CuPiDs

New Beginnings

After the summer when my ( very own! ) cute little ginger kitten, Jaffa, won a TV talent show, Pets with Talent, and my best mate, Jazz got to meet his idol, Danni Minnow, you would think that life could only be described as totally mega-fantastically excellent. And it was for - for the rest of that summer. In fact, when I looked back, I could hardly believe I was the same Bertie Fletcher as the year before. So much had changed, and in such a short space of time.

 Not only had my previously non - pet - loving dad fallen completely head over heels for my new kitten, but Jazz and I had patched up the worrying cracks that had been appearing in our friendship. And we had a new friend, Fergus Meerly. (Not a great name, I know but you can't have everything. ) He and his parents , Fiona and Gavin, moved into our neighbour Pinkella's house when she had to go away. Between you and me, his mum was a bit of a pain in the neck to start with. ( Actually, that's an understatement. Make that a TOTAL AND UTTER pain in every single part of the body you can think of. ) She persuaded Jaffa to move in with them and made out it was because she thought of my kitten was abandoned stray! But she more than paid for her ' mistake ' by sorting out the Pets with Talent show that Danni Minnow judged. And Jazz was made up about that, I can tell you!

 Anyway, it was worth putting up with someone like Fiona because without her I wouldn't have met Fergus. ( Yes, he's a boy, but he's cool, all right? Not only does he love animals as much as I do, he's also an amazing musician. )

  So you might be forgiven for thinking that by the end of summer all my worries were dead and buried. But I am a natural worrier, so I was still left agonizing over the next thing on the horizon : senior school. And that was a worry which would ' not ' go away, no matter how much Jazz and Fergus tried to reassure me.

" I just don't get what you're so uptight about," Jazz said one afternoon when the two of us were lounging around on rugs in my back garden. We had been idly watching Jaffa chase butterflies when I'd suddenly realised how little freedom we had left.

" I can't WAIT to start school!" Jazz chirruped, pushing herself up on one elbow and grinning at me. "It's going to be, like, immence ! For starters, I'll be getting the bus instead of having to go in the car with my complete earwig of a brother. Oh wow, just think - no more Tyson coming up to me at break time with snotty tears running down his face because someone's " been nasty " to him ; no more Tyson calling out annoying insults to me in the lunch queue. Hey, just NO MORE TYSON, actually!

" But aren't you nervous about starting a new place," I asked.

" Nervous? What's to be nervous about? " Jazz sounded puzzled.

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