Loudmouth Louis - Anne Fine [6]
Mrs Frier said, as I walked past her: “Hello, Louis. I didn’t notice you there, even in that nice bright shirt.”
Fly on the wall, see? I gave her the thumbs-up, to show that, although I wasn’t speaking, I was still friendly.
“Oh, right!” she said, remembering. “Your sponsored silence! Well, best of luck!”
I nearly said “thank you” and ruined it.
But Bernie interrupted just in time.
“Seven boys! For every girl! It makes you think, doesn’t it?”
So that was my first few minutes. I’d heard something interesting from Mrs Frier (and probably saved Bernie Henderson’s life).
It was the same in the playground. I kept hearing fascinating things.
“So Moira’s mother has to go and meet the Queen, and wear a fancy hat.”
“And when my brother looked at the apple, he saw half a maggot, waving.”
“Oh, yes. Each year the top class go to Alton Towers.”
“Mrs Prenderghast saw a ghost in her closet.”
I wandered round, listening. Behind the shed, I saw Dora curtsying beautifully to one of the dustbins, but since she wasn’t saying anything, I drifted back to the playground and heard Roberta saying to Amelia, “My dance teacher says if I can’t learn to curtsy properly, I can’t be one of the Twelve Dancing Princesses in our show.”
“Is curtsying hard?” asked Amelia.
“I think so,” said Roberta. “I get my feet all mixed up. And I can never remember how to start.”
I grabbed her hand and tugged. She gave me a funny look and said, “What’s the matter, Louis?”
I put my fingers on my lips and shook my head, but kept on tugging.
“He can’t talk,” Amelia reminded Roberta. “He’s on his sponsored silence.”
So Roberta let me drag her round behind the shed, and Amelia followed us. And there they saw Dora, curtsying beautifully to the dustbins. Roberta rushed up to copy how she put her feet. Amelia joined in as well. And when I walked away, the three of them were busy making arrangements to meet in break-time for another practice.
And then the bell rang. While we were trooping in for Assembly, Roberta gave my hand a secret squeeze.
“Louis,” she whispered. “If I get to be one of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, I’m going to give you my granny’s old Read-Easy Magnifying Glass, and that’s a promise.”
A Read-Easy Magnifying Glass. It sounded good.
Usually, I hate Assembly. The hall’s cold, I hate sitting still in boring lines, and it seems to go on for ever. The only part I like is the singing, and by the time we get to that, it’s all dragged on so long, we only have time to sing one or two verses.
This time, it was over too soon. I don’t know what happened. One minute, Mrs Heap was nattering on as usual about not dropping litter, and noise in the corridors. But because I couldn’t just turn to the person next to me and whisper, as usual, I had to stare round quietly.
And that’s how I came to notice the second hand on the clock.
I watched it sweep round. When it reached the exact top, I shut my eyes and tried to guess how long a minute was. When I opened my eyes again, thinking I’d see the second hand swooping past the top again, it was still only halfway round.
I tried again.
This time, I was better at guessing. Only twenty seconds out.
The next guess was even closer. I missed by just five seconds.
Then I tried counting. First, I did a minute’s test run, watching the clock and getting the rhythm right. (After all, being able to count to a minute without a watch might come in useful if I ever join the army or a television company.)
Then, after my test run, I had another go with my eyes closed.
And I was spot on. Perfect.
So I did it again, to prove it wasn’t just a fluke. And this time I was only one second out, so I counted that as well.
And then, even though I wasn’t listening, I heard my name called out by Mrs Heap.
“Louis Todd –
I looked up, furious. I hadn’t said a single word.
But then I heard the rest.
“– can sing the song along with all the rest of us without spoiling his big silence.”
Mrs Heap waved at Mr Hambleton at the piano.
“And since I haven’t had to keep stopping this Assembly to tell people