Polly and Penny

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Polly and Penny

Chapter 1   

The Super-Duper Surprise

Polly is having a great day eating her bird seed, playing with Penny and the other parrots. This is a normal day for Polly. But she feels like there is something missing. Perhaps it's because they got a new flavor of bird seed. Or maybe it's because they got a new parrot cage. But Polly knows deep down that it's because Matilda, one of her good friends, left. She got adopted at the pet store. Even though Polly is happy for her, Polly is a little jealous. Polly wants Penny and her to find a home. But Polly tries to shove those heavy feelings away. And she continues eating her delicious bird seed.

As the days go by, it seems like all the parrots are going to get adopted except them. Until one day, a little girl and her Dad were walking through the store past the parrot cages  when the little girl says, “Daddy! Daddy! There’s parrots! There’s parrots!  Can we get one? Please? Please Daddy, can we get one? Can we get one? I love this one!” She says, pointing to Penny. “Or this one!” she says, pointing to Eliana. “Or this one! Or this one! Or this one!” she says, pointing to parrots and parrots. “Oh! I love the feathers of this one!” she says as she points at me.

Maybe they’ll adopt Penny and me! That would be just great! I bet they’ll have a fancy house.

“Can we please get one? Can we get them all? Please?”

“No. No. Fiona. We cannot get them all.” her dad says with a laugh. “But maybe we could get one. How about this one?”

“I love this one!” She says, pointing at me.

“Maybe. She is beautiful. But we can only get one. Would you like to get this one?”

“Yes! Yes, Daddy, I would!”

“I am very excited.”  Polly thinks. “It's going to be so fun having a real owner! Penny and I will have the best time of our lives with that little girl! What did he say her name was? Fiona?

The shopkeeper comes over.

“Can we please get this one?” her dad says, pointing at me.

“Um. Well yes. But you need to adopt Polly and Penny together.”

 “That’s unfortunate. I'm afraid that we only have room for one parrot. Is that alright?” says her Dad.

“Um, no.” The shopkeeper says.

“But I really want her!” Fiona says.

“Sorry, dear. But I'm afraid we can't get her. Would you like to pick out a different parrot instead?”

“OK, daddy.” Fiona says. How about this one? 

“Yay! Yay! I'm getting adopted! I'm getting adopted! Can you believe it, Penny? Can you believe it, Polly? Can you believe it, Petunia? Can you believe it you and you and you and you and you and you and you, I don't know the name of?” Patty says to each parrot.

“I can believe it, all right.” I grumble under my breath.

“Excuse me. What did you say?” Patty says.

“Ha ha”, Fiona laughs. “The parrots are squawking. They sound like this “squawk! squawk!” she says.

“That does not sound like us at all!” Petunia says. “But I'm going to get adopted in two weeks! I'm going to live with a lady named, Elizabeth. Elizabeth lives in a fine house.” Petunia says dreamily

“Well. I'm sure I'm going to get adopted soon too.” I say.

“How do you know that?” Petunia says back.

“I'm sure we'll all get adopted someday.” Penny says. I smile at her. Penny is always so beautiful. From the inside and on the outside too.

“We'll get her. Patty is her name, right?” Fiona's dad says.

“Yes. Patty.” The shopkeeper says.

“Yay! I love you, Patty! I love you. I love you so much. You are just so beautiful.”

 “Thank you, thank you thank you! And lots and lots more! Thank you!” Patty says. “Goodbye. Goodbye everyone! I'm sad to leave you, but I know my life is going to be better with Fiona and her Dad. Goodbye! Goodbye!”

“We know it'll be better with Fiona, too, Patty!” We all chant.

 

Chapter 2   

Goodbye. Goodbye.

It's the next day. And I cannot believe how much has happened. Hannah left. And Petunia can't stop talking about how much better her life will be. And my life? It's going to be so great because. Drumroll please. George goes, “boom boom boom!” “Owe! That hurt my invisible ears!” Petunia says.

