Chapter 1- Unexpected Turn of Events

It was just another normal summer day in the jellicle junkyard. Four cats were hanging out in the outskirts of the junkyard, just chatting away about the latest gossip.

"I can't believe Cassandra broke up with Alonzo. Weren't they gonna become mates at the next ball?" Jemima wandered aloud.

"Yeah, they've been together forever... It was just so sudden, no one saw it coming, least of all Alonzo. Sure he flirts a lot, but he loves Cass...." Victoria said.

Jemima glanced over at Plato, who was basking in the warm sunlight, his eyes closed, breathing deeply as if asleep. Plato was one of Alonzo's best friends, and he had told them of how crushed Alonzo had been when Cassandra had broken off their relationship the day before. The black and white tom had not come out of his den since, and they were starting to worry about him.

"Plato?" Rumpleteazer quietly called his name, not sure if he was awake or not. When he opened his eyes, she continued, "Do you know where Alonzo is? Nobody's seen him since...." she trailed off. He sat up, leanig on his front paws lokking around at his friends.

"He's probably still in his old den, most likely feeling really lonely. He's so used to staying in Cassandra's den...." Plato answered.

"Maybe you should go talk to him, Plato. I tried to yesterday, when I found him upset just standing outside of Cass's den, but he refused to talk to anyone." Jemima suggested.

He looked at Jemima, who he realized was very upset, presumably because she was worried about Alonzo. Considering her suggestion he said, "I can try. I can't guarantee he'll talk to me though."

"If anyone can get him to talk, you can. You're his best friend." Victoria chimed in. Plato nodded and looked back to Jemima who now looked like she was about to cry.

"I really hope he's ok....someone needs to talk to him....I don't want him to do anything stupid..." she worried aloud, not speaking to anyone in particular.

Not wanting her to get anymore upset, Plato got up off the ground, brushing the dirt off of his fur. "Yeah...I better go check on him. I'll be back, but I'm warning you now he probably won't be in a very good mood if I bring him here."

"At least it'll get him away from the junkyard." Teazer said, attempting to look on the bright side.

"And away from Cassandra." Victoria added.

Plato nodded and took one last look at Jemima, before heading off towards the main junkyard. After his departure it was quiet, but as soon as Plato was completely out of earshot, Victoria turned to Jemima. "Hey Jemmie....can I ask you something?"

The young queen looked up, carefully rearranging her features so that they wouldn't notice her sadness and confusion. "Sure Tori."

Victoria exchanged a glance with Teazer before continuing,"Do you still like Alonzo?"

Jemima blushed. She had liked Alonzo a lot, but when she found out that he was going to do the mating dance with Cassandra, she had tried to stop liking him. That hadn't worked very well. "Uhhhhh....possibly? I'm not sure actually...You know how I tried to stop liking him..." she stammered, refusing to look at either one of them.

Teazer and Victoria's faces broke out into grins, "So you do still like him?" they asked at the same time.

Avoiding their gazes she whispered, "Kinda." before pretending to become very interested in a small rock located on the ground, still blushing furiously. Her friends began to giggle and squeal with,

"I knew it!"

"Aww Jemmie!"

"I told you it wouldn't just go away!"

"Thats so cute!"

"He's single now too!"

"Wait till Plato brings him here!"

They continued on with these little outbursts for a few minutes until Jemima all but died of humiliation. Once they had quieted down, Jem risked a glance up at Victoria. She was smiling at her sincerely while Teazer still seemed too excited.

Just then, they could hear raised voices coming toward them. It sounded like Plato try to out talk Alonzo, who seemed to be ranting profanities about Cassandra.

"Alonzo! Shut up! We know you're pissed, you have every right to be, its understandable, but can you stop shouting for two seconds?" Plato yelled over his friend. Alonzo just angrily stormed over to where the queens were, sitting down on a tire a few feet away from them.

The queens backed off, scared he might start yelling again. Plato came over and sat down next to Jemima, who was staring at Alonzo, looking upset. After a few minutes of whispered conversation between Victoria and Teazer, Alonzo looked up at them, his green eyes full of sadness.

"I'm really sorry. Its just, me and Cassandra have been together for a long time...and for her to just..." Alonzo trailed off, staring down at the ground.

Victoria regarded his words sympathetically. "We know you're upset Alonzo, but if you won't even talk to us, how can we help you?"

