‘Principal Davis is insisting on a little bit of actual sports activity in gym class,’ the coach said. ‘So this week, you’ll all be playing football.’
My stomach sunk. The only thing I understood from football was that pressing B on the controller made my quarterback chuck the ball at the nearest available teammate!
The coach pointed at Jake and made a motion telling Jake to stand next to him. Pointing at Brayden, he made the same motion. Brayden glanced at me as he walked out to the centre of the gym.
‘These two are your team captains,’ Coach Cooper said. ‘After the teams are chosen, meet on the field outside.’
Normally, I would’ve been a little worried about getting picked last, but with Brayden as one of the captains, I wasn’t concerned. I breathed a sigh of relief and rested against the wall again.
‘Tim,’ Jake said, pointing to one of the boys in his wolf pack.
Here we go. Brayden’s going to point at me and—
‘Claire,’ Brayden said quickly.
I had already taken a step, so I had to stop myself. It was obvious enough to be embarrassing. A few students around me chuckled to themselves. Even Claire giggled as she took her place behind Brayden.
I smiled tightly. It was cool. Brayden knew what he was doing. I’d get picked second or third, right? That’s gotta be what he had planned…right?
Jake pointed at another boy from his wolf pack. ‘Zach.’
Instantly, Brayden said, ‘Doug.’
Just so you know, Doug is not my name. What was Brayden doing? After every kid he chose that wasn’t me, he stared at the ground. And it went on like this for the next twenty kids that were chosen! Suddenly, I was one of the three remaining students left against the wall. What gives?
Jake scratched at his chin, and then pointed at the short kid next to me. ‘Him,’ Jake said. How awful. Jake didn’t even know the kid’s name. I didn’t either, but we’ll just ignore that.
Brayden made eye contact with me, but immediately looked away. ‘Charlie,’ he said softly.
‘Really?’ I shouted, my voice echoing across the gym. I cupped my hand over my mouth, feeling stupid. Shaking my head, I started walking toward Jake’s team.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Jake asked. ‘Teams are even. Get lost.’
I froze. I could feel everyone in the gym stare at me. You know what’s bad? Getting chosen last for a team. You know what’s worse? Not getting chosen at all.
The other students filed out the gym doors, making their way to the football field outside. I stood in the same spot, staring at the floor, hoping that a meteor would crash through the ceiling and vaporise me.
‘Chase?’ Coach Cooper asked as he stepped out of his office. ‘Why aren’t you on the field?’
‘I’m not on a team,’ I replied, trying not to sound devastated. ‘It’s cool though. I can just hang out in here.’
The coach shook his head. ‘Nuh-uh,’ he hummed. He pointed his thumb over his shoulder toward his office. ‘You can’t stay in here alone. We just got the mascot costume today and it’s sitting on my desk. Go put it on and join us out by the field. If you can’t play, you can at least run around in that thing.’
I wasn’t too excited by the idea of wearing a costume, which was ironic because I was wearing my ninja costume under my street clothes at that exact moment. ‘Really, it’s okay if I just—’
‘C’mon, son,’ the coach said as he walked toward the exit.
I shuddered. I hated when anyone other than my parents called me son. Walking to Coach Cooper’s office, I saw the costume that he was talking about. It was just an oversized mask, gloves, and boots, all covered with brown fur. It looked hideous. Who in the world chose that to be the mascot? Oh right … me.
Defeated, I put on the costume.
Five minutes later, I was out on the field wearing the ridiculous moose costume. I felt like I was working at an amusement park. All I needed was a fairy floss cart and a bunch of balloons tied to my wrist.
I stood on the sidelines as everyone else in class played football. Every now and then I waved my hands and did a happy dance because Coach Cooper suggested I do that instead of standing completely still. He said that ‘a moose with a human body that’s staring at a bunch of people is the stuff of nightmares’.
Through the eyeholes in the mask, I watched as Brayden’s team did their best to compete against Jake’s team. I had no idea why Brayden didn’t choose me first or even at all. My ears felt warm as I grew angrier under the moose mask.
