Cyborg Cat and the Night Spider

by Ade Adepitan

  I didn’t need to be told again. With Shed’s help I climbed into the trolley.

  “Right, then,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  “Not yet,” said Melody. “Dex, get in.”

  A moment later Dexter was squeezed in next to me.

  “In case Spencer or anyone else sees us,” said Melody. “If you’re in the trolley on your own they might get suspicious, but if there are two of you in it, it just looks like we found it and we’re having a laugh.”

  “Wow, you lot have thought of everything,” I said, impressed.

  As it turned out, pushing a shopping trolley with two people in it wasn’t easy. We careered through Queen’s Market avoiding the traders setting up for the day, nearly veered into a queue of people at a bus stop, and then Dexter almost went flying when the trolley hit a kerb and tipped forwards, but getting to school that day was brilliant. We laughed all the way there.

  My friends had found a hiding place behind an old billboard for the trolley so I wouldn’t have to go into the playground in it.

  I climbed out and stood up. I didn’t feel too bad.

  “Reckon you can make it into school from here, Ade?” asked Shed.

  “Yeah,” I said, grinning. “Now all I have to do is get through the rest of the day.”

  “Don’t worry about that, Ade,” said Dexter. “We’ve got you covered.”

  At the end of the first lesson that day – maths, yuck! – Brian put his hand up.

  “Yes, Brian,” said Mr Hurst.

  “Mrs Broom asked if I could take an extra chair to the library for our lesson there, sir,” he said.

  “Fine. Take yours, but do remember to return it, otherwise you’ll be sitting on the floor for the rest of the day.”

  I didn’t remember Mrs Broom saying that, but as soon as we got into the corridor, all became clear.

  “Your next ride, sir,” said Dexter, gesturing to the chair.

  It took two of them to carry me, and I nearly fell out three times going down the stairs, but I got to the library without having to walk a step.

  After that we used the chair to get me from the library to the playground for break, then Brian took it back to Mr Hurst’s classroom and the rest of us played piggyback fights, with me on Shed again and Dexter on Melody. It was great fun, but all part of the plan, as it meant Shed could take me back to class without anyone thinking it was odd.

  Getting to the dining room for lunch involved me putting my left foot on Brian’s right foot, and my right foot on Shed’s left foot and ‘walking’ in between them. We ended up in a heap on the floor the first few times we tried it, but once we’d mastered it and got into the right rhythm, I felt as if I was floating.

  When the bell went for the end of the day, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Thanks to my friends, I’d made it. There had been a couple of tricky moments in the afternoon when Spencer – who else? – had sneeringly asked me where my wheelchair had gone, but fortunately none of the teachers heard him. As far as they were concerned I was okay and able to go on the trip the next day. The only problem was … I wasn’t okay. Not really.

  “I don’t think I should come tomorrow,” I said to the others from within the shopping trolley as we were making our way home. “I’m going to have to pretend to be sick again.”

  “No way!” said Shed.

  “Yeah,” said Melody. “We got you through today and we’ll get you through tomorrow. We’re the Parsons Road Gang!”

  They all punched the air and cheered, but I wasn’t convinced.

  “There are going to be teachers everywhere and loads of walking,” I said. “They’re not going to let us mess around with piggybacks and stuff. What if I collapse again? I really might get eaten by lions or devoured by red ants in the Creepy Crawly House.”

  “You can’t miss the trip, Ade,” said Dexter. “Not after everything that’s happened.”

  “Yeah, if you don’t go, the Night Spider will have won. We can’t let him!” shouted Shed.

  I shook my head. My friends were brilliant but I just couldn’t see a way out of this one.

  “See you,” I said to the gang, walking up to my front door. “Thanks for today. Enjoy the trip.”

  That night I lay in bed, staring at the posters of my favourite footballers on the wall. None of them had to wear a caliper. None of them were in a wheelchair. It just wasn’t fair! I wanted to be like them, but I wasn’t.

  I was different.

