Pondovadia: World I Love, Tears I Drop

Chapter Three: Shoving into Overdrive

August 10, 302X

Ponce's alarm on his phone went off loudly. The turtle mix rolled from the side of his bed to turn off the alarm.

6:15 AM

Oh. Right, the first day of school, Ponce thought to himself. School didn't start until 9:30 AM but he'd be damned if he didn't get there early to figure out where everything was at in Southwest Pondovadia Middle School. He reached for his phone, shoved it in his left hoodie pocket and rolled out of bed.

"Poncio! Ayúdame en la cocina!" a high feminine voice called out to him.

"Si, ma!" he yelled to her. Ponce swung the door open and headed to the kitchen.

His mom was unpeeling three plantains while his dad came out of his bedroom. The chimera's fur was the same golden hue as his son's, and his unruly bright orange hair curled around his ears and neck.

"Buenos dias, Marcela~" Ponce's father kissed his wife's cheek and put a mariposa flower in her indigo hair.

Marcela giggled from the stubble scratching her face. "Carlos! No delante de Poncio!"

Ponce facepalmed and groaned from the obvious flirting in front of him. He just knew one of them was going to ask him later to stay the night at a friend's house.
The turtle-mix walked to the counter and helped Marcela chop the plantains into thin planks. She tossed some coconut oil into the pan.

Meanwhile, in Complex 8R3-6...

Trai and Da-San were running around, giggling, and throwing couch pillows at each other while Mr. Yang was in a sticky situation.

"Kulap, Malee, please just take the sweaters" Basil groaned as he drank a cup of green tea in one hand and held two child-sized short-sleeve sweaters to the fussy girls.

The mint chinchilla wearing a flower crown pouted and crossed her arms. "But Daaaaad no one else has to wear them!!!"

"Malee, what if the air conditioning gets too cold?" the skunk tried to reason.

Malee groaned loudly "Don't be a dick, dad!"

"Language! And who taught you that?" Basil gasped and glared.

The two chinchillas pointed in the bathroom. "Toshi" they said at the same time.

Basil dropped the sweaters, set his drink on the wood table, facepalmed into both hands, and shook his head. "I'm going to have a word with him after dinner tonight"

All was quiet in 8L1-5 as both residents slept away in their rooms, until...

Klarisse's alarm went off. She was holding the side of her head as she turned the alarm off.

"Ugh..."

The beaver looked around her bedroom. She saw that the brigh blue curtains were open wide and it annoyed her beyond the moon. After closing the curtains and checking her clock, she saw why the alarm went off. Fuck, not a damn freshman tour at 8.

"The things I do for service hours" Klarisse thought to herself. She made a cup of coffee and drank the whole thing in one sitting.

"Bell! Time to get up!" she hollered.

"Aww, but Klarisse!" her little sister yelled back. "My school doesn't start until 9:30!!"

The older Woodrow rolled her eyes. "I know that, smartass! But I have to leave at 8 for that tour, and I don't want you to be late on the first day!"

Bell snarked "Just tell them you got sick and can't make it! That's literally what you did last night!" She finally came out of her bedroom and was still in her fuzzy pajamas. Her hair was a tangled mess. Bell almost tripped on an empty Jack Daniels bottle.