The Person Controller

Chapter 24: Time to shine

Chapter 25: it’s bananas, Morris

Chapter 26: A kind of looking-down smile

Chapter 27: It’s a deal

Chapter 28: A shaven gorilla

Chapter 29: Thor’s hammer of bacon

Chapter 30: Actually, it’s not Skype

Chapter 31: No More Questions!

Chapter 32: Nerd

Chapter 33: It’s got a flashing light on it

Chapter 34: Two cowboys about to draw

Chapter 35: The Boxspital

Chapter 36: Happy Christmas, Stones …

Chapter 37: Charged to the Max

Chapter 38: Emwmwtaapt Morris

Chapter 39: I am Karabuki!

Chapter 40: Pure Power

Chapter 41: …

Chapter 42: I’ve felt better

Part 3: Highest Level

Chapter 43: A big, flat, cardboard shoe

Chapter 44: The Bracket Wood and Surrounding Area Inter-school Winter Trophy

Chapter 45: The next game

Chapter 46: There’s only really one place

Chapter 47: What happened?

Chapter 48: Never even come near me with a football again

Chapter 49: Like this one?

Chapter 50: Paired

Chapter 51: Gravity Rush

Chapter 52: When it comes to the crunch

Chapter 53: Single bow

Chapter 54: Watch Out!

Chapter 55: 110 per cent

Chapter 56: A gentle little push

Part 4: Bonus

Chapter 57: Bonus Easter egg. On Christmas Day

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

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Books by David Baddiel

About the Publisher

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Fred and Ellie Stone were twins. But they were never sure whether or not they could call themselves identical. They certainly shared exactly the same birthday (20th September, eleven years ago) and they had the same mum and dad (Eric and Janine). But their names were Fred and Ellie. And a boy and a girl are, clearly, not identical.

Yet they felt identical. They sometimes even felt that they knew what one another were thinking. And, even if they were 200 metres apart, they could mouth words at each other and always know what the other one was saying. They did look pretty identical too. They both wore glasses and, most of the time, their school uniforms (even though uniform wasn’t compulsory at their school). And they both, at the point at which this story begins, had braces on their top teeth.

They also both liked the same things. These included: superheroes; Japanese fantasy animation films; comics; maths (yes, they actually liked maths – sometimes they played a game called ‘Who Can Name More Decimal Places of Pi?’); and, most importantly, video games. All video games, but their favourites were FIFA, Street Fighter, Super Mario and Minecraft. The one thing they would save up their not-very-much pocket money to buy was the most up-to-date versions of these games. Ellie, though, was better than Fred at video games.

Which Fred didn’t mind. He knew she had quicker fingers and better hand-to-eye coordination. And, even though he sometimes got frustrated at losing, other times he just liked watching her fingers speed across her controller, as if she was playing a classical concerto by heart. And, when I say her controller, I mean her controller. Ellie and Fred always used their own ones. Ellie in particular was always very definite about which one was hers. The feel and the weight of her controller – even if, to the untrained eye/hand, both of them may have looked/felt exactly the same – suited her style perfectly.

Which was why what happened to it was quite so upsetting.

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