Much to Nick's alarm, his phone was ringing.

He was sitting at home in his bedroom, idly tossing a basketball at his ceiling for no reason other than he'd seen it in movies and thought it might be fun to pass time. Sadly, the movies made it look much cooler than it already was.

His father was home downstairs, and he was pretty much the only person who ever called Nick.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he checked the caller ID. It was a number from...Bunnyburrow? Probably a telemarketer. Still, messing with them would probably be more entertaining then what he was doing at the moment.

"Hello?" Nick asked, accepting the call and holding his phone to his ear.

"Hey, so, Ms. Hewkin said that she could totally squeeze you into her mixed chorus if you're willing to audition."

"What?!" Nick exclaimed, almost dropping his phone. The voice on the other line was a voice that was unfortunately familiar to him. He held the phone away from his ear and sighed, burying his head in his paws. "How in the hell..."

After a couple seconds, Nick held the phone back up to his ear. "How did you get my number?"

"I know a guy." Judy replied on the other line, Nick recognizing the smugness in her voice. "That's not important right now. So, I think you could totally get in if-"

"Not interested." Nick interrupted, lying back down on his bed and grabbing the basketball again. Maybe it'd be more fun to try tossing the basketball with one hand with his phone in the other. "Please don't call again."

"But-"

The bunny continued to speak, annoying Nick greatly. Distracted, he tossed the basketball into the air subconsciously, not being prepared to catch it and it hitting him straight in the nuzzle.

"Ow!" Nick exclaimed, holding his nuzzle and moaning in pain.

"Are you alright?" Judy asked. "That didn't sound good. I have a first aid kit-"

"No! Why do you keep trying to help me? It's not natural for a bunny to care so much about a fox! Stop being weird!"

"I-"

Click.

His nuzzle still sore, Nick realized after hanging up that maybe he had been too hard on Judy. If this didn't stop hurting soon, he'd really need a first aid kit.

Going into his phone again, he opened his rather bare contacts list, added the rabbit's number, and assigned a random song to it before burying his head in his pillow.

"It's peanut butter jelly time!"

Nick was abruptly startled from his sleep by his phone, yet again.

"What the hell?!" Nick exclaimed, looking at his phone. He'd only been asleep for about an hour - it felt like longer. His phone volume was much louder than before he'd went to sleep - he must've pressed something in his sleep.

Also, Judy was calling him again.

Note to self: Check what ringtone you're assigning someone before hitting "Okay.", Nick thought to himself before picking up the phone.

"What could it possibly be this time?" Nick snapped.

"What's the best ice cream you've ever had?" Judy asked on the other line. From the sound of her surroundings, she seemed to be in a busy area.

Nick chuckled. "What is this, a poll?"

"Just answer the question."

"Well, I'd have to say...oh, yeah! My mom got me this blueberry cheesecake ice cream that was super expensive for my birthday one year. It had actual cheesecake pieces in it and stuff."

"Alrighty."

"Now will you tell me why-"

Nick was unable to finish this sentence, as this time the bunny had hung up on him.

"Was that supposed to be payback?" Nick thought out loud, sighing and turning his phone off.

The next day at school was the same old, same old for Nick. He actually went into the barren music room again, and much to his surprise Judy didn't come in and start bothering him (at least that he knew of - she could've been spying on him somewhere).

Everything seemed normal, until when closing his locker to go home, his space was suddenly violated by the feel of a cold, creamy, delicious spoonful of something in his mouth.

Lost in bliss for a second, he was snapped back to reality as his eyes realized who had shoved the substance into his mouth.

"Judy!" Nick exclaimed. "What in the world...?"

"Good, huh?" Judy questioned, hands on her hips.

"Well, yeah, whatever it was..." Nick began, before the events of last night came to him. "Oh my god. How...? Why...?"

Judy opened her bag, revealing her lunchbox. In the top compartment, there was a pint of ice cream labeled "Extremely Blueberry - REAL Cheesecake Pieces! Jen and Berry's" , surrounded by an ice pack and some additional ice presumably to keep it from melting.

"It's yours if you come with me." Judy said, grabbing the fox's hand.

"Oh, uh, okay." Nick replied.

"Great!"

Before Nick knew it, they were taking off to places unknown. In a matter of seconds, they had went from the junior hallways down to the music room. Man, she was fast.

Wait...the music room., Nick thought to himself, his confusion turning to alarm. Son of a...

