CHERUB: The Sleepwalker - Robert Muchamore Page 0,3

in cellophane. ‘Angus, if you need headphones later you can have these,’ she said. ‘Now can it. You’re both acting like spoiled brats.’

Karen was partly cross with the kids, but also with her mother-in-law who let them eat junk food and get away with murder. It always led to them acting hyper.

Megan couldn’t resist a triumphant smile as she snatched her brother’s headphones. But as she gave the cord a tug, the two-pronged jack at the end snagged the underside of Angus’ Gameboy and it slid off his lap and hit the carpet between his legs.

‘Careful, you slag,’ Angus snarled.

Karen’s eyes opened wide. ‘Angus, how many times have I told you not to call your sister that? It’s a very unpleasant thing to call a girl.’

Megan tutted. ‘He’s so dumb. He doesn’t even know what it means.’

Angus laughed. ‘It means you like letting boys feel you up.’

Before Angus knew it, Karen had grabbed her son by his newly purchased New York Yankees shirt and squeezed his arm. ‘Grounded,’ she said firmly. ‘I will not tolerate you speaking like that, Angus … Two weeks, no pocket money and no rugby club either.’

‘What!’ Angus gasped. ‘That’s bogus. I just got into the first team.’

Megan scrunched down so that she could keep watching her film below her mother’s outstretched arm. Karen let go of Angus when she saw the filthy look she was getting from the woman sitting across the aisle. She felt like a bad mother for losing her temper, for clawing Angus and for having a son who spoke noisily about his little sister getting felt up.

Angus scowled defiantly at his mum. ‘Dad paid over a hundred quid for new boots and kit. You can’t stop me going to rugby.’

‘Watch me,’ Karen said, as she gave him a look that made it clear she meant business. ‘If I’d used that language when I was your age, your granddad would have put me over his knee.’

Angus thought it was probably best not to push his mum any further, and he reached between his legs and picked up the Gameboy. He’d paused the game when he started rowing with Megan, but the pause had been knocked off when the Gameboy hit the floor and now the game over screen flashed on the tiny display.

‘Now look what you’ve done,’ Angus said, as he dug his sister in the ribs.

‘For god’s sake, you two,’ Karen shouted as she pulled off her seatbelt and jumped out of her seat. ‘Can’t you leave each other in peace for five minutes? Megan, you come across this side and I’ll sit between you.’

‘But it’s the end,’ Megan protested. ‘There’s like two minutes to go.’

‘Now,’ Karen steamed, as she popped the buckle of her daughter’s seatbelt and hoisted her to her feet.

As Megan stepped up on to her seat cushion, Karen realised that they’d woken up the couple in the seats in front and there were bad parent stares coming at her from all directions. Megan straddled the armrest and dropped into her mum’s seat, then began a desperate attempt to reconnect her headphones and find the right channel on the LCD screen.

Angus undid his seatbelt and stepped into the aisle.

‘And where do you think you’re going?’ Karen asked.

Angus rolled his eyes, as if his mum was the stupidest person on the planet. ‘There are so many places to go on an aeroplane, aren’t there?’ he said. ‘Where do you think? I need a piss.’

Angus was bitter at being grounded. The only way to get back at his mum was to maximise her embarrassment, so he made sure that the word piss came out loud enough for everyone to hear.

The eleven-year-old had kicked off his trainers, but aeroplane toilets aren’t the cleanest places on earth and Angus didn’t fancy planting his socks in someone else’s urine, so he reached under the footrest and grabbed his Nikes.

As he wriggled his sock into his right shoe there was a deafening bang. The floor shuddered and there was a grinding sound as the jet rolled violently to one side. Angus’ hip slammed painfully into the seat across the aisle. Within a second his feet were off the ground and his head bashed into a tray table before he began a helpless slide across the laps of three passengers towards the windows.

Just before Angus smashed head first into the side of the aircraft, a man’s hands reached up from the middle seat and saved him. One hand caught around the waistband of his tracksuit