Fifteen: Random Things
Miss Minnaloushe was pacing her office angrily. She did that a lot, but now she was furious, and that showed clearly. Her wings were flapping constantly, the wind they caused made papers blow around and opened books on the desk.
Kihr was watching her in amusement, his arms crossed over his broad chest. Miss Minnaloushe's eyes glowed dark red as she swept around and glared at him.
"You are not welcome here, Kihr," she hissed through clenched teeth and stopped her pacing. "This is not your territory, and you don't belong! I demand to know the reason for this intrusion!"
She stomped her foot on the ground. Kihr chuckled.
"Honestly, Minnaloushe," he said, grinning. "Behaving like a mortal child does not suit you. I am... merely here for moral support to you, dear cousin."
Miss Minnaloushe snorted. "Your presence is not acquired. I want you to leave."
"Oh, you're hurting my feelings!" Kihr pressed a hand against his chest, as if mortally wounded by her behaviour. "Why can't I stay here? I'll help. I can... teach?"
"You lack discipline. And what in the world do you know about the CATS fandom anyway?"
Kihr didn't answer. A thought struck miss Minnaloushe, and she sighed.
"Kihra kicked you out again, didn't she?"
"A temporary glitch," said Kihr and shrugged. "She'll get back to loving me soon enough. But until then..." Suddenly he looked miserable, and his wings wilted. Miss Minnaloushe knew what would happen next. "Can I stay with you? Just for a little while, so that Kihra can cool down and return to worship the ground I fly above?"
Miss Minnaloushe glared at him again. "Kihr Ironwing, you are a disgrace to your relatives and your people."
Kihr nodded submissively. "Yes."
"And I'm surprised that Kihra even looked at you twice."
"So am I. I am scum."
"And you really have to stop being so stubborn around her, when you know the laws of the Ironwings..."
"Of course, cousin. You're very wise, and I should listen to you."
Miss Minnaloushe placed her hands at her sides and looked at him with distaste. "Drop the act, Kihr. I do not appreciate being mocked. Fine. But if you're staying, then you'd better make yourself useful. I will not allow any slacking."
Kihr grinned. "Absolutely. I'll take good care of the little kiddies, don't you worry."
The course coordinator regarded him coolly. "If you lay as much as a finger on one of my students," she said slowly, "I swear by all our gods that I will kill you."
During the next few days, Joanna saw Kihr rather frequently. He was most often busy with doing labour work, such as scrubbing the TSE 1 (while muttering things about "beneath me" and "stupid, rusty old piece of junk") or keeping the hallways of OFUC free from dust. She figured that Kihr mustn't be very well liked by miss Minnaloushe, or else the course coordinator wouldn't have treated him in such a way.
Ah well. She didn't have time to worry about the Ironwing, she was way too busy with more important things. Halloween was closing in, and she still didn't have any idea on what to dress up as.
It has to be something sexy, she scribbled on a note to Misty, as Macavity went on about his levitation powers. ("I've read many stories about me 'hitting someone in the chest with my powers of levitation.' Does any of you know what LEVITATION is?") not slutty. I want Misto to notice me, not think I'm cheap. know what I mean?
She pushed over the note to her friend, who, without taking her eyes off Macavity, snatched it and hold it in her lap under the desk to read it. She turned it over, grabbed her pencil and wrote a response, which she then sneakily passed over to Joanna.
10-4. what did u have in mind?
Joanna thought it over.
I want real dress. but no dresses on campus. big problem. what are u going as?
dunno. ghost maybe. but then Etcie will think I'm stealing her idea. bad. so dunno.
u'd make good zombie.
Misty grimaced and poked her tongue out when Macavity didn't see. Joanna grinned widely.
The lesson ended, and the class dissolved into chatter, as per usual. Today, the subject was rather obvious. The Halloween Ball.
"I've found this awesome leather jacket that someone threw away," said Indes, beaming. "I think it'll make a cool pair of bat-wings, with a little adjusting..."
