Claws! Read Online Free PDF Page A

from the store. Pressing my back against the tree, I listened for Lou’s shouts and his whistle.
    Cars moved slowly along the crowded street. People were still driving home from work. Headlights swept over me.
    Holding the cat tightly, I dropped to my knees behind the tree. I needed to catch my breath. I needed to try to think clearly.
    But I let out a scream of surprise when a voice right behind me shouted:
    “Where’s the cat?”

13
    I spun around. “Amanda!” I cried. “I—I didn’t see you!”
    She hunched down in the weeds. She pointed at Bella Two on my shoulder. “Is she okay?”
    “Yeah. Fine,” I said. I stared behind her. “That store guy—?”
    “I didn’t see him,” she said. “I ran out the front and circled back.”
    She lifted the cat away from me and held her in her arms. “How are you doing, Bella?” she asked, speaking softly. She rubbed the cat’s back.
    “Yes, your name is Bella now.”
    The cat purred.
    “Calm as a pineapple,” Amanda said.
    “Well,
I’m
not,” I said. “We killed one cat. Now we’ve
stolen
another one. We have to get home, Amanda. We —”
    “Look how sweet and gentle she is,” Amanda said. “She’s perfect, Mickey. I think our luck is changing.”
    Just as she said that, I heard Lou’s shouts from the parking lot.
    I raised my head over the weeds. I saw Lou running hard, waving both arms wildly. “Stop! You two! Stop right there! STOP!” he screamed.
    Amanda and I jumped up. We turned and ran. The weeds rustled and bent as we pushed through them to the street.
    Glancing back, I saw Lou, still waving and shouting. He reached the edge of the parking lot. He dove into the weeds, coming after us. “Stop! Stop! Both of you!”
    Amanda and I had no place to run. We stood on the edge of the road. Cars honked at us as they rolled past.
    “He’s got us trapped!” I cried. “We can’t escape him.”
    Amanda held on to Bella tightly I watched Lou thrashing his way through the weeds. He was only a few yards away from us.
    When the bus pulled to a stop, I cried out in surprise.
“No way!”
I didn’t realize we were standing at a bus stop.
    Amanda and I dove onto the bus.
    The driver squinted at Bella. “Pretty cat,” he said.
    The bus doors slid shut just as Lou came bursting out of the weeds.
    The bus pulled away. I saw the angry look on Lou’s face. He shook both fists in the air. Icouldn’t hear him, but I could see he was still shouting furiously.
    Amanda and I stumbled to the back of the bus. We sank down in the backseat. We were both still breathing hard. My face was drenched in cold sweat.
    We didn’t speak all the way back to the Caplans’ house. Bella was totally calm, as if nothing special was going on.
    We were carrying her up the Caplans’ driveway when my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket. “I know, Mom,” I said. “Sorry I’m so late. Amanda and I got hung up with the cat. I’ll be home in five minutes.”
    I didn’t lie—right? We really did get hung up with the cat.
    Now I began to worry about how this new cat would act being in a strange house. She had been perfectly calm so far. But being in a new place with strange rooms and strange smells … would it freak the cat out?
    Would she smell the old Bella? Would that make her upset?
    Only one way to find out.
    We carried Bella Two into the Caplans’ living room. This time, I carefully closed the front door. Amanda set the cat down gently on the rug.
    The cat just stood there for a long moment. She gazed up at Amanda. But she didn’t lookaround. And she didn’t seem eager to go exploring.
    She waved her tail slowly from side to side. Then she took off suddenly. Her paws padded the carpet silently as she darted around the couch, onto the tattered pillow beside it on the floor.
    Amanda and I exchanged glances. “That’s the old Bella’s favorite spot,” I said. “And the new Bella went right to it. Weird.”
    “Weird as a raspberry,” Amanda