Hey there, guys. :3 I'm Zelda, otherwise known as Hazel Atera Rosen. So, this is my first chapter of my first fanfiction; don't underestimate the power of a good OC! Anyways, reviews are loved.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own CATS. If I did, Mistoffelees would be king and everyone would sing and dance and eat bananas.

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I couldn't remember much, only that my head hurt so incredibly bad that I could hardly see straight when I opened my eyes. Oh, Everlasting Cat. So, where was I now?

I tried to sit up, cried out in pain and dizziness, and fell over again, though I managed not to hit my head on the hard ground of the dark alley. Props to me. So, the world spinning before my eyes, I just lay there a while and waited until the brain-splattering pain in my head cleared enough for me to actually think.

Okay, now that we're being reasonable, seriously. Where was I?

I couldn't remember ever being here before.

Then again, thinking a little harder, I couldn't remember anything at all. Not even what I looked like.

A little panicked, I scrambled onto all-fours, causing my head to lurch unhappily as I closed in towards a nearby broken-up mirror, leaned up against a mound of trash across the street, in front of a junkyard. Fabulous, mountains of garbage and stink to take my mind off things. That'd be really helpful. As if my head didn't hurt already.

Swiftly crossing the asphalt so as not to be squished by a car (I did remember cars were dangerous, you know), I padded up to the mirror and stood up on two legs, examining myself. A dark gray, ashy tabby cat, small enough to be mistaken for a kit but too wise in the face to be guessed otherwise. A young queen, staring back at me with sea-green eyes and a face that faded to white, followed by a similarly-colored chest and tail tip. Oh, yeah, my tail. It was long, really long, and kind of bushy, swishing subconsciously around my feet, which faded into silver. Okay, so now I knew what I looked like. Again, props to me. How very observant of me.

As I was about to start reflecting on other things I'd forgotten, I heard a voice off to my right and froze, instinctually fearful. "Hey, you! What're you doing around here?" The voice was wary, but not that angry, so I took a chance and turned my head to glance at who'd called me.

It was two toms; the one who had called out just now was black and white, all patched together like a haphazard, monochrome quilt. He seemed younger than the other, a stately silver tabby, who had that air of leadership around him as he whisked towards me. Well. If they were going to kill me, he would be running, so I made the assumption they were okay cats and fully turned myself towards them.

The black and white tom stopped in front of me and looked down – remember I was kind of small for a new queen as I assumed I was--, so I decided to look back up, my eyes challenging. "I dunno," I responded. "What're you doing around here?"

"I live here, thanks for asking, kitten." He cocked a brow at my sharp tongue, and I smiled inwardly. So I was spunky. That was frankly awesome. More props to me for having a personality.

"I'm not a kitten, thanks for assuming, tomcat," I responded, but I took a step back, my eyes screaming attitude at him as the tabby came up beside him.

"What do we have here, Alonzo?" he asked. His voice was kind of paternal and reassuring, and I didn't even know the guy. Something about my thoughts this far told me I wasn't very trusting of new cats, so good for him.

"A wandering kit with an attitude," this Alonzo guy snapped, partially at me and partially at the striped, older cat.

"I'm not a kit, thanks again!" I half-shouted. "Alonzo? What kind of a name is that? What are you, freaking Austrian or something? Who names their kit Alonzo?" I was really starting to get fed up with this guy. Who did he think he was, Rumpus Cat?

"You wanna say that again?!" The black and white tom lunged forward, but the other one grabbed his wrist, stopping him. "Come on, Munkustrap, lemme at her! She's just a rogue!"

Munkustrap. Sounded like Monkey Strap. Reminded me of a monkey wearing a belt or something.

I didn't realize I had said that last thought out loud until I caught them both giving me funny looks.

"And what might your name be, while we're on the topic of names?" asked Munkustrap calmly, apparently unfazed by how weird I thought his name was.

Name. Name. What was my name?

"Uh, um...my name is..." I had to think fast, they were already looking suspicious. I spouted out the first thing that came to mind. "Luvarium." Luvarium. What kind of a name was that?

