Right, before anyone decides they can steal any of my ideas, characters or events in this book, IT IS ALL PATENTED. I figured out how to copyright stuff and crap, so yeah. I can sue you to the fullest extent of the law. So don't. Simples! Now you can enjoy the book and i do not have to worry :)
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Prologue
“You may now kiss the bride!” the vicar announced and Mark and Penny’s mother, Julia (1), swooned as they kissed. Penny was glad that her mum was finally married, but was also fighting the urge to be sick… Her dog Bolt, who was wearing an elegant black bow round his neck instead of his usual reddish brown collar, lay at her feet watching the stranger’s, or Mark’s, cat, who he was now going to have to live with.
The cat hadn’t noticed him at all through the whole wedding, and the reception. She was a striking and weird feline when it came to appearance, Bolt thought. She was tan all over, with very human-like, almost burgundy ‘hair’ and the tip of her bottlebrush tail had a colour to match. This cat also owned a set of twelve freckles, six under each large hazel eye in star formation (by this point, Bolt wondered how he had learned to count numbers and recognise shapes). She was also a very, Bolt thought politely, portly cat, and looked like she had been well fed and cared for.
But the thing that stood out to Bolt the most about Mark’s cat, more than anything about her, was the fact she had a familiar marking on her back left thigh – a black lightning bolt just like his old mark of power. But one thing Bolt didn’t realise was that this wasn’t just coincidence, either.
At that very moment, Bolt had absolutely no idea just how important and involved this cat was going to be in his life very soon.
Chapter One – Bolt’s True Biggest Fan
“Hi! So you’re Mittens?” the new cat looked at her, and tilted her head to one side.
“Yeah, I am,” Mittens replied in her strong New-Yorker accent, shaking her head quickly and making the bell on her collar tinkle lightly. “Who’re you, then?”
“I’m Onyx!” she said enthusiastically, sticking out one chubby paw for Mittens to shake. Mittens took it and was shocked at the wrist-size difference. She didn’t mention that, course. “Anyone else live here, then?”
“Only my dog and hamster friends.”
“What’re their names? I can’t just call ‘em Dog and Hamster.”
Mittens jumped up onto the windowsill in the kitchen and looked out of the window, then beckoned for Onyx to do the same. Onyx leaped and caught hold of the sill, then heaved herself up next to Mittens. As she stared out, she saw a large hamster in a plastic ball being chased up and down the massive garden (2) by a crystal American White Shepherd (3). Mittens pointed to each in turn.
“He’s Rhino,” Mittens named, gesturing to the hamster, who was now laughing hysterically, “and the dog’s name is –“
“BOLT!!” Onyx said a bit too loudly, and made Mittens jump. But it wasn’t just that that made her jump, it was the fact she guessed bang on.
“Yes,” Mittens said, then realised what was going on. She was just another fan. Just out of interest, she asked, “So, how do you know?”
“I’m only his biggest fan EVER!!” (4) Onyx squeaked, leaping off the sill onto a chair, which broke with the sudden force. Onyx didn’t seem to notice this as she sped out into the large garden, where Bolt and Rhino were racing up and down the long stretch. Onyx bounded on top of Rhino’s ball, stopping it and leaving Rhino shocked. Bolt continued running and –
“Argh!” Bolt ran straight into the cat and hamster. Mittens, hearing this calamity going on outside, ran out to join them.
“What on Earth is everyone doing out –“ Mittens started, before being interrupted by a loud, excitable, “BOLT!!”
Bolt looked up – the new cat who he’d been observing at the wedding was face-to-face with him, grinning widely. Bolt backed off a few steps and let her speak.
“Bolt, ya not goin’ to believe me, but,” she said enthusiastically, “I’m your biggest fan EVER, on the whole planet! There is no other human or cat or dog or rabbit or hamster that loves ya more than me!!”
Bolt smiled a warm smile at her. “I knew this day would come. Where I could finally meet my biggest fan.”
“What?” Rhino the hamster questioned. “I thought I was your biggest fan, Bolt?” (5)
“Well…” Bolt trailed off, and Onyx thought she’d fill in for him.
“So did this shepherd named Misty, Rhino,” (5.2) Onyx snapped at the hamster, making him back against the edge of his ball, which made the ball roll backwards, “and I showed them the length I would go to for Bolt!” Onyx clicked out the claws of her right paw – they were stained red at the tips. (5.5) “So don’t challenge me, hamster.”
“So, who are you, then?” Bolt asked Onyx.
“I’m Mark’s cat, Onyx. Oh, how lucky he married your owner, or otherwise I wouldn’t be here talkin’ to ya, Bolt! In fact, hold on right here, I’ll show ya just how big a fan I am of ya!” Onyx ran off, back to the house. Mittens rolled her eyes and stalked off after her, followed by Rhino. They weren’t going to get in the way of Onyx’s display.
“Here!” Onyx ran out of the house again, this time bearing lots of things. Some were in a box she was holding, some she was wearing…
Onyx stopped in front of Bolt with a large box full to the top with merchandise from the Bolt TV show. Books, DVDs, games, notebooks, stationary sets, calculators, figurines and sets, folded up posters, the works. In her arms was a gigantic 22” Bolt plush toy and a smaller 14” one. And stretched across her wide back, on a white cat t-shirt that you get from those funny pet clothing websites, was the phrase ‘Bolt’s #1 Fan’, with a picture of Bolt running. (6)
“See?” Onyx said with glee. I really am your biggest fan!”
