Well, hi.

...

Yeah, I totally suck at these things. xp

I don't own Brambleclaw or Squirrelflight, but I do own all the made up characters and the plot.

In Which Krista Starts Hearing

Things and I Learn Something

Very Important

Oh, no. That's not good. That's not good at all. I check the clock. 4:30. There is no way that my mom could be here this early.

I sprint out of my room and basically barge into the bathroom. ''Oh, hi Stacey, what's-'' I don't let Brambleclaw finish his sentence. Moving quickly, I drag him to my room and shove him inside.

''Don't move from here until I get back!'' I say.

''Wait! Stacey-'' I slam the door. Had Brambleclaw turned the faucet off? Ding-dong!

''I'm coming!'' I yell. I go to the bathroom quickly to check. Damn it. He didn't turn the faucet off. Ding-dong! Ding-dong! ''Wait up!'' I turn it off and almost fly down the stairs. Which results with me almost landing on my face. Ding-dong! Ding-dong!

''Hiya, mom!'' I say when I open the door.

''Hey, sweetie. Are you... okay?''

''Me? Pft. I'm fine, mom.'' I lean on the door, trying to act casual. My mom raises an eyebrow, but doesn't say anything.

''How was school today?'' She asks as she enters the house.

''Oh, it was alright. Scotty got sent done to the principal because he was annoying Mrs. Henson in class. Jackie and Becca had a fight, but I think they made up. Mr. Tomas told us we were going to have a quiz on Friday. And, there is this nasty rumor about Larissa floating around.'' I shrug. ''The usual stuff.''

My mom nods. ''Very well.''

''Mom?'' I turn around and see Jacob. In his hands he had a box of crackers. I guess that he was going to go upstairs and fed Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight.

''Hello, honey!'' says my mom brightly as she pulls Jacob into a hug. ''How was your day at school?''

''Fine,'' he answered numbly. His eyes were wide with terror. He wrapped his arms around mom and gently shook the box in my direction.

Without any hesitation, I take it and am about half way up the stairs when mom says, ''Stacey, why are you bringing up that box of crackers upstairs? Don't you remember that there is a rule in this house regarding that?''

I mentally wince. My father's voice rings throughout my head, you don't bring food upstairs. ''I need it,'' I say.

''What could you possible need a box of crackers for?''

''I need it for math. They want us to measure random objects in our house.''

''I though you were doing algebra.''

Dear God, what do I say now? ''Well, he wants us to use algebra too. Using the shadow of the box and our shadow and our height, he wants us to figure out what the real height of the box is.''

''That's rather difficult,'' she comments.

''It is.''

''Well, if that's the case, carry on,'' she waves my hand to urge me on. ''I have to talk to Jacob. He hasn't told me what happened at school.'' She hugs Jacob close to her. My brother shots me a quick, good luck! look as they both disappear from my sight.

Trembling, I walk up the stairs. That had been a close call. I open the door to my room and find Brambleclaw glaring at Squirrelflight. Dear Lord, what happened?

''Uh...'' they turn around and look at me. ''I brought food,'' I say, showing them the box of crackers.

''What sort of food is that?'' asks Squirrelflight. ''Is that kitty-pet food?''

Kitty-pet? What in the world is a kitty-pet? Is she referring to house cats? ''It's human food. We don't give these to pets.'' I offer one to her. She takes it dubiously and sniffs it, just like a cat would. Cautiously, she takes a small bite. Her eyes widen and she scarfs down the cracker.

''It's not bad,'' she said, licking her lips. I give her and another cracker and hand Brambleclaw his first. It wasn't too long before I thought I should bring some other snack up. They had managed to clean off half of the box.

''Wow, you guys sure are hungry,'' I comment.

''I didn't realize it until I started eating, ''confessed Squirrelflight. ''Maybe moving from dimensions makes you hungry.''

I laugh. ''Sure, that might be the cause. When did you guys eat last?''

''Around Sun-high,'' said Brambleclaw as he stretched his hand for another cracker. Sun-high? Does that mean around noon? Geez, and they think humans have a weird language.

I let them finish the entire box. How I was going to explain this to mom, I don't know. But I didn't want Brambles and Squirrel to starve. I'll come up with any excuse later.

''It's all gone,'' I said to them, putting the box upside down and shaking it. A couple of crumbs fell out.

''Sorry about that,'' says Brambleclaw. ''I guess our hunger carried us away.''

I shake my head. ''No, it's no biggie. Trust me. We have a couple more boxes of these anyways. It won't be missed.'' I throw the box in the trash can. ''Brb.''

''Brb?'' asked Squirrelflight.

''Oh. We humans have a habit to make things shorter. What I basically said was be right back.''

Squirrelflight nods and Brambleclaw raises an eyebrow. ''So, that's why you did that?''

