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Not Good Enough...

It was a hot, summer's afternoon. Timothy's dad had the afternoon off work, so he decided to take Timothy and Friendly swimming at the pool. "Come along boys, or we'll miss the bus!" said James, chuckling as he watched the fox and raccoon running out of the house. "I can't run that fast!" cried Timothy, panting slightly as he struggled to keep up. "It's okay Timothy", said James, "I was just playing. We've got lots of time" "Thank goodness" said Friendly, walking alongside his chubby raccoon friend and smiling at him. Timothy smiled back as he regained his breath. Soon, they arrived at the bus stop. Friendly and Timothy sat next to each other in the shelter while James kept a lookout for the bus to the pool. "Dad, did you remember my waterwings?" asked Timothy, anxiously. "Yes Timothy" said James "Good" said Timothy, blushing a little as he noticed Friendly was grinning at him. "What?" "It's okay. I needed them when I was your age too" said Friendly "Come on boys, the bus is here now" said James, as the bus pulled in and screeched to a halt with a loud hiss. "What is that noise?" asked Timothy "It's the air-brakes" answered James, "Go on boys, I'll pay your fare" "Let's sit up the back!" squeaked Timothy, rushing to the seats at the very back of the bus.

About ten minutes later, the bus arrived at the pool. "Come on Timothy, Friendly" said James, stepping down on the back step to open the rear doors for the cubs. The bus then pulled away, and they walked up to the swimming pool. "Two kids for swimming please" said James to the receptionist clerk. "That'll be five dollars please" said the clerk. James took out his wallet and handed over a five dollar bill. He also took out a quarter for the boys' locker. "Come on Timothy!" said Friendly, running towards the changing room. Timothy ran along as fast as he could. Soon, James joined Friendly and Timothy in the changing room. Friendly had already changed into his swimming trunks and had folded his shirt and pants on the bench. Timothy was still wearing his shirt though. James sat down next to Timothy and took two yellow waterwings out from his bag. He held one in his hand, and gave the other to Friendly. "Can you help me by blowing up the other one, Friendly?" asked James "I can try..." said Friendly, "I'm not very good though" "It's okay. If you can't do it then I'll blow it up" said James, as he took a big breath in before he started to inflate one of Timothy's waterwings. Friendly did the same, but he just ended up blowing a raspberry instead of inflating the other waterwing. He tried again, but he couldn't get the air in. "Don't worry about it Friendly, I'll do it" said James. "Maybe you can help Timothy take his shirt off instead" "Okay" said Friendly, "Come here Timothy" Timothy felt his blue t-shirt tickle his fur as his friend pulled it over his head, almost effortlessly. He giggled a little and smiled at Friendly, as the fox slipped his waterwings onto his arms. "Thank you Friendly" said Timothy

Friendly made sure he stayed close to Timothy while they were in the pool. James went and sat in the hot-tub nearby, occasionally looking over to check on the boys. "Shall we play a little game?" asked Friendly "Okay!" squeaked Timothy excitedly, "What sort of game?" "Well... you can stand there where your feet can touch the bottom, and I'll dive down and swim through your legs" said Friendly "Yeah! Okay!" agreed Timothy, he stretched his legs apart as his fox friend dived down and swam through. Friendly surfaced behind Timothy and started to swim around to face him. "Go the other way!" said Timothy, grinning at Friendly. "Hehe, okay!" replied Friendly, as he dived under the water and swam through Timothy's legs again, surfacing in front of him. "I wish I could do that" sighed Timothy, "But I'm not good enough at swimming" Friendly dived down again and began to swim through Timothy's legs, but he stopped half-way. "Huh?" said Timothy, when suddenly he felt something tickling him. "Heeheeheeheeeeheee!!!" he cried, flailing and giggling helplessly in the water. Friendly surfaced in front of the raccoon and chuckled. "That tickled!" Timothy giggled Friendly smiled at Timothy, and the raccoon smiled happily back at him. "You're good enough for me, Timothy" said Friendly "Hey look!" Timothy squeaked, pointing to a large yellow and blue rubber ring that was floating in the pool; there were a lot of kids that were laughing and having fun on it. "Can we join them?" "Okay" said Friendly Timothy floated on his tummy with the help of his waterwings and kicked his legs, but they just splashed about. He paddled with his paws, but he still didn't go anywhere. "Want some help?" asked Friendly, giving the raccoon a push and swimming alongside him, holding his paw, "Thanks Friendly" said Timothy

