"I still can't believe you didn't go out into the tryouts," Polly said to Mattie as they walked along after school.
Technically, WSA did have a parking lot, and some students did drive to school. Most of them being Humans living in Lyre. There were also buses that brought people, and even Animalians, from the more rural areas beyond just Lyre and Animalia that served the Lyre/Animalia school district that made up WSA. However, Polly, like most of the Animalians that attended WSA had preferred to walk. It kept her in shape, and she'd found that with her now longer legs she could easily cover the distance with each stride. Of course, Mattie was still Human, and she wasn't Polly's only Human friend, just the one that Polly was closest too. And when they walked together, Polly often had to alter her stride to let Mattie keep up.
"Just wasn't interested," Mattie answered, "I mean... they got a whole bunch of stuff they need to do that goes beyond what we're doing in school and even WSA isn't going to remove the responsibilities from graduating either. You may get excused absences for certain things, but you'll still have to get all the information and homework done as well."
"It'll be great for college though," Polly pointed out, "and you wouldn't have to be an Animalian if you don't want to... or haven't figured out what kind of Animalian to become with."
"Yeah, yeah," Mattie nodded but gave Polly a bit of a teasing smile, which Polly had some knowledge that it was in reference to her present size. "And I'm sure meeting a boyfriend isn't on the agenda. I mean... the original cast all got married in the summer too, right."
"Yeah... and I got to be there," Polly nodded, "as the two Pterosaur Dinotopians befriended Jeremy and Heather... after everything... and all of them were friends with Marcy and Chilly. I think there were even some visits where they wanted to know if Marcy and Chilly wanted to have their wedding with them as well. But that isn't why I auditioned, and you know that..."
And that brought Polly back to one of the other things that had been part of her summer...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"This is all quite impressive," Polly commented to Miles as the Animalia Ambassadoria host lead her through Joanna's mansion.
To a degree, it was a bit imposing on Polly. The White home was a fairly modest sized middle-class home, and one that was built for Humans. Thanks to her larger size than the rest of the Whites, Polly often had greater issues with bumping her head after her second dose, in ways similar to her brother had after he became a Syntixisaurus Dinotopian. The mansion was built slightly higher and was of larger size.
"Well... it's not really mine," Miles answered, "Joanna is the owner, she runs her whole fashion design empire from here. My parents are part of her staff... though she's been kind enough to let us use certain rooms for our purposes."
Polly slowly nodded. She remembered back with some of the early Animalia Ambassadoria videos. Back then, she'd often asked him to put them on so she could watch them, and at times he did oblige her with the request. From what she could remember, when the original cast had episodes where they were all in one place, or at least in a "studio" setting, there were a lot of signs that they used the Brown family's barn, which could make sense as it would be a space large enough that all of them to use and the periodic recordings for Animalia Ambassadoria wouldn't take super long to record. Since Sophie and her main cast group had graduated, these sets had changed and actually seemed to mirror an interior office space that looked a bit like where Miles was leading her now. That all made sense as many in the new cast didn't have the connections with the Browns, but through Miles might be able to use some space in the mansion provided they weren't there for long.
"I'm sure... but it's all... big," Polly answered, "in terms of land area... about the only thing that would mirror it would be my brother and sister-in-law's home in Dino City, though Dinotopians have a whole other scale to them."
"Yeah," Miles admitted, "mansions tend to be like that. If you get the part... you may find yourself doing things in different areas, depending on who will lead the team."
"You wouldn't be?" Polly asked.
"I graduated from WSA this past May," Miles answered, "you're essentially coming in at the same point that I did four years ago when Abby and her friends were the core cast. I wanted to make Animalia Ambassadoria more... well... more like a real news program so that way people would take it seriously and I think I've done okay. A lot of the views are about the same and the nature of the reviews on the content has improved. But after four years... I'm off to college... it's a small school, but their journalism program is decent and that'll give me a shot building up something big. Maybe being a full-blown anchor in the future. We've got some stuff pre-recorded that will go into August and September as the new cast learns the ropes... and when some of the final judgements on the auditions are done. Which is why you're here."
"Yeah... it'd be something to do, and I heard that one of the guys who's done reports on new scientific projects that Horizon has done has also going on to college... like you," Polly commented, "so... that's been my sort of bit." She then paused to hold up a small thumb drive, "which is I why I did a bit of an interview my brother covering some of the stuff they did for the establishment of Gondwana Land as a colony."
