Ah, teenage years. The best years of a human's life. Hanging out with all your friends, kicking back and relaxing at home, partying all night, and just being totally carefree. That is, of course, if you live in a high school-themed movie.

  However, in the real world, the life of a teenager isn't nearly as wonderful as those movies would have you believe. In fact, teenage times are quite possibly the worst years of one's life. I mean, school classes get waayy harder, your body pretty much turns against you, you're too busy doing homework to hang out with your friends or have fun at parties, you have to fight crime on a regular basis, crimes happening during school constantly force you to miss class, you have to get an internship at the local newspaper company to stay up to date with all the crime and mayhem, you have to go all around the town and take so many newspaper pictures that you don't have much time to do your homework, and-

  Oh, sorry. Kinda lost my train of thought there. The stress must've been getting to me again. It happens a lot. My name is Mandy Katherson, and this is what I look like:

  Alright, enough getting sidetracked. On with the story!

  After another long, stress-filled week, it was officially Friday, and once again, the school day had ended. The night before, I'd attempted another all-nighter to get all my work done. Unfortunately, my adolescent body (and my feline instincts) had surrendered to sleep yet again, and I still woke up early so I wouldn't be late for school, so I had to grab some coffee (with milk) from the cafeteria to make it through the rest of the day. 

  Now that school was over, it was time for me to go home and get ready for my other work: my photography internship at the Mazzletown Chronicles. I grabbed my camera and got my backpack with all my newspaper work (and a few snacks) in it. Then I rushed down and got going. My mom drove me there, and on the way there, she said to me, "Mandy, I need to have a talk with you about your coffee intake and your sleep habits."

  "Mom, it's just coffee," I responded, "you know that stuff won't really stunt my growth. Besides, how else am I supposed to get my work done? My entire future counts on me being able to finish all of it!"

  "Sweetie, I think you're stressing about it too much," she commented in rebuttal, "you know that and a lack of sleep aren't healthy, especially for someone your age." (sighs) Sometimes, it feels like she just doesn't remember what being a teen is like.

  Anyway, I got there on time, and my co-worker, Christopher Royko (or "Chris" as he prefers to be called), was waiting for me. Here's a picture that I took of him:

  Once he saw me, he excitedly rushed over to me, started tousling my hair, and said, "Hey, Mandy! How was school? Got any plans for Friday night?"

  "Hi, Chris," I answered, "school was good as usual, and as for Friday plans, I just hope to get some work done."

  "Speaking of work," Chris was pretty fired up (as usual), "are you ready to show Mr. Fanning some of the juicy stories and awesome pictures we've got?!"

  "Yeah," I replied semi-nervously.

  We went into the elevator, and I was gonna press the '3rd Floor' button, but then an older, higher-ranked worker started walking up to it, so I decided to keep it open for him. When he walked in, he pressed the '3rd Floor' button, and then he pressed the '6th Floor' button. That was a pleasant surprise.

  Anyway, when Chris and I got to the third floor, we walked over to Mr. Fanning's office, which was the sixth room on the left. It looked just like it usually did: light blue plaster walls, navy blue tile floor, a few pictures of some people (possibly his family), a well-filled bookshelf, and then there was his desk. It's made from a wood that I can only guess is mahogany, and it has a few drawers in it.

  Anywho, the man sitting in the dark blue spinny chair was our boss, Mr. Fanning. Here's his picture:

  He looked at us and asked, "Hello, Christopher, Mandy. Do you two have another story for the paper?"

  "Oh, absolutely, sir!" Chris answered with his usual gusto, "We've got an awesome story!" He started flipping through his notepad until he got to a page that said, "25 Escaped Chimpanzees Returned to Zoo." He showed it to Mr. Fanning, and I reached into my photo file and showed him the photos that went with it.

  "Boy, that Monkitty sure is something," Chris commented in a kinda starry-eyed way, and I kinda blushed. It did feel pretty great to know that the citizens of Mazzletown appreciate the things that I do. (blushy smile)

  "Christo, are you sure?" Mr. Fanning was kinda skeptical, "We've been doing an awful lot of superhero stories lately, like Shadowl stopping that bank robbery last Sunday, Dolphne defusing the bomb from Wednesday, Elephantastic saving people from a rockslide on Monday, and Ponytail stopping the Zebra Boys last week on Tuesday. Y'know what I mean?"

  "O-oh, yes, sir! We do," Chris answered semi-confidently, "but don't you worry, Mr. Fanning! That's not the only story we got!" He turned and looked at me, "Right, Mandy?"

  "Yeah," I added, "we've also got a story about the opening of a brand new coffee café called Crème de Latté."

  Chris flipped through his notepad to the Crème de Latté story, and I got out the photos of the building and interior. On the outside, the building is a lovely shade of purple, and the logo is a bright pink cup of black coffee with white cream being added, creating a beautiful swirl dynamic. Like many cafés in Paris, there are plenty of outdoor tables, and the way that they stand with the chairs is just très joli! It even has purple and white awning above the sleek sliding glass doors! It's simply magnifique!

  (clears throat) Anyway, Mr. Fanning looked at both of these and said, "I think this sounds like a brilliant story! I mean, it's a lighthearted break from all the superhero stories, and we might even end up making a deal with the owner to start advertising them in our paper!"

  After that, Mr. Fanning sent Chris and me out to find some more article ideas. Just as we were about to go around the curb, my necklace started glowing, so I turned to Chris and said, "I have to go handle some urgent business. I'll be right back!"

  I went into a dark, empty alley, quietly said, "Meoweek," and then the transformation began: my two little cowlicks turned into cat ears, my scleras turned yellow, my clothing changed, the tail grew from the end of my spine (which was actually kinda painful, but still worth it), and I became Monkitty!

  Once that was done, I started heading out to search for the problem. Eventually, I finally found it: Laborjack at a construction site. I rushed over there as soon as I could, and he was there. With a huge beard as rough as steel wool and forearms that could rip a phone book in half, he was using his massive axe to hack away at the girders that were holding everything up! Here's his picture:

  I immediately rushed into the construction site, caught the falling workers, went over to Laborjack, and grabbed his axe before he could swing it again. He glared at me and said, "Monkitty."

  "That's me," I said back, and despite the slight trace of nervousness in my voice, I decided to cut to the chase and punch him while we were still close to each other. You see, I prefer to just make the fights short, quick, and as non-destructive as possible. After all, the sooner I get the job done, the sooner I can get back to my other work.

  Anyway, he stepped back a little and tried to take a swing at me, but I managed to duck down and give him a swift kick in the gut. He did flinch from it a little bit, and he dropped his axe, but it was pretty clear that his washboard stomach had mostly absorbed the blow. He hoisted me up with his big, meaty hands and went over to grab his axe. It felt like he was gonna deliver the final blow, but then I reached into my utility belt, pulled out my sour apple spray, and used it to spray Laborjack right in the face! As the acidity of the lemon juice burned his eyes, he dropped his axe and me, and since he was down, I seized the opportunity to take out my rope-yarn ball and tie him up.

  Now that I'd taken care of that, it was time to get back to work.