Care Curio

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

Faith stopped along the central walkway leading to their schoolhouse, her thumbs hooking under her backpack's straps, her eyes flashing wide, and her fancy crestfallen by this shocking revelation. “Wait, what?” she asked.

Lucy glanced alongside her path and seemed to only just realize Faith was no longer there. She leisurely turned back, continuing to slurp through the straw of her raised cup until she found her missing friend. She pushed her square-framed glasses up with her knuckle. “What?”

Despite running late, this was too big for Faith to forget. “You said a cat died. What cat?”

Lucy shrugged and then turned to climb the steps.

Faith caught up and hooked her elbow. “Just hang on! Lucy, you can’t just drop a bomb on me like that and not say what happened! What cat? Where did this happen? And when? Could no one save it? Where was everyone?”

“I don’t know. The cat. That’s all I know.”

“You mean, that was his name? Or hers? Wait, if ‘The’ was a name, maybe it’s actually The the cat? Or just The, you know? And just who is this ‘Curiosity?’ Oh, wait! Maybe someone’s curiosity led to The’s death!” Her eyes widened, her fingertips bounding from her brow to emphasize each mind-blowing revelation.

Lucy narrowed her eyes. “You’re weird.”

“Me? It’s not my fault, I didn’t know. I just found out! Why isn’t anyone talking about this?”

Brrring! called first bell

They grabbed their pack straps and barreled through the entrance.

Later that week.

Faith browsed the net on a library computer. She skimmed random fashion articles, gawking at images rather than reading. Her eyes swelled on spying a shirt. It was pink and sparkled and there was glitter and it was awesome. Seriously. Its block-lettered logo read ‘Dazzle’ while appropriately filled with pink glitter. Who wouldn’t want that? she thought while mentally claiming it and scrolling to find its price.

“That’s curious,” someone said.

“Careful,” Faith said over her shoulder. “That’s deadly.” Her eyes never left her screen, the price soon coming into view.

“What?!” she bellowed, shoving her station, her and her chair sent careening away. “Are they crazy?”

Shh!

Faith looked about, finding a great many leveled glares before she hunkered. Sorry, she mouthed.

Westley, a weedy boy from her history class, peered around at her screen, then met her gaze. “What do you mean?”

“Huh?”

“You said something was deadly.”

Faith’s brow crinkled. “I did? When?”

“Just a minute ago. You told me something was deadly.”

Well, that was impossible, which meant that this was awkward. Westley was a willowy kid who looked like the slightest wind might whisk him away, which was reason enough to never even breathe in his direction. Plus, she hated history, which meant there was some associationary guilt at play here. So, she shrugged.

“Flibbertigibbet,” he said and turned back to his computer.

Rude. Faith scooched back to her keyboard and avoided looking in his direction. She shook her head. *What a curious thing to say. *Her brow crinkled anew. Wait, wasn’t there something I was going to do? ‘Curious.’ Why’s that bugging me?

Then, she had it! Lucy’s cat! Duh!

There had to be some news about this online, so her search began.

After final bell.

Faith spied Lucy departing along the central walkway and ran to catch up. She leaped and then landed right alongside her with a ha!

Lucy oriented on her, but didn’t relinquish the lollipop in her gob, simply narrowing an accusatory glare and leveling it on Faith’s infallible glee.

“‘Care’ did it,” she declared triumphantly. “That’s what it started as, anyway. It was talking about worry. But then evolved into ‘curiosity.’”

Lucy begrudgingly pulled the pop from her mouth. “What are you going on about?”

“The cat.”

“What cat?”

“The cat. The cat. What do you mean ‘what’ cat? This is your freaking cat, Lucy.”

“Don’t be a loon. You know I don’t have a cat.” She narrowed her eyes. “Are you on the drugs? Is this a drug thing?”

Faith threw her hands. “Oh, just forget it.” She clenched her bag straps and walked ahead.

They departed the grounds in silence, but as they turned to pass down the block, Lucy pulled the pop from her mouth again. “How do you kill a cat with care?”

Faith stopped, blinking as Lucy continued down the block. Then, she spun on her heel and returned to the library.

Constraints:

Word Count: 740/750

Genre: Coming of Age

Trope: Disobey This Message