“They won’t be able to!” I said confidently. “We’re going to prove to Maria and the others that the M&Ms are the bad guys – not us! I can’t wait to see Emma Hughes’ face on Monday morning!”
“Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
You look like a monkey
And you smell like one too!”
“Thanks, Kenny!” Rosie gave me a shove as I finished singing and took a bow. “Now where’s my prezzie?”
I dived into my schoolbag and pulled out a square-shaped parcel wrapped in Bacofoil. “Sorry, I forgot to get any wrapping-paper!” I grinned as I gave it to Rosie, and the others started giggling.
“Typical!” Rosie snorted, rolling her eyes.
It was Monday morning, and we’d all got to school early so we could give Rosie her presents. Everyone was pretending to be really jolly and up-for-it, but that was just because we didn’t want Rosie’s actual birthday to end up being more of a downer than it already was. The weekend had been pretty grim. Our sleepover had been ruined, we were in deepest doom with the Oldies because of the food fight and I was having to put up with sharing my bedroom with Maria, which was nearly as gruesome as sharing with Molly the Monster! Luckily the Spanish kids had been taken out again on Sunday by their teachers – they’d gone to visit some local museums, so at least we hadn’t had to spend the day with them. We’d started making our fancy-dress costumes instead.
“Oh, that’s great, Kenny!” Rosie said as she unwrapped the scented bath stuff I’d bought her. She’d already got a box of choccies from Frankie, a set of different nail varnishes from Fliss and a groovy pink fluffy purse, shaped like a heart, from Lyndz.
“Now you won’t smell like a monkey even if you look like one!” I pointed out, and Rosie thumped me.
“Hey, take a look over there,” Frankie said suddenly in a low voice.
We all glanced across the playground. Pilar, Isabella and the others were standing in the corner chatting away to – you’ve guessed it, the Gruesome Twosome themselves, the M&Ms.
“They’re getting pretty matey, aren’t they?” Lyndz said.
“Not for long!” I said confidently. “You wait till we get into class and I show them Mrs Weaver’s computer list!”
We all started grinning and giving each other high fives. Pilar and the others were going to find out exactly what the M&Ms were really like!
“I guess we can’t blame the Spanish girls for being mad about those emails,” Lyndz said as we charged into school the minute the bell rang. “I mean, they must have thought we were being really nasty.”
“Yeah, well, they should have known we’d never do anything like that!” I retorted. “And they could have asked us about them first instead of getting their knickers all in a twist!”
“What, you mean, like you’d have done if someone had sent you nasty emails?” Lyndz said with a grin.
“Oh, yeah, right!” Fliss chimed in sarcastically. “As if Kenny wouldn’t have flattened them first and asked questions later!”
“All right, all right!” I groaned. “Let’s just get this sorted, OK?” I slung my tracky top on to my coat peg and headed for the classroom, the others right behind me. We’d rushed into school so fast that we were first through the door. We had to get our hands on that computer list before the M&Ms arrived and realised what we were up to!
The classroom noticeboard was behind Mrs Weaver’s table, next to the board. It was usually full of notices about the football and netball teams, the various school clubs and lots of other stuff, including the computer rota. Usually…
“Girls! One at a time, please!” Mrs Weaver snapped as we all tried to elbow our way through the door at the same time. She was standing by her table, sorting through a pile of folders. “I know it’s getting towards the end of term, but there’s no need to behave like a bunch of football hooligans!”
“Yes Miss, sorry Miss,” we all said together.
Then I stopped dead and nudged Frankie hard in the ribs. She nudged Fliss and Fliss nudged Lyndz and Lyndz did the same to Rosie. We all stared at the noticeboard on the wall. The empty noticeboard.
There wasn’t a single piece of paper pinned up on it at all. Everything had vanished – including the computer list!
“Miss, what happened to the stuff that was on the noticeboard?” I gabbled.
It was then that I noticed the two large, bulging black bags lying next to Mrs Weaver’s table.
“Oh, I’ve thrown all that away now,” Mrs Weaver replied, ripping up a couple of sheets of paper and shoving them into one of the bin bags. “The whole classroom’s got to be cleared by the end of term, so I’ll be needing some help this week.” She raised her eyebrows at us. “Any volunteers?”
We were too busy staring at each other in horror to reply. The computer list was now in one of those two bulging black bags! How were we going to get it back?
“Um – the thing is, Miss,” I said, “there was something on the noticeboard I really needed. Can I go through the bags and look for it?”
Mrs Weaver stared at me as if I’d gone mad. “Don’t be ridiculous, Laura! You’ll never find it – in fact, it’s probably been ripped into pieces!”
I just couldn’t believe it. That list had been our one chance of proving to Maria and the others that we hadn’t sent those emails. Now we didn’t have a hope!
“But, Miss—” I began.
“Leave it, Kenny.” Frankie grabbed my arm and pulled me away as the rest of the class began to come in. “There’s nothing we can do about it!”
“Rats!” I muttered under my breath as Mrs Weaver picked up the bags and went out to throw them into the huge steel bins behind the canteen. “What about if I climb into the bins at lunch time and try to find it then?”
“Urgh, don’t be so disgusting!” Fliss wrinkled up her nose. “Anyway, Mrs Poole said anyone who climbs into those bins is going to be in big trouble.”
“Yeah, that was just because Ryan Scott did it last year for a dare and got stuck!” I retorted. “But that wouldn’t happen to me.”
“Forget it, Kenny!” Frankie said firmly. “You wouldn’t know which bin it was – you wouldn’t even know which bag it was. It’d take forever!”
“We can’t just give up!” I muttered as Isabella, Maria, Pilar, Elena and Anna came in, talking and laughing with the M&Ms. What was worse, they even went over to sit on their table with them!
“Hurry up and settle down,” Mrs Weaver called, as the rest of the Spanish kids came in with Miss Moreno and Mr Cortez. “We’ve got a visitor arriving in a moment or two – a photographer from the local newspaper!”
We all looked at each other in surprise.
“The paper has heard about our visitors from Spain, and it wants to do a piece about them,” Mrs Weaver went on. “So we’re all going to have our photo taken, and hopefully it will be in the newspaper tonight!”
Everyone started talking at once, while Mrs Weaver went over to speak to the two Spanish teachers.
“We’re