Jinxed

by Amy McCulloch

  I can’t take Tobias’s intense angry gaze any more, so I look at the other team members. But there’s no sympathy on their faces either. No one wavers. Not Kai, not River, who’s always sort of liked me, not Ashley, who remains stony-faced. They’re all strong behind their captain. They’re a proper team – tightly bonded, woven together, strong. I was the loose strand. Something that could be snipped off at any convenient moment.

  I just didn’t expect to be the one holding the scissors and making the cut.

  ‘It was a mistake to come here,’ I say.

  ‘Damn right it was,’ grumbles Kai.

  ‘Come on, guys, we have a battle to prepare for,’ says Tobias.

  Without another look, they spin around and walk out of the rink, shutting out the lights as they leave, leaving me alone in the cold and the darkness.

  * * *

  I head home. There’s nothing left for me to do. There’s no way I can track Jinx. I can’t go back to Moncha HQ. Even worse, I don’t have anything to remember him by. He’s gone for ever.

  I lock myself in my room and cry into my pillow, the fabric turning damp beneath my cheek. Mom asks me what’s wrong, but I can’t bring myself to explain. Not yet.

  I’ve done everything I can think of, and I’m exhausted.

  Well, almost everything.

  Jinx is smart. More than that, he makes his own decisions.

  What if Jinx tried to get a message out to me? There’s no way he could. I’m totally out of reach – I have no phone and no baku. I wish I hadn’t recycled my old phone, smashed-up screen and all.

  Then I remember. I do have a baku. On a shelf in my locker.

  ‘Mom – I’m going downstairs. I’ll be back later.’

  ‘Honey, are you sure? I don’t think you should be alone right now . . .’

  ‘Mom, I’m okay.’ I give her a quick kiss on the cheek. ‘I promise you I will tell you everything. There’s just one thing I have to do for school first.’

  Her face searches mine, and then she nods.

  I race downstairs and when I leave the lifts I see Paul walking towards his locker.

  ‘Paul!’ I cry out.

  ‘Oh, hi, Lacey!’ He must catch sight of the look on my face, because his brows furrow. ‘Are you okay? What’s wrong?’

  I can’t help it – I burst into tears again. I turn into a snivelling, sniffling mess in front of him, my chest heaving with sobs. ‘It’s Jinx . . . he’s gone.’

  ‘Gone? What do you mean?’

  ‘Taken. He . . . he was special. Different. Someone wanted to destroy him, and I delivered him straight into the wrong hands.’ It’s the first time I’ve said it out loud to anyone except Zora. I can’t hide it any longer.

  He doesn’t ask me any of the questions I expect – like whether I’ve contacted Moncha security. He doesn’t even seem surprised by my statement. Instead, he stares at me with his intense gaze. His lemur does the same. ‘He wasn’t a normal baku, was he?’

  ‘No,’ I say, but the words are just a whisper.

  The feeling of Jinx being gone is a suckerpunch to my gut.

  ‘What are they up to in that fancy building of theirs?’ His words trail off as he stares into the distance.

  ‘Paul?’

  He blinks a couple of times and comes back down to earth. Then he puts one hand on my shoulder. ‘I know losing Jinx might feel like the end of the world. But your future isn’t decided just by your baku, Lacey. It’s up to you.’

  I smile weakly and squeeze his hand in thanks. But he doesn’t understand. ‘I’d better continue . . .’

  He nods and lets me pass. But before I go, he says one final thing: ‘Listen, Tinker. You fixed that baku from nothing. I’ve never seen anyone work harder than you did this summer. Whatever Jinx is . . . he is because of you. Don’t let anyone take that away from you.’

  ‘I won’t,’ I whisper back. I hadn’t realized just how closely he’d been watching my progress. My heart swells to know that he does know how much this means to me after all. ‘Thanks, Paul.’

  ‘And if I could give you once piece of advice?’

  I nod, waiting for him to continue. ‘Contact Monica Chan. This sounds like something she should know about.’

  ‘But . . . how do I do that?’

  He shrugs. ‘If I knew that, I would tell you. Good luck, Tinker.’

