‘WE GAVE ’EM ANOTHER PRESENT,’ said Florence, who had stars painted all over her face. ‘IT WAS A SKIPPING ROPE,’ she continued. ‘BUT THEY DIDN’T USE IT FOR SKIPPING . . . AS YOU CAN SEE.’
‘They used it against us,’ said Grimaldi, who had the word BUM painted across his forehead. He wriggled around, trying to break free from the rope.
‘The one with the spiky collar – Gerald, is it? Well, he danced around us with the rope until we were dizzy just watching him,’ said Tangine, wide-eyed. His eyes were painted to look like two huge flowers, with bright pink petals, he had a glittery splodge on his nose and two leaves on his cheeks. ‘Then the other one with the little cape played a tune on a strange flute that made us all feel sleepy!’
‘Next thing we knew, the skipping rope was wrapped around us,’ Grimaldi continued.
‘AND THEN MO PAINTED THE PUMPKINS!’ Florence added.
‘Um, the pumpkins aren’t the only ones they painted,’ Amelia said hesitantly.
Tangine yelped. ‘Please tell me they haven’t ruined my beautiful face?!’
Amelia bit her lip. ‘It’s not completely ruined . . .’
Tangine let out a strange noise in despair.
‘But that’s not important right now. Let me untie you guys. We need to go and find the caticorns. Which way did they go?’ asked Amelia, fiddling with the tricky knots of the skipping rope.
‘THEY RAN OFF !’ said Florence. ‘AN’ THEY DIDN’T EVEN BOVVA TO TAKE UNCORNELIUS PINE WIV ’EM!’ She shook her head in disapproval. ‘I’LL JUST ’AVE TO KEEP ’IM.’
‘Hey, I thought we agreed that I’d have him,’ said Grimaldi. ‘You know how much I love Unicornelius Pine!’
‘FINE! YOU CAN ’AVE ’IM AT WEEKENDS,’ said Florence.
‘Who CARES about Unicornelius Pine? You should be more concerned about my ruined face. MY PRECIOUS FACE!’ wailed Tangine.
Amelia put her head in her hands. ‘AARGH!’ she cried. ‘This is no good!’
Florence, Grimaldi and Tangine fell silent.
Amelia sighed. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘It’s just . . . the rope is knotted too tight, Wooo is frozen inside a jar and the caticorns are on a rampage. I don’t know what to do!’
‘Sorry, Amelia,’ said Grimaldi. ‘I would hug you, but it’s a tad tricky right now.’
‘RIGHT,’ Florence said, with a look of determination. ‘I KNEW THIS MOMENT WOULD COME EVENTUALLY.’ She took a deep breath. ‘AMELIA, STEP BACK. GRIMALDI, TANGINE, BRACE YERSELVES.’
‘I would, but I’m TIED UP,’ said Tangine sarcastically.
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Grimaldi, looking nervous.
‘WHAT I SHOULD ’AVE DONE AGES AGO,’ said Florence. With one massive grunt, she tensed every muscle in her body so that they bulged and expanded. The skipping rope eventually snapped under the pressure, setting the friends free.
‘THAT’S ’OW IT’S DONE!’ said Florence proudly. ‘NOW LET’S FIND THOSE KITTIES.’
‘GERRAAAAAARD!’ called Amelia.
‘BUTLEEEEER!’ yelled Grimaldi.
‘Jo!’ bellowed Tangine. ‘Or is it Flo? Wait, what’s the third one called?’
‘MO!’ said Florence, running for the door.
‘Gerrard, Butler, Mo! Where are you?! Please come back here, all of you! ’ Amelia called out to nowhere in particular, in the hope that the caticorns could hear her. ‘Otherwise, I’ll have to tell Aunt Lavitora how naughty you’ve all been! I reeeeally don’t want to have to do that!’
Amelia, Florence, Grimaldi and Tangine set off around the Fang Mansion on the hunt for the caticorns.
