A Game of Chase

by Marcus Emerson

  First published by Allen & Unwin in 2017

  Copyright © Text, Marcus Emerson 2013

  Copyright © Illustrations, David Lee 2013

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

  in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

  recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior

  permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968

  (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten per cent of this book, whichever

  is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational

  purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has

  given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

  Allen & Unwin

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  Crows Nest NSW 2065

  Australia

  Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

  Email: info@allenandunwin.com

  Web: www.allenandunwin.com

  A Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available

  from the National Library of Australia

  www.trove.nla.gov.au

  ISBN 9781760295585

  eISBN 9781952535772

  Cover design by Marcus Emerson and Sandra Nobes

  Text design by Sandra Nobes

  Cover and internal illustrations by David Lee

  Set by Sandra Nobes

  www.marcusemerson.com

  This one’s for Evelyn…

  Contents

  Begin reading

  Monday. Homeroom.

  Monday. Mrt class.

  Monday. The end of lunch.

  Monday. Science class.

  Tuesday. The hallways before homeroom.

  Tuesday. Homeroom.

  Tuesday. Gym class.

  Tuesday. Science class.

  Wednesday. The hallway before homeroom.

  Wednesday. Homeroom.

  Wednesday. The hallways after homeroom.

  Wednesday. Gym class, but not my gym class.

  Thursday. Detention.

  Thursday. Art class.

  Thursday. The track.

  Friday. Right before homeroom.

  Friday. Homeroom.

  Friday. Right after homeroom.

  Friday. Lunch.

  Friday. Lunch.

  Friday. The science fair.

  Chase Cooper here, and if you know who I am, then you’ll know my first few months at Buchanan School were some of the craziest months of my life. Ninja clans, pirates, food drives, skating parties, and stolen love notes are just a little taste of what’s happened to me at this school.

  But if you were to tell me things were only going to get crazier as my sixth grade year went on, I would’ve muttered something sarcastic at you while shaking my fist.

  Buchanan is unlike any other school I’ve ever been to. What exactly do I mean? Well, the last school I went to didn’t have secret ninja clans or pirate meetings. Some kids say it has something to do with James Buchanan, the old guy the school is named after. I think he was a president or something?

  At the start of the school year, I was the new kid, but I can’t use that excuse much longer since I’ve been here for four months now. Sure, I’m still getting to know everyone in the school, but I’m not ‘fresh meat’ anymore.

  On the second day of school, I was recruited into a ninja clan by a kid who turned out to be just another bully in a sea of bullies. I was given the leadership position of the ninja clan soon after that due to the fact that the old leader was a jerk who got expelled.

  My appearance hasn’t changed much, except for the obvious fact that we’re all getting older no matter how hard we try not to. I’m probably an inch or two taller, which would be awesome if the rest of my body were filling out too, but it’s not. I actually look like I’m getting skinnier. No big deal though. I’ve learned to roll with the punches.

  Am I still the shy guy I was at the beginning of the year? You bet – that’s not something that can change overnight, but I think I’m getting better in that area too.

  If you read my last diary, you’ll remember that I totally owned Wyatt and Carlyle on the skate rink: beating Carlyle in a race and schooling Wyatt in a game of Shoot the Duck. Speeches were made, soft drink was had, and friendships grew stronger.

  …except for one friendship.

  Brayden is still holding a grudge against me for not speaking up when I should have. The school paper ran a picture of a ninja running from the monitors, and then Brayden was caught investigating the crime in his ninja outfit. Everyone assumed he was the ninja in the picture. I know he was only trying to help, but he goofed up and got a day in detention for it. He shouldn’t have investigated it, but I know I probably could’ve done something to stop him getting in trouble. At least I think I could’ve. We’ve barely said a word to each other in the last month, which bums me out, but it’s not like I’m the one who did anything wrong. He’ll come around. I just hope it’s before we graduate.

