There was some sort of a commotion behind them and they all turned around to see Enrico ducking behind his ShobGobble while his wife, Carmelita, threw badly formed snowballs at him, yelling, ‘HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN? NOW YOU’RE A NOBODY! I’M FAR TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BE MARRIED TO A NOBODY!’

The twins were still in the sleigh, looking longingly at the party and wailing, ‘Why is everybody talking to those stupid Earthlings? Why aren’t we the guests of honour at that lovely party?’

‘What a charming family,’ said Shimlara.

‘Poor old Enrico,’ said Katie.

‘Don’t worry,’ said Serena. ‘I’m going to send him a very polite thank-you card, just like the Constitution says. It will be my pleasure.’

‘Who is going to run the planet now?’ asked Sean.

‘There will have to be an election,’ said Topaz. ‘I’ll be running for president. Joshua and Serena will be my campaign managers.’

‘I wish we could stay to help with the campaign,’ said Nicola sadly.

‘Why can’t you all move to Shobble?’ said Joshua. He gave Sean a friendly punch. ‘You’ve got pretty good at Head Crunch, mate.’

Sean punched him back. ‘And you’ve got pretty good at karate.’

‘Can’t you guys hang around for just a few more days?’ pleaded Serena.

‘We don’t know how much time has passed on Earth,’ said Nicola. ‘Our families might be worried. We should leave now.’

Greta said, ‘Yes, and I’ve got homework to do.’

They all stared at her.

‘What?’ said Greta defensively. ‘I do! You probably do too!’

‘I wish we could take our ShobGobbles back to Earth with us,’ said Katie.

That gave Nicola a start. She realised she’d been vaguely imagining that Quicksilver would always be with her. How wonderful to ride him to school each day! But of course, there was no room for ShobGobbles in their spaceship and there was no such thing as indigo berries on Earth.

‘We’d better go say goodbye to them,’ said Nicola bravely.

She found Quicksilver taking a well-deserved snooze under the shelter of a tree.

‘I have to go now,’ she whispered. Quicksilver sleepily opened his eyes and gently nuzzled her neck.

‘Thank you for saving me from the river,’ said Nicola. Quicksilver chirped softly, his liquid brown eyes filled with sadness.

Nicola brushed away tears. ‘I’ll never forget you! I’ll come back and visit one day, I promise!’ Then she turned and ran, without looking back. Even Sean had suspiciously red eyes when they all returned from saying goodbye to their ShobGobbles.

A crowd of well-wishers gathered around as Tyler set up the spaceship.

‘We’ve got something for you,’ announced Topaz. (She was already wearing a badge that said VOTE 1 TOPAZ!) ‘It’s a gift from the people of Shobble.’

Four Security Thugs lugged over a gigantic jewel-encrusted treasure chest and placed it in the spaceship’s storage compartment.