by Eliza Teoh
Mousey Mayhem
Story by Eliza Teoh
Illustrated by Wolfe and Rachel Liam
Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
More information about Ellie Belly
Praise for the Ellie Belly series
Acknowledgements
About the Author
About the Editor/Illustrators
Copyright
Chapter 1
Ellie was trying her best to pay attention in class. But it was so hot and she was so sleepy! The fans were set on the highest speed – five! Their form teacher Mrs Goh set the fans on five only when it was really really hot.
Today, the fans did nothing but stir up more hot air. Ellie watched the ceiling fan above Mrs Goh’s head. It was making a whirring sound and it was going around and around and around…
“Ellie! Ellie Belly! Are you listening?” Ellie heard a voice. It sounded like Mrs Goh, and it sounded like it was coming from far, far away. Someone prodded her side. She sat up with a jolt. Mrs Goh was standing over her desk.
“Ellie, are you listening?” Mrs Goh asked.
Ellie looked up sleepily at Mrs Goh. She looked at her desk partner Sue Min. Sue Min was staring at her anxiously.
“Were you sleeping?” Sue Min whispered.
Was I sleeping? Ellie thought. It didn’t feel like she had fallen asleep.
“Do you need to go wash your face in the toilet?” Mrs Goh asked.
“Yes!” Ellie said, perking up right away. Anything to get out of the classroom!
Ellie walked quickly to the toilets at the end of the corridor. She splashed water on her face. Ahh! That felt cool! She didn’t feel like going back to class so soon, so she fiddled with her hair. She scooped the piles of hair that had fallen out of her bushy ponytail and stuffed them back into her hairband.
She peered at herself in the mirror. Now, her bushy hair looked even messier than usual. She shrugged. She glanced around the empty toilet. What could she do now? An idea popped into her head. Maybe, she could find an animal to talk to!
“Hey, anyone there?” Ellie whispered. “Talk to me! I’m bored!”
There was no reply.
“Lizzy? Sunbird? Are you there?” Ellie tried again. She hoped that one of them would hear her. “Batty? Froggie? Mousies?”
She strained her ears to hear a reply. There was only silence. She sighed. Why was it that when she tried to talk to animals, it never worked? Animals seemed to talk to her only when they felt like it. That wasn’t fair!
Ellie tried to remember all the animals that had spoken to her over the last few months. Sunbird had called to her because she needed help to build a nest. O-Chi the kitten had cried for help because she was lost. The terrapin at The Live Turtle & Tortoise Museum had asked her to help save its home. Lizzy the lizard and a few of the animals in school – a bat, some frogs and a few mice – had spoken to her when she was in trouble with a mean relief teacher not long ago.
The last animal to have spoken to Ellie was Wan Wan, a panda at the zoo who had grumbled about being in a new home. Yup, it really seemed like animals spoke to her only when they felt like it. What was the use of having a secret power when you couldn’t use it whenever you wanted?
“Hey, if there’s anybody there, can you just talk to me?” Ellie said.
“Who are you talking to, Ellie?”
Ellie turned around in delight. Who was talking to her?
She jumped in fright when she saw who it was. Mrs Goh!
“I-I-I’m not talking to anyone!” Ellie said.
“Don’t tell me you were talking to yourself!” Mrs Goh said.
“Erm… I was,” Ellie replied.
“Why, Ellie?” Mrs Goh asked. “Why?”
Ellie shrugged.
“Alright, get back to class,” Mrs Goh said, sighing. Ellie is a really strange girl, she thought. Funny things happen when Ellie is around. Thankfully, Ellie had been behaving quite well the past few weeks. Nothing weird had happened for a while and she assumed that Ellie had somehow changed and become… a normal child.
She was wrong.
Chapter 2
Back in class, everyone was busy with their worksheets.
“Go back to your seat and finish the worksheet quickly!” Mrs Goh nagged at Ellie.
“Okay,” Ellie said.
She slumped back in her chair and stared at her worksheet. It was on past tense. Ellie sighed and picked up her pencil.
The first question read:
1. Harry ______ (eat) a sandwich yesterday.
That was easy. Ellie wrote “ate” in the blank space. She added an arrow after Harry and added the word “Styles”.
She smiled to herself, thinking of what her sister Gabby would say when she saw her worksheet. Harry Styles was Gabby’s favourite singer in One Direction. Ellie didn’t like One Direction, but she did like Harry’s hair because it was messy, just like hers.
She moved on to the second question:
2. The dog _____ (sit) on the floor.
She wrote the word “sat” in the blank. This was too easy. And boring, Ellie thought.
She looked around the class. For once, she wasn’t the only one not concentrating on her work. Her best friend Cammy was playing with her stapler. Cammy stuck her tongue out at Ellie and crossed her eyes. Ellie giggled.
Some students at the back of the class were talking softly. Even bossy Megan, the Little-Miss-Perfect model student, was slumped over with her head on her desk, scribbling on her worksheet half-heartedly. It was that kind of day.
Mrs Goh got up from her teacher’s table and walked to the front of the class.