Squashy and Pumpy joined in the pursuit, pa-doinging and PA-DOOFING behind them, checking the nooks and crannies Amelia and her friends were too big to fit into. The two pumpkins sniffed around behind the cabinets, checked under the dressers and rolled into the deepest depths of Frivoleeta’s many shoe closets. Pumpy, however, got distracted in the guest bathroom when he saw his own reflection in the toilet lid and began pouting at it lovingly.
‘Pets really do resemble their owners,’ Amelia muttered to herself.
The gang searched behind door after door, rummaged inside the cobweb-ridden kitchen cupboards (much to the disapproval of the cupboard trolls who were having a delightfully awful picnic); peered around every corner, explored shelf upon shelf, and even checked beneath the old fancy rugs.
‘I can’t find them anywhere!’ said Tangine. ‘I DID find a sad slug under the kitchen sink though. He said his name was Trevor and he is looking for his twin, Tina.’
Ameia was starting to think she really wasn’t up to this big-sister business.
CRASH!
‘I FINK,’ said Florence, ‘THAT CAME FROM DIRECTLY ABOVE US.’
Amelia’s cold heart fell into her toes. ‘My bedroom is directly above us,’ she said.
The friends sprinted up the spiral staircase and along the cavernous corridor, stopping dead outside Amelia’s stripy bedroom door. Giggles and meows rang out from behind it. Amelia swung the door open and was almost hit with a great big SPLAT of glittery paint in her face.
Mo cackled with laughter and carried on painting the wall with glitter paint.
Butler had stretched a pair of Amelia’s stripy tights from one side of the room to the other. He now stood there in deep concentration plucking the taut material, making a satisfying TWAAAAAAANG each time.
Gerrard was dancing around the room with the grace of a professional prancing yeti, which was very elegant indeed. He was holding one of Amelia’s favourite ornaments – a delicate china pumpkin that her mum and dad had bought her for doing so well at Pumpkineers Club. He twizzled the precious object around, juggling it from one paw to the other.
‘No, no, no! Put that down!’ urged Amelia, trying to grab the shiny pumpkin.
But the little caticorn cleverly weaved his way around Amelia, dodging her swipes and hopping lightly on to a bookshelf. Amelia’s large collection of POSITIVELY PUMPKIN magazines went tumbling to the floor, narrowly missing Squashy.
Mo lathered paint across the stripy wallpaper. Splodges of glitter were flying through the air as the artistic caticorn focused on her masterpiece.
Butler was still thrumming at the taut tights, with the musical TWAAAAANG getting louder and louder.
Amelia gasped as Gerrard dangled from the edge of the bookshelf with the pumpkin ornament precariously balanced in one of his paws.
‘Gerrard. Listen to me!’ said Amelia, beginning to lose her patience. ‘If you don’t get down from there right now, I’m going to have to tell Aunt Lavitora how naughty you’ve been. She won’t be happy!’
But Gerrard wasn’t listening. Whilst balancing on one paw, he slowly raised both back legs so that he was in a handstand position. He then tossed the pumpkin ornament up to his feet and, to Amelia’s horror, began to juggle it!
Butler carried on thrumming at the tights.
THRUM THRUM TWAAAAAANG
THRUM THRUM TWAAAAAAAAAAANG
THRUM
THRUM
TWAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!
Amelia’s breathing got faster and shallower.
Gerrard continued juggling with his feet. The little model pumpkin bobbed around in the air like a tormented tangerine.
Amelia had had enough. She clenched her fists tightly and shouted at the top of her voice.
‘STOP!’
Mo jumped in surprise. Her paintbrush soared through the air, spreading glitter across the ceiling, and landed with a SPLAT on Tangine’s mop of white hair.
Tangine shrieked, causing Butler to twang the tights a bit too hard. They ripped, snapped and then smacked Florence right between the eyes.
And in amongst all of the chaos, Gerrard got his paws in a twist, and the little pumpkin ornament tumbled to the floor with a very definite . . .
SMASH.
