We give Hailey a big hug after which Carol and I head back to our girlfriends. When we enter the uni’s extensive park we can already see them in the distance, standing by the kiosk. Max looks completely exhausted.

“Is everything okay?” I ask when I come closer.

“Hmm? Okay with what?” Sam slightly tilts her head.

I point at Max.

“Ah, with that.” She pats her friend on the back with a smile. “Meetings are not Max’s native habitat.”

“It was so boring. You just can’t believe how pointless that meeting was.” Max quickly gives Carol a hug to recharge some of her energy.

“Was it that bad?” Carol smiles, clearly not disliking the attention.

“The coach had hired some people to come and discuss some kind of new age training method with charts and weird stuff.” Sam explains.

“Charts and weird stuff?” It’s my turn to tilt my head.

“She doesn’t know either, Amicia. Sam fell asleep while they were talking. At least I managed to stay awake.”

“Sam!”

Sam sticks out her tongue at me. “Look, it really wasn’t interesting. Even the coach said she’d made a mistake afterwards. It will earn us some free hotdogs after next game, so at least something positive came out of it.”

“I take it girlfriends are not included in that deal?”

“Nope.” Sam smiles and rubs her hand through my hair. “Anyway, enough about boring meetings, how was your time at the arcade?”

“Where do I start?” I smile as Carol and I start talking about our little adventure.

“As expected from my amazing amazingly cute girlfriend.” Sam gives me a hug. “Immediately getting the high score on something. Next time we should go together.”

“I agree.” Max nods. “It sounds like a fun place.”

Carol yawns. “Anyhow, I think I should get going now, I’m actually pretty tired from staring at those old screens.”

“Let me get this future catgirl home.” Max laughs.

“Oh!” I interrupt them before they leave us. “Talking about future catgirls, Gamma came to pay us a visit too. I think I forgot to message you about that.”

“Gamma? Why?” Sam asks.

I explain the choker situation to Max and Sam.

“Ah, so your sis didn’t have to worry about the choker at all.”

“Yeah.” I nod. “Though I’m still a bit sad that I don’t have one of those.”

“I can still buy you some chokers if you want, they won’t be magical though. Maybe I’ll get a couple with a little cute cat bell.”

“Sam!” I start blushing profusely.

“Oh, Carol, let’s go before they start discussing even more adult things.” Max gives us a wink.

“Hey, it was just getting interesting!” Carol chuckles.

“Shush, you, or I’ll call Gamma to add a permanent little cat bell to yours.” I pout, my cheeks still a certain shade of red.

Now Carol starts to blush too. My threat must’ve been realistic enough for Carol to reconsider her next course of action.

“Yeah, I thought so.” I continue with pouting.

“Now, now, Ami, don’t be so vindictive.” Sam chuckles.

“I’m apparently the Goddess of Vengeance after all. Might as well act like it.” I cross my arms and stick out my tongue.

“Well, at least it’s cute. So I’ll take it.” She gives me a kiss on the cheek.

“We’ll leave you to your own devices for now.” Max laughs. “It’s time for us to go.” She then lowers her voice. “But I definitely wouldn’t mind you calling in that cat bell favor.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Carol prods Max in her side to which Max starts laughing even louder.

“See ya tomorrow?” Sam asks.

“Yep, as long as a certain catgirl to be doesn’t murder me.”

“I’ll try not to.” Carol nods. “But before we go. Are you girls going to play Turn of Destiny today?”

“No, probably not.” I shake my head. “I kind of wanted to take a break since we’ve been at it for a while.”

“Fair enough.” Carol smiles. “But I want to meet you in that world one day as well.”

“We’ll meet up soon enough.” Sam nods.

“We’ll hold you to that.” Max smiles and waves us goodbye. Carol does the same.

“See you!’ I wave them off as they head in the opposite direction of where we have to go.”

“And now it’s only the two of us left.” Sam states as we see Carol and Max disappear in the distance. “Want to go home now?”

“Yep, I’m starting to get hungry again.”

“Already? Didn’t you say you just ate a pizza?”

“It was a small pizza.” I pout yet again. “That was more like a snack.”

Sam chuckles. “Alright then. Let’s get you home before you start digesting your own stomach.”

