Hunt and Power. Stephen Hayes

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СКАЧАТЬ are they?” asked Felicity.

      “Next door,” said William. “I believe they and their mothers are planning how best to punish you lot for even dreaming of doing such a thing, particularly while you’re supposed to be grounded. I’m amazed that bit never came up in the conversation last night.”

      “I don’t think our dads agree with why we were grounded in the first place,” said James. “Not surprising they’d forget.”

      “So you don’t think there’s a chance of convincing them?” asked Peter, really looking for confirmation more than the answer we all wanted to hear.

      “Not a chance in the world,” said Carl, shaking his head.

      “Right then,” said Peter, turning to our sister. “You’d better go call Amelia. I don’t know how long it’ll take her to get here, but we should wait 'til she does before we confront them.”

      “Don’t do anything untoward,” said William, though his expression told us clearly that he didn’t mind much what we were doing.

      We nodded, then shot upstairs to Peter’s and my room, where Nicole left a message on Amelia’s phone for her to call us back ASAP. I could only assume she was out helping Darcy and Lena at the moment. She called us back in under half an hour, and when Nicole told her the circumstances, she teleported straight into our bedroom.

      “Have you actually seen them yet?” she asked.

      “Not yet, just William and Carl,” said Felicity.

      “So how do we do this?” asked James.

      “You just talk to them and leave the rest to me,” said Amelia, making to open the door.

      “Hang on, hang on,” said Peter quickly. “You can’t—if they see you—”

      “They won’t see me,” said Amelia, and she actually looked like she was going to laugh.

      We all looked at each other, confused. Finally Nicole said, “Well, should we do this thing?”

      “Let’s get it over with,” sighed Jessica.

      Amelia opened the door and promptly disappeared into thin air. The rest of us went through the open door.

      “Where are you, Amelia?” hissed Peter.

      “Never mind where I am,” hissed Amelia’s voice from just in front of us. “Just go!”

      William and Carl were, once again, the first people we met when we got downstairs. They were exactly where we had left them, only now the grannies—Hilda and Violet—had joined them. The last two looked around at us and raised their eyebrows, telling us clearly that we were in for it. We barely had time to trade smirks with William and Carl before an angry voice echoed from the kitchen behind us, and Mum and Marge came into the room.

      “So,” said Mum, seeming to swell with mounting fury before our eyes. I could tell that both Peter and Nicole were on the verge of saying, “So what”, but thankfully they held themselves in. I had to assume that us being cheeky would only make Amelia’s job more difficult.

      “Hi Mum,” said Felicity cheerfully to her mother, who looked ready to breathe fire.

      “In,” said Marge sharply, pointing over her shoulder back into the kitchen. “Table, now. And you two as well,” she finished, shooting a look at William and Carl.

      William and Carl both looked startled. “What did we—”

      “Now!”

      William and Carl looked at each other, and I had to fight hard not to laugh. Something told me, clearly, that they had been treated like this at some point in the past by either their mothers or their wives many, many years ago, and they weren’t used to it. They sighed and stood up, following us into the kitchen, with Hilda and Violet wheeling themselves along in their chairs behind us all.

      The six of us sat down at the table, but William and Carl, perhaps wanting to remain in some position of authority, refused to sit, and therefore remained standing on the other side of the table, facing Mum and Marge. Our mothers were standing, staring at the six of us in furious disbelief.

      “Typical that you do this now instead of waiting ‘til Dad gets home,” said Nicole before any of us could stop her.

      “That’s enough out of you, young lady!” snapped Mum, and Nicole fell silent. She then turned on Peter and I. “So, what do you two have to say for yourselves?”

      “What’s for dinner?” asked Peter politely.

      I groaned and put my hand over my face. Really, Nicole and Peter just couldn’t resist being cheeky when they had their backs against the wall. I could just imagine Hammerson holding an agonator against Peter, and him saying something really stupid to land himself in a whole lot more trouble. Another typical Playman trait, though one I didn’t carry quite like the other two, probably because I had been adopted by the Playmans rather than born into the family. Although I had picked some of the cheek up over the years. Most of it seemed to be inherent rather than learnt.

      “Don’t be smart,” snapped Marge. “You know perfectly well what we’re talking about.”

      “James is smarter than me,” said Peter, but I elbowed him hard to make him shut up.

      “We know,” I said, preferring not to stall. “But Dad and Charlie were okay with it once they understood—”

      “And since when have those two ever got it right?” Mum shot back.

      “Well they’re yet to be wrong, really,” said Nicole. “I mean, we’re all still here, aren’t we?”

      “Enough,” snarled Mum, and I knew that no brand of reasoning was going to work on them today; not that it ever did, when it came to our business with the Sorcerers.

      “You are all grounded indefinitely,” said Marge, “and for the same sort of nonsense as this: Going out when we explicitly tell you not to. Did you forget that?”

      “I thought that was over,” said Jessica. “That was nearly two weeks ago.”

      “You never actually told us how long we were grounded for,” Peter pointed out. “How long is ‘indefinitely’ anyway?”

      “It means you’re grounded until we say so!” shouted Mum. “You are not going anywhere tomorrow night, and nothing you or your foolish fathers say can change that. I will personally be making sure you don’t leave this house tomorrow night.”

      We all stared at her for a moment, shocked at how angry she was. Finally Peter shifted his weight. “Can we leave next door’s house tomorrow night instead?” he asked, grinning in utter spite of the situation, as if he thought it might help.

      “Enough of this,” snarled Mum. “I thought we’d sorted this out already. It’s bad enough that you want to party with the Hammersons, let alone stay out all night with them—”

      “It’s not ‘all night’,” I said, noticing as СКАЧАТЬ