Hot & Cold (2 page)

Nema was having a party and she was making sure that everyone knew about it. Obviously it was going to be the ‘best party this year' and ‘not a silly little girls' party' but a ‘proper one'. Nema and her friends would be ‘dressing to thrill'. They would be collected in a stretch limousine (complete with a television and mocktails) and taken to see a movie in a special cinema with big seats and party food to eat during the show.

‘It will be fabulous, just awesome,' said Nema to no one in particular in a whole group of girls outside
the lockers. ‘But you know, it's really special and really expensive, so only a select group can come. I don't know how I'm going to choose from all my friends!'

Emma couldn't believe what she was hearing. Nema was talking about her party in front of everyone—when everyone knew that you were supposed to keep quiet about parties that not everyone was invited to. Everyone except Nema, Emma thought to herself. She was pretty sure she could guess who had been invited.

There was a group of girls who were always buzzing around Nema, giggling at everything she said and following her around—they would be on the list for sure.
But who else?
Emma couldn't think, so she nearly fell over when she received an invitation too. She didn't think she and Nema were friends anymore.
Why is Nema asking me—and what will the party be like with all those giggly girls?
She also wondered who else might have received an unexpected invitation.
If I'm invited, then surely Elle and Hannah will be too. That might be okay—it might even be fun!

But it wasn't okay and it certainly wasn't fun. The morning after Emma received her invitation, all the girls were hanging around their lockers waiting for class to start.

‘Hey Elle!' shouted Nema. ‘Did you get the invitation to my party?'

‘No?' Elle turned around with surprise.

‘Oh that's right,' said Nema sweetly. ‘I forgot—I didn't invite you! Why would I? You probably wouldn't be able to see the movie with those glasses on.'

There was a hush and then the girls around Nema giggled and Emma watched as her friend's face turned red and her eyes blinked hard.

Elle isn't going? Well, who else
is
going,
she thought and why would Nema be so mean about it?
Why would anyone say something like that? And in front of everyone too!
She thought Elle's new glasses were totally cool, but she knew that Elle was still feeling funny about having to wear them.

‘Nema...' Emma started. She wanted to tell Nema that what she had said was really mean. She wanted to tell her that you shouldn't treat people that way. She wanted to...

‘Yes Emz?' asked Nema innocently. ‘I do hope
you
can come. It will be great having all the popular girls together.'

‘But Nema, you can't...' Emma felt her voice melt away.

‘I can't what?' Nema's voice suddenly changed. It was sharp and icy cold. ‘What can't I do, Emma? I can't talk? But I
am
talking, listen to me!'

The other girls with Nema giggled.

‘Nema, you can't...' Emma tried again.

‘What Emma? Has the cat got your tongue? Anyway, let me know about the party by Monday or you won't be able to come either. I have to confirm the final numbers. Come on girls, we're out of here!'

Nema and the girls flounced off, chatting as they wandered down the corridor. Elle looked crushed and embarrassed and Emma felt awful. She should have stood up for her friend. She had let Elle down. But it was so hard to be brave and say the right things when Nema was so mean. In fact, Emma found it difficult to say anything at all.

‘Elle, I'm so sorry, I should have stood up for you,' she said to her friend.

‘It doesn't matter. Who cares what Nema thinks?' said Elle, but she didn't look as if she believed it.

‘We don't! But what she said to you was so mean, Elle,' Emma replied. She put a comforting arm around her friend, who still looked as if she might burst into tears. ‘And so untrue—your glasses are cool as. I bet Nema's secretly jealous!'

‘Maybe,' said Elle quietly. ‘But it doesn't matter. Em, did Nema really invite you to the party?'

‘Yes, but I don't know why. Her mum probably made her because we're still in the same gym squad. We're not really good friends any more.'

‘Em! You're not going to go, are you?'

‘Um...' Emma didn't know what to say. She hadn't expected to be invited, but she thought that the limousine ride and the special cinema might be fun. But now she knew that her other friends weren't going, she wasn't so sure.

‘Emma, you're not really thinking about it, are you?' Elle raised her eyebrows.

‘Um, well, no, I don't think so ... but she
did
ask me and I don't want to...'

‘You don't want to what? Upset Nema? Would you rather go to a party wearing silly dresses, makeup and movie star hair—which you hate—with a whole lot of girls who are mean?' Elle was starting to sound a little annoyed.

‘No, but Elle, maybe...'

And then the bell went and Emma had gym practice straight after school so she didn't get to finish talking to Elle. And then it was the weekend and she couldn't talk to Elle because her whole family was away at a wedding.

Emma felt bad. First she had felt bad for not sticking up for Elle when Nema was mean, and then Elle made her feel bad for thinking she might go to the party.

Is it bad to think about going to the party? Is that a bit like not sticking up for my friend? Does Elle think I'm mean now too? And what will Nema say if I say I'm not going? What will Elle say if I go? Which is worse—Aaaaaaaaaaargh!
Emma couldn't think properly anymore but she knew one thing—she really wished she had never been invited to the party.

And then, much too soon, it was Monday. She had to let Nema know whether she was going to the party. And what was she going to do now that her cunning ‘too sick to go to school' plan had failed?

Only one thing could save her now—a mission alert from
SHINE.

