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Back The Copycat Save as PDF
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Chapter One
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Chapter Two
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Chapter Three
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Chapter Four
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Chapter Five
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Chapter Six
  26. Seventeen
  27. Eighteen
  28. Nineteen
  29. Chapter Seven
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Chapter Eight
  34. Twenty-Three
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Twenty-Five
  37. Chapter Nine
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Chapter Ten
  41. Twenty-Eight
  42. Twenty-Nine
  43. Thirty
  44. Thirty-One
  45. Chapter Eleven
  46. Thirty-Two
  47. Thirty-Three
  48. Thirty-Four
  49. Thirty-Five
  50. Chapter Twelve
  51. Thirty-Six
  52. Thirty-Seven
  53. Thirty-Eight
  54. Chapter Thirteen
  55. Thirty-Nine
  56. Forty
  57. Forty-One
  58. Forty-Two
  59. Chapter Fourteen
  60. Forty-Three
  61. Forty-Four
  62. Forty-Five
  63. Forty-Six
  64. Forty-Seven
  65. Chapter Fifteen
  66. The Following Summer
  67. About the Author
  68. About the Publisher

She crawled out from underneath the car. What was the best way home? Her normal route was straightforward: a residential neighborhood, followed by a shopping plaza, more businesses, a couple of churches, a few busy intersections, and then Douglas Avenue. It was easy for someone in seventh grade, but for a cat it seemed impossible. Still, what choice did she have? It wasn’t like she could call home and meow for help. But after the first car roared past her, she decided to alter her route and go through backyards instead.

ALI’S FELINE FOUR

  1. Beware of dogs.
  2. Beware of people holding turkey and other yummy things.
  3. Be careful. Not everyone likes cats!
  4. Take your time to smell the catnip. Being a cat is cool!

It was a good idea until house number four, where she encountered an enormous sleeping Rottweiler. She’d almost made it to the opposite fence when he opened an eye and, in a flash, was on his feet and headed straight for her, teeth bared. The only way out was up, so Ali hurled herself at the fence, digging her claws into the cedar planks until she was within jumping distance of an overhanging branch. She froze. Would it hold her? But the warm stinky breath of the Rottweiler as it sprang ever closer convinced her to try. She leapt.

There was a dreadful creak when she landed, followed by a horrible crack as the branch broke away. She leapt again, and though she missed the tree trunk, her momentum propelled her forward, and she landed in a prickly holly bush on the other side of the fence from her attacker.

Even though she was scratched and bleeding, Ali was ecstatic. She was alive! And surprised. When she’d practiced turning into animals or people before, she’d only stayed like them for a couple of minutes. Now, fifteen minutes into her Ali the cat transformation, she realized she hadn’t taken enough time to experience what it was like to be someone else before. Being a cat was fun! The heightened senses. How easy it was to jump and climb. It was like she was born to be a cat. No wonder Digger was a dog so often. There was something freeing about being an animal that wasn’t trying to impress anyone. Maybe that was the solution: stay a cat forever.

But first she needed to get home. It was time to return to her usual route. Except that was even more dangerous. Ali was almost taken out twice by bicyclists using the sidewalk (wasn’t that against city bylaws?) and another time by a jogger who kicked at her as he ran past. Everything she encountered was a new peril, which made the going slow. A route that normally took twenty minutes took an hour. By the time she saw her house in the distance, she was like an exhausted soldier home from the war.