Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 'No way! It happened again?' Wogan said, chasing after Charlie as Charlie stormed off ahead of him across the playground. 'Yes,' said Charlie glumly. 'While you were on your way to Ms Fyre? You turned into a pigeon?' 'Yes!' said Charlie, frustration creeping into his voice. 'Hmm,' said Flora. 'Oh, don't you start hmming again. I had enough of that last time.' 'Well, one way or another, we need to get to the bottom of it.' 'No, what we really need to do is work out how to stop my parents from murdering me when they see this punishment letter.' Charlie pulled the letter out of

his pocket. 'Listen to what it says: "Disobedience, lying, evasiveness and all manner of general misdemeanours." What am I supposed to do about all that? I'm dead.' 'Good question,' said Wogan, sounding full of action. 'OK, firstly, who is Miss Demeanours? Is she

a new teacher? And General Miss Demeanours? Why is the army involved? We need to know.' Mohsen looked at Charlie and rolled his eyes. Charlie smiled for the first time in quite a while. The four were quiet for a moment, each lost in thought, until Flora broke the silence. 'It's funny that it happened …' Flora paused carefully. 'You know, when you were by yourself. Again,' she added. 'It's just, you know, a bit strange.' Charlie narrowed his eyes. 'What do you mean "funny"? Strange how?' Mohsen and Wogan held their breath. 'It's just that, well, nobody else has actually seen it happen yet,' Flora said slowly and gently. 'I knew it!' Charlie shouted. 'You don't believe me! You think I'm lying!' 'I don't think you're lying!' Flora protested. 'You do! I can't believe, after everything that's happened, one of my best friends thinks I'm making it all up.' 'I don't!' 'Then what do you think?' 'Well, have you considered that perhaps you just think it's happening? Maybe your brain is tricking you? The mind is a funny thing and I know you

believe you changed into a spider and a pigeon but maybe it didn't… actually… happen?' Silence hit the four of them again. Charlie looked furious. Flora looked like she'd just broken the news to her pet hamster, Rollo, who was two years old, that hamsters usually only live for two years. Mohsen and Wogan looked terrified. 'Well, you two are being very quiet. What do you think? Do you believe me?' Charlie glared at Mohsen and Wogan. Mohsen and Wogan sort of muttered and shrugged. They looked nervously at the ground. Charlie rounded on them, his face red. 'Well, that's just great. Fantastic. Not one of my so-called best friends believes me. Well, you can all just be friends without me.' And with that Charlie stormed off to the other side of the playground. He sat on an empty bench fuming silently. And as he sat there, watching a football game between some Year Twos, his anger slowly turned into something much, much worse. Loneliness.

His stomach felt hollow and yet at the same time like it was full of squirming worms. His head was throbbing and his face was hot and his eyes were prickling with tears again. He wanted to get a hug from his mum or play Pokémon with Mohsen or football with Flora or wrestle with Wogan or see SmoothMove again or anything, anything to make this awful feeling disappear.

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