The Cat's Meow by Madeline H.

The Cat's Meow

It was late afternoon and the sun was starting to set. Someone was breaking into a shrine. They masterfully opened the side window and slipped in as if they had done it a million times before. Slowly she crept to her destination. It was just in reach. She took hold of the handle. Then she pulled it open.

"Kagome, what are you doing?" Souta asked. Kagome jumped from being startled and dropped the leftovers she had been trying to sneak out of the fridge. She looked forlornly at the food now splattered on the ground and turned to her brother.

"I was hungry…" Kagome muttered as she went over to the counter to grab some paper towels to clean up the mess she had made. Her brother snorted and walked around her as he took a soda out of the fridge.

"You can't keep sneaking in her. Mom will catch you at some point. Wasn't the whole point of getting your own apartment so you could rely on your own independence?" Souta asked. Kagome lifted her head from her crouched position to glare at her brother.

"Yes. However, right now I don't have enough time to pay for the apartment and pay for food," Kagome answered while throwing away the paper towels. Souta walked over to the kitchen table and picked up the newspaper from it.

"If money is such a problem, then why not get a job?" Souta asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kagome grabbed a banana from the fridge and went to go sit at the kitchen table. She took a few bites of the delectable fruit, before turning her attention back to her brother.

She sighed, brushing a hand through her ebony hair. If only it were that easy. She was twenty-one years old and currently in junior college. She wasn't even sure she had enough time to get a job. The job would have to have exceptional hours and a good pay. Otherwise she was not going to waste her time doing it.

Souta seemed to be debating something in his head. Giving a sigh of his own, he opened the newspaper to a certain page. With one flick he sent the paper over towards Kagome. The older girl looked over at him and then back down at the paper.

"I was planning on getting a job myself, but obviously you need one much more than I do. The one circled is the job I was thinking of getting. It's easy and I heard that you can even get tips," Souta said.

Kagome picked up the paper and looked over it. She spotted the circled job and her eyes widened. She blinked gazed up at her brother, gave a face of "WTF?" Then she gazed back down. Thus the process went on for a minute or two.

"Cat-walking? I wouldn't think there was such a thing. I know about dog-walking, but Cat-walking? Do Cats even walk? Er...I mean…GAH! You know what I meant!" Kagome said as blush went on her cheeks from embarrassment.

Souta laughed at his sister's comment. Now he had the privilege to hold this over his sister's head to the right moment. However, now he was actually willing to help his older sister. He fished a piece of note-book paper out his pocket and handed it to his sister.

"I know it sounds kind of weird, but I looked into it. I called the lady he runs it. She explained it's sort of like cat-walking and cat-sitting job. She told me that she even gets some prominent customers sometimes, where the tips come in. That paper has all the information you need for an interview. Where to go and stuff," Souta explained.

Kagome stared at the crumpled piece of paper. She figured it was worth a shot. Plus it sounded really really easy. Cats really didn't do anything. She thought about Buyo, who was right here at her mother's house. He barely did anything. This would be a piece of cake.

'Thanks Souta, this really is helpful of you," Kagome said smiling as she stuffed the note-book paper with information into her pocket. Souta nodded his head. Suddenly he was crushed into a hug by the older girl.

"Okay! OKAY! Let go of me. You're welcome. Now leave before mom catches you here…" Souta said as he pushed off his sister. Kagome smiled and giggled to herself as she made her way out the back door.

………………….

The Next Day…

Kagome headed out of her apartment around 11 o'clock in the morning. She didn't have classes today, so she thought she should get an interview at the cat-walking place. She sniffled her nose as she crossed the street.

Conveniently, the main office of the business was only a few blocks away from the apartment complex. This made it to where Kagome didn't have to use the sub-way, which would help her save money for food. Glorious food…

Kagome licked her lips subconsciously. She was so hungry. She really hoped she got this job. Then again, she didn't think being a cat-walker took that much effort. Her feet started pounding harder on the side-walk.

