The Snuggle Bug
by George Glass
Summary: Miss Deer Teacher notices a strange outbreak of cuddliness among her pupils. But the cause of it is anything but cute.
- - -
It was Wednesday morning, and Miss Deer Teacher was sitting at her desk as the kids filed into the classroom. She was always happy to see their youthful energy as they chatted with one another and goofed around. Candle Fox, her goat friend Billiam, young hedgehog Trevor, and gray raccoon Reggie usually came in as a group, talking amongst themselves, and young squirrel Kiff and her bunny friend Barry always seemed to have something to say to each other.
There wasn't much chatting or goofing around this morning, though. The kids seemed oddly quiet. And some of them looked tired, even though it was the beginning of the day.
“Good morning, children!” Miss Deer Teacher said, standing up from her desk chair. “Let's start by taking attendance.”
As always, Miss Deer Teacher called each child's name. Every one of the kids responded with “Here.”
That's odd, she thought. Not one 'present' or 'yo' or 'ahoy.'
“It looks like we're all here,” Miss Deer Teacher concluded. “Now, let's open our math workbooks.”
Quietly, the kids opened their workbooks on their tablets.
“We'll start with problem one,” Miss Deer Teacher said. “Who has an idea how to solve it?”
The problem was relatively easy, so she figured she would see four or five hands go up right away. Instead, only one hand rose, and slowly.
“Yes, Kiff?”
“Um,” the little brown squirrel said, “I think you…divide the first part by the second part?”
“That's right.”
Getting through the next four problems was a slog. Miss Deer Teacher felt as though she were having to pry answers out of the children. This was strange, because by and large, they were enthusiastic learners. And while it wasn't unusual for one of her pupils to have an off day, she couldn't remember any previous occasion when they'd all been so subdued.
When Miss Deer Teacher looked up from her tablet to ask the children to solve the next problem, she was surprised to see that Kiff was no longer in her chair. Instead, the young squirrel was now sharing a chair with her table-mate, Barry. In addition, she and the blue rabbit-boy each had one arm around the other.
“Kiff, Barry,” Miss Deer Teacher said, “what are you doing?”
Kiff didn't seem prepared for the question. “I, um, I just feel…more focused, this way.”
“Me too,” Barry added quickly.
Miss Deer Teacher frowned. Kiff and Barry's behavior wasn't against the rules per se, but it was highly irregular, and potentially distracting to the other students.
She was about to tell Kiff to return to her own seat when, suddenly, Candle Fox got up and squeezed into Billiam's chair. The goat-boy quickly wrapped his arm around his fox friend and held her side to his, both of them looking oddly relieved.
“Now, Candle, Billiam,” Miss Deer Teacher said, raising a finger, “let's not-”
Snekole slithered over to Darryn and wound snugly around him. The young giraffe put both hands on the snake's coils and clutched them to him, as though Snekole were a scarf that was his long neck's only protection from an icy wind.
Before Miss Deer Teacher knew it, all of the other children were sharing chairs and holding one another.
She could scarcely believe her eyes. Were the children playing a practical joke on her en masse? Or was this one of those strange internet challenges that kids were doing these days?
“Aha!” Principal Secretary shouted, startling the children as he burst into the classroom with two of his burly assistants in tow. “This is the budget-slashing opportunity I've been looking for! Look at all those empty chairs. Boys, take them away!”
Before Miss Deer Teacher could say a word, the two big men stacked the empty chairs and lugged them out the door.
“This ought to get the superintendent off my back for a while,” Principal Secretary said. “Sharing chairs—great thinking, Miss Deer Teacher!” Then he strutted out the door.
This situation was getting stranger by the moment. But Miss Deer Teacher decided that for now, she would simply press forward. If this was a prank or an internet challenge, she wouldn't let it fluster her. But since the kids were clearly not at the top of their game with math today, perhaps it would be useful to switch gears.
“Well,” the woman said, collecting herself, “let's move on to our history lesson. Everyone, open your reading from last night.”
Miss Deer Teacher didn't know what reaction she was expecting from the children, but it certainly wasn't the one she got. Kiff's eyes went big. Barry swallowed. Candle and Billiam tightened their grip on each other. And Snekole turned a paler shade of green.
Why did they all look…frightened? Miss Deer Teacher wondered. Maybe they had all chosen not to do the reading and now were afraid of the consequences. She would find out soon enough.
“Let's go to the list of study questions at the end,” she said. “Trevor, why don't you answer the first one?”
The young hedgehog, who was holding onto his raccoon classmate, Reggie, stammered, “I- I'm sorry, Miss Deer Teacher. I didn't finish the reading.”
“Oh?” the doe replied. “Why is that?”
“I just…couldn't,” the boy answered, his pointy face downcast.
