Hey, hey, hey! Look who's back!

I apologize a thousand times over! I've been so busy with dance recitals, school exams, and theater that I've been unable to write! But now that I'm done with all that, I'm going to be updating much more often. So, um... Don't hate me.

Alright, well, no need to put it off any longer. Without further ado, the next chapter of this story: The Day Cat and I Won the Talent Show.

**~Songbird341~**

DISCLAIMER: I've been gone a while. Not long enough to buy Victorious from Dan Schneider, though... Don't worry, I'm working on it ;)

;*"*"*"*"*;

"Robbie, Cat's on the phone. Get up."

I squeezed my eyes open to meet the less-than-sunny face of my older sister, Raquel. Her face was wrinkled in a frustrated way, and her voice sounded all growly, like a bear. She seemed awful mad, so I just thanked my lucky stars that I wasn't the receiver of such anger.

I smiled sleepily at her. "Morning, Raquel."

She rolled her eyes and pulled the covers off the bed. "Whatever. Get up," she repeated, handing me the corded phone. "Tell your friend that she really shouldn't call people before the sun comes up, kay?" I nodded, taking the phone from her eagerly. I glanced at it, found the smaller part, and stuck it up to my ear.

"Hello?" I asked, listening for an answer behind the sound of two adults talking sleepily. Their voice sounded echo-ey, as if they were in a cave or something. "Cat?"

"Oh, hi Robbie!" Cat giggled into the phone. "I almost forgot I was on the phone!"

I smiled. "I do that sometimes, too." I heard the voices again and asked, "Cat, are you in a cave?"

"What?" Cat asked, sounding confused. "Whaddya mean?"

"You sound all echo-ey..."

She laughed. "I'm in our attic. We didn't even know we had an attic! And guess what?"

"What?" I asked.

"It's gonna be my room when I'm older!"

An Attic? "Cool, Cat. Is that why you called?"

"Oh, no no no! But there is a reason!"

I waited for her to continue, but when the line went silent for a long time, I began to wonder if the line broke, like Raquel said had happened to her and her boyfriend a couple days ago. I've seen the phone lines when I was in the car, and they look pretty hard to break, but I guess some people are stronger than I am. "Cat? What's the reason?"

"The reason is that I found out that... The TALENT SHOW IS TOMORROW!" She squealed into the phone. I cringed at the sound.

"The talent show? What's that?" I ask.

"It's this show where we all go up on stage and sing or dance or do something cool and everyone claps for us and if we're really REALLY good we win and then I think we get a prize that they call the grand prize and we can have partners and I wanna partner with you and I was thinking we could sing a song isn't that so cool?"
"Wow, Cat!" I exclaim, half-confused half-flustered. "That was, um, a lot of words!"

"I know! So I was thinking we could sing Mary had a Little Lamb, but I don't know anybody named Mary, do you? So, okay, I was thinking we could sing ROBBIE had a Little Lamb, and you could be Robbie, 'cause that's your name, and I'll be your little red lamby, and your mommy could make my costume, and I'll bring you a Bo Peep costume–"

"Whoa whoa, Cat! Slow down!"I exclaimed. "So, you want me to sing with you in a talent show for school? To... Robbie had a Little Lamb?"

"Mhmm! Wanna do it? We can practice after school!"

"Okay. Yeah. See you after school!" I hung up to the sound of Cat mumbling "Robbie had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb..."

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I told my mom about this, asking her if she can make Cat something out of a red sweater for a sheep fleece. Cat said she was bringing me some kind of Beep costume, so I decided to hold out for her.

After the school bell rings, Cat and I waited out in the playground for my mommy to pick us up. She finally arrived, and we hopped into our car-seats. "Buckle up!" my mom called out, turning the key in the car. Cat was talking all the way to my house.

"Okay, so my mommy is gonna get me some fluffy socks to wear when I'm your lamby, and she's gonna paint my nose black so I look like a sheep! And I've got my Halloween costume that I decided not to use this year, so I'll let you use it! I think it would fit you!"

"We're here!" Mommy exclaimed, trying to silence the zealous girl. Cat squeaked and jumped out of the van.

"Robbie, let's go to the backyard and practice!"

"O-okay!" I turned to Mommy, and she leaned down to kiss my cheek.

