The Bare Bum Gang and the Football Face-Off by Anthony McGowan Read Free Book Online

they’ll have seven.’
    â€˜The evil sneaky swine,’ said Jamie. ‘I knew it was too good to be true.’
    â€˜They’ll know all about our Christmas tree,’ said The Moan.
    â€˜You’re not lying, are you, Jennifer?’ I asked, but I knew it was true. Everything started to fall into place.
    â€˜I do not tell lies,’ she answered, sounding very high and mighty.
    â€˜That’s true, she doesn’t,’ said The Moan, but he didn’t mean it as a compliment. ‘She never covers for me when I’m in trouble.’
    I glanced around at the boys. They looked really, really depressed about this news.
    â€˜Let’s say it’s true then. But how do you know about it?’
    â€˜My friend Sarah is friends with his sister’s friend, Fiona.’
    â€˜Eh?’
    â€˜I just heard, OK?’
    â€˜Why are you telling us this? Is it because you want to gloat?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Ha!’ said The Moan. ‘She doesn’t even know what gloat means.’
    â€˜I do so, stupid boy! It means being happy that someone else is sad, and then you make fun of them. And no, that isn’t why I’m telling you.’
    â€˜Why then?’
    â€˜They were going to cheat. I didn’t think it was fair. Especially as they’re all bigger than you anyway. I hate things that aren’t fair.’
    â€˜That’s really nice of you, Jennifer,’ I said. And I meant it. ‘I’m really sorry about . . . you know.’
    â€˜Are you?’
    â€˜Yeah. I should never have made you show us your bare bum. I should just have said there were no girls allowed.’
    â€˜But why are there no girls allowed?’
    â€˜Why? But . . . but . . . I don’t know, really.’
    I was going to say that stuff about girls tidying up your den and making your action figures wear frilly dresses, but I realized that Jennifer wasn’t that kind of girl. In fact, for all I knew for sure, there weren’t any girls who would do all that.
    I looked round for support from my gang, but they were all hanging their heads. I could understand why.
    â€˜What are you going to do about the game?’ Jennifer asked after a while. She’d probably got bored with waiting for me to say something.
    â€˜Well, we can either not turn up, or play anyway, with six men.’
    Jennifer started laughing. ‘Six men! Ha, you mean six boys.’
    â€˜You always say “men” in teams. You’d probably say men even if you had girls.’

    â€˜And you can’t get anyone else to play?’
    â€˜Too late now.’
    Jennifer was looking at me in a funny way.
    Then I had one of my ideas. It was probably the craziest idea I’d ever had, and that was saying something.
    I turned to the Gang. ‘We need to have a talk in the den,’ I said to them. Then I turned again to Jennifer.
    â€˜Wait here a minute, will you?’ I said it in my nicest voice.

Chapter Fourteen
THE KISS
    â€˜What’s all this about?’ asked Noah when we were inside.
    â€˜I’m going to ask her.’
    â€˜Ask who?’ said Jamie.
    â€˜Jennifer.’
    â€˜Ask her what?’ said The Moan.
    â€˜If she wants to play.’
    â€˜WHAAAAAAT!’ The shout came from all of them together.
    â€˜Look,’ I said, ‘we haven’t got anyone else. And she looks quite sporty. Have you seen her doing cartwheels?’
    â€˜But cartwheels aren’t allowed in football,’said The Moan.
    â€˜It’s just an example. She might be one of those girls who are really good at football. I saw a film about them once.’
    â€˜Yeah,’ said Jamie thoughtfully. ‘I saw that. She runs fast too. And running
is
allowed in football. In fact it’s, erm, the opposite of not allowed . . .’
    â€˜Compulsory,’ said Noah.
    â€˜Yeah, that,’ said Jamie.
    â€˜She’s your