Rascilly Rabbit!

• Ethan Matthews, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2009

It happened to quickly, one minute it was there, and the next it wasn’t. That is, the class rabbit. I left it just for a second, and when I came back the latch was undone. You see, it was my turn to look after the rabbit, whom I hated (one time it bit my hand), and after school something had happened. I didn’t know what, though…

“Hey, Pete! Come quick!” that is my best bud, Nick. I put the rabbit down on a nearby bench and wove my way through the hall.
Of course, when I’d got there, that certain thing had finished. Nick never told me what happened, because he kept on saying how I should’ve been there, it was so cool. I walked back to the bench where I left the rabbit, and Nick followed me.
When I was back at the bench, I was horrified to see that the rabbit was gone. The cage’s latch was undone.
“Whoa, man. You’s in big trouble there, mate,” Nick looked inside the tiny plastic house filled with sawdust. The rabbit wasn’t in there; I had looked in the same place a few moments before.
I heard some footsteps on the polished gym flooring. The bench was just outside the door, and so I panicked. I put my empty bag on the top of the cage, and leant over it, hoping to protect it from prying eyes. As the footsteps got closer, I heard snickering and snorting.
Only people who do that, I assumed, are Jeff and Mathew.
The two lumbering giants stepped out onto the pavement. They gave us a glance, and wandered over. As they neared the place at the end of the bench, I could smell the sweat and gel that coated the boys’ heads.
“Hey, Feat, have I given you your daily dunking yet?” Mathew laughed at what he thought was a good name for me.
Me, I shivered. The ‘dunking of the head in the toilet’ has been a daily ritual.
Jeff noticed the cage, and said: “Whacha got there, Pete?”
“Just the class rabbit,” I replied.
“There’s no rabbit in there.” Dang, he’d noticed. “Hey, have you lost the rabbit? Ha! You’s gonna be in deep trouble.”
“I know.”
“You mean this rabbit?” Mathew held up the stupid rabbit in his hand. “Do you want it?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Feat wants his rabbit back! Do you think we oughta give it to him?” Mathew looked at the other giant and smirked.
“Yeah, why not?”
They grabbed me, pulled my belt so tight I couldn’t breathe, turned me upside down and put the rabbit in my trouser leg.
The rabbit went psycho. It started biting me in places I’m not allowed to say.
I walked home that day, flung the rabbit on the table, and went to bed.