Chapter Seven: Matchmaker for Anthony and John

It was the day when everyone returned from Hawaii and instantly, Lausanne knew that something was wrong. Tugger was missing! Her precious orange, yellow and black cat! She scampered around looking for him, John helped also, while everyone else unpacked.

Cid and Chey-Anne (who was supposed to look after the house and Kyla's little sister) walked in.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Cid said cheerfully. "How's everyone?"

"Feel like shit, plane's aren't my thing," Roger told him.

Kyla was already collapsed upon the couch. Chey-Anne looked at her.

"My gawd, my sister is such a lazy ass," she said in her high, annoying voice.

Suddenly, there was a high, loud, annoying screech from the cat's room. All of the cats, no matter where they were sitting, fell off whatever they were sitting on. Lausanne ran out of the cat's room, clutching a cut-up Tugger.

"He's hurt!" Lausanne said. "My baby's hurt!"

Kyla got up and examined Tugger.

"Oh, what a surprise, it wasn't a different cat," she said. She looked at Chey-Anne. "It was that thing." She pointed at her.

"How would you know it was me?" Chey-Anne demanded.

"Well, first off, these are human scratch marks, next, you were the only one that was feeding the cats, not Cid or Shera, and.this is your hair on his collar and in his claws." She went and examined the thirteen-year-old's hairline. "Yeah.and you have scratches in your hair."

Lausanne looked at Chey-Anne. "How could you? Why did you? Tugger's a defenseless cat, you.you.you monster!"

Kyla pulled Lausanne close. "C'mon, I'll call up Charlie and then we can go and take Tugger to a vet, alright?"

Lausanne nodded. Kyla went to the phone and dialed her brother's number. Everyone else was looking at a trying-to-be-innocent Chey-Anne. Kyla hung up the phone.

"Get your stuff together, Charlie will be here in an hour, and in that hour, you are not to talk, look or think about anything in this house, you are banned for the rest of your life," she told Chey-Anne. "And I mean it this time." She went over to Lausanne. "While we're waiting for Tugger to get fixed up, there's a new musical shop by the Tugger's vet's that we should check out. There're new 'Cats' dolls and CDs."

Lausanne nodded as Kyla took her out the door.

"You wouldn't believe what I got!!" Kyla said.

"The new Anthony Rapp CD, which isn't out until next week?" Alex asked.

"Noooo!" Kyla said. "That's reserved, though. I got a-"

"TIGER!!" Mark yelled, hopping up onto the back of the couch.

Kyla hugged the tiger. "His name is Taj. Lausanne wouldn't let me name him Anthony."

"She would seem.too obsessed," Lausanne said.

Kyla picked up the tiger and held it to Alex's face. "Ain't he cute?"

"Yes, yes, very cute," Alex said, rolling his eyes.

She put Taj down. The tiger ran all over the place, looking at his new surroundings. Lausanne put Tugger down. He was looking must better than a few hours before. Taj ran over to Tugger and started licking him and cuddling him. Tugger didn't know what to do, but he started licking Taj back.

"Aw, how cute!" Lausanne said. "We've gotta get a picture!"

Manley handed her a camera. She took a picture of the two different species of cats licking each other.

Kyla cradled Taj in her lap. "Aw! Came to a conclusion! He's cuter than Anthony!"

Anthony looked over. "Did I just lose a fan to a.tiger?"

"Naw," John said. "Just to cuteness."

After six days, Kyla and John were looking at the fabric in the couch.

"It's blue, not black.and it has tiny little white specks in it!" Kyla observed.

"Weird.and I thought Lausanne made sure all of this furniture was black," John said. "She did spend three hours looking for it in the furniture store."

"United Furniture Warehouse, bum, bum!" Kyla said.

Bender looked up.

"Yes, well, while you two are observing the couches, why not clean up somewhat?" he asked. "It may be a good thing to do while everyone else is out and while you two wanna sing the 'United Furniture Warehouse' theme."

Kyla looked at John and John looked back. They turned to bender and said,

"NO!"

Bender sighed and went back to his work. Alex came out of his room, yawning and stretching. He smiled at the two observing the couch.

"What in the world are they doing?" Alex asked.

"Observing the couch, not cleaning up and singing the 'United Furniture Warehouse' theme," Bender replied. "Everyone else is out so they're amusing themselves."

"Everyone else is out, eh?" Alex said thoughtfully. He walked over to John. "Hey, John, so, when're you going to ask him?"

While everyone was in Hawaii, Alex found out that John and Anthony both liked each other very deeply. It was just that John was too shy or embarrassed to ask Anthony out, and Anthony was more of the girl-type of gay man, so he was asked to go out.

John shook his head. "Nope."

Kyla looked over. "Hey, Johnny has a crush-y?"

John looked over to her. "You stay outta this."

"Johnny's in love!" Kyla chanted.

"Kyla.that's immature," John said. "And, I bet that you don't know that you and Alex are going out? So there, I can tease you, too!"

Kyla thought. "Alex and I are going out?"

Bender laughed from his desk.

"I feel so loved," Alex said.

"Well, I dunno!" Kyla said, honestly. "I'm not the smartest person in the house!" She looked back to John. "I bet you're in love with Manley!"

