Free Paws and Whiskers by Jacqueline Wilson Page A

and we were looking all over for it, and Mr Pooter just sat there, with hispaws tucked in, watching as we crawled round the room on our hands and knees, peering under the sofa and poking down the sides of chairs. And then he yawned, and stood up, and we discovered that he’d been sitting on it the whole time. Sitting on the front door key! Mum said, ‘That is just so typical of a cat!’
    I am about to take out my pen and start writing things down, to tell Mrs Caton, when Michael knocks at the door and says, ‘Dad wants you to come downstairs and be with the rest of us.’ I hesitate. ‘You’re part of the family,’ says Michael. ‘You can’t keep hiding away.’
    Reluctantly, I put down my notebook. Michael looks at me. He seems concerned. He says, ‘Don’t you like being with us?’
    I feel my cheeks grow pink. I mumble that I don’t think Auntie Ellen really wants me here. It’s not a criticism! If this was my house, I probably wouldn’t want me here.
    Now I’ve made Michael’s cheeks go pink as well. He says that Auntie Ellen is doing her best to make me feel welcome. ‘She wants you to be happy . . . I think you should come down.’
    I leave Mr Pooter curled up on the duvet and obediently go with Michael to join the rest of the family. Holly, very self-important, informs me that AuntieEllen has just finished making her costume for Book Week. ‘I’m going as a Woodland Fairy . . .
Holly tree
fairy! Can I try it on, Mum?’
    She puts it on and starts pirouetting round the room.
    ‘Yuck,’ says Michael; but he’s not being fair. Auntie Ellen is good at sewing. She’s made this really brilliant costume, all decorated with shiny green leaves and bright red berries.
    ‘Did you ever dress up for Book Week?’ says Holly. ‘What did you dress up as?’
    ‘A pirate,’ I say.
    ‘A
pirate
? You don’t have girl pirates!’
    ‘Why not?’ says Michael.
    ‘’Cos you don’t! Why did you go as a pirate?’
    ‘Just fancied it,’ I say.
    I didn’t really fancy it. I wanted to go as a fairy. Rainbow Fairy. That’s what I’d set my heart on. But Mum wasn’t ever very good at sewing. My fairy skirt was all limp and saggy, and the top bit didn’t fit properly. And when I picked up my fairy wand it immediately collapsed, which made Mum giggle. I didn’t giggle; I burst into tears. I sobbed and raged, ’cos now what was I going to do?
    ‘I look like I’m wearing a dish rag!’ I blamed Mum for leaving everything till the last minute. ‘Like youalways do! Everyone else has had their costumes for weeks.’
    Mum immediately stopped giggling and promised that she would make me something else. ‘Something better! Even if I have to sit up all night.’ Which she did. She made me this pirate outfit and I wasn’t in the least bit grateful. I shouted that I didn’t want to be a pirate, I wanted to be a Rainbow Fairy. Poor Mum! She begged me to give her a kiss and say she was forgiven, but I wouldn’t. I went off in a sulk and spent the whole day being jealous of all the people who had proper mums, who made them lovely sparkly fairy dresses which didn’t sag and bag. I was still cross when I got home. Mum tried so hard to make it up to me.
    ‘Oh, Lollipop, I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I’m such a rotten mum!’
    But she wasn’t. She wasn’t! She was the best mum anyone ever had. I wish so much that I’d told her so!
    I have to go back upstairs. I need to cuddle Mr Pooter.
    ‘Where are you off to?’ says Auntie Ellen. ‘You’ve only just come down.’
    I tell her that I have to write a book report for Mrs Caton. ‘I want to do it while it’s fresh in my mind.’ Auntie Ellen shakes her head, like,
I give up!
    ‘Go on, then,’ she says. ‘If that’s what you want.’
    I gallop back up the stairs. Mr Pooter opens an eye and stretches. I check the room, but I don’t think he’s moved, so that is all right.
    ‘Good boy,’ I say. ‘Good boy!’
    I settle down beside him and start