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homework?” and “What do you like best, wrestling or boxing?” Maybe he was trying hard to keep his mind off the great distance and what would happen to us if we fell. “You get this mega-sized pizza in this place in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh, right, and it’s got, like, seventeen different kinds of cheese on it. I thought four was a lot, but like, seventeen! Wow!”
    We were only a few rungs from the bottom when he stopped and said sheepishly, “Hey, Saul, I don’t think I need a swim.” People were surrounding the ladder. I didn’t feel like hanging about either. “And at the den, right,” he suddenly said, “I got attacked by these massive ugly horses, but I scared them off. I don’t want to go back there, no way.”
    Ness was standing at the bottom of the ladder with my hoodie in her hands. She was running the zip up and down and letting other people have a go. Also I saw a chunk of toffee had fallen out and people were pointing at it. Amazingly the adult in the red wetsuit, who I thought was going to give us a right earful, reached up to help me and Robbie down.
    “Fresh apple juice?” asked Ness, smiling widely. “Come, we can visit the Wish Quench.” She gave me my hoodie, bowed at Robbie then walked off, Scosha next to her.
    I bent down and snatched up the toffee. “Hungry?” I said to Robbie, shoving it into his hands. “Cause I brought this for you.”
    “Thanks,” he said, popping it into his mouth. The gaping crowd parted to let Ness and Scosha through.
    Feeling pretty humiliated, I hurried after them, grabbing Robbie under the elbow. “That’s Ness by the way,” I hissed as we hurried after her, “and the other one is Scosha.” Robbie was chewing and looking about in a daze. I just stared straight ahead.
    Robbie pulled at my T-shirt, licked his lips and said, “Hey, Saul, this is cool, eh? Can you believe it? Peebles having a place like this? It’s like Florida! They’re never going to believe us, eh?”
    He was probably right about that.
    “Wow,” he went on, sounding all breathless, “I so loved that diving board. I wasn’t going to dive though. Na, no way. You didn’t think I was actually going to dive, did you Saul?”
    I shrugged. What did I know? I hadn’t expected Robbie to time travel a hundred years into the future.
    “Na, Saul, not after the last time. You wouldn’t get me diving. Wow, but what a thrill! I’m like, more a jumper than a diver.”
    I kept walking fast, steering him through the Aqua Park with all the people staring at us.
    “Slow down, Saul,” Robbie panted.
    After what seemed an age we reached the archway leading out of the Aqua Park. “Think they’ll have Coke, Saul?”
    “No,” I snapped, relieved to be out on the riverbank with all the drama behind us.
    “I’m not mad-keen on apple juice,” he went on.
    I tried to remember all the names I was going to call him, but he was looking so red-faced and excited and happy to see me I couldn’t come up with any. “I think the future is a fizzy-drink-free zone,” was all I said, and I steered him out onto the grass by the river where Ness was waiting for us. I guessed Scosha had gone to get changed. I leant over and hissed into his ear, “Homemade apple juice is going to taste just fine.”
    “Ok,” he whined. “Chill, I was only asking!”
    Now that I realised Ness was a girl she looked so obviously like one I didn’t know why I hadn’t seen it before. She was bowing to Robbie, who didn’t cotton on that this is how they say hello in the future, so he did a bit of a Kung Fu move – for a laugh, he said. Ness was taken aback, but next thing she bent her elbows, lowered her body weight, did a swift half-turn and, quick as lightning, kicked her leg way up in the air, landing her foot a peanut’s distance from Robbie’s nose. It was back on the ground before you could snap your fingers.
    “Ha-ha, wow, impressive!” Robbie gasped and stepped back super-fast. Then it was Ness’s turn