January 27th

2012

7:25 AM 

Friday

Little Hearts Daycare

Marian was escorting her son to his assigned classroom, they made sure to arrive early before class had started. She didn’t want her boy to be late for lessons that were important for his education

David was wearing a dark red and brown polo shirt and black jeans, along with his usual pair of shoes.

“Okay sweetie, we’re almost to your classroom. Make sure to be on your best behavior today!” said the mother. 

“Si, momma!” said David.

“Very good, David.” said Marian as she patted him on the head. “After class today… you’ll be going somewhere special.”

“Chee Chosa? Special? Where?” asked the boy as his ears perked up. 

“It’s a surprise honey.” The mother replied. 

“Oh… okay!” said David.

They arrived at the Sprouts Room and went inside, where some of the children were sitting on the floor playing with toys. Miss Madelina noticed them and walked over in her white tap shoes, crouching down to David’s level.

“Welcome sweetie, you’re just in time!” The teacher replied. “Are you excited for today?”

“Si! I am!” exclaimed the boy. 

“Wonderful honey!” said Miss Maddie.

“Good to see you, buddy!” said Jacy as he walked over to David. 

“Hey Jacy!” exclaimed David as he gently hugged him. 

“Awww….” said the wolamute boy as he ruffled his hair. 

Marian put down a white diaper bag that contained everything that David needed, gesturing to Miss Madelina afterwards. She got closer to her as the mother whispered something into her right ear. 

“Okay then, I’ll take note of that.” said the teacher as she waved to the mother who was heading out. 

“Bonjour, mon ami!” said Eloise who approached David.

David finished hugging Jacy as his ears perked up upon hearing the voice of his new friend. He looked below her eye-sight and gave a gentle wave. 

“Salve, Eloise!” said the young tiger.

“Want to play with me?” She asked him. 

“Ahuh!” said David.

Jacy watched as the two headed off to play with small wooden logs and toy cars that came in a variety of colors, right next to other kids who were playing with light-blue blocks. 

Miss Madelina sat at her own desk, reading over a small lesson plan while the children enjoyed themselves. She wanted to memorize everything that they were going to talk about today.

It was about learning the alphabet and words that started with a particular letter, along with the basic shapes and introduction to colors. 

****

After a short while, the teacher stood up from her desk and grabbed a wooden bell stick from the drawer. She gave it a gentle wave, watching as the children stopped and looked at the source of the noise. 

“Okay children, gather on the dino carpet. For the first part of our lesson plan today, we’ll be learning the Alphabet Song! Raise your hand if you have a question.” said the teacher as she got some chalk from off her desk and started writing the alphabet down on a chalkboard. 

All of the kids in the room walked over and sat down on the dino-themed circular carpet, with David choosing to sit next to his new friend Eliose. The young tiger was intrigued about the song. 

“What is the alphabet?” He asked.

“It’s a set of letters used to represent basic sounds of a language.” She replied.

“Okay!” said David as he smiled. 

Miss Madelina cleared her throat for a moment and then clapped her hands three times before singing aloud: 

“A-B-C-D-E-F-G

Learn the alphabet with me!

H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P

Fun as it can be!

Q-R-S-T-U-V

W-X-Y and Z

Now you know your ABCs, next time won’t you sing with me?” 

The conclusion of the song is met with a small applause given by the children in the room, who really enjoyed it. It’s a simple tune with one purpose: to help teach young kids about the alphabet. 

“Ready to sing it with me children?” asked the teacher.

“Yes Miss Maddie!” the children said. 

“Wonderful!” said Miss Madelina. 

All of the children began singing the song together, with one problem presenting itself within five minutes. Many of the students were singing too loud, and David wasn’t able to handle it. 

The little tiger cub covered his ears and sat on the ground in great discomfort, crying to himself. This was noticed by Jacy and Eloise, followed by Miss Madelina who told the children to stop. 

“David! Hold on buddy!” said the wolamute as he fetched his noise-canceling headphones, quickly placing them over David’s ears.

“Please make some room, children.” said the teacher.

The remaining children stood five-feet back as Miss Madelina gently approached the crying tiger cub, kneeling down to be at the boy’s height.  

“Are you okay, mon ami?” asked the leopard cub with great concern.

“It was too loud….!” said David as he kept crying.