  As I drifted off to sleep, I felt my mind floating …

  I’m wheeling myself to the centre of the pitch in an enormous stadium just as the goalkeeper kicks the ball out.

  “And with five minutes to go in the Cup Final, West Ham are bringing on Ade Adepitan, their first ever player in a wheelchair.”

  The centre forward flicks it on with his head and it lands right by me. Suddenly I feel a surge of energy and my wheelchair powers up, glowing bright blue.

  I’m no longer Ade Adepitan.

  I am Cyborg Cat. Nothing can stop me.

  Guiding the ball with my wheels, I dribble past one defender after another, gaining speed all the time. As I near the goal, I use the energy in the wheels to lift the ball up into the air. Then, I take off too, soaring …

  As the ball starts to come back down, I meet it perfectly with my head, sending it thundering into the back of the net.

  Gooooaaaaallll!

  West Ham have won the cup. I’ve done it. Now everyone knows about the awesome power of Cyborg Cat!

  14

  A Surprisingly Early Start

  I WOKE up early the next morning and was practising my croaky sore throat voice when I was surprised to hear the doorbell ring.

  “Who is this so early?” I heard Dad say, gruffly. “It’s only six thirty.”

  He trudged downstairs, grumbling to himself as he did so.

  “Hello? Oh, hello. Yes, I see. No, I don’t think he realised. One minute. Doyin!”

  “Yes?” I shouted down, tentatively.

  “It’s your friends. Get dressed. You need to be at school early today for the trip.”

  This was news to me. I got up and went downstairs.

  “Hey, nice pyjamas,” said Melody as I got to the door.

  I’d completely forgotten that I was wearing bright green pyjamas with yellow flowers on them, another of Mum’s great buys from Glen Warrick’s stall in Queen’s Market.

  “Mum got them for me,” I said. “You know what her fashion sense is like.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Dexter, Shed and Brian who’d seen me in my pink suit on the first day of school.

  “What are you all doing here?” I asked. “Does the trip leave early?”

  “No, but we need to be somewhere else before school,” said Shed. “Come on, get dressed.”

  “I can’t come,” I said. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m sorry, everyone.”

  “You’ll be fine, Ade,” said Dexter. “I asked my brother and he told me that most of the trip is spent on the coach. But we’ve got a back-up plan as well, just in case.”

  “And anyway,” said Brian. “The Parsons Road Gang always stick together, so if you can’t go, we won’t go.”

  I looked at the four of them. They were serious. They really wouldn’t go if I didn’t. I couldn’t do that to them. I tried to give myself a talking to. If my friends believed in me, I needed to as well.

  Cyborg Cat, I know you’re in there. Let’s you and I spend some quality time together again.

  Five minutes later we were crossing the small park near our houses with me in the trolley again. I was feeling pretty good, but I didn’t know how long it would last.

  “Where are we going this time?” I asked. “I can’t see the teachers letting you push me round the safari park in a shopping trolley.”

  “Neither can we,” said Shed. “That’s why we’re here.”

  We’d stopped outside a house on the other side of the park.

  “Who lives here?”

>   “You’ll see,” said Melody.

  Next thing I knew, Shed had picked up some small stones and was throwing them at a window.

  The first couple fell short, but the next few hit the target.

  “I just hope whoever’s inside that room isn’t about to open the window and chuck stuff back at us,” I said.

  “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do that.”

  It was Salim.

  “Ready?” he said to the others.

  “Ready,” they all replied.

  For a moment, I thought he might be about to come flying out of the window, but thankfully he didn’t. Instead I saw a wheel, then another wheel, followed by some side guards. It was his wheelchair! He was lowering his wheelchair out of the window!

  I looked at him.

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “This is your chair. And my Dad locked up your spare chair in our shed. What are you going to do without wheels?”

  “I’m going to have a day in bed. I’m really not well,” he said. Then he coughed and sniffed, and added in a croaky voice, very similar to the one I’d been practising earlier, “Oh, Mum, I don’t feel good, my head hurts and … cough cough … my throat is sore … sniff sniff … and I have a tummy ache.”

