Chapter 1 : The First Change

Written by Silvana

Author's note: The characters in this story are based on Velvedere's Werecats RPG with some ideas Rumblepurr's Jellicle Chronicles. All sections beginning and ending with an asterix (*) are translated to English from French.

Danielle Fauteux was mad. She had just been asked to a party by a VERY handsome guy and her father had said no. "But, Papa, I'm going off to college in the Fall and I want to go to one last party before I have to focus on Finals and all that." Danielle complained, her French accent becoming VERY pronounced.

"I said, no, and that's final!" Jacob Fauteux said and stalked out of the kitchen of their two-story house

Danielle groaned and headed for her dance studio. "At least I don't have to ask permission to go in here." Danielle said to herself as she popped a CD into the stereo system. Out of the hidden speakers came a low, slinky clarinet note, it was the opening note to George Gershwin's `Rhapsody in Blue'. "I love Gershwin, he always has a song to capture my moods." Danielle said to herself as her body started moving to the notes.

Brian Phillips, a 5'11 and 17/18 bleach-blonde 18-year-old with black eyes, wandered around Manhattan Island. He didn't really care where he went, he just needed to think. When he finally looked up he was standing in front of a two-story house. I wonder if anyone's home. He asked himself. He walked up the steps to the wrap- around porch, when he went to knock on the door it opened before he had a chance to knock. In front of him stood a beautiful 5'6 teenage girl with strawberry-blonde hair and sapphire-blue eyes.

"Oh! Um, hello." The girl spoke, her voice had a French accent to it. "My name's Danielle. What's yours?"

"Brian, Brian Phillips." Brian said, holding out a tanned hand.

"Very nice to meet you, Brian." Danielle said, shaking his hand, then looking him up and down. "You look rather warm, would you like to come in?" Danielle motioned behind her into the house.

"Ya know, now that you mention it my throat does feel a little parched." Brian pushed his blonde hair out of his onyx-black eyes as he followed the French girl into the air-conditioned house.

"Where do you live?" Danielle asked as she pulled a pitcher of cold lemonade out of the refrigerator.

"Here and there. I'm an orphan so I get shuffled around a lot. I've lived out on Staton, in the city and here. I like the family I'm with right now so I might stay here." Brian said as he took a glass of lemonade from Danielle.

"Really? That sounds interesting." Danielle's French accent became more pronounced.

"So, how long have you lived in the States." Brian asked, taking a sip of the lemonade and looking around the kitchen. "And what do your parents do to afford this house?"

"I've lived in America for only four years, just before I started high school, I learned English before coming over. My father is the owner of a VERY successful French restaurant, he was a chef back in Toulouse but he didn't do all that well. Then a friend of his that lives out here told him that New Yorkers like different kinds of cuisine, so he decided to move to America, taking my brother and I with him." Danielle said between sips of lemonade.

"Wow. What about your mom, what does she do?" Brian asked innocently.

"I don't really know. When we left France she owned a chocolatarie but the town she was in didn't like her business." Danielle said, sadness turning her blue eyes green.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Brian said. After a few minutes of silence he asked, "What's a chocolatarie?"

"I'm sorry, sometimes my French gets mixed in. It's a chocolate shop. I would visit her on the weekends and help her around the shop, but she had an assistant so when we left I don't think I was missed." Danielle said.

"Of course she misses you, you're her daughter." Brian said, taking one of Danielle's slender hands.

"Merci. You are very kind." Danielle said, a bright smile dazzling Brian.

"You're welcome. It's hard not to be kind to a beautiful girl." Brian said with a shy smile.

"Careful or I might just ask out such a handsome gentleman." Danielle said flirtatiously, feeling more at ease with the young man.

Brian blushed underneath his tan. "Not if I ask you first. Danielle, I would really enjoy getting to know you better. Would you like to go out with me tonight?"

"Ou�." Danielle answered, the smile staying on her face.

"I'll pick you up at seven, then." Brian said, starting to stand up.

"Would you like the grande tour?" Danielle asked with a mischievous glint in her blue eyes.

"Sure. Just no funny business." Brian said, an equally mischievous glint in his black eyes.

Danielle stood and, after taking one of Brian's hands, took him on a tour of the large house, ending with her dance studio. "Would you like to dance?" Danielle asked, walking over to the stereo system and turned on a slow-dance song.

