On The Ball (2 page)

That afternoon at home Emma was practising her headers with her older brother, Bob. Strangely, Bob was being nice to her. Although she was suspicious, she needed the help with her soccer and Bob, she had to admit, was pretty good at soccer. Their puppy, Pip, was also pretty good and was joining in chasing the ball all over the garden. It seemed everyone was better than Emma at soccer.

‘When you see the ball coming,' said Bob, ‘just reach up, stretch your neck and nudge the ball with your forehead. Here, throw the ball up towards me and I'll show you.'

Emma threw the ball up high towards Bob. His eyes on the ball, he leapt and stretched to meet the ball and then, with his forehead, he pushed it back to her.

‘See, easy!' said Bob.

‘Maybe for you,' replied Emma grumpily.

‘Try again,' said Bob as he threw the ball up.

As the ball came towards her, Emma looked towards where it was going and jumped. But she jumped just a little too late and the ball hit the ground.

‘Nearly, it just takes practice,' said Bob. ‘You'll get it. Maybe we can do some more tomorrow.'

Bob went inside leaving Emma holding the ball and wondering if any amount of practice would help her headers. It was so frustrating: she could catch balls really well but she just couldn't seem to get headers right—and if she couldn't do a header, how was she going to get on the school soccer team? She would have to practise all weekend if she was going to have a chance at the try-outs when school went back.

The weekend. That reminded Emma. What was she going to do? It was a long weekend but all her friends were going away. Elle and her family were going to visit her grandmother, Isi and her family were going camping and Hannah and her sister were going to stay with their cousins. Even Bob was going to a soccer camp with his team. She wouldn't be able to practise with him. Things were desperate if you were going to miss your brother. The long weekend was going to be so boring.

Piinngg!

Emma jumped. That was no ordinary ping and it came from her very not ordinary phone. It was a special-issue
SHINE
phone that looked a bit like a game console and a bit like a touch phone. It had lots of normal applications but it also had special
SHINE
spy apps, including a special
SHINE
message system that alerted their agents to report in. It was this system that had just sent Emma a message.

Emma took out her phone and opened the
message. She was surprised at what she saw: it didn't look like the usual
SHINE
message alert.

What does this mean?
wondered Emma.
Is the first line a motto?
SHINE
liked mottoes and they had lots, but what did ‘It won't mean a thing if you use a wingding' mean? It certainly didn't mean a thing to Emma. She couldn't make head or tail of it.

It has to be a clue,
thought Emma.
It has to be telling me how to crack the code.
She read the top line again.

What's a wingding?
Emma asked herself.
I've heard that word before, but where?
Then she remembered.
On the computer, it's a font on the computer.

Emma liked fonts, she liked writing her name in different fonts. She liked finding fonts that expressed different styles and different moods. There could be bold, strong fonts and more pretty, girly fonts and there could be just plain nutty fonts. There could be fonts for when Emma felt happy and fonts for when she felt sad. Sometimes Emma made up new fonts herself with a pen but she also liked choosing different ones on the computer. She had quite a
few that were her special favourites.

I think I remember a wingdings font,
said Emma to herself. She scrolled to her word app and keyed her name. She then highlighted it and pressed ‘choose font' and scrolled through her options.
Wingdings, starting with W, should be towards the end,
thought Emma.

‘There you are,' she said, pressing ‘wingdings'. Now her name looked like a cross between hieroglyphics and a comic book.

Emma smiled to herself.
Emma Jacks, your head may be a bit slow with the ball, but it is fast with the codes.
She went back to the
SHINE
message,
highlighted the text and chose another font. ‘It may not mean a thing if you use wingdings but if I use this font, let's see what happens,' Emma said to herself as she pressed another of her favourite fonts.

A weekend training camp with
SHINE?
Emma was excited. What would that be like? Where would it be? What would they do? Who else would be there? Would she know anyone? Most importantly, would she be able to go? Before Emma could think of any more questions, her phone went again.

Piinngg!

There was another message on her phone but this one was from her mum.

Emma's mum used to be a
SHINE
agent and she now helped Emma on her missions.
SHINE
must have sent her mum a message too—after all agents in the under-twelve division needed their parents' permission to go on missions. And now
Emma had it. She pressed ‘reply' on the
SHINE
message system and keyed in her answer.

As she pressed ‘send', Emma smiled. Not only had she solved the code, she had solved her long weekend problem as well.

It was the last lesson of the last day before the long weekend. Emma's bag was packed with the things she needed for camp. Packing had been easy because
SHINE
had said there was no need to bring clothes, just toiletries. Emma couldn't wait for school to finish.

Finally the bell went. Everyone cheered and ran out the door. Emma rushed out with Isi, Elle and Hannah but knew she would have to make her way to report in to the
SHINE
Mission Tube.

SHINE
had a secret network of tunnels that
allowed agents to be brought to HQ quickly and without anyone knowing. Different agents used different tubes. Each tube needed to be somewhere the agent went frequently yet a place where the entry could be concealed. Emma's Mission Tube started in one of the girls' toilets at school. Emma understood it made sense but that didn't mean it wasn't a bit embarrassing.

Although Emma's closest friends knew she was a secret agent, and sometimes helped on missions as part of BEST (Brains, Expertise, Support and Tips), the
SHINE
agent phone assist scheme, they weren't allowed to discuss missions. They had, however, worked out their own secret code so Emma could let her friends know when she had to leave. As Isi, Hannah and Elle made their way to the bus, Emma dropped back a bit.

‘Come on Em, we'll miss the bus,' said Hannah.

