Evaluation · Level 2

Up on the beach, above the high tide mark, there was a sign. A man with an empty sack by his feet stood looking at it. Black words on a bright orange board. There was another, identical, sign further along the beach. The man had come to collect shellfish. He frowned and looked around. Only one small boy was near him. He called to him.

The boy, who was about six years old, came over. He listened to what the man said and looked closely at the sign.

"This... not... safe... do not... I can't read the rest."

"That's OK. I know now," said the man and, picking up his sack, he left the beach.

My only brother was also my twin. You would think that because we were identical we would act the same way and like the same things. He was born forty minutes before me and would often remind me of the fact. Because I was keen on sport, he would also rub me up the wrong way by raving on about how sport was boring and a big waste of time.

"Who, little brother," he would jeer, "needs to suffer pain unnecessarily?"

When we turned fifteen my parents surprised me with a year's subscription to the In-Shape Gym. Now I was able to join Brant and Ethan each Monday and Wednesday evening to seriously work out. When they turned up at home to pick me up Josh would be sprawled out on the couch mindlessly watching cartoons or playing his new PlayStation. He would poke fun at us and say that the best way to deal with an urge to exercise was 'to stay very calm and wait until it went away.'

"Just playing sport is bad enough," he scoffed, "but working out is over the top. And Tim," he'd say, leaning forward and screwing up his nose, "the only reason you would want to go there would be to attract the girls!"

So it was a surprise, when having decided to go to the gym late one Thursday afternoon, we saw Josh come out of the side door dressed in a tracksuit and carrying a sports bag in his hand. What's more, he crossed the road and walked straight up to a smiling Tammy Aster - the most gorgeous girl at our school.