Free The Binding by Jenny Alexander Page A

breathe. Elspeth jumped in, which meant I was the only one left and there wasn’t any getting out of it.
    You know when you’ve been outside on a frosty day without your hat and scarf and your ears hurt and your chin’s gone numb and your fingers feel like they’re going to fall off? And then, if it goes on, the cold creeps into your bones so you can’t even get warm again when you’ve been back indoors in front of the fire for hours?
    Well, it was like that, only instant.
    Duncan, Hamish and Elspeth were thrashing up and down the pool to warm up, and me and Tressa knew we had to do the same, but we just couldn’t. As well as the fact it was too cold to breathe, my skeleton felt like someone had sprayed it with dry ice so it had gone all hard and brittle.
    Duncan and Hamish were laughing.
    â€˜C-c-c-come on,’ Tressa said, pushing off from the side.
    I grabbed the ball and threw it into the middle of the pool. Hamish dived for it but it bounced away from him on the wave of water he had made, giving me a chance to go for it myself. Chasing a ball is the best way I know to forget about bad stuff, such as the fact that you’re colder than an ice cube in a slushie.
    I knew they wouldn’t notice the dog poo straight away. It’s an old magician’s trick—distract them with something interesting to look at, such as a mini-football flying through the air, and they won’t see anything else.
    So it was only after we’d been chasing the ball for a while that Elspeth, swimming to the edge for a rest, put her hand on the concrete and let out a scream.
    â€˜Yuk! That’s disgusting! I nearly put my hand in it!’
    We all swam over to see what she had found.
    â€˜But how did it get there?’ said Hamish. ‘Who’s got a dog that comes down to this beach?’
    â€˜Nobody comes down to this beach at all,’ said Duncan.
    â€˜Somebody must,’ said Elspeth. ‘And if their dog’s doing its business near the pool then the tide could be washing it in.’
    Tressa squealed. ‘There might be dog poo in the pool!’
    She started clambering out, and everyone else did too. We stood on the concrete, bending down to examine the fake dog poo. It looked exactly like the real thing.
    â€˜We’re going to have to clear it up and bury it,’ said Duncan.
    â€˜I’ll do that,’ I said. ‘I don’t mind!’
    I picked it up in my hand and they all gave a yell of disgust.
    â€˜Got you!’ I said, holding it out to them so they could see it was fake. I tossed it into the pool, where it bobbed on the surface, nudging up to the ball. They all burst out laughing, even Tressa, and I plunged back in again before they had a chance to push me.
    They didn’t know how to play under-the-legs or f-i-s-h-y or water-ball-he, so I had a great time teaching them, and Duncan said it was the best fun they had ever had in the pool. I was everyone’s favourite person, except Tressa’s. You could see she was fed up that I was getting all the attention, and you couldn’t really blame her. I mean, which would you rather be, the Joker or the Teacher?
    The sky went suddenly dark. There was a downpour on the way, but no-one wanted to get out of the pool because we were having such a laugh. I thought we might have time for one more game.
    â€˜Who wants to play dog-poo pig-in-the-middle?’
    Before we could start, the skies opened and the rain came pouring down, huge drops hammering onto the rocks and bouncing off the surface of the pool. We saw Milo go haring across the beach towards the bothy. I realised that technically, since we were already soaked and suitably dressed, that didn’t mean we necessarily had to go indoors.
    We all looked at Duncan for a decision, but before he had a chance to say anything, Tressa announced, ‘I am the eyes and ears of the Lawmaker and I wish to make a report!’
    We blinked at her