"Well, okay, but I'll warn you, I'm not that great a dancer." Brian said reluctantly.

"I'll teach you." Danielle said with a smile, guiding Brian out onto the floor.

"Whatever you say, Master." Brian said, adding a flourish to the Master.

Danielle just grinned at the taller teen. "Now put your hands on my hips." Danielle instructed as she guided his hands from their position at his sides. Once his hands were properly situated, Danielle put her slender arms around his neck and intertwined her fingers. "Now, just move to the music." Danielle told him as her hips started to sway to the soft beat of the music.

When Jeffery Fauteux got home he heard music coming from Danielle's dance studio. "Hm, maybe I can get her to let me do some exercises for the next Festival." Jeffrey said to himself as he took the stairs two at a time. Since his bedroom was next to the studio he dropped his books off in his bedroom. Once that was finished he padded to the studio and peered through the window in the door, seeing Danielle inside, dancing with a strange guy, he burst into the studio, practically leapt across the room and tackled Brian onto the floor. "WHO ARE YOU?!" Jeffrey yelled at Brian.

"Jeff! Get off! He's a friend." Danielle cried, rushing over to the struggling boys and tried to push the larger, 6'2, Jeffrey off of Brian.

"How do you know he's not one of them?" Jeffrey asked, referring to rapists.

"Jeff!" Danielle warned.

"Sorry." Jeffrey said, getting off the small man.

"You better be," Brian said, straightening his clothes and smoothing back his chin length hair and wiped at a cut on his forehead.

"He is." Danielle reassured Brian. "Come on, I'll wash that cut." Danielle guided Brian down the hall to the bathroom. After cleaning the cut and putting bandage on it she smiled. "I'm sorry for how my brother reacted. He and Papa are rather protective of me."

"Why? You seem capable of taking care of yourself." Brian asked, taking Danielle's hands in his own.

"I know that and you know that but they know that but won't believe it." Danielle's blue eyes took on a faraway look. "All they see is a five year old frightened girl."

"What happened when you were five?" Brian asked. When Danielle tried to take her hands from his, he held on. "Please? Tell me?"

"Alright. But I'd prefer somewhere more comfortable." Danielle replied, pulling Brian to his feet and guiding him into her bedroom and over to a lavender-upholstered couch.

"You like lavender don't you?" Brian joked.

"Yes, it's one of my favourite colours." Danielle said, her blue eyes watching her hands toying with a fuzzy lavender pillow.

"You gonna tell me or not?" Brian asked, lifting her chin up so she would look into his eyes.

Danielle sighed. "When I was five, we all lived in a little town South of Toulouse, the same town that my mother still lives in. Mama rented space for the chocolatarie then and Papa rented space for a restaurant next door. Nearly everyone in the town hated us, just because we were different. Only Mama's assistant, Papa's employees and the actual owner of the spaces actually accepted us. All together, that was only about twenty people in a town with a population with about a hundred and fifty. Anyways. I think the mayor hired a man to come and rob the stores. There was an apartment above the two spaces that my family lived in. Mama had taught me how to make hot cocoa so I went downstairs to make some. I was just about to go out into the chocolatarie when a man dressed in all black grabbed me from behind. I was just about to scream when he said in this really deep voice `Make a sound and your family dies.' I love my family and I didn't want anything to happen to them so I didn't say anything. He forced me onto the floor, untied the belt on my robe, then ripped open my nightgown and pulled off my underwear. Then he�" Danielle broke down there and couldn't tell any more of her story.

"Shhh, I can figure it out from there. Shhh." Brian said, pulling Danielle into his arms and comforting her.

*When Jacob got home from work, Jeffrey approached him. "Papa, I'm worried about Danielle."

"Why, my son?" Jacob asked, walking into the den and sitting down at the computer.

"When I got home from school she was dancing with a strange boy in the dance studio. I don't think he's a vampire but I don't know. I know there are a few Vampires with tanned skin but�." Jeffrey got no further, because his father was already up and going up the stairs two at a time with Jeffrey at his heels. When he got to the landing he headed straight for Danielle's bedroom. The door was standing wide open so he just walked in. When he entered he looked around and spotted Danielle and Brian asleep on the couch. "Be nice, Papa, Danielle seems to really like this guy." Jeffrey whispered the warning to his father as they padded over to the couch.*

Since Danielle was the closest Jacob woke her up first. "Dani?" Jacob asked, shaking the 17-year-old's shoulder.

