A young woman in her mid twenties stepped out back of “Teen Scene” to have a smoke. Hearing rustling inside the large green garbage can, she stopped in her tracks.

“Who’s in there?” the young woman demanded, “Come out of there right now!”

More thumping around could be heard from the can, but nobody came out.

“God damn it, I hope it’s not some armed robber,” the woman muttered to herself as she slowly crept towards the can.

Out popped a ring-tailed raccoon carrying a white dress with pink polka-dots that the young woman threw away only an hour ago.

“Jesus!” the woman shouted, startled as she watched the little creature. “I thought it was just goats that’d eat anything.”

The raccoon stopped at the end of the alleyway and turned back to look at the woman as if to apologize for scaring her.

A thoughtful smile crossed her features. She flicked her cigarette aside and rushed back inside, quickly grabbing the small, brown paper bag she’d left on a small counter in the back. She hurried back outside, looking around for the creature.

Not immediately seeing it, she opened the brown paper bag, retrieving her half-eaten homemade six inch ham, cheese, and turkey sub, flattening the bag, and setting the sandwich on the ground on top of the bag, next to the trash can. She turned to step back inside.

Arric came back to the alleyway sniffing food, the dress she had just pilfered hidden away, thinking to herself, “She wasn’t half bad. Why did my parents always say humans were evil?”

The woman slowly, cautiously opened the door just enough to roll a small apple out into the alley, causing it to stop with a very light thud against the trash can, next to the abandoned sandwich. She giggled to herself. “In for a penny, Mom always said,” she added, closing the door behind her as she went back inside to return to work.

Arric stopped as soon as the apple thudded against the can, looking around to see what that was, then proceeded to the brown bag once she determined nobody was going to harm her. After sometime Arric wandered back to her little fort she had built big enough for herself in her new human form if she wanted.

Later that day Arric wandered back to the store where the human fed her. She watched the store and seen the woman get in a car, Arric knew what those where because it was what killed her parents. Deciding to follow the car home Arric stayed off to the side of the road hoping to be safe.

The car made a turn down a road that seemed to lead out of town a bit. In order for Arric to cross the road she had to make her way through the drainage pipe, getting herself all dirty and mucked up. Gah, she hated crossing under roads! She caught scent of the car and continued to follow it. Arric arrived at the woman’s house, a medium two-story with slightly aged siding and a large yard, shortly after she got out of her car and into it.

The raccoon raced across the grass and up the large stone stairs to the covered porch, scratching at the front door. Darcy opened the door cautiously, looking around as Arric raced past her feet and inside, leaving little muddy raccoon prints behind her.

"Oh God, are you the same raccoon from earlier? You smell, sweetie. I think you need a bath." Darcy grabbed her nose to plug it and cautiously reached down to pick up the raccoon. "I hope the hell you don't bite or have rabies."

Arric squirmed a little but for the most part didn’t resist or bite the nice woman. She figured what the heck, she fed her, so she couldn’t be half bad at all.

“I must be out of my mind,” she sighed, staring at the wiggly bundle of fur as she carried her upstairs. The house was quite large for a lone human to be living there, but there were no signs - or scents - of anyone else living there either. She carried Arric all the way to the back master bedroom and into a spacious bathroom decorated in soft pastel colors - rather a stark contrast to the Teen Scene decor.

“Alright, you,” she instructed as she set the creature on the white tile floor. “Just um... stay?” She giggled to herself. “I couldn’t even get my dog to stay when I was a kid. I doubt you’ll listen either.” She stood and bent down to start some warm water while she stepped into the next room to boot up her computer.

Arric stood there waiting for Darcy to return like she asked her to.

“Dawn dishwashing liquid,” she commented to herself from the next room. “Well, okay then.” She raced downstairs to retrieve the soap, and returning to the bathroom, seemed a little surprised that Arric hadn’t moved. “You’re still here? I half-expected my bed to be clawed all to hell.” She giggled, giving the creature’s ears a light scratching as she shut off the water.

Arric looked up at the woman with a cute confused look on her face, but was set to follow through with her actions to let this woman give her a bath.

“You’re waaay too tame to be a wild raccoon... I wonder what happened to your owners?” she asked, as if the raccoon could answer her, adding as she lifted her up. “This might be a little cold, but I didn’t want it to get too hot.” She carefully set the muddy, smelly Arric into the water, watching to see how she’d react, fresh bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid in-hand.

Arric looked up at Darcy just as she grabbed the Dawn dish soap, with a frightened look in her eyes, and suddenly sitting in the bathtub was a young thirteen year old girl naked moving to the other end of the tub.

‘What the hell?!” Darcy yelped, dropping the bottle as she stumbled backwards, landing with a sound thump on her ass.

“What the hell..” Arric mimicked back to Darcy, she still didn’t know how to to speak the human language very well, and figured Darcy was the best person to learn from.

