Sebastian grumbled, and started back towards the house. The others followed. They'd had enough of the beach for one day.
"So what are we going to do for dinner?" Alan asked.
"Oh, don't worry, Alan," Josie said. "I'll fix us something."
"Great, Josie," Alan said.
"If anyone's going to cook anything for Alan," Alexandra said. "It'll be me! Besides, this is my beach house!"
"Calm down, Alexandra," Valerie said. "We'll all do the cooking."
"Oh goody," Melody said with a giggle. "I'll make us peanut butter and banana sandwiches!"
"Hmph," Alexandra groused, but started into the kitchen after Josie, Valerie, and Melody anyway.
"Alexandra's cooking?" Alex asked. "Better go get a stomach pump."
"How would you like a knuckle sandwich for dinner, brother?" Alexandra threatened. Alex gulped, and said nothing more.
In the kitchen, Josie was mixing batter to make biscuits. Alexandra was doing the same, trying to show her up. Sebastian wandered in, to see what the girls were up to.
"I hope the boys like my grandmother's biscuits," Josie said.
"I'm sure they will," Valerie said. "Your grandmother makes the best biscuits I ever had Josie. They're practically lighter than air!"
Alexandra shot Josie a glare, and began to look for something to put in her own biscuits that would top Josie's. She opened the cupboard under the sink and found a small bag of cement powder. She decided to use this to make Josie look bad.
"Here, Sebastian," she said. "Take this cement powder and pour it into Josie's biscuit batter. We'll see if her biscuits are lighter than air after this!"
Sebastian took the bag and jumped up on the counter. Unfortunately, Josie's batter and Alexandra's batter were sitting right next to each other on the counter, and he couldn't figure out who's was who's. He shrugged, and just poured the cement powder into one of the bowls. Then he jumped off the counter with the bag.
About an hour later, the girls had dinner ready. Josie, Valerie, and Melody had cooked chicken while Alexandra had made steak. She had done everything herself.
"This really looks great, girls," Alan said.
"Thanks, Alan," Josie said. She took a biscuit out of her basket and handed it to Alan.
"Alan would rather have one of my biscuits, Josie-kins," Alexandra said, as she took one of her biscuits out of her own basket.
"Here you are, Alan dear," she said. "Biscuits made from Grandmother Cabot's secret recipe."
"Secret recipe?" Alex repeated. "I didn't know Grandmother Cabot had a secret recipe!"
"If everybody knew, then it wouldn't be a secret, dum-dum!" Alexandra shouted, impatiently. She dropped her biscuit on Alan's plate, and it practically cracked it. Alex took one, and tried to bite into it, but he couldn't. As a matter of fact, he nearly broke his teeth!
"Ow!" he shouted, massaging his jaw. "I can see why Grandmother Cabot kept this recipe a secret!"
Alexandra glared at her brother, and then shot a dirty look to her cat. Sebastian just snickered. Alexandra picked up one of her biscuits and hurled it at him. Sebastian ducked, and the biscuit made a dent in the wall.
"Ooohhhh!" Alexandra groaned. She looked like she was about ready to pop a vein.
"Well, don't throw them out, Sis," Alex said. "Come December, we can always take them up to Dad's winter place and use them as hockey pucks!"
"I'll hockey puck you in a minute!" Alexandra shouted, ready to throw another one of her rock hard biscuits, this time at her brother. Valerie grabbed her wrist to stop her.
"Calm down, Alexandra," she said. "Come on, let's all sit down and eat. We have two choices tonight. Josie, Melody, and I made chicken, and Alexandra made steak."
Alex and Alan glanced at each other, and then back to the girls.
"Chicken," they said in unison.
Alexandra grumbled a little, and then sat down. Josie went into the kitchen and came out with her chicken. As soon as she set it on the table, Sebastian pounced on it, grabbed it, and ran off with it in his mouth. When he stopped, he began tearing the meat off the chicken and swallowing it.
"Sebastian!" everybody else shouted.
"That . . . . that . . . . darn cat!" Josie shouted, frustratedly.
"Looks like we're having steak tonight," Alexandra said, almost gleefully. She got up from the table to get it. Josie followed her.
"Alexandra Cabot, did you put Sebastian up to that stunt?" she asked.
"Why, Josie, whatever makes you think that?" Alexandra asked, in an overly innocent voice.
"Give it a rest, Alexandra, I know your tricks!"