"No!" John said, offended - like. "He's Lausanne's!"

Kyla's eyes narrowed. "You liked Anthony.don't you? Don't you?" She sniffed. "Why is it that all the gay guys make it before me?"

"You wouldn't stand a chance, anyways," John told her. "I'm much sexier and handsomer than you!"

"I would be scared if I was handsome."

"You have a point."

Kyla cleared her throat. "Now that I got John to tell me he's in love with Anthony, I'd say it's time to play 'Matchmaker'. Ok, now, John, I need you to go with Alex and clean house, alright?"

Mark came back in from outside. He had been sledding with Charlene. Kyla looked over.

"Mark, I need you to get a tux for John," she said, shoving him back out the door.

"Huh?" Mark asked before he was flung outside.

"I'll make dinner and.Bender.I need you to find out where Anthony is and tell him to do many things so then he's occupied for a while, you know his cell phone number, right?" Bender nodded. "Good, good. Now, let's get down to business, people!"

"I'm gonna regret this," John said.

After about an hour of cleaning and tidying up, John just had to collapse on the ground. Alex looked at him.

"Would you like some water, John?" he asked.

"I prefer coffee," John told him.

Alex looked at him, quite offended. "You English people are all the same. You don't even say 'bitte' oder 'danke' do you?"

"Excuse me?" John said, translating. "What was that all about?"

Alex ignored John and turned around and went to his bedroom. The few people in the house heard the echoing slam.

"What was that all about?" Bender asked.

"I dunno." John said.

Mark entered the house again, with a tuxedo.

"They didn't have John's size, so I had to go one size up, alright?" Mark asked.

"Good," Kyla said. "Now go find Anthony and keep him outta the house!" She shoved him back outside.

John looked up at Kyla.

"How about.I cook dinner and you go and find out what's up Alex's ass, alright?" John asked.

Kyla looked at him. "Fine, fine. But I still get credit!"

"Yes, yes, you still get credit," John agreed.

Kyla walked to Alex's room and knocked on the door.

"Alex.can I come in, please?" she asked.

"Sure.why not?" Alex asked, still kind of sounding mad.

Kyla walked in, closed the door and walked over to Alex. She sat on the bed and looked at him.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Why were you mean to John?" she asked.

He sighed. "It's a silly reason, really."

"Well, tell me." She was trying to look like she was pleading.

"Ok, well.when I was younger.about ten or so, my parents divorced. My dad married this English woman who was.well, evil, basically. She hated me, seriously. She didn't believe in any of my dreams. She would always tell me that I was a lazy little boy and.that's why I tried to live with my mother as much as I could because she never remarried."

Kyla's expression suddenly changed. She looked aware and understanding. She nodded.

"Yeah.kind of like.like my parents." she said. "But."

"When John said he preferred coffee, I just kind of took it the wrong way," Alex admitted. "I should apologize."

Kyla moved towards Alex. "Yeah.that would be a good idea. And, hey, sorry I didn't realize th-"

"It's alright.Lausanne and Roger told me about your.erm.not being able to get hints and everything."

Kyla nodded. "Yeah.I'm kin-"

Alex grabbed her and kissed her.

"You're just kinda seductive," he whispered into her ear. He kissed her again.

"No.no, I'm not." Kyla said, pushing Alex slightly away. "I'm not." She suddenly stopped talking and looked down.

After a moment, Alex asked:

"What's wrong? Was is something I had said?"

"No.and.yes." Kyla continued to look down. "You're right. I am seductive, even if I did cut up my face and Cid helped remove the scars without leaving any marks. Or else.why.why was I raped.?" She wasn't crying, but she was about to.

Alex held her close. "It's alright."

"We're leaving now!" Bender said. "You and John have a very nice time together, Anthony."

Anthony nodded. "But.where're you all going?"

"We have some things we must do," Mark told him. "And places to be."

"Alright then.bye, I guess," Anthony said.

As everyone left, John set the table for only he and Anthony. Kyla was hiding in her room, listening in, for she had bugged the whole dining room area.

"Well, John, you went all out for only you and I," Anthony said. "Spaghetti and meatballs? There's going to be lots of leftovers."

"Yes, well, that'll be good," John told him, kind of shy-like. "I don't feel like cooking anything tomorrow."

"Hey, I heard about the semi - fight between you and Alex, how'd that turn out?"

"He apologized.was a silly reason for a fight, anyways, we both agree." He put the pots on the table. "Well.shall we eat?"

"Yeah.I guess," Anthony said, pushing his glasses up.

The two of them sat down and dished themselves up. They were completely silent, deep in their own thoughts. John was being completely hesitant to ask what he really wanted to ask. Finally.about half an hour later, John couldn't stand it anymore. He finally had to ask.

"Erm.Anthony, could I ask ya something?" he asked.

Anthony looked over. "Yeah. Why couldn't you be able to ask me something?"

"Well.it's just that." John hesitated some more. "I really like you and I would love to have the honor of going on a date with you!"

Anthony looked over, slightly surprised. "Yeah.yeah, I'd love to."

John looked over, knowing he must be beet red. "Really?"

Anthony nodded. And, so it was the beginning of a wonderful relationship.