Title: You Can Do Better
Summary: You can do better. Four sad words. Those four words are the story of Electra's life. She's always been a disappointment. She wants to prove herself, but the older Jellicles seem to push her down. Can she overcome them and show them who she really is?

A/N: Rewrote this chapter to make more sense. I realized that I made a few mistakes anyway. If you're a new reader, then everything's fine!

Please read and review!

"You can do better", Skimbleshanks stated to his 10 month year old daughter as she was trying to learn to walk straight. After several failed attempts, the young kitten was ready for a nap. Skimbleshanks sighed heavily and forced a smile, "That's okay."

Compared to the other kittens born the same year, his daughter, Electra, was the slowest learner. All the other kittens had learned to walk at about 4-5 months. Jennyanydots hoped that she was just a late bloomer.

Skimble tucked Electra into bed and watched her dozing face. If he looked at her this way, he wouldn't be able to tell that she had a lame leg. Old Deuteronomy assured him that she would limp a little bit, but by the time she was 10 or so, it would be like she never had a limp in the first place. Jennyanydots went over to Skimbleshanks and hugged him tightly.

"She'll be fine", Jenny cooed, "I'm sure of it."

"Our only daughter", Skimble lamented, "I had wished that she would be special."

"She is special", Jenny whispered, "Why else would we name her Electra?"

"True, I just hope she grows up to be a good Jellicle."

The snoozing Electra was oblivious to everything around her. But she was still very young. There were many more disappointments to come.

Skimbleshanks watched his little daughter walk around sniffing the flowers and looking for something to chew on. He had to admit that it was endearing in a way.

Among the four female kittens, Electra seemed to be the tomboy of the group. She ran around with the younger toms at times and followed Munkustrap around adoringly. It was sort of cute. Jemima definitely had the prize for being cutest, though. Her wide eyes and innocent smile just made you smile back in return. Victoria was smarter than all the rest and could trick many Jellicles into giving her what she wanted. Etcetera was hyper and kind. No matter what the problem was, she would try to fix it. Electra was energetic and plain. Just normal.

Jennyanydots loved her daughter freely and without worry. She knew that her daughter would become someone important one day. Electra only knew that she liked her mother better without knowing why. Maybe it was the hope radiating off of her mother like a summer's glow.

Jenny would spend the nights whispering or singing into Electra's ear.

"You're so wonderful, Electra, we're lucky to have a daughter like you", she would whisper. Skimble would be watching from the other side of the den with an upset look on his face. How could Jenny bring Electra's hopes up like that, especially when the dark tabby was due to fail anyway?

"Happy Birthday!" Jenny cheered. Electra was having a small birthday party with her three best friends. Jemima laughed and whispered, "How old are you?"

"That's so stupid, we're all the same age", Victoria scoffed.

Etcetera watched Jemima pout and shrugged, "Whatever, how old are you?"

"Three", Electra whispered with a beaming smile. Skimble watched from the corner looking at his daughter. He smiled slowly. Maybe it was going to be okay.

After the party Electra was bored. Jenny was playing catch with her while Skimble slept out in the sun.

Suddenly, Electra pounced onto her father and he was jerked awake by the impact. Sitting up, he glared at Electra and began to talk sternly.

"Don't do that, Electra!" Skimble shouted, "Someone could get hurt, you should know better!"

Jenny hurried over and held Electra in a protecting embrace and hissed, "Skimble, she was juts playing around."

The Railway Cat ignored his mate and said to Electra, who was trembling, "You know better than that!"

Tears streamed down Electra's face as she sobbed, "I'm sorry!"

Skimble's expression didn't change and he walked away without another word. Jenny held onto Electra tightly and whispered, "It's okay. Daddy is just tired."

"I'm sorry!" Electra screamed and wouldn't stop sobbing. She hugged her mom and whispered, "I'm sorry."

Those words might as well have been her motto.

"You can do better", Jennyanydots whispered at her three year old daughter with soft eyes. Electra bowed her head in shame and sighed quietly. Jenny had found out that Electra had bonked Pouncival hard on the head.

Her daughter whispered, "I'm sorry."

Tears fell from her dark eyes onto the ground. Electra watched the ground intently, not quite understanding what was so wrong. Her mother almost never lectured her like this. The dark tabby kitten shook as she listened.

