Mo
‘If he was going to all that trouble to find it, it must be important,’ I said.
Lottie and I were sitting on the trampoline so we could talk in private.
‘We have to do something,’ Lottie said. ‘He can’t pretend to be your friend, then come over to our house and steal from us.’
‘To be fair, the b– metal thing was probably his to start off with. Otherwise, how would he have known about it and why would he be looking for it?’
‘Finders keepers, Mo.’
‘That’s not a thing, Lottie. Just because you find something, it doesn’t make it yours.’
‘So even if he’s going to do evil things with it, you’re OK with him having it because it technically belongs to him?’ Lottie pulled the petals off a dandelion and threw them in the air.
‘No,’ I said. I didn’t really know what was right.
‘We’ve established that Jax is a Junker, yes?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘And we’re agreed that Junkers, who abduct children whose parents don’t want them because they’re a bit naughty and send them to a horrid place where they have to try to survive with no friends and no help – and let’s not even get started on the “parts” part – are one hundred per cent bad?’ She shuddered.
‘Yes. Agreed.’
‘So, what if the armband thing helps the Junkers to do their job, somehow? Are we just going to let him have it so he can junk innocent children?’
‘No, I suppose not. You’re right, we have to steal it back.’
‘Right!’ Lottie jumped up, making both of us wobble around on the trampoline. ‘Let’s go over to Lorelai’s now. I’ll create a diversion and you can sneak in.’
‘I don’t think that’s the best way,’ I said. ‘We need to take our time and be careful. If we mess up, we won’t get the holey, metal thing; Jax will know we’re on to him and we might both be junked.’
‘Ugh, I hate being patient,’ Lottie said. ‘Being patient is for cows. Nobody ever got what they wanted by being patient.’
‘That’s so untrue, I don’t even know where to start,’ I said.
‘What’s your plan then, Mo?’
‘I think we need to do this in stages. I’ll get some paper and we can make a list.’
‘Life on the edge. Hur-rah,’ Lottie rolled her eyes.
I ignored her. Sometimes, with Lottie, it’s the best way.
So we made an action plan – it’s in the evidence box, labelled Exhibit R.
Mo and Lottie’s Action Plan
| Step 1: | Find out where Jax lives. | |
| Step 2: | Find evidence that the Jax in photograph Exhibit E is the same Jax. | |
| Step 3: | Get Jax over to our house to see if he has the missing item in his pocket/in his bag/on his arm. | |
| Step 4: | If step 3 is unsuccessful, we will need to infiltrate his house. Assuming this is the house across the road, we will have to ensure nobody is home before we attempt to break in and retrieve the missing item. | |
| Step 5: | Find a better hiding place for the recovered item. Work out what it’s for. |
‘We’d better make a blood pact,’ Lottie said, ‘So that we know we’re in this together and will never betray each other.’
It sounded like something I probably wouldn’t want to do. ‘What’s a blood pact?’
‘We take a ceremonial knife, make small cuts on ourselves, squeeze drops of our blood into a sacred bowl, mix them together with an enchanted spoon and then drink the blood.’
‘What? There’s no way I’m doing that.’
‘Why not? I said small cuts, Mo. Not big ones.’ Lottie picked up a twig with a pointy end.
‘What are you doing with that stick?’ I backed away from her.
‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘But just come here for a second, you’ve got something on your arm.’
‘You’re going to stab me with it!’
‘Oh, Mo, you’re such a baby,’ she said, dropping the stick on the ground.
‘How about we promise not to betray each other?’ I said. ‘We could swear on something we both care about.’
‘OK, I swear on Schrodinger, not to betray you, Morris Appleby, and to work with you to defeat the Junkers.’
‘I swear too,’ I said.
She raised an eyebrow at me.
‘To do the things that you just said to the best of my ability. Amen.’
‘Ooh, we’re stuck with each other now,’ Lottie said.
Yay.
We started working on the plan the very next day that we were at school.
