Kids can be cruel. Not enough people knew that.

Crystal's normally olive skin tone seemed devoid of color. A pile of dead frogs rubbing against her skin. Their slime secreted down her school uniform. The stench was like breathing in mucus. Azul opened the locker, discovering Crystal there frozen with her eyes wide in terror.

Crystal's orange hair was stuck together with frog slime. Several frogs jumped out at Azul's feet when she opened the locker. Frogs were bleeding dead around her feet, she had crushed a few when she was initially shoved in there, causing her to freeze in shock out of fear of squishing more.

Azul swallowed. She'd never met this girl before. All the knew was that they were both in the same fifth grade class. Azul's skin was completely blue, with sharp ears giving her the impression of being a salammander faunus. Unsure what to say, Azul asked, "hey, are you okay?"

Crystal took a step out of the locker. Her lips trembled and her body shock uncontrollably. Both girls noticed the vomit on her skirt. Incoherent noises came out of her mouth as her eyes finally began to burst out with water.

She dropped out from the locker. Azul caught her, and they both fell to the floor. Crystal cried and screamed as Azul held her tightly in her arms. Neither of them fully understood how she ended up in there, but at that moment, they both knew that they needed each other for a single moment.

XXX

Azul approached the playground determined to meet the perpetrators.

"Hey!" Azul yelled, "what the hell is wrong with you guys!?"

On the monkey bars, three kids twice her size looked down at her. All of them dropped down to meet with the blue-skinned girl. They were 13 years old, making them three years older than Azul and Crystal. Two of the boys had cat ears that were common among their school, but the biggest boy had lion's fur on his arms, matching his leadership role among the trio.

"What's wrong with us?" The leader asked, "what's wrong with you? Why'd you let her out? That bitch should've died in there."

Azul pounced at the boy, which was ironic, considering that she was an amphibian fauna trying to attack a lion fauna. This lion boy quickly dodged and pushed Azul on the ground. He stepped on her back to make sure she wouldn't rise back up.

"You hurt her!" Azul yelled from the ground. "She was nice, and you hurt her!"

"You think I fucking care that she's nice?" The boy growled, either out of instinct or out of grown habit. "Crystal is as bad as all those other flat heads. The only things they do is try to ruin life for the rest of us. They don't care about us, they only want to hurt us. Why the fuck shouldn't we hurt them back?"

The other two boys began kicking Azul while from the ground. They kicked at her face and ribs to prevent her from talking.

"And what the fuck is wrong with you?" The lion-boy continued. "You're a fauna, you're supposed to be on our side. You're supposed to hate flat-heads like her, instead, you came here pissed at us? What kind of fake fauna are you?"

"Maybe she's not even a fauna," one of his followers said. "We should rip her ears off, if she likes flat heads so much."

The lion boy began twisting at Azul's ears, "does that sound good to you, flat-head? Do you wanna be one of them?"

Azul screeched out in pain. As he twisted further, she began to wonder if it would bleed out. "No" Azul said, referring more to the pain.

The boy took his foot off of her, and his followers backed away. The lion-boy spoke to her again, looking directly into her eyes, "I want you to remember something. Flat-heads will always hate Fauna, and Fauna can only trust each other. People like Crystal hate us, even if its secretly. She deserved that because they're all the same. Remember that, they all hate us and can't be trusted no matter what. Never side with a Flat-head."

Azul grabbed at her ears, she was hearing a ringing from the boy's twisting. She didn't answer him, and was forced to lay on the dirt idly as the three bullies proudly walked away.

XXX

Five years later:

"Hello Shade academy!" Azul yelled raising up her blue arms up in pride. "We finally made it baby!"

Crystal followed behind her. She sighed as she adjusted her glasses, "why do I get the feeling you'll be spending more time fighting than studying?"

Azul smiled as she scratched her chin, "probably because you're right, four-eyes."

Crystal shook her head, "promise me you'll at least try to study now that you got accepted it here."

Azul stuck her tongue out at her friend. Crystal had been the primary reason as to why she decided to join Shade Academy. "No promises," Azul answered. She wrapped her arm around Crystal and the both of them walked to the academy entrance together, "now that we're here, maybe you'll find a nice nerdy boyfriend for yourself."

"You ship people too easily, you know that Azul?"