“You don't have invisible ears, “Olivia says. “they’re inside your head. We all don't have invisible ears. No one's body parts are invisible. That's just nonsense!” Olivia is a clever clog.

“Anyway,” Petunia says, “My food is going to be delicious, even more delicious than this new food. And I'm going to get mango treats all the time. And I'm going to have a giant cage just for Moi! And. I'm going to have lots of toys. But not babyish toys like some parrots. Adult toys. And I am going to have important conversations with my owner, Elizabeth. But she's more than just an owner. She is the most fabulous owner in the entire world. We are going to have chats just like this – blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah, blah. Isn't that going to be so fun? I feel bad for you guys that you don't get to have such a good owner as I'm going to have. I'm sure of it.”

“Yeah, so anyway, um. Did I tell you about my super cool dream?” I say. There were mangoes made from clouds and you could float all over the place. And I was eating all sorts of treats, and it was like a jungle, I think my new home will be like that.” I say.

“Wow, that's a really cool dream that you have Polly.” Penny says. “I'm not sure if our new home will be that fancy, but I'm sure we’ll all have good homes someday.”

And then, a young girl, a bit older than Fiona, walks up, walking a bit ahead of her mom.

“Look at those parrots. They're just so gorgeous! And I should get a friend for Colorful, the parrot. Mom, do you think that I could adopt one of those parrots?”

“Sure, Scarlett. As long as you take care of them.”

“I will.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, mother. Yes. Just like I took care of Max. And Guinea. And Emerald. And Diamond!”

“I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding,” Scarlett's mom says. “I know that you can take care of them.”

“I will, I will, Mother! I just love that one!” She says, pointing to Penny. “And I love that one too!” She says, pointing to me.

The shopkeeper walks over and says, “Oh, hello. Are you interested in adopting one of these parrots?”

“Yes. Yes, we are,” Scarlett says.

“I would like to adopt that one and that one. What are their names?”

“That's Penny. And that's Polly.”

“Oh hello, Polly and Penny. I just love you two.”

“We love you too. Scarlett, we love you too! We love you too! We love you too! We love you too, Scarlett!”  All the other parrots start to yell.

“You guys are so funny,” says Scarlet.

“Is it all right with your mother if you adopt these parrots?”

“Yes, yes it is.”

“Well. Here you go.”

Penny flies right onto Scarlett’s shoulder.

“Hello, Penny. Hello”

I fly right on to her other shoulder.

“Hello, Polly. Hello.”

“You guys are so beautiful.”

“Come on, Scarlett, let's go home. Let's get some extra parrot food. And let's get some extra fish food too, to be safe.”

“OK, Mother,” Scarlett says. “Diamond and Emerald sure go through a lot of fish food.”

“Who are Diamond and Emerald?” I squawk.

“I don't know.” Penny answers.

“You guys are so funny,” Scarlett says.

“Thank you. Thank you a lot,” I say.

As we head home, I'm so excited. I bet the house will be amazing. As we pull up to a medium sized house, I feel excited. Even more excited than I did before. We’re finally, home. I bet it'll look so cool on the inside. I bet our cage will be so great.

“I can't wait to see what happens next!” I say.

 

Chapter 3   

This is home?

When we get inside, it's pretty. But not exactly all neat and tidy. There are toys all over the floor. And a man is holding a little girl on his back.

“Airplanes taking off! Woosh woosh!” the man says,

“Huh? He's a grown up. Why is he pretending to be an airplane?”

“I’m on an airplane! Wee! wee!” the little girl says.

“Looks like Mommy and Scarlett are home”.

We walk in.

“Whoa. Did you know that you have two parrots?”

Scarlett laughs. “Yes, Daddy, yes!  We know.  This is Penny,” she says, pointing to me?  “And this is Polly.” She says pointing to Penny.

“Squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk!” Scarlett looks closer.

“Oops. Never mind. This is Polly,” she says, pointing to me.” And this is Penny,” she says, pointing to Penny. Well, welcome home.”

“Daddy! Daddy! Let's play airplane. Let's play airplane, some more!”

