Desirable by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Author:Frank Cottrell Boyce [Cottrell Boyce Frank ]
Language: ita
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781120552
Publisher: Barrington Stoke UK

Chapter 5

How to be Unpopular

with Boys

Then it was Gym.

When I walked into the changing room, Angry Al Kominski was waiting for me with Tiny and another boy I’d never seen before. But he was huge. And I suddenly realized that the boys’ changing rooms were probably the only place in the whole school where I wouldn’t have girls to protect me. I said, “Hi.”

“This,” said Angry Al, pointing to the huge boy, “is my friend, Huge Arnold. He doesn’t go to this school. But he is Perfect Paula’s boyfriend. He wants to know why she’s got pictures of you on her cell phone. And on her bedroom wall.”

“On her bedroom wall? Really?”

“Grrrrr,” said Huge Arnold.

“We’re playing football today,” said Angry Al. “And Huge Arnold has agreed to play with us. Even though he doesn’t go to this school. He’s going to play on my team. Against you.”

Huge Arnold said, “Grrrrrr” again. He didn’t need to say anything else. “Grrrr” said it all really.

“Just tell us what’s going on,” said Tiny. “Tell us how you do it, so we can do it too.” He was looking at my bag as he said this.

I clutched it a bit tighter. I suppose that’s what gave the game away.

I really think I might have told Tiny the truth there and then, if Mr. Fitton hadn’t come in just then and said, “Right. Get changed. Let’s play football.”

I said, “I’m excused.”

“Excused why?”

I hadn’t really thought of a reason. But I had thought of a powerful ally. I said, “Honestly, I am excused, ask Mrs. Hardman.”

“It was Mrs. Hardman’s idea, George.”

“What?”

“She seemed to think the sight of you running around in shorts would be very popular. She sold tickets.”

“What?!”

“For the Sports Center Fund. The whole school is out there ready to cheer you on. They’ve paid two dollars a head. So no, you can’t be excused.”

“I can’t even play football.”

“Well it’s time to learn.”

I got changed and put my clothes in my back pack. I tried to push the bottle even further down into the bottom but all the time Tiny was watching me and the more I tried to hide it, the more he suspected something.

“OK,” said Mr. Fitton, “Is everyone ready? Tiny, you’re excused for being tiny. Angry Al ...”

“Let me play, sir.”

“No can do I’m afraid. Your personality is a safety hazard.”

So off we went. A huge cheer went up when I walked onto the pitch. It should have been a thrill but I was too worried about what was going on in the changing room. About two minutes into the game, there was a kind of mighty fluttering sound and from every tree for miles around, flocks of birds flew off into the sky and headed for the changing rooms. Dogs barked. Cats meowed. And the head of every girl swivelled towards the school. I knew then that Tiny had opened the aftershave. Two minutes later, the birds flew off, the dogs stopped barking, and the girls started watching me again.

It wasn’t until half-time that I found out what had happened.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.