(Sorry everyone, this one's a little-lot longer! Let me know if you PREFER THIS LENGTH and I'll adjust for the future!)

"Hector, look at our handsome little man! Oh, he's so precious." A beautiful crocodile adjusted the glasses on her young son's face.

"He sure looks ready for his first day of fourth grade. Just a hop, skip, and a jump away from college, eh chap?" The gator rubbed his son's head, proud. "Okay baby, what are the rules?"

Little Tyrone rocked on his heels. His smile was huge. His parents stood by his side in adoration. "Stay by the windows 'cause of the suns's's hotness. Don't bite people I'm mad at. Smile at the herpes-hippies-hippos- the plant-eaters." He smiled proudly. He knew the rules. He was a good boy.

His father looked like he'd break down in laughter any second. His mother adjusted her dainty blue dress, and kissed the top of his head. "That's 'herbivores', honey. You'll get it someday."

"Mommy and daddy love you, Tyrone!" Their heads and voices drew toward him in unison. Their fangs flashed, and the room went black. Then they were smothered in blood. "Forever and ever!"

"Eee!" Tyrone screamed. He turned tail, quick as a whipe, and sprinted in the other direction. At some point, the nothingness beneath his claws turned into a road. He tripped over nothing. With a sniff and a groan. He stood. He looked behind him. There was nobody there. "Mommy? Daddy? Where'd you..."

"Tyrone, late again. Come on, get to the front with your presentation." An eagle pushed him along. She was displeased. Whenever she looked at him, she wore a scowl. "Present! Now! You're the most dangerous thing in this class, Tyrone. Don't be so scared!" He was the most dangerous? Even more than her, a full-grown carnivore? He was just a hatchling.

He stared out at the crowd. The shapes of the animals in front of him bounced up and down in black and white. Children were so harsh. Children were impossible. They always had been.

In white, the herbivores never ceased their judgement. "What icky scales!" One girl bleated. "He looks scary." A boy muttered beneath his breath. "My daddys says scales are poison!" Cried another. "He's ugly with no fur. Where's his fur?" Some shaggy creature he couldn't make out groaned. "Too many teeth!" "He's going to bite me!" "Reptiles are heartless!" "Reptiles can't feel love." "My mommy says all meat eaters are evil."

Tyrone had to blot them out. They deafened him. He ran toward the bouncing black blobs. Their fangs and claws offered no comfort. They formed a crowd around him, each comment worse than the last. "Four eyes." A simple blow because of his glasses. It would affect any young child, though. "Hybrids are evil!" That was a stretch too far, wasn't it? "His mommy and daddy are different." Who cared about that? He loved them both! "Half breed!" "Ugly reptile." "Halfie." "Grandpa says reptiles are why the plant-eaters hate us." The hatred spilled from the carnivore children was just as wicked as that from the herbivores. He had no friends. No solace from this torment.

He had to go over the rules. "Don't bite." Not even when the black and white blobs united to beat him bloody and break his glasses. At least the other students got friends through him. "Smile!" He scared a filly into the counselor's office when he did. "I'm a good boy!" He never even got the window seat.

"Hey, uh, can I sit here?" An anxious voice filled the voice. Tyrone chewed his sandwich. He was taller. He was still young. He grinned politely at the strange-looking lizard beside him.

"Oh, hey!" This new boy had a pretty cool accent, too. "You're the new kid, right? Welcome to middle school!" His words echoed, but only to him.

"Yeah, I moved here from Brazil." The kid was shy, or something. His voice was quiet. He set his bag down. He nervously sat beside Tyrone, but didn't look at him. Was he afraid of his teeth? That was normal.

"Really? That's so sweet! So you're foreign exchange? Your English is really good!" The hybrid wanted to make best of the situation. He'd sat alone for years. "So uh, what's the matter?" He finished his sandwich. He loved the way his grandmother made them. "May as well spit it out. It's because I'm weird-looking, right? I guess you probably knew some caiman at least in Brazil though, right?"

