Time To Shine Read online

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  TIME TO SHINE

  SUSANNAH MCFARLANE

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Emma Jacks and her best friends Hannah, Isi, Elle and Eve were all sitting on the oval at St Cree’s Primary. It was lunchtime, the sun was warm, but not too hot, and there wasn’t a cloud to be seen in the sky. Five friends together, talking, laughing, planning. Everyone was happy, in fact more than happy. Everyone was excited.

  ‘It is going to be so cool!’ said Isi. ‘I can’t wait for us to do it all together! Can you imagine?’

  ‘But we’re still training,’ said Hannah. ‘It’s only Em who really gets to go do it by herself.’

  ‘Yes, but soon we’ll all be finished,’ said Elle. ‘We would be so good working together. Nothing could get past us all together.’

  ‘And!’ said Isi. ‘I’m working on a new ….’

  ‘Is,’ said Emma. ‘Not so loud if you’re going to talk about that. Quick guys, secret circle.’

  Secret circle was when you bunched in really tight and whispered secrets. It was both fun and effective. Emma and her four close friends were experts at it, which wasn’t so surprising: after all, they were agents at the top-secret spy agency, SHINE. First Emma had been recruited, then Isi, then Elle, then Hannah and Eve. While Emma—Agent EJ12 when OM (on mission)—was the most experienced agent, with many successful missions under her belt, the others were all nearing the end of their basic training and would soon be mission-ready. All the girls were desperate to go on a mission together.

  ‘So,’ whispered Isi. ‘In S&I, I have been working on a new charm gadget. It’s this really cool flower-shaped spy-buddy charm.’

  CHARM stood for Clever Hidden Accessories with Release Mechanism and they were SHINE-issue spy gadgets designed as small charms that agents wore on a bracelet. When the agent needed the gadget, they simply twisted the charm to release it. New charms were being developed all the time and Isi, who had an excellent imagination, was a perfect recruit for the Science and Invention Division where they were designed.

  ‘I haven’t heard about buddy charms,’ said Emma.

  ‘No, they’re not out yet,’ said Isi. ‘It’s for a new SHINE team project. I don’t know any more because it is strictly NTK.’

  ‘NTK,’ said Hannah. ‘Need to know, I learnt that one last week.’

  ‘Nice work, Han,’ said Emma, smiling at her friend.

  ‘Why’s it flower-shaped?’ asked Eve, who was quite new to both the group and SHINE.

  ‘That’s the cool bit!’ explained Isi, who looked like she was going to burst. ‘There’s a petal for each team member and it allows agents to know where everyone in the team is at all times. And there are five petals on each flower.’

  ‘That’s clever,’ said Elle.

  ‘Flower power!’ said Isi, laughing.

  The other girls groaned. Isi loved making jokes, the worse the better.

  ‘What’s so funny?’ said a voice from outside the secret circle.

  Emma turned and looked up to see a tall girl with long dark hair leaning into the circle.

  ‘Nema!’ she cried, a little sharply. ‘Were you listening in to our conversation?’ Nema and Emma used to be friends but, back in Year One, Nema had started being mean and then just seemed to keep going. Emma had learnt to stand up to her but still found it hard. Even now, she was expecting Nema to flick her fringe and say something mean to them, so she was a little surprised when Nema just stood there.

  ‘Were you listening?’ asked Elle.

  ‘No,’ said Nema. ‘I wasn’t, I just wondered what you were all laughing about. It …’

  ‘It what?’ said Emma.

  ‘It sounded funny,’ replied Nema.

  ‘Oh, well, yeah it was,’ said Emma, a little surprised that Nema didn’t make some smart comment or make fun of them. Maybe she still will, thought Emma.

  But Nema didn’t.

  ‘I wasn’t listening, promise,’ she said, starting to walk away. ‘Anyway, see you later maybe.’

  ‘What was that about?’ asked Emma.

  ‘Who was that?’ said Isi. ‘Did someone take the real Nema and put a nice Nema back instead?’

  ‘She wasn’t that nice,’ said Elle.

  ‘But she wasn’t mean either,’ said Hannah.

