Chapter 4: Partying On
     “Oops!? Oops?! All you can say is ‘oops?!’” Seio yelled at an embarrassed Jeremy. “I come home and I get greeted by a laser?! Geez! And not only that, you shot the wrong person! Now we have a cat-girl on our hands!” Seio pointed to the unconscious Jenna with cat-ears and tail sleeping on his living room couch.  “How are we going to explain this to her?!”
     “Aww…Come on, Seio. Give him a break.” Leah said trying to calm Seio down. “He was just trying to give you a good time, it’s his birthday present!”
     “I’m a little disturbed that he wanted me to be half cat.” Seio said distastefully. “And I’m not sure that big bulky gun would be very helpful in any situation.” Seio was fingering his star pendant. “Can’t you change her back?”
     “We’ve tried, remember? There’s something wrong with her genetic makeup that prevents me from changing her back.” Jeremy replied, slightly miffed from Seio’s comment about his gun.
     Seio paced the room back and forth. He looked around and tried to think of a solution to help Jenna. He wanted to make her feel better not scare her away. All he could see were all his friends, Niko, Whim, Halberd, Jeremy, Leah, and Abel. His mother was in the kitchen cooking. Seio knocked his head with his fists as if trying to knock an idea out. “Urrgh! We need to do something! We just can’t say: ‘Oh, I’m sorry. My friend accidentally turned you half-cat with his laser gun and we can’t change you back. You’ll just have to go on with your life and be even more miserable than you already were.’”  Seio said in a warped tone.
     “Uhh…” Jenna moaned from the couch. Everyone in the room except Halberd and Abel flinched. Leah and Niko were panicking and trying to hide. Jeremy and Seio were trying to act innocently. Whim had already left the room and had gone upstairs. The only ones not terrified were Abel and Halberd, who were leaning on different corners of the room.
     Jenna yawned and stretched her arms out. She reached up and scratched her head. As soon as she felt the silky ears atop her head, she froze for a second. Then she continued scratching as if she didn’t notice them. She was even able to manipulate her tail into rubbing her stomach! Everyone (except the emotionless Abel and Halberd) jaws hung open at Jenna’s reaction.
     Jenna tilted her head to the side in confusion. “Hmm…I don’t remember doing this. I guess I should change back.” Jeremy looked up in interest at her comment. Her ears and tail began to glow, but it wasn’t like Jeremy’s gun, no, this was more of a soft golden color. The cat parts slowly retracted themselves and disappeared into Jenna’s body. And she was soon back to normal.
     “What!” Jeremy yelled in surprise. Jenna fell out of the couch in shock and looked around for the source of the scream.
     Jeremy stomped up to Jenna and pointed a finger accusingly at her. “You!” Jenna pointed to herself in question, trembling in fear.
     “Yes, you! How did you do it?” Jeremy’s attitude changed suddenly from threatening to curiosity. He jumped all around Jenna looking around for the device or machine that could have changed her back to normal. “My gun can’t do that! I need to know how you did it!” Jenna just sat there, confused by Jeremy’s questions.
     “Wha-?” Jenna managed to let out. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have anything like that with me.” She turned out all her pockets and patted herself to prove it to Jeremy.
     Jeremy opened his mouth about to ask more questions, but Seio’s mother came in with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk. “Ah! I see you’re awake!” Destiny set the plate and milk on the table in the middle of the room. She didn’t seem to have noticed or cared that Jenna was back to normal. “Seio told me that you ran away from home, right?” Jenna nodded response as she reached for a cookie. “You look really dirty. I bet you haven’t had a decent bath in ages. We’ll also have to get you new clothes. Come with me.” Destiny took Jenna’s hand and dragged her upstairs. Jenna said something in protest but it was muffled by the cookie in her mouth.
    Whim had come back down from upstairs and was scratching his head. “What happened? Did you change her back?” Whim raised an eyebrow when he saw Jeremy. He was standing there with his finger out and mouth open as if he were going to say something to somebody. “What’s with Jeremy?”
     “Jeremy’s just mad because he got interrupted again. I’m sure he’ll get over it.” Seio answered in response.
