After a few days, I fell into a sort of routine, waking up to eagerly wait for my king’s breakfast, then watching the news and any other daytime show that seemed vaguely watchable. It seemed that much hadn’t changed with day time television, it was as pandering, cliché, and mind-numbing as it has always been. The most interesting parts of the line up where the various game shows that all ran on the same premise of giving away fabulous trips, cars, and money to the contestants. It was sometimes entertaining to watch and theorize just how the games were rigged so that the final winner was always so tantalizingly close to winning something amazing, only to have them going home with a consolation prize. Of course that meant most of the time I was barely conscious of the TV while she was gone, I used the time mostly to let the cat side of my brain wander, grooming meticulously like it wanted while I thought my way through plan after plan about how to set up a new ritual space.

Whatever I decided, I had to be secretive in what I was doing. I needed the apartment and the ritual items in it to help me, so if I got caught by another tenant or the landlord, I would likely be thrown out and be back to where I started or, even worse, I would be thrown into an animal shelter. Using the worn weave of the couch and an extended claw to fray the fabric just slightly to make a mark, I began to calculate when the next closest chance would be for a successful ritual. It was difficult to do given that I had no calculator or moon chart handy, but my estimations landed on a possibility approximately four weeks away. I was shocked that it was so soon, but if I could count on proper ritualistic equipment, it would be just close enough to work. I was elated, though that meant I would have to figure out a plan for the physical problem of moving the equipment and sooner than I had assumed. I supposed a bag of some sort wrapped around my neck might work, though that had the problem of attracting attention as I clanked down the stairs. Plus, I would have to figure out a way to get the ritual items without Rachael knowing what I was doing. I didn’t know what she would make of her cat suddenly taking interest in hoarding her belongings, but I figured no matter the response, she wouldn’t let me just take her things and let me out the door.

The door lock rattled, startling me, I had completely lost track of time during my grooming and plan session, the evening news already coming on the screen. I froze, tongue still hanging out of my mouth and my back left leg extended at an odd angle. The door swung open and Rachael stood in the doorway, her eyes swinging over to me as an amused smile appeared on her face.

“Did I leave the TV on?” she said with a light chuckle. “Well I guess I’m glad you were entertained today.”

Unfreezing enough to reel in my tongue and retract my leg, I let out a low meow.

Rachael meowed back, very poorly to my cat ears, then ruffled the fur between my ears and then set her backpack on the couch next to me. She let out a tired yawn and shuffled to the kitchen, I followed knowing that it was time for my evening meal. It still disgusted me to think of what was actually in those cans, probably horse ankles and opossum lips, but I also couldn’t deny that I looked forward to it all day.

“Here you go,” Rachael said, placing the open can in front of me on the counter, “hope you like ham and cheese.”

I purred deeply while I wolfed it down, disturbingly enjoying it despite the fact that I was certain that the mashed meat in the can tasted a little too much like the back end of the pig.

“Good,” she giggled, running her hand down my back. “We have people coming over tonight, so I hope you won’t be to spooked by having a few people around.”

Pausing a moment from my less than graceful eating, I let out a questioning meow and looked at her. Our routine had not deviated at all since she took me in, though I supposed that it would be my first weekend with her. She said nothing more and continued stroking my back as I went back to eating. I really wished that there was some way to actually communicate to her, but I had long given up on that idea once I realized that cats weren’t exactly adept at sign language or writing anything with their clumsy paws.

After my dinner, Rachael picked up what little was out of place in the apartment and pulled down a couple bag of chips she had hidden above the fridge. Along with the chips, she pulled a folding card table from behind the couch that looked like it had to have been purchased from a garage sale, its legs had lost their paint a lot time ago and a chunk of one of the corners was missing. I unhelpfully sat in the middle of it as soon as it was set in place thanks to another unstoppable cat whim.

The first knock at the door came around 6 pm, a group of girls that I had never seen before in the quad and I would think that I would have recognized them. The four of them were what I would call “goth,” with dyed hair in black, turquoise, blue, and bright magenta. Along with their hair, they each had several facial piercings a piece and dark clothing from bands I hadn’t heard of, but could tell by their imagery were either some form of punk or metal.

“Hi, I’m Rachael!” my owner greeted while motioning for them to sit on the couch. “Glad you could make it, make yourself at home, please.”

The four girls sat on the couch, stuffing themselves together despite the fact that the couch only really seated three comfortably. They looked around the apartment, obviously having expected to see something different.

