Growlkitty: The Girl With Claws

Chapter Nineteen: Really?

I awoke to someone shaking me. Blinking, I yawned. Argus was standing beside the bed, his hand on my shoulder.

"Hey... Frank said to check your temperature again, make sure it hasn't gone up. Also, we leave in an hour, I thought you might want to have some time to get packed." Argus said, handing me the thermometer. I stuck it in my mouth.

"And uh... I wanted remind you, that we're taking a flight to get to Japan. I don't know if you remember what happened last time you were on a plane, but maybe you would like to consider taking something to keep you calm?" Argus suggested, placing something in my hand. A plastic bottle. I turned it over to read the label. It was a sedative pill.

"Completely up to you, of course." Argus added. The thermometer beeped, and he took it, "Your fever gone."

"Oh, good. And thanks for the thought, but I think I'll be ok." I replied, handing them back.

"Well, I'll bring them with us just in case." Argus stated, "dinner will be ready in a little bit." He added as he left the room.

I got up, stretching. The area around the cut on my thigh felt tight from the stitches, and sort of sore, although I could tell the pain killer was helping to take some of the edge off.

My bag was already packed from my escape attempt earlier, so I decided to get a quick shower. Max followed me into the bathroom, and we both froze when I noticed someone else was in there.

"Ah! Sorry!" I said, backing out of the room.

"I'm just putting on makeup, don't worry about it! You can come in if you'd like." Kate's voice called back. I was confused as to why Kate was in my bathroom, so I stepped inside.

That's when I noticed the door on the other side of the bathroom. We must have been sharing it the whole time, and I never noticed.

"Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I cleaned up the foundation you spilled. And girl, that color is way too dark for you!" Kate laughed, but I stared back, unsure what she was talking about.

That's when I realized what she meant. The blood from my cut must have dried on the counter, turning brown.

"Oh, that wasn't foundation!" I blurted out without thinking about it.

"Hmm? What was it?" Kate asked.

I decide that she'd probably be weirded out if she thought it was blood. "Max was playing in the mud so I washed his paws in the sink." I decided that story sounds better than the actual one.

"You lifted that dog..." she stopped to look over at the Newfoundland, "onto the counter to wash him in the sink, when there's a perfectly good bathtub right there?" She questioned, looking back and forth between Max and I.

"Um, yeah." I said.

"Wow." She replied, going back to doing her makeup. I figured I probably wouldn't have time to get a shower now, so Max and I left the room to get dinner.

In the dining room, Ollie sat beside Argus, the two of them eating tacos. "They're in the kitchen. Help yourself." Argus said.

I fed Max his dinner, and then hurried to make a taco for myself. Joining them in the dining room, I sat down across from Argus and Ollie.

"When do we leave?" Ollie asked, in between bites of food.

"In about 30 minutes or so." Argus responded.