It wasn't until a couple of hours later when Sebastian woke up. The others had gone to bed, and everyone was asleep. Sebastian couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Normally, he loved sleeping next to a warm body, but Alex seemed a bit too warm. Much too warm. Almost as if - no, Sebastian was sure of it - Alex was running a fever. He was also moaning in his sleep, about his stomach. Sebastian nudged Alex with his nose, but Alex didn't wake up. The cat did everything he could think of to wake up Alex, but nothing worked. Sebastian knew this wasn't just indigestion. He had to get the others.
Sebastian ran down the hall, and pushed his way into Melody's room. He figured she'd be the perfect person to wake up first. If he woke her up, she could wake the others up without them getting too angry. He jumped up on her bed, and began meowing frantically.
"Oh Sebastian," Melody mumbled. "Can't it wait until morning?"
Sebastian continued to meow frantically. Melody sighed, picked him up, and put him down on the floor.
"Please, Sebastian," she said with a yawn. "Be a good kitty cat."
Obviously, Melody wasn't going to help him. He decided to try Josie next. At least she'd know what he was trying to say. He wandered to her room and began meowing up a storm. Josie groaned.
"Sebastian, it's the middle of the night," she said. "Go away. I'm trying to sleep!"
Josie gently pushed Sebastian off the bed, turned on her side, and tried to go back to sleep. Sebastian grumbled. He went to Valerie next. After all, she was the smartest one in the group. She'd help him, he was sure of it. He walked into his room, jumped onto her bed, and shook her shoulder, meowing.
"Sebastian, not now," Valerie said. But Sebastian was persistant. He continued meowing in her ear, until Valerie finally picked him up by the scruff of his neck and set him down on the floor.
"Cut it out, Sebastian," she said.
Sebastian was starting to get a little frustrated. He figured Alan would help him out. The male of the human species often stuck together, he thought. He went into Alan's room and began meowing again. Alan swatted him away.
"Cool it, Sebastian," he said. "You'll wake up the whole neighborhood."
Sebastian left. There was only one person to go to now, and he wasn't looking forward to that. Alexandra. He walked into her room and jumped on her bed, meowing his head off. It was his last chance.
"Knock it off, Sebastian!" Alexandra shouted, pushing Sebastian off her bed. "I'm trying to get my beauty sleep!"
At times like this, Sebastian really wished he could speak English! He left the room, and thought of another tactic. He sat down in the middle of the hallway, and began imitating a siren at the top of his lungs.
"Oh for goodness sakes, Sebastian!" Valerie shouted.
"Come on, Sebastian, give us a break!" Alan called.
"Shut up, you stupid cat!" Alexandra yelled.
"Be quiet, Sebastian!" both Josie and Melody called out.
Sebastian kept his siren going, until Alexandra flung a pillow at him. The force of her throw sent him hurling into the wall, where he landed with a CRASH!
"That'll shut him up," Alexandra said. "Now go to bed, you fur-brained feline!"
Every last one of them slammed their doors shut. Sebastian grumbled, and went back into Alex's room. Alex was still sleeping, moaning about his stomach. Sebastian had to take matters into his own hands. Or rather paws. He dashed out of the bedroom, and down the hall into the den. He jumped up on one of the end tables, grabbed the phone, and used his claw to dial 911. Once he got the operator on the phone, he started meowing frantically again.
"Hey, Bill," the operator said, turning to another. "You're not gonna believe this, but there's a cat on the phone."
"A cat?!" Bill shouted. "You gotta be kidding me, Joe!"
"Probably knocked it off the hook," Joe said, shrugging.
Sebastian heard the conversation and began his siren imitation again. It was the only way he could think of to get the operator's attention to let them know this was an urgent situation.
"Hold it a sec, Bill," Joe said. "This cat's imitating a siren. I'm beginning to think it has an emergency on it's hands . . . err, paws. Okay cat, here's what I want you to do. Meow once for yes, twice for no, got it?"
"Meow!" Sebastian cried into the phone.
"Do you need the police?"
"Mew, mew."
"The fire department?"
"Mew, mew."
"An ambulance?"
"Meow!"
"Okay, an ambulance." Joe turned over to Bill. "Help me trace this call. This cat sounds urgent."
"Gotcha," Bill nodded, and he and Joe got right to work.
Sebastian jumped off the table and began pacing back and forth around the room. He called an ambulance, sure, but there was still the problem of opening the door. Sebastian may have been a clever cat, but he wasn't that clever. He had to wake the others up and get them out of bed. He knew they weren't going to respond to him howling and yowling. He needed a different approach. He thought about it, and finally had an idea.
Sebastian creeped into Alexandra's room, took her ponytail in his paws, and pulled as hard as he possibly could.
