Chapter Two

After the arguing stopped, Dad slept on the couch and Mum slouched up to their room. I finally fell asleep and dreamed. I dreamed of being in a fantasy wonderland, Miss Thomas didn’t exist and her blue cat ‘Mr Twinkles’ belonged to me. I had slaves take care of him and I had everything I had ever wanted. I was just having some tea when the whole palace shook, I dropped my tea and woke up to see my Mum shaking my shoulders.
“Wake up honey!” she whispered. I groaned glancing at my alarm clock, it was five o’clock and Mum was waking me up?
“What?” I yawned. My mum frowned and stroked back my hair.
“You don’t remember? We’ve got your cousins coming for the next week, we all have to do a big house clean up! So its an early start, this place is a tip,” my Mum said hopefully. I noticed the black bags under her eyes, I couldn’t let her down. So I got out of bed and dreaded the day to come.

My cousins are spoilt brats. End of story.
They fight and squeal and never stop complaining or asking for things. I don’t know how their parents live with them! Maybe thats why we get stuck with them EVERY single holidays! Anyway, their names are Claudia and Wilbur, they're twins, brother and sister. They have such a nice life style and rub it in our faces, to make it even worse they both do ballet. Mum always try’s to get me to do better so she can impress her sister, my Auntie Donna but I always seem to let Mum down. Claudia and Wilbur also both have a dog each. Both are perfectly groomed, vicious, stuck up and you’ll never guess what breed they are, Great Danes!

“Come on love, we’re nearly done!” my Mum said hopefully, but I could hear the groan in her voice. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, a couple of loud barks and some giggles. Everyone froze, even Mr Twinkles who had come in for extra food had stopped raiding the pantry. Mum slowly took a step forward and opened the door.
There was a bark, scrambling feet, a loud meow from Mr Twinkles and some deafening crashes.
I gulped, and stared at Claudia and Wilbur through angry eyes. They gave a satisfied smile in return and stomped into the hallway.

We spent hours cleaning the messed up house. In my mind the worst two things couldn’t be cleaned up. They moaned and groaned, saying it was my fault and their beloved little puppies could never do such a thing. They’re more like meat eating mongrels than puppies! After a painful dinner I decided to sleep outside, in my little pink tent I’d had when I was three. I’d stomped out, set up my embarrassing tent and tried to go to sleep.

It’s three in the morning, I’m freezing. There’s a scratching at my tent walls and a loud howl. I know it’s Claudia and Wilbur’s dogs, trying to freak me out. Trust me, they may be just dogs but they’re criminal master minds! It was almost like they were pretending to be were - wolves in a horror movie. Their shadows were suddenly huge, I whacked myself on my forehead, which was drenched with sweat.
“Snap out of it!” I yelled at myself. Suddenly there was a bark, I nearly jumped out of my skin as my tent zip flew open, and there standing before me was Wilbur’s big, wet great dane. He leapt onto my bed, covering me in mud and wet fur. He rolled over and licked my face with his big, sloppy, pink tongue before galloping out the tent door again leaving me with the disgusting smell of wet dog. I gave a loud scream of frustration and stomped out of my tent, splashing mud up like a pig would. I sunk to the ground and sat, in the pouring rain and wondered if this nightmare was EVER going to end! I looked up to the twins bedroom window to see two smiling faces in return. I gasped and mouthed something rude, they just laughed and shut their curtains like I wasn’t even there. They were going to pay for this, and I’d make sure they did.