Billy Wizard Read Online Free Page A

playground, and there was a wisp of bluish smoke drifting across it where Rick had been standing only a few seconds before. Rick … Rick had
completely disappeared
.

    Then Joe noticed a tiny white mouse running across the playground and heading for the caretaker’s shed. He stood staring, his eyes wide open and his mouth not far behind. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen.
    “What’s up with you?” said a voice beside him. It was Neil.
    “What? Me?” said Joe. “What’s up? Er … nothing … Nothing’s up.”
    Neil gave him a funny look.
    “Joe!” called Miss Parker. “Come on, come on. We haven’t got all day!”
    As he walked in, Molly Mason came out, her eyes red from crying.
    “What’s up?” asked Joe.
    “It’s Little Danny,” she said, beginning to sob again. “He’s vanished.”

Chapter 5
    Zapped!
    JOE COULDN’T REALLY concentrate on his work for the rest of the morning. He kept looking over at Billy, who was drawing away with his tongue sticking out, as if nothing had happened; as if he were just some ordinary boy.

    “What did you do to Rick?” whispered Joe when he found Billy in his usual place in the quiet area at lunch break.
    Billy held up his hand and frowned, flicking out his fingers. “I zapped him,” he said with a grin. “That’ll teach him.” He repeated the move with his hands and chuckled.

    Joe looked horrified. “But you can’t just go round zapping people.”
    “Can’t I?” said Billy. “Why’s that then?”
    “I … I … I don’t know. You just can’t.”

    “Anyway,” Billy explained, “I don’t just zap anybody. I only zapped Rick because he’s horrible and if anyone needed zapping, he did.”
    “But what happens when you zap someone?” asked Joe.
    “Lots of things,” said Billy. “Anything.”
    “Like what?”
    “I might make them disappear,” he said matter-of-factly. “I might turn them into a frog or a pig or a—”
    Joe’s eyes widened as he remembered what had happened at play time. “Or a mouse!” he shouted.
    “Yeah,” said Billy, looking a little strangely at Joe. “Or a mouse.”
    “But … but …” stammered Joe. “You can’t go round turning people into mice just because you don’t like them.”
    “Why not?” said Billy in a bored voice.
    “Why not?” repeated Joe. “Why not?”
    “Yeah,” said Billy. “Why not?”
    “Because you can’t. That’s why not! And what about Molly Mason’s baby brother? What had little Danny done to annoy you?”
    “What are you on about?” asked Billy. “I’ve never even seen her stupid brother.”
    “Oh yeah? And I suppose he just vanished on his own!”
    “Are you all right?” said Billy. “You seem a bit odd.”
    “
Me
a bit odd?” said Joe. “That’s a good one! If there’s anyone a bit odd round here, it’s you!”
    “Well, what are you doing talking to me then?” asked Billy. “Why don’t you go somewhere else?”
    “I think I will!” said Joe. “Weirdo!”

    “Maybe I ought to change
you
into something!” Billy lifted up his hands and pointed his fingers at Joe.
    “No!” shouted Joe. “Don’t be stupid!”
    He dived out of the way, hurling himself onto the tarmac of the playground, with his hands over his head. When he looked up Billy was gone and Neil was standing over him.
    “I suppose this must be one of those really cool games you used to play at your old school,” said Neil with a chuckle, and walked off.
    Joe got up and dusted himself down.
    He did his best to avoid Billy for the rest of the day, but although he avoided talking to him and standing near him, he found it impossible to avoid looking at him.
    Joe watched Billy’s every move. He looked like all the other children, except that he seemed more miserable most of the time. But nobody would ever have suspected that he was anything other than an ordinary boy.
    Joe couldn’t wait for the end of the school day, but when he walked over to the waiting parents, he got a shock .