Boy Meets Ghoul Read online

On the pitch, the noise from the crowd was getting almost unbearable. They must have thought that the lighting change meant the band was about to come on, not that Fluffy hopefully wouldn’t be making his stage debut as the Incredible Flying Furball.

  I was breathless with nerves. ‘Is that it? Does that mean Fluffy’s safe?’

  Lacey turned on her dress so we could see her again by skirt-light. ‘I’m afraid not. It stops the timer, but there’s still a chance he could chew on something important inside the ball. The only way to get him out of there’s going to mean one of us going in.’

  I was going to say that none of us were anywhere near small enough for that, but one more look at the globe let me know what she meant. Where the wires, and Fluffy, had entered the ball, there was an opening just big enough for a human hand.

  Shrugging Freddie away, I got to my knees again. ‘I’ll do it.’

  I just couldn’t let something terrible happen to Fluffy – not now.

  I swallowed down my nerves and tried not to think about the videos we watched in school every November. You should never go back to a lit firework, according to them. They didn’t say anything about not picking up a self-detonating hamster, though.

  Carefully, I shuffled forward. Reaching the globe, I tilted it very carefully so the opening was clear. Then I stretched out a hand . . .

  FORTY-SIX

  And found Leroy beside me, grabbing my wrist before I could begin to fish around inside.

  ‘Wait,’ he said urgently. ‘I think we might be able to lure him out.’

  I sat on my heels while he pulled off his backpack and rummaged around in it until, lit by the glow of Lacey’s dress, I saw the golden gleam of the trophy Jez had tried to claim for his own.

  ‘How did you get that?’ Kayla asked from somewhere over our heads.

  ‘Well, since I’m the captain, I thought it was up to me to take care of it. No one noticed me picking it up once everything kicked off.’

  If it wasn’t so dark, I’d have thought Leroy was blushing a little.

  ‘So you stole it,’ I said. ‘Who’d have thought.’

  Freddie crouched down behind me. ‘Do you really think the hamster will want to get back in there? It might have been a traumatic experience the first time.’

  ‘I think he will once he gets a load of these.’ From his pocket, Leroy retrieved a handful of carrots from the crudité dishes that had been on tables at the hotel and tipped them into the trophy.

  Even in the dark, I think Leroy could feel us staring at him.

  ‘Well, I didn’t know how long all that fighting was going to take! I ate a very light lunch.’

  ‘You’re a hero, Leroy,’ I said. ‘All right – let’s see if it works.’

  I felt at least a little bit safer not having to stick my hand blindly into a box of fireworks and feel around for anything that didn’t seem like it was designed to go bang. I kept holding the globe in place – moving carefully around it so that if the fireworks were triggered, they wouldn’t go off in my face. And Leroy laid the trophy full of treats right by the opening.

  We watched in what would have been a hushed silence, if several thousand people just a short distance away hadn’t decided to start chanting Why are we waiting?

  I knew exactly how they felt.

  It’s amazing how a minute can feel so long when you’re waiting to find out if your hamster’s about to shower down over Manchester as part of a dazzling light display. After two minutes, I already felt like I couldn’t take the agony of it.

  ‘It’s no good – I’m going to have to go in after him.’ I started to move back round in front of the globe when Freddie made another grab for me.

  ‘Give it one more minute.’

  He caught my arm when he’d meant to get my shoulder. ‘Careful, you’ll—’

  It was too late. The globe slipped from my fingers. It rocked forward, then back towards me.

  And tipped out a small, orange hamster, who made straight for the trophy and vanished inside.

  Quick as a flash, Kayla dropped her bag over the top to trap him. ‘Got you. Finally! Talk about a hamster being more trouble than it’s worth.’

  ‘He only cost about twelve quid from the pet shop,’ I said, trying not to pass out with relief, all the nervousness rushing out of me in a sudden flood. ‘He’s more trouble than a bag of solid-gold bars.’

  ‘Or a room full of exclusive electric guitars,’ Freddie put in.

  Kayla sighed. ‘Or VIP tickets to this concert.’

