"So you're the world famous Jarret the Bully Slayer, yes?"

The rather-less-than-world-famous eleven year old snowkitten blinked and looked around. In front of him stood an adult snowkitten with ginger hair and white fur, wearing rainbow coloured clothes. Part of this outfit included a skirt that could more accurately have been described as a shoelace. She looked likely to be aged around thirty, so to Jarret's mind she was "getting on a bit."

He answered with more than a hint of bemusement, "Yeah, I'm Jarret."

The woman, with a big beaming grin on her face, stuck out her paw. "Clarissa."

"Oookaay..." Jarret replied warily, shaking her paw and wondering if she was from the local press. He was standing outside the headmaster's office, not for the first time of course, and still the name "Mr Jeremy Ferris" glared down from the metal plate on the door.

Clarissa stared at the door and the bubbly look vanished momentarily, replaced by a flash of anger, before she looked back at Jarret. "So how come you're stuck outside this room?"

Jarret reached behind his neck, brushing his black hair off his shoulders. It had grown quite long over the last few years, and he preferred it that way. "Umm... I got in trouble again."

"Something bad?"

"Nah. Well, not really." He shrugged. "It was in the line of duty."

The older snowkitten told him, "Yeah, I can guess the rest. I know you've been helping my little girl."

"Andrina?"

She beamed that enormous grin again, and the family resemblance was all too obvious. "Yeah, that's her. She told me about how you helped her out. That's how I knew who you were. And I can't even begin to thank you enough for everything you've done."

Jarret shrugged again. "It was nothing, and anyway, Ferris did scrug all to help her. And none of the other teachers helped either. So someone had to get Ben to leave her alone..."

Clarissa frowned. "Yes... Ferris is as much use as a glass hammer. I know all about this particular situation, which is why I fully intend to knock him out the window when I get the chance."

Jarret grinned. He clearly liked the thought of that, and hoped she meant it literally. Okay, so this was a ground floor and as such, the headmaster wouldn't have all that far to fall, but perhaps if the window stayed shut as he went through it...

The door shot open and the headmaster loomed out. The bear clearly hadn't noticed Clarissa as he rumbled, "Jarret... again. And with only a day to go till you leave too. Damn it boy, get in here."

As Jarret nonchalantly strolled in, Clarissa suddenly barged into the room alongside him, much to the bewilderment of Mr Ferris, who blustered, "Excuse me, Mrs Kvaari! Just where..."

Clarissa winked at Jarret and promptly sat in the headmaster's chair, spinning round in it several times, before halting it and grinning at Mr Ferris toothily.

The headmaster put both of his ham-sized fists on his desk and glared at the snowkitten, trying valiantly to stay calm. "First, you shouldn't barge in here. Second, you do not walk in without a prior appointment. And third, that's my bloody chair!"

"I know!" Clarissa said proudly. "And very comfortable it is too."

He leaned forward, snapping, "I don't give a stuff if it's like sitting on a sack of house bricks! Get out and arrange an appointment with my secretary if you have anything to discuss."

She stood in a flash, a finger waving inches from the bear's face, and she looked decidedly unimpressed. "I'm going to discuss my daughter. Right now. I've made appointments before, over and over again, and each time they were either cancelled or, very conveniently, you weren't here when I arrived. My daughter leaves this dump tomorrow, so what would be the point of arranging an appointment for several weeks after the summer holiday, by which time she won't even be a pupil here? So we're going to talk about Andrina. If you'd like me to talk about her loudly, so the whole school can hear, I'm more than happy to oblige."

Jarret looked over at the window, imagining the glass with a bear shape smashed through it. The dream seemed to be edging nearer to reality by the minute.

The headmaster looked defeated, as he called over to Jarret, "If you could perhaps leave the room until..."

Clarissa cut him off in mid-sentence. "He stays right outside the door though."

The headmaster sighed, as Jarret left the room, pushing the door shut behind him. It was going to be a long afternoon.

The following day should have been Jarret and Andrina's last day at school. After the heated discussions between Mr Ferris and Clarissa the previous day, however, both the young snowkittens had been given that final day of school off. Andrina had few other friends at the school, so she had no real reason to want to attend while everyone else said their sad goodbyes, and Jarret couldn't have cared less about the farewells. His sister, Ailee, had ensured she was more than just a little popular at the school, so she fully intended to go there on this last day, if only to soak up the attention and adoration.

Andrina's mum, Clarissa, had been only too glad that Andrina didn't have to go. Jarret hadn't been able to hear the heated conversation all that well through the closed door. It was pretty obvious that Clarissa was disgusted with the headmaster's 'solution' for solving the bullying problem, "using a child no less," to deal with the situation. Neither Jarret nor the headmaster had expected quite that level of anger from the snowkitten, since, on first impressions, she seemed so bubbly and friendly. However, it was obvious she was deeply angered by what had happened to her daughter, and Mr Ferris' lack of ability to sort it out properly.

