Pearly Whites

Alex was not a morning person; no matter how early she went to bed or how many hours of sleep she got, she always felt like crap waking up. The groggy half-awake half-asleep feeling didn’t feel good and was enough to make her despise mornings. That, combined with the years of having to wake up in the morning for school when she was younger, it was a surprise that anyone was a morning person at all. As much as she loved Kesha, she never woke up in the morning feeling like P Diddy. 

Another possible contributor to her disdain for mornings was the alarm on her phone that she usually woke up to. For some reason, the default alarm on the iPhone sounded like a disaster warning system. And since there was no way of bulk changing all of the alarm tones for all the different times she had set, she left it the way it was. She could not be bothered; as if waking up to piano and string instruments would make her enjoy mornings anyway. 

“Gggrrhhh…” the tigress let out a groan as her phone beeped over and over again. She had hit the snooze button three times, and it looked like her phone had just about had enough. The snooze button was nowhere to be seen on the screen and it wouldn’t stop screaming. She repeatedly pressed the power button on the side of her phone until it stopped. With a quick glance at the screen, the alarm that she had just dismissed was her third backup alarm, there were no more after it, so it was the absolute latest that she could get out of bed if she wanted to get her day started on time. Phone in hand, Alex pushed herself out of bed and dragged her feet along her shag carpet toward the bathroom. She scratched the back of her head and let out a big yawn as she pushed through the door. “Hey Google, turn on the lights…” she said groggily and rubbed her eyes. It took a few seconds for the smart speaker to process her command and turn the multiple lights in the bathroom on. As they did, the tigress placed her phone down on the sink counter, put her hands on both sides of it, and leaned forward to look at her reflection in the mirror. The white bathroom was bright, and Alex had chosen to make it that way specifically to help kick her awake in the mornings. It didn’t work too well most of the time, as all it did was make her squint her eyes or even close them, which in turn made her even sleepier.

Once her eyes had adjusted to the light, she got a better look at herself; her hair was a mess, her menacingly smirking kitty shirt was wrinkled, and the fur along the edges of her strawberry-patterned panties looked as if it had been combed in different directions. She looked down at her thighs and used her hands to smooth them out. She grabbed a loose pink hair band that was next to her phone and used it to tie her hair up into a bun; a messy one, but it was an improvement over her hair dangling over her shoulders. She grabbed her toothbrush from the cup it was in along with the tube of Fang+ Specialty Saber-toothpaste, popped the lid, and squeezed out a moderate size dollop onto the bristles. She then turned on the faucet, ran her toothbrush under it for a second, and brought it to her mouth as she turned the faucet off with her other hand. The faucet squeaked as the valve shut off the water flow and the sound of the tigress running her toothbrush over her large fangs echoed throughout the bathroom. 

Alex looked at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth, she was gentle with her pearly whites but made sure to run the bristles of her brush over every single tooth, even the molars all the way in the back. The more she brushed, the more foam she created from the friction and she let out a laugh when she saw how much she looked like she was rabid. After about a minute, the foam in her mouth was getting a little too much, so she spat into the sink. 

‘Splat.’ 

She continued brushing. 

When her silent countdown to two minutes reached a minute and a half, she heard the door to her apartment open up. Her ears flickered and turned in the direction of the sound and she stopped brushing her teeth.

“Front door unlocked by; Logan,” announced her smart speaker. 

Relieved that it wasn’t a home intruder, the tigress shrugged her shoulders and kept brushing. Logan was her manager and one of her closest friends. The raccoon was probably there to rush her since she was teetering on the edge of being late. Logan knew that Alex had a lovely relationship with her sleep, so she had Alex give her a backup keycard to her place so that she could wake her up if she ever did a giant mega sleep like the one time where she almost slept through her timeslot at a big music festival.  

With just under 30 seconds left of toothbrushing to do, the tigress turned to face her open bathroom door and waited for the raccoon to barge in to tell her how late she was.  “I’m not late, Logan!” The tiger grumbled as she brushed her right saber. Her words were perfectly timed, as the trash panda gal appeared in the doorway right as she said them. She was dressed fancy in a black and red pantsuit, the type of clothing that she wore for those big occasions. Logan put her hand up on the doorframe, leaned against it, and stared at the tiger. She scanned her up and down and rolled her eyes before she folded her arms over her chest. 