“I'm sorry, Hannah. The man says to the little girl, which apparently her name is Hannah. “Sorry Honey, but I have to go to work. You can possibly play with Mommy or Scarlet though.”

“I'm too busy with my parrots,” Scarlet says.

“Scarlett. You were going to babysit Hannah just two hours from now while me and Mama are going out to dinner. “

Scarlet glooms. “OK Daddy.”

“Yay! Scarlet and me can play! I wanna play with Scarlet’s piggies. And I wanna  play with Scarlet’s new parrots. Can I name them? This one can be Mrs. Ducky,” Hannah says, pointing to Penny. “And this one can be Airplane,” she says, pointing to me.

“No, Hannah, no,” Scarlett says to her in a strict voice. “This is Penny.” she says, pointing to my sister. “And this is Polly.” she says, pointing to me.

“Can you bring? What's their names? Penny and Jenny?”

“Polly!” Scarlet corrects her dad.

“Yes. Penny and Polly - outside, please?”

“Yes, dad.” Scarlett says with a sigh.

After a while. Their Dad leaves for work. And Hannah says. “Will you play with me, Scarlett? Will you play with me? We can play airplane or we can play boats. Or we could play lava. But you can be lava-proof, but you can't just go out and be lava- proof you have to lay on lava and then I can jump on top of you.”

“No, Hannah, no.” Scarlett says.

“Squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk” I say.

“What?” Penny says.

And that's what we really say. We weren't trying to say anything else. We're just trying to say squawk. That doesn't mean anything in parrot language.

“You guys are so funny,” Scarlett says, smiling at us.

“Come on, Honey. Do you want to help me bake, Hannah?” Scarlett's mom says “Yeah! Bake! Bake! Bake! Let's bake some cakes and brownies and cupcakes and cookies!

“Um, I meant help bake banana muffins. That's your dessert for dinner.”

“But you guys are going to be out.”

“Yeah, but Scarlett can't make you dessert. So, I'm making it. We are making it.” “Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! I wanna help bake. Can we put chocolate chips in the banana muffins?”

“No, I'm trying to make them healthier.” Scarlett's mom says,

“OK,” Hannah says.

“Come on, Penny. Come on Polly. Time to meet Colorful the parrot.”

“Who's Colorful The parrot?” we say. But it comes out to her as: “Squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk.”

“I don't know what you guys are saying, but Colorful the parrot is my other parrot. You guys are going to have a roommate. Three parrots, three parrots, three parrots. Polly, Colorful and Penny and Penny”, Scarlett sings.

We sing too. “Three parrots, three parrots, three parrots. Polly and Colorful and Penny and Penny.” It comes out to her as squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk.”

“You guys are so funny. How many times have I said that to my animals?” Scarlett says.

“We don't know, Scarlett. We don't know! We haven't met your other animals.”

“Come on guys. This is Colorful.”

“Hi.” Says the old parrot.  

“Hi!”  we say. Colorful the parrot does not look like how we imagined him to look. They imagined him to be young. But he's old, really old.

Colorful asks, “Well, what's up?”

We don't respond and don't respond. And eventually we say. “We're good.”

“OK. Well. That's nice.” Colorful the parrot says. “Do you want to munch on some bird seed?” he says. Pushing some bird seed towards us.

It looks expired. Actually, it doesn't really look like bird seed at all. It looks like dominoes. “That's not bird seed. Those are dominoes.”

“What are dominoes?” Colorful the Parrot says.

“They’re. Um. Dominoes.”

“I don't know what Dominoes are!” 

Chapter 4  

Escape

We're still staring at the dominoes. Well, however they got there, they're not good to eat. We start squawking and squawking. Scarlett says, “Those are dominoes! Don't eat that! Don't eat that, guys!” She reaches into our cage and takes the dominoes out.

“How could dominoes get in...” She stops in the middle of her sentence. “Hannah!” She yells. Scarlett peeks out her door, and she sees Hannah walking down the hallway.

“Hannah! Did you put these dominoes in my parrot’s cage?”