"Hitting others is wrong", Jenny explained patiently, using softer tones. Electra nodded and said, "I'm sorry, Mommy."

Jenny had acted like her father and Electra was now confused. Wasn't only the father supposed to be stern? Maybe it wasn't so.

The mother she knew would have asked her why she had hit Pouncival, but that queen hadn't. Was Jenny still her mother? Electra had hit Pouncival after he had made Jemima cry. She just wanted him to know how bad it felt to be crying.

Electra stood alone in the corner of the den with her head bowed. She felt alone. When you're three years old, loneliness is the worst you can feel. It hurt.

Pouncival was playing tag with the female kittens and all went well until a fight broke out. Electra had accidently ran into Pouncival when she had been looking out for Etcetera, who had been it. They both fell down pretty hard. Pouncival rubbed his nose and began to whimper.

Electra was a little surprised and said, "I'm sorry!"

"You're so stupid", Pouncival yelled at her. Electra's eyes went wide and her lower lip began to tremble. The young tom was looking at her with mean eyes. The dark tabby looked down and tried not to hear his words. Pouncival wasn't the brightest either and he continued to yell until he got to the last part, "I hate you. Your so slow."

Electra looked up with dry eyes and she glared back at Pouncival. He was a little surprised. She looked at him with an icy look and whispered, "So what?"

Just then, Skimble arrived, having heard yelling and asked, "What's wrong?"

Pouncival looked at him in surprise and immediately burst out into tears. While sobbing, he half yelled, "Electra pushed me down and told me I was stupid!"

"I didn't!" Electra denied with pleading eyes. Jemima, Victoria and Etcetera walked towards them, oblivious to what had happened and asked, "What happened?"

Skimble snapped, "Electra, apologize to Pouncival!"

His eyes were blazing and Electra trembled violently. She looked at her father. The look was so scary she finally turned to Pouncival.

"I'm…" Electra tried to apologize, but she couldn't believe she actually had to say sorry for something she didn't do. It was a little embarrassing, having your friends see your father yell at you. The dark tabby remembered all the times her father looked at her, never right in the eye, but focused on her face. That look was always on his face. The disappointed look. The sad look. The angry look. All together the look pierced through her flesh and bones straight to her heart and then through her body creating a hole in her chest.

"I'm sorry!" Electra yelled and ran past Skimble and back to the den.

That same night, Skimble spent the whole night staring at the wall with blank eyes. Jenny explained to Electra that sometimes you had to let go of that feeling of hurt and apologize anyway. Even if she didn't do it, apologizing was the right thing. The dark tabby could only nod wihtout understanding any meaning of the lecture.

Jelly and Jenny were the Kitten Caretakers, they were in charge of the Kitten Compound and the little ones. They taught them how to talk and read a little. Reading was important to Jellicles. Only humans were supposed to read, but in case you were ever lost, knowing how to read was a great help of getting back.

Jelly had nicknames for each of them. Victoria was undoubtedly, the fastest learner and learned how to read as well as most Jellicles within a few months. So her nickname was Toshiko, since Victoria's former owners had been from Japan. Its meaning in Japanese, "Genius Child."

Jemima was of average intelligence, but she was a glowing young queen. Toms seemed to be attracted to her just when she did something moderately cute, like yawning. They flocked to her. Jelly called her, "Aphrodite", after the Greek Goddess of Love. Demeter hated that name for her as it suggested that she would have many lovers and would play around. She certainly didn't want that.

Etcetera was as hyper as ever and kind too. Jelly called her, "Yo-yo", since she was always bouncing up and down.

Electra was plain and always bored. She wasn't super hyper. She wasn't super anything. Maybe just super plain. Jelly had wondered about giving her a nickname, but she couldn't think of anything. Finally she decided on, "Little Flame." The name was odd to everyone else, even when Jelly explained it. Electra means, "Amber", and she was passionate to her soul. Little Flame was appropriate.

Electra didn't know what passionate meant, but she gathered it was something only her father thought was bad, because every time Jelly called her, "Little Flame", Skimble would look away with a stony expression.

The dark tabby hoped she was passionate because it made the Jellicles (especially her mother) happy to hear it. Maybe she could make her father proud too.

...

And maybe Jellicles could fly.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review! Minor changes were made.