Jess the Lonely Puppy (4 page)

She could feel Chloe’s heart thudding so quickly. She was scared too, Jess thought. She licked her again, and then snuggled closer as another growl of thunder rumbled round the house.

Chloe lay there, jumping every so often as the thunder rang out, but mostly thinking over and over,
I’m cuddling Jess. I’m holding a dog! I’d never have thought that she’d be scared of thunder, when she’s so bouncy and loud
. “You’re even worse than me, Jess.” She giggled, and Jess licked her under the chin.

The thunder was dying away now, to just a few grumbles, and Chloe lay back down, with Jess still cuddled up next to her. “Are you staying, Jess?” she asked.

But Jess was asleep already, curled in a little ball in the crook of Chloe’s arm.

Chapter Four

Jess was still there when Chloe woke up the next morning, snuggled down the side of her bed. Chloe smiled delightedly – it was just like she’d imagined having a dog would be. Jess yawned, showing a huge length of pink tongue, and rolled over on to her back, still fast asleep. She lay there with her paws folded on her chest, snoring a
little, until Chloe woke her up by giggling too much.

“Sorry, Jess. You looked so funny.”

Jess let out another enormous yawn, then gave Chloe a big face-washing lick.

“Urgh. Now I’m really awake.” Chloe got out of bed and followed Jess downstairs to the kitchen, where Mum was making toast.

“I was wondering where Jess had got to!” Mum said, looking slightly surprised. “You slept late! I was just about to come and wake you up. It’s holiday club this morning, remember?”

Chloe nodded. Her mum worked part-time at the library, and so in the mornings she and Will usually went to a holiday club at one of the other schools nearby. Even though she didn’t
normally hang around with Will – he stuck with the boys, mostly – it would feel weird being there without him.

Jess watched sadly through the front window as they got into the car without her. She’d been hoping for a walk. She had that itchy, bored feeling again. She trotted back into the kitchen and out into the garden through her dog-door. She sniffed around for a while and snapped at a few butterflies, then she just lay on her side in a sunny patch, flicking her tail idly.

A beetle wandered past her nose, and Jess rolled over to stare at it as it trundled off between her paws. She crept after it, tail wagging slightly, and watched it climb under some stones in the flower bed. Where had it gone?

Jess pawed at the stones, but the beetle had gone. She scrabbled some more, then dug furiously, her paws spraying up stones and earth. The beetle was long gone, but the digging was fun. Jess happily clawed and scraped and scratched, loving the exercise.

Then she fell asleep, her nose in a pile of earth, worn out and snoozing blissfully.

“Jess!”

Jess sat up with a jump, blinking sleepily, and saw that Chloe was there,
looking down at her with her hands to her mouth.

“Oh, Jess, Mum’s going to go mad. Dad gave her that plant for her birthday.” Chloe quickly fetched a trowel from the garden shed to scoop some of the earth back into the flower bed. “We have to tidy up. Maybe she won’t notice.”

But it was too late. Chloe’s mum was standing by the back door, looking horrified. In fact, she looked more than horrified, she looked furious.

“You bad dog! Look at this mess! Oh, I don’t believe it! My beautiful camellia…” She crouched down to look at the plants that Jess had rooted up.

Jess hung her head sadly. She’d only been playing…

“I think she was bored, Mum,” Chloe said quickly. “Don’t be cross with her, please. She misses Will, and all the walks he and Dad used to take her on. And now Grandad’s not staying any more, she’s hardly getting any exercise at all.”

Chloe stroked Jess, feeling her shiver. It was obvious she hated being shouted at. Chloe frowned. “Mum, could me and Maddy take Jess for a walk? Just to the park. We could run around with her and work off some of her energy; I’m sure she wouldn’t be so naughty then.”

Mum shook her head. “You’re not old enough, Chlo. And I thought you were terrified of dogs! And Jess is such a handful. But you’re right, she does need more exercise.”

Chloe helped her try to fill in the earth around the camellia again. “Mum, you let Will walk me to school all last year, and he’s only a year older than me. And I’ll be with Maddy, too! She’ll help me with Jess. We’ll be fine!”

