The Cat's Calling

This story is set in Japan, thus the characters have Japanese names. Also, in this story, the italicized sentences are the main character’s thoughts, which will help fill in the reader.

Today was supposed to be normal.

The bell rings, annoyingly shrill, beckoning her out of her slumber and seat to trek to another pointless class where she will sleep until the bell and repeat the cycle.

Grudgingly she stands, wondering if the kitten at the school gate waits for her or if it wonders off while she's trapped inside the building, ignoring the disappointed stare of her teacher lingering on her as she passes, trekking down the hall.

I was supposed to wake up, go to school, fail everything (and everyone), feed Chii and go home. The normal routine.

She turns the corner and finds the unexpected crash into her with a thud and a flurry of leather-bound books.

But then...

She sits up, pressing a hand to her aching forehead as she looks up at the other victim involved in the collision, violet gaze burning with irritation - mainly at herself and how easily hurt she is.

"Ah," The young man rubs the back of his aching head with a hand sheepishly, smiling apologetically at her. "Sorry, Yamada-san! I should've watched where I was going..."

... I met him.

"My bad," She answers quietly, without really thinking. "I zoned out again."

Her expression creases slightly with a faint frown, "Wait, how do you know my name?"

"We're classmates," He gives a soft chuckle that suggests he figured she wouldn't recognise him. "You're Yamada Asuka-san, right? I'm Tsukina Kazuka."

The name is faintly familiar, a distant memory blurred with age, so she nods as though she remembers.

The merry grin that graces his expression, glad that she seems to recognise him, quickly morphs to something akin to a panic, "Crap! You're bleeding!"

As Kazuka speaks, she lifts a palm to her forehead only to touch warm blood. Must have been the corner of the book, She muses, that hit me in the head

Asuka blinks with mild alarm as thin cloth meets her forehead, veils her vision with a screen of gold-laced white.

"Here," He insists, flashing a smile bright enough to see through the handkerchief. "Hold this to your head."

"Thanks," She replies, pressing gently down on her cut to stop the bleeding. "I'll wash it and give it back tomorrow."

"Don't worry about it." He dismisses with an airy laugh, offering her a tan hand to assist her to her feet as he himself stands.

His amber eyes gleam as she takes the offer, deep and bright and captivating in a sort of way that doesn't make sense, not really.

And now nothing will ever be normal again.

_____________________________________________________________________

"How's your head?" Kazuka grins as she seats herself, resting his cheek upon his knuckles.

'How's your head'. He's turned it into a greeting. Been using it for the few months we've known each other.

"Fine." Asuka answers, burying her face into her arms, folded on the desk.

"You're sleeping through class again?" He huffs, tapping her gently over the head with the weathered book in his hands. "That's really not good, Asuka-chan."

He's a massive bookworm. When I bumped into him the first time, I thought all the books he was carrying were textbooks. Turns out he checked them all out voluntarily. I don't think I've seen him without a book in his hand or carefully placed in his bag

"Why bother?" She mumbles into her arms, but he does not hear her, which is probably for the best.

Both are silent and the gentle flicking of turning pages lulls her into a state of comfortable drowsiness, dominating the drone of the teacher scrawling messy notes on the board at the front of the class.

"Concealed in darkness

It slinks through the streets

Drifting down empty roads,"

His voice is soft as to not interrupt the class, but firm and emotive, and she turns her head to peek at him over her arm with a single violet eye.

"Stomach growls

Paws hurt

Head pounds, but

It does not stop

It will not stop

It cannot stop,"

He has a beautiful voice.

"It can see it now

The final destination

The paradise which had always been

Calling

Beckoning

Waiting,"

He pauses briefly, sparing a quick glance at her to see if she is listening or ignoring him before his attention returns to the page.

"A single light

Flickers on

As the rest of the world sleeps

A single light

Catches its attention

A single light

It examines from afar

It pours from the window

of a girl's room

She sits on her bed

Curled in on herself

Dreading the day

Dreading the night

Dreading everything,"

"What're you doi-" She begins, but he cuts her off, silently insisting that she listen.

"Paradise beckons from afar

So close

So close

But the girl's tears

Paint her quilts an ugly blue

Paint her hands indigo

Paint her thoughts black

As she cries

Alone

Concealed in darkness

It slinks towards the room

Drifts through the open window

Presses its velvet nose

Against her cheek

It sits in her lap

A king upon a throne

Stares out the window

Where Paradise lies

Closed

Forever

It turns its gaze of gold

Upwards

Watches her expression

Bloom with a smile

Brightening her colours

And it thinks

'I think this

Is my Paradise.'"

The book's worn covers close with the hushed sound of a million beckoning tales as he sits in silence, tracing the cursive title with fond eyes.

