‘Don’t call me cupcake,’ Eli said.
Gavin took a breath.
Eli slid forward on his chair, looking uneasy. ‘Fine, look, I saw some kid hanging around Sophia’s penguin yesterday morning, alright?’
‘Why didn’t you say something before?’ Gavin asked, straightening his posture, scribbling again on his notepad.
Eli ran his fingers through his hair. ‘I don’t know,’ he said with a high-pitched voice. ‘Maybe ’cause you two spooked me or something. Anyway, the kid you want to ask is Calvin. I saw him poking around that cage.’
Gavin wrote the name on his notepad and circled it. ‘Sophia said something about him too.’
‘There ya go,’ Eli said, sitting back. ‘Find that guy.’
‘Who is he?’ I asked. ‘I’ve never heard of him before.’
Eli glared at me. ‘Who are you?’ he asked with attitude. ‘I’ve been going to this school since kindergarten, and I’ve never seen you before. Just ’cause you haven’t seen someone doesn’t mean they aren’t real. You think the school revolves around you or something?’
Ouch. I lowered my gaze, embarrassed.
‘Alright, alright,’ Gavin said. ‘So where exactly did you see Calvin?’
Eli shook his head and blinked slowly. ‘I dunno, backstage, I guess? I mean I was backstage, I think? I don’t know. Everything was pretty crazy when it all went down. Actually, I think I was over by the bench against the wall.’
‘That’s where the penguin was,’ I said.
‘Was it?’ Eli asked, confused and scratching his arm. ‘That’s right, I was back by the stage. I was checking out some of the backdrops that were being painted.’
‘Painting?’ I asked. ‘Were you painting?’
‘No,’ Eli replied. ‘Why?’
I almost mentioned the paint cans that had been nailed to the scaffold, but I stopped myself. ‘No reason. I just uh…’ I pointed at his jeans. ‘I just noticed some orange paint on your jeans.’
‘Oh, dude!’ Eli said, rolling his eyes. ‘My mum’s gonna kill me for getting paint on these!’
‘Maybe watch where you step next time, huh?’ I laughed.
At that moment, the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. The zombies in the library all shook their heads, returning to normal. Eli snatched his book bag off the floor and hoisted it onto his back.
‘This conversation is over,’ Eli grunted. ‘If you come near me again, I swear I’ll go straight to Principal Davis and tell him you were messing with me.’
Gavin stepped aside from the door. ‘Thank you for your time,’ he said politely.
I watched Eli walk away. When he was gone, I turned back to Gavin. ‘So he’s innocent?’ I sighed. ‘What a waste of time.’
‘Not true,’ Gavin said, scribbling in his notepad. ‘We got a location out of him. He said he was backstage.’
‘Okay?’ I said sarcastically. ‘That doesn’t mean anything.’
‘It’s just another thing to check out, ain’t it?’ Gavin said. ‘If we’re investigating this, then we should investigate all of it, right?’
‘Right,’ I said reluctantly. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to find Calvin – it was that I didn’t want to waste more time checking out a lead that didn’t matter.
‘Meet me in the morning before school?’ Gavin asked. ‘We’ll check out the backstage during homeroom and see if we can find anything back there.’
I nodded. ‘Until then,’ I sighed.
Gavin must not have heard the sarcasm in my voice, or if he did then he didn’t care. He patted me on the shoulder and walked towards the exit of the library.
Eli ended up having nothing to do with the talent show disaster, that much was obvious, but I had to remind myself that at least we were getting a direction. Who knows, maybe Gavin was right, and there was something worth investigating backstage. If anything, all this work was a nice distraction from whatever Wyatt was up to, and for me, a distraction like that was worth a thousand bucks.
Sophia and Eli had both mentioned Calvin. Gavin and I had never heard of the kid. Whoever he was, he was beginning to look like someone that we needed to question because from what Sophia and Eli had said, he was there when Hotcakes was set free.
The bell rang just as I stepped into the cafeteria. There were still two days left to set up for the talent show. Zoe had convinced Principal Davis to host the talent show during the first half of the school day on Friday so everyone would have to miss their morning classes. Nobody complained about it because it was an awesome idea. I suspect even the teachers thought it would be a nice break from the normal routine of handling a roomful of loud students.
