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Hello. My name is Riley. I'm 10 years old, I'm an Arctic fox, and I have some big news: I start 5th grade tomorrow. As for today? Well, today is my parent's 5th wedding anniversary so at least I have that to look forward to.

Where was I? Oh yes, 4th grade was a bummer; but 5th might be awesome. At least I won't have to go through it alone; Jo, my best friend, has the same teacher I'll have this year so that'll be great. Jo's a wolf with a pink ribbon in her hair. You may recognize her as the little girl who competed with her sister Ashley on the Amazing Race. Jo seems sweet, but she's as tough as nails. Seriously, one day someone came up to her and told her she looked bad with a ribbon. Jo punched her in the stomach so hard that she started to throw up. The other one, not Jo.

Anyways, Jo's really tough; but I'm kind of the opposite. I'm the smartest kid in my school. I have been for a long time. In kindergarten, teachers started to notice that my reading, writing, and math abilities were accelerating much more than the average 6 year old. They actually let me skip to first grade. Around that time, my science, and history knowledge grew vastly. They wanted me to go on to second grade but I didn't want to since I wanted the full first grade experience. Though they disapproved, they let me; but my brain didn't stop there, by the time I was in 4th grade, I was already reading Stephen King's Under the Dome at a fast pace. I was done with it around halfway through the year and I started it two months prior.

As for extracurricular stuff like art or music, I'm not the best at it. I mean, I can do simple sketches ok, but not good at big artwork. Jo, on the other hand, is really good at art. She never once got less than a 98 on an art project. At least that I know of. The art teacher, Ms. Cooper, hangs up Jo's work sometimes in the hallway, along with other students who do well on projects.

Speaking of Jo, every morning she comes to my house. However, she doesn't use the front door. Ever.

***

"What's up?" Jo asks. She shook me awake. I was in the middle of a good dream where it rained numbers for some reason. I don't understand my brain either.

"Jo, it's like 7 in the morning." I say, covering myself back up in my blanket.

"Yes and it's the last day of summer break. Tomorrow we'll be once again held back on freedom by the school." Jo says.

"I know. That's why I want to sleep in."

"But we only have one more day to enjoy life before we go back. I was thinking we could go to the arcade some."

"I can't. Today's my parent's wedding anniversary. They're gonna want me here."

"It's morning, Riley, you think they're going to be awake?"

"I don't know."

"Come on, two hours, you and me, arcade, let's go!"

"Fine." I say as I get up from bed. "Two hours and that's it, we come straight home."

"I understand." Jo goes up to me already opened window and gets out. She leaps off the ledge and lands perfectly the six or seven feet below to the ground. I'm not so good at jumping; but I can try. I slowly get out the window, close it, then jump off.

I land on the ground pretty hard. My back hurts a lot. I'm lucky we have a front lawn and not concrete out here. "Nice landing, Tripp." Jo says.

Tripp is my last name. At least, my adopted last name. I was adopted four years ago. My full legal name is Riley Allen McCarthy-Tripp. However, no one really uses the McCarthy part unless I'm filling out a form or something. Any other case, they use Tripp. My dad is the same case.

Jo helps me stand up. I look back at my house. It's two stories high, made of white bricks and has two stone pillars on the front porch. Two bushes surround either side of the front steps.

"Alright. Let's go." Jo says. We take like two steps before I hear the door open and a familiar voice.

"Going somewhere?" The voice says.

"Crap! It's my dad!" I whisper. We both turn around to see my father. Well, one of them. He's a fox, like me, except his fur is orange and for some reason his tail is dyed rainbow. I never asked him about it. He smirks at me as he just caught me red handed.

"How's it going, Todd?" Jo asks casually.

"Why do you always call us by our first names?" My other other dad comes into view. He's a silver grey wolf with some of his tail pink. They both walk down the steps and stop right in front of us.

"I've been suspecting you two have been sneaking around together." My dad (Todd) says.

"Sorry dad." I pin my ears down and look away.

"Riley, we know why you two have been sneaking around together." My other dad, Wendell, says.

"You do?" I ask.

"Of course," Todd says, "you two have been secretly dating." Me and Jo immediately look at each other and blush.

