Neighbor Relations (Zootopia)

Rough day.  Not all days will be like this.

	Judy Hopps dropped her keys and phone on the desk.  The grey bunny ran her hand over her ears as they bent back and stayed down.  She sighed and opened the fridge, grabbing a carrot juice, cracking the seal, and taking a sip.  She pulled off her vest, dropping it on the floor, and then sitting down on her bed and flopping back.

	She was the first rabbit officer to graduate the police academy in Zootopia.  That was quite an accomplishment, but so far she had done nothing to test her skills.  She was on parking duty, with no real drive to continue.  She had been outsmarted by a sly fox and overall felt pretty pathetic and worthless.  She wanted to be so much more, but today took it's toll.

	She closed her eyes.  The sound of the city bustling outside her window and the slow whir of the ceiling fan above her.  She laid there, silent.

	Suddenly her nose twitched, her right nostril flared, and a tickly burning sensation teased her sinuses.  She sniffed, then squeezed her eyes shut as she realized the irritant just went deeper into her nose.  She opened her eyes and ran her finger under her nose, sniffling once again.  But the sensation grew.  She got up and went to her restroom pulling some toilet tissue from the hanger.  She wound up a small wad and neatly folded it before placing her pink nose to it.  She lightly blew, but it did nothing to quell the tickling sensation in her nose.  She let out a soft sigh before blowing a bit harder.  Nothing.

	“Would you keep it down in there?”

	Judy's eyes widened as she heard her neighbors yell at her through the paper thin apartment walls.  She couldn't believe they heard her.  She didn't know if she should answer back or not, but instead rubbed the tissue to her nose and blew ever so lightly.

	The tickling didn't stop, but it wasn't horrible.  She could live with it a little bit.

	Five minutes had passed, the tickling didn't stop, and Judy's eyes began to burn red.  She could not believe the tickle hadn't gone away.  She figured it was from the dust being swirled around by the ceiling fan, but it was far too warm in her room to turn it off.  She thought of opening the window, but it was too loud outside, even at night.

	She figured she would blow once really hard, and her nose would be clear and she could enjoy what was left of her evening.  Using the same tissue as before, she placed it to her ticklish bunny nose, and gave a great big blow.  A rush of air blew through her nasal cavity and she looked to see if the culprit had been caught.  Nothing, and the tickle still singed.  But this time, the tickle made it known it didn't like being treated as so and it began to tickle like never before.  The insides of her nose throbbed in a tickling fashion.  Judy's breath hitched as she felt a sneeze coming on, but it was a false alarm, she calmed down.

	The tickle quickly reared it's ugly burn again.  Judy cringed as the tickling continued, and she was sure she needed to sneeze.  Her chest began to puff outward as she pulled air in.  Her mouth opened and her eyes closed shut.  She quickly cupped her paws and sneezed hard into them in a muffled sound.

	“Eeiiiissttchhhhhhhhhppmmm!!”

	“Bless you.”

	Judy blushed as she heard one of her neighbors say that from one of the rooms around her.

	“Yeah, yeah, bless you, but keep it quiet!”  Another voice said in a more impatient tone.

	Judy feverishly rubbed her nose with the tissue as she tried to quell the next sneeze from arising, but it seemed to have no effect.  She hitched as her eyes began to water over.  She pressed the tissue to her nose as she got up and ran for the window.  With her one open hand she scrambled to unlock the window and open it.  She pushed it open just in time as she let out a second sneeze into her tissue.

	“Eeeessshhhppphhmmfft!”

	She reared her head up as her eyes squeezed shut for another sneeze.  Her nose continued to tickle.  In a quick spur of the moment decision, Judy removed the tissue from her nose and sneezed openly into the city air outside her window.

	“Ahhheeescchhoooo!”

	Her head bounced as it slowly came to a stop.  Her sneeze misted and dissipated into the night sky.  She paused a moment as she opened her eyes.  Before her, city light beamed, flashed, and glowed.  The sound of cars honking, movement, city life, and a siren far off in the distance.

	Her nose felt better.  Maybe she just needed to let out a sneeze?  She curled her finger and rubbed it deeply into her right nostril before pulled her head back into her room.  She began to grow a smile, feeling accomplished.  To think, a sneeze was what she felt the most accomplished with for an entire day.  But sadly, that feeling of accomplishment quickly faded as the tickle returned, and this time, it seemed mad.

