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How Not To Become Lunch: 5 - Stick With Your Friends
“Good morning, kids,” Mrs. Lupella said with a smile. She turned away from her open cupboards to greet the freshly awoken faces entering the kitchen. Fiona led the way, holding her little sister’s hand with Jack on her opposite side.
“Morning mom,” Fiona replied.
“Anyone want anything special for breakfast?” her mother asked.
“Jack,” Sissy answered just before giving a big, toothy yawn and rubbing her eyes with her free hand. Fiona squeezed her sister’s other hand tightly in warning, but the little pup seemed too tired to notice.
“The usual’s fine for me,” Fiona replied, “What about you?” she looked over to Jack.
“Yeah, I’m sure whatever you have will be great,” he answered politely. The motherly werewolf smiled at them and then turned back around to start putting together their meals.
Fiona walked them over to the table; round and wooden with four chairs spaced evenly apart. She hoisted Sissy up and placed her in her chair- while shooting her a warning glance- and then motioned for Jack to take his. Almost as soon as they had all sat down, Mrs. Lupella came over holding a plate in each hand.
“These were caught fresh yesterday,” she announced, placing one down in front of each of her daughters. The contents caught Jack a little off guard. Each plate had a reasonably sized bird on it. Both had all of their feathers plucked, but aside from that they looked entirely unprepared.
Sissy, sitting across from him, grinned as she set eyes on hers. She immediately reached out and sank her tiny claws into it, reeling it in towards her mouth. As the pup started chomping away, he saw Fiona reach out, a bit more mannerly, and take a sizable bite of her own.
For a moment, he felt lucky that most preds preferred to save time and energy with their larger meals and swallow them whole, since otherwise he probably would have been chewed to pieces by now. Of course, all the prey he had seen digesting alive inside stuffed bellies probably felt differently…
He was pulled away from the thought by the clack of a dish being placed down in front of him. Looking down, he saw the same sort of meal that the two werewolves had just been served. He grimaced just a bit in disgust as he glanced over the carcass, before suddenly realizing how incredibly rude that was. He quickly looked up toward Mrs. Lupella, hoping he had covered up his reaction in time, but judging by her frown she had already noticed.
“Oh, that’s right. You like yours cooked, don’t you?” she asked apologetically.
“Yeah…” he replied awkwardly.
“Hm, if you have to wait until this cooks you’ll be late for school. We can’t have that…” she tapped one clawed finger against the side of her cheek as she thought. “Oh!” Her ears perked up and she turned back toward the counter, taking his plate with her.
“Sorry, hun, it’s been a while since I’ve had to make a human meal- well, a meal for a human- but I think this’ll work.” Not more than a minute later, she turned back around and carried over a new plate, piled high with colorful berries. Jack looked it over as she set it down in front of him. Maybe it wasn’t the most balanced breakfast, but it was certainly more appetizing than the bird.
“Thanks,” he said considerately.
*URP*!
Jack glanced up, hearing that uncomfortably familiar sound, and found that Sissy had apparently already demolished her meal, leaving absolutely no trace behind.
“Hey, Fiona?” the pup asked, licking her furry digits, “you wanna go explore the woods some more after school today?
“Sorry, sis, I’m going to Jack’s place after school,” she replied, swallowing a large mouthful.
“What? Whhyy?” she wined.
“I’m gonna sleep there tonight so we can hang out some more.”
“But you were with him all day yesterday!”
“Well before that I haven’t seen him in like forever. We’ll play some other time.”
Sissy pouted and crossed her arms. Jacked frowned.
“I’m sure Fi can find some time to play with you,” he offered, feeling a bit sorry for the little girl.
“She will once you’re back in my tummy,” Sissy grumbled in reply. The air started to grow a bit thick, but their mother popped in just in time.
“So, when were you planning on telling me about this little plan?” Mrs. Lupella asked.
“Oh, um, right now I guess,” Fiona answered.
