Anaconda Adventure (4 page)

The face that peered down at them through the opening in the duffel bag had big brown eyes, a cloud of curly black hair, and a naughty grin that Josh and Danny had last seen at their adventure camp in the summer holidays. Charlie was the only friend they had who knew about S.W.I.T.C.H.

“Josh! Danny! The teachers have put me back on the bus as a punishment,” Charlie called in a low voice. “You can come out now! I mean … it
is
you two, isn't it?”

“Yess!” hissed back Danny. “But how on earth did you know?”

Of course, Charlie couldn't work out what he was saying, but she seemed to guess. “I've got no idea what you two are doing in the middle of my
school trip, S.W.I.T.C.H.ed into snakes,” she went on. “And you nearly got completely caught out this time! The keeper was just running up from the bottom of the path when we all came out of the reptile house.”

Charlie giggled. “Then I saw her! Petty Potts! Standing there on the path with a little white S.W.I.T.C.H. spray bottle in her hands, looking at us as if her underwear had just caught fire! And in that second I realized what was happening. A pair of escaped snakes under the bench! Petty Potts in the area! It had to be you two! And so I had to think fast—really fast! And guess what? I'd just bought these rubber snakes from the gift shop! Of course, they've been confiscated now,” she sighed.

“She's brilliant! Just brilliant!” Danny said. “Best girl in the world!”

“Danny,” Josh said. “We'd better get out of this bag. We could S.W.I.T.C.H. back at any minute. It's a nice bag but I don't want to end up wearing it!” Josh lifted his head through the top of the bag and began to slither across Charlie's arm.

“Wow! You are fab!” murmured Charlie,
running her fingers along the smooth black and yellow scales that formed a three-pronged arrow shape on his head. Josh soon slid across to the spare seat next to her, and Danny began to wind out of the bag too. “YEE-OW!” added Charlie. With some cause. Suddenly an eight-year-old boy was sprawling across her lap.

“Ahem. Sorry,” Danny said, scrambling off, looking a little pink.

“Thank you!” Josh said, also back in boy form now. “So much! If you hadn't come along and swapped those toy snakes for us, we'd be in captivity now. Behind glass. Probably with one of the real anacondas deciding which one of us to crush first.”

“Glad to be of service.” Charlie beamed. “After all—you helped
me
out back at summer camp. I still can't believe I got to be a frog! It was the best thing ever!”

“What happened to your hair?” Danny asked. In summer camp, where he and Josh had first met Charlie, she'd had her black hair in many long beaded braids.

“Oh—that!” Charlie tugged at the bloom of frizzy black curls with a frown. “St. Gwendoline's doesn't allow hair with beads in. I had to have them all taken out—and now I have to brush my hair every day! Can you believe it? Me?”

“It still looks cool,” Danny said. “But you don't like St. Gwendoline's much, do you?”

Charlie shrugged. “Mom thought it might calm me down, you know … being in a fancy school where you have to wear a proper uniform and all that. With strict teachers and … eurgh! Straw hats! But it's not that bad. Most of the girls are all right … apart from Isobella!”

“Did you really stick corn puffs up her nose?” chuckled Danny.

“She had it coming,” sniffed Charlie. “Next time it'll be Pringles down her pants!”

“We should probably try to find Petty,” sighed Josh when they'd all finished laughing. “She'll be getting worried.”

“Doesn't stop her, though, does it?” Charlie said. “What have you been S.W.I.T.C.H.ed into since we were all frogs in the summer?”

Danny counted on his fingers, “Um … common lizard and sand lizard … chameleons … leatherback turtles and—just last week—geckos!”

“Geckos!” echoed Charlie, her face awash with first awe and then envy. “Ooooh! I would
love
to be a gecko! Did you walk up walls?”

“Yup!” Josh said. “And across ceilings!”

“I have got to get some of that spray from Petty!” Charlie said. “It's brilliant that you found those cubes and got the REPTOSWITCH formula for her.”

“That's not all we've found,” Josh said, more seriously now. He and Danny exchanged glances.