  He stopped and his face broke into a huge smile.

  “I can’t believe it. You’d do this for me?” I asked, gobsmacked.

  “Of course,” he said. “We’re the Parsons Road Gang and –”

  “We always stick together.” I finished off his sentence.

  “That’s right,” Salim said. “Have a great time at the safari park. And perhaps you could ask your teachers to tell the teachers at my school how good it is, so we get to go.”

  “Will do,” I said, giving him a thumbs up.

  “Oh, yeah, one more thing,” Salim said. “No tilting in the chair! You’re not ready for that yet.”

  I nodded, obediently.

  “And whatever you do,” he added, “don’t let Brian sit in the chair. I’ve heard all about the famous egg-and-bean Brian bombs. I don’t think my chair is quite ready to go nuclear yet!”

  With that he slammed his window shut whilst all of us, including Brian, cracked up laughing.

  Salim’s chair was super lightweight, sleek and cool with gleaming wheels and a seat that looked as if I could melt into it. I really wanted to sit in it, but I hesitated.

  “There’s still a problem,” I said to the others. “It’s a really great chair, but when the teachers see me in it, they won’t let me come.”

  “Which is precisely why they’re not going to know about it,” said Brian, looking quite smug. “Tell him, Dex.”

  “My dad knows one of the coach drivers,” Dexter said. “So he had a word with him, and he said we could hide the wheelchair in the luggage compartment. The only thing is we need to get to school early, so he can load it on without anyone seeing.”

  “So all you have to do is get on the coach, Ade,” Melody said, “because even if you have to use the wheelchair at the safari park, there’s no way they’ll send you home once we’re there.”

  It was a brilliant plan. While I had been feeling sorry for myself, my friends had come together and found a way for me to go on the trip.

  “What are we waiting for then?” I shouted, sitting in the chair. “Let’s get going!”

  I pushed down on the wheels. It felt amazing. Even though it was Salim’s chair, it responded perfectly to my touch. It felt like I was gliding on air. I sensed something happening to me: Cyborg Cat’s powers were responding.

  But my good mood was suddenly stopped in its tracks just a few hundred metres from the school entrance.

  On the wall was some new graffiti. Some new Night Spider graffiti.

  In all the excitement of actually figuring out how I was going to go on the trip, we’d forgotten our other not-so-little problem.

  We ground to a halt and stared at the wall. This time there was no mistaking who it was aimed at.

  CYBORG CAT was written in big letters at the top of the wall, and the name was being attacked by spiders. The letters were crumbling away into dust and just below that were the words: Last Warning. Stay Away.

  Despite the chair, despite the powers I thought were returning, the swirling mist started to form around me as I looked at the graffiti …

  I began to hear the distant, raspy voice of the Night Spider.

  “Staaaaaaaayyyy … awaaaaaaaayyyy … you are weaker now … weaker now … in a wheelchair … I will crushhhhhhhhh yoooouuuuuuu!”

  I turned away quickly. Another moment and I would have been sucked in and probably fighting off those swarming spiders myself.

  “You don’t scare me, Night Spider!” I shouted defiantly.

  “Me neither,” shouted Shed. “Come on, we’re nearly there.”

  It was still early when we got to school but the coaches had already arrived and were parked up. Dexter quickly found his dad’s friend.

  “So, Bob says you want me store this wheelchair under my coach,” the driver said.

  “Yes, please,” said Dexter. “If that’s okay.”

  “Right,” he said. Then looking at me, but talking to Dexter, “So what’s he going to do? How’s he going to get around?”

  “Oh, he’s the Cyborg Cat,” said Dexter. “His powers can make him walk.”

  I didn’t think this was the best explanation, and I thought it was better to talk for myself anyway, so I stood up out of the chair.

  “I get pains in my leg sometimes and my body aches, but I only need the chair when it gets too bad,” I said. “I’m not disabled.”

  That seemed to be good enough for the driver. He took the chair and put it out of sight at the back of the luggage compartment.

