Animal: House

Chaos erupted. Chestnut grabbed the whole cake. Gus, sleep-sliding on the linoleum, gave chase. Barnaby knocked over a lamp. Poe, from his perch on the fridge, screamed, "Piece! Piece! Piece!" (The only human word he’d mastered.)

The squirrel nodded, dropped the cherry into Harold’s palm, and chittered something that sounded very much like, Deal. Animal House

Then he heard it: a tiny click from the basement. Chaos erupted

Harold read it twice. Then he looked at the squirrel, who had placed the cherry on his own head like a tiny, ridiculous crown. Barnaby knocked over a lamp

The house at 13 Mockingbird Lane didn't look like much from the street—peeling white paint, a porch swing that creaked without wind, and gutters stuffed with the skeletal remains of autumns past. But inside, it was a kingdom.