  ‘Oh, speaking of those,’ Leroy said, looking at his phone. ‘My mum just texted that she’s outside, Dylan. She says you can leave the hamster with her before you go up to your VIP box.’

  I raised an eyebrow at him, carefully picking up the trophy while making sure Kayla’s bag was tight across the top. ‘We don’t have a VIP box.’

  ‘Well, Mum says you do. Mum says you’ve got a box with Kayla and your whole family. And she says not to tell you because it’s a huge surprise.’

  He finished reading and looked up. ‘Oops.’

  ‘But how . . .’ Kayla stared at me open-mouthed.

  ‘I don’t know!’ I hugged the trophy against my chest. ‘No one said anything to me.’

  Why were my family so sneaky?

  Kayla looked up at Lacey Laine. ‘Did you do this?’

  Lacey shook her head. ‘Not this time. Besides, I think I’m going to watch the show from back here, just in case they need another little technical assist.’

  I don’t think Kayla quite believed her, but she ran up for a hug anyway. I sort of wanted to do the same.

  ‘Thanks for everything,’ I said, knowing that wasn’t nearly enough. ‘You saved our hamster. And Kayla’s video – and today’s game. And turning the power off probably saved me from turning into a human sparkler too.’

  She smiled. ‘Well, it was hardly rocket science.’

  But we all knew she’d have been able to handle that too.

  Kayla pulled away with promises to keep in touch and an offer to be Lacey’s legal defence if she ever wanted to sue Jez for basically being the worst boyfriend in the world. Though Lacey said as long as he wasn’t her boyfriend any more, it didn’t really matter.

  Then we headed over to the backstage entrance. Kayla was so busy texting her dad that she didn’t even notice when she almost walked into someone with wild, dark hair, dressed in a violet sequin bodysuit with a flowing cape.

  Alonzo pulled Rick Deathsplash out of her path at the last second. But Rick stopped and pointed towards her.

  ‘You remind me of the babe.’

  Kayla looked up and gasped. ‘What babe?’

  ‘The babe with the pink coffee cup,’ Rick Deathsplash said.

  He stared contemplatively at Kayla for a moment, then leaned an arm on Alonzo’s shoulder and started to walk away.

  ‘That was a crazy dream, man. I’ll tell you about it sometime.’

  ‘I’m the babe!’ Kayla was still calling, as we were ushered out of the door.

  Now that we were no longer bathed in the glow of Lacey Laine’s dress, fame and beauty, people were much less willing to believe we were supposed to be there.

  ‘I’m the babe! . . . I’m the babe!’

  The door slammed shut, and she sighed.

  Leroy walked up to her, ducking his head. ‘If it helps, I think you’re a babe.’

  Kayla looked at him for a long moment. ‘You were very good in there. The carrots were especially impressive.’

  Looking up, Leroy gave a sheepish shrug. ‘Well, I’m good under pressure. I just wanted to be a little help.’

  ‘You were a lottle help,’ Kayla told him.

  Freddie and I shared a look. Mine might have been a bit more of an eye-roll.

  We made our way to Leroy’s mum’s car, where she was waiting with a picnic basket. I held my breath as I whipped Kayla’s bag from the top of the trophy cup to find that Fluffy – for once – was exactly where he was supposed to be: curled
up, taking a carroty nap.

  Careful not to wake him, I put the goblet into the basket, and Leroy strapped down the lid.

  ‘Guard this hamster with your life,’ I warned Leroy, then looked between him and Freddie. Even if I hadn’t been able to spend this week with Leo the way I’d planned to, I’d still been pretty lucky with the company I’d had. ‘And thanks. Both of you. Are you sure you don’t want to try and sneak in to watch the concert?’

  Leroy shook his head rapidly. ‘They’re not really my speed.’

  Freddie cast a nervous look at Kayla. ‘Honestly . . . I think they’re terrible. Sorry.’

  I was still laughing about the look on her face as we walked back across to the stadium – to the real entrance this time – and she hissed at me, ‘I would never have let you date someone with such terrible taste.’

  ‘He likes me!’ I protested.

  She sniffed, linking arms with me. ‘Exactly.’

  To my surprise, Mum was waiting for us outside.

