Part 1 - Late Night Groceries
It was almost midnight and the students of class 1-1 at Kegawa Akademi were assigned to write an informative essay about the different kinds of dangers to animals and why it is dangerous to them. The due date is tomorrow and the fluffy goofball white tiger still hasn't even started on her essay. The assignment was given a few days ago before the weekend but Shiromi simply could care less. After all, she really couldn't come up with a good topic for the essay anyway. She was casually lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling of her room, wondering what mischievous things she could do while her family is already asleep. Not being tired in the slightest, Shiromi got up and went to the kitchen, trying to find some milk in the fridge but upon checking, there was none. Surprisingly, she wasn't disappointed and thought this was a great time to sneak out of the house to buy some milk. Shiromi went back to her room to grab her scarf and put on her Student Council blazer since it had pockets which will come in handy later, then quietly snuck back to the living room and took the house key out of a drawer to lock up when she left. This sneaky little white tiger is an expert at being the biggest sneak on earth and this wasn't the first time and certainly not the last time either, that she managed to sneak out of the house without her parents ever noticing a thing. After leaving the house and locking up, she put the keys in her blazer's pocket and took off on all fours, giggling sneakily along the way. There weren't any animals around except for quite a few people who were getting ready for the new year and waiting for the clock to strike 12 am. Shiromi's neighborhood has both animals and humans living there, but the humans only started coming over here recently. Whatever those rocket like things were, Shiromi had no clue that those very things will end up terrifying her later. She had no idea what those were and has never seen them before. Shiromi carefully stopped running and looked at the people and the fireworks, but shrugged it off and didn't think anything of it. There were some children there as well that were making funny faces and sticking their tongues out at the white tiger. Shiromi couldn't be bothered and continued running to the nearby cat store who had everything a healthy cat needs, including big cats like Shiromi. The store was called The Kurilian, owned and operated by the Kurilian Bobtail named Angie. "Welcome, Shiromi. Good to see you again. What brings you here this late?" Angie asked. The two know each other since Shiromi is a loyal customer. "Ah, nothing much. Just here to buy a carton of milk." Shiromi replied as she grabbed some milk from a fridge and went back to Angie to pay for it. "Don't get used to it but I'll let you have this one for free. It's late and you're a loyal one." Angie said. Shiromi did a sneaky smile and opened up the carton as she exited the store. However, Shiromi was about to enter a living nightmare.

Part 2 - The Nightmare Begins
Just as Shiromi was about to drink the milk, several very loud bangs were heard as the clock struck midnight, making her drop the carton and run away in terror on all fours. As for Angie, she was also terrified by the bangs and she quickly turned off the store's lighting and locked everything up tight before hiding under the counter. None of the animals here have ever heard such loud bangs before. What on earth was that? What was going on? The noise wasn't stopping either and Shiromi's ears were absolutely ringing, since her hearing is much sharper than that of a human. She panicked and didn't know where to go. She eventually climbed up a tree for safety and upon taking a closer look at the sky, there were a bunch of bright lights and the air smelled of...Smoke? "Those humans...What are they doing to our village?! Are they going to burn it down?! Smoke is bad! Really bad and the air stinks of smoke!!" Shiromi cried to herself as she was shivering in fear from the bangs, the smoke smell, and the bright lights in the sky. Shiromi's panic caused her to lose track of where she ran off to. Sadly, no one else was around except for the scared white tiger and some people who were responsible for all this madness. This horror wasn't stopping so Shiromi climbed down the tree, disoriented and still in panic mode. She was usually one of the most calm and relaxed animals at Kegawa Akademi but not this time. This whole situation changed everything. Her ears were still ringing and her eyes started feeling a bit irritated from all the smoke filling the air. The scared tiger started to find a way back home. She had no choice than to be brave and persevere. Finding her way back home wasn't easy due to her disorientation, panic and not being able to smell properly because of the stupid smoke. Just as she was about to head back towards the direction she came from, a group of bullies came walking towards her. They were teenage boys and they had some fireworks with them. They saw Shiromi and the fact she was scared. They taunted and teased her, getting ready to aim the rockets at her while laughing. Shiromi knew these boys were evil and meant to harm her so she quickly ran away as fast as she could before they were able to fire the rockets at her. As Shiromi ran, the boys' laughter could be heard behind her. She searched for a place to hide until the next morning since going home proved to be too much of a challenge in this scary situation. She happened to find an old abandoned shed that was all rusted up but it will have to do for the night.

Part 3 - Fireworks...?
The next morning, the sky was clear and the bangs and smoky air were gone. Shiromi yawned and left the shed to find her way back home, sniffling the ground for a familiar trail now that the smoke smell was as good as gone. There weren't any people around and Shiromi was thankful for that until she spotted a teenaged girl who also saw her. The girl approached Shiromi which made her feel tense. Her ears flattened and she growled and hissed gently as a warning. "Don't worry, I mean no harm." Said the girl as she continued walking towards Shiromi. The tiger was still a little suspicious but she let the girl approach her. "W-What was that last n-night?" Shiromi asked to which the girl responded with "Oh, those were fireworks to celebrate the new year. They're often used to celebrate or just used for fun depending on who you give them to but they're mostly used regarding new year at midnight." Shiromi tilted her head a bit. "Fireworks..." Shiromi growled annoyed and ran right past the girl, eventually making her way back home. Though unfortunately for her, the tiger's parents have finally caught her sneaking out of the house as the fireworks kept them up at night too. Shiromi was forced to explain why and where she was. She also told them what the girl told her about something called fireworks and that those were what everyone in the neighborhood was hearing. This made her parents even more concerned and upset because by what she told them, she could've easily gotten hurt or ended up dead. Shiromi just shrugged it off and went to her room where she got a notification on her phone that said that school was closed for a few days to give the students of Kegawa some time to recover and relax after what happened during the night yesterday. This gave Shiromi plenty of time to write and finish her essay that will be due on the day school starts again. She knew exactly what she was going to write about. Fireworks! She wrote a few pages long about her experience last night and how fireworks can endanger animals and absolutely terrify them. When school started again a few days later, the students of Shiromi's class all turned in their essays. The teacher was the most impressed by Shiromi's essay since hers was the longest and the most detailed. An A+ for the eccentric and brave white tiger!

The Moral of the Story
While fireworks are pretty and a sight to behold, it has a huge negative impact on pets and animals. They have a much sharper sense of hearing, smelling and seeing than any of us people. This means that a bang from a firework is already loud to you, but imagine just how much louder it is to a cat or dog. Especially those that actually sound like a bomb went off. The loud noises and bright lights and flashes can really scare an animal and unfortunately, there are indeed people who like to bully stray cats or dogs with fireworks and deliberately try to injure them. It's okay to like and enjoy fireworks but do it in a safe environment and think of how it could really negatively impact your beloved furry friends! Happy new year!