"I wouldn't say we're dating Mr. Tripp; but I can say we do hang out a lot." Jo says. Me and her have been best friends for four years. We've snuck around a whole lot; but we're not going out.

"I know. You guys have been inseparable since you were six." Todd says.

"Oh and like you guys weren't since you were nine?" I ask.

"That's different." Wendell says. He gets behind Todd and wraps his arms around him. "I love this fox." All of a sudden, he picks him up and cradles him in his arms.

"Put me down, Wendell!!" Todd playfully exclaims.

"No. I don't think I'm going to." Wendell says. "As for you two, get back inside. Besides, we want you here since it's our anniversary."

"Yes. And you know what today is too, right?" Todd asks.

"Yes. I do." I say. When Todd and Wendell celebrated their first wedding anniversary, they adopted me the same day. So today is technically also the fourth anniversary of my adoption.

We all go back into the house. The stairs are right in front of us. To the right is the TV room and to the left is the dining room/kitchen. Jo sits down at the dining room table like she always does: her feet propped up on another chair.

"So, where are you two gonna celebrate?" She asks.

"Right here." Todd says. "We've invited some family friends to come over."

"Can I invite one of my friends?" I ask.

"Of course you can." Wendell says.

"Sweet." I take out my iPhone and message Mike on Skype. Mike is another one of my good friends. He's a skunk with black fur everywhere and a white stripe that goes all around his body like it's trying to cut him in half. We became friends after we were paired for some project together and we've been hanging out since. Lately I've been noticing things about Mike. For example, every time we greet each other, he finds some excuse to hug me. Also, he blushes sometimes whenever I insist we hang out. The time when he almost accidentally kissed me is when I knew he had a crush on me.

I'm not gay, I'm straight; but I have no issues whatsoever of the LGBT community. In fact, I pretty much support it. You can tell with the rainbow button that I keep on my backpack, the amount of time I spend with my dads (quite a bit), and when people make fun of the way Mike is, I tell them to back off.

Jo, on the other hand, is not as close to Mike as I am, but she doesn't hate him.

A minute later, Mike messages me back: "Ok Sounds good :) See you then *hugs*". I roll my eyes and put the phone away.

"Mike's gonna come over." I say.

"Ok." Todd says.

"Who else is coming over?"

"Your cousin, Angie. Her husband, Bruno. Our good friends, Dexter and Tom. Also Tony's coming."

"Ah. Cool." I met Angie a few months after I was adopted. She was cool. I learned she keeps re dyeing her fur by the month. Bruno is ok I guess, though we didn't really hit it off. Todd has introduced me to Toby before. He seemed kind of... how do put it?... a party pooper. He doesn't really enjoy having a good time too much. He's mostly by himself all the time. As for Dexter and Tom, I only see them once a year on my dads' anniversaries. They seem cool; fun loving. Dexter once took me driving around on his truck. I think Wendell once mentioned that Tom used to own some camp in Utah. Nowadays, he's a swim coach for a middle school.

"So when should they be here?" I ask.

"In an hour I think." Wendell says. The doorbell rings and I say I'd get it. I get up and leave the dining room and open the front door.

"Hi, Riley!" Mike exclaims. What I forgot to mention is that Mike lives just down the street from me. That's another reason we became fast friends. Mike comes up and hugs me, like usual, and I hugs him back. "So, what's going on today?" He asks.

"Today's my parents' anniversary." I tell him.

"Really? Awwww that's sweet." I let him in and close the door.

"Thanks, Mike!" Todd yells from the other room. Do all parents have good hearing or something? We both walk into the dining room. Jo has a blown up balloon in paw.

"Where'd you get that?" I ask. She holds up a bag of unused balloons.

"I found it under the counter," Wendell says, "though it'd be perfect for the party."

"Good point." I say. "Except you shouldn't give Jo balloons."

"Why?" Wendell asks. Jo let's go of the balloon and as it deflates, it flies around the room. It eventually lands in the sink drain. Todd must've had the garbage disposal on when he started doing the dishes, because when it lands in there, small, shredded red pieces start flying out.

"That's why." I say. Jo just smirks as Todd gets covered in shredded balloons. When they stop flying, Wendell turns to us.

