Halloween Cat
Yumi
Finally, my favorite day of the year came, or at least one of my favorites: Halloween!
I was jittery all through class, and even part of my time at the Host Club, because I was going to run off and get into costume right after the Host Club closed.
A Fear Contest – if there's one thing I know I can excel at, it's not panicking!
The time came, and I ran off to the girls' locker room to get my costume out. I'd worked on the thing for months last year, and I was rather proud of it: a skin-tight catsuit, minus the tail, and a matching wig.
Using a belt and a collar, I tied my single braid down against my waist and neck. Then I slipped into my costume, aiming the braid through a single hole down low in the back and turning my hair into my tail. "Whew – it still fits!" Then I put on my makeup and finally strapped on the wig, looked in the mirror, and smiled. Transformation complete: I'm officially a Jellicle Cat.
I left the girls' locker room, and found the lights were already turned off. Suited me just fine; I fell to all fours and started creeping about the school, waiting for someone to stumble around a corner and scare the pants off of.
I heard screams somewhere in the school, and headed in that direction, planning to turn the scarers into scaredy-cats.
I actually spent the entire night like that. I was only almost-startled once, and that was when I rounded a corner and spotted someone leaning against the wall reading a book by flashlight.
Whoever it was must have heard my small gasp, because the next moment the flashlight beam turned in my direction. I could almost see myself as the light-bearer saw me: a figure on all fours with one hand slightly upraised and a deer-in-the-headlights expression.
For a long minute, we just stared at each other. Thanks to the flashlight in my eyes, I couldn't see who was holding the thing.
Then I remembered to get back in character, got to hands and feet, hissed at whoever was holding the light, stood and ran the other way.
Good thing that I knew I was in a hallway, because I couldn't see a darn thing for the next few steps.
My hands collided with a wall, and I stopped to catch my breath and regain my night-sight. Then I thought about what was going on before I'd drawn attention to myself. The figure – who was wearing pants, if not the entire boys' school uniform – had been reading. I laid a bet with myself that that had been Kyoya-senpai.
I probably won't find out for sure until tomorrow morning when and if he tells me that he saw my costume.
I didn't see any of the Host Club – or any more of the Host Club, if that really had been Kyoya-senpai – until the next day. Evidently the entire first-year class except for me had lost the contest. Kaoru asked me once I found them, "How'd you avoid being spooked by Nekozawa's puppet in the courtyard?"
I stared at him for a second. Then I answered, "Because I hadn't gotten anywhere near the courtyard; I got lost."
That earned some laughs.
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. "You know," Kyoya-senpai commented, "if you'd asked me, I could have directed you there."
I chose to randomly be coy. "I ran into you last night? How do you know?"
He smiled at me. "I doubt if any other student at this school will dress as a cat and wander the school grounds on hands and knees."
"Well, at least you just proved that you saw me. Were you the guy holding the flashlight, senpai? If that was you, you nearly blinded me."
He laughed a little. I guess he could tell I was kidding. "I must say, you definitely had practice in that character."
"The hiss? Yeah…" This conversation was going slowly down the drain for my being able to think of stuff to say. "Um…I've got to go. Later, senpai!" Though, I could still feel him staring at my back as I ran off.
I wonder what he's thinking.