“Okay, let’s go through the answers. The answer for question one is ate. Question two, sat,” Mrs Goh said mechanically. She was also feeling very hot and wanted quite badly to go back to the nice air-conditioned staff room to cool down.
Ellie’s hand shot up before Mrs Goh could get to question three.
Mrs Goh paused. “Yes?”
Ellie thought for a while, then said, “The past tense of eat is ate? The past tense of sit is sat?”
“Yes,” Mrs Goh said.
The rest of the class sat up. They were paying attention now. They wondered what Ellie was up to.
“Why?” Ellie asked.
“What do you mean why?” Mrs Goh said. “There’s no why. Past tense of eat is ate. Past tense of sit is sat. That’s all.”
“So, what’s the past tense of hit?” Ellie asked.
“The past tense of hit is still hit,” Mrs Goh said, writing it on the whiteboard. “For example, John hit his head yesterday.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Ellie said.
“Why not?” Mrs Goh asked.
“If the past tense of sit is sat, shouldn’t the past tense of hit be hat? He hat his head yesterday!” Ellie said, pleased with herself.
Everyone in Class 1J burst out laughing. He hat his head?
“Also, if the past tense of eat is ate, shouldn’t the past tense of beat be bate?”
The class laughed even louder. Bate sounded like a very funny word.
“Quiet! Quiet, class!” Mrs Goh shouted. “I will explain.”
The class quietened down.
“Some verbs are regular verbs. For those verbs, we just add E and D to the end. For example, the past tense of watch is watched. The past tense of push is pushed. The past tense of play is played,” Mrs Goh started droning again
as she wrote on the board.
“However, when it comes to irregular verbs, there are no fixed patterns. For example, the past tense of do is did. The past tense of see is saw…”
“And the past tense of pee is paw?” Ellie piped up again.
The class roared with laughter. Mrs Goh glared at Ellie.
Ellie wiped the smile off her face. She knew when she had gone too far. Mrs Goh looked angry.
The class went silent and only a few quiet giggles could be heard at the back of the class. The giggles grew louder.
“Hee hee, that’s so funny,” someone said.
Ellie didn’t dare to turn around, but she realised something – the voice belonged to an animal! She was sure of it. She had learnt how to tell between human and animal voices. This was definitely an animal voice.
Ellie looked meekly at Mrs Goh. “I’m sorry, Mrs Goh,” she said.
Mrs Goh rubbed the sides of her head with her fingers. The bell rang, signalling the end of the period.
“Hand in your worksheets,” Mrs Goh said. “I will mark them and return them to you tomorrow. Also, there will be an extra worksheet on the past tense of irregular verbs.”
Everyone in class groaned and stared at Ellie. It was her fault that they would have to do an extra worksheet. But Ellie was too excited to care. There was an animal in class and she could hear it talking!
Chapter 3
As Mrs Goh walked out of class, Ellie turned around to face her best friend.
“Cammy Cammy Cammy!” she called excitedly.
“What? Shhh!” Cammy said.
“Shut up!” Megan said. Megan, who sat beside Cammy, was extra grumpy today because of the heat. Her usually pristine uniform was damp with sweat and beads of perspiration sat on her upper lip.
Ellie moved her eyebrows up and down and pointed to the back of the class. Cammy had no idea what she meant.
“What? I don’t know what you are trying to say,” Cammy said.
“You shut up too,” Megan snapped at Cammy.
Ellie looked out the classroom door. Their Chinese teacher wasn’t here yet. She stood up, grabbed Cammy’s hand and led her to the back of the class. Her eyes DARTED around the class, trying to find the animal that spoke. The problem was, she had no idea what she was looking for. Was it Lizzy? She looked up at the ceiling. Was it a bird? She looked out the window. There was nothing.
“I heard something,” Ellie whispered to Cammy when they reached the back of the class.
“Like an animal something?” Cammy whispered back. Cammy was the only one in the whole world who knew that Ellie could speak to animals.
“Yes!” Ellie said, her voice rising to a high pitch in her excitement.
“Where is it?” Cammy asked. “What did it say?”
“I heard it giggling at my pee joke,” Ellie said. “But I have no idea where it is. Or what animal it is.”
“Hmm,” Cammy said, thinking. Cammy was the thoughtful and sensible one. “If you heard it in class, and no one else noticed it, it must be a small animal. Or maybe an insect?”
“Ew! I hope not! I hate insects!” Ellie said. She looked around the back of the class. There were two large notice boards filled with model essays and artwork done by the students. There was also the class library, which wasn’t really a library. It was just two shelves filled with books. Could something be hiding among the books?
“Hee hee. I’m not an insect!” a voice said.
“There it is!” Ellie said, grabbing Cammy’s hand. “I heard a voice coming from the bookshelf.”
Cammy bent down to look. She took a few books out of the shelves and peered into the dark space behind the books. She saw a tiny nose and two beady eyes staring at her.
“Oh! It’s a baby mouse!” Cammy said. “It’s super cute!”
“Where? Where? Can I see? Does it want to come out?” Ellie said.
Cammy reached behind the books carefully and put out her hand, inviting the mouse to hop on. The tiny brown mouse took a little sniff, then looked at Cammy and twitched its nose.
