AAOOOSC!: Gulls' Adventures!
"Cat Café"
“Crammer, we’re back!” Matt calls out as he ambles into the foyer.
It is after practice and Matt and Nick have arrived at the Monarossabergie House. The house is awfully silent, having a suspicious expression cross Matt’s face.
He turns to Nick. “Do you think it’s too silent in here?”
Nick sighs. “As long as there’s food here, I’m fine.” He then stumps past the goalie and disappears into the living room.
Matt frowns at Nick’s direction, then whirls his head around to take in his surroundings of the small foyer, part of the living room to his left, and the hallway to his right. “Crammer! Crammer?”
The door behind him is then heard being thrown open and slammed close.
“What?” Joseph is heard hissing from behind Matt.
Matt happily turns around on his heels to face Joseph. “Crammer! There you are! We’re back!”
Joseph stares hard at him with lowered eyebrows and pursed lips. “Good,” is all he replied.
Matt peeks around the skater. He then asks, “So, where’s Ryan and Monty?”
Joseph’s jaw tightens.
Matt eyes him with raised eyebrows. “Crammer..?”
“So they ran away--!” Joseph then storms past Matt with crossed arms, heading into the hallway.
Matt follows him with his eyes as he begins to gawk. “You lost them?”
Joseph whirls on his heels to face the goalie. “I never lost them, they just disappeared!”
“So why are they--?”
“They just ran away!” he cuts in harshly. “They ran away from me!”
Matt steps back with wide eyes and knitted eyebrows; his expression clearly shows that he is battling to hide his tears. “Well...then, um… We go look for them then...”
“I looked for them EVERYWHERE,” Joseph growls, pointing to the floor. He then begins to count off all the places he searched in with his fingers. “I looked in the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, the foyer, the hallway, the bathroom, the--”
“AAAHHH--!”
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"
The two immediately straighten up stiffly with fright after hearing those screams. Then they make eye contact with each other with massive eyes.
“That sounds like Ryan and--”
“--Monty!” Joseph then sprints across the foyer and past Matt, .
Matt immediately rushes after him.
They burst into the living room and down to the right side of the dining room, where the opening of the patio is situated. Joseph throws the sliding glass door open and bursts out into the side yard, which is more like their backyard.
Among them on the other side of the vast, grassy area are they ones they have been looking for in the form they wanted them in: Brandon and Ryan back to their regular selves. Yet they are not in a situation one would want to be in: They are covered from head to toe with thick, brown mud sitting on a flower bed. All Joseph and Matt can see are their massive eyes and their muddy form.
“Why are we covered with mud?” Brandon cries out.
Joseph eyes Matt with a distasteful expression. “Cats.”
The four Gulls are now seated in the living room: Matt and Ryan on their own reclining chairs with Brandon and Joseph sitting on the sofa that is facing the kitchen. There in the kitchen is Nick enjoying his pre-nap snack.
“So we turned into cats?” Brandon asks the two with a grimace.
“Yeah.” Joseph shrugs. “Didn’t know that?”
He shakes his head slowly with big eyes.
“All I remember is walking down the hallway to get ready to leave last night when I found a paper bag laying in the hallway,” Ryan explains. “After that, don’t ask me what happened next.”
“You turned into a brown, cute cat,” Matt tells him sweetly, positioning his hands like as if the cat is in between the palms of his hands.
Ryan stares ahead in an uncomfortable daze.
“But how did we end up all muddy in the flower bed?” Brandon holding his hands out from his sides.
Joseph frowns at him. “I don’t know, you guys were cats and ran away from me.”
He runs his hands up his face and into his hair as he places his elbows on his thighs. “I feel so humiliated…”
Ryan turns to Matt with an uncertain look. “Does...anyone else know about us as cats?”
“Nope!” Matt shakes his head proudly. “Just Crammer, Ritch, and I!”
“Good.” He nods his head.
Brandon lets out a massive sigh of relief as leans back and slumps down. “Alright, at least we’re safe…” He then pushes himself up to a sitting position. “But the question is, HOW did we turn into cats?”
Matt turns to him. “Like what I told Crammer yesterday,” he starts, “once you touched the paper bag, you turned into a cat!”
“And I touched the paper bag,” Ryan adds in.
“So with that, it has to be the paper bag!” Matt concludes excitedly.
Brandon throws his index finger in the air. “Okay, so we HAVE to get rid of that.”
“Yes!” Matt nods his head.
“Now, the next question is HOW we turned back to normal,” Brandon continues on
With that, all heads turn to Joseph.
“Crammer?” Matt asks. “You were with them last, what do you think?”
Joseph casts his eyes down with a slight frown as he thinks. “I didn’t see them turn back to normal.”