Her mum sighed. “Well, it might be worth a try. I’m sure she’s only being naughty because we’re not spending enough time with her.”

Chloe threw her arms around Mum. “Excellent! I’ll go and ring Maddy!”

“This is great, Chloe. I can’t believe you aren’t nervous of Jess any more.” Maddy was looking admiringly at Chloe walking with Jess on her lead.

Chloe smiled. “I can’t either. But it’s brilliant.”

Jess was scampering along happily, sniffing the interesting smells and hoping they were going to the park so she could run really fast, like she did with Will. She still wished he would come back, but Chloe was her person now, too. Chloe had looked after her during that horrible, frightening night, and that made her special.

They raced all over the park for a whole hour, until the girls were exhausted, although Jess was still bright and bouncy.

“She’s not tired at all!” Maddy panted, collapsing on to a bench. “Look at her, she wants to dash off again!”

Jess barked excitedly. She could see a
squirrel scurrying along between those trees, and she loved chasing squirrels. She looked up hopefully at Chloe and tugged on the lead.

“Sorry, Jess, we’ve got to get home. I promised Mum we’d be back by five.” Chloe turned to walk Jess out of the park, and Jess gave the squirrel a last longing look and followed her.

But then the squirrel changed direction and started to run along the grass almost in front of Jess’s nose. It was too much to bear. She gave an enormous bark and flung herself after the squirrel.

Chloe gasped as she felt the lead almost pulling out of her hand. “Hey! Jess, no. Come back!”

Jess was so strong. Chloe tried
desperately to get her under control, but she was only just managing to hold on as Jess dragged her after the squirrel. They galloped over the grass, and then Jess cut across one of the tarmac paths that ran through the park. Chloe tripped on the edge of the grass and went flying, finally letting go of her lead.

Jess sped up. She was going to catch a squirrel at last! But the squirrel had made it to the trees, and all Jess could do was bark crossly at it as it disappeared into the leafy branches. Disappointed, she turned to go back to Chloe.

Chloe! There she was, lying on the path. She was crying! Jess let out a terrified whimper and raced over, throwing herself on to the ground next to Chloe and whining miserably.

Chloe had scraped her knee on the tarmac, and blood was dripping down her leg. Maddy was trying to wipe it up with a tissue, but it was a nasty cut.

“Oh, Jess, it’s OK.” Chloe sniffed. “Don’t be upset.” She could see why Jess was frightened, and she felt so sorry for her. Will had been hurt, and
he’d gone away. Now Jess thought that she was going to go away too.

“Are you all right to walk?” Maddy asked, helping Chloe to her feet.

“I’m fine,” Chloe said. “Let’s go home.”

Maddy took Jess by the lead. “Just don’t go too fast, Jess, OK?”

They slowly made their way back, with Chloe leaning on Maddy and Jess trotting obediently alongside her.

Chloe’s mum was watching out for them through the front window. She looked worried.

“Are we really late?” Chloe muttered.

Maddy frowned. “A bit. And she wasn’t sure about letting us go, was she?”

Mum flung open the front door. “Chloe, you promised me five—Oh no,
what have you done?” She helped Chloe inside, and Jess and Maddy crept in behind them, not wanting to be noticed.

“What happened?” Mum asked, getting down the first-aid box. She looked very upset – much more upset than she ought to be about just a scraped knee, Chloe thought.

“Jess ran after a squirrel and I tripped,” she explained, trying not to make it sound too serious.

“That dog again!” Mum said crossly.

“She didn’t mean to hurt me! She was really sorry – she was whimpering,” Chloe protested. But she could see Mum wasn’t really listening.

“She’s too wilful. I don’t know what we’re going to do with her,” Mum said, dabbing at Chloe’s knee with a wipe.

“Oh, she isn’t really, Mum!” Chloe protested, giving Maddy a horrified look. “She’s lovely! She didn’t mean to hurt me.”

Jess sat in her basket, her eyes swivelling between Mum and Chloe, shivering at the loud, upset voices. Mum kept looking at her as though this was all her fault. And Jess had a horrible feeling that it was.