By: Ellie Zhang

As usual, Andrea was scolded between the doors by Nina.

“Hurry. Up. Final. Warning.” She clenched her teeth in impatience.

“O-ok, ok, I’m almost…done…!” Andrea’s exhausted voice echoed through the hallway.

The doors slammed, and Nina facepalmed herself, sighing. Ellie had been waiting there for half an hour and was still not provoked or bored.

“She did it again?” Ellie asked from inside the parked car.

“She’ll never change. ‘My alarm broke…I injured my leg…’ Blah blah blah.” Nina mimicked.

“I doubt that. Anybody can change. They just have to…” Ellie left the sentence unfinished to take a sip of her kiwi lemonade.

Before they could continue the chatter, the doors swooped open hard, hitting the side fences, making them vibrate.

“I…got…” Andrea was breathing more than talking.

“Everything.” Ellie finished, rolling her eyes.

Nina helped, not wondering what was in the big black duffel bag that thudded on the ground.

With a big pull, the bag rolled down the stairs, as Ellie opened the trunk. A few extra small bags were held on.

Andrea wiped her sweaty face with the back of her hand, still huffing. As the engine started, the cool fan slapped against her face, making her quietly sigh in relief. The day only started.

~

“And…perfect! It’s 5:22, we just need to get everything off the car, then it will be perfect timing! Yippee!” Ellie said while the other two were struggling with the big bags.

~

The place they were dropped off at was all the way on the other side of the mall from where Mini Cat Town was. Andrea said it was alright because she didn’t want to trouble the driver.

Once the girls arrived at their designated area, it looked like they all ran 20 laps in the burning sun.

“Gosh, finally you guys are on time for once.” The front desk manager said.

Nina gave an exhausted smile but managed to show all her front teeth.

Andrea nearly tripped and fainted when putting on the shoe covers, and Ellie couldn’t seem to turn the door handle fully down without the help of Nina.

Immediately, Noodle marched over, tilting side to side and sometimes falling over.

“Noodle!” Andrea quietly called as she bent down and put her hands out for Noodle to rub.

Ellie and Nina, on the other hand, went straight to work.

“Ew. I smell a stench. Must be the litter boxes.” As usual, Ellie cleans the poop and pee, and Nina trims the claws.

While they were doing that, Andrea was checking around, making sure all cats were doing well.

“Marshmallow…as white as always…” She muttered, head counting all the cats. “Coffee Bean– as brown as always, J.O, sleeping…” Suddenly, Andrea stopped. She froze with her fingers slightly pointed, and head tilted up.

Wait. Noodle always follows and plays with Queen…

Andrea immediately started speed counting the cats.

She counted every sleeping cat, running cat, hiding cat– but no sign of Queen Elizabeth.