CHAPTER THREE

BUYING CAT SUPPLIES

"I can't believe your dad kicked us out," Jade ranted as she stomped down the stairs, adjusting her bag along the way to ensure that the kittens weren't being suffocated. She stalked across the lobby and pushed open the doors, holding it open for her friend.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" Kim asked walking out the door, not bothering to look at the other girl.

"Nothing."

"Liar! What's wrong with you?" she questioned again as they crossed the parking lot.

The mall was directly across the street from the shop. It didn't take long to cross, especially during working hours when everyone was usually trapped inside. Considering that it was only 3:00, they had about an hour be for rush hour, when everyone would be on their way home.

"It's nothing. Well... it's just that I want to get to the pet store so I can get these cats out of my bag. I just don't want them to pee on anything important. I keep my best paint brushes in there," Jade whined. "Besides I don't think that a few of them like me."

"Understandable."

"AGH! I hate when you do that!"

"Do what?"

"When you give me those one worded answers."

"Oh... would you like me to elaborate?" Kim asked as she gave her best friend a sidelong glance.

"Yes." Jade threw her arms in the air in exaggeration.

Turning on her heel the ebony haired girl began to walk backwards just as they had entered the mall parking lot. "It's understandable that you would think some of the cats hate you. I mean, you did want to get rid of two of them just because they're supposedly bad luck. You wanted to name one Bluey, one Pinky, and another Lemon. Let's not forget that you insulted a few of them as well," Kim explained while waving her hands around for further emphasis.

"You insulted one too!" Jade pointed an accusing finger at her friend. "Then you practically hugged one to death. Yeah, I get that you're a sucker for injured people or animals, but don't add to their pain." Kim just stuck her tongue at her. "Real mature, Kim!"

"We're here," Kim droned.

The girls pushed through the entrance doors, and glared at each other when they got stuck in the door. Not but a few seconds later, the two found themselves being gently prodded aside by an older gentleman.

Jade grabbed a red shopping cart, and the two began taking the cats out their bags and placed them in the shopping cart. Jade started to push the cart down the aisles. She went down the cat food isle first. Skimming the various types of food she grabbed a five-pound bag. She then went further down the aisle and picked up four large food and water bowls. Going down a different isle, she picked up a box of kitty litter, making sure to got the best kind, even if it was the most expensive one on the shelf, before picking up a litter box.

It was at that moment when she was placing the litter box in the cart that she realized it was quiet. To quiet. She turned around and saw Kim running up to her with a small cardboard box in her hands and a piece of beef jerky in her mouth.

"You ditched me to go get beef jerky! Didn't you already eat some before we got here?" Jade questioned, hands on her hips. She hadn't even realized that the other girl was gone the entire time. Did those tiny feet of hers even make a sound?

"You can never eat too much beef jerky," she muttered with a disbelieving stare. "Besides I got you some of those soft pretzel bites from that Pretzel Maker place that you love so much." Kim pulled the cup of pretzels out of the tray and held it out in front of her best friend's face all the while giving her a small smile.

"Did you remember to get extra cheese" the hazel eyed girl questioned, a look of utmost seriousness on her face. Kim held the tray up with her leg and pulled out three little cups of melted cheese sauce and held them out. "You are forgiven. Now, give me my pretzel cup."

Kim handed the medium sized cup filled with the pretzel bites to her, and handed her the three little cups of cheese. Then she pulled out a boat-tray that had her beef jerky in it and followed after Jade to go get name tags made.

"Hello ladies," an elderly woman with graying blonde hair and severe light blue eyes lined in black greeted with a kind smile. She looked to be in her late thirties, early forties.

"Hello," the two girls greeted in unison.

"What can I do for you two today," the woman asked, her bright red lips stretching into a kind smile.

"Well, we recently found some stray kittens, and decided to take them in. So we came here to buy them... you know, cat stuff," Jade spoke politely, then gestured towards the shopping cart, "We have them right here with us."

"Oh those poor kittens. What did their previous owners do to them," the older woman cooed picking up the blue cat, and petting her head. "It's those darn pet shows. They do all these crazy things to their animals, just for money." The old woman looked around cautiously before whispering to the girls. "Why, just the other day a woman walked in with the cutest dog. He was so adorable, and when she walked out he was green, with a snake shaved into his fur. The woman told me it was his theme, Adam, Eve, and the serpent." The woman put a hand to her heart. "It's just terrible what she did to her dog and just for money no less," she said shaking her head.

"That's just terrible," Jade replied hesitantly, her polite smile faltering slightly at the woman's intense stare.

"So, dears what names do you need printed," the woman asked, pulling out a sheet of paper and pen. "Oh! I almost forgot. What tags do you girls want?" She ten motioned to a display case that held name tags in different shapes and sizes.

"Well we could get the girls' names on the heart tags, and the boys' names on the circle tags," Kim said in a small voice, motioning to the display case.

Jade just rolled her eyes at her friend's behavior. When it was just the two of them, Kim could be the loudest but put her with people she doesn't know and she'll nearly shut down and close in on herself. Jade really needed to get her to overcome what ever it was, but to help her get over whatever was wrong... she needed to know what went wrong. Jade had no idea what could be bothering her friend but that didn't mean she would give up.

