Kitten Smitten Read Online Free Page A

pushed the thought aside and started talking at top
speed.
    ‘Hey, Jazz. How’re you doing? Really sorry I’ve not been round this week, but you have no idea what’s being going on,’ I babbled.
    But Jazz had already interrupted and was talking at top speed herself. ‘Oh yeah? Well, you’ve no idea what’s been happening this end. It’s been, like,
totally hectic,’ she announced.
    Typical. Even in phone conversations Jazz manages to be competitive.
    I was relieved she wasn’t angry, but that feeling was already being swallowed up by a sense of impending doom. What was she up to now? ‘OK, don’t tell me,’ I said.
‘You’ve just won the National Eurovision Search for a Child Superstar.’
    ‘Duh! You can’t be National and Eurovision,’ said Jazz. ‘And anyway, it’s got nothing to do with my inevitable rise to fame as a mega popstar singing and
dancing act …’
    For once, I thought.
    ‘… yet …’ Jazz added, layering on the suspense.
    ‘What? Oh, listen, you can tell me later. Can you come round?’ I said. ‘I’ve got something mega cute to show you.’ I tried adding in a bit of suspense myself.
‘You are not going to believe it.’
    ‘O-kaay,’ Jazz said slowly. ‘No need to go all hyper on me. Hey – what do you mean, cute?’ she added quickly.
    ‘You’ll have to come round and see for yourself,’ I said in what I hoped was a tantalizing tone.
    Jazz sighed noisily into the receiver. It made my ear tingle. ‘All right, I’ll be there in five.’
    I grinned. Gotcha! I thought. The expression ‘curiosity killed the cat’ could have been tailor-made for Jazz.
    While I was waiting for my best friend to arrive, I put down some of the kitten food to try and tempt Jaffa to come out from under the radiator, but she was firmly wedged up against the skirting
board and peering out at me with those huge glass-button eyes as if to say, ‘If you think I’m moving any time soon, you’ve got another think coming.’ Of course that was only
my interpretation, as she still had not uttered a single peep of anything to me.
    ‘Let’s put the litter tray by the back door in the utility room,’ Dad suggested. ‘That way she might eventually get used to the idea that she has to go out to pee, rather
than looking for other – receptacles!’ His shoulders started shaking with silent laughter.
    Great! That little escapade was going to keep Dad amused for weeks, if not months, I could see. He’d probably end up writing it into one of his plays, knowing my luck, then everyone would
get to know about it. Why did his sense of humour have to be so pathetic?
    ‘OK,’ I said, shooting him an I’m-ignoring-your-childish-behaviour look. ‘I suppose when she’s had her jabs we could put a cat flap in the back door? Then she can
go out into the garden whenever she wants.’
    Dad had turned up the volume on his silent laughter and was wheezing and hooting again.
    ‘Oh, for goodness sake!’ I snapped.
    Luckily the doorbell rang.
    ‘That’ll be Jazz,’ I said pointedly.
    Dad took the hint and went up to his study. I carefully shut the kitchen door behind us, making sure Jaffa was still safely under the radiator. Every day had been like this so far, with Dad and
I working together to cover all available entrances and exits as though we were a SWAT team trying to contain a heavily armed criminal. I grimly thought things might be easier if we’d had
night-vision goggles, motion detectors and perhaps walkie-talkies to communicate from one doorway to the next. This cat was a serious contender for Cat Burglar of the Year Award, she was so swift
and silent.
    I opened the front door, my heart still pounding from the covert operation in the kitchen.
    ‘Hi!’ Jazz was bouncing up and down on the doorstep, grinning like an overexcited chimpanzee – one who’d just won the Banana Lottery, by the looks of her.
    But I couldn’t help it; I started bouncing too, all thoughts of my dad’s