Chapter 9

Upon hearing the signal, I tucked my head into the black suffocating and smelly balaclava. I grimaced at the musty odour which wafted up my nostrils every now and then, the smell was unbearable. Moving quickly, I shoved my short ebony black hair messily into the cap mounted on the top of my head and got ready to prounce out of the taxi. “Party,” I explained in a muffled tone seeing the driver’s perplexed and bewildered expressions. Strangely dressed kids always brought about many queries. Hearing that, the driver’s face brightened into a knowing smile and doubts stopped flowing through his head.
“How much is the trip?” Violet pressed as the driver glanced as the meter. “That would be five dollars and sixty cents,” he answered gesturing towards it. Violet stared at the large fifty dollar note in her lap and sighed, “Anyone here with small change?”I shook my head, all that was left in my pocket was a ten cent coin and I was pretty sure that wasn’t quite enough to foot the bill. Jian Ming shrugged his shoulders and shook the snoring Andrew violently, “Wake up, we have reached Yishun City Secondary! Come on and stop snoring!” Still unaware of his surroundings, Andrew calmly reached behind him and squeezed Jian Ming’s nose. Before any of us could react, we saw Jian Ming hammering Andrew with punches. Andrew muttered soberly, “Why isn’t the stop button on the alarm clock working.” Violet and I broke into fits of laughter as Jian Ming’s face turned crimson red, white mist could almost be seen streaming out of his ears. “Wake up you idiot!” he hollered while Andrew who was now semi conscious of his surroundings shrank back in shock. “I am awake,” Andrew scoffed peering at his surroundings and quickly pulling his balaclava over his head. “Er hem,” the taxi driver coughed, “will somebody pay the bill?” Jian Ming scorned at Andrew beckoning him to pay. After searching his pocket frantically, Andrew managed to pull out a pretty worn out ten dollar note, “Would this do?” The taxi driver nodded, although there was a smile on his face, the annoyed expression was still there. He accepted the note graciously and fumbled irritably for the change.
“You may keep the change,” Violet told the driver as she bolted out of the cab, I did the same. “Hey, that was my allowance for next week!” Andrew protested but Violet ignored him and wrenched him out from his seat. “Thanks for the ride,” she said before slamming the door. “How could you do that?” Andrew persisted. “I’ll get the professor to pay for the trip, ok?” Violet brushed off aggravated. That shut Andrew up at once. To resolve the tight tension among the group, I reminded them, “Remember guys, when we go in, high chance that Indian security guard will try to stop us,” I paused to gesture at the man in white uniform standing behind the gate from where I was hiding, “Me and Violet will try to distract him, Andrew, try to paralyze him with the paralyze gun we got from the Prof’s workshop. You know how to use it right Andrew?” “Upper, I attended the class you know?” he replied obnoxiously as always. “Ok, let’s put plan – catch the monitor into action,” I said, the words zipped out of my mouth without thinking. “It’s plan – catch the student counsellor, sotong!” the rest chimed in synchrony, correcting me. “Arrrgh! Whatever!” I answered a little flustered, why must everyone remind me that I am a blur queen?
We trudged into the school as the security guard stepped forward to stop us, “Sorry, no visitors at this time, I am afraid I can’t allow you to enter.” “But I need to pass something to my sister!” I reasoned, perhaps my story wasn’t so convincing because of the fact that I have a balaclava over my face. I didn’t want to wear it but Violet insisted that we did. “I am extremely apologetic but I can’t allow that. We security guards have been briefed very specifically not to allow visitors at such timings, the students are having lessons,” he explained. “Her sister really needs it, it’s for her next lesson,” Violet argued as well. “Sorry, but as I said, we aren’t taking visitors. Maybe you could leave the object to me and tell me what class your sister is in and what her name is,” the guard said apologetically. I had ran out of reasons to get us through the guard, we were going to need to use force. Talking of which, why hasn’t Andrew pulled the trigger yet?
“Eh Jian Ming, how do you use this dumbo huh, I press the trigger so many times but nothing happen leh,” Andrew requested innocently. “What on earth…”by the time the guard had realised that something was amiss, he was already out cold on the floor from the blow dished out by Jian Ming with the edge of the paralyze gun. “You then dumb, like this lah. Upper,” Jian Ming replied. “Then,” Violet finished. Jian Ming rolled his eyes. “Come on, we better hurry before our guard ‘awakens’ up from his slumber,” she reminded. “Why must we hurry?” I asked confused as usual. “Alamak! Why do I have to be grouped with so many sotongs?” Violet sighed. I gave a casual giggle looking at her sheepishly, “Because you’re the most levelled headed person?” “Arrrgh… I give in to all your idiotic antics. Let’s just carry on with the plan,” Violet fumed as I gave her a wide grin. “Only one question guys,” Andrew said. “What now?” Jian Ming scoffed turning his head around. “I thought the instruction menu said you were suppose to pull the trigger to launch the bullet?” Andrew mumbled baffled while the rest of us choked with disbelief.
