CHAPTER 1
Alex ran home from school with his white shirt escaping from his trousers and tie at half-mast. He dragged his heavy school bag along the ground as he ran. Today his English teacher had given every pupil an extra book in class to read as homework for the following day, but he wasn’t hurrying home to do his homework. He was hurrying home to change into his football gear so that he could play football in the park with his friends.
He arrived home, saw his mother in the kitchen, and tried to creep upstairs without being seen. It didn’t work because when he was half-way up the stairs she called out, ‘Alex, is that you?’ Oh no, he thought. She’s heard me! ‘Yes, Mum, it’s me,’ he shouted back as he raced up the stairs to his room in order to change. ‘Alex,’ she shouted again, ‘do you have any homework to do tonight?’
‘No, Mum, so I’m going out to play football.’
‘Very well,’ she replied, ‘but make sure you’re home by seven o’clock because dinner will be ready by then.’
‘I will,’ he shouted back. He wondered why food was so important to his mother as it was of no importance to him at all! He changed into his football gear, put on his boots, picked up his ball and rushed down the stairs and out of the front door shouting ‘I’m off now! See you later!’
After a great game of football, a muddy Alex ran home and had just gone through the front door when his mother saw the state of him. She shouted, ‘Alex, don’t you dare come in here with those dirty boots on. Take them off outside and I’ll clean them later.’
‘Sorry Mum, I forgot!’ he replied. He went back outside and took them off before going back inside.
‘And don’t forget to take a shower!’ she shouted again as he ran up the stairs.
‘Yes, Mum!’ he shouted back as he went into his bedroom and shut the door. After taking a hot shower and dumping his dirty clothes in the corner of the bathroom, he changed into his clean tracksuit and flopped down on his bed to read a book before dinner. He suddenly remembered he still had his homework to do, so he dragged himself off the bed and went over to his school bag.
His mother called from downstairs, ‘Have you had your shower yet?’
‘Yes, Mum,’ he shouted back.
‘Are you coming down then?’
‘No, Mum,’ I’m just going to sort out some books for school tomorrow. Call me when dinner’s ready, please.’
‘Alright!’ she shouted.
He quickly took his schoolbooks out of his bag and put them on the small desk in his room. He pulled up his chair and sat down trying to remember what the boring old homework was about. Oh yes, he remembered now. He hoped it wouldn't be too difficult to read.
CHAPTER 2
His English teacher, Mrs Smith, had given everyone a new book to read called ‘The Green Dragon and the Black Witch,’ and he had to read the whole story tonight because tomorrow the students were expected to read a whole page out aloud to the class. He smiled to himself when he saw the title because it reminded him of his magic green dragon egg cup called ‘Flicker’ which his mother had given to him on his birthday. To Alex’s amazement it turned out that Flicker could come to life and perform magic tricks just by wiggling his tail. Alex hadn’t told any of his family or friends about Flicker because he wanted to keep it a secret for now.
He opened the book and read the story from start to finish. It was a good story about a dragon and a witch who fought each other to see who was the most powerful, and he was pleased to read that the dragon had won. Most of the words were easy to read but there were just a few that he couldn’t, no matter how hard he tried. He couldn’t ask his mother for help as he’d already told her he had no homework, for which he was sorry about now. What should he do?
Suddenly, he had an idea. He sneaked quietly downstairs and, seeing that his mother was not in the kitchen, took Flicker from the kitchen cabinet and sneaked back upstairs again to his bedroom. He set Flicker down on the desk and whispered, ‘Wake up, Flicker, wake up. I need you!’
On hearing Alex's voice, Flicker yawned, opened his big, black eyes wide, stretched out his large wings and wiggled his tail. Ah, that felt good and he felt wide awake again. He was surprised to see Alex looking at him intently. ‘Good morning, Alex. Is it breakfast time?’
‘No, it isn’t,’ he replied ‘It’s night time and I’ve brought you up to my bedroom because I need your help right away.’
‘To hear is to obey, Master!’ joked Flicker, pretending to be the genie in Aladdin's lamp. ‘Now how can I help you?’
‘Well it’s like this,’ said Alex. ‘I’ve been given a book to read for my homework tonight and there are a few words I can’t read so I want you to read them out to me.’
‘Oh, you do, do you? What do you think I am, your slave?' demanded Flicker as a burst of hot steam blew out of his nostrils.
Alex looked shocked and his face turned beetroot red. 'I'm sorry, Flicker,' he stammered. ' I didn't mean it to come out like that. What I meant to say was, could you please read them out to me?'
'That's better,' replied Flicker. 'Apology accepted. Just don't forget your P's and Q's in future or I won't lift a claw to help you!'
'I won't, I promise', said Alex.
'Very well then,’ but answer me this, why didn’t you ask your mum to help you instead of me?’
‘I couldn’t,’ replied Alex rather lamely, ‘because I’d already told her that I didn’t have any homework tonight.’
‘My goodness,' cried Flicker, his eyes rolling up in despair. ‘What am I to do with you? Why did you tell her that?’
‘Because I wanted to play football instead!’
‘PLAY FOOTBALL when you had homework to do?’ exclaimed Flicker. ‘Can this conversation get any worse?’
Alex tried to keep calm. ‘Yes, I suppose it was, and I’m sorry I did it now. It’s just that sometimes I do stupid things without thinking and then feel sorry about it later.'
'And this is one of those occasions!' added Flicker.
Alex pleaded with him. 'Look, Flicker, my mum will be really angry with me if I tell her the truth now, so can you help me out please? There are only a few words I can't read but I need to know them by tomorrow morning.’
Flicker thought about it for a moment, gave a big sigh and said, ‘I should really say no because you didn’t tell your mum the truth. However, I’ll let you off this time as long as you promise me that you won’t do it again because, if you do, I’ll turn you into a book worm!’
‘Ugh, that sounds horrible. What’s a book worm?’
‘You don't know what a book worm is? Well, I'll tell you. it’s a thin, slimy green worm that wears glasses and reads books all day and night. Then it proceeds to eat naughty little boys like you!’
Alex laughed and said, ‘I don’t think he’d like the taste of me, Flicker. I’d probably make him feel sick!’
‘You’re probably right there!’ replied Flicker smiling. ‘Now let’s get down to business.’