Hometown Happenings: Shadow of the Cat

The sight of the toned ass encased in a tight black skirt brought a smile to Marcus' face. The thump-thump of that piece of art against his groin added a bit of drool. And the enthusiastic singing and arm-throwing showed off the girl's playful attitude. Unfortunately, Iona O'Hara had too much energy and stamina.

Twenty minutes ago, Marcus rubbed his hands together at visions of what the star soccer player could do between the sheets. Ten minutes ago, the notorious flirt laughed after the brunette questioned if he could keep up with her on the dance floor. One minute ago, the football player began to seriously question his conditioning. What the fuck? Football just ended six weeks ago. Am I this out of shape already? I don't think so. This girl is like the Energizer Bunny!

The only saving grace for Marcus' pride came when he checked around him. Kaitlin, Yumi, and Beyza all danced at slower, sensual paces. Mixed in amongst them, Percy Essex and Mason Angle, two members of the boy's soccer team, appeared winded as well.

"Wanna take a break?" Marcus asked over the music into Iona's ear.

"What?!" the bobbing brunette shouted just as a new song started. "Oh! This is one of my favorites!"

Motioning that he needed a break, Marcus staggered under the weight of his heavy legs. Reaching the rec room bar halfway across the basement, the well-liked student used his popularity to wave a classmate off a stool. Dropping onto it, Marcus gasped for air.

"What's your problem?" Kessler inquired from behind the bar. The sketchy member of the football team seemed to be having a ball role-playing Tom Cruise's bartender character from Cocktail. He'd already broken two bottles from his flipping antics.

"I-Io-Iona," the tight end stammered as he caught his breath.

"Yeah, she does that," Kessler nodded knowingly. "I'm going to wait until closer to graduation for another shot at keeping up with her. Want a shot?"

The dark-skinned teen shook his head at the liquor offer. The only shot he needed was a boost to his pride. Luckily that arrived as Kaitlin, Yumi, and Beyza joined him at the bar.

"Damn, I should've taken up a sport. I can't keep up with you guys," Beyza groaned, falling against the back of Marcus' stool.

"Shit, we're cheerleaders and wiped out," Kaitlin admitted, waving away Kessler's shot offer. "Water!"

"Can Beyza be a cheerleader?" Yumi questioned, the idea hitting her.

"It's too late in the year," Kaitlin informed her friend, but a good reason hit her. "Still, we could kick Margo or Greta off the team to open spot. Interested, Bey?"

"And become the target of Caterina's bitching? I think not."

"Did someone say my name?" Cat asked, walking into the laughter about her bitchiness.

"Just that you're an evil succubus," Marcus cracked, not suspecting that the cheerleader co-captain had the perfect comeback.

"You asshole!" the bottle blonde yelled, slapping him in the back. "How dare you go to Whitney's cabin and not take me with you?"

"What are you talking about?" Marcus responded, having no clue what she meant.

Delilah joined the small circle, asking what was up.

"That's what I want to know!" the tight end stated.

"The story goes that Marcus showed up unannounced at Whitney's cabin last night. The jerk got super-smashed. We all know how little Marky gets when he's drunk, don't we, ladies?"

A round of uh-huhs sounded, causing Marcus to throw his hands up in denial.

"So our big party crasher then proceeded to paw Whitney's ass repeatedly," Cat continued.

"Marcus!" Yumi gasped in horror.

"Whoa, whoa! I didn't do any of that. I swear!" Marcus denied as the girls folded their arms in unison. "I've never been to Whitney's cabin!"

"So, where were you last night?" Kessler challenged, thoroughly enjoying the interrogation.

"At home!"

"Yeah, that alibi wouldn't hold up in court," Beyza stated solemnly.

"Are you going to jail?" Yumi asked Marcus in alarm.

