Read Online Hunky Dory by Jean Ure - Free Book Online

the same! It doesn’t make any sense.
    â€œWell, think about it,” she says. “See ya!”
    I say, “Yeah, see ya.”
    Sheri goes off in the direction of the sports hall and I carry on down the corridor, where I find Aaron waiting for me outside the maths room. He has thisidiotic grin on his face.
    â€œSaw who you were talking to,” he says.
    I grunt. A grunt is supposed to discourage. It’s sign language for drop it . But Aaron’s never been one for observing the social niceties (as Big Nan calls them). He’s practically jumping up and down on the spot.
    â€œSo what’d she want? Want you to go out with her? Are you going to?”
    I say, “No, she didn’t, and no I’m not.”
    â€œCould do a lot worse,” says Aaron. “I mean, Sheri Stringer…” He pulls a face and starts making animal noises. I tell him to shut up.
    â€œShe just wanted me to go round her place and listen to a CD.”
    â€œOh, yeah?” says Aaron. “Oh, yeah?”
    â€œYeah!”
    I give him a shove and we jostle together into the maths room and head for our usual seats. As we sit down, Aaron leans over and whispers hoarsely in my ear.
    â€œReckon you’re on to a good thing there…she obviously fancies you!”
    He says that about everyone. I’m learning not to pay too much attention to Aaron. I really don’t think he knows what he’s talking about.
    He came round this evening to do some digging. He said he could only stay half an hour as he had to go and help Sophy Timms take her dog out again. He explained to the Herb how it was a very big dog.
    â€œHalf bulldog and half German Shepherd.”
    â€œI thought you said half Pyrenean mountain dog?” I said.
    â€œYeah, well. Whatever.”
    â€œHe still has to help her take it out,” said the Herb. “Cos she’s so pathetic and weak she can’t manage it herself.”
    â€œIt’s a very strong dog,” said Aaron. “Almost as big as she is.”
    â€œThen she ought to have got a tiny little dog to go with her tiny little self. A little tiny lap dog,” said the Herb.
    â€œShe didn’t choose it,” said Aaron. “It’s her mum’s.”
    â€œThen why doesn’t her mum take it out?”
    Aaron said, “I dunno.”
    I was about to tell the Herb that the dog thing was just a ploy. “He’s training to be a giggle-o.” But before I could say it, Aaron had gone bundling on again.
    â€œKnow Sheri Stringer?” he said. “That girl in your class? I reckon she fancies old Dory!”
    â€œ Oh? ” The Herb stopped digging and gave me thislook. This look . I don’t know what it is about girls. If they’re not flapping their eyelashes—which the Herb would never do—they’re shrivelling you.
    I told Aaron to be quiet and get on with his digging. “We’ve only got another few days. I haven’t found as much as a trilobite!”
    â€œWould you expect to find as much as a trilobite?” said the Herb.
    I said, “Well, you never know. I mean, they do turn up.”
    â€œWhat, in Warrington Crescent?”
    â€œWhy not?”
    There was this kind of pause; then very politely the Herb said, “What exactly is a trilobite?”
    Aaron let out a howl. “Don’t ask, don’t ask!”
    â€œI just wanted to know,” said the Herb. “In case we came across one.”
    Aaron groaned. Determinedly, I took no notice. (Following my new rule.) I like it when the Herb shows an interest. I told her how trilobites had lived 300 million years ago, and had gone extinct before the dinosaurs had even come into existence. I added thebit about the dinosaurs so that she could understand just how long ago it really was. It is sometimes difficult for people, if they are not used to thinking in terms of millions. I told her how they were sea creatures; bottom