The Scavengers Strike Back

by Marcus Emerson

  I pushed my tray to the side, and let my head drop on the table. My forehead thunked hard enough that Naomi’s book bag made another CLINK sound.

  It didn’t surprise me that she and Victor were the ones behind framing the kids from my ninja clan. But it was because of Brayden that I felt so defeated. I was numb, and I didn’t even care that Naomi was trying to speak to me.

  I just gave in.

  Naomi reached into her book bag again, and pulled out a small teacup. She set it gently next to her lunch tray and ran her fingers against the rim.

  There wasn’t anything special about the teacup. In fact, it looked like it had been broken at one time. All along the sides of the cup were cracks that had been filled with gold-coloured sparkly glue.

  ‘Nice cup,’ I said. ‘Do you bring your own salad dressing to school too?’

  Naomi didn’t pick up my joke. ‘No,’ she said, pouring her juice into the teacup.

  I raised my head, watching her carefully pour her drink. ‘What is this? I’ve never seen you do this before.’

  ‘I only started doing it about a week ago,’ Naomi said. ‘It helps remind me of who I am.’

  I chuckled nervously because I had no idea what she was talking about. She sipped at the teacup, keeping her little finger out. It was bold. Kids would make fun of her if they saw her – a sixth grader playing tea party in the middle of the cafeteria? That was social death. But Naomi didn’t give a rip about what other kids thought of her.

  Every molecule in my body wanted to be angry with her. She had betrayed me. She had made half the school hate me. She took my ninja clan away from me. But I just couldn’t, at least, not at that moment in the cafeteria.

  So I gave in, and acted like she was an old friend. I have to admit, it was easier than I thought it would be.

  ‘Naomi,’ I said. ‘I’m really struggling this week.’

  ‘I know,’ she said, sipping from her cup. ‘I used to be in your ninja clan. I know how poorly you deal with stress.’

  I couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Some of the stress is from you though! You’re the one that’s messing with me!’

  Naomi shook her head. ‘It’s Victor this time,’ she said. ‘Not me.’

  ‘I know that Brayden went to you with the broken pieces of the statue,’ I said. ‘I know you were there with Victor.’

  Naomi didn’t say anything.

  ‘You’re probably the one putting those statue pieces in everyone’s book bags too, huh?’ I said, hoping I was wrong.

  Naomi leaned forward. ‘It wasn’t me.’

  ‘Then who?’ I asked.

  Naomi shrugged her shoulders. ‘Could’ve been anyone,’ she said. ‘There are Scavengers around this whole school. They’re probably even listening to us right now.’

  I rolled my tongue in my mouth, peeking out of the corner of my eye to see if anyone was staring. Nobody was.

  ‘Why did Brayden do it?’ I asked.

  Again, Naomi shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don’t know. He just showed up with the pieces from the statue. I bounced before Victor and Brayden talked.’

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t know what to do anymore,’ I said.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Naomi asked, pouring more juice into her teacup.

  ‘This whole year has been one huge struggle,’ I said. ‘It’s like this school wants to crush my spirit, but I’ve refused to give in … until now.’

  Naomi set her teacup down. ‘Why now?’

  ‘Because,’ I said. ‘I was too thick to see that I was fighting a losing battle. Wyatt, the red ninjas, the Scavengers, you … all of you have pushed me, and I just kept pushing back.’

  Running her finger along the rim of her teacup, Naomi said nothing.

  It was like I had opened the door to my thoughts and I couldn’t get it shut again. ‘I’ve worked so hard to be a good leader – even Victor knew it, which was what he was trying to take from me this week. Well, it looks like he won. He did it, and without lifting a finger. If I was any good at being what I wanted to be, then it shouldn’t have been so easy for him to win.’

  ‘I know,’ Naomi said softly. She sounded really sad.

  ‘Victor has shown me who I really am,’ I said. ‘And I know that was his point. I was already on the edge. All he needed to do was nudge me.’

  ‘Aren’t we all on the edge though?’ Naomi asked.

