Rise of the Red Ninjas Read online

  Zoe had a way of taking a joke right to the line, and then stepping past it, but it was always in a way that made me chuckle.

  Zoe continued. ‘Oh, by the way, my dad can drive us to the skate party on Friday.’

  I nodded, trying my best to look uninterested because cool guys are always uninterested. ‘Cool.’

  ‘Your sister’s riding with us too,’ Zoe added. I leaned back in my chair and sighed. ‘I forgot my third grade lamewad sister was coming too.’

  ‘Hey,’ Zoe snipped. ‘Your sister’s awesome, so shut it.’

  ‘Awesome isn’t the word I’d use to describe her,’ I replied.

  ‘Well, it’s an all-school skating party so it’s not like you can keep her out,’ Zoe said.

  ‘You’re right,’ I replied. ‘But I can decide to stay home.’

  Zoe squinted her eyes and sneered. ‘Like I’d let you sit this one out!’

  Faith glanced at my book bag and furrowed her brow. ‘Did they take anything?’

  Mrs Olsen interrupted our conversation. ‘Excuse me,’ she said, standing over our desk. ‘When you four are finished, would you mind turning in your homework?’

  ‘Right,’ Emily said, passing a couple of sheets of paper to Faith.

  Faith looked at me. ‘Where’s our homework?’

  I took a breath, and shook my head. ‘That’s the thing that kid took.’

  Faith paused. ‘Are you serious? He took our homework?’

  ‘Is there a problem?’ Mrs Olsen asked, hovering over our desk. ‘Pass your assignments up to the front.’

  ‘I don’t …’ I said. ‘I don’t have it.’

  Mrs Olsen didn’t skip a beat, probably because her heart was hardened from years of miserable students failing to turn in assignments. It almost looked like she enjoyed it. ‘That’s unfortunate. Faith, you know that this was a co-op assignment, so yours is also considered late.’

  Faith nodded, remaining silent.

  The rest of science was awkward. Faith never came out and told me she was angry, but I could tell from her short responses to anything I said. The only thing that could fix this was if I found the thief before the day was out. Maybe Mrs Olsen would be cool if I brought it in after school and just apologised instead of making excuses.

  Yeah, right … and maybe someday I’ll live on Mars.

  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. After school, I met up with Brayden so we could look for the kid in the red hooded sweatshirt, but we had no luck. Even Zoe got in on the hunt, checking out the girls’ restrooms, in case it was a girl in the hoodie. She didn’t find anything.

  Students gathered in the front lobby of Buchanan, headed out through the doors, excited to leave for home. Kids laughed and shouted at each other, celebrating the end of the day. Everyone was in a good mood.

  Everyone except for me.

  ‘Maybe we should call it a day?’ Brayden asked, standing on a bench, searching for the kid in red.

  A random student passed by me laughing. ‘Hey, lover boy, whatcha up to?’

  Their friend laughed too, and then I realised they were laughing at me.

  I grunted at them like a confused ape. ‘Huh?’

  They continued walking down the hallway laughing.

  ‘What was that?’ I asked.

  Brayden threw his arms into the air. ‘Who cares? Can we just go home now?’

  I was already frustrated, and the thought of giving up made it worse. ‘Come on! You’re a werewolf hunter, right? Why don’t you make some use of your hunting skills and find this kid?’

  Brayden folded his arms. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of ninja? Why didn’t you use your ninja skills in the first place to prevent this from happening? I think a ninja-kick to the face would’ve been effective!’

  ‘See?’ Zoe asked, smiling. ‘A ninja-kick to the face! I’m not the only one who thinks that’s a thing!’

  ‘Besides,’ Brayden continued, ‘werewolf hunting is an art. It takes patience and skill.’ He paused. ‘Looks like you won’t be able to turn in your science homework today after all.’

  I curled my lip and shook my head, frustrated.

  I noticed a small group of girls giggling at me as they passed by. A few of them even pointed. Turning around, I checked to see if there was some kind of joke behind me that I wasn’t aware of, but there wasn’t. They were pointing at me.

