smiling critters

chapter 35 - museum

Camila woke up and immediately checked the winners of the Franklin art museum youth art contest. First, second, third- wait. She scrolled back to the second place winner and read 'camila brewer, downtime.' she jumped out of her bed and hastily got dressed before rushing down to show her sister that she'd won. she quickly ate breakfast and texted her friends about the news before rushing out the door to gather everyone to go to the museum. On the way she got Kai, Bryson and Bobby. on the way, she saw Neil walking down the sidewalk talking with a tall royal purple cat beside him.
"Neil!" she shouted as she gleefully ran up to him. Both felines turned around and immediately saw her. Neil muttered something to the other cat and they moved out of the way a bit as Camila finally reached them and gave Neil a hug so forceful, he had to spin a few times so he didn't fall over. the others were quick to catch up.
"hey cams, what's got you so energized this morning?" he smiled as she separated from the hug.
"I got second!" she squealed, jumping up and down on her hooves.
"really?! that's great!" he smiled, happy for his friend. all of a sudden, she noticed a figure lean close to neil's ear as they muttered something.
"an annual art contest our local museum hosts."
Camila looked at the yokai and was surprised by how tall and thin he was, though his fur made up for it.
"Oh, hi! I didn't see you there." she smiled, slightly intimidated by his face and stature. He rose back up and allowed camila to see just how tall he was; like sure she was the tallest in the friend group and if neil's growth wasn't stunted, she'd be the second tallest, but even then this guy towered over her, not to mention his peircing icy blue eyes that bore holes into your soul.
"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you! i'm Anders, neil's fadder. dough, fveel fvree to call me andy," he smiled warmly, completely melting away that original icy stare and most of the intimidation he brought as he extended a paw for her to shake.
"Mhm! It's nice to meet you too, i'm camila," she smiled, taking his hand as he gave it a heary shake before letting it go.
"Is dis one ofv de friends you told me about?" he turned to neil, who nodded gleefully.
"Yea, and this is kai, bryson and bobby!" he pointed to them as he said their names. They greeted him as camila started the commute to the museum, picking up dylan and hollie on the way there. Penny would have to skip out on joining them since she had an acident at her dad's work and needed to go to the hospital.
"So, andy. What was neil's mom and brother like? if that's not too personal," bobby asked with a wide grin.
"You kids would like grace, she was a lovely woman. Full of endusiashm and energy, never a dull moment wid her around. And godfvrey? A mentally troubled kitten, but always had a passion for learning and wash alwaysh willing to grow and had the biggest heart i've seen... aldough i don't know where... any of dat went..." he hesitated as he finished. The others gave each other a look; clearly they saw godfrey very differently than andy saw him. Maybe andy was trying to cope with learning his son had basically tourtured his other son, but the group saw godfrey as this heartless monster who only cared about himself. I mean, who does all that to their little brother? Out of the corner of her eye, camila noticed neil offer his paw to andy, who took it with a grateful smile. they continued walking as camila noticed dylan seething with jealousy. It was odd since camila never really took him for the jealous type, but he tended to get jealous of a select few people when it came to neil, like kai. He was oddly jealous of kai when he'd get really close and touchy with neil, which wasn't a lot. Eventually they got to the museum and got to the section where they displayed the art contest winners. They took their time to admire the other submissions, which were all five of the honorable mentions and the other three actual winners before they got to her painting.
"Dis is your work? quite de impressifve piece. I like de shading," Andy complimented, closely inspecting the painting.
"aww thank you!" Camila smiled, happy that a stranger liked her work. he nodded and smiled at her before going back to admiring the painting.

Kai POV:

As andy admired and critiqued camila's art, kai's eyes wandered at the other people at the museum. Some people were looking at the pictures for the youth competition, while others were looking at the other paintings around the room. Eventually, he looked back at the group. Neil and dylan were holding hands and snuggling up to each other while bryson and hollie were admiring first place and camila and- who's that? There was a woman standing beside andy with her tail wrapped around his. She had barettes in her silky tail-length silver hair, which was tied into a loose French braid, and had a flowy white knee-length dress with blue floral print on. She looked at him, she looked almost exactly like neil, at least if he was a middle-aged woman with a silvering muzzle. She smiled warmly at him before going back to staring at camila's painting.
"Kai are you alright? You look like you saw a saw a ghost!" bobby asked as she rested her paw on his shoulder, causing him to snap his head to her.
"yea, just saw something really weird," he mumbled as he looked back at the woman. She was gone. he could only imagine what his face looked like right now; probably dumbfounded.
"You sure? you looked stressed," she asked, her brow knitted in concern. he could only imagine what she was thinking, probably didn't want a repeat of what happened with Neil.
"I'm fine, really! I just thought I saw someone next to Andy," he smiled his usual smug smile dispite still being confused about what he just saw.
"ok... do you want a hug?" she extended her arms, prompting him to lean down ever so slightly and accept her warm and welcoming embrace. she hummed as she squeezed back. they separated after a few seconds and Kai's gaze wandered back to andy, wondering if he'd see that woman again, but instead, he saw Andy staring back, at least before he looked away. when he thought about it, Andy and Neil weren't too different from each other; they both tended to keep to themselves, clung excessively to one or two people, and were sort of wandering thinkers. speaking of Neil, how was he doing? He looked at the American shorthair and saw that he had a low social battery since he was cuddling closer to dylan like he usually did when he got overwhelmed his social battery was getting low. they were signing to each other with locked eyes. he looked away and decided to talk with bryson and Hollie until everyone had to go home.

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