I couldn’t see her mouth, but the sparkle in her eye told me she was smiling. ‘Maybe you’re right,’ she said. ‘I might have a chance after all.’
‘I bet you’ll put up a good fight for first place,’ I said reassuringly. ‘Winners win.’
Turning around, she looked at her half-broken project and repeated, ‘Winners win…’
Suddenly someone burst through the front door of the science class, banging against the wall so hard it made everyone jump. It was Gavin, the hall monitor captain.
‘Mrs Olsen!’ Gavin shouted. ‘Come quick!’
Mrs Olsen jumped from her desk and said, rapidly walking to the door, ‘What is it? Is everything alright?’
Gavin shook his head, and his eyes were wide. ‘No ma’am. I’ll need you to come with me.’
Mrs Olsen folded her arms and tapped her foot. ‘What is this, Gavin? Why aren’t you telling me what happened? You can’t break into my classroom and expect me to just follow.’
Gavin caught his breath as he scanned the students in the class. His stare stopped at Zoe. Tightening his lips, he spoke again. ‘It’s Brayden’s science fair project. It’s completely destroyed.’
The other students gasped. I felt like the air had been knocked from my body.
‘Destroyed?’ Mrs Olsen asked as she looked at the counters on the sides of the room. ‘But his project is in here, isn’t it?’
Again, Gavin shook his head. ‘No ma’am. It was found in the orchestra room downstairs. It was totally ruined. And it doesn’t look like it was an accident.’
Mrs Olsen cupped her hand over her mouth. She asked Gavin a few more questions, and followed him out the door. Principal Davis came to take her place for the remainder of science.
I didn’t know where Brayden was in the building, but I knew he was probably a wreck. I felt sorry for him as I stared at my own science fair project. Zoe didn’t come out and say it, but I knew what she was thinking when we made eye contact. The pawn piece that Brayden was given meant that his project was in danger, and the baton might’ve been a clue that would’ve led him straight to his project.
This was someone’s sick idea of a game. Even the note in my locker said it – the game is afoot, and someone wanted us to play with them this morning. To play a game that would cost Brayden a passing grade in science.
My stomach turned sour. Things like that never sat well with me. I knew Brayden wasn’t going to be happy, and there wasn’t much I could do about it since he hated me, but my throat still tightened at the thought of his destroyed project. I felt guilty for not investigating the chess pieces.
Zoe and I kept our calm for the rest of the day. We agreed that the best thing to do would be to find Brayden and talk to him about it, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found. He was probably sitting in the front office, trying to make sense of his destroyed science project. Poor guy. He hadn’t had the best month.
I decided to do whatever I could to try and make his next day of school better, but it was going to have to wait until the morning.
Brayden’s project had been destroyed close to the end of the school day, but everyone had already heard about it. The project he was working on (a volcano, coincidentally) wasn’t just broken either. Whoever did it really messed it up. It sounds like they had fun doing it too. Apparently, it was splashed with black paint and smashed up with a hammer. And all of it was done in the orchestra room, which makes me think that Brayden’s project was waiting there for him before the bad guy destroyed it.
When I got to school, I walked the hallways looking for Brayden, hoping he would be somewhere in the building. I waited by his locker for a few minutes, but he didn’t show up, and kids were already starting to flood the school.
I peeked into the cafeteria to see if maybe he was eating breakfast, but he wasn’t there either. There was only time for one last lap around the corridors, so I gripped my book bag straps and started marching.
Other students were still talking about his project and how it was found. It was weird to hear them gossip about it because I knew I probably could’ve done something to stop it. Sure, whoever destroyed it was the one to blame, but I was the one who got the knight piece. Part of me felt as if the destroyed project was actually my fault.
‘Chase!’ shouted Faith from down the hall. I’d recognise her voice in any crowd.
I stopped and turned around. ‘Hey, Faith.’
‘Pretty crazy about Brayden’s project, right?’
I nodded, feeling my throat tighten again. ‘Yeah, it’s awful.’
