15 Apple Crumble

15 Apple Crumble Rockwell's eyes were so wide open that Peanut thought they might pop out of his head and bounce on to the floor like ping-pong balls. 'So, do you believe me now?' said Peanut. As soon as she'd said the words, a second very strange thing happened. The drawing of the apple that Rockwell was holding slowly started to crumble. 'What's going on?' Rockwell shrieked as it disintegrated right in front of their eyes. Seconds later, all that was left was a small pile of very fine, silvery grey powder. Rockwell looked up at Peanut. He looked down at his hands. He looked back up at Peanut.

'What, in the name of all that is good and righteous in the world, just happened?' he whispered. 'I did tell you it was weird. ' Weird? lt's flippin' amazing!' he yelled. 'Like something out of Harry Potter!' Peanut was taken aback at the size and volume of Rockwell's reaction. ' OH MY GOD! ACTUAL REAL-LIFE MAGIC! Do you know what this means? You are going to be sooooooooooo rich!' He started dancing around the lab singing something about it always being sunny in a rich man's world. When he finally moonwalked back to where she was standing (and spun around to face her with a loud 'Whoo- hoo!') she put her finger to her lips. ' Sssshhhhhhhh! Do you want the whole world to know what we've got here?' 'Er, yes. Yes, I do. In fact, not only do I want the whole

world to know what we've got here, but I want the whole world to give us lots of money to show it what we've got here!' I'm sorry to disappoint you, Rockwell, but I'm afraid I couldn't care less about making any money,' said Peanut quietly. 'What I really want is to find out why my dad had this pencil and where it came from. 'Well, why don't you just ask him?' It was at that moment that Peanut realised that Rockwell didn't know. He had no idea about any of it. About her dad's strange disappearance, about the police investigation, about her mum going mad and making her change schools. None of it. She hadn't told him about all that stuff because, well, they weren't friends. 'OK. I need to tell you something.' She took a deep breath and, for the second time that day, she found herself confiding in Rockwell. ' Oh, Peanut,' he said when she'd finished. 'I'm so sorry about your dad. I remember how sad I felt when my dad moved out, and he only went to a flat three floors below us in the same block. That was bad enough, so it must be awful not knowing where he's gone.

Peanut nodded. ' Yes. It is.' A small smile played on her lips. ' Thanks, Rockwell. 'What for?' He looked confused. 'You're the only person, besides me, who doesn't believe that he ran away to Mexico. ' Yes, well, you know your dad, right? If you think he disappeared, he disappeared. I do,' she agreed. 'Well, then... Hey! You know what I think?' said Rockwell excitedly. 'I think that your dad wanted you to find this pencil. I think it's a clue as to what might have happened to him. Can I have a closer look? Peanut handed the pencil over to him. 'It has some strange lettering on the side. I think it says "LORE". What does "lore" mean?' Rockwell pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and carefully wrapped it around the pencil. ' Well, there's only one way to find out.' He picked up his bag. ' Let's go to the library.