Free Hunky Dory by Jean Ure Page B

She seemed surprised. I was a bit surprised, myself. Why would I want to go up the park when there was serious digging to be done? I mumbled that Mum hadn’t been able to give the dogs a good walk this morning, which was absolutely not true, as Mum always gives the dogs a good walk, but I had to have some excuse. You can’t just go up the park for no reason.
    The Herb suggested we take all of them, but I drew the line at that. Five Jack Russells can drive a person mad. A normal person, that is. I said that we would just take Polly and Jack, as they are the youngest. So that iswhat we did.
    The first thing we saw as we entered the park was Aaron and Sophy Timms, walking round the path on the far side. They were holding hands.
    â€œEurgh, yuck, look at that!” The Herb minced, doing
    her Barbie doll thing. “Look what it’s wearing!”
    I couldn’t really see, from that distance; not in any detail. It just looked like ordinary sort of stuff to me, the sort of stuff that most girls wear, but then I am not an expert in these matters. It is probably true to say that I know more about the mating habits of dinosaurs than about girls’ clothes.
    â€œ Pink ,” said the Herb.
    â€œOh. Yeah! Right.” I nodded. Pink was puke; even I knew that.
    â€œLooks like a bunch of candyfloss…catch me wearing pink! And where’s the great enormous dog?”
    There wasn’t any dog. I mean, she’s probably got one, somewhere, but it certainly wasn’t there this evening. The dog was just a ploy, to get Aaron out of digging. He’d sooner come up the park and hold hands! What did he get out of it, just walking round the park?
    â€œHe’s gone totally soppy,” said the Herb. She minced again, flapping her arms and doing little twizzles.“Skippity hoppity! Look at me!”
    He obviously got something out of it. I wondered what would happen if I held the Herb’s hand. I almost got brave and gave it a go, but before I could quite bring myself to do it she’d gone twirling off across the grass with Jack and Polly snapping at her heels. Probably just as well. I felt somewhat shaken and was glad we had brought the dogs with us as it gave me the opportunity to exercise a bit of authority.
    â€œ JACK! POLLY! COME BACK HERE! ”
    Not that they took any notice, but it was a manly sort of shout.
    â€œI enjoyed that,” said the Herb, when we’d been right round the park and arrived back at the gates. Jack had found a punctured football and he and the Herb had played with it all across the grass. Polly had mainly just made a nuisance of herself, while I had walked sternly on along the path, brooding about Aaron and wondering what it all meant.
    â€œI reckon you could have a team of Jack Russells,” panted the Herb, all happy and covered in mud. “Probably need something a bit bigger in goal…OldEnglish Sheepdog, or something. Hey!” She nudged me. “You coming to see me play footie on Thursday?”
    I said, “You bet!”
    â€œIt’s after school.”
    â€œThat’s OK.”
    â€œIt’ll mean you miss out on digging again.”
    â€œDoesn’t matter.”
    â€œBut you’ve only got another two weeks. Aaron ought to be helping! He’s your best mate.”
    I said, “Yeah. Well—”
    â€œI suppose he thinks she’s pretty ?”
    â€œWhat, the Barbie doll?” I looked at her in assembly the other day, and it seemed to me that she might be, but I’m not sure that I can trust my judgement; not when it comes to girls. I haven’t studied them like I’ve studied dinosaurs. “Do you think she’s pretty?”
    â€œMe?” The Herb gave this short bark of laughter, like Huh! “I suppose some people might think she is…if that’s what they go for. All flimsy and feeble . ”
    I can see what she means; sort of. I can’t imagine Sophy Timms ever