. Jack called over to the group and waved, saying, “Have fun today, you guys!”
Jared blushed and waved back, seeing Jack and Soren’s paws loosely entwined as they ate their lunches. “Yeah… you too, I guess…” he mumbled before running off with Ricky and Martin right behind him.