The Frightened Kitten

Chapter Five

“Time to get up!” Maddy’s mum pulled open the bedroom curtains.

“Mmmm. Oh!” Maddy suddenly remembered that Biscuit was upstairs with her, although she was no longer asleep on her pillow.

“Your dad told me he’d let you bring Biscuit up here. I suppose it isn’t doing any harm, as long as you make sure she doesn’t get shut in. We don’t want her weeing on your bedroom carpet!” She looked around. “Where is she? Has she gone downstairs already?”

Maddy sat up. “She was sleeping next to me.”

“She’s here!” Her mum was crouching down, peering under the bed. “It’s all right, Biscuit, I’m not scary. Oh dear, Maddy, she looks very nervous.”

“Maybe she heard you coming in and thought it was Tiger and Tom again.” Maddy hopped out of bed to look underneath.

Biscuit was squeezed as far back as she could go, pressed against the wall. Maddy could see her whiskers trembling. “Biscuit! Come on, it’s OK.”

Very slowly, Biscuit crept out and let Maddy pick her up. But she flinched when Maddy’s mum tried to stroke her.

“She’s usually so friendly,” Maddy’s mum said sadly. “Perhaps she’ll feel better after some food.”

“I hope so.” Maddy carried Biscuit downstairs with her once she’d got dressed. She could feel Biscuit tensing up as they came down the hall into the kitchen. She was practically clinging on to Maddy’s cardigan, and she didn’t seem very interested in eating even when Maddy filled up her bowl.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on her while you’re at school,” Mum said. “How are things going, anyway?”

Maddy shrugged.

“I know you’re missing Kate, but I’m sure there are lots of other people in your class that you could chat to,” her mum said persuasively.

But none of them are as nice as Kate, Maddy thought. And none of them want to chat to me. It just isn’t that easy…

“It’s a month till Sports Day,” Mrs Melling, Maddy’s teacher explained, as she led everyone out on to the school field. “So we’re going to be doing some athletics – running, hurdles, relay races, that sort of thing.”

Several people sighed grumpily, but Maddy smiled. She loved to run. And she was pretty good at it, too. The sun was shining, and she could feel it on her hair and her arms. She’d been worrying about Biscuit all morning, even though Dad had left the cat flap blocked up, in case Tiger and Tom tried to get in again. Maddy knew Biscuit should be fine, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her, and how frightened she’d been. Hopefully some running would shake off the jittery, miserable feeling inside her.

The school field had a big oval track painted on to the grass, and after they’d warmed up, Mrs Melling divided them into groups to run heats. Maddy won her first heat easily – none of the others were really trying – but she was surprised when she beat a couple of boys in the next race. Some of the girls even started cheering for her at the end.

“Well done! You’re so quick!” Becky came over and patted her on the back.

Maddy laughed, a little nervously. She’d always liked Becky, but she was really popular and had lots of friends. She was nice to Maddy, but they’d never hung around together much.

“Beat Joe in this last race, please!” Becky begged. “He’s so full of himself, look at him!”

Joe was talking to a couple of other boys and doing show-off stretches. He obviously thought he was bound to win.

“OK.” Maddy grinned. She wasn’t tired at all. As they lined up for the last race she bounced on her toes, staring at the finish line. As soon as Mrs Melling blew her whistle, she shot away, sprinting as fast as she could, and crossed the finish line a whisker ahead of Joe.

“Yay! Maddy wins!” She could hear Becky yelling above all the others. It felt fantastic.

With Becky and the others hugging her and telling her she was a star, it was easy to laugh off Joe growling about girls always cheating. And Becky’s table in class was behind hers, so Maddy could see Becky grinning at her every so often as they did their literacy after PE. It was the best time she’d had in school all term. She couldn’t wait to tell her mum and dad about it. They kept asking how school was going – it would be nice to be able to say she’d had a fun day.

“How was Biscuit?” Maddy asked hopefully, as she rushed up to her mum after school.

