Jellicle Buddies
Chapter 1- Old Deuteronomy's concern
A/N: Hey! Now, I have a confession. As much as I love the tragedy, and the drama, and the angst, I'm afraid I have to admit… my favourite genre… is … COMEDY! (sings) I love comedy, I love comedy… a bit too much. Anyhow… I especially love throwing characters into uncomfortable situations. Especially perfectly serious (and awesome) characters from a perfectly serious (and awesome) setting in a perfectly serious (and awesome) musical. Especially those. (grins evilly) Forgive me!
Anyways, enjoy and please review!
Old Deuteronomy was concerned. Now, it was in the elderly leader's nature to be concerned over frivolous things sometimes, as his son, Munkustrap, never failed to remind him, but this was different. This was a concern actually worth being concerned about.
Last night had been the Jellicle Ball. Many events had taken place on said night- Munkustrap had figured out that some people didn't know what a Jellicle cat is, Victoria and Plato had done an incredibly awkward mating dance, Macavity had attacked (always lovely to see him), Demeter had strained her vocal chords from screaming/singing, and, of course, Grizabella had died (obviously, he meant that she made her glorious ascension to the Heaviside Layer).
But Old Deuteronomy had observed something particularly distressing. And, as he ordered (nicely) his fellow Jellicles to Great Tire for a lecture, he had this in mind.
"My fellow Jellicles," he began incredibly creatively, "Last night was the Jellicle Ball."
"Tell me something I don't know." yelled Tumblebrutus.
"And it was all very fun." Old Deuteronomy continued.
"Yeah, for the people who got to do the mating dance." Pouncival hollered. Etcetera, Electra and Jemima started giggling in Victoria's direction. Victoria glared at them.
Old Deuteronomy gritted his teeth. "But I noticed something rather concerning during the proceedings."
"Victoria actually looked really uncomfortable when she was lifted up by Plato?" Jemima asked innocently, being the innocent kitten that she was. Victoria lost it at this point and lashed out at Jemima, scratching her ever so slightly. "OWWW!" Jemima wailed.
"Actually, yeah, I noticed that too. A bit awkward for Plato, I should think." Old Deuteronomy commented.
Plato looked like her wanted to die at this point.
"Oh, and Vic, let's keep our paws to ourselves." Old Deuteronomy added.
Victoria huffed and sat down, giving Jemima a slightly-too-hard pat on the back.
"OWWW!" Jemima screeched.
"Gee," Old Deuteronomy muttered to himself. "Queens these days"
"I heard that!" Jennyanydots and Jellylorum whined in unison.
"I didn't say anything…" Old Deuteronomy trailed off.
"Yes you did!" Victoria shouted. Payback.
"No I didn't!" the Jellicle leader insisted
"Yes you did!" the queens moaned.
"Get on with it!" the toms yelled.
"Well," Old Deuteronomy began, fairly pleased at having gotten away so easily, "Last night, I noticed that some of you have some… tension between you."
Every single cat there exchanged glances with every single other cat there in the space of about three seconds.
"And I want to do something about that."
This caught everyone's attention. Everlasting Cat. Old Deuteronomy had a plan. And Old Deuteronomy plans were almost never good.
"I was sitting on the vicarage wall the other day," said cat who had plans continued, "and I heard the vicar's daughter talking about something that they did in her school. And it sounded like a very Jellicle-like thing indeed."
This was not raising anyone's hopes.
"It's called a buddy system. You all pair off, so that everyone has a buddy. Then you pick an activity from my bag…" (the Jellicles now all realised why he'd been holding a huge brown bag the whole time) "…and you all get to know each other better! Doesn't that sound great?"
The response from the Jellicles was like an ocean collapsing on the poor Jellicle leader's ears.
"I want to be with Jemima!" screeched Victoria.
"No, you scratched me! I want to be with Electra." replied Jemima.
"Nooo! I want to be with Etcetera!" hollered Electra.
"TUGGER!" squealed Etcetera.
"OOF!" said Tugger as Etcetera pounced on him.
"I want to be with Bomba!" Pouncival and Tumblebrutus shouted in unison.
"Eew, no way." said Bombalurina. "Tugger?" she asked hopefully.
"Can't… breathe…" responded Tugger, Etcetera bouncing up and down on his chest.
"Jellicles. JELLICLES!" cried Old Deuteronomy in a surprisingly loud voice. Wow, thought the Jellicles, he's got good lungs for an old guy. Old Deuteronomy softened his tone now that everyone was listening to him. "You do not get to choose. I do."
This news hit the Jellicles like a ton of bricks. Etcetera even got off of Tugger, much to his relief.
Well, that explained the scroll in his hand that appeared to be crushing the old cat.
"I will now read out the pairings." Old Deuteronomy announced, and with some struggle, opened the scroll. "Alonzo, you're with…"
A/N: CLIFFHANGER! Don't worry though if you liked it- I should be updating soon (this is really fun to write!)
I hope you did like it. Now… review and tell me! Also some buddy pairing ideas wouldn't go amiss. I think I've got a few good ones, but help would be much appreciated. The pairings will be coming chapter by chapter, so as long as you don't say a character I've already paired up, it would be really great!