  ‘Uh, Chase?’ Zoe said from down the hall. ‘You might want to come over here and see this.’

  Brayden and I jogged down the hallway to where Zoe was standing, staring at the brick wall. As I approached, I could see that she was staring at a sheet of paper that was taped up. One look and I recognised it immediately.

  It was the note I wrote to Faith.

  Faith,

  I know we just met, but I think you’re pretty cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I look forward to hearing your response! That is all.

  —Chase Cooper (your science lab partner)

  ‘Whoops,’ Zoe said. ‘That can’t be a good thing.’

  ‘Look forward to hearing your response?’ Brayden asked. ‘Were you looking at a job application when you wrote this?’

  ‘Funny,’ I said, upset.

  Brayden made a disgusted look with his face. ‘Why so many exclamation marks?’

  ‘Because, dude,’ I said, ‘more exclamation marks mean I’m more serious!’

  ‘No,’ Zoe sighed, shaking her head. ‘It just makes it look like you don’t understand grammar.’

  ‘Whatever, you helped me write it,’ I said to my cousin.

  She put a hand on her hip and leaned into it with attitude. ‘When I left, there was only one exclamation point. You added the other fourteen when I wasn’t looking.’

  Like the brilliant comeback king I am, I tried to keep my reply classy. ‘Nuh-uh.’

  Glancing down the hallway, I saw more sheets of paper taped to the walls. They were all copies of my note to Faith … hundreds of them. I spun in place and looked at the lobby of the school where we had just come from. There were copies plastered there as well.

  ‘How did we miss these?’ Zoe asked.

  I shook my head. ‘We were so focused on finding the kid in red that we didn’t even notice these.’ I scanned down the hallway leading to the opposite end of the school.

  There were notes taped up everywhere. ‘It’s gonna be a rough day tomorrow.’

  It was one of the few times I was the first one in the room. I tried my best to fake being sick so I could stay home, but Mum saw right through it. It was too embarrassing to tell her the truth, so instead I convinced her to bring me here early. That way I could at least avoid students before school started. My plan was to steer clear of everyone for the rest of the day, although I didn’t know how.

  Brayden and Zoe stayed after school to help take down the copies of my note. Even Principal Davis and Mr Cooper came out and helped. Principal Davis questioned me on how it happened, so I told him everything. He said he was going to get to the bottom of it, but I asked him to leave it alone for now. It was already enough attention that the note was out there, launching an investigation would’ve just made it worse. With any luck, this whole thing would blow over in a day or two, but with my track record, it was probably going to blow up in my face.

  I sat silently for the next fifteen minutes, watching the other students come through the door. I could hear hushed whispers coming from various groups in the room as they snuck looks at me.

  Whatever. I had bigger fish to fry … like, who was the kid in the red hooded sweatshirt? He came out of nowhere, and when he grabbed my bag, I could feel how strong he was. He basically ripped the bag from my hands. But that’s assuming it was a boy. It could’ve easily been a girl – the way she gracefully weaved in and out of students as I chased after her, and then performed that Olympic-style back flip to avoid an accident? I don’t know about you, but I don’t know any boys who can do that.

  Unless they were ninjas …

  ‘Chase,’ said
Zoe as she entered the room. She took the seat in front of me and turned around, setting a stack of paper down on my desk. ‘These are copies of your note that I’ve already taken down just this morning.’

  My stomach turned as I stared at the stack. ‘Did you see who was putting them up?’

  Zoe shook her head. ‘I asked around, and nobody else did either. Whoever’s doing it is pretty good at sneaking around.’

  ‘Good? They’re great at it,’ I said, putting the copies of my note into my book bag. I didn’t want to throw them out in the rubbish bin because they’d probably find their way back onto the walls if I did. ‘These weren’t on the walls when I got to school this morning, so whoever it was only had about twenty minutes to do it.’

  ‘One kid couldn’t do all that though, could they?’ Zoe asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders. ‘You’d be surprised.’

  Zoe smiled, trying to lighten the mood with her sense of humour. ‘At least you signed your first and last name, right?’