"All right, all right. No, I didn't put him up to stealing your stupid chicken. He did that by himself!"
Josie sighed, and left the kitchen. Alexandra brought out her steak and served everyone. The only problem with it was that it was nearly impossible to chew.
"I think you overcooked these, Alexandra," Alan said.
"Yeah, this is like eating shoe leather," Alex said, trying to tear off at least some of the piece of steak on his fork with his teeth.
"Golly, Alex, I didn't know you knew what shoe leather tastes like," Melody said.
"Oh brother," Valerie sighed.
Sebastian snickered. Alexandra shot him a dirty look.
After everyone managed to eat whatever they could, the Valerie, Josie, and Alexandra went into the den to find a good movie on TV. Melody volunteered to make the popcorn, while the boys did the dishes.
"This has been some day, huh?" Alan asked.
"You said it," Alex replied. "Between Sebastian and my sister, this really has been a . . . . . oooh!"
Alex stopped suddenly, and held his hand to his stomach for a minute. Alan and Melody looked over at him.
"Golly, are you all right, Alex?" Melody asked.
"Yeah, Melody, I'm fine," Alex said. "It's probably just indigestion from Alexandra's cooking. Every time I eat anything she cooks, I get stomach pains."
"Why don't you go into the den with the others?" Alan suggested. "Melody and I can finish up here."
"Okay, thanks, guys," Alex said. He left the kitchen, but stopped for a moment, and held his stomach.
"Oh boy," he groaned. "There must have definitely been something wrong with that steak!"
Sebastian followed Alex out of the kitchen and into the den. Valerie, Josie, and Alexandra were flipping through the channels, trying to find something good on. Alex sat down on the couch, and groaned.
"What's the matter with you?" Alexandra asked.
"Indigestion," Alex said. "You know I get indigestion every time I eat your cooking. Now you see why we needed a stomach pump?"
"You're a riot, Alexander," Alexandra said, sarcastically.
Melody and Alan came into the room a few minutes later, with popcorn and sodas. Valerie found a movie on TV that everyone agreed on watching. Sebastian sat on Alexandra's lap as they were watching the movie, but the cat's mind was not on the movie. He was paying more attention to Alex. Alex wasn't really paying any attention to the movie, either. It appeared he was paying more attention to his indigestion. Sebastian was beginning to sense something wasn't right. He got up from Alexandra's lap, and moved to Alex's.
"Ow!" Alex shouted as Sebastian pressed his paw into Alex's stomach. "Hey, watch it, Sebastian!"
Alex pushed Sebastian off his lap. Sebastian grumbled, and settled himself on the couch next to him. Alex began to scratch Sebastian behind the ears just then.
"That's better," he said. Then he groaned and held his stomach again.
"Are you sure you're all right, Alex?" Valerie asked.
"It's just indigestion," Alex insisted. "I'll be fine. Don't worry."
"Why don't you go to bed?" Josie suggested. "You don't look very well."
"Yeah, you do look pretty tired," Melody commented.
"Maybe you guys are right," Alex said. "I'm not feeling so well. Hopefully this indigestion will go away by morning. It usually does."
The others nodded and went back to watching the movie. Alex walked down the hall to his room. Sebastian followed. If there was one thing he couldn't resist, it was taking a cat nap next to a warm body when the warm body was sleeping. He waited until Alex climbed into bed before he jumped up and made himself comfortable against him. Although something didn't still seem quite right to the feline. Alex was already fast asleep. Sebastian couldn't shake the feeling. He felt comfortable, nice and warm, even though Alex seemed to feel a bit warmer to the cat than he usually did when Sebastian curled up next to him. Sebastian figured he'd tell the others, or try to. He jumped off the bed, and ran down the hallway into the den. The others were still engrossed with the movie. Sebastian began jumping up and down in front of the TV, meowing.
"Down in front, Sebastian!" Alan shouted.
"Yeah, you dumb cat!" Alexandra yelled. "We're trying to watch the movie!"
Sebastian wasn't going to give up that easilly. He started meowing louder then.
"Shush, Sebastian!" Josie scolded. "You'll wake up Alexander! You know he's not feeling well!"
Sebastian grumbled, and went back to Alex's room. Alex was still sleeping, peacefully for the moment. Sebastian jumped onto the bed, and kneaded a spot by Alex's chest, still feeling something was wrong. He decided to ignore it, and go to sleep.