I'm Trapped as a Cat?

I awoke to the sound of Maverick's heavy snoring. Who knew a boy so beautiful could make such awful sounds. My eyes narrowed in distaste, and I knew already that I would not be able to fall asleep again.

Didn't I read somewhere that cats are nocturnal?

That would explain why I could see so much better in the dark. I jumped down from the bed and paced the length of the room for several minutes before I realized that nature was calling me. The last thing I needed was Maverick waking up to a nice little pile on his bedroom floor, and then decide I wasn't worth the trouble. I needed this; I saw that now. Maverick's house was the perfect place for me to be at this point. In fact I couldn't really think of any place better aside from Marie's house, and that was just too far away to be practical.

I was going to have to start thinking like a cat; Marie's house took like 20 minutes to walk to when I was a human, it would no doubt take longer as a cat, unless I chose to run the whole way, which didn't sound like very much fun.

I'll think about this later, right now it's potty time!

His door was shut, but the window was open, so I opted for the window escape route. It was easy getting to the window sill, but when I looked out I could see the grass looked WAY further away than it used to. There were no trees nearby that I could sneak down, and short of dragging my nails down the side of his house, I saw no other alternative than to jump.

Cats always land on their feet right?

I jumped out the window, and promptly landed on my feet. Amazing! I had felt the jolt of the impact, but it was as if my body absorbed all of the shock. Being lighter definitely had it's perks. I found a suitable bush and did my business. It was only afterwards that I realized that there was no way back up to Maverick's window.

Smooth move Faylinn. Now you're going to be stuck outside for the night. What if he thinks I ran away? Just great!

I wandered back to his back porch, but the mouse was nowhere to be seen. I decided to walk the perimeter of the house to see if there were any other windows open to the cool summer air. After scanning the sides of the house, and coming up with nothing, I was starting to get discouraged. Just before I was ready to give up I spied a small window on the second floor being opened from the inside as I stood on the lawn and watched. It hadn't been open before, so why now?

A nasty smell hit my nose and I realized that I wasn't the only one that had risen to answer natures call. It may not have been the freshest, but it was my ticket back into the house. It was just my luck that this particular window faced the front of the house, and a rather broad tree was in front of it, possibly close enough for me to climb in. I began climbing the tree, and my cat instincts took over again, she knew how to climb a tree, and it was easier for both of us if I just stepped back and let her do her own thing. Before I knew it I was running out onto the branch that was closest to the window.

I could see into a small bathroom, and it looked like it may have been Maverick's parent's private bath. I listened for "movement" and didn't hear anything, so I assumed it was safe to go. I launched myself at the window, and after a few frightening seconds where I was dangling out of the window, my front paws on the counter and my hind feet scrabbling up the side of the house, I managed to scramble in the window and drop down onto the floor.

Aha! Lady Luck was with me tonight, I could see that the door to the bathroom was open, and the door leading into the hallway was open as well. As I padded casually through the room, I made one fatal mistake: I had forgotten about the person who up until that moment had be using the facilities.

"WHAT IS THAT? SOME SCROUNGY CAT? GET OUTTA HERE!!!!"

I looked up just in time to see a shoe flying at me at an alarming rate. I bolted for the door and the shoe missed me by inches, crashing into the wall with such force that drywall rained down on my head. I was in full blown panic mode, as was the cat, and together we ran for the safety of Maverick's room. But the big scary monster wasn't done with us, oh no.

"COME BACK HERE YOU FILTHY LITTLE SHIT!!! I"LL TEACH YOU TO CREEP INTO MY HOME!"

First he wants me to leave, then in the next breath he asks me to come back? What a nutball...

I reached Mavericks door and scratched as loud as I could, but I could see there was no need because the light was already on. The thundering steps behind me was enough to give me a heart attack, cats could have heart attacks right? The door opened abruptly and I wasted no time. As soon as the gap was large enough for me to fit I was through the door and under the bed. I shivered uncontrollably as voices boomed back and forth outside the now closed door. I couldn't understand what was being said, but it didn't sound good. I did hear a lot of "CAT CAT CAT" though. A second voice joined the others, this one more feminine. I was almost positive it was his mom Mindy, and that must have made the scary man Maverick's father.

I had never met Maverick's father personally in all the years that I had lived next door to him. Whenever someone asked about him, you could see the tension blossom from both of them, Mindy and Maverick. I never knew why until this very moment. I heard what sounded like a smack, followed by more yelling on Mavericks part. The shouting continued for several minutes before Maverick came slamming back into his room, fire in his eyes. He picked up a snow globe that was sitting on a shelf and threw it against the wall, the glass shattered and I had to try hard not to run out from under the bed.

"DAMN YOU! CURSE YOU! I HATE YOU SO....much...."

His voice faltered at the end, and soon he was sitting at his desk, head in his hands. He stayed like that for several minutes before he uncovered his face and I realized that his cheeks were wet. He had been sobbing. I had never felt worse for someone else in my entire life. It was made all the worse when I realized that this must happen all the time, and yet nobody even knew about it, and if they did they kept quiet because I'd certainly never heard anything; Mindy and my mom we inseperable.

I watched him wipe his eyes on his shirt sleeve and pull out a fresh sheet of paper. He started drawing feverishly with a pencil, so hard in fact that the lead broke off twice before he threw it against the wall. It joined the broken shards of snow globe. I cautiously stepped out from under the bed and rubbed myself against his leg. He didn't even hesitate to pull me up into his lap and resumed sobbing into my hair. The cat in me was uncomfortable, but I forced her to stick it out. After a while he crumpled up his drawing and layed down in bed. I followed him. As my eyelids slowly closed, I spotted his crumpled drawing next to the desk, and was surprised to find that it was a half finished picture of me.