  ‘You’ll have to ask your father about the VIP box,’ she said, before I could even open my mouth. ‘All I can tell you is it’s nothing to do with me. But Jude was glad of a night out of the hotel, after the haunting.’

  ‘You mean the technical malfunction?’ I asked.

  ‘And the giant black hamster that appears when someone’s undone by their own pride,’ Mum finished. Then she winked at me. ‘Come on, then – let’s find your dad.’

  FORTY-SEVEN

  Six days ago, Dad had been making us drive around Old Trafford while he scared old ladies and made up ridiculous rhyming chants. Now he was inside the stadium, in a special glass-fronted box with perfect views, its own private terrace of seats, and a buffet of finger sandwiches. I don’t think he even cared that he wasn’t there to watch football.

  Walking through the VIP entrance felt like walking on the moon must have done to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Like stepping out into a place that had always seemed so beyond anything you were used to that reaching it seemed impossible.

  I had to remember to take photos, otherwise I knew everyone back at school would say it was a hoax.

  Only Jude didn’t seem completely awed by the spectacle – he was most excited by the buffet he’d claimed a place in front of, watching cartoons on his iPad through noise-cancelling headphones.

  ‘How did you get this?’ I asked, while Dad beamed at me and Kayla like he’d just been officially appointed the new Santa Claus and had decided to go public with his secret identity.

  ‘Tickets sold out in three minutes and nine seconds,’ Kayla said, sliding open the glass doors and letting the crowd noise in with a whoosh. ‘I was using two phones and all seven computers in the school library and hadn’t got closer than four hundredth in the queue before they went.’

  ‘They’ve been reselling on ticket sites for thousands.’ I knew because I’d looked it up after Kayla lost the contest. When Dad lent me the money to upgrade my phone, I paid him back at ten pounds a month. If I’d asked him to buy us tickets for this, I’d have been repaying him for sixteen years.

  ‘Lacey said it wasn’t her,’ Kayla said. ‘So was it Rick? Was he paying me back for the coffee?’

  ‘Or was it Jez? Is this a bribe so we won’t mention how he tried to murder our hamster?’

  Dad raised his hands to stop us talking, which was lucky because I was pretty sure we’d already run through the whole list of celebrities we sort-of knew. He folded his arms and tilted his head towards the entrance to the box.

  ‘It wasn’t any of those. It was him.’

  In the doorway stood the hairy, slathering werewolf who’d been stalking us backstage. He was standing with his paws folded, looking as serious as a foam-and-fur werewolf could.

  Kayla blinked between me, Mum and Dad as if she’d missed some sort of joke. ‘Are we supposed to know who this is?’

  I was just staring at the wolf. Obviously I’d never seen the costume before tonight, but there was something about the pose. His height. How casual he looked in a ridiculous costume. There was only one person I knew who could carry off cool in a pair of paws.

  ‘I think I might,’ I said.

  Dad grinned as I took a step towards the wolf at the door. Then another.

  ‘Well fill us in, then,’ Kayla said, confused. ‘I didn’t realize you were a dog person.’

  I thought the puzzle pieces were slotting together in my head, but there was always a chance I’d be wrong. Still, saying them out loud made it feel more like it had to be true, so I started carefully. ‘He had a last-minute dancing job. Just for this week.’

  That made it click for Kayla too. I heard her gasp, but I didn’t look her way.

  I took another step towards the door.

  ‘They needed someone with a specific kind of experience,’ Mum said, nodding approvingly.

  ‘And rehearsals meant we couldn’t see each other for the whole of half-term. But Dad and Jude were going to be in Manchester anyway, and maybe there happened to be a space on Feet of the Future . . .’

  ‘Someone always drops out of these things last minute,’ Dad agreed.

  ‘And you wanted to come to try out for that competition. I mean, Camp Cheer.’

  Kayla shot a guilty look at my parents.

  ‘We figured that out,’ Mum said.

  ‘Which meant we’d all be here. We just needed tickets.’

  I finished closing the distance between me and the werewolf. He lowered his head slowly to my chest, and I reached out to tug at his tufty ears.