  Contact Monica Chan. Paul is right. Destroying a baku . . . even a rogue one . . . doesn’t sound like something Monica would want her company to do.

  But I need to get myself a working baku first. I let myself into my locker, not even bothering to turn on the light. I open the box containing the scarab beetle. ‘Well, hello old friend,’ I whisper to it.

  I wipe down the front of the box with my hand, removing some of the film of dust. He really is a beautiful little creature, even if he isn’t very powerful. He has an emerald green carapace that glitters purple in low light. His legs and pincers are a glossy obsidian, little slices of companioneering perfection. I slide him out of the package, gently using the pads of my fingertips to pry him from his plastic enclosure. He sits on my palm, almost covering it completely, and I can feel the little rubbery pads of his fingers that will give him incredible flexibility and strength. He’ll be able to cling on to my skin, no matter how much I shake him around. He’s a brilliant little companion – for someone.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I whisper again. I should have been happy to have him. I almost feel unworthy now, that I looked down on him so much. He’s not only what I deserve; he’s what I could afford.

  I should be okay with that.

  I take a deep breath, then I lift him to the leash at my ear. I feel the sync – a tiny spark – and the beetle comes to life, his legs wriggling against my neck. This is the experience I was supposed to have a few months ago.

  A strip hologram projector lifts a series of texts into the air above his back.

  >>Hello, Lacey! My name is . . .

  There’s a pause as he waits for me to fill in his name. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. What am I supposed to call him? It doesn’t seem right to give him a boring name, but I can’t think for too long about it . . . I have a job I need him to do.

  I think about what his colouring made me think of. An oil slick.

  ‘Slick,’ I say out loud.

  >>Hello, Lacey, my name is Slick! Nice to meet you.

  ‘And you,’ I reply.

  >>I’m just downloading your preferences now, so that we can be lifetime companions. Oh! I see that you’re a big fan of ramen noodles. Me too. I’ll help you locate the best ramen restaurants in Toronto.

  I can’t help the small smile that creeps on to my face. ‘Oh, well thank you.’

  >>You’re a very popular person, Lacey. I’m receiving a lot of messages for you. Would you like to read them now, or do you want me to save them for another time? Whatever is convenient for you.

  He’s so polite! I can see how it could be addictive, having something so nice and sweet in your ear. But I miss Jinx’s cheeky little asides and backtalk – not to mention the fact that reading the text is a lot more cumbersome than having his voice in my head.

  ‘Let’s go ahead and read the messages.’

  >>Here you go.

  I’m flooded with connections – missed messages from Zora, a few Flashes, notifications from my social media, and an email from Profectus saying that since the battle was called off, lessons have resumed as normal. My absence hasn’t gone unnoted. I don’t read any of them, just flick through notification after notification, hoping for something from Jinx.

  But there’s nothing. Nothing that seems even remotely out of the ordinary.

  >>Excuse me, Lacey?

  ‘Yes?’ I rub my eyes, wracking my brain to try and think of another way to find Jinx.

  >>There’s a video here that’s been sent to your spam. Do you want me to auto-delete anything that is flagged as Spam, or would you like to view?

  My instinct is to delete it: that�
��s definitely what you should do if you get sent strange videos over the internet. But this might be a way for Jinx to get through while staying under the radar.

  ‘Let me see this one,’ I say.

  >>You got it.

  My heart leaps up into my throat as the video projects on to the wall in front of me. It’s video feed from Jinx. He flicks his tail and shows me just a tiny portion of his body, and I would recognize it anywhere. It’s him.

  ‘Slick, please make sure you are recording back-up footage of this,’ I say quickly, just in case the stream stops running or gets deleted. ‘And make it as large as you can.’

  Slick enlarges the view so it’s as if I’m immersed in the video. I use it to look around, trying to take in every detail. He’s being carried in a cage by someone. I catch a glimpse of a moving picture on the wall, the dream-like image of a waterfall, and the Moncha logo with a cluster of stars in the background.

  Mr Baird was right. Moncha have taken him back.

  My heart sinks. Maybe Monica has known about this all along.

  No, not Monica.

  The view shifts so that I catch sight of a snout, the curve of a tusk. A boar baku.

  Carter has him.

