Zoo Trip

((Remember, this author has never been to the Denver Zoo, or has ever been to Colorado. Everything that is written is on either speculation or from the website www.denverzoo.org/default.asp ))
Damien rests his head down on his arms on his desk in the school, obviously sleeping, since the bit of drool and closed eyes easily indicate that. The teacher hasn’t shown up, and there is only fifteen minutes of class left. Everyone else in the classroom has either joined the demon prince in slumber or is causing mischief or doing homework. Only two students are currently doing work, Pip Pirrup and Wendy Testaburger, two of the smartest legal teens in their school, only outdone by the sleeping demon and also slumbering Kyle Broflovski.
The rest of the class is in a slight state of chaos, with the rest of the students acting out as if they were only four in a large playground and told to go nuts. They have gone nuts, desks overturned, foul words and crude drawings on the chalk board, spitballs sticking to the walls, loud screaming from the excited teens, everything is utter chaos. It’s a wonder how some are able to sleep through it at all.
The class is still early in the day, only the third one. The class is zoology, a course most took thinking they would get an easy ‘A’ for some unknown reason. A small portion of the students took the class because they enjoy animals and learning about them, students such as the majority of the girls. Damien would never admit it ever, but he did have a soft spot for animals, though if anyone asked he would say that he took the class to be in another class with Pip.
A loud banging noise, akin to a gunshot, erupts into the room and silences the rowdy teens. All eyes not closed lock onto the source of the noise. It came from the door being slammed open forcefully, somehow still on all the hinges and working fine. A very tall and stuffy woman with a hook nose not unlike a bird’s beak glares with intense green eyes at the students. Those who were holding something immediately drop it, such as Pip and Wendy dropping their pencils at the sight of the bone-chilling teacher.
The teacher is obviously new, since she slaps the ruler she was holding—very stereotypically, along with the black and uptight dress she wears—on Damien’s desk, which is the first next to the door. Damien awakes with a start, blinking drearily and wiping the bit of drool off with the back of his hand. Before he is able to retort to the teacher, she walks forward and away from him to the front of the room. Such a frightening sight she is, that she even manages to make all the kids turn the desks back over and everyone takes a seat, unless they were already one.
The teacher repeats the action she did to Damien’s desk on every other sleeping student, only stopping at the blackboard. She stares silently at it, so chillingly silent she makes even Damien slightly unnerved while simultaneously being curious about how she can be so terrifying. She picks up an eraser and quickly wipes all the chalk off the blackboard in quick fluid motions, stamping it down and raising a puff of white. Without a word, she picks up a piece of chalk and begins writing on the board, making the annoying and ear-piercing screech as she presses down too hard as she writes.
Some of the students cover their ears and twist their faces in pain from the noise; most of them just frown and watch her write. She finishes writing extremely slowly, to quickly turn around on her heels and stare at the students with a chilling glare. Most of the teens squirm under her gaze after her continuous three minute glare.
“As you may or may not be able to read, you are all going to a field trip tomorrow.” She says with a fittingly cold and better-than-thou voice.
All eyes glance at the board, reading that they did indeed have a field trip. She wrote the words ‘Zoo Field Trip’ on the board in large letters. Almost the entire class beam happily at the news that they will be going to the zoo, as only one student frowns.
“The trip will take the entire school day-“She is interrupted by children cheering and high-fiving each other, only to make it stop as she hits her ruler on the teacher desk so hard that a crack is made in the wood of the ruler, “And you will have to write an essay about it the day after.”
A chorus of groans and moans of disappointment is made in the room, making the teacher frown and hit the desk again. The crack in the wood of her ruler grows after she hit the desk, making a few splinters fly off. She glares silently for another few minutes, then continues,
“This trip is mandatory. Any of you under seventeen must get a parent’s signature. If you do not go on this trip, you will fail this semester. The same goes if you do not do the essay, and if you do it poorly. It is a seven-page essay minimum. You are all dismissed.”
As soon as she dismisses them, the bell for the end of the class sounds, making some superstitious children wonder if she was psychic. In reality, she had glanced at the clock and saw that the class was going to end in a few seconds. The students all walk out of the room in a very hurriedly, trying to get away from the creepy teacher as fast as they could.
During lunch, the chatter of the upcoming trip was all there seemed to be in the buzzing room. Apparently everyone in the entire 12th grade was going on the trip, not just the zoology class. Only a few of the kids who were not in that grade would talk about something else, seeing as how they were not going. Those who weren’t going were mostly talking about how jealous they were at not being able to go.
The zoo that they will be going to will be the Denver Zoo, since it is the closest to their town. A few of the students aren’t that ecstatic about going to the zoo, one of them being the Antichrist. His boyfriend prodded him about why the demon seemed so dejected about going to the zoo. Damien refused to talk about why he doesn’t want to go; instead he changed the subject to anything that he could think of. Through the entire day, even back at their shared home, the blonde could not get his lover to speak to him about the zoo.