Emma Jacks, average ten-year-old girl, was also EJ12—a field agent and ace code-cracker in the under-twelve division of
SHINE,
a secret agency that protected the world from evil-doers. And while Emma Jacks often found it hard to deal with mean girls, irritating brothers and other everyday problems, EJ12 was unbeatable. Compared to dealing with mean girls at school, saving the world was easy!

Emma hadn't planned on being a spy. It just sort of happened. There had been a primary school maths competition and Emma's school was competing. Emma was beyond excited about the competition. She loved maths and she loved solving problems. When she found out she had won, she was beyond whatever beyond excited is.

She had imagined receiving a certificate and maybe even a medal, which might be presented in school assembly. Everyone would be clapping, her friends would be cheering and Emma would feel a little bit embarrassed, act
completely
embarrassed, but secretly quite enjoy the fuss. She knew her parents would go on and on about how proud they were and even Bob would mumble something that she would take as a compliment. She would quite like that as well.

Emma had never imagined that she and her mum would be picked up from home in a large black car with dark windows that would take them to a shop—a light shop of all places. Feeling a little surprised, she had followed her mum into the shop and told the woman at the counter who they were.

‘Oh yes Emma, we've heard all about you. Congratulations!' said the shopkeeper.

Emma couldn't think why a lady running a light shop would have heard about her, let alone congratulate her, but she didn't say anything.

‘And welcome! Just take the lift on your right and press the button with the light globe on it,' the shopkeeper said smiling.

Welcome to what?
Emma thought this was weird but her mum didn't seem too surprised.

‘Maybe maths people just do things that way,' she grinned.

Emma didn't think that was a very good explanation. She entered the lift, held the doors open for her mum, then pressed the light globe button and waited. The lift jolted and began to go down ... down, down and then down some more—twenty floors down in fact. And then the lift stopped, the door opened, and Emma found herself standing in front of an old-ish lady with long white hair whipped up into a slightly messy bun with a few pencils sticking out of it.

‘Welcome to
SHINE,
Emma Jacks. I'm A1.'

‘To
SHINE?'
said Emma. ‘But I'm supposed to be collecting my maths prize.'

‘And so you are Emma, but maybe it's not the prize you were expecting.
SHINE
is an underground agency,' A1 explained.

‘Well I know that,' said Emma. ‘We just came down twenty floors in the lift.'

‘No, Emma,' smiled A1. ‘I mean it's a secret agency. Mrs Jacks, would you like to take a seat in our lounge area while I explain
SHINE
to Emma?'

‘How lovely,' replied Emma's mum.

Emma thought her mum should have said something else. Something like, ‘Perhaps I'll just stay here and see what happens to my daughter twenty floors below street level in a secret organisation!' But no, she didn't. And strangely enough, Emma didn't really mind. She could tell immediately that A1 was someone she could trust.

‘Come with me, Emma. I'll show you around,' said A1. She pushed a button and a door that Emma hadn't even noticed slid open to reveal a large
room filled with desks and an enormous flat screen flashing images and numbers in the middle of them. Everywhere Emma looked there were women sitting at the desks, working in front of screens, talking on head-sets and typing furiously on keyboards.

‘What is this? What is everyone doing?' asked Emma.

‘Solving problems,' said A1 in a serious voice, ‘and stopping evil plans. And you can help us, Emma. The maths competition you won was our way of recruiting new agents. We need clever thinkers, especially people who love maths, and it doesn't matter how old they are. We need agents to help us crack enemy codes and thwart the evil missions of the
SHADOW
agency. We defeat
SHADOW,'
A1 explained, ‘by intercepting their secret messages, getting to their locations before their own agents and foiling their dastardly plans.'

‘That all sounds rather dangerous,' said Emma quietly.

‘Let danger be a stranger!' declared A1 heartily. ‘That's one of
SHINE'
s mottoes—we like mottoes. We also know our agents well and we know what they can do—sometimes even before they do.
SHINE
needs you, Emma. We have run a complete check on you and you are exactly what we need for our under-twelve division.'

‘I think maybe the results got mixed up,' suggested Emma nervously.

‘We never get our results mixed up,' said A1, suddenly looking slightly less friendly and slightly more scary. ‘You are exactly what
SHINE
needs. Everything is organised. Your training is booked in and you are ready to go. But the one thing that you must remember above all else is that your job is top secret—only classified people can be informed about your activities.'

‘But what about Mum?' asked Emma.

‘Don't worry about your mother,' said A1 with a wink. ‘We know exactly how to deal with mothers.'

Well,
thought Emma,
if they can handle mums, they must be pretty special.

And so it began. Emma Jacks became EJ12, Class A field agent and code-cracker, under-twelve division, for
SHINE.
Since that day, EJ12—or just EJ, as she was called when she was on duty—had foiled evil plans all over the world. She had jumped out of planes, dived into oceans and climbed mountains. She had cracked some of the trickiest codes around and beaten
SHADOW
time after time. In fact, EJ12 had quickly become one of
SHINE'
s Shining Stars, a leader in the agency's Spy of the Year competition.

The funny thing was, while Emma Jacks often worried about normal everyday things, EJ12 seemed to be able to handle anything on a mission. Why was that? Emma really wished she knew. And sometimes she really wished EJ12 could come along to school in her place, just to sort everything out.

But she couldn't. It was quarter past eight, there was no mission alert from
SHINE
and there was nothing for it—Emma Jacks was going to school.