  My heart beats so fast inside my chest, it threatens to burst out. I was so caught up, I didn’t even think to check whether Carter was in his team box at the Baku Battles. He must have nabbed Jinx while I was in the cylinder. But what is he doing with my baku?

  There’s a crackle and suddenly there’s audio alongside the video. Carter is on the phone to someone. I can only hear one side of the conversation. ‘Dad? I’ve got the baku. No, I really think you need to see this . . . Well come back then! If you get on the jet now you can make it back this evening . . . Yes, I’m alone! . . . No, she’s not going to know where he is. I put one of those black marks on so he’s totally out of it.’

  The audio crackles and dies.

  Carter. I should have known. I’d seen the predatory look in his eyes as he looked at Jinx.

  Now he wants to bring him like some sort of prize to his father. He probably thinks that’s a way of getting in his good books.

  I ball my fingers into my fist and collapse down on to the floor. The sight of him locked up in a cage has cut me down to the core – but at least he’s in one piece still. And I’m not going to leave Jinx. He might be a robot, but he has no one to protect him. I’m not going to give up.

  But how, Lacey? How are you going to get through Moncha security alone? says a niggling voice in my head.

  There’s a tiny tapping sound at my locker door. I open my eyes from my position on the floor. At first I see a pair of sparkly silver Converse, and next to them – the paws of a spaniel baku. Jupiter.

  I SLOWLY SIT UP, PUSHING MYSELF INTO AN upright position.

  ‘Ashley?’ I say, blinking slowly – as if I expect in the span of one blink for her to disappear. But she’s still standing there.

  ‘Hi, Lacey,’ she says. ‘Can I come in?’

  I scan her hands for cans of spray paint, rolls of toilet paper – or something worse, but there’s nothing. She even holds her hands out in the open to show she’s ‘unarmed’.

  ‘I just want to talk.’

  I nod. ‘Okay.’ I undo the bolt on the cage door to my locker and let her in.

  Jupiter runs up to me, and I pet her on the head, before gesturing for Ashley to take a seat. She doesn’t. Instead, we stand there, looking at each other. I roll back and forward on my left sneaker, not sure what to say.

  ‘I . . .’ Ashley’s mouth opens and then closes again. She looks down at Jupiter, and tears well up in her eyes. ‘I’m not doing this for you,’ she says, her voice fierce.

  ‘Okay . . .’ I say, not sure about where this is going.

  ‘This is for Jinx. Jinx saved Jupiter. If it wasn’t for him . . . Carter would have destroyed her beyond repair. I know that. So if there’s anything I can do to help find him . . . then I want to.’

  I chew at my bottom lip for a moment. ‘Really?’

  To my surprise, she steps forward and engulfs me in a hug. ‘Are you kidding? Of course. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost Jupiter – or if he was taken from me. It would be horrible.’

  I lean into her hug, feeling just how genuine her concern is, and appreciating it. When we finally separate, I nod. ‘It is horrible. The worst.’

  ‘So let’s find him. What do you know?’

  I take a deep breath, before launching in.

  And yet, before I can, there’s even more commotion. ‘So that’s where our missing teammate has got to.’

  Ashley and I both turn at the same time, to see Tobias, Kai and River outside the locker.

  ‘You can’t just skip out on a team meeting like that,’ says Tobias, his arms crossed.

  For a second, I think Ashley is going to waver on her offer – but she doesn’t. ‘The team meeting ended, and I have a right to do what I would like with my spare time.’

  Kai and Tobias exchange a glance. ‘Were we this mouthy when we were starting out on the teams?’ Kai asks, but I hear amusement tinging his voice.

  ‘I’m sure that we had more respect for our elders,’ says Tobias.

  ‘Well come on, guys,’ says River. ‘Let’s not just stand here. If we’re going to help get this bloody baku back then that’s what we have to do.’

  Tobias turns to me. ‘We’re all going to help you,’ he says.

  ‘Oh, thank you—’ I stammer. I can’t believe my luck.