  ‘Han’s right,’ said Emma. ‘And she’s been like that for a while. Perhaps she is going to be nice again. But what about SHADOW?’

  SHADOW was another secret agency, but one as bad as SHINE was good, and Nema had been seen helping SHADOW agents. But if Nema stopped being mean, she wouldn’t want to be in SHADOW, would she?

  ‘Imagine,’ said Emma, ‘if we all get to go OM together and Nema stops being mean. It couldn’t get any better than that.’

  The bell went for the end of lunch.

  ‘I’m going to ask Mum if you can all sleep over at my place on the weekend,’ said Elle. ‘We have a lot to talk about!’

  The rest of school flew by and then Emma, Hannah and Elle had gymnastics. Nema was also in their squad and, again, the normally sullen, bossy girl was strangely easy to get along with. Even their gym coach, Lauren, must have noticed.

  ‘It’s been a real pleasure having you at practice today, Nema,’ she said. ‘And thanks for helping out with the little ones.’

  ‘No problem,’ said Nema, smiling.

  The other girls were surprised but not having to fight Nema’s mean comments made gym even more fun and, as Emma skipped out to her mum’s car after practice, she had a spring in her step. Emma was in a good mood and she stayed in one all evening.

  What a great day, she thought as she snuggled down into bed with her cat, Inky, on one side, her poodle puppy, Beret, on the other and her husky, Pip, at her feet. All my best friends are now SHINE agents, Nema wasn’t mean today and even my brother wasn’t completely unbearable. I wouldn’t change a thing. I want everything to stay exactly as it is. It’s almost too good to be true.

  Emma was right. It was.

  Elle wasn’t at school the next day and none of the girls knew why.

  ‘I hope she’s not sick,’ Emma said to Hannah. ‘We mightn’t be able to have the sleepover.’

  The day passed uneventfully but things weren’t quite the same without Elle. Then, as they came out of school at the end of the day, the girls were surprised to see her waiting by the gate.

  ‘There’s Elle!’ cried Isi. ‘Over here, Elle!’

  ‘She doesn’t look very happy,’ noticed Hannah. ‘See, her eyes are all puffy.’

  ‘Elle,’ said Emma, as they walked towards their friend. ‘Are you okay? Why weren’t you at school?’

  ‘We can’t have the sleepover …’ began Elle.

  ‘Well that’s okay,’ said Han, jumping in, trying to help. ‘Maybe Mum will let me. I’ll ask.’

  ‘I can ask my mum too,’ said Eve.

  ‘That’s not the problem,’ said Elle, her eyes welling up with tears. ‘It’s why we can’t have it. It’s because I won’t be here!’

  ‘Where will you be,’ asked Emma.

  ‘In London!’ cried Elle.

  ‘London?’ asked Emma. ‘London in England? This weekend?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Elle. ‘On the other side of the world! We’re leaving tonight.’

  ‘That’s so exciting!’ cried Isi. ‘OMG! You can go to Buckingham Palace, ride a double-decker bus …’

>   ‘It’s not a holiday, Is,’ interrupted Elle. ‘We’re going to look at houses and schools. We’re going to live in London!’

  No one said a thing. The five girls just stood there looking at each other. Em knew they were all thinking what she was thinking: But we have only just all got together. We were all about to go OM and now …

  Not even Isi could think of something to say.

  The school bus came. The girls, still speechless, had a group hug and then Emma, Hannah, Isi and Eve reluctantly climbed on the bus as Elle walked back to her mum’s car. The four girls pressed their noses against the window, watching their friend. They were still silent from shock, even Isi. Emma’s stop was first.

  ‘Bye,’ she said softly.

  ‘Bye,’ the others replied, just as softly.

  Emma walked slowly through her gate but then couldn’t hold the tears in any longer. She ran, sobbing, through the front door of her house and down the hallway. Her mum looked up as Emma threw down her bag and rushed into her room. She slammed the door and threw herself on her bed.

  ‘Everything is terrible!’ she cried.

  Emma’s mum opened the door.

  ‘Emma! Whatever’s the matter?’