  ‘You told me I should!’ I whispered angrily. ‘Just to make sure Faith knew exactly who it was from! Well, I hope you’re happy ’cause now the whole school knows!’

  Zoe frowned. I felt bad for chewing her out, but I was too angry to take it back. Not at her, but at the fact that a stupid note had the power to destroy what little social life I actually had. Maybe I could run away to South America or something. I hear they still have tribes that are completely void of technology.

  But instead of an apology from me, it came from her.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered as she turned in her seat. ‘I shouldn’t have pushed you …’

  ‘Zoe …’ I said, but still felt hot-headed. I didn’t say anything after her name.

  The students in the room were now giggling and pointing at me. Some of the bigger kids shouted some insults – lover boy, cupid, heartbreaker – the usual uncreative things kids say when they’re mean.

  ‘I don’t know how this could possibly get any worse,’ Zoe said.

  ‘Allow me to show you,’ said a voice from the door. It was Brayden. He took the seat next to us, but not before setting another sheet of paper down on my desk.

  Without looking at the paper, I spoke. ‘We know. My note is all over the school again.’

  Brayden shook his head. ‘Look at the paper.’

  When I looked down, I felt the air escape from my lungs. It was a copy of the school newspaper that had been printed overnight. On the front page of the single sheet of paper was a photo of a kid in a ninja outfit. Though everyone in my ninja clan had similar outfits, we could always tell which ones were ours. And the one in the photo was definitely mine.

  Things had officially got worse.

  In the photo, the ninja was carrying a laptop and running from hall monitors. The bold title across the front page said ‘Wanted for Stealing: The Buchanan Ninja.’

  ‘Are you serious?’ I whispered.

  At that moment, the bell rang. Before it was even finished, two hall monitors entered the room and marched to the front of the class. A taller boy wearing aviator glasses accompanied them. When they reached the front of the room, Mrs Robinson stood from her desk and started speaking.

  ‘Children,’ she said, ‘it seems we have a bit of a situation at Buchanan School. Yesterday, a few students witnessed what they thought was a child running around in a ninja costume, stealing things.’

  ‘I’ll take it from here,’ said the boy with aviator glasses. He turned towards the class and removed the overly large sunglasses from his face. I recognised him from walking the hallways, but I had never actually spoken to him. He made a smile that was obviously fake. ‘The name’s Gavin. Some of you might recognise me. I’m the captain of the hall monitors. What your homeroom teacher has said is true – there’s a ninja runnin’ around here creating all sorts of headaches for me and my team.’

  A student at the front of the class raised their hand. ‘Do you know who it is?’

  Zoe glanced back at me, worried.

  ‘Unfortunately at this time, we have no leads as to who the ninja is,’ Gavin said. ‘Which is why we’re going from classroom to classroom askin’ if anyone has seen anything.’

  I sunk in my chair and folded my arms, trying my best to blend in with the plastic desk. Shutting my eyes, I listened to Gavin talk like some sort of cowboy.

  ‘Any of you bear witness to suspicious activity lately?’ Gavin asked.

  Nobody answered.

  The captain of the hall monitors sighed as he nodded and returned his sunglasses to his face. ‘Well, y’all will be happy to know that Buchanan’s president has given us the go ahead to do everything within our power to make sure we find this kid. It’s pretty safe to say that anyone who’s an accomplice will likely get what’s comin’ to them as well. We’d like to have this case wrapped up before the skate party on Friday night.’

  Oh wonderful. Now the school president is involved. Not only am I at risk of getting busted, but all my friends are too! This is not my best year.

  Gavin and the two hall monitors nodded at Mrs Robinson and left the room without saying another word.

  ‘I think we could all use a bit of good news today, don’t you?’ said Mrs Robinson. ‘Which is why I’m proud to say that the totals for the food drive from the beginning of the year have come in, and … Buchanan made well over ten thousand dollars.’

  The students gasped and then cheered loudly as they screamed together, ‘Class trip!’

