Casketball Capers (5 page)

and dodging things with his eyes shut.

“Not bad,” said Boris with a grin. “Not bad at all. For a vampire.”

Just then the school clock struck one.

“Yikes!” cried Lee. “That was loud!” Then he remembered. “One o'clock! I'll be late for class! See you soon, Boris. And thanks for the tricks!”

Chapter 4

Growler the Fouler

Lee zoomed out of the belfry and back to his classroom. The others had already started to practice hanging upside down.

“Come along now, Lee Price!” said Miss Gargoyle sternly. “You're late. Don't hang around. Or rather,
DO
hang around. Hurry up and find an empty place.”

Billy and Bella had saved Lee a space on the curtains.

“Where were you hiding?” whispered Bella.

“Yeah, we couldn't find you anywhere,” said Billy.

“I was in the clock tower,” said Lee. “I met this
real
bat called Boris. He's so cool.”

He was about to tell them more when they heard a
toot-toot
and saw a bus driving through the school gates.

“Look,” said Bella. “The werewolves are here!”

“Aha!” said Miss Gargoyle, fluttering over to the window. “Lee, Billy, and Bella, you'd better go and get ready for the game. The rest of us will be waiting to cheer you on!”

By the time the St. Orlok's team got changed, the Chaney Street werewolves were already out on the field warming up under the floodlights.

Lee jogged over to Ollie Talbot, his friend on the werewolf team.

“Hi Ollie,” he said. “Guess what? We had our first bat lessons today!”

“Cool!” said Ollie. “So this means you're even battier than usual.”

“Ha-ha, very funny,” groaned Lee. Ollie was always making terrible jokes.

Just then, a big werewolf pointed at them and sneered.

“Uh-oh, here comes Robbie Growler,” sighed Ollie. “Just ignore him.”

“What! Growler the Fouler?” said Lee.

“That's him,” said Ollie. “The dirtiest player in Chaney Street. He's our new shooter.”

There were two forwards, called shooters, on each team, and they scored most of the points. The vampire shooters were Bella, who was tall for her age, and an older girl named Naz Patel.