“What? What's going on?” asked Charlie.

“We've been getting marbles …” explained Danny. “Or rather, clues to find them. Sent to us or delivered in some way.”

“Who from?” asked Charlie.

“That's just it … we don't know. We call him—or her—The Mystery Marble Sender,” Josh said. “We've followed the clues and found four of them now.”

Charlie shrugged. “Well … marbles are no big deal. I've got bags of them at home. Why would anyone bother?”

“They're not ordinary marbles,” Josh said. “They contain code, like the REPTOSWITCH cubes. Petty Potts's code!”

Charlie looked confused. “Umm … so is
Petty Potts
sending the clues to find S.W.I.T.C.H. marbles to you? And … er … why?”

“No!” Danny said. “She says she isn't. She's just as confused as we are. She recognized the marble we showed her right away but said she'd forgotten she'd made it. We think it's for a kind of MAMMALSWITCH.”

Charlie's eyes widened. “What … like tigers and elephants and all that?” she murmured.

“Maybe,” Josh said. “But there are still two more to find before we can give Petty the whole code—and in the meantime … it's kind of creepy. Who's sending them to us? And why? What do they know about S.W.I.T.C.H. and Petty? And what are they going to do next?”

“Whoever it was even followed us on holiday to Cornwall,” added Danny. “They sent us a clue on a parachute! We found that marble in a ruined fort just off the coast.”

“Ooooow! I wish I'd been there!” Charlie folded her arms and huffed. “You two have the best fun!”

“Yeah—and nearly get ripped apart by hungry owls, dropped from a great height, drowned while trapped in fishing net, forced to be gladiators by crazed princesses …” listed Danny.

“Sheeesh!” Charlie raised an eyebrow. “Crazed princesses … that does sound scary.”

“Thing is … whoever this is … are they watching us now?” murmured Josh.

They were all quiet for a while, glancing around them uneasily, and then Charlie went on, “Anyway … is there any chance Petty might let me have just a little gecko S.W.I.T.C.H. spray? Or snake S.W.I.T.C.H. spray? I'd love to be a snake! I'd love to be a DUCK!”

“A duck?” Josh looked confused. “You want to be a duck?”

“NO! DUCK!” yelled Charlie. “Miss Butcher's coming!”

Josh and Danny threw themselves into the aisle, crawled at top speed toward the back of the bus and hid behind the seats—just in time. The bus door opened and Miss Butcher strode in.

“Charlotte Wexford!” she barked. “I'm afraid you have to come with me. As much as I would like to leave you here on your own all afternoon, we are heading down to the river walk now, and health and safety rules mean I can't leave you
unsupervised. Although it's certainly what you deserve for your appalling behavior.”

“Yes, Miss Butcher,” Charlie said. She didn't sound remotely troubled.

“You can wipe that cheerful look off your face, too,” snapped Miss Butcher. “You needn't think, just because I have to bring you along, that you're about to have any fun. You'll stay right between Miss Biffle and me the whole time. And I will call your mother into the school to discuss your future just as soon as we get back today.”

Charlie sighed. “Yes, Miss Butcher,” she said, getting to her feet and managing to sound a bit less chipper.

“I really don't know what gets into you,” muttered the teacher, stepping out of the bus. “You're easily as clever as the other girls, but you're always so naughty.”

“I'm not really naughty,” Charlie was saying as the bus door closed. “I'm just misunderstood …”

Danny got up from behind the seat and peeped out of the window as the teacher and their friend walked away. “It's not fair,” he said. “Charlie got herself into big trouble—just to save you and me! And now she's going to get into even more trouble when they call her mom in. What if she gets expelled? It'll be our fault—and Petty's fault too.”

“There must be something we can do,” Josh said. “But I can't think what. We can't tell them that Charlie was actually saving our lives. Nobody would believe us.”

“No …” sighed Danny. “Being S.W.I.T.C.H.ed is amazing, like having super powers. But how much good is it? Charlie's doomed. There's nothing we can do …”