‘Have you seen him this morning?’ Faith asked.
‘No,’ I replied. ‘And I even got here early to see if I could catch him before homeroom.’
‘Right, you two are in the same homeroom, aren’t you?’
‘Yep,’ I sighed, searching the crowd of students as we passed them. ‘I’m pretty sure I won’t find him out here.’
‘Maybe he’s in class already,’ she suggested.
‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘I’ve walked past a couple of times, but he wasn’t in there.’
Faith lifted her wrist and glanced at her watch. ‘Oh, school’s about to start. I should probably get to my locker.’
I smiled at her. ‘Me too.’
With a playful punch to my shoulder, she spun around and walked away. I continued down the hall until I got to my locker. There were still a few kids in the corridor so I knew I had a little time left.
I entered my combination and lifted the metal handle. With a loud thunk, the green door swung open. I stared at the top of my pile of rubbish, feeling my stomach roll. Sitting on top of the heap was another sticky note, but without a chess piece.
I chewed my lip, staring at the little sheet of paper. I swear I could hear James Buchanan laughing in the distance.
I snatched the note and read it.
‘Having fun yet?’
Crushing the paper in my hand, I tossed it back into my locker and slammed the door shut. I didn’t bother to get any of my books for the day and headed for homeroom.
Whoever was playing this game was starting to get on my nerves. When did they get into my locker? How did they get in there? Did they have my combination? If they didn’t, then they’d need a key, but the only ones who had keys were the teachers and hall monitors. And I’m pretty sure teachers have better things to do with their time than destroy student’s science fair projects. And if this was a teacher, they need some serious help. Hall monitors had keys, but why would they want to terrorise students?
Suddenly I realised that since I’d received a second note, someone else probably got another pawn piece.
Zoe had grown pretty close to Gavin, and since he’s the hall monitor captain, I figured he should be one of the first people I talked to. I looked at the clock on the wall and saw that I had less than a minute to get to homeroom. The questions would have to wait.
I dropped my bag onto the floor and sat behind Zoe. Everyone else was already in the room, and I could hear them talking about who they thought destroyed Brayden’s project. I leaned over to try and get his attention, but his seat was empty.
Mrs Robinson did her duty as the homeroom teacher and listed off the announcements like some kind of robot.
I tapped Zoe’s shoulder, but she didn’t move. Her attention was fixed on her own book bag sitting on her desk. My aunt (her mum) says Zoe has always had lots of empathy, which means she shares the same feelings that others have. Brayden must be pretty bummed out, so I thought Zoe was feeling bummed for him.
But it became clear why Zoe was acting strange. Before I could say anything else to her, she turned and set a black chess piece on my desk. It was the same pawn as Brayden’s from the day before. Zoe’s project was now in danger.
I was speechless. My jaw dropped as I stared at the chess piece.
‘Do you know how hard I’ve worked on my project?’ Zoe asked. ‘If it gets destroyed, I think I would explode.’
I couldn’t help but smirk at her
comment. ‘But—’
She interrupted me. ‘I…’
‘But this time—’
‘Would…’
I folded my arms and waited for her to finish.
‘Explode.’ she finished.
‘But we learned from Brayden’s project yesterday,’ I explained. ‘This time we know what we need to do.’
‘Did you get another note in your locker?’ Zoe asked.
I nodded. ‘All it said was ‘having fun yet?’’
‘This kid is some kind of monster,’ Zoe said. ‘The kind of kid that grows up in detention. You know who it probably is?’
‘Wyatt?’ I answered.
She nodded.
‘But how?’ I asked. ‘He can’t get into our lockers without a combination or a key, and only the hall monitors have keys.’
Zoe frowned. Her eyes glazed over as she stared at the black chess piece on my desk. ‘Gavin was fired last night. He’s no longer the hall monitor captain.’
‘What?’ I asked. ‘But why? I was gonna ask him about the skeleton key for the lockers!’ I sat back in my chair. ‘I guess I could still ask him. It’s not like he loses that information when he’s fired.’
