Becky's Problem Pet

by Holly Webb

  “Just pick some numbers – come on, I need to talk to you!” Annabel shoved Becky’s pen into her hand.

  Katie looked up from the geography she was trying to learn. “Bel! Is that what you did? Mr Jones will kill you! And it’s not fair – whenever you get into trouble the teachers always look at me, as though I should have stopped you. Go and get your book.”

  Annabel sighed dramatically. She supposed it was lucky that one of them was good at maths, but really, she couldn’t care less tonight.

  Twenty minutes later, Becky and Annabel had a vague idea of what was going on, and some answers that at least looked like they’d thought before they randomly picked some numbers, and Katie gave up – there was only so much trigonometry she could stuff into Annabel at the best of times, let alone now.

  They cleared away their books, and curled up on Annabel’s bed.

  “So what’s the plan, then?” asked Katie interestedly.

  “Well,” Annabel sat up straight and looked businesslike, “I think the best thing is for Becky to talk to David tomorrow, and invite him over on Saturday. That way you don’t have to say anything embarrassing like ‘please will you go out with me?’ but it’s still obvious you like him, do you see?”

  Becky nodded seriously. If she was going to go through with this, she wanted it to be as unembarrassing as possible. “But I’m going to have to explain to him and Jack that Amy and Max made it all up – otherwise Jack won’t even want to be in the same street with me, let alone the same house with me and David.”

  “Mmmm. Then we just have to get you looking irresistible on Saturday!”

  “What?” squeaked Becky.

  Annabel folded her arms firmly. “If I have to share a room with rodents, you are getting a makeover on Saturday morning, and don’t even think of arguing.”

  Becky subsided – she could put up with Bel fussing over her, if it meant she got the rats. It took a lot of thinking about One and Two to get through the rest of the evening though, as Annabel fetched about five million magazines and proceeded to teach Becky “everything she needed to know”. It took ages, and by the end of it Becky felt that there were so many things she had to remember when she saw David she wouldn’t actually be able to spare any brain for thinking of what to say.

  As it turned out, she saw Jack first, almost as soon as the triplets walked into the playground next morning. He was with a group of his mates, which was good, because when he saw all three triplets approaching he looked as though he might have dashed off if he’d been on his own.

  “Hi Jack!” Becky was too full of how she was supposed to charm David to waste panicking time on Jack, so she just got straight to the point. “Listen, please can you just try and forget all that stuff Amy and Max were saying? They were just trying to stir up trouble, and I’ve got something really important to ask you.” She took a deep breath, but Jack didn’t seem to be about to yell at her or anything, so she went on. “I heard you might be getting rid of your rats, and I wondered if I could buy them off you, and the cage. I bet I could give you more than the exotic pet shop would.”

  Jack lost his hunted look and brightened up immediately. “Really? You’ve got the money? I bought them for twenty-five pounds with the cage.”

  “That’s fine. Do you think you could bring them over on Saturday afternoon? We’re having some friends round to watch videos, so I can give you the money and you could stay for tea if you like. Bring Robin, too, if he wants to come.”

  “Yeah, OK, I’ll ask my mum. Excellent!” It was only as the triplets disappeared that Jack realized he should have asked for thirty. . .

  Becky was desperate to find David and get it over with, but he didn’t seem to be anywhere. They’d deliberately got to school early, to give her plenty of time – she wasn’t sure she could face hanging around for ages. She had no nails left as it was. Suddenly Fran, who’d been filled in on the whole scheme as soon as she arrived, nudged her. “Look, he’s over there!”

  David was just walking in through the gate.

  “Now Becky!” hissed Annabel. “Before he starts talking to someone or goes to play football or something. Go on!” And she pushed her sister hard in his direction, so Becky almost fell over. Somehow that push was very helpful – Becky turned round crossly to tell Annabel off, and caught the excited, incredibly Annabel-ish expression on her face. She suddenly realized that she didn’t need to worry about all the stuff Bel had told her the night before. David didn’t actually like her sister very much, or at least he never spoke to her. So why should she behave like Bel when she was talking to him? It was Becky he’d said was really sweet. She quickly banished all the stuff about looking up through her eyelashes and giggling in just the right way, and just went over to talk to her friend instead.

