Chameleon Chaos (5 page)

It was a beautiful specimen—as tall as a man and bristling with happy, healthy green leaves. Its trunk and branches had been artfully encouraged to grow into attractive twists and gnarls. The head teacher was very proud of it. He'd brought it in from his own conservatory. But he certainly would never have expected one of his pupils to stand before it, staring at his
Ficus benjamina
as if it was the latest thrill ride at a theme park.

As Danny gazed at the tree in wonder, he realized his eyeball must wait. He
had
to get closer to those branches.

One second he was putting his school shoe
carefully into the large earthenware pot—and the next, he was climbing up the trunk. With five green toes on each hand and foot. And with two amazing, rotating eyeballs. And a wide, lazy grin across his scaly face.
Must tell Petty
, he thought to himself as one pincer-like hand worked across the other, steadily pulling him up the tree.
I'm a chameleon at last! Her S.W.I.T.C.H. spray DOES work …

“PE after break, everybody,” called out Miss Mellor as the bell went. “Don't dawdle in the playground. Get back inside and get into your PE clothes as soon as the bell goes again.”

Josh groaned. With everyone going so fast today, there was no way he would be able to get out to the playground and get back in again and put on his PE clothes in time. He just knew it. So he didn't go out. He slid slowly and quietly under his desk as everyone else went outside, and Miss Mellor didn't notice as she gathered up some papers and her spectacle case and made for the staff room and a cup of tea. As soon as the door closed behind her, Josh dug out his PE clothes and ambled to the boys' changing rooms to get a head start. He hoped Danny's eyeball was OK.
That was seriously weird. He thought about going off to find his brother, but he knew it would take too long. He guessed he should be more worried, really, but … he just couldn't work up the energy.

Danny had never felt so relaxed in his life. Normally he was scared after S.W.I.T.C.H.ing—or at least highly excited. But this time he was just … cool. True, it was a little bit chilly—he would like to be a bit warmer. And as he thought this, he spotted something extremely useful on the wall just below the branch he was clinging to. It was a small cream-colored box with a dial on it. A thermostat! It was the control for the heating in this corridor. Brilliant. Very slowly and steadily, Danny extended his back leg, and—closing the two toes on it like a scaly green pincer—he nudged the thermostat dial all the way round to the hottest end. The small grilled radiator below him began to waft up warmer air. Oooooooh—nice!

Then he climbed a little higher and discovered his own reflection, staring back at him from the glass of a framed certificate on the wall. WOW! He really wished Josh was here to see
this. He looked amazing!
I take it all back about chameleons being boring
, he thought. He was a splendid creature. He was much chunkier than last time, when he'd been a sand lizard. Then he'd been slick and quick. Now, although he was slow, his looks more than made up for it. He was the most beautiful emerald green all along his finely scaled sides, and his tail, which was long, curled into a perfect coil underneath him, like an unfurled bracken leaf. He had a magnificent crest along his spine, rising like a decorative fan from the back of his neck. There seemed to be rather prehistoric-looking bony plates across his forehead and a sort of mini-crest down his nose, ending in a small horn. A ridge of tiny spikes ran
under his chin like an elegantly trimmed beard, and he had a gently smiling mouth. Opening his jaws, Danny saw two neat rows of sharp teeth and a squishy pink tongue rolled up in the bottom of his mouth.

And his eyes were amazing—poking up out of his face like pointy green ping-pong balls. There was just a small dot of black in the center of each of them, and they could roll all over the place in their sockets. He could see right down his tail with one while checking out the small horn on his nose with the other. And it all seemed perfectly natural.

Danny sighed contentedly. This was definitely the most chilled-out S.W.I.T.C.H. he'd ever had. Nothing was going to eat him or stamp on him. And he was up in this fantastic tree! He might just take a little nap …

And then a THUNDEROUS noise vibrated through his head, nearly knocking him off his branch.

Danny quickly realized what it was. The bell for break had just gone. Soon there was more noise—the rumble of 250 kids piling out of their
classrooms and along the corridors, heading for the playground. They surged past him with an immense roar, filling his skull with brain-shaking thuds and rumbles. With a sudden skip in his easy-going heart, it occurred to Danny that he might be spotted here, in the tree. What if they could see him?

And as he thought this and his heart did a few more nervous skips, he realized that something was changing. It felt as if waves of warmth were washing over his scales. Checking out his sides with his gyrating eyes, he saw exactly what was going on. He was changing. He was getting a camouflage make-over, right now! His emerald green scales were now a softer green with little specks of darker green blooming into view across some brand new wavy stripes of paler green. It was incredible! There were even some brown stripes coming out now. He was exactly the same color as the twigs and leaves of the tree all around him. All he had to do was keep very, very still, and none of the kids would see him.

And that was very easy.

Soon the hubbub died away and Danny's head stopped vibrating with the noise. And as everything calmed down, he was able to make out people actually talking. Two people. They were huddled together just beneath him, hiding behind the tree and talking in hissy voices.

“He got himself down yesterday. And he missed the mud!”

Danny recognized the voice—and the smell—of Billy Sutter. Next came the high-pitched, wheezy laugh of Jason Bilk as he agreed, “Yeah! But his trousers fell down! That was so funny! Did you see his face? Like a strawberry!”

“We can have some more laughs with him in PE,” replied Billy. “When the teacher is timing the girls on the circuit training, we can hang him upside down on the ropes!”

There was more tittering as Danny realized, with some concern, whom they were talking about. Josh! Billy and Jason were going to get at his brother again. He felt anger rush across his scales and saw that his camouflage was holding, but flickering, and little spots of red were showing up here and there.

“But what if we get seen?” whispered Jason. “The school will call my dad again and he'll go crazy!”

“We won't get seen!” hissed Billy. “And anyway, we'll make out he
asked
us to help him get up. He's much too wimpy to snitch on us. You wait—it's gonna be
so funny
! His little eyeballs are gonna pop! Puny little bug freak!”

Danny felt fury chasing his anger now.
He
was the only one entitled to call Josh a freak. Josh undoubtedly
was
a freak when it came to his love of creepy-crawlies, but Danny wasn't going to stand for having a dipstick like Billy Sutter or Jason Bilk get away with saying it!

Trouble was, by the time he'd gotten down to gore them with his nose horn, they'd long gone.