  Faith is as cool as ever. We’re still science lab partners, and I’ve got to know her better over the past month. She’s way more into video games and horror movies than I originally thought, which takes her to epic levels of awesome. It turns out one of her hobbies is watching awful movies while making fun of them the entire time – just like Brayden and I used to do.

  My cousin Zoe has been pretty busy too. I haven’t seen her much after school or for Sunday brunch between our families because she got the lead role in a play coming up in about a month. I think the play is about an orphan girl that’s adopted by a rich dude – odd, if you ask me, but I guess the play is a classic from like, a hundred years ago.

  The more I talk to Gavin, the hall monitor captain, the more I like the kid. He’s from Texas, which explains why he sounds like such a cowboy. He’s one of the few in this school who knows my secret – that I’m the leader of a secret ninja clan that trains in the shadows. He’s cool though, so I trust him with that knowledge.

  He also helped Zoe and I escape the red ninjas a month ago. While my cousin and I were investigating the spot I thought they trained in, three of those guys cornered us. After getting chased through a few empty rooms, Gavin pulled us aside and kept us hidden. Did he save our lives that day? Probably. Did he yank on my arm hard enough to bruise me? Not gonna say. Did Zoe develop a super crush on him because he rescued her? Yes, and gross.

  Which brings me to Wyatt and the red ninja clan. I know they’re here at the school, and I know exactly which students are in the clan because they all wear a red band around their wrists. Apparently everyone who joins Wyatt’s clan gets one of those ‘friendship bracelets’ so they know who else is a red ninja. I wonder if they get stickers too.

  Surprisingly, Wyatt hasn’t messed with me since the skate party. He still shoots an angry look my way when I pass him in the hallway, but other than that, nothing. On one hand, it’s been nice, but on the other hand, it’s kind of freakin’ me out. It’s like he’s planning something. On another hand maybe he’s learned his lesson. And then again on that hand over there, maybe he’s given up! That’s like, four hands!

  The red ninjas have kept a low profile as well. It’s weird because there was a ton of activity that first week I discovered them, but not a lot since then. I can’t say I’m sad about it. In fact, I’m just the opposite. Zoe thinks that as long as they stay hidden and away from me, I’m better off pretending they don’t even exist. I’m inclined to agree with her opinion on the matter. Maybe it has something to do with the whole ‘ignore them and they’ll leave you alone’ thing.

  But at Buchanan School, there’s m
ore going on behind the scenes than anyone realises, and this month things took a turn for the strange. It happened right after I got to school on Monday morning … funny how evil likes to get a fresh start on Mondays. Now I know why most adults hate that day…

  ‘Well, well, well,’ said a raspy voice from behind me. ‘If it isn’t the hero of Buchanan himself!’

  My stomach dropped as I turned around, afraid that Wyatt had finally snapped. To my delightful surprise, it wasn’t him.

  ‘Zoe!’ I gasped at a high enough pitch that my throat hurt. ‘That wasn’t even a little funny! You sounded like a dude!’

  She smirked. ‘Normally I’d sock you for saying something so rude, but I’ll let it go this time since your voice squeaked like a little girl.’

  I chuckled as I swung my nasty locker open. The number on the silver plate at the top was crusted over and hanging by a single nail, hammered directly above the number 108.

  ‘Lucky one-oh-eight,’ I whispered as metal clanged against metal, revealing the terrible mess of papers inside.

  I actually felt proud that my locker looked the way it did. It’s one of those messes that’s so bad that nothing moves. Everything was packed into it so tightly that my stuff never fell out. All my textbooks were on the top shelf, but every single assignment, book report, and any other loose-leaf sheet of paper had been mashed into the bottom of the locker. The pile was about half-a-metre high already – I was hoping to fill the entire locker by the end of the year. If you’re gonna go, go all out, right?

  ‘Oh my god,’ Zoe whispered as she gazed at my glorious paper stack. ‘Your mother would cry if she saw this.’

