Guys I wrote this from 4th February 2012 to 5th February 2012.
It was quite a bright day in Newcastle. The trees were stretching as far they could, clinging on to all the sunlight that was fastening itself to the leaves.
At the Dumping Ground, Mike was ordering the kids to do chores. Tee was walking away. "Tee." She turned around to hear Mike call her. "I've got a special job for you today." From the cupboard, he brought out a large polythene bag containing smaller bags carrying rubbish.
"Can you take this around to the rubbish dump near Wood's Mill? These won't fit in the wheelie-bins outside."
Tee said, "You expect me to carry this by myself all the way to the Wood's Mill which is practically out of town?"
Mike said, "No, it's just around the corner." Rick was walking by. Mike added, "Rick, why don't you help Tee take this down to the dump?"
Tee and Rick condescended and went outside, hauling the bag to the waste heap. When they got there, they got out all the plastic bags and disposed of them to the scrap metal bins. Tee threw a bad of old computer equipment on top of the debris mound, which crashed. Something fell out, a kid's old lunchbox. On the cover was a faded illustration of the Totally Spies.
"I remember those," commented Tee. She picked it up in order to replace it with the other debris, but stopped because it felt hefty.
"Hey, there's something inside this!" She opened the lunchbox and gasped palpably. Rick moved in to see what she had found. It was a pistol attached with a note.
"What does the note say?" Rick questioned. "Be careful, it might not be a toy gun."
Tee carefully slid the note from the pistol and read it out: "Make sure that T.O. doesn't find this."
"OK, just leave it there. Some gangsters have probably just stashed it there to hide it from the police."
"Are you joking?" exclaimed Tee. "We can't leave it here. We have to tell someone."
Rick said, "Fine. You take it back, and deal with it. Don't involve me with it."
Tee arrived back at the Elm Tree House. She was carrying a plastic bad. Mike saw her return.
"Oh, wasn't there enough space at the dump?"
Tee said, "Um. No, I'll just throw this away," and she dashed off upstairs. She went straight into Frank's room. "Frank, look what I found." She took the object out of the plastic bag.
"A lunchbox?" Frank garbled.
"No, look inside." Frank opened the box and saw the gun.
"Whoa," he said.
Tee spoke up. "I think I heard something about this on the news. There was a killer on remand because they couldn't find the offensive weapon. If we tell a care worker, then they'll give the gun to the police and we'll get rewarded."
Frank said, "We better tell them now then."
Tee replaced the gun in the lunchbox, put it back in her room and went downstairs with Frank. Tracy was talking to Carmen in the living room, where the TV was switched on to the News channel. Tee and Frank entered the room to see the headline running down the screen: "Charged killer refused to give information to the police."
A news reporter was notifying the viewers with the facts: "Justin Holmes still denies that there was any weapon involved in the murder of Sandra Gibbon earlier this month. His lawyer, Tim Owen states that Holmes was never involved in the murder. Meanwhile, police are occupying all parts of the homicide scene to search for the gun. From 6:00pm this evening, they will also start house searches in nearby buildings and houses."
Tracy spoke to everyone in the room. "Everyone, Mike told me to remind everyone that your curfew for the next two weeks is 5:00pm. With the police out in every corner, and a dangerous weapon somewhere, it's not safe for you out there."
Some of the kids grumbled. Tracy turned to Frank and Tee. "Did you want to tell me something?"
Tee said, "No." She made her way out of the room. "I'll talk later."
Frank pursued Tee. "Why didn't you tell Tracy?"
Tee answered, "I couldn't. I'll get in trouble because she'd say something like, 'why did you bring the gun back in here, why didn't you just leave it there and call us?'"
Frank pondered for a moment. "So what are you going to do then?"
Tee explained, "I'm going to take it back to the scrapyard and I'm going to come back here and tell Gina and Mike. Then they'll go over there and deal with it." She climbed the stairs and went to her room to retrieve the gun but someone had beaten her to it.
"What are you doing here?" Tee demanded to the person who was facing away from her. Elektra turned around, flourishing the pistol.
"Well well well. Look what little Tee-cup has hidden in her bedroom." She carefully handled the gun. "Wow, it's been quite a long time since I held one of these."
Tee gazed attentively at Elektra. "You've held one before?"
"Of course," Elektra replied, in a tone that was almost overbearing. "When I was with the Cobras, Kali's sister gave us one. Wasn't long enough until the police snatched it off of her."
Tee said, "Why are you interfering? How did you even know I had the gun in my room?"
Elektra said, "I was just reading 'Oranges are not the only fruit'—I mean 'A Clockwork Orange' when I suddenly heard you and Frank talking. I sneaked into your room to see what you were hiding."
Tee walked up to Elektra. "Give it back, I need to put it back in the dump site."
