A/N: Hello everyone! A little story that takes place somewhere in Caddy Ever After. As it says in the summary, they take a little trip to the zoo. Hope you enjoy!

disclaimer: All the characters belong to Hilary McKay, not me.

Casson Chaos

"Everyone ready?" asked Alex as they approached the entrance to the zoo.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes Darling Alex!" exclaimed Cadmium Gold as she attached herself to one of Alex's arms.

Permanent Rose, who did not consider Alex to be darling at all, glared at them both. Saffron rolled her eyes and began to push Sarah's wheelchair toward the entrance. Indigo seemed to be elsewhere as he stared into the distance, headphones blaring.

As soon as they were in, Sarah and Saffron disposed of Sarah's wheelchair behind the bathrooms and then made their way over to a group of boys. Caddy began to tell Alex how simply wonderful he was. Rose grimaced and began to draw a picture in the dirt, and Indigo nonchalantly stared at the elephants.

"Indy," asked Rose, wiping the dirt off her hands, "Do you like Alex 'cause I hate him!"

"Huh?" said Indigo as he lifted one of his earphones.

"Oh, never mind!" said Rose crossly and began to play in the dirt again.

"Oh, Rose!" cried Caddy when she saw what Rose was doing, "You're a mess!" then, " What animal would you like to see?"

Rose gave this question some thought, "The unicorn," a mischievous grin crossed her face.

Caddy glanced nervously at Alex.

"We don't have unicorns at this zoo, sweet pea," Alex finally said.

"I am NOT a sweet pea!" growled Rose, "And your zoo is stupid! It has none of the good animals!"

"How about we go see the tigers," tried Alex.

"NO!" screamed Rose, "I don't want to see the tigers! I want to go home!" and she turned to leave.

"Oh no, Rosy Pose!" cried Caddy as she grabbed hold of Rose.

"NO! NO! NO!" Rose screamed and kicked in Caddy's grip. People turned to stare. Caddy smiled sweetly.

"What do you want to see, Rosy Pose," asked Caddy.

"A piggy," said Rose, calming down.

"Uh," said Alex, "This is a zoo. We only have animals that you can't see around here."

Rose screamed all the more.

Indigo, seeing the trouble, said, "Why don't we see the giraffes?"

Rose stopped screaming and nodded. A relieved Caddy placed her on the ground.

When they got to the giraffes, Rose went up to the cage and leaned against the bars. If only she was a giraffe. With that long neck, she could bend down, pick up awful Alex, and fling him all the way to China. She smiled at the thought.

"So you like the giraffes?" asked Alex.

The smile turned to a glare.

Meanwhile, Saffron and Sarah were making conversation the boys near the elephant house. (Sarah leaned against the railing, of course) When the boys left, Saffron helped her friend over to a nearby bench.

"Do you like Alex?" asked Sarah.

Saffron shrugged.

"Michael was perfect," said Sarah, "If I was older, I would've taken him."

Saffron nodded, "What do you say we get your wheelchair and find the others?"

Sarah agreed and hoisted herself up. She leaned against Saffron as the made their way to the bathroom.

After the giraffes, they went to see the tigers. Rose immediately liked them. They looked so fierce. She growled at them. When they lazily stared back, Rose decided that she was quite bored. She went over to Indigo, who was sitting on a bench, to ask him what they should do next. He was asleep. She glanced over at the flamingos in the next cage. She decided she would like to go there.

"I want to see the flamingos," said Rose as she tugged on Caddy's sleeve, pulling her away from a kiss.

Caddy hesitantly pulled her lips away from Alex's, "What did you say, Rosy Pose?"

Rose repeated her question.

"Alright," said Caddy, leading Rose away.

"Wait," said Alex, pointing, "What about him?"

"Oh," said Caddy turning toward Indigo, "Indy do you want to come?" she tried shaking him.

"He's asleep," said Rose, stating the obvious.

Caddy nodded in agreement, "What are you waiting for? Let's go!"

"You're going to leave him here?" asked Alex, who was clearly shocked, "Is he okay?"

"Of course he's okay!" laughed Caddy, "It's nearly impossible to wake him. He'll wake up on his own."

Caddy turned to leave, holding Rose's hand. Alex shrugged and followed.

Rose quickly tired of the flamingos. She thought of Michael. She turned to see Caddy and Alex in a tight embrace. Michael was hopeless.

