Free Milo and One Dead Angry Druid by Mary Arrigan Page B

called Taiwan in Ireland long ago,’ I went on. ‘It broke away from the west coast … an earthquake smashed through it and it floated away …’ I was cut off by the yells of laughter.
    ‘Very good, Milo,’ Miss Lee said. ‘Take good care of your – eh – precious piratecup, and mind you don’t pick up any swashbuckling habits from it.’
    The rest of the class were still laughing as I made my way to my desk, trying to hide my face in my sweater.
    ‘Now, Shane,’ said Miss Lee. ‘What do you have to show us?’
    With a flourish like one of those magicians on TV, Shane took the stone from a Chinese takeaway bag. Everyone sniggered.
    ‘A stone!’
    ‘A lump of rock!’
    ‘Way to go, big guy! WRONG way, ha-ha!’
    But Miss Lee wasn’t laughing. She stared at the carving. ‘Where did you get this, Shane?’ she asked.
    But before Shane could answer, Willie Jones’s lizard went mad. It began leaping about, scratching at the glass, trying toescape. And it did. While we were all shouting and crawling around the floor to catch it, our principal looked in to see what the noise was about. We all stopped and stared at her. Not because we were scared or anything, but we were always fascinated by her moustache and the way it wobbled when she was annoyed.
    ‘Ss-sorry, Mrs Riley,’ stuttered Miss Lee from the floor. ‘Slight mishap with our history project.’
    That was when the lizard made for the door. With a hairy shriek, Mrs Riley slammed the door and scarpered. Miss Lee got up and brushed her skirt and, once the lizard was safely back in his glass case, she made Willie put a heavy book over the top. Funnily enough, the lizard calmed down when Shane put the stone back into the bag.Even though the rest of the class were still laughing, I got that strange, tingly feeling again.
    ‘Shane,’ said Miss Lee, ‘You must mind that stone. In fact, there’s one in the museum that looks just like it.’ She reached out and took the stone from the bag again. ‘Ask your granny where she …’ She broke off as the lizard went mad again.
    On our way home from school, Shane was boasting. ‘I told you this stone is special,’ he said. ‘Didn’t I tell you Miss Lee would be impressed?’
    ‘Dunno, Shane,’ I muttered. ‘It spooked me the way it made Willie’s lizard go crazy.’
    Shane laughed. ‘It probably recognised its own great-great-multi-great-granddaddy carved on the back of my stone.’
    I shivered. Could a stone be that powerful?

CHAPTER FOUR
AN INCIDENT WITH CRUNCH AND WEDGE
    A s we went through the school gates Shane stopped.
    ‘Hey! I’ve a great idea, Milo. Let’s go to the museum and see the stone that Miss Lee says is like mine.’
    ‘Museum? It’s not even raining, Shane!’
    ‘Suit yourself,’ said Shane. ‘I’m going anyway. You coming?’
    Well, I was curious – as you would be about a stone that drives a lazy lizard wild, so I decided to go along with Shane to see what all the fuss was about. But as we went around the corner into the alley that was a short cut to Main Street, we met trouble.
    ‘Well, if isn’t Fatman and Stick Insect. Goin’ somewhere nice, eh?’
    I groaned silently inside my head. This was all we needed – Crunch Kelly and Wedge Murphy from sixth class – whenever they actually came to school, that is. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that those names were just any old made-up nicknames, but you’d be wrong. Kelly could really make your bones crunch and Murphycould wedge your underpants right up to your armpits. You get the picture? Not pleasant.
    They stood in front of us, blocking our way, and Crunch patted Shane’s tight, black curly hair. I clutched my schoolbag, ready to take a swing at them – and seeing the words ‘death-wish’ flashing in my mind. But it was Shane’s takeaway bag that grabbed their attention.
    ‘Hey, Crunch, look what we got here,’ laughed Wedge, pointing to it. ‘Takeaway! You hungry, Crunch? Me too. Hand it