Zoe looked up at me. I could see fear in her eyes. ‘That’s not the worst part…’ she whispered.
I stared, waiting for her to continue.
And then she dropped a bomb. ‘Wyatt replaced him as the hall monitor captain.’
My body lurched forward as I gripped the sides of my desk. ‘Are you kidding me?’ I whispered harshly. ‘How the heck does something like that happen? Who in their right mind would give him any kind of authority?’
‘Gavin said it was the president’s decision,’ Zoe whispered.
‘President Buchanan,’ I hissed.
‘What?’ Zoe asked, confused. ‘No, the school president, you nimrod. I’m talking about Sebastian.’
I nodded, swallowing hard. ‘Right,’ I said.
Zoe continued. ‘President Sebastian called Gavin into his office last night and gave him the news. No notice or reason. Just a ‘see ya’ and a digital watch as a gift.’
‘What’s the deal with Sebastian?’ I asked. ‘Why hasn’t he been busted for his lolly scandal last month?’
Sebastian was involved in some huge scandal at Buchanan about a month ago that involved lolly sales in the basement of the school, which kids sometimes called ‘the dungeon’. He got busted for it but was still allowed to be president.
Zoe rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘Maybe nobody really cared about the whole lolly thing. Anyway, Sebastian has the authority to hire and fire hall monitors, and last night he exercised that power.’
I felt my face grow warm with anger about Wyatt’s new position as captain, but I had to push it aside. ‘So Wyatt has a skeleton key now? That answers the question of who’s behind all this.’
‘That’s just it,’ Zoe said. ‘Gavin said that Wyatt won’t receive a key until later today after Gavin turns his in. So it’s not Wyatt breaking into our lockers.’
I folded my hands and shook my head. ‘I wouldn’t put it past him to still find a way in there. It’s Wyatt – he’s terrorised me since the first week of school, even when he wasn’t here.’
Zoe looked over her shoulder. Mrs Robinson was still speaking at the front of the room. She was saying something about the science fair at the end of the week.
Zoe snatched the pawn back. ‘This thing means my project is somewhere in the school, and we have to find it before it’s too late.’
‘Brayden’s locker also had the baton in it,’ I said. ‘Was there anything else with yours?’
My cousin reached into her book bag and brought out a stick of women’s deodorant. She set the pink plastic container on my desk.
‘Sick,’ I said. ‘Get that thing away from me!’ Zoe’s eyes narrowed. ‘It’s not mine! This was the thing next to the pawn in my locker.’
‘Oh,’ I said, relieved. ‘Deodorant? What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Brayden’s project was in the orchestra room,’ Zoe said. ‘And he was given a baton. Since I was given this deodorant, it could mean that—’ ‘Your project is in the girls’ locker room!’ I said, pointing my finger in the air, excited at having figured out the clue.
‘Good one,’ Zoe snipped. ‘It wasn’t exactly the hardest case to crack, was it?’
‘That’s so simple!’ I said. ‘I’ll just look around the girls’ locker room during gym today.’
Zoe tilted her head with a very annoyed look on her face. ‘Um, here’s a better idea – how about I check the girls’ locker room during gym. I could be wrong, but I don’t think boys are allowed in there.’
‘You’re probably right,’ I whispered, nodding.
‘Ya think?’ she snapped.
‘We should definitely tell Gavin about this too.’
‘I already did when he walked me here this morning. He knows everything – about your chess piece, Brayden’s piece, the baton, and the sticky notes. He doesn’t know about your new note from this morning, but he probably assumes you got one.’ Zoe smiled softly. ‘He’s so smart.’
I rolled my eyes and let Mrs Robinson’s voice flow over me while I thought of my next move. As a ninja, I should be better at catching bad guys, right? So how was this person able to sneak around without getting noticed? It was time to up my game, and with my ninja uniform under my street clothes, switching roles would be a piece of cake.
