The Trouble with Sauce by Bruno Bouchet Read Free Book Online

‘You’ve got a bit of competition now, haven’t you! Look — ah — I’m sure you’ll catch up soon and then one of your fellow students will invite you to join.’
    ‘But how can I catch up if I don’t join the group?’
    ‘Indeed!’ Mr Needham laughed and walked off, leaving Nathaniel even more puzzled. He couldn’t believe that suddenly everyone was more intelligent than him.
    The school loudspeakers crackled again. ‘David Coyne, Barbara Chmielewski, Lucy Coulter, report to the principal’s office!’
    Nathaniel sighed. If seeing the principal made your intelligence skyrocket, he wished they’d call his name too.

CHAPTER 11
WELCOME TO MY WORLD
    ‘David Perry, Mark Hughes, Julie Fox, report to the principal’s office.’ Announcements all day, every day. Even at home Jonty could hear the voice of the principal’s assistant in his head, summoning students to his office — but he was never one of them.
    Mannington High became quieter and quieter. Once, lunchtime had been a riot of noise: girls screaming as tomato sauce blood bombs splattered on their uniforms; boys shouting through a game of footy, balls flying around. Now Jonty was reduced to kicking a ball against a wall on his own, because there was no one to play with.
    He decided to kick a few practice shots at goal on the school soccer pitch. He would have to pretend there was a goalkeeper. He kicked the ball, chased after it and dribbled his way round, imagining himself in the 2014 World Cup Final in Brazil,leading Australia’s against-the-odds charge to victory.
    But there was no victory. Jonty’s imagination crashed. There was no World Cup stadium, no cheering crowds, no Brazilian defenders to get past. There wasn’t even a pitch anymore. It had been dug and planted with rows of seeds.
    Two Year 12 students intercepted him immediately. Jonty recognised them: they used to be the forwards on the school rugby team. They picked him up and carried him backwards away from the field, leaving his ball on the grass.
    ‘What are you doing? Where’s the pitch gone?’ Jonty asked, kicking his legs in the air.
    Year 12 were developing a modified form of wheat, adding fish genes to it to enhance the protein content. The new grains had been planted on the pitch. The forwards from the rugby team were now protecting the experimental crop.
    ‘We are expecting it to further enhance our brain power,’ one of the forwards added, as they walked with Jonty between them.
    ‘Why are you wasting time with a ball?’ the other asked as if it were the strangest thing in the world.
    ‘Have you been sent to the principal?’ they said.
    Jonty shook his head.
    ‘This is a controlled area,’ they announced, and walked even faster. ‘You’re not allowed here.’
    They dumped him back on the hard schoolyard surface and ran back to the pitch to scare some birds away.
    ‘Stupid rugby players,’ Jonty muttered to himself. You wouldn’t catch soccer players planting a pitch with seeds.
    Now, even more bored, he wandered over to the school canteen. The students waiting to be served stood silently looking ahead in a straight line. They ordered their salad roll or veggie burger and squirted tomato sauce neatly onto it. Then, one by one, they moved off, ate their food, put the wrappers carefully in the bin and sat down to read a book. It was like they were on a conveyor belt in a factory.
    Jonty plonked himself on the ground with his head in his hands. He missed his friends, the noise, the blood bombs. He was the only real person left in the world. ‘You’re a bunch of robots!’ he shouted at the students reading in unison on the library steps. No one answered. They didn’t even look up. There was no noise at all. All he could hear was the sound of pages being turned.
    Suddenly, the library doors flew open and shouts rang out. Jonty jumped up, relieved that something was actually happening. Prune de Luca and Nathaniel Bennett fell through the doors of the library,