Chapter 1: I wish I had a Cat


“Oh please, Muuum!” Annabelle made a very high pitched noise. “ Everybody has a pet, so why cant I have one ?”
Her mum looked at her in an slightly angry way. “Because I said so. Pets make the house dirty, they smell bad and a there are a thousand other reasons. We have talked about this before Annabelle. Now please get ready for school.”
“But everybody I know has a pet, Tina has a Goldfish, Theo has a hamster, Maya has a great big lizard that changes colours, Susan has a dog…” She caught sight of her mums eyes. “Yes Annabelle you have told me a million times about which peculiar pets all your friends have, but I have decided, no pets that’s final!”
Annabelle finished her toast, except the crust because that’s the boring bit, and looked around for her shoes. She looked in the shoe cupboard and at the bottom of the stairs but of course they were not there. “Mum, I can’t find my shoes.” shouted Annabelle, “If we had a cat it would remember where I put them and it would help me to look for them and I would get to school on time. Wouldn’t that be good mum? Mum, wouldn’t that be good?”
“Annabelle,” her mum shouted, “that’s just rubbish. Dogs find shoes not cats and they only find them when they want you to take them for a walk. Now stop thinking about pets and get ready for school. If you’re late for school again I am going to wake you up earlier in the morning.”
Annabelle only found her shoes much later. They were behind the sofa where she had thrown them as she watched her favourite show the night before. Her Mum was very, very angry indeed by this time and Annabelle decided to put off any more talk about pets until later. Annabelle checked herself out in the mirror to make sure she had not forgotten anything. It was a little difficult to ignore her mum screaming at her to hurry up but this part of getting ready was important so Annabelle concentrated on her reflection.
She looked at her head first because this was the cause of many previous disasters with “bed head” hair, pimples, bits of breakfast in the teeth, bogeys stuck unnoticed to the top lip and the dreaded “pink eye”. Any of these disasters could lead to a whole day of teasing or worse, a new nickname that stuck with her for the rest of her life if they went unnoticed. Fortunately she was looking pretty normal. Her normal brown hair was behaving itself. Her normal brown eyes looked back at her with no obvious defects. Her skin was its usual self, not completely clear of pimples but also not the sort of pimple disaster area that would provoke teasing. She gave herself an encouraging smile and checked out her school uniform.
The hideous orange sweatshirt was clear of ugly marks, except for the school logo, which was a weasel swimming in a stream with an egg balanced on its nose. One leg of her black trousers was stuck in her sock and she quickly rescued it. Once again that last check had saved her. She ran out to the back of the car and they were on their way.
They were not even half way to school and Annabelle had already seen lots and lots of pets; a cute dog being taken for a walk, a lovely little kitten popping out of a cat flap, a really cute squirrel(probably not a pet, but very friendly looking), a rabbit sitting on top of its hutch and another cat. “Mum if we had a cat it could guard our house when we went out.” Annabelle thought out loud.
“Annabelle, please let me concentrate on driving.” Her mum said. “We are never going to have any animals in the house and if you carry on like this I will sell you to a pet store.”
Annabelle loved this about her mum, just when she thought her mum was really strict and boring, she would have one of these great ideas. Annabelle spent the rest of the journey planning her new life in a pet store. She thought she would probably be put in with the cats because the dogs were too mean and the mouse cages were too small. She would have to learn to stay clean by licking herself but there would be lots of funny things to play with.
“ Right, here we are”. Her mum stopped the car and Annabelle got out.
Her mum had driven quickly and she would have been on time if she hadn’t forgotten her packed lunch and had to run back to her mums car to get it. As she was late she had to run straight in for class in the main hall without having a chance to speak to her friends and even worse she couldn’t choose where she was going to sit. She had to sit on the end of her classes row beside whoever happened to be there. Annabelle couldn’t believe her bad luck when she saw that she would have to sit beside Kerry Cooper and Sharon Twickenham. Kerry was bigger than most of the other girls and she was mean. What Annabelle couldn’t understand was that even though Kerry and Sharon had both very short tempers, often hitting other boys and girls in the class and saying unkind things, they were pretty popular and people enjoyed their company. The first lesson was of course maths, Annabelle hated the subject just as much as the annoying creepy teacher who constantly smelled of garlic. If she had a pet it could protect her from horrible bullies and smelly teachers. Perhaps a Kangeruh which could beat up the bullies, or maybe a big monkey that could sit on the teachers head and throw bananas. Annabelle sighed and opened her book. Yes, life with a pet would be sooo much better.
Later Annabelle’s friend Liz came over.


“Hey I have just discovered some weird strange new antique shop on Baker street, you should come along and check it out.” “Cool, I am sure it will be fun.”