"You're late again, Short."

These words were not spoken for the first time. In fact, it's the third time this week it had been spoken. Jake Short groaned.

"But sir, it wasn't my…"

"No excuses, Short! Go to the Mrs. Gall's office at once!"

Jake gulped. He knew it was no good. He grabbed his bag and stepped out of his classroom and turned in the direction of Mrs. Gall's office. He was busy thinking up excuses and stories when he reached Mrs. Gall's office. He hastily knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

Mrs. Gall was an elderly woman who governs Barrons, the grade school Jake attends. She was usually very nice, often handing out sweets to the students that behave but there were always the odd rumour, saying that Mrs. Gall turns into a fire-breathing dragon if anyone goes on the wrong side of her. Jake had never done so, nor had he any intention of ever doing so.

Jake closed the door and heard Mrs. Gall sigh.

"Jake Short, what is it this time?" With her grey hair, Mrs. Gall looked like a grandmother who was very tired with her naughty grandson.

"Mr. Fletcher sent me, ma'am," answered Jake.

"And why did he do so?" Mrs. Gall raised her eyebrow. "No, don't tell me. You were late again, weren't you?"

Jake nodded.

"My dear Jake," she sighed, "what am I supposed to do with you?"

Jake said nothing. He stared at his shoes, hoping against hope that the punishment will be light.

"Well, you wrote lines before…you swept the classroom clean too. I just can't think of anymore punishment. What do you say?"

"I don't know ma'am." They stared at each other for a few moments.

Outside, the bell rang, signaling the end of first lesson.

Mrs. Gall looked up from her cup of tea and chuckled lightly. "Saved by the bell, of course, I should've known. Very well, run off, but there better not be a next time!"

Once outside, Jake breathed out. He could hardly believe his luck. He must've broken a school record, escaping from Mrs. Gall's office with nothing more than pit-pat on a back. He hurried off to find his friends.

He found them outside the biology laboratory. There was his best friend, Michael Farrow. Tall and laid-back, Michael was one of the popular dudes in school, next to Jake. He had fair hair with a fringe parting in the middle. There was also Jessica Goodson. Very tomboy-ish with short brown hair, she was always the one to accept disgusting dares and never backs off from a challenge. Next to her stood her best friend, Rachel Blond. She was the opposite of Jessica, being the cutest girl in school with long blond hair.

"Yo, Jake! Over here, man!" Jessica shouted.

The moment Jake joined them, Michael turned to Jake.

"Well, do you have it?" Michael demanded.

Jake looked at him. "Whoa, dude, is that anyway to treat your friend?" And when he got nothing more than a grin and a friendly punch on the arm, he reached into his pocket and took out four badges with two letters on them.

"Awesome man!"

"Cool!"

"Let's wear 'em."

They reached out and took a badge each. The letters DS shone at anyone who happened to glance at them.

Michael beamed at Jake, "Cool, so now we're officially the 'Detective Squad'. We better start advertising, so we can earn more money."

Jake held his badge up. "Guys, look here, see, Uncle Rob told me that if you pull this antenna out and press this button, the badges will turn into a walkie-talkie for us. It works within a 5km radius."

Just then, their biology teacher arrived and they filed in to class.

"Good morning, class," the biology teacher greeted them, "I'll start off by taking the register. Pansy Bouteil, Dean Cully…" The class started muttering and was soon creating such a racket that their biology teacher shouted, "Class! I can't hear myself think! Now, Jean Hannah? Jean Hannah? Not here? Okay, Gregory Johnson…"

Michael nudged Jake. "Whoa, Jean's not here?" he whispered, "Wasn't she the one who was really interested in starting on dissecting the pig's heart or something? Wonder whats with her..."

Jessica scowled. "Who cares about her? Shouldn't we celebrate since we don't have to listen to the spoilt girl brag about her dogs and her house and stuff?"

Jake started saying, "Don't be so…" when he got cut across by Rachel.

"Hey, do you guys wanna go round to her house after school to see her?" Typical Rachel, thought Jake, being so nice and caring.

Jessica scowled and was about to say something nasty when Michael answered, "Sure, but I gotta go home and leave my stuff first."

The others agreed and nothing more was said for the rest of the day on this subject.