     Leah and Niko had come out from behind their hiding place as well, and began to mess with Jeremy. Leah was mussing up his clothes while Niko was drawing all over his face with a marker.
     Seio ignored them and continued. “So, today’s my birthday! Since my mom has Jenna taken care of, let’s get this party started!”
     Abel finally reacted. He reached behind his feet and took out a colorfully wrapped present. “Happy birthday.” Abel said, smiling his small smile.
     That seemed to jog everyone’s memory of their presents. Jeremy finally snapped out of his trance, even disregarding what Niko and Leah had done to him. “Ah! That’s right! Presents!” Everyone rushed over to different areas in the house and came back with brightly wrapped gifts.
     “Alright!” Seio exclaimed. “Just set’em down over there. Let’s play some video games and celebrate first! Presents can come later.”
     Seio and the others switched on the white game console next to the T.V. in the living room and began choosing characters for the fighting game. Everyone was having fun pummeling each other’s characters and laughing as Leah’s character taunted Niko’s by wagging its finger. Even Eia was purring happily in Seio’s lap.
     Outside, however, were a pair of shadows, watching the group intently through the windows within the shade of trees and bushes. A small group of trees bordered the sides of Seio’s home and they gave enough coverage for the two shadows to hide in. One was the silhouette of a fairly large man, and the other was of a smaller boy of about five and a half feet tall with obvious spiky hair.
     The larger man turned to his companion. “See? They had their little party without you.” He said in a surprisingly deep and melodic voice. “They say they want to be friends, but when it comes down to it, they’re lying. Even your best friend is in there and he didn’t try to convince them to let you come.”
     The larger man bent down to whisper into the smaller boy’s ear. “That’s why I gave you strength. That’s why I gave you power. You don’t need them, you can survive by yourself. No, thrive by yourself. And, you always have me.” The larger man lifted his arm and patted the boy’s back. “Now come. We have to show you your new home.”
     The larger man turned around and so did the boy. But before their shadows melted into the shadows of the trees, the boy turned around took one last look at the house. His eyes focused on Seio and a dark red glowed through the darkness. He twisted around and walked off with the larger man. They faded into the forest with the sound of crunching twigs and leaves, suddenly a forceful wind ripped through the trees and there was only silence.
     The gust of wind rattled the living room window. Seio whipped around with wide eye’s as if he had seen a ghost. Seio glared at the trees and tried to discern a shape in the dark. As he looked on a loud voice came from the T.V. “YOU LOSE!”
     “Yeeeah! I finally won against Seio!” Niko exclaimed. He jumped from the couch and did a victory dance around the room.
     Jeremy was more concerned about Seio. “Hey, buddy, you okay?” Jeremy shook Seio’s shoulder and tried to get a response from him.
    Seio turned back towards the T.V. “Yeah, I’m fine. I thought I heard something.” Seio didn’t look fine, but after he realized that he had lost his face put on its normal grinning expression. “Hey! Niko! You can’t call that a win! I was distracted!”
     Niko just kept on dancing in front of Seio. “Too bad! I won! I won! I won, I won, I won!” Seio threw Eia at him in anger. Eia was terrified at being tossed threw the air and her natural reaction was to extend her claws to hang on to something. “Arrrgh!” Niko screamed in pain as Eia’s claws gripped his face.
     “Get’er off! Get’er off! Get’er off!” Niko yelled waving his arms in panic. Nobody moved to help him, but burst into laughter. “It’s not funny, guys! Get her off! As Niko continued to run around in pain he suddenly bumped something.
     “Oof!” He grunted in response.
     “Ouchies!” Someone also called out.
     Niko tried to look around for what he had hit, but couldn’t see because Eia’s body was covering his eyes. “Did I hit somebody? Help! I still can’t see anything!” Suddenly he could see again and the first thing he saw was a girl holding Eia in her arms.
     “Huh?” Niko cocked his head in confusion. He turned back toward the couch where the others were still laughing “Hey, Seio! Did you invite someone else from school?”
     Seio was still laughing from Niko’s earlier reaction and he could barely focus because he was laughing so hard. “What?” He replied between his snickers. Seio finally began calming down and his snickering became light giggling. “No, I didn’t.”
