Upside Down

(2) But Your Not A Girl

Chapter 2

Em : Boy :: Kriss : Girl

"Em, Em, Em," Kriss repeated ... again, and again, and again. It was actually starting to sound like the mewing of a kitten like 'Meow, meow, meow'.

"Sounds like a girl's name, are you a girl? You don't look like a girl. Girls don't have fuzzy faces. Not usually. Do you know any girls with fuzzy faces? Do they brush their fuzzy faces? Do you brush your fuzzy face? Can I get a fuzzy face? Will I be able to ... un-fuzz it? I don't want my face to be fuzzy all the time but it would be fun to have a fuzzy face once in a while. Can you un-fuzz your face? Does everyone have fuzzy faces? Do they un-fuzz their faces?"

I groaned, hitting my head on the dashboard. She just wouldn't shut up! Couldn't she realize we would kidnap her? Yet there she was, setting her chin on the back of my seat and starring transfixed at the passing scenery as if she's never seen trees before. Grant, on the other hand, found it all hilarious and chuckled everytime she called me "Em".

I detested the name "Em".

The ride back home was pure hell with Kriss in the back seat talking a storm the whole drive and Grant seemed to enjoy it, talking with the prisoner as if it was normal.

Then we got home.

It wasn't really home as in like where I eat and sleep and junk. It was the pack house. No one lived at the pack house, it was more like the City Hall of the pack where all pack business was done including finacing, our Deltas (which are like congress debating new rules within the pack), and most importantly, where we kept the criminals. Though we hadn't had any prisoners in a while if you don't include Jerry, the damn drunkard who got drunk every pack picnic and started some fight with Henry Kreek because Jerry seemed to have issues with personal space and couldn't give Mrs. Kreek enough of it.

Yeah, our pack picnics were quiet eventful.

But I'm not sure if any were as strange as Kriss when we pulled up to the pack house. I had got out of our van we had taken and went to her side to pull her out when I realized how concentrated she was starring at the pack house. She had this silent look to her face like a wowed or awed expression.

Well, it was strange but at least she was silent.

Something strange I noticed about Kriss was the way she had acted. She was a small girl, about five foot something which didn't even reach my chin and her face looked really young but not five year old young which was the way she was acting. Why was she acting like a little kid all jumped up on sugar? Sure she looked young, around fifteen maybe, but not that young.

"What is this place?" Kriss asked.

"It's the pack house." Grant answered for her as we make it up the stairs to the old log cabin looking house. "You'll be staying here for a while."

Kriss didn't seem the least bit upset even as we opened the door and I pushed her in, "Yay!"

"Yay!" Grant repeated. "We have to go see someone first then we'll show you your room."

"Yay!" She repeated, skipping away.

Kriss's smile was large especially on her petite face as I lead her to the Office. This is the part I hated most because I knew he would be disappointed.

My Dad and I had a ... complicated relationship to say the least. It confused the heck out of me. Now, don't take me wrong, my dad is a great guy with a good sense of humor even if he got a little bit too serious at times. And we have really good moments together like going fishing or hiking through the woods some days but when it came to pack business it was a completely different story.

Nothing I did seem to satisfy him like I was a failure to take over the family business. I mean, our pack had a sort of democrocy system to vote for our leaders but they were mostly from the same family anyway but our family was always filled with great people give or take a few people. And if I didn't live up to those names ... I was deemed a failure in my father's eyes.

We had gone to the Rufus's home to capture Xavier, to first interrogate what he knows then hold him for ransom, show those felines who really are in charge. Felines were always useless, relying on their dulled claws and stupid things like politics. But over the years since we haven't attack they've grown even more ... lazy.

My father once explained it in an analogy. Wolves as Sparta (this is Sparta!) and cats as Athens, wolves are taught to fight since they can walk whereas cats just focus on luxury of their homes and gossips.

"You okay?" Grant asked me, probably seeing my face. I nodded as he knocked the door or my father's office.

"What? Who is it?" I heard my father's voice boom from the office.

"It's me," I answered, "and Grant."

"Oh, come on in."

I took the knob in my hand, feeling my palms sweat. Then turned, swinging it open to see both my dad and his Beta talking. When we walked in I could see both of their eyebrows arch at the sight of the girl beside me, clutching my hand. "We had some ... complications." I forced out finally. Kriss let go of my hand as both Grant and I sat down.

"I see." Dad said in his 'all-knowing' tone that drove me nuts, mumbling something about how a seventeen year old boy should be able to success in one mission. "What happened?"

"They weren't home," I said simply. "No one was. We searched the whole house and no sign of anyone except the girl."

"And who is the girl?" Zach, Dad's Beta, questioned.

"She said she was a daughter of the Rufus family," Grant answered. "And we figured either she didn't know what she was talking about or she's very precious to the family and they somehow managed to keep her existence secret from us."

"Do you think she's telling the truth?" My father asked. "Let me talk to her. Call her over."

"Kriss-" I turned to see Kriss standing by my father's aquarium, memorized. "Kriss?" I stood, walking to the girl. My father's fish tank was large to say the least, having around a hundred fish in all kind of species and colors, their scales shinning.

"Fish," Kriss's eyes were wide, starring openly at all the multi-colored fish in surprise.

"Yeah," I said sarcastically, "Fish."

"Fish," She pointed as if I didn't get it the first time, adding some limb flalling and jumping. "Lots of fish! Fish!"

"Yeah, we've figured that out." I groan internally. Why is she acting stupid? Is she retarded?

Then it hit me.

That would make sense. The Rufus's were high on the social ladder, as I've said before but having a mentally retarded kid would risk them falling into a lower class seeing as cats found any disability disgusting. The Rufus's never really cared about wolves or their family's safety. They were far too greedy just like every cat, too involved in their own royalty to even try to care about those around them. So, when they figured they'd be downgraded because of their daughter, they hid Kriss faster and more efficiently than they would have if everyone was out to kill her.

Letting Kriss's arm go, I sat back down and told my revelation to my father.