“But when you saw them before…?”
Joseph lifts his head up with a fed-up expression. “Okay, you wanna know what happened? Here’s what happened--” He points to Brandon, then Ryan. “--these two as cats went outside, got all muddy, then came back in with dirt and got into my chocolate so I shooed them away and they ran off.” He reverts his finger to Matt. “Then you came.”
“Hmmm…” The other three begin mulling over what could break the “cat curse.”
“The mud?” Brandon asks with a hand out.
Joseph turns to him. “Can’t be-- you guys went into the mud hours ago and nothing happened.”
“So the chocolate?” Ryan questions with a shrug.
“First time I saw you guys eat my chocolates as cats.” Joseph leans against the cushions of the sofa with crossed arms. “I’d say it’s my chocolates.”
“Whoa,” Brandon breathes out.
The three turn to him.
Brandon is sitting still on the edge of the sofa, staring ahead in a daze as some type of realization dawns on him. “Something made us turn into something...something made us turn back to normal…” He lifts his eyes up at his teammates. “That reminds me of the nightmare Joey and I had.”
Joseph narrows his eyes at him. “Icemare?”
Matt’s eyes fly open. “I had a nightmare about Icemare!”
“I did too-- It was creepy,” Ryan points with fright.
“I think it’s not a nightmare though,” Brandon continues on. “I mean, we all had the same experience AND what Icemare told us is happening right now, so it was something that actually happened.”
Now it is the other three’s turn to become surprised about the connection.
“So whenever something weird happens,” Ryan begins, “it’s because of Icemare?”
“And if it’s from Icemare, then there has to be a cure!” Matt adds on.
Brandon nods his head. “Yup. That’s right. At least from what he told us.” He blinks as he frowns at the ground. “This is so weird.”
“Whoever this Icemare dude is, I’ll take him down in a heartbeat,” Joseph growls as he looks ahead with the death stare.
“If we even know who--or where--Icemare is!” Brandon blurts out.
“Well, we can’t miss him with that outfit of his, though,” Ryan points out with a chuckle.
Matt smiles at him. “That’s right!”
“So with that aside,” Brandon begins, “chocolates are the cure for whenever someone turns into a cat.”
“Let’s just get rid of paper bag so that I don’t have to deal with cats,” Joseph mutters with his hand clutched against the armrest of the sofa.
Brandon turns his head to face him. His eyes are lit up. “That’s a great idea, Joey!”
He shrugs nonchalantly. “Of course it is.”
“You’ll get it, Crammer?” Ryan asks with a small smirk.
“Yeah.” He then gets up and steps out of the living room.
He ambles through the foyer and to the hallway, where the paper bag is still laying on the wooden, polished floor, untouch.
He then leans over, snatches the paper bag, and straightens up with his eyes glued on it. Instantly, he senses a mystifying, frizzy sensation winding through him. “Oh no…,” he murmurs softly with disappointment. And with that, he disappears in a white spark.
Brandon peers ahead from where he is sitting at, through the foyer and into the hallway. “Joey?” His eyes then drift down and back toward him as his facial expression grows more horrified.
A black cat with mint green eyes quickly hops into view and on top of Brandon’s lap. It lets out a meow before laying down and curling up on his lap.
Brandon slowly lifts his eyes from Joseph the cat to the goalies. “Um, guys?”
Ryan waves his hand at him. “Leave him like that. Don’t have to listen to his grumbling and sarcastic remarks.”
“And he’s cute!” Matt slips out from the reclining chair and sits next to Brandon. He gazes at the cat. “Look at those eyes....!”
Ryan joins the two by settling on the other side of Brandon. “Looks like Zeppelin except without her white spots! What a cutie.” He then begins to finger the new, black cat by his ears.
“Sorry, Joey,” Brandon whispers as he runs his hands down his back.
The cat replies with his motor running and eyes as slits.
Then those same, wretched riffs come out again: ERRRR!!! ERRRR!!! ERRR-ERRR-ERRRRR!!!
Joseph the cat immediately shoots up to his four paws. Luckily, Brandon has his hand on his back with good strength, preventing him from blasting into the ceiling.
Ryan immediately stuffs his hand from the cat to his jeans’ pocket. He then pulls out his buzzing phone. “Oh, it’s Kristen! I’ll go now, guys.” He gets up and nods to them. “See ya all later. Give Joey a good back rub.” He chuckles at the last sentence he said.
“Bye-bye, Ryan!” Matt waves to him like a little child.
“Bye, Fedz.” Brandon returns his nod.
Then Ryan exits the house, leaving Brandon and Matt to decide when they will bring back the human, sardonic Joseph.
The End.
MAXI FRIBERGGGG
3/9/18