This, Miss Deer Teacher thought, was one of those times when it was very helpful to have a child in class who had a particular love of learning.
“Kiff,” she said, “why don't you read us the first question, and give us your answer?”
“Um, Miss Deer Teacher?” the squirrel replied, her level of enthusiasm far below the usual. “There weren't any questions at the end of the reading assignment.”
Miss Deer Teacher blinked.
“Well, that's not right,” she replied.
She picked up her tablet and scrolled to the day's reading assignment. She had been looking forward to starting their unit on the Great Rubber Boom of the Southern Continent, and the reading assignment was an introduction to that topic.
Or at least, it was supposed to be. What Miss Deer Teacher found instead was a twelfth-grade reading assignment on the largest battle of the First Acorn War. As she scanned through the first couple of pages, some of the descriptions of the conflict seemed quite graphic, even for high schoolers.
The children had fallen silent. But when Miss Deer Teacher looked up from her tablet, she saw Barry's hand in the air.
“Yes, Barry?”
“How…” the rabbit-boy began, “how could people do…those things…to other people?”
“With, with bullets?” Candle Fox said, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. “And knives? And fire?”
“Is it gonna happen again?” young warthog Renee asked shakily.
“Is it gonna happen here?” Reggie cried.
Hoping to stop the kids from spiraling further in their distress, Miss Deer Teacher said quickly,
“All right, everyone, please calm down. Let's all take a deep breath. In, then out”
Everyone took a deep breath and let it out. This was something Miss Deer Teacher taught every new class of students at the beginning of the year for occasions when they needed to calm down. The doe was starting to feel like a fool for not realizing earlier that this was exactly that sort of occasion.
“Now,” she said, “let's all come to the front of the classroom and make a circle on the floor. You can keep holding onto your friend if you want to.”
The kids all got up from their chairs, still holding one another. Then they sat down in a tight circle, each child's sides pressed against those of the children next to them.
“Good,” Miss Deer Teacher said.
Now it was her turn to take a deep breath and let it out.
“Children,” she said, “I'm very sorry I gave you the wrong reading assignment. But I'm also very proud of you. Because when you were scared, every one of you went to a friend for support. Not everybody thinks of doing that—sometimes not even grownups.”
She walked over to where Renee and Patty were sitting, pointed to the place where the warthog and chicken's sides were pressed together, and said, “May I sit between you?”
Seemingly glad for the opportunity to be close to their teacher, Patty and Renee quickly scootched aside and back to make room for her. Once she sat down, she noticed how they pressed their sides against hers.
“Children,” Miss Deer Teacher said gently, “do you remember what I said to you on our first day of school about why we study history?”
Tentatively, Candle raised her hand, and Miss Deer Teacher pointed to her.
“Um,” the little fox said, “so we can learn from what other people did?”
“That's right,” Miss Deer Teacher replied. “We study history so we can learn about what people in the past did right, and what they did wrong. Because understanding the past helps us make better decisions in the present.
“What happened during the Acorn War was horrible. But you can learn from what those people did, and when you're grown up, you can choose to do better. You can choose to be better.”
Miss Deer Teacher looked around at the children. They all seemed a little calmer now, although they continued to stay close to their friends.
“Why don't I read to you for a little while?” she said. “You've read about a time when people were at their worst. Let's hear about a time when they were at their best.”
The children listened as Miss Deer Teacher read to them about the first days of the Great Rubber Boom. Looking up from her tablet periodically, she saw the kids gradually loosen their hold on their friends as the tension faded from their faces.
After a while, Miss Deer Teacher glanced at the clock and put her tablet down.
“Well,” she said, “it looks like it's time for gym. Everyone line up, and we'll go down the hall.”
Kiff and Barry got up first. But instead of starting the line at the classroom door, they both threw their arms around their teacher.
“Thanks, Miss Deer Teacher,” Barry said.
“We feel a lot better now,” Kiff added.
“Of course, children, of course,” Miss Deer Teacher replied, patting them both on the head.
She led her pupils to the gymnasium and handed them off to the coach. Then she returned to the classroom.
Miss Deer Teacher was planning to go speak to Principal Secretary about getting her chairs back, but first, she very much wanted to figure out where that wrong reading assignment had come from. So she opened her tablet and went to her homework folder.
There among the files was a little green man with pointed ears. He looked groggy, like he'd only just awakened.
“Oh, man,” the computer gremlin said in his high-pitched voice as he put a hand to his forehead. “Where am I?” He glanced at the time at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and added, “Oh, boy, Helen's not gonna be happy. I've been dragging files all over the school network trying to bring her back her lost early draft of the script for Here Comes Helen.”
Miss Deer Teacher stood up sharply, then snatched up the tablet.
“She's going to have to call it Here LIES Helen,” she snarled, and stormed out the door.
