Tony the Tiger's High School Reunion Part 1

A fat, old, orange lump of a cartoon tiger sat at a vanity and stared into a mirror.

He patted his ears down. He stretched them up. He fluffed his whiskers and then quickly licked his paws only to slick the hairs back to normal.

Tony stood up and turned sideways. He sucked in a bellyful of air and puffed out his chest. He admired his slimmer figure for about ten seconds before he exhaled like a popped balloon. His furry gut popped out and bounced as he softly growled.

"Grrrreat," Tony sarcastically told his reflection. "Just grrrreat."

Tony the Tiger ambled to the kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cereal. As he topped it with milk, he paused and stared at the sugar-coated pieces floating in his bowl. His gaze traveled to his furry stomach.

"Hmm," Tony went. "Duh." He tossed the bowl into the sink and just drank milk from the carton.

Tony walked to a small kitchen table and sat down. An old high school yearbook lay within his reach. He slid it close to him. The open spread was of the senior class of 1948. Surrounding the picture of "Tiger, Tony E." were markered hearts and smiley faces.

"You're the sweetest!" was squiggled in fat, cursive letters.

Tony flipped pages and came to a picture of the football team. Then he turned the page to the cheerleaders. And there he saw a picture of a young, muscular tiger smiling amongst five very peppy girls.

A mascot for life, he was.

A soft purr erupted from Tony's throat as he traced the picture of one cheerleader in particular. He couldn't wait to see his old sweet heart again.

There was no time to waste. Tony had two weeks to get ready for his fortieth* high school reunion.

But right now, he needed a nap.


* According to Wikipedia (flawed as it is, it's my best resource at 11:20 PM) Tony the Tiger was first used in 1952. Seeing as he was most-likely full grown upon his introduction into the cereal world, there's no accurate way to tell when he would've attended and graduated from high school. For this particular story line, we're pretending that Tony the Tiger was 18 in 1968. This means that the ad agency/design firm/illustrator who came up with Tony actually drew him two years before he was purchased and placed on a cereal box. It's completely possible. Trust me. Oh, and Tony was an adult tiger his entire life. Fiction rules.