"That will sound interesting," Miles answered, "come on into the staff's main computer office room where Animalia Ambassadoria has done a lot of its planning and production over the past four years... Animalia's City Hall Building has also had rooms big enough to do formal reports from an actual set, but this area has been available while I've been a member."
Polly nodded and followed him in. She found the other members of the present team that was there. She got more introductions and shook hands. There were looks of awe at her size and that left some stumbles as some also stated on whether or not they would be staying with the show or had graduated from high school with Miles. Half of the whole group were Humans and half were Animalians, and not all were leaving. Lexia was among those that was staying. Several of the Human members were also staying, and it showed on how Animalia Ambassadoria had evolved over the years. When it started, it was just Abby and her friends, and their respective bond-mates/boyfriends. A little over a year after that, the cast expanded to be equally balanced between Human and Animalian, particularly after Sophie and Roland became Dinotopians. That cast was now equally balanced and not all were in the same grade, which was why the entire cast wasn't being replaced. It left Polly a bit nervous as she also knew that there would be some tight competition for the spots that were open.
She carefully introduced herself and presented her audition in the interview she recorded with Jeremy as he explained on how setting up Gondwana Land worked. There were some mentions on JC and Pauline settling in and working with a Human team of conservationists and the country's government. There were mentions on those who had converted, and the work needed to gain access to actual material for various African fossil finds for those becoming Dinotopians. A lot of the reasoning was to do more and have more representatives of prehistoric species that were areas other than North America or the most famous European, Asian, or African specimens. There were even a few mentions where some people that converted became prehistoric animals other than dinosaurs. One person had even become a Koolasuchus, an extinct genus of Brachyopoid Temnospondyl amphibian that was also from the early Cretaceous. There was a lot of coordination with other scientific organizations, governments, and even offers for various paleontologists and biologists to meet and interact with the new Dinotopians to further improve what could be done to hypothesize on life in the prehistoric world. The last bit was more Jeremy being pleased with the efforts that the local government had done to educate and hire some scientists that could follow Horizon's company policies and handle things like the Animalia Virus and that he looked forward to providing pointers from time to time as Gondwana Land continued to progress.
"That was actually quite impressive," Lexia commented, "though... JC and Pauline did send a short touring video of the new site and interviewed one or two of the Dinotopians that will be living there... along with some of the Human residents that will be living there along side them and so on."
"Yes, I saw the piece that was posted," Polly answered, "but that was also a sort of standard "this is the new place" piece. It doesn't get into the scientific work that Horizon did that was part of making things possible... along with the assorted logistics that went along with it. I figured it could be a good companion sort of piece, and since Jeremy is my brother... it made sense to talk with him, since any new Dinotopian Colony would involve him at least on Horizon's end."
"Your brother..." one of the Human members asked, "I thought your sibling was Marci?"
"Marci White and her bond-mate/husband, Chilly, would-be adoptive siblings to me," Polly answered, "My birth name is Polly Green. Jeremy Green is my biological brother, and he was always there for me when I was young and... well... smaller than I am now."
"Doesn't he do some collaborative work with the scientists at the main Horizon office in Lyre?" one of the others asked.
"Yes, but a lot of that is going to be more theoretical and in discussion," Polly answered, "and from what Jeremy tells me... he can't say anything on those things until Horizon feels comfortable in releasing that information."
Polly watched as there were some whispers between the group and Miles even took a few notes as they conversed. Much of this was to be expected.
"Well... that was all very interesting, Miss Green... or Green-White, which do you prefer?" Lexia wondered.
"I'd go with either Green or White," Polly answered, "Jeremy and those in Dino City will often use Green because he's my brother... and around here, because since I've been living with the Whites, and they've been good to me too. It hasn't seemed worth fighting over."
"Well, Ms. Green-White," Lexia spoke, figuring the hyphenated name would be the politest, "this was all good and I like a lot of your reasoning. Though, be warned it may take a little while for any final decisions to come in. We have other auditions to go through, and the guy that has done a lot of the management and scheduling at Animalia's City Hall for Animalia Ambassadoria is retiring and the city staff is looking at the replacement. Some things may have to wait a while before all that gets done."
"Which is in part why we've also been pre-recording some things that are expected to come and fit in with things that will be coming up in the future," Miles answered, "thus why there may be some episodes that may still have me as one of the main hosts even after graduating."
