Chapter 2 - A New Family!

The next day, as Jennyanydots and the other cats went about their business, they wondered what happened to the kittens and why Old Deuteronomy hadn't returned. It wasn't until the late afternoon that his tottery legs carried him into the junkyard, two kittens along for the ride. Jellylorum beamed with pride, as the other cats came down from the junk piles to see the arrival of the new kittens. Deuteronomy placed the tiny cats down, and little Bombalurina stood close to baby Demeter as she took in the vast junkyard. "I'll stay with you if you would like," Deuteronomy said to the little red queen. But before he could get an answer, Bombalurina raced off, leaving her sister and Old Deuteronomy behind.

"What the--?" A little Maine Coon cried. He was the oldest of the kittens, and Bombalurina had tackled him with ease. She was hugging him tightly.

"Can you be my boyfriend?" she asked the kitten. (She had heard the term used excessively by her mother…) She began purring as she nuzzled the confused tom kitten.

"That's the Rum Tum Tugger," Jellylorum laughed. "We just call him Tugger. He should be used to that by now."

"Tugger is my boyfriend," she claimed, taking the confused Maine Coon kitten, who was, at that point, twice her age. Tugger just shrugged as Bombalurina led him to her sister, (who she suddenly remembered), and picked her up. Demeter tried to speak the word her sister had used, but only managed, "Bo-fen!"

"If you want, little cutie," Tugger began, milking the attention from the happy queen kitten for all it was worth, "I can show you around the junk--"

"OKAY!" Bombalurina turned to Old Deuteronomy, beckoning him to bend closer with her paw. When he was at her level, Bombalurina whispered "Um….uh…Can I go?"

Old Deuteronomy chortled to himself before saying in a gentle voice, "Of course!" Bombalurina adjusted baby Demeter in her arms. (The little butterball was a lot for a kitten her age to carry.) Then Tugger led the way, with Bombalurina practically floating behind him.

The kitten-proofed section of the junkyard was insanely huge in the eyes of a tiny kitten. Tugger walked her into one room, the most padded and comfortable one (which was made inside of an open trunk of a car). He then threw his hand up in the air in a showy fashion.

"This is where all the baby kittens go who can't really walk around yet," he said, obviously having taken Demeter into consideration. "See?" he pointed at one lone kitten in the room, who was sitting upright and staring curiously at the three who had entered. "That's Mistoffelees," he pointed out. The shy kitten ducked his head at the sound of his name, as though he were in trouble.

"Look, Demeter!" Bombalurina feigned excitement, as most do with babies. "A kitten for you to play with!" After the little red kitten placed Demeter next to Mistoffelees, they stared at each other in confusion. In an attempt to figure out the new creature in his presence, tiny Mistoffelees poked his adversary in the stomach. Demeter, who apparently found nothing comical about being poked, began a slow ascent into crying.

"Hey!" Bombalurina scooped her sister up in her arms, and flicked Mistoffelees in the tail as punishment. When he started howling in 'pain', Tugger took Bombalurina's arm and yanked her out of the room.

Outside, tiny Mistoffelees cries of supposed death could plainly be heard. Tugger looked at Bombalurina in horror. "Why did you do that for? We're gunna get in…" He trailed off as his ears perked up. Without another word, he pulled Bombalurina and the now calm Demeter behind a pile of cereal boxes. Not two seconds later, Jennyanydots came rushing into the room to see why tiny Mistoffelees was in such peril.

"Come on!" Tugger whispered in a slight panic. He didn't want to get blamed for this! He dragged Bombalurina's arm and they ran to the general play area where he crashed right into a little silver tabby. "Ow!"

"Hey!" cried the silver tabby. He was only slightly older than Bombalurina, but seemed much more centered than most kittens. Bombalurina could already tell by the air about him.

"Munkustrap!" Tugger exclaimed, obviously glad to see him. "Look! We have new kittens! This is….uh….um…wait a second, I'll remember this…"

"My name is Bom-ba-lu-ri-na," she pronounced each syllable so she was sure they both understood. She then pinched the young Tugger for not asking her name to begin with. He frowned at her while she introduced her sister. "And this is my baby sister. Her name is De-me-ter." She looked Munkustrap over quickly. "Gridda-bella said I remind her of you."

"Who?" Munkustrap asked, slightly taken aback by this very pretty little queen he had never seen before. He thought about that one for a second. "Oh! Grizabella," he said, looking to the Maine Coon, who frowned slightly. "We don't like her very much," he admitted.

"I don't either," Bombalurina whispered. "Um…why is that kitten staring at me?" She pointed to a little black and white tom, who was drooling at the sight of her. Another kitten behind him, who had been playing with a little cat toy, frowned at the tom. She then pulled the little black and white's tail and succeeded in getting his attention back.

"Oh, that's Alonzo," Munkustrap pointed. "He's kind of new. And so is she." He pointed at the sleek little queen. "She's…um…Cassava!"

"Cassandra," Tugger corrected the younger kitten. Bombalurina took the chance to put Demeter down. Tugger, noticing this, leaned in close to little Munkustrap. "Hey, bro, can you do your older brother a favor? Watch that little kitten for us?"