"No, I'm not going to jail! I was at home last night with my family. My parents have friends visiting from out of town. They made me stay home. I swear! Ask Tiara. Oh, hell, ask Trishelle!" Marcus suggested, even going as far as pulling his phone out. "I don't know where you head this, Cat, but that story isn't true."

"I know it's not," Caterina revealed, causing everyone, even the eavesdroppers, to turn toward her in surprise. "But Austin did."

"What?" a whole lot of people asked or thought.

"The story goes is that Austin is the one that got drunk off his ass last night. Somehow he got the idea in his head that Marcus had shown up and did all those things that I said," Cat relayed. "Whitney sent me a long message this morning about it. She could barely type as she had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard."

"Wait, what?!" Marcus wanted more clarified.

"It sounds like Austin woke this morning asking where you went. Whitney only found out when he apologized to her for your awful, creepy behavior," Cat revealed.

"Ohmigawd!" Beyza and Delilah squealed simultaneously.

"No way!" Xavier Glove roared as laughter began to howl around the now larger group.

"We're so going to use this against him," Kessler vowed.

"Is Austin sick?" Yumi inquired in concern.

"He will be once Rory finds out," Beyza forewarned, typing rapidly on her phone.

"We should totally send something to Rusk about it," Xavier suggested.

"Can't, or at least I don't think you can. Whitney hasn't been responding to me. It's that shaky cell signal out there," Caterina explained.

"Where was Lacey when all this was going on?" Kaitlin wondered.

"Oh, wow. Now I really regret that we had to bow out of going," Delilah remarked.

"What?" Cat asked.

"We were invited up to the cabin for this trip. But then my dad found out that he was getting honored by that bankers' group tonight. So they ended up down in Blackbridge for the ceremony," Delilah revealed. "My mom is pretty bummed about it."

"You were invited to Whitney's cabin for the week?" Caterina questioned slowly and with an edge in her voice.

"Well, more like my mom was invited. She was part of that cheerleading squad that was close to Mrs. Singer," Delilah clarified. "I think it was just going to be my mom and me. Sammy would go nuts without his video games for that long."

"Of course, it's all about the girls who have cheerleader moms," Cat commented, jealousy dripping from her words. Before she could continue, Cat spotted Will. "Winkie, where the hell is my drink?"

"Uh, right here," the football team's kicker said, passing over one of three drinks.

"Hey, Wink, where's Max?" Kessler queried. "He's going to be so pissed about what Marcus did last night to his girl."

"I did not do anything!" Marcus assured Will.

"Ick!" Cat sounded, spitting out the mixed drink. "It's all watered down, Winkie!"

"Uh, the ice must have melted while I searched for you," Winkie suggested, flinching at the outburst.

"Gawd! Can't a girl get..." Cat trailed off as she noticed that Yumi's glass had full ice cubes in it. "Why is her ice not melted?"

"Um, it took so long to find you girls that I made another drink for Yumi," Will said, slowly backing away from Cat.

"Grrr, why does she get a new drink and not me?" the cheerleader co-captain challenged.

"Why do you think?" Kaitlin mumbled before turning toward Kessler behind the bar. "Pour this out and get me something fresh."

"Thanks, Will!" Yumi said, sipping her drink through a straw, oblivious to Winkie's crush on her that everyone else knew about.

"I swear, this night can't get any worse," Cat stated, getting that feeling of being watched again from her left side. Determined to figure out who was stalking her, she didn't have a chance as a person slammed into her from the right side.

"I found our cheer-babies, Molly!" Kelly Nomura shouted, drunk and excited.

---

Max Moxey checked this way and that way before starting up the stairs to the second floor of the O'Dell house. The night had grown late, with the clock ringing in midnight a short bit ago. Stepping around and over a couple making out on the stairs, Max nearly stumbled down the stairs in surprise.

Howie Cline, his teammate, lay against the wall, if not pushed against it by an unfamiliar blonde. The stranger practically smothered the meek, backup quarterback. With her tongue shoved down his throat, the blonde's hands explored his body.