“And how do Jack’s parents feel about this?” she turned her gaze to him.
“I… think my mom will be fine with it,” he replied.
“And your father?”
Jack frowned and glanced downward.
“… He’s… he’s gone…”
There was a heavy moment of silence.
“Oh… I’m so sorry to hear that…”
From the corner of his eye he saw Fiona take on an expression much like his own.
“Well, I’m glad Fiona will be around to keep you company then,” Mrs. Lupella said.
Jack nodded and turned his attention back to his plate to continue eating.
“I’m gonna go finish getting ready,” Fiona said, getting up from her chair. She made no eye contact, and something in her voice sounded a bit off. Jack gave her a worried glance, but by the time he had decided he should say something she was already gone. Her mother noticed it too, though, and looked off in her daughter’s direction.
“Excuse me for a minute,” she said politely, walking off after her.
Jack picked up a few more berries and popped them into his mouth, gazing distantly at his breakfast as worried thoughts fluttered around his head. Then suddenly he began to feel uneasy, like he was being watched. Finally it hit him that he had once again been left alone with little Sissy. He looked up quickly. Sure enough, there was the little pup, sitting in her chair, staring him down with hungry eyes.
“…You’re not really gonna try and eat me again, are you?” he asked hopefully.
“I guess I can’t right now,” she glanced at the doorway, knowing her family was still close by. “But I will soon,” she promised, licking her lips.
“Come on, can’t we just be friends?”
“Nuh-uh. You’re my special meal,” she replied. “You’re my first human ever, so you have to get back in my tummy to digest ‘cause I only get one ‘first’.”
“But what about Fiona and your mom? They wouldn’t be happy if you, erm, digested me.”
“Well I’m gonna be such a good predator that they won’t even see me do it. So I won’t get in any trouble. And afterwards I’ll play with Fiona all day long and we’ll have so much fun she won’t even be sad. And we’ll be so happy that mom won’t be sad either.”
Her childish reasoning was flawless. Jack had no reply but an uncomfortable stare.
“Sissy, sweety, come here please,” her mother called, evidently realizing the mistake she had made in leaving them alone.
“Coming mom!” Sissy called back, scooching off her chair. She turned to Jack and patted her furry belly brashly, before letting out another sizable *URP*, and then running off towards her mother’s voice.
…
“So… yours is gone too…” Fiona said. Jacked looked over to her. The pair had been walking in silence for about a minute now, neither having spoken a word since leaving her house, her tail nearly dragging through the dirt the whole way.
“Huh?”
“Your father.”
“Oh. Yeah… Wait, you mean yours!?- But… But your dad was so big and strong, how…”
“He got sick… it happened a few years ago…” she answered in a somber tone. “…How did your dad pass away?”
“…He, um, passed through…”
“’Through’?… *gasp* You mean he got eaten?”
Jack nodded.
“But he was friends with so many other preds!”
“Not all of them, I guess.”
“Well, whatever pred got him is a jerk, cause your dad was great,” she insisted, now seeming a bit more frustrated than sad. Jack chuckled just a tiny bit.
“Yours too,” he said with a faint smile. He looked up, the school was just up ahead, he could see the side of the building.
“Ready for another day?” Fiona asked.
“I guess.” He took a deep breath, preparing himself for the coming onslaught of preds trying to make him into a meal.
“Alright snack! Hand over your lunch money!”
Fiona’s ears perked up and she set her gaze on the school, she put out an arm to stop Jack as she surveyed the scene. The voice had been distant, but close enough that Jack had heard it too. He followed his friend’s line of sight and only then noticed the figures standing in shadow against the school’s side wall.
There were three of them, all students, but one kid was so massive that he could have easily been two or three kids all on his own. Upon closer inspection, that actually seemed to be the case.
“I said hand it over! Right now! Or you’ll join the last nerd who wouldn’t pay up!” The larger kid thrusted his belly out prominently. Even from a distance, Jack could see the teen’s bulbous gut writhing as some poor prey squirmed within. The other two kids, assumedly humans, cowered with their backs against the wall.
