Chapter 3

Chapter THREE I gazed longingly at the cuddly bittens as we left the gift shop and exited the building. Now we were standing at a sort of crossroads. There was a big wooden sign stuck into the ground that had arms pointing in all directions, showing visitors the way to all the different animals. 'I want to see the glow snakes first!' I

heard Hazel say to Carlotta. 'I want to see the cauldron-bellied fish!' said another witch called Kira. 'I want to see the star-spotted eels!' said someone else. Miss Spindlewick called for silence. 'You all have one hour to start going around the sanctuary,' she said. 'And then we will meet back here for lunch. Remember to take notes and use the cameras to take photographs. And, most importantly, stay in your pairs! We are here to learn, and I don't want you getting distracted. Right, off you go, witches!'

I waved sadly at Carlotta as she disappeared off with Hazel in the direction of the glow snakes and then I turned back to Lavinia. 'Shall we go and see the bittens first?' I said. 'I do reeeally want to see them!' Lavinia looked at me snootily. 'The bittens are right at the bottom end of the sanctuary,' she said. 'We may as well start with something closer. I want to see the giant spiders. They're in the opposite direction. Let's go there first.'

'Ugh!' I thought. The giant spiders were the last creatures I wanted to look at. But I didn't want to cause an argument with Lavinia this early in the day, so I traipsed after her as we made our way towards the giant spiders. 'Aren't they just so elegant!' said Lavinia, as we arrived at the spider enclosure and peered in. The enclosure was a very large cage covered in sticky webbing, with plenty of room for the spiders to scuttle around and play in. The spiders looked happy, and I supposed I could see what Lavinia meant by them being elegant, but I still couldn't help shuddering at their size. They were so big!

Some of them were bigger than me! And they all had huge fangs. Lavinia handed me the clipboard. 'You take notes,' she ordered. 'I'll take the photos.'

Lavinia began to snap away with the camera while I chewed the end of the pencil and wondered what to write about the spiders. In the end, I wrote: BIG AND HAIRY. 'You need to write more than that,' said Lavinia, bossily. 'Let me dictate.' 'Why don't you write and I'll take pictures?' I suggested. Taking the photos looked like fun! 'I don't think that's sensible,' said Lavinia. 'You might drop the camera and then we'll get in trouble.' Hurriedly, she stowed the camera away in her backpack. I rolled my eyes. 'I won't drop it.' I said.