Hey, hey! Thanks to LRW, Casey Storm, TheMichiganWriter, Dirtkid123, and ABEDFAN for the reviews!
Yep, I know. We're a bit late today. BUT, all things considering, we're still standing with this challenge.
Anyways, the prompt for this entry was given to me by LRW! I had quite a bit of fun with this, mostly because of the kittens. You'll see why. ;)
Thank you for the prompt, LRW! I hope it turned out well!
Before we start, I just want to direct you to my profile page should you have the need to see a disclaimer for what's gonna be referenced here. I have a general one posted there. :)
Onto day nine, everyone!
/day nine/
Prompt: (from LRW) mama cat + kitties
Featured LR character: Adam
"Kitty Burglars"
Adam finds a litter of kittens while walking home from school and takes them home to his siblings.
Meow.
Adam stopped mid-stride then looked up from his phone where Gabby Stein's latest Instragram update was displayed. His brows softly wrinkled as he searched round about him. Their street was devoid of any movement, save from the small group of children a few yards down who were all hunched over the PSP London Frazier had gripped tightly in his hands. The sound couldn't have come from them or the game console.
He frowned at his phone. That couldn't have been it either. The duck quack was the only animal alert tone he had.
He searched more fervently when he heard the light mewling again. However, that second time, he was clued into the origin of the sound by the gentle rustling coming from one of the bushes not far away from where he stood. Curious, he went back to investigate it. He saw no movements, but from the waning daylight, he could see shadows moving about under the leaves.
He drew closer then squatted down, waiting patiently for whatever was underneath to come out to light.
He slightly startled when its head popped out from the leaves and then had to laugh at himself.
However, when a few more heads popped out, these smaller than the first, he gasped amusedly, a big grin pulling on his face.
…
"Do you think we should put out an APB for Adam?" Chase asked as he glanced at his siblings from behind their father's desktop.
Leo, who was reclining comfortably on one end of the sectional with a game console held in his hands, said absently, "Oh, relax, Chase. He'll be home soon. The AV club meeting takes a long time sometimes, so he's probably still on his way here."
"Yeah," Bree agreed, eyes focused on the show playing on her tablet. "And if he's in any trouble, he'll call us."
"You know he doesn't always," Chase pointed out. "Remember last year when he got lost and was gone for hours? He didn't call us then."
Bree and Leo both replied, but their words only clashed into something incoherent and slightly cacophonous.
"Okay…?" Chase said, not quite sure what to make of it.
As if on cue, the front door opened. Adam stepped in with a big grin on his face as he looked down on his backpack, which was now strapped in front of him like a baby carrier.
Chase released a breath he didn't even know he was holding. Getting up from the swivel chair, he said, "There you are. Where have you been? We've been waiting for you."
"Uh, no, we're not," Bree said, her attention now caught by the suspicious look on her older brother's face. "Why do you have your backpack sticking out front?" she asked as they gathered around Adam.
Leo's eyes widened. "More important question is, why is your backpack moving?" he asked, alarmed.
Adam chuckled. "Relax. I just had a few friends I brought with me because they looked hungry," he said while unzipping his backpack.
Chase sighed. "Please don't tell me you mistook another rat from the street as a Chihuahua," he said. Suddenly, he sneezed. He frowned, wondering what had triggered it.
"Nope."
Bree gasped when she saw the four little kittens poke their heads out of the backpack. "Aw! Kitties!" she said, reaching out for the smallest one in the group.
Chase sneezed again.
"Yeah, I found them on my way home," Adam explained as he placed his backpack on the floor then opened it wide so all of the kittens and the cat could step out. "They looked really hungry, especially the mom. I wanted to feed them, but I didn't have anything. I wasn't too far away from the house, so, I figured, I can just take them here."
"Why were they in your bag?" Leo asked as he sat down on the floor with Adam and Bree. One of the kittens had decided to walk up to him and rub itself against him. This he watched with slight interest.
"I didn't have anything else to carry them with," Adam said. "I emptied out my backpack, though, so they'd have enough room, and I left it open."
Bree sighed happily as she gazed at the kitten that had nestled itself in her arm. She had always wanted a cat since she was younger, and having five of them walking and tumbling and rolling around in their living room as they adjusted to their new surroundings awakened that desire to have one in her. "Are they strays?" she asked hopefully.
"I don't know. Probably? Like I said, I found them out by the sidewalk," Adam said as he went through the cupboards to see what they have.
