by Glenn Wood
Callum gasped. He knew Mr Church was talking about expulsion. “But I never denied being there,” he said desperately. “I told you, someone else lit that fire and I tried to put it out. I’m being set up.”
He moved closer to the principal’s desk. “I’ve been at this school for three years and how many times have I been sent to your office?”
“None,” conceded the principal.
“Things are happening that I can’t explain, but I promise I had nothing to do with the fire. Please don’t suspend me. If you do, everyone will think I’m guilty. Just give me a little more time and I’ll prove I didn’t do it.”
The principal studied Callum closely. “You’ve always been a good student and this does seem completely out of character. It’s also strange that the call from your phone wasn’t logged.” He picked up the file on his desk, clearly mulling over the situation. He removed a couple of pages from of the document and placed them in the top drawer of his desk. “Sometimes reports go missing and it can take a few days to find them. I’ll hold your suspension off for a week. But that’s all.”
Callum heaved a sigh of relief.
“Don’t think this will just go away, Callum,” said the principal. The police are investigating the fire and they may press charges. This is a very serious situation.”
Callum nodded. He knew how dire his predicament was.
“Oh, and I heard about your grandmother,” continued Mr Church. “I hope she’s feeling better.” Rose had been the previous school principal and she was well liked and respected.
“I’m sure she’ll be all right,” said Callum as he left the principal’s office.
But she won’t if she finds out I’ve been accused of being a bully and an arsonist, he thought. He knew he’d have to make sure this didn’t happen.
Six
Callum spent Saturday morning sitting by his grandmother’s hospital bed, thinking about how old she suddenly looked.
The Rose that lay sleeping in front of him seemed completely different from the woman he knew. The grandmother he’d lived with since he was a baby had always been robust, vibrant and strong. This one appeared frail, weak and vulnerable, unable to look after herself, let alone a disabled fourteen-year-old boy.
Rose’s eyes flickered but remained closed. She moaned softly. She’d been asleep for Callum’s whole visit. Callum was struck by a terrible thought – what if she never wakes up?
Sophie entered the room. She and her family had been waiting in the reception area, to give Callum some time alone with his grandmother.
Callum focussed on Rose, not even glancing at Sophie. He felt as if he was on the edge of a big dark pit, balanced at the brink of falling, with the dirt crumbling beneath his wheels.
“I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her,” he said, real dread in his voice.
Sophie’s tone was firm. “Don’t talk like that. You know how tough your grandmother is. She’ll be fine.”
As usual Sophie had found the right thing to say and the right way to say it. Callum pulled himself together. “Yeah, of course she will.”
He patted his grandmother’s arm. “I’ll visit again tomorrow, Gran, and we’ll have you home soon.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek then left the room.
On the drive home Callum quietly told Sophie that he needed to talk to her. They met in Sophie’s room, which was not even remotely girly. Instead of posters of film and music stars on the walls, Sophie had pictures of great inventions, everything from steam engines to jet propulsion units. The room was furnished with a bed, a computer desk and chair, a set of drawers, a side table and a small sofa.
Sophie sat, perched on the office chair in front of her desk, which contained a laptop, a pencil case and an A3 sketch pad.
Until now, Callum hadn’t told Sophie about his meeting with the principal. He had hoped he’d be able to sort it out by himself without worrying his friend. But the weight of the problem had become so heavy, he knew he had to share it. Knowing when to ask for help was one of life’s lessons he’d learned the hard way. He gave her the gist of the meeting, downplaying the seriousness of the incident as much as he could.
Sophie showed no such restraint.
“They’re all mad!” she blurted out. “I can’t believe they think you could do anything like this.”
Callum tried to calm her down. “In their defence, the evidence is pretty compelling.”
“Rubbish,” she stormed. “It’s completely circumstantial. All they can do is put you in the area of the fire. They can’t prove you lit it.”
“They don’t have to. If the school really believes it was me, then I’m probably going to be expelled. Especially when you add in Mr Drummond’s bullying charge.”
“That’s bogus as well,” she spat, “and we’re going to make sure everyone knows it.”
Callum’s voice shook. “I hope so. I’m not sure what news like this would do to Gran’s health. And if the police think it’s true, they could take me away from her and put me in a juvenile detention centre.”
“No way will we let that happen,” exclaimed Sophie.
“I hope not. I’m innocent.”
“I know,” said Sophie. She opened the A3 pad and drew a doodle of a gigantic rocket dropping on two figures who looked suspiciously like Cain and Lucy.
“This all started the day they arrived at school,” she muttered.
“True, that’s when all the bad stuff began,” Callum agreed. “It’s almost like they’re targeting us.”
Sophie and Callum looked at each other.
“What if they are?” wondered Sophie. “What if they have come to Thanxton just to make our lives miserable?”
“That seems a bit far-fetched. We don’t even know them.”
“Okay. I’ll admit it’s unlikely, but I can’t think of any other reason for them to single us out.”
Callum shrugged. “Maybe they’re just bullies. They could be being mean for the sake of it.”
“There are easier targets at school than us.”
Callum slapped his wheelchair. “Speak for yourself.”
