Beautiful Disaster

Chapter Ten

Ten

Kat followed Rebecca out for dinner. Kat would eat now, she was hungry. After getting their food (beef stew), they went and sat at the same table they had sat at for lunch. Kat scooped out all of the solids from her stew and put them on a separate plate so that she could use her fingers for eating. With her canines and incisors she wasn’t very talented when it came to eating with cutlery.

Though she kept eyes and ears open, there was no sign of Evra at all. Maybe he had lied when he said they would be friends. Kat didn’t think he wanted to be her friend anymore, and that made her feel sick inside.

After dinner the two girls got cleaned up and settled in Rebecca’s tent for the night. Rebecca liked to talk, and Kat was happy listening. Then Kat had a realisation; Evra had said she was to live and learn from the people around her.

“Rebecca,” Kat said, before she could lose her nerve. “Evra said I had to learn things from the people around here.”

“Ok,” Rebecca replied, clearly confused.

“Evra said that we couldn’t hold hands anymore, because I didn’t understand. Because certain things have different meanings and it’s confusing, because I don’t understand any of it and I didn’t know what a drum kit was until today.” Kat sighed and folded her arms after she was done.

Though it probably shouldn’t have, what Kat said made perfect sense to Rebecca. Rebecca knew what she was trying to explain.

“I think what Evra was trying to get at,” Rebecca said slowly, “Is that, you haven’t experienced a lot of things. You don’t fully understand feelings and emotions just yet. So it’s confusing for him too.”

“Well,” Kat pondered for a moment, “How will I learn it?”

Rebecca grinned. “I have a good idea where to start.”

∞

For the rest of the night until they were ready to go to sleep, the two girls watched movies. Romantic movies mostly, so that Kat could see how relationships formed between two people.

“Movies over dramatise things,” Rebecca explained, “But you can get the general idea from them.”

Kat was captivated by it all. The movies had a man and a woman in love, and dramatic things would happen, but they would always end up together because it was ‘true love’. Kat thought it was amazing.

Eventually Kat was drained, and curled herself up in her bed. It was so comfortable; nothing like what she was used to, but it didn’t take long for her to fall asleep. After all, she loved sleeping.

∞

The next morning Kat followed Rebecca to the costume tent and helped her out for the day. It turned out that Kat followed Rebecca around every day, helping her out with whatever chores she had to do. Except cleaning the Wolfman’s cage, as Kat and the Wolfman didn’t get along. At night time, after dinner, the girls watched movies and talked and laughed. Kat liked Rebecca, and it was a good thing too, because she barely ever saw and never spoke to Evra.

Certain nights some of the freaks would go to perform a show. Evra always went with Bippo, but Rebecca never went and neither did Kat. She was never asked to go, and she didn’t think she would ever be asked, because she wasn’t an exciting talented freak. She was just a spotty leopard girl.

A couple of weeks after Kat had joined the Cirque, Rebecca took advantage of one of her days off to go into town and get some material and other sewing things to make some new clothes. She begged and pleaded for Kat to come, but Kat would not agree. There was no way that Kat would go out into public where people would see her.

So Kat took advantage of her day off all alone to go exploring. She remembered the rule that she was allowed to go exploring around the grounds outside of the Cirque, but no one was allowed to come in. That was ok, because Kat would hear if anyone was getting close and could hide if need be.

Kat left the grounds and started off, stopping to listen every so often. Eventually she heard the sounds of water, and ran to get to it as soon as possible. Moments later Kat found herself standing at the edge of a lake. It was a warm day and she loved water, so she ran fully clothed into the lake and got herself soaking wet. She laughed as she splashed about, enjoying the feeling of the cool water.

After a few moments of this, she pulled herself out of the lake and went to lie on the grass in the sun. Kat rolled onto her back and closed her eyes, now relishing the feeling of the sun heating the droplets on her skin.

Kat froze. She had just heard something. Her face shot towards the tree line some 40 feet away, and she listened. Someone was definitely coming her way, she could hear them walking clumsily through the trees, stepping on twigs and leaves. Kat’s eyes darted around, and she spotted a nearby tree. She ran at it flat out and extended her claws at the last second to climb up the tree easily. She nestled herself comfortably in the fork of two branches and watched.