Chascot
the
Muscateer
Alexander Wightman
Chap
1
"Charles
Scott!"
This was it. They had found out about the camel spider in the
girl's toilet. A hush descended over the class. The others looked on, eyes
like saucers. I was in real trouble this time.
Trouble! That's a laugh, I didn't know what trouble was in those
days.
I got to my feet. In spite of the air conditioning being set too
high to keep us awake, I was beginning to feel very hot under the collar
and I could feel my cheeks flushing. I could see the leer on Jane
Proudlock's face which made mine burn even more. I hate it when that
happens but I didn't want anyone to think I was scared so I smirked back
at her and sauntered out of the room like I couldn't care less. Girls can
sometimes be a real pain in the neck, the ones that don't look like
supermodels anyway. There are precious few supermodels in our school I can
tell you. That is the main reason I had done it in the first place, that
and because Terry Spinks dared me to. It wasn't even my camel spider, it
was his. He got it off an Arab boy called Mohammed who found it up one of
his father's palm trees. All Arab boys are called Mohammed or Ali or Said.
I suppose Terry saved its life really because it was an exceptionally
stupid spider and kept going back to the ants' nest in Mohammed's garden.
If he had been left there much longer the ants would have put paid to him
no question.
I followed silently behind the head but to my surprise
we didn't turn in to the office as I was expecting but continued to the
main entrance. Good grief! I was going to be chucked straight out and all
because of a harmless prank with a camel spider. Mind you he was a big
one. If you had spread him out he would have covered a dinner plate. Girls
and their mothers get in a right old panic at the sight of them. He would
have had them out of the bog in double quick time I can tell you.
Dad's friend Toby, who likes drinking beer out of cans like Australians, says you can't feel a thing when they bite because they inject you with a sort of anaesthetic first. Their favourite trick is to creep up on you in the night on their great hairy legs when you are fast asleep and eat your lips off. They like lips best as they are the softest and juiciest bits. He said he knew a girl who had a big lump on her cheek and she kept scratching it and scratching it. One day the lump burst open and tiny little camel spiders rushed out and ran all over her face. But you can't believe everything Toby tells you, especially after the fourteenth can.
I followed the head out of the door into the burning heat of the Omani sun.
