Chapter 3

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Uh, hope you guys like it so far, I know that there are probably SEVERAL fanfictions under this title!

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Jemima walked back to the Jellicle junkyard to see what the others were doing. Her humans were boring, and did nothing but listen to loud noises, and watch colorful pictures that hurt her sensitive eyes on a screen of some sort.

Her friends, Etcetera, Victoria and Electra, greeted her as son as she entered the junkyard.

"Jemima!" Electra cheerfully called out. "Want to go hang out with us?"

"Not, not right now…" Jemima answered. "I want to say hello to my parents, and then I'll find you guys and we can do whatever."

"I want to chase Tugger around…" Etcetera squealed. "He's so, so, sooo cute! I just wanna follow him around all day!"

Victoria nodded and giggled, and Electra started to jump around.

"What are we waiting for?" Victoria said, and they were off, Etcetera in the lead.

Jemima walked around until she found herself in the center of the Jellicle junkyard. Her parents were normally here, and her inference was correct.

"Mum! Dad!" she called it. It had been awhile since she had really spoken to them.

"My little Sunflower…" Demeter said, walking over to her daughter and running her finger through her mostly brown hair. "How are you?"

"I'm fine… absolutely fine… and you?" she answered.

"Wonderful, love, simply wonderful," Demeter said.

Jemima peeked around, and saw no sign of her father.

"Mum, where's dad?" Jemima asked.

"Oh, uh, he went with Old Deuteronomy. He wanted to escort him home. Didn't want Macavity to try to capture him again!" she laughed a little.

"That was very brave of you, stopping Macavity like that," Jemima said, admiring her mother.

"Let's not talk about that fiend right now… let's talk about something else," the black and gold mother edgily said.

Jemima nodded. Though she wasn't told all of her and Macavity's past together, she knew enough to understand why she'd be like this.

"Why don't you go and have some fun, little Sunflower? You obviously don't want to hang around boring adults like me when you could be running around and enjoying the day." Demeter stated.

Jemima rolled her eyes, and then started to skip off to find her friends, but stopped.

"Mum?" she called out. "Why do you always call me 'Sunflower'?"

"Because," Demeter said, "you just remind me of one. Always so bright, cheerful and colorful and basically nice to stare at. And when you were born, it was summer and sunflowers were all around."

Jemima turned around, and shouted, "Make sure you tell dad I said hi when you see him!"

Not hearing a response, Jemima turned around and didn't see her mother.

"Hmmm… odd."

"Must we really chase Tugger around the place?" Jemima asked her friends. "It's somewhat… childish, you know."

"Jemima, where'd that come from? You usually LOVE chasing Tugs around!" Electra asked, looking at her friend's face.

"Yeah! Chasing Tugger is the best-" Etcetera started, but then gasped. "Do you have a mate we don't know about or something?"

Electra, Victoria and Etcetera crowded around Jemima, waiting for an answer as she started turning red.

"N-n-nooo…" Jemima stammered.

They gasped in unison.

"She's stammering! She's stammering!" Etcetera jumped up and down. "She DOES have a mate!"

"Well, not really…" Jemima added quietly. "I just like someone else now… but I don't think he really notices me."

"Why not just give up him and go after Tugger! It's so much more fun!" Etcetera said, being the fan girl that she was.

"Yeah, I mean, even though I did the mating dance with Plato, that's not stopping me!" Victoria added to Etcetera's comment.

Jemima was silent; it seemed like her friends were still too young to quite understand her feelings. She sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry guys, but I got to go, uh, home… yeah." She said, getting up and starting to walk away.

"What was that all about?" Electra said as she put her paws to her hips. "What's been up with Jemmie these past few days?"

Victoria shook her head and sighed. "I don't know… I just don't- hey, where's Etcetera?" she said, noticing that Etcetera was gone.

"I don't know-" Electra starting to say, shrugging. They suddenly heard a loud squeal. Victoria and Electra looked at each other, and said, "Tugger." They both rolled their eyes, and starting giggling.

"What exactly would they know about relationships anyways?" Jemima said, kicking a pebble into a muddy puddle near by. She took the long way to get to her house. Jemima didn't want to make herself a liar and not go home when she told her friends she was, but did not exactly want to be with her humans.

"I mean, they're such, such teenyboppers!" Jemima exclaimed to herself. She sat down a rock, and put her face in her hands. "Now this is ridiculous."

Suddenly, a cold wind whipped past Jemima. It sent a chill down her spine, and she shivered. Jemima suddenly noticed how dark it was outside.

"I should really, really be getting home now…" she said, a hint of fear in her voice. She started to walk fast, every once and awhile looking back. And before Jemima knew it, she was completely lost.

"Oh no…" she panicked. "I think I may miss dinner at this rate…"

"My dear," a voice snarled as she felt an arm go around and cover her mouth and nose. "That is the least of your worries…"

Jemima squirmed, and couldn't breath. She felt light headed, and then everything went completely black.

My day is going fantastic so far… was her last though until she was out cold.