Frog Freakout (6 page)

“What's the time now, do you think?” Josh murmured. He was getting anxious. They'd spent far too much time having froggy fun. Danny checked his wrist automatically, before realizing his watch wasn't there—just a slender, freckled, greeny-brown hand.

“I've got it! I've got it!” cried Charlie. Woohoo!” She had scooped up the key and the fob and was wearing the ring that connected them on one arm, like a bangle. “Let's hop up onto the bank then, so Petty can change us back.”

They swam for the surface, but Charlie paused mid kick. “Hang on though . . .” she said, her froggy face creasing with concern. “What happens when we switch back? Are we all going to be naked? Because that is something I DON'T want to see before breakfast!”

“No, we'll be fine,” said Josh. “All our clothes get S.W.I.T.C.H.ed too. Petty says the cellular hijack just takes them with us. We've never come back naked yet, have we, Danny?”

“Nope,” said Danny. “Squashed, upside down, burnt eyebrows . . . but not naked.”

“Good-oh!” chirruped Charlie. “Because I'm definitely S.W.I.T.C.H.ing again! It's the best fun EVER.”

“Look . . . it's not all fun,” warned Josh. “Sometimes it can be really dangerous.”

“Oh, you're just SAYING that because you want to stop me because I'm a girl!” scoffed Charlie.

And that's when the sword shot down through the water.

A second later, there was proof that frogs can scream. Charlie made the most terrifying screech as she was snagged down through the water at lightning speed. Before Josh and Danny could do more than blink, she was gone, plunged away into the dark depths. The shaft of the sword plummeted with her, and then, to Josh and Danny's horror, a plume of red came bubbling up toward them.

Josh tried to shut his eyes. He realized, with a wave of sickness, what they were seeing. He had watched a heron hunting once before, on an early morning outing with his Wild Things club. The heron had stood motionless for nearly half an hour before it suddenly turned into a vicious killing machine, driving its skewerlike beak into the water in a blur of speed and pulling it out with a writhing,
bleeding fish speared on it. A living kebab.

Charlie, he realized, with a cold thud in his heart, had just become a heron's breakfast.

Even as these thoughts fled through his brain, the huge sword was moving fast back up through the water. Something was indeed skewered on its beak. Something bleeding red through the water. Something not moving. The beak and the bleeding body vanished, leaving only a few wisps of crimson, wafting and dissolving eerily through the water.

Josh felt Danny put his webbed hand on his shoulder. “Tell me this isn't happening, Josh,” he whimpered. How would they ever explain how
Charlie had died? Nobody would believe it. And Petty would never get involved at all. She would deny everything.

Josh and Danny were so shocked they forgot to move—even though they could very well be next on the menu. They stared vacantly ahead, desperately trying to make sense of what had just happened.

“Wha-what was that?” said Danny, at last.

“Heron,” croaked Josh. “It would have been fast. She wouldn't have known what hit her.”

“I really liked her,” said Danny, his head drooping in sorrow. “She was fun. The most fun girl I've ever met.”

“Aaaah, that's really nice of you to say so,” said Charlie. “I like you guys too.”

“BAAAAAA?!” shrieked Danny. And Josh agreed.

“WAAAAAA?!” Danny added. Josh went along with that.

Charlie grinned at them. “That was scary!” she said. “You said nothing in the pond would try to eat us, Josh.”

“Bu—wha—cah . . . ?” Josh blinked several times and felt a huge surge of relief pump up
through him. “Well . . . there isn't anything in the pond . . . but there's always something above it. I should have remembered the heron!”

“You're ALIVE!” yelled Danny, full of joy. “But what about all the blood? We saw blood going everywhere!”

“Nah,” laughed Charlie. “That was the red ink from inside Drill Sergeant's key fob. Gave me a bit of a fright too. That daggery beak missed me by an inch—it went for the fob instead.”

“Oh no—does that mean the key's gone?” Danny gulped and stared up through the water.

“Nope,” said Charlie, shaking her right arm. The key and the key ring were still on it. “The plastic broke off the ring. That's all.”

“We've got to get out of here and get Petty to change us back,” said Josh. “I can't see the heron out there, but he could still be hunting. He wouldn't have liked the taste of that key fob.”

“But if we hop up to the surface, won't he eat us?” Danny gulped.

“We'll go up under the lily pads,” said Josh, pointing across to what looked like a flotilla of rounded dark green rafts on part of the surface of the pond. “We can pop up through them and then jump into the pond plants at the edge. With any luck, he won't see us. We can't wait down here any longer.”

They swam in formation to the rafts, which were held together by a snaky network of underwater stems. Chinks of bright morning light streamed down through the gaps between them.

The moment Josh pushed his eyes up through the skin of water, he saw Petty standing up, waving her hands and going “Raaah!”

The heron flapped away above them.

Plop! Plop! Plop! Three frogs arrived at Petty's feet, one of them slightly clumsily, with a heavy
metal key on its shiny wet wrist.

“Well done!” hissed Petty, kneeling down, easing the key off Charlie's wrist and spraying them all with some more yellowy stuff. The antidote! They waited expectantly, moving away from the edge of the pond. After a few seconds, nothing had happened.

“Oh pee, porridge, and poo!” muttered Petty, her gigantic face screwing up in annoyance. “I've brought the wrong bottle out! That's another bottle of froggy AMPHISWITCH. Sorry! You'll just have to wait to S.W.I.T.C.H. back when it wears off.”

The frogs started gesturing at Petty in annoyance. “I know! I know!” she said, looking at her watch. It was just five minutes to six. “Not to worry—
I'll
get the games in the cupboard and key back on the hook.” She shoved the key in her pocket, gathered up the games, and was just about to dash off when Josh landed heavily on her foot and pointed up into the trees above them. The heron was there, perched elegantly on a branch, his blue-grey wings folded and gleaming softly in the morning sun . . . just waiting for the human to depart so he could resume his froggy feast.

“Aaah. Yes. Perhaps you'd better come with me,” said Petty. “Come along—hop to it.”