  She walked over to him, grinning, and he saw her and smiled back – very nervously, but her grin was infectious.

  “Guess what?”

  “Er—”

  “I’ve just bought Jack’s rats off him, so he can’t sell them off as snake food! Did you know he was going to do that? Can you believe it? I’ve been trying to work out a way to stop him all week. I’m going to get them off him on Saturday afternoon – do you want to come round and see them? They’re really gorgeous.” Then she stopped to recover – she needed to breathe after rattling all that off.

  “Um, yeah. That would be good,” stammered David, his smile widening.

  And then the bell went, and they actually walked into school together, talking about rats, and his pet gerbils, and Becky felt that maybe she could get used to this. . .

  Saturday morning was less fun. Annabel seemed to have turned into a cross between a beauty therapist and a sergeant major, and she was not letting Becky out of her sight. She was all set to force Becky into wearing some of her clothes (which she was going to pick) until Katie rescued Becky by pointing out that she would be playing with the rats all afternoon, and did Bel really want rat all over her favourite top? Bel considered this with a horrified look on her face. Katie rolled her eyes sympathetically. She was quite enjoying not being the one that Annabel was bullying into dressing up.

  They eventually settled on Becky’s own denim skirt and gypsy-style top, and Becky let Annabel mess with her hair. She refused to wear as much make-up as her sister wanted – as she pointed out, it was fairly important that David recognized her. But Annabel still seemed quite pleased with her work as they stood at the front window, looking out for people to arrive. At least Becky had mascara on, for once.

  “Look, that’s Jack and his dad, with One and Two!”

  Becky raced to the door. Jack had obviously scoured the cage that morning – it was practically sparkling – and his dad was carrying bags of food and bedding.

  “Come on, I’ll show you where to put them.” She and Katie took the bags, and Mum took Jack’s dad into the kitchen for a cup of tea. Annabel followed upstairs, sighing. Somehow, she’d managed to forget just how ratty they were.

  Soon all the others had arrived – Fran, Megan and Saima, Jack’s friend Robin, and David, who had been really nervous until Becky met him on the stairs with a handful of wriggly cinnamon fur and thrust Two into his hands.

  “What’s she called?” he asked, trying to stop Two disappearing down his sleeve.

  Becky stopped – she’d been taking him up to their room – and looked at him with eyes that were even huger and bluer than normal (Annabel was good at eye make-up). “I don’t know! Oh, that’s so silly! Jack just called them One and Two, but they have to have proper names now.” Becky sat down on the stairs, and patted the step to get David to sit too. Then she laughed as Two decided this gave her an ideal opportunity to investigate David’s hair. Becky grabbed for her at the same time as he did.

  Annabel, hanging over the banisters on the landing, nodded approvingly. She hadn’t been convinced that Becky was listening on Wednesday evening, but
there she was “accidentally” making physical contact, just like all the magazines said. Maybe even rats had some uses. . .

  Becky and David grinned shyly at each other, and he moved closer to her on the step – just to make it easier to give Two back.

  “So, what do you think you’ll call her then?” he said quickly, to distract from being embarrassed about sitting so close. “She’s a nice colour, maybe something to do with that?”

  “Mmmm, maybe. Russet, or I could just call her Cinnamon, that’s what this colour of rat’s called. The other one’s black and white, though, which isn’t so good for names.” Becky was chattering like that out of nerves, Annabel realized. And then she watched in delight as David clearly moved to hold her sister’s hand!

  Oh no! That stupid rat had staged an escape attempt, and Becky had moved her hand to catch it, so David had missed!

  “Bel!” A furious hiss made her jump back as Katie grabbed her arm. “Stop spying, that’s really awful!”

  “I’m not! Well, OK, yes I am, but I just want to see if Becky’s doing it properly.”

  “Well, you can’t. Come on.” And she dragged Annabel into their room, just as David put his arm around Becky.

