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Net bandits
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Chapter 2
Tamsyn's house
Tuesday 21st October, 7.45pm
“Tamsyn! Telephone!"
Up in her room, Tamsyn buried her head and David Copperfield (《大卫·科波菲尔德》) under her pillow. It didn't help. Moments later her door was flung open(被粗暴地推开) by her young brother, Nick.
“You deaf or what?" he yelled at the top of his voice. “It's the telephone. For you-hoo!"
“Who is it?"
"Who do you think it is?" said Nick. "Josh."
Tamsyn groaned. Why had she done it? Why?
When Mr Findlay had asked for a second volunteer it had seemed like a good idea to put her hand up. She's still been steaming(生气) about Josh and it had seemed the perfect way of showing him that computers weren't just about playing games.
But it hadn't seemed like a good idea for long. By the time the bell had gone and the lesson was over she was already having second thought(改变主意). And by the time Josh collared(拽) her outside the Technology Block, it had turned into a very bad idea.
Josh had held up the thick manual Mr Findlay had given him. “Look at this lot(看看这些东西)! I'm glad I'm not doing it on my own. So, when we going to start? How about tomorrow, after school?"
“Tomorrow? As soon as that?"
“Yeah. Just for a couple of hours."
“On a Friday?" she'd exclaimed. “No chance, Josh. Fridays I get my homework done, then catch up on all the soaps(补看所有的肥皂剧) on telly(口语中television的变体)."
“How about today, then?" Josh had asked on Monday.
A shake of the head. “No chance. Hockey practice. No, today's is out."
“When, then? Tomorrow?"
“Tuesday... Tuesday... what do I do on a Tuesday?" On the spur of the moment she'd been unable to think of anything — anything other than the fact that she'd almost certainly got something she wanted to do more than sit next to Josh while he scanned the Internet for computer games.
“Could be," she'd stalled(支吾). “Ask me tomorrow."
But Josh hadn't asked her that day, because he hadn't had a chance to get near enough. Tamsyn had deliberately ducked out of classrooms almost as soon as the bell had gone and spent large amounts of time in the girls' cloakrooms. She was down to the last hundred pages of David Copperfield and that was how she planned to spend her Tuesday evening-by reading the rest and finding out how evil Uriah Heep got it in the end.
“Nick!" whispered Tamsyn. “Tell him I'm not in. Tell him I've gone to my piano lesson."
“Ooh, I couldn't do that," her brother said over his shoulder. “We haven't got a piano."
“Then, tell him... I don't know," exploded Tamsyn, “tell him I've got bubonic plague(鼠疫). Tell him they've just carried me out on a stretcher(担架). Tell him anything!"
She glanced at the copy of A Tale of Two Cities, another Dickens book, sitting on her bedside table. She really didn't want to be playing games tomorrow night either.
Nick went down the stairs. She heard him mutter something softly into the telephone. Moments later, he was back upstairs again.
“I just told him something," he said.
“Well done," said Tamsyn. “What did you tell him?"
“I told him you're here, and you won't be a minute, so he shouldn't hang up whatever he does."
“You lousy(讨厌) toad(癞蛤蟆)!" screeched Tamsyn.
“Croak, croak," said Nick. “Now get a move on." With a sigh, Tamsyn shuffled downstairs. A Tale of Two Cities was going to have to wait.
“Hello, Josh," she said brightly. “Tomorrow, after school? Right, you're on(我同意)."
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