Chapter 5
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Edie woke up. She rolled over and looked at the clock:
4am.
What?
Again?
Weeks and weeks had passed by and the brother and sister team still hadn’t found a solution to their problem. Eventually Edie smelled coffee. Her parents were awake and they were making her breakfast. She shuffled out of her room like a zombie. Yarrow shuffled out of his room like a zombie.
Mum and Dad watched them very closely while they ate their breakfast. Very closely, or very crossly. Probably both. They still remembered the day the kids slept in and missed school, so both parents stayed home to make sure they walked to the bus stop on time. It was not a good morning.
Edie didn’t fall asleep at school that day, but only because she asked Marcela to poke her with a pen every time she was about to doze off. They did things like that for each other all the time, even crazy or silly things, because they were such close friends. Marcela wasn’t sure at first, but then she remembered what Edie did to her birthday cake, and she was happy to poke her with a pen. Unfortunately, Mrs Kauff caught them and was mad at Marcela. She gave her a punishment, but only a small punishment, because she knew Edie could be very determined. Not bossy, just determined.
Yarrow had a bad day too.
He did maths work during reading time, then ate his lunch during the science lesson. He put on his painting apron during maths class, and put his snacks in the book shelf, then he found paint brushes in his lunch box. Plus, there was paint on one side of his face, but he didn’t even know. He only realised when his friends laughed at him and told him he fell asleep during art. His friends were sooooo cheeky. He was sooooo tired.
Yarrow and Edie were both too tired to do sport at school. They liked sport. They decided to do some sport at home and thought it might also be a way to make Ralph tired – tired enough to sleep past 4am.
They dragged their tired bodies out to Ralph’s enclosure and forced themselves to play sport.
They started playing soccer, but Ralph wasn’t interested because his feet were too small. They switched to cricket, but roosters aren’t very good at cricket – they’ve got no hands.
“What about basketball?” asked Yarrow, but every time they bounced the ball near Ralph, they nearly squashed him. They tried handball, but Ralph kept running into the king square, even when he didn’t win the point. This made Yarrow very frustrated. Edie suggested hopscotch, but every time she put a stone in a square, Ralph thought it was food and he tried to eat it.
“We could take him bike riding,” Yarrow suggested.
“But we don’t have a helmet small enough for his head.”
The only game Ralph liked was chasings, because no one could catch him.
Image: Arib Neko
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