Speaking about it would not be necessary, as he and every other student would find out the next day. They would learn why the fire-casting demon had never gone to a zoo since he was five, and they would learn it quickly and somewhat easily.
As the teachers all told their students, the trip would indeed take the entire day of school, all six hours. As soon as the buses that brought the kids to school dropped them off, they were immediately ushered into a bus for the trip. Those who drove or walked were also all but shepherd into the busses. They all quickly learned that the busses were separating them alphabetically by last name.
Much to the annoyance of many couples, they were forced to be separated, such as Stan and Kyle. Luckily for the entire staff, Damien and Pip were allowed on the same bus; otherwise the demon would’ve done something unnecessarily destructive. Damien has always had a very overprotective nature over anything he considers his possessions, and Pip has fallen into that category.
Sadly for the hellhound, Damien had thought it would be overkill to bring Lucy along on the trip to scare the animals. Pip was equally reluctant to make the loyal hellhound stay at home, but knew Damien was right. Even without knowing Damien’s true reluctance of the zoo, he guessed that animals were able to tell the difference between a dog and a hellhound, and that the latter was a being to be terrified of.
Philip had ridden on the bus in the same seat as Damien, sitting on the outside while Damien sat by the window. The entire ride, Damien silently stared outside the window and watched the scenery go by, Pip joined him in staring outside the window. It was either that or watch the chaos of the other teens as they nearly destroyed everything.
Damien had brought his MP3 player and shared one of the earphones with Pip, happily relieving some boredom of the trip. Pip was slightly surprised at the large variety of music the gothic-styled teen had on the music device, ranging from country to hip hop to metal and screamo, although rock seemed to take up the largest amount. Damien has always treasured music as one of the most important things in his life, going so far as to say that it’s tied with Pip and Lucy on how much he needs it in his life.
Damien puts his music player away in his pocket as the bus comes to a slow stop, already having seen that they are at the zoo. Pip stands as the rest of the students do to leave, only to stop and be forced to sit back down as Damien grabs his wrist and pulls him down. The two wait in silence for the children at the back of the bus to leave before they get up. They walk out of the bus and join the crowd of buzzing students and a few teachers.
The teachers instruct the children to split up into groups and follow a teacher around the zoo. The teens are allowed to join whatever group they wanted, to which most of the children cheer and rush around to find their friends. Seeing no better option, Damien and Pip joined a group with a teacher they both liked, a very kindly lady that always wore very nice dresses and always wore her long black hair in a ponytail. Most of the children who have her as a teacher all agree she would be much better suited as a kindergarten teacher, she didn’t deserve the horrors of South Park seniors.
“Alright, our group is going to go through the felines first. Everyone stay together, we don’t need everyone getting lost.” The kindly teacher tells her group as other groups begin walking away from the main entrance in different directions. If she wasn’t such a kind-hearted teacher, plenty of the teens would’ve harshly told her rude things about her comments.
The students pass around a folded up map of the zoo, everyone soon opening it to see where they are going, though some who have been here before already know. The feline exhibit is to the west from the main entrance, with a few exhibits around it. With another reminder to stick together, the teacher walks to the west, the students following her closely in a loose group. As they follow her, Pip hears Damien mumble something about making sure to stay away from the primates.
Inside the building, it was quickly obvious that it is not called the feline exhibit for nothing. In large cages all around, housing mostly large cats from all around the world, these felines laze about as the teens curiously or equally lazily observe. Most of these felines have outside exhibits, allowing them to roam about in realistic sorts of settings. There are Amur Leopards, Amur Tigers, Cheetahs, Jaguars, Servals, South African Lions, and Snow Leopards all either lazing around or roaming in their cages.
Some of the students who paid attention earlier read about each feline, a few taking notes about what they read. The group consists of Stan, Kyle, Wendy, Bebe, Craig, Tweek, Damien, and Pip. Most of them wonder how Stan and Kyle managed to ditch Kenny and Eric, but decided it wasn’t that important and focused on the animals. The star students, Kyle, Wendy and Pip, take notes on the cats, two of the three knowing that they will need to let their friends copy.
Usually, Damien would take notes if he needs to, but he doesn’t. He makes sure that he is as far away from the cages of the animals as he can be while still being near the group. The demon only glances at the animals before looking away and glancing everywhere he can. All of the other students notice, only one decides to voice everyone’s curiosity.
“What the hell’s wrong with you, Damien? You’ve been antsy since we walked in.” A nasally voice of Craig asks, giving his usual double-handed bird. Usually, the demon would be outraged at being talked to in such a manner, but Craig has always been one of the few people that the demon considers somewhat close to something like a friend.
Damien ignores being flipped off to stare warily at a tiger that has wandered right up to the glass that separates it’s habitat from the visitors. The demon and the large feline have a bit of a stare-down, before Damien tears his eyes away and looks at Craig with his usual stoic face.
