TEARS, TEASING, & REALIZATION (from Teazer's POV) Pt. 1

One day, as I stumbled into the junkyard, I met an all white cat stumbling in from the other side. I decided to go over to her and introduce myself. She didn't seem to know anybody.

"Hey!" I said when I got to her. She was more lost than I had realized. "So are you new here?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I guess. I just heard voices and decided to check it out. Are you new here?" she asked back.

"No, I'm old here."

"Cool," she said, laughing. "Let's be best friends!"

Ok!" I said. "My name's Rumpleteazer."

"I'm Victoria," she smiled.

Then I started telling her about all the cats.

"That's Coricopat. He never smiles, so he creeps everyone out."

"Ooh. Creepy."

"Yeah. And that's his sister, Tantomile. They communicate through their minds."

"Wow."

"That's Jellylorum and Jennyannydots. They're sort of—the mothers of the tribe."

"Oh."

"And over there are Bombalurina, Demeter, and Munkustrap."

"The red one doesn't look to happy," Vicky pointed out.

I snickered. "Yeah, she's not too happy with Demeter and Munkustrap at the moment. She feels he's stealing her best friend away from her."

Victoria laughed. "So there's drama here, too, isn't there?" she asked.

"Yep."

She looked around. "Who are they?" she asked.

"Those are the idiots. I mean, Pouncival, Plato, and Admetus." I smirked. "I call them the idiots."

"They look about our age," Victoria noted.

This time, I grinned mischievously. "They are. And Mungo is too. He's my brother. He should be back soon. I don't know where he is."

"Does he look like you?" she asked, trying to help.

"Yeah."

"Cool. I've always wanted a twin," she said.

I shrugged. "It's not as awesome as everybody thinks it is. But we are best friends." Then I lowered my voice, "and partners in crime."

"Crime?" Victoria asked, alarmed.

"It's not that bad," I assured her. "We just steal stuff from our owners."

"Oh, ok," Victoria replied. "Well, I don't see him anywhere." Then she looked over at a group of three kittens sitting together.

Seeing her, I added, "That's Electra, Etcetera, and Jemima," I pointed to the group of three who were sitting together. They waved back, and seemed to be getting up. "I guess they're coming here to chat."

All of a sudden, there was a huge crash behind us. Victoria and I spun around, and saw that Mistoffeles had knocked over a trash can. "Oops," he muttered, looking embarrassed.

I rolled my eyes. "Same old Misto," I sighed. When I saw Victoria's bewilderment, I added, "That's 'Magical Mr. Mistoffeles'" I said the 'magical' part almost sarcastically.

"Magical?" Victoria asked.

"Well, you know, he does magic and stuff," I explained. "He can shoot sparks, and make things appear out of nowhere."

"Really? Vicky asked, curiously. "Well, maybe he should transform one of his two left feet.

I laughed hysterically. Victoria was funny.

"Hey Teaser!!!" Mungo shouted from across the junkyard. He had arrived.

"He does look like you," Victoria commented.

"Hey Mungo." I greeted my brother.

"Who's your friend?" he asked with curiosity.

"Oh, this is Victoria, Victoria this is my brother Mungojerrie."

"A pleasure to meet you." he said, before realizing what this meant.

"Teazer!!! Are you replacing me?" he asked furiously.

"You stupid cat, no I'm not!!!"

"Oh, ok. Just checkin'."

Victoria laughed at us, and then walked away to greet Jemima and crew.

"I think I could be friends with her," I decided out loud. Mungo just shrugged.

~^!^~


A few days later, I came in early because I couldn't fall asleep. It was then that I heard Admetus running around the junkyard, singing, "Misto likes Vicky! Misto likes Vicky!"

Misto likes Vicky? I thought. And then the realization hit me, for the first time of many.

MISTOFELES LIKES VICTORIA???

That was a very strange thought. But still...I think it could be true.

She was kind of pretty. To the toms, anyway.

~^!^~

It was a couple of weeks later that Mungo joined in to the teasing. He literally chased Victoria around yelling mocking words at her.

I ran over to him and smacked him on the head. "Stop it! Can't you see you're bugging her!"

"Aw, gerroff my back, Teaze. I'm just having fun!"

"Well, stop it! It's making her mad!"

"Whatever."

~^!^~

It was a couple days later and Victoria and I were walking around the junkyard, talking about all that's going on.

"It must be so annoying having everybody teasing you like that," I commented.

"Yeah, it is."

"How do you feel about it?" It feels all Doctor Phil now, but then it sounded totally appropriate.

"I don't know. It's weird, I guess."

"Do you really, you know, like Misto?" It was an innocent question. I just wanted to know for sure that she didn't so I could tell all the toms who were teasing her that.

She stopped in her tracks. "Yeah," she said, after a moment's hesitation. "I do."

That caught me off guard, but I tried not to show it. Again, the realization hit me. When you find out somebody likes you, I guessed, you sort of start to like them too. We walked on in silence as I pondered my newfound information.

~^!^~

"Teazer! TEAZER! Misto asked me to the Ball!"

It was the day before the world-famous Jellicle Ball. All the cats were worked up about getting dates. Except me. I didn't really care. Plus none of the toms liked me anyway.

"That's great, Vicky!" I said. She seemed excited, so I was too. For her.

The next day, things started out greatly. Victoria did a solo dance, and Misto came out and joined her. Afterwards, though, he seemed embarrassed. He stayed in the shadows for the next few songs. It didn't look like he was going to do much with Victoria.

Eventually, Misto did a little dance, then went off into the shadows to make room for others. His friends were trying to persuade him to get over and dance with Victoria as I randomly walked by where they were sitting. Sensing relationship troubles, I walked over to them and sat down.

"Come on Misto," said Pouncival. "You can do it!"

"Yeah!" agreed Tumble. "You like her don't you?"

"Yes," Misto whispered, looking at his feet.

I rolled my eyes. "Dude, your woman is waiting!" I shouted.

My battle cry sparked a rebellion among his friends, and Tumblebrutus led him onto the dance floor, near the front. I pumped my fist in the air to show support for Misto, then joined the dance, near the middle where I could see what was going on. Victoria was dancing, not really caring what everyone else was doing. She stood next to him for a moment, then danced off and looked at him expectantly.

Misto took one look at her and ran away. She shrugged, and was about to continue to dance when Plato ran up to her and brushed against her.

"What the--" she started. Mungo turned to glare at me as I let out an audible gasp. This was most certainly not supposed to happen.

Plato and Victoria came closer together, and I was close enough to hear him whisper, "Let's make Misto jealous." Victoria nodded swiftly in agreement.

"Oh," I muttered, realization coming over me. I watched Plato lift Victoria into the air and stroke her leg, and wondered just how jealous he was trying to make Misto feel.

I scampered over to Misto in the shadows, and whispered hurriedly, "Plato and Victoria are dancing!"

"I know," he muttered bitterly.

"That could have been you!" I reminded him.

This made him both mad and sad. I left him at that, and went over to join Mungo again. They were almost done. Victoria shot me a glance. It wasn't guilty. It was sort of--expressionless.

Apparently this dance gave Misto a newfound courage. Next I checked, he was by Victoria's side, and had no intentions of leaving.

I smiled to myself. I had done it.

~^!^~