by Sally Warner
And now Alfie knew she was right.
“I apologize,” she said, meaning it. “I shouldn’t have tried to trick you guys that way. Or any way,” she added before her dad could correct her. “I was wrong.”
“We accept your apology,” her father said, reaching out to shake her hand. Her mom shook Alfie’s hand too, and Alfie felt as though she’d just stepped out of a warm shower, she felt so sweet and clean.
“But—what about Princess?” she finally dared ask. “It’s not her fault I was such a mess-up. And I don’t want her to be an orphan at the animal shelter.”
“I called Mrs. Sobel last night,” Alfie’s mother said, “and I told her the whole story.”
Oh, no, Alfie thought, her eyes wide. Would busy, modern, tidy, lemony Mrs. Sobel dislike her now—and tell Hanni to stay away from her, no matter what?
Was loneliness going to be Alfie’s souvenir from the two-girl daycare club? That, and a big scribble-scrabble mess on her imaginary second grade whiteboard?
“And Hanni’s mom said she would take the kitten back, if that’s what we wanted,” Alfie’s mother continued. “She was very understanding about the whole thing. She even apologized to me, which really went above and beyond.”
Oh, Alfie thought, stunned.
So that was that. The worst had happened.
No more Princess.
Nobody to take care of.
Nothing little to love.
Alfie tried to remember how to breathe.
“Your mother told Mrs. Sobel thank you, but we’ve decided to keep the cat,” Alfie’s dad said, seeing the look on his daughter’s face. “She’s a cutie, and if no one’s allergic to her—”
“We’re not,” Alfie said, hardly able to believe her luck.
Princess!
“But she will be a family pet,” her mother was quick to say. “Not just yours, young lady—even though you’ll be the only one doing litter box duty for a while.”
“Until October first,” Alfie’s dad announced, as if he’d already written it on the refrigerator calendar. “After that, you and EllRay will take turns.”
“EllRay likes her, too?” Alfie asked.
“He’s crazy about her,” Mr. Jakes said, getting to his feet. “And now, let’s draw a line through this whole episode and get on with the rest of our lives.”
Thank goodness, Alfie thought. “I really am sorry,” she told her parents again.
“We know, Cricket,” her father said, reeling her in for a big daddy-hug before heading for work.
Cricket!
“We know,” her mother echoed, smiling. “You’re our good girl. But you and I are going to have to scoot so we don’t keep Hanni waiting—or the dentist.”
“Okay,” Alfie said. “I’ll go get my stuff. Can I say good-bye to Princess, though?”
“I suppose,” her mom said. “She’s in our bathroom. Just keep the toilet lid down so she doesn’t fall in.”
“Okay,” Alfie said again. “And—thanks, Mom,” she added softly.
“You’re welcome, sweetie.”
18
A Jakes Family Portrait
“Hi,” Alfie said ten minutes later when the Sobels’ front door opened. Hanni and Mrs. Sobel had both come to the door today.
Seeing Mrs. Sobel, Alfie felt her face grow warm. “Mom just dropped me off. She had to hurry to her dentist appointment,” she told Mrs. Sobel while scuffing the doormat with the toe of her pink sandal. She hoped she wasn’t about to hear another lecture about how naughty she’d been. In front of Hanni, too!
If she—Alfie—didn’t already know that, who did?
But Mrs. Sobel didn’t say a word about Princess. “It’s going to be a hot one again,” she said instead, leading the girls into the house. “So if you’re planning any outdoor adventures, better get started early.”
“We’re gonna play near the pond,” Hanni told her mom. “It’s nice out there. C’mon,” she whispered to Alfie when her mom had disappeared into her office. “You have to tell me everything that happened.”
And Hanni led the way outside, down the patio steps and across a stretch of lawn, toward the splash of the pond’s little fountain.
Alfie wished her family had a fish pond. She also wished Hanni would drop for all time the subject of Operation Kittycat, Princess, or anything else cat-related.
Not to mention the subject of her bad kitten-smuggling self.
Alfie wanted everything to be fresh and new again. After all, a week from today—at this very hour!—they’d be sitting in Mr. Havens’s second grade class.
Meeting new kids.
Getting yelled at by their teacher, maybe.
Even learning something. Who knew?
“Your mom told you?” Alfie asked, avoiding Hanni’s eyes as they settled in next to the pond to check on their fairy pathways and tiny furniture.
“Well, yeah, Mom told me,” Hanni said. “Because she wanted to find out if I knew you didn’t have permission to bring Princess home.”
“Oh, no,” Alfie said, freezing. “So now you’re in trouble too?”
“Nuh-uh. Not really,” Hanni assured her. “Because I didn’t know. I mean, I knew you didn’t want your brother to find out about Princess, or it would ruin the surprise. Only, how come you didn’t tell me about the rest of it? I wouldn’t have blabbed.”
“It wasn’t a secret, exactly,” Alfie said. “I wasn’t ever trying to trick you. I was mostly thinking about how much I wanted a kitten, that’s all.”
“And you got busted big-time,” Hanni said, her green eyes sparkling. “What happened? Are you grounded, except for this last week of the daycare club?”
Maybe I am, and maybe I’m not, Alfie was tempted to say, turning the whole thing into a joke. Because being grounded would make her sound kind of exciting and fun and interesting—to Hanni, and to the new kids in her class, wouldn’t it?
That would be a pretty cool mark on her pretend whiteboard.
