BY THE TIME GRACE WANDERED DOWNSTAIRS THE NEXT MORNING, it felt like she’d already been through a whole day. Her eyes watered as she yawned for the hundredth time. She didn’t think she’d gotten any full hours of sleep time.
It had taken almost an entire bottle of her mom’s fancy conditioner and endless tugs, yanks, and screams to get all the tangles out of her hair. She was convinced she’d left at least half her long blonde locks in the shower drain.
There was something to be said for algae, though. It seemed to have eaten up all the scratches on her face. Her skin had faded from ripe tomato to a pale orange colour. It looked like she’d washed her face in self-tanning lotion.
Grace walked into the kitchen as her mother was pouring her coffee.
Her mother looked at her strangely. “I’ve been doing some thinking…” she started.
Warning bells blared in Grace’s head. Whatever her mom had to say, it wasn’t going to be good. She grabbed her pack, scooped up a muffin, and headed for the door. “Late for school!” she called over her shoulder, slamming the door behind her before her mother had a chance to look at the clock.
Grace hopped on her bike and decided to go to Jessica’s. She swerved onto Clyde Avenue, then took a left on Beech Street. Minutes later she was reunited with her hat. She plopped her old friend back on top of her head and pulled her ponytail through the back.
She held her arms out at her sides and tipped her head back. She loved the feeling of the crisp wind zipping over her body, tugging at her clothes and filling her lungs.
As Grace whizzed across Main and zipped around another turn, she suddenly realized that she was almost at Mai’s house on Crescent Street. Traitor bike! She sighed and veered into Mai’s driveway. It was as good a time as any to eat crow and apologize. She wondered if Mai would even talk to her. Before she had a chance to knock on the door, it swung open and she was looking straight into Mai’s startled brown eyes.
They stood there, staring at each other, for several seconds.
“Grace!” Mai finally exclaimed, a huge grin exploding on her face. She dropped her books and grabbed Grace in a tight hug. “I knew you’d apologize. I accept!”
Grace returned the hug, her mouth hanging open with the unspoken apology still inside. Without another word, they were off to school as if nothing had happened.
Pedalling slowly, Grace filled Mai in on the recent happenings. Her animated monologue was often interrupted by Mai’s continuous stream of No Way! He did what?! You didn’t!
When Grace got to the part about Fred’s strange phone call, Mai chipped in. “I don’t know what he’s talking about either. I didn’t see him yesterday. I had band recital all day then my parents took me out to dinner.” She shrugged. “So he had a whole day unsupervised. Who knows what nutty conspiracy theories he’s cooked up without us.”
“Seriously.” Grace nodded. “We’ve got to find out what he’s been up to.”
They didn’t get their chance until gym class later that morning.
“Uh-oh,” Grace and Mai moaned as they entered the gym. Loopy Longmire, their gym teacher, was nowhere in sight, but there was a smoky haze hovering near the ceiling. Not incense again!
Fred beckoned them over. “There you are! You missed all the excitement. Leroy Weller was complaining about the stink from the incense and then puked all over Longmire’s pink leotard. She cancelled gym class and hauled him off to the nurse’s office. So we have an entire double period free, and then lunch.”
“Woohoo!” Grace exclaimed. “Let’s go to Black Hole. We’ve got lots to talk about!”
“Have I got news for you!” Fred flopped down at the table in Black Hole and grabbed a chocolate cake from his pack. “I was working one of my informants, Mr. Pulzifer—you know, the security guard/janitor guy? It was tough, but I kept tailing him, looking for an angle—something I could use to muscle him.” Fred paused to leisurely unwrap his treat.
“And…?” Mai prompted.
“I’m getting to the good part. So, my detective work finally paid off. I followed him down to the boiler room yesterday. He was there to sneak a puff on one of those stinky cigars. So I tiptoed up behind him and caught him in the act! I said to him, ‘Gee, Mr. Pulzifer, isn’t it against the rules to smoke on school grounds?’ Well, he knew I had him, so he coughed up what I was looking for.”
Mai and Grace exchanged eye rolls at the spy talk and glared at Fred, waiting for the intel. Fred seemed to be enjoying himself and was in no hurry to relinquish being the centre of attention.
“Spill it!” Grace finally said.
Fred popped the rest of his cake into his mouth and linked his hands behind his head, grinning at Mai and Grace as he chewed.
“Fred!” Mai said.
“Okay, okay!” he yelped. “Pulzifer told me that they’ve been having trouble with the security cameras at school for months. And get this…you know the one in the hallway where Grace’s locker is? It isn’t even working. It’s disconnected!”
“Disconnected?” Mai said. “Since when?”
“For the last month!”
“A month? But that means…wait…what does that mean?” Grace asked, confused. “You saw the video. We all did.”
“It means,” Fred said with relish, “the video was a fake!”