"Why?" Munkustrap asked, scrunching his little nose. He sat down to get a closer look at the tiny kitten. The only other time he'd seen a kitten so small was with Mistoffelees… (And he was still smaller than her!)

"Bombalurina!" Tugger spun around to the queen, not waiting for Munkustrap's answer. "We're gunna go and play with Bustober Jones's tail. Wanna come?" Alonzo and Cassandra were indicated in the "we" portion of that sentence, and they jumped at the chance. Bombalurina, however, scrunched her nose and muttered something. "Munkustrap will take care of Demeter," he promised.

"Hey! Wait, I didn--"

"Okay!" Bombalurina was glad to give her arms a rest, and the four of them bounded off to play with Bustober's tail.

"But…I wanted to go too!" Never being one to ignore his responsibility, he sulked next to the tiny gold and black queen, who stared at him. "Why aren't you with Mistoffelees?" he asked her. But he wasn't about to take her there himself. He thinks that red queen would surely kill him if he moved her sister…she looked like she could take on a Pollicle, the way she guarded her sister!

Baby Demeter pointed at the kitten and said in a cute sing song voice, "Boy-friend!"

"Huh!" Munkustrap shot straight up. "I'm not your boyfriend! Don't say that! Where….where does a kitten learn such things?" he asked no one in particular.

Just then, a small ginger cat strutted in. He was younger than Tugger, but older than Munkustrap. He also seemed to have an incredible lack of care for others – a frightening attribute for a kitten to possess.

"What's this?" he asked, poking Demeter in the head. Toppling over, Demeter looked confused. She then decided all was not right in her world and burst into tears.

"Macavity!" Munkustrap scolded, picking up the vertically challenged kitten and trying to comfort her. "She's not a THIS! She's a new Jellicle. Don't make her cry!" The little kitten buried her face into Munkustrap's fur, her cry turning into flustered sobs.

Pipsqueak Macavity shrugged and looked intently at the now calming Demeter. "What's wrong with 'her'?" (Apparently he refused to think of the kitten as a real creature.)

"You hurt her," Munkustrap said, trying to soothe her. He was doing his best to act as he had seen the mother cats do to the baby kittens. "She doesn't like being poked in the head!" To himself, he thought, 'If Bombalurina finds out her sister is crying, she'll hurt me, I know it…'

Macavity smiled devilishly at Munkustrap, who was now in no position to defend himself. One of his favorite pastimes was to tackle and pin Munkustrap until he cried for mercy. The ginger kitten got low to the ground and wiggled her shoulders in preparation…

"Macavity!" Jennyanydots came out, holding a now calm Mistoffelees, and shook her head. "How many times have I told you not to make kittens cry?" She held out Mistoffelees as proof. He decided to calm himself by sucking on his paw.

Pipsqueak Macavity rolled his eyes and pointed at the tuxedoed kitten. "I didn't make THAT one cry!" But Jennyanydots wasn't listening, and shooed Macavity out of the vicinity with her incessant lecturing. "If you weren't Deuteronomy's grandson, I'd…" Her voice trailed off as she ran after the rug rat.

By that time, Bombalurina had come back to see what had caused her little sister to cry. Quickly, she took baby Demeter from little Munkustrap and hissed at him. "What did you do?" Tugger and the others came into view just afterwards, in awe of Bombalurina's incredible hearing. (They hadn't heard a kitten cry!)

Munkustrap threw up his hands in defense, certain Bombalurina was going to clock him. "It wasn't me! It was Macavity!" He looked over to the young Tugger for help.

"Oh, Macavity," Tugger said, putting himself between the two kittens. (Apparently, he wouldn't put it past Bombalurina to attack the other kitten, either…) "He's an awful kitten. No one likes him. He's always making other kittens cry…Honest!" He added, when Bombalurina seemed to glare at the fluff ball.

"Macavity," she said with disgust, as though trying to imprint in her mind the vulgarity of the name.

"How many times have I told you kittens not to play with my tail when I'm sleeping?" A fat black and white cat came around the corner, waving his spoon while waddling over to the kittens. "Oh, who's this now?" he asked, forgetting his anger at the sight of new members of the Jellicle family. (He also took a moment to catch his breath.)

"That's Bombalurina, Mr. Jones," Munkustrap said, pointing at said queen. She nodded at the correct pronunciation of her name, and smiled forgiveness on the silver tom.

"And this is my sister," Bombalurina said, holding her sister up proudly. "Demeter!"

And as though prompted by all the pointing and usage of words, Demeter pointed at Munkustrap and said, "Boyfriend!" Munkustrap felt the heat flow to his face as the others looked from the innocent baby to the flustered kitten. The other kittens then began laughing and taunting the little silver tabby, who took to hiding behind the wide coat of Bustober Jones' frame.

The only reason this came out so soon was because I'm very excited about the story! Ever start writing and there's a certain point you want to get to in a story, and i don't mean the end. Well, that's how I feel with this. Heh, did that make sense?

Thank you Krissy4 for your review! Yeah, some things I will obviously put in. You can't stretch too far when you want to explain something that everyone believes about the character in the first place. But it's the moments in between that I want to get at. The slow building to why Demeter is so shy and nervous. And thank you for your encouragement! I honestly didn't expect any reviews until, like, the 3rd or 6th chapter! I'm elated!