Niles Plays

One day, I spent time at Cleo’s house with her, Luke and Resus. Niles was cleaning the kitchen, and we were doing a jigsaw puzzle. It was a picture of a huge pyramid with palm trees surrounding it. As we were doing the puzzle, I was thinking about Bluey’s dad, Bandit. “Hey, guys, have you ever seen Bluey’s dad play with his two girls?” I asked. “We have, like, a couple of times before.” said Cleo. “You have seen them from our own backyard enough times to understand who Bluey is, she has the best father in the whole entire universe! Has your dad ever been like this?” “My dad’s too wimpy to play like an Australian father,” said Luke, “Maybe if he was strong and tough he would be.” “My dad isn’t much of a playful young father type, he’d much rather drink blood than play with me.” said Resus. “As for mine…” Cleo hid her face in her hands. “He’s always childish and stupid. He never has time to play with me, and his brain was put into the bin when he was mummified.” “You told me that on your Deathday, Cleo,” I said. “If only your dad was much like Bluey’s dad, then life would be as perfect as a can of tomato soup.” It took us a while to think about what to do with Niles. I gazed thoughtfully at Niles hoovering around the kitchen. Then I had an idea. “I know! Why don’t we teach your dad to be more like Bluey’s dad?” “Good idea!” my friends agreed.

We ran up to Niles and I asked him, “Mr Farr, can we play hide and seek?” Niles turned off the hoover and gazed at us thoughtfully. “Hmmmm…you three may be a bit old for that game.” Soon, we were bragging Niles to play the game, our voices not heard over Niles’ pleas for us to stop talking, until Cleo said, “Why don’t we have a game of sardines?” “Sardines?” said Niles, “Okay, I’ll get some out of the fridge.” Cleo facepalmed. Why was life so difficult for her? I ran up to Niles just as he took the sardine tin out of the fridge. “Mr Farr, no, wait!” I cried, “This isn’t sardines!” Niles had already eaten one sardine. “What?” he said with a full mouth, “This is good.” “No, Sardines is hide and seek in reverse! One player hides, and the others go and look for him. Whenever one person finds the hider, he or she joins them, until every single player is hiding.” “Oh, okay,” said Niles, and he put the sardines back in the fridge.

Niles hid while we all counted down to one. Then, we searched around the house for Niles. We searched under the sofa and on shelves, we searched in Cleo’s bedroom and in the bathroom, but there was still no sign of Niles…until I went into the kitchen. I had found him first. Niles grabbed me and let me hide under the table with him. I giggled, but Niles told me to “Sssssshhhh!” Luke, Resus and Cleo were looking for me and Niles, and wondering where I had gone to. “Maybe she went down into the basement and never came out again.” “What? The one with the talking skeleton?” asked Luke. “That’s Dr Skulley, you silly goose! Remember the time when we went through the basement to look for the Stone Of Ra?” asked Resus. “Guys, this isn’t a time to talk about the past, we must be focused on looking for-” DING DONG! The doorbell rang. “Yep, looks like a nice time to hide.” said Cleo, and she, Luke and Resus raced under the table with us, giggling and whispering excitedly.

“Hello? Sybil! We’ve come to see how you’re getting on!” It was Rusty and Jack. They had arrived to Scream Street to see what we’ve been up to. Rusty couldn’t see us anywhere. “Sybil? Luke? Where are you guys?” called Rusty, but there was no response. “Maybe they’re having lunch,” said Jack. “Yeah, maybe,” said Rusty, “Come on. Let’s go and see them.” Rusty and Jack entered the kitchen, and heard giggles and whispers coming from under the table. Jack began to feel scared. “Is the house haunted?” “No, not really,” said Rusty, “I think it sounds like they’re hiding under-” But before he could speak, we all jumped out screaming with laughter, landing on top of the two dogs. “I can’t believe we fell for it!” laughed Rusty. “Thank god you found us,” said Cleo, “We thought we might surprise you. We didn’t know you were coming to Scream Street!” “Well, we’re the seekers now.” said Jack, “Why don’t we play the game again, only this time, I’ll hide first.” “Yeah!” we all cried.

So we all counted while Jack went to hide. And do you know where he hid? No? Well, you do now…

He hid under Cleo’s bedclothes!

THE END.