CATS 20th Anniversary Tou

Chapter 1: Auditions

Written by Silvana and Tailkinker

*Author's Note: this takes place before the closing of CATS on Broadway.

Fiona MacDougall was rudely awakened by the shrilling telephone. After fumbling around a bit, she found the phone. "'lo?"

"Hi, Fi. Sorry to wake you."

"Maxie?" Maxie Elston was Fiona's agent.

"Yeah. Who else calls you Fi?" Maxie retorted.

"My roomate," Fiona yawned. "What've you got for me?"

"Winter Garden at noon today," Maxie told her.

"CATS?" Fiona was wide awake now. "But I thought they didn't need performers."

"No, no, no," Maxie replied. "As you know, the 20th Anniversary of CATS is coming up."

"Duh," Fiona yawned again. "So?"

"Well, touring troupes are being assembled all over the globe to celebrate it," Maxie informed Fiona.

"Including the US," Fiona supplied.

"Yep," Maxie confirmed. "And the closest audition site for you is the Winter Garden Theater."

"Okay," Fiona pushed back the covers. "I'll be there."

"Good," Maxie answered. "'Bye."

"'Bye," Fiona cradled the phone and stretched. Stifling another yawn, Fiona padded into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee.

"Hi, Fi," her roomate chirped.

"Hi, Dani," she responded, still tired.

"Who was that on the phone?" Danielle asked. Danielle Fauteux is a purebred French maid with strawberry blonde knee-length hair and striking sea green eyes.

"Maxie," Fiona answered, grabbing a mug off a hook above the stove and pouring steaming hot coffee into it and adding hot cocoa mix to the coffee.

"Figures. I just got off my phone with Charlotte," Danielle answered, grabbing her own mug, but, instead of putting hot cocoa into her coffee, she added french vanilla creamer.

"Winter Garden?" Fiona asked, rubbing her tongue on her upper teeth to make them stop burning.

"Yep," Danielle answered, opening the front door to the small condo and grabbing the newspaper.

"Who're ya gonna try out for?" Fiona asked, grabbing the comics section and heading for the dance room with the other woman trailing her. When Fiona didn't get an answer she sighed and apologized. "Sorry, Dani. I slip sometimes. Who are you going to try out for?"

"I understand. I'm trying out for Sillabub/Jemima." Danielle answered, setting her mug on a small table by the door and, after putting a tape in the stereo system, started stretching while the overture for CATS started. "What about you, ma cherie?" Danielle asked.

"Victoria, you should've known that."

"Oh, yeah." Danielle said, slapping herself on the forehead.

"Come on." Fiona said, pulling her friend up as the overtue ended. "Let's start dancing."

"Hey, Emma! You're agent called," one of Emma Paloma's roomates, Sharon Mitchell, called as the tall bleached blonde entered the apartment.

"Thanks," Emma mumbled as she headed directly for her bedroom. Sharon watched the door close behind her best friend. She turned to the other two women, Paige Nelson and Cassandra Solina. "Do you think we ought to wait 'til she catches up on her beauty sleep to tell her?"

"Well, let's look at the options here," Paige answered. "We could either risk her wrath by depriving her of her sleep or we could let her sleep, blissfully ignorant of the good news."

The three women glanced at each other and grinned. "Let's wake her up," they chorused.

"What?!" Dakota Wolfe yelled in response to the fists thudding on his bedroom door.

"You've got mail!" Frank Williams' voice called through the door.

"Alright, alright," Dakota shoved his blanket aside and stood up. He stumbled over to the door and pulled it open. "What?"

"Nice birthday suit," Adam Gale grinned.

"Aw, shut up," Dakota grabbed the envelope out of Quintin Kartiller's hand and slammed the door in their grinning faces. "I've got the same equipment you three have," he opened the envelope and stared at the handwritten note inside. It was from his agent. About his next auditions. "CATS? YES!!!!"

"Brandon, we get to audition for CATS!" Brenda, Brandon Smith's twin sister told him after hanging up the phone.

"What?" Brandon asked, sulphur yellow eyes wide with surprise. "You've gotta be joking."

"Nope," his twin answered, her own sulphur eyes sparkling with excitement. "That was our agent, Heidi Shuran. She lined up an audition for us at the Karan's Theatre downtown. We need to be there at noon tomorrow."

He pushed himself up off the couch and took the paper his sister held out to him. "Well I'll be hornswoggled," he commented.

"Must you use that form of speech?" Brenda asked, exasperated. She looked up at her brother's impudent expression and chuckled. "All right. You win."

"Since we have auditions tomorrow, don't you think we ought to practice?" Brandon suggested.

"Okay," she disappeared into her bedroom to change into her warm-up clothes while Brandon disappeared into his own room.

"Whew! I'm pooped," Jane Doe flopped onto the floor of the community center's dance room.

"Me, too," John, her twin brother collapsed onto his knees beside her. "I'm glad Mom and Dad are in charge of this and we can use the dance room whenever nobody else isn't."

"Yeah," Jane agreed as she sat up and began doing her cool-down stretches. "Especially since we're auditioning for CATS tomorrow."

"Yep," he began doing cool-down exercises. "Wanna go out for lunch when we're done here?"

"Sure," she answered brightly.

"'Lo?" Cody MacDougall said when he answered the phone.

"Hey, Cod," answered Fiona's voice.

"Ona?" Cody asked, sitting straight up in bed.

"No, it's the Queen of Sheba," Fiona said sarcastically. "'Course it's me."

"Funny," Cody said, standing and running a hand through his blonde hair. "What's up?"

"Not much. I just tried out for CATS an hour ago," Fiona replied casually.

"You *what*?!" Cody cried, stopping dead in his tracks while heading for the kitchen.

"I tried out for CATS an hour ago," Fiona repeated, still casually.

"Let me guess, you tried out for Victoria," Cody guessed, continuing towards the kitchen.

"Who're you talkin' to, Cod?" Cody's father, Andrew MacDougall, asked.

"Ona," Cody replied after covering the mouthpiece.

"Ona?" Andrew glanced at his wife, Cara. "Who's Ona?"

"*Fi*ona," Cara clarified.

"Oh, yeah," Andrew smiled sheepishly. "So, what's the news?"

"Let me get off the phone first," Cody answered.

"So, when are you going to call *your* parents?" Fiona asked Danielle once she was off the communal phone.

"I'm not." Danielle said, stretching out for another round of practicing.

Before Fiona could say anything her's and Danielle's phones rang at almost the same moment. Both women headed for their bedrooms to answer the phone calls.

"I *did*???!!!" both women cried at the same time.

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