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in for the competition, and I think it has an excellent chance of winning. It’s imaginative. It’s clever, and it takes us on a journey through the world of books.’ He aimed his smile at Ralph. ‘You’ve done a wonderful job, Ralph. Come up here with me and bask in your class’s admiration.’
    Ralph shuffled out of his seat, his neck crimson with embarrassment, and possibly with pride too.
    I thought he looked smug.
    Murdo put a hand on his shoulder and pointed to the collage.
    ‘Ralph read all these books you know. So he could really get to know the characters he was drawing.’ This was Ralph Aird who had probably never read a book beforein his life. Ralph looked even more embarrassed. ‘And what wonderful characters he chose.’ Murdo’s voice rose with enthusiasm.
    I looked at the collage too, at Oliver Twist asking for more and Captain Ahab and the great Moby Dick (Murdo had, by that time, told us all about him), at Long John Silver complete with parrot. And Harry Potter pointing off into the distance to a future where books will always be. The cut-out figures were alive and colourful and seemed as if they were ready to leap from the wall. Ralph had talent. Murdo had found it. So why did it make me so angry?
    ‘If Ralph doesn’t take the prize home for this school, I’ll lay an egg.’ Murdo laughed heartily. Only Diane and I didn’t join in. ‘So, now, I would like you to join me in congratulating Ralph for all his hard work and wishing him all the best in the competition.’
    He began to clap. One by one the class joined him enthusiastically. Once Ralph had been really unpopular. Lots of people still thought he was obnoxious, but they also admired how hard he had worked. Ralph tried not to beam with delight. Everyone applauding Ralph Aird? My stomach tightened with something more than anger.
    Reluctantly, Diane and I began to clap too, but our hearts weren’t in it.
    Yet Diane was smiling. I was puzzled by that smile, until we were filing out of the class and she pulled me close to her and whispered, ‘Now, I know exactly how we can hurt Ralph Aird.’

Chapter Eight
    March 9th
    ‘There’s no time like the present,’ that’s what Diane said. She says her dad always says you never put off till tomorrow what you can do today .
    But I suddenly wanted to put it off forever when I heard what she had in mind. Destroy Ralph’s collage! Rip it to shreds, tear it to pieces. It would all be blamed on the vandals who had been terrorising the school and the neighbourhood. That’s what Diane said .
    We sneaked back into the empty English classroom after the school had emptied and all we could hear were the cleaners rattling their mops and buckets in the corridors below .
    I was breathing so fast I thought my heart was going to burst. I didn’t want to be there. I’d tried to tell Diane but she wouldn’t listen. But as I looked at the collage and realised the amount of work that had gone into it I wanted to be there even less .
    Diane pushed a massive pair of scissors into my hands. ‘I took them from the art class,’ she answered to my surprised look. ‘Now hurry, you haven’t got much time.’
    That was when I realised that Diane wasn’t going to help me. I was meant to do this on my own .
    ‘It’s your revenge, silly,’ she said. ‘It’ll get all that anger, that frustration, out of your system. My dad does it all the time. He’s got his boss’s photo on a punchball in the basement gym. And when that boss of his really gets his back up, he punches lumps out of his picture.’ She laughed, covering her mouth so she wouldn’t make a sound. ‘Well, it’s better than punching lumps out of him, isn’t it?’
    And wasn’t this much better than punching lumps out of Ralph Aird?
    ‘You wouldn’t want to do Ralph any real harm, would you?’ She seemed shocked at the thought of it and I hurried to correct her .
    ‘Of course, I wouldn’t.’
    ‘Well, material things don’t matter and this