“The Jellicle Ball is tonight! The Jellicle Ball is tonight! The Jellicle Ball is tonight! The Jellicle Ball is tonight! The Jellicle Ball! The Jellicle Ball! The Jellicle Ball! The Jellicle Ball! The Jellicle Ball! The Jellicle Ball! The Jellicle Ball! The Jellicle Ball! The Jellicle Ball! The Jellicle Ball!”

They’d been bouncing off the walls all morning and their human eventually got sick of it, and put them both firmly outside.

“That was fun Misto. Now what do we do though?”

“Well…. We could practice our dance again”

Mistoffelees and Starflower had been chosen to perform the special mating dance that night at the ball. Together they’d created a beautiful dance, faster paced than that of Victoria and Plato at the previous ball, and with no lifting, but it expressed how they felt about each other perfectly.

Starflower looked a little thoughtful at this suggestion, and then brought something up that she’d not had the nerve to tell her mate before “I actually feel a little guilty about our dance tonight honey.”

Mistoffelees ran over the dance that they intended to do in his head. “Why honey? It’s perfectly safe for the kittens to watch.”

“That’s not what is worrying me. What’s worrying me is that, well, we’re a well established couple. Shouldn’t someone else be doing a mating dance?”

Mistoffelees looked surprised at this, which is no mean feat for a cat.

“You mean that I haven’t told you why it is that we’re the ones doing that particular dance yet honey?”

Starflower shook her head, “You mean there is a reason as to why we were chosen?"

Mistoffelees looked a bit shocked that he’d forgotten to tell his mate this important information, “Of course there is. You see, before each ball, any Jellicles who are newly mated are looked at by old Deuteronomy, and the most recent pairing, which is us in this case, is chosen to dance solo”

Starflower look at her mate askanse, “You mean to tell me that I’m halfway to term with kittens and WE’RE the newest?”

Mistoffelees nodded. “Yup, Alonzo hasn’t found a mate yet, neither has Tant or Cori. Mungo’s still looking for someone as well. Lecky, Tumble, Pounce, Ecty and Mima aren’t old enough for mates yet and you know that Mar hasn’t found anyone yet.”

“That’s truly frightening. Mar told me that he’s got his eye on someone, but he wouldn’t tell me who she was”

“Interesting….” Looking out of the window, Mistoffelees saw that the sun was setting. “Star! It’s time we got moving, we’ve got time for a quick snack, but we’ve got to get moving”

Starflower nodded “All right, but I really do need that snack, otherwise I’ll have to try and catch a mouse, there’s a lot of kittens here love.”

After Starflower had had her snack, the two lovers made their way to the junkyard, blending into the lengthening shadows. On this night, the guard on the gate was doubled and ever vigilant. Misto was a little surprised to see Maruman on duty with Alonzo.

“How’d you two draw duty?”

Maruman and Alonzo jumped. Vigilant they might be, but spotting black cats in the darkness was hard, and they’d missed them totally.

“Heaveyside Misto! Wear a bell or something so that we know you’re there will you!”

“Does that go for me to ‘Lonzo?”

Alonzo jumped again, but Maruman spun around looking for his sister and promptly fell off the gatepost.

“Star, you need to wear two.”

Misto took one look at Maruman sitting dazed in the middle of the daffodils and promptly burst out laughing.

“Shaddup magician! ‘S not funny!”

“Sorry Mar, but you lo-ook re-ally swe- sweet!” Mistoffelees couldn’t stop laughing

Suddenly a new voice came from the junkyard “Hey Mistoffelees”

Mistoffelees looked up and suddenly sobered “Yes Munkustrap?”

“Have you figured out that circle thing for the junkyard yet? The one that warns us if a non Jellicle feline or a dog comes?”

“I tried Munk, but it alerts us when everyone comes in, humans included. It will really mess up the celebrations if we try to use it.”

Starflower had been listening carefully to this conversation and was thinking. Maruman noticed her thoughtful expression and decided to find out what she was thinking about.

“Hey Star, What’s up?”

“Mar, I think I’ve figured out what the problem was with the circle Misto had was.”

“So? Tell him about it”

“That’s the other problem, I don’t know how to do it.”

“That’s easy, You do it like this – Hey magician!”

Mistoffelees turned and looked at Maruman. “What do you want Maruman?” he said flatly

“Don’t be so touchy Misto. You know, you really should bring these little problems you have to your mate. She’s got a solution to the problem you were having.”

“Really? Great!”

Mistoffelees excused himself from Munkustrap and playfully pounced his mate “Share!”

“Are we feeling playful now Misto?”

“Yup. Share!”

“Starflower giggled, as Mistoffelees was tickling her “Okay then, it’s really very simple. What you were trying to do was a protection circle, set to warn you that someone was coming right?”

