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… to throw myself … on your mercy,” he added.
    The head teacher was straightening his tie and looking rather pink in the face. “Danny—have you been watching
High School Musical
again? The entire box set, by any chance?” he queried.
    â€œErrrm,” Danny said.
    â€œTry to remember that we’re not American teen idols,” sighed Mr. Hurford. “You don’t need to hug me to avoid detention, you peculiar boy. Shouldn’t you be in class, somewhere?”
    â€œYes—yes, I should,” muttered Danny, leaping to his feet. He was relieved to find that the “being very slow” business seemed to have worn off.
    â€œRun along then,” Mr. Hurford said. “And if you touch my thermostat again, I’ll have you shot,” he added mildly.

    Danny skidded into the school hall with his heart clattering. That was one very weird moment he’d just had there. Possibly the weirdest yet since getting involved with Petty Potts and the S.W.I.T.C.H. project (and that included being inside a cat’s ear when he was a grasshopper several weeks back).
    â€œDanny! Are you back with us?” called out Miss Mellor, pausing with her stopwatch in her hand. She seemed to have been timing a race up and down the climbing bars. “Is your eye all right now?”

    â€œYes—yes, fine,” Danny said. “Where’s Josh?”
    Miss Mellor looked around. “I don’t know. Has anyone seen Josh?” she called out to the class. Everyone looked around, murmuring—except, Danny noticed, Billy Sutter and Jason Bilk, who just looked at each other.
    â€œMiss! Miss!” squeaked Claudia Petherwaite. “He’s up there!”
    Everyone turned round and saw Josh. He was hanging from the ceiling.

“I think one arm is longer than the other,” Josh said, screwing up his face as he lifted his arms and compared them. “Or maybe it’s just out of its socket.”
    â€œIt’s not,” Danny said. “And you should be glad they’re not both broken. And your legs. And your face. What were you thinking, climbing into the light shade? Are you nuts?”
    The spectacle of Josh Phillips dangling from the light had caused quite an uproar. Miss Mellor had screamed, and Danny had shinned up the rope at high speed. He’d hauled himself along the top bar where Josh had been just minutes before in chameleon form. As a crowd of kids and Miss Mellor held their breath, Danny had anchored one arm and one leg around the farthest corner of theframe and then reached out and grabbed Josh’s flailing free hand.

    At that moment, the light shade had snapped off its fixing, and Josh had dropped. But Danny had gotten a good grip on him, and his brother only fell halfway, the shade smashing dramatically onto the tumble mat below and making several girls (and one or two boys) scream. Josh wrapped his legs around the climbing frame post and gradually slid to the floor amid a round of applause and whoops.
    â€œWhat made you do it?” went on Danny as they went out of the school gates and headed for home.
    â€œIt seemed like a good idea at the time.” Josh grinned. “And it was really easy—I was a chameleon, you see.”
    â€œYou too?” breathed Danny, turning to stare at his twin. “So was I! I was up in the fig tree in the corridor! But nobody saw me—well, not until I fell on Mr. Hurford.” He went a little pink.
    â€œYou fell on Mr. Hurford?” repeated Josh.
    â€œAnother time,” Danny said, waving his hand. “Did anyone see you when you S.W.I.T.C.H.ed?”
    â€œNo!” Josh said, shaking his head. “Nobody! I was camouflaged to match the rope. I was halfway up it anyway … well, thanks to Billy and Jason putting me there, upside down!”
    â€œI knew it! I heard them plotting when I was up the tree. But I was too slow to do anything to help,” shrugged Danny.