The Day the Ear Fell Off by T.M. Alexander Read Free Book Online Page B

leave. It would be
special wouldn’t it? A tribe.’
    ‘You mean bongo drums and sacrifices?’ said Copper Pie. Trust him.
    Jonno gave him a funny look but didn’t say anything, so I did. ‘A tribe doesn’t mean witch doctors and spears. A tribe is a name for a group of people who respect each other
and share the same way of life and live in peace alongside other tribes.’ There were trust-Keener-to-know looks all round. ‘In lots of tribes everyone is equal. There’s a chief
but he doesn’t sit around doing nothing and have servants. He does the same as everyone else. And tribes have a strong idea of what makes them different from everyone not in their tribe.
That’s good too. We’ve always been different, haven’t we?’
    ‘You mean because we’ve never bothered with the rest of the class?’ said Fifty.
    ‘Yes. And loyalty is a really important part of being in a tribe and we’re definitely loyal or we wouldn’t have mended Charles Stratton, would we?’
    ‘Tribe,’ said Fifty as though he was trying it out. ‘OK. I’m for it.’
    ‘Copper Pie?’ said Jonno.
    ‘If it means you’re gonna get me out of the poo every time, yep, I’m in.’
    ‘Bee?’
    ‘I’m not sure I get it but I definitely don’t want to be left out . . . so yes. In. But I’m not wearing a grass skirt.’
    I couldn’t wait for Jonno to ask me. I wasn’t going to be Keener any more – the quiet hard-working boy with the floppy blond hair who’s never ever had a detention. I was
going to be Keener of Tribe. It felt like my life was starting. In one day everything had changed. I knew I was part of something amazing. I just knew.
    ‘Count me in,’ I said in a big bold voice, twice as loud as normal. You see, it was starting already.

Alley Cats

a bit of bother
    I didn’t expect to have anything to report so quickly, but finding a second problem to sort out didn’t take any time at all. The day after we formed Tribe, in the
tiny gap between leaving school and getting to mine for the first Tribe powwow, Copper Pie and Jonno managed to run into trouble.
    There were loads of important things to decide at the meeting like: a den outside school, code words for when non-Tribers were listening and a manifesto (Bee’s grand idea – I think
it’s something to do with having an important purpose, like saving the planet, that you write down and keep as a reminder). I’d thought of more things too: a time capsule (we could put
my notebook about Tribe in it together with other stuff about us – like fact files and photos), a magazine, and maybe even a promise we all have to say, like at Scouts.
    Bee arrived at six o’clock, as agreed. I asked Amy (my fifteen-year-old sister) to send the others up to my room when they came.
    ‘It will be a pleasure, little bro,’ she said. ‘Especially if you stay there.’
    Mum had a late surgery. She does every Thursday. Amy walks me and Flo home. I like Thursdays because Amy and Flo always have girly time – painting nails or hair plaiting – and I get
to do what I want with no interruptions.
    ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,’ she shouted as we disappeared upstairs.
    ‘What’s your sister done to her face?’ asked Bee.
    I shrugged.
    ‘Well, something’s different.’
    ‘She’s got a boyfriend.’
    ‘Mank. That must be it. Snogging. I’m never doing that.’
    ‘Nor me.’
    Copper Pie and Fifty arrived together at 6:07 p.m.
    ‘Where do you think Jonno is?’ I asked.
    ‘Got lost maybe,’ said Fifty.
    ‘He’s been here before.’
    ‘Maybe he dropped his glasses down a drain and is trying to hook —’
    Bee cut Fifty off. ‘Copper Pie, has your mum had the letter from school yet? The one about strangling Jonno.’
    ‘Came this morning. Postman gave it to me, luckily.’
    ‘Why is that lucky?’ said Fifty.
    I knew the answer before it came. Copper Pie had pocketed it. Normally I’d worry about something like that but I just wanted to get on. Ideas were