"Ah-TISHOOOO!!"

"Bless you!" said Dot and Wizzie at the same time, and giggled.

Mr Mouse took out his big red and white spotted handkerchief and wiped his whiskery nose, shaking his head sadly. "I dunno!" he said. "Makes me sneeze just thinking about it!"

"Thinking about what?" asked Wiz, giving himself a shake so the name tags on his collar jingled.

"Make-up, that's what!" said Mr Mouse angrily. "Without that consarned make-up, I'd've been OK! Top TV personality! All the cheese I ever wanted... stretch limos, private jets, the face of esure.com in front of millions - everything! I coulda been a celebrity! A SUPERSTAR! Ta-DAAA!"

He leapt up to his feet and did a kind of dance - tap dancing if little mousey paws could tap. Which they can't, of course. They're also not much use to a mouse - even a possible superstar mouse - if they get tangled up in a computer cable and send him flying over the edge of Dot's desk. Which is what happened!

Dot picked her friend up, put his cap back on straight, smoothed his ruffled fur down and popped him back in his favourite place leaning against the laptop.

"So... what happened?" she asked.

"Well you gotta have make-up to go on TV" said Mr Mouse " 'Cos the lights are so bright every tiny little thing that's wrong with the way you look shows up like crazy. So you have to be made up. For us mice, that means stuff to make our eyes nice 'n bright, it means getting our claws polished, it means... "

"Mascara? Perfume? Fake nails?" went Wiz, trying not to laugh.

Mr Mouse gave him a look. "Nah, come on, be SERIOUS" he said. "This is professional stuff. One thing you DO need though as a rodent-type person, is Fluff-Up."

"Fluff-Up??" asked Dot.

"Yeah - makes your fur look all nice and soft and shiny" said Mr Mouse. "It's meant to, anyways!"

"So... you had this Fluff-Up...?" said Wizzie, trying hard not to giggle again.

"Yeah!" said Mr Mouse. "We had to go into this kinda trailer thing, Cousin Esure and me - which was OK with me, 'cos it would have been embarrassing doing it in front of everyone. Make-up girl was a real cutie called Helen, a little golden gerbil, with the longest eyelashes you've ever seen. What a sweetheart! Anyway she did the eyes and the nails and got me into my esure.com costume - you've seen it on the TV, just a T-shirt with esure.com on it and these flip-flops - and then she comes out with this spray - "

"What, over the T-shirt?" asked Dot. "Doesn't sound very nice!"

"No, no" said Mr Mouse, giving Dot one of his looks. "Just on the furry bits that were showing. Well it was OK at first - we both got back on the set, and there was Samira waiting for us. Everything was all set to go, and first off we had just to try out the lines we had to say - specially the big one "Come on - give us a click!" - you know, to get everyone to use their mouse to go on line and check out the esure.com insurance deals. But every time I opened my mouth, I get the smell of Fluff-Up in my nose, and - "

"Ah-tishoo?" went Wiz. He did feel sorry for his friend, really.

"Oh yes" said Mr Mouse sadly. "Big time! And everyone standing there watching, too. All the film crew and everyone. Even Helen - felt so STOOPID!!" He did a big, BIG sigh. "Well... I kind of got it in the end... after about fifty goes. Cousin Esure did it right off, he's so brilliant." He sighed again.

"But that wasn't all - oh no!"