Dark Days at TAC

‘I just don’t get it.’ Tucker sat with Ash and Hew outside their next class, waiting for the bell to ring. ‘Rex should be in jail now. He should have been tried, sentenced and put away for life. Instead, he’s here today roaming the school as if he owns it. What the hell is going on?’

  ‘He must have got to the dosh first, mate,’ Hew said.

  ‘How could he? There wouldn’t have been enough time.’

  ‘He must have gone to the locker shortly after you put the money there,’ Ash insisted.

  ‘In that case he’s probably spent half of it by now.’

  ‘Give me a break, Tucker, you egg. He’s got enough of his own money. He’s not the type of guy who’s going to spend others, especially when he knows that it’s stolen.’

  ‘Yeah, but people are saying he’s changed since he got knocked over the head,’ Tucker said.

  ‘Well he can’t just cash the cheques,’ Hew said. ‘Most of them were probably not negotiable.’

  ‘Well, it looks as though your little scheme bombed out pretty badly, bro,’ Ash sneered. ‘There’s no way you’re going to be able to pin it on him now. You have no evidence.’

  ‘Bar admitting that it was you that stole it in the first place.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea, bro, turn yourself in. You may go down, but at least you’ll have the pleasure of taking Cassidy down with you.’

  Both Ash and Hew cracked up.

  Ash’s smile disappeared. ‘Just remember this though, Tucker when you’re coming up with your little get revenge schemes, hundreds of dollars of camp fees are gone. People might not be able to attend the camp, or worse, the whole thing might get cancelled. You may get revenge on Rex, but a lot of people might suffer in the process.’

  ‘It had better not get cancelled, Tucker. If it is then you’re going to have me and Joe to deal with.’

  ‘That’s for sure!’

  Tucker flinched. ‘But what do I do? I can’t get the money back. I’m going to have to find some way to prove that Rex is the thief.’

  ‘But he’s not the thief is he, you egg?’ scoffed Ash.

  ‘He is! That money was supposed to stay in his locker until one of the teachers found it. He was never meant to take it out. As soon as he saw that money wasn’t his, he should have left it right there!’

  ‘Sure and you would have done the same thing, would you?’ Hew snickered.

  ‘Of course!’

  ‘Right and leave it there to be found by a teacher? Rex wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that. He would guess that he was probably being set up and would want to remove the evidence as soon as possible.’

  Tucker muttered some curses under his breath. He wasn’t finished yet though. He would ensure that Mr Luxton continued to investigate Rex. All he needed was some kind of evidence, something that would convince Mr Luxton and the police that Rex was involved with the whole affair. He had an idea. He would create his own evidence, evidence that Mr Luxton would take very seriously. Yes. He had a plan and it was going to be a good one.

  ‘OK Tucker, what are you scheming, man?’ Ash asked after about a minute’s silence.

  Tucker smiled deviously. ‘I have a plan.’

  ‘Oh no, that’s what I was afraid of.’

  ‘I’m going to write Mr Luxton an anonymous letter.’

  Both Ash and Hew looked at Tucker with interest. For once, they weren’t ridiculing and criticising him. Here was a chance to prove to his pals that he was a lot smarter than what they gave him credit for. ‘I’m going to tell Mr Luxton that I witnessed Rex steal that money, but yet I want to remain anonymous. I’ll need you guys to help me write the note though. I’m not too hot with grammar and spelling and stuff.’

  ‘No way,’ Hew said. ‘I’m having no part in it.’

  ‘Me neither, bro. If you want to write that letter you do it yourself.’

  ‘But that means I’ll have to use one of those word books.’

  ‘A dictionary?’

  ‘Yes! I hate using those. Most of the words in it are too difficult to read. They need to supply some decoder or something. Some way of deciphering the ubbing thing.’

  ‘What, a dictionary or something?’

  ‘Yeah, something like that.’

  ‘Sorry bro, you’re on your own.’

  ‘Urrrrbaarrrrrr! Some friends you are. Here I am trying to get some kind of justice and my own friends won’t even lift a finger to help.’

  ‘Justice?’ Hew asked. ‘If that’s your idea of justice, I’d hate to know what you would do when you were trying to frame someone!’

  Tucker scowled at both of his friends, but then noticed someone out of the corner of his eye, walking along their direction. It was Tania Lidford, the year ten girl, who wrote the soppy love note to Rex. Tucker couldn’t help but hassle her. ‘Hey Tania. Want to come over to my place tonight?’

  ‘Get real, loser!’ she snapped as she walked past.

  ‘Oooooh, Tania, you shouldn’t say things like that, you make me go all icy!’ He chuckled to himself as he thought of that line in the note.

  ‘Drop dead!’ Tania called back to him.

  Tucker laughed some more, but his laughter trailed off when he noticed Rex leaning against the wall of the classroom a few metres away. Rex smirked in his direction then moved away.

  ‘What does that ubbhead want?’ Tucker grumbled.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Ash said. ‘But you’re lucky he didn’t hassle you after the way you hassled that sheela.’

  The bell rang, so they entered the classroom. Tucker sat down at one of the desks and automatically got down to writing his note. It only took him a minute to write a rough draft. It read:

  Deer Mr Androos

  I am riting u this letter to tell u that I sore who stole the camp munny. I waz looking throo the window and saw Rex Casidy take the munny. I waz afrayed to say anything before, cuz I didn’t want 2 get him in 2 trubble. But I realysed that the hole skool waz relying on me and I had to report this.

  Love from Anonmouse

  ‘Hey everybody, I’m here!’ Pete entered the room. Those who were there already didn’t even offer up a glance. Tucker was even less interested. For some reason this ubbhead thought that everybody would be pleased to see him.

  As if.

  Tucker would have made a sarcastic comment, but was more concerned with his letter. He studied it carefully, looking for spelling errors, but found none.

  Rex and Ben entered the room behind Pete. Ben shoved Pete, sending him staggering into a nearby desk. ‘Out of the way, Cook!’

  ‘Hey, watch it!’ Pete shot him a glare. He glanced to Rex and then back to Ben. ‘Why are you always such a jerk?’

  Ben’s face darkened and he grabbed Pete by the shirt. ‘What did you say, you little freak?’

  Pete’s face turned pale and he peered over Ben’s shoulder towards Rex.

  Now Tucker was really interested. Why was Rex just standing there with a smirk on his face? Why wasn’t he assisting his friend?

  ‘Rex?’ Pete flinched as Ben’s grip tightened. ‘Help please?’

  Rex chuckled. ‘Sorry, pal. It’s about time you learnt to fight your own battles.’ He strolled in Tucker’s direction and was about to pass by when he bend down over Tucker’s desk and placed his finger on the note. For a moment Tucker froze. He was dead. He was really dead. He was so dead that he would have been refused entrance to a zombie party. If Rex read that note, his scheme was done for and not only that, Rex would know that it was he who had stolen the camp money.

  ‘You’re an eejit, fat guy,’ Rex said. He didn’t sound particularly angry; in fact, he seemed more amused than anything, ‘That’s not how you spell anonymous.’ With that, he moved on at sat down at a vacant desk.

  Tucker breathed a sigh of relief. It was a good thing that Rex hadn’t read the rest of the note; a really good thing. He decided to fold it up and put it in his pocket. He would double-check the spelling later.