Turtle’s School Days
Turtle’s School Days: The Bad Boy
Turtle’s School Days: The Christmas Party
Turtle’s School Days: The New Fluffy
Turtle’s School Days: Reginald Ruins A Funeral
Turtle’s School Days: Special Huggies!?
Turtle’s School Days: The Big Dance
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“Alright, Turtle. Do you want to lick the bowl out?” Frederick had been up tonight making turtle brownies with his fluffy, the biopet giving a mighty nod. Setting the bowl down onto the floor so the fluffy could get at it, he watched as he climbed right into it and began lapping up chocolatey, caramel, nutty batter. Sighing, rubbing at the sides of his head, he looked down to Turtle. Already a giant mess, rocking the bowl around as he balanced from side to side in order to get at the sweet stuff.
“Wub bwonies.” He’d announce between licks, the thick batter getting all of his face and hooves. Getting beneath the sink, Fred selected a wet wipe (advertised as being ‘safe for fluffies!’) and hovered over his pal.
“Don’t you move until I’ve wiped you clean.” A warning that Turtle didn’t heed. As soon as he saw the wet wipe he fled from the bowl with a squeal and began running around in circles. Wanting to be a grubby, chocolate covered boy! Brown hoofprints were left behind on the lineloum before Fred looped a hand against his side and brought him up to wipe him clean. The cloth got extremely dirty fast, and he’d use four of them before all was said and done.
Setting his bud back down he’d just shake his head in mild frustration. “Go get ready for bed! I have half the mind to send you to school with nothing tomorrow!” An empty threat of course: His fluffy was just a li’l scamp that hadn’t meant any harm.
This was all in preparation for a big bake sale tomorrow. It’s all Turtle could think about! Racing to his bedroom and clambering on top of his bed, he hopped up and down with squeaks of his hooves in excitement.
“Bake sawe! Bake sawe! Bake sawe! Yaaaayyyy!” All the bouncing around of course got Fred into the room, catching the fluffy out of the air and wrangling him into a pair of pajamas.
Setting Turtle down and draping a blanket over him, he waggled a finger out. “Alright, now get some sleep. I have to go clean up a mess. I’d better not hear you goofing off in here: You have brownies to sell tomorrow.” A stern voice albeit not mean. Going to flip the light off, Turtle closed his eyes and poked his tongue out in the mockery of sleep.
One eye peeked open once he was sure his daddeh was far enough away.
“Bake sawe, bake sawe, bake sawe…” He whispered excitedly. Aha! Frederick hadn’t actually gone down the hall at all, instead opting to hide by the door the whole time. Poking his head into the room, Turtle kicked his back legs around excitedly and giggled.
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The next day, Turtle was all ready to go. Fred wouldn’t be attending the bake sale but would pass off the plate of neatly cut and wrapped brownies to the bus attendant who was already surrounded by a mountain of sweet treats.
As far as bus trips went, it was uneventful. The same things happened as always: Strawberry seemed keen to not touch the floor, Sunshine was back to not speaking with him, Reginald was farting all over a seat, the same old. Once the bus was at school and Miss Teacher was helping to get the baked goods off the vehicle, he was fully primed and ready to go.
There was a cheerful sign in front of the school which read ‘BAKE SALE’, and despite not being able to read he knew exactly what it meant. Why? There were cookies and cakes illustrated on it and he knew that much. Racing down the bus steps, he bustled into the school and watched with quiet wonder as baked goods were set down on a long table covered in ribbons and fancy napkins.
Small strawberry cupcakes, covered with dollops of whipped cream and halved berries! Slices of pie! Chocolate bonbons each wrapped in their own individual papers. Gooey cinnamon rolls, plates of all sorts of different cookies. It was beyond anything he’d ever imagined and kind of wished the whole bake sale was for him.
Reginald came strutting up into the joint looking incredibly smug as Miss Teacher upended a plastic grocery bag onto the table. The contents consisted of a loose assortment of premade snack cakes, most of them incredibly compressed or slightly melted.
“Weginawd am bwing dose nummies. Mummah say bestest nummies ‘fo bake sawe. Heh heh.” While Turtle would have no problem eating those nummies they didn’t seem nearly as good as what everyone else had made.