Suddenly I saw a bunch of kids running straight for me. I stumbled backward, afraid for my life. When I looked up, I could see a football spinning out of control through the air.
‘Nooo!’ I shouted, putting my hands up. The football missed me, but a bunch of kids on Jake’s team slammed into me, knocking me to the ground. The moose mask acted like a helmet, preventing my skull from bouncing against the field.
‘Sorry, man,’ said the kid that tackled me. I recognised him as one of the guys from the wolf pack. He held his hand out to help me up.
And then I saw it – a red band dangling from the kid’s wrist. This kid is a red ninja! I didn’t want to seem suspicious, so I grabbed his hand and allowed him to help me up.
As I looked at, I noticed that the other two members of the wolf pack were wearing red wristbands as well. Wyatt’s ninja clan reached further than I thought.
‘C’mon already!’ shouted Jake as he jogged over. He put his hands on his knees and caught his breath. It gave me a clear view of the red band he had around his wrist too. Jake was a red ninja.
I stared at Jake through my moose mask.
‘Hey, mascot,’ Jake said, straightening his posture. ‘You see that Chase kid anywhere out here?’
Hesitant, I shook my head.
‘He must’ve stayed inside to cry,’ Jake said, looking over his shoulder at the gymnasium.
I shrugged, biting my lip so I wouldn’t explode with rage.
Jake snickered and brought his attention back to me. ‘I’d suspect you were Chase, but there’s no way you’re a dude.’
‘Yeah,’ one of Jake’s friends said. ‘You move too gracefully while you cheer.’
I frowned, upset and flattered at the same time. I gave them a double thumbs-up and nodded.
‘’kay,’ Jake said as he picked up the football. ‘If you see Chase, you let us know alright, sweetheart?’
I continued to nod, gritting my teeth the entire time.
Jake and his wolf pack went back to the football game. Apparently they were all red ninjas now, which meant they knew who Wyatt was, which also meant they probably knew I was the leader of my own ninja clan. Things were getting worse. Much worse.
Once gym was over, I changed out of the moose costume as quickly as I could and ran out of the locker room. I had no desire to be confronted by Jake and his wolf pack.
After bolting out into the hallway, I took a hard left turn and sprinted down the hall. Posters of Sophia’s missing penguin adorned the brick walls of every corridor.
I was supposed to meet Gavin back in the cafeteria, but I wanted to check on my ninja clan before their training.
The ninja clan I lead used to meet in a secret hideout in the woods during gym class, but because of a series of disastrous events, the hideout was demolished to make room for a new set of bleachers. Since then, we’ve been meeting in an empty classroom near the back of the school during lunch.
I pretended to start a club called Martian Language Arts. Principal Davis thought it was a cool idea since he’s really into sci-fi shows about time-travelling doctors or something, so he said I could have the room.
Saying it was to study alien languages pretty much secured the fact that no one would ever try to join it, except for the principal that one time. I had to convince him that it would’ve been weird for the other students if he sat in on the class. He took off his oversized scarf and walked away, disappointed. I felt awful about it, but se
crecy is the most important thing to a ninja clan.
I opened the door that had the Martian Language Arts sign taped to it and stepped into the room. When I first started at Buchanan, there were nearly fifty members in the ninja clan, but over the last few months, that number’s dropped dramatically. I scanned the area and only counted twenty ninjas. I wasn’t sure why kids were quitting, but I haven’t had a chance to look into it.
‘Sir!’ shouted one of my more dedicated ninjas, Naomi. She stood in front of the other ninjas, holding her mask. She whipped her short brown hair out of her face and smirked at me. ‘Good to see you.’
The other ninjas in the room stood at attention and thumped their chests once, shouting, ‘Ha!’
I sighed, shutting the door behind me. ‘Ninjas, we’ve got a problem,’ I said.
‘The missing penguin?’ Naomi asked.
I nodded. ‘Seems like the penguin isn’t even the real problem. My buddy thinks the penguin was just a distraction so the real crime could be committed.’
‘What was the real crime?’
