Newt Nemesis by Ali Sparkes Page B

same, with much grumpy muttering. It was hot and uncomfortable. Their froggy feet were flat and splayed out and didn’t fit properly inside socks and boots. They had to crumple them up.

    â€œHey! You lot!” bellowed a familiar voice. They all jumped. Rather high. And Danny definitely croaked, but luckily Drill Sergeant wasshouting so loudly at them he didn’t hear.
    â€œWhat are you doing hiding away out here?” he yelled. His real name was Steve, but everyone called him Drill Sergeant because of all the shouting. He didn’t seem to be able to talk in a normal voice.
    â€œJust . . . looking at wildlife,” mumbled Josh. It was partly true.
    â€œWell, hop it back to the tepee!” roared Drill Sergeant. “We’re practicing the show—remember your parents are all coming to see it at teatime!”
    â€œOoh yes,” Charlie grinned. “The show! I’m going to star in it, I am!”
    The show was to have a caveman theme. They were all dressing up in caveman outfits and putting on a caveman dance. They’d made outfits out of old sacks and bits of fake fur earlier that week. Charlie had found an old bone in the kitchen bin and was planning to shove it in her hair. Danny and Josh had both made axes out of bits of flint and sticks and sticky tape.
    Charlie suddenly gulped and looked worried, as they hurried after Drill Sergeant. “Erm . . . Sergea—I mean, Steve—what are we wearing onour feet? In the show . . . ?”
    â€œYour feet?” bawled Drill Sergeant. “Nothing! Barefoot, as nature intended! Go straight to the tepee now, though. No costumes until the proper show.” Drill Sergeant marched them into the tepee ,and there they had to practice the caveman dance in their hot, hot socks and boots while everyone else stayed cool in sandals or bare feet.
    â€œWhy’ve you got them on?” asked Sayid, one of the boys in Josh and Danny’s dormitory cabin, as he pointed with his papier-mâché club at Josh’s boots.
    â€œUm . . . warts,” said Josh.

    â€œAnd me,” said Danny. “Caught ’em off Josh.”
    â€œAnd me,” said Charlie. “Caught one on each foot from both of them. It’s a wart plague.”
    â€œYou are nutjobs,” commented Sayid and ran away, viciously clubbing an imaginary dinosaur (he wouldn’t believe Josh when he told him there were no dinosaurs in caveman times).
    Half an hour later, Josh, Danny, and Charlie were allowed back outside. They ran into a bush and checked their ankles.
    Still.
    Very.
    Green.

    â€œMom and Dad will be here in two hours!” moaned Josh, peering down inside his socks in horror. “I don’t think they’ll be pleased to find we’re semiaquatic mutants. We have to find Petty NOW!”
    Charlie and Danny and Josh gulped. Their eyes bulged a little. Small croaks of fear came from their throats. And Danny ate a fly.

“Aaaah,” said Petty, behind the canteen cabin an hour later. “I see.”
    Josh, Danny, and Charlie were sockless, and the shiny web-toed truth was hard to miss.
    â€œYou have frogs’ legs,” said Petty, rather unnecessarily.
    â€œYesss! We have frogs’ legs!” hissed Danny. “What are you going to do about it?”
    â€œErm . . . strike a really good deal with a French restaurant?” smirked Petty, raising her shaggy gray eyebrows behind her slightly smeary round spectacles.
    â€œThis isn’t flippin’ FUNNY!” Josh stamped his froggy foot, and Petty snorted with laughter.
    â€œWe’ve had to keep them hidden ever since we got up this morning!” said Charlie. “In long socksand boots! We’re roasting hot.” It was very warm where they were standing and the big wooden kitchen compost bin was sending out steam just behind them as the sun dried out yesterday’s rain. “But that’s not the serious problem. The BIG problem is .