  Both David and Becky were very pink when they finally got to the triplets’ room a couple of minutes later. And they hadn’t got very far with names for the rats, either. Annabel smirked at Katie – they’d definitely held hands! And it was all down to her, she reflected with satisfaction. Well, maybe that was exaggerating a tiny bit, but Becky definitely couldn’t have pulled it off on her own.

  Katie managed a small grin back. She wasn’t totally sure what she felt about all this. Boyfriends were a whole new issue – especially Becky and a boyfriend. Would it mean her and Annabel and Becky spending less time with each other? A few weeks ago Becky had been the one complaining about that! Still, she thought, cheering up a bit, at least David probably wouldn’t mind playing football with her every so often.

  “So what are you going to call the rats?” Fran asked, watching Becky and David as she stroked One. She didn’t have Annabel and Katie’s inside information, but it was pretty clear that they were going to be an item. She was just glad David was nice – it would be awful if her best friend was going out with someone she didn’t like.

  Becky sighed. “No idea. Any suggestions?”

  David grinned. “How about ‘Amy’ for one of them?” Then he ducked as everyone threw cushions at him. “Hey! Mind the rats, mind the rats!”

  The triplets had done their best to get back at Amy and Max, but it hadn’t been easy. It was all very well telling everyone what they’d done (as Katie said, it had been pretty terrifying to realize that they’d teamed up) but it just wasn’t juicy gossip, like the rumour that Max and Amy had spread about Becky. Amy had seemed pretty surprised by the dirty looks that a few of the girls in the class had dared to give her, though, and some of the boys were ignoring Max after what David and Jack had told them. But the most annoying thing for Amy and Max was that Jack, David and Becky all seemed to be friends and the triplets were as popular as ever.

  Becky smiled at Katie and Annabel. “Look, maybe you two should name them? After all, they are going to be sharing your room.”

  Katie looked thoughtful. “Pity they’re both girls – makes it hard to name them after a footballer, or anything like that.”

  Becky sighed. “And I suppose you’d like to call one after your favourite nail polish?” she said to Annabel.

  Annabel raised her eyebrows. “Lilac Daze?” She looked down at One and Two rather sniffily. “I don’t think so. Can I really name one of them?”

  “Yeeees,” said Becky doubtfully, wondering what she’d agreed to.

  Annabel looked satisfied. “OK. That one,” – she pointed at cinnamon Two, sitting on David’s shoulder – “can be called Fang.”

  “Fang?” everyone echoed.

  “Yes – it looks like a Fang. Horrible and toothy. Sorry, Becky, I’m never going to think they’re cute.”

  Becky picked up One and held her in front of Katie. “OK. Your turn. Vermin? Ratbreath? What would you like?” she asked, sounding resigned.

  Katie considered the black and white fur, and grinned. “Newcastle United. Cassie for short.”

  Becky rolled her eyes. Fang and Cassie? Oh well. At least it was a bit better than One and Two. She looked down at the rats – her rats – happily. She’d got just what she wanted – and more, she thought, as Fang whisked round and dived down David’s top, and he rolled about the floor begging Becky to rescue him. . .

  HOLLY has always loved animals. As a child, she had two dogs, a cat, and at one point, nine gerbils (an accident). Holly’s other love is books. Holly now lives in Reading with her husband, three sons and a very spoilt cat.

  Scholastic Children’s Books

  An imprint of Scholastic Ltd

  Euston House, 24 Eversholt Street

  London, NW1 1DB, UK

  Registered office: Westfield Road, Southam, Warwickshire, CV47 0RA

  SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First published in the UK by Scholastic Ltd, 2004

  This electronic edition published by Scholastic Ltd, 2014

  Text copyright © Holly Webb, 2004

  Cover illustration copyright © Michelle Breen, 2014

  The right of Holly Webb to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her.

  eISBN 978 1407 14743 7

  A CIP catalogue record for this work is available from the British Library.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Scholastic Limited.

  Produced in India by Quadrum

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  www.scholastic.co.uk