In the car on the way to the show, Lucy had a special cat box on her lap, with Delilah inside. Lucy had fluffed up Delilah’s fur so much that she looked less like a cat and more like a huge ball of fur.
Stinky was on my lap, in his cage. Whenever I’d travelled with him before, I’d taken him in a lunchbox, but he was much happier in his cage.
When we arrived, my dad filmed absolutely everything – he filmed us getting out of the car, he filmed us making our way through the big crowd at the pet show. He even filmed my mum as she was telling him to stop filming.
The pet show was at the big school, and most of the things were going on inside: the dog competition was in the gym and the cat contest in the main hall, which is where Mum and Lucy took Delilah.
The Talented Pet competition, however, was in a big marquee on the school field, so me and Dad went over there. I was carrying Stinky in the cage, trying not to rattle it (or rattle him).
An important-looking lady was sitting at a very long table, and I walked nervously over to her. A card on the table in front of the lady said ‘Beverley Best – Judge’.
‘Yes?’ she said impatiently.
‘I want to enter my hamster into the competition, please.’
‘Name?’
‘My name, or his name?’
‘Both.’
‘My name is Ben – Benjamin Jinks.’ I held out the cage. ‘And this here is Jasper Stinkybottom.’
When she heard his name, she pulled a face like she’d just been sucking on a lemon.
‘We call him “Stinky” for short,’ I added, as if that might help.
It didn’t.
She grimaced again and wrote both our names down.
‘I’m not sure I want to ask,’ she said, ‘but what is his particular talent?’
‘Skateboarding,’ I said proudly.
She stared at me for a few seconds.
‘Well, now I’ve heard everything,’ she said. ‘Put “Stinky” …’ she pulled another face, ‘on the table with all the other small animals.’
I found an empty place on the table, next to the cage holding Edward Eggington’s mice. The inside of their cage was decorated like a gym, with a little blue mat and a tiny springboard and beam. Edward Eggington was leaning over the cage, making final preparations, when he noticed me. He clearly hadn’t forgiven me for beating him in the science competition.
‘If it isn’t Benjamin Jinks and his Hopeless Hamster,’ he sneered.
‘Skateboarding Hamster, actually,’ I said. ‘And I think he’s got a really good chance of winning.’
For a few moments Edward looked worried, but then he glared at me.
‘That hamster,’ he said, ‘has absolutely no chance.’