CHAPTER 2 UM...

" Oh , Mum ! Dad ! that was amazing! what an amazing day !" Sam was saying as he undressed in his bedroom. It was 10pm on Saturday the eighth Of September. The last of his friends , all of whom went to Bracket Wood , the local primary school, had left . Vicky and Charlie were smiling at him.

" So ! Did you like your party ?" said Vicky.

" Yes Especially the Sci-fi cake ! in the shape of the Starship Enterprise! With Six Different Gobstoppers for planets all around it ! And Candy Klingons and other aliens on the sides ! Great idea , Mum !"

" Yes well , it was your idea , San ... I think it was cake suggestion number four - you made it last monday ... "

" And the film- theme fancy dress really worked, didn't it , Dad ? Everyone's costume was great ! Barry Bennett looked Brilliant as Gru from 'Despicable Me!' And Ellie and Fred Stone as minions ! And Malcolm Bailey As the sloth from Zootropolis ! And Mordis Fawcett as Homer Simpson!"

" Well , " said Charlie, " that was your idea too . Party Suggestion number Seven ..."

"And You look great!" said Vicky, grimacing as she pulled off Sam's Wall - E head and feet.

"Well , that's why I won the Best Costume prize..."

" No , actually, that's because it was your party," said Ruby, wandering into the room. She'd been allowed to stay up a little bit later as it was Sam's birthday. Ruby had a tendency to be very direct about everything, in a seven-year-old way . But she was a very clever seven-year-old . " So everyone thought you had to win . in Fact, Mum and dad basically bribed all your friends to vote for you by giving them extra cake and - "

"Yes , all right, Ruby. stone to clean your teeth," said Charlie, taking her hand, and leading her - a little forcefully- towards the door.

" Dad? Mum ? For my birthday, can I hear a kitten ? " said Ruby as she was leaving the room , books tucked under her arm , to do extra homework as usual. This was another thing Ruby said a lot , as well as " actually " . Sometimes she combined them and said, "Actually, Mum and Dad , can I have a kitten?" Even when no one had asked her what she wanted.

"Well ..." said Vicky

"Um..." said Charlie.

Ruby didn't look surprised . she was used to her mum and dad saying "um..." in answer to the kitten question. But that didn't mean she was going to let it go , either.

"Sam got a guniea pig," she said, pointedly.

"Spock!" Which indeed , was something else on Sam's Birthday list that his parents had managed to get him . They looked over to said guniea pig, in its cage on the floor. It was a brown and white one, with a little tuft on its head. Sam had decided to call the Guinea pig Spock after the extremely logical, cold character in Star Trek . Spock looked back at them with quite a strong sense of, "I think that name is very unfair ."

"Ruby," said Charlie, "You know what a kitten will become ?"

"Yes, actually,I do , Dad. I'm seven, not an idiot. A Cat."

"Ok, so a grown cat, unlike spock, will need some outside space. We haven't got any."

"Yes we have ," said Ruby , pointing to the window , "What's all that stuff out there ?"

"Oh right. I see . Is the cat going to go down by itself from the seventeenth floor? In the lift that smells of wee ?"

Ruby signed, as If that question was ridiculous. which it kind of was.

"We'll think about it ," said Mum

"Um..." said Dad.

Ruby nodded, feeling her point had been made, and turned to go out of the room. "Night, Sam! Hope you had a great Birthday!"

"I did!" he replied.