The lizard locked eyes with Tyrone. For a moment, he was worried this new student would spew fire at him. He looked like a dragon mixed with a gecko! "U-uh, it's the animals here, are, they are judgy. Of scales. There's much many diversity, but so little understand." The lizard held his claws over his purple muzzle, and sighed into his palms. The distress in his sweet blue eyes showed he wasn't used to an environment like this. Tyrone found himself jealous. But he pushed it down. He had to be here to help this new kid, now that he'd been thrust into this society of hatred and blood-spills.

"My grandma says you get used to it as a reptile." He offered his condolences in a toothless smile. "She told me a legend about it being why we're cold-blooded. So we don't burn up when the world gets heated for us."

"Really?" The lizard finally smiled. His voice finally raised to talking volume. "That's pretty cool! I sorry about soon. About before. About early. Earl-er." The new student struggled. He'd get the language sooner or later. "I was talked that might you bite me. But they look very mad, so I think might you not bite me." The lizard's face grew warm in embarrassment. The thing with reptiles was that it was very easy to see them blush, compared to other animals. This lizard already had to red streaks on his face, though. They looked like they could be war paint.

"Then, why did you sit here?" Tyrone didn't understand the logic there. He bet it was that stupid group who always picked on him. The giraffe, the zebra, the lioness- they would even convince another reptile that he was dangerous, just so that he couldn't get any friends.

"You sit here alone. And I see nobody pay you mind. I dice roll." The lizard nervously grinned.

That amazed Tyrone. "You rolled the dice? Because I was alone?" He muttered, eyes wide at his claws. That was the greatest thing he'd ever heard from someone his age. Someone who'd been willing to take a chance on him. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.

"You'll be glad to hear that I'm even less violent than most of them. They're just bullies. As long as you ignore them, you'll be fine. I try my best not to let them get to me. You should, too." He rested his head on his palm. He didn't want to be the one who crushed this lizard's spirit, but at the same time, it'd be worse if a bunch of bullies suddenly started to pick on him.

"Not just that, but your eyes. They scared me. They very thin." The lizard squeezed his claws together for emphasis.

Tyrone snickered. It was an indignant sound. He wasn't pleased. "Yeah. Glasses are expensive. They break easily when you're pushed around a lot. Grandma says I probably won't have glasses 'til high school. She's trying to save up, though." He traced a claw along the tabletop. "I'm half-blind without them."

"Good me, I happy I see. I hate thought of lost eyes!" The lizard got his point across. It was reasonable. Nobody wanted to lose their vision. "Maybe we sho- han- out- togeth-" The lizard's voice faded away. Tyrone watched as his face melted before him, like acid swallowed him whole. He faded into the black.

Tyrone stared into the void. A noise pounded behind him. He stole a glimpse of the scalpel in his hand. The noise grew loud. "Now what?" He growled, his grown voice now in effect. "Grandma? Jerome? Jay? Who's knocking at the door?" He stared down at the table before him. "My hide trade?" He grumbled. The dead animal on the table had her torso opened. Everything inside of her had been removed and poured into a bucket for later. "I never cleared out a horse. Not since I was arres-"

The door behind him flew open. Heads floated in. An impala, a dog, both whom he recognized from his teenage years. "We have a warrant! Claws in the air! Police!" The last thing he saw was the detached headies fly toward him at full speed.

"Not again!" He finally shot up in the bed. He panted. His sweat covered his body, and drenched the bed. He could only hope nobody could smell it. The air was heavy. It choked him. He coughed into his claws, before he folded over himself. His grabbed his snout, because it hurt when his large teeth chattered on his mouth. "I'm here now. Not my parents. Not the bullies. Not the cops. Not- nevermind, don't care that Jay's here." He dropped nonchalantly in the bed.There was no way he would allow memories and a lack of reality to destroy him. Not when he'd made it as far as he had. "I'm going back to sleep."