‘Um, hello, Zeus. It’s me, Charlie. I’ve made you this temple, and I dedicate it to you, OK?’
Eric, the school bully, is causing trouble for Alex’s best friend Charlie. Alex isn’t sure that Zeus, the Greek god, is the best person to ask for help but Charlie has already built a temple (from a piece of crumpled paper) to summon Zeus.
Now the hot-headed god has now taken over the boys’ loos and wants to smite Eric with a thunderbolt. But that’s against the school rules, so how will Zeus teach the bully a lesson?
Don’t worry … Zeus will sort it out!
Another hilarious story from the author of ZEUS ON THE LOOSE and ZEUS TO THE RESCUE.
JOHN DOUGHERTY lives in London. A supply teacher with plenty of experience of classroom activities in primary education, he is also a singer-songwriter with one CD already available – and has appeared on TV when his living room was designed in a Gothic style by Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen. In 2004, he also ran the London Marathon to raise funds for a charity to help children in care.
Zeus on the Loose was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award in 2004.
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Punishments
Chapter Two
The New Temple of Zeus
Chapter Three
The Twelve Labours of Heracles
Chapter Four
Eric
Chapter Five
The Twelve Labours of Eric Lees
Chapter Six
The First Labour, and Most of the Others
Chapter Seven
The Final Labour
Chapter Eight
The Dedication of the Temple
About the Author
Also by John Dougherty
Copyright
As ever, first and foremost for Noah & Cara,
with all my love
This is me.
And this is the Greek god Zeus.
And this is the story of what happened when he met the school bully.
It all started when Charlie came into class with a wet head.
“Charlie!” said Miss Wise. “What have you been doing?”
“Um … I was getting a drink from the water fountain, and I … er … I pressed the button too hard,” Charlie said. I could tell Miss Wise wasn’t convinced, but she didn’t ask him any more questions, and he came and sat down beside me.
“You can’t get your head wet like that from the water fountain,” I whispered to him when I had a chance. “What really happened?”
“Um …” Charlie said again. “Um … I got it wet in the toilets.”
“What,” I said, “you mean in the basin?”
“No,” he said hesitantly. “Actually in the toilet.”
I stared at him. “Did someone put your head down the toilet?” I asked.
Charlie suddenly looked scared. “No!” he said. “No! I … er … I did it myself.”
I was so astonished I almost forgot to whisper. “Charlie, you idiot! What did you put your own head down the toilet for?” I asked.
“I didn’t mean to,” Charlie said. “I just … er … I just accidentally sat on the toilet upside down.”
That didn’t sound likely. Charlie can be a bit daft sometimes, but even he’s not silly enough to forget which way up you’re supposed to sit on the toilet.
“Come on, Charlie,” I said. “You can tell me who did it.”
“I can’t,” he said miserably. “He said he’d kill me if I told anyone.”
“Who did?” I asked.
“Eric,” he said. Then he gasped, and clapped his hand to his mouth.
That made sense. Eric was the biggest, meanest, nastiest kid in the school, and everyone usually avoided him if they could. “Has he been bullying you all week?” I said. “Is that why you haven’t had a play time snack for days?”
Charlie nodded glumly. “He’s been taking my crisps off me before school starts. I went to the boys’ toilets to try and hide from him today, but he found me, and …” His voice tailed off sadly, and he pointed at his wet head.
“What else has he been doing?” I asked.