Googol Boy and the peculiar incident of the Great Quiz Trophy by John Michael (classic books for 13 year olds txt) 📕

“Now... where was I?”

Once more, the old lady whispered into the principal’s ear.

“Ah yes, most certainly, as I was saying, here we are about to start the Great Quiz.” He then looked over to the old lady. “Do I need to cut a ribbon?” She shook her head.

“Well then,” responded Mr Ditherington. “Let the games begin!”

The two players in each team quickly readied themselves... no doubt there would have been more participants but many were fearful of going up against Savani. Perhaps these bunch of misfits were either very brave or just plain foolhardy... I felt like I definitely belonged in the latter category. Some potential opponents had probably seen her in action during the rap battle and decided that they didn’t need to be ridiculed and mocked in public... undoubtedly a wise decision and, at this moment, I too was wishing that I had declined Savani’s personal invitation... my imagined hobo life was looking more and more enticing.

I glanced around at each contestant’s face, some appeared perplexed, others excited, a few seemed to be anxious, one of the team members was even looking a bit cross-eyed but I was going to put that down to genetics. Amongst all the contestants, nobody came across as confident as Savani. She had a steely gaze and it was obvious that her eye was on the prize, with that prize being the Quockingpoll Trophy. Not literally of course, as Mr Ditherington had pointed out, the trophy was long gone. Savani definitely wanted to win... she looked hungrier than a toothless dachshund in a sausage factory.

Principal Ditherington started the proceedings by reading from his list of questions and although he delivered each one in his trademark dithering style, the initial proceedings were surprisingly quick paced. My brain was cooperating and we managed to get the opening questions correct without any fuss, the first one was about ‘playgrounds,’ it was a walk in the park, and then the second question was a piece of cake, something about ‘apple strudel,’ the third question was like taking candy from a baby, it was about ‘lollipops.’ Although Barney did make me promise that I wouldn’t expect him to answer any questions, that didn’t stop him from volunteering a few responses.

“I was born in Austria in 1756 and am a famous composer who goes by the name of Wolfgang Amadeus what?” asked Mr Ditherington

“Schnitzel!” offered Barney.

“Wolfgang Amadeus Schnitzel? I’m not so sure, we might go with Mozart on that one.”

“The Classical Greek sculptures which are on display in the British Museum are known as the what Marbles?” asked the principal.

“That’s easy!” Barney whispered in my ear.

“It’s souvlaki.”

“The Souvlaki Marbles? Good try Barney but I think we’ll go with Elgin.”

“What is the Latin scientific name for the common pig?” asked Mr Ditherington.

“Bacon,” mumbled Barney as he licked his lips.

“Not bad but I reckon the answer might be Sus scrofa domesticus.”

We were hitting our stride and I started to develop some confidence, perhaps it was the warm spring weather, perhaps it was the adrenalin, perhaps we were still on a high from our lunchtime feast? Who knew? While the first few questions were rather tame, after the first couple of rounds things started to heat up, all of a sudden the principal was asking us about thaumaturgy, panpygoptosis, nephelococcygia, zwitterions and hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Luckily, my concentration was much better than it was during the rap battle and my brain clicked into action when necessary − the cogs were whirring and turning right on cue, and I actually felt like we were in with a chance.

Before we knew it, the other teams had started to fall by the wayside and there we were, in the finals. Just like that! The two of us against Savani and Penelope. While a part of me was content to have gotten this far, another part of me wanted to go all the way and to exact some revenge against Savani. A voice echoed in my brain: Don’t call checkmate ‘til it’s over! It was Savani’s whiny little voice ringing in my ear. I’ll show her! Perhaps I was letting my emotions get the better of me? Plus, I wasn’t even sure how one exacts revenge as I had never had the opportunity to do so. Wasn’t revenge a dish best served cold, or was it something about revenge being sweet, or was it along the lines of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth makes the whole world toothless?

I looked over at Savani’s ‘eye on the prize’ stare and knew that she was going to do whatever it takes to claim victory. She was the Wicked Witch of the West to my Dorothy, the Evil Queen to my Snow White, the Cruella de Vil to my 101 Dalmatians. To make matters worse, Savani seemed to be in great form... in fact she was shooting out the answers before the principal could even finish the questions. I then looked over at Penelope, poor thing, every time she suggested a response, Savani shrugged her off or just talked over the top of her. Savani was definitely one of those limelight hoggers, you know the ones, everything had to be about her, she was the centre of the universe and always had to be the big cheese, the king pin, the head honcho.

“So what are we up to now?” asked Mr Ditherington.

The old lady once again sidled up to the principal to fill him in regarding what was what. However, this time things went a little askew. As she walked up towards him, the principal stepped on her foot and she let out a high-pitched wail and stumbled back a metre to the edge of the stage. Mr Ditherington instinctively tried to reach out to grasp the woman but instead of grabbing her hand, he missed altogether and accidently cuffed her in the shoulder, sending her stumbling back even further. At this moment, she was teetering at the very edge