Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja (a hilarious adventure for children ages 9-12) (3 page)

“There’s no tracks,” Zoe said. “It doesn’t even look like
there are tracks from
Brayden
. Whatever yanked
him in here
had
to have struggled with him, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t think
Brayden
would’ve gone willingly. And there wouldn’t have been enough time to cover any
tracks because I followed him in here almost immediately.”

“What did you see right after you stepped through the
trees?”

Another chill ran down my spine. “
Nothing
. There was
nothing
back here. No signs of anything that would’ve grabbed him, and even stranger,
no sign of
Brayden
himself.”

Zoe folded her arms and made the “
smartie
-pants”
face I hate. “You know what I’m wondering?”

“Do tell,” I sighed.

“I’m wondering why we don’t just go straight to the coach
with this. Why follow
Brayden
in here? It’s
counter-productive. Mr. Cooper would probably get the police and
Brayden
would be found in an instant.”

“Unless it was
werewolves
,” whispered a voice from
above.

My body froze as I stared at my cousin. She was staring
right back at me with her eyes as wide as I’d ever seen on a person that
wasn’t
a cartoon. For a split second, I wanted to warn her that they’d fall out of her
head. She’d probably slap my arm for being hilarious at an inappropriate time.

I looked up in the trees and was surprised by what I saw.
Nothing
again
.
A whole lot of nothing happening out there today.

“Right here, buck-o,” whispered the voice again, this time
from in front of Zoe and me.

When I turned, I saw not only one kid standing in front of
us, but several. There must’ve been fifteen or twenty of them, all dressed in
the same black uniforms. Their faces were covered with masks that only showed
their eyes. There was no way this was happening, right? These kinds of things
only happen in movies, and mostly movies from the eighties!
My
dad’s
movies.

“Are you…
”
I started asking.

“
Ninjas
,” said the child in the mask. The rest of the
ninjas behind him punched their chest once and let out a “ha!” sound at the
same time. I couldn’t help but chuckle at how choreographed it was.

“What’s so funny?” asked the ninja. “You
dare
laugh
at us?”

“Not at
you
,” I said. “Just at the fact that it all
sounded like you were
gonna
laugh at the same time,
but stopped instead. Plus you’re a bunch of kids out here wearing pajamas and
hiding in the woods. If
that’s
not a red flag for a guidance counselor,
I don’t know what is. Besides, you guys aren’t very good since you’re all
standing here in front of us right now. Aren’t ninjas supposed to be a secret?”

The ninja stepped forward, revealing
Brayden
standing behind him. “We’ve taken your friend prisoner because he got too close
to our operation. We’ve revealed ourselves to
you
because there was a
possibility you’d seek help from Mr. Cooper. We’ve come too far as a clan and
can’t let it all fizzle out because of a tattle tale.”

“Are you alright?” Zoe asked
Brayden
.

Brayden
nodded, but didn’t say
anything.

The first ninja spoke again. “We’ll release him to you under
one condition.”

What a strange school. I’ve been here one day and I’ve
already met a clan of secret ninjas that’s holding a kid I just met hostage.
How valuable was
Brayden
to me?
Not
very.
I only just met the boy, but again, being the nice guy I am… “Name
it.”

“You walk out of these woods and tell no one what you saw
today,” said the ninja.

“But master,” said one of the ninjas from the back. I was
surprised because it was a girl’s voice. “They’ve seen too much! We cannot let
them leave here!”

The first ninja raised his fist in the air. She quickly
bowed out of respect and stepped back in line.
This kid had
power
,
I’ll admit that
.

“Fine,” I said as I glanced at my cousin.

“Deal,” said Zoe.

They released
Brayden
. He stumbled
toward us with his hands behind his back. In the short amount of time they had
him, they had already tied his hands together. Maybe they were better than I
thought.

