Bertie shrugged. “It will be if I win.”
Miss Skinner had given the idea a lot of thought. She wanted the whole school to be as excited about the new uniform as she was. And the best way to achieve that was through a competition. No one could resist a competition – not even Bertie.
“You’d better get thinking,” said Mum. “Have you got any ideas?”
“Millions,” said Bertie. The problem was choosing just one.
After supper, he sat down with pencil and paper and a supply of biscuits. At the top of the page he wrote SKOOL UNIFORM. Then he ate a biscuit. He wrote TIE, BLAZER, SHIRT – then crossed them all out. What was the point of a uniform that would be like all the others? What his school needed was something new. Something that would make other schools turn green with envy.
Bertie chewed the end of his pencil. Astronauts had good uniforms, so did pirate captains. He wouldn’t mind dressing as a pirate to go to school. Better still, what about SUPERHEROES? Bertie had always wanted to be a superhero. Imagine zooming through the sky! Bertie began drawing a few ideas. Ten minutes later he had his design.
It was brilliant! Smart, clever, useful – the school uniform of the future. What’s more, it was bound to win the competition. Wait till Miss Skinner saw it – she would be astonished!
CHAPTER 3
A week later, Bertie sat in assembly with Darren and Eugene. Today was the big day. All the entries were in and Miss Skinner was going to announce the winner of the competition. Bertie could hardly sit still. He had seen some of the other entries and they were all rubbish.
Eugene had drawn a boring old sweatshirt with the school badge on the front. Darren’s idea was a black hoodie bearing the skull and crossbones. Angela Nicely wanted pink cardigans with rows of fluffy bunnies. Bertie’s design was a million times better than any of them. After all, who didn’t want to dress like a superhero?
Miss Skinner swept into the hall carrying a large envelope.
“Good morning, children,” she said. “As you all know, today we will find out the winner of our Design a Uniform Competition. We have had hundreds of super entries, but we can only choose one winner. I’m sure you’re all dying to know who that is.”
She gazed at the rows of eager faces. Everyone held their breath. Bertie got ready to jump up when his name was called. He watched Miss Skinner take the piece of paper from the envelope. He leaned forward. This is it! he thought.
“And the winner is…” Miss Skinner looked up and smiled. “Nicholas!”
Bertie gasped. Know-All Nick? What a fix! How could that frog-faced sneak have won?
Everyone clapped politely. Nick made his way to the front and shook Miss Skinner’s hand. He spotted Bertie’s scowling face and gave him a sickly smile.
“Well done, Nicholas,” beamed Miss Skinner. “We all agreed that your design was marvellous. Simple, strong and very smart. Perhaps you’d like to show it to the whole school?”
Nick took his design and held it up for all to see. Bertie’s jaw dropped. You had to be kidding.
“YUCK!” he cried. It came out louder than he’d intended.
Miss Skinner glared. “Who said that?”
“It was Bertie, Miss,” smirked Nick.
“Bertie, I will not have rudeness in assembly!” snapped Miss Skinner. “Come and see me at break time.”
Bertie’s shoulders drooped. He had only said what everyone was thinking. Nick’s design was horrible. Yellow and green stripes? It looked like someone had been sick on it.
After assembly they all trooped back to their class.
“Trust Know-All Nick to win,” groaned Darren.
“Yeah, what a creep!” said Eugene. “Just cos his mum’s a school governor!”
Bertie stuffed his hands in his pockets.
“You know what this means?” he said. “We’ll all have to wear that stupid stripey blazer.”
“And a tie,” said Eugene.
“And a cap!” added Darren in disgust. They walked in gloomy silence.
“Well, I’m not putting up with it,” said Bertie. “You won’t catch me in a cap.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Eugene.
“I don’t know yet,” said Bertie. “But I’ll think of something.”
At break, Bertie reported to Miss Skinner’s office, but when he knocked, there was no answer. He peeped round the door. The head wasn’t there. Bertie stood for a moment wondering what to do. He sat down in Miss Skinner’s swivel chair and whizzed around a few times. CRASH! A pile of books fell on the floor. Bertie jumped off the chair and rushed to pick them up. Wait a minute – what was this? A letter on the desk addressed to Dapper’s Schoolwear. The envelope hadn’t been sealed. Bertie checked the coast was clear, then carefully took out the letter.
Nick’s winning design was clipped to the back. Bertie stared at it in disgust. No way was he wearing those terrible trousers! That dopey blazer! That stupid cap! But wait – maybe he didn’t have to… He smiled to himself as he selected one of Miss Skinner’s red pens. Now to add a few little ideas of his own…
CHAPTER 4
A few weeks later, Miss Skinner came into assembly carrying a large parcel. “Can anyone guess what’s in here?” she asked.
Darren raised his hand. “A big bar of chocolate!”
“No, far more exciting than that,” cried Miss Skinner. “It’s our new school uniform! The very first one!”
“Hooray!” cried Know-All Nick. Darren and Eugene rolled their eyes.
“Nicholas,” beamed Miss Skinner. “As this is your design you should be the first to try it on.”
Nick pushed his way up to the stage, bursting with pride.
Bertie leaned over to Darren and whispered, “This should be worth watching.”
Nick tore open the parcel to reveal a box, and hurried behind the curtain to get changed. He pulled out a pair of grey socks and put them on. Next came a stripey tie. He knotted it and reached into the box. The colour drained from his face.
“Hurry up!” called Miss Skinner. “We’re dying to see!”
Nick gulped.
He put on the cap – it had sprouted a pair of silver wings. He tried on the blazer. It had a silver cape that hung to the floor. There were sparkly boots instead of shoes, and the trousers were silver and skintight.
“Come along now!” cried Miss Skinner.
Know-All Nick stepped out from behind the curtain.
Miss Skinner gaped. Miss Boot looked like she might explode. Children were starting to giggle. The giggles grew louder and became hoots of laughter.
“HEE HEE! HOO HOO! HA HA!”
Know-All Nick had turned bright pink. What had happened to his beautiful design? Who could have done this?
Seated in the front row, Bertie was feeling pretty pleased with himself. All in all he thought the uniform looked pretty good. And with the rocket boots, Nick could zoom into outer space and never come back…
Darren and Eugene were both staring at him in awe.
“Okay,” said Darren at last. “I give in. How did you do it?”
Bertie shrugged. “I just added a few ideas of my own.” Suddenly, a thought struck him. “Hey, I wonder how many uniforms Miss Skinner has ordered?”
Eugene gasped. “Probably hundreds!”
Bertie’s eyes shone. He couldn’t wait for next term! It was going to be supertastic!
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING
An imprint of Little Tiger Press
1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
Characters created by David Roberts
Text copyright © Alan MacDonald, 2012
Illustrations copyright © David Roberts, 2012
First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2012.
eISBN: 978–1–84715–410–1
The right of Alan MacDonald and David Roberts to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copy
right, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
www.stripespublishing.co.uk
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