Soon enough, she found herself outside the cat-walking place. In big bubbly pink letters were the words "The Cat's Meow", and beside that was a picture of a little smiling kitty. Kagome thought it was kind of cute. It was fairly small building all and all. Kagome headed on inside.

Her nose scrunched up upon entering. It sure smelt like a cat if anything else. Kagome continued in and took in her surroundings. There actually appeared to be a few cats playing around inside. There were plastic chairs lined against the walls, one was currently occupied. In the very far back corner was what looked to be a receptionist's desk.

Kagome made her way to the back desk. She avoided stepping on any cats as she made her trek there. Kagome finally stopped in front of the desk and looked up to meet the not so cheery receptionist. The receptionist was currently chewing on a piece of gum and playing around with her short black hair. Her name tag read "Yura" in the same bubbly type letters that were on the front sign.

"Um…Hello?" Kagome tried. The other girl looked over and glared at her. The smacking of her gum grew louder. She swiftly crossed her hands over her t-shirt, which had a large red skull on it. Turning her head she spit the gum out and into the trash can.

"What do you want?" Yura barked. Kagome's eyes narrowed, but she did not retaliate. It would do her no good to get mad at this girl. Then there might be the chance she wouldn't get this job. She took a deep breath.

"I would like to get an interview for a job," Kagome said putting on a fake smile. Yura blinked and then went to the side and started shuffling through some papers. She picked some of the papers out and slammed on the desk.

"Here are the papers you need to fill. Go over and sit by that other guy till we call you when we're ready," Yura said in an irritated tone. Then she shooed Kagome away and took out another piece of gum to chew on.

Kagome took up the papers and headed to one of the empty chairs by the wall. She sat next to the other person in the room and started looking over the papers. The papers asked simple questions and some personality ones.

Kagome tried her best to focus on the questions, but the person beside her was very distracting. He had spikyish black hair and deep brown eyes. He was pretty handsome, but that wasn't the distracting part. The distracting thing was that he was scratching himself uncontrollably.

Sometimes he would stop and look calm, but then his face would twitch and the scratching would begin again. He mostly tried scratching through his clothes. At times he would even pull at his shirt, but then release it and twiddle his fingers. Kagome noticed he wasn't wearing shoes.

"Are you allergic to cats?" Kagome finally asked out of curiosity. This was going to bother her all day if she didn't find this out soon. The poor guy looked like he was suffering. She really just wanted to know.

"Itchy…" he mumbled under his breath, before he turned his head to look at Kagome, "No actually, I'm a practicing nudist. I'm not used to wearing clothes for long periods of time. It's so itchy…"

Kagome blinked. Normally she would've taken that comment as a sarcastic joke, but the scary thing about this guy was that he seemed serious. Especially when he looked like he couldn't take it anymore and he ripped his shirt off. Then he went to work on his pants. Yura called for next in line. Kagome bolted.

"Me! That's me! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD THAT'S ME!" Kagome screamed as she ran passed Yura and into the back room. Yura quirked a brow at the strange actions and turned back to the room. Her eyes widened in horror.

All Kagome heard was a scream as the door behind her closed. She didn't feel like looking back to find out what made the other girl scream. She had a pretty good idea as to what made the other girl scream.

Kagome faced forward and her eyes fell to the kindly looking old woman sitting at the desk. She smiled up at Kagome and gestured to the seat in front of her. Kagome smiled back for real this time and went over to sit down.

Once she was situated in the seat, Kagome handed over the forms she had filled out in the lobby-like room. The old woman took them and began looking them over. The room was mostly quiet, except for the occasional yowl of the cats in the other room.

Kagome tried to entertain herself while she waited for woman to finish looking over the resume type thing. She took note of the little name plaque on the table. It had nice neat letters printed on it that read "Ms. Kaede". Kagome tapped her feet on the ground. Finally the older woman looked up and smiled again at Kagome.

"Do you have any experience with working with cats?" Kaede asked sweetly. Kagome took some time to think about it. She technically had no experience with "walking" cats, but she did have experience with cats.