  ‘Oh Mum!’ began Emma, but she couldn’t continue and she burst into tears again.

  ‘Hey, it can’t be that bad. Tell me what’s wrong.’

  ‘It is that bad—it’s Elle,’ started Emma.

  ‘Elle?’ asked her mum anxiously. ‘Is something wrong with her?’

  ‘Yes, I mean no,’ said Emma, wiping a tear from her cheek. ‘I mean we won’t be able to be friends anymore!’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because she won’t be here, she’s going away! Her mum has a new job in London. The family is moving there for at least a year and we will never see her! We might never see her again!’

  ‘Oh Em,’ said her mum. ‘I know that’s disappointing but it will be okay, really. You’ll be able to chat over the internet and …’

  ‘It won’t be okay! England is on the other side of the world,’ cried Emma. ‘It’s hopeless! And we were all going to do so much together and now it’s all changed! Now it’s all ruined!’

  Emma started crying again. ‘Why does everything have to change? Everything was perfect!’

  ‘Some change can be exciting,’ said her mum as she smoothed Emma’s hair across her forehead. ‘You know, new opportunities.’

  ‘No,’ said Emma, sniffling. ‘I hate change! It ruins things! It ruins everything!’

  ‘Well I remember a little girl whose life was changed a lot after a certain maths test,’ said her mum. ‘And that change brought lots of wonderful things. Don’t you remember, Em?’

  ‘Oh, Mum!’ cried Emma, as she folded into her mother’s open arms. But as she lay there, she did remember …

  Two years earlier …

  Emma Jacks, aged eight, was excited about the first day of the school year. She loved the long summer holidays but she missed her friends and the whole gang being together. She didn’t like having to wear school shoes again or tying her hair back or getting up earlier, but it was all worth it to be back with her besties, Hannah and Elle. Emma wondered what the year would bring. There was always so much going on at school and Emma wanted to do her best and have fun. As she bounded through the gates of St Cree’s Primary, a tall girl with wavy black hair walked past, almost pushing Emma.

  ‘Hey, Nema!’ cried Emma.

  Nema didn’t reply.

  Why did she ignore me? wondered Emma, a little hurt. Have I done something wrong? Nema and Emma used to be good friends but last term Nema stopped being nice and started to be mean, and it looked like the holidays hadn’t made things better. Emma didn’t get it and she didn’t know what to do about it, which seemed to make things worse.

  ‘What are you staring at?’ snapped Nema.

  ‘What?’ asked Emma. ‘I wasn’t, I mean I …’

  ‘Whatever,’ said Nema, flicking her fringe and walking away.

  Aaaaaarrgghh! thought Emma. Why does she do that? but she was soon distracted by a loud voice from across the playground.

  ‘Hey, Em! Over here!’ It was Elle, who sprinted over and nearly knocked Emma down with her hug. ‘We’re in the same class!’ she cried. ‘We’re all in the same class! You, me and Han! And there’s Hannah!’

  ‘Han!’ they both shouted at their friend, who had just walked in the school gates.

  Emma forgot all about Nema as the three girls linked arms and walked to the school hall for the opening assembly. They took their seats and looked up at Ms Pleh, the principal of St Cree’s, standing at the front of the hall. ‘It’s nice to see you all so excited to be back at school,’ she said.

  The assembly groaned. Ms Pleh liked to make jokes and Emma often wondered if grown-ups found them funnier than kids, because the teachers all tittered whenever Ms Pleh made one.

  ‘I know you’ll all be just as excited when I tell you that the whole school will be sitting a maths test tomorrow as part of a national testing competition.’

  The assembly groaned again.

  ‘Yes, yes it will be great fun, I think,’ continued Ms Pleh.

  Some people began to laugh, but not Emma. Her smile faded and she felt her tummy tighten and twist, as if someone were squeezing it, wringing it out like a dishcloth. Hannah looked at her friend and her smile faded too.

  ‘What’s wrong, Em?’ she whispered. ‘You look terrible.’

  ‘The maths test,’ said Emma in a tiny whisper.

