Sarah and Catseye - Making Up Is Hard To Do

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

After reading Sarah's email, Catseye goes over for a visit, armed with burgers, candy, book, movie, stuffed toy, and MiniSquid.

Sarah had spent the afternoon cleaning. It wasn't something she did often, especially not without a reminder from her mother, but after the email to Catseye, she'd needed something to keep her hands busy and mind focused. Boxes that had sat in the corner for a good month were finally unpacked. Posters and pictures decorated the room and not a wire was out of place or tangled.

It wasn't home, but it was certainly better now that it was looking a bit more lived in.
Now, if only her invited guest would arrive.

Pulling out a tin from her nightstand's bottom drawer, the technopath munched on one of her Nana's double chocolate cookies, nibbling on it as she stared at the clock. Would she come? Was she still upset? Did the stuffed cat offend her? Questions and concerns floated around in Sarah's brain and worked the girl to a near panic attack.

Catseye knocked on the door politely with her tail, arms loaded down with a book, a movie, the stuffed cat, MiniSquid, a bag of Caribbean Fish candy, and a bag from the Burger Shack. Luckily she was only carrying most of it from next door in her own room. "Sarah? Can Catseye come in?"

Leaving the canister on the bed, Sarah climbed off the mattress and hurried over to the door to open it for her suitemate. "Um, yeah. Please do," the younger girl managed. She chewed on her lip when she looked over the haul her guest had brought along and felt a little embarrassed to only have cookies to offer in return. "So, um, how are you?"

"Catseye is good!" she replied happily, bouncing into the room. "How is Sarah?"

"I'm... okay," the younger mutant answered, pleased that the other girl seems to be in a decent mood at least and not angry with her. Or at least was good at hiding it. "You can sit anywhere you want. I cleaned up today so anywhere's good."

"Catseye can sit down?" She was a little surprised, but pleased. "Catseye didn't think Sarah would let her come in again after Catseye made Sarah uncomfortable even though Catseye did not mean to. Catseye is going to tell people when they come to the mansion now that she is a cat and a girl because Catseye is proud to be a cat and a girl and because it is not Sarah's fault that she did not know who Catseye was, because Mister Beaubier said it is not something most people are going to know looking at you at first glance, but you can't be shy about letting them know because you're afraid that how they'll react will make things more complicated. Mister Beaubier is very smart, Catseye is glad she asked him what she should do."

Sarah nodded and even settled back onto her bed to show Catseye it was okay. "I never met mutants before I came here and sometimes mutants who can change their shapes or who have things like tails and fur surprise me. It's not something I'm used to seeing even if it's normal here. I'm still adjusting to the differences," she explained, moving the tin to make space for the other girl. "Which one is Mister Beaubier?"

"Catseye used to call Mister Beaubier 'Mister Pointy Ears'," she said by way of explanation. "He teaches reading. Lit-rat-chur. Catseye likes her present veryvery much!" she exclaimed happily, sitting on the end of the bed and setting down her things. "The cat is very funny looking and has lovely purple fur like Catseye! Sometimes Catseye wishes she had pretty stripes like this kitty does. Catseye brought Sarah some burgers and some fish candy. And Catseye brought a movie and a book in case Sarah is homesick and wants someone to keep her company. And Catseye brought MiniSquid to play with Sarah because of Sarah's powers!" She held out the cybernetic squid for inspection.

"Oh, okay. He took me on a tour of the Salem Center," the brunette replied with a smile. "He was nice; and a twin, like me," she added though she wasn't quite sure why. "And the cat is from a movie. Well, really from a book that was made into a movie but he's only purple in the movie. He's the Cheshire Cat." Another smile and Sarah offered Catseye the cookie tin in exchange for the presents. The burgers sounded good but she was a little skeptical of the fish candy. "My Nana made them. You can have some if you'd like. But um, what's a MiniSquid?" she asked, even as she took up the toy.

"The cat is from a book?!" Catseye asked excitedly, nearly jumping off the bed. "Really? Catseye has not read! And Catseye loves to read! Catseye brought Sarah the Shakespeare play about the Shrew because it is about sisters and Sarah said she had a sister but Catseye thinks she would like to read this book about the cat!" She ripped open the paper bag from the Burger Shack and handed a burger to Sarah, taking one for herself. "Catseye brought Sarah the movie called Ten Things I Hate About You, it is about sisters too. And MiniSquid. He is a squid BrainyButtBoy, who is also named Forge, made Catseye. He is a robot and is made out of wires and electronic things and Catseye knows Sarah likes electronic things and that she can talk to them so Catseye wanted to see if she could talk to MiniSquid!"

