Shelled Up

"I'm a bobcat, see? Teeth and claws and all that. Shouldn't you have closed up shop by now?" Jesse squeezed his eyes shut while the bobcat spoke. He expected the end to come without warning. He slowly opened one eye and glanced at the bobcat again. Once more he shivered with fear. "I...I can't." Jesse is an orphaned box turtle that has a secret he must hide from both his adopted family and a new community of turtles where they have recently moved. Due to a tractor plow trapping him deep underground as a hatchling, he is claustrophobic and afraid to be in his own shell. Jesse has trained himself to be fast in order to be safe, which would cause him to be ostracized if it were ever discovered. The other turtles his age bully him about the scar on his shell, and he stays to himself to hide his fear of shelling up. Jesse has a chance encounter with a weak stomached bobcat that only eats nuts and berries, and they become fast friends. Bob introduces Jesse to some other eccentric outcast animals including a rabbit named Rita with super-sensitive hearing, and a no-nonsense haggard Billy goat with a secret soft side from a nearby pasture. They form a friendship as they try to help him get faster and also overcome his claustrophobia before an aggressive bobcat named Kaiser can catch him. Penny is an eight year old girl that lost her family in a house fire and suffered burn injuries. Thanks to a wonderful woman at the orphanage, Penny is placed in a good home with a couple that resides near the woods where Jesse and Bob live. The children at her new school bully her over her looks, and her adoptive parents struggle with finding ways to help her. Penny has an almost magical way with animals and develops a bond with Jesse and the other animals after a failed attempt by the group to scare her so that Penny would not approach Kaiser. Jesse's secret is discovered, and his world is thrown into chaos, while the children at Penny's new school become even more aggressive towards her. It starts a chain of events that lead to an epic and action packed scene at a giant party for the entire school where everyone will see just how special both Jesse and Penny are, and how being different can be wonderful and brave.