Free Chameleon Chaos by Ali Sparkes Page B

panicked running down the corridor had made the zipper give way. And now, even as his eyes bulged in disbelief, his muddy gray trousers were sliding down past his knees.
    Josh felt himself go scarlet all over as the whole class collapsed into shrieks of laughter and catcalls. Danny buried his face in his hands. And even Miss Mellor was pressing her mouth shut tight, trying to look as if she wasn’t rupturing herself laughing too.
    Josh groaned as he hitched his trousers up and wished he could just blend into the wall and disappear.

“SUTTER! I’m gonna spread you like BUTTER!” Danny yelled. “BILK, I’m gonna spill you like MILK! You’ve just asked for DOUBLE TROUBLE.”
    â€œWell … thanks, Danny,” Josh said. “It’s nice of you to threaten my enemies for me—in poem format. I like the dairy theme, too. It’d be even
more
impressive if they were
here.”
    Danny glanced around. The only scare he’d caused was to a passing cat, which shrank away from him on the top of a wall as they walked down their road after school. “I’m just warming up,” he said. “I will tell them that tomorrow. You don’t think I’d let them get away with giving you a swirly and a wedgie and then tying you upside-down to a climbing structure by your shoelaces, do you?”
    Josh shuddered. All of that was pretty bad—but the trousers bit at the end had been worse. Billy Sutter and Jason Bilk had been crying with laughter—the whole class had. He had paid dearly for defending the ant colony. Very dearly.
    â€œThanks, Danny,” he mumbled. “But the best thing we can do is to forget it. I’ll just keep my head down and try not to get noticed for a few days.”
    â€œYou’re kidding! We’ve got to get revenge!” spluttered Danny. His spiky blond hair seemed to bristle with fury. “It’s a matter of honor!”
    â€œRevenge,” sighed Josh. “Danny—have you noticed the
size
of Billy Sutter and Jason Bilk this term? They’re like escapees from one of your computer games! They’ve got fists like sledgehammers. And they nearly killed you in the summer term, remember? They nearly stamped you to death!”
    â€œYeah … true …” admitted Danny. “But I was a grasshopper at the time.”
    â€œThat’s not the point,” Josh said. “They’re crazy and dangerous. We need to keep away from them.”
    â€œYoooo-hooo!” A familiar voiced trilled out through the warm afternoon air. “Jo–osh! Danneee!”
    Danny grinned at Josh. “I know what will take your mind off Sutter and Bilk,” he said, as Petty Potts ambled down her front path toward them.
    â€œAaah, yes.” Josh smiled. “C Phase!”
    Petty led them down the side passage into her back garden, which was possibly more overgrown than they’d ever seen it. Over the summer it had filled with weeds, which had grown so high they now had to pick their way through a roughly beaten tunnel Petty had made.

    â€œDon’t you ever mow your lawn?” asked Josh as he got hit in the face by a lively thistle.
    â€œWhat on earth for?” called back Petty. “I don’t want any spies being able to see into my garden and my shed. And anyway, Josh, I would have thought you’d approve—my garden is a perfect haven for wildlife.”
    This was confirmed by a shriek from Danny as a cricket jumped out of the thicket onto his shoulder. “GETITOFFMEEEE,” he yelped. And Josh turned and collected the minibeast from him. He was well used to Danny’s heebie-jeebies about creepy-crawlies. It didn’t seem to matter how often Danny had been S.W.I.T.C.H.ed into a creepy-crawly himself. They still freaked him out.
    â€œIt’s a beauty,” Josh murmured, peering into his cupped hands at the big, bright green cricket. “A Great Green Bush Cricket. They