"Luvarium?" Alonzo narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah. Better than your name, innit?" I stuck my tongue out at him, but he was calmer now.

"So, then, Luvarium," Munkustrap interjected. "Might I ask what you're doing around here?"

C'mon, Lu, make something up. Oh, Rumpus, I was already making up nicknames for a name that probably wasn't my real one. Should I just tell them I don't know? Well...I really shouldn't lie. Lying wasn't good. At that moment, I actually discovered I had a conscience.

"I know you're not gonna believe me," I said quickly, "but I kind of...don't...know."

Alonzo narrowed his eyes. "How can you not know what you're doing here?" he asked, now more curiosity in his voice than anger. "You mean you have amnesia?"

"What the hell is amnesia? No! I just, uh, forgot. About a lot of things." Like my name. And what I looked like. And where I came from.

"Well, it seems we have a memory loss case on our hands." Munkustrap was smiling, and I felt immediately grateful, even though I was about to spit a retort at him. I reconsidered and paused, then just looked him up and down a few times and shrugged. Strong, handsome...but I didn't think of him like that. He was too old for me. More a...fatherly figure sort. You know what I mean. But I said something like that already, didn't I?

"So, uh...what happens now?" I asked, looking curiously at the two toms, who looked at each other, seemed to discuss quietly via their eyes, and then looked back at me. "Okay, so that was major weirdness," I said airily, staring at them. "Does your kind always converse through looking at each other? Is it, like, a hobby or something?" Okay, so I was being a total butt-cheek. But one gets kinda pissed off when she wakes up with one beast of a headache to find she can't even remember her own name.

"Ah, no." Alonzo laughed halfheartedly. "We were, um, 'conversing' about taking you back to where we live. In the junkyard."

My immediate response was to wrinkle up my nose and say, "Ew, no," but I figured that if they could put up with it on a daily basis, I could put up with it for a day or two, until I figured out all the technical bits like...where exactly I lived. If I, like, lived somewhere. "Um, yeah, that'd be great, considering I don't have a place to sleep." I laughed, a little nervous at the prospect of coming back to where these two strong toms came from.

"In that case," Munkustrap said, smiling warmly at me, "come with us. I'm sure the other Jellicles would love to have you."

Jellicle. "WTF, mate?" moment much. "Uh, yeah." I scampered up to them as they turned and started walking back. "So, then, what's a Jellicle cat, exactly?"

And so we continued on for a good few minutes while the two toms, the older and the younger, spurted knowledge at me about Jellicle cats. They sang and danced and lived in tribes and each year there was a Jellicle Ball, and Munkustrap's father Old Deuteronomy would send a cat up to the Heaviside Layer to be reborn in a different life. All this I found very fascinating, but I wasn't sure if I could sing or dance, and whether or not I was "of age." When I mentioned this, Alonzo looked me over and said, "I think you're probably of age, or close to it," he meowed. He obviously meant this in a friendly way, but I couldn't help suddenly realizing I was self-conscious and blushing a little, looking down to hide it.

"Um, thanks," I mumbled, then looked back up. "Hey, uh, Alonzo."

"What?"

"Sorry about making fun of your name. It's a good name, really. I was just...pissed off. And I needed someone to yell at. You ever get times like those?"

Alonzo grinned. "All the time."

"Ha ha. Makes me happy to know I'm not the only one." I was starting to like this guy. Just as a friend, mind. But still. He wasn't all that bad. I still didn't trust him all that much, though.

Of course, Munkustrap had been watching us converse with raised eyebrows and a knowing smile, so I snapped my fingers. "Wipe that look off your face! What's so bad about getting to know a tom, eh, Monkey Strap?" I had a feeling he was probably too high-ranked for me to be calling him Monkey Strap, but he just laughed good-naturedly and brushed it off again. Apparently he was very tolerant of smartass young queens. Who knew.

"Oh, nothing, nothing." Munkustrap seemed to drop the subject when faced with the none-too-amused faces of Alonzo and me.