“We won’t always be meeting here,” Rachael said with a nervous laugh, “I just couldn’t get a room in the union and Connie and I wanted to get the meetings started.”

“That’s okay,” the girl with the bright magenta hair said, “we just thought it was a little weird that the signs for a campus club told us to come to a random apartment. We came as a group just in case it was something sketchy.”

“Oh,” Rachael said, face flushing slightly, “I didn’t even think about that! I can see how that would have looked strange.”

“It’s no problem, the name’s Allie, by the way. My friends are Dawn, Jenny, and Alice,” she said, pointing at the girls with blue, black, and turquoise hair in order.

“Nice to meet you all!” Rachael waved at them timidly, then set her hand on my back. “This is my cat, Teddy. He can be sort of a mascot for tonight.”

“Is he your familiar?” Jenny asked, extending her hand so that I could sniff it.

“Oh, uh, no,” Rachael stuttered, “well… I guess I don’t really know.”

I turned my head away from Jenny and to Rachael. I hadn’t even considered the possibility. I had, of course, heard of magic users who used familiars, though it was often dangerous due to the unpredictable nature of animals. Cats were the typical stereotype for a familiar, though very few people had them for actual practice, too headstrong and susceptible to wandering away in spite of how well trained they are.

“You should try it out and see,” Jenny continued, “you might have a powerful magical tool right in front of you.”

Rachael looked at me with hope in her eyes. It made me feel bad that I was not actually a cat who could be her familiar. I supposed that I could try to pretend, play the part while I could, but it would ultimately end in disappointment, so I didn’t know if it would be fair to her. Though it might be a fun story to tell later when I got back to my real form, it sounded like a great premise for a book.

Another knock at the door, Rachael stepped over to open the door and Connie stepped in, wide smile on her face.

“Wow, people actually showed up!” Connie exclaimed. She went to each person on the couch and shook their hands while they told her their names. “I honestly thought it would just be me, Rachael, and Teddy tonight. I had a whole ‘people might show up next time’ speech ready.”

“Nah,” Dawn said as she swept an errant piece of her blue hair back behind her ear, “there is nothing on campus for pagans. There used to be a group a couple years ago, but they eventually died out. There’s something about pagans that tends to make us flakes. I think it’s because we’re so laid back with things that we just kind of don’t end up caring enough to keep the groups stuck together.”

“Yeah I remember that group,” Connie said, a thoughtful look on her face, “I was so excited to join in when I got to campus, then it just disappeared as an option as soon as I got here. I was so bummed out.”

“My older sister was in it,” Dawn sighed, “but when she left the year before me, that was pretty much it. She was the one holding it together and without her, it just dissolved and stopped meeting.”

“Well we’re going to get this group going and hopefully we won’t get it go the same way,” Rachael said. “So welcome to the first meeting of Brooms and Baubles!”

The first part of the meeting was the boring, new meeting stuff where they went over rules and getting to know each other. I really wasn’t paying attention and mostly dozed in and out of consciousness curled up on the table. I didn’t really become fully conscious until Rachael gently lifted me from the table so they could set up the séance board. I wished that cats had something similar to laughing, because the idea that a group of aspiring magic users relying on a toy and gimmick for real results was absurd. Though I supposed that I shouldn’t be too hard on them, I had too been young once and naive about what magic was and how it worked.

“Who wants to go first?” Connie asked once the board was set up. “One of us must have a burning question.”

“I have one,” Allie said with a smirk. “Will I pass my chemistry class this semester?”

“Come on, Allie,” Jenny groaned, “that isn’t the kind of question to ask the board.”

“Why not?” Allie asked. “I want to know.”

Jenny shook her head, but put her hand on the triangular device used to spell out words from the alphabet printed on the board. The other girls followed her example until they were all touching the planchette. They let out a gasp as it began to move, as predictably it always would, and began to spell out S-T-U-D-Y. The girls erupted into laughter while I rolled my eyes as best I could manage. The next question was asked and “answered,” then another, and another, until they all had an uneasy look on their faces.

“I think I’m done with this for now,” Rachael said, backing away from it a little.

“Oh come on, it’s just fun,” Connie said, “it’s not like it’s real.”

“Don’t say that,” Allie cautioned, giving an uneasy glance to the board. “I heard that some girls started making fun of the board and then they suddenly started getting answers from demons and being haunted.”

A sniffing laugh tried to exit from my nose, but instead all that came out sounded like a sneeze.