Read Magic Kitten: A Christmas Surprise Online

Authors: Sue Bentley

Tags: #Ages 6 & Up

Magic Kitten: A Christmas Surprise (4 page)

BOOK: Magic Kitten: A Christmas Surprise
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‘I was going to make snowflakes on the windows, but the nozzle got stuck,’ Molly explained.

‘Oo-oh, you fibber!’ Shona burst out. ‘She did it on purpose, Miss! She aimed right at me and did a big long squirt! She’s just jealous because I’ve got new
boots
and
I’m having a pony for Christmas!’

Molly blinked at Shona in disbelief. ‘I couldn’t care less about your rotten boots and your stupid old pony!’

‘That’s enough, both of you!’ Miss Garret said, frowning. ‘I’ll speak to you about this later, Molly. Come to the
cloakroom, Shona. We’re going to have to wash your hair and jumper. The rest of you had better go into the hall. The play’s about to start.’

Molly hung back as Miss Garret and Shona and most of her classmates filed out. ‘Can I help it if the spray can decides to have a wobbler?’ she said to Flame.

‘It was very bad luck,’ Flame mewed sympathetically. ‘I am sorry that I could not use my magic to help you.’

‘That’s OK. I know you couldn’t give yourself away,’ Molly said.

Narinder ran up, grinning widely.

‘That was
so
hilarious! Serves that snooty Shona right. Stick to your story about spraying her accidentally and you’ll be OK!’

‘But it really was an accident,’ Molly protested.

‘Yeah, right!’ Narinder said. ‘I’m going to the loo. See you in the hall.’

‘But…’ Molly gave up. ‘Come on, Flame,’ she whispered, shrugging. ‘I bet you’ve never seen a school play.’ As she went into the corridor, Flame scampered along at her heels.

Molly almost bumped into two older girls who were waiting just outside the classroom. She recognized them as Alice and Jane, two girls from the class above hers. They both lived near Shona and often hung out with her.

Alice was tall and thin and Jane was smaller with glasses.

As Molly went to walk past, Alice
stuck out a skinny leg, so Molly almost tripped over. ‘Oops. Sorry. It was an accident,’ she sneered.

‘Yeah! Like what you did to Shona,’ Jane piped up, glaring at Molly through her glasses. ‘You’d better watch your back, you little squirt!’

‘Whatever!’ Molly said, shrugging,
but her heart beat fast as she walked quickly away from the bigger girls.

Molly tried to enjoy the school play. The younger kids were really cute in their angel wings and tinsel halos, but Alice and Jane’s threat was still on her mind.

The rest of the day seemed to drag and Molly only managed to eat a tiny bit of her school dinner, even though it was turkey with all the trimmings. The moment the school bell sounded, Molly headed for the cloakroom.

‘Come on, Flame, can you quickly jump into my bag again? We don’t want to bump into those two mean girls!’ she urged.

She said a hurried goodbye to
Narinder at the gate. ‘Sorry I’m in such a rush. I’ve, er… got to hurry home today,’ she gabbled. ‘I’ll phone you!’

Narinder looked surprised. ‘OK. See you!’ she said, waving.

To Molly’s relief, the bus was waiting at the bus stop. She managed to jump on to it, just before it pulled away. She reached home safely and was hanging her school bag in the hall when her mum appeared from upstairs.

‘Hello, love. You look a bit glum. Is something wrong?’ Mrs Paget asked.

‘I… um, had a bit of an accident,’ Molly began. She told her about spraying Shona. ‘And everyone thinks I did it on purpose!’

‘But of course you didn’t!’ Mrs Paget said indignantly. ‘You sometimes act
without thinking first, but you haven’t got a mean bone in your body!’ She gave Molly a hug. ‘Don’t worry yourself about it. It’ll all be forgotten about by next term.’

‘Do you think so?’ Molly asked, biting her lip.

‘Definitely,’ Mrs Paget said firmly. She turned towards the plain white
Christmas cake on the kitchen table. Icing pens, food colouring and marzipan lay next to it. ‘How would you like to decorate the cake for me? I was about to make a start on it, but I really need to nip out to the shops.’

‘Cool!’ Molly said, immediately cheering up. ‘Just leave it to me, Mum!’