Surprised but happy for his friend. Max reminded himself to ask Marcus about the girl's identity. A party couldn't end without his friend learning the names of every single pretty girl at it. Marcus was one friend who hadn't changed much over the last few years, and that was a good thing.

Knowing that Delilah enforced the No Locked Doors rule at her party to ensure a girl's safety, Max was on a mission to find his particular girl. Having been in the O'Dell's home before, he knew the second floor contained four bedrooms.

Reaching the first door on the left-hand side of the hallway, Max quietly opened the door to the guest bedroom. While worried about what he'd find in these bedrooms and not wanting to appear a pervert, Max needed to find the girl in question. So while not surprised to find a couple fucking on the bed, the situation still caused his head to rock back.

A girl with long dark auburn hair had her legs spread wide as a guy plowed in and out of her pussy. Not many girls at Honey Hollow High had that particular hair color, so Max quickly surmised it to be Quilla Falkenberg. The stuck-up Quilla's identity could further be confirmed by the more incredible aspect of the situation that Max peeked in on.

Lux Chaumont, Quilla's friend and Drama Club diva, sat in an armchair facing the bed. While the blonde actress appeared fully clothed, she had one hand down her pants as she watched her friend get skewered over and over.

Unfortunately for Max, if he could see Lux, then she could see him as well. The gasp from the voyeuristic blonde alerted the rutting couple to his presence. And as luck had it, Max saw one of those friends that had changed for the worse over the years.

"Goddamnit, Max! Get the fuck out of here!" Oscar Vargas bellowed.

Aware of Oscar's temper, Max already had the door swinging shut when a hard object hit it. Knowing that he'd have to deal with the fallout of walking in on Oscar, Max braced for the eventual blowup. It'd come either later tonight or tomorrow. Still, finding the girl in question was worth it.

Moving across the hall, Max hesitated before opening the first right-hand side door. He could already hear loud moaning through the wooden entrance. Recalling that this bedroom belonged to Delilah, Max worried that he might be about to walk in on the party hostess. It turned out not to be Delilah on her bed.

Instead, Max watched in awe as a dark-haired creature of perfection slowly rode up and down on the guy lying underneath her. With her body in profile to the door, Max's eyes took in every inch of Beyza Baris' exquisite sexiness. A sexiness that Max knew in the back of his head existed but never really considered. Beyza was Aurora's best friend, and having grown up with the Rusk twins, he knew not to mess with Rory's closest friends or feel her wrath.

Yet, the sight of that flawless, naturally tanned skin and perfect C-cups would leave visions in Max's head that would never, ever entirely vanish. Nor would the sighs and moans that Beyza emitted be easily forgotten. They'd ring around the football player's head in a few hours while he laid in bed, tossing and turning.

If only there wasn't already a blonde that haunted Max's dreams for years. The same blonde who preoccupied his thoughts and drove his actions tonight. Once that blonde pushed her way back into the picture, Max was able to pry his eyes away from Beyza.

Lucas Prescott?!

Max couldn't believe what his gaze took in. How had the smarmy senior class president managed to score with Beyza? Sure, Lucas was more popular than Beyza around school, but he was so obviously fake. Much of the school didn't see it but Max knew. Marcus knew it. Austin might not, as he only saw Lucas as a threat to his popularity. How the hell doesn't Beyza know that Prescott is an asshole behind his smiling face?

Disappointed at the girl's choice for a party hookup, Max started to pull the door shut quietly. Suddenly, a disturbing thought entered his brain. After witnessing Lux's voyeuristic behavior, Max took an extra two steps into the room. After swiftly scanning the bedroom, he gave a relieved sigh. If Barrow had been watching his boy, I might have lost my composure. Beyza's too good for those dicks.

Softly shutting the door, Max heard a click behind him. Another of his teammates, Burton Dempsey, stood shaking his head after exiting the second bedroom on the left-hand side of the hall.