‘Over here, Chase,’ Gavin said, standing next to my cousin and Faith.
Zoe looked up at me and smiled. When I approached her, she put her arms around me and gave me a hug.
‘What’s that for?’ I asked.
‘It’s because I hate being mad at you,’ Zoe said. ‘I’m still not happy with you, but I’m not mad anymore.’
‘It’s a start,’ I said, smiling.
‘Have you guys heard of someone named Calvin?’ Gavin asked, pulling his notepad from his pocket and flipping it open.
Zoe crinkled her nose. ‘Hmmm,’ she hummed. ‘The kid who stole the time capsule that one time?’
‘No, that’s Brody,’ Faith said. ‘And I think he was cleared of those charges – something about being framed and whatnot.’
‘She’s right,’ I said. ‘That’s Brody Valentine. I actually know him. I don’t think he’d do anything as vicious as breaking a stage or anything like that.’
‘That’s right,’ Zoe said, nodding. ‘Then I don’t know anyone named Calvin.’
‘Sophia and Eli both said they saw Calvin messing around with the cage before Hotcakes got free,’ Gavin said.
Faith snorted, and then covered her mouth instantly. ‘Hotcakes is the name of the penguin? I like it.’
Gavin ignored her comment. He turned to Zoe and said, ‘Did you see anyone by the penguin’s cage that morning?’
Zoe hummed, thinking as her eyes glazed over. ‘I couldn’t tell you,’ she said. ‘I was so distracted by a bunch of other stuff.’
Faith jumped up and sat on the tabletop next to us, resting her arms on her knees. ‘You think Calvin might be the kid in the hockey mask?’
I raised my eyebrows. ‘Maybe. We just don’t know for sure yet.’
‘No leads except for someone named Calvin, huh?’ Faith asked.
‘Not a single one,’ I replied. ‘On the bright side, we know that Olive and Wyatt are dating now.’
‘No way!’ Faith said. ‘That’s a recipe for disaster if I’ve ever heard one. That’s as bad as squeezing lemon into your eyes after cutting onions!’
‘It’s as bad as getting a paper cut on your eyeball!’ Gavin said, cringing.
Zoe chimed in. ‘It’s as bad as a ninja who punched themself in the face because they thought they were quick enough to dodge their own attack.’
Gavin laughed. ‘It’s as bad as a ninja who forgot their uniform at home so they had to borrow their mum’s leggings!’
‘Oh good,’ I said sarcastically. ‘We’re making fun of me again.’
All three of my friends laughed. A huge smile was plastered on Zoe’s face, which made me happy.
‘We make fun of you ’cause you’re our friend,’ she said. ‘Come on, lighten up. We all do it to each other.’
I smiled, knowing she was right. Then I tried to make a joke myself. ‘It’s as bad as tipping a cow over while it sleeps!’
My friends gasped, horrified.
‘Whoa, major burn on cows, dude!’ Gavin said, upset.
Zoe jumped up, angry. ‘Yeah, man. Why would anyone ever do that to a cow? Are you some kind of monster or something?’
‘What’d a cow ever do to you?’ Faith asked, disappointed.
‘Serious?’ I asked, watching Zoe and Faith walk away. ‘It was a joke! I heard people used to do
that for fun! I would never do that to a cow! I love cows!’
‘Can’t win ’em all,’ Gavin said.
‘Whatever,’ I said. ‘Let’s just get backstage and see if we can figure out who the kid in the hockey mask is.’
Several minutes later, Gavin and I were digging around the backstage of the cafeteria. It was spooky how often I’d been back there since I started at this school. It was almost like evil grew from somewhere around there.
Gavin scanned the floor, searching for anything that would be useful. I pushed my hands in my pockets as I hobbled down the narrow passage. There was so much junk and boxes filled with random things that it was almost impossible to walk freely.
I stepped over the thick braided rope with the hot-pink and green threads that I saw the other day. The rope ran down the narrow corridor and out into the cafeteria. Apparently it was still attached to the scaffolding.
