Julie and Jenny hid behind the bushes as they stared into the field. Julia blushed as she saw her dream prince rushing around the field with the football close to his feet. At the side of the field, more girls sat and watch, letting out giggles and cheers at the star player of the team.
There is no one in school who doesn’t know the jock of Kilimanjaro High—Chad Henry Junior. Everyone adored him, and that goes the same with ours truly Julia. She had always wanted to step up to him and talk just like the rest of the girls but she was often pushed away by them. This time was of no exception. After getting an encouraging cue from her best friend Jenny, she lunged forward and tried to squeeze her way through the crowd of girls that surrounded Chad as soon as he was done practicing his football with the team. Her efforts have again failed her. She was pushed away harshly that she had sprained her waist and couldn’t get up. Jenny had to help her take her to the sick room.
Julie went home disappointed yet again. Chad Henry Junior was in Senior 3, and he was the coolest and cutest guy among all the seniors. Ever since she set eyes on him during orientation week on the first day of school, she ha experienced love at first sight. For days, even weeks, she had tried to capture his attention but none pf them seemed to work. It was as if she had never existed before. The first thing she did when she reached home was confided her feelings straight away to her pet cat Pow-Pow. Pow-Pow has been her pet for a very long time and he was a really good listener. Whatever problems she had, he would be the first to know.
“I am such a loser! I can’t believe I failed again today! Why am I such a chicken? If I continue like this, I won’t be able to give him the chocolates for Valentine’s Day! I even have the chocolates well-prepared. See?”
Pow-Pow stared at the chocolates full of wanting, but of course, cats can’t eat chocolate—it’ll kill them.
“He’s gonna graduate soon and I won’t be able to see him anymore. Even though I want to tell him that I like him…I never got the chance and I never got the guts to say it…I’m only human, after all! I can’t just go up to him and say it just like that! What’ll they think of me…”
“You are so bored.”
Julie turned around, trying to see who was the one talking. She found herself staring front of Pow-Pow’s golden eyes and his mouth as the words and the voice came out, saying, “If complaining is the only thing you can do all day, why don’t you become like me and listen to other people’s complaints for a change?”
It took her a full 5 minutes before she realized that her cat Pow-Pow was actually talking to her. Before she knew it, she was yelling her head off in shock and almost hysteria, shouting about the ultimate discovery on her cat. Pow-Pow groaned exasperatedly.
“We cats have always mastered the power of speech dating to the Egyptian period. It is not that surprising. It’s just that we like to maintain the calm and cool mysterious aura on us and don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, if you get my drift.”
Julie stared at her cat, dumbfounded. Cats that could talk since the age of the Egyptians? That is something you don’t see everyday. She should read up on her history more in the future.
“Julie,” Pow-Pow said in a tired voice. “Do you realize that you have been going on and on about your crush with Chad but I don’t see any happy news about it? All you do is just come back home failure after failure and complain to me night after night whether I want to listen to it or not. I heard about failures but you are just so ridiculous! You gotta learn how to stand on your own feet! I’m sick and tired of you ranting and raving at me without doing something about it!”
Julie was ashamed. She didn’t know that her nightly complaints had such a big impact and a bad nuisance to her cat. She didn’t know what to say to make him feel better. She really felt bad about it, that is, after she got over the shock of having a talking cat.
“I’ve had enough of your complaints. I am going to make you stand on your own feet even if it means revealing my secret powers to you.”
‘Secret powers?’ Julie thought. ‘What secret powers?’ Before she could ask, she was suddenly hit by a blinding flash of light. Her whole body fell backwards, as if she was hit by a bullet train or something. It didn’t hurt though, although the impact was strong. When she opened her eyes, she was in for a shock.
She found herself wagging a long white cat’s tail and her ears were jutting up like a pair of white cat’s ears, with a tint of light-brown on the tips. She had actually turned into a human cat!
“What…What have you done to me, Pow-Pow?! What have I become??”
“I’ve laid a curse on you,” Pow-Pow replied nonchalantly, as if everything was an as-a-matter-of-fact way of things.
