Flying Fergus 9 Page 4
“What for?” Fergus asked glumly. “It won’t change anything. Daisy’s still going to be gone tomorrow.”
“All the more reason to make the most of today then, I’d say.” Mum raised an eyebrow at Fergus.
He knew he was defeated. Sighing, he hauled himself up and trudged to the door.
Chimp leapt to his feet and wagged his tail at the prospect of a walk.
“Well, at least someone’s found their inner winner,” said Grandpa. “He’s been as blue as you since you both woke up.”
Fergus glanced down at his dog. It was true that Chimp seemed to absorb his own sorrow somehow.
“Go on,” said Grandpa. “Take Chimp for his walk. And remember, if it’s hard for you, it’s a hundred times worse for Daisy.”
Fergus felt his cheeks redden. Grandpa was right. How could he have been so selfish? He needed to make it up to Daisy, and fast. “Have I got any pocket money owing?” he asked Mum.
“Only this week’s,” she replied. “And what’s in your piggy bank.”
“Oh.” Fergus’s big idea balloon went pop as he remembered he only had twenty pence left after buying Chimp chews.
“But you can write me an IOU,” offered Grandpa. “If this is for what I think it is.”
Fergus puffed with purpose again. “It is,” he said. “At least, I think it is.”
“Come on then, sonny, let’s stop at the shop before you get off.”
Fergus almost felt his own tail wag as he and Chimp trotted down the stairs to Grandpa’s stockroom to pick out the present he had in mind.
“Here,” Fergus said, handing the hastily wrapped parcel over, as he and Daisy sat amongst bubble wrap and towers of packing boxes in the Devlins’ front room.
“What’s this then?” Daisy asked.
“Open it!” Fergus told her. “You’ll need it where you’re going. Believe me.”
Daisy carefully peeled back a flap of wrapping paper, before thinking better and tearing into it, excited at what might be inside. But when she saw the present, her face fell and she slumped back against a stack of suitcases. “A Hopefuls’ water bottle?” she said, incredulous. “What do I want with that now?”
Fergus felt himself slump too. But only for a second. If it’s hard for you, it’s a hundred times worse for Daisy, he heard Grandpa tell him. “Because you should be proud of where you come from,” Fergus said. “Because you’ll always be a Hopeful, no matter where you live.”
Daisy’s lips flickered into the beginning of a smile.
Fergus saw, and carried on. He was going to make this day a good one, however bad he felt inside. “Because whatever squad you join in Inverness – and you had better join one – they should know what you’re made of,” he said. “That you were on the team that won the Nationals. And the team that’s going to the Internationals in …” he paused as he worked it out, “… three weeks’ time! Crikey.”
Daisy grinned. “No,” she said. “Better than that. The team that’s going to win the Internationals in three weeks’ time!”
Fergus felt a flutter of something wonderful in his heart. “You think?” he asked.
“I know,” replied Daisy.
At that, Fergus hugged his friend before she could see him cry.
“Och, give over,’ she said, sensing it anyway. “I’ll be back for the wedding, now that’s all back on.”
“Promise?” he asked.
“Promise,” she replied. “I’m a bridesmaid, after all. Can’t let your mum down on her big day.”
“Or me. I don’t want to be the only one in a ridiculous outfit!”
“Exactly,” agreed Daisy. “So I’ll be back before you know it.”
“I should go,” Fergus said then. “Jambo’s making pancakes for tea and they go horribly soggy if you’re late.”
Daisy pulled a face.
“I don’t suppose …” Fergus tried then.
“I’ll get my bike,” said Daisy. “And tell Mum,” she added. “She’ll probably think I’m going to be poisoned if I eat pancakes for tea. They’re for breakfast only in this house.”
For once, Mrs Devlin didn’t even argue, just waved them away with a roll of packing tape, so Daisy and Fergus cycled side by side back to the flat, chatting tactics and talking teamwork, before clattering up the stairs and settling down at the table for their pancake feast.
“We’ll miss you, Daisy,” said Mum, “but you know you’ll always have a place at our table.”
“Aye,” agreed Jambo.
“To Daredevil Daisy!” said Grandpa, raising his glass of ginger beer in honour. “Fearless and fast.”
“To Daredevil Daisy,” everyone agreed.
Daisy’s face reddened at the attention and for a moment Fergus thought she might even cry, but then, she raised her own brand-new water bottle, and clinked it against Fergus’s glass for good measure. “Once a Hopeful, always a Hopeful,” she said.
At that, Fergus felt his heart grow so big it might actually burst through his shirt.
“Always,” he agreed. “And forever.”
Sir Chris Hoy MBE, won his first Olympic gold medal in Athens 2004. Four years later in Beijing he became the first Briton since 1908 to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games. In 2012, Chris won two gold medals at his home Olympics in London, becoming Britain’s most successful Olympian with six gold medals and one silver. Sir Chris also won eleven World titles and two Commonwealth Games gold medals. In December 2008, Chris was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and he received a Knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours List. Sir Chris retired as a professional competitive cyclist in early 2013; he still rides almost daily. He lives in Manchester with his family.
www.chrishoy.com
Joanna Nadin is an award-winning author of more than seventy books for children, including the bestselling Rachel Riley diaries, the Penny Dreadful series, and Joe All Alone, now an acclaimed TV series. She studied drama and politics at university in Hull and London, and has worked as a lifeguard, a newsreader and even a special adviser to the Prime Minister. She now teaches writing and lives in Bath, where she rides her rickety bicycle, but she never, ever back-pedals …
www.joannanadin.com
Clare Elsom is an illustrator of lots of lovely children’s books, including Maisie Mae and the Spies in Disguise series. She is also the author-illustrator of Horace and Harriet. Clare studied Illustration at Falmouth University (lots of drawing) and Children’s Literature at Roehampton University (lots of writing). Clare lives in Devon, where she can be found doodling, tap dancing and drinking cinnamon lattes.
www.elsomillustration.co.uk
First published in Great Britain in 2018 by
Piccadilly Press
80-81 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 9RE
www.piccadillypress.co.uk
Text and illustrations copyright © Sir Chris Hoy, 2018
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication should be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
The right of Sir Chris Hoy to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-84812-661-9
Piccadilly Press is an imprint of Bonnier Zaffre,
part of Bonnier Books UK
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk
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