"Where is it?!" cried Sarah, "I was sure we left it right here!"

Saffron scratched her head, "Are you sure it was this bathroom?"

"Yes," said Sarah, but they checked the other ones anyway.

"You can't just loose a wheelchair!" huffed a frustrated Sarah.

"Well, technically, you can…"

"Oh, don't you start!" Sarah said angrily.

"I suppose we'd better find Caddy," said Saffron quickly, before a fight broke out.

"Yes," said Sarah heavily, "I suppose we'd better."

"Oh dear," said Caddy, after Saffron and Sarah had (quite dramatically) explained their predicament.

"I suppose we should look for it," said Alex, which evidently the obvious thing to do.

"Yes, I suppose we should," Caddy immediately agreed with Alex.

"But we've already looked!" groaned Sarah, tears springing in her eyes.

"I don't suppose your mother would mind buying you another one?" said Saffron.

Sarah shot her an awful look.

"Caddy," said Rose in a small voice, "I have to pee."

"Not now, Rosy Pose. Can't you see that I'm busy?" said Caddy.

Rose began to protest, but Caddy had already begun to follow a hobbling
Sarah and Saffron.

"Ugh!" cried Sarah, " I can't believe it's gone!"

"A wheelchair just can't vanish," exclaimed Caddy.

"Why would anyone want to steal a wheelchair?" said Saffron crossly.

"Are you sure this is where you left it?" asked Alex, sounding slightly annoyed.

"I have to pee!" said Rose, who was now quite desperate.

"What's going on?"

Everyone turned to see a confused Indigo standing before them.

The story was told once again. Within seconds, Indigo's keen green eyes had spotted a flash of silver. He made his way over to a patch of shrubbery, and, sure enough, a small child was trying (though her attempts were quite ineffective) to move the wheelchair back onto the path.

Indigo bent over and said something to the child. He produced a lollipop from his pocket and handed it to the girl. She then skipped, quite happily indeed, away from Sarah's wheelchair.

"Oh, Indy!" exclaimed Sarah, "How can I ever thank you?"

And before she could stop herself, she planted a kiss on his cheek. Indigo's cheeks immediately blushed a shade of deep magenta. He then wrapped his arm around Sarah's waist and helped her back into her wheelchair.

"Awwwww…" squealed Caddy, "Aren't they sweet!" She then locked lips with Alex.

Saffron let out a grunt, obviously jealous that she had no one to kiss.

"Now what were you trying to tell me before, Rose?" said Caddy, detaching her lips from Alex's.

Rose looked down at her wet jeans.

"Oh, Rose! You didn't!" cried Caddy.

"You wouldn't listen!" humphed Rose, glaring at her sister.

Everyone then decided that they had had enough of the zoo for one day. They left for home (with Rose sitting on a pile of plastic bags, of course.)

When they got home, Rose (after changing her pants) immediately went out to the shed to tell her mother about their trip to the zoo.

"Sounds like you had a lovely time, Rosy Pose," said Eve absentmindedly.

Rose leaned over to see what her mother was painting. It was a picture of trees, which seemed to have faces and arms if you looked at them right.

" It's really pretty, Mummy!" exclaimed Rose, "Much better than daddy's rubbish!"

"Oh, thank you, Rose," said Eve, getting tears in her eyes, "You know, he'd say it's Not-Exactly-Art. Oh, well…"

She kissed Rose and looked at her painting again.

"Speaking of Daddy, I think I shall write him a letter about what happened today!"

Eve wiped her eyes as Rose skipped off to the house. Maybe he would come home one of these days. Just maybe…

Once in the house, Rose began the tedious task of composing a letter to her father. Oh how she hated writing! But someone had to do it. One of these days her father would have to come home.

While Rose wrote her letter, Indigo prepared supper (or rather tried, at least, with what he could find in the kitchen) He ended up making chicken covered in yogurt with cereal on top and a can of baked beans on the side.

While Indigo cooked, Saffron and Sarah (quite suddenly) decided they would like to paint their nails. Any hard feelings that had come between them that afternoon had seemed to vanish completely.

While Saffron and Sarah polished their nails, Caddy, who was exhausted, collapsed on the couch and fell asleep thinking of Alex, whose face quite oddly kept changing into an extreme likeness of Michael's.

Rose smiled as she sealed the envelope. This was home.