	Judy quickly rubbed her finger deep into her right nostril right again.  He nose sniffled and wrinkled under the tension of such abuse.  It began to turn the pink color into a rose color, as her nostrils began to flare.  There was no sugar coating it, she needed to sneeze, and sneeze bad.

	She really didn't want to sneeze, because he neighbors would call her out, and that was very embarrassing.  She wanted to be a good neighbor, and a quiet neighbor.  Bunnies are quiet after all.

	She began to make her way to the bathroom to grab more tissues, but she wasn't going to stop this first sneeze, so she braced to hold it in. Both her paws covered her nose and mouth as she fired off a semi-stifled sneeze.

	“Aaaahhhssscccppphhmmmmm!”

	Her nose twitched and was running a million miles a minute as the tickling continued and she needed to sneeze again almost immediately.

	She clasped her paws together, interlocking them together, and covered her nose and mouth once again, sneeze three times.  The third sneeze was the most powerful, so much so, she almost let it go completely.  She knew this stifling wasn't good, and it was going to lead to a big rush eventually.  Still no word from her neighbors, but she had to sneeze some more.  This time she lifted her arm up and sneezed into it.  It wasn't as powerful, mostly stifled, but she needed to find something better to mask her sneezes from her neighbors.

	Her eyes quickly scanned her room when the locked on to her pillow.  She dove onto her bed, belly first, and pulled out her pillow before letting another open ended sneeze right into her pillow.  She couldn't stifle this one, but thankfully, it was muffled.

	Judy's ear popped up as she heard minor rustled from her neighbors.  She could hear mumbling.  Were they talking about her?  Were they wondering who was sneezing so much?

	She lowered her pillow, but realized it was a mistake as the sneezing immediately came back.

	“Ahhhhhhehhh....” She pressed her face into her pillow and let out two strong sneezes.”

	Judy this time kept her face pressed to her pillow.  The fabric was wet clinging to her fur.  She pulled back from the pillow and looks at the wet spray that had splattered all over he pillow. Her eyebrows lowered as she grimaced and stuck out her tongue in a comical way.

	“We can still hear you in there!  I'm gonna call the landlord if you don't shut it!”

	“Oh calm down!  It's no louder then you.”

	All of a sudden, voices from all the rooms around Judy began arguing.  Her pupils shrunk as she listened, but this was it, this was the time to sneeze out everything she needed to sneeze out.  Judy thumbed her nose up and sniffed in very deeply.  It felt as if a feather began dancing inside her nose.  It almost made her want to giggle, but it really just triggered her urge to sneeze even more.

	Her ears became limp as they flopped down, both her nostrils widened and shrunk in a rapid rate, and she hitched her breath in almost a pattern rate.  The arguing continued amongst her neighbors, but she didn't care, them moment was right, the moment was now.

	“Eeiiieetttchhhoooo!  Eeeeesscchooooo!  Huh huh huh hyyyhhhhh . . . AATTTSSCCHHEEWW!”  Ahhhttcchooo!!!

	But still, the neighbors yelled, and still her nose burned.  Her nose continued to twitch as all her sneezes led up to this pinnacle sneeze.  A sneeze even big for a lion.

	“Ahhhhhhhhhh HHHEEEEEETTTCCCHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”

	Both her feet hopped off the ground as she bent forward, arms out, butt sticking out.

	It was done.  She blinked wildly as she began to make sense of her surroundings again.  The arguing had stopped, it was silent.  She slowly looked around, as if waiting for a response.  Finally...

	“Bless you,” came a voice, “very sorry for you being such a sneezer.”

	“That wasn't nice, what he meant to say was sorry, err, bless you.”
	“I meant what I said!”

	And another voice chimed in, “Bless you, dear.  Not like a deer, oh, well, you know what I mean.”

	From the room above she heard someone call down, “That was impressive.  Bless you there!”

	And from the room below, there was a thumping and a yelp. “Hooey!  That was amazing!”

	Judy sat in silence.  She wasn't sure if she should response, or keep the identity of the sneezing neighbor, secret.  But she decided to respond.

	“Uh, thanks.”

	That was it, and then it was silent again.  The sound of the ceiling fan, the traffic outside, the light rustle of neighbors.

	Judy sat down again on her bed, the springs squeaking.  She looked up at the ceiling fan, and pulled the cord to shut if off.  She looked out the window.

	It was going to be a weird adventure, this city life was.