Darcy giggled as she got back to her feet again. “You scared me half to death girl. I’ve never seen a wereraccoon around here before.” She leaned on the edge of the tub with her arms folded, looking the girl in the eye as she spoke gently. “Can you understand what I’m saying?”

Arric nodded her head up and down as if to say yes to the woman.

Darcy smiled. “Good. I thought you could, but you seem a little … well … feral. No offense. My name is Darcy.”

Arric pointed at herself, “Arric.” then pointed at Darcy, “Darcy?” and giggled a little.

“So little one, how did you end up all alone? Oh, don’t worry. I’m a witch. I’m very familiar with others that are … um... sort of like you. Just never met a raccoon before.”

Arric looked at Darcy confused, then with her hand she made a car noise and made it pretend run something over. “Metal box.”

“Oh you poor thing,” Darcy gasped, immediately moving to hug the girl, ignoring that she was half-soaked from the bathwater. “And you’ve been living out of dumpsters since then? Well, we can’t have that. I’ll have to get permission to make this permanent, but I’d like...” She paused, choosing her words carefully, “for you to live here for me, if you’re okay with that.”

Arric looked right at Darcy knowing that she wanted to be family for some reason and nodded her head up and down again. “Fucking Raccoon.”

Darcy laughed as she shook her head. “It’s going to be a long week.”

Arric looked at Darcy with confusion on her face, not sure if she said something wrong or not, but finished cleaning the dirt off her and stood up. Darcy looked her over critically and frowned.

“I’m afraid anything I have is too big for you, but I have a nice t-shirt that’s too big for me too, that should suffice for a night gown while I make a run back to the store. We have some discontinued things I was just going to throw out that might work for you.”

Arric got out of the tub and started to shake off the water like any normal raccoon might, unaware of human customs of drying off with a towel. Darcy laughed, shielding herself from the worst of Arric’s watery onslaught.

“Here, let me get you a towel sweetie. Later I’ll have to teach you about this wonderful invention called shampoo, but it looks like the worst of the mud fell away when you transformed.” She held out a towel for Arric, while holding another in her hand.

Arric sniffed at Darcy, then slowly moved closer to her, “Arric good?”

Darcy giggled a little, wrapping the girl in the towel. “I know you’re used to humans mistreating you. It’s because they didn’t realize who you were. If my guess is right, you weren’t born human were you?”

Arric shook her head no, and took the towel sniffing it and trying to figure out what it was for, then scratching her head, confused.

“It’s called a ‘towel’. It’s … Well, it’s something humans use to dry ourselves off. It’s more efficient than shaking when you’re in that form. You can wrap your hair in it too, and it will keep you warmer than nothing at all, at least until I can find you something suitable.” She smiled as she turned, stepping back into the master bedroom.

Arric looked at it and sniffed it, setting one on top of her hair.

“Lets get you dressed sweetie, so we can go pick up some new clothes and stuff for you.” Darcy smiled.

Arric stared at Darcy for a moment, as she left the bathroom to get something that might fit the young girl. Rummaging through her clothes Darcy decided that the only thing she had that would fit Arric was an old dress she had been meaning to donate. It was a strap dress, long and soft rose pink, she had only wore it twice but it made her look way too young.

"Arric, sweetie, I was thinking, that name, I know your mother gave it to you, but it just doesn't fit being a human, What do you think of the name Amanda?" Darcy smiled, as she came back into the room with the dress for her new daughter.

Arric stared up at Darcy with tears in her eyes, and a confused look on her face. “Arric … can have human name?”

“Yes sweetie, you can have a real name. We will give you the name Amanda Arric Williams, that way you can at least keep the name your real mom gave you ok?” Darcy smiled.

Arric giggled excitedly as she hugged Darcy. “Thank you please!”

Darcy giggled, “We are really going to have to work on your vocabulary sweetie.” helping Amanda into her dress.

“Well doesn’t that look pretty on you.” Darcy smiled.

“Thank you?” Amanda looked and hoped she got that right.

Darcy smiled at Amanda and gave her a hug, “That’s a good girl, lets get you something for your feet so we can go shopping ok sweetie?”

Amanda nodded her head up and down and smiled that she finally got something right.

Darcy left the room again and came back in with a pair of white sandal shoes, “I don’t know if these will fit, but they will work till we can get you to my store.”

Amanda put Darcy’s sandals on her feet, she was almost swimming in them, her dainty feet a size 6 at best, where Darcy’s shoe size was a woman’s size 8.

“Big paws!” Amanda giggled.

“Don’t tease Amanda, it’s not nice.” Darcy smiled as she hugged Amanda for the millionth time since she brought her home.

Making sure she turned all the lights off, both Amanda and Darcy head out to the car. Darcy stopped and looked at Amanda who was fidgeting, “It’s ok sweetie, this one is safe I promise.”

“Darcy promise?” Amanda looked at her as Darcy nodded her head and opened the door for Amanda.

The two drove off to main street. It wasn’t too far away since Darcy had taken the family house near town, and parked across the street. “Here we go sweetie.” Darcy got out and went to the other side to open the door for Amanda.

