Kid Normal and the Shadow Machine by Greg James

Author:Greg James
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408898895
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

9

Parents’ Morning

Murph did his best to right the Super Zeroes’ capsized friendship after the raft race fiasco, but it was far from plain sailing.

The next time he managed to talk to all his friends together was at lunchtime the next day. Mary, Billy, Hilda and Nellie were sitting together in the lunch hall when he came in, and he made a beeline for the empty chair next to Mary. She greeted him with that kind of distant politeness that means ‘I am angry with you but I am far too angry to tell you that I’m angry with you so I’m going to be polite to you and nothing more’.

‘Look,’ said Murph without preamble. ‘About yesterday’s CT lesson …’

‘Yeah,’ Billy broke in, ‘what about yesterday’s CT lesson? I found a frog in my pocket later on. A frog!’

‘I don’t think Murph wants to hear about your pocket frog,’ said Mary tartly. ‘I think he wants to tell us why he picked –’

‘Angel!’ interrupted Hilda. ‘Angel! Over here!’

Angel was holding a tray of food and spinning on the spot in the famous lunchtime looking-for-someone-to-sit-with dance. She spotted Hilda waving and jogged over, smiling. ‘Wotcher! You all OK?’ she said as she sat down. ‘I just got out of geography. Who knew there was a tunnel to France? Under the sea! That’s mad!’

Murph grinned, despite himself. He had come to realise that, for all her breezy nature, almost everything about daily life was a startling culture shock for Angel. Every aspect of The School was strange and rare, from the cars on the street outside to the pens in people’s pockets. Even lunch could be a startling experience – and today’s was no exception. School chef Bill Burton had served up one of his specialities: spicy Moroccan couscous.

‘What in the name of Starsky and Hutch is this supposed to be?’ she asked, holding up a steaming forkful. ‘It’s, like, crumbs? Or tiny, tiny little potatoes with green things on? Is this what boiled potatoes look like to a giant?’

‘This isn’t what you used to eat in the 1980s, then?’ asked Mary a little wearily.

‘No way!’ exclaimed Angel, taking a bite. ‘This is, like, food from the future! It’s tubular!’

‘So, um, Angel,’ said Hilda. ‘I was going to ask you about the raft race yesterday …’

‘Oh, yeah, sorry about that.’ Angel blushed. ‘Don’t know the strength of my own Cape yet, really. Didn’t mean to sink you.’

‘No, no, it’s fine,’ soothed Hilda. ‘I was just wondering … what is your Cape, exactly? I’ve never seen anything like that.’

Murph felt a lurch of guilt that he still hadn’t told his friends about the story he’d heard in Carl’s workshop. ‘She can copy other people’s Capes after they use them, but do them better. Kind of magnify them!’ he explained to Hilda.

‘Oh, you knew all about it already, did you?’ said Mary crossly. ‘I might have known.’ She snatched up her tray and abruptly left the table.

‘What’s grinding her engine?’ Angel asked, looking concerned.

‘Don’t worry, it’s nothing you’ve done,’ Murph reassured her.

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