The Impossible Boy Read Online Free PDF Page A

stuff,’ said Gabby, ‘and she’s a pretty popular girl herself – it’s not like she’s short of attention.’
    ‘We need to find out more about Chas,’ said Barney. ‘I don’t know where he’s from, what his folks do. Anything about his life outside school. Discovering that might
give us some clue.’
    ‘I’ll ask around,’ said Gabby. ‘Someone might know something.’
    ‘And I’m going to follow him home tonight. See where he lives. We’re in the same general science class for last lesson today.’
    ‘You could always just, you know, ask him where he’s from,’ said Gabby with a teasing smile. ‘Engage him in conversation. It’s a pretty good way to find out stuff
about people, believe it or not.’
    Barney shook his head. ‘I don’t want him to know we’re investigating him. He might try to mislead us. I know everyone thinks he’s ace but there’s something about
him I don’t like. I don’t trust him.’
    Gabby widened her eyes in mock-terror. ‘Oh no! Take care following him then, mate! Do you want me to come along and act as your bodyguard in case things turn ugly?’
    ‘Ha flipping ha,’ said Barney in a flat voice. ‘Don’t worry about me, Gabs. I reckon I’m pretty good at following people without being noticed. You’ll
see.’
    When the bell rang at three-thirty that afternoon at the end of the general science lesson, Barney calmly put his things back in his schoolbag, keeping one eye firmly on Chas
Hinton, who was sitting a couple of desks in front of him. Chas slid from his seat, pulled on his coat and headed for the door. Barney followed silently.
    Chas rounded a corner, moving against the flow of bodies streaming towards the main entrance, and slipped into the school hall. Barney could see him clearly through the window in one of the
hall’s wide double-doors. He was walking towards the centre of the empty hall.
Interesting
. . .
    ‘See you at football practice on Thursday night, Barney?’
    It was a boy called Rob Yellowwood, a tall kid with red hair and a freckly nose.
    ‘What?’ said Barney. ‘Oh yeah, sure. Sorry, mate. Can’t talk now. Need to be somewhere. See you Thursday.’ He waved absently at Rob and quickly sidled up to the
double-doors leading into the hall. He peered inside.
    It was completely empty.
    Frowning, Barney pulled open the door and stepped inside, his footsteps echoing on the wooden floor. His eyes darted around the empty hall, his heart sinking lower with every step. He checked
behind the headmaster’s lectern, behind the piano; he checked every inch of floor, every corner of the room. There were no other exits. Nowhere to hide.
    It had happened. He had, in that briefest of moments, lost Chas. It was impossible. But he had managed it. And now Gabby was going to know just how rubbish at investigating he was . . .
    ‘Don’t worry about it, mate,’ Gabby laughed later that evening when he phoned to tell her about his investigative blunder. ‘I’m sure even Sherlock Holmes had an off
day.’
    Next day, though, was different. Gabby was prepared. She had a
plan
. And as Barney was away from school on his LifeSkillz placement, she was also on her own and would
have no one else to blame if she messed up.
    LifeSkillz was a scheme dreamed up by Mr Steele, the deputy head at Blue Hills High, to get pupils involved in their local community and give them a glimpse of life outside the classroom. Mr
Steele himself had come up with the name ‘LifeSkillz’ – he was very keen on the ‘z’; kids liked words with ‘z’s in them, apparently – and for two
afternoons a week the kids (or as Mr Steele put it, ‘the kidz’) in Barney’s year were assigned to people, places and institutions in Blue Hills that needed a little assistance.
Some kids got to help out at
The Blue Hills Weekly Chronicle
, some at the local radio station. Barney, however, had been assigned to help out an elderly couple who lived near the school,
something, if he