"The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland," the younger girl said with a nod, taking the burgert with the hand not holding the robotic toy. It might have been Through The Looking Glass but Sarah could never remember which was which part of the story. Everything else that had spilled out ot the cat-girl's mouth took a minute to sift through as she chewed her food before answering. "I've never seen that movie but I do know Forge. He's helping me with my powers. Um, what does the MiniSquid do exactly?"

"Can't Sarah ask MiniSquid? Catseye wants to hear Sarah talk to MiniSquid!"

"I... um... I don't know if I can do that." Sarah bit the corner of her lip and put the burger aside so she could focus on the toy. "Usually, I have to spend a lot of time with something before I can talk to it. Or well, before it will listen to what I say."

"MiniSquid ties Forge's tie sometimes," Catseye informed the girl, not to be dissuaded. "Maybe when Sarah knows MiniSquid like Forge does she can talk to it and MiniSquid will tie her ties too! MiniSquid plays Chase with Catseye, mostly." She attacked her burger eagerly, then tried one of Sarah's cookies. "What is a Nana?"

The brunette smiled at the image but didn't bother to correct her friend on the fact that she didn't wear ties. "Hopefully, I'll get to know MiniSquid a lot better now that I know what it is," Sarah said, putting it back down on the bed. The question threw her some, however. Surely the girl had heard the term before... "Nana is my grandmother. She's my mom's mom."

MiniSquid made its way across the bed and curled around Catseye's tail and she went back to her burger. "Catseye thinks Nana is a very nice name. Does Sarah miss her Nana the way she misses her motherperson and sister?"

"Yeah," she replied with another nod, her eyes fixed on the interesting toy. "I miss her too but I didn't live with her. It was me and my mom and Jessie and then on weekends and holidays we would stay with my dad. Nana stayed with us after school sometimes and bake cookies when Jessie and I were younger."

"Sarah's motherperson and fatherperson do not live together?" Catseye asked, polishing off her burger and taking another cookie. "That is the same as the parentpeople of people at the mansion. Does that make Sarah sad the way it makes other people sad sometimes?"

Nibbling again on her own burger, Sarah shrugged. "They're divorced. It's not so bad anymore. I mean, it was when it first happened but now my parents are still friendly and don't hate each other or anything. We see a lot of them both and they don't fight anymore so... " Her shoulders lifted and fell once more. "These burgers are good."

"They are from the Burger Shack. They are Catseye's favourite burger," she smiled, and dug into her bag of candy. "Catseye likes Caribbean Fish too but they are not real fish they are sugar and food colour. It is a verygoodthing that Sarah's motherperson and fatherperson do not hate each other," she said with a sage nod. It didn't seem like her parental situation was causing Sarah any of her homesickness, so that was good. "So Sarah never knew any mutants before Sarah was a mutant?" she inquired, hoping to discuss the other girl's insecurity over being a newly-manifested mutant.

"Nope, no mutants," Sarah replied as she studied the candy that looked like a cross between Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish. "My dad knew some mutants because of his work but I didn't. And then after I manifested, the one or two my dad introduced me to looked like regular people." The array of color and shapes, of sizes and assorted extra appendages still threw the young student, proving to be the second hardest part of living at the mansion. "That's why I got upset before. I'm not used to seeing cats turning into people and stuff like that."

"Catseye understands that is not Sarah's fault," the purple-haired girl nodded. "And Catseye is glad that now Sarah is more used to seeing mutants at school because now Sarah can see that mutants are special even if they do not look like regular people. Lots of Catseye's friends act like regular people even though they do not look regular," she explained. "But not Catseye. Catseye sometimes thinks she is acting like a regular people even though she is not but Catseye tries very hard to act regular... most of the time. It is hard for Catseye. Regular people have sillystupid rules sometimes. So many rules."

"Lots of rules," came the agreement as Sarah snatched up the last cookie, then broke it in half and offered one piece to Catseye. "I guess we both have stuff we still need to learn about being human, mutant girls."