Free The OK Team by Nick Place Page A

fly boy,’ she says. She puts her fingers to her temple again.
    â€˜Even the loneliest donkey walks the same path as the horse.’
    â€˜What does that mean?’ I ask.
    She opens her eyes and smiles at us. ‘Whatever you want it to mean.’
    â€˜She thinks if she mutters deep sayings like that it will add credibility and mystery to her power,’ Cannonball says, rolling his eyes. ‘She’s about as powerful as a hair dryer.’
    By now, I figure it’s better just not to speak.
    â€˜So,’ she says brightly, ‘Who else is in our team?’
    â€˜You are not in the team!’
    â€˜I am too. Mum said not to leave me out of your games, remember?’
    â€˜This is not a game. This is serious.’
    â€˜Sure it is. Have you guys come up with a secret handshake yet? Oh wait, hang on.’ She puts her fingers to her temple again. ‘My power tells me you haven’t.’
    I say, ‘Cannonball, can I have a quiet word, just for a second?’
    We go outside and close the door. Cannonball slumps under his skater helmet.
    â€˜I’m sorry, Focus. She follows me everywhere. My mum is a nurse and single parent. She has to work weird shifts so Alexandra and I end up having to hang out.’
    â€˜You shouldn’t call her Alexandra, you know,’ I say.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Whether she’s your sister or not, she’s here in a costume and she says she has a power. We should respect her right to call herself Yesterday, just as we expect people to respect our Hero names.’
    â€˜She’s about as much a Hero as an old carpet! She’s just my idiot little sister.’
    â€˜So, we tell her to go home?’
    Cannonball shifts his feet. ‘Well, the thing is . . .’
    I stare.
    â€˜We’ll have to put in a lot of hours on this thing. And Mum will be furious if Al – I mean Yesterday – is left by herself for all that time.’
    I can’t believe this. ‘So the third member of our team is only there because you have to babysit.’
    â€˜She might be useful. She could clean up our headquarters, get us drinks and stuff like that.’
    â€˜Oh, yeah, right. Are you going to tell her that, or will I?’
    Cannonball puts his hand on the doorknob and looks back at me with a wicked grin. ‘Hey, if her power’s real, she’ll already know and we won’t have to tell her.’
    Yesterday has a finger to both temples as we walk back in. ‘Never sleep with a fish unless you’ve checked the water is clean.’
    â€˜I’ll remember that,’ I say.
    The rest of the morning is no better.
    Without fail, Yesterday says she knows each Hero isn’t going to be accepted, the moment they leave the room.
    One kid turns up and says his name is Freeze Frame.
    â€˜Uh huh?’ says Cannonball. ‘And what do you do?’
    â€˜This!’ says the kid. He strikes a pose and freezes.
    After about two minutes, nothing has happened. It doesn’t even look as though he’s breathing. We walk up to him and wonder what to do. Yesterday gently pokes his stomach.
    â€˜It’s like he’s a statue,’ she says.
    â€˜There’s nobody home,’ adds Cannonball, peering into the frozen kid’s eyes. ‘He’s as lifelike as calamari.’
    We give it another five minutes. He doesn’t move a millimetre.
    â€˜This is weird,’ I say. ‘What do we do with him?’
    â€˜Not to move can be very moving,’ says Yesterday mysteriously.
    Cannonball goes over and puts his stocky arms around the kid, then drags him into the far corner.
    We leave him there, facing the wall.
    A minute or so later, there is a soft, nervous knock and when we open the door, a kid is standing there, a little hunched, peering at us shyly from under a mass of long hair. He’s about our age and his costume is a good one. Yellow and orange, with red flame-like shapes in the