Extraordinary Losers 1 (5 page)

Long after we had finished eating, Grandma was still grinding her food with her loose tooth. We accompanied her at the dining table, pretending to read our encyclopedias.

“They call this the tallest building?” Sophia asked scornfully.

“Yes, good,” Mum said. “Test each other.”

“There are so many skyscrapers taller than this today,” Sophia continued. “I can't believe I am reading this when I can just Google everything.”

Those encyclopedias were starting to make me sneeze when… something occurred to me.

“Wait a minute. Did you just say TALLEST?”

“Yah. So?”

“Let me see,” Grandma said, grabbing the dust-laden book. She tasted the page with her finger before turning it. Gross!

“Darryl! Take your cod liver oil!” Mum interrupted.

Not that potent concoction again! (Mum believes it makes me less hyperactive. I believe it gave me superhuman ears.) Meanwhile, Grandma was locked in a studious moment, studying the ancient photograph. She loved to examine old photographs. I looked over her shoulder.

“Hmm, interesting,” I said, turning the page back. There was a picture of the Sears Tower in Chicago. It dawned on me that perhaps the clue on the yellow note was referring to the tallest or highest building in school.

“NOW!” Mum said. I swallowed the foul-tasting brain juice. As the oil dribbled down my throat, Jupiter building came to my mind. (My principal named our buildings after the planets since we were in Brightstar Primary School.)

“Thanks, Soph!” I hugged her.

“Huh?”

“Are you trying to tell no one? It's okay, you can tell me,” I probed, thinking that, maybe, she had received the clue too.

She rolled her eyes and then blared, “I … I … am trying to get you off my back!” Whether Sophia was being entirely honest, partially honest or completely dishonest, only time would tell. Whatever it was, my sister and those dreaded encyclopedias were making themselves useful. Finally.

On Monday, I was feeling all jazzed up that I had solved a fraction of the riddle. During recess, I sat down on a bench alone to have a sandwich and a packet of milk that Aunty Maryanne had packed into my bag. It definitely branded me as a “loser”. A Primary 5 boy, snacking from his lunchbox. I had my precious book of handwritten poems out and was scribbling away.

The “leaders” of the class swaggered by.

“Hey, look at the losers,” Leonard said, sniggering. I heard him, even though I was right at the back of the canteen – the “Loser Corner”, next to the trash bins.

One table away from me, oblivious to their stares, Mundi was wolfing down the chapati his mother had prepared.

“Pi equals 3.14159…265358…97932…3846264338.…” Mundi was half muttering, half chomping. Really weird.

“Cube root of 3375 is 15. Cube root of 1331 is 11. Cube root of… ” he rattled off in his “curly” accent.

Janice was sitting at the table in front of Mundi, also alone, talking to herself and munching on a creamy strawberry donut. She didn't sound like herself at all.

“Class, this is not the time for you to be lackadaisical!” she said, in a man's voice. Wait a minute, it was Mr Grosse's voice! Coming out of her mouth! Very bizarre.

“The losers are so pathetic,” Justin said. A trio of girls were walking behind them, giggling the way girls do. I heard the words “Loser Corner”, “look” and “cute”. Damien was with them too, pretending not to see me. I was about to hurl my sandwich at Justin when I saw Clandestino shuffling up to Mundi.

“Hi!” he said. He bent his knees like a frog again and sprang up, his butt landing on the table, his bruised legs (from all that scratching) dangling inches from the ground.

Mundi stopped his mathematical processing.

Clandestino turned to me.

“Hi, Darryl!” he spoke nasally. Green mucus blanketed his nostrils so that you could only see two green holes instead of black ones.

“Oh. Hi,” I said.

“Join us!” Clandestino said, spinning a pen in his hand.

Mundi cleared his throat uncomfortably. What was the worst that could happen to me? Get a paper cut from Clandestino? Get a sneezing fit from Mundi's overwhelming powder? I walked up to the two boys.

“One, two, three, four, five,” I could hear Mundi counting my footsteps.

Mundi offered me his chapati.

“No thanks,” I said.

“No?” he took a big bite of the soggy flatbread.

“Er… Why are you always so quiet, Mundi?” I asked.

“He's not quiet,” Clandestino said, munching. “I've heard him talk many times already.”

“Really? I don't think he has ever spoken to any teacher,” I said.

“That's because he's too shy… but if you really get to know him, he's quite special.”

Mundi's large eyes widened. His long eyelashes seemed to be growing while we were discussing his lack of speaking ability. There was a long silence and then…

“You look like… a … number 88,” Mundi said.

“Huh?!” I was puzzled. Just then, my ears picked up Mundi's and Clandestino's voices. They seemed to be coming from the direction of Janice's table. I listened hard again.

“He's not quiet. You look like… a … number 88.” It was Janice! She was mimicking our conversation! The two boys were unaware.

I was stunned – by Mundi's strange declaration and by Janice's crazy skill. Was this the secret she had been trying to tell me last Friday?

“What do you mean I look like a number 88?”

“Two big ears. No?” Mundi said. “And headphones, no?”

Clandestino burst out in laughter.

“See, he speaks!” he said. “Just not to teachers.”

“Yes, I don't speak to t-t-teachers. They look like sca-sca-sca-scary n-n-n-numbers to m-me,” Mundi stuttered.

“He is a Math genius!” I gasped.

“Yes. He sees everything in numbers! And numbers have colours and shapes to him,” Clandestino said.

