Keep It Down! (2 page)

Sunil made a face. ‘Yeah, well, Mrs Trundle's probably after him. But I don't think that's why he's not here.'

‘If you're wondering where Dylan is, he's
moved
. Left on the weekend.' Mr Mudge sounded pleased.

Davey and Sunil looked at each other. So it was true. Dylan had gone. ‘You'll have to be keeper, Warner. It's just the way it is,' Sunil whispered, before making his way to his seat in the far corner of the room.

Davey took his place near Bella Ferosi and Mo Clouter, in the opposite corner of the room from Sunil. Kevin and George occupied the other two corners. Mr Mudge's tactic of separating the four boys so they couldn't talk about cricket in class was certainly effective.

Mrs Trundle appeared in the doorway. Beside her was a tall girl with a long dark plait.

‘Mrs Trundle!' Mr Mudge was grinning like a crocodile. ‘Who do we have here?'

‘Mr Mudge, 6M . . .' Mrs Trundle ushered the girl in. ‘This is Tay Tui. She's new at our school. Tay doesn't know anyone here yet, so please introduce yourselves. I want everyone in Year Six to make her welcome.'

‘I know Mo,' the new girl said in a clear voice. ‘He's the cousin of my second-best friend, Shania.'

Mr Mudge smiled again. His ears, which changed colour to match his mood, were a rosy pink. ‘Well, that's wonderful! Perhaps Mo can be your buddy for a while.' He looked across at the great galumph slumped in the chair beside Davey.

Mo nodded angelically. ‘Sure, Sir. Shania's my favourite cousin.'

‘In that case, Tay, we might sit you near Mo. He can help you settle in.'

Mr Mudge glanced at Bella Ferosi, school captain and 6M's most outstanding student. ‘Bella, would you mind moving places? You can take Dylan's old spot.'

‘I'd be happy to, Mr Mudge,' Bella said, smiling pleasantly and giving her ponytail a flick. In a split second, she'd packed up her belongings, dusted down the desk and moved to Dylan's place, right beside Kevin.

Davey looked at his friend with sympathy. Sitting next to Bella should have had its advantages, but Davey had never been able to copy any of her work because she always kept it well covered. She also always reported him to Mr Mudge for the tiniest things. Now it would be Kevin's turn.

As Mr Mudge showed Mrs Trundle out, Tay Tui wandered over to Davey's table. She pulled out the chair Bella had vacated, sat down and plonked her backpack on the desk.

Davey noticed Tay's bag had stuff written all over it, things like ‘I
B4U' and ‘B4U4ME'.

Humming to herself, Tay unzipped her bag and took out her pencil case. It was covered in the same slogans.

The new girl was clearly a big fan of the boy band B4U, a band Davey and his friends couldn't stand on principle (the principle being that any band loved by so many girls must be bad).

Now Davey noticed that someone – probably Tay – had drawn portraits in blue pen of each of the B4U members on the pencil case. Davey tried to work out who was who, but the pictures didn't look much like Lochie, Wills, Finn and Zac, the four band members. (Davey kicked himself.
How do I even know their names?
)

Now he noticed that Tay was singing to herself. She wasn't too bad – but then he realised what she was singing. It was B4U's big hit, the one that had catapulted the band to the top of the charts, where they'd been ever since, denying proper, good bands a shot at fame. ‘You're My One, My Baby' was the worst song Davey had ever heard. The trouble was, as soon as you heard it you couldn't stop singing it – for weeks.
Aargh
!

‘Who said that?' Mudge peered around the room with piggy eyes.

‘Warner did, Sir.' It was Mo.

Davey woke from his awful daydream with a start.

For once, Mr Mudge let it go through to the keeper. He glared at Davey for a moment before continuing. ‘As I was saying, class, I'm pleased to announce that one of 6M's students has been selected to perform at the town hall in the city as part of Senior Citizens' Week celebrations.'

Mr Mudge's lips parted, revealing a hint of yellow teeth. Davey guessed the teacher was attempting to smile kindly.

‘As we all know, Kevin McNab is a ballroom dancer, which I must say is a far better use of your time' – Mudge looked across at Kevin and nodded approvingly – ‘than playing cricket. Anyway, Kevin and his dance partner have been selected to perform with a troupe chosen from all over the city.'

Davey looked across at his friend and surreptitiously gave him the thumbs-up. Kevin rolled his eyes: he hated ballroom dancing, but his mum made him do it.

Mudge's ears glowed softly. ‘So let's all give Kevin a clap and wish him luck for his performance this Friday. He should be very proud.'

6M burst into applause. But Davey sat there like a stunned toadfish. He looked across at Sunil, then Kevin, then George. They too were motionless, staring into space as if they'd been donged on the head by a fishmonger's mallet.

