Drama Queen (2 page)

Later that evening, after a sulky dinner, things were calmer. Dad and Bob had gone out to a movie and it was just Emma and her mum at home, stretched out on the sofa together in front of the TV. Well, just Emma and Mum if you didn't count the animals, which Emma always did. Emma was lying on the couch with her head on a cushion on her mum's lap. Pip their husky puppy was tucked in behind her and Inky was sitting against her tummy, purring. So it was just the four girls. Emma liked that; no irritating, diary-dirtying brother and she had her mum all to herself. Her mum was playing with
Emma's hair while Emma munched on the warm popcorn they had just made together. Pip, who was looking intently at the bowl, seemed to be thinking she might like to eat some popcorn but Emma didn't agree.

This is nice,
Emma thought to herself.
The movie is about to begin and I still haven't got into trouble for all that yelling.

‘Em,' her mum began.

Uh oh, here it comes,
Emma thought. She knew from the tone of her mum's voice that ‘a talk' was about to begin. Emma didn't really want to have ‘a talk'. She wanted to eat popcorn and watch the movie while her mum stroked her hair. And, anyway, the whole thing was over now. She was sorry she had yelled at Bob, well she wasn't actually but she
was
sorry she had yelled at her mum and dad. Was that a good start? She thought she would try it out.

‘I'm sorry I yelled, Mum,' said Emma, looking up at her mum with what was, she hoped, her most endearing expression.

‘Thank you, Em,' said her mum.

Emma was rather hoping that would be the end of it but she doubted it.

‘You did make rather a fuss...'

‘But my diary...' Emma began.

‘That's no excuse,' replied Mum. ‘You really went over the top, shouting at everyone. The diary isn't ruined and you don't even know it was Bob who got it dirty.'

‘Well, who else would it be?' muttered Emma sulkily.

‘I don't know but things are not always how they look. I also don't see how Bob could have done it if it happened before soccer but he only got dirty after soccer.'

Hmmm,
thought Emma. That was a good point. No wonder her mum had been such a good
SHINE
agent. Her mum's code name was SJ45R. The R stood for ‘retired': with her family and her work, Emma's mum didn't really have time for missions anymore. She did, however, have time to
be back-up for Emma, EJ12, if she needed it on missions. Mum was part of EJ12's BEST network.
SHINE
knew that agents often needed support so they created the BEST agent assistance system. BEST stood for Brains, Expertise, Support and Tips and each agent had their own, security-cleared network of BESTies, as they were called, who could help them on missions. ‘Don't get depressed, call a best!' was one of
SHINE'
s many mottoes. The BEST system was great but there was one rule—an agent could never discuss her spy work outside a mission. It was much too risky; you never knew who might be listening. Em might not be able to talk about her work, but it was still good to know her mum understood. She snuggled into her, hoping their talk was over.

‘So, Em,' continued Mum, ‘don't sweat the small stuff, don't get upset about things that don't matter and...'

‘Yes?' asked Emma.

‘You will need to apologise to Bob.'

‘But...'

‘No, no buts. You need to apologise to Bob in the morning.'

‘Mum!'

‘No, Emma. It is too silly to get so worked up about little things. You can do better than that,' said Mum. ‘Okay, that's the lecture over.' Emma's mum smiled down at her daughter. ‘Pass the popcorn. The movie is about to start.'

They both looked at the TV screen as the studio logo came up. Then the screen went black before large white letters appeared, as if they were being keyed onto a computer screen.

‘They won't know anything about what real secret agents do,' said Mum. ‘It should be a hoot!'

And then, a long-legged woman with impossibly straight and impossibly blonde hair, dressed in a black trench coat and wearing dark glasses appeared on the screen. As she peered over the glasses, revealing very long and definitely not real eyelashes, the shot froze as the screen split in half, with one half going black again as more letters appeared.

‘Now
there's
a real drama queen,' said Mum. Sydney Radisson was a young actor who did seem to be known more for her tantrums on set than her acting skills. She played the main secret agent in the film. ‘She doesn't even look like a proper spy! As if she could do a mission in those heels!'

‘And Agent White!' laughed Emma. ‘What sort of a code name is that?'

‘Ridiculous,' agreed Mum. ‘And look at her nails! Okay, it's starting. Let's see how many mistakes we can find.'

And Emma and her mum spent the whole film finding spy errors, eating popcorn and giggling. Emma still wasn't convinced Bob hadn't ruined her diary but she had stopped worrying about it.

Which was just as well because
SHADOW
was acting up again and
SHINE
was going to need clear-headed agents who could see the big picture. Correction, they were going to need a clear-headed EJ12.

The next morning, the radio was on in the kitchen as Bob and Emma were getting themselves breakfast. Emma tipped some muesli into a bowl and was about to put the container back in the cupboard when she looked across to Bob who had, as usual, his head in the fridge. She smiled to herself and opened the saucepan drawer instead. As she did, Bob turned around and saw her.

‘Hey, I want that,' said Bob.

‘Oh, sorry,' said Emma, ‘I was just putting it away.'

‘In the saucepan drawer?'

‘Oh, it's just a new secret place—you should
have no problems finding that, should you?' said Emma, smiling a little too sweetly.

‘Emma, get over it!' exclaimed Bob. ‘I did
not
take your stupid diary and I have no idea how the pages got so dirty.'