“Wow… So you are.” Bolt was amazed. This cat really was his biggest fan. He didn’t have a clue what Rhino was thinking – Onyx was an unbeatable Bolt fan!
Chapter Two – Rhino’s Lesson
“I have got so much to give… I swear I do,” Onyx was singing Barking at the Moon by Jenny Lewis, a song about Bolt, but had changed the lyrics slightly to fit her feline status, “I may have nine lives, but this one feels brand new!”
“You’re a pretty good singer, aren’t you?” Bolt walked in to find Onyx singing along to Barking at the Moon while it was playing on Mark’s laptop. Onyx was an intelligent cat and knew a couple of ways to use a computer, like typing. She was tapping away on the keyboard, and looked like she was writing a list of something.
Bolt looked at Onyx’s leg again, where the black lightning bolt stood out on her light tan fur. He was just about to ask about it, when Onyx spoke. She pointed at the laptop’s screen.
“Bolt! 217 reasons why I am your biggest fan! And it isn’t goin’ to stop there, either!” (7) Onyx said proudly. Bolt wasn’t happy about this. He was absolutely astonished.
“Two HUNDRED,” Bolt spoke the words clearly and pointedly, “and SEVENTEEN?!? Whoa, this is more than obsessive! Rhino never did this! So there is owning merchandise and knowing all the lines off by heart, but this – well, I’m officially convinced.”
“It’s goin’ to get longer,” Onyx repeated, then tapped her head, “I just got bad memory and can’t remember some stuff, but as soon as I do, this list will be extended!”
Bolt padded over to the laptop and read a few of the reasons.
“You remember when you discovered the BOLT show, you can draw me, you have Bolt bed sheets?”
“Well, a Bolt cat basket cover, but this list is also on the Internet, and humans would think I’m a little mad sayin’ I sleep in a Bolt basket…”
“You’ve got Bolt plushies, oh I’ve seen those, made a Bolt’s biggest fan flag, made Bolt cookies, completed the Bolt sticker book, Yeesh, this goes on forever!” Bolt smiled at Onyx, who grinned back with pride. Then Bolt found his chance to slip the question in the conversation. “Is that on the list?” He pointed at the bolt on Onyx’s leg.
“That? Oh yah, it’s on there,” Onyx said. “I was born with that, actually, but unlike ya in the show, it never gave me super powers. It’s the one main thing that intrigued me when I discovered ya, Bolt. We have the same mark…” She brought her voice down to a mad whisper. “We are one.”
“Right…” Bolt said, nodding.
Both the cat and the dog jumped as Mark and Julia suddenly entered the room in deep conversation. Mark stopped for a second – because his cat was using his laptop.
“Onyx? Why are you on my laptop?” he scolded, sounding a bit mad to Julia.
Onyx quickly did ‘ctrl + S’ to save her list, then ran away from the laptop. Bolt followed quickly behind her.
Onyx ran into the kitchen, where Penny was sat at the table petting Rhino whilst nibbling at a pastrami sandwich. He was thoroughly enjoying the fuss, until he caught sight of Onyx. But when Onyx didn’t see him back, he realised. Now was his chance! A chance to get rid of her forever! Then it would be he who was Bolt’s biggest fan! (8)
Rhino quickly nipped Penny’s finger so she would let him go, then got inside his ball, taking a piece of pastrami out of Penny’s sandwich with him. He was going to do it, he was going to take out Onyx and once again be crowned the biggest Bolt fan! Rhino took a knife that was lying on the table and dragged it into the ball with him.
Closer and closer Rhino edged, or rather rolled, to the end of the table, then slipped the pastrami out of one of the air slots in the ball. It hit the floor and in an instant Onyx was there, stuffing the pastrami into her mouth like, well, like a hamster. Another thing she beat him on! Rhino didn’t wait.
He rolled closer and closer to the very edge of the table, then slid the blade of the knife through the same air slot. And he rolled – and he fell off the table, knife poised. Onyx wasn’t moving, she didn’t realise, the blade got closer and closer and –
“Onyx! Move your head NOW!!” Bolt screamed, but when she didn’t listen, he darted and shoved her out of the way, and the knife missed his muzzle by an inch. Onyx rolled over and got to her feet, breathing heavily.
“What… the hell,” Onyx panted from the sudden movement, “… happened?”
“Rhino,” Bolt muttered in a rage, “tried to kill you.”
“… whut?”
“Rhino tried to kill you!”
“Oh. That’s… understandable. Lots… of Bolt fans… have.”
Rhino sighed, knowing he was sort of safe. Bolt put his ball down and he rolled away into the garden. When Rhino was gone, however, Onyx showed her true colours.
“I can’t believe he actually tried to kill me!” Onyx gasped, then they both gasped again as they suddenly heard the voices of their owners. They were discussing something important by the sounds of it.
