My Sister's a Yo Yo by Gretel Killeen Page B

car’ but get out of the car’s what they’d done. And not only that but Eppie had shrunk and her hair was an absolute mess.
    They could hear the clip-clop of Mum’s heels on the drive. They could almost feel her breath. In just a few moments their lives would be over, with probably no tv for a week!
    Think , thought Zeke. Think, thought Eppie. Think, think, think, think, think.
    Suddenly Zeke had an idea and quick as a flash he wound up his yoyo and Eppie as well, shoved the whole lot into his school bag and started to sing I Will Always Love You, that all-time classic by Whitney Houston.
    â€˜Ah, my favourite song,’ hummed Mum as she fumbled her way out to the car.

    â€˜Have you seen my glasses?’ Mum said to the tree, and sat in the back seat of the car. ‘Where’s the steering wheel gone?’ she continued to say before moving to the front seat to drive.
    Anyway Eppie and Zeke didn’t get caught, and Mum drove them to school wailing like a policesiren to warn people that she was approaching. When they finally got to school Mum said, ‘Have a nice day, try hard, be good, concentrate, eat your lunch, have fun, blah blah blah, I’ll pick you up at half past three. Bye, Zeke.’
    â€˜Bye, Mum.’
    â€˜Bye, Eppie.’
    â€˜Bye, Mum.’
    Mum continued to look for her glasses and kissed the car seat goodbye.

    Meanwhile Zeke clambered out of the car with little Eppie in his school bag. By this time Mum had found her glasses on top of her head, but Zeke and Eppie had already gone into school.
    In the playground Zeke stood wondering what to do. He had a sister the size of a nose attached to his favourite toy and stuffed in the bottom of his school bag.

    Life was not looking good, especially when Joel Slime grabbed Zeke’s school bag for a joke and threw it way up in a tree, and the strap got caught ona high pointy branch, and Eppie just hung there, in the bag, swaying in the breeze until Zeke took a pot shot with a rock, and Eppie and the bag and the yoyo and the string fell back down to earth — with a thump.

    Clang! rang the school bell.
    Zeke was worried about his sister (but only because she might have splattered all over his lunch and he liked to eat enormous amounts and he didn’t have any money for tuck-shop and he couldn’t possibly die of starvation today because he was wearing embarrassing undies). So as all the kids filed off to class, Zeke ran to the toilets as fast as he could, opened the zipper of his bag and searched inside for Eppie.
    The first thing he found was that his whole lunch was squashed and squished all through his bag, and the second thing he found was that Eppie was squashed and squished all through his bag as well. Strawberry-sized Eppie looked like fruit salad as she sat there all covered in banana.

    She may have looked all cute and funny but Epppie was in a really bad mood. Zeke tried to pick her up veeeeeeeeeeery carefully, but she bit him hard on the finger and Zeke got such a huge surprise that he dropped Eppie down the toilet. PLOP!
    â€˜Glet mle blout,’ Eppie gargled.
    â€˜Not till you say sorry for biting my finger!’ Zeke yelled down into the toilet bowl.

    â€˜Get me out,’ yelled Eppie, ‘or I’ll scream and scream and scream and scream until you go deaf and blind with shock and vultures come and nibble your eyeballs.’
    â€˜Oh all right, be quiet,’ said Zeke.
    So then Zeke got two strong sticks from the playground and used them like chopsticks to lift his sopping wet sister from inside the loo.
    After she came up gasping and spluttering, Zeke turned the basin tap on ever so gently and stuck Eppie and the yoyo under the cold running water. They were nearly clean when he applied the soap for added shine and Eppie became as slippery as a slug, slipped through his fingers, whirled round the basin and nearly went down the plug hole.
    But Zeke grabbed her as quick as a