Bad Luck Bo

Bad Luck Bo is the first chapter in the third season of 'The Two Cats', and the twenty-seventh chapter overall.

Meeting Bo
With the Autumn season and the month of October rolling around, Expi decides to grab a Pumpkin Spice Blend-accino before going to work. But as she is drinking it, a few loud noises - a bump followed by yelling - causes her to drop it, spill it, and a hole to be punctured in the cup, prompting her to get a new one from nearby the coffee machine.

As she is doing so, she decides to look over and see what's going on, and finds a black cat (an employee she has never seen before) being confronted by another co-worker, claiming that he is "bad luck" after bumping into him and refusing to help him pick up the large stack of papers that he dropped.

Expi decides to help him after the co-worker storms off, carrying the stack of papers over to her office, and they introduce each other. The black cat reveals his name as Bo, and that he was recently hired as an intern for the IT department at the Paitocan Shipping Company. He talks about what happened, and how other animals believe he's bad luck since he's a black cat. Expi understands, citing her and Mariko's own experiences. Bo then states that he has to get back to the IT department, and they both return to work.

Stove Problems
Expi decides to bring up her new co-worker to Mariko, and asks her what she thinks of the situation and if she has any advice. The advice Mariko brings up doesn't end up being very optimal though, simply saying it was something that she just got used to and implies that Expi was who really helped her out over the years.

After their conversation, Expi tries to make spaghetti for dinner, but finds that the stove isn't turning on, even after trying all the other burners, despite having no problems with it in the previous nights. She begins to grow frustrated and kicks the oven, causing it to roar back to life (with one of the burners set on high), erupting in flames, almost burning Expi's face and causing the smoke detector to go off and Percy to squawk back at the noise. Expi quickly douses the fire with her cup of ice water and turns the stove back off. Her neighbor comes not long later, asking what all the noise was about, and tells her to contact the owner about her stove and oven, to which she agrees.

Bad Luck..?
The next day, Expi, drinking another Pumpkin Spice Blend-accino talks to Abi, another one of her co-workers, about what had happened the previous night. Abi responds implying that she had received bad luck after talking with Bo the previous day, especially during the month of October. Expi gets annoyed by all this and walks away, not carrying on the converstation. As she gets back to her desk, Bo, carrying another stack of shipping labels, unintentionally sneaks up on her, causing her to jump and spill her drink again. Bo asks if he's bothering Expi, to which Expi denies, saying that she's just stressed, and Bo goes back to the IT department. Expi's foot is still feeling pretty sore after kicking the stove, causing her to trip and lose her balance at several points over the day (even on the way back home after work), to which Abi continues to imply that she has bad luck from talking to Bo. Expi simply brushes this off, however.

Expi talks to Mariko again after she comes home, stating that her day wasn't so great. Mariko asks about Bo, and Expi talks about how her co-workers still believe he's bad luck, and that she's not doing him any favors after spilling her coffee, tripping and problems with the stove. Mariko assures her that those sorts of things happen, even mentioning how she had problems with the stove before. Expi, however, still does not remember having any problems with the stove, to which Mariko says she "might" have but hesitating to disclose any details to her (with Percy squawking at her). Mariko distracts Expi by reminding her to call about that, and the owners state that a repair animal will come the next day. They decide to each have a cup of noodles for dinner since Expi doesn't want to use the stove.

Confronting the Hate
Expi shows up to work the next day, albeit this time without a Blend-accino, and Bo comes to talk to her. He asks if she feels he is bad luck, mentioning how he saw her spill her drink and trip over various times the previous day. Expi reassures him, stating that she had spilt her coffee before, and that her foot was sore after kicking the oven. Bo asks about this, but before Expi can answer, Abi barges in on their conversation, mentioning everything that Expi talked about and what she saw happen. Expi tells her to shut up, but Bo chooses to believe that Abi is right, and decides to leave Expi alone after giving her another Pumpkin Spice Blend-accino. Expi tries to go after him, but Bo decides to not talk to her. Expi then turns to Abi, and yells at her for making Bo feel bad about himself, stating that Abi just wants to reaffirm her own beliefs and put others down so she can feel better about herself. She decides to start heading to the IT department, but tells Abi that Mariko had said "animals are assholes", and that she wasn't wrong after talking to her.

Expi then heads down to the IT department, but after asking Chris, another one of her co-workers, he tells her that Bo decided to take the rest of the day off, and remarks that he seemed uncomfortable. Expi walks away, feeling that it was her fault.

What Actually Happened
Expi tells Mariko about what occured at work, and that she thinks she made Bo feel worse after talking about what had been going on. Expi then remarks that everyone still believes Bo is bad luck, and that was made worse by the timing of what was going at home. She says that she doesn't know what to say, but immediately after, the repair animal goes over to Expi, and tells her that some parts of her oven were somehow knocked out of place, and that some wires and electrodes might have not been making a good connection as a result, while also adding that bits of food seemed to be clogging the burners. But as she kicked it, she might have knocked some parts back into place, causing the eruption of flames. Expi states that she had tried to keep the stove and oven clean and take care of it, and doesn't know how it could've gotten in that shape.

Percy glares at Mariko, and Mariko decides to tell them that during that day, she had wanted to give Percy a cracker, but couldn't reach the cabinet above. As such, she had grabbed a chair from her room, stood on it, but as she got the box out, she lost her balance and fell onto the stove alongside the box and a few cans from the same cabinet. She also states that she had tried to clean it up, but some of the food might have gotten into spots she couldn't reach. Mariko also reminisces a moment where she hit a spider on top of the stove with one of Expi's college textbooks, and the time she had tried to make lunch for them and lied about the oven smoking, and the repair animal agreed that might have caused problems with the stove (while also advising Expi to keep Mariko away from the stove and oven). The repair animal finishes up, and Expi gives him a big tip in exchange for keeping quiet about Mariko's stories. She then tells Mariko she's not letting her use the stove and oven ever again.

Epilogue
Expi goes over to where Bo is working in the IT department, carrying two Blend-accinos and giving one to Bo. Bo thanks her for both the treat and for standing up for him, but tells Expi that he feels like he was bad luck. Expi then proceeds to tell Bo about her spilling her drink the morning prior to even meeting him, and in addition explains that her tripping over was a result of her foot being sore after kicking the oven. Bo then asks about that incident, and Expi tells him that Mariko might have played a part in that.

Characters

 * Expi
 * Mariko
 * Percy
 * Bo
 * Abi
 * Chris
 * Unnamed Jaguar co-worker
 * Unnamed Repair Animal
 * Unnamed Repair Animal

Trivia

 * This is the first chapter to use the "no outline" style of the characters, as well as the first to use the slightly revamped logo.
 * The character of Bo is named after one of ExpitheCat's pets - who also happens to be a black cat.
 * Bo being an IT intern is also a reference to ExpitheCat being in a similar position over the summer in 2018.