Read Online Spurt by Chris Miles - Free Book Online Page A

of the phone. ‘Huh? Not the school, Jack.’
    ‘Well, who?’
    ‘The Bigwigs people.’
    ‘Bigwigs ?’ said Jack.
    ‘I told you. They want you to be on the show again. For this reunion thing they’re doing. Didn’t you listen to my message?’
    Suddenly the whole conversation made a lot more sense – and had become roughly ten thousand times less disturbing.
    ‘N-no,’ said Jack, breathing a sigh of relief. ‘No, sorry … I thought you were talking about something … totally different.’
    ‘What did you think I was – wait a minute, I’ve got another call coming through.’
    Jack realised it was probably Mr Trench calling. ‘Don’t answer it!’ he blurted. He’d already suffered through one half of an awkward conversation – he wasn’t sure he could repeat the experience with both sides fully briefed and up to date. ‘T-tell me more,’ he said, desperate to stop her answering the call.
    He looked up at the others. ‘Tell me about this Bigwigs thing.’

Jack sat at the kitchen table with the laptop open in front of him. His mum stood behind him, one hand resting on his shoulder as they read and re-read the email from the Bigwigs producers.
    We’re entering an exciting new phase in the Bigwigs story, with the show about to enter its third year – the biggest yet – and its debut season on Network Twelve. We feel there’s no better way to celebrate where we’ve come from than to check in on our first season contestants and find out what they’re doing now. It’s the perfect opportunity to show viewers how Bigwigs can change lives for the better.
    In the coming weeks we’ll send small crews to film our ex-contestants in their regular lives: at home, at school and in their post- Bigwigs media careers. These packages will air during a special live reunion episode featuring all the contestants on stage together, to kick off the brand-new season of the show.
    We’d be thrilled if Jack could join us for this one-of-a-kind episode of Bigwigs .
    Jack scrolled through a whole section of appearance fee details and disclaimers and legal terms. There was a questionnaire attached, where Jack was supposed to write down all the ways life had changed for him since he’d been on Bigwigs .
    ‘They need an answer this week?’ he asked.
    ‘That’s what it says,’ his mum said, looking over his shoulder. ‘It’s weird: weren’t you just asking the other day if they’d been in touch? And now this. It’s like it was meant to happen!’
    Jack wasn’t sure he liked how enthusiastic his mum was being. He tried to appeal to her sense of parental responsibility. ‘I’d have to miss a few days of school, though, to do the live show,’ he said.
    Adele glanced sideways at him. ‘That might not be such a bad thing.’
    Despite Jack’s best efforts, his mum had eventually heard Mr Trench’s message concerning ‘the incident’ in the student centre. Luckily, the message was so full of military jargon that Adele wasn’t sure what Jack was supposed to be guilty of: inappropriate behaviour at school or invading Pakistan.
    Hallie, meanwhile, had clearly heard all about it. ‘You don’t go anywhere near Nats from now on,’ she’d warned him, hauling him aside into the hallway just before dinner. ‘Don’t even think about her. I’m in with those girls, and I don’t need you ruining it for me.’
    Jack looked through the email again. Maybe his mum was right. Doing the Bigwigs reunion show might be a way to take control of the story and save his reputation. A chance to steer the narrative towards ‘teenage boy makes triumphant return to semi-fame’ and away from ‘teenage boy revealed to be public pants fondler’.
    Maybe it would even give him a second chance at being popular. Maybe everyone would be so starstruck by his return to TV, even just for a reunion episode, that they’d conveniently overlook how far he’d fallen behind them.
    But could he really just slot back into the world of Bigwigs