  ‘No?’ I said. ‘I dunno, maybe? I’m just … I’m so tired, Naomi. I’m so tired of trying to be strong all the time. My ninja clan looked to me for leadership. My friends counted on me to be there when something went wrong. Everyone expects me to know what I’m doing!’

  ‘I think everyone feels that way,’ Naomi said, smiling slightly.

  And then I finally found exactly what I was trying to say. ‘I just want someone to tell me that it’s okay to struggle. That I’m allowed to! That it’s okay to not be strong all the time!’

  Naomi stared at me with eyes as big as the rings of Saturn. I was beginning to worry that maybe I had said too much, and now her brain was sizzling to a crisp.

  I opened my carton of milk and took a swig. ‘Sometimes I just wish I had never started my ninja clan. Life would be a lot easier.’

  ‘I’m only going to say this once to you,’ Naomi said. ‘Because I can’t give life advice to anyone without feeling like I’m in a cheesy movie about growing up … but it is okay to struggle. You’re allowed to. We’re all allowed to.’

  I looked at Naomi.

  ‘Your biggest fight has been with yourself,’ Naomi said. ‘You’ve tried to be perfect, and I have to give it you, you’ve done a good job of getting close to it.’

  I wasn’t sure what to say. I was already starting to feel embarrassed.

  Naomi leaned back in her chair. ‘But you know what? None of that matters, does it? Does your ninja clan really matter?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘No? I’m not sure how you want me to answer that.’

  ‘Your ninja clan,’ Naomi explained. ‘Even though it’s important to you, and will always be important, doesn’t really matter in the end.’

  I stared at Naomi’s smiling face, confused. ‘Huh?’

  ‘The ninja clan isn’t special,’ Naomi said. ‘It’s the people in it who are … Your friends. I haven’t missed the ninja clan. I’ve missed being friends with you.’

  I shrugged. I wasn’t sure why I still wanted to argue. ‘Still feels like I’ve failed.’

  ‘It’s cool,’ Naomi said, leaning forward. Her eyes sparkled. ‘Everyone fails. You’re allowed to fail, Chase. You’re allowed to struggle.’ She took her teacup in her hand and raised it towards me.

  ‘No thanks,’ I said. ‘I have my own drink.’

  ‘No, ya dingus,’ Naomi said, wagging the teacup at me. ‘I don’t want to you drink it. I want you to look at it.’

  I stared at the cup in her hand. ‘Okay? It’s an old, cracked teacup. So?’

  ‘Kintsugi,’ she said.

  ‘Kint-wha?’ I replied.

  Naomi admired the teacup, running her fingers along the cracks. ‘I broke this cup when I was, like, three. My dad glued it back together with some sparkly glue, and then explained what kintsugi is.’

  ‘Sounds Japanese,’ I said.

  ‘It is,’ Naomi said. ‘You know my dad is Japanese, right?’

  ‘Yeah, of course,’ I said, lying through my teeth.

  Naomi continued. ‘Kintsugi means ‘golden joinery’. It’s the art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer. Well, in this case, gold sparkly glue.’

  I studied the cracks in the teacup. The sparkles caught the light, glimmering like tiny diamonds.

  Naomi continued. ‘It’s the idea that this cup is more beautiful because it’s been broken.’

  ‘But you could’ve just used white glue,’ I said. ‘And hidden the fact that the cup was ever broken at all.’

  ‘That’s not the point,’ Naomi said. ‘The gold makes the cracks obvious because that’s what’s special about t
he teacup. We don’t want to hide the fact that it broke … that it struggled … because that’s an important part of the teacup’s story.’ She turned the cup slowly in her hand. ‘No other cup will ever look like this cup.’

  ‘That’s why you’ve been using it this week?’ I asked.

  Naomi paused. ‘I’ve always kept it in my bag,’ she said. ‘I’ve just never used it before. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Being a Scavenger was one of them. Hurting you was another.’

  I stared at the table. That was one of the heaviest conversations I’d ever had at this school, and I’ve had a couple of doozies.

  Everything that Naomi said about my ninja clan was spot on. It was important to me, and being a leader was just as important, but none of that even came close to how important my friends were.

