It was very unusual. She was never the type to run late to school! How could she have let it happen? She was afraid of falling behind on her studies. Her parents would not like that and would give her never-ending lectures. It was enough she had to deal with things by herself. The last thing she wanted was to deal with her parents lecturing her.

I'm going to kill Elaine! she thought.

Elaine was her friend, her best friend she had grown up with since she was three-years-old. There had been a new movie on that she wanted Elanor to watch. Now, Elanor wasn't into watching many things. She preferred music over television. She was not one to stay up too late either, but Elaine had came over after school and made her watch the movie, which came on pretty late. She blamed that as the reason she was running late to school.

Grumbling under her breath, she ran around a corner and right into someone. She fell backwards hard. Taking her time standing, Elanor glanced at the source of her fall with a frown on her face.

"Watch where you're going!" She shouted.

"Me? You're the one who ran into me!" snapped the young man she slammed into.

It was true, she knew, but was too embarrassed to admit it. She gave him a 'hmph' and stormed pass him, ignoring the frown the brunette was giving her. He pushed up his sunglasses and continued on his way.

Fifteen more minutes passed by before Elanor made it to her private school and burst in. The halls were clear and that was not a good sign. Running again, she charged into the classroom and almost slammed into her best friend, Elaine! The brunette was ready to go find her blonde friend when she had found her instead.

"There you are, Elanor!" beamed Elaine, smiling. "I was worried about you. You're not usually late to things."

"It's all your fault that I'm late!" complained the blonde, frowning deeply at her friend.

Elaine blinked, confused.

"Mine? How is it my fault?"

"You just had to have me watch that movie, didn't you? Because of that, I overslept!" answered Elanor.

Elaine grinned sheepishly, a sweat droplet gliding down the side of her face.

"Y-you could have just went to sleep instead of watching the whole thing." Elaine told her. "I was taping it, anyway."

"What...?" Elanor blankly stared at Elaine and her words. The whole time last night she could have went to bed normally and picked up where she would have left off some other time! "Now you tell me?!"

Elaine sighed, shaking her head.

"Forget about it. We better sit down before our teacher comes and scolds us. I heard Mrs. Peterson is having a rather rotten day."

Knowing all too well what that meant, Elanor nodded and the two girls quickly took their seats just as their said teacher entered, a frown on her face. Everyone went silent except for a few girls in the back of the room. They were whispering and thought they were quiet enough to not be noticed.

"Silence!" snapped Mrs. Peterson. "This is Algebra, not gossip hour!"

Immediately they went silent. They were not too thrilled they had been caught. Elanor and Elaine giggled lightly. One of those girls was Marina, a girl who enjoyed picking on poor Elanor when Elaine wasn't around.

"Now, pay attention!" hissed Mrs. Peterson. "We're having a pop quiz!"

Groans were heard from around the room, none happy about that first thing in the morning. Elanor wondered what had their teacher so uptight...

Come lunchtime, other students were talking about how Mrs. Peterson was being very mean to most of her students that day. It made little sense to Elanor and Elaine. She was usually kind, yet a bit strict. It was unusual for her to be that strict that day.

"What do you suppose is wrong with Mrs. Peterson?" asked Elaine, she and Elanor finding a bench in their school's yard.

"I don't know. Maybe she and her husband had a huge fight last night?" suggested the blonde before she took a bite of her leftover Chinese food's chicken fingers.

Elaine looked up at their school's Algebra classroom, thinking.

"Well, there is a rumor going around that he's been cheating on her. One of the other girls saw him with another woman being a bit intimate." Elaine told her. "Maybe she found out?"

"That would explain her behavior. I would be just as pissed off as she if my husband were cheating on me."

"You? Married? That's an amazing joke, Kemp! Like that would ever happen?" It was Marina, Elanor twitching before she looked away. Sure, she wasn't lucky enough to attract boys like her, but did she have to announce it?

"What do you want, Marina?!" snapped Elaine. "I don't recall inviting you to eat lunch with us!"

"I was just passing by. I couldn't pass up the chance to make a comment about such a funny joke." Marina laughed like her friends as they continued on.

Elaine turned her frown towards Elanor.

"Why don't you tell her off, or something?!"

"I...don't want to cause any trouble. It's better if I ignore her..."

Elaine didn't like that answer, but dropped the subject. Their lunch would be over soon. Marina wouldn't dare try starting a fight in a classroom where a teacher was around.

"Do you have choir after school, Elanor?"

"Oh my gosh! I almost forgot that! Thanks, Elaine!" beamed Elanor. She adored singing as much as dancing and there was a show coming up soon for the school she was going to be part of.

* * * * *

Lunch had come and gone as rumors about Mrs. Peterson becoming as ridiculous as to why she was in such a rotten mood. That included being denied plastic surgery. Elaine and Elanor didn't know what to believe anymore and ignored it, finishing her class was over with after all. Elanor was much more concerned about rehearsals.

"Miss Kemp? Your solo dance to the choir cue is soon."

