Read Online Obsidian Pebble by Rhys Jones - Free Book Online

wounds.
    â€œBut what happened?”
    â€œWe were rubbish,” Ellie said despondently.
    â€œTotal cow dung,” Ruff said, turning a page on a well-thumbed gaming magazine someone had lent him that morning.
    â€œAnd I think our goalie’s got narcoepileprosy,” Ruff explained, shaking his head glumly.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou know, that disease where people fall asleep all the time. He dived the wrong way twice and he scored an own goal when the ball came off the crossbar, hit him smack on the back of the head and went in.”
    Oz suppressed a laugh.
    â€œIt wasn’t funny, Oz,” Ellie said, clearly not amused.
    Oz tried to smother his laughter. But hearing Ruff describe the incompetent goalie was almost as funny as seeing Ellie’s sour expression.
    â€œIt’s even worse than you think,” Ellie added, looking distraught.
    â€œWhy?” Oz said.
    â€œJenks scored two. TWO!” she wailed before spitting out her favourite expletive. “Sugar!”
    â€œHis head’s so big I’m surprised he got in through the door,” Ruff muttered, drooling over screenshots of Death Planet Hub , which was his favourite Xbox game.
    â€œOh, no,” Oz said, and quickly glanced at Jenks, who was small in stature but very big in the mouth department and lightning fast on the soccer field. He was obviously reliving some manoeuvre from yesterday’s game and, when he caught Ellie glancing over, took great pleasure in flourishing a red card from his pocket and thrusting it up in the air.
    â€œWhat’s that all about?” Oz asked.
    â€œI got sent off,” Ellie said, looking suddenly very sheepish.
    Oz’s mouth fell open. “What?” he managed to say after a few speechless seconds.
    â€œBad language,” Ellie said and then quickly added, “We were already four-nil down. But their centre forward is a nasty piece of work and he barged right into Niko, so I told him what I thought of him. I called him a vicious git.”
    â€œBut she got the words mixed up a bit,” Ruff said, stifling a grin. “I don’t know what vigous means, but you can guess what the other bit sounded like.”
    Oz tried unsuccessfully to stifle another burst of laughter.
    â€œHe deserved it,” Ellie said.
    â€œTrouble was, she yelled it out so loudly I’m surprised you didn’t hear it at yours,” Ruff muttered without looking up from his screen.
    But this criticism was the final straw for a clearly upset Ellie, who suddenly rounded on Ruff. “Well, at least I cared enough to give him a mouthful. The rest of you just gave up after halftime. I mean, look at you. Just look at you. You can’t even be bothered to stop reading some stupid magazine to tell Oz what actually happened! I hate losing. I just hate it. Of all the teams in the league to get hammered by, the Skullers are the worst. But I honestly don’t think you care. I don’t think you care about anything.” She turned her back on them both and buried her head in her school bag, her mouth a thin gash of anger.
    Ruff looked across at Oz, his expression a mixture of confusion and irritation. It looked like he was going to say something, but Oz shook his head and waved his hand out of Ellie’s view as a warning; Ellie really did hate losing more than anyone Oz knew.
    He risked another glance to the back. Behind Jenks sat his faithful shadow, Kieron Skinner. Tall and bony, Skinner usually wore a vacant expression and constantly picked at his forever running nose. But this morning he was grinning like a loon and smirking worse than Jenks was.
    â€œSo, did you get all your homework done, then?” Oz asked Ruff in an attempt at steering the conversation away from football.
    â€œNo. Just about managed to finish stuff for Badger Breath Boggs, that’s all.”
    Oz groaned. “We’ve got maths first lesson, haven’t we?”
    Ruff slumped in his