“Florida looks nice, according to Google Images,” they overheard Julia saying in the computer room. “Are you sure we have to move though, Mark?”
“We have to go to a city so I can get work,” Mark explained, “or we’ll end up losing this place anyway…”
“So it’s official – we’ll move next week? Can we go here, to Miami?”
“Wherever you want, sweetheart,” Mark crooned.
“What about Penny?”
“She told me she was getting bored of the countryside anyway, and her school was full of nasty girls. Miami will have bigger and better schools, more job opportunities… It’s better for everyone, even for my little Onyx!”
“Little…?” Onyx muttered under her breath.
“… Mittens! Rhino!” Bolt called out, forgetting one of the people he had just called the name of was ‘hamisidal’. “We’re moving house!!”
Chapter Three – Abandoned Mittens
Mittens raced into the lounge from the garden, rolled after by Rhino. They were both panting and a look of deep angst had set in their eyes.
“Where? Where are… we going?” Rhino huffed. No surprise he was out of breath because he was such a big hamster.
“Miami!” Onyx blurted out at them, just to get it over with. Mittens squealed.
“Are you…” Bolt asked, “excited?”
“NO!!”
Everyone silenced. Mittens looked absolutely scared to death. Her eyes went as wide as saucers, she started shaking, and latched onto Rhino’s ball in a tight hug.
“What’s wrong, Mittens?” Onyx questioned consolingly. It was her soft and reassuring voice that got Mittens to calm down.
“… The moving thing,” Mittens explained, “is… is –“
“Is…?” Bolt prompted calmly.
“… is how I got abandoned!”
Everyone went silent again. Abandoned? Only Bolt knew what she meant. He started having a flashback of Las Vegas, when he, Mittens and Rhino had been travelling to Hollywood to find his best ever friend, who he loved more than anyone else, Penny.
(9) ‘That’s what they do, okay!’ Mittens had yelled at Bolt. ‘They act like they love you, they act like they’ll be there forever and then one day they’ll pack up all their stuff and move away and take their love with them, and leave their declawed cat behind to fend for herself!!’ Then she had paused and looked down, then sighed. ‘They leave her… wondering… what she did wrong.’ No wonder Mittens was so scared about this move.
“… and now I have a real family, a place I can call my own,” Mittens explained, apparently talking through with the others what Bolt already knew, “… I don’t want to lose it again.”
Mittens trudged off into the kitchen without another word. Bolt, Onyx and Rhino were at an absolute loss. How could they convince her she wasn’t going to be left behind again? There seemed to be no way.
Onyx, feeling totally sorry for Mittens, called, “Hey, Mittens, wait for me!” She then ran off after her into the kitchen.
Mittens, curled up on top of one of the kitchen chairs, couldn’t stop thinking of her old family. They seemed so loving, so kind to her. They’d bought her toys, they fed her, they even got her a big plush basket to sleep in… So why did they leave her behind?
“Mittens…?” Onyx’s face came into her view. “C’mon pal, come down. I’ll do somethin’ to cheer ya up.”
Reluctantly, Mittens uncurled herself and leaped to the ground. Onyx, with difficulty, clambered up onto the worktop, then silent as a mouse, crept over to the fridge. Mittens, her mind being taken off sadness for a moment and replaced by intrigue, watched intently.
“I’m gonna get ya somethin’ that normally I would never give away, unless it was a special instance like this. Ya need cheerin’ up big time, and this gives ya a good first impression of me, I suppose…” Onyx ranted. She donkey-kicked the side of the fridge and the door swung open.
Being careful not to slip, she side stepped over the gap between the worktop and the fridge, then reached inside and grabbed something. Mittens stepped over to the bottom of the fridge as something dropped out of it. It was only the most expensive, extra special packet of pastrami money could buy on the market. Mittens gasped.
“All yours!” Onyx said, sliding back onto the worktop and reaching out to close the fridge. She bounded off the worktop to sit next to Mittens. “Cheer up, ‘kay? Have this, it might work. I know that I eat when I’m sad, it always cheers me up. And if either of the humans tells ya off, come to me. Wait ‘til three in the mornin’, they won’t be pleased with me, no sir!” Onyx grinned and Mittens laughed. This cat was crazy, but possibly the kindest one she’d ever met.
“Thanks,” Mittens said in her Manhattan influenced accent, then hugged her in a very New Yorkish way.
“No problem!” Onyx replied and almost smothered Mittens with her huge confident hug back. There was a pause, before Onyx looked at Mittens, then the pastrami, and said, “I guess ya need it, uh, more than I do, anyway. You’re really skinny, Mittens.” Onyx placed a paw on her own stomach. “Eh, it only happened to me after Mark decided to get me spayed. I don’t want kittens! he said. Now he’s not goin’ to get any.” (10)
“Yikes,” Mittens cringed. “I feel so sorry for you.”
All sadness forgotten for now, Mittens and Onyx sat in the kitchen discussing the good and bad things about she-cat castration, while Bolt and Rhino were in the middle of a discussion in the most concealed part of the house.
Bolt was laying into Rhino’s ball in the darkest corner of the basement, eyes narrowed and voice down to a gritted growl. He pressed his nose against the plastic ball and was speaking in no more than an angry whisper.
