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happy
slapping, so sneaking up followed by
lightning attacks and running away was
their only hope. They grabbed hold of
Noah, and wrestled him to the ground.
Furbank ripped off one of his shoes and
chucked it to me before Jenny could do
anything to stop them.
    I wasn't expecting the shoe, but I caught
it anyway, because I'm good at catching as
long as it's not something hard like a cricket
ball or a Ninja death star.
    'Throw it on the roof,' Dockery yelled at
me.
    There was a flat roof covering the bike
shed. It was where things always got thrown
– shoes, lunchboxes, Year One kids.
    I could feel everyone looking at me. The
Dockery Gang, the Bare Bum Gang, the
Commandos (that was another gang who
weren't our enemies or our friends), even
the ordinary no-gang kids.
    I sensed that this was a Decisive Moment
in World History. What happened next
would change my life for ever, along with
the lives of everyone else involved and
possibly the whole planet, including Alaska
and Borneo.
    It came down to this:
    I could throw the shoe on top of the bike
shed or I could give it back to Noah.
    I thought for a second.
    Then I took very, very careful aim.
    And I threw the shoe.
    It sailed through the air towards the bikeshed
roof. It looked like a perfect shot, but
then it dipped, pinged off the gutter and
bounced on the ground.
    Normally by now Jenny would have
been busy chasing off the Dockery Gang,
handing out a few slaps and kicks (if you
can hand out a kick, that is – I suppose really
you have to foot it out). But she ignored
the Dockery Gang, and came up to me.
Her face was an interesting purple colour.
Usually her hair was arranged to look like
a volcano exploding out of the top of her
head, but today she had it in about four (or
maybe five) plaits, all sticking out in different
directions. She reminded me of that famous
monster from Greek mythology called the
Medusa, who has snakes instead of hair, and
if you looked at her you turned into stone
and then died in horrible agony.
    That should probably have been a
warning.
    'Hello, Jenny,' I said.

    Or that's what I
tried to say. What I
actually said was:
    'Hell—OW!' and
then I fell, not on the
floor, but into a big
square plastic box
that was behind me.
The box was half full
of beanbags, which made it actually quite
a nice thing to fall into. The headmistress,
Mrs Plunket, had insisted that there was a
box of beanbags in the playground, which
she thought would provide interesting
entertainment for us children. I suppose she
honestly believed we'd toss them gently to
each other, boys and girls all playing nicely
together. Or perhaps we'd practise walking
about with them balanced on our heads.
She was mistaken in that view.
    As I lay in the beanbag box, Jenny came
and loomed over me. I knew better than
to try to get out. She'd only push me back
in again. Also, Jenny was polite and well
brought up and didn't hit people when they
were cowering on the floor, or in boxes,
although I was hardly cowering at all,
more just sort of lying there, looking up at
the sky and minding my own business.
    'I hoped we might have been wrong
about you, Ludo,' she said, sounding more
sorrowful than angry. 'But now I see we
weren't. You're just a dirty Dockery dog. I
can't believe I ever liked you even a bit.'
I wanted to explain some things to Jenny.
    I wanted to explain that I'd have given
anything to be back in the Bare Bum Gang.
That I didn't want to be in Dockery's stinky
gang. That I'd deliberately aimed the shoe
so that it bounced off the gutter, and that
it was probably the best throw I'd ever done
in my life, because any old idiot could have
just thrown it up on the roof. I wanted to
explain that Jenny was my favourite girl
in the whole world, the only one I didn't
think was really silly, the only one I liked
to sit next to in the Gang den or anywhere
else.
    But I didn't say any of that. I couldn't
think of the words until it was too late
and Jenny's back was turned. I could have
sworn the snakes