“So where do you think the student counsellor board is?” Violet queried. “Beside the General Office?” I offered. “And where do you think the General office is?” Violet continued. “In the school, duh!” I replied and Violet was shooting me a murderous look. “I mean, WHICH direction do you think the general office is located at?” Violet repeated, her nostrils flaring like crazy. “We could ask the staff?” I blabbered hesitantly. Violet looked as if she was going to faint, “We are supposed to avoid them, not associate with them. They could call the police and we could be arrested!” “Oh,” I said timidly. “I know, we could split up to search for it, that way we will be able to find the board sooner,” Jian Ming suggested. “Hmm, sounds like a good idea,” Violet commented. “But the chances of us being spotted would be higher and we all know how klutz and blur Jennison is, she bangs into someone as often as she says what happened.” “Well, I came prepared,” Jian Ming replied dumping his duffle bag on the floor as a pile of clothes came sprawling all over the floor. “What’s all this? And whose bra is that?” Andrew beseeched astonished. “Are… are… you… a… SISSY?” he stuttered. “No lah! The bra’s part of my mum’s discarded jumble nitwit! They are to disguise us so we won’t be recognised nitwit!” Jian Ming practically hollered. “Ssshh, not so loud, we don’t want others to hear us,” Violet reminded.
“Ok,” Jian Ming said, then in a lower tone, “Jennison and Violet, get into these polo T-shirts and pants. Andrew, get changed into this.” “What? This mini skirt and blouse! I am not a sissy you know?” Andrew cried clearly horrified. “Well, you are so skinny you could easily be mistaken for a girl. Come on, for the sake of the mission,” Jian Ming persuaded. “But…” Andrew opened his mouth to protest but relented and took the bra with the blouse and mini-skirt reluctantly. “Now that’s a good girl,” I said to the grumbling Andrew. “Oh god, why me?” he moaned shaking his head as he made his way to the toilet while Violet and I lumbered there dizzy with laughter.
*****
I held on to my a-size-too-large beige Bermudas which had been generously donated by Jian Ming, I couldn’t help complaining. I looked horrendously obese in the oversized clothes. Violet had happily helped herself to the one and only belt leaving me only with my pair of hands to stop it from dropping. I scanned my surroundings hoping to spot my goal – the student counsellor’s board. Sadly, there was no such luck.
Out of the blue, I heard a yell from behind me, “Run, the police are here!” My heart pounded against my ribcage, the police? I stood paralyzed, rooted to the spot like a dumb block of wood. Cold swear streamed down my pallid face. What am I supposed to do? Run as told? “Freeze and raise your hands up in the air,” the voice of a stout police boomed in my ears. I took to my heels with my flip flops rubbing against the coarse floor. The wind caressed me as I scuttled with all my might. Drip, drip, drip, my sweat went. And then, with no idea how, be it either my anxiety or my sotongness, I fell, flat on my face. I could have gotten up, but I didn’t, I was too tired to carry on. With an air of despair, I willingly allowed the policeman to pin me down and handcuff me. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks, “How could this happen to me? I am still a kid,” I muttered as I was led into the police cruiser by two policemen.
Ahhhhhhhhhh! A glass shattering shrill pierced my eardrums all of a sudden as my vision blurred with each passing second. A question crossed my mind, what was happening to me?

Chapter 8

I could feel my foot sag into the velvety grass with a loud squish as I scurried after the bully. After the lack of practice for running in a couple of weeks, I could feel my heart pounding against my ribcage and oxygen drawn out of me. I felt like a human tin can, numbed and lifeless. My muscles were taught and I was aching for a break. Not a positive sign when you are on a chase that’s for sure. And then I wasn’t sure how but my infallible friend Violet started yelling at me. “Move faster you sotong!” I was appalled not only by the fact that she could still keep up with the speed she was running at and still being able to talk, I was also astonished by the fact that she was asking me to hurry up. Wasn’t I fast enough already? I didn’t bother to reply, it was a hopeless cause. Reasoning with Violet was as good as talking to a choo- choo train. I quickened the pace of my clumsy lumber and brushed my fringe which was soaked in sweat aside gingerly.
“We need a plan,” Violet called out to me, I nodded my head in silent agreement. I was too breathless to talk. “Any brilliant ideas?”she added. I racked my numbskull for one but all that came to me was a message from my brain to gasp for air. Instinctively, I panted heavily as the whirl movement of legs came to an abrupt stop. Violet upon seeing me halt, lectured, “Move it Jen, or we’ll lose this guy like we lost the kidnapper.” I didn’t bother to budge, “I have an idea, how about I rest and rejuvenate here while you go on your wild goose chase with that fatty?” Violet considered the idea for a fraction of a second and replied, “If we lose the guy it’s your fault.” “Sure, no problem,” but my answer was unnecessary, she had already vanished from my sight. I shook my head, if she had bothered to stay, I would have shared with her another one of my ingenious plans. Guess that’s Violet for you. Whipping out my communicator, I messaged the boys, “Group gathering at ten minutes past four, we meet at the starting venue, I have a plan to propose.”
*****
Violet was sweating profusely by the time she arrived. “So did you catch our criminal?” I queried as she shot me a scornful scowl, I needn’t ask to know that she had failed the task. “It’s your fault he got away so easily. And to think I followed him all the way while you were seated here, happily shaking your leg,” she scoffed. “Corrections, I was busy washing my shoe,” I corrected. “Besides, if you had bothered to wait, you would have heard about my brilliant plan which didn’t involve the both of us running about like chickens.” Violet threw her hands up in despair and covered her ears, “No more of your brilliant plans! It always turns out to be something impractical and crazy and more than three-quarter of the time you get us into trouble because of them!”