“I mean it, Rhino,” Bolt hissed at the hamster, while he shook. “I don’t want anymore attempted envious homicide, got it? Onyx should be treated as a guest and a friend!”
“Please!” Rhino begged. “I won’t do it again, let me go!”
“I want you to swear,” Bolt barked, “on your tiny little rodent heart that you will not do this ever again!!”
“I swear!!” Rhino wailed. Bolt then nodded tartly.
“You’ve sworn. Don’t do it again, okay? Because you know who would get the blame if Onyx suddenly disappeared? I would!” Bolt took his nose from the ball and started pacing up and down, waving his head around in gesture while he ranted. “Dog with territorial issues, plus new cat in the house apparently equals disaster. But not always. But when it does, and dog goes all freaked on cat, guess what happens to dog? Dog gets put to sleep!” Bolt stopped pacing. Looking at Rhino with tired eyes, Bolt sighed. “I’m sorry that you’re not my biggest fan, but Onyx… she’s something different. Sorry. Go on, you can leave if you want.”
Rhino rolled off quicker than lightning, and Bolt stared after him. He hadn’t meant to be that aggressive towards Rhino, but he had never seen him do a stunt this stupid before. I mean, there was the swinging atop a moving train plan and the time he blew up a lady’s truck by making a sign fall on top of it by shooting a gas tank at it (all by accident), but this… Bolt had no idea.
Chapter Four – Deserted
Onyx sat beside Bolt the final day in their rural countryside house. Onyx looked up at the calendar, which told her she’d been in Bolt’s presence for just over a week and a half. She then gazed up adoringly at him and reminded him for the twenty-fourth time that week and a half that she was his biggest fan ever, in the whole of time, the history of the universe, the whole of planet Earth and everyone on it, out of all the cats, dogs, hamsters, rabbits, gerbils, mice, birds, fish, snakes… He completely believed her of course. No one had ever been this obsessed about him before. He’d finally witnessed her Bolt cat basket cover she said she had, but had also seen her jumbo 30” Bolt plushie which was practically the same size as her (and that was saying something, seriously), her two large Bolt posters and her gigantic Bolt bus poster, her Bolt calculator and gym bag, her other Bolt t-shirt, which bore the words, ‘NO ONE loves Bolt more than I do!’, etcetera…
“What am I going to do?” Mittens muttered to herself, pacing up and down the lounge while Penny, Julia and Mark packed up the last boxes. She was so frightened she was going to be abandoned again, the similarity of the situation was all too familiar…
“Mittens?” It was Onyx. “Are ya okay? Just, ya know, the final day here. Must be a bit stressful for ya.”
Mittens sighed. “Suppose, yeah. Are you sure we’re not going to be left behind?”
“Are ya kiddin’ me?” Onyx grinned. “Mark loves us, he’d never leave us behind. Couldn’t if he tried!”
Mittens smiled. Onyx was so kind and considerate, which made her wonder... With her extreme kindness and, come to think of it, her accent too, Mittens thought -
“Are you from somewhere like Okla-“
“- homa?” Onyx finished. (11) “Yah, I am. But, how did ya -?”
“Alright, get the pets, Mark, Penny, lets start packing the moving van!” they all heard Julia shout. Mittens relaxed a bit.
“Get the pets?” Mittens muttered. “We’re… we’re going with them?”
“What’d I tell ya, Mittens?” Onyx pulled her into a back-splitting hug. “It’s all goin’ to be fine!”
When Penny reached down to Bolt and clipped his lead on his collar, he barked playfully and put his paws on her shoulders. He loved being in moving vehicles for long distances, just to hang his head from the window and his tongue from his mouth. He thought back, that’s what Mittens had taught him, he laughed as he remembered Mittens saying, It’s more of a dog thing. (12)
Mittens practically skipped into her cat carrier when asked to, knowing she was loved and she wasn’t going to be abandoned again. Onyx just got stuck trying to get into hers and had to be put on the spare dog lead Penny had instead. Onyx was so thrilled she finally had a collar, too! It was just like Bolt’s (mainly because Julia and Mark had to get a dog collar, because the cat ones were all too tight), but blueberry colour. The tag was exactly the same, with silver clippings and bronze text, which read on the front, ‘ONYX’, and on the back, ‘104 Jackson Av. Miami FL. 03174G2’. (13)
The final moment came. Everyone was lead out to the family Range Rover (14), which was to follow the moving van. Rhino was lifted into the car in a cardboard hamster carrier, followed by Mittens. Bolt and Onyx would have to go in a different way, but they didn’t know how.
“I’ll run in and see if I can find that old trailer we had in the barn if you want,” Penny suggested, but Julia immediately put her foot down on that idea, saying it was too dangerous. They decided for the boot of the Range Rover, which was just about big enough for the two of them.
Mark heaved the boot door open and Bolt leaped lightly in, then gave Onyx his paw to help her up too. Bolt thought to himself, did he have everything? His basket, Penny, the last three dog food tins, Mr. Carrot… Mr. Carrot?