Leo's brows rose. The kitten that had chosen to come to him had switched from attempting to glue itself onto him to climbing his leg. Seeing the tiny creature struggle, he decided to help it and place it up to the summit that it desperately wanted to reach, namely, his knee. "They don't look like it, though. They look like they're of a particular breed," he observed. "Like, Siamese?"
"Oh. Yeah," Bree agreed as she scanned her kitten. "Do you think someone owns them? Or, you know, owned their mom? Maybe they belong to breeders."
"Do they eat anything in particular?" Adam asked, heavily distracted by his search. "Anything that we hopefully have?"
"We can give 'em milk," Bree suggested.
"Or tuna," Leo said.
Chase sneezed. "We're not giving them anything," he said, his voice congested. He stepped into the kitchen with Adam, away from the cats. "We can't keep them. They're kicking up my allergies. We can't have them around."
"Oh, come on, Chase. It's just one afternoon. We're just giving them food," Bree said.
"No. The moment you give them food, they'll start associating you guys, us, as food sources, and then they'll come—" he sneezed again then sniffled, "regularly. I'm sorry, but we can't have 'em around. Plus, Mr. Davenport said no pets."
"But Mr. Davenport isn't here," Adam pointed out, four plastic candy bowls, two cans of tuna, and the carton of milk in his hands. "He and Tasha won't be back until later tonight. It's just a few hours, Chase. Can't we let them stay for a bit? It's getting dark out there, and they're hungry."
Chase sneezed. "No," he said.
"What if you stay at the lab for a few hours?" Bree suggested as she petted the kitten that she had claimed as hers.
Chase looked at her drily. "Bree."
Bree frowned unhappily. "Oh, come on. It's not like they're going to stay. I had to give up the kitten Mr. Davenport gave me when I was five because you're allergic. Can't I have just a few hours to pretend I have one?" she asked.
Chase gave thought to it. Understanding his sister's point and seeing how another refusal would result into more protests, he surrendered. "Fine. I'm going to the lab," he said walking to the elevator. Unknown to him, one of the kittens had followed him and had stepped inside. "But if Mr. Davenport catches you guys with these? I'm selling you out."
The door then closed, and then silence swiftly followed.
Adam, Bree, and Leo exchanged glances wordlessly at first. Then, Bree chuckled as Adam and Leo grinned. "I wonder how long it will take for him to realize that one of the kittens is with him," she said.
"I'll give him one minute," Leo said, petting the kitten lying half asleep on his knee.
"I don't think he'll notice," Bree said.
"I don't think so either," Adam said as he watched the last kitten left and its mother come towards the candy bowl he had filled with milk. "Kitty number four is the ice queen. She doesn't like being with people. That's probably why she's gone with Chase."
"She?" Leo asked.
"Yeah. Two boys, two girls."
Bree frowned. "How'd you figure that?" she asked.
Adam sat up. "Well, I just—"
Bree held a hand up. "Nope, never mind. I don't want to know," she said, trying not to imagine how her brother had come to the conclusion he had come to. "But, you said she doesn't like being with people? How'd you know?"
"She's the one that I had the hardest time convincing to step into my backpack. I mean, her mom and her siblings had gone in, but she just stared at me. She was back and forth in the bushes for a while before she decided to go with her family," Adam explained.
Leo and Bree nodded thoughtfully. "This one's pretty sweet," Leo said as he looked at the kitten with him.
"Oh, yeah. He's the very first one to come to me. He likes people," Adam said.
"And mine?" Bree asked.
"She's kind of goofy. Likes climbing, I think," Adam said with a grin. Looking at the cat and the kitten drinking milk beside him, he said, "The mom's nice, too. And also this other one. He's funny." He grinned. "I think I want to name him Sven."
"Like the reindeer in Frozen Sven?" Bree asked with a grin.
"Yeah," Adam said.
Bree thought about that. She gazed down at her kitten, and then smiled. "I'm naming her Anna," she said. "And Chase's ice queen could be Elsa."
Adam looked at the kitten now asleep on Leo's lap. "So I guess your kitten's Olaf, Leo," he said.
"He does seem to like warm hugs," Bree added with a chuckle.
Leo leaned back on the couch as he looked at his older siblings, both grinning brightly as they tended to their 'pets.' He shook his head then rolled his eyes. Adam and Bree had named their visitors. These kittens are never going to leave, he concluded with a smirk.
Reviews are appreciated! If you see any mistakes up there, by the way, don't worry - I have the full intention of proofreading this again tomorrow when I've gotten sleep. Though, if you'd like to point out problem spots as far as the technical things I could fix, please don't hesitate to kindly do so in your comment!