‘Someone tried busting the stage,’ I replied, glancing at the clock on the wall. Gavin would probably be waiting outside the cafeteria for me. ‘I’ve gotta run, but if you could keep an eye on the talent show set-up for anything fishy, I’d appreciate it. I know Zoe would too.’
‘But what about training?’ one of the ninjas at the back of the classroom said.
‘Naomi can take over for the week,’ I said.
Naomi smiled at me, punched her open palm and nodded once. The ninjas behind her did the same.
I walked out of the room feeling a little guilty that I had to spend another training session away from my ninja clan, but I had to shake the feeling off. There was a criminal on the loose, and I had to stop him.
The lunch line was long, so I decided to skip it and head straight into the cafeteria. I knew my stomach was going to hate me for it later, which meant it would probably grumble during the quietest moment in class. I hate when that happens because it guarantees someone will turn around, point at me, and yell, ‘He farted!’ at the top of their lungs.
Gavin was waiting for me just inside the cafeteria. He was standing next to one of the rubbish bins, fiddling with a small notepad and scanning the room for anything that might lead us to the kid in the hockey mask.
Along the far wall was the stage with the collapsed corner. Half-painted banners were drying on it.
Eyeballing the room, I noticed it felt a little emptier than normal. Normally the lunchroom is packed, with hardly a place to sit, but at the moment it felt like half the students were missing.
‘Zoe probably still hates me, huh?’ I asked, joining Gavin.
He nodded, flipping open his notepad. On the first page, he had scribbled a few notes. At the bottom of the page was a crudely drawn penguin with ‘Sophia’ written after it.
‘According to your notes, the penguin’s name is Sophia,’ I joked.
Gavin ignored my joke. ‘Since Sophia’s an orchestra nerd, she’ll probably be sitting with a bunch of her orchestra friends.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I asked, offended and still a little upset by Jake calling me a nerdling. ‘Oh, so because she loves orchestra, she’s automatically a nerd?’
‘Calm down,’ Gavin said. ‘I don’t mean it like that.’
‘How else can you mean it?’
‘When I say ‘nerd’, I mean someone who’s really into something, y’know?’ Gavin said. ‘Sophia loves orchestra and is really good at playing cello, which means she probably practises it on her own time. So she’s an orchestra nerd. Some kids like sports, right? They play, watch and talk about sports 24/7, which makes them a sports nerd. I’m using nerd in a good way here.’
Pushing my hands into my front pockets, I sunk my head into my shoulders. ‘Yeah, I guess I know what you mean. Still doesn’t feel right calling someone a nerd though.’
Gavin put his hands up as he continued across the cafeteria. ‘Sorry, alright? I should’ve used a different term.’
‘Fine,’ I said. ‘Apology accepted.’
On both sides of the aisle, students were burying their faces in their lunches. It was pickled meatloaf day, which for some strange reason, kids at Buchanan went nuts over.
As we searched the cafeteria for Sophia, I overhead a few students gossiping.
‘Did you hear they still haven’t found that penguin?’
‘I heard it was a whole team of penguins that got away!’
‘Did you know if you feed a penguin after midnight, it’ll transform into a little green monster?’
‘I think you’re thinking of a movie.’
‘Nope, pretty sure it’s real life. Saw a documentary on it.’
‘Yeah, that was a movie.’
‘We’ll see who’s laughing after midnight.’
Finally, Gavin stopped. ‘There she is,’ he said.
I followed as he stepped up to the table where Sophia sat. Other orchestra students sat with her, looking rather bored. She was wearing thick-rimmed glasses without the lenses in them, along with headphones that weren’t hooked up to anything. Everyone at the table was dressed like they were straight out of a 1930s movie about the future, which is the standard style for hipsters.
Hipsters have a way of making others feel like they’re outdated. If anything seems fresh and new, a hipster will always make a remark about how it’s lame and boring already, as if they’re ahead of the curve. Hipsters make me sick, almost as much as pirates, because you can never like anything if a hipster is around.
She glanced at us as she jabbed at her pickled meatloaf. The last part of her conversation was clear as we approached.