“Shhh… shhh…. It’s going to be okay buddy.” said Jacy who was comforting him.

“Poor baby…” said the teacher as she gave him a gentle pat on the head. “Jacy, please take him to the Quiet Room.”

“Right away!” said the young wolamute as he picked up the tiger cub and carried him out of the room. The other kids watched as they exited the area.

Eloise went up to the teacher and gently tugged on her white dress, she was greatly worried for her new friend.

“Concerned for David?” Miss Maddie said.

“Oui Oui, is he going to be alright?” Eloise asked.

“David just needs to calm down for a moment. He’ll be back with us afterwards. Don’t worry honey.” said Miss Madelina. 

“Oh, that’s good. Merci.” said the leopard cub as she dusted off her dark-pink dress, heading over to where the other children were. 

The teacher decided to put this lesson on hold for the moment, allowing the children to play for a short while until Jacy and David returned. She didn’t want to continue the lesson without all her students present.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fifteen minutes passed since the small incident occurred, David was sitting on a comfy bean bag while listening to a story. The wolamute boy was reading a children’s book about a dinosaur knight rescuing a pterodactyl princess, it was the generic knight saves the princess story. He was nearing the end of it. 

“With Princess Ptera saved from the dangerous clutches of The Evil Raptor Wizard, Sir Tyren of Tyrannia escorted her back to the Veloci Kingdom. They all lived happily ever after, the end!” said Jacy Wolfe. 

“Yay! Bellissimo!” exclaimed David as he clapped his hands. 

“Do you feel all better, buddy?” asked the wolamute boy.

“Ahuh!” said the tiger cub.

Jacy gave the cub a gentle pat on the back as he stood up and placed the book back on the shelf where he found it. He went back over to David and knelt down to his level, seeing the little grin upon his face.

“Ready to go back to class?” asked Jacy.

“Si! I’m ready!” said David. 

“Okay, let’s head on back.” said the wolamute. 

Jacy escorted David back to the Sprouts Classroom, just as they were about to pick up where they left off in the lesson. Miss Madelina smiled as the two entered the room.

“Welcome back sweetie, feeling all better?” asked the teacher.

“Ahuh!” said the tiger cub.

“I was reading a story to him while he calmed down,” said Jacy.

“Wonderful, I’m glad he’s doing better now! Let’s resume where we left off everyone!” said Miss Maddie.

The teacher began introducing some words that started with the first couple of letters from the alphabet. Written on the chalkboard with baby-blue chalk.  All the children took turns naming an object that started with them.

Once that lesson was finished, it was onto the next one. This involved basic shapes such as squares, circles, rhombuses and rectangles. All of the students in the room had fun using plastic shape blocks to create whatever they wanted using those shapes.

They had quite a fun time making interesting little structures with the plastic shape toys, with David making a little house. The teacher was happy to see all the students were enjoying this activity. 

“That looks wonderful David!” said Eliose.

“Grazie!” Said David.

“Oh! You’re welcome!” replied the leopard cub. 

Miss Madelina walked through the room, observing all the creations they made. She was happy to see a beautiful friendship forming between David and Eloise, even though they only met yesterday.

Jacy kept an eye on all the children in the room, making sure there was no one causing any trouble. Everything was peaceful at this time. The teacher told him that he can have a snack break in the Kitchen. 

“Thanks… I could use a small break.” said the wolamute boy.

“I’ll take care of things here, go ahead and relax for a moment.” said Miss Maddie.
Jacy headed off to the kitchen to grab himself a small snack from one of the pantries in the room. Miss Madelina thought that the young wolamute was doing a wonderful job and believed that he deserved a treat. 

When arriving there, the young wolamute found a fellow janitor getting his metal lunch box from the fridge, a thirty-five year old beagle in a blue jumpsuit. He had finished cleaning the hallways recently.   

“Ah, you must be one of the student helpers,” said the man as he sat down at a small dining table with four chairs. 

“Yeah, I’m doing it for extra credit points. I could really make use of them. Miss Maddie said I could take a break.” said Jacy. 

“Sounds reasonable to me,” He replied. 

The young wolamute looked around in a wooden pantry and came across some healthy fruit snacks, and to his surprise… it was a different brand compared to last time. It was called Munchtastic Gummies.

