Writers Young & Old Forum Missing

  Chapter One

"Wake up!" screamed Jamie to his older sister, Ebeny. "Wake up we're going to be late!"   

       "Okay, okay!" groaned Ebeny, it was her first day of school, Ebeny loved school, but she only had 2 friends, Louise and Marilyn.

      She dragged herself downstairs after changing into her uniform and fixing her hair. "Hurry up" said Jane, The two children's mother. And beside her ,father Roger, Who was already out the door and off to work with his bag.

       "Ebeny, brush your teeth, we're leaving in ten minutes!" 

     "I have plenty of time.." shrugged Ebeny and entered the bathroom. She had saw her purse was gone from the counter, but she took no notice.

     School just started and the children were already bored. They stood with their hands in their pockets, saying nothing waiting for the school bell to ring so they could enter the classrooms. "Isn't this .....great?" squealed Ebeny "I wonder who our teacher is!"

     "Yeah it's so great!" said Patrick with a sarcastic voice. "I can't believe you like school!"

      "People have their own opinions." replied Ebeny , annoyed "Not everything relies on you, you know."

   Patrick gave her a dirty look and walked into the classroom. Everyone ignored Ebeny, but she was herself which made her unique. All the others would have the same interests and dislikes,

But whats the point having a friend that is completely like you?

      "Good morning children." said Mr.Sanston, a teacher who disliked every child in the school. He was an extremely mean man who would give people over a hundred lines for talking in class.

    "Not Mr.Sanston!" thought Ebeny, she never liked him.

"Open your books to page 23, as you see, the map of Asia is here, examine that for homework."

Ebeny didn't care about all this the teacher was going on about. She just wanted to go home and chat to her only friends online, since they missed school.

Maths came and a lot of whispering went about stuff being missing, but Ebeny wasn't told about it at all. Instead she sat there listening to what they were saying suspiciously. What caught her attention was hearing Rebecca Cedick saying "My dog is missing, I can't find him, he's a small bulldog with a dull little face who doesn't pay attention to anything, I miss him so much, his name is Rover."

     

       The long school day ended and Ebeny made her way out of class after helping the teachers as she does daily in the school library, she had spare time, since her mother didn't get home until an hour later. Ebeny closed the school gates and started to walk home, the worst thing was, she had to walk a kilometer  with some of her teachers, sometimes even in the rain. She walked quietly and said nothing. She kept hearing teachers talking about absences and valuables getting lost over and over.  She was sure her friends would come into school tomorrow, But she was wrong.

More and more children became absent.  Ebeny thought it was the flu, others say that they were taken, others say that they're just lazy and want to take the day off school, But which one of them is true?

      Ebeny had to run to the store for milk and she searched for her purse so that she and Jamie could get sweets, but her purse was gone. She now remembered that her purse was taken from its usual place.

Where could it be? It was the same day Jamie lost his torch, costing £30.

Ebeny took no notice of all of this nuisance of absences and lost items. It was probably all just a coincidence. Jamie would find his torch, she would find her wallet, her friends would come back to school and all will be back to normal.

      As Ebeny walked to the shop, strange things happened. There was a group of caravans beside the road, which made her suspicious. Nobody seemed to be home, "Why not take a look?" Ebeny thought. She gave a look up and down the road and walked in, a tiny bulldog stood there with dull face.On his collar was the name Rover He didn't really care that a stranger walked into his home when nobody was there. Ebeny remembered what Rebecca said but didn't rescue the dog.

       Ebeny started to search, looking through cabinets, she didn't know why she was doing it, she didn't think. She saw a sheet on the table, with the numbers of the houses in her estate. Half of them were ticked off, including Ebeny's house, maybe this is why she lost her purse, and Jamie lost his torch. Ebeny thought she was being watched, so she ran out of the caravan and ran down the road, but took the sheets with her. 

 ..... Ten minutes later she made her way back and saw the people in the caravan making a fuss and shouting. She couldn't really hear what they said, but she managed to hear: 

"Sheet..... Gone...... Somebody.... Here"

She started to walk quicker, The man came out and saw her

"Hey you, yes you! Did you see anyone come in here while we were gone?" he said with a grumbly voice. He didn't look pleasant, he was bald with jeans on and a white vest with stains on it, he wore big black boots and a chain with a skull on it.

"Well?!" he said impatiently "Did, ya see someone, I aint gonna wait all day young lady.."

     "I'm truly sorry, but I did not see anyone.." She said politely "I'll keep an eye out if I do.."  "Yeah, yeah, okay thanks, now start walking." Ebeny walked down the road still shaking.She thought she'd be caught.

It was her lucky day.

     She walked with the sheet in her hands and examined it precisely.

"I don't get it.." She grumbled "RHC? What does that mean?!" She thought about it for a long time, and gave up.

She gave it to her mother and said it was homework.

      "I don't know, Royal Housing Community?" It sounded good, but it just didn't make sense. She had a feeling Community was at the end but what about R and H? She tried to think.

"Royal, Rebel, Rubber..." She gasped

"Robber!" She shouted out loud.

"What did you say?" called Jane. "It's nothing" Said Ebeny. "So what about H?... she thought and started to think again "Homeless, hats, Housing, Houses... Robbing Houses Community..that sound like a accurate name for whats going  on.." she thought. 

        

       The next school day came and she made her way to the principal's office after getting hurt on the yard by nasty Patrick. But she was glad she got hurt, she would get to snoop around in the principal's office! The teacher escorted her in and sat her down on a chair. They left the room to get a small plaster, and to her luck, they were at the other end of the school. She got up quickly and looked around, keeping an eye on the teachers so they wouldn't come in, and she found what she was looking for. 'The Absence Book' , it records every day a child is out, counting over 500 children a day making sure all of the absence children were down on the book everyday. There had been over 50 absences in a week. Notes to the teachers were left in by parents saying: 

Dear Teachers,

I would like to inform you that my daughter's glasses have gone missing since last week and we are sure they are not at home. Please search for them

 Sincerely,

            Sheila Power.

    "Well that's suspicious" thought Ebeny, "She never takes her glasses off, only when she goes to sleep..?"

Ebeny had no choice but to look further into this puzzle "Besides they'll thank me for it" she said and sniggered.