Disclaimer: I do not own Cats or any of the characters, settings, scenarios, etc.
A/N: This story is based on the movie, that being the form of Cats that I can watch repeatedly enough to base a story on it. The title is very tentative, based on an idea I am working on for future chapters. Please review this one! If people don't like it, I won't waste my time working on this story and will instead put that time towards another forming idea. Thanks and enjoy!
-Jellicle-in-the-Box
It's hard being magical. Everyone expects things from you. You can't disappoint them. Magic just isn't flashy. For some reason, all the Jellicles expect sparks to fly out of my fingers or something. But magic just doesn't work like that.
Tantomile told me I just have to make it seem flashy. She says that that's why magic takes so much energy. You have to spend just as much magical power on the sparkles as you do on the actual magic. I still can't sparkle and make something happen at the same time. Coricopat says that the sparkly part is "exceptionally superfluous and inapt." Well, I think that's what he said. That's the only bit of his lecture I understood. Coricopat uses a lot of big words.
Tanto says to ignore him, that he's just showing off. Then she sends him off to work on some big project they're doing while she trains me for the Ball.
Next month there is a Jellicle Ball. That only happens once a year, when the full moon is in perigee. That's when the moon is closest to the earth, so the moon is really big. Then we have a ball and somebody gets picked by Old Deuteronomy to go to the Heavyside Layer. There's a lot of magic involved. Every year, Tanto and Cori have to make lights, help with the older cats' presentations, protect the junkyard, and do all sorts of other bits of magic. This year, I get to help them.
Also at the Jellicle Ball, one queenkit comes of age. A tomkit who already came of age at one of the Preticle Balls, when the moon is really small and far away, dances the Mating Dance with her. She usually doesn't know who it will be, until she turns around at the start of the dance. But it isn't like the arranged marriages that humans do. Old Deuteronomy watches all the toms, no longer tomkits, and the kitten who will come of age that year. He decides who is best for her, and then the tom is told at the beginning of the Ball. In the middle of the ball, the new queen comes to the middle of the junkyard and turns her back to the toms. The tom who was chosen comes forward. When she is ready, the queen turns around, and the love of her life stands there waiting to sweep her off her paws and into the Mating Dance, and then they live happily ever after.
Well, that's the way Jennyanydots tells it.
I wouldn't know if it's really that romantic. I've only been to two Jellicle Balls before, and no queenkits came of age either year. My little sister, Victoria, will come of age this year. As her older brother, I was chosen to take her out of her Coming of Age Dance. But I only came of age at this last Preticle Ball. I just hope I don't mess up.
It's hard being a kitten. Especially a queenkit. Everyone expects you to be good, listen to your elders, be polite, stay clean, and look for a suitable mate. It's not even like we get to pick our mates anyway. Old Deuteronomy does that. It's not like he just picks for us. He chooses the tom who he thinks will be the best for us. He's never chosen wrong, either. Except maybe when he chose Macavity for Demeter, but that was long before I was born. Besides, once Macavity left, Demeter was allowed to have a Mating Dance again, and that time Deuteronomy chose the perfect mate for her. She and Munkustrap are always so happy together. Even a kitten like me can see that.
I'm not worried about who Deuteronomy picks. I trust him for that. I'm mostly worried about after that. I'll be a queen, not a kitten. Am I allowed to still play with my friends? None of them come of age for at least another year, and only Jemi does next year. Etcetera and Electra still have two more years of kittenhood. Am I still allowed to play with the toms and tomkits? Most of Misto's friends? They're my friends too.
Misto is the best older brother I could imagine. He always lets me play with him and his friends, as long as he's not studying with the twins. I mean, Tantomile and Coricopat. They don't like it when people call them "the twins." Misto once told me that even though they are telepathic, they are two really different cats, and hate being thought of as one.
Magic confuses me. Sometimes, it's really fun. Like when Misto throws sparks at one place, and my fur stands on end, and suddenly I'm over there instead of where I was. Or when he makes little sparkles at the surface of the stream that's by the Junkyard. The fish all swim to the sparkles and then we can grab them without getting more than our paws wet.
But sometimes magic is scary. Like when Macavity is nearby, and he does something to Demeter. Nobody knows what he actually does, but she always screams his name and then he makes the sky flash with lightning.
Magic is annoying sometimes, too. Like when I want to play games and Tantomile comes over to take Misto. I know he has to learn, but it's more fun when he's there.
I'm so glad I don't have magic. And since Misto's the only magical cat right now, besides Coricopat and Tantomile, I don't have to worry about having a magical mate. I really shouldn't worry about my mate at all. But I just can't help it. The Jellicle Ball is at the start of next month. One week away.