Girl Wonder to the Rescue (5 page)

“And the Terrific Twins,” said my brothers. And we all did ballet pirouettes
and jumps until I landed on Edward’s right foot by accident!

Then I had the best idea of my life.

“I’ve got it.” I clapped my hands and waved them in the air over my head. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!”

“What?” said Anthony.

“Got what?” Edward repeated.

“Anthony, you can do one of your rapping rhymes and Edward and I will
do the backing vocals and dances. If we practise at break-time, we’ll be ready for the auditions at lunch time.” I grinned.

“A brilliant idea,” said Edward.

“Extra-super-duper brilliant,” I agreed.

But Anthony didn’t say a word.

“What’s the matter, Anthony?” I asked. “Don’t you like my idea?”

“You two told me yesterday to stop making up rhymes and raps,” Anthony reminded us.

“That was yesterday,” I said.

“Yeah, and this is today,” Edward added.

“I’m not going to do it,” said Anthony. And he walked off!

I looked at Edward and he looked at me and we both ran after Anthony.

“Anthony, what’re you talking about?” I frowned. “You have to do it. We haven’t got time to practise anything else and
you’re brilliant at rhyming.”

“That’s not what you said yesterday,” said Anthony. “You said I didn’t have any talent.”

“No, we didn’t . . .” I began, but Anthony wouldn’t let me finish.

“You said I didn’t have any talent, because if I did you’d appreciate it,” Anthony said huffily.

“We do appreciate it, don’t we, Maxine?” Edward said.

“Prove it,” said Anthony.

“Prove it? How?” I asked.

Then Anthony got a glittering gleam in his eye.

Oh-oh! I thought. Oh-oh! I don’t like the look of this.

“I’m not going to make up any more raps or rhymes until you two promise never to ask me to stop doing them . . .” Anthony began.

“We promise,” I said.

“Yeah, we definitely promise,” Edward agreed.

“And until you both go down on your knees and say I’ve got lots and lots of talent!”

What could we do? I didn’t want to go down on my knees to Anthony but I wanted to audition for the talent show. With Anthony’s help I was sure we’d be chosen, but without Anthony . . .

“This is all your fault, Maxine,” Edward told me frostily. “It was your dippy-dorky-dozy idea to get Anthony to stop making up rhymes yesterday.”

“Edward, you wanted him to shut up just as much as I did,” I said.

“I’m waiting.” Anthony sniffed, his nose in the air.

Edward and I looked at each other. Slowly we both got down on our knees.

“Dear Anthony, you have got kilo-tons of talent,” I said.

“Mega-tons,” Edward agreed. “Maxine, what’s bigger than mega-tons?”

“Giga-tons!” I replied. “So please say you’ll do it.”

“Very well, then,” Anthony said, at last. “Since you both asked so nicely.”

I got to my feet, brushing off my kneecaps.

“I told you that you’d both be sorry and that you’d miss my rhymes,” said Anthony smugly.

“Anthony,” I said. “Don’t rub it in!”

But he did!

All through the morning break, we practised and practised. Anthony came up with all the rhymes we should say, I invented the dance steps and Edward made up all the drum noises.

At last it was lunch time. We watched
some of the other acts whilst we waited for our turn. One boy read out a poem about some clouds. At least five different people played tunes on their recorders. One boy played his violin. Three of the girls from my class had got together and they did an acrobatics show on the stage, which was quite good. Then it was our turn.

“So what do you call your act?” asked Mrs Kelsey, from in front of the stage.

I looked at the twins. They looked at me. We hadn’t thought about that bit!

“Hang on a second,” I said quickly. Anthony, Edward and I bent in a huddle to discuss it. “We’re called the Zappers!” I said at last.

“OK, Zappers.” Mrs Kelsey smiled. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Anthony stepped forward. I was on one side of him, Edward was on the other. Anthony coughed to clear his throat.
I counted out – just like I’d seen them do on the telly. “One, two, one, two, three, four.”

And then we began.

Edward started slapping on his puffed-out cheeks. I started drumming on my chest and making rhythmic raspberry noises! We all started dancing, using the steps we’d rehearsed in the playground. Then Anthony began.

“My name is Tony,

You know it’s true,

We’ve got a lot

To say to you.