  Without my friends, what was the point? What was the point of ninja training? What was the point in figuring out the mysteries?

  I had warm fuzzies from the light bulb that had switched on.

  The whole reason I was having a pity party in the first place was because Victor had won. He won by taking away my ninja clan, but it didn’t matter. None of my friends were going to turn their backs on me because I didn’t have a ninja clan anymore.

  I didn’t need to be their leader, I needed to be their friend.

  I felt a surge of energy in my veins. It felt good. Probably the same way a robot feels when their battery is fully charged.

  My friends were the most important thing to me, and Victor couldn’t take that away.

  Victor’s grip, even the Scavengers’ grip, on me was gone.

  I opened my mouth to say more to Naomi, but she had disappeared. I quickly scanned the cafeteria, but she was gone.

  The only thing left was a slip of paper on the table in front of me. I unfolded the paper and read it.

  You should probably check the principal’s office for the three pieces of the statue. Davis has been keeping them in a box under his desk.

  It wasn’t signed, but I knew Naomi’s handwriting anywhere. I couldn’t tell if she was warning me, or just giving me a heads up.

  All I had to do was peek into the principal’s office and check the box right under his desk.

  No big deal, right?

  I had my dad drop me off right by the storage garage before school. I still hadn’t spoken to Brayden, and I risked running into him if I went through the school building.

  I opened the side door to the garage and stepped inside, feeling the hot air hit my face.

  The project I had worked so hard on was standing tall in the middle of the garage. It loomed over two-and-a-half metres high, and was built to look like the entrance to a cool robot carnival. I hoped Zoe would dig it.

  Thankfully, my project was still untouched. It would’ve been easy for any of the Scavengers or even the red ninjas to have found their way into the garage to destroy it.

  At the top of the entryway was a sign that I had made out of aluminium foil.

  After making sure everything was in order, I took a white sheet and threw it over the top of my project so that it would be hidden when it was in the cafeteria. Principal Davis wanted to unveil it at assembly in the cafeteria that morning.

  Zoe had arranged for the whole school to skip homeroom so everyone could be at the assembly. She even had a local cafe come and set up a breakfast buffet.

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and a slip of paper fell to the floor at my feet.

  It was the note that Naomi had left on the table the day before. The one that told me I should check Principal Davis’s office.

  I checked the time on my phone. There was still thirty minutes until school started, and over an hour before the assembly. Did I have time to take a peek inside the principal’s office? Of course I did.

  I ran back to the cafeteria doors. To the left of the cafeteria doors was another entrance that led behind the stage.

  I ducked down so nobody eating breakfast would spot me. The windows went all the way down the side of the cafeteria. If I wanted to get to the backstage door, I had to get past the windows.

  Taking my ninja mask from my hood, I slipped it over my face in the cold weather. Puffs of steam filtered through the black cloth of my mask, drifting up in front of my eyes.

  Staying crouched, I waddled like a duck, until I was a safe distance from anyone in the cafeteria. I rolled to my feet and ran through the backstage door.

  The warm air was thick and swampy. Sick.

  The principal’s office wasn’t far. The cafeteria, lobby, and front-office counter were the only things standing in my way. It wasn’t going to be easy, but nothing ever was for a ninja.

  And then it struck me … why am I running around with a ninja mask? I could just walk over to the front office, and then slip on my mask if I needed to.

  I shook my head, pulling my ninja mask off my face. ‘Dummy.’

  At the side of the stage, I pulled the red velvet curtain back and jumped to the floor of the lunchroom. There were hardly any students in there except for Zoe and Faith, along with the crew that was going to dish out the breakfast buffet.

  ‘Chase?’ Zoe asked from across the room. ‘Um, what’re you doing on the stage? Wait, don’t answer that. I’m sure ninja it’s stuff, and I’m not in the mood to stress out over whatever you’re doing. You can tell me after all this is over.’

  I laughed. ‘You got it.’

  Faith ran to my side and held her phone out. ‘Smile,’ she said, snapping a selfie of us. Then she turned and said, ‘Where the heck have you been all week? It’s like you’ve been a total loner or something.’