"What up, Moxey?" Not waiting for a reply, Burton shook his head. "If you're going in there," he gestured at the room he left, "don't expect to leave with your pride. That girl is wearing guys out left and right. She's unstoppable!"

With that, the linebacker staggered toward the stairs, leaving Max dreading what he might find inside the next bedroom that he needed to check. Based on Burt's comment, Max had nightmares of walking into a gang bang. The scenario wasn't all that far-fetched after what he'd found behind Door #1 and #2.

"Take that, bitch!" Came the cry when Door #3 opened. Only the cry came from a feminine voice accompanied by a giggle. "Oh, is your ass sore from getting buttfucked?"

"Motherfucker! You broke my sword," groused a familiar voice.

Openly the door fully, Max gawked at the unexpected scene.

Odette Manske sat criss-cross style on the twin-sized bed in the room that clearly belonged to Sammy O'Dell. Barely perched on the edge of the bed, Odie appeared ready to fall forward but didn't as she kept perfect balance.

Jumping off the floor, Niles Milner tossed an object to the floor in disgust. Crawling on his hands and knees, Rafael Osuna quickly grabbed the game controller for his turn. All the while, Kona Sango sat on an oversized, plush desk chair, laughing heartily.

"Uh, what are you guys doing?" Max asked.

"Oh, another football player. Want your ass whooped too, tough guy?" Odette challenged.

"Nah, Max is cool, Odie," Kona reminded the little ball of energy. "What I'm doing is winning a bunch of loot. You'd think people suddenly got brain damage. Everyone knows that little Manske is a player. And she's already mastered Buccaneer Blades."

"The game just came out on Christmas Eve!" Niles pointed out in disgust. "How is she this good already?"

"I got skills. Mad skills to murder you," the orange-haired girl cackled.

"You're the devil!" Rafael screamed, watching as his selected character already looked grievously wounded.

The niece of Principal Manske, Odette, was anything but an angel. Honey Hollow High School's resident tech and gamer girl, Odie loved to make her life hell for those in authority, including her uncle. Her computer skills had already reversed every student's grades for a whole week, altered the school schedule to send alerts to parents about fake school cancellations, and changed food distributors to provide better quality meals. And that was just this semester. If it weren't for Odette being the only person able to fix what she did and no direct proof of her involvement, she'd have long been expelled. The school district's best hope for the problems to stop would be when she graduated, in another year and a half.

"I guess Delilah's little brother will be happy that you're playing games, not screwing in his bed," Max remarked.

"Damn, this kid has quite the setup," Kona appraised, wave his hand toward the three flat screens on the wall. There appeared to be one desktop computer, a laptop, and a tablet to go with three video game consoles.

"Eh, it's not bad...for a rookie," Odette responded, not paying attention to the screen as her character plunged her cutlass into Rafael's.

"You cheated!"

"Did not," Odie said, rolling her eyes at Max.

"Uh, I'll leave you guys to play," the wide receiver told his teammates as Niles demanded another turn.

Shutting a bedroom door for the third time, Max barely glanced over at the bathroom on the right-hand side of the hall. Instead, his focus rested on the master bedroom. The hallway led directly to the solid oak door, and before Max knew it, his hand turned the knob.

A pair of discarded heels immediately caught his attention. As did the sound of kissing. Knowing his target's temper, Max braced himself for the coming blitzkrieg of bitchiness. Interrupting this girl while in action might bring him bodily harm.

With all that in mind, the determined teenager strode into the master bedroom with purpose in his steps. Those steps slowed to a stop as he realized the couple making out on the king-sized bed didn't include the girl that he searched for. Sure, the girl in the gold mini-dress could dress down any person to the point that they wept tears, but she's wasn't part of the correct clique.

