Keep It Down! (7 page)

‘Ready?' With the jar in one hand and the broom in the other, Davey pulled on the last corner. At the same time the poster came away, a big brown spider scuttled down the wall. Davey quickly stuck the broom in front of it. The spider clambered on and in a moment was running down the handle towards him. Still holding the broom, Davey held the jar at the end of handle. The spider ran straight into it.

‘The lid!' Davey slapped his hand over the top of the jar and cast his eyes around. There it was near the end of his bed. He dived and slammed it on.

‘
Now
I've gotcha!'

After setting the jar on his bedside table, Davey rescued his poster of Ricky Ponting and stuck it up quickly, so his mum wouldn't see all the chunks out of the wall.

‘So, what do you reckon, Ricky?' Davey stared into the former Australian captain's eyes. ‘Will things work out tomorrow?'

Ricky's face looked like a huge green moon in the half-light of dusk. Davey threw himself back on the bed, and Max jumped on top of him.

‘Get off!' Davey pushed the dog to the floor.

It had been a long day of polishing lawn bowls, sorting paperclips and catching spiders. Davey could hardly keep his eyes open. Still, he stared up at Ricky. ‘Can we beat the Batfish, Ricky?' he whispered.

Did he see his hero wink? A thought came into his mind out of nowhere. Tay Tui was a good wicket-keeper – a
really
good one. If she also liked to sing, well, he'd have to get used to that.

But what about Mo?!

Davey knew what his mum would say.
‘Give him a chance! Maybe Mo will learn to love cricket.'

‘Hmmm.' Davey wasn't buying it. That was
never
going to happen.

He looked at his spider. ‘We're counting on you,' he said.

The creature was playing dead, but Davey was sure he saw one of its legs move . . .

The next morning, Davey was up early. After a quick breakfast of Corn Pops, he grabbed everything needed for the big game and jumped on his bike.

Stuffed into his school backpack he had his cricket gear, his bat, Kaboom, his ‘baggy green', and, importantly, the Vegemite jar with the spider in it.

‘Max, you're staying here,' he said firmly as he closed the back door behind him. Davey's dog was not only banned from the school grounds but from any school sporting fixture in the district. Max was that famous.

Davey wheeled his bike down the side path, then jumped on and headed to Kevin's place to give him the spider.

He couldn't let his friend down. After all, it was going to be incredible. He could see his friend now, doing the tarantula dance and freaking out his mum.

Davey laughed out loud. Mrs McNab would fall for it for sure. He could feel it in his bones.

Lessons dragged that Friday morning. Mr Mudge seemed to take forever to explain long division for the hundredth time. Then he droned on about healthy eating choices in PDHPE for an hour, before asking Bella Ferosi to make an impromptu speech about leadership. Finally, after what felt like thirty-seven hours, 6M was allowed out for lunch.

Davey, Sunil and George quickly made their way to the school gate to wait for the rest of the cricket team. The plan was to walk to Flatter Park around the corner, where the match would be played.

‘No sign of McNab,' George observed as they strode towards the gate and freedom.

‘We'll see him down at Flatter.' Sunil seemed confident. ‘He's got to be sick and crazy enough to miss the dancing but get better quickly enough to make the match. It's a fine line, but I reckon he'll do it.'

Davey wanted to believe his friend, but now he wasn't so sure. For one thing, the spider had played dead for so long he wondered whether it was actually alive at all. In which case, would Kevin's mum fall for the trick? It was touch and go.

At the gate, Ms Maro was ticking names off a list. ‘Ah, here they are! My star players!' She smiled at Davey and his friends, then looked up and over their heads. ‘Oh, and here's Mo and Tay and Ivy! I didn't hear you coming!'

Davey glanced around. Tay, Ivy and Mo were a few steps behind them. But Ms Maro was right: the girls' mouths were so full of lollies, they couldn't make a sound.

‘Hi, everyone!' Mo leered at Davey. ‘Looking forward to losing?'

Davey gave the mini-minded muppet a happy smile.

When everyone was accounted for, the team formed two straggly lines and set off towards Flatter Park.

Two and a half minutes later, they were there. The Batfish Beach team had already arrived and had started warming up.

Davey scanned the field. Kevin was nowhere to be seen. ‘McNab's not here,' he said quietly to Sunil.

‘That's okay. If he comes any time before afternoon tea, they'll let him play.' Sunil still sounded confident.

‘So long as Mo doesn't say anything to the Batfish before McNab gets here.'

‘It's a risk we'll have to take.'

When it was time to toss the coin, Kevin still hadn't arrived. Sunil called tails, won, and opted to bat first.

