Bully Ball '25 - Cathy and Nala

“OMG, Moore, like, where you at?!” Nala asked as she scanned the ball room for her big booty best friend. Nala and Moore were invited to the Summer Bully Ball, a formal event for all “nerds and bullies” around. Moore originally didn’t want to go since it has the word “bully” in the title, but Nala, who wanted a reason to dress up, had convinced her by claiming that she’d be there to protect Moore from any eager bullies. Unfortunately, almost as soon as they had entered the abandoned warehouse where the Ball was held, they were almost separated by the crowd of fancily dressed bullies and nerds. “Hunny, how can I keep you safe if you're like, totally MIA, you adorable weirdo?”

“N-Nala! Is that you?”

Nala turned to the voice she heard call her name, believing her to be the friend she was looking for, but instead, she was met by someone she didn’t expect to see at The Ball, Cathleen Sullivan.

Cathy stood there in a bright pink Tang suit with matching pink high top sneakers. Her hair looked the same but with one of her bangs brushed back into what looked like a cow horn hairpin. In contrast, Nala wore a simple one shoulder, lavender cocktail dress with a small diamond cutout right where her belly button was and dark purple open toed high heels. Her own accessories were a small ruby necklace and pince-nez glasses.

“O-OMG, hey Cathy!! Didn't see ya here, like, surprise!” Nala exclaimed, surprised to see her long-time crush.

“Hehe, yeah, I had gotten an invite and my mom forced me to go,” Cathy shyly said, “Guess she wanted a night alone with her boyfriend”

“Like, I hope you’ve been living it up tonight! I just rolled in,”

“Y-yeah, I’ve been enjoying myself. Gave some dorks some wedgies, exchanged some bullying tactics with a cat girl a few minutes ago, you know, the works.”

“OMG, like rad! I totally yanked a nerd's undies like, right when I walked in, but then I lost my squad! I've totally been searching for her for, like, forever!” Nala laughed as she reminisced. Her relaxed smile helped Cathy relax a bit, but then she heard Nala say,

“Okay, babe, it’s been super fun vibing with you! But like, I gotta go chase after Moore, so catch ya later, cutie!”

Cathy was forced to shut her eyes as tightly as she could as she tilted her head back to fight the blush growing on her face and reminded herself that as much as she didn’t want it to be true, Nala didn’t mean anything by “cutie”. She just talks like that to everyone. And as soon as she told herself that, she finally processed what Nala said and grabbed her hand before she could get too far, “Wait!”

As Nala was pulled closer towards Cathy, she couldn’t help but get lost in her eyes, and it was obvious that Cathy felt the same way. The two of them stared at each other before Nala finally managed to break the silence as she held up the hand Cathy was still holding, “like, what’s the tea that’s got you holding my hand like that?”

“O-oh!” Cathay stammered out as she quickly let go of the laughing Nala’s hand, unable to try and prevent the blush from growing on her once again, “I-i j-just wanted to let you know that I saw Moore not too long ago. She was with that Carrie dork. They headed off somewhere, and that’s when I ran into you”

“OMG, for real? Yaaas, thanks boo! With her here, she might chill out! And, like maybe we could just hang out a bit more,” Nala said, trying to stop herself from blushing.

“Y-yeah. Maybe,” Cathy said back as she rubbed her neck.

After a few short seconds of awkward silence, where neither of them knew what to say to the other, Cathay finally broke the silence by saying, “Hey, so I heard from someone that the staff here are shape shifters, and they’ll turn into anyone you want and let you give them as many wedgies as you want. What if we go and have them turn into people we hate?”

“Like, I’m totally down for that!” Nala said, a devilish smirk started forming on her face as she began thinking of her two rivals and the thought of giving them as many wedgies as she could.

As the two began to try and find some waitstaff, Cathy suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned towards the Nala.

“Oh shoot! There’s so many people here! W-we should prob- probably hold onto each other, so we don’t get lost like you and Moore did,” Cathy said, trying to not make it seem super obvious that she just wanted to hold Nala’s hand.

“Y-yeah. I’m like t-totally down for that too!” Nala stammered out, finally letting her nerves begin to show as she reached out and grabbed Cathy’s pinky with her own, unable to bring herself to go all the way and grab her hand.

And with that, the two left the area to try and find some staff to bully.