“Ha ha! That is ticklish. You are so cute!” Cammy said.
Ellie was getting impatient. “Hey, let me see!”
The little mouse hopped onto Cammy’s outstretched palm. She carried it out gently and showed it to Ellie.
Ellie was beside herself with excitement. The mouse was much smaller than the four mice that had come into class the last time. It had the cutest baby face. Its whiskers were so fine they were transparent.
“Hello! Are you Ellie?” the mouse asked. “The one who talks to animals?”
“Yes, I’m Ellie!” Ellie said. She reached out her finger to gently stroke its head. “Are you a boy mouse or a girl mouse?”
“I’m a boy mouse,” the mouse said, twitching its nose.
“Why are you talking to me? Is there something you want?” Ellie asked.
“Yes! Yes, yes!” the mouse said. “I almost forgot. I’m only a baby, you know. I can’t remember things very well.”
“Aw, I know you are a baby. So, what do you want?”
“They asked me to come look for Ellie Belly. They said you would help!”
“Who said?”
“The other mice!” the mouse said.
Ellie’s heart beat furiously. Another adventure with animals? She couldn’t wait. She turned to Cammy and explained everything.
“What do the other mice need help with, baby mouse?” Cammy asked. She couldn’t understand animals, but she knew that they could understand her when she spoke to them.
Before the mouse could reply, their Chinese teacher walked in. “Tong xue men, zao an!” she said. Good morning, students.
Oh no. Cammy looked at Ellie with panic in her eyes. What were they going to do with the mouse? Ellie did the first thing that came to her mind. She scooped up the little mouse and stuffed it into her thick messy hair. There! It would be safe there – and out of sight.
Ellie and Cammy made their way back to their seats at the front of the class. As she sat down, she felt the little mouse burrow deep into her hair.
“Ah, this is so comfortable,” the mouse sighed contentedly as it settled down for a nap.
Chapter 4
Ellie fussed and fiddled. She squirmed and scribbled. But nothing she did made the Chinese lesson go by any faster. Miss Zhang was saying something about kou shi, a Chinese oral test. When is this lesson going to end? Ellie thought. Why does time pass so slowly when I’m in class? Why does time pass so fast during recess?
The bell rang. Finally, recess!
Ellie and Cammy filed quickly out of class and ran to their favourite quiet place in school – a small garden at the back of their classroom block. They sat under their favourite tree. It was the same tree in which Sunbird had built her nest earlier in the year.
“Hey, mousie, are you there? Wake up,” Ellie said, patting her hair. She felt tiny paws scuttling over her head. The little mouse poked his head out.
“Here I am!” the mouse said.
Ellie reached out and gently lifted him off her head. She set him down gently on a rock.
“Quick, tell us what’s wrong!” Cammy said.
“Er, er, er,” the little mouse said, trying to remember. He tapped a tiny paw to his head.
“It’s okay. Take your time,” Ellie said.
“I know! My family is stuck!” the mouse said, finally remembering. He was so proud of himself.
“Stuck where?” Ellie said.
“In the new building? That place over there?” the mouse said, pointing a tiny paw.
“You mean the new indoor sports hall?” Ellie asked.
Their school had been given money by the Ministry of Education to build a new sports hall. It was being built on an open field behind the school. It was almost ready, but students were not allowed to go near it. Their principal Miss Felicia Lau had announced this very clearly during assembly last week.
“The indoor sports hall is strictly out of bounds to all stude
nts,” she had said.
When Miss Lau said “out of bounds”, Ellie had imagined children bounding and bouncing around the hall. Why would anyone want to bound around the hall anyway, she wondered.
“Out of bounds means that you are not to go near or enter the sports hall. At any time! For any reason!” Miss Lau had added.
The little mouse thought for a bit, then replied, “Yes, that new building with the big empty room.”
“What were you all doing there?” Ellie said.
“We were, erm, just looking around. Mice like to explore, you know.”
“So, what happened? Where are they trapped?”
“Oh. We found this nice hole. It looked like a nice hiding place. So we all went in. And we fell! Down and down! And now they are all trapped and can’t get out!”
“How did you get out?”
“Oh, we found a small pipe. I crawled into it and squeezed my way out. So, here I am!” the mouse said. “They have been trapped for two days already. They are hungry and thirsty. They said that you would know what to do!”
Ellie gasped in horror. She told Cammy what the mouse had said.
“Oh no, poor mice!” Cammy said. “We have to get them out!”
“But we are not allowed to go near the building! Miss Lau is going to kill us if she finds out,” Ellie pointed out.
“We have to at least bring them some food!” Cammy said. “How many mice are trapped?”
The little mouse thought. “Er, er… maybe twenty?”
“Twenty!?” Ellie yelled.
“Er, I think so. I can’t count so well,” the mouse said. “I have five other brothers and sisters who are still trapped.”
“Five brothers and sisters?” Ellie couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have five brothers and sisters.
“And lots of aunties and uncles,” the mouse added.
“Why didn’t your brothers and sisters crawl up the pipe with you?”
“They didn’t dare! I was the only one brave enough!” the mouse said, puffing out his tiny chest.