"And what are the names," the woman asked, sending a kind smile in the shy girl's direction, breaking Jade out her thoughts.

"The names for the girls are Blossom, Berry, Fang, and Mari. For the boys they are Blaze, Noodle, Hawk, Tiger, Crow, and Dynamite," Jade spoke with the confidence she wished her best friend could have when speaking to people other than her or her father. Being a condescending and sarcastic little shit didn't count.

"Okay. Here is your receipt." She handed the girls a slip of paper. "Just hand it over to the check-out clerk whenever you're ready to pay. Come back here in about half an hour, and your name tags should be ready." The girls heard the old broad mumble about how they gave the cat weird names, as they were walking away. They walked into an isle that held collars and pet toys.

"What does that old woman mean by weird names?" Jade complained when she was sure that the woman could no longer hear her.

"I know! What does she want us to name them? A person's name like... Oh, I don't know... Toby!" Kim had thrown her arms above her head to emphasize her point. Unknown to the two chatting girls, most of the cats resting in the cart, gave an involuntary shudder after hearing the name. Though the blonde one with the sky blue eyes seemed a little bit down at the mention of the name.

"So what color collars should we get for the cats?"

"I don't know. You're the self-proclaimed Fashionista. You choose."

"Okay!" Jade exclaimed happily, the slight insult going way over her head. She then turned around to look at all the different colors of collars. She picked several different colors. She had picked one black, one silver, one purple, one green, one yellow, one orange, one navy blue, one sky blue, and two red collars. "I got the collars. What's next?" Kim took her phone out of her pocket, and checked the time.

"We still have twenty minutes left. So, I guess we could go look at some toys and then go pay. That way, we can just get the name tags and go."

"Sure, whatever."

"To the toy isle!" Kim shouted as if she was about to enter battle before she ran out of the isle leaving Jade behind with the cats.

"If only she could be like that around other people, she'd be golden," Jade said to the kittens. The kittens seemed to understand her, and meowed in agreement with her. She had a look of shock on her face. "Can you guys understand me," she questioned picking up the blonde cat with sky blue eyes, and bringing him up to her face. The other cats seemed to panic a bit. He just meowed at the attention and licked her nose. He started to sniff her a bit until she let out a laugh. The other cats let out a sigh of relief when their cover was not blown, pun not intended. They did not know if they could trust the two girls and the man. "I guess I'm just imagining things. I mean, you guys are just cats. It's not like you're people who somehow got turned into cat." She shook her head. "I really need to stop reading all those stupid fan fictions that Kim keeps sending me. I mean Loki turning the Avengers into cats and sending them to another dimension. Or even Crazy Cas sending Sam and Dean away to protect them. I'm just surprised she hasn't found anything like that for Nightwing."

When she found Kim, the girl was looking at all the types of cat toys while holding onto a scratching post that was only four inches away from being as tall as her. She looked really weird holding it while looking at toy mice.

"Hey Jade! Which pack of mice should we get? The gray ones, or the white fluffy ones?" She was balancing the scratching post, and holding two packages of toy mice, one in each hand.

"You look pretty stupid right now," Jade said commenting on how her friend looked at the moment. She walked over to her friend and took the scratching post from her and putting it in the cart. She put all the cats on the floor, "Okay, Cats! Go and find some toys you want! GO!"

"Jade, NO!"

"Jade, YES!"

Noodle and Dynamite started running up and down the aisle, jumping on the shelf when they saw something that caught their attention. Hawk was eyeing a package of stuffed balls that resembled tomatoes.

"Hey! What about these ribbons," Kim said grabbing a stick that had a ribbon attached to the end. She started twirling it around Crow, Tigger, Fang, and Mari. The cats begrudgingly played their parts.

Jade walked around following the cats. She put whatever caught their attention into the shopping cart. She got the tomato balls in the cart for Hawk. Balls with bells inside for Noodle. Cute little sequin bows for Blossom, Berry, Fang, and Mari. A small round device that made popping noises when he presses down on it for Dynamite.

"That toy is going to annoy the Hell out of us," Kim stated while waving the ribbon in front of all the cats, urging them to follow her to the check-out line.

Jade followed after them with the shopping cart. When they got to the line, they hurried up and put their items on the check-out counter, and handed the man the name tag receipt. Once they finished, the two girls headed back to the name tag counter. They still had some time, so they sat on the tiled floor. Jade pulled out the bag that held all of the collars.

Together the two girls took the collars out of their packages, and started putting them on their respective cat. The two red collars went to Crow and Blossom. The yellow to Fang. The green to Blaze. The orange to Noodle. The black to Tiger. The purple to Berry. The navy blue to Hawk. The silver to Mari. The sky blue went to Dynamite.

The name tags were finally finished. To the two girls' relief it was some sixteen year old boy, who tried to flirt with Jade, who gave them the tags. The girls put the name tags on the cats' collars, and then placed all of them back in their bags. They grabbed all the other bags of cat stuff and finally headed back home.

"Hey can we stop to get more beef jerky," Kim asked when they walked out of the pet store. She had finished eating hers before they had gone to look at the toys.

"No."

"Bu-"

"No."

"Oh, come on!"

"I'll make you pasta when we get back," Jade bribed.

"Sounds good to me. Let's hurry!"