I Don't Have a Cat

I take sign language with Sachi at school. It's very fun, but like any language, it's easy to get confused when you're a beginner. Today, we were asking questions off index cards to each other and answering them, in sign of course. One girl in the class asked another "Do you have a cat?" and the answerer responded "no". Then the teacher started to ask the cat-less girl something else, but I didn't really catch what, because the girl knew a lot of signs already so they were talking in vocabulary too advanced for me. We were just watching their conversation and not understanding most of it, when suddenly the teacher leans backwards with her hands in a claw shape and makes a cat-like hissing sound. "Oh my god!" exclaimed one person in the class, voicing all of our surprise. She, Sachi, and I looked at each other. "I totally missed what that was," said Sachi. Finally, they ended the conversation as the teacher says, "Kiki! That's a cute name for a fish!"

"Wait, I thought they were talking about cats!"

-Rebecca