“Calm down Violet, this one sounds pretty logical I have to admit,” Jian Ming supported. I did an inaudible cheer for myself, feeling grateful towards Jian Ming’s support. Violet looked at me with doubt written all over her face. Is it that hard to believe that sometimes my ideas can be pretty fantastic?
“I can’t…” Violet caught sight my grin and quickly broke off. “Forget about what I had just said. If your plan is so ‘great’, Jennison, why don’t you share it with me?” she said sarcastically. “No problem,” I started. “In case you haven’t noticed, our criminal here Mr. Fatty was wearing his school uniform and I’m absolutely positive he came from the school Yishun City Secondary.”
“How can you be so sure of it?” Violet queried. “Because the school’s name was printed in big and bold letters at the back of his uniform,” I replied casually. Violet rolled her eyes, “But there has to be at least a thousand students in the school and if I remembered correctly, he didn’t wear a nametag. How do you plan on locating him? It would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.” To her surprise, I broke into fits of laughter, “He was smart enough to remove his nametag, but he was dim-witted enough to leave another important clue pinned on his shirt. If I recall correctly, he was wearing a student counsellor’s tie and that shortens our list of suspects by a few hundreds.” “And I still don’t know how you are going to locate him, there are like a hundred students more left,” Violet challenged. “Simple, we check up the school’s student counsellors’ board,” I said smugly as Violet muttered the words ‘show off’.
“Ok, so this plan sounds reasonable but how are we supposed to do so?” she enquired relunctantly. I cast a glance at the boys giving them the cue to reply. “I’ve discussed with Jian Ming and Andrew and we decided that the best way to carry out the plan is to…” “Break into the school,” both the boys finished off. Violet pursed her lips and was staring at me with stunned expression.
“The plan sounds fine but… Break into the school? Have you people lost your mind? That’s would be the worst thing we have ever done before! Beside your idea on the strike but still, A BREAK IN? We could be jailed!” Violet preached. “We don’t exactly have to break in, we could enter as visitors you know,” Andrew said. Violet fumed softly. I could tell that she had already given in to my plan. “Alright, we will do the break in but if we get into any trouble, we will hold you ultimately responsible for it,” she finally uttered after five long seconds reluctantly. I clasped my hands together in glee, beside me, I could hear Violet’s self-protests, “Oh why did I agree to that raving lunatic’s plan?” And at that very moment as if in reply to her question, two splats of white pungent drips came searing from the sky landing on Violet’s yellow tee. The chirping from the birds overhead made it nonetheless clear what the splats were. I stifled a laugh, it was time for Violet to have a taste of her own – in this case ‘aromatic’ medicine.

Chapter 7

“Go on strike?” there was definitely disagreement in her tone. Yi Ying and Lin Fang just gawked at the idea. “A four men strike?” Yi Ying queried. I shook my head, “I was thinking of involving the whole Primary 6 student body.” “How? Pass flyers?” Violet suggested with a hint of sarcasm. “I am afraid I have to award you zero marks for your ingenuity,” I said waving my finger as I pursed my lips to make a ‘tusk’ ‘tusk’ sound. “I was thinking of passing the message through lead.com by sending an e-mail to all of the Primary 6 students.” Lin Fang shuffled her feet and opened her mouth to protest, “But that’s so troublesome and wild. Can’t we just write a letter of complain?” “They won’t take it seriously,” I said grimly. “We could bring Brian’s parents along to testify,” she continued. “They don’t know their son is kidnapped remember?”Violet responded. “Then tell them,” Lin Fang retorted. Yi Ying gave a frantic look around and placed her fingers on her lips, “Shhh… not so loud, there are people around you know.” Lin Fang ignored her, “Anyway I still don’t think we should go on strike.”
“It was just an idea,” I muttered under my breath. “Yah, one which flunked its logic examination,” she uttered loud enough for my ears only. Violet sensing the enmity between us deliberated for a moment and remarked, “It wouldn’t work anyway, the police are skilled in dealing with such strikes. We would be led away in handcuffs before we know it.” The scene of us – a bunch of Primary 6 kids – being shoved into a police sedan in cuffs cavorted through my mind. I shuddered incessantly at the thought. Ok, so another incident at the police station isn’t going to look pretty on my not so squeaky clean record but I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing.
I was about to launch myself into objection when Yi Ying piped in, “Since none of you guys will give way to each other, why don’t we vote? Majority wins.” Violet and Lin Fang seemed to consider this idea. I shot a grateful glance towards Yi Ying. “Alright, we will vote. But it’s for a lost cause. Because Yi Ying isn’t voting and we two are voting against you,” Lin Fang happily pointed out. I let out a frustrated sigh and added, “Not between the four of us duh. It’s between the whole class.” I could briefly see the expressions on my friends’ face change briefly for a split second before regaining their previous smirk. “And how are you going to conduct the vote. You can’t just march up to the class in front of Mr. Lim and ask ‘whoever is in favour of having a strike on blank day…” “I was thinking of next Wednesday,” I interrupted before allowing Violet to continue. “Ok, having a strike on Wednesday, raise up your hands’ and then record the number of people in favour down. Mr. Lim will personally deliver you to the Principal’s office and give you a Beta form.”