For a second, I'm confused. Then I remember that I called him Brambles in the bathroom. ''Yup. So, brb.''

I ran downstairs, not really paying attention to anything else but the task on hand. Maybe that's why I bumped into Krista, who was going the opposite direction. ''Hey! Watch it, Stacey!'' she snapped furiously. I watched as my sister stormed up the stairs, her blonde curls bouncing.

If I told a stranger that Krista was part of my family, they wouldn't believe me. She had beautiful blonde curls while my black hair was frizzy. Or course, I flat ironed it most of the time, so no one knew about that. She had taken my mother's blue eyes and pale skin while I had taken my father's black eyes and dark skin. In total, we were complete opposites.

I grabbed my backpack off the kitchen floor and looked into the fridge. I took some bread, jelly, and peanut butter and stuffed it into my backpack. I sure hope that no one looks into the fridge. Next, I scavenge for disposable plates, napkins, and knives. And finally, I find some juice boxes and stuff them along with the rest of the things.

Satisfied, I run upstairs, nearly giddy with joy about the plan that I had just created. I'm practically skipping to my room when I see that Krista had stationed herself at my door. ''Uh, what are you doing?''

Krista leans into the door, ''I heard something or someone in your room.''

Dear Lord, please don't let her discover that I'm hiding cat/humans in my bedroom. ''What are you talking about?'' I say loudly. ''There is absolutely no one in my room. You must be hearing things.''

She glares at me. Uh, lots of glaring today. ''I'm not hearing things!''she snapped. ''I have perfect hearing, so there is no way that I'm hearing things.''

''You know something? I'm pretty sure cats have better hearing than you,'' I say, empathizing the word cat. ''Plus, why would there be anything unusual in my room? Because, according to you, I'm plain. So, how can something that is totally abnormal happen in my room?''

''Then why did I hear something in your room?''

''Because, you're hearing things,'' I reason.

Krista reaches for the doorknob, but I put my hand on it first. ''Uh, no. Look, Krista, I don't think that you should inspect my room just because you think there is something going on in there.''

My sister slits her eyes. ''I'm not hearing things, you moron.'' She starts trying to pry my hand off the door knob. ''Let go!'' she mutters as we start to wrestle over the possession of the doorknob. My heart is pounding inside my head. No, I wasn't going to let Krista discover them. She would tell mom, and Jacob and I would be screwed. Plus, what would happen to them? I shudder at the thought of them out on the streets.

''What's going on?'' I keep a tight grip on the doorknob and face the person who had spoken. Casey raised an eyebrow.

''Krista is trying to enter my room because she's hearing things,'' I told her.

''I'm not hearing things!'' she insists.

''Why would something happen in Stacey's room? She's the good child out of all of us.'' As crazy as it is, it's true. Never once had my parents heard a complaint about me.

''But, what if she's hiding something in her room?'' Krista insists.

''Stacey, just prove to her that you don't have anything in your room to shut her up.''

I'm getting dizzy. ''I guess.'' Is the world supposed to look so blurry? I sure hope that the fight had warned Brambles and Squirrel to hide. I open the door and nearly cringe.

I'm going to assume that one of them were looking through my library because a couple of the books were on the ground. I quickly scan the room for any other evidence of the two cat/humans. I my relief I found nothing.

Krista entered my room and started searching through it like she was Sherlock Holmes. She took the cracker box out of my trash. ''What is this doing here?'' she asked suspicously.

''I needed it for math. My teacher wanted us to find out the height of the box using my shadow.''

''Why is it empty?''

''Because, Stacey got hungry, like always.'' I blush at Casey's comment.

''I don't eat that much...'' I looked down at my body. I'm not a twig, but I'm not a balloon either. I guess you can say my body type is in the middle.

Casey chuckled, ''I was only teasing you.'' She twirled one of her braids, a cute habit she has. Much like myself, she inherited her looks from dad. The same goes for Jacob.

Krista scowled and continued to search. Wherever Squirrel and Brambles hid, they had chosen wisely. After searching for quite a while, Krista gave up and went to her room, muttering something about hating living here.

Once she had gone, Casey turned to me and said, ''Okay, what's up?''

''Huh?''

''You were looking really panicked when Krista was trying to get into your room. I saved your ass, I get to know what's going on.''

I mentally winced at her language. I guess compared to others it was mild, but I still don't like it. ''Look, Casey, I'd tell you if I could. You know that. In fact, I would have told Krista too.''

Casey nods. ''K, sis. If it's that important to you, I won't pry.'' With this, Casey leaves. I sigh and place one hand on the wall and the other on my heart. Could I really keep this up until Brambles and Squirrel left? And this was only the first day. I've already had two major close calls. Plus, my dad isn't even home yet.

''Stacey, are you okay?'' I feel a hand on my shoulder and look up to see Brambles amber eyes. Funny how they seemed so warm now. ''I'm sorry about that. That was Squirrelflight's fault.'' He takes a quick look back at the nervous red head.

