Save The Cats!

The members of the Oakwood Heights High School Film Club were gathered inside the Kitty Confectionery, a small cat cafe on the edge of town. It wasn't because they liked hanging out with cats; in fact, at least five out of the ten students working on their current project were mildly allergic to them. But cat-loving Emma Hudson, the director of the short film they were working on as their final project for the year, had insisted that they feature the Kitty Confectionery in at least one scene. Emma was scary when she didn't get her way, so everyone else, even those with mild allergies, had agreed.

"All right, quiet on set!" Emma yelled. Immediately the other nine students turned their attention to her. Though all the humans in the room had stopped talking, Moe, the black and white cat perched on a cat tree in the corner, was still going. Emma walked over to him and gave him a few pets to calm him down, then walked back over to the others and cleared her throat.

"We only have an hour to shoot this scene. That means we have to try and do it in as few takes as possible. Understood?" Everyone nodded, except sarcastic Tim Martin, who saluted and shouted, "MA'm YES MA'am!" Like she always did when Tim tried this bit, Emma ignored him completely.

"Places!" The actors rushed to find their positions for the opening of the scene, and Tim and his friend Andy, the only people in the whole club who knew how to operate a camera, quickly adjusted their lenses and got ready to hit record. Emma surveyed the action around her, making sure everyone was actually ready, before she shouted, "And... action!" Right on cue, Keira Malletti, who was cast as the main character, a confident high school girl who was DEFINITELY not based on Emma, pretended to walk through the cafe's front door. Nearby, Jake Turner, who was playing her love interest (which was a popular guy who was DEFINITELY not based on Adrian, Emma's current crush), was waiting at a table. Emma was pleased to see that things were going smoothly so far.

"Hey, Emmy, you're..." Jake began, but his line was cut off by the sound of a very loud sneeze.

"Sorry." Chelsea Mullen, who was playing an extra in this particular scene (and was playing Emmy's best friend in all the other scenes), wiped at her nose with a tissue that she had pulled from her pocket. Emma glared at her.

"Ugh, Chelsea! Things were going so well before..." She wasn't able to finish her sentence because just then, a muscular black cat leaped down from his perch on top of the fake fireplace and made a beeline for Tim's camera! Tim reached for it, but every time he tried to move it, the cat would nip at his hand.

"Aaah! Help! Help!" Immediately Andy rushed over to help him move the camera out of the frantic feline's reach. Unfortunately for the boys, though, said camera had caught the entire incident!

"CUT!" Emma slammed her hand on the nearest table. She gave the black cat a very stern look.

"Onyx, please. Calm down. Can't you see we're filming?"

"I don't think..." Chelsea started to say, but instead of the rest of her sentence, another sneeze came out.

"From the top!" Keira and Jake scrambled back to their opening positions while Emma gave Onyx a treat to keep him distracted.

"ACTION!" This time, Keira and Jake got about halfway through the scene, which was the moment in the film when Emmy and her love interest, Julian, finally confessed their feelings for one another. They were just leaning in for their rehearsed kiss when...

"MEOW!" Floof, an adorable blue-gray kitten, ran over to the table and leaped onto it! She started nuzzling Keira's hand.

"Awww, hi kitty!" Keira started petting Floof, completely forgetting that the scene wasn't quite over yet. Emma looked as if she didn't know what to say or do here; she was glad to see that at least ONE person appreciated cats as much as she did, but at the same time, they still had a scene to finish. Plus, the kiss was the best part of this whole thing. She walked over to the table, picked Floof up, and set her back down on the floor. Tim and Andy hid their amused smiles behind their big cameras as they hit the stop buttons.

"From the top!" Emma yelled again. By this time, Chelsea was looking a little worse for wear, with red eyes and a runny nose, and so were the four other students who were allergic to cat dander. Emma let out a long-suffering sigh and waited, again, for everyone to take their positions.

This time, Keira and Jake got past the kiss, but they didn't make it to the final lines because Onyx decided to get into a fight with Ashley, the cafe's only orange cat. Then, during the next take, Floof jumped onto the table again and refused to move. Then, in the take after that, Moe meowed the whole way through. Emma was growing frustrated, Chelsea's eyes were growing redder and she wasn't the only one sneezing, Keira and Jake were sick of having to redo their kiss over and over, and Tim and Andy were really struggling to hold in their laughter. And just when things couldn't get any worse, a dinging sound came from the bell on the door, and in walked Mrs. Richards, the owner of the Kitty Confectionery.

"Time's up!" she announced in a voice that was far too cheerful. Emma huffed.

"Thank you for letting us use the cafe, Mrs. Richards," she muttered. Then she gestured to the other nine members of her club and said glumly, "Let's go."

After all that had gone on during the filming of the epic love confession between Emmy and Julian, Emma was actually glad to be heading home. Normally, she enjoyed her time at the Kitty Confectionery. Being surrounded by her favorite animal was a dream come true. But today, it had been anything but. The cats had messed up every single take! And she couldn't book another time to come back and use the space because the project was due in less than a week!

The next day, at their afternoon meeting, the members of the Oakwood High School Film Club were trying to figure out how they could possibly make the most of their botched footage.

"We could edit the cats out," Chelsea suggested. Keira shook her head.

"No! We should leave them in! Their antics are hilarious!" Now Emma was shaking her head.

"No, no, no! They just distract from what's happening!" Soon, everyone was shouting over one another, aside from Tim and Andy, who were rewatching the takes from the day before and laughing. Suddenly, a loud voice cut through the chaos.

"EVERYONE STOP!" The room went silent, and all eyes fell on Samantha Marks, the shy girl who always sat in the back of the classroom.

"We should..." She took a deep breath and started again.

"We should..."

"We should WHAT?" Emma asked, growing impatient. Samantha cleared her throat.

"We should take a vote. That way we'll know exactly how many people want to leave the cats in and how many people want to edit them out. Wouldn't that be a much better method than yelling over each other?" The students looked at each other for a few moments, contemplating the idea. Then, nine heads nodded.

"Great." Samantha took out a piece of paper and a pencil, ready to tally up the votes.

"Who wants to leave the cats in?" Six students, including her, raised their hands. Samantha penciled in a number 6 next to the words "Leave the cats in" that she had written.

"OK, and who wants no cats?" To everyone's shock, Emma was one of the four students that raised their hands. Samantha penciled in a 4 next to the words "no cats."

"Then it's settled." She held the results up for all to see. "We're saving the cats!"

And so their short film was given the title Save The Cats. It followed Emmy and Julian, two high school students who cared deeply about cats (and each other.) With some help from Mrs. Richards and their advisor, Mr. Romano, Emma and the others were able to rework the whole thing into a story about keeping a beloved business from closing down... that business being, of course, a cat cafe, appropriately named the Kitty Confectionery. Although it hadn't turned out the way its director envisioned, Emma found that she didn't mind so much. In fact, she was proud to have her name listed beside the word "director" in the end credits... even if she did have to add all the cats' names into the list of featured actors.