‘I'll see you guys,' she said to her friends. ‘I need to go to the toilet.'

‘Oh, we can wait, Em,' said Elle.

‘No Elle, I'm going OM,' whispered Emma. OM meant On Mission. Well, this time it wasn't really a mission but it would have been too complicated to explain.

‘Right,' said Elle. ‘See you next week then. Good luck.'

‘Bye Em!' cried Isi. ‘Don't forget to practise. I can't wait to see our names on those soccer shirts!'

‘Me too. Bye Han, bye Isi, see you Elle,' cried Emma as she turned and headed towards the toilets.

Emma pushed the door to the girls' toilets open. First checking no one else was there, she then turned on the hand-dryer and went to the last cubicle on the right, closing and locking the door behind her. She put down the toilet seat, sat down and flipped open the toilet-roll holder. This would have been an odd thing to do, except it was no ordinary toilet-roll holder, it concealed the
SHINE
Mission Tube access pad.
There was a small socket on the side of the holder. Emma pushed her phone into it and waited. There was a beep. Emma entered her pin code and then removed her phone. There was another beep and then words flashed on her phone screen.

EJ held on to the edge of the toilet seat and counted to three. On three, the wall behind the toilet spun around, with the toilet and EJ attached. On the count of four EJ was sitting on a beanbag at the top of a giant tunnel slide. On the count of five, the wall spun back and a protective shield covered EJ and the bean bag. She had entered the
SHINE
Mission Tube. EJ then pushed 1 on her phone and WHOOOOOOOOOSH! she sped down what looked like a giant pipe, shiny and brightly lit.

Normally EJ stopped at the Code Room but this time she sped past it until she came to a stop
outside two large metal doors. Next to the doors was a small keypad. EJ stood up and again keyed in her pin code and waited for the security check. The check changed each time. Sometimes it would be fingerprints, sometimes an eye-scan, once EJ even had to sing a song—that was a little embarrassing. The checks were constantly changing to ensure that no one could break into
SHINE HQ.
EJ wondered what it would be this time.

EJ stood still and waited. And waited. Nothing happened. She moved a bit closer to the doors.
Perhaps I'm not in the right position,
she thought.

‘Please don't move,' a digital voice instructed. ‘Head recognition test about to commence.'

There was a whirring noise coming from above and as EJ looked up, she saw the light in the ceiling slide to one side and what looked like a baseball cap descending towards her. As it came closer she could see that it was a baseball cap, black with the
SHINE
logo on the front. EJ stood still while the cap lowered onto her head. She felt it tighten as it seemed to grip on to the sides of her head. There
was a buzzing noise for three seconds before EJ felt the cap loosen and then lift and go back up and into the ceiling.

‘Head scan complete. Agent identity confirmed,' said the digital voice. ‘Access to headquarters granted, EJ12. Enter briefing room.'

EJ smiled. Head scan for headquarters access. Good one.

The silver doors slid open, revealing the
SHINE
operations room. There were workstations and computer screens everywhere and a back wall filled with monitors flashing images from all over the world. In the middle of it all, as always, stood A1, the head of
SHINE.

‘Welcome back, EJ12,' said A1 smiling broadly. ‘It is good to see you again.'

Normally A1 wore a black suit and crisp white shirt but this afternoon she was in distinctly more casual clothes—sports shoes, grey tracksuit pants, white T-shirt and, over the top, a grey hoodie with the
SHINE
logo across the front. It looked a warm, comfy hoodie and EJ wondered whether she would
get a
SHINE
hoodie as well. She hoped so.

‘Your
SHINE
hoodie and the rest of your training gear is waiting for you in change cubicle 1, EJ,' said A1 who had a disconcerting ability to know what you were thinking. ‘Leave your school clothes there and we will send them home to your mother, washed and ready for school next week.'

Mum will love
SHINE
for that, thought EJ. Her mum didn't like washing. Actually EJ didn't know anyone who did.

‘Now be as quick as you can please, EJ12, we need to leave soon.'

EJ went into the first of three changing cubicles at the other end of the room. On the chair inside were some tracksuit pants, a white T-shirt, runners and socks, yellow shorts with an aqua trim and a
SHINE
hoodie. There was also a
SHINE
identity card on a cord for EJ to put around her neck and a backpack with a special-issue
SHINE
water bottle. In next to no time, EJ was out of her school clothes and in her training gear. She came out of the changing rooms and went back to where A1
was waiting for her.

‘That was nice and quick, EJ. I think we are ready to go. We will have a full briefing at the camp and our train is ready to leave. We were just waiting on you and one other agent. She is just getting changed as well.'

EJ looked around and noticed that one of the change cubicle doors was shut.

‘Ah yes, here she is,' continued A1. ‘And I think you two know each other.'

EJ turned around as a small, reddish-blonde haired girl came out of the middle dressing room. A smile burst onto EJ's face, and the girl grinned back.

‘CC12!' cried EJ.

‘EJ12,' cried the girl.

‘CC, are you going to the training camp too? That's so cool!' cried EJ, who had met Agent CC12 when they were both on a mission inside a chocolate cake factory. Any butterflies EJ had had about going to the camp flew away when she saw CC.

CC gave EJ a big hug.

‘Okay girls, I am pleased you are so happy to see each other but we need to keep moving,' said A1 smiling. ‘There will be plenty of time to talk on the train. Agents EJ12 and CC12, our train is ready.'

And with that A1 pushed a button under the bench behind her. The wall at the end of the operations room slid back to reveal another Mission Tube and a silver bullet train.

‘All aboard the
SHINE
camp express!' said A1.