“Alright, class. We’ll be opening up soon to sell all these tasty treats.” Miss Teacher gave her patented, incredibly kind smile. They all perked up to listen to her. That meant they’d have to be on their best behavior! Miss Teacher had said when people came to the school, all the fluffies had to act their best.
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Well. They got plenty of interest, at first. Cars kept stopping by, people walked up to the front of the school and peeked in. Whatever they saw seemed to scare them away though. After they got a look at what was in the school they hurried off as if they had something really important to do. Turtle watched it all go down while having his face smushed up against a long windowpane.
Eventually people did start coming in though noticeably, Turtle knew them. For instance, one was Strawberry’s mummah. She was a tall woman who always wore sweaters and had a crinkly nose.
“Nuuu, mummah! Nuuu!” The pink fluffy was scooped up by his owner and doted on almost immediately after she walked in. Strawberry looked incredibly embarrassed by it and was forced to get huggies the entire time his owner looked over the baked goods. Scampering up, Turtle looked up longingly.
“Hewwo Missus Nice Mummah. Tuwtew bwonies am gud nummies ‘fo yew.” An enthusiastic tail wag joined the pitch. Strawberry’s mummah looked down to him, gave a somewhat forced smile, selected one of the wrapped brownies to go with the assortment she’d already chosen. Eventually her hands got too full and she had to set Strawberry down, the stallion giving a sigh of relief.
Once Strawberry’s mummah had paid for everything, she bent down to dote on her fluffy again.
“Have a good day at school my pwecious wittew babykins.” She said in a high pitched baby voice. Reginald snickered greatly at this and once the woman left, butted in to tease.
“Babbeh! Yew mummah say yew am babbeh!” Cackling laughter. Strawberry pinned his ears back a bit and mumbled something that may have been in defense of himself but honestly what could he do about that?
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The next person that came into the school was Sunshine’s mummah. Fred said she was pretty, Turtle didn’t know much about THAT but did think Sunshine was pretty. Her mummah had long blonde hair with lots of accessories in it and always wore brightly colored dresses. Maybe Sunshine was so pretty because her mummah was? Is that how it worked? He didn’t know, but he trailed behind her anyways.
“Hewwo Sunshine mummah. Wan Tuwtew bwonies? Dey am gud nummies ‘fo yew tummy.” Nodded a bit as if to confirm what he’d just said. Sunshine was also there tagging along with each step she made and it seemed like she became a lot more shy when her mummah was here.
The peppy young woman bent down and rubbed a hand over Turtle’s head. She smelled really nice! Fred had told him not to tell people that they smell nice though. “Sure thing, little guy. I’d love to eat one of your brownies.” Giving a dopey smile, Turtle was absolutely quizzical as to why Sunshine shot him a dirty look all of a sudden.
Unlike Strawberry’s owner, Sunshine’s didn’t take time to dote over her. Likely knowing that it would greatly embarrass her, and the mare already had a problem with freaking out when too much attention was brought onto her. All Sunshine got was a hand rubbed through her mane and a whispered ‘Have a good day!’ as her mummah turned out to walk out with a bag of treats.
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The fluffies were all bragging about how each of their parents had come in, all except for Reginald. Turtle knew that his daddeh wouldn’t be coming since he had to do a wowky-job. It was a very important thing to afford their nestie, and skettis, all the nice things. He sure was appreciative that his daddeh did all that for him.
Reginald stood on top of an upended toy chest and puffed out his chest. “Mummah am come see Weginald! She am bestest mummah EBAH!” Turtle didn’t know about that…Frederick didn’t talk ill of many people but he didn’t seem to like her very much.
Nodding beside the toy chest, Reginald’s erstwhile sycophant would chip in to offer his support. “W-Weginald am b-bestest smarty an’ hab nice mummah.” This just caused the fat purple stallion to puff up with pride, looking like a toad who was on the defensive.
Turtle cocked his head but just as he wondered if she really was going to show up, she did!
Knocking through the front door and either still drunk from the night before or deciding to break into her supply this early in the morning, it could only be Tamara. The woman was wearing the same clothes she’d been wearing the night before: A pink stained top, blue jeans, both wrinkled and obviously slept in. Her purse was clinched around one arm, feet side-stepping her and there as she made her way to the baked goods table.