"Why?"
"Because the police are looking for it. It's on the news and until they find it, the man who killed Sandra Gibbon will be locked up. Also, Tracy said that we have to come back by 5 O'clock because the police are patrolling the area."
Elektra said, "OK. But I'm going as well to return it. Let's go now." She and Tee went downstairs to sneak out, when Tracy Beaker appeared at the bottom of the staircase.
"Where are you two going? It's lunch."
"We're going out for lunch," said Elektra, putting the pistol in her back pocket like a cowgirl."
"No you're not. Go."
"Fine," uttered Elektra. "Let me just put my money back in room." She went upstairs, covering the gun with her left hand. She went to her room and put the gun on her dresser, swathing it with a scarf.
"OK, now, we'll go," whispered Elektra to Tee, when lunch had finished.
"Not yet," said Tracy. "Tee, Carmen, Elektra, you help me to wash the dishes."
Tee said, "I've already done my chores today."
"Fine, you go."
Tee left the room, while the remaining three washed up. After Elektra washed her hands, she squirted Fairy liquid on Carmen's hair and ran away.
Elektra was going up to her room when she saw Tee on the landing, with a bewildered expression. "Elektra, where did you put it?"
Elektra passed her and went to her room. "It's right there, on my—" she stopped when she saw her bouffant scarf draped on her mirror.
"Where is it?" asked Tee, coming in.
"Someone's taken it!" Elektra took her scarf and tucked it under her arm. "Come! We have to look for it."
The troublesome twosome went to Tyler's and Rick's room. "You two," announced Elektra. "Have you seen my scarf?" She was hiding the fact that she was actually looking for the gun.
"No," they replied. They didn't seem to have been hiding anything, so Elektra left and Tee followed her to Harry's room.
"Harry—" Elektra started as she opened his door. "Hey—!" Tee came in and saw that Harry was carrying Jeff in one hand and the pistol in the other.
"Harry, can you pass that toy gun to me?" Tee said pleasantly, trying to conceal her fear.
"No!" said Harry. "Jeff found it and he wants me to kill Elektra because she cut his head off last year.!"
Harry did not know how to hold the gun. He was holding it by the barrel, making it point at himself.
"No Harry, I'm not joking. Give that back. It's not a toy!" Elektra was frantically trying to persuade him to give it to her. Tee said, "I'll get Tracy."
Elektra shouted, "No don't!" But Tee sprinted downstairs. Tracy appeared soon enough. "Where did he get the gun from?"
"I found it in Elektra's room. I think she wanted to shoot Jeff with it." Tracy looked at Elektra.
Tee said, "No it's not hers. I found it at the dump site and I brought it back here, and I was going to tell you but I didn't want to get into trouble and Elektra found it and we were going to put it back at the scrapyard and tell Mike and Gina but you didn't let us go out for lunch."
Harry obtained the gun in the correct position and pointed at the window. Tracy yelled, "Harry, don't! Sapphire wouldn't want to see you like this." Harry turned around and gave Tracy the gun. Mike, Gina and some Elm Tree residents came to see what the commotion was. Mike saw Tracy with the gun.
Cue music: Revolver by Madonna featuring Lil Wayne. Cartoon Tracy is holding the gun evilly and aiming the gun at Cartoon Mike and Cartoon Gina, who are ducking.
The police came around. "We seem to come here a lot. When you found the stash of money and when we had to arrest Liam," said one of them. The other took the pistol and opened the canister. "You guys are lucky. One bullet is still in place. If someone shot with this..."
The first one returned to speak. "Of course you have helped us solve a crime also. We are sure that this was the gun which was used to shoot Sandra Gibbon. We are going to send this to biometrics and it should match the fingerprints of Justin Holmes."
Tee said, "Wait. There was something else." She rushed upstairs and returned with the note: 'Make sure that T.O. doesn't find this'.
"Tim Owen, "explained the first policeman. "Justin's lawyer. Whoever hid it for Holmes didn't want his lawyer to find it because it is evidence to show that he killed Sandra with it. We'll find out who wrote this by checking the handwriting of his accomplices and molls."
"So who found the gun?" asked the second policeman.
"Me!" said everyone.
Tee said, "Well, it was actually me and Rick, but he didn't want to be involved, so I told Frank, and Elektra was going to help me."
The policeman handed Tee a large sum of money. She counted it (all £20 notes) and it totalled to £260. She was about to give£40 to Rick, but he didn't want it, so she handed it to Tyler. She also shared out the other £40 to Frank, Elektra, Harry and Tracy. The rest of the money (£60), she split it equally with Johnny, as he was her brother.
Cue music: Money by the Girls Aloud.
"Told you we'd get rewarded," Tee said to Frank.
Guys? Review please?
