Rocky Road (2 page)

Emma had barely entered the school gates the next morning when Hannah, Isi and Elle raced up to her. Isi, predictably, nearly knocked Emma down in her excitement.

‘You'll never guess what has happened,' cried Hannah.

‘It is the best thing ever!' cried Elle.

‘It is so cool, so, so cool!' shrieked Isi.

‘What?' asked Emma. ‘What's happened?'

And then everyone started talking at once.

‘It's a competition,' said Elle.

‘A music competition!' shrieked Isi, once again getting herself rather worked up.

‘We've Got Talent,' said Hannah.

‘Well, we are
quite
good,' began Emma wondering why Hannah would suddenly declare how good she thought they were.

‘No, We've Got Talent is the competition! You know, like on TV. The school is having its own talent competition and we
have
to enter our band. We get to perform in front of the whole school,' explained Hannah.

‘And our families are invited too,' said Elle. ‘How good is that? It will be like we're a real band, at a real concert.'

Emma looked at her friends. Hannah, Elle and Isi were beaming because they were all so excited at the thought of performing at the competition but Emma was worried. She loved playing with her friends but the idea of performing in front of lots of people scared her. What if she messed up the performance? What if she let her friends down? Emma still remembered the Kinder concert where everyone was singing, ‘If
you are happy and you know it, clap your hands'. Everyone except Emma, who was not happy and was not clapping her hands. She had just stood there, mouth open, eyes wide with fright, staring out into the audience, not singing a word, and then bursting into tears, ruining the performance. She felt that she'd let everyone down then. Would she do it again at the talent competition? She would hate to let down her friends.

‘It's a fantastic idea, don't you think Em?' said Isi.

‘Maybe we can wear the costumes we created at your house,' said Elle. ‘We will rock!'

‘Yeah, it's great,' said Emma trying, rather unsuccessfully, to sound as thrilled as the others. But it was no good, she had to tell her friends. ‘Except what if I can't do it?' said Emma.

‘Do what?' asked Elle.

‘The competition,' replied Emma.

‘Why not, are you going to be away?' asked Hannah looking confused.

‘No, I'll be here but what if I can't perform, you
know, on stage in front of everyone. You guys are all so excited about it but I'm nervous that I'll get stage fright and freeze and ruin it for us,' said Emma, her eyes stinging a bit.
Oh no,
she thought,
I am not going to cry as well, am I? What a baby!

Elle must have sensed her friend was getting a little upset because she put her arm around Emma.

‘Why wouldn't you be able to do it, Em?' asked Elle. ‘We play all the time and you love it.' ‘And you're great,' said Hannah.

‘Yes, but then it's just us. This is in front of the whole school,' said Emma.

‘And all our families,' piped in Isi.

‘Isi, that's not helpful,' said Hannah.

‘But Isi is right, there
will
be lots of people. What if I just freeze and mess everything up?'

‘But it's no different from gym competition, is it? You don't worry about people watching then,' said Elle.

That was a good point and, typical of Elle to be so logical, but somehow it was just different. Emma couldn't explain why.

The school bell went and the girls bounced into their classrooms, still bubbling with excitement. Only Emma was a little less bouncy than the rest of them.

At lunchtime, everyone was still talking about the talent competition. The entire school was completely obsessed with it and almost everybody was going to be performing. In the playground, everyone was arranging groups and talking about what they might do. Some kids were going to dance, some sing a song and some were going to do magic tricks. One boy was going to burp the entire alphabet.

‘That is so gross,' announced Nema who had just flounced by. ‘Of course I don't know why anyone else is bothering, or at least bothering to try winning the competition. I think we already know who is going to win.'

‘Squishy Music!' cried Isi.

‘Oh really,' said Nema, ‘I don't think so, Dizzy.'

Dizzy was one of Isi's nicknames; she got it because she was always running around so much that people thought she must get dizzy. Dizzy Isi. It was funny when her family and friends used it but Nema made it sound mean. Isi glared at Nema, who glared back.

‘Whatever,' Nema said, ‘my band will just be too, too good, too pretty, too awesome. We should probably be going on the competition on television, not just this silly little school one.'

‘What's your band called, Nema?' asked Hannah.

‘Oh, I thought you knew, I thought everyone knew—Nema and the Nemettes.' And with that, Nema flicked her hair and flounced off again.

‘Aarrgghh, that is so, so...' Emma couldn't find the words.

‘So Nema,' suggested Hannah.

‘Exactly,' laughed Emma. ‘Come on guys, let's do our band practice.'

‘Her band should be called Nema and the
Nasties,' suggested Elle as they walked into the music room for their practice.

‘Yes! Or how about Nema and the Hair Flickers?' said Isi, giggling.

Once in the music room, the girls quickly got their instruments set up and were soon ready to play.

‘So, what song should we play?' asked Hannah.

‘How about “Rock 'n' Shine”,' suggested Elle. ‘We all love that one, don't we?'

Everyone agreed and the girls began to play. Isi began with the really solid drumbeat that started the song, and then Hannah joined in on the bass guitar, building on the beat, holding the song together, solidly in the background. Just like Hannah really. Elle came in next on the keyboards, often adding new bits as she went along. Finally, Emma started in on lead guitar with the song tune. The girls all turned and smiled at each other as they played. It was such a buzz how the music all came together. They listened to each other and let each instrument and girl do its thing. Together they were fabulous.
They played the song through to the end almost perfectly.

‘That was great,' said Isi. ‘Who do you think should sing this one?'

‘Emma,' said Elle. ‘She has the best voice for this song.'