Hearing the Operation Kittycat story from an important class member like Hanni Sobel might change the way kids saw her. She, Alfie Jakes, could go from being known as a goofy, playful cricket to being seen as a master planner who was not afraid to come up with crazy schemes just for the fun of it.
Only Operation Kittycat hadn’t really happened that way, Alfie reminded herself. She didn’t begin her time in the two-girl daycare club wanting to be a sneaky kid who didn’t care a bit what her parents thought.
Being a girl who didn’t mind disappointing her mom and dad.
That wasn’t her.
Her heart was just super lonely for a kitty.
“Did you get grounded?” Hanni asked again, sounding hungry as she waited to hear every detail of the bad news to come.
“Not really,” Alfie said, shaking her head.
“But you’re keeping the kitten,” Hanni said, grinning. “So you got to have your own way.”
“Yeah, but only kind of,” Alfie said. “See, Princess belongs to everyone in the house, not just me. And she probably won’t even want to sleep in my room. I’m the one who has to clean out the litter box, too,” she added. “All by myself. And I can’t watch TV or anything for a whole week, and I have to pay back the money for the stuff I borrowed from the kitchen. So I’ll have nothing.”
“Except Princess,” Hanni pointed out. “But, wow, that’s really harsh, Alfie. I’m sorry. Your parents are strict,” she added, shaking her head. “I thought my mom was bad, but—”
“They’re okay,” Alfie protested. “It could have been a lot worse, right?”
“I guess,” Hanni said, sounding doubtful.
But in Alfie’s opinion, this had been a good outcome. And telling Hanni the truth—being herself, really, instead of trying to be some fake Outlaw Alfie—was another good outcome.
It was a different, better way of being new.
It was kind of a brave decision, too. But Hanni deserved the truth, Alfie decided.
And didn’t a girl owe that to a new friend?
The Jakes kids usually scattered after the dishes were done, but that night the whole family gathered after dinner. Princess had curled up on the fluffy blanket at the end of the family room sectional, and no one wanted to miss what this fascinating little creature might do next.
It was as if she were a tiny gray magnet drawing the Jakes family to her side. Right now, what Princess was doing was sleeping and purring at the same time. Her purr was a constant rhythmic noise, and it was surprisingly loud for such a small animal who was not much bigger than a rolled-up pair of EllRay’s sports socks.
“Is that dangerous?” Alfie asked, leaning in to examine the kitten. “How does she have time to breathe?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, Cricket,” her father said, stretching his long legs out carefully so as not to disturb the sleeping kitten. “But it is surprising,” he admitted. He unfolded his newspaper carefully. He clearly did not want to wake Princess with its rattle as he turned the pages. He was old school about the news, his wife sometimes teased. She preferred to keep up with current events online instead.
“Princess sounds like a motorboat,” EllRay said, flopping down at the other end of the sofa. “I hope she sleeps with me tonight. I can dream I’m waterskiing.”
“Maybe she’ll sleep with you, and maybe she won’t,” Alfie said. “Because she’ll probably want to sleep with me. That’s what she’s used to,” she added, trying to sound as if it didn’t matter to her one way or the other.
Alfie didn’t want to get her mom all riled up.
“We’ll be getting her a bed tomorrow or the next day,” Mrs. Jakes said from the built-in desk where she paid the bills each Monday night. “Or maybe a really cute basket with a folded-up baby quilt in it. Something pretty.”
“I think cats usually make up their own minds about where to sleep,” her husband said from behind his paper.
“You’re probably right,” Mrs. Jakes said. “But it’s fun making plans. And I want her to be all settled by the time school starts next Monday. A week from today,” she added, not that either Alfie or EllRay needed reminding.
Mr. Havens, Alfie thought, hiding a shudder as she sat in the easy chair she liked best. It swiveled, so she could see whatever was going on in the room.
Alfie liked keeping track of things.
Well, at least she would be starting second grade with a new friend, Hanni Sobel, Alfie thought, congratulating herself. And she’d be “the girl with the kitten.” Alfie planned on making the most of that. Nobody needed to know any of the dismal details of how Princess came to live at her house.
The stinky litter box closet.
The scratches on her legs.
The saggy curtains.
Not to mention how she’d basically lied to everyone around her.
But Princess and Hanni would be the first cool marks on her imaginary second grade whiteboard, Alfie thought, smiling. So it was going to be a very cool year.
She was getting off to a good start, boy teacher or no boy teacher!
It was funny, Alfie thought, her eyes closing for a moment. Princess’s purring seemed to fill the peaceful room—like bees buzzing in a summer garden, Alfie thought. Princess was like a kitten-shaped puzzle piece that had somehow completed a Jakes family portrait. They had all been missing her without even knowing it.
It was true, Alfie admitted to herself—she had imagined Princess as being devoted only to her. But like her dad said, this tiny kitty seemed to have her own ideas about what she wanted to do, and when and where she wanted to do it.
Who knew a kitten could have so many opinions?
But even though she had to share Princess, Alfie told herself, the little gray kitten was something to love.
And Alfie did love Princess—the best summer souvenir ever.
It was funny, Alfie thought, feeling drowsy in spite of the air-conditioned room. Sometimes you planned something, and it might be a really good plan. But then things turned out different from how you thought they would.
Different, but still good.
Maybe second grade would be like that, too!
Maybe having a boy teacher wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Maybe meeting new kids would turn out okay.
Oh, she’d mess up again, sure. But things were going to be absolutely fine.
Alfie knew it.
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