Chapter 2. Accidentical Cats

Over the next two weeks, Alicia settled into the cast. Aside from her, there were five other new understudies, all of whom had had a harder time accepting the Jellicles than she. Sir John Mills, the original Old Gus, had passed away some years before, and Susan Jane Tanner, Jellylorum's actress, had just had surgery, and would only be able to participate in the last part of the recording, so they had to find replacements for them as well. Everyone else was original. And they all were so close in personality to their Jellicle counterparts it was ridiculous

Alicia found her niche well enough. She was friends with just about everybody, and made sure to learn everyone's name. She and Charlotte, a formidable tank of a woman in her early sixties and Maryanne, the ditzy brunette, were continually cracking jokes in the makeup booths. Jacob and Drew were usually hanging out with DVD recorders if they weren't getting worked on or on stage, and Drew had managed to snag outtake gold. Charlotte said something to Michael, already in full costume, that sent him into a fit of laughter so hard he started sneezing. He took a drink to calm himself down, Charlotte built on the original joke, and Michael spewed orange soda out his nose, all over John, who was in all white that day. To get out of the wet clothes, John promptly started a ridiculous striptease down to his skivvies, which cracked everyone up so much the girls had to redo five makeup jobs.

Alicia got along well with most of the 'Kitten Girls' as everyone called the main actresses. The two guys who played Tumblebrutus and Pouncival, Fergus and Karl , were busy teaching her how to do back and front flips better, and acted like they were still in high school, which Alicia appreciated. The people she hung around the most though, were the ones who'd helped her out the first day, and their Jellicle counterparts. Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer were the two hyperest people-er-cats, she'd ever met, and Drew and Jo weren't too far behind them. Within two weeks, they were behind easily 75 percent of the onstage pranks, and Jojo (as Gibb liked to be called) and Rump were just plain fun to have over at your place.

Munkustrap and Michael were the quiet type, but that was okay. They both were helping her with her routines and Michael had even taught her a trick to lift both male and female actors. Tugger was always right behind her if Bryn started his bullshit, with John on the other side, both cracking jokes at their own expense to cheer her up, and telling funny stories just to make her laugh. Tugger still hit on her, but Misto had been right, he did hit on everybody, even John, which was the weirdest thing in the world to watch when John was in costume…which was usually when Tugger did it. But even with their weirdness, they both seemed to have appointed themselves her guardians.

Jacob and Misto were by far the two she felt the closest to. They could talk about anything, and neither had ever judged her for some of the insane shit she thought up. She even got along with Jacob's wife, Shelby, and his daughter Julia loved her. Jacob had offered to help her continue her Broadway and ballet classes, and she had accepted.

Misto often roamed the set in cat form, and if you couldn't find him, he was on Alicia's shoulders or in her lap, napping, or pretending to, at least. Of all the Jellicles, Misto had been the most vocal about his own kind, explaining some of the rules and a lot of the family trees to Alicia, which she found extremely interesting. She, in turn, told him about her life, the military, how she had tricked their surgeons into stretching her tendons, everything.

He was always surprised by the lengths that Alicia had gone to get what she wanted, as far as the CATS thing was concerned, at least.

"Why would you do that?" he'd asked her about the tendon surgery. She'd smiled "I over extended them for a week on purpose. I knew they'd fix them, because I'd done it as part of my training…trying to be the best, I hurt myself. They admired my 'dedication' so it wasn't too hard to convince them to help me out a bit to make sure I could do what needed to be done, without hurting myself."

"Weren't you scared they'd find out you were duping them?"

With a huge grin, Alicia had whispered "Yeah, but it was worth it."

Misto had to agree.

Filming was taking longer this time around, since Mr. Webber was older, the set was bigger, and they had to work around the Really Useful Company's new schedule, which after a lawsuit, only allowed them to film 6 hours a day. It was mid September when they had started, and Mr. Webber said they wouldn't be done until at least February, due to the fact that they were also making film versions of the top five fan fictions Mr. Webber had seen submitted to an online contest he'd thought up as a way to raise money for the film. The Cast also had to perform in a couple of New York Parades (again, for fundraising) for the ASPCA and a couple of other organizations, but no one minded the longer production time. It gave everyone opportunities to relax.

About the third week into filming, Alicia was hanging backstage, doodling boredly and humming the Cats overture. They were filming the Macavity bit, so she didn't have to deal with Bryn. She sighed, and out of nowhere, Mistoffelees appeared, making her squeak.

"Sorry. You look bored."

"You, sir Cat, are a master of the obvious." Misto bowed sitting and smiled "Thank you, but seriously, what's up?"

"Oh…I'm just mad at myself."

