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Amina looked stunned, and Mum and Dad were both staring at Zara now as if they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Zara kept on running her hand down Pixie’s soft back. She wasn’t sure she could believe it either. Pixie purred and flexed her claws on the furry onesie.

Mum smiled.“So we’ll definitely ask Billie to the party. Any more ideas? Not quite so grand and expensive?”

Pixie was scrambling up the front of Zara’s onesie now. Luckily the onesie was nice and thick, and Pixie ended up perched on Zara’s shoulder looking pleased with herself. Zara was mostly thinking about how funny and sweet she was, so she said what she actually felt, instead of just agreeing to go with what Amina wanted.

“Um… Can we just have a couple of friends round here and have a really nice cake? Maybe a cat-shaped one?”

Amina sighed loudly.“A cat cake would be cute but we want a party everyone’s going to remember!”

“I don’t.” Zara suddenly realized Pixie had stopped purring.

“You don’t understand!” Amina said, her voice starting to rise. “It’s got to be special! Ithas to be!” She smacked her hand down on the table with a bang.

Zara flinched and Pixie panicked and dug her claws in, hard enough that it hurt.

“Ow, Pixie, gently… I still don’t see why we’ve got to have such a special party!”

“Oh! You don’t understand anything!” Amina hissed and she jumped up and dashed out of the room, leaving Zara staring after her.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_4]

Pixie snuggled close up against Zara’s onesie as Zara climbed the stairs. She didn’t really understand what had happened earlier on, but she’d known that something was wrong when Zara twitched so suddenly. She’d clung on as hard as she could, worried that she was going to slide off – and then she’d heard Zara gasp and Amina go running off upstairs.

For a moment, Pixie had thought Zara was angry but then she’d reached up and unhooked Pixie from her onesie very gently. She’d smoothed down the kitten’s ruffled fur and whispered to her. She’d spent ages scratching the exact itchy spot under Pixie’s chin while Pixie closed her eyes and almost purred.

But only almost, because she could tell that something was still not right. There was a strange, uncomfortable silence in the kitchen. Even when the family were eating dinner– with Pixie still on Zara’s lap, sniffing hopefully at the food and maybe getting a little piece of fish every so often – no one was chatting the way they usually did.

After the meal, Zara carried her upstairs and rolled a jingly bell across the bedroom floor for Pixie to chase. But she didn’t seem to be trying very hard, and all the time Amina was there, curled up on the other bed instead of joining in. Pixie kept stopping to look over at her, knowing she wasn’t happy – and Zara wasn’t either. When the ball rolled right under Zara’s bed, Pixie and Zara both went under thereto get it – and somehow they didn’t come out again. Zara stayed curled up against the wall and Pixie snuggled up next to her. It was quiet and dark under there, with Zara’s duvet half hanging down.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_21]

Zara only wriggled out from under the bed when Mum came up to turn the girls’ light off. Pixie had expected Mum to carry her downstairs to her basket in the kitchen – that was what had always happened before, but this time she just stroked Pixie’s ears, and hugged Zara and Amina, and left, leaving Pixie sitting on the end of Zara’s bed.

“Mum says you can sleep up here tonight,” Zara whispered, and there was a grumpy sniff from the other bed. “But I’ve got to take you downstairs if you don’t settle.”

Zara was lying down now but the kitten could feel she wasn’t asleep – she was watching. Pixie wobbled her way up next to Zara’s shoulder.

“I promise I won’t roll on you,” Zara whispered, and she sounded pleased. “Goodnight, Pixie.” And she added, a little sadly, “Night, Amina.”

Pixie could just hear Amina muttering,“Night,” from the other side of the room.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_22]

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Even though Amina had calmed down, and they were talking again by the next day, Zara knew that things weren’t back to normal. She wasn’t used to being at odds with Amina – it made her feel weird and twitchy.

Mum and Dad had explained to the girls that moving house had been expensive and a really big party just wasn’t going to happen. In the end they’d settled on something a lot like the party Zara had wanted. Amina seemed to have snapped out of her strange mood but Zara could tell she was still disappointed.

Mum had found someone to make a beautiful cat cake and she’d also ordered cat-shaped invitations, which Dad helped Amina and Zara to write out. Their parents said that six friends was enough – which meant five friends for Amina, and Billie, but Zara was OK with that. The other five girls seemed nice enough, even though she hadn’t spoken to them much.

“I wasn’t sure if you really meant it,” Billie said, when Zara gave her the invitation on Wednesday.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_24]

“You – you do want to come?” Zara said worriedly.

“Of course I do!”