THE OCTOPUS ODdYSSEY

If Leah hadn’t riled up the Toad Gang that night in Brownie’s Swamp, nothing would’ve happened to Finn, but she did. It changed our lives forever.

Chapter 1
        I had an excellent reason to hide from Bufo Bentley.
        It began with the combination of a dirt-spraying wheelie on my bike and a bagful of textbooks on my back. Over I flipped, but my bike kept going, right into Bufo’s new Avanti Street BMX.
        He wouldn’t have noticed the tiny scratch on its frame except I wasn’t alone in the school bike shed. When the word went out – ‘Bentley’s gonna get Danny Drake’ – I knew what I had to do.
        For a start, it meant not going to the Dirty Duck Café, enemy territory since Bufo and his mates (a.k.a. the Toad Gang) decided it was the place to be on a Saturday night. Instead, I headed with my friends, Finn, Ant, and Leah, deeper into the shadows of Brownie’s Swamp.
       ‘We’re missing out on the Dirty Duck’s discounted milkshakes,’ Ant grumbled and slapped the mozzies circling his ears. ‘Plus I’m getting eaten alive.’
       ‘Serves you right for not using repellent,’ Leah said. Her torch flickered into the dense paperbark forest at the side of the track. ‘Let me concentrate or we’ll end up lost.’
       We trudged along the track behind her. From all around came the chirping of crickets and the mosquitoes’ high-pitched zzzzzzzzzzz.
       Ant started up again. ‘I bet there aren’t any Yellow-bellied Marsh frogs left to count.’
       ‘Ant, shut it! If they are here, you’ll scare’em to death. Or silence.’ By the sound of Leah’s voice she’d reached the cut off point of brother/sister tolerance.
       ‘Whoever heard of doing an eco-science project on a Saturday night, anyway?’ Ant muttered to himself.
       ‘It wasn’t my idea to do it tonight. Blame Danny, he suggested it.’
       ‘I know why,’ Finn called from the back of the line, ‘it’s because Bufo Bentley’s at the Dirty Duck tonight.’
       Trust Finn. Now Leah would know I was scared of the Toad Gang.
       As we trekked further into Brownie’s Swamp there was one thing on my mind. Or I should say three – Bufo Bentley, Nick Grimes and Justin Pyle-Simons. They go to Red Rock High too, except they’re a year ahead of Finn, Ant and me. Leah’s in their Year Nine class and hears them bragging about how they set fire to letterboxes and throw rocks on people’s roofs.
       Bufo’s real name is Charles Bentley, but Finn’s nicknamed him (not to his face) after Bufo marinus, the scientific name for cane toad. The name fits.....

(c) Sheryl Gwyther