  ‘No,’ Tobias interrupts me. ‘Don’t thank us yet. We’re not helping you because we like you. Well . . . at least, that’s not why I am doing it. The way you played us was harsh. We’re doing it because we think it’s not right that someone stole your baku. And whether we like it or not, you were once part of our team. If that means helping you get that stinking cat back, then so be it.’

  He might be telling me not to thank him, not to be grateful, not to grin widely, but I can’t help it.

  ‘I do know something about where he is,’ I say, finally. I hesitate for an instant more – especially as this means giving away my biggest secret. But if I can’t trust my teammates now, I might never save Jinx.

  And that’s just not a risk that I am willing to take.

  ‘I was sent this video.’ I play the stream back for them. ‘Do you recognize it, Tobias?’

  His face is stern, his normally full lips pressed together into a thin line. ‘Yeah, I do. Why on earth is your baku in the Team Happiness wing at Moncha HQ?’

  ‘CARTER IS THE ONE CARRYING HIM IN the video,’ I say.

  Kai lets out a low whistle. ‘And it looks as if he’s upgraded his boar already. Look at the point on that tusk.’

  ‘But wait – what is that?’ asks River. I look up and see he’s not watching the video – he’s staring at me, pointing at Slick on my shoulder. My new baku.

  I cringe. ‘I had to leash a baku in order to send and receive messages . . . and this was the one I originally bought.’

  ‘But that’s a level 1 scarab beetle.’

  ‘I know,’ I say, my voice small.

  ‘You’re not even allowed on to the grounds of Profectus with something like that,’ says Kai.

  ‘Don’t you think I know that?’ I say. Then I sigh. ‘Look, I was rejected by Profectus at first. But then they changed their mind . . .’

  Kai turns to Tobias. ‘Okay, man, are we really going to waste our evening? I mean she has a scarab baku. She doesn’t stand a chance in the final tomorrow. We don’t need this.’

  ‘We don’t need this?’ Tobias laughs. ‘Kai, Oka was mincemeat because of this girl’s baku. I want to compete against the best – that’s the only way you know if you’re the best.’

  ‘Whatever,’ he says, crossing his arms over his chest. But I can tell that he’s in by the way that his brand new baku, Oka version 2, steps forward into the circle.

  ‘Right, so let me get this straight – if you bought a beetle baku, how did you en
d up with Jinx?’ says Tobias.

  I shrug. ‘I kind of . . . found him by some railway tracks. Then I brought him back here and fixed him up like new.’

  ‘And no one came to claim him? He didn’t have any record of previous owners when you leashed him?’

  I shake my head.

  ‘And now Carter has taken him.’

  ‘Yes. And he wants to give Jinx to his dad.’

  Tobias frowns. ‘But why? What’s so special about your damn baku anyway?’

  ‘Apparently, at the beginning of the summer someone at Moncha developed a one-of-a-kind prototype. It wasn’t quite ready for release yet and then it went missing,’ I say. ‘Moncha have been searching non-stop to try and get it back. And Carter thinks that Jinx might be it.’

  ‘What do you think?’ Tobias asks, one of his eyebrows arching into his forehead.

  I open and close my mouth. ‘I . . . I don’t know,’ I say, finally.

  ‘Does it matter?’ asks Ashley. ‘The point is, he was Lacey’s baku. Carter stole him and we can’t stand by and let that happen.’

  ‘We don’t have long,’ I say. ‘Carter told his dad to get on a jet.’

  ‘He’s in Singapore, according to latest news reports,’ says River, scanning some information on the back of his new frog baku. ‘If he literally got on a superjet an hour ago, he could be back in Toronto in six hours.’

  ‘So that’s how long we have to figure out how to break and enter into Eric Smith’s private wing at Moncha HQ, find Jinx, steal him back from Carter and get out of there without getting caught?’ says Tobias.

  ‘That about sums it up,’ I say.

  He sighs heavily. ‘Well, you don’t make things easy for us. And then what happens when you get Jinx? Carter’s not going to go down without a fight, and if Eric Smith wants it back . . .’

  ‘Yeah,’ says Kai. ‘You know, even though we all “buy” a baku, they technically still belong to Moncha Corp? It’s buried deep in the ts & cs. No one ever reads those things, but I do. And if you found yours, you’ll have even less claim to him than normal.’