Jake’s teacher called him a walking encyclopedia. Jake knew everything there was to know about dragons and dinosaurs, volcanoes and venomous snakes, even constellations and computers.

“Ask Jake!” his classmates chorused whenever anyone needed the answer to a question.

But Jake had a problem.

He could add and subtract numbers faster than anyone else in his class, but he struggled to write them. You see, Jake had a stubborn pencil. No matter how hard he tried Jake couldn’t write numbers the right way round. He tried, he really did. But his pencil had a mind of its own. That stubborn pencil refused to co-operate.

“Jake, it’s happened again!” Mr Jones exclaimed one morning. “Your 3’s are all back to front. Yesterday it was your 5’s. What are we going to do?”

Jake gazed out the window at the grey cloudy sky and sighed.

“I do try,” he said, “but every time my pencil touches the page it refuses to co-operate.”

Mr Jones shook his head.

“You’re dealing with a very stubborn pencil, Jake,” he said. “You need some help to outwit that pencil. But you can do it Jake, I know you can.”

That night Jake wriggled under his duvet cover and stared into his darkened room, thinking about his stubborn pencil. The night breeze tugged gently at the curtains, looking for someone to play with.

“It’s not fair!” Jake told any night creatures who cared to listen. “Why can’t I write my numbers the right way round? Why does it have to be me with a stubborn pencil?”

Hundreds of numbers, all sizes and colours, danced and tumbled inside Jake’s head – whirling, swirling, twirling – somersaulting, leaping, never stopping still. Jake imagined his pencil laughing unkindly as it danced with the runaway 3’s. Go away! Go away! He started pulling the duvet over his head, when …

ZIP! ZAP! FLASH!

The breeze stopped tugging at the curtains. Lightness and brightness filled the room. A tinkling, twinkling chuckle tickled Jake’s ears. Jake’s eyes widened. He lay very still, not moving a muscle, not daring to breathe. Who had crept into his room?

All the numbers rushed out of Jake’s head, spiralling down to the end of the bed. They tumbled and turned through the brightness, weaving together into a luminous cloud. Jake stared in disbelief as the number cloud raced out the open window to join the stars in the sky.