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‘Not as funny as your face!’

‘Stupid meat bag!’

‘It’s true what they say: intelligence really is wasted on the living.’

‘What did you say?’

‘You’re an idiot.’

‘Empty-headed fool.’

‘Don’t have a spare seed to rub against the other!’

‘Ninny.’

‘Numpty.’

‘OK, OK, I get it. You think I’m an idiot.’

‘Obviously.’

‘You don’t get to judge me,’ Aiden snapped at them. ‘You’re empty-headed gourds!’

‘And we’ve still got more sense than you!’ they chortled.

‘I hope you fall off the wall and smash!’

‘Oooh, now you’re picking on helpless vegetables!’

‘Please don’t…’ Aiden begged as they burst into song – probably the worst rendition he’d ever heard of ‘Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word’. He shoved his fingers in his ears and hurried down the street towards Glimmers.

Mist jumped up onto the wall. You are going to tell me what that was about.

‘He’s stubborn.’

‘Stupid, more like.’

How bad is it?

‘If you don’t know, why should we tell you?’

‘What business is it of yours, cat?’

He works at Glimmers and nearly blew up half the inventory the other morning. I wish to know why.

‘Oh ho, we know something you don’t know, we know something you don’t know…’ They burst into chorus again.

And I know something you do not. I know that my claws are itching to scratch something. She flexed her paw.

‘OK, OK. You don’t need to get mean.’

‘We’ll talk.’

What do you know?

‘He did something stupid that upset the one with the legs.’

Who?