My Life as a Teenage Neko

Chapter 3: Achoo!!!

Chapter 3: Achoo!!!

            My heart skipped a beat, when I heard my mom. I couldn’t go down to her as a human-cat hybrid. What if her allergies were triggered? I turned to Kyubei with a worried look. “What am I supposed to do?” I asked, nervously. “My mom has allergies. If I get to close she’ll start sneezing like crazy.

            Kyubei pondered this for a moment. “I was unaware of this fact. In all honesty you weren’t supposed to become a neko at all. My original intention was to cast a spell that would allow you to communicate with cats. I must have gotten the spell wrong.”

            “What am I supposed to do?”           

            “While I can’t return to my own world, I do have a few books that may hold the answer. If I look into it I may find a reversal spell.”

            “Do it quickly!” As I said this, one of my new ears twitched at a sudden sound. I listened and discovered it was the sound of footsteps on the stairs. My mom was coming up! I had to do something, and fast. I grabbed Kyubei and stuffed him under my bed, despite his protests, and along with the dishes from the previous night. I told him to be quite and then jumped into bed, pulling the covers over my head.

            My mom opened the door and poked her head into the room. “Are you still asleep at this hour? Come on get up. Breakfast is…” Her voice stopped and I could hear her breath in right before she sneezed loudly. Crap! She groaned and muttered to herself that she must be catching a cold. “Just get up, honey. I’ll be down stairs.” She closed the door, but not before sneezing again.

            I pulled on the covers and dragged Kyubei from under the bed. “We need to think of something quickly!”

            “My suggestion to you is to cover your new features and go down to breakfast, unless you want your mother coming back up here. While you do that, I stay here and read over my books.” He stood and jumped back on my bed. His eyes then glowed a magnificent purple and, suddenly, a pile of books appeared next to him from out of thin air. I was about to ask him what had just happened, but he looked at me and just shook his head. I simply shrugged my shoulders; this cat couldn’t surprise me more than he already had. I ran over to my closet and found a hat to cover my ears. I then looked at my tail, thinking what I should do with it. Thinking of nothing better to do, I stuck it down the pants leg of my sweats. Looking at myself in the mirror, I saw everything was hidden, except for my claws, but I could file those down later.       

            I walked of my bedroom, closing the door behind me, and made my way down stairs to the kitchen. My mom was sitting at the island, stirring a spoon in a cup of coffee. I held my breath and walked into the room, moving to grab a plate of food. When I walked into the room, my mother broke out into a sneezing frenzy. I tried to play it off. “Bless you. Are you feeling alright, mom?” I asked trying to keep my cool.

            I sat down at the island and tried to eat my breakfast in s normal fashion. My mom was sitting next to me still sniffling. I had inherited my strawberry blond hair from her. Though, where my only went to my shoulders, hers went halfway down her back, perfectly straight. She had kind, motherly blue eyes, which now looked irritated and filled with tears. Her skin was pale like my mine and was completely smooth, except for a beauty mark on her left cheek. She was already dressed and made up for the day. She had always been an early riser, getting up at dawn on the weekends to go jogging.

            She looked at me oddly when I first came down, that is in between sneezes. At first I was nervous that she had found something out, but then realized that wearing a hat to breakfast would seem odd. I smiled at her and kept eating.

            “I don’t know. Achoo. I can’t seem to stop sneezing. Achoo. You haven’t brought home any cats, have you?” I chocked on the piece of baking I was chewing and stared coughing.

            ‘Of course not, mom, I know about you allergies.” I tried to sound convincing, but my mom gave me one of her looks that said she didn’t fully believe me.

            “Well, if it wasn’t you, then I guess I’m coming down with something.” I signed inside my head; I was safe for now. I didn’t like hiding this from my mother, but I felt I had to until I understood what was going on better.

 I walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a glass. I then walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out the gallon of milk. I poured myself a glass and drank it down in one swig. I then poured another glass and brought it back to my seat. When I sat down, I realized my mom was looking at me strangely again. “Since when do you drink milk?” asked my mom in disbelief. She wasn’t wrong to be skeptical. I had never been a fan of milk and would avoid it whenever possible. This must have been one of the side effects Kyubei mentioned.

            “I don’t know. I just acquired a taste for it.”

            “You are acting so strange this morning. Achoo. Are you still not feeling well?

            “N… Actually, I do still feel a bit sick. I think I’m going to my room to lie down.” Taking the first opportunity to get out of that situation, I ran up to my room to the oddest sight I have seen, despite all that had happened. Sitting on my bed was a cat reading a book, using his paws to flip the pages. However, the strangest fact was that, on his face, he was wearing a pair of black, square framed reading glasses. It was a seen right out of a Hallmark greeting card and it was so cute! It took me a moment to remember where I was and what was going on around me. “Have you found anything yet?” I asked, crossing my fingers.

            The cat looked at me and shook his head. “No, but I think I have something here to solve another problem.”