As soon as she’d waved goodbye to her mum, Molly came back into the kitchen and began making a marzipan robin. Flame sat on a kitchen chair, watching in fascination as she put the robin on the cake and then made wriggly lines with the icing pens.

Molly looked down at her work so far. ‘Not bad. But it needs something else,’ she said, frowning. ‘I know! I’ll
make a snowman. I wonder if Mum’s got any of that white ready-made icing stuff left.’

Climbing on to a kitchen chair, she peered into the cupboard above the table. She stood up on tiptoe and poked about behind a stack of tins. ‘I can’t see any –’

‘Look out!’ Flame mewed warningly as Molly’s elbow brushed against the tins.

It was too late. Three heavy tins fell out and landed right on the cake. Thud! The cake broke apart and icing and bits of fruit cake shot all over the table.

‘Oh, no!’ Molly groaned in dismay.

Flame stood up on his back legs and rested his front paws on the table.
‘Do not worry, Molly. I will help you,’ he purred.

Molly felt a warm tingling down her spine as bright sparks ignited in Flame’s silky white fur and his whiskers crackled with electricity. He lifted a tiny glittering white paw and sent a laser beam of silver sparks towards the ruined cake.

As Molly watched, the sparkling beam moved back and forth, forming the cake back into shape from the bottom up. ‘Wow! It’s just like watching special effects in a sci-fi movie!’ she said delightedly.

The cake was half built up again, when Flame’s sparkling ears twitched. ‘Someone is coming!’ he warned.

A second later, Molly heard the front
door slam and voices echoed in the hall. ‘Hello, is anyone in? Surprise, surprise!’ called Gran Paget.

‘Oh, golly!’ Molly gasped in panic, jumping down from the chair. ‘What’s she doing here? Do something, Flame!’

Chapter
FIVE

Flame’s whiskers crackled with another bright burst of power.

As Molly watched, everything went into fast forward. The laser beam whizzed back and forth, re-forming the cake in treble quick time. Whump! The cake plonked itself on the plate. Whoosh! The tins zoomed into the air. One, two, three – they stacked
themselves in the cupboard. Slam! The cupboard door closed.

Just as the last fizzing spark faded from Flame’s white fur, Gran Paget came into the kitchen. Gramps and Molly’s dad were with her.

‘Gran! Gramps!’ Molly cried, hugging them each in turn.

‘Hello, love,’ Gramps said, kissing her cheek. ‘I bet you weren’t expecting us, were you? We arranged to come a few days early to do some shopping and sightseeing. Your dad’s just picked us up from the train station.’

‘I wanted it to be a surprise. I don’t know how I managed to keep it a secret,’ Mr Paget said, grinning at his daughter.

A small flicker of unease rose in Molly’s mind. ‘Er… Dad? Does Mum know about this?’ she whispered to him.

‘Not yet. But she’s going to be delighted. I can’t wait to see the look on her face!’ he replied.

Neither can I
, Molly thought, remembering the state the spare room was in.

She heard the front door slam. ‘I’m back,’ called Mrs Paget.

‘Uh-oh,’ Molly breathed, running out to meet her mum and almost colliding with her. ‘Guess who’s here! Gran and Gramps!’

Mrs Paget almost jumped out of her skin. She dropped one of her bags and shopping began rolling everywhere.

‘Molly! Do you have to dart about like that?’ she scolded.

‘Oops, sorry!’ Molly apologized, picking up the groceries.

Her dad and grandparents came out of the kitchen to help and soon everyone was laughing. Mrs Paget hugged the grandparents. ‘What a lovely surprise,’ she said, looking hard at her husband.

‘Time for a cup of tea and a mince pie!’ Mr Paget said hurriedly.

‘I’ll fill the kettle,’ Molly said, rushing back into the kitchen.

Her mum followed her in. As she caught sight of the Christmas cake, she stopped dead. ‘Molly? Are you responsible for this?’ she exclaimed.

‘Um… yes. Sorry it didn’t turn out very well…’ Molly said over her shoulder. She was so grateful that Flame had put the cake back together in the nick of time that she had completely forgotten about the lop-sided robin and messy squiggles of icing.

‘But it’s wonderful!’ her mum said. ‘What a lovely snow scene, with a robin on a fence, and I love the snow kitten. Clever old you!’

BOOK: Magic Kitten: A Christmas Surprise
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