“A…A curse?! Why do you have to do that for?!” Julie asked, horrified. She may have irritated her cat a little, but she didn’t deserve this kind of punishment.
“It’s a power we cats are proud to possess throughout the centuries. I just did that to teach you a lesson not to mess with us cats, the superior of all animals. If you continue to be so naïve and bottle up your feelings not doing anything, you’ll be a real cat within 3 days’ time, and it won’t be pretty. Don’t get me wrong, there is a cure for this curse, and I’m also doing you a good favour.”
“Favour?! What kind of favour is this?!” Julie asked angrily, pointing at her tail and her ears.
“Well, for starters, I’m actually getting you the guy that you crave for so much, for the cure to this curse is that on the third day before sundown, you must go and confess your feelings towards Chad. Then the curse will be broken.”
“Wha…What?! you mean I have to actually go up to him and tell him that I like him?!” Julie blushed terribly, practically horrified.
“That’s the plan,” Pow-Pow nodded.
“B-B-But in 3 days…? That’s impossible~!” Julie said doubtfully.
“Don’t worry,” Pow-Pow replied. “I may be the one laying the curse on you, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t help you break it. Or…do you want to let yourself turn into a cat and live completely different lives from Chad? I can assure you, being a cat is pretty wonderful.”
Julie was struck there. There was no way she was going to live a cat’s life and be away from Chad forever. Sure, confessing may be a scary thing, but unable to see Chad and become completely isolated from him and live off cat scraps and fish bones for life was scarier.
That’s when she had made her decision.
The next day, she went to school as usual, but did a small alteration on herself. She hid her ears under the two buns of hair at either side of her head and curled the tail up and stuffed it inside her underwear. Her heart was thumping madly just thinking of what she was going to do today. She didn’t know why she let herself be talked into this anyway.
“OK, now, Julie,” Pow-Pow, who was wrapped in Julie’s arms started saying. “Plan A for today will be to let Chad know your name, you hear me? Hey, are you alright, Julie?”
“P-P-Perfectly f-f-fine,” Julie’s stammering didn’t sound too convincing. Soon, she heard some of the girls giggling in delight and saw Chad walking into the school compound. Instinctively, Julie ran into hiding behind the bush. Pow-Pow was annoyed.
“I don’t believe this! Is this what you do everyday?! No wonder you’re such a failure! Are you gonna just sit there and wait until it’s too late?”
Julie couldn’t help feeling that Pow-Pow was right. If she doesn’t start saying something now, she never will get the chance. It’s now or never. Gathering all her guts, she came out of her hiding place and blurted out, “Senior Chad!”
Chad looked at her way and to her face, asking, “Yes, you called me?”
Julie’s heart skipped a bit. Those mesmerizing blue eyes and that striking blonde hair tied into a thin ponytail was simply too hard for her to bear. His deep voice was like a knight in shining armour talking from his grand stallion. He was too cute for words and not something she could hold on. Her face heated up and she began to sway, falling headfirst towards the floor. Chad noticed and instinctively held out his hand to catch her by the waist. Julie’s hot cheeks grew even hotter. His hand around her waist! He was actually touching her! She had never seen him touching other girls before when they gathered around him after football practice but there he was right now, wrapping his arms around her waist!! It felt so blissful that she didn’t want to get up.
“Err…May I ask? What the heck is that?”
Julie shifted her gaze to where he was pointing. She was shocked to see that her cat tail has uncurled out of her underwear and was standing up straight. ‘Oh no!’ she thought. ‘I forgot that when cats get excited, their tails would stand up straight! I can’t tell him that I’ve been cast a spell by my cat! I gotta tell him something else! But…But what?!’
Finally, as a last resort, she blurted out, “I’m…I’m a very big fan of cats. So much that I occasionally dress myself up as a cat!” Before Chad could say anything else, she held up Pow-Pow for him to see, “This is my cat Pow-Pow. See? See how much I like cats?”
Chad was staring at Julie with such awe on his face that Julie began to worry that Chad might think she’s crazy. The silence hung for about 2 minutes before she actually saw Chad smiling and laughed, saying, “You’re an interesting little guy! To tell the truth, I like cats too.”
