“Mmmm.” Lily sighed.
The three friends were tucking into another spoonful when a voice called, “Hello! Is anyone home? We’ve come to see the birthday cat!”
The girls and Goldie hurried outside. A family of fluffy white cats were coming through the trees—a mom and three kittens.
“It’s the Sparklepaws!” Goldie cried.
“Happy birthday, Goldie!” the white cats cried as they hugged her.
“This is Mrs. Sparklepaw and her children, Tommy, Timmy, and Amelia,” Goldie said, and introduced Jess and Lily.
Amelia was a pretty kitten with shining blue eyes and fur as white as soft, fresh snow. Like her brothers, she was wearing a blue flower on a ribbon around her neck. She bounced over to Goldie and gave her a present wrapped in leaf paper. “It’s for you!” she cried. “Open it! Open it!”
“Thank you, Amelia,” said Goldie, unwrapping the gift. Inside was a flower filled with perfume.
“I made it myself with flowers from Garland Green, the field behind our cottage,” said Amelia proudly. “I used rose petals, violet dew, crushed honeyberries, and a bit of mint.”
Goldie dabbed a little perfume behind her ears. “Mmm, it smells just like a summer afternoon,” she said, giving Amelia a hug. “Thank you!”
“Look,” said Jess excitedly, “all the other guests are arriving!”
Molly Twinkletail the mouse came out of the trees with her nine brothers and sisters. Among them, they were carrying a necklace made of hazelnuts for Goldie. The Muddlepup dog family arrived, all four of them carrying pots of jam made from the berries in their garden, and a cloud of butterflies, led by the girls’ friends Hermia and Flitta, holding lacy leaves shaped like parasols. They had brought birthday cards from animals who lived too far away to come to the party.
“Thank you, everyone!” said Goldie.
With a flutter of brown feathers, Mr. Cleverfeather the owl landed in front of the grotto. “I’ve brought you a present too, Goldie—my latest invention. Bappy hirthday! I mean, happy birthday!” He handed Goldie a bowl with a button on one side marked “Blitz.” “It’s a blender,” he explained. “It makes smoothies.”
“Thank you!” Goldie said happily.
“Let’s try it!” said Amelia, purring with delight.
Goldie took the blender to the bowl of fruit salad on the table outside. Lily was spooning fruit into it when a strange blue furry creature, even smaller than Amelia, scampered on all fours from beneath a starflower bush.
It wasn’t like any animal Jess and Lily had seen before. The creature climbed a table leg, grabbed a pawful of berries from Lily’s spoon, and scuttled back toward the bush.
Lily dropped the spoon, startled. “Who was that?” she said.
“I’ll ask him!” cried Amelia. She bounded after the creature, pounced at his long fluffy tail—and missed. The creature disappeared back into the starflower bush.
Jess nudged aside the leaves of the bush—then gave a gasp. “Oh! Look!”
On the other side of the bush was a large bouquet of flowers, tied with a big red ribbon.
“Someone must have left them here for Goldie!” said Lily. “I wonder why they didn’t give them to her themselves?”
“It must be a birthday surprise!” Jess said with a grin.
Chapter Three
Trapped!
The bouquet was almost as tall as the girls. The gray flowers were like hooked beaks and the stems were covered in mean-looking prickles.
Lily frowned. “It’s not a very pretty bouquet, is it? There are so many gorgeous flowers in Friendship Forest—why would someone choose these?”
Amelia sniffed. “Urgh! And they smell like dirty puddle water,” she said, her whiskers quivering.
Jess reached out and touched the nearest flower, then drew her hand back sharply. The gray petals felt rough and stiff and horrible.
“Look!” cried Amelia. She pointed a paw at a small envelope tucked into the bouquet. “There’s a note!”
The kitten stretched up on her paw-tips and pulled it out. Goldie, the envelope said in scratchy writing.
“Goldie!” Amelia called. “You’ve got some flowers!”
Goldie came hurrying over. “I’ve never seen flowers like these before,” she said curiously. “I wonder who they could be from. Will you open the envelope, Amelia?”
Amelia tore it open and pulled out a card. The girls and Goldie bent over the little kitten to read it. In the same scratchy writing, it said:
Dear Goldie,
Wishing you a HORRIBLE birthday!
From Grizelda
Goldie gave a cry of shock.
“That’s awful!” cried Lily.
“Trust Grizelda to try to spoil your birthday,” said Jess. “She’s always so mean!”
As she spoke, the bouquet rustled. The flowers began to grow, twisting and turning in the air.
Goldie, Amelia, and the girls stepped back, staring in surprise as the beaky flowers grew bigger and bigger.
There were shocked cries from behind the girls, where the other party guests were watching.
“They’re opening,” cried Lily. The flowers gaped wide, looking like big, hungry mouths!
“Keep back!” yelled Goldie.
She and the girls stepped hurriedly away from the flowers—but Amelia was too scared to move!
“Amelia, get back!” Jess cried.
“Look out!” shouted little Tommy Sparklepaw.
But it was too late. The biggest parrot-beak flower dived toward Amelia.
The kitten gave a squeal as the beak opened even wider, then snapped shut around her.
“She’s trapped!” cried Lily.
“My little kitten!” wailed Mrs. Sparklepaw.
Bravely, Jess ran and grabbed the flower. She tried to pry it open, but another flower snapped at her hands. “Ow!” she cried, jumping out of the way just in time.
Lily went as near as she dared and called, “Amelia, are you all right?”
There was a muffled reply. “Y-y-yes! I’m OK. But I want to get out!”
“We’ll set you free,” called Lily. “And you can have lots of ice cream when we do!”
A flower snapped at Lily, and she darted back to the others.
Mrs. Muddlepup gasped in horror. “Those are snapdragons,” she said. “We’re always checking to make sure those horrible things aren’t growing in our garden. They’re impossible to open!”
Lily held Goldie’s paw. “Oh, poor Amelia!” she said.
Goldie was in tears. “It’s my fault,” she said. “I should be the one trapped inside that flower, not Amelia.”
Lily hugged her. “It’s Grizelda’s fault, not yours,” she said. “We’ll rescue Amelia somehow.”
The horrified animals huddled together.
“I’m scared!” squeaked Molly Twinkletail the mouse.
“How can we save Amelia?” cried Lucy Longwhiskers.
A purple butterfly fluttered over. “I’ve got an idea,” Hermia said in her tinkling voice. She held up a tiny parcel made from a leaf. “There’s a drop of sugarsap inside,” she explained. “We butterflies always carry some to sprinkle on flowers that won’t open. It might work with this flower, too.”
Hermia flew to the flower where Amelia was trapped. She darted from side to side, so the snapping flowers couldn’t catch her, and opened the leaf parcel.