Luckily for me, the police were more interested in a piece of expensive stolen jewellery than they were in the fact that I’d borrowed a costume and forgotten to give it back. I managed to get away from the press conference and get home, then spent the rest of the night going through all the cleaning products in our house to remove ‘ThunderButt’ from the superhero suit.
Then this morning I snuck out early and went via the film studio on the way to school to sneak into the costume department and return the costume.
As I hang it back on a clothing rack, I give it one last pat. ‘Goodbye, ThunderButt,’ I whisper. ‘Even though Redhill will never know that you and I were the same person, it’s still been fun.’
I slip back out of the costume department, jog across the parking lot and head towards the street.
Which is where I find Abby, Hugo, Pip, Tyson and Duck all waiting for me.
‘What were you doing here, Max?’ Abby asks, raising one eyebrow.
‘Oh . . . um, well . . .’
Quick. I need a good cover story.
Suddenly Abby starts to laugh. The others quickly join in.
‘We’re just messing with you, Max,’ Abby says. ‘We knew you were ThunderButt the whole time.’
‘What? Really?’
‘Of course! Everyone did!’ Pip says, laughing. ‘It was so obvious!’
‘You superhero kids,’ Abby says, shaking her head as we start to walk to school. ‘You think you can just pop a mask on your face and speak in a stupid voice and nobody will recognise you. I tell you who doesn’t wear a mask, Max: Hailey Plum!’
‘Oh, would you stop going on about Hailey Plum?’ I say.
‘Hey, Max, now that Spencer Daniels has been fired from the movie, they need to cast someone new as young Captain Kickbutt,’ Tyson says. ‘Do you want me to ask my dad if he can get you another audition?’
‘Nah,’ I say. ‘Thanks anyway, but they’ve got Captain Kickbutt all wrong. Their movie is not nearly funny enough for me. I’ll find another way to get super famous. Maybe Duck and I can go on tour as a puppet show. What do they call them? Ventrilobots?’
‘Ventriloquists,’ Abby says. ‘But would Duck be the puppet or you?’
‘Oh, that’s a good idea!’ I say. ‘He could stick his wing up my shirt and I could be the puppet. But wait, would that tickle?’
Duck and I had better start practising.
THE END