Beaver hissed and flopped down among his sibs. They weren't off to take stupid classes in some stupid school in a stupid mountain.

Stupid was a nice word. You could use it for almost anything. You could tell Copperhead that it wasn't your turn to hunt for stupid crocodiles that night. You could shout at Cypress to stop singing her stupid song. You could even tell Gator that he was stupid and then watch him worry for hours about his intelligence.

But he wasn't going to be able to do any of that for a while, because of stupid, stupid Jade Mountain Academy.

Cypress looked over at Beaver. "Aren't you excited, Beaver? You're going to Jade Mountain Academy. I'm so jealous."

Jade Mountain was supposed to be a really great place. But Beaver's friend Wetland had come home last summer and told Beaver that really, it was just a mountain with caves in it and cheesy quotes on the walls. Beside that, Wetland had refused to talk about the school.

So, no, Cypress, Beaver was not excited. 

"Aw, little Beaver's going to school," Copperhead, the Bigwings, sighed, reaching over to hug Beaver.

Beaver wriggled away.

"Little Beaver doesn't want to go to school!" He shouted at his sisters. He stormed away, pausing to yell, "AND I'M NOT THAT LITTLE!"