Emma banged and clanged a lot of saucepans and felt her face growing hot as she started to get irritated all over again.

‘Hey, what's all this noise?' cried Mum as she walked in to the kitchen. ‘Emma, I thought you had something to say to Bob?'

Emma clanged a saucepan and glared at Bob as she whispered, ‘Thanks, now you've got me into trouble again!'

‘Come on, you two,' said Mum. ‘Sit down and eat your breakfast. Bob, can you turn up the radio, please? It's time for the news.'

Dad came into the kitchen and sat down at the table. As the family ate their breakfast, they all listened to the news bulletin.

‘In breaking news this morning, there has been
a disturbing discovery at one of the city's reservoirs. Staff were stunned to discover that the water had turned into pink gel-like balls. Police are on-site but have so far found no explanation for what has happened and experts are being rushed to the scene. We will keep you up to date as this story develops.'

Emma stopped eating and looked at her mum. No explanation: that was unusual.

‘Movie star Sydney Radisson flew into town last night,' the newsreader continued. ‘She has jetted in to film her final location scenes of
Spy Movie 2—Black and White,
the long-awaited sequel to last summer's popular comedy,
Spy Movie.
The film is being shot on location for the next month and although details are top secret, insiders have leaked that this movie will be set around water. And now to the weather...'

‘That's funny,' chuckled Bob. ‘Get it? Leaked, about water, water leaking!'

‘Very funny, Bob,' said Dad, laughing as he tied
up his trainers and headed for the door. ‘I'm off for my run, keep up the jokes, Bob.'

But Emma and Mum weren't in a joking mood. Mum turned off the radio and looked at Emma. Emma opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted—

It was Emma's phone, which was no ordinary phone. It was a
SHINE
special-issue phone. It looked like a cross between a gaming console and touch-screen phone. If you swiped the screen in a particular way, a new screen would appear with special
SHINE
apps: code-cracking apps, invisible ink-reading apps, animal files, fingerprint-testing apps and more. The phone also had special ringtones and the one that had just sounded was a mission alert, telling the agent to report into
SHINE HQ
immediately. Emma looked at her mum, her mum looked at Emma then they both looked at Bob, who was still eating his way through an enormous bowl
of muesli. He wouldn't notice a thing.

Emma took her phone from her pocket and looked at the screen. The alert was flashing.

‘Oh Mum, I've forgotten,' said Emma, trying to make her voice sound light and casual. ‘I was going over to Isi's place today. I'm supposed to be there now. Will you drive me?'

Emma's mum smiled. ‘Oh yes, so you are, Em! We'd better get going.'

‘That's great, thanks. I'll just get a few things from my room.'

Emma got up, put her bowl in the dishwasher and ran to her room, shutting the door behind her. She went to her desk and opened the second-from
the-top desk drawer. She then felt under the righthand side of the desk and pressed a small button that dropped down when the drawer opened. Immediately, a book in her bookshelf popped out onto the floor. Emma picked it up and opened the cover to reveal a small safe with a keypad. Emma keyed in 3-8-1-20-13 and opened the safe.

Inside was a charm bracelet but, just like her phone, this was no ordinary charm bracelet. It was a
SHINE
-issue CHARM bracelet, with the letters standing for Clever Hidden Accessories with Release Mechanism. Each little charm on the bracelet was actually a spy gadget. A simple twist of the charm and it would convert to a piece of spy equipment. There were charms for listening devices, charms to repel dangerous animals, charms to attract animals, charms to help you climb, charms to help you see in the dark—there seemed to be a
SHINE
charm for everything and more were always being invented. Who would ever suspect that a simple charm bracelet held such a store of secret equipment?
It was perfect. However, when Emma put on her bracelet she saw the lock was loose. Without the bracelet locking properly, all the charms might fall off. That was not good.

‘Mum!' yelled Emma.

Her mum rushed in. ‘Is everything alright? We need to hurry.'

‘I know,' said Emma and then she began to whisper, ‘but look, the lock on my bracelet is loose. What happens if it falls off when I'm OM?' OM was short for on mission. Emma's mum knew that.

‘Keep calm, I think I might have something,' whispered Mum. ‘Come on, let's go to my bedroom.'

‘Your bedroom?' Then Emma remembered. ‘Oh right, got you.'

Emma took off her bracelet and put it in her pocket. She then put the book back on the shelf and pressed the button under her desk. As she closed the drawer again, the book locked into the shelf. Emma then followed her mum down the hallway. They looked back into the kitchen where they could see Bob had moved on to eating a stack of toast. He wouldn't notice them. They walked on into Emma's parents' bedroom. Mum opened her wardrobe door and pressed a small button on the hinge. The back of the cupboard slid back revealing a secret room. A room with a desk and laptop and wall covered with certificates, lots of certificates—all of them with the SHINE logo. It was SJ45's office.

‘Okay, let's see,' said Mum. She too reached under her desk, opened the second drawer down and went to the bookshelf, opened a book safe and took out a bracelet. ‘It needs a bit of a polish but otherwise it is in perfect working order. Here.' She unlocked the bracelet and slipped her charms off then handed the bracelet to Emma, who then threaded her charms on. Luckily, her mum's bracelet fitted her perfectly.

‘Well done, Mum, or should I say SJ45.'

It was certainly handy having an ex-secret agent for a mum.