The strange man didn't move. Charlie and Anna couldn't move.

A jumble of thoughts passed through Charlie's head.

He wanted to run but something held him there.

Then the strange man made the first move.

He was coming right for them.

"Graaahhh!" roared Sam, leaping from the shadows.

Charlie and Anna were taken aback. Roger and Eric launched themselves after Sam but Charlie was ready for it this time. There came an evil cackle from behind one of the mummies and then Des popped out as well.

"Look at the Freak Gang!" he cried.

He was laughing so hard he was holding his belly in. The others joined in. Sam continued to lurch around them all, arms raised and roaring like a mummy.

"Look at them holding hands!" shrieked Eric.

"Mr and Mrs Freak!" sang Roger merrily.

Anna pulled her hand away from Charlie's and clenched it into a fist.

"Go away!" she snapped angrily. "Just go away!"

In all the excitement, Charlie had completely forgotten about the strange man. He looked beyond Des but there was nobody there. The strange man had completely disappeared. Charlie looked to Anna urgently. She had noticed too.

"Freak Gang! Freak Gang! Freak Gang!" chanted the bullies.

Charlie ignored them. It had suddenly occurred to him that had Des not jumped them, he and Anna would now be in the clutches of the strange man. For that he was grateful, but of course he wasn't going to tell Des that.

"Des Bullimore!" cried a voice.

Now it was Des's turn to be startled. The four bullies had been laughing so hard and chanting so loudly they had attracted the attention of Miss Broom. She came up from behind and laid a hand on each of Des and Roger's shoulders.

"Des Bullimore..."

They immediately fell silent.

"I should have known it was you."

Des squirmed in her grip.

"Well?" she said. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing," muttered Des.

Miss Broom shook her head wearily.

"You four have been nothing but trouble today. What's got into you?"

None of them had anything to say.

"Go back to the others," she ordered. "Now."

She stood with Charlie and Anna, watching the four of them shuffle off.

"Were they picking on you again?" she asked once they were gone.

Charlie nodded sheepishly. Miss Broom had come to his rescue yet again.

Miss Broom nodded. "Where are your drawings?" she asked.

"We saw a stranger!" Charlie blurted out.

Miss Broom frowned. "Did he say anything? Did he offer you anything?"

Charlie looked to Anna. They both shook their heads.

"Well," Miss Broom concluded. "You did the right thing in telling me."

She then returned with them to where they had left their things unattended and waited whilst they packed up. Their drawings were unfinished and Anna hadn't even started colouring in her one yet, but they could do the rest from memory at some later date.

Charlie was glad to get back to the others. There was safety in numbers. When they got there, Mr Clayton was scratching his head. He'd just counted the children and found they had an extra child, but now Charlie and Anna had appeared, they had three. He counted once more, but it didn't help when people kept moving around and got counted twice.

The visit was at an end, but Mrs Bamber had one more thing to say.

"I hope you've all had an enjoyable and memorable visit," she said.

Charlie didn't know about enjoyable, but it had certainly been memorable.

"So," she continued. "All that's left to visit now is... the gift shop!"

The children descended on the gift shop with boundless energy. They swarmed through the shop, fingering all the merchandise and scaring off the other customers. Mrs Bamber tried her hardest to supervise. Miss Broom tried her hardest to stay awake.

Anna wandered off on her own to look at the books but came back miffed at their high prices. Charlie settled for a few glossy postcards and in the end Anna did too. They had a pound between them and that bought five. They picked out the ones they wanted and joined the end of the queue.

Des, however, ignored the books and went straight past the postcards. His face lit up with delight when he saw a rack of novelty items. First he snatched a spider, then he grabbed a finger. Then he changed his mind again and swapped them both for a whoopee cushion. Charlie groaned at thought of it.

Anna was next in line but Des wormed his way in front unnoticed and handed the whoopee cushion over before Charlie could complain. He got Roger, Sam and Eric to pool their pennies together and then piled them up on the counter. Charlie looked around the shop for Miss Broom but she was nowhere to be seen.

The lady at the check out handed Des the whoopee cushion in a bag.

"Thank you," Des said sweetly and then he scuttled off with his purchase.

Charlie stepped up to pay and handed across their postcards.

"That'll be a pound, please," said the lady behind the counter.

He slid his shiny pound coin across to her and waited for a bag.

He felt Anna poking him in the back and glared round to tell her off. Anna, however, was pointing over to the novelty rack. Charlie glanced over. Des had returned to the rack and had made another discovery.

The lady passed Charlie's bag across.

"Thank you," said Charlie vacantly as he claimed it.

The lady smiled and greeted her next customer.

Charlie stepped aside and turned to watch Des. The prankster was standing on tiptoes reaching up for something on the top shelf. Charlie could see what he was after. On the top shelf was a rather life-like plastic snake. Charlie could but wonder what Des intended to do with it.

Des finally got a hold of it and passed it around for the others to see. He muttered something to Roger that Charlie couldn't hear and then flashed Charlie an evil grin that was full of mischief in the making.

Roger slipped behind Des and tucked the snake's head into his trousers.

With a wink to Charlie, Des span round and started to wiggle his bottom.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Who am I?"

He grabbed the other end of the snake and started swinging it around like a lasso. Roger, Sam and Eric burst into tears of laughter, though Charlie was completely foxed. As others around him began to get the joke, Charlie started to wonder. He looked to Anna for an answer and her blank face said it all.