  ‘Kind of,’ I said, nodding. ‘It’s been pretty crazy … I mean, boring. A pretty boring week.’ I didn’t want to bother Faith or Zoe with my problems.

  Faith slugged me in the arm. ‘I heard you busted Jesse for breaking the head off the statue!’

  ‘Uhhhhhh, yeah, I sorta did. But he turned himself in.’

  Zoe folded her arms and spoke like a concerned parent. ‘That kid was really beating himself up over it,’ she said. ‘He was almost in tears when he told his side of the story to Principal Davis.’

  ‘He seemed pretty upset yesterday too,’ I said. ‘I mean, I barely said a word to him, and he broke down like an old truck.’

  ‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ Zoe said, frowning. ‘So your project – it’s finished and ready to be wheeled into the school, right?’

  ‘Of course!’ I said proudly. ‘It’s waiting for Principal Davis in the garage right now.’

  ‘Cool,’ Zoe said. ‘I’ll let him know.’

  I smiled at Faith and Zoe, and then started walking towards the exit.

  ‘Oh, and Chase?’ Zoe called out.

  I turned.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said, smiling.

  Lifting my hand, I raised my thumb and jabbed it in the air towards her. I pushed open the door and stepped into the lobby.

  School was starting in fifteen minutes, so students were beginning to swarm the halls.

  The front office was just ahead of me. All I needed to do was catch a glimpse of the box Naomi mentioned to make sure that all three pieces of the statue were safely inside it. There were a few teachers inside the office, but not so many that I was worried about it. I just had to make it to the end of the hallway to where the principal’s office was.

  ‘Can I help you?’ one of the office staff asked, leaning over the front counter.

  I looked around, trying to figure out if the woman was talking to me.

  ‘Yes, you,’ she said, chewing gum with one side of her mouth. ‘Is there something I can help you with?’

  ‘Oh, um,’ I said, stumbling. ‘I’m just … uh …’ and then I remembered that the nurse’s office was right across the hall from the principal’s. I held my stomach and made my voice sound sick. ‘I’m not feeling too good … my tummy’s, um …’

  The woman pressed her lips to one side, nodding like she felt sorry for me. ‘Someone’s got soupy po
opy?’

  I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. I’ve never heard anyone say ‘soupy poopy’ before in my entire life, but I knew it was going to be my new favourite thing to say.

  ‘Yup, soupy poopy,’ I said with the best straight face I could muster. ‘Soupy poopy … is what I have …’

  The woman pouted. ‘You poor thing,’ she said, waving her hand down the hall. ‘The nurse’s station is there in the back. Have a seat on the bench outside her room. She’ll be back in a few minutes.’

  I nodded and hobbled down the hallway.

  I passed some of the student counsellor rooms. The doors were shut so I figured I’d be safe if I put my ninja mask on. I always felt like I was better at stealth when I wore my ninja mask. Even if it was just in my head, that was fine because it worked, and anything that helped me level up in stealth was okay by me.

  At the end of the hall, I checked to see if there was anyone behind me. There wasn’t.

  The door to Principal Davis’s office was wide open, but there wasn’t anyone in it. His desk was in front of a giant bookshelf that had more plants on it than books. From where I was standing, I couldn’t see the box.

  I hated that I had to go into the room, but I had no other choice. And I had to act fast – Principal Davis could return at any second.

  I stayed low to the ground as I worked my way across the carpet. The room had windows along the side that looked outside. One of the windows was wide open, so the room was freezing.

  I left the door open in case someone might hear me shut it, but I wasn’t too worried – there were no windows out to the hallway.

  Sliding on my knee, I turned and stopped behind the principal’s desk. His leather chair was pushed all the way in, tucked under the table.

  Pushed into the small space where Principal Davis’s legs would go was the cardboard box that Naomi had talked about.

  I grabbed the box and dragged it closer. I pulled open the flaps and took a look inside.

  Empty.

  The box was empty.

  ‘Looking for something?’ came a voice from the hallway.