‘We’re never gonna find anything back here,’ I said, pushing the rope aside with my foot.
‘You don’t know that,’ Gavin replied. ‘The worst thing you can do is not help.’
‘I’m helping!’ I said defensively. ‘Who said I wasn’t helping?’
‘You’re standin’ around pouting!’ Gavin said. ‘Make yourself useful and look for something, anything, that doesn’t belong!’
‘This place is filled with random junk!’ I said. ‘Nothing belongs back here!’
‘Then look for something that sticks out more than normal,’ Gavin said, but stopped instantly. ‘Did you hear that?’
I stopped in my tracks. ‘Hear what?’
A faint tapping answered my question. Clickety clickety clickety.
‘What was that?’ I asked.
Gavin shrugged his shoulders. ‘I’unno,’ he grunted.
Clickety clickety clickety.
‘There it is again!’ Gavin said.
Clickety clickety clickety.
‘It’s getting closer,’ I whispered, afraid.
Clickety clickety clickety clickety clickety clickety.
I stumbled backwards as the tapping sounds got closer and closer. The clicks were maddening and loud inside my head. It sounded like a monster tapping its claws on the floor.
And then came the sound that made me snap.
Squaaaaaaaaawk!
I didn’t stop to see what it was. I turned to run down the hall but stumbled over the boxes behind me. Several props from the drama club spilled to the floor, including all kinds of hockey masks. There must’ve been a dozen of them on the floor beside me.
I slid the masks around with my feet. The kid Gavin and I chased after must’ve got his mask from this box, which would make perfect sense since the scooters were stolen from the drama club too.
I looked back to see if Gavin noticed the masks, but I saw that he was already sprinting away in the other direction.
Squaaaaaaaaawk!
My heart skipped a beat, remembering that a monster was after me. Pushing the hockey masks away from me, I rolled back to my feet and moved down the narrow passage. The tapping sounds were getting louder and sounded as if they were right behind me.
There was no way I was going to look back. I was too scared that I’d be frozen in fear at the sight of whatever it was that was chasing after me.
The passage grew darker as I ran further into it. The walls began to pinch together making me slow my escape and walk sideways. The tapping sound grew louder and faster as I moved slower and slower. It was like a terrible nightmare. Finally, I made it to the end of the corridor. A short stack of cardboard boxes were piled up in front of me, basically telling me I couldn’t go any further. Clenching my jaw, I turned slowly to see my attacker.
The space in front of me was empty. The silence was now scarier than the tapping. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath, trying my hardest not to pass out from fear.
I opened my eyes, staring into space, allowing myself to see everything by focusing on nothing. It’s a ninja technique where you stare into space and allow your peripheral vision to do what it does best, which is to see movement off to the side that you’re not looking at.
The corridor was completely still as I took a step out.
And then a small black creature twitched in the shadows. I flinched, feeling my heart drop until I realised what it was I was looking at.
A few metres away was the missing penguin, staring at me with its head cocked sideways. If it could talk, it would’ve been like, ‘Dude, what’s wrong with you?’
Needless to say, I felt a little dumb for not realizing it was the penguin chasing me. In my defence, I was in a dark hallway and thought I was going to die.
Hotcakes hopped forward once and dropped something from his beak. A folded slip of paper landed gently on the floor. And then the he squawked once more before disappearing into an open air vent nearby.
I slid out from the spot I was hiding in. ‘Someone should really fix all these open vents,’ I whispered as I picked up the slip of paper. It was wet from the penguin’s beak. When I unfolded it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
A,
The penguin plan didn’t work out, but we have one more shot on Friday morning. I won’t mess it up this time.
There wasn’t a signature.
I studied the note for a moment. It must be referring to the talent show, but it was obvious that there was more going on than anyone suspected. It sounded like the penguin was only part of the equation. Was Gavin right? Could it have been a distraction so someone could wreck the stage?
‘I won’t mess it up this time,’ I whispered, reading the note out loud.
Mess what up? Was it possible that they wanted to break more than just a corner of the stage? I felt sick.
