Chapter 6 - Cattitude

The next day Natalie noticed how her apartment seemed to shine. There wasn't even a speck of dust to be found. She even noticed how her dolls were neatly sitting on a shelf. Everything seemed to be organized, even her clothes and wardrobes. The only not so clean thing was probably her, even Buttons looked better than her.

'Maybe I was so tired from cleaning this well I passed out on my bed and can't remember my hard work?' Natalie thought to herself as she walked over to her bathroom. It had been a while since she's washed her hair so she decided, why not now? As she turned on the water and stepped into the shower she heard what sounded like a bang come from her room.

Immediately alerted, Natalie grabbed a towel, quickly dried herself, and changed back into her clothes from yesterday. Once she finished she ran to her room only to find Buttons harassing one of her mother's gifts, again. For some reason, Buttons enjoyed harassing the blonde-haired male. Natalie, however, couldn't understand why.

"Buttons! Stop harassing the dolls you bratty cat! I've had enough of your bad attitude!" Natalie said as she marched over to the cat and snatched the doll out of her cat's mouth.

"Mreow?" Buttons said almost in a taunting manner. At least just enough to be saying, "Oh? I'd like to see you try to win against me."

"Listen here mister! Don't give me that attitude! You're going on a diet!" Natalie said with anger in her voice as she pointed towards the feline with the blonde-haired doll still in her hand. All that followed soon after were countless meows coming from Buttons as he tried to beg his owner not to give away all his food to the strays. Especially one in particular, it was a Siamese cat that Buttons would always fight with.

"I don't care! You better behave for the next week and not attack these dolls! Until then, you'll be going on a diet!" Natalie said as she gently placed the doll back on her shelf and went back to take a shower.

Buttons looked at Ethan with disdain and hatred in his eyes until he noticed the doll move. The doll started to move and make taunting poses at the cat. James knew how the cat felt about the idiot so he smacked Ethan hard on the head. Soon after he quickly sat down in the same place and position.

Puppets have the ability to move around and show emotions without having to transform. When puppets are sick, injured, or have their powers weakened they won't be able to transform into their human form, not for long at least. Being in their standard form doesn't prevent them from moving or expressing themselves though. It just helps them save their energy more.

As learned from earlier, puppets have a five-day rule before they can show themselves in their human form. This rule exists due to the problem of puppets getting caught while in their puppet form moving around. This freaked people who didn't know about the 'puppets coming to life part' out. This along with whenever a person would see a random human in their house who looks exactly like that puppet they bought two days ago.

Giving an owner five days allows them to get used to the puppet, at least by a little bit. It also helps the puppet become more secretive. It's basically a test to show whether or not the puppet is worthy of their master. In a situation where there are more than one puppet if one of those puppets gets caught he's returned but the rest are able to stay. If all of the puppets get caught then they all have to return to the store.

Buttons, satisfied with James's action, soon left the room. As Buttons walked over to the kitchen he realized that he was now on a diet. He went back into the corner he was in last night and sulked.

Eventually, Natalie came out of the shower and headed towards the kitchen. She grabbed a few cans of cat food and tuna and started to head out. Before she walked out the door she heard a sad meow and turned around. Buttons looked up at her with a sad expression and she couldn't help but give him some food. Of course, it wasn't much, just enough for breakfast. He is dieting.

As Natalie headed outside she saw a couple of stray cats so she fed them some food. She didn't want to leave the cans on the floor so she waited for them to finish eating. While she was waiting she looked up to her apartment and saw Buttons sadly staring at her through the glass sliding door. She felt guilty but immediately forgot once she felt a fluffy head bump into her hand.

It was Buttons worst enemy, the stray Siamese cat. Buttons always felt intimidated by that cat and every time Natalie fed him he would look at Buttons with the smuggest look a cat could ever give. It angered Buttons. The cat looked like he was trying to steal Natalie away from Buttons! Why wouldn't he be mad?

Of course, Buttons could never tell Natalie of his evil, but Natalie knew Buttons never liked him. Natalie still thinks the stray is innocent however and that Buttons was just being jealous. Which, technically, he was.

While Buttons watched his owner pet the strays, including his enemy, Buttons felt a tap on his head. It was the brown-haired puppet that he mercilessly scratched last night, James. To James's surprise, Buttons didn't attack him. He just sat there staring at his owner.

"Don't worry, she still loves you," Mallory said as she stared at Natalie with Buttons and James. Meanwhile, Ethan is cowering in fear behind the sofa.