She bows her head, ''Stacey, I'm so sorry. I was just looking, I swear-''

''Stop. Stop with the whole I'm sorry thing. And this goes for you too, Brambleclaw. It's my fault that you guys aren't home now. I'm supposed to be the one saying that.'' I straighten my back and smile, ''Besides, I could look at this as practice. I highly doubt that this was the last close call.'' I take my backpack off and dump all the contents on the bed. ''I'm going to teach you the art of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.''

A quick word of advice for all you readers; don't teach cat/humans how to make sandwiches.

Why?

Well, let's just say our sessions ended up in another round of I'm sorry's.

I told them to chill out. Of course, I had to explain what chill out means too. Though, I'm seriously wondering how I'm going to get that stain out of my carpet. Well, I'll just look up on YouTube. I'm sure there is some video that can tell me how.

While Brambles and Squirrel ate their first PB and J sandwich, I started cracking on homework. My brain was already fried when I managed to finish my algebra homework. I didn't even want to look at my English and History homework. Plus, I had to finish that essay for Social Studies.

As I rubbed my temples, Brambles asked, ''Stacey, where are we going to sleep? Here? Or somewhere else?''

I swiveled my chair to look at him. ''Honestly, I'm not too sure at the moment. Maybe you guys are going to sleep here for tonight.''

''Alright, as long as I don't have to sleep near Squirrelflight.''

''You know what? We have a sleeping bag that can fit two people at once. It's a bit old, but I'm pretty sure that it still comfortable. Since you seem so keen to sleep next to Squirrelflight, I'll go through the trouble of bringing it to my room.'' The look of complete horror on Brambleclaw's face was priceless. Squirrelflight looked like she just might explode from giggles.

Well, that should teach him to be mean to Squirrel in front of me.

Plus, I had to get out of the bedroom. I needed to get some different air.

As I was carrying the sleeping bag upstairs, I vaguely wondered what time it was. Why hadn't I checked the time before I had gone to fetch the bag? I sigh wearily. What if my dad showed up right now? The thought sends me flying up the stairs.

''Here ya go!'' I say cheerfully as I chuck the bag at Brambleclaw. He catches it and looks at it unhappily.

I grin as I plop myself on my chair and start doing my English homework. I'm half way done when Squirrel goes, ''Stacey, who's that?''

Oh, no. It's my dad. I quickly stand up and look out the window. I sigh in relief when I see that it was just Mrs. Keener. ''Oh, that's just Mrs. Keener, walking her dog.''

''Why does she have that stick?''

''Oh, she's blind.''

A sudden flash of sadness passes through Squirrelflight's green eyes. ''Was she born that way?''

''Dunno.''

Squirrelflight looked at her hands. ''We have a blind cat back in ThunderClan. His name is Jayfeather. And, no, I know that at least his mother doesn't hate him.'' I giggled. As she stared out the window, her eyes had a far-away look. ''Right now, he's ThunderClan's medicine cat. He has two siblings, Hollyleaf and Lionblaze. Though, Hollyleaf died chasing a squirrel.''

''How does someone die by chasing a squirrel?'' Was Hollyleaf stupid or something? Did the squirrel have rabies?

''She chased into a collapsing cave.'' Maybe she was stupid. I mean, I would completely avoid a collapsing cave, even if it meant losing a squirrel. I could get another one later.

''Well, she must have really wanted that squirrel,'' I comment, sure that what I really thought would upset her. Squirrel nods and continues to stare out the window.

Since it seemed that that conversation was over, I went on to finish my homework. I was starting history when Brambles tapped me on my shoulder. Dear God, another question? I think I've heard enough to last a life time. ''Uh-uh?''

''What did she tell you?''

I raised an eyebrow. ''What do you mean?''

''She's not always truthful, so I want to make sure that she isn't planting lies into your head.''

Who on this planet is always 100% truthful? I sigh, ''She told me about a blind cat named Jayfeather and a cat named Hollyleaf who died chasing a squirrel into a collapsing cave.''

''That's it?''

''Yeah.''

Neither Squirrel or Brambles interrupt me after that. Though, my head is churning with the information that both had given. Maybe, Squirrel had lied to Brambles about something. But, what had she lied about? And, why had she looked so sad when she spoke about Hollyleaf, Lionblaze, and Jayfeather?

I'm already pooped after I finish what was due for tomorrow. I'd have to do that essay later.

''Stacey! Dad's going to be here in about 10 minutes!''

Well, the next phase of this whole operation is about to start very soon.

What was the important thing Stacey learned?

Well, you get to decide, since she does learn a couple of things. xD

What did you think about this chapter? Any way I can improve? Or is it fine the way it is?

So, that's basically all I have... Bye now.