Keep It Down! (5 page)

Davey glanced at Sunil and stifled a laugh. The situation was so desperate it was funny. Sunil tried not to smile.

‘Come on, guys! Let's get to it!' Bella reached up high then swung low, turning as she went, so her fingertips brushed her toes. She reversed the action. ‘Now the other way. Davey? Sunil? Ivy?'

Still no one budged.

‘Good to see you guys have started already! Well done!' Ms Maro was rushing towards them. The rest of the team were running behind, carrying the gear.

Bella turned. ‘Ah, Ms Maro, you've made it at last.' She waited for the teacher and the other kids to reach them.

‘Ms Maro, since I'm captain this week, I'd be happy to run the training. I'm a very good leader.' Bella smiled, then turned back to the cricketers, who now stood with their arms crossed.

‘Thanks. That's a lovely offer.' Ms Maro smiled and patted the school captain on the back. ‘But Sunil Deep is already team captain.'

‘Mr Mudge said I could be!' Bella suddenly sounded like a four-year-old who'd been told Christmas was cancelled. ‘He said it was time to give someone else an opportunity to shine – which I happen to be good at.' She gave her ponytail a flick. ‘Shining, I mean.'

Ms Maro put her arm around Bella's shoulder, a look of sympathy on her face. ‘Yes, I talked to Mr Mudge about that, and we agreed that perhaps this week was not the right week to change captain. If you'd like to join the team, that's great, but Sunil's our captain, isn't he, guys?'

‘Yeah!'
everyone shouted, punching the air in relief.

‘No!' It was Mo. He'd sneaked up behind them.

‘Mo, you've always got a funny line to keep us laughing!' Ms Maro shook her head in amusement. ‘Now, let's get to it!'

Bella put her hands on her hips and frowned. ‘I only joined on the condition that I be captain. I need to
lead
, Ms Maro, not
follow
.'

‘Sorry, Bella,' Ms Maro said firmly. ‘But I have to put the team first, and on this occasion that means keeping things as they are.'

Bella flicked her ponytail so hard Davey thought it might fly off. ‘In that case, I'd better go. I have important duties to attend to.' With that, the school captain marched off across the playground.

‘Looks like Bella won't be playing after all,' Sunil said quietly to Davey. ‘Shame.'

‘Yeah. Oh well . . .' Davey had to admit Ms Maro was a lot cleverer than she looked.

Ms Maro clapped her hands. ‘So, let's get started.'

She looked over at Tay. The new girl had pulled a packet of Whopper Chomps out of her pocket and was about to extract a lolly from it. ‘Tay, no lollies while we're training.'

Tay looked up in surprise. ‘Sorry, Miss,' she said. She glanced at Ivy Mundine, who was
standing right beside her. It seemed the two girls had become friends.

‘
You're my one, my on-l-y-y-y-y-y . . .
' Tay sang.

‘
B-a-a-a-b-y-y-y-y
,' Ivy sang in response. The girls burst out laughing.

Oh no
, thought Davey. Now Tay had Ivy doing it. Where would it end?

Ms Maro frowned. ‘Save your singing for choir, girls.' She turned to look at Davey. ‘Mr Warner, I hear you won't be playing on Friday? That's a shame.'

‘Yeah, Mr Mudge said I was singing in class and eating Whopper Chomps, Miss. But can I still train?'

‘Of course, Davey.' Ms Maro glanced at Tay and Ivy. The two girls had finished their Whopper Chomps and singing and were busy setting up the wickets. ‘And I might have a word to Mr Mudge.' She smiled. ‘Now, Davey, grab Kaboom. You and George can bat first.'

Ms Maro wasn't half as kooky as she first appeared. In fact, Davey would have gone so far as to call her the best teacher he'd ever met. Not that she had much competition, now that he thought about it.

He ran over and grabbed Kaboom. He wasn't going to let anyone or anything stop him from playing the Batfish on Friday.

With Bella off to attend to her ‘important duties' and Mo under Ms Maro's surveillance, training
should
have been fun. But despite repeated requests from the teacher, Tay continued to sing behind the wicket. She didn't even know she was doing it, Davey realised now, which made it all the more difficult to get her to stop. And once more it put Davey off his game.

And even though Ms Maro kept a close eye on Mo, the clueless cabbage still managed to wind up the entire team. One thing in particular that Mo said was so disturbing that Davey was forced to call an emergency after-school meeting of his three best friends.

He'd been standing at the crease, Kaboom in hand. Behind him, Mo was having a turn as wicket-keeper.

While Davey waited for George to bowl, and with Ms Maro well out of earshot, Mo kept up a constant stream of annoying talk. Most of it didn't even make any sense. But it was the next thing that Mo said that got Davey really worried. ‘I'm gonna make sure those Batfish win on Friday, Shorty. Shouldn't be too hard.'

Davey turned around to eye Mo. There was never any point replying when Mo was fired up. And if he kept quiet, Mo would let slip what he was up to.

Mo went on, his chest puffing with pride. ‘All I need to do is keep talking to their bowler on the field, let him know what I think of his style. And their fielders, and their wicket-keeper. That should do it.' Mo smirked like a sick toad. ‘The Batfish'll thank me after.'