"Bye!" Nick exclaimed, trying to let go of the rabbit before they met the doors. It was no use, as she only grabbed onto his hand tighter, and gave him sort of a puppy-dog-eyes look. She gestured to the ice cream.

"You really don't want this then?" Judy questioned.

"Fine." Nick replied fiercely, entering the music room with Judy behind him.

Looking up, he saw that it wasn't just the two of them in the room. In front of them was a familiar zebra, clad in a blue dress. He had seen her in the hallways before. She must have been the high school music teacher, Ms. Hewkin.

"Is this the boy you've been talking about?" Ms. Hewkin asked Judy, smiling.

"Yes, it is." Judy replied, smiling back at her teacher.

Nick gave a nervous smile to the music teacher, shaking her hand.

"Well, Nick, there's no time to waste." Ms. Hewkin said, reaching into a folder she had in her right hand. "My friend here tells me you've got a great voice."

"One could say that." Nick replied.

Pulling three little booklets out of her folder, she sat them in front of Nick on a table. He recognized them as music pieces.

"These are the choices for your audition." Ms. Hewkin stated. "However, I will warn you that one is significantly harder than the others-"

Nick picked a piece up, indicating what he wanted. Ms. Hewkin's jaw dropped for a second, before she forced it closed again.

"Um...are you sure?" Ms. Hewkin asked. "That's the one I was going to tell you was harder than the others."

The piece in question was entitled Gaudete, a piece that Nick had practiced alone in the music room before. He knew that he could get further through it without losing his hearing for some reason.

"Yes, I'm sure." Nick stated.

"Alright then." Ms. Hewkin said, giving Nick a second to open his music as she went over to her computer. Her computer began to play an instrumental, presumably the one for Gaudete. Clearing his throat, within a few seconds Nick was singing again.

"Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus..."

Ms. Hewkin did a double take, looking at Nick in alarm in the same way Judy had that fateful day. They both were smiling at him, completely amazed at the power of his voice. This was a song usually sang by a full choir, but Nick's voice had the power of some entire choirs the teacher had taught before.

"Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!"

While the females in the room were ecstatic, Nick began to feel sick to his stomach. He knew what was coming. No matter what, he couldn't stop it from happening. Even if he was enjoying singing at the moment, he was going to end up blowing the audition.

"Gaudete, gaudete; gaudete, gaudete...gaudete, oh, gaudete..."

"That's enough." Ms. Hewkin stated, surprising Nick by stopping the instrumental. He exhaled. "I just...wow. Why haven't you...wow."

"So I'm presuming he's in?" Judy questioned, touching Nick's shoulder and smiling.

"Yes!" Ms. Hewkin exclaimed. "See you tomorrow!"

"Thank you." Nick stated, trying his best to hold himself together. The feeling in his stomach was only getting stronger.

"No, thank you." Ms. Hewkin replied, winking at him as the two of them walked out of the music room.

Once the doors were closed, Judy let out a yelp of glee.

"That was great!" Judy stated, patting Nick on the back. "I knew she'd love it. And you made it through the beginning part fine; maybe-"

Judy was unable to finish her sentence, as she looked at the fox and saw all the color had drained from his face. The fox was bolting at the speed of light, even faster than Judy had before taking him to the music room.

She chased after him. He entered a gender-neutral restroom and ran to one of the stalls. Judy stood outside of it as she heard the sound of retching, cringing as she heard him moan in agony.

Nick opened the stall, a furious expression on his face. "Do you see what happens? It's even worse when people are watching! But no, try to bribe me into something that I physically can't do!"

"Nick..." Judy tried to interrupt, her tone of voice sounding hurt.

"No, let me finish. I know what you thought. You thought you were going to be some great hero, bringing me back to my passion just with the snap of your fingers. You thought I was being dramatic, didn't you? Well, now you've seen first hand. So thank you, Judy. Thank you for the ice cream, because I need to replenish myself after vomiting up everything I've eaten today into the toilet bowl."

A tear fell from Judy's eye as she looked down at the floor. Opening her bag, she shoved the ice cream at him before running out of the bathroom. He heard her gasp for air, probably trying her best not to break down in front of him.

As soon as she ran out, Nick began to intensely feel a sensation of guilt.

A/N: Song is "Gaudete", originally published in "Piae Cantiones" (public domain).

Also, I must make a correction: last chapter I stated in the A/N that "Hallelujah" was by Jeff Buckley. This was incorrect - the original recording was by Leonard Cohen.

As usual, R&R highly appreciated. :)