"Hi, Papa." Danielle said calmly, and then she saw Brian. "PAPA!" Danielle exclaimed, waking Brian up.

"Oops." Brian said, sitting up. "We're in deep trouble."

"That's right young man." Jacob answered. "Now, kindly tell me your name." Jacob ordered calmly.

"Brian Phillips." Brian answered nervously.

"Brian, tell me the truth plaire, what were you doing with my daughter?" Jacob asked, starting to pace in front of the couch.

"She told me about what happened to her when she was five, but broke down in tears before she could finish, I gave her a shoulder to cry on and I guess we fell asleep." Brian answered, not bothering to ask what plaire meant.

"It's true, Papa. We didn't do anything, you know I want to save myself for when I am mat- I mean married." Danielle said, hastily trying to cover the mistake that bewildered Brian.

"Alright. I believe you, but try not to let it happen again." Jacob said, then calmly left the room, leaving Brian sitting with his mouth open.

"Close you mouth Brian, you aren't a codfish." Jeffrey commented before leaving.

Danielle looked at the clock above her bed. "Darn. Well, I guess going out is ruled out." Danielle pointed at the clock.

"Darn." Brian said, looking at the clock. "9:15 in the evening. My curfew is 11:00 on school nights. Oh well." Brian sniffed the air. "Something smells good though."

"Papa must've had a light day at work. He only cooks on light days. The rest of the time he either picks something up or Jeff and I do dinner." Danielle said, taking Brian's hand and taking him downstairs into the kitchen where Jacob was cooking. Once Brian was seated on a stool at the island in the middle of the kitchen Danielle walked over to her father to see what he was cooking. "Light day at work, Papa?" Danielle asked, standing on her tip-toes to kiss her father on the cheek but he still had to stoop a little.

"Yes, we got another cook so it looks like I'll just be advising for a while." Jacob shook his salt-and-pepper head. "Oh well, I'll be turning the restaurant over to Jeff in about ten years anyways."

"You guys don't have any servants in this big house?" Brian asked.

"What do we need servants for? We're perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves." Danielle answered as an almost all black cat slithered around her ankles. "Go bug Brian, Nighters."

"Who are you talking to?" Brian asked.

"One of our cats." Danielle answered as `Nighters', actually named Nightstalker, started to meow at Brian's feet. "He wants you to pick him up."

Brian reached down and picked up the black cat. "What's his name?" Brian asked, stroking the cat's back.

"His actual name is Nightstalker, but we call him Nighters." Jacob explained, starting to like the younger man.

"It looks like he has a mane." Brian commented.

"Look on his chest." Danielle said, grabbing a basket, opening the door leading outside and stepping out, leaving the door open.

Brian was about to follow her but Jacob motioned for him to sit. "She won't be gone long, she just went to get some fresh fruit from our trees and plants."

Brian sat back down then looked at Nightstalker's chest. "What is that? It looks like a red rose."

"It's called a rosette. We call him Nightstalker because at night you can hardly see him. Sometimes it seems as if he just blends in with the shadows." Jacob said, a slight quirk at the corner of his mouth. Unbeknownst to Brian, Nightstalker was glaring at Jacob.

"PAPA!!" Danielle yelled from outside, terror in her voice. Both men looked at each other then tore outside. "PAPA!!" Danielle yelled again, the men followed the voice to a far corner of the yard near some raspberry bushes. In front of her was a werewolf.

Brian froze. "What is that?" Brian asked, terror in his voice. He didn't get an answer because all of a sudden to blurs of tan and black went past him. The two blurs jumped onto the werewolf's back and started yowling, hissing, clawing and biting while Brian stared in horror. Once the werewolf was lying on the ground, dead, the trio turned to Brian who stood there, his usually tan face pale. "What are you?"

Danielle walked towards Brian, or at least Brian thought it was Danielle, it was silver with a red mane and red rosettes on her forearms and on her lower legs, her `hair' was mostly silver with red streaks in it, her eyes were almost the same lavender as the paint in Danielle's room. "What's wrong Brian?" It spoke to him in Danielle's voice and when she opened her mouth it revealed sharp teeth. Danielle looked down at her hands and screamed, then fainted.

