bombalurina was listening to possibly the most hurtful conversation of her life. it was between munkustrap, pouncivil, and alonzo. "Bombalurina has always been the scarlet queen," said munku, the one bomba can't stand and he feels the same way, "every young tom loves her, but does she really love them back? of course not. she's a worthless flirt who cares for no one!" pounce jumped at this remark for he did love her and grew angry at munku.

"you know that's not true! she's good looking and all, but that doesn't mean she's a trashy cat!" shouted pounce. bombalurina agreed cmpletely. she admired pounce's remark. she was sad that munku would even think this.

"I don't know. munku's loyal and would never lie," said alonzo.

"thank you alonzo," said munku, "pounce, you have to get over loving HER. she's not worth it." pouncival looked down with a crushed spirit and began to walk away. bombalurina was hurt that munku would say such things. she was hurt that pouncival gave up on her.

with tears and her eyes she thought, "it's not tru." she jumped because she heard a crash! she quickly wiped the tears off her cheek so noone would see. she peeked around the dark corner and realized that it was pouncival who had made the noise. he was angry and had kicked something. she didn't care if he gave up on her because she couldn't stand to see him like this.

she slowly walked over and said, "hey." pounce turned in shock to see her. he did not want to show his anger.

"hi," he said. bombalurina wasn't satisfied with his reply so she walked closer to him.

"are you okay?" she asked as sweet as she could. he was surprised to hear HER ask that.

"what makes you think i'm not okay?"

"i never said i thought you weren' okay. i simply asked if you WERE okay," bomba said, trying to cheer him up with a joke. he didn't even smile. "i'm soory. i'm just trying to make you happier," she admitted. "i saw what happend in there." pounce became nervouse.

"is it true? what they said?" pouncival asked. bombalurina was confused. she thought pounce had believed what they said.

"do you think it is?" she asked as she grabbed her arm.

"i don't know," he replied, "i didn't at first."

"it's not though," she said as she began crying again. she tried to hide it as best she could, but pounce wasn't fooled.

"are you... crying, bombalurina?"

"um. no," she lied as she wiped her eyes. pounce didn't like the fact that she lied about crying. he turned around with a sad look on his face. after bombalurina stopped crying, she went over to comfurt him.

she put her paw on his shoulder and said, "pouncival... yes. i was crying."

pouncival put his paw on hers and said, "i never thought you'd be one to cry." bomba tried to smile.

"neither did i."

"why were you crying? was it just one of your flirting acts?" pounce asked hoping he didn't say too much. this lessoned bombalurina's spirit.

she looked down, but did not reply. pounce believed that everything munku said was true at this point.

"you want to know why i was crying?" she asked. "i was crying because i thought that you believed what munku said to you. alonzo believes it already. i don't want you to." she put her hand over her face to sheild even more tears.

"i'm sorry, bombalurina," pounce said. he now felt so guilty and he was afraid that he just made her hate him. he really did love bombalurina.

"it's okay. did you really believe them?" she said in a whisper.

"i defended you as best i could, but i'm kind of a shy tom. i gave up to quickly." bombalurina took pounce's paw.

"i'm sorry," she said, "for manipulating you all those times."

"so..." pounce said looking down at her paw gripping his. "what they said... it was true?" bomba was scared she had just said the wrong thing.

she quickly changed the subject so she could make him feel less down and said, "pounce, did you mean what you said? when you were defending me..."

"i did," he said pulling his paw away from hers. bombalurina was sad that she'd let pounce down so easily. he truly thought she was a monster.

"thank you," she said. pounce began to walk away. bomba had not accomplished her goal. pounce had no faith in her any more.