"It’s called 'The Cat's Calling'." He murmurs absently, as though he is already worlds away, watching the cat plod along the street to so-called Paradise.

"Why did you read it to me?" Asuka enquiries, curious.

"If you're not going to listen to the teacher, why not listen to a good poem or two?" Kazuka offers a bright smile upon his return to reality. "Besides, I thought you might like that one. Don't you look after a cat at the school gate?"

"Its name is Chii," The girl props her head up on a hand and nods. "It's very important to me."

"Really?" He grins back at her. "That's really cute, Asuka-chan."

She can see most (if not all) of the girls in the class giggling to each other, glancing through her, over at Kazuka and his charming, sunny smile.

He's also one of those boys that all the girls like. They flock like birds to see him smile or hear him laugh.

Irritated and a bit embarrassed, she reaches over, her face flushed faintly with colour, and pinches his cheek, "What're you smiling at?"

"Ow ow ow ow ow," He yelps, yet does little to stop her - merely bats at her hand feebly. "Stopitstopitstopit! Don't be mean!"

I don't really get why he wants to hang out with me. It's a mystery to me.

"Who do you think you are, anyway, lecturing me about sleeping through class when you read through it?" Asuka shoots a teasing half-smile at the boy, releasing his cheek.

"I already know how to balance chemical valencies," He answers, tenderly holding a hand to his sore cheek as he feigns a sorrowful frown that splinters into a smile at the ends. "I understand the theory behind it. You, on the other hand, probably slept through it."

"Well, yeah," She yawns, veiling her mouth with a palm. "Considering I nearly dropped into a coma when you said 'chemical valencies'."

But I'm grateful for his company.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cleaning duty holds her in for another half hour after the bell. Asuka does not mind as much as the other kids - after all, it gives her something to do - but it always feels lonely when Kazuka leaves before her. It is nice that he turned and walked backwards through the gate, waving up at her until he disappeared around the corner.

Her violet gaze brightens as the school shrubbery skirting the wall rustles and an ebony feline slips from the bushes to seat itself at the entrance.

With a quiet farewell, she hurries down the stairwell, out of the school building and towards the gates.

"Chii!" She calls a greeting to the cat. "There you are!"

Have I mentioned Chii before?

Chii pulls itself to its paws as she approaches, mewing its merriment as she squats before it. A purr rumbles deep in its throat, reverberating throughout its entire body as she runs a gentle hand over its head.

I think I have. I hope I have. Chii is a big part of my life.

Setting her bag down, Asuka rummages through the contents, pulling a small clip-up plastic box from its depths. Popping the lid off, she sets it before the cat, watching it examine the tidbits inside.

"They're the fish biscuits you like," She smiles cheerily. "I'm saving up for some real cat food, I promise."

Chii is the cat I found back when I was in grade school. Back when the problem was at its worst.

The feline eagerly digs into its meal, its sleek tail flicking back and forth gleefully. It nudges the box away minutes later, licking crumbs from its paws before it hops towards her bag, sticking its head through the unzipped opening inquisitively.

It was hurt when I first found it. I noticed it limping, practically dragging its hind leg behind it as it attempted to catch birds and small game. It leapt from short ledges or hiding places in the bushes near my school but always ended up scaring its prey away.

"Don't do that," The girl laughs, slipping an arm around its belly to gently pull it from her bag, placing it in her lap as she seats herself on the ground. "You'll get stuck, you cute idiot."

But it always got up again. No matter how much it hurt, it would pull itself up again and limp away to hide to repeat the cycle. Once it snagged a bird's wing. The bird got away - it was easy escaping a cat that could barely inch forward - but the look in its eyes stunned me. It looked hopeful.

Human, even.

It watched the bird fly off, shaken, before it dragged itself back into the bushes with a determined look, as if to say, “That's okay. I will try again.”

Chii purred up at her, pressing its head into her palm.

Tucking her hands beneath its forelegs, she lifts it up to eye level, smiling fondly. The cat gives a velvety meow and leans forward to rasp its sandpaper tongue across her nose, hind legs dangling beneath it.

I really needed to see that kind of determination.

But eventually it fell and just couldn't get up, no matter how much it tried.

So I fed it and bandaged its leg. It took a few months for its leg to heal - it scratched it up pretty bad - and by then it had already started to wait for me. It followed me from middle school to high school. We haven't been apart since.

She giggles, a happy noise that rarely bubbles from her so naturally anymore, and sets the feline down.

I can tell Chii anything. It's always there for me. Always.

"I don't think I've told you yet," Asuka murmurs, scratching Chii behind the ear softly. "I met this boy a few months ago. His name is Tsukina Kazuka."

