The Disaster of an Average, Ordinary Day

Isabella Neman was your average overly-nerdy collage student at USU College. She had a small apartment that she shared with two roommates, wore glasses that made her look slightly goofy, did her best to do all her homework early so she could always pass classes with flying colors and spent more time in the library than anyone else she knew. But none of that was really remarkable. No, it was her pet cat that made Isabella so unique.

Trixie, as the cat was called, looked like your average cat. She had long, white fur with black tips, big blue eyes that were rimmed black, soft rounded ears with black tips and a pretty chain collar that had a little sparkly bell on it. However, despite her ordinary looks, the Trixie was as far from normal as something could be. Trixie was, in fact, not a cat but a powerful shapeshifter by the name of Melody.

Melody Vincent had been forced to pose as Isabella Neman’s pet in order to avoid the dangerous Trovalikior Shapeshifters who were bent on killing her.

She, of course, had told Isabella about her predicament the year before. In the end, Isabella had agreed to help the shapeshifter on the condition that she would behave exactly as a normal cat would unless she was given explicit permission not to, or they were in private. (Isabella was, after all, your average non-magical college student who just wanted to lead a relatively normal life that didn’t involve running from assassins or facing terrifying monster.)

And so that was why Isabella could found early one sunny April morning typing furiously at an essay she was required to write for one of her many classes. Trixie was laying on a nearby windowsill, staring dully at the cars that occasionally puttered past their apartment.

”It’s such a beautiful day outside,” the cat thought ruefully. “I just wish Isabella wasn’t so busy, then she could go for a walk in the park and I could follow her.”

Trixie glanced in Isabella’s direction and the feline version of a smirk appeared on her face. “But maybe all is not lost...” she thought smugly. “If I make her pay attention to me, then she’ll have to take me on a walk.”

And with that, the cat sprung from her perch in the window-sill, landing beside Isabella, who was still sitting at her des, working on her essay. Trixie landed on the desk, scattering books and papers all across the room. Then, before Isabella could react, she grabbed the flashdrive that Isabella had been about to insert into the laptop. Flashdrive dangling from her mouth, Trixie took off across the room.

It took Isabella a split second to figure out what the shapeshifter had done, and when she did, she jumped to her feet, paper and book mess forgotten. “TRIXIE!” she shouted “GET BACK HERE!” And with that, she took off after the feline.

Trixie, meanwhile, had slipped into Kayla’s messy room (Kayla was one of Isabella’s roommates). She carefully wove her way between heaps of dirty laundry, candy wrappers and broken art supplies. It took her a moment to reach the bed, or, more importantly, the pile of junk that was hidden under the bed, but when she did, she carefully deposited the flashdrive in it.

That done, the feline turned and padded out of the room to find Isabella. As it turned out, she didn’t have to wait long. Isabella was standing right outside the door, hands on her hips.

“Trixie! What do you think you’re doing stealing my stuff?!” she demanded crossly.

In response, Trixie merely gave an innocent meow.

Isabella sighed and walked straight to the bed. Dropping down to her hands and knees, she reached under the unmade bed a retrieved her flashdrive. With an exasperated sigh, she returned to pick up the mess her cat had made of her papers. That done, she returned to working on her homework.

But she hadn’t gotten more than a few sentences written when the sharp sound of glass shattering against something hard made her jump to her feet once again. This time, the sight of disaster was the kitchen. Trixie had climbed up onto the counters and was pushing everything on them onto the ground.

“TRIXIE!” she shouted, staring with horror at the mess the cat had made. There was broken glass and spilled food everywhere. Kayla’s glass paint bottles had been broken, so the kitchen was splattered with green, pink, blue, red and yellow. The unpaid bills that had been sitting on the counter were completely and thoroughly soaked with water from her water glass.

Pointedly ignoring her, Trixie continued to shove things off the counter. Salt and pepper shakers joined the mess, shattering. A cloud of pepper puffed up into the air, making Isabella sneeze.

For a moment, she almost felt bad. Then Isabella grabbed her and tossed her harshly off the counter.

With a feline sigh, the cat wandered out, leaving Isabella to clean up the mess she’d made. The cat carefully settled herself back in the windowsill for a nap.

After about thirty minutes later, Isabella stomped back to her laptop, determined to finish her assignment. The noise woke up Trixie, who silently slipped off into the bathroom. It only took a few minutes to turn on all the taps and push enough toilet paper into the toilet to clog it.

Isabella was so focused on her homework that, at first, she didn’t notice the soft gurgling sound that was coming from the bathroom. Truth be told, she probably wouldn’t have noticed at all if it hadn’t been for Trixie.

Having accomplished her wicked deed, Trixie came prancing into the living looking incredibly smug and self-satisfied. But that wouldn’t have made her suspicious. The cat’s snowy-white paws were soaking wet. Now, Isabella knew that, like most cats, Trixie hated getting wet. The cat shapes certainly wasn’t the sort to play in her water dish or go play in the sink....

”Wait a sec,” Isabella thought. And that was when she heard the gurgling water. Shoving the laptop aside again, she rushed to the bathroom. Thankfully nothing was destroyed, but she was delayed another thirty minutes. When she got out of the bathroom, she found Trixie laying on her laptop, swatting lazily at the computer mouse.

Isabella shot the cat a murderous glare. “Do you think that you can do anything you want whenever you want to?! Do you think you can destroy my house at will?! DO YOU THINK THAT I DON‘T CARE?!”

In response, Trixie gave a somewhat guilty meow.

With a huff, Isabella sat back down and picked up her laptop. However, she couldn’t very well type anything with Trixie laying on her keyboard.

“Trixie, off.” she said cooly. But the cat didn’t move an inch.

With a sigh, she shoved the cat off and got to work again. But before she could write anything, Trixie was back on the keyboard, meowing sweetly.

Isabella had had it. The little bit of patience she had left after the cat’s former tricks evaporated. “TRIXIE GET OFF!” she screamed, pushing the cat forcibly.

Now, if you’ve ever had a cat of your own, you know that they don’t appreciate being yelled at and they definitely don’t like being shoved. Despite being a shapeshifter, Trixie felt the exact same way. She let out a furious yowl and clawed viciously at poor Isabella, who really was at the end of her rope.

Thirty minutes and twenty-two scratches later, Isabella gave up on her homework ( which wasn’t even due for a whole week) and Trixie gave up on her walk.

Isabella suddenly stood up. “Trixie, I think we should go for a walk to the ice-cream parlor. It’s not like we have anything better to do.”

At the mention of a walk, Trixie’s ears perked up. She meowed her gratitude and rushed to the door.

And so the pair set off down the sidewalks toward the local ice-cream parlor, both looking incredibly relieved and thankful at the same time. And although neither of them knew it, they’d both learned an important lesson. Putting other first always makes you happy in the long run.

Of course, Isabella learned a lesson all cat owners must learn sooner or later. Your cat has nothing against distracting you to get what it wants.