Jim Smith - A Super Weird! Mystery - Danger at Donut Diner

Rhubarb plonked her bum down in a chair next to a bendy-looking boy with straight black hair and glasses.

‘Melvin, this is Yoshi Fujikawa,’ she said. ‘Yoshi works with me on The Daily Donut. He wrote that dead hamster story I showed you.’

Yoshi, who was scribbling something in a notepad, stopped writing and smiled at Melvin. ‘Took a lot out of me, that one,’ he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. ‘I’m working on a similarly disturbing piece as we speak.’

‘Oh yeah?’ said Melvin, not holding out much hope for it, after what he’d read earlier.

‘Yeah, somebody dropped a slice of cucumber on the floor in the canteen last Friday,’ he said. ‘But nobody knows who . . .’

‘Okay,’ said Melvin. ‘Hey Rhubarb, are there any cool kids in this school?’

Just then, the door opened and a really old-looking boy with a moustache walked in. ‘Evening, gang,’ he boomed in a deep voice, and Melvin realised he wasn’t a boy, he was their teacher.

‘Look who’s here, Sir,’ said Rhubarb, pointing at Melvin.

‘Is it Monday morning already?’ gasped the teacher, glancing at his watch. ‘Last time I looked it was Friday afternoon. Oh well, in that case you must be the new kid. Very nice to meet you, Melvin Pebble. I’m Mr Thursday!’

Melvin pretended to laugh at Mr Thursday’s joke. ‘Nice to meet you, Sir,’ he said, looking round the room.

Sitting on the other side of the aisle, in the back row, were three cool-looking kids. ‘Hey, who are they?’ whispered Melvin to Rhubarb, and she rolled her eyes.

‘Hector Frisbee, Dirk Measles and Marjorie Pinecone,’ she said.

‘They call themselves The Cool Doods,’ said Yoshi, scribbling the words down in his notepad and holding it up so Melvin could see the stupid way they spelled ‘Dudes’.

Mr Thursday sat down at his desk as Melvin stared at Hector Frisbee.

His trainers were white with silver zig-zags on the sides.

His jeans were the really expensive ones Melvin had been begging his mum to buy him all year and his jumper was black with a little yellow bottle-top logo on the chest, which everyone knew was the coolest logo ever.

‘I hope everyone’s been looking after you, Melvin?’ said Mr Thursday.

‘Too late for us, Teach,’ sneered Dirk Measles. ‘Looks like the geeks have got their claws into him already.’

‘Thank you, Measles,’ said Mr Thursday, and Marjorie Pinecone smirked.

‘I spose Rhubarb’s told you all about her mysterious yawnpaper,’ she said to Melvin. ‘What’s it called again? Oh yeah, The Daily Do-NOT.’

Rhubarb tutted. ‘It’s The Daily Do-NUT,’ she snapped. ‘Maybe if you’d actually bothered to read it, you’d know that.’

’Marjorie smiled. ‘Cool Rool number one: Reading is for losers,’ she said.

Dirk pretended he was about to cry. ‘Rhubarb’s bullying us again, Mr Thurs,’ he warbled, and Hector Frisbee shook his head.

‘Please ignore my sidekicks, Melvin,’ he said. ‘I’m Hector, by the way. If you need anything while you’re settling in, just let me know.’

‘Thanks,’ said Melvin, trying to think if there was anything he needed right now, apart from the wee he’d been holding in since halfway down Donut High Street.

Marjorie nudged Hector. ‘We probably shouldn’t be talking to him, you know,’ she said. ‘Cool Rool number two: No talking to Daily Donut losers.’

Rhubarb rolled her eyes and tapped Melvin on the shoulder. ‘Everyone thinks The Cool Doods are so cool,’ she whispered.

‘But they’re not,’ said Yoshi. ‘They’re actually really boring.’

Melvin nodded. ‘Er, okay. Thanks, guys,’ he said, flipping open his exercise book.

Then he pulled his favourite silver pen out of his pencil case and started doodling ‘The Cool Doods’ in his best bubble writing.

All of a sudden it was the end of school. Actually, it wasn’t all of a sudden at all, it took hours.

‘Coming to our Daily Donut meeting then, Melv?’ asked Rhubarb, grabbing her rucksack out of her locker, which was covered in cuttings from her newspaper.

Hector walked past with Dirk and Marjorie. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here, Doods,’ he said. ‘Thought we could go down Donut Diner and play it cool.’

Melvin turned to Hector. ‘Hey, I could come along if you wanted,’ he said. ‘I haven’t been to the diner yet.’

Hector smiled. ‘Not this time, Pebbles,’ he said.

The Cool Doods strolled off and Melvin waved. ‘Okay, see you later, guys!’ he called, as Rhubarb grabbed his sleeve.

‘Come on Melvin,’ she said, heading off to her house. ‘The meeting starts in ten minutes!’

‘Melvin, meet my mum,’ said Rhubarb, walking into her kitchen with him and Yoshi ten minutes later.

‘Pleasure to meet you, Mrs Plonsky,’ smiled Melvin, acting all nice and polite.

‘Ooh, my new mini next-door neighbour!’ said Mrs Plonsky, looking up from her crossword. ‘I met your parents earlier, what a lovely couple!’

‘Are you sure you met the right ones?’ said Melvin, and Mrs Plonsky chuckled.

‘Do you like mysteries, Melvin?’ she asked, just like Rhubarb had that morning.

Rhubarb gave her mum a cuddle. ‘Mum was the editor of The Daily Donut when she was a kid, too,’ she said.