Adam dropped the rope and ran down the side of the stage. He jumped to the floor and headed towards one the side exit of the cafeteria. He kicked the door open and ran out. Sophia and Eli bolted from their place on the bench and ran out the door too.
Gavin sprinted across the back of the room, jumping over empty metal chairs. I know Zoe would have followed him, but she still had to run the talent show. I leapt off the stage and joined Gavin at the side exit where Adam, Sophia and Eli had escaped. Without saying a word, Gavin pushed the door open and together we stepped through.
On the other side of the door, I was expecting another chase through the halls. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised.
Adam, Sophia and Eli were in the middle of an argument in the empty hallway.
‘My fault?’ Sophia shouted. ‘You were the one who said Hotcakes wouldn’t be out of his cage for more than a minute! He’s been missing all week!’
‘The plan was working!’ Adam shouted defensively. ‘If you had just stuck to the original plan, we would’ve got away with all of this!’
Principal Davis and Coach Cooper stepped through the cafeteria doors and into the hall. The principal folded his arms and shook his head.
Adam pointed down the hallway and suddenly had a frightened look upon his face. ‘There! The kid who set Sophia’s penguin loose ran that way! If you hurry, you can catch him!’
Sophia’s face grew bright red, and if she were a cartoon character, I’m sure steam would’ve shot out of her ears.
‘That’s enough!’ she shouted. ‘I’ve had enough of this lying and cheating!’
Adam waved his hands around and opened his eyes wide at Sophia. ‘You’re just frustrated, that’s all! You’ve lost your penguin and are just having an angry moment, okay? We should all just calm down and count to—’
‘No!’ Sophia said. ‘I’m done with this! I played along all week, but I’m done now! None of this is worth it!’
Principal Davis spoke sternly. ‘Someone tell me what this is all about.’
‘This is about Adam cheating so we could win the talent show!’ Sophia said.
Adam began stumbling over his words as he tried to defend himself.
Sophia spoke louder so Adam couldn’t. ‘Adam’s been planning on dumping paint all over the other kids in the talent show!’
‘I knew it!’ I shouted.
Everyone looked at me.
I kicked the floor, embarrassed.
Sophia continued. ‘Adam rigged the scaffolding above everyone so that he could yank a rope to tip the wooden plank over on top. The paint cans were nailed to the wood so that the cans themselves wouldn’t fall off and hurt anyone.’
‘Come on!’ Adam said. ‘That doesn’t even sound like something a kid would do! I mean, really? Scheme a diabolical plan? Bah!’
‘You did it and you know it!’ Sophia said, angry. ‘After the paint dropped on everyone, there would only be two students left in the talent show – Eli and me. Since we would be the last two contestants, it didn’t matter which one of us won because we’d all split the thousand-dollar prize three ways. Three hundred and thirty bucks each, with the leftover ten dollars for ice cream cones to celebrate.’
‘So the penguin was your part, and Adam was supposed to pull the rope,’ Principal Davis said, ‘but what about Eli? What’s his role in all this?’
Sophia pressed her lips together. ‘It was Eli’s job to set Hotcakes free on Monday, which he did.’
‘You were the kid in the hockey mask?’ Gavin asked Eli.
Eli caved. ‘Yes,’ he whispered. ‘My job was to open the cage and run, creating a diversion so Adam could pull the rope. Everyone was supposed to get splashed with orange paint during Monday morning’s rehearsal.’
‘So what happened?’ Gavin asked.
‘Well, the rope didn’t work on Monday,’ Eli said. ‘It wasn’t tied tight enough.’
‘And the broken stage?’ Gavin said.
‘That was an accident,’ Eli admitted. ‘I banged into it as I was racing out of the room.’
‘Why didn’t Sophia just set her own penguin free?’ Gavin asked.
Sophia spoke again. ‘Adam said it would be less obvious if someone other than the penguin’s owner set it free. That way I’d still be in the cafeteria worried sick about Hotcakes.’