“Come on, Cal,” said Sophie with a smile. “You’re one of the toughest kids I know. Nope, if they were your average run-of-the-mill bullies, they’d be picking on lots of kids but they’re not. It’s only you and me.”
“I like a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, Soph, but we don’t have much to go on. Cain definitely set me up with Drummond, but we can’t be sure he lit the fires. Lucy only threatened you directly once. And we don’t know who’s been sending the texts. All we have is guesswork.”
Sophie tapped her pencil on the pad, thinking hard. “You know what the common thread is here?”
Callum shook his head.
“Technology. The disappearing texts, the call you placed to the fire brigade that was blocked or not logged, the mysterious text from the school that the office didn’t send, the vanishing paint on the Thunderkit. Even the fires themselves sound like they were set off remotely or were on a timer. Whoever is doing this has access to some pretty serious tech.”
“Yeah, I suppose,” said Callum, unsure of where his friend was heading.
Sophie gave him a frustrated look. “Don’t you see? If we trace the tech, we discover who’s behind all of this.”
Callum nodded. “All right. So where do we start?”
“With the texts. We have to find out who sent them.”
“How?”
Sophie picked up the pad and began drawing. “Give me a couple of hours and I’ll tell you.”
Later that day Sophie called Callum into her workshop. She was wearing a grease-stained pair of coveralls and had a dirty smudge on her face. Soldering equipment and circuit boards littered the benchtop where she’d been working. She handed Callum a mobile phone.
“Text me.”
Callum took the phone, punched in Sophie’s number, typed a short message and hit send.
Seconds later her phone quacked like a du
ck, the sound she’d set as her text alert. She opened the message Callum had just sent and pushed the number four on her keypad twice.
Suddenly, the phone in Callum’s hand emitted a piercing buzz and a jolt of electricity shot through his hand. He yelled in surprise and dropped the phone onto the ground.
Sophie jumped with glee. “It works,” she cried.
“What did you do?” said Callum, rubbing his hand.
“I attached a tracker worm to the auto reply function so that my phone can access whatever device sent the message, and then I boosted the volume settings on the sending phone to give us a sound to locate.”
“And the electric shock?”
“I rerouted all the remaining power in the phone to the vibrate function. I guess it blew the circuits.”
Callum looked at the remains of the mobile on the floor. The outer casing was blackened and warped, the screen was cracked and electronic components poked out of the phone’s body like spilled waste from a garbage bag dropped from a great height.
“I guess it did,” he said.
Sophie held out her hand. “Give me your phone.”
Callum handed over his mobile and Sophie took it to her workbench. She unclipped the rear case and began working. “I’m going to clear all your messages and rewire your phone like mine.”
Sophie picked up a soldering iron and scrabbled around in a box of microchips, scavenging the parts she needed.
Callum watched in silence, amazed, as usual, by his friend’s abilities. He was sure she would be categorised as a genius, not that she would ever admit it. They had been friends since their first day at school and been through a great deal since. She’d been there when he needed her and he’d done the same for her. And here she was, doing it again, assisting him without hesitation or complaint.
Callum rolled a bit closer to the bench. “Hey, Soph. I really appreciate your help with this,” he said.
Sophie gave him a dismissive wave as she worked.
“No probs. You’d do the same for me.”
“True, but you’re not the one who’s about to get expelled.”
“I’m sure whoever set you up has got something equally vile planned for me.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” said Callum, thoughtfully. “The best defence is attack, eh?”
“Absolutely,” agreed Sophie as she went back to work. “And it’s time for us to go on the offensive.”
Callum visited his Gran again on Sunday. If possible, Rose looked frailer.
Soon after Callum arrived, the doctor took him aside for a chat. He had a serious look on his face and Callum steeled himself for bad news.
“Your grandmother’s condition has deteriorated,” said the doctor without preamble. “She has picked up a virus and we need to deal with that before we can proceed with the tests to discover the cause of her dizzy spells.”
Callum was shocked. “How serious is it?”
The doctor wiped some imagined dust from the collar of his white coat. “Everything is serious at your grandmother’s age, but she seems to have a good constitution so we’re hopeful we’ll have this cleared up in a day or two. Don’t worry; we’ll take good care of her.”
The doctor’s reassurances didn’t help. The man had said the right things, but it felt to Callum like he was reading from a script. Callum hoped the doctor’s medical abilities were better than his bedside manner.
Callum stayed until the end of visiting hours, but his grandmother slept the whole time he was there. One of the nurses told him they were keeping Rose heavily sedated and repeated the doctor’s advice about not worrying.
Easier said than done, thought Callum.
On Monday morning the school principal cheerfully reminded everyone that their annual cross-country race was scheduled for that afternoon. Sophie and Callum had forgotten all about it. So had most of the school; the upcoming sports event barely rated a mention amongst the main student body. The fire in Mr Drummond’s classroom was all anyone was talking about and rumours abounded. One theory was that the teacher had left some unstable chemicals lying around on the lab bench, and that they’d somehow mixed together and exploded. There was also talk that Jinx’s bad luck had returned and he’d caused the fire by just thinking about school – although this idea was only gaining traction amongst the younger students. By far the most popular speculation was that Callum had set the fire as a revenge attack against Mr Drummond for giving him detention. No one was sure where this rumour had begun, but it had spread as quickly as the flames in the chemistry lab.
