Gerome's family was moving. Now this didn't really effect him too much; he lived in a college dorm room, and his parents weren't moving but twenty minutes from the original house. Sure, he lost some of his weekends to help out with the move, but he didn't really care.

No, the transportation of all of the furniture wasn't the worst problem for Gerome - it was Minerva, the family cat the caused the biggest complication. During the last stages of the move, there would be too much chaos for Minerva to stay in either the new or old house.

And so somehow it had been decided that Minerva would stay with Gerome in his dorm room for a weekend. His no-pets-allowed dorm room.

So on a Friday evening, Gerome smuggled the cat into his dorm room while Owain was hanging out with his friends Niles and Leo and Inigo was gone hitting on some girls. If Gerome was to pull this off, then no one was allowed to know about this. No one.

After locking the door, he unzipped the suitcase he had stowed Minerva in. "Welcome to your home for the weekend, Minervykins," he said affectionately as the cat poked her black head out of the suitcase.

He stood up then opened a door to reveal a small closet with little more than a washing and drying machine in it. "For now you can go wherever you want, but you're going to have to stay in here when my room mates are around."

Minerva claimed out of the suitcase and began to sniff the floor.

"Don't worry," Gerome continued. "They won't find you in there, provided you're not too loud. It's my week to do the laundry, so neither of them should have any reason to look in there, Owain least of all. He rarely ever goes in there, even when he's on laundry duty."

Gerome reached down to pet the black cat, and she licked his hand.

"Aw, you're such a little cutiepie. How about you explore a little bit while I set up your food and litter box in the Realm of Garment Rejuvenation."

Gerome sighed and smacked his forehead against the wall when he realized what he'd said. "This is not good," he muttered. "Owain's starting to rub off on me. Owain's one of my two room mates," he explained to Minerva.

"He comes up with the stupidest names for everything. The bathroom, the shower, the microwave, the toaster... Just everything. He named the washing machine closet that you'll be staying in the 'Realm of Garment Rejuvenation.'"

Minerva meowed.

"Yeah, I know. Owain's such a dork. And I have to live with him."

Minerva wandered into the bedroom, so Gerome followed her, still talking.

"Well I guess I should probably tell you about Inigo now that I've somewhat described Owain. Inigo... Where do I start? He's just... He's just..." Gerome let out an exasperated groan. "He's just so social. And what's worse, sometimes he manages to rope me into his antics. Last week, he literally dragged me out of this dorm to be his wingman. That wasn't fun. For either of us."

Gerome sighed and picked Minerva up from where she had curled up on Owain's bed. "Sorry, but I'm going to have to put you in the Realm of Garment Rejuvenation before either of them get back. It probably wouldn't good if they found you. It would be even worse if they heard me talking to you. It wouldn't really affect you, but I would likely die of embarrassment."

He placed her in the washing machine closet and then closed the door. "I'll take you out of there as soon as I can. I've told you this before, but you're a great listener. I love you, Minervykins."

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The next morning during breakfast, Owain sneezed.

"Bless you," Inigo said, ever the polite one. "Are ya feeling alright?"

Owain snorted. "A fearsome warrior of light feeling under the weather? You insult me, peasant." Owain sighed and dropped the theatrics for a moment. "I've been feeling a little bit off this morning. I think allergy season may have started early."

Suddenly, a loud clap of thunder resounded, causing Inigo and Owain to jump in their seats.

"You guys scare so easily"

"Don't act like you didn't tense up, Mr. I'm-so-tough."

"I did no such thing."

"No need to be so defensive. Jeez."

"My incredible senses have informed me that the rain should not let up until the sun bids the earth farewell and leaves the moon in its place to rule."

"Like I would ever trust 'supernatural' senses, Owain," Gerome grunted.

Owain simply held up his phone to reveal that he'd looked up the forecast. "At least an 90% chance of rain until nine o'clock tonight."

"Aw dang it," Inigo muttered. "I was planning on playing some ultimate frisbee with some of my friends later. I guess that's not happening."

"Well, comrades," Owain began to announce, shoving his chair back and standing up dramatically, "Seeing as we now face the dark lord of rainy days, we all know what we must do to conquer it."

"We do?" Gerome question in annoyed tone, cocking an eyebrow. "Leave me out of your schemes, Owain."

"Ha! As expected, you cower in the face of my Smash Bros superiority!" Owain taunted.

"I CALL LINK!!" Inigo yelled, practically leaping over the table in an attempt to get to the TV set first.

--------------------------------

"Although this devastates me, I fear I must retreat to regain my concentration," Owain said, setting down his wii remote and rubbing his eyes. "I'm going to sit this round out," he clarified.

"Who are you and what have you done to Owain?" Inigo questioned, giving the blond a weird look.

"I sense a dark presence somewhere in this dorm room. I know not what it is, but I swear I shall find it and rid this place of it."

"Allergies still acting up?"

"Yup," Owain grumbled, opening and closing various cabinets. "Do we seriously not have any allergy medicine?" He complained, punctuating his point with another sneeze.

"Not sure if we do," Inigo said with a shrug.

"We don't," Gerome confirmed.

"I'll pick some up when I go to the store later," Inigo offered.

"Thanks."

--------------------------------------------

It was a little past midnight on Saturday night, and Gerome was certain that both Inigo and Owain were fast a sleep. Quietly, he climbed down to the floor from his bed on the top bunk and snuck over to the Realm of Garment Rejuvenation.

"Hello, Minervykins. I'm sorry I couldn't give you any attention earlier."