"Say what?!" Brian asked. Jacob, Jeffrey, Brian and Danielle were in Danielle's room, she was unconscious with her head in Brian's lap, but she had returned to her Human form.

"We are what most people would call werecats but we prefer Jellicles. If a Jellicle is conceived in Human form they don't know about it until an emotional event or the ageing process causes them to turn into a Jellicle. Last year Jeffrey Changed but Danielle didn't know about it. Jeff and I have had to keep it a secret until she Changed herself." Jacob answered, still in his Jellicle form.

"So you can change from Humans, to Jellicles, to houscats?" Brian asked, unconsciously smoothing Danielle's hair.

"Yes, we also have a different name as Jellicles or Housecats, they are called Dignified names. My name as a Jellicle is Maahes and you learned Jeff's earlier." Jacob answered.

"Nightstalker?" Brian asked, looking at Jeff. Jeff just nodded his answer. "So how many are there? Jellicles or whatever you're called."

"In our Tribe there are about 50 or more. Some live as Housecats others live as Humans. There are some that we call Gifted, meaning they have a specialty, such as Demeter, our First Queen, is a Seeress, she can see into the future through dreams. Others have magic specialties; such as Cassandra has the ability to read minds. From what I've learned from Deme, Danielle has the ability to hid from non-magical Jellicles, teleport from place to place and read minds." Jeffrey answered, his dark blue eyes shining with pride for his sister.

"Why are you all so different? I mean, the only similarity is that both Dani and Jeff have red." Brian said, motioning from sister to brother.

"My mother was a lot like Danielle the only difference was that she was mostly black with silver as a base for the red rosettes with purple eyes." Jeffrey answered, changing into his Human form, when he emerged he wore the t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes he was wearing before.

"Does Danielle have a Dignified name?" Brian asked, unaware that Danielle had been awake during their entire conversation but had had her eyes closed.

"Silvana." She suddenly said, causing all the men to jump.

"Why, yes. How'd you guess?" Jacob asked.

"It's the name I would've picked." She answered as she struggled into a sitting position.

"How do you feel?" Brian asked, concern showing on his tanned face.

"Just a little overwhelmed." Danielle said, rubbing her temples.

"Migraine?" Jacob asked, changing into his Human form.

"Yeah. I just need to take my Midrin." Danielle said, standing up and heading for her vanity. She grabbed a small bottle, shook out two pills and took the pills after grabbing and opening the, apparently ever-present, water bottle. "I'll be fine in a little while."

"Jelly told me that this might happen." Jacob said, shaking his head.

"Who's Jelly?" Danielle and Brian asked at the same time.

"She is one of the Healers of the Tribe. We have two working Healers, the second is named Tailkinker, an in-training Healer, Althea, and a yet-to-be born Healer, Angel." Jeffrey answered for his father.

"Wow." The duo answered in unison.

"Is there any way I can find out if I'm a Jellicle?" Brian asked as Danielle sat down on the couch next to him.

"Yes." Jacob said, walking over to Brian. "Stand up please." When Brian did Jacob motioned for him to turn around, so Brian did. "Relax, this won't hurt a bit. You might be a little disoriented but that's natural." Jacob reassured the teenager as he placed a hand on Brian's back and muttered an incantation then in a shower of silver, in Brian's place stood a tan and black maned tom. He looked almost exactly like Danielle except where she was silver, he was black, where she had red rosettes, he had leopard spots, and instead of a red mane he had a tan one, his eyes were a deep purple, almost black.

Brian stared down at his hands. "Wow. I didn't think I was like this. I mean, I always was a little different from the other kids, but I always thought it was from being in so many foster homes." Brian walked over to the full length mirror that hung in Danielle's closet door and examined himself and toyed with a large curl in his mane that came down about an inch and a half onto his forehead.

"There's something both of you need to understand, you HAVE to be careful. You never know who is a vampire or werewolf or not. PLUS, do not tell a single soul outside of the Jellicles who you really are. Human-Jellicle relationships are widely frowned upon in the Jellicle Community." Jacob said, watching his daughter, who had changed into Silvana, walk over to Brian.

"So, what's your Dignified name?" Silvana asked, her silver and red arms snaking around his waist.

"Rum Tum Tugger." The taller Jellicle said, turning around in Silvana's and kissing her.

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