"It's okay," Polly answered, "I'm still with the Whites, so you know where to reach me. Thank you for your time."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The White home came into view as Polly's reminisces on her audition for Animalia Ambassadoria went. Mattie was still walking along side, and in many ways, it was great to have Mattie as company, regardless of whether or not she ultimately became an Animalian. As they came in, Polly could note that Mari was home from work and was busy with something. For the moment they ignored it to move on to the kitchen table where they could work on their homework. They'd just gotten started when Mari came in.
"Hello, Polly, Mattie, you two just get in?" Mari asked as she came through the doorway.
"Yeah... my folks are probably still working," Mattie answered, "so... I figured I'd hang with my best friend until they get home."
"And we're working on our homework," Polly added, "along with someone's teasing that I should have a boyfriend."
"Not should, woman, could," Mattie countered, "all the boys at school are into you. I can tell."
"I can tell too," Polly answered, "but as I said... getting a bond-mate isn't the biggest thing on my agenda right now. Besides, I don't just want someone who's into me for my muscle or my curves. I want someone that would make me happy... like Heather does for Jeremy. Like Chilly does for Marci. Like dad does for mom."
"And Animalia Ambassadoria is going to provide access to that?" Mattie countered.
"It'd let me show that I'm more than muscular amazon of a Bear Woman with giant breasts," Polly answered.
Mari did her best to put that aside. To a certain extent, she'd gone through that with Marci after Marci became a double dosed Polar Bear Animalian and took Chilly as her mate. To a degree, some of Marci's rush to physical adulthood had pained Mari in missing seeing Marci grow up. She'd gotten to see a bit of that with Polly, though Polly's physical size was always on a larger scale, even if still in fairly child-like proportions when Polly first came to live with the Whites. It was only when Polly got old enough that she would move into puberty naturally that other factors came in, and why Jeremy and Heather were called to come up from Dino City. Though, some of Mattie's excitement over Polly's change and the prospect of something similar for herself in becoming an Animalian was mildly concerning, but Mattie had seemed to be a good kid, so Mari did her best to mind her own business. Besides, she had something else to update Polly on.
"Anyway, Polly, there is a message for you on the answering machine," Mari spoke, "I believe it would be something you're looking for."
Polly paused from her homework and got up from the chair to go in search of the system. Most of the Whites had their own cellphones, and Polly was no exception, though, Mari and Greg had both set with Polly the same rules they had set with Marci, that the cellphone wouldn't go into school with her and that they would retain some measure of access to it until Polly turned eighteen. Polly accepted it, as that rule only applied during school. In the weekends and the summer, she was free. She came into the living room where the phone sat on one short table that was behind the couch. She picked it up and scrolled through to find that there was a message on it. It hadn't been listened to as Polly could see a red number one flashing over the message icon on one side of the screen. She then clicked on it and the audio of the message came in.
"Hello, young Polly Green-White, this is Mary Alice Truman representing the overall management team for Animalia Ambassadoria," came Malice's voice. The tone was more formal than what Polly remembered, but she figured that Malice must have gotten the job that Miles had said had opened up with the management and scheduling services that coordinated a lot of the things that Animalia Ambassadoria did. "I've just taken over the post from the man who ran it when I was participating in the Animalia Ambassadoria program... so between setting up the office and meeting with the others here at City Hall, I'm sorry to be so behind schedule and keeping you waiting regarding your application to be on the Animalia Ambassadoria team."
Polly held the phone while nervously bringing a finger up to play with her lower lip.
"From the notes that reached my desk and the votes taken by the Animalia Ambassadoria team, including those like Miles Williamson, who have graduated and gone on to college, your application video was well done and intriguing," Malice's voice in the message, "Miles even said that the idea covered all the proverbial bases and helped explain some of the scientific efforts that is going on with the establishment of Gondwana Land in Africa. With all that praise, it is my pleasure that you were among the four new members chosen for the Animalia Ambassadoria team. Please come by Animalia City Hall on this coming Saturday afternoon at 1PM, where things will be set up to meet the other new members of Animalia Ambassadoria and the introduction video will be made. Those members of the cast that did not graduate and will still be there with the show will also be there and you'll get your chance to discuss how the new team that you will be a part of will run Animalia Ambassadoria."
This actually brought a smile to Polly's lips.
"Just remember to keep things professional and keep on track with all other school work," Malice instructed, "while WSA may make allowances for excused absences for Animalia Ambassadoria members... you will have to keep your grades up. And WSA does have my office number if things do slip on your end. Other than that, have fun and welcome to the team."
Polly could only do one thing, cheer, "I MADE ANIMALIA AMBASSADORIA! I GOTTA CALL JEREMY!"