“You’re in your underwear, you haven’t showered, you smell like that guy I saw you leave with last night, and we are supposed to be leaving in about ten minutes, so I think it’s safe to say you are late.” 

Alex continued to brush just one of her fangs as she spoke to her manager. She was done brushing her teeth at this point, but she was still running on sleepy brain, so the brush kept going up and down on her long and sharp tooth. The tiger rolled her half-lidded eyes and spat out the remaining toothpaste foam in her mouth into the sink. After washing her toothbrush and rinsing her mouth, she lifted up her left arm and turned her head toward her armpit to give it a sniff. Logan was right.

“Okay, I overslept, I’m going to hop in the shower and I’ll be out in less than ten.” Alex shrugged her shoulders and started to strip out of her kibby shirt and fruit-patterned underwear. She removed the hair band from her hair and stepped into the shower. Logan had seen Alex naked many times, the first time being when she had to get ready for a photo shoot where she had very little covering her up, so it was nothing new. 

As the tigress pulled the shower curtain closed, Logan pushed herself from the doorframe that she was leaning against. “Your outfit is on your bed, and your other outfit for tonight is already at the hotel.” When the tigress heard about “the other” outfit, she peeked her head out from behind the shower curtain with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. She was about to ask Logan a question but was cut off. “And yes, it’s a Purrsace, so please don’t get any condiments on it like you did the last time.” The raccoon chuckled, pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket, and walked away from the bathroom. 

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Alex’s day was filled with interviews and talk show tapings. It was one of those “media days” as Logan would put it. After taping her segments on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Falcon, Jimmy Kibble Live, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbear, it was time for Alex to get into her custom-made Purrsace dress and head to the main event of the night. 

“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the annual Grammy Awards.” Announced that familiar golden voice that announced absolutely everything on TV. It didn’t matter what was being announced, it was always that voice. It was smooth like butter, and Alex wondered if it was all done by the same person as she applauded the host as he stepped onto the stage to start the televised portion of the awards ceremony. Alex was seated at one of the front-row tables, with other singers and musicians that she was starstruck by. It made her nervous, but Logan, someone who was undoubtedly more experienced in the business, was right next to her keeping her from passing out from nervousness. Alex was up for five Grammy awards under her stage name Alex Marx the Spot; Best Pop Vocal Album, Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Album of the Year. It was a lot of nominations for a newcomer like her with only her debut album under her belt, enough to earn her a seat at the big kids’ table, with veterans that were going to win all the awards anyway. She was just happy to be there. 

The tiger sat in her seat, occasionally sipping the champagne in front of her while she watched the host of the ceremony perform his opening monologue. She had to set her glass down many times as she laughed at the jokes, she didn’t want to spill anything on the dress that she was wearing. It was a play on her red sweater but turned into something high fashion. The sleeves were cut off to show her arms and the length extended and fluffed up so it became a sort of fancy dress that dragged on the floor. She found it hilarious that the Purrsace representatives specifically asked her not to get condiments on it while making it the same color as the most common one. They wouldn’t be able to tell if she squirted ketchup on herself, Logan must have shared with them her love for mayonnaise and ranch. 

“I’m sorry to tell you guys, but we do have a communist spy with us here this evening,” the meerkat host set up the final joke of his monologue and was holding back laughter like an SNL actor trying to not break character. The entire arena went quiet for a moment as did the host, to build tension. “Alex MARX the Spot is here and she’s told me that she will seize the means of production on the statuettes so that she can make her own if she doesn’t win tonight.” The room erupted into laughter and so did Alex. And with that, the ceremony started and the awards were given out. 

Alex had to perform, too, as did most of the nominees in the major categories. She performed a stripped-down version of one of her piano breakup ballads, with her voice getting a little pitchy and shaky at the end as she started to tear up. 

“And I wish I was there with you….”

“Oh, I wish I was there…. for you…”

Alex pressed her fingers down on the keys hard when she reached the end of her song before she stood up, smiled, waved to the audience, and took a bow. Once the cameras cut to a commercial break, Alex walked off the stage, wiping the tears from her eyes using the turtleneck part of her dress. The fashion house didn’t say anything about not getting tears on it. 

Award after award was given out, and when it came to the first category that Alex was nominated for, “Best New Artist”, Alex stared at the presenter with wide eyes.