"Have fun, and be careful." I nodded and ran after Cat.

I stumbled along the rock path leading to the garden behind the house to find Cat on the other side, climbing our tree. Crazy Cat. "CAT!"

She didn't hear me, but I'm glad. It probably wouldn't be good to distract her then. Instead, I ran up to the tree and followed her up the slanted trunk.

"Hi Robbie!" Cat greeted me, suddenly at the top of the towering tree. "Coming up or what?"

I smiled at her, gritting my teeth slightly at the bark scratching my palms. When I reached up to her, she grabs my arm and gives it a yank, sending me jerking up toward her. I sat on a branch and looked at her. "We gonna practice now?"

She nodded vigorously and starts singing, softly at first. "Robbie had a little lamb... little lamb..."

"You're a singing sheep?" I sputtered awkwardly.

She giggled. "Yup! Come on! You sing too!" I nodded and she began again.

"Robbie had a little lamb..."

"Little lamb..." I continue.

"Little lamb!"

"I had a little lamb!" I sang out, a little louder.

Cat smiled. "Whose fleece was... um... Red as a red velvet cupcake?"

I nodded. "Okay. Whose fleece was red as a red velvet cupcake!"

We sang it again, louder, until we heard our voices echo in the neighborhood. I began to worry my mom would come out and tell us to hush, but we didn't see her. So we continued to sing until we felt we were ready for tomorrow. After all, it was a fairly simple song...

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The next morning, Cat was at my doorstep, nose painted black, hair curling wildly around her face with a rose in it, smile spread from ear to ear. Raquel let her in while Mommy tied the "Beep" costume around my waist and fit the bonnet on my head. She turned to see Cat, then grabbed the red sweater and slung it over Cat's head. We grabbed some waffles, then headed out the door and into the car.

When we reached the school, Cat cried out, "Oh NO!"

Everyone jumped. "What is it, Kitty Cat?" Mommy asked urgently.

"I forgot my fluffy socks!"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "Here," Raquel reached into the glove compartment and pulled out some of her thermal socks. "take these."

"B-but these are white, and I'm red..."

"It's okay, Cat. We'll figure something out." I assured her. She looked at me, nodded, and smiled.

"Okay. I think I have an idea."

;*"*"*"*"*;

We were at lunch, sitting at the tables, when Ms. Lillien announces that the 1st grade talent show was about to begin. I was a little nervous, and looked to Cat to see if she was, too. But she just sat there, coloring her socks red with a crayon. And, it was actually working.

Cat makes things work that shouldn't work.

"Announcing the first act: singing I'm a Little Teapot, let's all clap for Hayley Ferguson and Tara Ganz!"

My head and Cat's snapped up at that announcement. We looked at each other briefly, then turned to watch the two girls step up in front of everyone.

"I'm Hayley!" The brunette smiled, waving like a pageant girl. The blonde girl behind her tried to edge up next to her.

"And I'm Tara!" She waved as well, but Hayley nudged her aside.

The pianist began playing, and the song began.

"I'm a little teapot, short and stout!" Hayley sang, doing the motions in front of Tara.

"Here is my handle!" Hayley stuck her arm out, letting her hand droop, and waited for Tara to point to it before continuing, making them fall behind the music. "And here is my spout!"

She continued through the song, scowling at Tara whenever she tripped and trying to keep up with the piano. When they finally finished, Ms. Lillien clapped loudly, to make everyone else clap.

After a few more acts went by, lines forgotten, dance moves missed, it was our turn. "Next act: singing... Robbie had a Little Lamb, Caterina Valentine and Robbie Shapiro!"

I grabbed Cat's hand and we skittered up to the stage, smiling nervously. Cat nodded at the pianist, and we got ready to sing. But not before everyone started laughing.

"LOOK AT HIS COSTUME!" Some boy shouted ruthlessly.

"He's a GIRL!" A girl with pigtails squealed.

"Look at her NOSE!" The snotty voice sounded unmistakably like Hayley.

"YEAH! And her SOCKS!" Tara laughed too-loudly, until Hayley covered her mouth.

"Shut UP!"

"I'm SORRY!"

"QUIET!" Ms. Lillien was obviously not too pleased. She turned to us, smiled, and nodded for us to begin.