‘Wait, wait, wait,’ Gavin said, holding his palms up. ‘So who’s Calvin?’
‘Calvin doesn’t exist!’ Sophia said. ‘If anyone suspected anything, we would blame a kid named Calvin so that everyone in the school would go looking for him instead of the real criminals.’
‘Clever,’ I whispered.
‘That’s where you messed up,’ Gavin said. ‘You told us Eli had something to do with it on Monday.’
‘You what?’ Adam shouted. ‘You didn’t tell them it was Calvin?’
Sophia’s eyes grew fierce. ‘I did ! But after I’d already mentioned Eli by accident! I couldn’t think straight because Hotcakes was actually missing! This whole week has been a disaster for me, and you know what? I regret the entire thing!’ She looked back at Principal Davis and said, ‘None of this was worth the trouble, and I shouldn’t have gone along with it. Hotcakes could be anywhere by now and it’s all my fault for playing along with this dumb idea.’
I stepped forward with a smug look on my face. ‘I think you’ll be happy to hear that Hotcakes is back in his cage backstage,’ I said.
Sophia let out a long gasp as her eyes widened. ‘Really? He’s back in his cage and safe?’
I nodded. ‘Yup,’ I said, and then I started telling her about how I was the one who found her penguin, but the principal interrupted me.
‘We can sort all this out when your parents get here,’ Principal Davis said, gesturing for the three guilty students to walk to his office. ‘For now, I’m just glad this is over.’
Sophia punched Adam’s arm as they walked away. ‘You better be glad Hotcakes is alright! I love that stinkin’ bird with all my heart and if anything happened to him, it’d be the end of you.’
Principal Davis glanced at Coach Cooper. Both of them shook their heads at each other as they escorted the students back to the office.
Gavin and I watched everyone walk away. He turned back to me and laughed victoriously. I couldn’t help but laugh too.
‘Wow,’ Gavin said. ‘I can’t believe they all just gave each other up like that!’
‘To be fair,’ I said, ‘Adam tried to keep the lie going.’
Wiping his hands together, Gavin acted as if he were dusting them off. ‘After a week like this, I think the two of us deserve some ice cold soft drinks.’
I chuckled. ‘Make mine orange and you got a deal.’
The crowd in the cafeteria exploded with applause and cheers. I panicked, my throat tightening at the sound. Probably because my whole week had been a nonstop roller-coaster of terrible-ness, and I wasn’t sure how much more I could handle.
In my head, I went through the list of what achievements we had unlocked – the kid in the hockey mask had been caught, everyone in the talent show was saved from getting drenched in paint, the talent show itself was still on, the kids behind the evil scheme had been caught, Hotcakes had been returned safely to his cage, my ninja clan was going to have a new place to train, and a mysterious white ninja appeared who was on my side!
I breathed a sigh of relief at the thought of all the good we had accomplished. So whatever was happening in the cafeteria at that moment couldn’t have been bad, right?
The door cracked open an inch, and Faith poked her head out. ‘You guys gotta see this,’ she said, upset.
Gavin and I went back into the cafeteria. The crowd continued cheering as we slowly made our way around the cafeteria until we could see the stage.
Onstage was with Hotcakes’ cage with him safely inside. Standing next to the cage was Wyatt, waving to the crowd. And next to Wyatt, stood Sebastian, holding a microphone in his hand and smiling like a hero.
&nbs
p; ‘This is such a glorious day!’ Sebastian said into the microphone, his voice booming from the speakers. ‘Buchanan’s very own hall monitor captain has found the missing penguin and returned it to safety!’
The sixth graders applauded again. Strange how quickly they were able to forget all the terrible things Wyatt had done. I almost envied their forgetfulness.
‘I want everyone in here to know that good deeds do not go unnoticed, and that bad kids can become good!’ Sebastian continued.
‘What’s he gonna…’ Faith whispered, trailing off.