“Didn’t I mention anything about lead.com? We could also conduct the vote during our stay back on next Monday,” I remarked.
“Ding dong, ding, dong, ding, dong,” the cliché ringing of the school bell chimed overhead signalling the end of our heated discussion. With a start, we grabbed the newspapers and lunged for the stairs, “We will discuss about this later,” Lin Fang said as she sprinted upwards gracefully, step by step. Violet and I gave a brief nod before we all headed for our classroom, agitated.
*****
School was never a breeze, multitasking by preparing for our PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) and at the same time doing crime fighting only made it more hectic. I stared at the humongous pile of worksheets stacked messily on my desk with my mouth agape. That was the main reason why I dreaded weekends: it wasn’t a short break from the chaotic school life, it was a intellectual torture season! To me, I felt like I was buried alive in tonnes of assessment papers, struggling to free myself but always unsuccessful. Like that wasn’t stressful enough, my communicator had to start beeping fanatically.
“Urgent, urgent, there has been sightings of gangsters loitering around block 201. Please head there immediately, we will be sending you back up,” the professor’s voice rang loudly as I quickly hid the communicator under my shirt. “What’s that?” my mum enquired upon hearing the message. I tried to compose myself and come up with a logical explanation. “That was my new ringtone, I got it from Yi Ying,” I reasoned with a smile. To prove it to her, I retrieved my handphone from the table and placed it to my ear.
“Err, hi Violet!” I chirped as I eyed my mum cautiously, fortunately, my mum had seemed to have lost interest and had looked away. But just in case my mum was still listening in on me, I continued my phony conversation. “What? Go back for extra science lessons? Ok, I will be there by three. Bye.”
Turning back to my mum, I quickly added, “Mr. Lim’s afraid we won’t be able to complete going through our worksheets so he wants us to go back to school by four.” She observed me with unhidden suspicion but eventually let it pass. “Alright then, do you need to wear your uniform?” “Nah, it isn’t official so he doesn’t find the need to,” I explained further. “Can I go to school myself? Please?” I pleaded. Mum considered for a moment, “But remember to call when you reach school ok?” I nodded my head frantically and rushed for the door. “Remember to call!” was the last few words I heard before I dashed in a bolt of lightning. I knew that the pile of assessment on my table was inevitable and that I would have to face them later, but right now, given the choice between catching gangsters or doing homework; I’ll rather catch gangsters any day of the week.
Getting to block 201 in a jiffy was no problem at all. All I needed was some luck and a wad of cash. Luck so that I could hire a taxi in less than ten seconds and cash so that I could pay the taxi driver when I had arrived at my destination. When I had finally reached block 201, I found Violet waiting anxiously for me at the void deck along with Andrew and Jian Ming.
“You took ages to come and now that you are here, can we get to work? I have got to rush home to babysit my younger sister later you know,” Andrew said obnoxiously. I pulled a face at him discreetly and turned to face them. “So what’s the plan?”I implored. “You guys find eyewitnesses or victims and gather info while we go patrol the area,” Violet decided. I cheered at the idea while the boys looked thunderstruck; that was a nice change for a start.
“What do we say to the aunties?” Andrew queried. Violet rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Hello, we have heard that there has been some form of bullying and forced theft by gangsters around here, so may I know if you have seen any of such people? It’s easy. Just use your common knowledge. Now if there are no more questions we can start.” The boys were about to leave when I immediately reached out my hand to stop them, “Before you leave, I would like to know if you guys are in favour of having a strike outside the police post on next Wednesday.” Without much consideration, both boys uttered the reply ‘xiao’ and walked away. Violet smirked at me and I could feel my face burn. But still I wasn’t going to give up just yet, no way. I am certain that someone will support my idea, I just had to persevere.
Walking along the void decks of the neighbouring blocks was mind-numbing. And because of the recent fact that Violet and I weren’t on speaking terms, the patrol seemed even more dreary and dull. “Err so what school do you aim to go to next year,” I piped hoping to break the awkward silence between the both of us. “Don’t know yet,” Violet replied shrugging her shoulders. That definitely didn’t help. If we were going to strike a conversation, Violet was going to have to be an active participant, after all, it takes two hands to clap. “So did you read the book Princess Diaries book eight? It was really disgusting,” I commented, probing her to answer. “Yah,” Violet agreed sullenly. I felt a sudden urge to kick her shins; couldn’t she see I was trying to talk to her? I was getting very annoyed by her cold shoulder attitude.
“Hey Jennison,” Violet started. “So you are finally talking huh,” I snapped. “No but I just wanted to inform you that you had just stepped on a pile of dog poop,” she finished pointing to the soles of my shoe. “WHAT!” I screeched in horror as the fetid smell wafted up my nostrils. I scowled at the messy sight of my poop covered sneaker. Violet advised, “You should find a bathroom or a tap to wash your shoes, as much as we are in a hurry, I can’ stand the smell of that.” I cursed the irresponsible owner of the dog which had did its business here and trudged over dolefully at the same time nodding my head.