Julie couldn’t believe her eyes. She was actually another side of Chad that she had never seen before. She was actually looking at a smiling Chad picking up Pow-Pow and stroking him lovingly onto his fair cheek, and not the calm and collected cool guy Chad. She felt so lucky to be the first to see this, although some other girls might have a head-start seeing him that way.
“What did you say your name was…?”
Julie came out of her senses when she realized that Chad was asking for her name. This was her chance. She blurted out again, “Ju…Julie! Julie Lattimer from Class 1 Dandelion!”
“Julie, eh?” Chad said as he handed her cat to him. “If it’s OK with you, I’d like to borrow your Pow-Pow some other time.”
“S-Sure! No problem!” Julie replied as she took Pow-Pow back. Finally, he remembered her name. She actually existed after all. She again felt so blissful that she hoped time would just stop there and then for her.
“Success!” Pow-Pow exclaimed as soon as Chad was out of ear-shot. “My cat features never fails to impress people! Now let’s go for Plan B!”
“There’s a Plan B?” Julie asked absentmindedly, her face hadn’t yet gotten over the shade of red yet.
“Yes, there is. The next step right now is to set up a venue and a perfect atmosphere to confess your feelings for him. You got to write a letter to him and tell him to meet you somewhere secluded during Valentine’s Day!”
“What?! You want me to write a letter to tell him that?!” Julie’s cheeks which had gradually reduced to a slight pink shot back up to red again. “I can’t do that!! That is so embarrassing!”
“No complaints,” Pow-Pow said authoritatively. “Are you gonna write or not?”
Thinking about the possibilities of becoming a cat if she didn’t, Julie had no choice but to oblige. With shaking hands, she wrote the letter in bold letters:
TO SENIOR CHAD,
MEET ME AT THE SCHOOL BACKYARD AFTER SCHOOL ON THE 14TH.
JULIE LATTIMER OF CLASS 1 DANDELION
After writing the letter, the next morning after school, she went over to the field where Chad had his usual football practice and waited behind the bushes. He was as cool and as gallant as ever as he passed the ball and kicked it without much trouble. As usual, girls were standing at the side of the field cheering and giggling.
“Right, now you have written the letter. All you have to do now is hold on to the letter and wait until he’s done with his practice before handing it over to him,” Pow-Pow whispered. Julie nodded, her stomach fluttering and her heart still pumping although she had already have an up close encounter with him.
Suddenly, the football Chad’s team was practicing on bounced into the bush Julie and Pow-Pow were hiding and Julie found herself pouncing onto it like Pow-Pow did in such playful and longing mood. When she realized what she was doing, she was horrified.
“Wha…What did I just do?!”
“This means that you’re slowly inching your way into becoming a cat,” Pow-Pow replied as he pawed at the ball. “Welcome to the family.”
While Julie tried to contemplate the dreaded transformation, she suddenly felt a familiar presence. When she turned around, she was shocked to see that it was Chad looking back at her with his striking blue eyes. She almost went pale with horror at what he might have seen.
“Julie? I’m here to get my ball,” Chad said, pointing at the ball Pow-Pow was playing with.
“H-Here you go,” Julie replied, handing him the ball. She prayed to God hard that he hadn’t seen what she had just done.
“What are you doing here?” Chad asked curiously.
“I…I…err…” Julie didn’t know where to start.
“Give him the letter,” Pow-Pow whispered, pawing at her ankles.
“Oh…Oh yeah!” Julie was knocked back into her senses as she took out the envelope containing the letter. She handed it to Chad and said, “Senior Chad, this letter…”
Whether Chad was shocked at such gesture or he was just caught off guard, he had accidentally lost his grip on the ball and it slid out of his hand. As the ball fell and bounced on the grass, again Julie instinctively pounced onto the ball with Pow-Pow and Chad stared in awe yet again. Chad’s scoff brought her back to the horrible reality.
“You really are an interesting girl,” Chad grinned.
