The Kitten Hunt Read Online Free PDF Page A

about pet-sitting and
money-making. I chewed my lip.
    His hair (which is curly like mine, a lthough there’s not as much of it) was sticking up on end in a rather woolly sheep-type fashion, which is what it does when he runs his hands through
it a lot, and his eyes had sunk further into his head than is normal for a human being. The skin around his eyes was also quite dark. Actually, he looked more like a slightly baffled owl than a
sheep.
    Come to think of it, I should have realized something was up that morning as he had drunk fifteen cups of coffee one after the other while muttering, ‘What am I going to write? What am I
going to write?’ These are the usual signs that a deadline is on the horizon, or indeed is charging towards Dad from the horizon at about one hundred miles an hour.
    ‘Sure. Be back by seven,’ he said finally, distractedly running his hands through his hair.
    ‘What’s up?’ said Jazz, as we closed the front door behind us. ‘When I arrived you looked like you’d just won a year’s supply of chocolate and now you look as
if you wish you hadn’t eaten it all in one go!’
    ‘Oh, yeah. Just a bit worried about Dad,’ I muttered. But I fixed a grin back on my face and said brightly, ‘But listen. This is a zillion times more interesting!’ I told
her about Pinkella and Kaboodle.
    ‘Kaboodle? What kind of weirdo name is that?’ she said, curling her top lip in her you’ve-just-said-something-random expression.
    ‘I know – not the coolest—’ I agreed.
    ‘And you didn’t ask for a POUND a day, did you?’ Jazz interrupted.
    ‘Ye-es.’
    ‘You doofus! A poxy pound a day! No wonder she wants you to look after her dear little pussy-cat. You should have said a fiver –
and
you should have asked for a deposit!
Don’t you know anything about business?’
    ‘But I don’t care about the money, Jazz!’ I exclaimed. ‘Don’t you get it? I’m finally going to have a pet to look after I’m going to get to feed him and
cuddle him and play with him! YAY!’ I cried, dancing round and round.
    ‘No need to be freaky about it,’ said Jazz, but she was grinning. ‘So can I be your
business partner
then?’ she asked, putting on a posh voice.
    ‘You can be my official assistant,’ I said, hugging her ‘I told Pinkella I needed a new one.’
    ‘Eh?’
    ‘Never mind – come on, let’s go round there now Kitten-sitters R Us!’

 
4
Welcome to the House of Pink
    Y ou would have thought Jazz and I were celebrities the way Pinkella welcomed us.
    ‘Roberta!’ she cooed, opening her arms wide.
    Please don’t hug me, I cringed.
    She hugged me Tight. Urgh. My face was pressed into her pongy pinkness and I nearly gagged on her overpoweringly sick-making flowery perfume.
    ‘Ro-
who
?’ said Jazz.
    I wriggled away as politely as it is possible to wriggle away from someone you don’t know that well, and scowled at Jazz warningly
    ‘And the beautiful Jasmeena!’ said Pinkella, reaching out and cupping Jazz’s chin in her spiky, jewel-covered fingers. ‘What gorgeous eyes you have, sweetie!’
    It’s true, Jazz does have gorgeous eyes. They’re like those shiny chocolate drops in the sugar casing, and they’re huge. She’s got mega eye – lashes too. If I
didn’t know better I’d say she had false ones, but they’re not – her whole family’s got them. I’ve always been really jealous of the way Jazz can use her
chocolate-drop eyes to get pretty much whatever she wants from people.
    It seemed she wasn’t going to use them on Pinkella though: she scowled and her smooth brown cheeks darkened as she squirmed out of Pinkella’s clutches. ‘I prefer
“Jazz”,’ she said sourly. ‘So where is Noodle?’
    Pinkella dissolved into fits of hysterics about nothing in particular, as far as I could see. ‘Oooh! You are cute! Follow me – I think
Kaboodle
is having a little nap on his
cushion.’
    Jazz raised her eye brows at me, a definite sign that her already