“Onyx!” Bolt gasped. “I don’t have Mr. Carrot!” Bolt jumped down from the boot being tailed by Onyx just as Mark slammed the boot shut again. He, like the rest of the family, including Mittens and Rhino, thought they were in the back when they left.
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Prologue
“You may now kiss the bride!” the vicar announced and Mark and Penny’s mother, Julia (1), swooned as they kissed. Penny was glad that her mum was finally married, but was also fighting the urge to be sick… Her dog Bolt, who was wearing an elegant black bow round his neck instead of his usual reddish brown collar, lay at her feet watching the stranger’s, or Mark’s, cat, who he was now going to have to live with.
The cat hadn’t noticed him at all through the whole wedding, and the reception. She was a striking and weird feline when it came to appearance, Bolt thought. She was tan all over, with very human-like, almost burgundy ‘hair’ and the tip of her bottlebrush tail had a colour to match. This cat also owned a set of twelve freckles, six under each large hazel eye in star formation (by this point, Bolt wondered how he had learned to count numbers and recognise shapes). She was also a very, Bolt thought politely, portly cat, and looked like she had been well fed and cared for.
But the thing that stood out to Bolt the most about Mark’s cat, more than anything about her, was the fact she had a familiar marking on her back left thigh – a black lightning bolt just like his old mark of power. But one thing Bolt didn’t realise was that this wasn’t just coincidence, either.
At that very moment, Bolt had absolutely no idea just how important and involved this cat was going to be in his life very soon.
Chapter One – Bolt’s True Biggest Fan
“Hi! So you’re Mittens?” the new cat looked at her, and tilted her head to one side.
“Yeah, I am,” Mittens replied in her strong New-Yorker accent, shaking her head quickly and making the bell on her collar tinkle lightly. “Who’re you, then?”
“I’m Onyx!” she said enthusiastically, sticking out one chubby paw for Mittens to shake. Mittens took it and was shocked at the wrist-size difference. She didn’t mention that, course. “Anyone else live here, then?”
“Only my dog and hamster friends.”
“What’re their names? I can’t just call ‘em Dog and Hamster.”
Mittens jumped up onto the windowsill in the kitchen and looked out of the window, then beckoned for Onyx to do the same. Onyx leaped and caught hold of the sill, then heaved herself up next to Mittens. As she stared out, she saw a large hamster in a plastic ball being chased up and down the massive garden (2) by a crystal American White Shepherd (3). Mittens pointed to each in turn.
“He’s Rhino,” Mittens named, gesturing to the hamster, who was now laughing hysterically, “and the dog’s name is –“
“BOLT!!” Onyx said a bit too loudly, and made Mittens jump. But it wasn’t just that that made her jump, it was the fact she guessed bang on.
“Yes,” Mittens said, then realised what was going on. She was just another fan. Just out of interest, she asked, “So, how do you know?”
“I’m only his biggest fan EVER!!” (4) Onyx squeaked, leaping off the sill onto a chair, which broke with the sudden force. Onyx didn’t seem to notice this as she sped out into the large garden, where Bolt and Rhino were racing up and down the long stretch. Onyx bounded on top of Rhino’s ball, stopping it and leaving Rhino shocked. Bolt continued running and –
“Argh!” Bolt ran straight into the cat and hamster. Mittens, hearing this calamity going on outside, ran out to join them.
“What on Earth is everyone doing out –“ Mittens started, before being interrupted by a loud, excitable, “BOLT!!”
Bolt looked up – the new cat who he’d been observing at the wedding was face-to-face with him, grinning widely. Bolt backed off a few steps and let her speak.
“Bolt, ya not goin’ to believe me, but,” she said enthusiastically, “I’m your biggest fan EVER, on the whole planet! There is no other human or cat or dog or rabbit or hamster that loves ya more than me!!”
Bolt smiled a warm smile at her. “I knew this day would come. Where I could finally meet my biggest fan.”
“What?” Rhino the hamster questioned. “I thought I was your biggest fan, Bolt?” (5)
“Well…” Bolt trailed off, and Onyx thought she’d fill in for him.
“So did this shepherd named Misty, Rhino,” (5.2) Onyx snapped at the hamster, making him back against the edge of his ball, which made the ball roll backwards, “and I showed them the length I would go to for Bolt!” Onyx clicked out the claws of her right paw – they were stained red at the tips. (5.5) “So don’t challenge me, hamster.”
“So, who are you, then?” Bolt asked Onyx.
“I’m Mark’s cat, Onyx. Oh, how lucky he married your owner, or otherwise I wouldn’t be here talkin’ to ya, Bolt! In fact, hold on right here, I’ll show ya just how big a fan I am of ya!” Onyx ran off, back to the house. Mittens rolled her eyes and stalked off after her, followed by Rhino. They weren’t going to get in the way of Onyx’s display.
“Here!” Onyx ran out of the house again, this time bearing lots of things. Some were in a box she was holding, some she was wearing…
Onyx stopped in front of Bolt with a large box full to the top with merchandise from the Bolt TV show. Books, DVDs, games, notebooks, stationary sets, calculators, figurines and sets, folded up posters, the works. In her arms was a gigantic 22” Bolt plush toy and a smaller 14” one. And stretched across her wide back, on a white cat t-shirt that you get from those funny pet clothing websites, was the phrase ‘Bolt’s #1 Fan’, with a picture of Bolt running. (6)
“See?” Onyx said with glee. I really am your biggest fan!”