There was a lot of talk after that involving teacher-parent relationships and school politics, which totally lost Jarret and he hadn't been able to hear most of it anyway. He knew that Clarissa had threatened to involve the press, but the headmaster retaliated in a panic, saying it would have inevitably dragged Jarret into the mess even further, along with his family. Clarissa relented because she didn't want that, even after what had happened to Andrina. In the end she vowed she'd get the headmaster kicked out of his job, using whatever other means she could find. The headmaster didn't seem too happy at that, and Jarret got the distinct impression that Clarissa had a reputation for getting what she wanted. He knew for sure that the school would have a new headmaster by the start of the new school year, though to Jarret it was of negligible importance, since he wouldn't be there anyway.

Jarret hadn't told his parents about the day off, as he couldn't be bothered with the awkward questions like, "Why?" As far as they were concerned, he was attending his final day at the primary school alongside Ailee. In fact, Jarret was kicking his favourite blue ball around in a small, otherwise deserted park near to The Burrow. His dad, Iskari, had told him to go nowhere near the place - another good reason that Jarret hadn't mentioned the day off, so that they'd never know where he had really gone. Jarret found that The Burrow fascinated him. It drew him towards itself like a magnet, helped considerably by the fact that his dad didn't want him going anywhere near it.

The thought that his dad had worked for the boss of the nightclub was a very alluring mystery, especially when it was also something Iskari didn't want to discuss with his family, no matter what. Jarret's imagination had run riot as he stared across from the park towards the nightclub's main entrance. What could his dad have done there that was so terrible that he wouldn't ever talk about it? And the owner of the club - clearly he wasn't someone to mess about with, but something about that fascinated Jarret no end.

THWACK!

He kicked the ball extra hard and it bounced off the wall, heading straight back to Jarret's paw, where he instantly caught it. It was so tempting to just walk up to the window of the club and peer in, to see just what was going on in there. Equally tempting was the thought of booting the ball through the open doors, to provide an excuse to stroll in, and then leave just as quickly. But somehow that didn't seem such a good idea.

THWACK!

Again the ball hit the opposite wall, but this time it caught the edge of a lamppost on the rebound, and shot straight over Jarret's head unexpectedly. As he span round to chase after it, a pair of paws caught the ball neatly. In front of him stood the owner of the nightclub - the tall and ominous grey wolf, this time wearing a black suit with a dark green tie, topped off with a long leather jacket.

The wolf held the ball and raised an eyebrow. "I thought it was you. I noticed you from the window, gawping over at my nightclub." He bounced the ball on the floor a few times, and then caught it again.

The snowkitten frowned. "I want that back."

The wolf grinned. "Really...? Then come and get it."

Without the slightest hesitation, Jarret marched across to the wolf, grabbing the ball out of his paws. The wolf laughed.

"You're more like your dad than you probably think," the wolf told Jarret. "Despite everything he's almost certainly told you about me, you're still giving me the attitude. Not many would have the nerve..."

Jarret shrugged. "My dad hasn't said anything about you."

"Really?" came the reply. The wolf feigned a disappointed look. "Not to worry. At least that means we can start on a clean slate." He held a paw out. "Kensar."

Jarret stared at the paw for a moment, unsure what to do. Eventually he shook it. "Jarret."

Kensar did his big wolfish grin again. "Pleased to meet you, Mr Jarret. And now if you'll excuse me, I've got a whole bunch of stuff to sort out..."

As he turned to head back to the club, Jarret called out, "What do you do?"

The wolf turned to face him. "I run the nightclub." The expression on his face was one of faked disbelief that someone could ask such a question when the answer was so blindingly obvious.

Jarret couldn't help but give a slight smirk. "Yeah, but apart from that?" The wolf waited till Jarret asked, "Are you gangsters?"

"Ha!" came the reply. "Nothing so crass. Now if you don't mind..."

Jarret wouldn't let it go. "My dad worked for you for years, and he won't tell me a thing about what he did. He can't have just done bar work, or he'd never be so secretive about it. So I want to know what goes on in there."

Kensar sighed. "We... make problems go away."

Jarret's eyes widened and he looked even more interested. "You're assassins!"

The wolf couldn't help but laugh, despite his patience beginning to wear a little thin by this point. "No, we're not assassins. And if you want to know any more than that, I suggest you come back in a couple of years. Return when you're older and I'll tell you more. If you're even still interested by then..."

As he walked away, he heard Jarret call out, "I'll be here." Kensar grinned once again as he closed the club doors behind him.