‘I’m horrible~!’ Julie groaned inwardly; she had never felt even more embarrassed than this.
“Yohoo~! Chad! Come back! Practice is not over yet!” one of Chad’s team members called out from the field. Chad let out a grunt and turned towards the field. Julie was taken aback. ‘He’s leaving?’ she thought. ‘At least accept my letter!’
“Err…Senior Chad…this letter…” Julie said tentatively. Chad turned around, noticed the envelope in her hands and took it without a second thought.
“Alright, I’ve taken your letter now. Between you and I, I’m pretty afraid of the girls around me, but surprisingly to you, I don’t feel that way.”
Julie was again taken by surprise. He actually felt differently towards her? She thought that Chad treated every girl the way he treated her but she didn’t think that Chad would actually feel this way to her. Hope still hangs in her wake.
“Cool! Now all you have to do is confess to him tomorrow!” Pow-Pow said gleefully, glad that everything was going according as planned.
Julie smiled. She was glad too. All she wanted to do is let Chad know how she felt for him.
She couldn’t ask for more.
Soon, the Big Day—Valentine’s Day—has come. As soon as the bell rang indicating the end of school, Julie ran towards the school backyard and waited for Chad. Pow-Pow followed suite.
“So this is where you guys are gonna meet,” Pow-Pow commented. “Hmm, secluded enough.”
“But he’s not here yet,” Julie replied worriedly.
“Don’t you fret. I’m sure everything’s under control. Here, I’ve got your chocolates.”
“Thanks, Pow-Pow! I almost forgot about them!” Julie said thankfully.
“You’ll pull through, Julie. Be strong. You’re left with the confession now. Don’t give up,” Pow-Pow said, giving encouragement to his mistress. Julie was touched at his gesture.
“Don’t worry, Pow-Pow, I’ll win this battle if this is the last thing I’ll do!”
“He’s here,” Pow-Pow said as he pointed at Chad who was standing outside the bush she was hiding, looking around as if seeing if she was there. She was there alright. This was her real chance. She was ready.
As she popped out of her hiding place and was about to call out his name, she was drowned out by the high-pitched squeals of the girls. It seems like they have been looking for him for a long time as they were so excited to see him. They brandished their box of chocolates at him, hoping that he would take it. Julie couldn’t believe they had a head-start on things faster than she thought. But she had to give him her share of chocolates. Taking a deep breath, she braved herself to squeeze past the girls.
“Excuse me, please, excuse me, I wanna give my chocolates to Senior Chad…” Julie struggled to squeeze through, which, of course, annoyed the other girls.
“Get out of here, you loser! Can’t you see we’re busy?”
As usual, she was pushed out of the crowd a few feet away from them. She didn’t think that they could be so strong. She looked up and saw that the Chad that she loved didn’t see her. He was practically surrounded by the girls that he couldn’t even notice her. Her heart began to ache at the thought that she had failed yet again.
‘Why? Why must this happen to me? He’s so near, yet so far. I’ve tried and I’ve tried to go near him, but I just couldn’t…I just couldn’t!!’
Heartbroken, she ran away from the scene with the box of chocolates still in her hands. She didn’t hear Pow-Pow calling after her. All she knew was that she had to get out of there before she dies with a broken heart there and then. The words kept ringing in her head as she ran, ‘I can’t do it! He’s just some faraway star that I can never reach no matter what! I can never confess to him! Never!’
She only stopped running when she was somewhere in the old janitor’s closet. As she sat there musing and wallowing in self-pity, the feeling of being hit by a bullet train came again. Her whole body glowed and she felt herself shrinking and changing. When Pow-Pow finally found her, she actually turned into a Persian white cat!
“What have you become?! This is so not you!!” Pow-Pow exclaimed, horrified at her transformation.
“Pow-Pow~!” Julie bawled. “I don’t know what happened! I just felt a blinding flash engulfing me and when I opened my eyes, I’ve become this! It’s not even sundown yet!”
“I guess it’s because you suppressed the urge of confessing too much that it has fast-forwarded the process. You were almost there! Why didn’t you carry on?!”