  I laughed. ‘I think at my age, it’d take a lot more than a dirty locker to make her cry. And the papers aren’t even the worst of it. I’m pretty sure there are half-eaten sandwiches somewhere near the bottom.’

  Zoe cupped her hands over her mouth. ‘Serious?’

  I smiled proudly.

  Zoe turned her back and started heading for homeroom. She held her hand up and whipped it backward. ‘Boys are so gross.’

  ‘See you in class!’ I hollered as I turned back to my locker. I grabbed the books off the top shelf and I pushed them into my book bag. Ever since I’d decided not to store my ninja outfit in my bag, I’ve had more than enough room for my school supplies, which I guess should come first.

  During the second and third month of school, my ninja robes had fallen out of my hands. When Carlyle was threatening to take down my cousin Zoe, I gave them to him in exchange for leaving her alone. And just last month, my outfit was stolen by Wyatt and then used to commit a string of crimes at Buchanan.

  I now wear my ninja outfit under my street clothes. There’s no way I’m giving them up again! It’s actually pretty cosy now that the weather is getting colder. I also switched my top to one with a hood. If we were to run into each other at a ninja convention, you’d probably say something like, ‘My word, what handsome ninja robes you’re wearing!’

  And for those of you wondering – yes, Buchanan is still searching for the ninja featured in the school paper. The few kids who know I’m the leader of a ninja clan know it wasn’t me, but that’s probably not enough to convince the rest of the school.

  Because of that picture, the school president gave the order to demolish the wooded area by the track and field on an anonymous tip that ninjas trained there. You and I both know who probably tipped them off.

  The hallway became quiet as I zipped up my bag, which was a bad sign. It meant the bell was going to ring at any second. Hoisting the bag over my shoulders, I glanced into my locker to see if I was forgetting anything. It was at that moment when something caught my eye – a small black object resting right on top of my rubbish pile. I don’t know how I had missed it before.

  ‘What are you?’ I whispered, picking it up. I brought it closer to my face and realised it was a black chess piece, the little horse to be exact. I think it was called a knight.

  It definitely wasn’t my chess piece because I find the game boring. I’m not too familiar with it – I’ve only played it a couple of times on my dad’s phone, but it’s just not for me. I’m more of a ‘shoot the alien zombies’ kind of gamer.

  Then I noticed a yellow sticky note attached to the piece. Right away I could see there was handwriting on it, which made my stomach turn. Every note I’ve received at this school has been bad news, so I knew that this wasn’t going to be good. I picked it up and read it.

  Chase,

  I know your secret. The game has begun. Play along or I’ll tell the entire school what you are. —Jovial Noise

  Jovial Noise? Was Jovial their name? Did a supervillain leave this for me? Great. Seriously, what’s with kids leaving creepy notes for me? It almost felt like Buchanan School had it out for me.

  Raising my fist, I shook it mightily. ‘James Buchanan!’ I groaned, hoping he was rolling in his grave.

  I folded the sticky note in half and slipped it into my pocket. How did these things get into my locker in the first place? I looked up at the slits near the top of the metal door, but the chess piece was too fat to have fit through any of those. Someone had to have opened my locker to get it in there …

  … but who would do that?

  The bell for homeroom rang. When I turned around, I saw I was the only kid left in the hallway. ‘Great,’ I muttered as I started jogging to class. ‘Late again!’

  Mrs Robinson was already at the front of the room making the morning announcements when I finally made it to homeroom. Luckily none of the hall monitors caught me or I would’ve been busted for sure. Slipping into the room, I took my usual spot behind Zoe. Mrs Robinson saw me walk in late, but winked. I didn’t think she’d care.

  ‘Nice,’ Zoe whispered. ‘You’ve decided to stop cutting it close and just be tardy, huh?’

  I nodded. ‘You know me. Being on time is for the birds,’ I replied. I never understood what that meant, but if I use the phrase enough, maybe I’ll get it one day.

