“Phew, that was a close shave,” I said, looking at my skin. It was a little scratched but notmuch for an 11-year-old guy like me to fuss about.
“What happened?”
Mundi slowly opened his eyes, reluctant to examine the damage done to him. “I feel pain all over, no?” he said, trembling in fear. “I think it poked one of my major veins and I can’t really breathe.”
“Calm down, Mundi, you are perfectly fine,” Clandestino reassured. He had run when he heard the loud crash so he wasn’t hurt at all.
“Look at yourself. You only have a little scratch,” Clandestino said, pointing to a droplet of blood on Mundi’s scratched skin.
Mundi slowly looked down and breathed deeply. Then he blinked thoughtfully.
“No?” he smiled.
Janice was still covering her ears with her hands. Her eyes were shut tight. None of us sustained major injuries. So when we had collected ourselves, we looked around.
“What could have caused that?” I asked again. “Look, the music room window has shattered.”
“Look!” Janice pointed.
A little pebble on the ground. It was wrapped with a piece of paper.
“That pebble?” Mundi was puzzled. “For that pebble to have caused such a cat … cat… catas… catastrophe, it needed to be thrown at a great speed and by a very, very, very strong person.”
“Who could be faster than me?” Clandestino said defensively. He kicked the pebble and it spiralled up into the air and landed on his palm. He unwrapped the pebble carefully. It was a scrap of exercise book paper.
When he straightened it out and read the contents, his face turned even paler.
“What’s the matter, Clan?” we asked.
“This is!” He placed the piece of paper on the table and sat down on a chair in distress.
All three of us rushed to read the crumpled note. Goosebumps surfaced across our napes.
It read:
We stood there, scared stiff.
CHAPTER 9: OF ALL PERSONS, YOU?
Quick!” I yelled. “We need to get to Mr Grosse and Mrs Priya. Someone is after us too!”
“Yes!” Mundi agreed. “We… we… we… just got the wrong person in trouble, no?”
“Miss Teo is trying to frame Madam Siti!” Clandestino exclaimed. “And me too!”
We stood up and trampled over some tiny pieces of glass. It crunched under our shoes like wet sand.
“But Miss Teo… she is such a nice person.” Janice was still in shock. She couldn’t believe that Miss Teo was capable of such crimes. She was careful not to step on any debris. We left the music room and tore towards the staff room where we had last seen Mr Grosse.
“Hey, guys, you know what?” I suddenly stopped and everyone stopped, bumping against me.
“Ouch!” Mundi whined.
I could hear the distinct voice of Madam Siti. But this time she wasn’t yelling. She was sobbing.
“I think I hear Madam Siti crying. In the staff room.”
“Are you sure, Darryl?” Janice questioned. “Oh no, look what we have done! We have barked up the wrong tree and now Madam Siti is in trouble!”
“Come on, guys, let’s hurry then!” Clandestino said. He was about to zoom off when suddenly, in the distance, we saw Adam swaggering towards us.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no, this is hardly the t-t-t-time,” Mundi said, beginning to shiver.
Adam was in front, a snarl on his face. “You like my little pebble and my love letter, Darryl Duh and his loser gang?”
“It’s you?” I asked.
“Adam? You are involved in this?” Janice gasped.
Adam was an amazing basketballer. He was quiet most of the time, except when it came to basketball. Basketball gave him confidence.
“Yeah, there was always more than one person involved in this!” He walked towards Mundi. Then with one hand, he grabbed Mundi by the waist and lifted him high up above his head.
“Put… put… put… me d-d-d-down,” Mundi cried.
Adam sniggered and taunted, “Mundi’s a big baby, about to cry!”
When Clandestino saw what was happening, he fumed. Unexpectedly, he pawed the ground with his feet and took off like a rocket!
Adam jeered, “What a time to leave your friends! Loser!”
Mundi was still balancing precariously on Adam’s hand. Adam’s biceps were showing and they were like camel humps! Veins snaked across his muscles like electrical wires. He was gritting his teeth like an angry wrestler, waiting to slam Mundi onto the ground. We never knew Adam was so strong!
“Stop that!” Janice cried. “Stop that now!” Tears welled in her eyes.
