Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 'I can't…' said Flora, shaking her head. 'I can't… actually… believe…' said Flora, still shaking her head. 'I can't… actually… believe… I was wrong,' said Flora. She was never going to stop shaking her head. 'Oh, you get used to it,' said Wogan. 'Believe me. I'm something of an expert.' It was Monday morning and the friends were sitting in their classroom waiting for Mr Wind to arrive. He was now back from his intensive three-day strategy course with Miss Fyre and was going round the school with a permanent smile plastered on his face. 'But you were right, Wogan. I was wrong and you were right. It's just… I don't know what…' 'I understand, Flora,' said Wogan, his voice full of tender concern. 'You feel like the world has turned on its head and you don't know what to believe any more?'

'Yes,' said Flora simply, still shaking her head. 'I feel the same, Flora,' Wogan said. 'So let's just try to move forward and forget this ever happened. It will probably never, ever happen again.' Ironically, Wogan was right once more. 'So,' continued Wogan. 'Pull yourself together, Flora. We need you. Charlie needs you. Look at him.' They all turned to look at Charlie, who was hanging off the top of the classroom door with one hand while scratching his bum with the other. 'I need you to fix this, Flora,' said Charlie. 'And then we need to steal some gold.'

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'Steal some what did you say?' Dylan had walked up to them when they weren't looking. 'None of your beeswax, Van der Gruyne,' said Mohsen. 'Yeah, if you think we're gonna tell you about our plan to steal Charlie's dad's gold back from your dad's office, you've got another think coming,' said Wogan firmly. Charlie, Flora and Mohsen all slowly turned their heads to Wogan, their mouths flapping like goldfish. 'What?' asked Wogan. 'Why are you all looking at me like that?' 'Brilliant.' Dylan rubbed his hands together. 'Thanks for that, Wogan.' 'Thanks for what?' asked Wogan. 'Why is everybody acting so weird?' 'Speaking of weird,' said Dylan. 'What's with him?' He jerked a thumb at Charlie, still hanging off the door. Good question, Dylan. So what had happened? Why had Flora been so wrong? What had Wogan got right? And why was Charlie hanging off the classroom door scratching his bum? Well, to find that out, we need to do a flashback. Strap yourselves in. Here it comes… We're going back in time… One day… Two days… One hundred and fifty million years…

Whoa, that's too far now. We don't want Charlie changing into a diplodocus now, do we?fn1 So, let's go forward in time a bit. One hundred million years ago… Dinosaurs still munching everything… Sixty-six million years ago… Still dinosaurs. Jeez, dinosaurs were around for ages…fn2 One hundred thousand years ago… Finally the dinosaurs have gone but there's cavemen all over the place… Can't stop there: Wogan and Mohsen would get hit on the head by big hairy club-wielding Neanderthals… Seven hundred years ago… Still too far back: Mohsen and Wogan would probably catch the Black Death… Yesterday… That's much better. Hopefully there's nothing around yesterday that would end up with Mohsen and Wogan reaching a sticky end…*** Yesterday, Charlie was home and all was reasonably quiet. He had just got out of his seventeenth bath since the skunk incident,fn3 and was sitting in the lounge in his dressing-gown. Charlie could hear more barely restrained arguments from the kitchen between his parents about 'company deficit' and 'cash-flow crisis' and other boring stuff that Charlie didn't understand but which still gave him a knot in his stomach.

SmoothMove was on WhatsApp with his new girlfriend. Charlie was considering whether to turn on the PS4 when his parents walked in. 'Guys, can we just have a little word with you?' his mum said. SmoothMove glanced up from his phone and grunted. 'Well, as you boys know, the house has been up for sale,' his mum continued. Charlie's dad just looked at the floor in silence, an unreadable look on his face. 'And, in fact, we've already had an offer. We've been given some time to think it over, but we need to give