“Yes!”

Sam smiles and takes my hand into hers, after which she gives me a kiss. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

We start walking through the uni grounds as we need to be on the other side to take the tram. Just when we are about to get halfway to our destination, my phone starts buzzing yet again.

“Wait a sec, Sam. I think someone’s calling me.”

Sam nods and stops holding my hand so I can get my phone.

Apparently it’s my sister who’s calling me.

“Hey sis.” I say as I pick up the phone.

“Hey Ami, are Sam and you home right now?”

“No, Sam had a meeting so we are just about to take the tram home now.”

“Oh, that’s actually pretty good news. Would you two mind passing by the grocery shop to get some food? Nikki, Hilda and I got held up at work so we haven’t had any time yet to go by a store.”

I look at Sam. “Do you want to go past the store real fast? My sister and Nikki haven’t been able to go to one yet.”

“Yeah, sure, what do they need?”

“What food do we need to bring?” I parrot Sam’s question.

“Nikki and I were thinking about spinach fish sticks with mashed potatoes. Are you two okay with that?”

I parrot the question back at Sam, she confirms with a smile and a nod.

“Yep, sounds okay for us.”

“Cool, could you take enough for five people? Hilda is coming over for food too.”

“Sure thing!”

“Alright, we’ll be home in an hour or so. See ya later, Sis.”

“See you.” I hang up the phone. “To the store we go.” I put my phone away and take my girlfriend’s hand again.

“Okay, let’s make sure we don’t miss the next tram then.”

We get to the tram stop just in time and it takes us all the way back home. We get off a stop early so we can pass the store on our way to the apartment. Slowly but surely the sun is already setting as we walk through the automatic sliding doors. The store’s rush hour had already come and gone so there weren’t many people present which makes shopping for food a lot more comfortable.

In no-time we beep our way past the self-checkout cash registers with our newly acquired spinach filled fish-sticks and a small sack of potatoes. We also decide to get some bread sticks with some tomato-based dip sauces. Just a little treat for when we want to eat a snack.

With our groceries now in hand we walk the rest of the way towards the apartment being met by a couple of hungry kitties when we open the door. None of the lights are lit inside so Sam starts turning on a couple while I pay attention to my feline siblings.

“There you go, a couple good skin scratches for Pocky and Mocchi. Yes, you like that don’t you?” I smile as both of the kitties meow happily at me. “Sorry that we stayed out for so long.”

Pocky meows, telling me that it doesn’t really matter, that they had been sleeping around and playing a bit by themselves.

“Mhmm. Cuties.” I pat both of the cats.

“Hey, Ami, should we already start cooking? Or should we wait until they get home?”

“Yeah, let’s get started already.” I stand up from my cat-petting position and head towards one of the cabinets to get a baggy of catfood. “But first, let’s get our kitties some food.”

“Didn’t you say you were pretty much starving yourself?” Sam laughs.

“I can wait.”

“Don’t let me catch you eating out of that baggy then.”

“I would never… okay, maybe if I was really hungry.”

Sam bursts out laughing again. “Ami, please, my sides.”

“Hehe.” Hearing my girlfriend laughs is the best, especially if it’s because of me.

Sam and I are halfway peeling the potatoes when the rest of the family comes stumbling in through the front door.

“Finally, home.” My sister sighs a sigh of relief. Nikki says nothing but just drops into the sofa, with Hilda close behind her.

“Hey there.” Hilda greets us.

“Was work really that bad?” I ask.

Hilda sighs as well. “It’s just that we encountered a lot of bugs in this one game we are testing. We mentioned it to the people who’s game it was and they started blaming us for the issues.”

“Blaming the testers for finding bugs? That sounds crazy, that's your job, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it was a bit of a shitshow.” Hilda nods. “So we broke the contract with those people. If you don’t respect my people, I’m just simply not going to tolerate that crap.”

“We then got called into a meeting with the higher ups because of that. But luckily the big boss is on our side. At least the drama is over now.” Lise ads. “And for now, let’s just relax a bit and eat some good old fish-sticks.”

-Amen to that, sis. Feeling bad and in a ditch? Just eat some good old fine tasting fish! In a crunchy jacket nonetheless!-