Mistoffelees nodded “Yeah, it was supposed to tell us that a non Jellicle cat was coming, or a dog.”

Starflower grinned “Think about it. That’s EXACTLY what it was doing. What you needed was something else. I can’t explain it very well, but it’s something I can just do okay. Seeing as we want it specifically keyed to let Jellicles in without setting off an alarm, then that’s what we’ll make it do, but exclude humans from the equation. Get it?”

Mistoffelees shook his head slightly “Not really, no.”

“Hey Starflower, I think we’re going to have to give you voice projection lessons.” Munkustrap walked over with a flick of his ears. “Feline hearing is good, but we’re going to have trouble hearing you speak”

Starflower just smiled, but Mistoffelees bristled in anger and jumped in front of his mate hissing “So her spoken voice is soft, so what? I can hear her, and anyway, it’s not like she can’t make herself heard if she wants to be. Trust me on this one”

Munkustrap backed down. No point in getting the little magician mad at him, that was dangerous. Bombalurina was still regrowing her whiskers from her brush with his temper.

“Go on Star, How do we do it?”

Starflower smiled gently at her mate and brother “We don’t do anything. I’ll do it, but I need you two to do something rather difficult for you.”

Maruman saw that his sister was looking at him, and asked, a little warily “What now sis?”

Starflower smiled reassuringly at her brother. “I need you and Misto to meld, and trust me.”

“Why?”

“Otherwise I can’t put the protection up around the whole junkyard. Neither of you can do this. It’s a female thing that’s instinctive to queens okay? I know how to do this naturally, you don’t. Deal with it”

Cassandra had been chosen for the solo dance this year and was doing marvelously. Misto looked at his beloved mate and ran lightly out to begin the invitation to the ball

As Munkustrap stepped up to take over and sing the Gumbie Cat’s song, Starflower slipped away from Mistoffelees, sending him a reassuring smile. Jellylorum had asked her to take over her role for this song, as Gus was getting worse. Demeter and Bombalurina gave Starflower a curious look until she mouthed “Gus” at them. Then they nodded and sang out at their cues

The Tugger sent everyone nuts as per usual and Mistoffelees and Starflower punctured his inflated ego between them. Then they upstaged him by juggling balls of pure energy.

There was no Grizabella this ball, and for a change, Bustopher Jones was on time. Jennyanydots had spoken to Jellylorum by this stage, and Jelly sang out her own role in Bustopher’s song.

Then a crash was heard. Bustopher, who hadn’t heard yet that Macavity had turned over a new leaf and was now a Jellicle, raced home. Everyone else had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but they scattered for the fun of it. All except for Starflower and Mistoffelees.

Sure enough, the twins soon scampered out. They did start to sing, but all that came out was

Starflower and Mistoffelees, feeling mischievous, sang the other parts of the twins song. Jer and Teaser soon caught on, and sang out their names at the appropriate time. By the time the song was winding down, the four cats were tumbling all over the place laughing.

The rest of the tribe came out laughing to finish off the song.

Old Deuteronomy was running a little late, so the entire tribe picked up the end of Jer and Teaser’s song and performed an impromptu dance.

At the end of this, they all collapsed on the ground in fits of laughter until Misto and Star sat up as one and looked to the junkyard entrance

They slunk off to fetch him whilst the rest of the sang his song to welcome him.

Old Deuteronomy smiled at the antics of the pair as they literally flew to him

“Marvellous sir, and you?” Misto said, as he tumbled in a heap at Old Deuteronomy’s feet

Old Deuteronomy looked indulgently at the youngest son of his friends “I am as well as can be expected Misto. I’m an old cat.”

Starflower made her way over to her mate and collapsed on top of him “I’m exhausted already and we’ve barely begun!”

Old Deuteronomy laughed deeply “Come you two we must join the others. Star, you come and sit with me during the play, that way you've got time to catch your breath and recover."

So saying, Old Deuteronomy headed off towards the proper with the two magickal cats in tow.

Once again, there was an almighty crash and everyone stood and stared, as those who usually made that noise were all there and accounted for. The twins were in plain sight and Macavity was sitting on Pounce’s chair watching.

Just then Maruman stumbled out into the proper swearing softly and limping. He hissed loudly and everyone scattered.

Jelly sat down beside Gus and held his paw, tears streaming down her face as one by one their children came and said goodbye to their father.

Everyone who had a mate found them and was in tactile contact with them as they all watched Jelly and Old Deuteronomy help Gus up onto the tyre. It ascended and the divine paw of the Everlasting cat came out of the sky and lifted Old gus up to the heaviside layer.

After singing the Addressing of Cats, those who had humans went home to them. The others piled up in the proper and curled around each other, they slept.

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