c6e3324c4f84f7e6ed71c7cdde754b42

Darcy and Will did their best to fit in looking after Charlie with all their school stuff. But Darcy was really excited about being in the football team. She’d always loved kicking a ball about but now she was seriously trying to practise her football skills. And it wasn’t just practising – she got Dad to take her to the library to find football books too. If she wasn’t outside playing football, she was curled up on the sofa reading about it.

A couple of weeks after term had started, Charlie padded into the living room to see if Darcy would play with him. She and Will had just got back from school and he was so pleased to see them. He snuggled up between Darcy and the cushions for a while, but he’d been dozing for most of the day and he wanted to dash about and chase things, not help her read. He tried patting at the pages and even sitting on the book, but she just kept moving him. In the end he jumped down from the sofa and went to see what Will was doing.

Charlie could hear him growling as he came into the kitchen. Will was glaring at a worksheet on the table– then he started to rub out what he’d just written and ended up throwing the rubber halfway across the table so it bounced on to the floor.

A game! At last!

Charlie sprang at it, batting the rubber with his paw and enjoying the way his claws caught in it.

“Hey! I need that!” Will reached down and grabbed it back. “Sorry, Charlie. I hate homework, it’s the worst thing about Year Two.” He looked at Charlie again. “You’ve lostanother collar! I’d better tell Mum.”

Charlie sat under Will’s chair, hoping that he might throw the rubber again, but he didn’t. In the end the little kitten gave up on him and popped through the cat flap out into the garden. Perhaps today would be the day he caught a bumblebee?

He padded across the grass, twitching happily as he felt the hot sun on his fur. He sat down in the middle of the lawn and washed his ears for a bit– and then all of a sudden,there was a bee!

[Êàðòèíêà: img_20]

It zoomed wildly across the grass in front of him, swooping down to a patch of clover. Charlie went into a hunting crouch and tried to stalk it, but the bee lumbered away before he even got close. He hurried after it, chasing it over to the lavender bush by the wall until it disappeared over into next-door’s garden, buzzing happily.

Charlie stared after it, his tail twitching. He could still hear the buzzing. He’d been so close! Suddenly determined, he jumped up on to the garden bench and then made a wobbly leap on to the wooden back. He teetered there for a moment and then sprang for the wall, scrabbling hard and digging his claws into the branches of ivy. Then he was on the top of the wall, with the bee buzzing lazily across the flower beds below him.

Charlie made a rushing, scrambling climb down the other side of the wall and looked around for the bee. The fur on his back was rumpled up with the wild scramble down the wall and a little bit with fright. He hadn’t expected it to be quite so high. But now, surely, he’d catch that bee?

Except it had disappeared. It had completely, utterly gone. Charlie looked around in disbelief. It wasn’t fair!

A soft murmuring noise made his ears twitch– but it wasn’t a bee. It was someone talking. Whoever it was had a pleasant, gentle sort of voice, a bit like Darcy when she was stroking him.

Curiously, Charlie padded down to the fence at the end of next-door’s garden and saw that there were gaps along the bottom of it – quite big gaps. He could get through there easily, no scrambling needed. He wriggled through and hesitated in the bushes, watching an old lady watering her flowerpots. She was murmuring to herself about the weather, which was warm and dry now after the wet summer.

The water drops glinted and sparkled in the sunshine and he padded a little closer. The old lady didn’t see him, she just kept watering, and Charlie couldn’t resist the pattering of the drops any longer. He pounced, springing at the glittering water, trying to catch the drops with his white paws.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_21]

“Oh! Where did you come from?” the old lady gasped. “Oh dear, are you all wet now?”

Charlie had water droplets covering his whiskers, up his nose and in his ears. He shook his head briskly and then looked hopefully up at her. Was she going to do it again? He reached up one paw and tapped at the watering can.

“You liked it?” Laughing, the old lady tipped up the watering can and let another shower of droplets fall down on the plants – and the kitten. Charlie batted his paws eagerly, but still he couldn’t catch the water.

“I wonder where you came from?” the old lady asked thoughtfully. “I haven’t seen you before, I’d remember that lovely tabby pattern.” She reached down and gently stroked the top of the kitten’s head. “You don’t look like you’re lost. You’re definitely someone’s pet, you’reso friendly. But you don’t have a collar on…”