"Yeow!" Alexandra shouted, bolting upright in her bed. She looked at Sebastian and growled.
"Oooh, you over grown hairball!" she yelled. "Wait'll I get my hands on you!"
Sebastian took off while Alexandra climbed out of bed and started chasing him. He ducked into Josie's room before Alexandra could catch him. He jumped onto Josie's dresser and began knocking things off it. Josie woke up and looked over, just in time to see Sebastian drawing a picture of a cat on the wall with her lipstick.
"Oh Sebastian!" she shouted. Josie got up, and Sebastian took off before she could catch him.
Sebastian's next stop was Valerie's room. He jumped on her bed, and on her back.
"Mow, mow, mow, mow, mow!" he chanted (that is pronounced "ow" with an M in front of it, for those keeping score).
"That does it," Valerie groaned, getting up, and getting annoyed. "Come here, Sebastian!"
Sebastian darted off into Alan's room next. He crawled under the covers, and clawed Alan right in the leg.
"Ow!" Alan shouted, as he jolted to attention, just in time to see Sebastian beat a hasty retreat into the hallway.
"That darn cat!" he shouted as he got up.
Sebastian dove into Melody's room, and grabbed her teddy bear in his mouth. Melody woke up, and tried to grab it back.
"Sebastian, give me back my teddy bear," she said, trying to remain calm.
Sebastian growled like a mighty hunter. Melody grabbed hold of the bear and tried to pull it away. She and Sebastian got into a tug of war, which ended when the bear's head was torn off it's body.
"Oh Sebastian!" Melody shouted. "Look what you've done now!"
Sebastian darted out of the room with Melody hot on his tail. The others saw her chase after the cat, and followed. As a final blow, Sebastian went down to the main hallway, where the Pussycats' instruments were. He jumped on the drums and began banging his paws on the cymbals. Then he jumped on Josie's guitar, pulling at the strings. Then he beat his paws against Valerie's tambourines, and started all over again on Melody's drums, all the time caterwauling. It was driving the others crazy.
"SEBASTIAN!" all five of them screamed at the tops of their lungs. Sebastian immediately stopped. Alexandra stormed over and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.
"That's it!" she yelled, shaking him a little. "First thing tomorrow morning, this flea bag is getting a free trip to the city pound!"
"Honestly, Sebastian," Valerie groaned, sleepily. "What's the matter with you?"
Sirens filled the air just then. Alexandra groaned.
"Oh great," she said. "The stupid cat must've woken up the entire block and someone called the police!"
"They must be coming to arrest us all," Melody said, looking out the window. "They're driving a big, white truck."
"Big white truck?" Josie repeated, and she looked out the window. "That's not the police, it's an ambulance! And they're stopping here!"
Two technicians got out of the ambulance and walked up to the front door. Alexandra opened it before they got a chance to knock.
"What do you want at this time of night?" she asked.
"Oh, honestly, Alexandra!" Josie shouted.
"We got an emergency call from this address from a cat," one of the technicans said.
"A cat?" Valerie asked. Then they all turned to face their furry friend.
"Sebastian!" they all shouted, in a scolding tone.
"I've told the cat a million times not to play with the phone!" Alexandra shouted.
Sebastian grumbled for a moment or so, and then ran to the technicians, meowing and jumping up and down, trying to lead them down the hall. He ran off, and the technicians followed.
"You know," Melody said, suddenly. "With all this noise going on, I'm kind of surprised Alex can be sleeping through all this."
Once the gang realized what Melody had just said, they raced down the hall after Sebastian and the two technicians as fast as they could. Sebastian was sitting on the bed, while Alex was moaning like crazy. The two technicians were loading him onto a stretcher.
"You guys are making a pretty big deal over a little indigestion," Alexandra commented.
"Ma'am, this isn't indigestion," the second technician explained. "This looks like appendicitis. We've got to get him to the hospital fast!"
"Appendi-what?!" Alexandra shouted.
"That's when your appendix gets inflamed," Valerie said. "They're taking Alex to the hospital so they can remove it before it ruptures."The two technicans wheeled the stretcher out to the ambulance, leaving the others just standing there, dumbfounded.
"Oh, poor Alex!" Josie shouted. "Imagine having appendicitis! I can't believe we thought it was just indigestion!"
"We'd better get down to the hospital," Valerie said. "I hope the doctors are able to get Alex's appendix out in time."
"What in the world is an appendix, anyway?" Alexandra asked, sounding impatient.
"I think that's a list at the end of a book," Melody said, giggling.
"No Melody," Josie said. "We'll explain everything on the way to the hospital."
"Let's go, cats!" Alan said, and the five of them rushed to change clothes, and then out to the bus. Alan practically had the pedal to the metal.