The Day Chaos Cat Got Blamed

Chill Panda had spent all spring growing three pink lotus flowers in clay pots by the pond. So when he found them tipped over in the mud one morning, even Panda forgot to breathe slowly.

Smarty Pants pushed up his glasses. “Let’s be logical. Who knocks things over? Who chases yarn near the pond? Who put a frog in my book bag last Tuesday?”

Every head turned to Chaos Cat.

“It wasn’t me!” said Chaos. But nobody looked convinced, and the more nobody believed him, the hotter his ears got. “Fine,” he snapped. “If everyone already thinks I’m the bad guy, maybe I’ll just BE the bad guy.” And he stomped off to sulk behind the hedge.

After a while, someone sat down next to him. It was Panda, muddy flowers in his paws.

“I don’t know who did it,” Panda said. “But I know that if it was you, you’d tell me.”

Chaos sniffled. “I would. I really would.”

Meanwhile, Smarty did what Smarty does best: he looked for clues. Bird feathers? None. Paw prints? None. But there, in the mud beside the pots, was a long, flat drag mark… exactly the shape of a book bag.

Smarty went very still. That morning, he had walked to the pond reading his book, with his heavy bag swinging behind him. He hadn’t looked down once.

He found Chaos and Panda behind the hedge. “It was me,” he said. “I was so sure I was right that I didn’t check. I’m sorry, Chaos.”

Chaos kicked a pebble. “I guess I did put a frog in your bag. I’d have blamed me too.”

That afternoon, the three of them replanted the lotuses together. Chaos dug, Smarty measured, and Panda hummed. Nobody knocked anything over. Well, almost nobody.