He only shook his head, his face in his hands. Tori walked over to him and gave him a hug, trying to lighten the mood. The patched tom stayed stock still but allowed her to hug him. She let go and motioned for the others to come over. They all repositooned themselves closer to him.

Alonzo held out his hand and in his paw he held a heart shaped silver charm. "I gave this to her as a promise to become mates soon. When she broke up with me, she threw it in my face and stormed off."

Victoria and Jemima exchanged a significant glance, before Jemima began to blink back her tears. So Alonzo was still in love with the saimese queen. How could ever like someone as insignifcant as the Jemima after Cass's beauty?

"She had no right to just break everything off!" Alonzo said loudly, trying to conrtol his voice as it began to get louder. "Well if she's gonna act like that maybe I should already have another queen in mind....she's wanted Admetus I bet, thats why she did this all of a sudden....."

Jemima glanced up in surprise. He was thinking about looking for another queen? That had certainly caught her interest. Rumpleteazer chimed in, "What other queen Alonzo? Do you like someone else?"

He began to smile, his eyes far off and unfocused. "Yeah....you know I've ectually been thinking about a certain queen for a little while now...."

"Who?" Victoria prompted him.

"Well I heard Bomba is single....." he continued. Tori and Teazer's faces fell and they immediatly looked at Jemima, looking very concerned. Jem couldn't stop the tears this time. A few months ago she had liked Pouncival and he had lost interest in her because of that fiery red queen. She was not about to lose the tom she liked to her again. But what could she do? How could she compete with Bombalurina?

Jemima stood up, tears now falling freely down her cheeks and gave Tori and Teaz a look that clearly told them not to follow her, before running off deeper into the outskirts. She needed some time to think. Why Bomba? If he had said anyone else she wouldn't be this upset. Heck if he'd said Teazer she wouldn't have even cared. But Bomba? The resident female flirt? The one who had taken Pouncie away from her?

She just couldn't stop crying, no matter how hard she tried. She knew her friends were worried, but she didn't want them to see her like this. She curled up in a little ball on the ground and cried. After a while, she heard voices not far away.

"Go ahead Misto, I'll catch up." she heard a vaguely familiar voice say. The footsteps headed toward her now and she tried to wipe her tears away quickly.

"Jemima?" around the corner walked a light blue-grey tom, a black patch of fur over his right eye. It took her a few seconds but she recognized him as one of Mistoffelees's friends. His name was Astrid, and Jem hadn't seen him since they were little kits.

"Astrid?" she asked, astonished. This surprise had shocked her out of her crying.

"Jem, are you okay?"

She got up off the ground and nodded, rubbing her swollen eyes. "What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in forever."

"Well me and Sergei came with Misto to come see his new girlfriend."

Sergei was another of Misto's friends she guessed, though she didn't recognize his name at all. "Oh you mean Victoria? Misto said he'd be bringing friends but we didn't know it would be you...." she smiled.

"C'mon lets go back to them. Maybe you can tell me whats been going on later. Right now it looks like you need some cheering up." Jemima followed him as they went to find their friends.

When they found them, Astrid just walked in like he owned the place, being his usual funny self. Jemima hesitated, took a deep breath, and stepped into the clearing where everyone was still sitting. Her eyes were automatically drawn to Alonzo, and she noticed that he seemed to be in a much better mood.

Alonzo was sitting talking to Plato, Victoria was holding hands with Misto, and Teazer was talking to Astrid and who Jem assumed was Sergei. His fur was mostly brown and sort of ruffled and wiry, with red flecks across his chest. As she slowely walked toward Teaz, Alonzo switched his gaze to her instead.

He watched her as she walked over to Astrid, who gave her a comforting hug, Teazer smiled, and Sergei looked at her as well. Alonzo looked back at Plato, while Victoria whispered something to Misto before letting go of his hand and walking over to Jemima.

"Jemmie, you okay?" Jemima nodded as Tori gave her a hug and whispered in her ear, "You know 'Lonzo's in a much better mood now, go talk to him."

Jemima grinned and as the white queen headed back over to her boyfriend, she slinked her way over to Plato and Alonzo. They looked up as she sat down next to them. "Hey Jem, you okay now? Why were you so upset?" Alonzo asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah, we were gonna chase after you, but your friends told us to not to, that you just needed some alone time." Plato added.

"I'm fine now, it was.....nothing." she replied. Alonzo got up and and sat down next to her.

"C'mon Jemima, tell me what's wrong." he said quietly, his green eyes staring into her brown ones.