Retracing his steps backward, Max prayed that Bianca Zuccaro wouldn't spot him. He could care less if her kissing mate, Percy Essex, did. What could a soccer player do to him? Even if Percy freaked out and attacked him, Max had three football teammates--shit, four if you count Oscar--down the hall, ready to come to his aid.

No, it was the captain of the Sugarbees that scared him. Max could take a punch or a blow. Heck, he got drilled by tacklers all the time on the football field. Now, the cutting words, scheming plans, and public shaming of the warring school princesses were what worried him. The two-faced backstabbing to go along with gossip campaigns made Max uneasy and feel out of his element.

A crown contender, Bianca still had a semester left to dethrone the school's queen bee. So it was best not to wake that sleeping serpent. Max already planned to risk his manhood with another member of the school royalty.

Safely out of the master bedroom with a piece of oak between him and Bianca, Max dropped his guard. He never saw or sensed the hand that came out of the pitch blackness of the bathroom to snatch his arm. Off-balance by the strong yank, he tumbled into the bathroom. A door slamming shut and a light flicking on all occurred before Max had time to gather his bearings.

"Why are you following me?" Caterina Quill demanded to know.

"Huh?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Moxey," the bottle blonde warned. "You've been watching me all night, haven't you?"

"Have I?"

"Listen up as I'm only going to say this once. I gave you a ride home to be nice, not because I have any interest in you. So don't go all puppy dog on me like you do for Whitney. I'm not fucking you," Cat rambled, having had recited similar speeches in the past.

"Fucking you? Eww, I'm not...that's not..."

"Oh, please. Everyone one of your friends wants me at least once."

"I don't," Max insisted in almost a high-pitched voice. "And you didn't give me a ride home from your brother's shop yesterday to be nice. We both know you wanted a reason to leave early and stop at Grubby's."

"You don't know anything."

"I know that you went to Grubby's to meet Olena. I saw you get into her car, so don't lie--"

"Were you spying on ME?!" Cat shrieked, her hand already slapping his arm.

"I can't spy on you when you bring me to your clandestine meeting."

"Clan...what?"

"Guess what, Cat, when you drive a person with you to your secret meeting, you don't tell them to go get food and then walk right over to the person that you're meeting. You'd make a horrible secret agent," Max chuckled.

"Don't laugh at me, Moxey! And you don't know what you saw."

"What I saw was you meeting Whitney's worst enemy. That seems suspicious to me," Max commented.

"As if I care what you think. And my trip had nothing to do with Whitney. I'm old friends with Olena," Cat attempted to brush away what he saw.

"Olena Olesky cares about only one thing and you know it. It's to crush Whitney someday. She's tried repeatedly to embarrass, humiliate, and fuck over Whitney," Max listed. "But you already know that, don't you? You made a big show of it last year when you stopped being 'friends' with Olena."

"Wow, I think you've watched too many movies or took too many hits to the head. You've seeing bogeymen in the shadows and traitorous friends around every corner."

"No, I don't think I've imagined anything. You're up to something, Cat. And I plan to get to the bottom of it," Max proclaimed.

"Ooh! Playing the tough guy doesn't suit you. Nor does your messed-up idea to rat me out to Whitney over nothing. Face it, Maxy, she's never going to be attracted to you. Nope, she'll just reject you...are we up to a dozen times yet?" Caterina laughed while tapping her chin. "Save yourself any more embarrassment. For your sake."

With that, Cat pushed past the teen, opening the door and starting to leave the bathroom.

"I'm not going to stop, Cat. Olena only brings trouble with her," Max vowed.

---

"Gawd, that's sooo embarrassing," Kaitlin remarked.

"I know! I totally wanted Tyler for me."

"I wasn't talking to you, Greta," Katie said to the annoying junior year cheerleader.

About a dozen Honey Hollow students stood in a semi-circle watching as last year's cheerleader captain, Kelly Nomura, made out with Tyler Blick. The handsome new student to their school this year had garnered quite a bit of attention from the school's female population. Yet, up to now, he'd been relatively picky about the girls he went on dates with or kissed.