I’d changed into my gym clothes, but I kept my ninja outfit on underneath. No one else thought anything of it since it looked like I was just wearing black thermal clothing to keep warm.
I do have to say the new jerseys looked pretty slick. Who would’ve thought a moose could look so killer?
After Zoe and I were checked off for attendance, we grabbed a couple of basketballs and tossed them at the hoop closest to the girls’ locker room. Several students went outside for to play football, while the rest decided to shoot hoops too. With eight sets of basketball hoops, it wasn’t hard to get one to ourselves.
‘I can’t believe you chose a moose for our mascot,’ Zoe said.
Maybe I was wrong about how killer it looked?
‘What do you mean? I think these things look awesome!’
‘It looks like the logo for a nature program,’ Zoe replied as she tossed her basketball in the air. It swished perfectly through the hoop – nothing but net. She was such a natural athlete. ‘Why not a ninja?’ she asked
‘Seriously?’ I lobbed my basketball toward the hoop. It didn’t even go high enough to hit the backboard! ‘I would kill for a ninja mascot, but there’s no way Principal Davis would’ve let us be the Buchanan Ninjas.’
Zoe caught the basketball after it bounced off the brick wall. ‘Did you even ask?’
I paused. ‘No … because I knew he’d say no.’
She threw the ball at me like we were playing dodgeball. I squealed, flinching, waiting for the impact of the ball, but it never came. I heard her chuckle as she let the ball drop from her hands onto the gym floor. She faked it!
‘Nerd,’ Zoe said playfully. If it were anyone else, I would’ve been embarrassed, but since we were family, I … was still embarrassed. I laughed it off.
She put her hands on her hips and scanned the gymnasium. ‘Looks like everyone’s distracted,’ she said. Pointing her finger toward Mr Cooper’s office, she continued, ‘And the coach is already leaning back in his chair. We’re good to go.’
I smirked. ‘Roger, roger.’
Zoe leaned against the girls’ locker room door. ‘Just wait here. I didn’t see anything when I was changing, but I didn’t want to make it obvious I was looking for something. It might take a few minutes though if my project is well hidden.’
‘What if something happens to you?’ I asked, concerned.
‘If I’m not back in five minutes,’ she said, ‘just wait longer.’
And with that, she slipped back into the girls’ loc
ker room, disappearing from my sight. This was her mission and she was on her own now. I wanted to go in there and help look because she was my cousin, but there’s probably some kind of alarm that goes off if a boy sets foot in there. I bet the room is filled with soft couches and bowls of fruit.
‘Chase?’ asked a girl’s voice. ‘Something wrong?’
I spun around, surprised to see Zoe’s friend Emily looking rather confused.
When I checked my watch, I saw that two full minutes had passed since Zoe entered the locker room. I must’ve been standing there with a basketball in my hand, staring at the girls’ locker room door. If that didn’t scream ‘creeper’, I don’t know what would’ve.
‘Hey, Em, uh … what’s up?’
‘What are you doing?’ Emily asked.
I pointed my thumb at the door. ‘Zoe’s in there. I’m just waiting for her to come out.’
Emily’s eyes narrowed, obviously suspicious. ‘Alrighty then,’ she said, turning back to her friends.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead. That was a close one. ‘C’mon, Zoe,’ I whispered. ‘Hurry up before someone else talks to me!’
Of course just as I said that another voice came from behind me. ‘What’re you doing?’
I turned around to see Brayden standing with his arms folded. ‘Brayden! You missed class this morning. Where have you been?’
He ignored my question. ‘What are you doing?’
Since he already knew what the pawn piece meant, I didn’t think it was a big deal to tell him the truth.
‘Zoe got a chess piece this morning – a pawn, like you got yesterday, but instead of a baton, she got some girls’ deodorant. We think it means her project is in the girls’ locker room, so she’s checking it out.’
Brayden didn’t move a muscle. ‘So you’re helping her get her project back?’
I nodded, excited that maybe my old friend would join the hunt.
A Game of Chase Page 3
