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┋ P7: THE CAT-HUMAN LANGUAGE BRACELET ┋
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Jhon had been right. Studying beforehand helped him better understand the next class.
It was just past noon and the first classes of the morning had ceased, yet he still had a few more hours before he could go home to rest. From the deepest part of his being, he wished he could move the time forward so that he could be there as soon as possible.
He put his hands near his notebook and decided to look around to see if anyone was nearby. As luck would have it, he had been left alone in his room, so he started researching on his cell phone about the recipe he wanted to prepare for Molly as soon as he got back.
With one hand on a pencil and the other on his cell phone, he began to write down everything the recipe said, since his cell phone was about to run out of battery. At no time had she put it on charge because of all the events that had happened, so she had to take advantage of the remaining time she had left to get the most out of it.
As he flipped through his notebook, he would notice how a particular photo would fall out of it. It was one of the pictures of Eleanor's cat, who had left the classroom with her friends.
Emi had come too, however, he noticed her somewhat worried, so she herself avoided talking to this one most of the time, so much so that she decided to go out to eat alone. He was sure he hadn't done anything to upset her, so he hoped to see her in a better mood soon to talk to her again.
Her mind stopped wandering in thought as she curiously reviewed the photograph, noting that the feline in the picture was quite well-groomed.
"Meou!"
Jhon turned his head, noting the brown feline at his side sitting on his desk, looking at the photo with a smile. This one meowed at him a couple more times and tapped his paw on his shoulder, however, he still didn't get it.
"...Meou."
"Seriously you're a weird cat." he commented, lowering the feline to the ground, then putting the photo away "it's a classmate's cat, I'll return the photo later."
The brown cat perked its ears up at hearing him, getting all its fur tense letting out a growl.
"Now why are you being like this? You've already got me used to you harassing me, but it's not for you to growl at me either."
He shook her hand with the picture trying to get her to leave, not noticing when the brown cat with a jump would take the picture with him, storming out of the classroom.
Jhon was perplexed for a moment, and without any resistance he ran out in a hurry.
<
He avoided shouting in the corridors when he saw a crowd of students crossing it. The brown cat had no problem zigzagging through them, even climbing on the walls and desks to escape from the boy as fast as possible.
Jhon lowered his head somewhat embarrassed to find himself in that situation surrounded by dozens of students from other classrooms appreciating how he was running after a stray cat. Luckily for him, they all moved out of his way, but he apologized to them all as he moved forward.
Having already passed earlier, he noticed how the feline had almost circled the hallway and then went down the stairs, entering the bathroom.
What this one didn't expect was to see a shadow above him, seeing Jhon leap from the third to the second floor hallway skipping the stairs, so he gave a startled jump, barely escaping from Jhon.
"Stop! That's not your picture, please!" he tried to ask politely, while holding his knee.
It was sore from the blow he took when he hit the ground, but he avoided showing it.
He got up and approached the brown cat to take the photo from him, however, it was quicker and ran to one of the cubicles with toilet, entering and closing with a loud bang.
To his luck, there was no one in the hallway at the time, so he hurried inside and closed the bathroom door in case someone came in and ridiculed him for going into a cubicle with a cat inside.
He banged on the cubicle door several times in an attempt to open it, but it wasn't until he heard the toilet flush being pulled that he went into alertness, imagining the photo going down the toilet water.
"Why are you bothering me so much today, you better not have wet the picture!" In a desperate attempt, and washing his knees with water from the pipe to endure the pain, he took a leap towards the top of the door that acted as a wall between him and the cat.
However, the door itself was opened, leaving him hanging with the door on its side. The feline would emerge from the cubicle without the photograph, but with a strange bracelet clasped on its muzzle.
"Meooou" he meowed to the boy, searching for it with his eyes. To then watch him fall to the ground at her side, giving another jump of fright. He let out a long growl followed by a sigh, throwing the bracelet in her face.
Jhon took the blow full on, falling to the ground again after having tried to get up after his first fall.
"Ouch... what a miracle I'm not bleeding..." he said to himself, as he watched the brown cat take a couple of steps away from him, clearing his throat with a couple of deep purrs "where did you leave the picture?"
However, this time, the feline didn't meow but indicated the bracelet with its paw, near him.
Jhon took it carefully, doubting if it was a joke on his part.
