Will's plan
It was a coolish Wednesday afternoon and Will was in class. Mr. Sheringham was teaching the kids about Dinosaurs. He taught them about T-rex's and Pterodactyls and carnivores and herbivores. He taught them about how different the Earth was back then, with exotic plants and lots of waterfalls and volcanos. It was a dangerous place back then, as dinosaurs that ate plants were never safe when there were carnivores around.
He set out an assignment for them that was due in a week. He said they could do anything they wanted that showed how dinosaurs lived. You could do a poster, a diorama, a book, or anything else you could think of.
Will thought of making a poster, with lots of pictures of dinosaurs and plants all over it. He liked that. When he got home he asked mum to buy him some blue poster paper.
When mum got home Will got straight to work in the back room. He got the scissors, glue, sticky tape and some coloured paper. Then he got his connectors out of his bag and started drawing his Tyrannosaurus-rex. He drew it with big teeth and short stubby arms. Then he wrote "Dinosaurs" in big yellow letters and stuck his dinosaur underneath it.
Will was just drawing his next dinosaur when he heard a 'meow'. Amber waltzed in and stood at the door, staring at Will.
Will continued drawing his dinosaur. It was a pterodactyl this time. I had large red wings and a long orange beak. When will was drawing the legs Amber walked onto his paper. Will didn't mind too much, but then Amber started patting her hand at his texta. She batted it back and forth and scribbled orange all over Will's dinosaur.
"Amber!" Will scowled and dropped the texta. He picked her up and plopped her outside the door, and shut it. But he didn't shut it all the way.
Will screwed up his dinosaur and started again.
A few hours later mum called out for tea. Will had nearly finished his poster. He stood up and looked at it, rather proud. Then he yelled "Coming!" And left the room. He walked past the laundry and saw Lucy piling cat food into Amber's bowl. It smelt horrid. Like salmon.
After tea Will started heading back to the back room to finish his science project. He was glad to finish it today, because then he wouldn't have to do anything for the rest of the week. But when he pushed the door open he mouth gaped open and he gawked at his work.
Amber had snuck in after eating, and had ripped his poster up. It was tears in every inch of the paper, and she had spilt the glue all over it and was smothered in it. When she saw Will she meowed loudly, as if to say, "Help! I'm stuck in your project!"
"Amber!!" Will shouted angrily. He ran over and picked up the now white kitten and took her to the laundry, and yelled out to Lucy to give her a bath. When Lucy came down she yelled at Will for letting Amber get so grubby. Will scowled and went back to his project.
He looked at all his hard work ruined. He couldn't start a new one now, it was too late. He picked it up and threw it all out, and packed up the other things. Then he went up to his room. On the way he saw Amber, now clean and still a bit wet. Will just scowled at her and kept going.
The next day at school, Mr. Sheringham asked the class what they had done. Most people said that they'd started making sculptures and dioramas and books, but Will said nothing. He just scowled at the thought of Amber ruining his project.
That night he started again, but this time he was going to make a book on the computer. Amber couldn't wreck a computer, could she?
He spent the whole afternoon typing and copying and pasting and printing his book, then he stapled it together and went up to his room, and put it on his bedside table. Then he completely shut the door so Amber couldn't get in.
After tea it was still there, completely in tact, and Will went to sleep happy.
The next morning Will put it in his bag to show his teacher what he had done. He plopped it in and went to breakfast.
When it was time to go Will picked up his schoolbag. It was heavy. When Will looked inside he saw Amber in it, looking up at him.
"Amber!!" He shouted. He thought he must've shouted it a million times by now. He picked her up and dropped her on the ground, and checked his bag. He pulled out his book. It was in tatters. Will couldn't believe it. After all the time he's spent on it, and it was ruined. Then he smelt something and looked into his bag.
"Eww…" Will said. "I'm not taking this bag today!"
On the way to school Lucy tried to convince Will that Amber was toilet trained, but Will just ignored her. That wasn't a little trickle in his bag. That was a big lump of disgustingness.
At school some of the kids brought what they'd made to school. Mark brought a diorama with lots of dinosaur figures inside it, Haley brought a big poster page with lots of facts about dinosaurs, and Jacob did a big thick book about T-rexs. But Will had nothing.
Will didn't do anything that afternoon. He had all weekend to decide what to do. He spent the rest of the day watching T.V. Once or twice Amber jumped up on the couch to cuddle up with someone, but Will just plopped her back on the ground. Then she meowed loudly and Will put her outside.
On Saturday Will ate breakfast and went back up to his room to look in his toy box. He found 5 little toy dinosaurs and 1 big T-rex in the bathroom. He was going to do a diorama.
He set up newspaper in the backroom in case he or a certain little furry one were to knock over the glue. Then he got a big cardboard box which had his new school shoes in it and glued green and blue paper inside it for the grass and sky. He got some grass from outside and stuck in on the bottom and stuck cotton wool on the top for clouds. Then he cut out a yellow sun and stuck it on. He got some blue tack and stuck in the toy dinosaurs and stood back. This was the best thing he'd made yet. He put it on top of the really tall cabinet, where Amber couldn't possibly get to, and packed up. Then he went over to Tim's to play.