He actually recommended this yesterday since it’s healthy yet flavorful, the perfect snack that wouldn’t be lacking any taste to it.

“She actually got these, nice!” said Jacy as he took one small package and carefully ripped it open, eating an apple-shaped gummy from it. 

He went over to the dining table in the room and sat down in the seat across from the janitor, enjoying his small package of fruit snacks. While it wasn’t a big snack, it was fine enough for the time being. 

“How is schooling for you kiddo?” asked the janitor. 

“It’s alright, some teachers are cool while others aren’t. I prefer gym class since it gets away from boring subjects like History.” said Jacy as he continued eating his fruit-snacks. 

“Can’t disagree with that.” replied the man as he opened his lunchbox. 

January 27th

2012

3:00 PM

Friday

David stood next to Jacy in the Daycare Lobby, waiting for his mother to come pick him up from lessons. The wolamute boy was holding the diaper bag that contained all items that were brought in for the day. 

“Alright, you probably don’t know this yet… but my mother will be picking us up instead.” said the young wolamute.

“Huh? Why?” asked David.

“Because… we're going to Johoon’s Arcade!” said Jacy. 

“Chee Chosa? Arcade?” asked the tiger cub as his little ears perked up.

“Ahuh, it’s got lots of games to play! I’m sure you’ll love it! Both of our mom’s planned this out yesterday, and thought it’d be a wonderful idea for an outing.” said the wolamute boy.

“Arcade! Arcade!” shouted David.

“Okay buddy, just keep it down a bit.” said Jacy as he chuckled a bit. 

Following that small conversation, Jona walked through the entrance door and into the lobby of the daycare. She had her usual outfit on.

“Ready to go boys?” She asked.

“Salve!” exclaimed David. 

“Hey Little Davey, eager to have some fun?” asked Jona.

“Si! Vai! Vai!” said the little tiger cub. 

“Okay sweetie, we’ll be going soon.” She replied while grabbing the diaper bag from her son and looked through it, making sure there was plenty of supplies. 

“Huh?” asked David.

“I’m making sure you’ve got plenty of diapers and other supplies, don’t want to run out while we’re at the arcade hun. I’ll be taking you home later on as well.” said Jona. 

“Oh, okay.” said the boy. 

Jona led them to a light-blue family minivan that she drove over and opened the passenger side door. Before picking them up, she had set up a baby-seat for David ahead of time. 

She watched as Jacy climbed in first and helped the tiger cub get into the seat and properly buckled him in. He didn’t mind helping David first. Once that was done, he got himself into his own seat. 

“All secure boys?” The mother asked.

“Yeah, we’re ready,” said Jacy as he looked over at David. 

His mother got the car keys out of her right pocket and turned on the ignition by turning the key, watching as the main dashboard lit up. She glanced at the front view mirror before smirking a bit.

“I’m so excited!” said David as he kicked his legs around, eager to explore somewhere he’s not been to before. 

“I know buddy.” said Jacy. 

“Alright, let’s head off boys!” said Jona as she drove out of the parking lot and made her way onto the main road. The little tiger cub played with his toy dinosaur while waiting to get there.

The whole car ride was pretty smooth, with some traffic from other vehicles due to the afternoon rush-hour. Some people were trying to get home from their jobs. Jacy’s mom groaned a bit while waiting for it to clear up.

After fifteen minutes of traveling on the road, they arrived at their intended destination. It was a two-story building with a bright neon orange sign that said “Johoon’s Arcade” for easy visibility. Jona parked the car in an empty parking space, and was rather surprised to see only five other cars. 

“Oh! This arcade isn’t too busy, that sounds good.” said Jona. 

“Good, it won’t be so crowded!” said Jacy. 

“Yay!” said David. 

They exited the vehicle as the little tiger cub became hyper focused on the exterior of the building. Observing the glass windows that gave a small view of the arcade interior, he was eager to see everything inside. 

“So big….” said the little tiger cub as Jacy gently tapped him on the shoulder.

“Come on David, we don’t need you getting lost now.” said the wolamute as his mother locked the car after getting her purse and the diaper bag out. Jacy held onto the diaper bag as they headed inside with the tiger cub holding onto his free hand. 