“But- but isn’t he enough for you to make it through lunch? Why do you need my money?” one of the kids asked. That proved to be a mistake.
The bigger kid reached down with a beefy hand, sporting a large set of claws, and grabbed the one who had spoken up. Using his free hand, he tore off the kid’s pants, leaving him in his boxers, and then callously tossed him into the cavernous, gaping pit of his maw. The third kid quickly reached into his pockets and threw his lunch money out onto the ground as he watched his friend disappear with a massive *GULP*. The terrified child watched in frozen horror as the bulge descended the thick, furry throat, until the predator looked down at him again. The kid screamed and scrambled away as fast as he could go, leaving the pred to pick up the coins left in the dirt.
“Geeze, he ate two human kids at once?” Jack muttered.
“Yeah, that’s Grizz,” Fiona replied in a quiet tone, still watching the bear boy cautiously. “Most preds our age can’t stomach more than one at a time, but he makes a sport of it. I heard he even ate another pred kid once. You definitely need to watch out for him.”
Having picked the grass and the kid’s pants clean of money, Grizz lumbered off towards the back of the school. Fiona finally let her arm down, but she didn’t look away until he was out of sight.
“Come on, let’s get to homeroom,” she said.
“Yeah, good idea.”
…
“Oh man…” Jack groaned as he stared through the open door. He’d been happy when he found out he’d be in the same homeroom as Fiona, but now he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d be better off somewhere else. There were quite a number of preds in the room, and while he was thankful none of them had any wriggling bellies- cause he did not want to have to look at one of those right now- that also meant that they all had plenty of room for him.
“Just stay close,” Fiona instructed. She entered first, grabbing his hand to make sure he didn’t get snatched up on the way to his desk.
As he walked, he started to recognize some familiar faces. He saw Sarabeth, the vampire who had so politely asked to make him her lunch the previous day. Then he spotted that naga who had almost swallowed him just before Fiona had run into them- or at least he thought it was the same student, he hadn’t really gotten a good look at her face before getting shoved inside her mouth. And then he noticed Lily- or more accurately, she noticed them. The frog girl stood up, much to his anxiety, and walked casually toward them.
“Hey Fiona, I heard you had Greg for lunch yesterday,” she said.
“That’s right.”
“Well I just wanted to say thanks, that kid was a total creep. If no one else ended up nomming him I probably woulda done it myself.”
“My pleasure,” Fiona replied with a rather predatory grin, her tail wagging gently.
“So, who’s that there behind you?” she asked, perhaps a bit suggestively. Fiona’s grin disappeared and her tail went stiff.
“This is Jack, he’s my friend,” the werewolf replied.
Lily raised an eyebrow and looked him over, holding her eyes on him for an uncomfortably long time.
“You might as well eat him now, this one’s definitely ending up in someone’s belly.”
Fiona growled quietly in response.
“Whoa, I’m not threatening or anything, I’m just saying- the boy looks pretty tasty.”
Lily backed up a bit, and Fiona walked past her, keeping a tight hold of Jack’s hand, not breaking eye contact until they were a safe distance away.
“Don’t worry Jack, you’ll be fine,” Fiona encouraged as she showed him to his seat and took the next one over.
Jack heard a gentle thudding and glanced over to the door, only to see the massive bear boy from earlier, Grizz, trudge through with a rather sour expression, his gut still wriggling vigorously.
“You know, you have a lot of predators in your homeroom,” Jack finally pointed out. Fiona looked around for a second.
“Huh, I never really noticed before. I guess you’re right.”
Just then another figure entered the room, an older, adult woman with green skin and webbed toes.
“Well, at least the teacher doesn’t seem too bad,” he commented. “Sure, she’s a pred too, but at least she’s just a frog instead of another huge bear or something.”
“Actually, that’s Ms. Ivy. She teaches predator class.”
“Oh. Great…”