  There was still half an hour until the coaches were due to leave. A few weeks ago that would have meant half an hour to play football, but there was no way I could do that now, so instead we all sat on a bench in the playground.

  “What do you think the Night Spider’s got planned?” Dexter wondered.

  “Nothing,” said Shed. ”He’s bluffing. He isn’t going to show up, he wouldn’t dare.”

  “Maybe that’s what he wants us to think, so we let our guard down,” suggested Brian.

  “Cyborg Cat never lets his guard down,” said Melody. “Your senses are always alert, right, Ade?”

  I nodded, but I could tell everyone was a little on edge about it. And I was too. I still didn’t know exactly how to explain what happened when I saw the graffiti: getting sucked in, the voice I heard, how it made me feel weak. Or how the wheelchair seemed to give me strength sometimes. Was I really Cyborg Cat, after all?

  Eventually everyone was ready, Mr Hurst had finished registration and we started to file onto the coach. Most people were really excited, but that new graffiti had definitely got to the five of us. We kept looking around, wondering if, or when, the Night Spider would make their move.

  I walked slowly to the coach, making sure not to exert myself too much, but when I got to the steps, I felt a sharp pain travel all the way down my left leg.

  “Ow!”

  Quick as a flash Melody and Shed were behind me and helped me to my seat.

  “You all right, Ade?” Shed asked as he sat down next to me.

  “Yeah, I think so, thanks,” I said. But I wasn’t sure.

  A short while later everyone was on board and we were on our way.

  I was sitting next to Shed, with Brian and Melody in front of us, and Dexter behind.

  Next to Dexter was a girl that I didn’t know. She had bright red hair and glasses, and she was drawing in a notepad. She kept sneaking looks at me as I was turning round and chatting to Dex.

  Eventually I turned to her and said, “Hi, I’m Ade.”

  “Oh, hi,” she said, clearly a little embarrassed. “I’m Emily. Sorry for staring at you. I just really like your hair, it’s so cool.”

  Dexter couldn’t control himself when she said that and turned away, giggl
ing.

  “Er, thanks,” I said, a little taken aback. Nobody had ever complimented me on my hair before. Maybe there was something to Mum’s devil comb, after all. “Erm, your hair is nice as well,” I said.

  Her face went red. I thought there was something about her that seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite work it out. Probably I’d just seen her around school.

  We chatted a bit more as the journey went on. She told me she also liked my clothes and the way I spoke, which the others seemed to find increasingly funny. Eventually a teacher told me to stop turning round and sit down in my seat properly.

  “Good to meet you, Emily,” I said. “This is Dexter, by the way. He’s a bit bonkers, but quite nice as well.”

  Now it was Dexter’s turn to go bright red and my turn to giggle.

  Twenty minutes later we arrived at the safari park. Everyone was really excited, but we couldn’t get into the spirit of it. As the coach drove through the gates, we were all looking around, trying to see where the Night Spider might be.

  We got off the coach and were sent into a room for a talk from the safari park staff. I felt a little stiff and achy, but I’d made it there without a problem.

  After the talk, we got back on the coach. The five of us were still a little nervy, but as soon as we saw the first animals, a herd of giraffe, we pretty much forgot about the Night Spider and started to enjoy ourselves. Brian, in particular, was super excited. True to his word he’d made piles of notes and was muttering away to himself as we drove through, seeing elephants, baboons, zebras, tigers and, yes, warthogs.

  It was fantastic. Even Spencer and his mates at the back of the coach seemed to be enjoying themselves.

  Once we’d driven through the whole safari park we pulled up and the coach parked. I looked out of the window to see the words, ‘Petting Zoo.’

  “Right, everybody, listen up,” said Mr Hurst from the front of the coach. “This is the petting zoo. The animals here are very safe, but there are still rules you have to follow. Before we go in, one of the keepers will be explaining what you can and can’t do, then we’ll be handing out a worksheet for you to fill in as you go round. So, slowly and quietly, please make your way off the coach.”