“I…I don’t know…I guess I panicked…” Julie replied sadly. “I guess I’ll have to forget about Chad…since I’ve become a cat…”
Pow-Pow scowled and said, “Is that so? Is that what you want? Are you willing to even forget human speech and all the human memories you have on this earth and really assimilate yourself into a real cat? Is that what you want?”
Julie was shocked. To forget the ability of human speech and forget about everything that is human? Even forget her feelings towards Chad, the boy that she had a crush on for so long? She didn’t want that to happen! She certainly didn’t want that to happen ever!
Seeing that his ex-mistress didn’t reply, he sighed and said, “Oh well, I guess your feelings for Chad is only until this level. Don’t worry. The memories will just slip away like sand; you won’t feel a thing.”
Julie scowled at Pow-Pow. She knew about cats being unconcerned and all but she didn’t expect Pow-Pow, her great listener and great friend act so cold like this. She grabbed the box of chocolates and exclaimed, “I said that I will win this battle if it is the last thing I do, and I will do as I have claimed!”
Dragging the box with her mouth, she walked as quickly as she could to the school backyard before it was too late. Before her memories slipped away, all she wanted was to let Chad know how she felt for him. She had to. Soon she saw Chad standing there, the girls all gone and him all alone, looking around and muttering to himself, “Where did she go? I thought she was here somewhere…”
Julie pawed at his ankle to get his attention. Chad saw her and picked her, saying, “Hey there, little kitty. What is it you want from me?”
Julie tried to talk but only a series of mews escaped her lips. She tried hard anyway, saying, “Senior Chad, please. It’s me, Julie Lattimer! Don’t you recognize me? I’m Julie!”
Chad chuckled silently and said, “Weird. You really look like that Julie girl.”
Julie was glad. He had somehow recognized her. She shoved the box of chocolate to his chest and tried saying in her mews, “This is how I feel for you, Senior Chad. Although I’ve turned into a cat, I have always liked you!”
Chad stared back at her, as if trying to comprehend what she was saying. Somehow, he kind of understood. Julie pawed at the box of chocolate on his chest and mewed some more. Chad noticed and asked, “Is this for me?”
Julie nodded. Chad smiled and picked her up slowly towards his face and kissed her, whispering, “Thank you, kitty.”
Julie was touched and overwhelmed. Seeing Chad accepting her chocolates was one thing but receiving a kiss from him was another thing. She didn’t expect this to happen although she always hoped that it would. It was like a dream come true. She felt her body going warmer and warmer. The transformation was complete. Well, at least she would become a contented cat and have Pow-Pow for company…
When her eyes came into focus, she found herself in human form with her lips touching Chad’s. It took the both of them a full 30 seconds to register what was going on. They both let out a shocked yell and let go of each other. Chad widened his eyes in disbelief. Julie checked her head and her butt and she was glad to find out that her ears have turned back to normal, her human speech was back and her tail was gone! She had become human again! Somehow it seem like a scene from The Frog Prince.
The box of chocolates was back in her hand. This time she was going to use her own human words to tell him how she felt for him. With a red face, she held out the chocolates to him and said out loud, “I’ve…made these Valentine’s Day chocolates just for you. To tell the truth…I have always liked you. I have a crush on you and I’ve…I’ve been waiting all my life for this moment. I…I like you…a lot…”
Julie suddenly found her shoes very interesting. She didn’t dare to look up at Chad. It was overwhelming enough to finally let it all out. Slowly, she felt the box of chocolates leaving her hand. She looked up and saw Chad holding it with a smile on his face.
“I just came back from rejecting all the chocolates given to me…’coz I only wanna receive Valentine’s Day chocolates from you.”
Julie gaped. Her courage has finally paid off. Finally she had released everything that was in her heart and she got a positive response from her dream prince. Pow-Pow was right all along—if she just stood on her own two feet, she would definitely make it. She made a mental note to thank her cat properly as soon as she went home.
“Err…Mind if I ask…What just happened back there…I mean, the cat and all…?”
Looks like there’s gonna be a lot of explaining to do for her.
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