"Minervykins?"

Startled, Gerome spun around to find Inigo standing at the other side of the room, arms crossed and hair a bit messy. Gerome quickly slammed the closet door shut, hoping that it hadn't closed on his precious cat.

"Up at this hour, Inigo? I hope for your sake that you weren't trying to have a midnight feast upon the brownies that I made a few days ago. I made it very clear that I was the only one allowed to eat them, and a good number of them have mysteriously disappeared."

"That was Owain, I only stole two," Inigo said accusingly. "Now who were you talking to?"

"What ever do you mean?"

"Like two seconds ago, you were talking to someone called... 'Minervykins.'" He quickly walked over to where his room mate was standing. "Gerome, what are you hiding in that closet?"

Inigo made a quick grab for the door handle, but Gerome blocked. Inigo tried this again a couple more times, but Gerome made for a surprisingly fast meat shield.

"Gerome," he warned as he tried to dart past his friend, "if you don't open up that door, I'm waking Owain up so we can take you down two vs. one."

Gerome paused for just a moment to consider his options. All in the span of about one second, he threw to door open, picked up Minerva, and shoved her in Inigo's face. "CLAW HIS TONGUE OUT, MINERVA!"

"What the-" Inigo spluttered, taking a cautionary step backward. "Gerome, why is... How... What... When..."

Gerome sighed and pulled Minerva into his chest, stroking her fondly. "If you forget that you ever saw her, I'll forget the part where you confessed to taking two of my brownies."

"How long has she been here," Inigo asked wearily. "Or better yet, why is she here?"

"This never happened."

"Gerome, why is there a cat in our no-pets-allowed dorm?"

"You're not going to stop pestering me about this until I tell you, are you?"

"Nope. Now start talking."

Gerome sighed. "My parents are moving, I had to take her for the weekend."

"And you were planning on telling us this... When?"

"Never."

An awkward silence filled the air.

"So, uh, what's her name?"

"Minerva."

Inigo laughed. "So thats why you said Minervykins earlier! Gerome, a cutesy nickname like that is so unlike you!"

"A cutesy- I-I never called her Minervykins!"

"Yeah, you kinda did," Inigo argued. Gerome was about to retort when Inigo cut him off. "She's a really pretty cat."

"She's a beautiful cat," Gerome corrected.

"Fine, fine. A beautiful cat. You know, I never really pegged you as a cat person. ...or even an animal person."

"Minervykins is special."

"Ha! So you do call her Minervykins!"

Gerome felt some color go to his cheeks. "I... Well... Minerva, let us just ignore this fool and go to bed."

"Gerome, wait!"

---------------------------------------------

That morning, Gerome awoke to Minerva licking his nose. He glanced around and saw that Owain's bed was empty. "Hey are you up, Inigo?"

"Yup," came the response from the lower bunk.

Holding Minerva tightly in his right hand, he carefully climbed down the ladder and wandered in to the living area to find Owain sprawled out on the couch.

"Gerome," he said somewhat sturdily while staring at the ceiling. "I'm convinced that there's a dark entity in this dorm room."

Then Owain turned his head and looked at Gerome and Minerva. He paled then scrambled to his feet. "DEMON!!!!!!! GEROME, LOOK OUT!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE'S A DEMON IN YOUR ARMS!!!!!!!!!!"

"Excuse me," Gerome huffed. "Did you just call my cute little Minervykins a demon!? MINERVA, RIP HIS THROAT OUT!!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" Owain screamed as Gerome advanced towards him, Minerva in his arms. "KEEP IT AWAY FROM MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He jumped onto the kitchen counter and began trying to kick Gerome away.

"Guys, stop!!" Inigo yelled, throwing himself in the line of fire. "Gerome, stop trying to get Minerva to maul Owain. Owain, get off the counter and stop kicking Gerome.

Owain sneezed. "I'm allergic to cats, so GET IT AWAY FROM ME!!!!!!"

Gerome placed her back in the Realm of Garment Rejuvenation while Inigo pulled out the Benadryl he'd bought the day before and gave it to Owain, who quickly took two pills.

"Gerome, why did you do this to me?" Owain grumbled.

"My parents are moving, I had to take her for the weekend."

"Well the weekend is pretty much over, so she can go now, right?" Inigo reasoned. "Just put-"

Inigo was cut off by yelling in the hallway just outside their dorm. "NO, I'M NOT JUST MAKING THIS UP!!!!!!! I'M POSITIVE THAT SOMEONE IN THE BOYS' DORM BROUGHT AN ANIMAL OF SOME SORT INTO THE BUILDING!!!!!!!"

Gerome quickly ran over to the door and pressed his ear against it to hear the rest of the conversation.

"Mr. Wayward, are you absolutely certain about this?"

"Of course I am," the first man, Mr. Wayward the war history teacher, scoffed. "Do I really need to go over this again? For today, I want all bags to be checked. And tomorrow morning, I want a security search of the dorms to be done. ....oh come on. Don't give me look, it's about time to do another one anyway."

The other man (the headmaster, Gerome realized) sighed. "All right, all right. You haven't been wrong about this sort of this thing before, so consider it done. However, should you turn out to be wrong, I won't look into your next hunch without definite evidence. Am I clear?"

"Of course."

"If that's the case, then I will radio security to check people as they leave."

Gerome pulled away from the door. "Well," he said, "we're going to have to get her out tonight."

"With the right connections and allies, the impossible can be managed."

"English, Owain."

Owain grinned. "In other words, I know a guy."

To be continued...

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-Scatter