“Wow… So you are.” Bolt was amazed. This cat really was his biggest fan. He didn’t have a clue what Rhino was thinking – Onyx was an unbeatable Bolt fan!
Chapter Two – Rhino’s Lesson
“I have got so much to give… I swear I do,” Onyx was singing Barking at the Moon by Jenny Lewis, a song about Bolt, but had changed the lyrics slightly to fit her feline status, “I may have nine lives, but this one feels brand new!”
“You’re a pretty good singer, aren’t you?” Bolt walked in to find Onyx singing along to Barking at the Moon while it was playing on Mark’s laptop. Onyx was an intelligent cat and knew a couple of ways to use a computer, like typing. She was tapping away on the keyboard, and looked like she was writing a list of something.
Bolt looked at Onyx’s leg again, where the black lightning bolt stood out on her light tan fur. He was just about to ask about it, when Onyx spoke. She pointed at the laptop’s screen.
“Bolt! 217 reasons why I am your biggest fan! And it isn’t goin’ to stop there, either!” (7) Onyx said proudly. Bolt wasn’t happy about this. He was absolutely astonished.
“Two HUNDRED,” Bolt spoke the words clearly and pointedly, “and SEVENTEEN?!? Whoa, this is more than obsessive! Rhino never did this! So there is owning merchandise and knowing all the lines off by heart, but this – well, I’m officially convinced.”
“It’s goin’ to get longer,” Onyx repeated, then tapped her head, “I just got bad memory and can’t remember some stuff, but as soon as I do, this list will be extended!”
Bolt padded over to the laptop and read a few of the reasons.
“You remember when you discovered the BOLT show, you can draw me, you have Bolt bed sheets?”
“Well, a Bolt cat basket cover, but this list is also on the Internet, and humans would think I’m a little mad sayin’ I sleep in a Bolt basket…”
“You’ve got Bolt plushies, oh I’ve seen those, made a Bolt’s biggest fan flag, made Bolt cookies, completed the Bolt sticker book, Yeesh, this goes on forever!” Bolt smiled at Onyx, who grinned back with pride. Then Bolt found his chance to slip the question in the conversation. “Is that on the list?” He pointed at the bolt on Onyx’s leg.
“That? Oh yah, it’s on there,” Onyx said. “I was born with that, actually, but unlike ya in the show, it never gave me super powers. It’s the one main thing that intrigued me when I discovered ya, Bolt. We have the same mark…” She brought her voice down to a mad whisper. “We are one.”
“Right…” Bolt said, nodding.
Both the cat and the dog jumped as Mark and Julia suddenly entered the room in deep conversation. Mark stopped for a second – because his cat was using his laptop.
“Onyx? Why are you on my laptop?” he scolded, sounding a bit mad to Julia.
Onyx quickly did ‘ctrl + S’ to save her list, then ran away from the laptop. Bolt followed quickly behind her.
Onyx ran into the kitchen, where Penny was sat at the table petting Rhino whilst nibbling at a pastrami sandwich. He was thoroughly enjoying the fuss, until he caught sight of Onyx. But when Onyx didn’t see him back, he realised. Now was his chance! A chance to get rid of her forever! Then it would be he who was Bolt’s biggest fan! (8)
Rhino quickly nipped Penny’s finger so she would let him go, then got inside his ball, taking a piece of pastrami out of Penny’s sandwich with him. He was going to do it, he was going to take out Onyx and once again be crowned the biggest Bolt fan! Rhino took a knife that was lying on the table and dragged it into the ball with him.
Closer and closer Rhino edged, or rather rolled, to the end of the table, then slipped the pastrami out of one of the air slots in the ball. It hit the floor and in an instant Onyx was there, stuffing the pastrami into her mouth like, well, like a hamster. Another thing she beat him on! Rhino didn’t wait.
He rolled closer and closer to the very edge of the table, then slid the blade of the knife through the same air slot. And he rolled – and he fell off the table, knife poised. Onyx wasn’t moving, she didn’t realise, the blade got closer and closer and –
“Onyx! Move your head NOW!!” Bolt screamed, but when she didn’t listen, he darted and shoved her out of the way, and the knife missed his muzzle by an inch. Onyx rolled over and got to her feet, breathing heavily.
“What… the hell,” Onyx panted from the sudden movement, “… happened?”
“Rhino,” Bolt muttered in a rage, “tried to kill you.”
“… whut?”
“Rhino tried to kill you!”
“Oh. That’s… understandable. Lots… of Bolt fans… have.”
Rhino sighed, knowing he was sort of safe. Bolt put his ball down and he rolled away into the garden. When Rhino was gone, however, Onyx showed her true colours.
“I can’t believe he actually tried to kill me!” Onyx gasped, then they both gasped again as they suddenly heard the voices of their owners. They were discussing something important by the sounds of it.
“Florida looks nice, according to Google Images,” they overheard Julia saying in the computer room. “Are you sure we have to move though, Mark?”
