So I invited my friends over for a feast. It was quite a bit fun.
But the thing about my friends is they are messy.
I tried to tell my friends to eat nicely but would they listen? No they would not.
Rebecca dropped biscuit and cake crumbs on the floor.
Laura-Orla crunched up crisps in her hand and threw them everywhere.
Dave was spilly. I was just about to start clearing up all their naughty mess when I remembered Henry.
I thought, SOMEONE should be cleaning that rabbit’s hutch.
I thought, Meg is neglecting that rabbit of hers.
So I went to the cupboard under the sink and I got out the green fluffy duster that Dad says is just for cleaning and NOT for playing with, and I used it to clean Henry’s hutch.
This was quite a smelly job because rabbits do a lot of poos.
Luckily, just in time, I remembered that the green fluffy duster is actually a broomstick and everyone knows that broomsticks are too precious to be covered in rabbit poo.
But just when I was about to put that broomstick safely back in the cupboard under the sink, it whisked me up into the sky.
I flew to the top of a rainbow and slid all the way down. I landed in the fluffy white clouds.
I whizzed through the air at 153 miles per hour.
But then I remembered Henry.
I thought, SOMEONE should be cuddling that poor rabbit.
I thought, that rabbit is lonely.
So I took Henry out of his hutch.
But Henry was a bit too wriggly and he was not very good at being stroked either.
So I very carefully put Henry safely in the toy box.
Only this woke up Elwyn and Bilbo.
They wanted to play the jungle game and, the thing is, they made me join in too.
We swung through trees.
We read stories in hammocks.
We found the waterhole.
I was just getting my breath back when Meg and Dad came home from the shops.
Meg raced into the kitchen and opened Henry’s hutch.
Then she looked all around her, put her hands over her face and turned to me.
“Mabel,” she said all wobbly.
“HENRY HAS ESCAPED. HE’S HAD A RIOT IN THE KITCHEN. AND HE’S RUINED MY WHOLE ENTIRE BIRTHDAY LUNCH.”
I did not say anything.
I thought, what a naughty rabbit.
Meg looked everywhere for that naughty rabbit.
Mum and Dad turned the house upside down.
I searched too because I wanted to be a good, helpful girl like Mum said I should be.
I found Henry in the toy box.
Everyone was pleased with me.
They said, “Three cheers for Mabel” and “What a good girl”.
They said, “Mabel, you’re magnificent.”
It was a bit like MY birthday.
Meg put Henry back in his hutch.
She locked the door very carefully.
Then she gave me a hug.
“Mabel,” she said.
“Seeing as you were the one who found him, would you like to share Henry with me?”
I looked at Henry’s silky fur and wooffly nose.
“That is very kind of you, Meg,” I said, “but, Meg, I have slightly gone off rabbits.
“They are a bit too naughty.
“These days I’m more keen on a different type of pet.”
“But, Mabel,” said Meg.
“I thought you loved rabbits?”
“I do like rabbits,” I said.
“Just not as much as snakes.”
People in my class are always losing their teeth.
Elsa Kavinsky has lost one tooth on the top and two teeth on the bottom.
Torin Ray has lost so many teeth he can’t bite an apple and his voice is all mushy.
Torin Ray is always asking, “How many teeth have you lost?”
And before I can even answer he says, “I’ve lost five.”
Torin Ray is very keen on the tooth fairy.
But I don’t know why he is so keen on someone that sneaks into his room while he is asleep and takes teeth from under his pillow without asking.
That is called being a burglar and burglars are meaner than dentists.
My sister Meg says the tooth fairy is not a burglar because she leaves money under your pillow.
But I don’t need money. I have £1.73 already and that is a lot.
I am not planning on losing any teeth. My teeth are good at chewing and smiling and, also, they’re quite good at gleaming.
My teeth are FINE. I am not keen on the tooth fairy.
But then last Sunday at breakfast, something bad happened. I bit into a piece of toast and my front tooth went all wobbly.
I did not scrinch or scream or make a fuss.
I did not tell Mum.
I did not tell Dad.
I did not even tell my sister Meg.
I was calm in a crisis.
Being calm in a crisis is a grown-up thing to do.
Being calm in a crisis is what Dad was when he accidentally shut Meg’s finger in the car door and drove her to hospital without crashing.
But being calm in a crisis is not as easy as it looks.
Especially when you have a wobbly tooth and you are not keen on the tooth fairy.
I stopped nibbling my toast and made a huffy sound and looked at the ceiling.
Dad asked, “Everything all right, Mabel?”
But I did not want Dad to see my tooth in case he noticed it was wobbly so I did not smile back at him.
Mum asked, “Aren’t you hungry, Mabel?”
And I shook my head, even though I was STARVING.
Then I got down from the table and stomped off.
I did not feel calm in a crisis.
I felt cross.
Mum, Dad and Meg looked at each other with their eyebrows up.
They thought I couldn’t notice but I could.
I am a noticing sort of person (even when I am stomping).
When I got to my bedroom I looked at my tooth in the mirror and I tried wobbling it with my fingers.
It got wobblier.
I thought, I will NOT let that tooth fairy get her hands on MY tooth.
I thought, something needs to be done about this wobbly tooth of mine.
I thought, dentists know more about teeth than tooth fairies, and dentists aren’t even burglars.
I thought, it’s a good job I’m