As usual, Jax came in a few minutes after everybody else. He looked tired. I wondered what Junkers got up to in their spare time and whether it involved late nights.
‘Good morning, Jax,’ Lottie said, in a really obviously sarcastic way.
‘Hi,’ I said to him, and managed to fake a small smile.
‘Hey,’ he said, and started picking at the edge of the table with his fingernail.
‘More Discovery time, this morning, you lucky bag of jelly beans,’ Mr Chartwell said. ‘Separate into your groups and off you go – you should all be starting to make your prototypes by now.’
‘Mo and I have been talking over the weekend,’ Lottie said, ‘And we have decided that you’re right, Jax. It’s too late to start working on something new, so we’re going to stick with the original idea.’
Jax didn’t seem very interested. ‘K.’
‘So we’ll go back into the storage room and keep going through the lost property,’ I said. ‘We’ve logged about half of it now.’
‘You guys go,’ Jax said. ‘I’ll stay here and work on the presentation to go with it.’
‘Really?’ Lottie said, ‘But you always seem to love looking through the lost property. What’s changed?’
She was being so obvious. I tried to give her a look, but she didn’t notice.
‘Nothing. Just it’s really dusty in there and I have allergies,’ Jax picked at the desk more viciously.
‘You should have said something before,’ Lottie said.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ I gave Lottie another look. ‘We’ll go to the cupboard and you work here.’
Lottie and I got up and walked off. We were hardly even out of the door when she started doing that annoying loud whisper that people do, which is noisier than if they were talking in their normal voice. ‘You see – he doesn’t need to go through the storage cupboard now, because he’s found what he was looking for! He’s definitely one of them.’
‘Shush, Lottie – he’ll hear you!’
‘You’re letting him off too easily.’
‘No, I’m trying not to blow our cover while we investigate. You’re not helping.’
‘It just makes me so angry!’
‘I don’t know, I still kind of feel sorry for him. He looks sad and poorly. Maybe he does have allergies.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Mo – he’s a thief and a liar, remember?’
‘I’ve got an idea about how we can get some more proof,’ I said, to distract her from her angry ranting. ‘But we’re going to have to be a bit sneaky.’
‘OMG. Do you mean we’re going to break school rules?’ Lottie squeaked.
‘Yes. I’ve thought about it a lot and it’s the only way.’
Lottie clapped her hands. ‘Hurrah – you’re finally turning to the dark side! I thought this day would never come. I’m so proud of you, Mo.’
‘Shut up, Lottie. We’re supposed to be sneaking.’
‘Tell me, tell me, tell me!’
‘OK, you know how there’s a cupboard inside the lost-property cupboard, but it’s locked?’
‘We’re breaking in, aren’t we? We’re. Breaking. In!’
‘We’re not breaking in,’ I said.
‘Disappointing.’
‘We have the key. It’s right here next to the main cupboard key.’
‘But Mo, they’re trusting us with those keys,’ Lottie said.
‘I know. I feel bad, but it has to be done.’
‘Well, this is like the best day ever!’ Lottie grinned. ‘What’s in the other cupboard?’
‘Old school records, from before they put everything on the computer. They used to keep paper copies, you know. In the olden days.’
‘How wasteful.’
‘I know. Anyway, I’m hoping we can find the names and addresses of pupils from previous years.’
‘Like ten years ago, for example?’
‘Exactly.’
We opened the main storage cupboard and pulled the door behind us so that it was almost shut. I held the second key on the ring, and tried it in the lock of the dusty cabinet that stood in the corner.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever liked you as much as I do in this moment, Mo,’ Lottie said. ‘This is special.’
‘Don’t be stupid, Lottie,’ I said, but I was smiling on the inside of my face.
The key went into the hole and the lock turned. The cabinet was open.
‘So. Much. Paper,’ Lottie groaned.
‘We’d better get started, then.’ I pulled out a file and opened it.
