Rabbit Racer (2 page)

‘I think you mean best buddies,’ EE corrected with a chuckle.

The veiled hat nodded up and down. ‘Zat ees what I say.’ Balancing the birdcage on one hand, she opened her front door and turned around to stare at me. ‘She ees ze cutest
leetle rabbit, no? I look forward to getting to know er much better.’

The door closed, leaving the Wilsons staring at each other and me frowning suspiciously. There was something weird about Madame Belladonna and I didn’t just mean her clothes. I
wasn’t sure I wanted to get to know her at all.

‘Well, she seemed . . . nice,’ Mrs Wilson said as we trooped back into our own house.

‘Hmmm,’ EE said. ‘She’s a few bees short of a hive if you ask me.’

I could hardly concentrate on my fan mail after that. Something about our new neighbour bothered me, but I couldn’t work out what it was. One thing I did know: I’d be keeping a very
close eye on Madame Belladonna. She looked like a crazy customer.

I try hard to be a friendly rabbit – a real you-tickle-my-tummy-and-I’ll-tickle-yours type. So when the director of
Superpets
, glamorous Gloria Goodwood,
announced that there was going to be a new pet joining our one-off,
Summer Special
show, my ears pricked up straight away. People kept all kinds of unusual animals. The new addition might be
a jellyfish who juggled or a piano-playing pig. But whether they were cuddly or clammy, I really hoped we’d get along.

And, even better, Gloria told us that some of the pets who had been on the
Superpets Live
tour were now going to join the main cast of
Superpets
too. So not only might I make a new
friend, I’d also be seeing my old ones too!

To be honest, though, I was a bit disappointed when I first saw the new pet. Tornado Taz looked like an ordinary, everyday cat, the kind you might see eying up the birds in next-door’s
garden. But his tabby stripes hid a terrific talent, as I found out when I hopped over to say hello.

‘He might not look much now,’ Taz’s owner, Tim, was saying to the make-up lady, ‘but wait until he gets on to the obstacle course. You won’t see him for
dust.’

‘Obstacle course?’ said the make-up lady, gazing down at the cat in confusion. ‘You mean jumps and tunnels and weaving in and out of poles? Like dogs do?’

Tim pushed his glasses up and beamed with pride. ‘Exactly right. Taz is the world’s first agility cat!’

I stared at Taz, who was perched on the make-up chair. He threw me an embarrassed look which said, ‘Owners – don’t you just love ’em?’

Then Gloria appeared. ‘It’s time for your screen test, Taz. Let’s see if the camera loves you the way it loves Harriet here.’

She led Taz and his owner across the studio floor to a series of obstacles. Susie and I followed, settling down next to the cameraman to watch. This was going to be interesting.

I wasn’t the only one who wanted to see what Taz was made of. I spotted Lulu the chimpanzee lowering her hula hoop and Spike-tacular, the hedgehog dance troupe, piling on top of each other
for a better view. Everyone held their breath as Taz padded up to the start line and crouched down, his tail sticking straight out behind him and his ears laid flat against his head.

Gloria held up her hand. ‘On your marks . . . get set . . . go!’

Before you could say ‘super speedy’, Taz was off, streaking towards the first jump so fast that his stripes became just a blur. He cleared the sticks with ease and shot like a bullet
through a long, black cloth tunnel. Then he was weaving in and out of a set of tall red-and-white poles and over another jump, before zooming up a thin plank of wood to a balancing bar high above
the ground.

Next to me, Cherry the counting kitten lost track of the number of obstacles and covered her eyes with her paws. Even Spike-tacular, who do some pretty acrobatic dance moves, looked nervous. But
Taz was a cool cat. He was across the bar and down the other side without even a hint of a wobble. As he raced over the finish line, Gloria clicked the stopwatch in her hand and smiled.

‘Less than one minute,’ she said to Tim. ‘I can see why you call him Tornado Taz. Our viewers are going to love him!’

‘I don’t call that much of a talent,’ a voice behind me drawled. I didn’t need to turn around to know it belonged to Miranda, the snooty owner of Doodle the opera-singing
Poodle. The only bad thing about the
Superpets Live
pets joining the cast was that Miranda and Doodle were now on the show too. We’d been enemies ever since I won
Superpets Search
for a Superstar
instead of Doodle and the two of them were always on the lookout for ways to cause me trouble. They’d sunk to new dastardly lows while we were on tour and I suspected
they’d even been in cahoots with the Great Maldini, but I’d outsmarted them all. Today, though, their attention was fixed on Taz.

‘Surely any animal could jump over a few sticks and run along a pole,’ Miranda went on, looking down her nose at Gloria fussing over Tim and Taz. ‘It’s nowhere near as
difficult as singing.’

Sam, the nine-year-old owner of Spike-tacular, sniggered. ‘If you call what Doodle does singing.’

Miranda scowled at him. ‘Opera is very hard to perform, I’ll have you know. Doodle is the most talented pet this show has ever seen.’

Gloria came towards us. ‘It’s funny you should say that, Miranda. I don’t want any one-trick ponies on my show so I’ve decided that, apart from Taz, each pet has to learn
a new talent, which they’ll perform on the live
Summer Special
. With all the new animals joining the show we need to have a real shake-up. So anyone who doesn’t knock my socks
off . . .’ She paused and looked around at us gravely. ‘Well, let’s just say they won’t be part of the
Superpets
crew.’

Everyone looked suddenly nervous. Cherry stopped counting the number of pets crowded around Gloria. Spike-tacular froze mid-pyramid and I saw Trevor and his tumbling terrapins gulp
anxiously.

‘I’ll be watching you all very closely over the next few weeks,’ Gloria went on. ‘I do hope none of you will be leaving
Superpets
.’

With one final glance around, she disappeared around the back of the camera. As the other animals and their owners wandered away, Susie reached down to give my grey fur a soothing rub.
‘Don’t worry, Harriet,’ she whispered in an uncertain voice. ‘I’m sure you’ll be OK.’

EE appeared next to us, a cup of steaming coffee in his hand. ‘Do you know, they have the most marvellous cakes in the studio canteen?’ He patted his tummy in satisfaction. ‘I
could have stayed there all afternoon.’

Then he noticed Susie’s worried face. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Gloria just announced that all the pets have to find a new talent,’ Susie said, her bottom lip wobbling like jelly. ‘Or they’ll have to leave
Superpets
.’

EE frowned. ‘If anyone has to go, it should be that silly poodle and her owner. She could sour milk with that voice and that doesn’t count as a talent.’

Susie’s blue eyes swam with tears. ‘But what if it’s Harriet? She’s only ever done bunny backflips. What if that’s all she can do?’

EE put his arm around her. ‘Don’t tell anyone I said this, but Harriet’s got star quality. I’m sure she’ll come up with something fresh to impress
Gloria.’

Any other time, I would have been amazed to hear EE say something nice about me, but I was distracted by Miranda and Doodle huddling together in a corner. Miranda whispered into the
poodle’s ear and then they both looked over at me and grinned unpleasantly. My whiskers twitched with anxiety. They were plotting one of their evil tricks, or my name wasn’t Harriet
Houdini. Watching them, I came to a fast decision; I’d show them exactly what a show-stopping performance was made of. And this time, there’d be no more Miss Nice Bunny.