"This is not the picture."
"Meeeeooouu"
"It's a strange bracelet with a cat medallion on it, what's this all about, did you trade me without my permission? I don't want it, I want the picture."
"Meoooooou!"
The feline let out a loud growl at him, scaring Jhon a little, who placed the bracelet on his wrist, sighing.
"There, done. I put it on, happy? Now give me the picture."
"I'm not giving it to you ever, asshole!"
...........................
...........................
...........................
John's mind stopped working.
Mistake. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error.
Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error.
"Hey hey hey, your head is smoking! How much did you get hit, asshole?"
The feline's loud words made him regain his composure, going pale all the same.
"Wha... What... What did you just say? Did you speak? D-did you speak...?
"I'm talking like everyone else! Isn't it obvious, asshole?"
Jhon iced up again, bringing his hand to his chin, clenching it into a totally confused expression, noticing the cat locket bracelet, which was now glowing a bit.
She stretched out her arm to get a better look at it and swallowed saliva, beginning to regain her natural color and blush.
"This...does this allow me to understand animals?"
"Of course not, asshole. It only allows you to understand us, the superior species, cats."
Jhon let out a long "oooooh," bringing his gaze to the bracelet and then to the feline.
"Wait, all this time you've always been calling me 'asshole?
"............. Asshole."
Shoulders heaving somewhat, he got up as best he could and approached the bathroom cubicle from which the feline had recently emerged.
Inside this one, however, there was nothing except the toilet.
"Did you throw the photograph over here?"
"It's not a picture you should have, least of all having a girlfriend."
All her skin crawled with goose bumps at his words, feeling a jolt all over her skin, especially at the last word.
"¿... What do you mean?"
The feline climbed up onto one of the sinks, putting her paw on the sprinkler button, shooting him straight in the face with a long stream of water, leaving him drenched and dumbfounded.
"Even that doesn't take away your silly face," she commented to him, sitting up and curling her tail, letting out a long sigh, "Negriza, she and you agreed to formalize as an interracial couple a few days ago. don't you remember?"
".....What....?"
"The day we found her stuck in a box. You agreed to be her partner and take care of her now. As it was, you each gave your vows, in your own way."
"........................"
"Are you there? You got the blank stare."
".................................................................................................."
"Shit, it's broken."
"No... it's not that. Negrisa? You mean... Molly?"
"Who gave her that silly name?" the brown feline meowed, wrinkling her little nose.
"We decided it together, and it's not a bad name..."
Jhon was completely silent for a moment longer, and after thinking his words through he looked at the feline again.
"So that's what happened that day you say? And why didn't you give me this strange bracelet at the time to understand them better?"
"You had nothing to make an exchange with. I can't give you anything from 'Mifus' unless you have something to trade with. So dictates the rules.
"...Mi...fus?"
"... Forget it. You stick to the fact that you're happily dating Negriza now, and that you shouldn't be eyeing another girl. That would be infidelity, human or cat."
"I think we're skirting a lot of ethical rules on the subject we're talking about."
Jhon paced back and forth, filling his head with thoughts in an attempt to understand what was going on. It was clear, but he was having a hard time believing it.
"Molly is my girlfriend?"
"Negriza."
"And you come from another world...?"
"Mifus"
"... Molly too?"
The brown feline was silent, wagging his tail.
"That's not for me to decide."
"What do you mean-?"
"Enough questions, your classes will start again soon. Looks like I even learned your schedule better than you did yourself."
Jhon stood watching as the feline came out of the bathroom, letting out a mocking laugh, leaving the boy alone in the bathroom.
"Hey...! And can I keep the bracelet?"
However, the feline didn't respond, getting lost from his sight.
He stared at his new gift for a moment and on his way out of the bathroom, his head a mess.
***
All his efforts to concentrate on classes and avoid thinking about things other than school, including Molly who was waiting for him at home, were now totally in vain.
He could no longer be calm again after what had happened, and even less so with something as fantastic as what he was walking around showing it to everyone, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
"Are you all right?" whispered Emi to him, giving a fright to her partner who didn't expect her to address him that day.
"I... Ehmm.... Yeah. I'm fine.
I wasn't fine.
"... If you don't understand the class I can help you review later. Any more and you'll pass out from how pale you are. Do you feel like you're sick?"
