Guili-Guili
Now, here's a cute li'l story of a somewhat arrogant skunk determined to not let anything get in the way of her artistic goals. There is always that one thing, though . . .
During a gesture drawing class, all Frannie wants to do is stare, I mean sketch, but her mouse classmate has other ideas.
For Frannie, art was no laughing matter. Or so she thought.
"All right, you lovely, lovely people!" The stoat, facing the motley crew of art students, clapped his tan palms together. "Remember what I said last class about distractions getting in the way of our craft?" He ushered the nude model into the classroom and continued speaking. "Social media, cellphones, videogames, I didn't mean just those things."
"I wish he'd stop rambling." Frannie glanced at the lithe red panda as she stretched. "I'm in the mood for some gesture drawing."
The girl sitting next to the skunk, Chloé, beamed. "Sure, Frannie. Methinks you just want to ogle."
"Hey, shut your mouth!" A bit of red went to the white parts of Frannie's face. "Gesture drawing is important to create dynamic poses." She snorted and looked away from the grinning mouse. "But what would you know about art?"
"How are you going to deal with your own body, huh?" asked the stoat. "You gotta use the bathroom, you're hungry, you got an annoying little itch and it's _juuuuust_outta reach. So, here's what we're gonna do today. You're gonna pair up. One of you is gonna be getting the gestures down."
Frannie nodded appreciatively.
"Your partner? Well, they're gonna be doing their level best to distract you."
The snooty skunk rolled her eyes. "Me? Get distracted? Impossible." She glanced at her companion. "Good luck!"
The mouse scoffed and reached over to flick Frannie's nostril ring. "You're acting as if you've already decided you're the one that's gonna be drawing!"
"No touching!" Frannie said, swatting Chloé's paw away. "And yeah, you can't even control your pencil properly. You kept using the tripod grip that one time when we had to use underhand."
With the red panda in the contrapposto pose, the teacher motioned the students closer. "This first gesture's super easy, and I'm gonna be generous and give you a full minute."
Half of the class formed a circle around the model and got on their tummies with their legs kicked up, sketchpads and charcoal pencils at the ready.
Frannie, bare feet sticking out of her silk bell-bottoms, took only a couple of seconds to get the model's line of action down.
Chloé, with her tail, managed to mimick a perfect sine wave in front of Frannie's face. "Come on, Frannie-Wannie." She smiled slyly. "It isn't a reproductive anatomy lesson, so you can stop staring," she whispered. "Focus on my tail. Come on."
"I am not looking at anything I shouldn't be," said Frannie through gritted teeth. Again, her cheeks flushed--she realized that, indeed, her eyes had traveled south one too many times.
"Let's switch things up." The teacher made a spiral motion with his index finger; the model understood and got into the first pose of a sequence--a baseball pitcher with one leg raised, a hand cupped around the closed fist of the other. "Thirty seconds per pose. No more."
Frannie got to work, getting the line of action, the arms, and the legs down in fifteen seconds flat.
"Check out this sick beat," Chloé said, sitting cross-legged next to the skunk. She brushed aside Frannie's huge tail and slapped the skunk's butt cheeks to the rhythm of an offbeat paradiddle. "I call it ass bongos."
Frannie stuck her tongue out. "A lousy artist and a lousy musician. No surprise there."
The others drew and distracted with varying degrees of success--a bunny whipped her partner's backside with her floppy ears; the gazelle's little stubby tail flicked each time, but she remained otherwise nonplussed. A vixen and a hyena, the class's couple, favored a romantic approach: the fox kissed her girlfriend's chest floof, head, neck, and the hyena responded with embarrassed titters and jittery lines.
"Nothing that can't be solved with a li'l hi-hat," said Chloé. "One of the perks of having such a long tail is that it's like having three arms." She straightened the segmented appendage out and was about to reach for Frannie's metal pencil holder when the tip of her tail accidentally jabbed the skunk in the side.
Frannie flinched, eyes wide, and stopped drawing.
Chloé raised an eyebrow. "What's gotten into you?"
"Nothing?"
"Then why'd you stop drawing, Frannie-Wannie?"
"Because . . ." Frannie saw her way out--the model got into the second pose of the sequence, her arm now reaching back, about to hurl an imaginary ball. "Because the pose changed! And quit calling me that!"
Chloé narrowed her eyes, understanding. "Sure. Whatever you say." As Frannie put pencil tip to paper, Chloé prodded the skunk in the curved part of her waist--her tie-dyed shirt, a thin layer of cotton, provided no protection. "Guili-guili, Frannie."
Frannie gulped. Her toes curled with each poke. Nope, keep it together, she thought. In three seconds, the pose's line of action was done.
