An Unexpected Friend
"Mr Halpern," said Liv, very quietly. "That's not Bertha."
"No," said Mr Halpern. "It is not."
The grey hamster looked at the class. The class looked at the grey hamster. The grey hamster ducked back under the radiator.
"Is there a wild hamster in our school?"
"It would be unusual."
"Is it a SECOND hamster?"
"Possibly. Or perhaps an escaped pet from the classroom next door."
Lila spoke up. "Last term, Class 4 lost their hamster. It's been missing for three months."
Mr Halpern thought. "Pip. Marek. Please go to Mr Schmidt's class and tell him we may have found his hamster."
Pim and Marek went.
While they were gone, the class kept looking for Bertha. They looked very, very carefully.
Bertha was found, eventually, behind a stack of dictionaries, eating a small piece of cheese that someone had dropped a week ago. She seemed quite content.
The grey hamster, meanwhile, remained under the radiator.
Mr Schmidt arrived. He saw the grey hamster.
"Pongo!" he gasped. "Pongo, you are alive!"
The grey hamster — Pongo, apparently — made a small chittering sound.
"He has been living somewhere in this school for three months," said Mr Schmidt, very moved.
"He must have been visiting Bertha," said Pim. "She is the only other hamster around. Look — there's a small chewed-out gap at the bottom of her cage. He's been opening her cage from the outside."
The class stared.
"That,"