Thread, leg warmers and a grasshopper

"Mum, have you seen my leg warmers?" Abby shouted up the stairs. It was Tuesday, and Tuesday meant dancing, and there was no way she was going to her lesson without her favourite pair of leg warmers. They were bright pink with purple spots and wearing them made her feel fabulous, like the best dancer in the world.

"Not sure," Mum called back. "Have you tried the tumble dryer?"

Abby had a look in the machine but there was no sign of them. She ran upstairs and searched through the bottom drawer, then in the laundry basket. She even looked in her school bag, just in case.

"Muuuuuuuum," she wailed, "I can't find them anywhere!" Abby stomped along the landing to her mums room and shoved the door open, banging it against the wall and making her mother jump.

"Oh Abby, you'll just have to find something else to wear," her mum said. "And hurry up. We need to leave in twenty minutes!"

Abby flounced out of the room, along the landing and into her brothers room. "James, have you-!" Abby stopped as something pink caught her eye in the corner of James' bedroom. For there, wrapped around her brothers pet iguana, was one of her pink leg warmers. And in the corner of the vivarium was the other. Abby rushed over to the tank and watched in horror as a bright green grasshopper hopped onto the soft wool. It stared at her rebelliously. "james!" Abby yelled. "what have you done to my leg warmers? Why are they in there!"

James looked at her innocently. "Bodger was cold," he said. "I thought he'd feel happier if he was all wrapped up."

Abby unlocked the glass door and carefully picked up the lizard. She peeled the leg warmer off his scaly body and picked the other one up from the corner, shaking it vigorously to move any more bugs. She felt really angry but at least now she had her beloved leg warmers and could go to dancing. "Never mind," she said, rubbing her little brother's spiky hair. "No harm done." She pulled the legwarmers on, squished her feet into a pair of pumps and ran down the stairs.

In the tank, Bodger looked on, unimpressed. Amidst all the fuss, no one had noticed the hole he'd chewed in the top of the legwarmer - or the length of bright pink thread hanging out of the side of his mouth. He was going to have some fun with that once everyone had gone to bed.