Chapter 8

Saturday On the day of judging Dev wanted me to wear a LEOPARD SKIN TASSELLED ONESIE he'd found at the back of his wardrobe. I refused on the grounds that it was horrendous. He is definitely not talented when it comes to picking tasteful clothing.

星期六在评判的那天，戴夫想让我穿一件豹皮流苏连体衣，这是他在衣柜后面找到的。 我拒绝了，理由是那太可怕了。 在挑选有品位的服装方面，他绝对没有天赋。

I purposely didn't ask the parents to judge. They'd have said everything I did was brilliant just to spare my feelings. On the other hand, Jack and Oli don't give a jot about my feelings. They are heartless buffoons. Agung is only judging because we are using his room and he has no other choice. I must remember to make sure he is wearing his specs. The other day he went for a walk and Mrs Sharma had to bring him back because she found him throwing tea coasters (thinking they were biscuits) at a couple of logs floating in the park pond (thinking they were ducks). It is a good job the local constabulary didn't spot him. He could have been prosecuted for hooliganism! After EVIL TWINS left, me and Dev set up in Agung's room. It wasn't ideal as it was

我故意不让父母来评判。 他们会为了不伤我的感情而说我做的一切都很棒。 另一方面，杰克和奥利一点也不关心我的感受。 他们是无情的小丑。 阿贡只是因为我们在用他的房间，而他没有其他选择而做出判断。 我一定要记得让他戴上眼镜。 有一天他出去散步，夏尔马太太不得不把他带回来，因为她发现他把茶杯垫（以为是饼干）扔向公园池塘里漂浮的几根木头（以为是鸭子）。 幸亏当地警察没有发现他。 他可能会因流氓罪被起诉！邪恶双胞胎离开后，我和戴夫在阿贡的房间安顿下来。 它并不理想

full of junk and joss stick fumes that make your eyes water. We made space by pushing the sofa and coffee table to one side. Jack and Agung sat on the sofa. Jack is a different person since going to Kayla's book club. He is bossing me about less, for a start. I like everything about the new Jack, apart from his cravat. It's supposed to make him look intellectual but just looks like he's forgotten to take his napkin off from dinner.

满是垃圾和香熏味，让你的眼睛流泪。 我们把沙发和茶几推到一边，腾出地方来。 杰克和阿贡坐在沙发上。 自从去了凯拉的读书俱乐部，杰克就变了一个人。 首先，他对我的指手画脚减少了。 我喜欢新杰克的一切，除了他的领带。 这本来是为了让他看起来很聪明，但看起来就像他吃饭时忘记拿餐巾一样。

Agung did have his specs on but still managed to put a tartan slipper on one foot and a flip flop on the other. Oli ran whooping into the room. 'Someone's excited to see the show!' said Dev. 'No,' said Oli. 'I'm just glad to be free.' He had also been hiding from EVIL TWINS all morning. As soon as everyone was settled, I started the recorder recital. It was 'When the Saints Go Marching In'. I played as loudly as I could and added a dance routine with a leg flick to either side. Oli asked if I had cramp so I stopped doing that. As I got to the second verse, we heard Graham howling from two doors down. Then one by one all the other

阿贡确实戴上了眼镜，但还是一只脚穿了格子呢拖鞋，另一只脚穿了人字拖。 奥利大叫着跑进房间。 “有人很想看这场演出！”戴夫说。 “不，”奥利说。“我很高兴能重获自由。”整个上午他都在躲避“邪恶双胞胎”。 大家一安顿下来，我就开始演奏录音机。 是《当圣徒进军》。 我尽可能大声地演奏，并添加了一个舞蹈套路，向两侧甩腿。 奥利问我是不是抽筋了，所以我就不那么做了。 当我唱到第二节时，我们听到格雷厄姆在隔着两个门的地方嚎叫。 然后一个接一个

neighbourhood dogs started joining in. Jack said that dogs can hear ultra-high notes that can't be detected by human ears. It was probably freaking them out. 'Dunno about the dogs but I'm freaking out here!' said Oli, sticking his fingers in his ears.

邻居的狗也开始加入进来。 杰克说，狗能听到人耳听不到的超高音调。 这可能把他们吓坏了。 “不知道狗是怎么回事，但我快吓坏了！”奥利用手指堵住耳朵说。

I tried to be professional by playing on, until we heard Mr Pike shout out, 'SHUT THAT BLEEDIN' RACKET!' Dev told me it might be a good idea to stop before we got reported to the local authorities for noise disturbance. I was devastated about not finishing all seventeen verses– all that practice for nothing! Anyway, I did my best but the marks weren't great:

我想表现得专业一点，继续演奏，直到我们听到派克先生喊道：“闭上那该死的噪音！”戴夫告诉我最好在我们被当地政府举报噪音扰民之前停下来。 我对没有完成所有的十七节诗感到沮丧——所有的练习都白费了！不管怎样，我尽了最大的努力，但分数不是很高。