‘I’m glad it wasn’t too far,’ I said as I looked. ‘So that’s their school.’ I was quite excited to see where Aleksy and little Tomasz spent their days. I had seen schools before, of course, in passing but I had never been in one before.
There were children everywhere. As Franceska dropped the boys at the gate they went through it and into the playground, a noisy tarmacked area, swarming with loud little people. Tomasz ran off in one direction and Aleksy stayed close to the gate. As Franceska turned, shooting a last worried look at Aleksy before walking off, that was my cue.
‘OK,’ I said as Tiger and I crossed the road. ‘Stay by the gate. If anything bad happens I’ll make my loudest noise.’
‘Good luck, Alfie,’ Tiger said, nuzzling my neck. I felt tense again as I squeezed through the bars of the gate and into the playground. I followed Aleksy as he made his way across the playground to a big building. Then I saw a group of children. One of them waved at Aleksy, but another child, a little bigger than Aleksy, stopped him.
‘Here’s the cry baby,’ he said nastily. I looked at all the boys and girls. None of them looked comfortable with the horrible boy but I could see that they were all too scared to say anything.
‘Leave me alone,’ Aleksy said, although I could hear the wobble in his voice.
‘Make me.’ All the other children looked aghast at the two boys. No one seemed to know what to do.
‘I don’t want to fight with you,’ Aleksy said. I wanted to fight him though. I wanted to give this kid a good hard swipe — but I told myself violence wasn’t the answer.
‘Because you are a baby and a chicken.’ The boy started to make chicken noises as he came very close to Aleksy. ‘I guess I’ll just take your lunch,’ he said.
‘No … you can’t have it,’ Aleksy stammered back. I was proud of him; I could see he was scared, but he was still sticking up for himself.
‘I think you’ll find I can.’
I wondered where the adults were. I spotted one but she was the other side of the playground and hadn’t noticed what was going on.
I realized that children weren’t so different from adults. You got nice ones and mean ones, but as I watched, I saw that this was just a sad kid who was acting tougher than he actually was. I couldn’t tell Aleksy this though, so I decided that it was time for me to act.
I moved towards Aleksy and miaowed loudly.
‘Alfie,’ he said, startled, fear forgotten. ‘What are you doing here?’ He picked me up. I purred into him.
‘Is that your cat?’ one of the children asked.
‘Yes, well he lives in my old road, not at my house, but he’s very clever. He must have followed me all the way to school!’ Aleksy put me down and all the children rushed to pet me. I made myself my most charming as I purred and revelled in the attention.
‘It’s only a stupid cat,’ the nasty boy said. I wasn’t scared though, he didn’t really pose as much of a threat as many adults and other animals I’d met. After all, I’d once had a seagull threaten me and a horrid man nearly kill me. This was nothing compared to that. But I was powerless as the nasty boy took Aleksy by surprise and grabbed the bag off his back. Aleksy grappled with him but there was nothing I could do as the bag swung out and hit a little girl in the face. I seemed to be the only one who noticed as the girl burst into tears and ran off; both boys scrambled to grab the bag. Aleksy won. I looked over at the crying little girl, torn about what to do — I was here to protect Aleksy, but I knew I could quickly cheer her up if I went over and snuggled up to her.
But before I could decide, the bully looked at Aleksy who was now clutching the bag to his chest, then at me. As if weighing up his next move he stepped towards me. I stood my ground, looked at him and hissed aggressively. The boy looked a bit startled and quickly stumbled back.
‘See, he doesn’t like you. He only likes nice people,’ Aleksy said, looking and sounding a bit braver. The other children laughed too.
The boy looked at Aleksy, his eyes full of anger, and then he looked at me.
‘Dumb cat,’ he said. I flicked my tail up in anger, and hissed at him again. He backed away.
‘Ha, Ralph is afraid of a cat,’ Aleksy said. I realized then, as Aleksy’s eyes sparkled that although I hadn’t done much, I had given Aleksy confidence — and that was exactly what he needed. As all the other children laughed, a bell rang out. I stuck close to Aleksy; I wanted to see more of this school, it seemed an intense but interesting place.
It was both scary and exciting as I seemed to be caught up in a sea of legs, making their way into what I learned was a classroom. There were a lot of children, all chattering loudly as I stayed close to Aleksy. I managed to follow him into the room, sneaking past a lady they called ‘Miss Walton’.
Ralph was red faced and clearly not happy. As the children competed to sit near Aleksy he had the biggest smile on his face. Meanwhile, Ralph sat on his own.
‘Right, time for the register,’ Miss Walton said, not having spotted me yet. She looked quite young and smiled a lot. As one by one the children answered to their names I began to enjoy myself.
‘Molly?’ Miss Walton said. There was silence. ‘Has anyone seen Molly?’ she asked, looking concerned.
‘She was in the playground, Miss,’ one child pointed out; I guessed they meant the little girl who had been hit by Aleksy’s bag. I felt terrible for having forgotten her, and knew that I had to help them find her.
I miaowed very loudly. The teacher looked over and saw me jump onto Aleksy’s desk, making everyone laugh.
‘Hi, and who are you?’ she asked, as she came over.
‘This is Alfie, he lives in my old street but he is a very special cat,’ Aleksy said proudly. ‘He must have followed me to school today and it’s very far.’
‘Well hello, Alfie,’ she said, stroking me. ‘But you’re not allowed to be in school, I’m afraid. This is for humans only.’ She laughed and I miaowed again. I jumped off the desk and, yowling as loudly as I could, started to walk towards the door.
‘Oh please can he stay?’ Aleksy asked. The others all cried out in agreement. All apart from Ralph who looked at his feet.
‘No, I’m afraid not. Look, children, all stay here and I’ll take Alfie out and find Molly.’ Another adult came into the classroom; Miss Walton said something to her about being back in a minute and then as I ran out she started to follow me. I tried to remember the way I’d come in as I legged it towards the exit. Before I left, I needed to find Molly, I’d seen her run off after all and had an idea which way she’d gone.
‘Alfie, slow down,’ Miss Walton said as she hurried after me. I stood in the playground, finding my bearings and sniffing the air. Like a super sleuth, I made my way round the side of the building where I had seen Molly heading following my nose, vaguely aware of Miss Walton a little way behind me. I stopped in front of a shed, noticing a door was ajar, just big enough for a small child — or a cat — to slide through. I peered in, but it was dark and cramped, full of outdoor clothes — muddy wet weather wear and Wellington boots. From the door, I couldn’t see the girl but I could sense her. Miss Walton came up behind me a little breathless.
‘Molly,’ she called. ‘Molly, are you in there?’ Her words were met with silence and I looked up and saw the worry etched on Miss Walton’s face as she looked around her, panic growing. I miaowed and went inside, scrambling around in the darkness, getting caught up in raincoats, and tangled in boots but determined to find Molly.
She was hiding in a dark corner, curled up and still crying. I miaowed loudly again, running out to alert the teacher. She looked puzzled — she was running around the playground shouting Molly’s name and sounding increasingly frantic. I kept yelling at her, brushing her legs before running back to the shed. She looked uncertain as she followed me into the shed but I led her to the missing girl.