Jamie Brown Is NOT Rich (17 page)

CHAPTER 24

IT’S THE
FINAL
COUNTDOWN

The final started. The Jeffersons were on fire.

‘CORRECT!’

‘CORRECT!’

‘That answer is …
CORRECT!’

As good as they were though, the other team was better, and had four decent players. By the time the final round of questions arrived, we were six points down. Every right answer was worth two points … every wrong answer meant you lost two points!

The Quizmaster took his questions from his shirt pocket.

It started. With five questions to go, we were still six points down.

You could have cut the tension in the air with those dodgy pre-school scissors!

The cleaner walked behind us.

‘It might be time for the captain to start answering questions,’ he said.

Then he mopped the back of Nasty Jefferson’s head and walked off.

Weird. But he was right. Nervous or not, set up or not, I was me and I was the captain.

‘What is the English translation of the Spanish word … toalete?’

I had to stand tall. I was as scared as anything, but I buzzed.

Now I had to answer. I got nervous again. Only one word popped into my head. I shut my eyes and spoke.

‘CORRECT!’

HUH???????

Another question.

‘A person who did much to increase the popularity of the toilet was Thomas …?’

I felt more confident. I buzzed again.

‘CORRECT!’

Woah! What a fluke! And, best of all, we were ONLY TWO POINTS DOWN WITH THREE QUESTIONS TO GO!

The other team was getting worried, and the Jeffersons were in shock. This wasn’t part of the plan.

I was on a roll though, and not a toilet roll, or a ham and cheese roll, but a question-answering roll.

Next question.

‘Name one of the twelve apostles.’

‘CORRECT, although I don’t know why you said “the”. Whatever. SCORES ARE TIED!!!’

The crowd was going nuts. Harmison, Dakota and all my British Bulldogs friends were cheering their heads off … not literally, they weren’t zombies.

Mum and Dad and Katie and Dakota’s parents were cheering too, and even Mr Jefferson looked happy.

The second last question. Scores level. Nasty Jefferson tried to steal the glory and used my technique.

‘Name a word that rhymes with quitter.’

BUZZZZ.

‘INCORRECT!’.

Then he fainted.

Two points down.

One question left.

‘If you are given something in place of or instead of another thing, it is given in …?’

‘CORRECT! IT IS GIVEN IN LIEU!!!’