So as soon as training had finished, Davey called the meeting for after school. For convenience, it was held at the corner shop, which belonged to Benny, the Sandhill Sluggers' coach, and his wife, Barb.

‘So what's all this about, Warner?' Sunil looked serious.

‘Clouter's planning to put the Batfish off their play so we forfeit the game.'

‘How do you know?' Kevin looked sceptical.

‘He told me. He's going to say things to them when they're fielding.'

‘Well, that's it,' Sunil said firmly. ‘We've got to get him out of the team.'

‘And while we're at it, can we do something about Tay Tui?' Davey knew Tay was good behind the wicket, but something had to be done.

‘What do you mean?' Sunil looked confused. ‘She's pretty good. And she likes Whopper Chomps, which is handy.'

‘Yeah, but she sings all day. That horrible B4U song. It's driving me mad!'

The other three boys shook their heads. ‘Yeah, that song really sucks,' George said.

‘It's a shocker.' Kevin sighed.

‘Sure is.' Sunil looked thoughtful for a moment. He snapped his fingers. ‘Got it! Tay can't sing if she's sucking a Whopper Chomp. So we load her up with them every time we play.' He looked around at his friends. ‘We'll have to pool our money for this. Do it for the team, okay?'

They all nodded. It was such a simple but clever plan. Sunil really was a genius, Davey decided.

‘But what about Clouter?' Davey knew this wasn't going to be an easy one.

Sunil snapped his fingers again. ‘Easy! We send him to another cricket ground. We'll just tell him it's over at Shimmer Bay Park. By the time he finds out, we'll have finished the game.' Sunil smiled and tapped his head.

‘Mmmm, not sure,' Kevin said.

‘Why?' George asked. ‘Sounds like a good plan to me.'

‘No, it won't work,' Davey said. ‘Ms Maro's already told us it's a home Batfish game, so Clouter will smell a rat if we tell him it's changed.'

Sunil's smile faded. He shrugged. ‘Yeah, maybe you're right. But we've got to do something. In the meantime, everyone needs to put in money so we can buy a shedload of Whopper Chomps for Tay. Now!'

The boys all made a show of emptying their pockets. Sunil waited, his arms folded, until they'd coughed up everything they had. Then he added it all up on the counter.

Benny watched from behind his newspaper. ‘You boys having a party?' he said when Sunil pushed the pile of coins towards him.

‘Nah, someone else will be, though. Give us six packs of Whopper Chomps please, Benny. That should do it.'

Davey watched as the money changed hands and Sunil pocketed the lolly packets. ‘Don't go sampling them, Deep,' he said. ‘We're going to need every single one of those.'

Sunil smiled so his dimple showed. ‘You can trust me. Now, what about Clouter?'

‘We could tell Ms Maro what he said.' George looked uncertain. It wasn't a solution any of them would usually consider. ‘Never tell, never worry,' was their motto.

The other boys shook their heads. Even though Mo was a pugnacious pest, they wouldn't go so far as to tell on him.

‘No point dragging in teachers. Takes all the fun out of it.' Sunil grimaced.

‘I think we just have to make sure McNab and Warner play,' George said. ‘Clouter's only a reserve. So if they can play, he'll have to sit out.'

‘But couldn't he call out from the sidelines?' Now Kevin was doing the thinking.

Davey shook his head. ‘He'll be sitting next to Ms Maro. He won't be able to.'

Sunil looked around at his friends. ‘So tonight, we all need to come up with a plan to make sure McNab gets out of the dance thing and Mudge lets Warner play. How hard can it be?'

Everyone shook hands. But later, as Davey rode home on his old bike, with Max trotting along beside him, he couldn't help thinking it could be very hard indeed. Kevin's mum was dead keen on him dancing, and she was no pushover. And as for Mr Mudge . . .

Davey left for school early the next day. As soon as he arrived, he headed for Ms Maro's classroom, where she could be found most mornings, getting things ready for the first lesson. He knocked on the open door.

Ms Maro was at her desk, marking work. She looked up and smiled. ‘Mr Warner! What brings you here?'

Davey took a few tentative steps into the classroom. ‘I – I – I was wondering whether you ended up talking to Mr Mudge.'

The teacher put her head on one side and raised her eyebrows in question.

‘About whether I can play against the Batfish tomorrow,' Davey explained. ‘You see, I wasn't singing or eating lollies in class. It wasn't me.'

‘Ah!' Ms Maro nodded knowingly. ‘I'm sure it wasn't. I haven't spoken to Mr Mudge yet, but I will, right now.'

She got to her feet and smiled as if she'd just seen a rainbow. ‘Mr Mudge isn't really mean, you know, Davey. I'm sure I can talk him around.'

I'm sure you can
, Davey thought. Somehow,
Ms Maro seemed to always get her way. If anyone could help him get back in the team for Friday's game against the Batfish, it was her.

With his mission accomplished, Davey headed down to C playground, where Sunil and the others were already playing cricket. Tay was behind the wicket, Sunil was at the crease and George was bowling. Ivy was also at the bowler's end, bat in hand.