Chapter Seven: A Sleepover, Sort Of

“Talk about sudden arrangements.” Cedric scratched at his head, seeming a little overwhelmed.
“Spork isn’t very polite, I’m sorry.” I commented. “I’d have given you 5-7 business days of notice.”
I had learned that from TV and the internet.
Me and Cedric had been working on getting the house prepared to home a few more aliens the following day. It had been going fairly well. Honestly I wasn’t sure just what arrangements really needed to be made. Spork would make itself at home and move what it pleased. Hearts I couldn’t imagine was too picky and Tentacles simply didn’t matter.
We had moved some boxes from one room to another. Cedric had actually. I had decided to supervise the endeavor because it was boring and a lot of work. If he thought my units would actually stay in these designated areas though, he had another thing coming. I didn’t comment on the matter for now, he’d learn soon enough how the life of a military cat worked.
By the time we were done rearranging things and moving stuff that Cedric insisted was valuable, it was evening, not Zero Hundred hours evening, but evening none the less. Cedric had worn himself out sufficiently and had flopped down on the sofa while I sat, eating a bowl of assorted crunchy deliciousness.
This was going to be a lot like a sleep over, aside from a few things. Pretend instead of your best buddy, it was the school bully and his annoying little sidekick. That’s the situation I was in. Soon Spork would show up with dumb Love ‘n Hearts. Not only would they sleep over but they wouldn’t leave. I was not looking forward to it at all. In addition to that, I had to stay up late to let them in because they thought it was a better idea to move in the middle of the night even though Spork worked at a school regularly. In the middle of the day around a dozen Earthian kits. Sometimes I really failed to understand the logic of my crew.
I yawned. It was late, really late, and I was excruciatingly tired. Sure I hadn’t actually helped, but supervising is a very strenuous task. I mean if I hadn’t been there watching to make sure Cedric was actually doing what he was claiming to, we could have had all kinds of trouble. He could have been lifting with his back instead of his knees, or he may have stumbled over the treacherous terrain of carpet. Meanwhile I had to worry and fret over this frail and fragile Human.
Perhaps I dozed a time or two—I’m sure it was no more than a few minutes max. So as you could probably assume, I was quite alarmed by awaking to the pounding of the door. Cedric scrambled by, only to trip on his shoes he had left out earlier. He yelped and blamed me for having moved them as he stumbled along.
I scurried from my own temporary nap spot after him, groggy and considerably still half asleep.
“Cedar what’s the problem?”
Your friends or something I think.” He muttered. He didn’t have his glasses on I noted. Probably part of why he was bumping into things. “I thought you were gonna answer it.”
“I don’t have a phone, sir, I’m afraid I’m going to have to postpone lunch.”
“What?”
I wasn’t sure either, and my mouth had lost its ability to continue saying words properly so instead I mewed and whined as I blinked against the sudden harsh light that filled the room. Once my eyes had adjusted, I scurried past Cedric who had bumped into yet something else and finally reached the door.
“Uh, who is it?”
“Who do you think?”
“That’s who I thought.” I yawned and tried to figure out how to make the various locking mechanisms open.
“What’s taking so long?”
“Just…just getting the uh…shields ‘n stuff down. It’ll only be a moment.”
Cedric indicated a lever a bit higher up that controlled the lock. I rotated it and sure enough the door opened. Cedric stepped back, wrapped in a Christmas print blanket. A gust of cold night air swooped in, sending a chill running along the base of my spine. I felt my tail fur flare up and suppressed a sad mew.
There on the other side of the door, stood Spork. It was in a black long sleeve shirt and matching pants. Hearts appeared to be wearing an oversized black and pink jacket on top of its pink scout uniform. Its legs, tail and head were really all that stuck out of it. The same outfit it had been wearing before then.
“Took you long enough,” Spork grumbled.
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
Spork gave me a long look then walked by with Hearts and Tentacles following behind it. Cedric had smartly decided to return to bed it seemed. I had told him that it would probably be best if he made himself scarce when Spork turned up. Spork would adjust to him being around with time, but initially, yeah it was best to give it some space.
“Make yourselves at home ‘n stuff.” I yawned and rubbed at my eyes.
“Lieutenant?”
“Yeah?” I opened one eye and tried to bring Spork into focus. It didn’t work. Its head looked like a distorted gray blimp with fins.
“You didn’t happen to be sleeping while we waited, did you?”
I straightened myself up to my full height, standing proudly in my fish pajamas. “Of course not, Corporal.
“Uh huh.” It handed a few pillows and blankets to Hearts who took them and promptly flopped down right there; a bundle of snoozing kitten.
“It’s freezing out there you know.”
“Of course…it was…” I sort of started drifting to sleep.
Spork snapped its fingers together.
“UH. Training exercise!”
“Oh really?” Spork raised an eyebrow with a skeptical, all judging stare.
I backed up a few steps towards the door. “Yes. It was um…for endurance.”
“Of course….of course. That makes perfect sense.” Spork’s long tail curled beside it as it gazed up at the ceiling. “Always a good idea.”
I nodded and smiled. The strangest thing happened at this point. I went from happily standing there, to being snatched off the floor, transported to the door and promptly booted out—with emphasis on the booted aspect. Like boot to Hindquarters sort of booted out. I ended up on my face.
Once my senses caught up with me I also realized I was quite cold and then I heard the door slam shut. Mew. I turned around, spitting dirt and small pebbles from my mouth. The door was indeed closed. I hurried to get myself up and ran back onto the deck. I tugged at the door. Much as I had feared, it was locked.
“Corporal!!” I meowed and shivered. “It’s cold out here! What is the meaning of this? Open the door!”
No response. Actually the light went off at that point.
“Corporal?” Nothing. “Corporal? Hey. Hey. Hey. Corporal?”
Silence. I huddled up and curled my tail against my side.
“Spork? Come on Spork this isn’t funny!!” I pounded on the door a few times.
There was no answer so I continued pounding away at the door. Eventually my fists got tired so I settled for curling up against the house, shivering and sincerely wishing Spork had never existed.
“Big dumb meanie-face dumb-dumb-face.” I growled through clattering teeth.
I heard a click and my ears instinctively perked up as I looked to my left. The door was open and the light was back on. I could faintly make out a smirk on Spork’s face and found myself scowling.
“Whatever is the matter, Lieutenant? I assumed if we were all endurance training that you would like to as well.”
I was too cold and shivery to think of anything especially stinging to reply with. So I settled for giving it a glare as I walked stiffly back into the house. I could tell this was going to be the start of a very long and unpleasant journey for us.