In my pocket, I had my phone. Instinct told me to act. Clandestino, the most powerful one among us, had disappeared. Now I had to take charge. I slid my hand into my pocket and reached for my phone. Before I could do anything, Adam gripped my hand with his free hand. His face contorted hideously as he stared angrily at me. I heard the twisting of metal and the sickening crunch of plastic. When I looked down, he had crushed my phone in his hand!
“Hey!” I yelled.
“Hey, what? This is a warning, Darryl Duh and your loser friends! Stay out of this.”
He threw my phone on the ground. It was smashed beyond recognition.
“This is not good! This is not good!” Janice was hyperventilating.
Mundi became all still in Adam’s clutches, as if frozen in fear.
“Now you’ll see my power! You think you can prove Miss Teo is the vandal? You will never succeed!” he said. “She paid me to get even with the four of you.”
He flexed his muscles again right before our eyes! He was wearing his PE attire and I could see his T-shirt conforming to his eight-pack. Who was this guy? The Incredible Hulk?
“Watch, I can even pick up Miss Piggy here with one hand and give her the fright of her life!” he boasted.
Where in the world was Clandestino? I wondered. Just then, I turned to Janice who was breathing in and turning all pink again. She was like a pink balloon ready to explode! But in her inflated state, she managed a wink at me.
“Here goes,” I thought. I dug my fingers into my ear holes and shut my eyes tight. Then at that defining moment came the unmistakable, “AAAAAHH…”
The “Aaaahh” that went on for an eternity. The “Aaaahh” that made everyone’s hair stand on end. The “Aaaaahh” that could be heard from miles away. It was deafening, almost soul-piercing.
Janice was screaming her lungs out! And when she screamed, she really screamed! It sounded like a thousand screams. This time, she wasn’t mimicking. This time, she was using her most powerful weapon – her voice! No one else was more decibel-defying. After what seemed like forever, the scream abated. I opened my eyes and my ears could breathe again.
“Adam is gone now,” Janice said, breathing heavily. Mundi was on the ground, covering his ears. Adam had left him there.
“Heh, I think Adam almost broke his eardrums!” She smiled. “He may be the strongest boy but he cried like a baby and ran.”
I took out my fingers from my ears. “You know what, Janice? You could have killed me with that blast! But thanks for warning me.”
“Sure!” She smiled. “Come on, let’s get to the staff room now!”
Because we were in a deserted part of the school, it would have taken minutes before anyone would come to investigate the scream. They would arrive just in time to see no one there and to clean up the debris on the ground!
“Where in the world is Clan?” we wondered.
When we arrived at the staff room, Clandestino was already there! We wanted to smack him on the head.
“Where have you been, Clan?”
“You’ll see! I knew you guys could take care of yourselves.”
We pounded on the door, crying out in desperation, “Mrs Priya, Mr Grosse! Let us in!”
Finally, the door opened, and five pairs of eyes stared down at us.
Madam Siti was seated, tear mar
ks on her face. On her desk lay the three cellophane bags we had passed to Mr Grosse earlier. Had they been used to accuse Madam Siti? Mrs Priya and Mr Grosse were standing next to a policeman who looked shocked to see us. Miss Teo was also standing in the room. A smile broke across her face.
“Erm, sorry to disturb you teachers, but we think we know who the real vandal is,” I said.
Even though we had the evidence, our hearts were beating at breakneck speed as we stood outside the staff room door.
“Oh, hi, kids. Don’t worry, we are settling this,” Miss Teo said. “Thanks for the evidence. Yes, I saw Madam Siti behaving suspiciously on the day of the fire.”
Madam Siti shook her head in protest. “I really don’t know what you mean! I had nothing to do with it!”
“Don’t lie, Miss Teo!” Clandestino charged forward. “We know who the mastermind of the vandalism is!”
“Excuse me, kids, we are in the middle of asking Madam Siti questions,” she said. “If you don’t mind, you are disturbing us.” She grimaced, evil in her eyes.
“Yes, the four of you, enough is enough. Let us handle it from here!” Mr Grosse ordered.
Mrs Priya walked to the door. “Hey children, don’t worry. Go back to class now.”