The official story was that the blaze was under investigation by the police and the fire department, and the cause of the fire was unknown. Mr Drummond’s lessons had been moved to a temporary classroom and further discussion about the event was discouraged. Naturally, this increased the intensity of the gossip, and Callum had become the subject of furtive glances and muttered accusations.
The cross-country was scheduled to start after lunch, and Callum found himself looking forward to it. The race would be a welcome break from the whisperings in the classrooms and the stale smell of smoke and chemicals that still hung in the air.
As the start time for the race approached, students gathered in front of the school hall.
Callum and Sophie stood apart from the crowd. They were disappointed that Jinx had chosen not to join them; instead he sat with his new friends, in their usual spot, doing his best to avoid their eyes. Cain and Lucy also sat with the popular kids.
Sophie leaned in close to Callum and whispered in his ear. “This’d be a good time to find out who’s been sending the texts. Switch your phone on.”
Callum did as Sophie asked, and as soon as the phone powered up, it alerted him that he had texts waiting to be opened. There were at least a dozen new messages, all of them from untraceable numbers and all, no doubt, containing bullying messages. As he watched, the older texts began disappearing from the screen.
Sophie grabbed his arm. She had an identical number of texts on her screen and they too were vanishing without a trace.
“Quick,” she hissed. “Open the last text, then push the four key twice.”
Callum promptly clicked on the final text, noting that it had been sent only a few minutes ago. The words EVERYONE AT SCHOOL KNOWS YOU’RE A COWARD AND A FIRE STARTER screamed at him. Ignoring the ugly message, he placed his finger over the number four key and double-clicked.
He and Sophie acted in unison and within seconds they heard piercingly loud beeps and screams from nearby.
Cain and Lucy leaped to their feet, yelling in pain. At almost exactly the same time, both kids pulled sparking phones from their pockets and threw them on the ground. The students around them backed away. Cain and Lucy rubbed their legs where the phones had shocked them through the thin material of their running shorts.
“Just as we thought,” said Sophie with a triumphant smile. “Now we know for certain who we’re dealing with.”
Callum nodded. “Proving it will be more difficult though.”
Sophie drew his attention to her phone’s screen. He could see dozens of lines of data downloading.
“This might help. I refined the worm and ordered it to get into their emails and send me the contents of their inboxes before overloading the circuitry. If we’re lucky, we might find something incriminating.”
“You’re brilliant,” said Callum, laughing.
Sophie blushed. “It’s just basic electronics.”
“Yeah, if you’re Bill Gates.”
Callum watched Cain and Lucy carefully. The girl bent down to pick up her ruined phone; she appeared puzzled and annoyed. Cain, on the other hand, made no attempt to retrieve his phone. He stood, staring straight at Sophie and Callum, and the look in his eyes was one of pure hatred.
Seven
The school cross-county course wound through several hectares of farmland and covered some very pleasant scenery, including Thanxton’s most impressive water feature – Blub Falls.
> The odd name of the ten-metre high waterfall was due to the unusual behaviour of the man who discovered it. Legend has it that a burley explorer by the name of Jack MacDonald came upon the falls while mapping the Thanxton region. Upon seeing the massive gush of water, he climbed to the top and leaped off. As he fell he yelled to his companions, “I name these falls … blub,” Blub being the sound he made as he disappeared into the swirling waters below, never to be seen again. The name stuck.
The picturesque vistas were, however, the last thing on most students’ minds as they were normally too exhausted to notice. This wasn’t the case for Callum and Sophie as winning the race was low on their list of priorities.
Sophie was usually a very fast runner but she plodded happily along beside Callum. They had decided that the race was a perfect opportunity to work out how they were going to expose Lucy and Cain. Normally, for such an operation, they would enlist Jinx’s help, but they were no longer sure where his loyalties lay. It pained Callum to think they might be losing a friend, but he couldn’t do much about it; he had to concentrate on proving his innocence.
Just before Blub Falls, they came across Mr Jarvis, the school’s physical education teacher. He leaned against an information sign, watching the runners pass by. Mr Jarvis was the type of person who took sport very seriously – he ran triathlons in his spare time – and expected his students to do the same.
He tapped his watch as Sophie approached. “A very disappointing time, Miss Barnsworth.” He didn’t say anything to Callum.
Sophie shrugged. “I think my iron count’s down a bit, sir.”
Mr Jarvis gave her a hard look.
Callum almost sniggered. “Iron count?” he said when they were safely out of earshot. “Do you think he bought it?”
“No way. I could feel my grades dropping as I went past.”
“Lucky you don’t want to be a professional athlete then.”
Sophie gave a shudder. “Can’t think of anything worse.”
After the falls, the track curved and climbed back to pasture land. Cows and sheep were dotted amongst the paddocks and the run took on a distinctly rural flavour – and smell.