“No. I didn't do that. Why would I do that?”

“Well. Why would you feed Max pizza? Why would you make a mini tornado in Diamond and Emerald’s tank? Why would you put Guinea on a pool floatie?”

“I don't know. It just seemed like a good idea. Guinea looked like he wanted a swim.”

“Guinea pigs don't like to swim!”

“And Max barked for food. So I gave him some of my pizza. I didn't want it anyway.”

“Dogs can't have pizza!” Scarlett says.

“I wanted to make a tornado. So I made one in the tank.”

“You shouldn't make tornados in fish tanks!”

“Um, OK.” Hannah says.

Scarlet sighs.

“Well. Just don't do any of those things again.” Hannah walks away.

“Blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah. Blblblblbl” Hannah says.

“Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak squeak, squeak.”

 “I'm coming. I'm coming, Guinea” Scarlett says.

“Woof Woof, Woof, woof, woof.”

“Be patient, Max. Be patient. I'm coming. I'm coming.” Scarlett says.

 “Blub, Blub, Blub, Blub, Blub.”

 “I'm coming, Diamond. I'm coming, Emerald, I'm coming, Clown.”

 After Scarlet leaves, we hear lots of yums and delicious sounds coming from other rooms in the house. And we also hear an unusual sound walking through the hallway.

“Choo Choo Choo Choo Choo Choo Choo Choo. I'm a train. I'm a train.” Hannah says.

 “Choo, I'm a train. Choo Choo Choo Choo.”

Hannah leaves and it's finally peaceful again. Polly and Penny have a nice conversation with Colorful.

“So, is Emma still working at the pet store?” Colorful asks.

“I don't know her name.” I say. “But, is she the one who has black hair and glasses? And always wears animal print pants?”

 “Yeah, that's her.”

“Oh yay oh yay! I love, what's her name? Emma. Yes. Emma. Well, I love Emma! She's so kind to us all. She got us a new flavor of bird seed. Can you believe it? And it's even more delicious than the old one. Even more delicious.”

“Yeah, I'm sad at my bird seed. It wasn't as good as yours.” Colorful the parrot says.

“I'm sure all of the other bird seed was as yummy as the other bird seed.”

That night I couldn’t fall asleep. Even though I'm really happy that I got adopted, I can't help feeling like, is there anything special about this house? It's good, but it’s mediocre. Yes, I do know what the word mediocre means. I'm a very smart little parrot, or should I say I'm a very smart big parrot. Anyway, this house is very mediocre. So, I want to see if there's more to it. So, I wake up, grab some bird seed, and stuff it in my mouth, just in case. But if you're wondering, I do not have cheek pouches. But I stuffed some bird seed in my mouth. And I shuffle at the lock. I shuffle some more. I bite my tongue, I bite, I tug, I bite, I tug. I'm making tap tap noises, tap tap noises, tap tap tap. Good thing I sleep in a different room. Scarlet sleeps with her fish Diamond, Emerald, and Clown. But Penny, Colorful, and I get our own room. So I don't, I repeat, I don't wake up Scarlett. But Penny wakes up, so I stop my pecking.

“Polly, what are you doing up at night?” Penny says.

“Um, I was just doing some music.”

“Well, I was just making sure that you weren't upset. I'm sure you're very happy with our home now.”

“How did you know I wasn't happy with the pet store before?”

 “He he.” She giggled. “You didn't exactly keep it inside.”

“Oh well. I'm very satisfied.”

“Great.” Penny says with a smile. “Well. Sweet dreams.” Penny says before falling into dreamland.

Good, everyone is asleep. Now it's time for me to escape. I peck and peck and peck. And the door flies open.

 

Chapter 5  

Lost

 I did it. I fly out of the parrot cage. I fly passed the guinea pigs’ room. I fly past the doghouse. And I fly very quietly past Scarlet's room. And passed the fish. And then, I fly to the door. I peck at the lock. It opens. I unlocked the door, but I can't open it. Darn it. Yes, I know the word darn it too. Anyway. I fly. And then I wake up Max.