“Numbers can be scary?” Janice toddled up to us. We had been too loud. She had heard everything. She looked at the three of us, then took a big bite of her strawberry donut before spewing, “Then what is 58 over 366, Mundi? Does it look scary to you, too?”

I jumped in surprise. So she DID know about the clue! She HAD received the note too! I looked at Clandestino and Mundi, wondering if they knew what she was blabbering about. Had she just divulged something that was supposed to be a secret? We looked at one another…

“Hey, we're supposed to tell no one, remember?” I pointed out.

“You mean blah blah blah… be there and be square?” Clandestino rolled his eyes. “It is probably some kind of silly joke.”

Looking bored, he stood up and fished out a grimy pen from his pocket. Then he twirled his pen around his thumb and middle finger with amazing dexterity. Suddenly, he flipped it. It somersaulted towards his foot. With a deft kick, he bounced it high up, caught it with two fingers and continued the spinning tricks with his fingers.

“You have that clue too?” I asked, my eyes glued to his spinning pen. He was a real Pen Ninja. Everyone was awe-struck at the sight of Clandestino spinning his pen. For a moment, Mundi forgot about his numbers and Janice forgot about her donut.

“Yeah, what is the big deal? I don't think it makes any sense.” Clandestino stopped spinning the pen, using it to scratch his neck instead.

“If we put our heads together, we can decipher the message,” Janice said.

Mundi began to recite. “You have 58 over 366, no? Since this year has 366 days, the note is telling us that something will happen on the 58th day of 2012, no?”

Clandestino interjected, “That's wrong, a year has 365 days.”

“Not this year,” Mundi explained. “This year – 2012 – is a leap year.”

We were silenced by his amazing brain.

“There are 31 days in January. So 58 minus 31 equals 27, no? That means 31 days in January plus 27 days is February 27th, 2012, no?” He had a habit of punctuating his sentences with “no?”.

Clandestino smiled. “See, he is a Math genius!”

“Really? 366 days?” Janice asked

“Are you sure, Mundi?” I checked.

“He can't be wrong. Do that birthday thing, Mundi!” Clandestino poked him.

“What birthday thing?” I asked.

“When is your birthday, and yours, Janice?” Mundi asked.

“Mine? The 22nd of February, 2001,” I replied.

“And mine? The fourth of June, 2001,” Janice said.

Mundi blinked and blinked his eyes robotically. “Your birthday, Darryl, fell on a Thursday and yours, Janice, fell on a Monday, no?” He wasn't stammering when he was speaking numbers.

“Whoa!” we chorused. “Amazing!”

“It is really true, guys… check your calendars,” Clandestino said.

Mundi went back to looking down. He was a painfully shy boy.

“That's awesome!” Janice said. “But what are we supposed to do with the riddle?”

“Guys, guys, something is happening on the 27th of February,” I said. “And we have been selected.”

“Coooooool!” Janice said, doing a weird dance. “But where is the meeting?”

“It said 2pm, no?” Mundi looked up. “TO meet us there. We are supposed to meet at 2pm on the 27th of February, 2012. No?”

“Where?” Janice and Clandestino asked at the same time.

“Jupiter building. The TALLEST building in the school,” I said.

“Seriously?” Clandestino asked.

“Yeah, I think so. I will go check it out by myself now, okay?”

“You? All by yourself?” Janice was a little worried. “Jupiter building has been abandoned for years. Nobody EVER goes there.”

Mundi started trembling at the thought of it and began snowing powder. Clandestino leapt off the table.

“I think I will go with you!” He wanted to help.

“Thanks, guys, but I am fine. My trusty ears won't fail me. Clandestino, you stay here and keep a lookout for me. If anyone is following me, just call my name. I will be able to hear you.”

“That's right,” Janice said in her all-knowing manner. “Darryl has very good hearing.”

Trust her to blurt out my secret! I guess there was no harm letting them know…

“Yeah,” I said. “My ears are so powerful, I can hear anything. Even the lowest whisper.”

“Oh, that's why you NEVER clean your ears!” Janice said, finally understanding.

“That's right. Ear wax blocks up my ear canal. I hear less if my ears are coated. If my ears were completely clean, even a whisper would sound like a bomb blast to me!”

“And that's why you always have your headphones on,” Janice concluded.

“Okay, Mr Dog Ears, you go ahead, but I will stand guard for you nearby,” Clandestino said.

Before I left, I warned everyone, “Do not tell anyone about my ears!”

CHAPTER 5: VOICES IN THE AIR

Hello! “Can you really hear us?”

“We are still here!”

“You're the only one taking that route now, be careful.”

I could hear my friends clearly even though I was a distance away. I knew they wanted to test if I could really really hear well.

Out of nowhere came a much louder voice.

“Hi, Darryl! How have you been?” Miss Jacobs popped out from behind the stairs.

“Err, fine,” I said sheepishly. My friends had distracted me so much that I must have missed Miss Jacobs' footsteps.

“That's good. You're doing well, Darryl.”

“Yup,” I said awkwardly. I couldn't decide if I should look at her, stand straight, keep my hands in my pocket or lean against the wall. My mind was in a whirl.

“Yoohoo!! We are still here!” I could still hear Janice perfectly. Trust them to keep on the lookout!

“Heh,” I said.

“See you, Darryl!” She tapped me on the shoulder.

“Err …” I had to ask her about the note.

“Yes?”

“Er… Bye, Miss Jacobs.” I couldn't get the words out.