Looking at the open air vent, I tightened my lips, thinking about how Hotcakes had dropped the note off. Was it on purpose? Was he trying to solve this mystery too? Could Brayden have been right? Are penguins smarter than everyone thought?
So many questions!
I heard footsteps close in on my position. When I looked over, I saw Gavin in the narrow passage.
‘You okay?’ he asked, but before I could answer, he said, ‘It was the penguin, wasn’t it? I realised it as soon as I jumped back into the cafeteria.’
I laughed. ‘I realised the same thing as soon as I saw I couldn’t run anymore.’
‘Did he freak out at you?’
I shook my head, handing my friend the note. ‘Nope, but he left me this.’
Taking the wet note in his hands, Gavin read it silently. ‘It’s addressed to ‘A’,’ he said. ‘Hotcakes left this for you?’
‘I know, right? Weird,’ I said, walking back to the cafeteria. ‘Maybe Zoe will know who the note’s for.’
A few minutes later Gavin and I were sitting at a table in the cafeteria. The room was completely empty since everyone had left for first period.
Zoe held the note, chewing on her lip the way she did when she was concentrating. ‘A…’ she whispered. Her eyes looked past the note and at me. ‘You found this backstage?’
I scratched the back of my neck. ‘Uh, yeah. I found it. Let’s go with that.’
‘Why’s it wet?’ Zoe asked, rotating the note in her hands.
I set my hands on the table and sighed. ‘Hotcakes gave it to me.’
Immediately, Zoe dropped the note on the table. ‘Ew! Seriously? That was in the penguin’s mouth?’
Gavin laughed. ‘A little bit of penguin spit ain’t gonna hurt ya.’
Zoe cocked an eyebrow. ‘Um, have you heard of a little thing called bacteria? Actually, millions of little things that make up bacteria?’ She stretched her fingers out in front of her as if she didn’t want to risk touching anything. ‘So gross, you guys. Seriously, sick.’
I put my hand over the note and slid it back to me. ‘Do you know anyone who goes by A?’
Zoe pulled out an antibacterial wipe from her book bag and tore open the pack. I wasn’t surprised to see that she carried something like that with he
r. Scrubbing her fingers with the wipe, she said, ‘I don’t know anyone who just goes by A, no. But I do know an Adam that works for me. He’s one of the guys backstage. He helps guide kids through the back before and after their act. Adam’s also in charge of making sure the curtain goes up and down when it needs to.’
Gavin sighed like an old cowboy as he stood from the table. ‘Looks like this whole mess is messier than we thought.’
‘It seems there’s more going on here than just a penguin getting set free,’ I said. ‘It’s beginning to look like it wasn’t just a childish prank.’ Zoe frowned and started chewing her lip again. ‘All I wanted to do was put on a talent show. I wanted to bring some fun to the school, and some jerk has to go and try to ruin things.’
I remained silent. Gavin didn’t say anything either. He just reached across the table and set his hand on Zoe’s. It must’ve helped because she smiled softly at him. Gross.
The three of us decided to meet back at the cafeteria before lunch. Adam was next on the list to question, even though we weren’t a hundred per cent certain the note was addressed to him.
As I walked away from Gavin and Zoe, I felt a chill travel down my spine, just as I had when walking into school Monday morning. Bad things were happening at Buchanan, and my friends and I were smack dab in the middle of it.
I was the last one out of the gymnasium and the only one wearing a goofy-looking moose outfit. The inside of the head was beginning to smell a little funky from not being washed properly. Why couldn’t I have picked a cooler mascot than a moose? Why not a knight? Or a Viking? Man, why didn’t I choose a super huge robot instead? Total missed opportunity on my part.
Jake pointed and said some pretty insulting stuff as I took my place on the sidelines. I tried to play it off by clutching my belly and moving my shoulders up and down like I was laughing.
‘Hey, coach!’ Jake shouted. ‘We want that dumb moose on our team! Can we do that?’
Coach Cooper waved his hand with a huge grin from the gym doors. He obviously couldn’t hear a word Jake was saying.
Jake pointed at me. ‘If you feel like scoring another touchdown for us today, feel free, alright?’
Terror at the Talent Show Page 6