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“Do you miss them?” Edie whispered, as Barbie gave a massive yawn, which showed a lot of her bright pink tongue. “Do you even remember them?”

Barbie sniffed at the green feathers, which Edie was dancing in front of her nose again, and batted at them with one paw. She wasn’t really trying. She’d been jumping and chasing for ages and now she was tired. She gave another huge yawn and padded over to Edie, climbing up her jeans and scrambling into her lap. She slumped down and then stood up again, marching round in a circle on Edie’s tunic top until she had it just right. Then she curled herself into a little ginger ball, with one paw over her eyes and went to sleep.

“Guess what! Guess, you have to guess!” Layla was hopping up and down on the front doorstep, hardly able to get the words out, she was so excited.

“What? Oooh, catch her! Sneaky puss!” Edie and Layla both lunged for Barbie, who’d crept up behind Edie and was making a dash for the front door. Layla grabbed her and snuggled her up against her fleece.

“Well done,” said Edie. “She’s desperate to go outside but Mum and Dad say she can’t until she’s had all her vaccinations and she’s been neutered. And that won’t be for ages. She’s got to be almost four months old before they do it.”

Layla beamed back at her.“No problem. I need the practice,” she said happily, glancing meaningfully between Edie and Barbie, who was now trying to climb up her fleece.

“Practice? Hey, come in before she disappears down the back of you and makes another run for it.” Edie beckoned Layla inside and shut the door, and Barbie sprang down from Layla’s arms and marched away in a kitten huff, tail whipping from side to side. Edie giggled. “I don’t think she’stalking to us now. Anyway, what are you so excited about?”

“I persuaded them! Actually, I think it was mostly Barbie. Remember when my mum and dad came over to have coffee with yours the other day and Barbie was playing, and then she spent all that time sitting on my dad’s lap?”

“He did look pretty happy about it,” Edie observed.

“He’s never had a cat, he’s always said he wasn’t a cat person. But they know all about Barbie’s sisters – I showed them the photos I took on my phone that day we found them, and so…”

“You’re going to adopt one of the naughty torties?” Edie threw her arms round Layla. “That’s amazing! Barbie’s going to have her sister living next door!”

“We went to see them at the shelter yesterday afternoon and we’re picking her up the weekend after next! They have to come and do a home visit first, and the kittens have to be eight weeks old to leave their mum.”

“Which one? The one with more ginger, or the darker one?”

“This one.” Layla showed Edie a photo on her phone – Layla holding a gorgeous tortoiseshell kitten against her shoulder. They were nose to nose and Edie thought she’d never seen her friend look so happy. “She’s the dark one, but she’s got a big ginger streak down her nose. And her whiskers are white on one side and black on the other!” She smiled blissfully. “Sorry, Edie, but I think she’s even cuter than Barbie.”

Edie grinned.“That’s OK. But don’t you listen to her, Barbie! She thinks your sister’s more gorgeous than you are!” she added to her kitten, who’d forgotten to be cross and was marching back down the hall towards them, dragging a huge catnip-stuffed fish in her mouth. It was nearly as big as she wasand she kept tripping over it. Eventually she just gave up and lay down on her side, hugging the fish and kicking at it with her hind paws.

Edie shook her head as she crouched down beside her. She tickled Barbie’s cream-coloured tummy, and the ginger kitten gave up on the fish and came to nudge against Edie’s arm, rubbing the side of her head up and down Edie’s sleeve, and purring and purring.

“She really loves you,” Layla murmured, and Edie smiled at her.

“Dad says it’s because I’m the one who feeds her but he’s only being grumpy.”

“No, it’s more than that. Do you think the tortoiseshell kitten will love me, too?” she added shyly. “I’m going to be looking after her.” She reached out to run her hand over Barbie’s ears and the kitten purred for her as well.

“Of course she will. It looks like she already does in that photo.” Edie gathered Barbie up in her arms, gently combing her fingers through the kitten’s long ginger fur. “Imagine if we hadn’t stopped to find out what that noise was,” she said, looking round at Layla wide-eyed. “We’dnever have found them all.”

“Best walk home from school ever,” Layla said seriously and then she laughed as Barbie wriggled in Edie’s arms so that she was snuggled in the crook of her elbow, on her back like a baby. Her pale ginger paws were folded on her chest, and she yawned, wide enough to show her needle-sharp whiteteeth. Then her green eyes closed slowly, and she breathed out a tiny, quiet purr.