CHAPTER 6

I am fiddling with my torch. So far I’ve flicked it on and off twenty-seven times. It’s pretty boring, I can tell you.

Mischief is still snoring on her beanbag, oblivious to the whole situation.

And Ted? Well he’s doing the Cone of Silence thing. Not one word has come out of his mouth since I decoded his ridiculous message. I still can’t believe it. I mean, why? What possessed Ted to do such an idiotic thing?

‘It’s okay, Ted,’ I say finally. ‘I just want to understand what’s going on, that’s all.’

Ted looks at me, guilt written all over his face.

‘I’m really sorry, Brain,’ he says softly. ‘Things didn’t work out quite the way I’d hoped.’

‘“Quite the way you’d hoped”? What is that supposed to mean?’

‘It’s Money Bags,’ he sighs. ‘I can’t go on national television in front of all those people. I just can’t.’

‘That’s what this is all about?’

Ted nods. ‘What if I get the very first question wrong? What if I make a total idiot of myself?’

‘Been there, done that,’ I joke, as thoughts of the little Quizzical incident come flooding back. Then I have a bit of a chuckle to myself. It’s funny how you can laugh about things later.

But Ted doesn’t smile. Not even a little bit. He is too busy flicking his torch on and off. It is really annoying. I wish the battery would run out.

He lets out a huge sigh.

‘The more I thought about Money Bags, the more worried I got,’ he says mournfully. ‘And the next thing I know my face is all puffy, I’ve got red spots popping up all over the place and I can’t stop itching for the life of me.’

‘That doesn’t explain everything else,’ I say.

‘Don’t you see? It should be you going on Money Bags, Brain, not me! You’re the smartest kid in the school. Everybody knows it.’

‘That may be, Ted, but it was you who won Quizzical for us. If anyone deserves a chance on Money Bags, it’s you.’

‘Yeah, and we all know why I won Quizzical for us, don’t we? Because of you. How often did we go over those practice questions? If you hadn’t annoyed the heck out of me with all that studying beforehand, I wouldn’t have known a thing, let alone the colours of the rainbow. Besides, on Quizzical I had you and Harriet. This time it’s only me. I can’t do it, Brain, I really can’t!’

‘So you went to all this trouble just to get out of Money Bags?’

Ted nods. ‘I figured that if Mrs Gribble thought someone was out to get me, and that I was so stressed, then she would make you go on Money Bags instead. You weren’t supposed to go and figure everything out, Brain.’

‘But slashing your bike tyres, Ted? And the coded message? Don’t you think you were being just a little melodramatic?’

‘I suppose,’ says Ted quietly. ‘I rode over some broken glass by accident yesterday, so both my tyres were flat anyway. And the coded message … well, that just seemed like a good idea at the time. I should have known I wouldn’t get anything past you.’

I give Ted a gentle pat on the back.

‘You’re going to be fine,’ I reassure him. ‘I’m going to see to it.’

‘You are?’

‘By the time I’m finished with you, Ted, you’ll be in tip-top condition and raring to go on Money Bags.’

‘I’m not sure I like the sound of that.’

‘Come on, just think of it as another one of life’s little adventures.’

Ted looks at me, defeated.

‘This is one of life’s little adventures I could really do without,’ he sighs.