While he was gone Amber had come into the back room. She saw the diorama on top of the cabinet. She was very good at climbing. First she jumped onto Lucy's play kitchen, then onto the drawers, then took a giant leap and landed on top of the cabinet, right next to the diorama. She hopped inside and played around for a little while, knocking over dinosaurs and pulling down the clouds, then when she got bored she jumped on top of the box. But when she did the box fell off the cabinet and crushed onto the floor. Amber didn't hurt herself, but got scared and ran out of the backroom.
When will returned he didn't bother to look in the backroom. He was certain that it would be safe on the cabinet. After dinner he saw Amber playing with her paw. It looked like something was stuck to her claws. Will knelt down to help her and pulled off some cotton wool. "Where did you get this, Amber?" Will asked. He looked at the cotton wool. It had a little bit of glue on it.
Oh no.
Will ran to the back room straight away and saw his 3rd project demolished on the floor.
"AMBER!!" He shouted so loud his tonsils showed. Everyone jumped and ran to see what was wrong. Lucy was first to see the look on Will's face. He looked like a tomato. She could've sworn there was steam coming out of his ears.
"What happened?" Dad asked.
"Look what Amber did!" Will yelled, pointing to the pile of cardboard and paper and toy dinosaurs.
"How do you know Amber did it?" Lucy asked.
"Because I found this on her paw. It's one of my clouds." Will protested, holding the small lump of white cotton. "This is the third time she's ruined my science project."
Amber then showed up at the door, sitting and staring at her family. She looked very innocent.
"Amber didn't mean it." Lucy defended.
Will scowled. He turned around and started to clean up the mess. Amber meowed quietly and started to walk daintily towards Will.
"No!" Will shouted, pointing to the door. Lucy went to pick her up and took her to her room.
On Sunday Will was too grumpy to start another project. He couldn't think of what to do so that Amber would not demolish it. He couldn't do a poster, or a book, or a diorama… what else could he do?
On Monday the teacher reminded everyone that the project was due on Thursday. Will gave a big huff and didn't say anything when Mr. Sheringham asked how they were all going. Even Tim had started his project, which normally he never even started.
That night Will wracked his brains over what he could do. He thought of a paper mache dinosaur but he knew Amber would wreck that too.
On Tuesday Will still couldn't think of anything. Whenever he started to think about it Amber would come into sight, and Will would just glare at her and say "This is all your fault."
On Wednesday though, Will decided to try another diorama. He had really loved his and wanted to try again. So he got a box, even bigger than the last, and started again.
He'd done the grass, sky, trees, sun and clouds the same as last time, but the dinosaurs looked rather small when he stuck them in. When he was about to give up, Amber came in. She slowly approached Will, as if she was wary of his yelling. Will was looking back at his work, wondering how he could get a bigger dinosaur. Just then, Amber snuck into the box.
"No!" Will said, about to grab her and send her on her way, but then he got a brilliant idea.
"Amber, you're a genius!" Will cried. He picked her up and gave her a cuddle, which he didn't do very often. She purred and rubbed her head against his chin.
On Thursday Will asked his mum to call the school on a very important matter. He also asked Lucy if it was okay, and she eventually said yes. Will had to carry a lot to school that day. His box and 2 bags.
"Okay class, today we're presenting our projects to the class. First up is Haley!"
Haley brought up her big poster and started reading it out.
"Did you know; Dinosaurs could be as big as aeroplanes and as small as chickens." Haley said.
"Well done, Haley. Next up is Jacob!"
Jacob brought up his big book of T-rexs, with lots of facts about them. But he couldn't read it all, or else they'd be there til midnight.
"Thank you, Jacob. Now it's Kate's turn!"
Kate did a diorama of a volcano, with lots of dinosaur figures at the bottom, and explained how there were lots of volcanoes back then.
"Well done, Kate. Will is up next!
Will stood up, carrying his diorama, and put it on the table. Then he went back and got another box, weaved with brown leather, and put in down beside him.
"My project is on the dangers of the prehistoric time." Will began. "As you can see, these small dinosaurs are herbivores, small and looking for food like small trees and grass. But it wasn't safe for these little guys for very long…" Then Will crouched down and opened the basket, pulling out… Amber!"
Most of the girls said "Awww!" Most of the guys said "Cool!" Then Will said, "She may look cute, but she's dangerous!"
Will put Amber down in the box and went on; "The carnivores, such as the Tyrannosaurus-rex, played by Amber here, made sure to give the smaller dinosaurs a hard time."
The class began to laugh as amber started batting the tiny dinosaur figures. "They ate the dinosaurs," Will said as she batted the last one down. "They stomped on the trees," just then Amber pulled down a twig stuck to the side of the box. "And they, on special occasion, pulled down the clouds!" Will joked as Amber pulled down a cloud and tried to get the glue off of her paw. The class cheered and Will bowed, Holding Amber up for all to see. Some of the kids started to look at their projects and think "I'm never gonna be able to top that!"
Back at home Will was carrying Amber wherever he went, stroking her head and listening to her purr. Lucy complained that Will was hogging her, but Will just said "I'm saying thank you to Amber for what she did."
Then Will set her down in the laundry and fed her a big bowl of her favourite treat – Krunchy Kat Flakes.
Amber purred with delight as Will said "You're the best kitty in the world."