"Don't be a drag, Frannie-Wannie," said Chloé. She drilled into the skunk's flank with both hands, alternating each index finger. "How the hell are you not cracking up?" The mouse frowned. "For real, I jump a mile when someone does this to me. Give in, Frannie. You're not as tough as you think you are. Guili-guili."
Frannie's whiskers and lips twitched, but, with her core sucked in tight, she blocked the tickles out. A part of her wanted to giggle like a little girl, but her ego wasn't going to give the mouse that satisfaction. "You think that's going to break me?" A single stroke of the charcoal pencil later, the model's arm gesture was done.
Chloé sighed and leaned back. "You're no fun."
"I think you should just give up." Frannie smirked triumphantly.
The mouse cooed and put the tip of her finger on the corner of her mouth--the glint of Frannie's toe ring had caught her attention when the skunk, with her legs still kicked up, had crossed her ankles. "You leave me no choice." Chloé tutted and got up. "Now you've gone and done it."
"Gone and done what, Chloé? Shown the world that I am a genuine artist?" She began the line that was supposed to be the red panda's legs. "Watch and learn." But right as Frannie got to the point of maximum curvature, a giggle escaped her. She cupped her maw shut with her hand.
"Whatcha laughing at?" Chloé had Frannie by the ankle, a claw scritching at her heel.
"Nothing!" Frannie cleared her throat. Going for the kill, huh, Chloé? Pft. No actual artist lets a few tickles get in their way. Even if it's the feet! "It's just amusing how hard you're trying."
"Doesn't look like I gotta try much at all." The mouse let the tip of her finger go up Frannie's sole.
The skunk, right as she was about to continue the gesture line, shivered and snickered silently into her clenched fist. No! She shook her head.Ressaisis-toi!
"Are you gonna make me do it, Frannie-Wannie?" Chloé crackled her knuckles and eyed the skunk, a playful simper dancing on her lips.
Frannie gripped the pencil as hard as she could to brace herself. Her eyes swiveled till she could just see the mouse in her peripheral vision. "Va te faire foutre, Chloé!" She harrumphed. "Do your worst!" Her tail flicked and stood poised in arrogant defiance.
Without saying a word, Chloé complied--she wrapped her hand around Frannie's ring and pulled the toe back. The mouse began clawing at her foot, up and down, from toe to heel, as if trying to get rid of a deep, deep itch.
Frannie shrieked and burst into hysterical laughter. The pencil flew out of the skunk's hand, leaving a trail of charcoal on her sketchpad. "HAHAHAHA! STOP!"
The rest of the class smirked and chuckled at Frannie's reaction. "I shoulda thought of that," said the vixen. She prodded her girlfriend in the side; the hyena squirmed and countered with her own tickle.
"Guili-guili, Frannie! Can't take a little tickle?" said Chloé as Frannie yanked her legs out of her grasp.
Frannie sat on her feet to protect them. "Oh, get lost, Chloé!" She felt all the eyes on her and blushed.
"Tsk, tsk." The stoat walked over. "What's all the hubbub?" He leaned over and narrowed his eyes at Frannie's latest gesture drawing. "Young lady, these legs here are a darn mess. What even is this line?" He frowned and looked around. "And where's your pencil?"
Frannie shot Chloé a withering look. "I kind of lost it."
The teacher facepalmed. "You can't even control your own pencil? Françoise, we have some serious remedial work to consider." He shook his head and walked to another pair.
"Aw, Frannie-Wannie can't control her pencil, huh? Isn't that what you told me?" The mouse looked past Frannie's shoulder. "My, those legs sure do look wonky."
"Shut the hell up!" Frannie's nostrils flared. "This is all your fault!"
"Nuh-uh. It's 'cause you're too sensitive!" She grinned and made a grab for Frannie's sides. "Guili-guili!"
The skunk yelped and scooted away on her ass, prompting more laughter out of her classmates.
The red panda arched her back and grabbed hold of her pointing feet.
"First pose of the day--ballet," said the stoat. "Same as last time. Pair up. One of you draws, the other distracts."
Frannie rolled her eyes; Chloé, on the other hand, did a little celebratory jig in place.
"Switch places. Person who drew last class now distracts. Person who distracted now draws," he continued.
The smile melted off Chloé's face. "Don't even try," she said, turning to face Frannie . . . but the skunk wasn't there. "Hey, where did--ARGH!" As if a thousand volts had zapped her petite frame, Chloé's fur frizzed out, and her ass shot off the stool--Frannie, standing behind her, had tased the crop top-clad mouse right in that rather sensitive area where her curves were.
"Damn, you weren't wrong," said Frannie against the backdrop of amused snickers. "You do jump a mile, Chloé. Guili-guili!"