"Yes, Mr. Travers."

"I hope Elanor doesn't over do it," thought Elaine out loud as she waited for her best friend to finish up.

Her attention was on looking in the window to watch her friend. It wasn't exactly warm out so it was the only way she could see how it goes. Mr. Travers was apparently rather strict on making sure there was no distractions or interruptions from his choir.

For some unknown reason all of a sudden, Elaine glanced away and spotted a rather furry orange cat. Immediately she turned to it.

"Oh, why hello there, sweetie!" It looked up at her startled. "Have you lost your way home?" It stared at her before turning away to continue wherever it was going. That was when Elaine noticed it was limping.

The cat was suddenly scooped up by Elaine. At a closer look, the poor cat was bleeding from it's back leg.

"Oh no! You're hurt!!" Elaine looked back in at her friend as the cat began to struggle from her arms. "After Elanor finishes her practice, we'll have her mom check you out."

Regardless of understanding what Elaine was saying, the cat continued to struggle until something caught the corner of it's eyes. It was Elanor dancing and for some reason, the cat couldn't stop staring. Elaine noticed that.

"That's Elanor. Her mom is a veterinarian. She'll fix you up, I'm sure!" She smiled down at it. "Good, isn't she? Heh."

For the rest of the rehearsal, the cat stopped struggling to watch and was shocked. Once finished, the two were joined by a tired blonde.

"That was great, Elanor!" beamed Elaine.

"Thanks!" She looked at the cat. "I didn't know you were allowed to have a cat...?"

"Hm? Oh! No, I found him!"

"Him?"

Elaine nodded. "He looks like a 'him' to me. But that's not important! He's hurt. Can we come to your house with you? I know there's an animal hospital nearby, but your mom is best, I think!"

"Sure thing." Elanor agreed.

"Terrific!"

And so they hurried to Elanor's house where her mom met the two outside of the front door.

"Mom! Where are you going?" asked Elanor. "You're not going out with that guy again, are you?!"

"What is it you don't like about Charles?" Mrs. Kemp asked with a frown.

Elaine got an impression an argument would break out, so she stepped in.

"Mrs. Kemp, could you first check out this lost cat we found?" asked Elaine.

"Hm?" She looked down and noticed he was injured. "Goodness! Poor thing... Why didn't you girls take it to the animal hospital?"

"There's blood... How can we explain what happened when we don't know?" said a worried Elaine.

"Nonsense." Mrs. Kemp said. "But considering you're here, I suppose I can check it out. Let me call my date first. You girls head inside."

Doing as told, they entered with Elanor grumbling something about Charles being a bum. It was only a few minutes before Mrs. Kemp entered and had them place the cat on a towel on the table to prevent bloodstains on it.

It was a good five minutes of Mrs. Kemp looking over the furry guest.

"Seems the wound isn't as serious as it looks," she stated.

"What do you mean? There's a lot of blood!" Elanor pointed out.

"Probably because, he traveled some distance untreated."

"Can you stop it?" asked Elaine.

"Yes. Get me the first aid kit. I can use the bandages to wrap it after I clean him up."

The cat didn't really like that idea as he tried to get up and leave, but was grabbed by the scruff of his neck to stop him from injuring himself more. It was odd to Elanor, but he looked extremely pissed off by the action.

"When you found him, did he have on a collar?"

"No. That means he's a stray, right?" asked Elaine. "We can't just let him go in a shelter! He may not be adopted!"

"Can we keep him?!" questioned Elanor, always wanting a pet cat in her life.

"Hey! That's not a bad idea!" agreed Elaine. "I would, but our apartment doesn't allow pets..."

Mrs. Kemp was hesitant, but by the look in the girls faces, she agreed it was fine. Perhaps Elanor would not complain as much about being home alone when she was out with Charles or work.

"YAY! What should we name him?!" Elaine asked excitedly.

"I don't know. Lets go get some stuff for him and we can think of a name for him in the meantime!"

"Hold on! It's getting late. You're not going shopping by yourselves. Tomorrow after work I'll pick up some things for him." Mrs. Kemp ended the conversation. "Now, Elaine? Go home. Your parents might be worried you're not home yet. Elanor, you start your homework. I'll finish up tending to the cats wounds and order out."

Both girls really had no choice and they said good-bye. Elanor then went upstairs immediately to do her homework if she could contain her excitement. It wasn't long before her mom brought their new family member up to her room.

"I've called for a pizza. I would have let you order some Chinese food, but considering I had to cancel my date, I need something, too." Mrs. Kemp told her daughter.

"Sorry...?"

She sighed and shook her head as she left the two of them. Elanor stopped in the middle of her homework to watch her new cat as he started to explore the room. After a few minutes, he sat down and stared at her. It confused her.

"What? Are you hungry?"

"No, but I sense you are indeed the Sun Soldier, Sailor Sol from the Silver Millennium..."

"......" Elanor stared before she suddenly fainted; THE CAT COULD TALK!