Jhon felt grateful for her friend's attention and gentleness, however the whole courtship thing, the otherworldly bracelet and the brown cat watching him with an accusing gaze as he stood near Emi wasn't the only thing that made him tense.
In front of him, Eleanor watched him out of the corner of her eye, stroking her hair and curling a little on her index finger, refocusing on class every time Jhon noticed him.
However, his mind was interpreting him in a different way, one that he didn't dismiss from his possibilities.
<
Jhon swallowed saliva, trying to calm down.
"By the way, Emi...why were you a little distant in the morning?" he asked her, trying to change the subject.
Emi bit her thumb, and looked away.
"It's nothing... I just, I don't like Eleanor, and it makes me anxious to see her watching us for a while now."
"It also gives you the creeps her stare..."
"Yeah, but it's not to make me go pale like you."
Jhon laughed a little, as he felt the back of his neck burn from the withering gaze of the feline on the tree branch outside the classroom.
<
Just then, the teacher caught his eye, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Jhon, would you be so kind as to answer the question on the board for us?"
<
The question on the board was as follows:
[What is the main difference between the waterfall model and the spiral model in software engineering?]
Emi quickly reached for a page in her notebook to help Jhon, who was reading the question on the board trying to stall for time until he could remember, looking to the sides for some help.
"T-The answer..."
"Tell it bluntly, we don't have all the time" stressed the professor, as a few more students searched for the answer fearing that the professor would ask them too.
Jhon looked to Emi for some clue, but Emi couldn't find anything either.
"It's a trick question... it's from a subject he hasn't taught us yet..." she whispered this one to Jhon, leaving him with a worried feeling.
He thought a moment about his answer, clenching his fist.
He stretched his hand out at chest level to look as if he could answer confidently, and settled on telling her it was a trick question.
"Th-That subject has not yet...-"
On the other hand, a few desks in front of her that no one was paying attention to, Eleanor finished writing a letter on a small piece of paper, balling it up and looking around the room.
And finally, tossing it with her index finger and thumb toward the classroom door.
The piece of paper hit the door, bounced to another student's desk, from there to the ceiling, then to the floor, bounced to the wall on the right side, and bounced to the ceiling again.
To finally fall open on Jhon's hand, who felt the warmth of a paper thrown at enormous speed, without anyone noticing what had happened.
Eleanor stared at him with her crimson red eyes, also waiting to hear his response like many of her companions.
Jhon stopped his words before concluding them and glanced sideways at the paper. He shook his head and clenched his fist to hide the paper.
" The waterfall model is linear and sequential, while the spiral model is iterative and focused on continuous risk management."
Everyone in the class stared at it, not leaving one behind; as a result, Jhon began to sweat, worried.
He had read the answer from a paper he didn't know where it came from, yet it was his only hope.
He looked directly at the professor, waiting for his answer. The latter, instead, wiped his glasses and looked at the boy, sighing.
"That's... Right."
A wave of whispers washed over him, leaving him embarrassed but relieved that he had gotten the answer right.
He looked around trying to hit on who had helped him, but no one seemed to be giving him any sign. Emi seemed to be just as surprised and Eleanor didn't even seem to be paying attention to him now, as she kept her face hidden under her hands.
She sat back in her seat as the professor brought everyone's attention back to her, leaving the room silent again after a short while, except for her words from this one.
"He cheated."
"But how?"
"I bet he peed himself."
"That doesn't happen often. But if it's that jerk, it's possible."
The words she heard were harsh for someone who thought she had been spared such comments. However, no one in his living room whispered them.
To what everyone heard meowing, Jhon could appreciate what four cats in the tree branches were saying, including the brown cat himself.
<
Jhon tried to ignore their comments, as they were the only ones who raised their voices without fear of being overheard.
"So you can hear us?"
"Even now?"
"But it doesn't seem to react. You told us we'd see a human capable of hearing us, we paid you in advance."
"Don't rip them off, just wait. That jerk won't be long before he falls for some of our insults."
The brown feline proudly lifted its chest, licking its snout after eating all the tuna.
Jhon clenched his pencil under his fist, about to want to answer them, but he knew he would fall for their game that way.
<
The class went on for a good while longer, and the feline comments didn't stop. Having been talking for hours on end....
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