“Animals don’t like me, especially predators.” Damien tells them in a monotone voice, placing his hands in his pockets.
As soon as he finishes his sentence, the tiger that had been staring at him roars loudly. The noise triggers the other felines to make either roars or the closest noise they are able to. Two other tigers from the exhibit all walk over to the glass, roaring and exposing fangs angrily.
All of the people in the exhibit start from the sudden onslaught of angry felines’ noise. The students and their teacher all stare warily at the tigers, while Damien keeps looking down. Still angered for seemingly no reason, the tiger takes a whack at the glass with its claws, making an odd noise. The other tigers copy the first one and begin attacking the glass, making scratches in it.
The people stare in fear as the scratches begin to get bigger and longer, the tigers still hacking away with their claws and roaring angrily. Damien, still the poster child of uncaring, stares at the tigers for a long moment. In quiet steps, he walks forward towards the tigers behind the glass, nearly sending the watching people into a heart attack. Plenty of the adults begin cautioning him, fearing for the gothic boy’s safety as he continues to get closer to the fierce felines.
Damien continues to stare blankly at the Amur tigers as they continue to relentlessly attack the glass while roaring. Damien crouches down to get eye-level with the tiger he had stared at earlier. The tigers all stop scratching at the glass, instead roaring ferociously at the teen while behind the slowly cracking glass. The demon pulls out his right hand from his pocket slowly, and equally as slowly places his hand palm-flat on the glass, directly in front of the ‘leader’ tiger.
The Amur tigers all stop roaring immediately, the rest of the felines do not fall into silence, instead continuing to roar and make other angry noises. The noises continue for only a short while, anyone who had any idea what was going on might have guessed that they fell into silence after noticing the tigers’ voices being absent. The tigers continue to snarl with their lips raised at the calm demon, only getting a calm stare from the ruby red eyes.
The watching humans are dumbstruck, to say the least, at the fascinating sight of the tigers’ sudden calm. The three tigers stare into Damien’s red eyes with their golden eyes, seemingly fascinated and hypnotized by the sight. A strange rippling and shimmering of the glass suddenly happens as Damien continues to keep his hand on it. Suddenly, the glass seems to evaporate, Damien’s hand reaching out and being placed on the orange furry forehead of the tiger.
Noticing that they are free, the other two tigers climb out from behind where the glass was, causing the adults in the room to scream bloody murder and hurry out of the building. One of the tigers, a smaller yellowish tiger, turns away from the demon that freed them. It faces the inner section of the exhibit, where the entrance from the main entrance is located. With a quiet growl, it begins walking in that direction, scaring more of the people who hadn’t seen the tigers’ escape.
The other tiger that walked out turns to glare at the group of children, making them jump and step back. While an endangered species, Amur Tigers are the largest of their species; this one is also no exception to that. The male tiger, a few of the students observe due to the tiger’s obvious large weight. The tiger turns to fully face the group of students, snarling and exposing the large claws.
Damien takes his hand off of the other tiger’s brow, pulling his hand down in a stroking motion, gently petting the tiger’s fur against the grain. The tiger watches Damien as he stands before stepping out and walking around the black clad teen. It walks around towards the group of students, making some of them screech and jump back.
The larger male tiger faces the other tiger, growling down at the tiger. The other tiger makes a small growling noise before taking a few steps back. Quickly it turns around and rushes past Damien, following the smaller tiger. The larger male growls happily before walking up to Damien, the tiger’s head comes up to around Damien’s chest. In a quick scan, Damien guesses the tiger to be 3’5” from feet to shoulders, and around 7ft long from nose to tail.
The tiger places his head flat on Damien’s chest, prompting the demon to kneel in front of it and stroke the feline’s neck and head with a smirk.
“You just said animals hate you. This is completely contradictory.” Pip informs the demon.
Damien looks up at the blonde with a smirk, continuing to pet the happy tiger. The rest of the group seems to have calmed down, since tigers out of their cage are not the scariest thing they have ever witnessed. The same cannot be said for the teacher, who had passed out sometime when the tigers first got loose. Now that the teens are calm, the girls quickly try to tend to their fallen teacher.
“I’m really not sure what I did. But it worked. Tiger fur is much softer than I thought.” Damien says as he stands.
The demon places his left hand in his pocket, the other on the male tiger’s head. He walks forward, the tiger quickly turning around and following him, keeping his head under the demon’s hand. After the two walk past the group, the rest of the guys all shrug—Tweek twitches and tugs at his hair frantically—and follow the demon and the tiger, leaving the two girls and the teacher. Wendy and Bebe yell angrily at the guys, continuing to try and wake their fallen teacher.
“I’m so going to try this with the wolves.” Damien says aloud to no one in particular, keeping one hand on the tiger’s head.
“Make sure they know you’re alpha.” Pip advises in an exhausted tone.
“Will do.” Damien tells him with a chuckle.