"N-nothing's wrong Alonzo...."

"Hey, don't try to pull that one me, I know you better than that." he said with a smile. Plato had gotten up to go join the the others, leaving them alone.

"Alonzo...." she said. How could she resist him if he was acting like this?

"Jemmie I swear I won't tell anyone...."

"Its really a long story, I'm not about to just explain it all right now."

"Was it something I said that upset you? You ran after I said something...."

"Nah, Alonzo, its okay, really, I'm fine now...."

He smiled and layed his head on her lap. "Hey Jemmie, do you like me?"

She froze. Had she been that obvious? She hurried to come up with something to say....

"Cuz you know, I'm single now...." he continued, sparing Jemima the trouble of answering. "And I might as well make the most of being single." He looked flirtatiously at her, getting up and tickling her sides. She giggled and squirmed away from him.

"Alonzo, what are you doing?" she laughed.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he smiled and continued to tickle her. Victoria glanced over at them, and smiled at what she saw.

They were sitting there, tickling each other and Jem noticed that Alonzo's face kept getting closer to hers. Once it got a little too close and she backed away a little. "What was that?" she asked.

"C'mon just one little kiss..." he whispered. His eyes were boring into hers, the green sparkling in the sunlight. Jemima was confused. Did he like her? Actually like her, or just wanted to flirt? She wasn't one to kiss somebody for no reason and that wasn't about to change.

"Lonzo..."she said, backing up a little farther.

"What's wrong?" he asked, looking confused. "Don't you like me?"

She sat there, staring at him. Yeah she did like him, but this was going a little too fast for her. "Okay, I get it, you don't want to kiss me in front of everybody. I can fix that..." he gently grabbed her paw and started to lead her away form the others. Jemima looked nervously at her friends, to see that Tori was looking back at her, nodding her head and grinning. Teazer was practically bouncing up and down in agreement.

She smiled at them, and turned back to let Alonzo guide her away. They arrived in a small alcove of junk, the sun was setting and it had started to get dark. "Hey...look at me." Alonzo whispered.

She looked into his green eyes, and just about went weak at the knees. He was just so cute.....

His face got closer, as if to kiss her, but she looked down. "Jemmie what's wrong?" he put his hands on her waist.

Gently she took his hands off of her waist but didn't let go of them. "Alonzo, what's this gonna change?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, confused.

"You're still in love with Cass, why would you kiss me, if you were in love with someone else?"

"You mean I was right? You do like me?" his eyes shined as he grinned.

"Maybe...but Alonzo you love Cass, you even said you did."

"But I like you too Jem...." he laced their fingers together. his face got closer again...

She turned away from him this time, dropping his hands. "Alonzo this might make sense to you now, but what about later? Tomorrow? A week from now?"

"Jem, I'm not just gonna stop liking you...."

"You're not just gonna stop loving Cass either."

"Jemima..."

"Plus I thought you liked Bomba?" she added in there, crossing her arms, turned completely away from him.

"Jemmie, is that why you were upset earlier? Because I said I liked Bomba? I didn't really mean that.....wait why did mentioning her upset you so much? Do you not like her or something?"

"Alonzo that's a long story....not gonna happen. At least not now."

"Jemima...I really do like you." he wrapped his arms around her from behind and she uncrossed her arms, nervous, not sure if she would be able to resist him.

He kissed her on the neck, and that was too much. She did still really like him and that wasn't going to change. Although she knew there would probably be consequences, she couldn't resist any longer. Jem turned around to face him, and their foreheads touched, both of them staring into each other's eyes, before sharing a kiss.

As they pulled away, they were both grinning. Alonzo intertwined his hand with hers and they headed back to the others, smiling. Victoria s the first to notice them when they get back, her eyes widening a bit when she sees them holding hands. Jem blushed and let go of his paw, he only continued to grin and sat down next to her as they joined the others.

Jemima notices Tori trying to mouth something at her which looked a lot like, 'Did you kiss him?' Blushing a little bit, she nodded and Tori grinned before turning back to her boyfriend. She glanced at Teazer who seemed to be flirting with Astrid.

"Sorry Jem, I gotta go....see you tomorrow?" Alonzo whispered in her ear, squeezing her hand still in his.

She grinned and whispered, "Sure." He guestured to Plato that they needed to leave, kissing Jem on the cheek, and reluctanly letting go of her hand. Just before he was out of sight, he turned and gave her a smile, dissappearing into the distance.