"Riley. Take your friends upstairs." He says in a calm, yet about to explode tone. I turn around and lead my friends upstairs. We walk into my room and I shut the door. My room is a bit small; but I don't mind. My bed is on the right side of the room. My closet is the niche on the left side of the room. The windows cover most of the wall opposite the door.

I sit on the bed and Jo sits on the floor. "Why must you always cause trouble with balloons?" I ask.

"I'm not sure." She says, evilly smirking. Mike lays down and rests his head on my lap, trying to seem cute. I guess it's kinda cute. I don't argue with it since there's no point.

"So what do you want to do until their party starts?" Mike asks.

"Not sure." I say, rubbing Mike's head a little. I only do these small gestures to make him happy. I'm not gonna be a cruel friend just because he's different than me.

"Maybe we could play some of your video games, Riley?" Jo suggests.

"Sure. They're under my bed." I have a stash of games underneath my bed. My television has one of those video-audio plug ins so I usually have a box of plug-in controllers that we frequently use.

"Let's play this." Jo pulls out the pac-man controller. Personally, I'm a big fan of pac-man; but mostly because it's very addicting.

"Sure." I say, taking the controller and plugging it into my TV. I turned it on and the logo showed on the screen. This is one of those controllers where there's more than one game on it. This has Pac-Man, Rally-X, Dig Dug, Galaxian, and Bosconian.

Jo turns on Pac-Man and starts playing that. She's very good at these kinds of games. Me? I do good enough to not suck so bad at things. I've never really seen Mike play video games. I have a few times but they happen so infrequently that I barely remember. Me and Mike sit next to Jo and, of course, Mike puts and arm around me.

Jo's pretty much running this game. Before we know it, she's on round 4 and she hasn't lost a single life. She even gets an extra life during which. She doesn't even lose a life until round 5.

Mike starts caressing my arm. Although I like it, I'm sure he's enjoying it more than I am. All of a sudden, he gets behind me and wraps his arms around me. "Mike. What're you doing?" I ask.

"Cuddling you." He says.

"Why?"

"Because I'm cuddly."

"Is it ok if you get off me?"

"Please? Just for a minute?"

"Fine. Only a couple minutes ok?"

"Yay!" He rests his head on my shoulder and slightly tightens his grip on me. As Jo loses her second life, Mike enjoys his holding me. I actually lose track of time since I'm so lost in Jo's gameplay. By the time she lost her third life, on round 8, I look at the clock and 12 minutes have past. I barely thought about Mike holding me. After another minute, he does let go of me.

"Damn it!!" Jo slams her fist on the floor after she loses her last life on level 11. "Oh well. Who's next?"

"I'll go." I say, taking the controller.

"You can do it Riley." Mike says. I hit start and try my best. I'll probably never be as good as Jo, yet I can do pretty good.

I lost my lives on rounds 2, 4, 7, and 8. I hand the controller over to Mike and he starts playing. I've got to admit, he is good, he usually almost beats Jo every time we play games together. However, no one can beat the queen of video games. After the games, I start to yawn and lie down on the floor. My friends join me. Well actually, Mike joins me. Jo goes on the play Rally-X. She did say she wanted to be a racecar driver.

I look over at Mike and notice he's wrapped his arms around himself. I can tell he wants to cuddle badly. I mean, it's not like he wants to kiss me; he just wants to cuddle. "Mike?" I ask. He looks over at me. "Come here." I open my arms for him. A smile grows across his face as he wraps his arms around me tight and buries his face in my chest. I gently rub his head as he enjoys the cuddle session.

After some time, Jo beats my high score in Rally-X and I think Mike's asleep.

"Riley! Jo! Mike!" Wendell yells up the stairs.

"What!?" Jo yells.

"Riley, your cousins are here!"

"Ok!" I yell. Jo turns off the game. Normally kids would be upset but let's face it, Jo will just beat her own high score later and before you know it, the world record. She gets up, opens the door and looks back at me.

"C'mon, Mike." I say.

"I'm tired." He sleepily says. "Carry me?" I roll my eyes and help him get on my back. I walk out of the room with a half-asleep skunk being carried by me.

"Thanks, Riley." Mike whispers.

"You're welcome, buddy." I say. We start to walk down the stairs. When we go into the dining room, I see my cousins sitting in the chairs.

Cousin Angie and cousin Bruno.