"Yes. I have a cat that used to be mine at my mother's house. He's a chubby little fellow, but he's sweet," Kagome said. Kaede bobbed her and continued shuffling the papers on her desk. Kagome continued to tap her feet.

"What is your reasoning for wanting this job? It says on your paper that you would like to make a bit more money on the side. What will you be using the money for, if you don't mind me asking?" Kaede asked.

"Actually, I'm using the extra to pay for food. Since I don't have enough o pay for my apartment and pay for food," Kagome said honestly. Kaede was taken aback. The poor girl didn't have enough money for food?

Kaede opened a drawer beside her. She dipped her hand into it and pulled a huge folder from it. She flopped it onto the desk. The folder looked gigantic and some various papers were sticking out of it. Kagome's eyes widened. Apparently, it was for the file of only one cat.

"I've already decided you get the job. However, I don't normally give new-comers this sort of job that I am about to give you. Yet, with your current money issues I am willing to make an exception," Kaede said as she flipped the folder open.

"What do you mean by 'this kind of job'?" Kagome asked as she eyed the file closely. The thing was filled with various colored sticky notes, scribbled side notes in a multi-colored variety of pens, and occasional highlighted items.

Kaede sighed as she flicked her fingers through the file looking for something. She must have spotted what she needed, because she picked it out and set it to the side. She then went to the computer beside her and clicked around a bit on the key-board. The printer made the sound of starting up. Kaede turned back to Kagome.

"Well the owner of this client is very picky about certain things, but that's not the only thing with this client. Anyways, the reason I'm giving you this job is because it pays considerably well and the hours are good for a student in college like yourself," Kaede answered.

Kagome smiled. Good pay and good hours? This sounded too good to be true, which is probably because it was. The way Kaede had danced around the question about 'this kind of job' somewhat unnerved Kagome. She needed a bit more information.

"What do you mean by that's not the only thing?" Kagome asked. Kaede looked somewhat uncomfortable. Then she watched as the older woman seemed to contemplate what to say. Kaede brought her hands and folded them on the desk.

"Well, that's not important now. You'll find out when you get there. Now as I was saying. The job pays very well. In fact, the jobs pats 500,000 yen a week," Kaede said as she once again avoided the question. This time however, she was able to detract Kagome onto the other part of the conversation.

"500,000 yen a week? That's amazing! This does sound like a great job. Alright, I'll take it," Kagome said happily. She then went off to her own little world, where she dreamt about all the things she could buy with that kind of money. The best part was that all she had to do was watch a cat.

"Excellent! Here's a picture of your client. Her name is Princess!" Kaede said as she broke Kagome out of her stupor. The older woman picked up the thing on her desk that she had been digging in the file earlier for. It was a picture of a cat.

The cat had large yellow eyes that looked as if they were staring back at Kagome. The black and white cat was lazily lying in a pillow in the picture. Her head was tilted to side and her tiny pink tongue stuck out as she yawned. Her tail was flicked to the side in the picture and showed its little white tip on the end.

"Awwww… She's so cute," Kagome said.

"From a distance…" Kaede muttered under her breath as she fished the papers that had printed out. Kagome lifted her head and looked over at the older woman by the printer. She set the picture down.

"What did you say? I couldn't hear you…" Kagome said. Kaede tensed and looked back. Then she smiled and stood up straight before heading over to the desk. She handed the papers from the printer to Kagome.

"I said this is the information you'll need. It's all printed out there. There's the clients address, her owner's home and cell phone number, and a list of instructions and needs of the cat," Kaede said. Kagome just nodded and smiled as she read over the paper.

"Taisho, Sesshomaru…" Kagome said to herself as she read the owners name aloud. Why did that guy's last name sound so familiar? Kagome sighed. She wouldn't dwell over it for too long. It wasn't really that important.

"You start at 2:30 pm on Monday," Kaede said. Kagome nodded again and stood up from her chair. Her job started at the beginning of this week. She was so excited. This would be a piece of cake. Or so she thought…