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Two small tabby faces appeared at the door of the carrier and Zara caught her breath. Even Amina was too excited to speak– or perhaps she’d realized she needed to be quiet and let the kittens work up the courage to come out. The two kittens watched the room for a moment, their whiskers twitching. Then one of them padded out of the carrier – he was small enough that it was a big step down to the floor. He stumbled across the tiles to sniff at Amina’s sandals.

“Mum!” Amina breathed, her eyes shining. “Look! He’s tickling me!” She giggled and twitched, and the kitten play-pounced on the fabric flowers on her shoes. The second tabby kitten tumbled after the first one, eager to see what this exciting new game was.

James laughed and handed Amina a feathery toy.“Try this instead, otherwise your sandals might never be the same again.” He smiled at Zara and offered her the basket of toys.

Zara took out a squishy toy fish and sat holding it, wondering if the kittens would come and investigate her too. But they were too interested in the feather wand that Amina was bouncing up and down. The two kittens looked like wind-up toys, turning their heads every time she wobbled the feathers. Mum and Dad and Amina were laughing delightedly, and Zara laughed too, even though she felt just a tiny bit jealous. She didn’t want to take the kittens away from Amina – she only wished they’d play with her as well.

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Then Zara glanced round, her attention caught by the smallest movement over by the carrier. Of course! There was another kitten! Zara had been so caught up watching the two tabby kittens that she’d forgotten about the little black-and-white girl. She was just stepping cautiously out of the carrier, trying to get down over the edge of the door.

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Zara bit her lip as the kitten padded around with one paw, trying to work out how far down the floor was. She was definitely smaller than the tabbies and Zara was worried she might not be able to get out. But eventually the kitten bumped down on to the tiles and stopped to look around again. Zara didn’t know very much about cats – not yet – but she could tell the kitten wasn’t nearly as confident and bouncy as her brother and sister. Maybe she was shy?

Zara was quite used to people talking about her as“the shy twin”, or “the quiet one”. People said it all the time, even though Mum and Dad tried to tell them not to. Only a couple of days ago, Dad had persuaded Amina to walk down to the shops with him, while Mum kept Zara behind to have a “little chat”. Mum wanted to talk to her about the new school they were going to after the summer holidays, and about trying to make friends, and not letting Amina do all the talking. Zara had listened, of course she had, and nodded in all the right places and promised Mum she’d try. But it wasn’t as easy as that. At their old school, Amina had done all the friend-making, and Zara didn’t mind. It made things easier when Amina talked for her. Sometimes she did wish she had a best friend of her own though – as well as her twin, of course.

How do you make friends? Amina wondered as she watched the little black-and-white kitten tiptoe towards her. Perhaps it was just about being brave enough to go up to someone.

“Hey…” she whispered as the kitten paused to sniff thoughtfully at the lace of her trainer and then bat the trailing end with one paw.

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The kitten stopped, staring up at her worriedly, and Zara stared back. She waited for the kitten to dash back to the carrier, but she didn’t. She was too interested in Zara’s shoelace. Carefully, Zara jiggled her foot. Not too hard – she didn’t want to hurt the kitten – but just enough to make her lace bounce up and down.

The kitten watched fixedly, her green eyes round– and then she pounced, flinging herself at the loose shoelace and scrabbling at it with all four paws.

Zara desperately wanted to laugh, but she held it in so she didn’t scare the kitten away. She just watched, grinning to herself, as the kitten stalked her shoelace over and over again.

After a couple of minutes, the kitten seemed to decide she wanted to explore a little further. She’d flung herself right on top of Zara’s trainer with her last leap, and now she wriggled and stumbled her way up Zara’s leg, her tiny claws hooking into Zara’s jeans.

Zara watched delightedly, hardly able to believe there was a kitten climbing into her lap. She stood on Zara’s knee for a moment, watching Amina playing with her brother and sister, and then she turned around and slumped down.

“Zara…” Mum whispered from across the room. “You found the other kitten!”

“She found me,” Zara whispered back. “She was playing with my shoelace.”

“Oh, look at her,” Amina said admiringly. “She’s so little and cute.”

“You know,” Dad said thoughtfully. “I wonder if these tabby kittens belong together, they seem such good friends. We only wanted to get one cat…”

Zara looked up at him, her eyes hopeful.“Please can we take this little one home?”