19

I end up sulking about our whole situation and take it out on my cape

Midway through sixth year, Mrs. Walker had a huge rant about the importance of having a protractor and pinned a sign to our classroom door that said, By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail, or something like that. At the time I couldn’t see why protractors were such a big deal, but as I sat on the green outside the shop with our long bike ride to St. David’s ahead of us, I had an epiphany. Mrs. Walker wasn’t just talking about math equipment. She was talking about life.

Although now that we were part-superhero and I was feeling more confident about our chances of getting to St. David’s, I thought that perhaps some preparation might be a good idea. While Ben and Charlie had a little snooze in the sun, I decided to do a full assessment of our situation. And this is when I realized the following worrying facts:

1.A criminal had taken our stolen ring.

2.He’d probably try and sell it on the black market.

3.News of this might reach the Gaffer.

4.The Gaffer could find out the ring came from three kids dressed as superheroes in Llampha.

5.It was only a matter of time before the Gaffer would come for us.

By the time I had swallowed the little sick burp that had taken me by surprise, I knew we had to get going fast.

I gave Ben and Charlie a kick to wake them up.

Charlie sat up looking all confused. “You okay, Fred? You don’t look so great.”

I didn’t feel great, but I had to focus on practical things. “We need to go, right now.”

“Can’t we just—”

“No, we’re leaving, and we need to find a change of clothes.”

“You pee in your costume too?” Charlie asked.

“Ewww! No, I didn’t.”

Ben grinned at me. “It’s okay if you did. It was pretty scary.”

“I’m telling you, I didn’t.” I might have done a teeny dribble, but he didn’t need to know that.

Charlie said, “No, me neither,” but I couldn’t help noticing a slightly darker patch around Spiderman’s crotch.

“We can sort out clothes later, but we need to get out of here, like, now.”

“What’s the rush?” Ben asked.

“If that guy tells anyone where he got that stolen ring, the Gaffer might come looking for us and it’s not like we’re difficult to spot. I don’t see many other kids dressed as superheroes around here.”

Ben’s face went pale. “I . . . I didn’t think of that.”

“Which is why we need to go.”

Charlie didn’t have to be told twice—he was up and pedaling before Ben had a chance to swing his leg over the saddle. Fortunately for Ben, it’s difficult to steer a tandem bike from the back seat, so Charlie didn’t get very far before he crashed to the ground.

Ben wasn’t happy that he’d been left behind. “You tried to leave me! You . . . you . . . abandoner!”

Charlie scrambled out from under the bike. “Sorry, dude, I panicked.”

Ben shook his head. “Maybe you could try and put that sort of effort into pedaling when we’re on a hill?”

We headed out of Llampha with no clear idea of where we were going, apart from as far away from the scene of the robbery as possible. Mrs. Walker probably would have considered this as failing to prepare.

After our initial high-speed burst, our pace dropped, and I took more notice of where we were headed. We kept to the small roads as I thought we’d have less chance of being noticed. And I was right. The roads got smaller and smaller until they were more like tracks. After about an hour of cycling deeper into the countryside, we hadn’t seen a soul. In fact, we didn’t come across any sign of life other than a lot of sheep. Naturally, Charlie thought every one he saw was Sheila.

I got a little worried, but I didn’t let on to Ben or Charlie that I hadn’t a clue where we were. After we cycled past some very familiar looking sheep for a third time, I had all the evidence I needed to prove we were pedaling in circles. I kept this nugget of information to myself for another half an hour but then my anxiety—and the chafing of Lycra, bottom flesh, and bicycle seat—became too much for me to bear. I pulled into a field to ’fess up to Charlie and Ben that we were completely and utterly lost in deepest darkest Wales.

I leaned my bike against a fence and slumped down onto the grass. My cape got caught on a nail and it strangled me. Being attacked by my own clothing was too much of an insult, so I pulled my cape off and tried to rip it. Whoever invented Lycra knew what they were doing—it is surprisingly hard to tear. That only made me angrier. I went into full-on tantrum mode. I threw it on the ground and jumped on it. Again and again.

Once I was certain that the cape was not going to attack me anymore, I picked it up and threw it over the hedge and then collapsed on the ground.

“Not your color?” Ben said as he sat down next to me.

“I think we should go home.” My words surprised me but as soon as they were out of my mouth, I knew I meant them. Everything was a disaster.

Ben nudged me gently with his shoulder. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do. I really do. We’re lost and miles from St. David’s, we’re probably being hunted by a criminal called the Gaffer, and our parents will ground us for life once they find out about all this, which they will.”

“I know—exciting, isn’t it?”

“That’s one word for it,” Charlie said.

Obviously, Ben had lost the plot. It wasn’t exciting. It was terrifying.

But Ben didn’t see it that way. “Fred, you can’t give up now.”

“Can’t I?”

“Look, it’s pretty obvious that finding Alan Froggley is important to you. And I don’t think you should give up on things that are important. Some people quit too easily. When things get tough, they just up and disappear off to Spain.”

Ben was clearly working through some stuff of his own. I nudged him back with my shoulder. “You okay, mate?”

He picked up a stone and chucked it over the wall. Then he shook his head and gave me a weak smile. “Okay, so some of that was more about me, but still, you shouldn’t give up. Supergirl wouldn’t.”

“Oh, ha ha.” I sighed a really big sigh. “I don’t know, Ben. All the signs seem to be clearly telling us to quit before we die or end up in a juvenile detention center for the rest of our lives.”

“You can’t be in a juvenile detention center for the rest of your life. They’d move you to a grown-up facility at some point,” Charlie said.

“Not the time, Spidey,” Ben said and then fixed his eyes back on me. “Fred, come on, dude, what about the signs that are telling us we should keep going?”

I couldn’t help it, I laughed when he said that. “You want to tell me what signs are telling us to keep going?”

“Look.” Ben pointed at Charlie.

“Charlie?”

Ben had this funny twinkly look in his eyes. “Not Charlie—look at what he’s eating.”

I still wasn’t getting it. But I was concerned that Charlie was already plowing through our reward candy from the shop. For all I knew they might have been our last meal before we starved to death in the Welsh wilds.

“But what is he eating?”

Ben wasn’t dropping it, so I said, “He’s demolishing our box of Freddo Frog bars.”

Ben’s smile grew wider. “Freddo Frogs. Don’t you see, Fred? That’s you. Freddo Froggley? It’s not a sign, it’s . . .” He paused and looked at Charlie. “How many in there, mate?”

Charlie turned the box around. “Sixty minus three . . . okay, minus six.”

“There are fifty-four signs that you, Freddo Frog, should continue on your quest to find your biological father.” Ben folded his arms and nodded triumphantly.

I think he wanted me to say something meaningful, but all I said was, “Freddie Froggley? Freddie Froggley?” like it was a question.

I couldn’t be Freddie Froggley. High school was going to be hard enough as it was with a regular name, let alone being named after Cadbury’s cheapest chocolate bar. But before I could get completely devastated by this bombshell, Ben jumped to his feet and began singing.

To start with, I thought, Why is he singing at a totally terrible time like this? And then I realized what he was singing. He was singing “One More Step Along the World I Go.” But instead of step he was singing hop and instead of traveling he sang ribbiting. Which I think was his attempt at some frog-based humor. I guess it was pretty funny.

It didn’t take long for Charlie to join in. It was a clever song choice by Ben—it was both personal and motivating. They pulled me to my feet and I sang along with them. When we finished the last verse, we started again and we danced around that field somewhere in South Wales singing and croaking and laughing until Charlie did a little bit of chocolate puke down his Spiderman costume. That was one bodily fluid too many. We really had to get a change of clothes.