The anthro deer fury heaved the snow from the driveway just as the snow plow drove by; kicking the snow on the road, back onto his drive way and the adjoining sidewalk. Swearing as he walked back towards the street; his hooves clicking on the cold asphalt as he digs the hard compact snow that was pushed onto his nearly cleared driveway. Getting a few shovelfuls of snow in, he is stuck by a cold ball of white; then another and another. Without thinking, he takes the snow in his shovel and flicks to the ones pelting him with snowballs.
The cubs both split in separate directions as they dodge their father’s retaliatory strike; countering with a few more snowballs.
“Dad is too slow,” Dusk snickering; the charcoal grey furred wolf cub shouting as he ducks and weaves from his father’s snowballs, grinning as his twin sister readies to hit him from behind.
“Slow poke,” Dawn shouting as she nails her father square in the back; the anthro doe-deer furry soon looked shocked as she got nailed with a snowball. Looking to see it was Dusk the hit her, she rushes towards him just as the cub gets beaned by a snowball. Diving into her twin brother, Dawn starts to hit and bash the wolf cub with snow as they struggle and wrestle on the snow covered grass.
“All right,” Jake lifting the two up and separating them from their squabble; “since you both have energy to spend, why don’t you help me finish shoveling the driveway?”
“Can’t you just magic the snow away,” Dawn sticking her tongue out at her brother as he makes a parting shot and misses.
“Possible,” Jake looking at the frozen droplets of ice crystals blanketing the ground; “but that is the lazy way.” Jake smirks as he does use his magic runes frequently to speed clean the kitchen at his father’s restaurant; cutting the cleaning of the cooking appliances and kitchen down from three hours to a quick sixty minutes, yet several items still require a more paws on approach. “Besides,” the anthro stag-deer heading back to the mess the snow plow made; “this is good seasonal exercise. Now are you going to help?”
“How about we attack,” Dusk shouting as he quickly scoops up some snow to throw at his father; Dawn picking up on the trick and follows through with another bean to her dad.
“So that is how you want to play,” Jake shaking his head; with his runes glowing, the snow balls deflect off of him and act like boomerangs, flying back to their source. Dusk and Dawn shriek as they try to run inside only to get hit by their own snowballs. Jake just laughs as his cubs rush back inside the house; turning to see Brittany staring out through the front window, he laughs some more as she rolls her eyes at having to tend to cubs soaking wet from melted snow. Jake chuckles some more as he goes back to clearing his driveway.
**************
“That was a dirty trick,” Dawn speaking as Jake stepped in through the front door; taking a brief moment to wipe hiss hooves on the entry mat before walking to the living room and staring at his children.
“So it’s okay for you to play a trick, but gods forbid you get retaliated upon,” Jake retorting as he sits down on the sofa; his comment not getting through to his daughter as she continues to glower as if someone took away her prize. He places a hoof hand on her head as he grabs the remote for the t.v. and looks for a program to watch.
“You two need to finish your schoolwork before you watch T.V with your dad,” Brittany appearing from the kitchen; the anthro wolf fury staring at her cubs as they groan.
“But its Christmas break,” Dawn whining; “plus its not due until school starts back.”
“Get it done now,” Brittany not giving an inch as she stares at the two; giving them an uncomfortable glare as she watches them slowly to the dining table. “This way you’ll have more time to play afterwards,” Brittany adding as she follows the two and helps them with the homework their elementary teacher decided to dump on them. “Perhaps I should have a talk with your principal,” Brittany looking at all the math and spelling homework; “six year olds should not be given this much home work.”
“Perhaps the teacher has it out for the two,” Jake choosing an old human program regarding fishing crabs in the Bearing Sea; “our cubs reputation for being difficult does precede them.”
“Not helping Jake,” Brittany snorting; sighing afterwards as she knew he was correct. The wolf and doe cubs she bore have been obstinate in listening and following rules. Their biggest act happening before summer break; the attempt to blow up a garbage can with baking soda and vinegar, resulting act just made a mess in the cafeteria. Their resulting refusal to explain themselves drove Brittany to dye half their fur pink as a reminding punishment to stop their antics. While this did help to curb Dusk to a degree; Brittany noticed that Dawn was stubborn, riding out the punishment until her winter coat grew in. Now in the first grade, the two landed a no nonsense teacher who has so far caught Dawn pulling the tails of other cubs, throwing erasers, and being a general disruptive influence in class.
