Rosie couldn’t wait to get back to Freddy, the flea. She smiled to herself as she thought of his adorable little legs, leaping around like a ballet dancer. She wondered what he would look like in a tutu.
She itched the back of her hand, where Freddy had nipped her, before they had become friends. The little bump was feeling a bit sore now. She looked down and gasped.
It sounded a lot like this: “GAAAAAAASP!”
The little bump was no longer a little bump. It was now the size of a small cherry tomato and just as red.
“What’s that?” Esme asked, peering at Rosie’s hand. “Is it a boil?”
Rosie scowled and scratched the extremely itchy bump. “It’s nothing,” she answered.
Charlie screwed up his face in disgust as he spotted it too. “That’s gross! Mum, Rosie’s got a disease!” he cried. “That is one humungous lump!”
Esme and Charlie began to snigger as Rosie scratched the lump.
“STOP IT!” she shouted, anger making her cheeks as red as the bump on her hand.
Mum and Mike shushed Esme and Charlie before turning their attention to Rosie.
“What’s caused that?” Mum asked. “Is it the measles? Or it could be chicken pox. Are you feeling all right, Rosie?”
Rosie nodded, her curly hair bouncing. “I’m fine!” she insisted.
“I think it’s a bite,” Mike said, peering carefully at the bump. “An insect bite.”
Rosie stared down at the red mound, now jutting up as tall as Mount Everest, next to her middle knuckle.
“I’m very much afraid that’s actually a flea bite,” Mike said.
Esme screamed.
Charlie giggled.
Mum groaned. “Oh no! Not fleas!”
“Rosie’s got fleas! Rosie’s got fleas!” Charlie teased, singing the words and leaping round the room like an excited baboon.
“I have not got FLEAS!” Rosie shouted.
Well it’s technically true, she thought, I don’t have fleas.
She just had one flea, Freddy, her tiny new pet.
The problem was that Freddy, her tiny new pet, was responsible for the football-sized volcano now erupting from her skin. Rosie knew that Mum would want to know exactly how she had got that fleabite. If she found out the truth, Freddy’s life would be in terrible danger!