“We have to go to a city so I can get work,” Mark explained, “or we’ll end up losing this place anyway…”
“So it’s official – we’ll move next week? Can we go here, to Miami?”
“Wherever you want, sweetheart,” Mark crooned.
“What about Penny?”
“She told me she was getting bored of the countryside anyway, and her school was full of nasty girls. Miami will have bigger and better schools, more job opportunities… It’s better for everyone, even for my little Onyx!”
“Little…?” Onyx muttered under her breath.
“… Mittens! Rhino!” Bolt called out, forgetting one of the people he had just called the name of was ‘hamisidal’. “We’re moving house!!”
Chapter Three – Abandoned Mittens
Mittens raced into the lounge from the garden, rolled after by Rhino. They were both panting and a look of deep angst had set in their eyes.
“Where? Where are… we going?” Rhino huffed. No surprise he was out of breath because he was such a big hamster.
“Miami!” Onyx blurted out at them, just to get it over with. Mittens squealed.
“Are you…” Bolt asked, “excited?”
“NO!!”
Everyone silenced. Mittens looked absolutely scared to death. Her eyes went as wide as saucers, she started shaking, and latched onto Rhino’s ball in a tight hug.
“What’s wrong, Mittens?” Onyx questioned consolingly. It was her soft and reassuring voice that got Mittens to calm down.
“… The moving thing,” Mittens explained, “is… is –“
“Is…?” Bolt prompted calmly.
“… is how I got abandoned!”
Everyone went silent again. Abandoned? Only Bolt knew what she meant. He started having a flashback of Las Vegas, when he, Mittens and Rhino had been travelling to Hollywood to find his best ever friend, who he loved more than anyone else, Penny.
(9) ‘That’s what they do, okay!’ Mittens had yelled at Bolt. ‘They act like they love you, they act like they’ll be there forever and then one day they’ll pack up all their stuff and move away and take their love with them, and leave their declawed cat behind to fend for herself!!’ Then she had paused and looked down, then sighed. ‘They leave her… wondering… what she did wrong.’ No wonder Mittens was so scared about this move.
“… and now I have a real family, a place I can call my own,” Mittens explained, apparently talking through with the others what Bolt already knew, “… I don’t want to lose it again.”
Mittens trudged off into the kitchen without another word. Bolt, Onyx and Rhino were at an absolute loss. How could they convince her she wasn’t going to be left behind again? There seemed to be no way.
Onyx, feeling totally sorry for Mittens, called, “Hey, Mittens, wait for me!” She then ran off after her into the kitchen.
Mittens, curled up on top of one of the kitchen chairs, couldn’t stop thinking of her old family. They seemed so loving, so kind to her. They’d bought her toys, they fed her, they even got her a big plush basket to sleep in… So why did they leave her behind?
“Mittens…?” Onyx’s face came into her view. “C’mon pal, come down. I’ll do somethin’ to cheer ya up.”
Reluctantly, Mittens uncurled herself and leaped to the ground. Onyx, with difficulty, clambered up onto the worktop, then silent as a mouse, crept over to the fridge. Mittens, her mind being taken off sadness for a moment and replaced by intrigue, watched intently.
“I’m gonna get ya somethin’ that normally I would never give away, unless it was a special instance like this. Ya need cheerin’ up big time, and this gives ya a good first impression of me, I suppose…” Onyx ranted. She donkey-kicked the side of the fridge and the door swung open.
Being careful not to slip, she side stepped over the gap between the worktop and the fridge, then reached inside and grabbed something. Mittens stepped over to the bottom of the fridge as something dropped out of it. It was only the most expensive, extra special packet of pastrami money could buy on the market. Mittens gasped.
“All yours!” Onyx said, sliding back onto the worktop and reaching out to close the fridge. She bounded off the worktop to sit next to Mittens. “Cheer up, ‘kay? Have this, it might work. I know that I eat when I’m sad, it always cheers me up. And if either of the humans tells ya off, come to me. Wait ‘til three in the mornin’, they won’t be pleased with me, no sir!” Onyx grinned and Mittens laughed. This cat was crazy, but possibly the kindest one she’d ever met.
“Thanks,” Mittens said in her Manhattan influenced accent, then hugged her in a very New Yorkish way.
“No problem!” Onyx replied and almost smothered Mittens with her huge confident hug back. There was a pause, before Onyx looked at Mittens, then the pastrami, and said, “I guess ya need it, uh, more than I do, anyway. You’re really skinny, Mittens.” Onyx placed a paw on her own stomach. “Eh, it only happened to me after Mark decided to get me spayed. I don’t want kittens! he said. Now he’s not goin’ to get any.” (10)
“Yikes,” Mittens cringed. “I feel so sorry for you.”
All sadness forgotten for now, Mittens and Onyx sat in the kitchen discussing the good and bad things about she-cat castration, while Bolt and Rhino were in the middle of a discussion in the most concealed part of the house.
Bolt was laying into Rhino’s ball in the darkest corner of the basement, eyes narrowed and voice down to a gritted growl. He pressed his nose against the plastic ball and was speaking in no more than an angry whisper.
“I mean it, Rhino,” Bolt hissed at the hamster, while he shook. “I don’t want anymore attempted envious homicide, got it? Onyx should be treated as a guest and a friend!”