They swam up to the rubber ring together. Timothy tried to put his hands on the top of the ring, but they couldn't reach. "Friendly, help!" cried Timothy Friendly dived underneath the water and positioned himself under his friend. He then kicked off from the bottom, launching Timothy up and onto the ring. Timothy held onto the rubber as tightly as he could. He looked around at all the other cubs, as Friendly clambered onto the ring behind him. "There you go, Timothy" said Friendly "Hi guys" said Timothy, giving the other cubs a little wave. "What's with the waterwings? Can't you swim or something?" asked a husky. "No... why?" asked Timothy "You're not good enough for us" said an arctic fox. "If you can't swim, you can't come on with us" "But... but!" squeaked Timothy "No buts" said a red panda, who then pushed Timothy off the ring. "Aaaaaah!" squealed Timothy, as he fell into the deep water "You big meanie!" growled Friendly, pushing the red panda off the ring "You leave my friend alone!" snarled the husky, pushing Friendly off the ring, but also falling off the ring himself. Timothy watched what was going on around him. Friendly was in the water wrestling with the red panda, the arctic fox was barely clinging onto the ring, and the husky was making his way towards Friendly. "Hey, leave Friendly alone!" cried Timothy "Stay out of my way" said the husky, using both of his paws and pushing Timothy by his waterwings. "Friendly, look out!" shouted Timothy, when he suddenly heard a hissing noise. Friendly saw the husky coming and dived under the water, out of the way. The husky ended up with his nose rubbing against the red panda's muzzle. "Yuck!" cried the red panda, pushing the husky away from him. Timothy tried to find where the hissing noise was coming from, when he suddenly noticed his waterwings were deflating. "Oh no!" he cried, "Friendly! Friendly!" Friendly was still underneath the water, so he couldn't hear Timothy's cries for help. The chubby raccoon began kicking his legs to try and stay afloat, but his feet just spun uselessly in the deep water and his waterwings continued to deflate. Timothy tried to cry out for help, but his mouth was already below the water. The raccoon's waterwings were useless now and he couldn't stay afloat without them! Timothy's feet spin around helplessly in the water as he sunk further, fighting for the air just inches above him. Suddenly, he saw Friendly surface in front of him. The fox pulled Timothy close to him and stopped him from sinking. "Th... th... thank you Friendly" spluttered Timothy, and he sniffled a little into Friendly's fur. "Come on Timothy, let's go in the hot-tub" said Friendly Timothy nodded. He held onto Friendly tightly as the fox carried him back to the shallow water where his feet could touch the bottom. Then they went to the hot-tub.

James looked at Timothy's deflated waterwings and gasped. "What happened to your waterwings, Timothy?" "It looks like the valves came unstuck" said Friendly "Oh dear... did you get caught on something?" asked James "No..." said Timothy, "A husky pushed me out of the way by pushing my waterwings and I guess... I guess that's when they began to go down" "What happened Friendly?" James asked the fox. "Well... we went over to that big rubber ring and got on it. But the other kids said Timothy wasn't good enough to join them and one of them pushed him off... so I pushed him off, and we all fell in the water..." explained Friendly "Oh, I see. Well... I think I'm ready to go anyways" said James, "Are you boys ready?" "Uh-huh" said Timothy, "Let's go Friendly" James opened the locker and pulled Timothy's shirt, shoes, socks and pants out and put them onto the bench. He then pulled Timothy's waterwings off and put them into the bag. Friendly saw how sad Timothy looked and held his paw, smiling at him. This made Timothy feel better and he smiled back. "Can you help Timothy with his shorts please, Friendly?" asked James "Sure" said Friendly, "I gotta stand behind you though" Timothy stood up and Friendly stooped down behind him, untying the thick blue laces on the raccoon's swimming trunks. "There you go Timothy" said Friendly, as he began to untie the laces on his own pair of swimming trunks. "You're such a good friend to Timothy" said James, "He really needs someone like you as his big brother" Timothy blushed and grinned at Friendly, who grinned back at him.

Soon, they came out of the changeroom and headed to the doors, but Timothy saw something on the way out. "Oooh, dad, look!" squeaked Timothy excitedly, pointing to a poster on the wall. James looked at the poster. "Hmmm..." he said, "Well you certainly love riding your bike... oh..." "What?" asked Timothy "Look, right here" said James, pointing to a line of text near the bottom of the poster: "All participants must be off training wheels" "Oh!" groaned Timothy Friendly looked at Timothy, his eyes were full of tears, and he was sniffling. "Hey, come here buddy" said Friendly, sitting next to his raccoon friend and putting his arm around his chubby body. "I'm not good enough" said Timothy, "I'll never be good enough!" Friendly held Timothy's paw again and spoke softly to him. "It doesn't matter Timothy, you're good enough for me just the way you are. "Really?" asked Timothy "Really Really" replied Friendly, "I wouldn't change you in any way, even if I could. You're perfect just the way you are" "Can we go for a bike ride later?" asked Timothy "Uh-huh!" replied Friendly, "We're better than those guys, anyway" said Friendly, looking at the poster. Timothy smiled at his fox friend and nodded.

-- The End --