Lifting my head, I scoured about looking for a cafeteria or a water outlet. Violet promptly picked out a tiny female washroom near the exit of an open-air hawker centre. I definitely wasn’t going to waste my time with a MacDonald’s toilet, one sniff at me, and they would send me packing. Even as I made my way to the toilet, I could see nearby patrons shooting me disgusted and scornful looks. The degree of hatred I could see in their eyes was a good gage of how my sneaker ponged. I waddled over towards the female toilet as gingerly as I could manage, out of the way from the disgusted patrons, I was thankful that no one had the mind to throw rotten eggs at my face… yet. I turned towards, Violet, only to see her whistling away. Frustrated, I gave her one of my ‘could you come here now’ glares.
“Who are you staring at,” she queried directing her glance at me. Then facing the patrons, she reasoned, “She has nothing to do with me.” Grumbling, I grabbed a whole waft of toilet paper and chucked it under the flowing tap. “Next time she becomes the portable animal toilet bowl, I am so not going to help her clean up,” I promised as I wiped the dirt of my sneakers. While trying to wash up, I couldn’t help but listen in on some conversations going on nearby above the buzz in the hawker. Most were commenting on my unruly and inconsiderate behaviour which I had gladly directed them to Violet and the owner of the dog. Another conversation that was going on was this, “You better give me the down payment, if not I’ll bash you up.” See, another conflict going on between two young teenagers. Seriously, what is the world turning into? I shook my head disapprovingly and froze, that wasn’t a line in a conflict, that was an obvious threat! I cast my attention towards the direction where the source of the boy came from where I was standing, I could distinguish a burly youth in a white uniform standing across a skinny and frail boy whose face was covered with freckles near the rubbish chute. I crept closer, edging towards them. It was an unfair match up, I was tempted to scream jump to the boy’s protection but a hand slammed across my mouth and tugged me back.
“Wait, surprise is a man’s best weapon, we should devise a plan and use it to our full advantage,” a voice which I immediately recognised as Violet’s sounded in my ears. “That boy needs help,” I protested. “We should take a photo first,” Violet said. I stamped my foot in irritation, “You take a picture and I’ll go help the boy.” A shocked look spread across Violet’s face and I recalled that I had never thrown my temper in front of her. I disregarded it, there’s always a first for everything. Right now, there were other things to think about. Evidently, I had stamped my foot a little too loud, the big burly youth I nicknamed fatty was now glancing in my direction glaring daggers down. I could hear him mutter the word, “Idiots!” before he went shuttling off in a flash. “Jennison! Go after him!” Violet hollered as she dashed towards him. I bolted after Violet with a wave of a fury. No hooligan was going to escape in my turf just yet.

Chapter 6

“Jennison, I am so going to kill you for this,” Violet muttered as she peered at me from the side with a piercing stare. But under the close surveillance of the stern police officers, I bit back the urge of replying ‘bring it on’.
After making a few phone calls, the other police officer finally trudged over and plopped into the cushioned seat. “Now will anyone care to tell me why you people were out driving in the middle of the night?” he queried as we probed each other to answer. Derek stated in a fake grown up voice, “We were hoping to get…” “Help from the police. We were driving here to report an incident of kidnapping,” I butted in before Derek could blurt out the truth that we wanted to get on National TV. Thanks to the fine work of the doctors we had visited before heading for the police station, my tongue was neatly stitched and good as new, allowing me to speak clearly. “You could have used another alternative and took public transport instead,” he offered. “Bus service ends at midnight and we simply couldn’t flag down any taxis,” I said indignantly.
“I believe you are just coming up with miserable excuses to cover up the fact that you people wanted to drive the car for fun,” the policeman remarked. I gritted my teeth and squirmed uncomfortably in my seat, “Those weren’t excuses! (Okay so they were excuses, but can’t they just lap the information up?) It was our friend who was kidnapped! (So that was officially a lie, but that was a white lie.) We found the need to inform you about it immediately!”
“In the first place why were you all out so late at night?” the policeman pondered. D**n it, I haven’t thought of an answer for that question. I rummaged through my numbskull hastily for some excuses. Got it! “Richard had invited us over to his house for a humongous birthday bash. He was celebrating his lunar birthday! Of course he had discussed it with his parents before they left for overseas. We celebrated until it was very late. Richard offered to walk us a little further least we got lost!” I uttered as Richard and Derek nodded in agreement.
Both policemen stared expressionless at each other for a brief couple of seconds before facing us. “In that case, supposing what you told us was true, could your describe the vehicle used for kidnapping and make our life less miserable and describe the person while you are at it?” one of them uttered. “He was carried away in a van,” I stated. “What about the kidnapper?” I feel a lump of saliva stuck in my throat. How on earth was I going to answer that question? I wasn’t the one who witnessed the incident! I should have dragged Jian Ming along.
“It was too dark, we couldn’t make out the colour of the clothes they were wearing but there were two of them and one was burly. The other one was short and stout,” Violet responded. I shot her a questioning glance but Violet said nothing. Shaking their heads, the constables dismissed us. The sinking feeling inside me told me that the police weren’t taking us seriously. They didn’t even request for the name of the kidnapped kid. Pushing the thought away, I turned to face Violet, “How did you know what Brian’s kidnapper looked like?”