  ‘What are you worried about?’ whispered Hannah ‘You’re brilliant at maths! It’s your favourite subject.’

  That was true, maths was Emma’s favourite subject. She liked maths a lot, she liked how it was reliable, how the correct answer was always the correct answer. You could always count on maths because it wouldn’t change its mind or get grumpy on you. Maths wouldn’t let you down but right now Emma was worrying that she was going to let herself down. What if she had forgotten everything over the holidays? What if she was so nervous in the test that she couldn’t think straight? Somehow, the first day back at school wasn’t so fun anymore.

  The thought of the maths test niggled away at Emma all day and, that night, lying in bed, she was still worrying. Actually, she was worrying more. She was now totally convinced that she wouldn’t be able to remember any maths at all.

  I can’t even remember my times tables, she thought, panicking, her mind flicking from the two-times table to the five to the seven. 2 times 2 is 4, 3 times 2 is 6, 5 times 7 is 35, 7 times 9 is 62, no wait, 63 … Aaaarrggghh, how could I get that one wrong?

  ‘Emma! Are you still awake?’ asked her mum as she entered the bedroom. ‘It’s not holidays anymore. You have school tomorrow and you need your sleep so you can think clearly.’

  ‘That’s the whole point, Mum!’ cried Emma, sitting up in bed. ‘I can’t think clearly. I can’t remember any maths and I’m going to fail the maths test tomorrow and …’

  ‘That’s enough, Em,’ soothed her mother as she stroked Emma’s forehead. ‘Of course you haven’t forgotten everything. It’s still all there, it’s just been resting over the summer.’

  ‘But what if it’s not?’

  ‘But it is, otherwise why would schools have long holidays?’ reasoned her mum.

  Emma had to admit that was a good point. ‘But …’

  ‘Now but nothing. You just need to calm down—and you need to sleep,’ said her mum in a voice Emma knew was not to be argued with.

  ‘Perhaps I would be calmer and think better if we had a pet,’ said Emma as she snuggled in under her doona. ‘Research shows that people, particularly kids, are less stressed when there are animals in the house.’

  ‘See, you’re thinking better already,’ said her mum. ‘But we have to wait and see about pets.’

  ‘But you love animals and you had so many pets when you were little,’ sighed Emma sleepily. ‘You had dogs, cats, budgies and terrapins, even two lambs f
or a while and you …’

  ‘And you need to sleep now,’ said her mum gently. ‘But maybe you’re right, maybe you are old enough to look after a pet now.’

  ‘Tell me about when you were little,’ requested Emma. ‘How you had a pretend vet surgery.’ She loved that story, how her mum and a friend started an animal care centre and walked and groomed the neighbourhood pets to raise money for the local animal shelter.

  ‘Okay, just for a minute,’ relented Mum as she lay down next to Emma on the bed and began to talk about the time she and her friend had to bath an enormous Old English sheepdog.

  ‘And we washed and we combed and combed and combed to get all the tangles out and …’

  Emma’s mum looked down at her daughter and smiled. Emma was fast asleep.

  The next morning Emma woke up to the sound of magpies warbling outside her window. It was a beautiful, sunny day but the butterflies fluttered back into her tummy as she remembered it was the day of the test. The butterflies got bigger over breakfast and by the time she was in the car on the way to school they were enormous. Even her ten-year-old brother, Bob, noticed how quiet Emma was.

  ‘It’s only a stupid test,’ said Bob. ‘We have it too and I’m not worried at all!’

  ‘Thank you, Bob, that’s sort of helpful,’ said Mum. ‘Emma is nervous and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It means you want to do well, Em. Just remember to take a deep breath if you feel yourself getting rattled and take it one question at a time.’

  ‘I’ll try, Mum,’ said Emma, unconvinced.

  Their car pulled up outside the school gates.

  ‘Okay, out you get. Good luck!’ called Mum.

  Bob and Emma took their bags from the car boot and walked into school. The bell went and the students lined up in their classes in the playground.

  ‘Good morning, everyone,’ said Ms Pleh. ‘How nice to see you all came back again today! And what a lovely morning for a spot of maths!’