Shrunk! Read Online Free PDF Page A

from one person to the next just as it leaves their hand.
    â€˜Give it!’ I shout.
    And then it stops, with Jacob. He stands staring at me, towering over me, the capsule in his hand. He’s chewing something, his blubbery lips going over and over, a little trail of spit at the corner of his mouth. He grins, his smile as smug as the one Tilly does.
    â€˜Don’t,’ I say.
    â€˜Why? You got a little model man in there? Special edition, for the model village?’
    I try to grab it from him, but he skips backwards out of reach and the boats fall out of my pocket.
    I rush to rescue them, but the henchmen swoop by, and get to them first.
    â€˜Yeah!’ shouts one.
    â€˜Neat!’ calls another. They dance in front of me, waving the little boats.
    I stop. I’m never going to catch up with them. For a second, I form my thumb and middle finger into an ‘O’. I lift it up. Jacob doesn’t fit inside. He’s too fat.
    He slips his nails under the top of the capsule. I step back, and join both my hands together, my two thumbs touching, my two middle fingers making an arch. He fits inside my fingers now. I could just click.
    But I don’t.
    And he pops the lid off.
    He peers inside. Then looks up at his adoring fans. ‘Ah, bless. Model Village Perks has brought an ickle tiny dinosaur to school with him today. Was that for show and tell? Ahhhh.’
    â€˜No – it’s not that . . .’ I step towards him.
    He dances backwards. ‘Scared I might want to keep it? Oh no, I won’t do that – I won’t steal your precious little dinosaur. I wouldn’t do such a nasty thing.’
    And grinning at the crowd, he empties the capsule on to the gravel, and grinds everything under his shoe.

Chapter 9
    I think they call it seeing red. I think that the things I did to Jacob this morning were only natural. I know I jumped on him, bounced off his huge belly, shouted at him, and tried to tear his ear off. I certainly hooked my fingers into his nostrils and pulled as hard as I could. It all hurt a lot.
    There was this bit when my ears filled with a roaring noise – it might have been in my head, or it might have been everyone else screaming at us. Somehow he kicked me in the jaw, but it just made me angrier and that’s probably when I bit his nose.
    That’ll be why I ended up here in the office corridor, alone, except for Eric, who’s leaning over a sick bowl. Mr Bell let Jacob off. He even gave him a piece of cake from the staffroom. I wish I’d shrunk him. I wish I’d shrunk both of them.
    I could shrink Eric’s sick bowl, then it wouldn’t smell so bad.
    Eric’s mumbling, so I lean forward to listen. It’s a mistake; he stinks of Parmesan.
    â€˜Dad told the school nurse I was sick because the solar system’s sick.’
    â€˜Say that again?’
    â€˜I’m sure it’s the chickpea fritters, but Dad told the nurse it’s because the planets are out of alignment. Because Jupiter’s been stolen.’
    The headmaster’s door swings open. Mr Devlin sticks his head out, sees Eric, sees me and goes back in.
    â€˜Because he was abducted by aliens as a toddler,’ Eric says. ‘Apparently, it’s made me really sensitive to planetary change.’
    â€˜Really?’
    â€˜He’s sort of right – the planets
are
out of alignment. With Jupiter gone, there’s nothing to hold the rest of them in line. The Earth’s moving towards the sun already – they can all hurtle towards the sun. ’S’a disaster,’ says Eric, swallowing hard. His face is white with green snot and tiny bits of dried carrot now. It matches his hair.
    â€˜Is it?’
    â€˜Yeah, without Jupiter, we’re –’ And he vomits into the bowl.
    He barely stops. ‘Yeah the whole solar system’s kept in place by Jupiter and the sun, pulling in different directions. That’s why