"Please, don't let that be one of us next year," Roxie said, cringing at the scene. "Kelly's only been in college for a semester, and look at her."

"What's everyone--oh! Now that's something newsworthy for Nosy Nectar," Daisy remarked as she and Evan walked up.

"Already on it," Kaitlin replied, holding up her phone.

"Hey, Will. How's the hand?" Evan inquired. "Eve said that you ruined a couple of towels with all that blood."

"It's good!" Winkie answered way too loud.

"It's was crazy, Naylor. The thing just started gushing right in front of me," Xavier recounted.

"Kessler said that Wink looked ready to faint when he pulled the car around back of Metropolis to get him," Marcus recalled. "Still, if I knew that your sister would play nurse, I'd--

"I gotta pee," Winkie announced, rushing away from the group. Talking to Evan after the handjob his sister gave him as a reward for trying to stop the fight was too awkward.

"Is he okay?" Daisy queried, picking up that something seemed off.

"That's just Winkie being Winkie," Xavier said, shrugging.

"There's a stripper pole in here!" a voice shouted.

"What?" Marcus asked as a few people began to move toward the far side of the basement.

"Oh, no," Roxie moaned.

"Not good, not good," Kaitlin muttered as the few people now turned into a wave of partygoers.

"What's going on?" Marcus asked, but the cheerleaders, along with his teammates, had moved toward everyone else's destination.

"Beats me," Evan said.

Reaching a door locked earlier, Marcus, Evan, and Daisy pushed their way inside. A small room they'd never seen during previous parties partially had the room in a growing tizzy. Wooden floors, two benches, a mirrored wall, and a pair of poles filled the room.

Standing by those poles was the other reason why the partygoers started to stir. Two Sugarbees, Rosita Veliz and Tandy Cantrell, began to tease the growing crowd by swinging around the poles.

"Holy shit, Delilah's mom has two stripper poles!"

"She does not!" Roxie screamed at her classmate.

"C'mon, girls! Show us your moves."

"Damn, I did not know this was in here," Marcus revealed.

"Really? It's not that surprising," Daisy commented, causing her boyfriend to look sharply at her. "What? Mrs. O'Dell owns a dance and yoga studio. This is clearly her home studio."

"Damn, Mr. O'Dell is one lucky man," Marcus remarked.

Suddenly, another body pushed into the room. This one belonged to a highly pissed-off Delilah.

"What the fuck?! This door was locked for a reason."

"Cause your mom's a stripper!" a voice catcalled.

"Billy, kick his ass out for me," Delilah ordered her friend, Billy Clawfoot, who had followed her into the room.

The baseball star and average soccer player obliged, grabbing the asshole. Another baseball player gave him a hand as they dragged the guy out of the room and eventually out of the party.

"Who opened that door? It was lock--Kessler, did you pick it?" the party hostess accused.

"Don't look at me. I was bartending," Kessler denied. That didn't stop him from throwing a few crumpled bills at the feet of the two pole-swinging Sugarbees. "Touch that money and die, Rutherford!"

"Work it, Tandy, work it!"

"Tandy! Rosie! Stop that right--" Delilah started to order until Rosita's discarded top hit her in the face.

"Go, Rosie, go!"

"I need to get Bianca," Jasmine Fadel told herself, leaving the room.

"Evan, get your phone out. No, not for them." Daisy motioned away from where the two amateur strippers began to shimmy their pants down. "For when Bianca shows up."

"Man, I'm not messing around with any soccer girls or Sugarbees tonight," Marcus muttered. Then, spotting a different kind of athlete, he walked over to London Olmstead and Marcie Huff. Sliding in between the two tennis players, Marcus placed an arm around each of their shoulders. "Say, girls, I'm struggling to understand the concept of doubles play in tennis. How about we go somewhere quieter so you can fill me in?