*****
“Flip! Leave no page unturned,” I instructed as the noisy sound of newspapers rustling filled the air in the school canteen. Hastily, I turned the pages of the Today newspaper hoping to spot an article on our ruthless act yesterday. However our attempt was fruitless, no such article popped up anywhere. I sighed despondently, “Anyone spotted such an article?” Lin Fang, Yi Ying and Violet shook their heads glumly. “We have already searched The Straits Times, the Newpaper and Today, we even searched the Chinese newspapers, you don’t expect us to read the Tamil and the Malay newspapers right?” Lin Fang implored. “The police are hopeless, we should lodge a complain. We can’t keep coming up with the excuse that Brian is staying over at Richard’s place to do a project to his parents, can we?” Violet pointed out agreeing with Lin Fang’s query.
“Alright! I have decided to put Plan B into action!” I proclaimed as hundreds of curious faces whipped around to face us. “Shhhhsh…”Violet snapped softly, “We don’t want the whole school to know that we are secret agents!” I stiffened for a moment and swept my gaze over the baffled sea of heads and grinned sheepishly, “Please go back to what you were doing, I was just discussing about my homework.” With an audible sigh of boredom, everyone turned their probing gazes back to their food or homework.
“That’s a relief,” I muttered. “What’s not a relief is… WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY YOU HAVE A PLAN B?” Violet practically hollered. “We aren’t going to let the case rest anyway so obviously I have a Plan B,” I said in a matter-of-factly state. Violet pressed her palm against her forehead as if she was going to faint. “I swear you will be the death of me! First you drag me out on a midnight stake out and now you tell me it isn’t over,” she cried in utter disbelief. “Don’t worry, this time my plan will work for sure,” I pressed. Violet sighed and faced Lin Fang and Yi Ying, “It’s always when she says don’t worry when I worry the most.” Both of my friends coughed to suppress their giggles. “I heard that,” I scoffed, Lin Fang eyed me with utmost curiosity, “So what’s your plan?” My face brightened instantly, I could feel Violet tense with anxiety, a drum roll had also erupted from somewhere which I immediately identified it coming from Lin Fang. I hesitated for a moment and declared, “How about we go on strike?”

Chapter 5 (Part 2)

“Car F8762R, please pull over to the right,” a raucous voice travelled to our ears nearly blasting off our eardrums. In a moment of panic and fright, Richard released his footing on the accelerator and pulled the steering wheel to the left. “What’s… that?” Richard stammered.
The wailing of the sirens coming from behind told me that we had been spotted by the traffic police. “Police! Quick, move to the right!” I ordered. But apparently, Richard didn’t hear my order. The cars were now just a metre away from us!
Bang!
Two humongous airbags inflated from the front, keeping both Richard and Derek in their seats and not flying out of the window. I wasn’t as fortunate, my forehead banged into the bag of the leather seat and bit my tongue – real hard. Violet was still comfortably seated at the same area only looking a little distraught from the experience. After all, she did buckle up her seat belt – another one of her many safety precautions to take when sitting in a car. Yah, that is the price I paid for not buckling up my seat belt, especially when someone with wholly no driving experience was taking us on a road trip. I cast a distressed look at Violet as blood gushed out from my tongue.
Gross. Violet shook her head helplessly, muttering something under her breath, something like ‘see Jennison, I told you to buckle up’. Guess the old Chinese saying ‘don’t listen old man’s words, eat regret in front of your eyes’ (warning: this is a direct translation from the Chinese saying so please do not follow it) is true. I was starting to regret my actions. Only, I couldn’t, considering the fact that two police officers were heading our way with summons in their hands. If I was still in the condition to talk, I would probably scoff a sarcastic remark like, ‘great’, but all I could spit out was ‘ate’ and a little bit of blood. I had planned out a whole speech of lies and deceits for this very purpose only to know that I’m in no condition to talk and probably need to go to a nearby clinic to get stitches.
As the policemen approached, I could see their face being contorted with astonishment and disbelief. Who wouldn’t if they realised that it was a bunch of twelve year olds who were driving a BMW instead of a licensed adult? Violet unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. All I did was seize as many tissues I could find and stuff them in my mouth gingerly, then bolt out of the car as fast as I could. “Teenagers, the source of all the trouble,” I could faintly hear one of the policemen remark. It wasn’t our fault that Brian was kidnapped either, not that any of us cared much. Right now, all I had to concentrate on was to apply pressure on my tongue and stop the bleed. “eathe in, eathe ou,” I muttered trying to pronounce the words as clearly as feasible (which made me sound like I had a block nose), in an attempt to calm my agitated and apprehensive self down.