“Thank you?” Amanda asked as she hopped out of the car and jumped a little at the sound of her shoes hitting hard pavement.

“You’re welcome sweetie, and you’re ok, that was just the sandals hitting the pavement.” Darcy smiled as she offered Amanda her hand to walk her across the street.

Amanda reached for Darcy’s hand and took it in her own as they crossed the street and entered the clothing store. “Crystal, it’s just me, Darcy.” she called out as Crystal, Darcy’s bubbly goth girl sales clerk appeared from behind some clothing racks after putting some away.

“Oh heya Dar!” Crystal called back cheerfully. “Who’s the cutie with you?”

“Crystal, this is Amanda. She’s going to be staying with me for awhile - a long while I hope.” Darcy smiled

Amanda looked down at her feet and pulled the Sandals off showing them to Crystal, “Darcy got big Paws, Amanda got small paws.”

“Shes a keeper Dar,” Crystal giggled, “She you’re cousin or something?” Crystal laughed a bit.

“Or something.” Darcy laughed as well. Amanda looked at the two confused.

“I’m here to outfit this munchkin with a new wardrobe, so don’t mind me.” Darcy smiled as she lead Amanda to the girls side of the store and started picking out cute outfits for Amanda to try on.

“You’re the boss,” Crystal called back with a giggle, returning to her work.

Getting a large arm full of clothes she lead Amanda to the changing room. “You know how to put clothes on without my help right sweetie?”

Amanda nodded her head up and down since she had been experimenting with human clothing before she met Darcy.

“Ok sweetie, try those on and what doesn’t fit you we can put back, and then we can go look for some shoes ok?” Darcy smiled as Amanda took the pile of clothes with her into the changing room.

Crystal leaned close to Darcy as she passed, “You know we have an adorable black skirt set in the Junior Miss department if she wants to go all Queen of the Junior High Goths,” she teased.

“It’s that leather one you ordered isn’t it?” Darcy giggled.

“It’s cute! But I only ordered a couple, you know, keep the parents’ groups from having a freak-out.”

Darcy laughed some more, “You know Crystal, you got to stop ordering stuff like that, because if it doesn’t sell we have to toss it at the end of the season.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I guess I’m just jealous. I would have killed for a place like this that sells stuff like that when I was a kid. Anyway, just shout if you guys need anything. I’ll be here awhile after closing.”

Darcy smiled as Amanda came out. “Alls fit,” she proudly announced.

“Good. Let’s go get you some shoes.” Darcy smiled, “Hey Crystal, can you get me the Brannock so I can get Amanda’s shoe size?”

“The what?” Crystal asked as her head popped up over a clothing rack, staring blankly back at Darcy.

“... The shoe sizer?”

“OH! That! Sure, I’ll be right there!”

Crystal smiled as she took Amanda’s foot and measured the size, “Size 6 on the nose. That everything for you guys this time?”

Amanda piped in, “See Amanda got small paws!”

Darcy helped Amanda pick out a pair of sneakers, a small heel shoe, and a cute pair of pink Skechers, “I think you can wear the sneakers home.” Darcy smiled as she pulled the tags and helped Amanda tie them properly, taking the rather decent pile of clothes and shoes to the counter to pay for everything.

Darcy put her credit card on the register. “Don’t tell me the damage, just run the card Crystal, Amanda’s going to cost me a fortune to outfit I know already.”

“Mom used to say the same thing about me,” Crystal responded, winking at Amanda.

“Oh shoot we forgot to get you some panties and some bras sweetie.” Darcy smiled, “Hold onto that stuff Crystal, I need to size Amanda for a bra and get some other stuff for her really fast.” Darcy took Amanda into the back and took her chest measurements.

“Looks like you won’t have to worry about too much of a bra yet sweetie, you’re getting some growth there, but you’re still on a small A.” Darcy smiled.

Amanda tugged at the front of her dress, peering inside. “No see ‘a’?” she asked, confused at the lack of the letter Darcy told her should be there.

“Silly girl, there is no A on your chest sweetie, It’s the size of your breasts.” Darcy giggled.

“Ohh,” Amanda answered, slightly less confused now. “Darcy A too?”

“No Darcy has B cups sweetie.” Darcy kissed Amanda on the forehead.

Crystal yelled back , “And I’m a D”

Amanda tilted her head. “A is better, or D?” she asked innocently.

“None are better than any other sweetie, the size you are is perfect for you, and don’t ever let anyone else tell you otherwise ok?” Darcy grinned as she lead Amanda out from the backroom to pick out some bras to fit her and some panties. Crystal just leaned on the register, covering her mouth to fight the giggle as she watched the pair pass. Darcy shot Crystal a look as they walked out into the store.

Darcy finished paying for everything and smiled carrying the bags of clothes out to the car with Amanda following behind. Amanda sniffed the air and glanced about, but got into the car, not saying anything.