So I told Chii about him. Kazuka. Chii should know that I managed to make a friend - at least, I think we're friends. No one just goes up to you and asks to be friends anymore. I wonder if that ever did happen or if cartoons just fabricated it all.

"He's pretty nice," She continues. "He's fanatic about books. He's pretty much one of the nerdiest kids I've met, but he's still managed to get all the girls hooked on his smile. He's a bit of a wimp, too, but I don't really care."

The cat mews in response, nipping fondly at her fingers, and she smiles, "I wonder why he hangs out with me. I'm not very likeable."

Chii's golden eyes gleam as if it knows a secret it has not shared, and probably never will.

_____________________________________________________________________

"You mean to say you ate all your food already? Again?" Asuka huffs, exasperated, at the boy strolling beside her.

"I'm a growing boy," Kazuka insists brightly. "I can't help it."

Asuka rolls her eyes and readies a comeback when another voice calls from the other end of the hall, loud with laughter, "Yo, Kazuka! Where've you been lately?"

Sometimes I forget that Kazuka has a highly-social life, with a lot of well-respected people as friends

She peers around Kazuka's frame, too short to peek over his shoulder, to find a young man racing down the corridor towards them, shooting greetings at the people he recognised on the way, his emerald stare bright with merriment.

He skids the last meter and wraps an arm jovially around the boy's shoulders, grinning at him, "I thought you were dead!"

One of his closer friends happens to be Shizuka Kido.

"Sorry," Kazuka smiles apologetically back. "I should've told you I'm hanging out with Asuka-chan."

"Asu..." The boy's gaze drops to the girl watching them and he claps his hands together with recognition. "Asuka-chan! Yamada Asuka-chan! I remember!"

We went to primary school together. I guess you could say we were friends - he'd give me his crackers and I'd give him my bread roll - though we drifted apart a little when we went to different middle schools.

"Hey, Kido-kun," She nods with acknowledgement. "How're you?"

"Aw, skip the formalities, A-chan," Kido laughs back as though there had never been a gap between them. "We're friends, remember?"

He used to be scared of everything. Literally everything. He got so bad he stayed at home for four months.

"Yeah," She gives a small half-smile. "I remember."

"Eh? You know each other?" Kazuka cocks his head to the side, surprised.

"Of course!" Kido pulls away from his friend, rolling his weight back and forth, from his heels to the end of his toes. "Don't tell me A-chan hasn't told you? We're childhood friends!"

Then one day he came back to school completely changed. He just wasn't scared anymore. Of anything. He was so happy and charismatic. Has been ever since.

"No, not a word about you," The bookworm replies, laughter staining his voice. "Are you sure you're not making this up, Kido?"

"How dare you make such an accusation!" Kido retorts melodramatically, recoiling as though he has been struck, before he turns to the girl once more. "A-chan, tell the non-believer!"

"We were friends in primary school," She nods, a ghost of a smile teasing her lips. "He's not lying."

"Childhood sweethearts, then?" Kazuka enquires sincerely.

Immediately Asuka catches his cheek in a pinch so agonising it makes his eyes water, and Kido bursts into a fit of laughter.

"Sorrysorrysorry!" He yips, twisting himself out of her grip as quickly as possible. "I was just asking! Didn't think you'd get so flustered over it."

"It's always been a touchy subject with A-chan," The blonde laughs as the trio continue their walk to the courtyard. "She went beet-red and ran straight into the wall when I asked her to marry me when we were older!"

"You what?!"

"Calm down, guy, we were seven."

Asuka attempts to sink into the depths of her jacket, willing the laughing boy beside Kazuka to shut up before he embarrassed her further.

I missed him when he left, but I figured it was just a part of growing up. I thought we'd never see each other again and I'd just have to get over it.

Kido waves at the large group of teens milling around the centre of the yard, calling greetings, but he remains with the two as they seat themselves upon the brick wall bordering the large oak in the court's left corner.

"You're not going to go sit with your usual gang?" Asuka enquiries, adding hastily, "I mean, not that I'm trying to chase you off or anything."

"They can live without me for a day or two," He shrugs back, offering a little grin. "Hey, how did you two meet, anyway?"

"We smacked into each other in the hall," Kazuka informs sheepishly. "I gave her my handkerchief, since she cut herself on one of the book corners."

"Of course you did," The blonde snickers, popping the lid off of his small plastic lunchbox. "Neither of you are very attentive!"

Kazuka laughs and Kido nudges Asuka with an elbow, tilting the lunchbox towards her.

I didn't think he could show up one day and we'd still be friends. As if we were never separated.

The girl gives a half-smile as she takes a handful of biscuits from the offered box and hands him her bread roll.