“Hiiiiii Reginald.” She called out to him, the fluffy excitedly hopping down from the toy chest and scampering up to her with wobbles of his ample frame.
“Mummah! Weginawd miss yew! Dis am weawwy gud nummies sawe!” Hugging up against one of her legs, Reginald rubbed his cheek against her and gave an affectionate coo. Fingers meandering against the baked goods, Tamara stopped suddenly at the pile of shelf-stable snack cakes she’d sent with him. Squashed Cinnamummah pies, melted Captain Flufftastic cakes, all of it she’d sent with him untouched. Wheeling on him, Tamara indicated her fluffy with one index finger.
“Reginald! How come you haven’t sold a single thing!? I sent all of this with you to have a…hic!…chance of having a field trip!” Actually angry. The happy, carefree energy of the room deflated quickly. Some of Turtle’s classmates went and hid behind pillows or other furniture, having scaredies over the meanie words.
Bottom lip wobbling, Reginald gave a sheepish wave of his tail. “W-Weginawd twy…” He was cut off by Tamara swiping a hand drunkenly at the air.
“No! You didn’t!” That was enough for Turtle! Even if Reginald could be a meanie some (well, most of the time) he had been raised by Frederick to never stand around while someone said such nasty things to his friend. The green & brown stallion stepped forward and slapped a hoof against the floor with a huff.
“Nu say meanie wowds tu Weginawd! He am twy! Tuwtew see!” Tamara was taken aback by this. Before she could launch into a nasty verbal assault on her new, small challenger? Next it was Strawberry. He stepped up and shouldered next to Turtle.
“Nu be meanies tu Weginawd!” Standing in solidarity with Turtle, even if it meant speaking up to a big mummah. Which was a no-no but so was being mean.
Sunshine was the next up in line, shyly keeping her distance from Turtle and Strawberry but obviously holding the same emotions as them. “Gu ‘way, meanie!”
More and more of the fluffies joined in to help defend Reginald. Even if he was a smarty and could be a bad boy, he was their friend and classmate. An echo of voices shouting ‘Gu way!’ and ‘Meanie!’ were driven at Tamara, the woman straightening up and bending a hand back.
“Ooohhh! I’m going to spank ALL of you!” Advancing on Reginald, she was stopped in her tracks by a sudden hand pulling her back. The ever kind and patient Miss Teacher, holding onto her wrist and spinning her around with more authority than you’d ever expect from such a kindly woman.
“Tamara, I’d like to ask you to leave. Go on.” Tugging her toward the door now. Miss Teacher knew she’d be better if she went home and laid down, but she certainly wasn’t welcome here.
“That’s MY fluffy! I’ll just take him home!” Tamara protested, and was shooed out of the building regardless. Little did she know that this was a hugbox world where protections were put into place for the lovable little scamps. Looking through the window in the door for a moment, Tamara gave an impatient squeal, a thump of her fist, turned around and began walking away.
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After all was said and done, all of the fluffies were given a treat. Turtle happily chewed on a wedge of lemon bar that Sunshine had brought in but something bothered him.
Reginald was sitting all by himself with one of the better looking Captain Flufftastic cakes in front of him. Turtle liked those too but wouldn’t have chosen it himself, but the smarty had insisted loudly he’d wanted it because his mummah had brought it. He wasn’t eating it though.
Leaving the remainder of his treat behind, Turtle walked up to Reginald and gave a smile. “Wat am wong, Weginawd?”
Looking up from the snack cake, Reginald sniffled. Tears were in his eyes, and he worriedly squished his hooves together with minute squeaks. “Mummah nu wub Weginawd. Weginawd bad boy.”
While Turtle agreed he could be a bad boy sometimes, he didn’t think his mummah didn’t like him. All mummahs and daddehs loved their fluffies. Reaching out, he squished Reginald up in a hug.
“Huggies make ebbyfing beddah, fwend.” Seeing there was a fluffy in need of huggies, the rest of the class circled around Reginald to give him lots of squeezes and nice words. It turned out huggies did make everything better. At least in this case. Reginald’s eyes shone with happiness, and he finally picked up his snack cake.
“Dank yew Tuwtew. Dank yew fwends.”
Mom went through that with Dad after he retired and became a consultant. It’s hard to convince people, especially older men who’ve worked their whole lives, that it’s time to do something else.