“And the Grammy goes to…” the presenter opened up the envelope into the microphone, which made the sound of the glue separating from the card almost like ASMR. As the envelope opened up, the presenter took a second to read it in her head before she announced with a cheer in her voice, “Alex Marx the Spot!!!!!!”

The only thing Alex could hear next was the sound of roaring applause as people stood up to clap for her. It took her a few seconds to realize that her name was called, and a couple of shouts into her ear from a very excited Logan, too. She quickly stood up from her seat, gave Logan and the stars at her table a hug, and made her way onto the stage. The presenter of the award handed the golden gramophone to her, and when she held it in her hand, she made a surprised expression when she found out how hefty it was. She held it in both hands as she approached the microphone on the stage with very wide kitty eyes.

“Hoooh… This is heavy.” Alex let out a breath and looked around at all the people and cameras in front of her, it took her a few seconds to adjust to the stage lights that shined in her face, and once she was ready to speak, the applause from when her name was called had died down just in time. 

“Oh my god, this is amazing, thank you to the Recording Academy for this incredible honor. I used to practice my speeches in the mirror while I brushed my teeth in the morning, so this feels unreal.” The tiger smiled wide and took in a deep breath and looked at the award in her hand again. “And as you can imagine, with teeth like mine, the speech was quite long.” She got a big laugh from the audience which made her smile even more. 

“Thank you to my friends, family, and my fans for always supporting me, my mom, my dad… You guys are awesome, I finally did it! But I’m not giving you this one to put on your shelf with my tennis trophies. To my label, my producers who helped me find my sound, my manager and friend Logan for everything, especially for making sure I wasn’t late for today. You were right! I did win at least one tonight!” The tigress started to tear up again, but this time her tears were those of joy. After a couple of sniffles, she continued. “I wrote this record a long time ago when I was still waiting tables at this small diner, I would always volunteer to work the graveyard shifts so that I would have more time to write music at work, so sorry to my old bosses who paid me to slack off. And all of these songs were about how sad I was, or how much everything sucked. I used to sing them to my friends and they said it was all very depressing, but it was my therapy. I felt good after writing them, even if I had to clean up and scrub a mess someone made in the bathroom right after. Oh gosh, uh… I guess what I want to say is that music isn’t only art, it's therapy, and I thank you for recognizing that.” The crowd started to cheer and applaud her again and she could see Logan standing there looking at her like a proud mom. 

“I would also like to dedicate this to anyone out there who wants to do music but thinks that there’s no point, or that it’s oversaturated; it’s not. If there’s room for a tiger with weird big teeth from the bottomless district like me, there’s room for you too. Thank you so much!” the tigress lifted her award up into the air in a victory pose as she ended her speech. She took one last glance at Logan in the crowd but saw her standing there with her arms folded over her chest, looking very annoyed. She was confused. Did she say something wrong? She was quickly escorted off the side of the stage to have her award engraved.

---

“Alex.” 

“ALEX.”

“AAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.” 

Charlie stood in the doorway of Alex’s bathroom with his arms crossed over his chest. The mouse was dressed in his work uniform, apron and all, and waved his arms around as he called out to her. 

Alex stood in front of her sink, holding her toothbrush like an award statuette. Foamy toothpaste dripping from her teeth, she blinked rapidly as she woke up from her very vivid daydream. Gone was the fancy Purrsace dress, her hair and makeup, and the Grammy award. She was back in her kibby shirt, strawberry panties, and messy bun on her head. She sleepily turned to the side to look at Charlie, who was tapping his foot against the floor impatiently. 

“We’re going to be late for work!”  he squeaked.

It took Alex a few seconds to readjust to the downlights that shined from above the mirror right into her face. Realizing that it was all a dream, the tigress chuckled. “Shit, sorry, give me five minutes, I’ll be right out.” She said, her tone full of disappointment and her eyes full of signs of sleep deprivation. She then turned back to the sink to spit and rinse. Once both her mouth and toothbrush were free of toothpaste, she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Charlie, noticing that Alex was acting odd, tilted his head to the side and raised a concerned brow. “Everything okay, Alex?” 

The tigress’s right ear flickered and turned in her mouse friend’s direction. “Hm? Yeah! I’m good. Just didn’t get good sleep last night, I’ll be fine.” She let out a sigh and started to undress. Once she was undressed, she undid her bun and hopped into the shower.

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Art by Smileeeeeee