Tail Three – Melvin The Raccoon

Sam had a very hard first week at school. The other bunnies either made fun of him or were too scared to talk to him, so he spent most of his time at recess hiding. It wasn't so bad in class, because he could just sit at the table at the back of the room (he was far too big for any of the desks) and ignore all the whispering and pointing. However, once it was time to play Sam couldn’t avoid the teasing, so he snuck away to be by himself in the trees at the edge of the field.
On the last day of school that week Sam was sitting in his usual spot, drawing in the dirt with a stick. He was drawing a picture of a giant bunny squishing a group of little bunnies into flat blobs with ears. In a weird way, it made him feel better even though he knew he would never actually do it. All of a sudden he was startled by a voice from right behind him.
"Hahaha, you made them into rabbit pancakes!"
Sam jumped into the air and narrowly missed landing on a little raccoon with thick glasses that had been looking over his shoulder.
"W-w-where did you come from?" Sam stuttered.
"From over there," the raccoon motioned to a path that led through the trees. "My school is on the other side."
"A raccoon school?"
"No, it's just a regular school with all sorts of different animals."
This was a new idea to Sam.  He thought all the different animals had their own schools.
"What are you doing here?" Sam asked.
"Same as you, hiding. The other kids make fun of me for being small and having geeky glasses."
Sam narrowed his eyes at the boy. "What makes you think I get made fun of?"
The raccoon just looked up at Sam with his eyebrows raised. Sam smiled sheepishly.
"Yah, I guess I'm a little different, too. My name is Sam. What's your name?"
"Melvin."
"It's nice to meet you, Melvin." The two boys shook hands. All of a sudden Sam felt much happier, and not at all like squishing anyone.
“So why are you so giant, anyway?” Melvin asked.
Sam shrugged. “Mom and Dad don’t know why I’m so big. They think it might just be something that happens sometimes in our family. They say that they’ve heard stories about how Mom’s great, great, great-uncle was a giant rabbit.”
“Cool, well it’s better than being little and almost blind.”
“I don’t know about that!” laughed Sam, thinking it would be much easier to hide if he wasn’t the biggest rabbit in the school, teachers included.
Melvin and Sam played together until the end of recess bell rang. Before they both headed back to their schools, Sam shyly asked Melvin, "Will I see you again?"
"Sure, on Monday. I'm busy this weekend with family stuff. See yah!" Melvin pushed up his thick glasses and started walking quickly down the path.
“See yah!”
Sam bounded back to the rabbit school and for the first time didn't even notice the other bunnies when they laughed at him for making the ground shake as he hopped toward them.
When his mother met him after school she was surprised to see a big smile on Sam's face.
"How was school?" she asked, waiting for him to say it was horrible as he had every other day that week.
"School was the same, but recess was great! I met a boy named Melvin and we are going to be friends!" Sam exclaimed in a rush.
Sam’s mother smiled. “I’m so happy for you! Is he in your class?”
“No, he goes to the school on the other side of the trees. He said that all sorts of different animals go to his school.”
Sam’s mother nodded. “Yes, he goes to public school, and there are lots of different kinds of animals that go there. You go to a private school that is only for bunnies.”
The smile faded from Sam’s face.
“I don’t really like bunnies,” he said.
Sam’s mother gave him a sympathetic hug.
“It’ll get better, my son. And in the meantime, you can play with Melvin at recess!”
The grin returned to Sam’s face.
“Yah, it’s going to be really nice having a friend.”