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Darcy could hear Will trying to quiz Dad as they went upstairs.“Where are we going? Will there be pizza? Can I wear my Batman outfit?” She was curious too. They did sometimes go on surprise days out in the summer holidays – the best one had been to the seaside, with fish and chips on the beach – but that was usually for the whole day, not in the middleof the afternoon.

She hurried into her bedroom and changed out of her muddy tracksuit bottoms and football shirt. Luckily Mum had put her hair in Dutch plaits that morning and it still looked OK, even after playing football. She just had to scrub away the mud from under her fingernails.

Will was back downstairs soon after, looking very clean and a bit damp.

“Where are we going?” he kept asking as Mum and Dad hurried them out to the car.

“Shh,” Darcy whispered. “It’s a surprise. Surprises are good. Don’t spoil it.”

“I want toknow,” her little brother muttered crossly. “I don’t like surprises.”

“Five minutes,” Dad promised from the driver’s seat.

Darcy and Will peered eagerly out of the car windows, trying to think where they might be going– Darcy thought they were quite close to where her friend Emma lived. Then a few minutes later Dad pulled up outside a long low building.

Darcy read the sign outside: Haven Animal Rescue. She unclipped her seat belt and reached over to grab Dad’s shoulder. “Are we … do you mean … are we really—” She swallowed hard and started again.

“Are we going to get a cat?”

“A cat!” Will squeaked.

Darcy had been trying to persuade her parents to get a pet for ages. She hadn’t been sure whether they should get a cat or a dog.

Emma had a dog and she kept telling Darcy about all the naughty things he had done. Buster had eaten two of Emma’s lunch boxes (not what was inside them, the actual box!) and her favourite flip-flops. Emma still loved him loads, but he was a menace.

Darcy and Will’s gran loved cats and she had two beautiful ones. When they went to see Gran, if Darcy was very lucky, Pippin or Smudge might get on her knee. Darcy loved it when they sat there and let her stroke them. It would be amazing to have a cat to make a fuss of all the time. A cat of their own might even decide to sleep on Darcy’s bed.

Mum loved cats too, but Dad wasn’t so keen – he said they would need a lot of looking after.

“I thought you’d said no!” Darcy wrapped her arms round Dad’s neck and hugged him.

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“Well, I realized it’s Mum who’s at home most of the time,” Dad pointed out. “She’ll end up looking after it, so she should be the one to make the decision.”

Dad was right, Darcy thought. Her mum worked from home in a little office under their stairs.

“But we’ll help,” she said eagerly. “We can feed the cat. And I can vacuum up the fur.” Cat hair all over the carpets had been one of the things Dad was concerned about. “I like vacuuming,” she assured him.

“Can we go and see the catnow?” Will begged and Dad laughed and opened the car door.

“Come on then!”

“We made an appointment to see a litter of kittens,” Mum explained as they went into the building. “There are four of them, and they’re old enough to be rehomed now. When you went round to Gran’s the other day, a lady from the shelter came to check the house to make sure we weren’t too close to any busy roads or anything like that. They rang me yesterday to say we can definitely have a kitten! But –” she gave Darcy and Will a serious look – “they only rehome pets to people who have older children, because you need to be sensible to be around a cat or a dog. So you must show them how sensible you can be. No arguing!”

Will’s eyes widened and he nodded seriously.

“We’ll be good,” Darcy promised. She and Will had got into a fight at Gran’s house once, because Will wouldn’t stop tickling her. She’d been really cross and yelled at him, and Pippin had run away and hidden under Gran’s bed. It was ages until she would come out and Darcy had felt so guilty. She couldn’t help arguing with Will sometimes, but she definitely didn’t want to upset a kitten.

“Hi, I’m Lucy Adams.” Mum smiled at the woman behind the reception desk. “We’re here to see some kittens.”

“That’s right, we’re expecting you. Wait here for a minute and Jesse will come and collect you – he’s one of our staff. We have a meeting room where you can get to know the kittens before you choose.”

Choose! Darcy looked around the reception area at the photos of cats and dogs on the walls. They were beautiful and all of them were staring hopefully out of the picture, as if begging to be taken home.

How were they going to choose which kitten should be theirs?

A young man in a green fleece with the Haven logo came in and grinned at Darcy and Will.“Hi – you’re here to meet the kittens?”

“That’s right.” Mum squeezed Darcy’s hand. “We’re really excited.”