“Please!” Rhino begged. “I won’t do it again, let me go!”
“I want you to swear,” Bolt barked, “on your tiny little rodent heart that you will not do this ever again!!”
“I swear!!” Rhino wailed. Bolt then nodded tartly.
“You’ve sworn. Don’t do it again, okay? Because you know who would get the blame if Onyx suddenly disappeared? I would!” Bolt took his nose from the ball and started pacing up and down, waving his head around in gesture while he ranted. “Dog with territorial issues, plus new cat in the house apparently equals disaster. But not always. But when it does, and dog goes all freaked on cat, guess what happens to dog? Dog gets put to sleep!” Bolt stopped pacing. Looking at Rhino with tired eyes, Bolt sighed. “I’m sorry that you’re not my biggest fan, but Onyx… she’s something different. Sorry. Go on, you can leave if you want.”
Rhino rolled off quicker than lightning, and Bolt stared after him. He hadn’t meant to be that aggressive towards Rhino, but he had never seen him do a stunt this stupid before. I mean, there was the swinging atop a moving train plan and the time he blew up a lady’s truck by making a sign fall on top of it by shooting a gas tank at it (all by accident), but this… Bolt had no idea.
Chapter Four – Deserted
Onyx sat beside Bolt the final day in their rural countryside house. Onyx looked up at the calendar, which told her she’d been in Bolt’s presence for just over a week and a half. She then gazed up adoringly at him and reminded him for the twenty-fourth time that week and a half that she was his biggest fan ever, in the whole of time, the history of the universe, the whole of planet Earth and everyone on it, out of all the cats, dogs, hamsters, rabbits, gerbils, mice, birds, fish, snakes… He completely believed her of course. No one had ever been this obsessed about him before. He’d finally witnessed her Bolt cat basket cover she said she had, but had also seen her jumbo 30” Bolt plushie which was practically the same size as her (and that was saying something, seriously), her two large Bolt posters and her gigantic Bolt bus poster, her Bolt calculator and gym bag, her other Bolt t-shirt, which bore the words, ‘NO ONE loves Bolt more than I do!’, etcetera…
“What am I going to do?” Mittens muttered to herself, pacing up and down the lounge while Penny, Julia and Mark packed up the last boxes. She was so frightened she was going to be abandoned again, the similarity of the situation was all too familiar…
“Mittens?” It was Onyx. “Are ya okay? Just, ya know, the final day here. Must be a bit stressful for ya.”
Mittens sighed. “Suppose, yeah. Are you sure we’re not going to be left behind?”
“Are ya kiddin’ me?” Onyx grinned. “Mark loves us, he’d never leave us behind. Couldn’t if he tried!”
Mittens smiled. Onyx was so kind and considerate, which made her wonder... With her extreme kindness and, come to think of it, her accent too, Mittens thought -
“Are you from somewhere like Okla-“
“- homa?” Onyx finished. (11) “Yah, I am. But, how did ya -?”
“Alright, get the pets, Mark, Penny, lets start packing the moving van!” they all heard Julia shout. Mittens relaxed a bit.
“Get the pets?” Mittens muttered. “We’re… we’re going with them?”
“What’d I tell ya, Mittens?” Onyx pulled her into a back-splitting hug. “It’s all goin’ to be fine!”
When Penny reached down to Bolt and clipped his lead on his collar, he barked playfully and put his paws on her shoulders. He loved being in moving vehicles for long distances, just to hang his head from the window and his tongue from his mouth. He thought back, that’s what Mittens had taught him, he laughed as he remembered Mittens saying, It’s more of a dog thing. (12)
Mittens practically skipped into her cat carrier when asked to, knowing she was loved and she wasn’t going to be abandoned again. Onyx just got stuck trying to get into hers and had to be put on the spare dog lead Penny had instead. Onyx was so thrilled she finally had a collar, too! It was just like Bolt’s (mainly because Julia and Mark had to get a dog collar, because the cat ones were all too tight), but blueberry colour. The tag was exactly the same, with silver clippings and bronze text, which read on the front, ‘ONYX’, and on the back, ‘104 Jackson Av. Miami FL. 03174G2’. (13)
The final moment came. Everyone was lead out to the family Range Rover (14), which was to follow the moving van. Rhino was lifted into the car in a cardboard hamster carrier, followed by Mittens. Bolt and Onyx would have to go in a different way, but they didn’t know how.
“I’ll run in and see if I can find that old trailer we had in the barn if you want,” Penny suggested, but Julia immediately put her foot down on that idea, saying it was too dangerous. They decided for the boot of the Range Rover, which was just about big enough for the two of them.
Mark heaved the boot door open and Bolt leaped lightly in, then gave Onyx his paw to help her up too. Bolt thought to himself, did he have everything? His basket, Penny, the last three dog food tins, Mr. Carrot… Mr. Carrot?
“Onyx!” Bolt gasped. “I don’t have Mr. Carrot!” Bolt jumped down from the boot being tailed by Onyx just as Mark slammed the boot shut again. He, like the rest of the family, including Mittens and Rhino, thought they were in the back when they left.