大象传媒

By Nia W

Dave woke up sleepy and relaxed. Then he realised what day it was. He had been looking forward to this, but now he felt really nervous. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

'Come in' he said.

Unexpectedly, all of his friends came bursting in.

'You gotta get up mate, it's the big day!' they shouted.

Dave looked at his best friend Jeff.

'Can you get everyone out of here?' he asked 'I've got to get dressed.'

'Yeah sure, but you haven't got long' Jeff replied.

Dave tried not to think about the challenge ahead.

The bird feeder was an extremely difficult obstacle. No squirrel had got onto it yet, only the little birds - the robins, blue tits and all the finches. Dave got dressed into his outfit. Meanwhile in the other tree, the little birds were hatching a plan.

Dave looked out of his tree. He could see the bird feeder was on the thinnest, most slippery branch and he now felt very stupid for ever saying he could do this. There was another knock at the door.

'Come in' Dave said in a small voice.

'Five minutes mate' grinned Jeff, giving him a thumbs up.

Jeff left Dave with his jaw open. Five minutes left? He tried to stop panicking and started practising all he had learned in the past few months. First he did some stretches, touching his toes and doing the splits. Then he did cartwheels, backflips, handstands, front walkovers and back handsprings. He even practised holding a pencil in his tail. And now five minutes was up. It was time to go outside. He looked down at his specially made leotard and felt like he could do anything.

He ran down the tree, thinking it was nice to feel the fresh air. He was going to try and bounce from the trampoline he'd made with Jeff and somersault onto the bird feeder. Dead easy. He knew every squirrel in the garden was watching him as he climbed onto the trampoline. Then he leapt. He did a triple front flip, did the splits in mid-air and coiled his tail around the branch nearest the bird feeder. He swung from side to side, then stretched as far as he possibly could. As he popped his mouth into the bird feeder's opening he could hear the crowd cheering below. He took a huge bite and started munching with a big grin on his face.

It was then that he heard giggling, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a group of cheeky-looking little birds who seemed very pleased with themselves. Suddenly it felt like his mouth was on fire. He looked at the bird feeder and realised to his horror that it was full of hot, spicy chilli flakes.