‘And that’s why I’d like to announce that I’m promoting Wyatt to Vice President of Buchanan School!’ Sebastian said joyfully.
Everyone in the room cheered. Students were so excited about Hotcakes being rescued that a few of them even fainted.
‘What!’ Zoe shouted, but she was drowned out by all the shouting. ‘Can he do that?’
Gavin folded his arms. ‘Sebastian does whatever he wants in this school. Principal Davis doesn’t seem to care if it doesn’t cause any trouble.’
‘Um, Wyatt being the vice president sounds like trouble to me!’ Zoe said.
Faith shot a look of disbelief at me. ‘Is this really happening?’
I didn’t know what to say so I shrugged. It was still early in the morning, and I had already gone through so much that it really did feel like a dream.
Sebastian tapped on the microphone, and said, ‘So let’s all celebrate with an amazing talent show put on by one of Buchanan’s most prized students – Zoe!’
The spotlight swung around the room and landed on Zoe. She stood to attention and blinked. She glanced back at me
‘The show must go on, right?’ I said. ‘I’ll be fine.’
Zoe’s expression shifted to curiosity.
‘A real hero doesn’t need to take credit for every good thing they do,’ I said, repeating her wise words.
She flashed me a smile. Her mouth didn’t say thank you, but her eyes did. After grabbing a microphone from a nearby stand, she jogged to the front of the cafeteria.
Gavin and Faith sat on the metal chairs next to the sounding-board.
I leaned against the back wall of the cafeteria, watching Wyatt step off the stage. Carlyle and a bunch of red ninjas in their street clothes met him at the steps, congratulating him.
Part of me felt sad that I wasn’t going to get so much as a nod of approval from anyone for saving the day, but that feeling passed quickly when I remembered Zoe’s words.
Being a ninja isn’t about fame and popularity; it’s about honour, loyalty and family. Once I realised that, the sad feeling I had sorta just… vanished.
Letting my eyes drift across the room, I saw Zoe on the stage cracking jokes and making kids laugh as she started the show. She was a natural performer, that was for sure. Everyone in the room was there simply because she wanted to throw an amazing party in the form of a talent show. She wasn’t doing this for herself; she was doing it for the students of Buchanan.
Wyatt was off to the side of the cafeteria. And I suddenly realised something else…
I wasn’t angry.
Sure, this had been an awful week for me with an almost nonstop shower of terror soaking me to my bones, but as I watched Zoe on the stage, all those angry feelings disappeared. Zoe was smiling – really smiling –and that was when I realised that I didn’t care if Wyatt got credit for finding Hotcakes.
So what? It’s more important that Hotcakes was safe and unhurt. I’m just happy that Sophia can rest easy knowing her pet that she loves is safe.
President Sebastian promoting Wyatt to vice president was another thing. It was so obvious that something was going on there, and that their part of the story was far from over, but standing in the cafeteria at that moment, I chuckled and shook my head. Whatever was happening could wait until next week. If I just stewed on my anger, then I’d miss out on the things that mattered and made me happy. And for me, it was seeing my cousin happily talking on stage to the whole sixth grade.
I smiled again. Coincidently, Faith looked over and smiled at me right at that second. I’m glad the room was dark because I’m pretty sure I blushed.
I had a goofy grin on my face, but Hotcakes was safe, Zoe was happy, and the talent show could go on exactly as planned. My cousin was about to put on a killer show, and I was able to watch it. Life was alright. No… life was good.
And to me, that was worth way more than a thousand bucks.
Marcus Emerson is the author of several highly imaginative children’s books, including the 6th Grade Ninja series, the Secret Agent 6th Grader series, Lunchroom Wars and the Adventure Club series. His goal is to create children’s books that are engaging, funny, and inspirational for kids of all ages – even the adults who secretly never grew up.
Marcus Emerson is currently having the time of his life with his beautiful wife and their amazing children. He still dreams of becoming an astronaut someday and walking on Mars.
Terror at the Talent Show Page 11