Upon entering through the glass entrance doors, the accompanying sounds of beeps and blips greeted their ears with their alluring electronic sounds that filled the entire area. 

David was rather fascinated by the sights and sounds, filled with great eagerness to start having fun. He hadn’t seen a place like this in his life as of far. It wasn’t too loud either. 

“Welcome to the Arcade boys, let me just buy some tokens.” said Jona as she searched around for a token machine.

“Tokens?” asked David.

“These arcade machines can’t be played for free, so they need tokens. It’s like buying a bag of shrimp. Someone has to pay for it.” said Jacy.

“Oh, okay…” said the tiger cub. 

Jona returned and placed a handful of tokens in Jacy’s left pocket; she bought a total of twelve. It was just enough for them to play some of the arcade machines. The price for them was only two dollars. 

“There you go, have fun boys! Don’t lose track of each other.” said his mother.

“Thanks mom!” said the wolamute boy. 

Both boys looked around in the main area of the arcade and came across a tabletop gaming machine with two chairs. It had two buttons with a single joystick on both sides, the coin slots being on both sides. 

On the digital screen was an eight bit side-scrolling space shooter that required both players to destroy all the pixel aliens on screen before moving onto the next stage. It went by the name of “Omega Space Squad.” 

“Neat! A space shooter game!” said Jacy.

“How do you play?” asked David. 

“Quite simple, little buddy. All you have to do is move the little joystick and press the green button to fire. I think the yellow one is for special power ups. Let me show you.” said the wolamute as he demonstrated how to do everything. 

“Oooo.” said the tiger cub.

Jacy lifted David onto the first chair before grabbing two tokens from his pocket, which is the required amount for playing the game with two-players. The little tiger cub played around with the joystick for a moment before seeing orange text on screen saying “Press Green Button To Start.” 

David pressed the green button as the game started up within seconds following another on-screen message that said “Mission 1: Destroy All The Alpharians” as little pixelated yellow aliens began moving around, waiting to be destroyed. 

The boys both had fun blasting digital aliens as an electronic bloop sound played each time one was destroyed. There were a few times where the tiger cub missed his shots, but he didn’t mind since he was having such a good time. 

“This is really fun!” exclaimed David. 
“I’m glad you’re having fun!” said Jacy.  

After ten minutes of playing the game, David was able to score at two-hundred fifty points before it ended in the third round when he lost all his digital space-ships. Jacy got one-hundred fifty. 

This impressed the wolamute since he didn’t expect the little tiger cub to score so many points. 

“Can we play this game again?” asked the tiger cub. 

“How about we play a different game?” the wolamute recommended. “There’s a lot to choose from.”

“Okay!” said David. 

“Let’s head on in further!” said Jacy.

They headed further into the first floor of the arcade while Jona followed close behind them. They found some vintage arcade machines from the 80s and 90s, along with claw machines with various prizes. It cost three tokens to play those.

David toddled over to the claw machine when he saw a raptor dinosaur plushie inside of it. Placing his little hands on the glass. 

“Oooo! Dinosaur plushie!” He exclaimed.

“I don’t like claw machines, I think they are scams.” said the wolamute as he went over to an arcade cabinet that had a racing game. “How about this one, buddy? It’s a racing game!” 

“Racing?” asked David as he went over to the machine. 

“Ahuh, you race around in a cool car in an attempt to get first place.” said Jacy. 

“Oooo, I wanna play it!” said the little tiger cub. 

Jacy giggled a bit as he watched David walk over to him, gently lifting him onto the  stool that was at the arcade cabinet. Inserting a single token in the coin slot for the machine afterwards. 
David looked at the controls in front of him, which consisted of three colored buttons and a joystick. One button was green, the second was blue, and the third one was yellow. He was eager to start playing it.

The on-screen demo came to an end after the tiger cub pressed the first button, which showed the title screen which had the name of “Grand Prix 2000” before going to the instructions. 

“Go ahead and play some other games, I’ll keep an eye on David, don’t worry too much about it.” said Jona.

“Okay, thanks mom!” said Jacy as he headed further into the arcade, leaving the diaper bag with his mother.

The little cub read the instructions on screen, which were quite simple to learn: Green button for driving, blue for the horn, yellow for the break, and the joystick is used for changing direction and scrolling.