Clandestino whipped out his phone. “But Mrs Priya, listen to this!” He clicked Play on his iPhone.
“You think you can prove Miss Teo is the vandal? You will never succeed. She paid me to get even with the four of you.”
So that’s where Clandestino had gone during our showdown with Adam! He had sped off and had hidden behind a pillar to video the confrontation, knowing it would be a very strong piece of evidence!
“You recorded my scream too?” Janice’s eyes widened.
“Yes, and Adam running away like a baby!”
Mrs Priya arched an eyebrow in bewilderment. “I don’t understand. It’s you, Miss Teo?”
“Of course it’s not me!” Miss Teo retorted.
“Yes, it’s you!” Mundi found his voice. The teachers were stunned that Mundi spoke up.
Y-y-y-you… are-are-are… tr-tr-tr-trying to fr-fr-fr-frame Madam Siti. No?” he stammered.
“Yes, you gave her a can of Coke, just as you have been giving free drinks to us lately. Just so you could collect her fingerprints and place it at the crime scene!” I asserted.
“Yes, you even duplicated it and printed it on the wall where you did your amazing, I mean, horrific painting of Mrs Priya,” Clandestino added.
“What rubbish!” she shrieked, her voice getting louder. She wasn’t the meek Miss Teo that everyone knew.
“How could it be me? I was there during the basketball match when you dodos were playing, remember? Madam Siti wasn’t there! She only came in the beginning and then left! It was her! There’s the evidence!”
“How dare you?” Madam Siti stood up.
“Yes, Miss Teo, you were there, BUT only for a while,” Janice recalled. “I had to mimic a whistle for half-time when I realised that you had gone for a ‘toilet break’. Now we know it was a ‘fire break’.”
“Oh yes, it was you! The half-time whistle!” I turned to Janice. She winked at me.
“Yes, we needed the half-time as we were losing, remember? So I mimicked a whistle. Miss Teo had already left!”
Miss Teo stood up and marched angrily towards us. “How dare you children accuse me? Watch out or I will smack you!” She raised her hand menacingly.
The police officer noticed the violent gesture, rushed towards her and held back her hand.
“Stop this,” he said. “Let’s hear the children out.” He restrained Miss Teo.
Miss Teo cleared her throat and straightened her blouse, her face as red as beetroot.
“Sure.” She smiled, pretending to be meek all over again. It was too late. Everyone had seen the real Miss Teo.
Madam Siti wiped her tears dry. She had never looked so happy to see us. Mrs Priya was utterly confused and didn’t know what to believe. Mr Grosse walked towards us and invited us to enter the room. We inched our way slowly in, hesitant to be in a room filled with powerful adults.
Clandestino was determined to prove Miss Teo guilty.
“I’d be careful if I were you, Bluefox.” Clandestino glared at Miss Teo, his eyes flickering with revenge.
Our bodies trembled. We were in a room filled with adults and if we were wrong, we had everything to lose!
“Show them deviantART, Clan,” I said.
“Yeah.” Clandestino tapped anxiously on his phone. His fingers were trembling too. He kept mistyping and he was taking forever to get to the page.
“See this!” he said as he finally offered his phone to Mrs Priya.
She took it, zoomed in and out, scrolled left and right and sighed. “I don’t believe this.”
Mrs Priya handed the phone to Mr Grosse. Mr Grosse did the same thing and handed it to the police officer. He was much more meticulous. He scrutinised every page and every picture.
Miss Teo, when realising what we were up to, crossed her arms in arrogance. “There are so many Bluefoxes, you can’t… can’t… claim it’s me. Please … ”
Her voice faltered.
“Oh yes, we can!” Clandestino retorted. He took back the phone, thumbed around and then showed it to Mrs Priya again. She took a glance at it and giggled for a bit. Then she looked at all of us and wore a grave look on her face. Miss Teo sensed the tension and became uneasy.
“This is funny, I mean, I mean bad. There are caricatures of Mr Grosse and Madam Siti too,” she said. “And some of our school’s children!”
Mr Grosse snatched the handphone, looked at it and said, “That’s not me? Is it? But it has the same style as the graffiti on the wall behind the staircase.”