"You're lucky," sighed Josh. "The only thing I found was an old Jack O' Lantern. And a rubber rat." He squeezed the rat, and it squeaked miserably. "I don't really know what to do with it, though."
"It's gross," said DemiGold and frowned. "You really should throw it away."
The fake-tom groaned. "I can't! It's this stupid Jellicle body! It wants it to play with, and I can't throw it away."
"I'm thinking about piracy," pondered Roman de la Croix, paying them no heed. "I think I'd make a hot pirate queen."
"I have a bandana you could borrow," offered Snowie generously.
"Cool!"
"Isn't it weird that there are so many cool things on this junkyard?" Joanna asked Misty. "I mean, you'd think there would be mostly... well, junk."
"My theory is that the faculty is planting out stuff for us to use," said Misty. "They're very sneaky."
"Then why can't they plant out something that Misto'd think is nice, so that I can impress him?"
Misty laughed. "It probably doesn't work that way, Jo."
"It's not fair."
"But that's the way it is."
Halloween came. Joanna finally decided on going to the party as a flower, wearing pale, red petals made out of felt in a collar around her head. Misty had, in a fit of desperation, proceeded to wrap tinfoil around her body, proclaiming to be leftovers.
They hadn't been allowed into the area around the TSE 1 all day while the faculty decorated the place. Occasionally they had heard the giggles of the kittens and Rumpleteazer, or the mumbled incantations of Mistoffelees as he conjured up one ball of light after the other. No one dared to enter the area. The mini-Pollicles patrolling the way in made sure of that.
As dusk fell over the campus, Joanna practiced her dance routine one last time. She was very proud over it. It had a lot of those spinning and jumping things that Mistoffelees did in his song, she'd put them in especially for him. Tonight was the night. Tonight, she would make him fall for her.
"And we all say, oh, well I never, was there ever, a cat so clever as the Magical Mr. Mistoffelees," she sang while looking at her reflection in the rear-view mirror to see if it looked good.
It did look good. True, she was far from as flexible as, say, Victoria, but that wouldn't matter. In the end, the only thing she really needed to do was to look him deeply into his eyes, and they would both know, just know, that they were perfect for each other.
"Busy with your lusting, are you?" said Misty's voice from behind her. "Come on, I'm all done now, so we'd better get a move on."
Joanna turned to watch her tinfoiled friend. "Yes, yes, I'm coming."
"Oh, wait..."
Misty took a peek into the mirror, licked her paw and carefully stroke down a tuft of fur on her head. Joanna shivered.
"That is really gross."
Misty grinned at her, her feline eyes gleaming. "Quiet you. I'm more hygienic than you are." She frowned momentarily and suddenly started to cough violently. After a moment or two, she coughed up a hairball. "Okay. I agree. It's totally gross. But at least I look pretty cool."
She gave her tail an admiring look. "Okay, let's go."
They met other students along the way to the TSE 1. The costumes were rather spectacular, and Joanna started to believe that Misty had been right when saying that someone had to have helped them finding all those things. Of course, a few had settled with wrapping toilet paper around themselves as mummy bandages, but Joanna could see a lot of people that had really put an effort into their masks.
She spotted Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West from 'Wicked', chatting with a fairy. A red Jellicle wearing Devil's horns was nervously stomping around, asking everyone if they'd seen her trident. Pocahontas giggled at something funny the Phantom had said, and a bunny glared viciously at a fox when it playfully snapped after its tail.
"This could just possibly be the most bizarre thing I've ever seen," said Misty. She looked like she was about to start giggling herself.
"Me too," said Joanna.
They reached the TSE 1. And to describe it fully, a new paragraph is needed.
Kihr had polished the old car until it gleamed and reflected the moonlight so that the students almost had to squint. Garlands with tiny lights had been arranged neatly around the Tire, illuminating the area. The lights were evidently magical in nature, for they also floated in the air around them. The opening of the pipe was covered with a dark red drape, maybe because it looked nicer that way. A table had been placed in front of it, which was wavering under the weight of all the food that had been placed on it. Music was playing, and in the middle of the floor, the Jellicles were dancing.
