Chapter 1

I need an escape route badly. I could hear footsteps heading my way and I could hear my pulse palpitating in anxiety. No time for anymore brilliant ideas, I got to counter back, those girls are so close I can even smell their…
Smack.
Sweat. The next thing I knew, I was eating grass in the school field and the ball was already halfway across my team’s goal post. I swore someone kicked me from behind and I thought that this was supposed to be a friendly football match. Well I should have seen it coming anyway. The very next thing I knew, Jolene was leading her team in a victory cheer. “How did the grass taste? Hope there weren’t any bugs,” Jolene said hotly as she passed.
“The grass was fine, no bugs,” I scowled. Usually, my team would be the ones leading victory cheers but this time, our best strikers were unfortunately on the injured list leaving our team one goal behind the opposing team. Sad wasn’t it. I got up sulkily, flicked the mud off my pants and trudged over to the bench.
“We need a plan, this can’t go on. We are so close in winning the best girl’s soccer award three times in a row. Zero to one, that’s our worst score ever,” Violet whined. Absolutely, the lowest we ever had was one to two and that was against a boys’ team last year. “Substitute Angie for me, I’m playing,” Violet continued. “I can’t bear to see the team lose.”
“I have a plan too, but we’ll need someone who doesn’t seem to be good in football, though. I was considering Yi Ying,” I told her.
“You must be kidding, a distraction plan?” Violet asked.
“Yup, it’s that simple. I just have to pretend I’m kicking the ball and they would follow me while you pass the ball to Yi Ying, got it?” I explained my plan. Violet gave a thumb’s up sign and called Yi Ying and Angie to approach. I could see her muttering something to the both of them and they both nodded.
“Our victory is in the hands of your acting skills,” Violet whispered into my ear beside me. I cast a glance at my surroundings and spotted a peach drink bottle and turned back to Violet to give a big grin.
“The Sun is so hot, the sooner we are done with this, the sooner we can get out of the Sun!” Jolene complained as she gulped down three big gulps of water. I ignored her, hid the bottle behind my back and walked towards my post.
Beep!
That was the cue. I followed Violet as she tried to get a hold of the ball. After a few seconds, she managed to get hold of it, and dribbled the ball skilfully to a corner. I nodded to her and ran towards the centre of the field; meanwhile, Jolene had begun tagging me and was finding a chance to strike. From the corner of my eye, I saw that Yi Ying was still doing her best to dribble the ball into the unguarded goal post. I had to distract them a little while more. My legs were already starting to give way under the stress of the heat but I persevered and continued dribbling the bottle further from their goal post. But before I could dribble further, I could see a shadow approach from the back and…
Smack.
I was eating grass once more but this time, I wasn’t feeling as sore as the last time. “How do you like our newest victory tactic?” Jolene enquired.
“I love it besides the fact that you tagged the wrong girl,” I said showing the peach bottle.
“Then where is the ball?” she queried, her voice had a mixture of fury and unsatisfactory. I gave a big grin, they found out a little too late. The ball was already soaring past the goal post and this time, it was their goal post. Violet and Yi Ying were busy doing the victory dance with Lin Fang and Angie.
“You know what Jolene, I read and article on mud, they said that mud was good for our skin. And since you love your skin that much, why, don’t you apply some on your skin?” I said as I got hold of a clump of muddy grass and flung it at her. Jolene ducked and threw a bunch at me, it missed me but Lin Fang wasn’t as fortunate. Mud stained her shorts and shirt. Enraged, she flung it back at her. The rest by now had joined in the game dousing their opponents in mud baths.
“6D what are you doing?” a stern voice rang in my ears as I turned sheepishly to the back. Standing behind the bench stood Mr. Lim, his face was contorted with anger. Oh why did he have to come by right now? The class was definitely going to be in hot soup. Mr. Lim was my class’s form teacher. A few moths ago, he had sent us to a counsellor when he found out that we were having water fights held in the classrooms. That was how we met the professor and learnt that we had a mission of stopping all gangster threats in Yishun. Later, when Tim injured his leg during a gang fight, we blamed it on soccer and ever since then, our form teacher had banned us from playing soccer or doing any forms of exercise. But that’s besides PE lessons. When the boys came back to class all hot and sweaty due to soccer once, Mr. Lim had them to stand outside the classroom for an hour. I wasn’t sure what he would do upon seeing us having mud fights.
“You girls were very well behaved after a counsellor spoke to you, do you need me to send you to a counsellor again? I was thinking of Mdm. Ng,” Mr. Lim told us. Violet cast a worried glance at me, partly because she hated counselling, partly also because Mdm. Ng the school’s counsellor was her father’s friend and she didn’t want her father to know about it. Who would want their parents to know that they are engaged in mud fights in school?
“Maybe not her, maybe I would have to ask Dr. Lee (aka: the professor) to come, Mdm. Ng isn’t as strict as him I suppose,” Mr. Lim’s change of mind was a relief to all of us but we continued with our act. Unknown to Mr. Lim, the professor was actually a secret agent on a mission to stop gangsters from terrorizing pupils and to stop crime along the way and a good friend of us. He might be a bit preachy at times but definitely not counsellor material.
*****
“Let me catch you girls having mud fights once more, it’s going to be the principal!” Mr. Lim warned. We hung our heads as Mr. Lim dismissed us.
“Man that was close, if he had stuck to Mdm. Ng, I would have been in hot soup,” Violet gave a sigh of relief. All of us nodded in approval. The professor chuckled upon hearing that.
“Your teacher seemed pretty serious, so try to keep out of trouble next time okay?” the professor told us. We rolled our eyes; why did the professor have to have such a bad sense of humour? “Besides, I was about to call you when the teacher called me over. It seems that there have been some cases of forced theft around street 22 to 23 which is pretty near here, so keep a look out if possible. Instead of mud fights, do something more beneficial like fighting crime for instance. I’ve informed the boys and they should be here in a minute or so. Tell them about the mission and form your groups of four. Richard will update you on that. I got to rush off for another meeting so bye,” the professor continued before rushing out of the school gate. Enthusiasm flooded through us, after a month of work, finally there was going to be some form of adventure, only maybe a little more than we wished for.