Cat started, loudly as she could. "ROB-BIE had a LITTLE LAMB!"

She sounded really good! Maybe I'll be that good too!

"Little lamb..." I continued.

"Little lamb!" She sang, doing a funny kind of slide-trick with her voice. Everyone clapped at that.

I smiled at Cat, and we continued. "I had a little lamb!"

"Whose fleece was red as a red-velvet cupcake!" Cat squeaked, spinning around in her costume. When no one clapped yet, she shouted. "BUT NOT WITH BLOOD!"

Everyone laughed and started clapping. Well, everybody but Hayley and Tara. They appeared to already be plotting their revenge. 'Cause we just showed them up!

;*"*"*"*"*;

"Robbie, that was so cool!" Cat whispered in my ear as we waited for the judges to decide who won.
"You think we won?"

"I hope so!" I nodded, hardly able to hold back a wide grin matching Cat's. That was really fun. "You were great up there!"

"You were amazing, Robbie!" Cat gushed, giggling. "We should be performers!"

"Maybe, when we're older." I nodded. "We could be performers together! We could be famous!"

She gasped. "Let's do it!" She grabbed my hand and shook it within hers. "Can we, Robbie? PLEASE? Will you promise that we'll do it when we're older?"

I considered it, then stuck out my pinky. "Pinky-promise?"

She wrapped her pinky in mine and shook it up and down. "Pinky-promise!"

When we heard Ms. Lillien quiet everyone down, we grabbed each other's hand and squeezed as hard as we could. "Attention, everyone! We have a winner!"

"Now, remember that everyone here is a winner today. I saw a lot of great talents today," Hayley and Tara were smirking at each other across the row of chairs, but we ignored them. "but we did find one that stuck out. We have three prizes; 3rd place, 2nd place, and 1st place ribbons. Let's announce the 2nd place, okay?"

The classes erupted into "okay"s.

"2nd place prize goes to Jadelyn West, for her lovely paper-doll making!" Everyone clapped for Jade, including Cat, who had become fond of Jade and was trying to befriend the scary-looking girl.

Jade trudges up to stage and accepts her ribbon. "Wherever did you get the idea to make paper-dolls, Jade?"

Jade glares up at Ms. Lillien. "I was making dolls of people I knew and cutting their heads off. I just never finished these." She held up the paper-dolls she had showed earlier. The teacher blinked at her in shock, laughed nervously, and cleared her throat.

"Okay then, Jade. Congratulations on 2nd place." She walks back to the center. "Now, it was close between two duos, and you might know who. But we had to decide between them, so we'll announce 1st place, and then 3rd."

"This is it, Robbie!" Cat whispered, clutching my hand tightly.

"And 1st place ribbon, along with a special grand prize, goes to..."

Hayley and Tara stand up, ready to claim their prize...

"Cat and Robbie, singing Robbie had a Little Lamb!"

Everyone clapped, Cat screamed happily, I shouted, Hayley pouted, Tara clapped, and Jade might've just cheered the loudest. Cat pulled me out of my chair and dragged me up to the stage, passing Jade on the way. She smiled slightly, nodding. "I'm glad you beat those brats!" she shouted over the loud applause.

We made our way to the stage, beaming brightly. We accepted our ribbons and a stuffed bunny, attached to a bunch of balloons that read "Congratulations!" across their fronts. I gave Cat the bunny, since boys weren't supposed to own such things, and her face only brightened more. She jumped over to me and kissed my cheek, causing the children to erupt into "Oooh"s. She jumped back to face the teacher and beamed at her. I was still in shock, rubbing my cheek with my finger in the place she had kissed me, half-startled and half-ecstatic.

That's often how Cat can leave you.

Half-startled and half-ecstatic.

;*"*"*"*"*;

Well? How was that? Glad I'm back from the dead, or should I go re-die?

Thank you for reviewing the previous chapter: RogueLover321, RaptorIV, Ali Of District 3, CabbieForever, IrshGirl, Sshaw101, Jeremy Shane, Sweetie, Anon, Superstar1030, and Hannah. Love you all!

Reviews are like the cheese in macaroni 'n' cheese. Without them, it just... doesn't work. Catching my drift?

Thanks,

**~Songbird341~**