Granted, it didn't look exactly like it did at the Jellicle Ball. On the other hand, they seemed more relaxed dancing like this.
The Rum Tum Tugger was tangoing around the place with Jennyanydots, who looked like she had never had this much fun. Tumblebrutus and Etcetera were dancing, the latter constantly peering at Tugger to see if he would ever ask her to dance. Mistoffelees waltzed slowly with Victoria, which made some of his fangirls gnash their teeth.
Old Deuteronomy, who was wearing a Santa hat, sat perched on the Tire with miss Minnaloushe. She didn't have a costume, but she seemed somewhat more relaxed than usual. Maybe even miss Minnaloushe could get into the mood to party once in a while. Kihr sat next to her, apparently sulking about something.
"So, what do you want to do?" asked Joanna.
"I was planning to stalk Tugger until he agrees to dance with me," said Misty. "But I suppose that could wait till later. I'm hungry."
"Then go and get a snack. I'm going to show Misto my da..."
She stopped talking and groaned. Mistoffelees was already completely surrounded by fangirls.
"Misto, I've thought up a dance for you!" said Lolita eagerly and took a few steps. "I call it 'A Celebration to the Magical Cat'! Look!"
She twirled a little, and was then pushed aside by Ratha.
"No, look at my dance, Misto! My dance has pirouettes!"
"Misto, Misto, will you dance with me?"
"Shut up, he wants to dance with me!"
"Both of you bugger off, it's obvious that he and I are true loves! Misto, Misto, isn't my dress pretty?"
They closed in on him in a smaller and smaller circle, until he was barely visible behind them. Joanna could see him whisper something to Victoria, who nodded. A second later, they were both gone.
The fangirls harrumphed offendedly.
"Bloody ungrateful git," muttered Kaylyn and adjusted the princess crown she wore. "I think I'll start fangirling Tugger instead. At least he appreciates it more."
"Hear, hear," agreed Nix, brushing some invisible dust off his cape.
Joanna sighed. Ah well, Misto'd come back sooner or later. And when he did, she would be waiting with her dance. She shrugged and went away to look for Misty.
A/N: Cookies to whoever gets from which movie I stole the idea of people dressing up as leftovers!
Answers to Reviews:
Krissy4: It's pronounced like... "Kiiir."
Aislin of the Shadows: Good for you! .:grins:.
TameranianRaven: That depends on how you write it. I'm sure it's possible. Just... don't make the OC the center of the story. Focus more on the other cats, so that they don't get overshadowed by this new person. And for Someone's sake, write them in character. And make sure that your OC really has REAL flaws, not the cutesy-wutesy "oh, my fur is naturally pink!" thing that the Secretary is trying to pull off...
Mystitat: No, no grudges, I promise. But that was the part I was writing when I read your review about wanting to be in the story again, so that's the deal. Heh.
Eclectica: Rocky Horror? Dude... That should be interesting. I will be reading that, should you ever post it.
Korora: Ack! The many various misspellings of "Jellicle"! Illness, you say? Hm...
Eponine: Because the Phantom doesn't leave the Opera House, and the Jellicles will probably not go to Paris any time soon? Same with Les Mis. Unless you want to go into time-travel... But I beg of you, please don't. About the JCS crossover idea... I say: Maybe. If done correctly, and it has a plausible reason for being crossed over with.
Roman de la Croix: Yes, I am aware of that. :) And yeah, I've been drawing on a map over the OFUC campus... The question is if anyone will ever see it, since my household lacks a scanner. We'll just have to see.
About you guys doing sideline stories... I really want to say "please leave the matter of OFUC to me" on this one. A part of me is very flattered however, so I suppose short anecdotes could be okay. Let me do the teaching, though. What's happening "behind the scenes" is okay, but I handle the education. Stay faithful to what I've written already. And don't forget to credit Miss Cam for the concept of fanfiction universities, and myself for OFUC.