Холли Вебб - The Kitten Nobody Wanted

“Hello, Mister Whiskers.” Mia picked him up and cuddled him. “What shall we do, mm?”

“Homework!” Emily said, grinning and waving the sheet Mrs Jones, their teacher, had given them for the project they had to do over the Christmas holidays. It was the last week of term and neither of the girls really felt like working, but Mrs Jones was known as the scariest teacher at their school. The project had to get planned, even if it was only a little over a week till Christmas Day. “We have to sort this project out, remember? Come on, bring Whiskers with you.” She scooped up Satin, leaving Silky alone in the hallway, looking quite relieved. Whiskers and Satin were so much bigger now, and so bouncy that they wore Silky out.

“I can smell fishfingers,” Mia said, a while later. “So can Whiskers and Satin, look at them!” The kittens were prowling up and down by Emily’s bedroom door, their tails twitching eagerly.

“I think our plan sounds quite good,” Emily said, looking down at what they’d written. “ Animals in the time of Queen Victoria. I bet no one else will have thought of that. It’s a brilliant idea, Mia.”

Mia laughed. “I’ll have the ideas, you do the writing. You almost finished the whole plan while I was just cuddling Whiskers. Do you think tea’s ready? The smell of those fishfingers is making me hungry, too.”

“Must be. Let’s go and see.” Emily opened the door, and the kittens shot out on to the landing and eyed the stairs uncertainly. They wanted to be down there with the delicious fishy smell – but they weren’t really sure about stairs yet…

Whiskers looked at Mia pleadingly, and she laughed and picked him up. She carried him down to the kitchen, while Emily followed with Satin.

Emily’s mum smiled as they came in. “Look at those kittens! I’ve never seen them look so hungry. We’d better find the fishy-flavour kitten food.”

“I think they’d rather just have the fishfingers,” Emily said, going to the cupboard for the tin, and spooning out the kitten food. “Uurgh, this one smells the worst!”

But Satin and Whiskers raced for their bowls, and gulped down the food eagerly.

Emily’s mum had just passed Leah, Emily and Mia their tea, when the phone rang. She went to answer it, fighting with her oven gloves. “Hello? Oh, yes… That’s right. There’s actually only one kitten left now.”

Mia smiled, pausing with her fork halfway to her mouth. A paw was patting her knee. Whiskers must have wolfed down his kitten food already, and now he was on the hunt for something even nicer. She scooped him up on to her lap, and fed him a tiny bit of fishfinger. Emily’s mum wasn’t looking, she was concentrating on the phone call.

“Oh, you’ve been looking for a white kitten? That’s wonderful. He is a little bit shy though, that’s the only thing. He’s very friendly once he knows you, but he may not want to be picked up.”

The person on the other end of the phone didn’t seem to mind this. Emily’s mum was nodding and smiling.

Whiskers stared up at Mia, hoping for some more fishfinger. His whiskers shook with excitement as he reached up a little white paw to pat Mia’s hand.

But she didn’t give him any. She put down her fork, very slowly and quietly, and stared at him. The kitten’s whiskers drooped. Mia’s face had changed; she didn’t look like the girl who’d been sneaking him scraps a moment before. She was pale and miserable. Whiskers mewed, his ears flattening against his head. What was wrong?

“Tomorrow evening? Yes, that would be great. See you then.” Emily’s mum put down the phone, smiling. “Someone wants to come and see Whiskers! Her name’s Miriam, and she says she’s rehomed a nervous cat before, so she doesn’t mind if he’s shy. And she’s always wanted to have a white kitten. It’s perfect!”

Emily nodded, but she was looking worriedly at Mia.

Mia gulped. It was. Whiskers was going to have a perfect home – and it wasn’t with her. She’d let this happen. If only she’d been brave enough to say that she wanted him to be her kitten – that she still loved Sandy, but she’d said goodbye to him.

She stood up jerkily, huddling Whiskers against her tummy, and passed him to Emily. “I’m sorry, I’m not feeling very well. I have to go home,” she said, hurrying to the front door.

“Mia, wait! I’ll call your gran,” Emily’s mum said worriedly.

“It’s OK, I’ll be fine,” Mia called back, tears already stinging her eyes as she wrestled with the front door catch. At last it gave, and she dashed down the path.

Mewing frantically, Whiskers made a flying leap off Emily’s knee and chased after her. Where was she going? She hadn’t even tickled his ears and scratched under his chin, like she usually did when she left.

He shot out of the front door, on to the path, and looked around. He’d never been out at the front of the house, only on carefully-guarded trips into the back garden. The garden was frozen over with a layer of frost, and snowflakes were flurrying down from the darkening sky. If Mia had been with him, Whiskers would have chased the strange fluffy things, but now he hardly noticed them. He had no idea where Mia had gone. He sat down on the path and wailed for her.

But Mia couldn’t hear him. She was almost home now, and she could hardly see for tears, let alone hear a heartbroken kitten halfway up the road. She pressed the front door bell over and over till Gran came, looking worried.

“Oh, it’s you, Mia! But I was coming to fetch you… Mia, what’s wrong?”

“Whiskers,” Mia sobbed. “I was too late for Whiskers. I should have said I loved him, and I didn’t. How could I be so stupid? You were right all along, Gran, and now I’ve lost him!”

Gran hugged her. “Oh, Mia. I’m so sorry. Has someone taken him?”

Mia nodded. “A lady’s coming to see him tomorrow, and she’s going to love him, I know she will.”

“Tomorrow?” Gran drew her inside, and shut the door. “But Mia, why don’t you go back to Emily and her mum and explain? Tell them you want him.”

“But I can’t!” Mia wailed. “I kept saying no, because of Sandy. They’ll think I’m just going to change my mind again. And I told Dad that I never ever wanted another cat. Dad and Mum would never let me have Whiskers now.” She sat down on the bottom of the stairs with her chin in her hands. “Miriam – the lady who phoned – she knows all about nervous cats, and she really wants him. Whiskers deserves to have an owner like that.” She sniffed. “I should have been braver before.”

Gran sat down next to her, rather carefully. “I do see what you mean, Mia, but I think you’re being too hard on yourself – and that poor little cat.” She stared thoughtfully at the front door, and a small smile curved up at the corners of her mouth.

Mia didn’t see it – she had her fingers pressed against her eyes now, to stop herself crying. She could see white speckles against her eyelids, and they reminded her of kitten fur.