  ‘Do they give dancers free tickets or something?’ I asked, as the wolf head came loose in my hands.

  Leo straightened up and laughed. ‘Not ones this good. Rick’s personal assistant Alonzo was meant to be up here, but he came in today and announced he couldn’t let Rick out of his sight. He’s watching from backstage instead. I don’t know what got into him, but when I gave him your names for my guest list, he said he was upgrading you on the spot.’

  ‘You planned this the whole time,’ I whispered.

  ‘I felt terrible about having to cancel,’ Leo said, his voice soft enough that it sounded like his words were meant just for me. ‘It’s been ages since the summer, and I’ve hardly seen you. I thought taking this job would mess everything up.’

  It was so weird to hear Leo sounding as worried as I’d been this whole time. It was almost as if we felt exactly the same about each other.

  ‘I’ve just caused a riot at a hotel and rescued a hamster from going up in smoke,’ I told Leo. ‘I’m basically the king of messing up. And I don’t think you could ever, ever mess things up with me.’

  ‘No need to thank me, by the way,’ Dad was saying. ‘No need to say thanks, Dad, for all the hours of planning this took. I just like seeing you happy, no thanks needed. Nope. None at all.’

  Mum needled him in the ribs with a sharp elbow, grinning.

  I smiled. ‘Thanks, Dad,’ I said, but most of the words were lost in the hug I was getting from my brilliant werewolf boyfriend.

  Leo couldn’t stay long. The concert had been delayed by him and Lacey pulling the power, but he had to get back down before he was needed onstage. Kayla and I headed out on to the balcony just as amazing, hamster-free fireworks went off across the stadium in bursts of silver and gold.

  The concert was incredible. Rick Deathsplash screeched through his screamiest singles on the stage, and forty thousand people added their voices to his in a discordant, happy harmony. The high notes must have soared all the way across Manchester.

  Leroy and Freddie video called just in time for the last song of the night, the one that the whole Ghoulish Games tour had been named after. Mum went to tell Jude the news that Fluffy was safe and nibbling his way through a hotel towel, while I held up the phone over my head like a torch to let them watch as we bounced to the music. Kayla was screaming Rick’s name, but I couldn’t look away from the dancers.

  Well, maybe just one of them.

  Dad had t
old me he’d planned for Leo to spend the whole weekend with us, exploring the city. I had ideas about that. I already knew the light-strewn, rainbow-painted street I wanted to go to the most.

  As the concert came to a close with even more fireworks going off over Old Trafford – theatre of dreams and, for one night, home of Nightmares – and Rick Deathsplash pulled Lacey Laine out on to the stage to sing the last few lines just to her, I walked into the box to find a headless, panting werewolf back at the door.

  I reached out and took the only hands I knew I wanted to hold, and Leo ducked his head to kiss me.

  Kayla had been right when she’d said I had to decide what was worth waiting for.

  It had been this, all along.

  There wasn’t any substitute for love.

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Before writing her first novel, Birdie dabbled in the theatre, sold books at Waterstones, ran drama classes for children, and dispensed romantic advice to internet daters. She studied at two universities cunningly disguised as stately homes, taking a BA in Creative and Professional Writing at St Mary’s, Twickenham, and an MA in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa, where she gained first-class degrees in between looking for secret passageways and dodging peacocks.

  Birdie is pro body positivity and anti bullying, and believes in kindness above all things. She lives in Surrey, where she writes despite the best interruptive efforts of her pets, Ziggy Starcat and Moppet the Wonder Dog.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Getting to the thank yous happens to be one of my favourite parts of writing a book. Not only because it confirms that the book is done and you’ve somehow managed to put several thousand words in a reasonably sense-making sort of order, but because it’s a very good reminder that no one does it alone.

  So I firstly need to thank the marvellous people at my publisher: my editors, Venetia and George, plus Amber, Simran and the whole team. A huge thank you to Linzie Hunter for another fantastic cover.

  Thank you to my agent, Molly Ker Hawn, always, for her wit and wisdom, Alywn Hamilton for calm words and pre-book launch survival tips, and Sophie Cameron and Simon James Green for their support.