Davey was in such shock that even Tay Tui's singing couldn't stir him. Dylan's leaving had been bad enough. But now Kevin wouldn't be playing in the match on Friday either, and he was one of their best bats. How were Sandhill Flats going to even play against the Batfish, let alone
beat
them? It was too awful to contemplate.

And there was the new girl, Tay Tui, still singing, as if nothing was wrong.

‘You know you need me, baby,

It's true, oo-oo-oo.'

Davey put his hands over his ears.
Aargh
!

‘That was Warner again, Sir,' Mo said.

Recess passed in a blur. At last the lunchtime bell rang. Finally, after a few false starts that caused Mr Mudge's ears to turn maroon, the teacher let the class out. Relieved, Davey grabbed his lunchbox and Kaboom, his special cricket bat made of English willow.

‘At least we've got cricket training,' Davey said to his friends as they crossed the playground to their favourite lunch spot.

Sunil gave him a friendly push. ‘Ready to get behind the wicket? I know you love it.'

Davey groaned. He turned to Kevin. ‘McNab, didn't you realise the dancing thing was on the same day as the match?'

‘No! I thought it wasn't on for ages.' Kevin shrugged. ‘Mum didn't tell me. But don't worry, guys.' He sounded optimistic. ‘I'll get her to write a letter to the dance people. I'll get out of it, no sweat.'

‘You better.' George sounded glummer than Davey, if that was possible.

Kevin grinned. ‘Leave it to me!'

‘Ah, boys! Lovely to see you arrive to training on time!' It was the nice new teacher, Ms Maro.

‘What's she doing here?' Davey whispered to Sunil.

Sunil gave a little shrug that only Davey saw. ‘Hi, Ms Maro,' he said, smiling so his dimple showed. ‘Are you helping out today?'

Ms Maro grinned like she'd been handed a huge piece of ice-cream cake. ‘I'm the new coach, Sunil.' She looked around at the gathering team members. ‘In case you haven't noticed, I
love
cricket! So when Mrs Trundle was looking for a coach for the school team, I put up my hand.' She clapped in excitement. ‘We are going to have
so
much fun!'

Davey's heart lifted just a tiny bit. Even though Ms Maro came across as entirely loopy, she actually
was
fun most of the time.

‘Well, in that case . . . As captain, I'd like to welcome you, Ms Maro,' Sunil said, putting out his hand. ‘But I guess we better get to it. We've got a big game on Friday.'

Davey knew what his friend was up to: if there was one thing the cricket players hated it was standing around talking when they could be having a hit, even if they were two players down.

Ms Maro smiled sunnily. ‘We'll get started as soon as I've made a couple of announcements,' she said firmly.

She motioned for everyone to move closer. ‘Now, first, as you know, Dylan has moved schools, so we need a new wicket-keeper.' A look of sorrow crossed her face but was gone as quickly as it had arrived. ‘Secondly, as you probably also know, clever Kevin here is dancing for our senior citizens on Friday, so won't be able to play. That means we're two players short.'

‘No, it's okay, Ms Maro,' Kevin called out. ‘My mum's going to write a letter.'

Ms Maro reached into her pocket. ‘She's already done it, Kevin,' she said, waving a piece of paper. ‘Mums are always ahead of the game, eh?' She smiled. ‘Now, your mum says here –' Ms Maro held up the letter ‘– that you won't be coming to school at all that day, because you have to catch a bus to the town hall in the city and be there two hours before the performance at one o'clock.'

She looked over at Kevin. ‘So, while we're hitting sixes and catching out Batfish, you'll be spinning your partner round the dancefloor for the senior citizens!'

She tucked the letter back in her pocket. ‘Kevin, we're proud of you, but we're going to miss you on Friday, aren't we team?'

‘Yes, Ms Maro,' the cricketers said in monotone unison.

Davey gave Kevin a push. ‘Good one, McNab!' he hissed. ‘Now what do we do?'

‘So what we're hoping to do is . . .' Ms Maro looked around excitedly, as if they were all about to embark on a trip to the moon. ‘We're
hoping
to enlist a couple of
new
players.'

‘Great idea, Miss,' Sunil said, smiling so his dimple showed. ‘But no one else knows how to play. We've tried it before.'

Davey nodded in agreement. ‘It's true, Miss,' he said.

‘Well, I think our luck's about to change,' Ms Maro said. ‘Because I happen to know of two people who are
very
keen to join the team.'

Suddenly, Davey became aware of a sound he'd hoped never to hear again, the sound of that awful B4U song.

Ms Maro gestured to someone behind him. ‘Come on, guys, come forward so we can all meet you!'