At that moment, I heard the air horn Mr. Cooper uses to
signal when there was five minutes left of class. It was his way of lazily
telling us to return to the gym. Zoe,
Brayden
, and I
turned toward the school.

When I looked back, the ninjas were gone without a trace.

Wednesday. 7:45 AM. Homeroom.

Buchanan School had started sixth graders on a schedule
similar to middle school so the transfer in the next year wouldn’t be as
shocking. It was cool because we were the only kids that had this type of schedule
in the school. I guess everyday was going to start with a fifteen-minute
homeroom, where we’d all gather our things together and take attendance.
Another cool thing about it was no assigned seating. Students were allowed to
sit wherever they wanted.

I was the last in the room just before the bell rang.

“Cutting it close, aren’t you?” Zoe asked as she unzipped
her backpack. It was bright red with speckled straps. There was a small plastic
sleeve on the side that had her name written on it. She made a smiley face with
the “o.”

I smiled and mocked her. “
You’re
cutting it close.”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” she replied.

“Think about it for a minute, and it
will
,” I said.

Zoe’s eyes darted back and forth and the gears in her head clearly
cranked. In the time it took her to think, I sat in the seat behind her.
Finally she turned around.

“I still don’t get it,” she said.

Poor Zoe.
That
was the joke, but I didn’t have the
heart to tell her. “
Nevermind
.”

Homeroom went on as the teacher made the announcements for
the day. I zoned out watching the clock as the sound of their voice trailed
over my head, speaking about football try-outs, the school lunch menu, and
other dumb things that didn’t concern me. Something about the food drive and
how it was only the third day of school and a quarter of the way to our goal. I
should probably find that thing the school mailed to my house.

As I envisioned the teacher’s words floating over my head, I
started to see myself floating there as well. I drifted over the other
students, free from this horrible place called “school.” And then I flipped my
body over and saw the clouds over my head. They were white and fluffy, like
marshmallows. I positioned my legs to point at the floor and zoomed—

“
Hey
,” Zoe’s voice said, interrupting my awesome
daydream. “You
comin
’ or what?”

I had a way of losing track of reality when I daydreamed. If
I were in a job interview, I’d probably try to hide that fact when they asked
about my weaknesses.
And also my allergy to bees.
ADHD
and bees are my weaknesses.

Zoe was standing over my desk waiting for me. The other
students had already left the room. Man, I must’ve been
completely
out
of it.

“Sorry.” I stood from my desk and watched a folded sheet of
paper fall to the floor. Someone had wedged it under my forearm when I wasn’t
paying attention.

“A secret admirer?” Zoe asked. “Already? Chase, you move too
quickly for your own good.”

I gestured to my scrawny body. “What girl
wouldn’t
want this?”

Zoe laughed. It made me feel better.

“What’s it say?” Zoe asked.

I unfolded the sheet of paper and read the writing.

Chase,

Be at the edge of the woods today at the start of gym class.
Bring your cousin. Cookies and soda will be provided.

There was no signature.

“Cookies and soda?” Zoe asked.

Great. I read the note out loud when I didn’t mean to. My
dad would always make fun of me because I whispered anything I ever read, even
if I meant to read it in my head. “Mouth breather,” is what he’d call me. It
was in good fun, but got annoying sometimes.

“The ninjas want us to return?” Zoe asked. “And they’re
offering soda and cookies as bait? Are they serious? Has anything else in the
history of traps ever screamed ‘
trap
’ so loudly?”

“It doesn’t say it was from the ninjas,” I said. “Maybe it’s
from
Brayden
.”

“The werewolf boy? Yeah, right. Like he’d be smart enough to
pull off a trap like this… actually, maybe you
are
right. It’s such an
obvious scheme that I wouldn’t be surprised it
were
him.”

Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was only a little after
eight in the morning. Gym wasn’t for another two and a half hours. Wonderful. I
can’t stand waiting for the microwave to beep after a
minute
. How was I
going to last two and a half
hours
?