It looked as if Des had a tail...

All those laughing and chuckling and giggling around him weren't laughing and chuckling and giggling at Des. They were laughing and chuckling and giggling at him. He could have lashed out at any one of them, but Des was centre of attention.

"You pig!" he screamed.

He leapt forward and gave Des a shove.

Des didn't see it coming. He would never have expected Charlie to do it. That's why Charlie did it. He stumbled, tripped, fell over and smashed right into the novelty rack. The contents flew everywhere. Plastic spiders rained down on Emma, sending her running round the shop shrieking.

At once Charlie regretted his actions, but he knew he'd do it again without question. Within the space of another second, Miss Broom, Mr Clayton and Mrs Bamber appeared and were standing over Des looking furious.

"Des!" snapped Miss Broom.

"Stand up now, boy!" boomed Mr Clayton.

Des scrambled to his feet looking dazed and shocked.

"It was Charlie!" he wailed. "It really was this time!"

But they were having none of it.

"No," said Miss Broom. "No. You've gone too far this time, Des."

Mr Clayton nodded. "We're going to have to tell your dad."

Des was looking tearful, and Charlie almost wished he'd never done it now.

"Firstly, you can apologise to Mrs Bamber for being a pest," said Miss Broom.

Des looked from teacher to teacher incredulously.

"Well?" said Mr Clayton.

Des finally gave in. "Sorry," he muttered.

"I can't hear you, Des," said Miss Broom loudly.

Des squirmed. "Sorry, Mrs Bamber," he said louder.

The teachers left it there.

"And now you can clear up all your mess," Miss Broom told him.

The spectacle was over. Miss Broom and Mr Clayton went off into the corner to apologise to Mrs Bamber and Des started picking up the plastic spiders, snakes and whoopee cushions. Charlie saw Roger, Sam and Eric sneak off to another part of the shop. All of a sudden they didn't want to know Des.

"Come on," said Anna quietly, and led Charlie away.

Charlie looked once more to Des. He would never forget the hatred in his face.

By the time the children boarded the coach again, it was starting to get dark and a cool wind had picked up. Everybody was tired, but there was still a rush for the window seats until the driver reminded them it would be pitch black before they reached the motorway.

Once everyone was aboard the driver started the engine and Mrs Bamber waved from the gates. They all settled in for the return journey and it wasn't long before the more weary of passengers were drifting off to sleep.

Charlie did not sleep on the way back. He was going over and over what had happened in his mind. He had a few niggling regrets about pushing Des but he also reckoned the kid got just desserts in the end. And then there was his close encounter with the strange man...

Anna sat beside him reading the final chapter of her book.

"Why did you lie?" she asked at one point.

"What?" said Charlie, looking round.

"When Miss Broom asked if he had said anything, you said no."

Charlie squirmed in his seat.

"Well, why did you lie?" he retorted.

Anna shrugged.

"I was waiting for you to say something," she said quietly.

Charlie nodded and sat back for a while in thought.

"What do you think he wants?" he wondered.

"You," she muttered.

Charlie felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

"He knew your name, after all," she added.

There she was right. It just scared Charlie to hear it.

"But why?" he wanted to know.

Anna sighed. "Maybe he owns a circus."

Charlie glared at her. "That's not funny."

She grinned.

"We have to investigate for ourselves," Charlie decided.

"Sure," she said dreamily. "But not today."

Then she closed her eyes and before long was fast asleep.

It was approaching dinnertime when the coach finally left the motorway. There was something comforting about seeing familiar landmarks once again. Charlie was nodding off himself as they drew to a stop and Anna began to stir once more.

Charlie could see a crowd of parents in woolly coats, huddled together out in the cold. All the children were eager to get off but Miss Broom insisted on making them sit through one more register first.

"When I call your name," she told them. "You can get off."

Bullimore came before Doyle and Kemp, so Des made his way off the coach before Anna and Charlie. As he passed, he gave them a rotten look and flicked a scrap of folded paper into Anna's lap. Then he went off smirking.

Anna slowly prised it open and read it quickly.

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed.

"What?" asked Charlie nervously. "What is it?"

She handed it across and he read it for himself.

Someone had scrawled "WE DECLARE WAR ON THE FREAK GANG" in large, uneven capital letters. Beneath that, Des, Roger, Sam and Eric had each signed their name. It was a declaration of war.

Charlie laughed.

"Is this some sort of joke?" he said.

Anna shook her head slowly. The colour had gone from her face.

Charlie's face dropped and he looked out the window. Mr Clayton had climbed off the coach with Des and was now standing with a man even taller than he. Charlie assumed that was Mr Bullimore.

Mr Clayton was talking, though Charlie couldn't hear what he was saying. Mr Bullimore was nodding and looking embarrassed but not saying very much. He had a tight grip on Des's shoulder. Des looked very sorry.

Then Miss Broom called out Anna's name and she got to her feet.

"Meet me in the park tomorrow," she said, bending down.

Charlie nodded. He had had the same idea.

"Nine o'clock," she added. Then she left.

Charlie sat quietly whilst the other names were called out. He read the note several times and each time thought about showing it to Miss Broom. In the end he decided not to. This was one he'd have to sort out for himself.

"Charlie Kemp," Miss Broom called finally.

Charlie got up, hurried off the coach and ran into the arms of his mum.