Willa and Woof 3: Grandparents for Hire

Chapter One

The Worst Best Day

My name is Willa Jane Tait and today is the best worst day ever. Or maybe it’s the worst best day. I can’t decide.

I’m sitting at the kitchen table with Woof at my feet. He’s my albino Irish wolfhound. His proper name is Wilfred, but when I was little my tongue got all twisty trying to say that, so Wilfred became Wilf and Wilf became Woof and it stuck. He’s my best four-legged friend.

My best same-age friend is Tae. He lives across the road from my house at number eight Cricklewood Crescent and he’s in my class at school – that’s where the best worst/worst best day started.

Our principal, Mr Newton, finally told everyone the big surprise he’s been teasing us with for ages. Next week we’re having Grandparents’ Day. I can’t believe Mum didn’t tell me. She’s the office lady at our school. (I guess one of the reasons she’s so good at her job is because she never blabs secrets.)

Grandparents’ Day also explains why our music teacher, Mrs Olliffe, has been teaching us songs from the olden days all term. We’ve never had Grandparents’ Day before – at least not since I’ve been at Hibiscus Gardens Primary (and that’s nearly four years – I’m almost at the end of Year Three).

Mr Newton said that as well as ourperformance there are going to be competitions too – with really cool prizes – but then he said that the details were still being worked out. I think that’s code for the grown-ups haven’t got around to organising things properly yet.

When we got back to the classroom, my teacher, Miss Wallis, had an even bigger surprise. Her new dog, Lola, is joining our class. She’s a Maltese poodle (a Maltipoo for short) She has big brown eyes and curly brown fur, and she wears the cutest red coat. Lola will be like our own support-dog superstar for kids.

Woof is a support-dog superstartoo – at Sunset Views Retirement Village, which is at the end of the cul-de-sac where I live. Tae and I take Woof there once a week after school, and sometimes on the weekends, to cheer up all the old people. Everyone loves Woof.

So, it really was turning out to be the best day ever – until Miss Wallis told us we were making special cards to give to our grandparents and a girl in my class called Trinity started crying because her Granny died. Then a boy called Adamu was crying too. His grandparents live in Kenya – I think that’s a lot further away than where we go to the beach for our holidays. Then the next minute, half the class was bawling.

‘My poppy’s in hospital,’ sobbed Levi.

‘My granny plays golf on Tuesdays,’ shouted Rachel.

‘My grandad’s in the big house,’ cried someone else. (I didn’t understand why that was a problem until Tae whispered that the big house is what grown-ups sometimes say when they mean prison. That was surprising.)

Okay, so it wasn’t the best day, but it wasn’t that bad . . . until I got home and Mum reminded me that Grandma is leaving to go on a trip to England this Wednesday, and she won’t be back for a month. She’s on her own now because Poppy died a while ago. I miss him but I have lots of happy memories.

My dad’s parents, Nana and Grandad, can’t come either because they’re driving the whole way around Australia with their caravan. Dad says they’ve just been to see the Big Potato. I’m not sure where that is but it sounds funny.

I pick up another one of Dad’s homemade choc chip cookies from the plate on the bench. I have to get Woof ready for our visit to Sunset Views soon.

Wait, that’s it. My best old-age friend Frank is a grandad. He’s not mine, but he has two grandchildren, Maisie and Angus. Frank lives in a villa at Sunset Views.

He’s right next door – there’s even a gate that goes straight from our garden to his. It’s very handy, because I visit him almost every day.

I’ll borrow Frank for Grandparents’ Day. He’ll love it.