‘Hopefully McNab makes it by the time it's his turn to bat,' Sunil whispered as Davey pulled on his helmet and gloves. Then he'll be here to do some bowling when the Batfish are in.'

As he trudged out to the pitch with George, who was Sandhill Flats' other opening batsman, Davey scanned Flatter Drive. Still no sign of Kevin.

He took his place at the crease and tried to put Kevin, Mo and that awful B4U song out of his head for good. At this point, his main job was to take his time, score some runs and set Sandhill Flats up for a nice big run tally. He gave Kaboom a quick kiss for good luck. ‘Come on, K, we can do this,' he whispered to his bat. Then he got into position and waited, ready.

The first Batfish bowler started with a few leg-spinners. Davey took it slow – so slow that by the end of the over he hadn't scored a run.

That's okay
, he told himself. No rush. Then George at the other end also played out a maiden over.

After two overs with no runs to the score, Davey was pleased when, first ball next over, the bowler strayed down the leg side. Davey shifted his weight onto his back foot and pulled the ball to cow corner for three.

With George on strike, Davey watched as his friend blocked the first few balls. George was right to take it slow, he knew; but he was out LBW to the last ball of the over. He hadn't even had a chance to settle in.

Davey grimaced as George trudged off. One for three was not a great start.

Next up was Ivy. As she approached, Davey noticed she was no longer sucking on a lolly. He just hoped she wasn't going to start singing, like her new friend Tay.

But Ivy didn't sing – at least, Davey couldn't hear her. Instead she started scoring steadily with some stylish shots that had the Batfish fielders running everywhere.

It gave Davey the confidence to try a couple of his own scoring shots and forget about Kevin, Mo and B4U in the process. His score climbed to fourteen.

When Byron, the Batfish captain, sent a fast one down the leg side, Davey jumped at the chance to try his switch hit, something he'd been working on for ages.

With some fancy footwork, he turned, swapped hands on the bat handle, and played a right-handed drive for four valuable runs.

‘Now we're getting somewhere!' Ivy called out from the other end of the pitch.

But a few balls later, Davey was out for twenty-one, caught in slips when Kaboom didn't quite connect.

Usually at this point, Kevin would have come in to bat. But as Davey traipsed back to the boundary his friend was still nowhere to be seen.

‘Good one, Shorty,' Mo hissed as Davey passed. ‘Wait till I get out there and start bothering those Batfish. Ha!' Mo's pink eyes were gleaming.

Ignoring the blithering blockhead, Davey eyed Sunil. ‘No McNab?'

Sunil shook his head. ‘Not yet. Tay's up instead.'

‘Tay, no lollies out there,' Ms Maro said as the new girl pulled on her gloves. ‘We don't want you to choke.'

‘Sure, Miss,' Tay said before heading out to the pitch. ‘I don't have any left, anyway.'

That's a worry
, Davey thought.
Tay'll be singing for the rest of the match.
He made a note to ask to field on the boundary, as far as possible from the warbling wicket-keeper.

Davey had no idea whether Tay or Ivy were singing out on the pitch. But they certainly made some great shots and scored some quick runs. When Tay did get out it was unlucky – she stumbled going for a quick single and was run out. Still, she had scored a respectable sixteen runs.

Even without Kevin playing, it now looked as if they'd reach a competitive total, but when Ivy was dismissed for nineteen, it led to a collapse. The rest of the Sandhill Flats batters came and went with almost no runs added to the score. Sunil, at his usual number ten position in the batting order, added a few runs to the tally before being caught behind.

The result was that, even though Ivy, Tay and Davey had batted well and notched up decent scores, Davey doubted it would be enough. To have any chance of beating the Batfish, Sandhill Flats would need at least eighty-five runs or so. As it was, they were sitting on sixty-nine. It would be up to their last batter to bump up the score.

Unfortunately, with no sign of Kevin, the only batter left for Sandhill Flats was Mo Clouter.

Davey, George and Sunil exchanged worried looks. If Mo's performance at cricket training was anything to go by, his chances of scoring even one run were slim. On top of that, the cocky cabbage was no doubt hell-bent on pestering the Batfish. If that happened and he was caught, Sandhill Flats would be disqualified on the spot.

They watched as Mo grabbed a bat and started swatting invisible flies before tramping across the field towards the crease.

George shook his head. ‘How did it come to this? I was sure our spider plan would work.'

‘Yeah, me too,' Sunil said. ‘It seemed like a no-brainer.'

Davey nodded. ‘It did. Speaking of no-brainers, Mo's almost ready to go.'

They held their breath . . .