“I’ll make a deal with you two,” Brittany looking at the simple math and spelling problems; “get at least three pages of my choosing done and you can hang out with dad before he has to leave for work.”
“Take the deal you two,” Jake getting up during a commercial break and approaching the table; “and its looking to be a quarter of the home work you got assigned.”
“And as a teacher myself,” Brittany selecting a two pages of subtraction problems and a page of verbs; “I’ll be checking your work afterwards.”
Jake chuckles as he heads back to the living room couch; noticing the commercial break is over and snorts as he watches a rogue wave slam into the fishing boat during a heavy swell.
“As you two work on your sheets,” Brittany sitting at the table and pulling out a satchel filled with a binder and several papers to review; “I have to check and grade this homework. Personally I think penmanship should be brought back into the curriculum,” Brittany lamenting as she looks at the school work her students submitted; “some of the writing my students have borders on illiteracy.”
Brittany silently groans as she starts reviewing the first paper; a report on early America, focusing on the pirates that tried to retire and settle down in North Carolina. Brittany was somewhat impressed with the paper; going on in regards to the busy port of Charles Towne, to a brief mention of Edward Teach, Aka Blackbeard.
“If only all the other papers are as good as this one,” Brittany noting a few grammatical errors; while required to grade on grammar as she taught history in the local junior high school, she did note the misplaced punctuation points as she gave the paper a solid A. Turning to the next paper, made Brittany’s stomach churl; it was about a moment of history she loathed, but was required to mention it to the students as per state guidelines.
“Auschwitz,” Brittany muttering to herself; “Let hope this is the only paper about mass genocide.” Brittany turning the cover page over to see a paper that was done on a computer; she was thankful that she didn’t have to try and decipher chicken scratch that this student was prone to put on paper. Spending several minutes to read the two page report on the most publicized Nazi concentration camp; Brittany soon scribbled a few note in red pen as she gave the paper a B minus.
The next paper Brittany struggled to make sense of. It started off as a rambling introduction to Christopher Columbus discovering the new world to the United States’ Manifest Destiny. Struggling to understand how Columbus ties into United States’ 19th-century U.S. territorial expansion; she grades the paper with a D and adds a see me after class note to the paper.
“I need to have another talk with this student and her parents,” Brittany looking up to check on her cubs. “And how are you two making out,” Brittany staring at Dusk and Dawn as they tackle the verb; “do the verbs make sense?”
“Meh,” Dusk being the first to finish; the wolf fury cub, hands his work to his mother. Brittany looking suspicious as she checks her son’s work; the wolf fury was mildly surprised as he had every single verb correctly identified with a circle. “Okay,” Brittany nodding at her son; “show me the math.”
“Here,” Dusk passing the two pages; glancing at his sister who is still working on her verbs. Sticking his tongue out as he is hoping to finish before her.
“Okay,” Brittany nodding as she looks at the sheets; “if you managed to get these three done so quickly, why don’t you get another three done. And if you want to do an additional three Dawn, then by all means stick your tongue out at your brother;” Brittany eyeing the twins, noting Dusk’s act and causing him to clam up.
“Brittany,” Jake speaking up from the couch; “keep you word, if Dusk finished the three as promised then let him off the hook for the day.”
“Fine,” the wolf fury grumbling; waving Dusk off as she watches her cub, join his dad in the living room to watch t.v. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t have more to do tomorrow,” Brittany adding before turning to Dawn; “give me you math work so I can check it as you finish up on the verbs.” Taking the sheets, Brittany gives it a quick cursory scan; nodding as her daughter got the simple problems correct, she then checks the verbs. “Apple is a noun,” Brittany noticing an incorrect answer; “you should have chosen ‘fell’” Remember,” Brittany handing the sheet back to Dawn; “a verb describes an action or occurrence. In this case, ‘the apple fell from the tree’. Fell is the action, which makes it a verb,” Brittany explaining to her daughter; “other than that, everything else looks fine. Go watch T.V.”
“Will you join us,” Dawn looking at her mother as she turns back to her paper grading.
“When your dad leaves for work,” Brittany answering as she turns her attention to the next paper; “later you two will be dropped off at Grandma and Grandpa while I join Jake for his restaurant Christmas party. Don’t torment Oliver and Paul,” Brittany adding; turning back to the paper she grimaces as it was written in green ink and penmanship looking sloppy.