"Why?"

"Curiosity killed the cat."

"And Pandora ruined Curiosity. Come on, what's the matter?"

"I just don't get myself sometimes. I work so hard just to get on the cast of the best musical ever, get on, and three weeks later, I'm wanting more than just an understudy position. I feel so ungrateful." Alicia said, putting down her doodling to face him.

"You're not being ungrateful. You want to better yourself, see what more you can do. You can't have been aiming for Electra understudy, so it only makes sense. Who did you want to play?" Misto asked gently. He hated seeing his friends in a slump.

"I wished I looked more like a guy. I really wanted to play either, well, you or Tugger, but I'm too short for him and too hippy for you, or any tom role. My voice isn't super high, so I can pull off that part. I wanted to play Munkus or Skimble, but again…the hips. And I don't have the chops to pull off Rump or Vicky."

"Yet. I've seen you practice. You try so hard. And you got on the cast with only four years of the classes every other actor's been in since like, age two. That in itself is something. Don't get so down on yourself. Besides…I heard Mr. Webber say he's going to get the Broadway show running again and see if he can get one going in Las Vegas, and that he'd pick people from this cast to do both, so who knows who you might be cast as. You know everyone's moves, so I don't see you not getting a job."

Alicia nudged the black cat, giggling at the very thought of it. "Is that one of your magical predictions, Mr. Smarty-socks?"

"Nope. Just facts, Cici"

"You're easy to talk to, you know that? You're a good friend, Misto." Alicia had long since gotten over her shyness around the toms, partially thanks to Tugger, and to her mantra (Just remember, they're cats) so she just flopped over and leaned on the tux tom. She didn't see Mistoffelees blush.

Alicia, tired from a night of intense practice, fell half asleep on Mistoffelees' shoulder. The tux, realizing how embarrassed he felt, and not entirely sure why, shook his head. He was in his thirties, and here he was, blushing because someone fell asleep on him. 'What kind of cat are you, Misto?' he asked himself 'You've had Victoria fall asleep with her head on your butt and you blush over this? I have to stop hanging out with Tugger, he's starting to mess with my head.'

Misto managed to shake Alicia awake, effectively ending his discomfort, when they heard a thud and a scream. A muffled "CUT!" rang out before a shower of 'is she okay?' reached them. Rosemarie and Phyllida came backstage, Leah Sue between them, crying and dragging a foot bent at a weird angle. Misto and Alicia jumped to help as the two set her down.

"What happened?" Alicia asked

"She landed wrong," Rosemarie said, looking at Leah's ankle as she pulled off the legwarmer. "I think she's broken something."

"Leah, can you move your ankle?" Misto asked as he inspected her leg. It was swollen and quickly turning an ugly purple. Leah tried, and screamed in pain as soon as the ankle moved. "Broken, definitely."

Mr. Webber came puffing back stage, his face pale. "Is she alright?" he asked no one in particular. Alicia and Phyllida both shook their head. "Misto says it's broken." Phyllida said, rubbing her friend in between the shoulder blades to try to calm her down.

"Damn. I've called an ambulance. They should be here in a few minutes. I'll go with her."

"All right, sir. We'll get her out of her costume."

"Yes…do that…I…" Webber said quietly as he went to watch the door, trailing off.

"Is he always that distracted?" Alicia asked. Rosemarie smiled "Only when someone gets hurt. Here, you two help me get her out of this thing. Mistoffelees, is there anything your magic can do?"

Misto shook his head "It only works on Jellicles. I don't know enough about how humans are built to try to heal anyone. I'd probably just make things worse."

"Okay. Um, could you turn around while we…"

"Oh, yeah, sure…sorry."

"Ow. Owowowowowowow. Oh, I'm sorry, everyone. I didn't mean to, I just slipped." Leah said, tears still coursing down her face. "Happens to all of us." Rosemarie said, unfastening the shoulders of the unitard. Alicia pulled off the Jellicle wig gently and used her sleeve to wipe off the greasepaint. "You'll be fine, Leah. I think it's a clean break. You'll be back up in no time."

"Oww. I hope so. But, hey, ow, at least you get to be on film for a little while, Cici." "I don't want to if one of my friends has to get hurt for it to happen."

"Here we go." Said Phyllida as they eased Leah out of her costume. Alicia ran and got a blanket for her, since she was in nothing but her underwear, and it had turned cold the last week.

The ambulance came and took Leah and Mr. Webber to the hospital. It turned out it was a clean break, but it would still take two months to heal well enough for Leah to be Electra again. Alicia felt guilty about it, but she couldn't help but be a little excited. She finally got to be onstage!