  Mrs Robinson leaned against the whiteboard and casually gave the announcements.

  ‘As many of you already know, there’s going to be some mild construction in the cafeteria in the next couple of weeks. After an unfortunate accident involving the kitchen and some burnt toast, we’ve discovered that our sprinkler system is outdated and needs to be replaced.’

  ‘An unfortunate accident?’ a student up the front asked. ‘You mean when the sprinklers automatically switched on when they shouldn’t have?’

  Mrs Robinson folded her hands. ‘That’s actually the problem. Our sprinklers are so old that they need to be manually switched on by a crank in the cafeteria.’

  ‘It’s not automatic?’ the student barked. ‘Geez, is it from the dark ages? Are there a bunch of rats somewhere in the school that run on treadmills to make the thing work?’

  The rest of the students laughed, but not me. I was too busy imagining how awesome rat firefighters would be, drivin’ around in their tiny rat fire-engines.

  Another student put her hand up. ‘I’m in the cafeteria all the time,’ she said, raising her voice at the end of the sentence so it sounded like a question. ‘How come I haven’t seen any kind of switch like that before?’

  Mrs Robinson rolled her eyes. ‘I’m probably saying too much, but the switch is behind a locked door. No one’s gettin’ in there without a key.’

  My classmates nodded in unison. There were a lot of ‘of course’ and ‘go figure’ sounds coming from different parts of the room.

  ‘But seriously,’ Mrs Robinson said. ‘We’ll be upgrading all that stuff, so the cafeteria will be a little busier than normal. Lunch times won’t change at all.’

  A couple of students sighed in relief. I guess some kids really like school lunch.

  Mrs Robinson continued. ‘Of course you also know that the new Buchanan sign will be coming at the end of the week, but the new jerseys for P.E. should be here today or tomorrow so if you placed an order, I think Coach Cooper w
ill have them waiting for you at the beginning of class. The new jerseys will have our new mascot,’ Mrs Robinson sighed. ‘Which our very own Chase Cooper spent over a month choosing.’

  The other kids in class turned in their seats, gawking at me. I folded my arms and slouched a little, trying to hide from their disappointed eyes.

  Since I beat Carlyle a couple of months ago on the Norwegian obstacle course, I was given the opportunity to choose a new mascot for the school.

  I took a long time deciding what our new mascot would be because I wanted it to be something awesome that’d strike fear into the hearts of other schools! But then I thought, wait a second … did we want to strike fear into them? Or win games? If we were something cool like the ‘Panthers’, we wouldn’t stand out from other schools, so I decided on a mascot that seemed harmless. Something that we could all stand behind as a student body. Something majestic and proud. Something to make other schools think we weren’t as awesome as we were. You see, I wanted to choose a mascot that would mess with their heads just enough so that they wouldn’t play as hard. Buchanan’s victory would be swift and unexpected.

  We used to be the Buchanan Wildcats.

  Now we’re the Buchanan Moose.

  Mrs Robinson continued talking to the class and everyone returned their attention to her, but Zoe kept herself turned toward me.

  My cousin tightened her mouth into a line and frowned as she stared into my soul. ‘What were you thinking?’

  ‘I don’t know!’ I said defensively. ‘I guess I thought we’d have an advantage because other schools wouldn’t take us seriously.’

  ‘But a moose?’ Zoe asked, clearly disgusted.

  ‘It sounded like a good idea at the time!’ I replied.

  Zoe shook her head and smiled. As upset as she might’ve been, I knew she found it a little funny. Finally, she said, ‘The weirdest part is that it sounds like you’re talking about a single moose. One moose. A moose at Buchanan. The Buchanan moose.’

  ‘I know!’ I said. ‘But ‘moose’ is the plural of moose! Trust me, I tried to get Principal Davis to agree with calling us the Buchanan Meese, but he refused.’