Star League 5 by H.J. Harper Read Free Book Online Page B

as she pats his fur. She looks at me and smiles, her eyes twinkling.
    â€˜Don’t worry, dear, Sweetpea wouldn’t hurt a fly!’ The gorilla glares at me with his cold eyes. There’s still no answer when I try to talk to him using my animancer powers, which is really weird. I guess Sweetpea just isn’t the talkative type. ‘Why don’t you come over here?’ Aunt Petunia motions for me to come and stand next to her.
    As I walk over I blink at the bright lights and the cameras pointed at me, and I feel really shy.Why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut?
    Aunt Petunia reaches up and points to a collar around the gorilla’s neck that I hadn’t noticed before.
    â€˜Do you see this … what did you say your name was, sweetie?’
    â€˜Leigh,’ I mumble.
    â€˜Do you see this collar, Leigh? Well that’s a Le Nice Pets Collar. It teaches Sweetpea here to be a nice, well-mannered gorilla.’
    A large silver pendant hangs from the collar with the words ‘Le Nice Pets’ engraved on it. Chu peers at it and chirps softly.
    â€˜I don’t like it,’ he says. ‘I don’t know why, but it makes me nervous.’
    â€˜What a sweet little pet monkey you have there!’ says Aunt Petunia.
    â€˜He’s not really a pet,’ I tell her. ‘He’s my best friend!’
    â€˜Oh, isn’t that lovely!’ smiles Aunt Petunia.
    â€˜And how handsome he’d look wearing one of my collars. They come in a range of colours, including Banana Yellow!’ She reaches for a small yellow collar, but Chu screeches and jumps out of the way.
    Aunt Petunia just laughs kindly. ‘Well, I guess not everyone’s a fan. That’s okay.’ She turns back to the cameras. ‘But if you want to teach your pet perfect manners, just like Sweetpea here, make sure to buy one of Aunt Petunia’s Le Nice Pets Collars. Goodnight, lovelies!’
    The stage lights blink off as the cameras stop recording. Aunt Petunia hands me the collar she tried to put on Chu.
    â€˜Here, sweetie, take this one for free. Your little friend there might not want to wear it now, but you never know. Pets are usually much happier when they’re well behaved. I guess that’s why we’ve sold millions of them to the viewers at home.’
    â€˜Uh, thanks,’ I say, taking the collar and putting it in my pocket. There’s no way I’d force Chu towear it if he didn’t want to, but I don’t want to offend Aunt Petunia. ‘How do they work?’
    Aunt Petunia taps the side of her nose and winks. ‘It’s a secret! But they really do work. You should try it on your monkey if you want him to be better behaved.’
    â€˜No way, old lady!’ says Chu. ‘Leigh likes me just the way I am, even if I do occasionally use her toothbrush as a backscratcher.’
    â€˜What a sweet little monkey!’ says Aunt Petunia, not understanding a word of what Chu said.
    â€˜Leigh!’ I turn to find that Ben Beaumont has joined the others at the side of the set. As I walk over I notice the worried look on Ben’s face.
    â€˜I’ve just been in touch with GALACTIC,’ he says. ‘There’s a case they need the Star League on right away!’

We shut ourselves in an unused room so nobody can overhear our secret Star League business.
    â€˜GALACTIC has been getting a lot of missing person reports lately,’ says Ben. ‘Well, technically it’s not missing people, it’s missing animals! We’ve had reports of hundreds of pets mysteriously disappearing all over the city.’
    â€˜So what?’ asks Roger. ‘Pets go missing all the time! What do they want us to do, use our powers to put up Missing posters?’
    â€˜Let me finish,’ says Ben. ‘It’s not just pets that have gone missing. Animals from zoos have been stolen as well, animals that could be very dangerous such as bears and