“What are you teenagers doing here? Do you have a driving license?” the other policemen beseeched as I shot him a bloody yet goofy smile. “Answer me!” he warned, in a firm tone. “If you think about it logically, obviously no, considering the fact that we are only twelve,” Violet replied in a no fuss manner. “Then I’m afraid I am going to need to haul you four kids in for questioning and call up your parents to inform them,” the policeman uttered as he whipped out his handkerchief to wipe the trickle of cold sweat off is face. “And who does this car belong to? I believe his or her parents would be glad upon seeing their car having a beautiful dent on the sparkly bumper,” he added with a hint of sarcasm. Without hesitation, we pointed towards Richard. “Hey!” Richard scoffed, his eyes narrowed into a slit. “So I guess I’ll have to tell your parents about it first,” he said glancing at Richard. “You might want to consider calling in the tow truck first though,” Derek piped in hopefully. In perfect synchrony, we turned our gaze towards him, giving him a cold glare. Sensing the sudden change in the ambience, Derek excused, “The car might cause a traffic congestion.”
Violet shot me a praying glance saying ‘get me out of this mess’. I gave her a brief nod, I wasn’t about to do nothing. I was on the point of speaking when I suddenly remembered that I had a wounded tongue and hesitated. Perhaps I should just do nothing. Violet stared at me and gave me a hard kick in the shins, a kick which was meant as a cue to start talking.
“I’m af aid you can’t do iat, (I’m afraid you can’t do that)” I babbled, “Ou arents are o erseas. (Our parents are overseas.)” The policemen’s face darkened a little but continued to implore, “Then I would have to tell your teachers or guardians.” “You could call ou coun e lor ough, (our counsellor though) is num er is his, (his number is this)” I added before scribbling the professor’s number on the summons.
“In that case, we are going to bring you to the police station where you can tell us what you kids were up to,” he grumbled with a fake toothy smile and ushered us into the back of the police car. Fortunately, all four of us were pretty slim and managed to squeeze in without much difficulty. And as the traffic police car headed towards the station, Derek popped another of his ridiculous questions, “Erm… if it isn’t too much trouble, could you guys like tune the radio over there to station 93.3 FM and turn up the volume?”

Chapter 5 (Part 1)

“Are you sure about this?” Violet uttered uncertainly. “Yup, I am absolutely sure about this,” I replied confidently. Violet stared at me as if I was a mutter. “You said that you had a brilliant plan and I expected it to be wacky knowing you but what are you thinking?” Violet shrieked at me. I waved my hand calmly, “It will work. Trust me.” I had worked out all the possibilities and was almost certain that the plan would work brilliantly.
“Are you two done squabbling?” Derek queried, stifling a yawn. “If we aren’t going to be on the road in five minutes, I am going home,” Richard complained as he twirled the car keys around his finger.
“You heard them, let’s go!” I exclaimed and lugged open the car door, settling myself comfortably in the backseat. “I have a bad feeling about this,” Violet muttered audibly before she plopped into the comfortable synthetic seats of the Mercedes Benz. “Who’s driving?” she implored. “Who do you think? Richard of course,” I answered without hesitation. Violet glared at me as if she going to eat me up.
“But Richard is underage! Not to mention a driving license! We could get into trouble. Perhaps Derek could do the driving. In the dark, people could mistake him for an adult. He does have the built and the size,” Violet preached.
“That’s the point. We are supposed to get into trouble. And Richard was the only one who knew how to drive expertly. Or so he says,” I explained casually. “I do know how to drive expertly,” Richard scoffed from the front, “Can we go now?” I nodded as rock music blared from the speakers and the familiar tingling sensations of the vibrating engine travelled down my spine.
Before Violet could spit out another word, we were already on the road, singing to our hearts content, or more like screaming in fear. As soon as we had left the parking lot, we banged into the lamp post and nearly crash into a tree. I swept a glimpse at Violet’s face. She looked as if she was about to explode. “Richard!!!”Violet shrieked, “Are you sure you know how to drive?”
“It was just a minor blip,” Richard reasoned, “I have got everything under control.” Yah, as soon as he finished that sentenced, the car veered off the road and was sent spiralling towards the kerb. Terrific control of the car he has. Realising that the situation wasn’t pretty, Derek tugged at the wheel, pulling us back on the road. I heaved a sigh of relief. But not for long, the next thing we knew, we were heading straight for a stretch of stationary cars. “Richard! Hit the brakes!” Violet hollered. “I know! I’m trying!” Richard complained as he pulled the steering wheel and stepped on the accelerator.
“No, Richard that is the accelerator ahhhh!” Derek pointed out in between panic squeals. Richard’s face was pallid, obviously thunderstruck on what to do.
“Bye bye mummy, bye bye daddy,” Derek sniffed as he braced himself for the sickening thud. “Ahhhhh!!!” Violet and I shrieked, facing the doors of eternal doom.

Chapter 4

Life without Brian for a day sure was peaceful, I have to admit that even our form teacher Mr. Lim seemed relieved. Well, that was the problem, no one wanted to find Brian. In fact, some people were even harbouring thoughts of leaving Brian kidnapped. That was bad. Lugging myself towards the school bus, I took ravenous gulps from my strangely appetizing chicken bun. I hadn’t eaten since this morning and I was definitely famished. Back on the bus, my bus friends were quarrelling over some Anime character as the bus took off with the noisy ‘fish market’ in it.