“Hey, why did you wake me up?” Max says.

“Can you just open this door?”

“Of course,” he says saying with a friendlier voice. I love helping people. My nickname is Helper Helper Helper. No one actually calls me that, but I like it. Well, I like to help help help help. Well, let's go.”

I fly into the hallway. He runs through the hallway. And I very quietly fly past Scarlet's room. He quietly walks past Scarlets room and then I show him the front. door.

“That's all you need me to open? Easy”. He pounds at the door and it flies open.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you” I say.

“Well, you're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome,” Max says.

I put him to bed. And sing him a song. “Oh Fortuna, see through Parrot.  Oh Fortuna, see through dog…Fortune.” And then. I fly out the door.

I fly past the front yard. It's beautiful. There's a bird bath, a sandbox, and a playhouse. I fly into the Playhouse. There's a kitchen. I try to wash myself off in some water. I'm really hot but it doesn't work. Huh. I wonder what that's about. And then I see food. Lots of food. I even see mango. I peck into the mango and peck and peck and peck. Ooh, it tastes like plastic. I spit it out. Gross. That's disgusting. Who would eat that? I fly out of the playhouse. And then. I see a bird bath. Hopefully that won't have fake running water like the sink in the playhouse. I go into the bird bath and yay, it's water. It cools me off so much. Then I fly past houses and houses. It's beautiful. I see rock gardens and ponds. And lots more amazing stuff like these green things, but they're not all green. The tops are green. But it has brown parts that holding all the green parts. They're so cool. And then these flowery things, I think they're called. They smell really good. I look up and see the beautiful stars. They're amazing.

And then, I think about Scarlett. If she wakes up and I'm not there, she'll be so sad that she lost me and she'll feel so bad. She'll think that it’s her fault I escaped. Suddenly. I'm scared. I'm by a house. It's a big house. A fancy house. With lots of fancy things. This is my dream to live in a big fancy house. But it doesn't feel so good. Being in Scarlett's house feels a lot better. But I have no idea how to get back to Scarlett.

Well. Maybe I should go over what I saw. I saw stars, but there are stars everywhere. I saw a really big green thing. I fly and fly until I find a big green thingy. And then I remember seeing a pond. So I fly and fly until I see a pond. And then I remember seeing a rock garden and I fly and fly until I see a rock garden. I keep following that method. Until the last thing I remember is my house. I do see a house, but it doesn't look like all our house. I fly past that house and then I see something familiar. It's our house! I fly in. Hopefully no one will notice that the door is open. I fly past the doghouse. I fly past the Guinea pig’s room.  And finally, I fly into the parrot’s room.

 I fly into the open door and I close it. And I see Penny with one eye open laying down. Colorful is the same. It's morning. How are they still asleep? I know, Penny. She's an early parrot. I wake up Penny. And she immediately hugs me and says, ”Polly! Why did you leave? I thought you were happy here. You said so yourself!”

“I am happy here. I didn't think I was. But I am.”

Colorful gets up to. “How could you not be happy here? Scarlett is our owner, and she takes great care of us. Not one animal that Scarlet has is sad living with Scarlet and her family.”  

“This is a great place to live. It truly is,” I say.

Chapter 6  

Welcome home. We are really home.

Scarlet walks in and she says, “Oh, I love you, my little parrots! Good morning, Colorful. Good morning, Penny. Good morning, Polly.” she coos to us in a baby voice.

“We love you, Scarlet!” We all say to her.

“You guys are so sweet.” She says to us. “You seem tired, Polly. Were you up all night?”

“No”, I say.

“I don't know parrot language, but I have a feeling that means, “No, I couldn't sleep last night.” And then Scarlett leaves and says good morning to all her other pets.

I take a nap. A peaceful nap knowing that I am home. Truly. Home.

 

The End

 

I hope you enjoyed this book. Polly and Penny. Tell me what book you like most. Also tell me what is your favorite part in any of the “Scarlett and her pets series.” Hugs and kisses.

Love, Bethany, age 8