Mum made a face. “She’s been scratching the sofa! I had to shut her out of the living room.”

“Oh…” Maddy frowned. Biscuit had never done that before. She hoped Mum hadn’t been too cross with her.

When they got home, Maddy put her bags down, expecting the kitten to bounce up to her, wanting to play, like she usually did. But Biscuit didn’t come running.

“Biscuit!” Maddy looked round anxiously.

“Try upstairs,” her mum suggested. “She seems to like it there now.”

Maddy ran up the stairs and into her room. She couldn’t see Biscuit, but she had a horrible feeling she knew where she was. She knelt down, looking under the bed, and sighed. She was right. Biscuit was curled up in the corner again, looking at her with wide, worried eyes.

“Oh, Biscuit…” Maddy whispered. “It’s all right, sweetie, come on out…”

“I don’t think we can keep the cat flap blocked up like that,” Dad said, looking down at his ice cream thoughtfully. “Biscuit needs to be able to go out.”

“But she doesn’t want to,” Maddy explained. “She’s scared.”

“It isn’t good to keep her in – she should be out sharpening her claws on trees, not the sofa,” Mum sighed. “And it would be nice not to have to keep cleaning out the litter tray!”

“I’ll do it,” Maddy said quickly. “I don’t mind. She’s too frightened to go in the garden.”

She licked her ice-cream spoon, but she wasn’t really hungry any more. She could feel Mum and Dad both looking at her. And she was pretty sure they thought she was fussing too much.

“I think Biscuit might just need to toughen up a bit,” Dad said gently.

“She’s definitely getting bigger,” Mum pointed out. “She’ll be as big as Tiger and Tom soon.”

“I bet she won’t,” Maddy said. “And however big she is, there’s still only one of her. Tiger and Tom work as a team, Mum! Like wrestlers!”

Her mum frowned, and glanced meaningfully at her dad. Maddy knew what that look meant. They thought she was fussing about Biscuit because of school. Because she was feeling nervous and worried too. Mum and Dad reckoned Maddy needed to toughen up a bit, and make some new friends.

“I’ll go and look on the net for some ideas,” she said quickly, wanting to get away before they started asking about school again, and if there was anyone she wanted to invite to tea. But maybe I could ask Becky over? she thought for a second, and then crushed the idea firmly. Becky was far too popular to want to hang around with her.

“You want to do what?” Josh made a snorting noise.

“A timeshare…” Maddy repeated, wriggling to keep her elbows on top of the fence. She was standing on a bucket to see over the fence and it was a bit wobbly. “You keep Tiger and Tom in some of the time, so Biscuit can go out without them scaring her.”

After tea, she’d turned on the computer to search her favourite pet advice websites, and found an email waiting for her from Kate. Maddy had sent her a message a couple of days ago, asking if she had any advice. The timeshare idea was something Kate had read about once, and it sounded perfect.

Maddy took a deep breath. She didn’t like talking to Josh; he always made her feel stupid. But she had to. “Please can you think about it? Biscuit’s getting really twitchy and nervous. It wouldn’t have to be long. Maybe only for an hour a day? Just until she’s bigger and she can stand up for herself.”

Josh shrugged. “How am I supposed to keep them in? Tiger and Tom have a cat flap. They go in and out whenever they want to.”

“But couldn’t you—” Maddy began.

“I’ve got football, I need to go,” Josh interrupted. And he disappeared through his back door, leaving Maddy peering over the fence after him.

Maddy sighed. The timeshare had seemed like such a good idea. Except that stupid Josh couldn’t be bothered!

She trailed back into the kitchen, and found Biscuit sitting on one of the chairs, staring anxiously at the cat flap – Maddy had moved the chair blocking it so she could get out.

“We’ll have to think of something else,” she told Biscuit, tickling her under the chin.

Biscuit rubbed her head against Maddy’s hand and purred.

She really trusts me, Maddy thought. I have to sort this out somehow…