“Aunty! Someone is eating chicken bun!” an obnoxious Primary Five boy yowled as I was prepared to take another bite. To heck with the boys. Can’t they see that I am famished and need to eat something least I faint? Guess they aren’t so compassionate. But that was the least of my worries. Arikei and Koir were in the midst of creating another bus war. By accident, Koir had licked Arikei’s finger and was desperately trying to rub the saliva off on Sienna’s T- shirt.
“Aunty!” Sienna screamed as the bus aunty whipped her head around in annoyment. “What is it now?” she spat in Chinese. Sienna crouched over to my shoulder, pushing me towards the window. Unprepared, I licked the glass wall, scowling and all. The very next thing I knew, Sienna had removed her shoes and was trying to retaliate if Koir was to do a sudden ‘attack’. The battle took a turn temporarily, the next minute, I was facing the wall, staring at a lady who shot me a ‘are you nuts’ look. Well, it’s time I participated as well. But apparently taking Sienna’s file as a shield wasn’t very erm… threatening. In the very next minute, I found myself staring intently at the soles of a pair of shoes. Yucks. Did I mention that I have yet to finish my lunch?
The bus had stopped to allow some pupils to alight but we were still at it. Some how, I had managed to shake off the pair of shoes and shield myself from being pulverised by a pair of stinky trailers. The bus engine went into a full roar and the bus had barely moved an inch when it braked setting off an overwhelming commotion at the back.
“My shoe!” Sienna cried as she lunged forward to grab it.
“My chicke…” I tried to yell as I banged into the metal pole, leaving my chicken bun to fall onto the floor. Good thing it had a plastic wrapper, that bun caused me a dollar!
“Koir! Get off my knee,” Arikei whined with a disgruntled look. Koir just stared at the front with a dazed look. Just then I realised that everyone else on the bus looked thunderstruck as well.
“I hate to break the silence but… What happened?” I recited my catchphrase. Koir turned around with anxiety written all over her face. “Haven’t you noticed? A sports car hit us!”
All of a sudden, shoes and chicken buns flying all over the place didn’t seem like a problem. “Was anyone hurt?” I enquired as Sienna wore her shoe. “Well, no one except for the bus aunty, she slipped and bruised herself,” Christine replied.
“Could you just get off my knee?” Arikei moaned desperately trying to get up. “Oh,” Koir realised with a laugh and fell back on the chair. “One thing’s for sure, the sports car uncle doesn’t seem too pleased,” Koir exclaimed with a shrug. I got up and pressed my nose against the window on the left side.
A black sports Honda car had collided with our school bus’s front rear. Its window had been smashed into smithereens and it was very fortunate that no one was seated at the passenger seat. A middle aged man got out from the car and stormed over towards our bus. He wore a grey T- shirt, matched with a pair of beige Bermudas. The first word I could think of to describe him was… short. And a little bit of a pot belly. Hey, I have my reasons okay? Firstly, he looks short, like around 1.5 to 1.6 metres; secondly, he really was on the plump side, or at least plumper than one of my classmates from TAF club. (If you read it the other way round, it would be read as fat, with a lot of emphasis. No offence to those TAF members though.)
From the look of Mr. Pot Belly’s face, high chance he wasn’t here to apologize. His face was flushed as red as a cooked prawn and his mouth was arched into a scowl. Scary. “That guy is giving me the creeps,” Sienna whispered, cowering in fright. “I don’t think he’s here to apologize either,” I added. Koir, Arikei and Sienna shot me a scowl. “What?” I blabbered as the others shook their head from side to side despondently.
Meanwhile, a heated argument had started between the bus driver and Mr. Pot Belly. My life sure is interesting. First, I get roped into gangster catching organisations, then, I get involved in a mini car –bump –bus accident, which by the way includes a grumpy and unreasonable Mr. Pot Belly. This is so not my day.
“Pose, Jennison,” Koir chirped, waving her arms frantically. I glanced ahead; Mr. Pot Belly was taking photographs of the vehicles that had collided. Trust Koir to come up with such wacky ideas during car ‘accidents’. Of course, the bus uncle didn’t step down, grabbing his phone, he took photos of the ‘accident’ as well.
“Forget posing, lets just write down the car plate number,” Sienna suggested as Airkei whipped out her handphone and recorded the number down. “G… 4… 4… 1… 2… C” she muttered as her fingers stretched to key in the numbers.
“It’s no wonder he is so unlucky,” I blurted out. “Why?” Sienna queried. “His car plate number has so many 4s and one C. In Cantonese, the number four means die. Obviously he is unlucky,” I reasoned. Sienna nodded her head knowingly.
“Ai yah, not fun already,” another Primary Five boy sighed audibly. “Why?” I beseeched. “They just exchanged phone numbers and the Honda car driver just drove off,” he explained. “I was hoping the police would come, I want to be on National television,” Koir whined. “Yah lor,” I muttered sadly.
Out of the blue, an idea thwacked me in the head. National television. Oh why hadn’t I thought of it before? My eyeballs rolled around in their sockets in excitement, I could feel adrenalin surge through my body. This idea was so crazy, it might just work! A smile rose from the corner of my lips. A plan had formed in my head.
“Are you alright Jennison? Why are you smiling all of a sudden?” Sienna implored. “Oh nothing, I was just thinking about a mean joke I saw on TV,” I replied. Yup, tonight, I am going to put this plan into action. And hopefully, get on TV.