‘Oh no, I don't think so Elle,' said Emma. ‘You do it. You're the best performer by far.'

‘No, Elle's right, Em,' said Hannah. ‘You should sing it. It's your favourite song and it seems just perfect for you.'

Emma gulped. Things were getting worse. Now she wasn't just performing, her friends wanted her to be the lead singer. It was true she loved the song but that was singing it into her hairbrush, not on stage. Emma didn't think she could do that. It would be like the Kinder concert all over again. She wouldn't shine, she would just be hopelessly shy and mess everything up. And ruin her friends' chance in the competition. Emma felt her eyes starting to sting. Again.
Gee whizz, lemonfizz, this is getting embarrassing,
thought Emma.

Piinngg!

Saved by the phone! It was a mission alert from
SHINE.

‘Hey I have to go,' said Emma looking up from her phone, ‘but don't wait for me. I may be a while.'

Emma's friends just smiled at Emma and at each other—they were used to her suddenly leaving. It was just one of those things that happened when your friend was a secret agent.

Emma headed towards the girls' toilets. She had already been there once this lunchtime and hoped no one would notice that she was going again. She didn't want anyone to get suspicious. Outside the toilet block Nema and her friends were playing jump rope. They had been there all lunchtime. Emma was hoping she could just slip by without them noticing, without them commenting. She couldn't.

‘Hey, weren't you just here?' said Nema.

‘Oh, right, you know, I have to go to the toilet,' mumbled Emma.

‘But you've just been,' said Nema. ‘Got a problem?' Nema seemed to like it when people had problems.

Yes, you,
thought Emma but instead answered, ‘Well, you know, I have drunk a lot of water, a
lot
of water. It's really good for you, water, you should try it Nema,' as she was really, really wishing that her missions didn't have to start in the girls' toilets.

But they did.
SHINE
needed reliable access points for their Mission Tube. The Mission Tube was a secret transport system, a network of underground tunnels that carried agents to
SHINE HQ
and other locations. The access points had to be somewhere that the agent often went and somewhere that it would be reasonable and easy to go to without attracting attention. When you thought about it like that, the girls' toilets at Emma's school made perfect sense—but it didn't make it any less embarrassing.

Emma walked into the toilets and checked to see if there was anyone else there. There wasn't, thank goodness. With the room clear, she headed for the last cubicle on the right and pushed the door open.
She went in and locked the door. Emma put down the toilet seat, and sat down and flipped open the toilet roll holder. There, if you knew what to look for, was, besides toilet paper, the
SHINE
Mission Tube access socket. Emma pushed her phone into the socket and waited. There was a beep then Emma entered her pin code and removed her phone. Another beep and then the usual message flashed up on her phone screen.

The wall behind the toilet spun around, with the toilet and EJ12 still attached. The toilet then tipped slightly and EJ slipped off the toilet seat and onto a beanbag at the top of what looked like a giant tunnel slide. A protective shield came over the back of the beanbag, covering EJ. The wall then spun back and EJ could hear the click as the toilet door unlocked on the other side. A locked toilet door with no one
in the cubicle would raise suspicions and
SHINE
didn't want that. On her side of the wall, EJ was ready, she keyed ‘go' into her phone and...

EJ travelled down the tube that led away from her school and into the
SHINE
tube network, whizzing around corners at high speed. As she travelled, EJ could hear music piped through the Mission Tube.
That's new, nice touch,
she thought. Soon however, just in the middle of one of her favourite songs, EJ came to a stop at a small platform with a keypad and screen. The protective shield over the beanbag flipped back and EJ again entered her pin code in the keypad and waited. The security check was about to commence.

The check changed each time. Sometimes it was an eye scan, sometimes voice recognition. It was different every time to prevent anyone breaking into the
SHINE
network.

‘Please sign your autograph on the screen pad,' requested a digital voice.

Cool!
thought Emma as she signed her name on the screen. Emma liked signing her name and was always trying to write it in a new style. This time, however, she decided she'd better write normally.

There was a short sharp flash.

‘Handwriting check complete. Handwriting quite messy but agent identity confirmed. Please drop in, EJ12!'

There was another beep as the platform beneath her opened up and EJ, still on her beanbag, dropped gently down into the Code Room. There was nothing in the room but a table, a chair and a clear plastic tube protruding from the ceiling.
SHINE
liked their tubes. EJ moved to the chair and waited. She heard the familiar whizzing noise, put her hands out under the tube and caught a little capsule that popped out of it. EJ opened the capsule and took out a small piece of paper and a pen. It was an intercepted code and Emma read it.

The first thing that caught EJ's attention was the picture of the mobile phone. That had to mean something, but what? Then she noticed something else about the message: there was no number higher than nine. That had to tell her something too. Hmmm. EJ took out her phone and as soon as she saw the keypad, something clicked in her mind.

EJ was now pretty sure she knew how to crack the code.

It's a mobile text code,
she thought.
If I match the numbers to the ones on the phone keypad, I think I will get words, just like a text message. Let's test it.
EJ keyed the first set of numbers into her phone. As she did, the letters appeared on her screen and EJ wrote them down under the coded message.

Then the next set.

Pink Shadows? The band, Pink Shadows? Why were they in the message? What did they have to do with a
SHINE
Mission? Did they have something to do with the
SHADOW
agency? Surely not,
thought EJ as she moved on to the next set of numbers.

Concept? Could that be right? It didn't feel right. Could it be another word?
EJ pressed the predictive text for more options.
That's better,
she thought when she saw the next option appear.