With my sister, Max,

And my brother, Ed,

If you don’t like this

You must be dead!”

I started snapping my fingers whilst Edward took over the drum noises by slapping his chest.

“We’re called the Zappers

We’re finger-snappers

And great toe-tappers,

We’re the youngest rappers!” rhymed Anthony.

I smiled at him. He’d made up a whole new verse, just like that. What a hero!

Then it was Edward’s turn. He stepped forward and started snapping his fingers.

“So don’t try to stop us,

Or even top us.

’Cause we won’t lose it,

We’re busy making music!” rapped Edward.

“We won’t cause a scene

We won’t make a fuss

If you, Mrs Kelsey,

Will just choose us!” we all said together. “Yeah!”

And with that we all did the splits – well, as close as we could get to them!

Mrs Kelsey and all the others in the hall started clapping and cheering and
whistling. I grinned at Anthony and Edward. They beamed back at me.

“You three are definitely going to be in the show!” Mrs Kelsey told us at once. And she hadn’t said that to anyone else as soon as they’d finished. She’d told everyone else that they’d get her final decision by the end of the day.

“For once, one of your dizzy-dopey plans actually worked, Maxine,” said Edward, amazed.

“Thanks to Anthony, the most supreme, the most excellent rapper in the universe!” I grinned.

And I meant it too!

It was raining. I don’t mean just a spot of water here and a drop of water there – I mean it was
pouring
. As if the clouds were just huge, bottomless buckets of water which were being tipped over us. The twins and I were hurrying along the road after school, desperate to get home.

“I’m soaked,” said Edward, coughing and spluttering as some water ran into his mouth.

“I bet I’m more soaked than you,” said Anthony.

“Well, I couldn’t be more wet if I
jumped in a swimming pool,” I said, rubbing the rain-water out of my eyes so I could see where I was going.

Then I heard a strange sound. I stopped walking.

“Edward, Anthony, did you hear that?” I frowned.

My brothers stopped walking and listened too. There it was again. A strange, whimpering noise. And it was coming from behind a horse-chestnut tree in the park beside us.

“Edward, go and see what’s making that noise,” I said.

“You go!” Edward told me.

“Go on then, Anthony. Don’t be a chicken,” I said, trying to persuade my other brother.

“No way! I’m not going by myself. It might be anything,” said Anthony.

I sighed. “Then I reckon that this is a
job for Girl Wonder . . .”

“And the sopping-wet Terrific Twins,” said Anthony.

“The dripping-wet Terrific Twins,” Edward agreed.

And we all jumped up and down in the puddle we were standing in, to activate our superhero powers.

“Right then. We’ll all go,” I said, once we’d finished leaping up and down.

“You first,” said Anthony.

“Yeah, you first and me last! I’ll stay
here and act as a look-out,” said Edward.

“Maxine,
anything
could be making that noise,” began Anthony. “It could be . . .”

“Shush!” I whispered, my finger over my lips. “We don’t want to scare it off, whatever it is.”

“We don’t?” Anthony asked.

“We don’t,” I said firmly.

We all looked around but no one was near. Anthony and I crept across the wet muddy ground towards the horse-chestnut tree, where the noise was coming from. We crept around the tree – and then we saw it. A tiny puppy in a soggy, soaking-wet cardboard box. The puppy’s fur was so wet it looked like a baby beaver or otter which had just climbed out of a river.

I picked up the puppy which was too weak to even stand up in my hands. It only had the strength to whimper and sniffle softly as I held it.

“What are we going to do with it?” Anthony asked.

“We’re going to take it home,” I said firmly, walking back to the main road.

“But Mum said we can’t have a dog – remember?” Anthony reminded me. “She’s said that hundreds and hundreds of times.”

“We can’t just leave it there,” I said. “It’ll die if we just leave it there.”

Already its eyes were closing. I could feel that the puppy was breathing, but it was so still it scared me.

“Come on, you two,” I said.

And without saying another word, we ran all the way home.

“Mum, Mum!” I called out as soon as we got home.

Mum came flying out of the living room. “Oh no you don’t, you three! Take off your wellies and your coats and scarves and hats right there, before you go dripping water all through the house.”