Cliffhanger Read Free

sailing past my cupped hands.
    â€˜He’s missed it!’ Giles yelled.
    â€˜Tim!’ said Laura.
    â€˜Tim!’ said Lesley.
    â€˜Tim!’ said Kelly.
    â€˜Never mind, Tim,’ said Jake. ‘Next time, eh?’
    I hoped and hoped and hoped I might do better next time.
    I didn’t.
    Or the next time.
    Or the next.
    Or the next.
    Or the next.
    It was so awful. No-one else was as useless as me.
    Biscuits couldn’t run very fast at all but he was good at catching and he could hit hard too.
    I couldn’t hit hard when it was our turn to bat.
    I couldn’t hit the ball at all.
    I was the worst at games. They all started shouting at me. Teasing me. Saying stuff.
    When the games were over at last I ran into the Centre and had a bit of a cry by myself locked in the toilets. Then I remembered the phone in the hall.
    I didn’t have any change on me but I reversed the charges. I got through to Mum.
    I started telling her how awful it was and I asked her to come right that minute. She said she would but then Dad started talking too. He kept asking me
why
it was so awful. So I said about them all shouting at me. And Dad said I was making a fuss about nothing. I said I still wanted them to come and get me like they promised
. But you can’t always trust your parents
.
    Especially your dad.
    He said I should see how I felt tomorrow. He wasn’t going to come and fetch me tonight. No matter what.
    â€˜But you said you’d come and get me if I didn’t like it,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to see how I feel tomorrow. It’s not
fair
. I didn’t want to come here in the first place.’

    I was in the middle of saying all this – and a bit more – when Biscuits came along the hall and sort of hovered. So I sniffed a lot and said I’d phone again tomorrow.
    â€˜You OK?’ said Biscuits as I put the phone down.
    I nodded and blew my nose.
    Biscuits looked bigger than ever, his sweatshirt straining. He saw me staring.
    â€˜Want to see what I’ve got?’ he said, patting his much vaster tummy.
    He suddenly gave birth to a big tin of golden syrup.
    I laughed, even though I was still a bit snuffly.
    Biscuits prized the lid open and stuck in his finger. He licked appreciatively.

    â€˜Yum yum yum. Here.’ He held out the tin. ‘You can share it if you like.’
    We were very sticky indeed by bedtime. I wished we didn’t have to share a room with Giles. It would have been great if it had just been Biscuits and me. But Giles kept going on and on about how hopeless we were at games and how Mega-Great he was at absolutely everything.
    He insisted on demonstrating too. Especially his judo. He had me in this armlock that was horribly painful but Biscuits started waddling round the bedroom in his underpants, flexing his muscles.
    â€˜
I
do sumo wrestling, right?’ he said, beating his chest. ‘So
you’d
better watch your step, Piles.’
    â€˜You look more like a gorilla than a wrestler,’ said Giles, but he let go of me.
    Biscuits did a
wondrous
gorilla impersonation, making very loud gorilla noises.
    I did a gorilla impersonation too.
    Giles joined in.
    We were all three strutting about and thumping our chests, bellowing, when Jake came barging into the bedroom.
    â€˜Hey, hey! Calm down, you lot. You’re like a lot of monkeys at a zoo,’ said Jake.
    â€˜Exactly!’ I said.
    â€˜Hum hum. Me want banana,’ said Biscuits, still being a gorilla.
    â€˜You’re going to explode one day, Biscuits,’ said Jake. ‘Come on, into bed, you lot.’
    â€˜What are we doing tomorrow, Jake?’ Giles asked.
    â€˜We’re going for a bit of a climb – and then it’s abseiling,’ said Jake.
    â€˜Great!’ said Giles, jumping up and down.
    â€˜
Not
so great,’ said Biscuits, pretending to pass out on to his bed.
    â€˜Utterly ungreat,’ I said.
    My heart had started