by Anna Wilson
‘Ha!’ said Jazz, punching the air in victory. ‘Jazz one, Kezia NIL!’
‘You make sure that’s the way it stays, girl,’ said Danni, giving her a squeeze.
Epilogue
Kitten Cupid
And thankfully, that was the way it stayed. Jazz went home that day on a massive high, to find out that not only had she won one over on the bullies, but Cupid was hers for keeps.
‘Seems those Morrises can’t come and get me,’ he told me later. ‘Can’t or won’t, more like . . . They’ve moved to the other side of the world, would yer believe it? To a place called “Ors-trail-ya” or summin. And they ’ad the audacity to tell my Jazzie’s mum that my babe was welcome to me, cos as far as they were concerned I was a thug and a bully. Would yer credit it?’
I bit my lip. ‘Noooo,’ I said with barely concealed sarcasm. ‘How could anyone say that about a cute little heartbreaker like you, Cupid?’
Life really did calm down immensely once Jazz had got what she wanted.
‘You’ve got nothing to worry about now, Jaffsie,’ I told my little kitten once I had filled her in on the day’s excitement. ‘Cupid is so comfy in his new home that there is no way he’ll be coming round here any more.’
‘Well, me is relieved ’bout that, me can tell you,’ Jaffsie said, snuggling into my lap.
Dad was pleased things had all been sorted too. ‘Perhaps we can have a bit of peace and quiet around here now,’ he said that night at supper. ‘What with all your pet-sitting nonsense getting you into trouble, and then adopting Jaffa – only to find she kept running off – and then this breaking-and-entering stuff with Cupid . . . you must admit that life’s been more than a little “catastrophic” – ha ha haa!’ He laughed uproariously at his own pathetic joke.
‘Tee-hee!’ Bex joined in. ‘Oh, you are funny, Nigel,’ she cooed, leaning into him for a hug.
I rolled my eyes, but inside I was actually glowing. My best mate was happy again, my kitten was safe and my dad was beaming like a chimp who’s won the banana lottery on a rollover week.
If I had any worries at all, it was that once the excitement had faded Jazz might move on to her next crazy project, i.e. begging Fiona to let her do her Cat’s Eye programme. But luckily for all of us, Jazz’s bonkers idea had evaporated into thin air and was not mentioned again.
‘Maybe she learned her lesson,’ Fergus said when we were discussing it one day after school. ‘I mean, if she hadn’t got involved in the Pets with Talent thing, she never would have been picked on by Kez.’
‘Yeah, that and the fact that she’s so lurrrrrved up with Cupid. She is pretty distracted these days.’ I sniggered.
Fergus stared at the ground and shuffled his feet. ‘Yeah, everyone seems kind of paired up these days, in a way,’ he said carelessly.
‘What d’you mean?’ I shot back.
‘Well, there’s Jazz and Cupid, your dad and Bex and, er . . . yeah . . .’ He tailed off.
‘Hmm,’ I said thoughtfully.
It was true: Dad and Bex were definitely an item now, there was no denying it. Bex was round at our place more often than not. But somehow it had happened so naturally that I hadn’t really noticed. And now that I had noticed, I realized that I was totally cool with it.
‘So, like, d’you want to go to the cinema on Friday?’ Fergus said in a rush, still staring at the floor.
‘Er, yes,’ I said, finding the floor rather interesting myself, all of a sudden.
Well, what d’you know? Life never stops being full of surprises, does it?
Anna Wilson used to edit children’s books until she discovered it was much more fun to write them. She took a flying leap from being an editor to being a fully-fledged author in 2008 and has never looked back (except when she has tripped over something). Inspired by her family, friends and pets, she writes funny yet heart-warming novels which are absolutely NOT based on any MORTIFYINGLY EMBARRASSING incidents which have happened to her in the past.
Anna lives in Bradford on Avon with her husband, two children and an array of pets, including a dog, cats, a tortoise and a pair of extremely noisy ducks.
This may not be entirely true.
Books by Anna Wilson
The Parent Problem
The Great Kitten Cake Off
The Pooch Parlour series
The Poodle Problem
The Dotty Dalmatian
The Smug Pug
The Top of the Pups series
The Puppy Plan
Pup Idol
Puppy Power
Puppy Party
The Kitten Chaos series
The Kitten Hunt
Kitten Wars
Kitten Catastrophe
For younger readers
I’m a Chicken, Get Me Out of Here!
Monkey Business
Monkey Madness: The Only Way is Africa!
And for older readers
Summer’s Shadow
www.annawilson.co.uk
Kitten Catastrophe first published 2010 as Kitten Cupid by Macmillan Children’s Books
This edition published 2016 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2016 by Macmillan Children’s Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5098-0467-2
Text copyright © Anna Wilson 2010
Cover illustration by Matt Hunt
The right of Anna Wilson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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