David once again pressed the green button and was brought to the race car selection screen, which showed a variety of F1 Cars to select. He looked them over until he picked a red one with a black racing stripe down the center. 

Once a vehicle was selected, the screen transitioned over to a race-track with a digitally simulated crowd. 

Jacy’s mom watched as the little tiger cub began driving his digital car around the race track while the electronic sounds of car engines played. 

“Weeee! Yay!” exclaimed David as he raced around the track in his digital formula one vehicle. “I love this!”

“I’m glad you do, sweetie!” said Jona as she kept her eye on the tiger cub. 

Jacy was playing another space-shooter arcade cabinet that was single player only, going by the name of Galaxia. It was pretty fun to play, and it didn’t require too many tokens to play. 

The young wolamute had gotten pretty far into the game itself, reaching up to the fifth round where the digital enemies got tougher and became numerous. It pretty much became near overwhelming. 
After thirteen minutes had passed, the little tiger finished his race by winning third place in his digital formula one vehicle. He was pretty proud of himself, leaning back and forth happily.

“Yay, I won!” said David.

“You sure did honey!” said Jona. 

“Sounds like someone’s happy!” said Jacy who came back just in time. 

“I got third!” said the little tiger cub.

“That’s great David, good job!” said the wolamute. 

“I want to play more!” said David.

“How about a break, sweet pea? I don’t want your eyes hurting.” asked the mother.

“But I really like this game…” said the little tiger cub. “But okay…”

David slowly got off the stool as he felt some pressure in his bowels, his tail flagging upward. The little cub entered into a short squat as he began grunting. Jacy chuckled as he knew what was happening.

Jona smirked and gave the little one a gentle pat on the back, heading over to the diaper bag to pull out a spare diaper. 

“Go on honey, let it all out,” said Jona. 

The little cub sighed in relief as the back of his pants bulked up greatly, followed by an audible crinkling. He quietly purred to himself after he finished his business, being picked up by Jacy. 

“Come on bud, let’s get you changed into a new diaper.” said Jacy as he carried him to the nearest bathroom while his mother followed behind with the diaper bag. David gently hugged the wolamute. 

“Do you need a change as well, Jacy?” asked Jona.

“Nah, I am fine,” said the wolamute.
David was brought into the bathroom and laid upon a changing table by Jacy while his mother got the changing supplies ready. He exited the bathroom while the black and white malamute got to work.

Jona untapped the messy nappy and removed it from under the tiger cub’s bottom, disposing of it before cleaning his bottom with a baby wipe. She then got out the new one and slid it under his bottom, securing the tapes. 

“Grazie!” said the tiger cub.

“You’re welcome David, now you're nice and clean.”  said Jona as she went to wash her hands before picking up the boy and bringing him out of the bathroom, along with the diaper bag on her shoulders. 

Jacy had been waiting outside of the bathroom, and watched as the little tiger cub was placed on the ground by his mother. He smiled towards him and gave David a gentle pat on the head.

“How about one more game before you're taken home…?” asked the wolamute.

“Si! I’d like that!” said David. 

The young wolamute and his mother headed back into the arcade, coming across an arcade cabinet that featured some fighting game which had two stools, it had some text on screen that said Brawling Streets. There were twelve fighters to choose from.

David looked at all the choices while sitting on the stool next to Jacy, and ended up choosing a tiger with a newsboy cap, while the young wolamute picked a muscular wolf with fancy boots. 

Since the little one didn’t know how to play, he just started randomly pressing buttons to see what happened. Especially during the actual gameplay. Jacy decided to let him win at every round, just so his buddy wouldn’t get upset. 

After twenty minutes of having fun, the little tiger cub emitted a loud yawn from his mouth. He had gotten tired, and was on the verge of falling asleep. 

“I’m tired….” said David.

“Awww… did you have fun buddy?” asked Jacy.
“Si… I did.” said the tiger cub.

Jacy got down from his own stool and picked up David, gently holding the boy in his arms. He felt the soft vibrations of his purring, showing how content he was. Jona smiled as she observed this.

“Let’s bring him home, it’s definitely his nap time.” said Jona. 

“Yeah, let’s do it.” said Jacy.

They packed up their things and headed back to the minivan, eventually making their way out of the parking lot and back towards Red Leaf Way. Where his parents would be waiting for him.