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“Yes! Oh thanks, Mum – you’re a star! I’ll tell Hailey.” Isla ran back along the road and flung herself down on the rug. “Mum says yes!”

Hailey looked at her blankly.“Yes to what?”

“Oh! Sorry!” Isla rolled her eyes. “I went to ask her if I could cat sit Pickle and Silky while you’re away. I could pop round to your house and check they’re OK. Not just at mealtimes, maybe every couple of hours? I can make a fuss of them both and you won’t have to worry about them.”

Hailey looked hopeful.“Really? Your mum said you could do that?”

“Yes. She says she or Dad would have to come too. I don’t really see why but it doesn’t matter. As long as I can go.”

“That’s brilliant.” Hailey hugged Isla hard. “You’re so clever, thank you!”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_4]

The kitten peered out from underneath Hailey’s bed. There was a strange feeling in the house this morning. People kept running up and down the stairs and doors were banging. There were bags and boxes in the hallway too. She she had found the trailing end of a string of bunting and pounced on it with fierce growls and sharp claws, but Hailey’s mum had unhooked her and tucked it away. Then Silky had climbed all the way up the stairs to Hailey’s room by herself, which was still quite hard work, but Hailey seemed too busy to play with her. She was sitting on the floor with a bag, putting things in and taking them out again, and murmuring to herself. Every so often, she jumped up and ran to fetch something.

“Pyjamas!” she said, looking over at Silky under the bed. “I nearly forgot!”

As Hailey rummaged in a drawer, Silky padded out and sniffed at the bag. It smelled… interesting. It smelled of Hailey but of outside too. She put her paws up on the side and looked in. Soft clothes, mostly, and a couple of teddy bears. Hailey was still searching through the drawer and she didn’t notice as Silky hopped up on to the bag and then scrambled inside. It was cosy in there and the little kitten felt safe, nestled inside Hailey’s clothes, with the top of the bag drawn over her head. She was always on the lookout for places like this – places where she could hide from Pickle.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_21]

She yawned and flexed her tiny claws in and out of Hailey’s hoodie. She could feel her eyelids closing. So soft, in here…

Silky woke with a squeak when Hailey’s pyjamas landed on her head. She sat up, confused and blinking, and wriggled out to look up indignantly at Hailey.

“Oh, Silky, there you are. I’m sorry!” Hailey was laughing as she picked up the little kitten, untangling her from the pyjamas. “It’s OK. I didn’t mean to squash you. I didn’t know you’d jumped in there!” She tickled Silky under her chin and the kitten pointed her nose to the ceiling and purred. That was her favourite place to be scratched.

“You can’t come with us. I’m really sorry,” Hailey whispered. “But you’ll be fine. Isla’s going to look after you. And you like Isla, I know you do. She’s so excited. She’s going to make you a new cat toy – she showed me a picture.”

“Hailey! Are you nearly done? We need to get going!”

“Coming, Mum!”

Silky stamped her paws with pleasure as Hailey smoothed one finger gently along her back.“Bye, little one. See you tomorrow afternoon. You’ll be OK…”

Silky followed her out on to the landing and watched as Hailey hurried down the stairs with her bag.

“Did you pack your nice shoes?”

“Yes, Mum! You already asked me!”

And they were gone, just like that, when Silky was only halfway down the staircase. She stood there, watching the front door swing shut and listening to the car rumbling away.

The house felt strangely empty and so quiet. Silky wondered where Pickle had gone.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_22]

“Mum – can we go round to Hailey’s? They were leaving mid-morning, Hailey said, and I promised I’d go and check on the cats at lunchtime.”

Isla’s mum looked at her, frowning a little. “Ummm, not right now, Isla. Sorry. Dad’s gone to the supermarket and I don’t think taking Sienna and Chloe to Hailey’s house is a very good idea, do you?”

Isla bit her lip.“No … but I promised. Hailey was really worried. I said I’d definitely go and check on the cats at lunchtime.” She eyed Sienna and Chloe, who were both colouring at the kitchen table. Couldn’t Mum just leave them for a few minutes? They were fine and it was only two doors down…

Except she wanted to spend longer than a few minutes fussing over both cats. And just then Sienna decided that Chloe’s purple pen was nicer than hers and snatched it, and Chloe thought the best answer to that was to sweep all the pens off the table on to the floor…

So that wasn’t happening.

“When Dad gets back from the supermarket,” Isla’s mum promised, hurrying to stop Sienna grabbing Chloe’s drawing before she could rip it up.

“OK…” Isla sighed. Dad would be ages doing the big weekly shop and she’d told Hailey she’d absolutely,definitely go round at lunchtime.

Isla trailed out into the hallway and sat down on the stairs, where she could watch through the frosted glass in the front door for the car drawing up.