     “Then who’s this girl?” Niko pointed the girl behind him. Seio took a look behind Niko and just burst into laughter again. He rolled back onto the couch and gasped for air. “T-t-too…f-fun-ny!”
     Niko’s face turned blank in puzzlement. “What’s so-” Niko turned his head around and stopped mid-sentence. “Pfffh! Bwahahaha!” Niko rolled to floor holding his sides from the laughter.
     The girl behind was no longer holding Eia. Eia was chasing her around with claws extended and looked furious. The girl just kept running around the room trying to escape her tormentor.
     “Enough! Enough! It hurts…!” Seio moaned. He sat up on the couch and tried to stifle his laughter. “Eia! Come back over here! Stop being such a mean kitty.” Seio spread his arms out towards Eia, welcoming her into a hug.
     Eia instantly turned around and leaped into Seio’s arms with a satisfied purr. The girl finally slowed down and had her hand to heart, checking to see if it was okay. “I’ve…never…”She said between scared breaths. “had…an animal hate me…before.”
     Seio stroked Eia’s back as he looked at the girl in front of him. She seemed familiar, but he couldn’t remember who she was. He didn’t think he had invited anyone else to his party, so how could she be here? He looked her over again, trying to find some distinguishing feature. He saw a large simple white shirt and jeans. Her hair was colored a soft golden blond and it was cut very short. It seemed to have been long before then cut high in the back, giving it a triangular shape. Her bangs were short in the front and long on the sides, right in front of her ears.Nothing seemed to register, until he saw her eyes. Her eyes were an amber color with 5 streaks of brown radiating from the pupil.
     “Ah! It’s Jenna!” Jenna looked at Seio in surprise from his sudden outburst. Her face then turned red and grew angry.
     “What! You couldn’t recognize me?!” She said indignantly.
     Seio cringed in fear. “Ah…No, no! I recognized you when I saw your beautiful eyes.” Seio smiled his lop-sided grin at her.
     “Good…” She said calming back down into her usual quiet self. “Your mother said my hair was too dirty and tangled for me to keep so she wanted to cut it. Is it ugly?” Jenna asked with big sad puppy dog eyes.
     ‘Uh, oh.’ Seio thought. ‘This isn’t one of those trick questions girls ask guys that have no good answer, is it?’ Seio looked around nervously. “Uh, no. It, uh, looks great! It really suits you.” Jenna smiled at Seio in thanks. Eia glared at Jenna in Seio’s arms and sunk deeper into his lap.
     “So,um…” Jenna mumbled. “What are you doing?”
     Everyone jumped from their various seats and pumped a fist in the air. “We’re partying!” They screamed in unison, although Halberd and Abel did it less than enthusiastically.
     “We should have Jenna join us!” Niko said enthusiastically, jumping up and down.
     “W-what are we celebrating?” Jenna stuttered, surprised by everyone’s reactions.
     Whim rushed over to Jenna and kneeled in front of her. He gripped her hand and spoke in his acting voice. “We’re here to celebrate your becoming of my new girlfriend, you beautiful angel.” Jenna blushed a deep red and could hold her face in embarrassment.
     Whim was about to kiss her hand when suddenly Halberd kicked him in the gut and dragged him back towards the couch. “Ugh, save your romantics for other people.” Halberd grunted.
     “So, you want to join us?” Jeremy asked while still playing the game on the T.V.
     “Yeah, come on! It’ll be fun!” Leah added.
     “Um…Maybe…?” Jenna mumbled while putting her finger to her lips in nervousness.
     Seio got up from the couch and walked over to Jenna. “No, maybes. Just say yes, okay?” He smiled at her brightly.
     Jenna looked up at Seio with her shy eyes. “Okay.”
     “Great! Now come on!” Seio took both her hands and pulled her over the couch forcing her into the group. And everyone cheered.
     Near the stairwell, Destiny watched Jenna getting taught how to play video games while hiding behind the stairs posts. “Heh, I guess you brought yourself here, huh?” Destiny walked over to the kitchen and began putting the finishing touches on Seio’s birthday cake.