I refused to shake little Miss Perfection's hand. You may call that rude, but I call it making a statement. I wanted to show my flock just how little affection I was going to give her and hoped they would do the same. Kitty's dark eyebrows had pulled up slightly, but she managed a smooth face overall. I was actually kinda disappointed, but I was just waiting for the rest of the flock to get a rouse out of her.

Epic fail to say the least.

Angel hopped right onto the butt-kiss bandwagon. "You're pretty," she gushed once Kitty had taken her hand in hers. Kitty laughed and patted Angel's golden curls. "Thank you very much. You're awfully pretty yourself."

Angel was still beaming at her when she moved to Nudge, who smiled as broadly as possible and agreed with Angel's statement. I scowled.

Iggy was taking shallow breaths, stirred by the mental image Fang had given him by his description. Sexist pig.

"And you're blind?" Kitty asked, softly running a finger below Iggy's right eye. Iggy shuttered happily in response, and Kitty grabbed his hand to shake it. "But I hear you're pretty creative with explosives." she smiled.

"Hey, so am I!" the Gasman spoke up, almost jumping up and down to get Kitty's attention. She laughed and tousled his hair.

"Yeah, you too." she told him with a smile. And then her gaze shifted over to Fang, who had been silently surveying the situation the entire time. And by "surveying the situation" I mean watching Kitty with the eyes of a sleek predator who had recently landed in Hormone Land. I felt like I was going to puke.

Kitty stared at him with her huge amber eyes for a moment, and then she made a face of mock agitation; her eyebrows pulled together and her lips pursed slightly. "Someone's not happy to see me." I almost laughed, realizing she was making fun of Fang. Hoo, she was in for it now.

"And what makes you think that?" Fang asked in his usual soft tone. Kitty smiled slightly at him and bit the tip of her bottom lip.

"You must be the quiet one. Fang, right?" she asked. Fang nodded at her in response. Kitty scrunched her button nose and made a small smile, gesturing to his folded arms. "Am I allowed to shake your hand, or will you kill me in my sleep?" she joked.

To my surprise, Fang grinned slightly while the rest of the flock tittered at the severe likeliness of that actually happening. Fang gave her one of his hands, and she had to use both of hers to shake it; his practically swallowed her hands whole. She sent him a wistful glance and returned to her spot on top of the President's desk. He patted her knee once she made herself comfortable, and looked back to us.

"Now, you must all be wondering why I introduced her to you." he said, looking at me meaningfully. Probably because I was mean to his precious pet. Whatever. But he was spot on with that, and I was ready to get out of here, away from Kitty and her smiles, her perfection and her bold looks at Fang.

When we didn't answer, the President continued. "It has been decided that Kitty shall resign her post here, at the White House, and travel with you all in order to restore order to the world."

"What?!" I accidentally blurted. My flock looked at me in surprise, even Iggy. Kitty pursed her lips at me for a long second, in which I tried to shoot laser at her with my eyes--another special power that would have been nice at the time--and then took a swig of her water.

Angel tugged on my t-shirt. "She can help, Max."

Somehow I highly doubted that.

The President sighed once, and opened his mouth, probably to persuade me into taking her in. But Kitty held up her palm suddenly, and her eyes focused blankly, seeming to shimmer around the edges before going flat. Everyone was still on an unspoken command until finally Kitty blinked and shook her head.

She turned around and leaned toward the President, murmuring something that sounded like, "There's about to be a pretty big protest outside. I'm thinking about an hour, hour and a half, with about two hundred or so animal lovers wanting to abolish that anti-dog-beach law you made a few weeks ago."

"What kind of protest?" the President asked softly.

"Picket signs, chants, maybe even a sit-in. They keep changing their mind about that one, though." she answered surely.

Um, was I missing something? Glancing around at the flock, they seemed just about as confused as I did. Except Angel. Of course she'd be in on the entire story. Darn her and that mind-reading ability.

The President pressed a button on the tiny speaker sitting on his desk and repeated the issue to security. A gruff voice told the President they were on it and the line went blank.

"You see," the President said suddenly, tapping a pen on his desk. "Kitty here is a valuable asset to this mission. You need her." he looked up at the youth on his desk admiringly. Kitty was reading the label on her water bottle, pretending to not know we were talking about her.

"Oh really? So she can sit around on her butt and watch us for you?" I asked angrily. I was sure she was a spy; why else would he send her with us?

"No," the President said patiently. Kitty actually looked up at me then, cocking her head to the side and smiling. "Its because she can see the future."