  ‘That’s correct,’ Mrs Robinson said. ‘And the location was decided just yesterday. We’ll be going to Adventure Caves at the end of the year.’

  It was as if everyone had lost their minds. Kids jumped from their desk and screamed like the old people on the game show my parents watch in the morning. They were going nuts! Even Zoe was hopping around her desk and laughing with her friends. I glanced over at Brayden … was he wiping a tear from his cheek?

  ‘Adventure Caves …’ Brayden said as he looked at me with wet eyes. ‘Is the most awesome place in the universe.’ Then he spoke so softly that I couldn’t hear him over the shouts of other students, but I could read his lips. ‘I’m so happy!’

  Watching everyone celebrate, I felt a little jealous that I didn’t feel the same excitement as they did. The kid in the red hooded sweatshirt weighed heavily on my mind, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  Zoe took her seat again and smiled at me. Realising I wasn’t jumping up and down like a maniac, her face sobered up. ‘I’m sorry. This is just really great news.’

  ‘No, it’s fine,’ I replied. ‘I get it. I wish I could be happy too.’

  She put her hands on my desk and leaned closer. ‘We’ll find this kid, okay? The one running around in the ninja costume.’

  I was surprised. ‘You mean you don’t think it was me?’

  Zoe shook her head. ‘Of course not, I mean … was it?’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Good,’ she said, relieved. ‘That would’ve made Sunday brunches between our families weird. So what do you think? Do you know who it was?’

  ‘When that kid snatched my bag yesterday, he took my ninja outfit,’ I explained. ‘I think it’s the same kid who’s plastering my stupid love notes all over the school.’

  Zoe nodded.

  ‘That makes things easier, doesn’t it?’ Brayden asked, wiping the last of his happy tears from his face. ‘At least you’re not looking for two different people.’

  ‘Carlyle, maybe?’ Zoe asked. ‘Could he be out to get you again?’

  ‘No,’ I replied. ‘The kid in the red hoodie was shorter than him.’

  Brayden said what was on the back of my mind. ‘Wyatt?’

  Zoe sat up and shook her head angrily. ‘No way. He was expelled from Buchanan. You can’t come back from something like that.’

  ‘But Carlyle said he was returning someday,’ Brayden said. ‘And people have said they’ve seen him walking around.’

  �
��Yeah?’ Zoe asked. ‘Which people?’

  Brayden paused. ‘Friends … of some friends.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Zoe said folding her arms. ‘It’s just a bunch of rumours. Tell me one instance where someone can come back with no consequences.’

  ‘Video games,’ I said. ‘People die and respawn in games all the time.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Zoe asked. ‘You’re going to use video games in your defence?’

  I did my best to keep a straight face. Some of my best ninja training came from video games, but I didn’t want to say that. Finally, I shrugged it off. ‘It was just a joke.’

  I spent the two periods after homeroom in a funk. Zoe and Brayden were doing their best to cheer me up, but with the rest of the school poking fun at my note, it wasn’t an easy task for them. At least they were trying, and that felt good.

  Since my ninja outfit had been stolen by the kid in red, I had to attend my ninja clan meeting in my street clothes. It probably wasn’t a big deal to anybody, but it was to me.

  I decided it was too dangerous for the ninja clan to train anymore, at least for the next few days. We were good, but I was afraid that Gavin and his hall monitors might be gooder … I mean, better. If anyone else got busted, I’d feel terrible – but it’s more than that. If anyone else gets busted, then the entire ninja operation becomes compromised, and it would only be a matter of time before they pinned the theft from the school paper on me since it was my ninja outfit.

  It wasn’t an easy decision, but I felt it would be best if I tried to handle this on my own. I know the other ninjas would do everything they could to help, but it was too risky. Plus, if it was just me, I’d have be more in control of the situation.

  When I stepped into the wooded area where we train, the rest of the ninja clan was waiting for me.

  ‘Sir, your ninja robes,’ one of the shorter ninjas said. ‘Have you misplaced them again?’

  He was referring to when I gave Carlyle my robes in defeat last month. ‘No,’ I answered. ‘They were stolen from me yesterday.’