The police officer crossed his arms. “How do you know she is Bluefox, kids?”
Janice spoke up, “Simple, on her Facebook page…”
“I don’t even have a Facebook page!” Miss Teo thundered.
“Yes, you do,” Janice continued. “Under the pseudonym Genevieve Teo.”
“It was you? Miss Teo?” Madam Siti started towards her. “I should have known. You are one of the few persons in this school to have access to my identity card! No wonder you made a photocopy of it and gave it to these children!”
When the policeman saw the exchange of words and glances among us, he felt it was appropriate for him to take over. “We will detain Miss Teo for a while, to ask her some questions,” he said. “The rest of you, especially you four, go back to class. We will take it from here.”
Miss Teo marched towards us. “Wait. Wait, children, it couldn’t have been me, remember? I was the one who told you about the graffiti on the wall a few days ago,” she insisted. “Be good, tell the officer what happened!”
Mundi, Clandestino, Janice and I looked at one another.
I saw the desperation in her face, her voice faltering with fear. But it was too late. Fire created as much evidence as it destroyed.
“Yes, we remember,” I said. “But it was you who did it, and then you ran to tell us, to make it seem like you didn’t do it!”
Janice took out the green glove. “And you left this in class 3A. While you were setting fire to the classroom, your left glove must have caught fire. In a frenzy, you took it off and ran!”
Clandestino chimed in, “And you came back on Saturday night to retrieve it, but you realised we were already there!”
“Tha-tha-that’s ri-ri-right!” Mundi added.
As we were speaking, Miss Teo’s eyes took on a look of contempt. “After all I have done for you LOSERS! I should have done away with all four of you when I could! Where is that silly boy Adam?” she raged.
“This school is pathetic! I hate this school. What am I doing here answering to all these losers?” she yelled. “I hate the way I have to do brainless paperwork. I hate it that the children are always squeaking and squealing! And I hate it that the teachers and principal pile me with so much mundane work. Wh
o do they think I am? Their slave? I am a well-known artist! I am not just a clerk! They say I am an operations manager, but all I do all day is a clerk’s job!”
Miss Teo was so hysterical that Mr Grosse quickly forced us out of the staff room.
“You will never get away with this, Miss Teo,” Mrs Priya said, as the police officer handcuffed Miss Teo.
“I don’t believe this! You’re listening to a bunch of losers!” she snapped. “Look at them!”
The police officer tried to restrain Miss Teo but her tongue was still on fire!
Mr Grosse continued to usher us out of the staff room. He put his arm around us and smiled. “You know what, children? You shouldn’t have gotten involved in this, but thanks anyway. We appreciate your help. Rest assured, your courage and sacrifice will not be in vain. We will definitely get to the bottom of this. If Miss Teo is guilty, she will be dealt with.”
Before I stepped out of the room, I turned to catch a glimpse of Mrs Priya our principal. Her eyes met mine and just when I thought she was going to shoo me away, she beamed. The brightest sweetest smile any of us had ever seen.
“We scored with her, Darryl,” Clandestino whispered into my ear. Before I could smile charmingly back, the door was shut. Mr Grosse and Mrs Priya would definitely remember us for life! Just weeks ago, we were the chosen ones for Operation Pants on Fire and now we had solved the case of the great Vandal Scandal.
CHAPTER 10: DONUTS FOR CHAMPS
Darryl, Clan, Mundi! Look!” Janice toddled up to us, clutching something grey in her hand. We had assembled early the next morning in school. She slammed the newspapers on the wooden floor.
“I can’t believe this,” she said excitedly. “We’re famous!”
“We’re famous?” Mundi looked surprised. “How so?”
“Really, we? Famous?” Clandestino scratched his neck, his itch aggravated by the excitement.
“There! Us!” Janice pointed to a paragraph with our names in an article. “A school’s operations manager, Miss Teo Nee Suan, has been arrested for being a suspect of acts of vandalism in Brightstar Primary School. Police have her in custody for further investigations. Four children – Janice Chan Xiao Wen, Darryl De, Clandestine Chang and Mundi Sakdipa – played key roles in helping the police solve this case…”
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