‘…so yeah,’ Sophia said to her friends. ‘That new bow is about three hundred bucks, and I’m totally gonna buy it next week.’ She stopped as soon as she noticed us. ‘Sup?’ she asked all cool.
Gavin raised his foot and set it on an empty chair. ‘Funny business this morning with that penguin, ain’t it?’
‘Isn’t it,’ Sophia said, correcting Gavin’s grammar. ‘And no, it’s not funny at all. My penguin is still running around somewhere in this school.’
‘They haven’t found it yet?’ I asked.
‘No,’ Sophia replied, her lip quivering. ‘It breaks my heart to think that Hotcakes is scared and alone right now.’
I paused, choking back a chuckle. ‘Your penguin’s name …is Hotcakes?’
‘So?’ Sophia snipped, annoyed.
‘Is it ’cause he likes pancakes or something?’ Gavin asked.
‘Are you serious?’ Sophia replied. ‘Penguins can’t eat pancakes. It’s just a cute name.’
Gavin put his hands up, surrendering. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘If you don’t mind, Chase and I would like to ask you a couple of questions about this morning and … Hotcakes.’
I choked back another chuckle, putting my fist up to my mouth and coughing. ‘Excuse me,’ I said.
Sophia glanced at her friends and sighed. They sighed in response, which was a typical hipster thing to do. It was almost like they were telling each other they were bored without actually using words.
‘Fine, go ahead,’ Sophia said, waving her hand at Gavin.
Gavin flipped open his notepad and clicked his pen. ‘Can you tell us what happened this morning?’
Sophia’s eyebrows raised as she took a deep breath. ‘I got to school early ’cause Zoe said all the acts needed to rehearse. I think she was extra excited about the fact that I had a penguin in my act.’
‘Who wouldn’t be?’ I muttered.
Sophia continued. ‘So I set Hotcake’s cage down by the bench against the wall. I walked away from him for like, a second, and then I heard everyone screaming.’ Sophia’s voice cracked as she covered her face.
‘It’s alright,’ Gavin said softly. ‘Take your time.’
‘I’m just so worried about him,’ Sophia sniffled. ‘He was supposed to be back by now!’
�
��Yeah, we thought the school would’ve caught him by now too,’ Gavin said.
Sophia paused, making a long face while she carefully wiped the tears away from under her eyes.
‘Did you see who opened the cage?’ I asked.
Through her sobbing, she mumbled something hard to understand. ‘I don’t know, I just…it just… Eli said…I mean, I think I saw…I dunno, okay? It all happened so fast!’
Gavin scribbled ‘Eli’ onto his notepad. ‘Eli?’
Sophia took another deep breath. ‘Yeah, I mean, no. I meant to say Calvin. I’m pretty sure I saw Calvin messing around with Hotcakes before everything happened.’
‘Calvin,’ Gavin repeated, adding the name to his notes.
Sophia suddenly frowned as she leaned her head over. ‘Can we be done, please? I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I just want to find Hotcakes and make sure he’s safe.’
Nodding, Gavin said, ‘Thank you for your time, and if you hear anything, please let us know.’
‘What are you, like, the Buchanan detective team or something?’ she asked.
I couldn’t help imagining what our logo would look like if Gavin and I did form a detective team.
Gavin laughed. ‘Nah, we just want to help Zoe get this talent show back on track, and also make sure that Hotcakes doesn’t get hurt.’
‘Thank you,’ Sophia said, smiling through the tears running down her cheeks.
Gavin nodded, flipped his notepad shut, and started walking down the aisle. I followed him, glancing at the corners of the cafeteria. Hotcakes had been set free just that morning, so he couldn’t have gone far. I wasn’t sure how many exits there were to the cafeteria, but I doubted there were many.
‘At least we got a name,’ Gavin said.
‘Calvin,’ I said. ‘Do you know him?’
‘Surprisingly, I don’t,’ Gavin said. ‘I thought I knew everyone here.’
‘Could he be a new student?’ I asked.
Gavin raised his eyebrows. ‘Possibly, but I’d have heard about a new kid.’
‘Maybe he’s really new?’
Terror at the Talent Show Page 3