Mystery Topic Challenge #8
3 March, 2008The BlogNinjas are raring to go with more Mystery Topic Challenge goodness. You don’t have to be a Blog Ninja to take part but if you want to read and then vote for your favorite, come by here. (er, yes it was supposed to be yesterday that this was poste… no i didn’t forget!)
Without further ado, MTC #8 (from Gwen at Everything I Like Causes Cancer):
Last Thursday I received a call from the fraud department at Visa. It seems someone created a duplicate of my debit/ATM/credit card and used it at truck stops in Alberta, Canada and again several days later at an amusement park in Baltimore, Maryland. I suspect I’ll never know how they got my number, what they bought with my money or why they needed those things.
Write a story using the above elements and shed some light on the mystery for me.
The day that Maxine first got the idea was a hot one.
In fact it was the hottest day in January, and the first day back at school for the year. Later on, when the parents found out about the idea, they blamed the heat of the day, and the shock of being back at school. They were wrong though. Maxine knew that much.
It wasn’t the heat of the day that made Maxine Double Dog Dare Shelly Carter, the richest kid in room 9, to steal her Dad’s credit card. And it wasn’t the transition back into the classroom that made the entire student population of Happy Oaks Primary School decide to go on a field trip. If anything, sitting on an Intercity bus for the three hours it took to get to Rotorua was worse than sitting in a classroom until 3.00pm.
It was worth it though, once the bus got in. Rotorua was cooler than the Happy Oaks Primary School play-ground for a start. And when you’re racing your entire school down a mountain on the luge, after a giant fast food lunch, you don’t care much about the 3 hour bus ride home.
Besides, Maxine sort of figured she wouldn’t have to sit on the bus home. By the time they were done having their day out, the parents would have figured out what was up, and arrived to collect them. It didn’t happen though.
The parents being typical, busy parents didn’t even notice that first night. In fact they didn’t notice the second night either. On the third night Fraser’s Mum remembered that Stanley’s Dad had been talking about a sleep over. Martha’s Dad was pretty sure she was spending the night over at Holly’s, and Holly’s mum was sure that she was spending the night with Emma.
The teachers didn’t say anything either. No one blamed them though - except the parents of course. The kids knew what it was like to spend Monday to Friday in a classroom full of screaming kids, so naturally they wouldn’t have wanted to draw any-ones attention to the fact that the school was surprisingly quiet over that week. (Mr Brown went as far as to make some noise of his own, just in case anyone was listening for his students.)
In fact no one realised until Angela’s grandma showed up on Friday at 3.00pm to pick her up for pony club. Instead of finding her grand daughter, she found Mr Brown slamming desks and yelling about the state of the maths homework to an inexplicably empty classroom.
At about the same time that afternoon Sally’s Dad opened his credit card statement. “When on earth did I spend $3082.90 in Greymouth of all places? And why would I have spent $400 in Napier at a drive-through?” He asked his wife who was watching the news.
“Well, Henry, it may have something to do with why the police have just picked up 280 Happy Oaks Primary School Students from the swimming pool in Hamilton. It seems their stolen credit card declined, and one of the lifeguards thought it was a little strange that they were there without adults.” Sally’s Mum said watching in horror as her child waved cheerfully at the camera.
Overall Maxine thought the field trip had been a success, secretly a few of the parents and teachers agreed with her. In fact, she was already in talks with Mr Brown about doing it all again next year.
