having to stop and start the machine. This made a rather obvious clunking sound, a sound that did not escape the sharp ears of Mrs Drisco.
Ruby felt a yank as the little speaker was pulled from her ear, and she looked up to see Mrs Drisco’s face level with hers, the teacher’s eyebrows arched in the angry position.
‘Can you explain yourself?’ said Mrs Drisco in a chilling whisper.
Ruby looked down at her satchel, and her alphabetic notes and excuses folder. She had a good one from Dr Franton at the lice and flea clinic, asking her to please avoid all cheerleading activities or indeed anyone involved with cheerleading – but it wouldn’t really work for this occasion since cheerleading was not the issue. And the note from the president was far too useful to be sacrificed merely to prevent a detention.
Ruby paused. ‘If you could give me a little time Mrs Drisco,’ she said. ‘I’m a little fuzzy today, so I might need a few minutes to come up with something good.’
‘That’s it!’ boomed Mrs Drisco. ‘Principal Levine’s office now!’
Ruby sighed. She would take the punishment; she could do with a little quiet time. What did it matter if it involved sitting in a dreary classroom on her own? But what she had forgotten was that the tape player, and more importantly the tape, would be confiscated by Mrs Bexenheath. A schoolboy error on Ruby’s part.
Darn it Ruby, you’re off your game.
She would need to enlist the help of a couple of her friends. When Clancy came by the detention room (as she knew he would), she passed him a coded note under the locked door. He read the note, which told him all he needed to know, and immediately snapped into action.
Clancy knocked on Mrs Bexenheath’s door and began some complicated story about a water bubbler that wasn’t bubbling in the lower hallway. He was halfway through this unnecessarily detailed explanation when Red Monroe knocked on the door, supposedly to tell Mrs Bexenheath about a pigeon that was flapping around in the girls’ locker room, but in fact she was actually there to ‘accidentally’ knock the large piles of carefully sorted mail onto the floor.
While Mrs Bexenheath was picking it up and Red was apologising and Mrs Bexenheath was struggling not to curse, Clancy Crew was opening the ‘confiscation cupboard’ and retrieving the tape player.
He ran to the window and threw it down to Del, who sprinted round the back of the building and passed it to Mouse, who was standing balanced on Elliot’s shoulders.
From there, Mouse managed to just about pass it up to the window of the room where Ruby was enjoying detention. A small hand reached out and took the tape player from Mouse and… mission accomplished.
Of course no one but Clancy knew what was on the tape – Mouse, Del, Elliot and Red just assumed it was some music and that Ruby needed it to relieve the tedium of several hours of isolated study.
Ruby listened to the tape over and over. She worked hard and felt she was getting pretty close to cracking the code. She looked at her watch: forty-seven minutes before detention was over, then wrote her 3,000-word essay on why it was a good idea to pay attention in class – not an essay Mrs Drisco was likely to enjoy.
When she was released, she went to meet Clancy at the Double Donut. He was moaning on about physics class. ‘Mr Endell just went on and on and on about YKU 726,’ he said, slumping down in his seat and resting his forehead on the table.
‘You mean YKK 672,’ corrected Ruby.
‘I mean he just went on and on about how super interested we should be because this only happens once in a blue moon.’
Ruby shrugged. ‘Well, I guess he’s right. It is kinda rare for a small part of the ocean to stop moving.’
‘Yeah,’ said Clancy. ‘It’s interesting to mention this once, twice, even thrice, but not like sixty-seven times.’
‘Well, Mr Endell is kinda obsessive,’ said Ruby. ‘Did he mention how often YKK 672 happens to pass by the earth?’
‘Did he mention it? Are you kidding, he didn’t stop mentioning it! Once every 200 years – this fact is now etched into my memory.’
Ruby smiled. Her theory was correct.
‘So what were you doing while Mr Endell was boring me to death?’ said Clancy.
‘Well, I was writing an essay about paying attention to Mrs Drisco,’ said Ruby.
‘Yeah, but what were you actually doing?’
‘You remember I was telling you about the Chime Melody interference?’
Clancy nodded.
‘Well, what if it wasn’t interference? What if someone was using music to deliver a message?’
‘What kind of message?’ said Clancy. He was staring at her, his eyes saucer-like.
‘Like locations, information, instructions,’ said Ruby. ‘This someone is giving them all in code to someone else.’
‘You think these someones are the pirates?’ Clancy looked puzzled.
‘No,’ said Ruby. ‘I mean yes and no. The pirates don’t strike me as capable of thinking up this kind of code or of deciphering it – not from what my mom said anyway. Those guys sounded kinda Neanderthal.’
‘So you’re saying there’s more than the pirates out there?’
‘I’m saying there is more than likely someone who is kinda in with the pirates, but not part of their band. Someone super smart. Then there also must be someone else on the outside who’s issuing the orders. One super smart person sends out the code on the Chime Melody airways and one super smart person working with the pirates deciphers it.’
‘So where have you got to? With the code I mean?’ asked Clancy.
Ruby bit her lip. ‘That’s the thing, I haven’t got it yet. I’m just guessing at this point and it’s making me crazy.’
Clancy patted her on the back. ‘You’ll get there Rube, no doubt about that.’
‘Yeah but when?’ She sighed. ‘Maybe only once it’s all too late.’ She stood up and slung her satchel over her shoulder. ‘I better get going, got a lot to do.’
‘You can’t go,’ said Clancy. ‘It’s Friday night, we were gonna hang out, remember?’
‘Clance, I got a job to do, it’s kinda important, you know?’
‘Yeah, for your information I do actually! The job is more important than anything else including your friends, including me. I got that, OK? Loud and clear!’
Ruby felt guilt wash over her, but rather than say the right thing, she said exactly the wrong thing. She regretted it as soon as she uttered the words and saw him flinch.
Clancy didn’t reply, his face said it all, and Ruby, she just turned and left the diner, not once looking back.
By the time she made it home she had a horrible little voice jabbering in
